Category: Baseball

Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s start Saturday would have been dominant if it weren’t for Red Sox center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela.

Rafaela’s pair of home runs accounted for most of Boston’s damage against Yamamoto in the Dodgers’ 3-2 loss. Yamamoto held the Red Sox to three runs and four hits through eight innings.

The Dodgers dropped the series to the Red Sox, needing a win Sunday to avoid a sweep.

Shortly after the loss, the Dodgers finalized a deal to acquire two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal in a trade with the Detroit Tigers.

Read more:Dodgers acquiring pitcher Tarik Skubal from Detroit Tigers in blockbuster trade

Rafaela jumped all over the first pitch he saw from Yamamoto in the first inning, a splitter, according to Statcast, that drifted up and in. He drove it into the left-field stands.

Two innings later, Yamamoto held off Rafaela for longer. But Rafaela battled back from a 0-2 count. On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Yamamoto turned to his splitter for the first time, barely clipping the inside edge of the strike zone. Rafaela turned on it and sent a towering solo homer three rows deep in left-center field.

It was the second multi-homer game of Rafaela’s career.

It wasn’t until Yamamoto’s third time through the order that he finally set down Rafaela, who had the Red Sox’s only hits at that point.

Yamamoto went with a first-pitch fastball up and in. Rafaela was a little late to it but still made hard contact, sending the opposite-field fly out to the warning track.

Read more:Plaschke: Tarik Skubal trade brings Dodgers hate, envy ... and another championship

In the eighth, Yamamoto gave up a leadoff ground-rule double to Andruw Monasterio. He made it to third on Jarren Duran’s push-bunt single and scored the go-ahead run when Connor Wong grounded into a double play.

The Dodgers got a boost early from Teoscar Hernández on a two-run home run in the second inning. But they failed to score again after leaving seven runners stranded.

Bullpen shuffle

Before the game, the Dodgers put reliever Will Klein on the 15-day injured list with discomfort in his right elbow.

Klein had a 2.29 ERA one week into July. But over his last six appearances, he has surrendered 13 runs, including eight earned runs (11.37 ERA).

“We’re still trying to dig into it,” Roberts said Friday after Klein gave up three runs (one earned run) to the Red Sox in 1⅓ innings. “I thought there were some good fastball throws in there tonight, but the secondary stuff, that’s kind of what’s getting him. The sweeper is not a strike, he’s not getting chase from it. The curveball has a different shape to it than it did last year. So I don’t know if it’s an arm thing, a mechanics thing, but that’s something we’re trying to dig in on.”

Read more:Lopez: Dodger Stadium gondola plan about to hit heavy turbulence as state park defenders play hardball

Klein is the second right-handed reliever the Dodgers have put on the IL in as many days, joining Brock Stewart. And MRI scan Saturday showed tendinitis in Stewart’s right shoulder.

He felt some discomfort in his shoulder, the same one he had surgically cleaned up in September, since last Saturday in New York, Stewart said. But until then, it hadn’t bothered him all season, minor-league rehab stints included.

“It’s almost embarrassing,” said Stewart, who began the season on the IL while recovering from shoulder surgery and had another IL stint when he aggravated a bone spur in his left foot. “I’d like to think that I do everything in my power to stay healthy and help out. I know I’m proud of the work I put in each day, and that’s all I can really control. Other than that, I can’t really control how my arm reacts. Just frustrating, especially after last year having it cleaned up.”

The Dodgers also designated left-hander Cole Irvin for assignment on Saturday. Irvin covered six innings and yielded six runs in the Dodgers’ pseudo-bullpen game Saturday, his first major-league appearance since 2024.

To replace Irvin and Klein, the Dodgers recalled right-handed relievers Kyle Hurt and Wyatt Mills.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched eight strong innings, but the Dodgers offense didn’t support him, falling to the Boston Red Sox 3-2 on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.

Yamamoto, who leads MLB averaging 6.68 innings per start, completed eight innings for the fourth time this season, tying Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara for the major league lead. Yamamoto struck out three and walked one, needing only 96 pitches to complete his eight frames. But he left trailing.

Ceddanne Rafaela, who homered in a three-hit game on Friday night, got the scoring started on Saturday with a solo home run with one out in the first inning, just three pitches into the game. He hit another solo shot in the third inning.

Those were the only hits off Yamamoto until the eighth inning, when Andruw Monasterio hit a leadoff ground rule double then scored two ground balls later.

Teoscar Hernández went out to right field for a two-run shot in the second inning for his second home run in three days, after hitting two home runs in his previous 28 games before that.

Hernández fouled a ball off his left foot in the fourth inning, and crumpled to the ground. After a long visit by manager Dave Roberts and assistant athletic director Yosuke Nakajima, Hernández remained in the game and singled, though he limped to first base.

Two batters later, Miguel Rojas fouled a ball off his left ankle and also dropped to the ground. Rojas stayed in after the obligatory visit by Roberts and Nakajima, and struck out. Both Rojas and Hernández remained in the game on defense in the top of the fifth inning. Rojas played three more innings before he was replaced at shortstop by Mookie Betts in the eighth inning.

Hernández, who also fouled a ball off his left foot in July 2025 and missed three games, had two hits in the game. The Dodgers had 10 hits as a team, but none in their four at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Freddie Freeman had three more hits, his fifth three-hit game in his last nine contests, Dating back to July 21, Freeman has 22 hits in his last 39 at-bats, and his career batting average, through 9,830 career plate appearances, is up to .30009385. Freeman’s 21 hits over his last nine games are the most by a Dodger since Shohei Ohtani had 25 hits in his superhuman stretch in September 2024.

The Dodgers only had one hit in three innings off the Red Sox bullpen, and Aroldis Chapman retired all three batters he faced to close out the game in the ninth.

Saturday particulars

Home runs: Teoscar Hernández (10); Ceddanne Rafaela 2 (14)

WP — Justin Slaten (2-4): 1 IP, 1 strikeout

LP — Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-7): 8 IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts

Sv — Aroldis Chapman (27): 1 IP, 1 strikeout

Up next

The homestand concludes with a nationally televised affair on Sunday evening (4:20 p.m.; NBC, Peacock), with Emmet Sheehan on the mound against yet another Red Sox lefty, Jake Bennett.

Luis Castillo’s tenure as a Seattle Mariner has apparently come to an end. The Mariners announced tonight they have traded Castillo to the White Sox in exchange for reliever Seranthony Dominguez, outfielder Nolan Jones, and catching prospect Boston Smith. Per Daniel Kramer, the Mariners aren’t sending any money to offset the remainder of what Castillo is owed on the extension he signed in 2022, which runs through 2027 with a vesting option for 2028 if he reaches 180 innings.

In exchange, the Mariners will be absorbing Dominguez’s not-insignificant salary for the remainder of this year and the next year of his contract, when he’s slated to make $10.5M. Dominguez also has an option for 2028, but it’s a mutual option (with a $2M buyout).

The 31-year-old Dominguez is on pace for the worst season of his career; he still collects strikeouts but his walk rate has ballooned over the past two seasons; he’s currently walking over 14% of batters faced. Compounding that problem is a serious case of dingeritis – a career-high 16.7% of fly balls he’s allowed have gone for homers, even in Chicago’s spacious confines. But he does still strike a lot of batters out and generate whiffs, he can still rush the fastball up at 97+, and he’s got a full complement of pitches for the Mariners pitching coaches to work with, even if he’s primarily a heater-sweeper pitcher as a reliever. It’s an expensive gamble, but the Mariners are both solving their rotation logjam (temporarily) and shedding Castillo’s contract in the move; if Dominguez can be Mariner-pitching-hive-minded into even a serviceable mid-innings arm, that’s a boon to the beleaguered bullpen.

The other pieces coming over in the trade are interesting in their own right. Nolan Jones is probably a name you’re familiar with if you were big into prospects a decade-ish ago; he was a second-rounder drafted by Cleveland in 2016 as a highly athletic two-sport athlete and attracted a lot of prospect attention as he made his way up the ladder for his 6’4” frame, easy raw power from the left side, and a star turn in the Arizona Fall League and the Futures Game in 2019. Unfortunately, injuries derailed his ascent, and he was dealt to the Rockies in 2023 for Juan Brito shortly after making his big-league debut. Now 28, Jones has spent time in the bigs but never really latched on consistently (outside of one 2023 season where he seemed to put it all together for Colorado), mostly due to a monstrous K rate compounded by the length of his swing. He’s been with the White Sox Triple-A team this season, blocked by the surprisingly good play at the big-league level, and will likely serve a similar role for Seattle as outfield depth at Tacoma.

Boston Smith is the third piece of the trade, and maybe the most interesting one, as he’s currently ranked as Chicago’s #15 prospect. To save you all time even though it’s lazy: the blueprint here is lefty-hitting Harry Ford, Take Two, with a power upgrade. A year after going undrafted, Smith was originally drafted by the Nationals in the sixth round in 2025 as a senior sign after a stellar year at Wright State that saw him tie for the lead in home runs in all of Division 1 baseball (26). The 5’10” Smith is listed as a C/OF, but despite being a plus athlete, as a catcher his skills are fringy enough he might not stick behind the dish, so he’s seen time in the outfield corners as well. Smith is selective at the plate, almost too much so – see, the Harry Ford comparisons weren’t that lazy after all – with a hilarious walk rate over 20%, but he’s been impressive in his first pro year, rocketing from single-A all the way up to Double-A and doing damage at every stop. The strikeouts are a wee bit concerning (~27% is a bit high for the minor leagues), but this is a Fun Player who will be Fun To Follow, especially if the big-league team continues to be disappointing. The Arkansas Travelers just got a lot more interesting!

This is definitely a quantity-over-quality trade with the Mariners taking chances on fringe players and a reliever who’s had a career-worst year, but moving Castillo out of the rotation (and moving his contract along with him) streamlines things for the Mariners. Still, that feels like a dispassionate way to discuss Castillo, who has been such a good Mariner over his time here, from mentoring the younger pitchers, to pitching in post-season games, to being a steady hand in the rotation last year when seemingly every pitcher went down for at least a while with some kind of injury. With the White Sox making a surprising run at the division title in a weak AL Central, theoretically Castillo will have an opportunity to play in the post-season again. But it does feel like the first brick to fall from a rotation that has so long been the core of the current team’s identity, with more moves possible. Change is hard. At least we have Boston Smith and his rec specs to see us through these trying times.

The Atlanta Braves will be reinstating infielder Ha-Seong Kim to the big league roster, according MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. With the Braves off on Monday and the trade deadline looming, the 48-hours the Atlanta has to make a corresponding move may have numerous moving parts. The term of Kim’s rehabilitation assignment ended on August 1, necessitating the move.

It’s been a disappointing 2026 for Kim who signed with Atlanta in the off-season after ending the 2025 season with the Braves before becoming a free agent. He missed Spring Training and the beginning of the season after suffering a hand injury after slipping on ice in his native South Korea.

In 27 games with Atlanta this season he has hit .068 with only 5 hits in 82 plate appearances. He does not have any extra-base hits with Atlanta this season. He was expected to be the team’s starting shortstop but that role has been filled by Mauricio Dubon, Jorge Mateo and, of late, rookie Jim Jarvis.

With or not Kim will get another – and likely final – opportunity to re-claim the starting shortstop role is to be seen. He is a free agent after the season.

The first few innings of this game were pretty fun. Still, the Royals ultimately lost 12-6 thanks to some bad pitching and the bats cooling off.

The Royals got a leadoff walk from Carter Jensen and a single from Lane Thomas to put runners on at first and second with no outs. Jac Caglianone hit a hard grounder up the middle, but, as has been the custom for several years, an infielder was waiting to turn what was once one of the prettiest hits in baseball into a routine double play.

In the top of the second, Isaac Collins led off the inning by lacing a triple into right-center that appeared to be misplayed by Brenton Doyle. He scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Michael Massey.

In the top of the third, Tyler Tolbert roped a double off the wall in right-center. It seemed like he should have gotten a triple, but he stopped at second. Moments later, he stole third to repair the mistake. Then it seemed the Royals would waste the opportunity when Carter and Lane grounded out and popped out respectively. Add another potential baserunning mistake by Tolbert for not going home on the groundball which required extra effort from Will Castro.

Still, Jac Caglianone came through. And then Salvador Perez went back-to-back.

Luinder Avila pitched two scoreless innings to start the game but things came unraveled in the bottom of the third. He allowed six runs, including a three-run bomb from Hunter Goodman, and was relieved by Easton McGee.

The Royals immediately got back on the basepaths when Michael Massey and John Rave singled with one out in the fourth inning, but they were stranded. From there, the Royals bullpen (including McGee, Matt Strahm, Alex Lange, and Lucas Erceg) did bullpen things. None of us were paying attention because Lane Thomas was pulled from the game in the bottom of the fourth as he was traded to Atlanta. You can read more about that here.

Rave did hit a home run in the ninth inning, his MLB OPS this year continues to ride above 1.000 as he waits to be allowed to get his sample sizes larger. Hopefully he’ll get that opportunity with Thomas and likely Starling Marte leaving in the next couple of days. The Royals scored their final run when Carter Jensen tripled into right and came home on a Marte single.

For a game that was over after three innings, it took forever to turn final. The Royals have dropped their first two game in Colorado to a team that is on its way to 100 losses. Things are not looking up. They get a chance to avoid the sweep tomorrow. Seth Lugo (4.22 ERA, 4.55 SIERA) will face off against Kyle Freeland (7.34 ERA, 4.16 SIERA). See you then.

SAN DIEGO — An injury that initially wasn’t supposed to force Matt Chapman to miss more than the minimum 10 days has kept the Giants third baseman sidelined for more than a month now, with no clear timeline for when he could return to the field.

Chapman provided the unfortunate update on his health Saturday from the visitors’ clubhouse at Petco Park, where he traveled with the team in hopes of being activated from the injured list.

That won’t happen this series, after all, and it’s not clear what Chapman’s outlook is after his rehab from an abdominal strain hit a bump in the road when he tried to run the bases.

“The plan was for me to try to be ready to play this weekend,” Chapman said. “Unfortunately … it’s just not in a place where I can be of help to the team. If I can’t run the bases and I can’t run, it’s gonna be hard for me to help the team.”

Chapman said he is able to swing pain-free, but running at full speed and some defensive plays are still causing him discomfort. He had been dealing with soreness in his midsection since the first month of the season but aggravated it making a barehanded play in a June 30 loss to the Diamondbacks.

Although Chapman said Saturday that “four weeks was our hope,” manager Tony Vitello initially said he expected Chapman back before the All-Star break, which would have meant an IL stint of less than two weeks. Chapman now says he could miss up to four times that amount of time.

“It can be anywhere from four to six to eight weeks,” he said. “It just depends on how it heals.”

Still, Chapman refuted the idea that he was back to “day zero” in his recovery.

“Before then, just walking and getting out of bed hurt,” Chapman said. “Now, [I’m] actually swinging and running and doing things. So, it’s still progressed.”

The Giants have fallen only two games further below .500 in Chapman’s absence, but their fate as sellers ahead of Monday’s trade deadline had already been sealed.

That doesn’t mean Chapman isn’t doing everything in his power to return as quickly as possible. Some fans have speculated that he is pushing his recovery past the trade deadline to nix a possible deal, but he has the contractual power to do that anyway with a no-trade clause.

“It doesn’t matter what our record is, we still have something to play for every day,” Chapman said. “For me, I mean, I would like to play today. But I can’t.”

It was already a longshot that Chapman would be going anywhere, but his injury as well as the torn meniscus that ended Casey Schmitt’s season puts a damper on their post-deadline infield.

The latest chapter of Schmitt’s breakout season had seen him filling in at third for Chapman, but he was also in line to take over every day at second base if and when Luis Arraez is traded.

With Arraez scratched from the lineup with cramps and Chapman still on the mend, the Giants offered a preview Saturday of what’s to come with Christian Koss at third and Osleivis Basabe at second.

Schmitt faces a recovery of six to eight weeks, putting the rest of this season just out of reach but setting him up for a healthy offseason. Chapman hadn’t spoken to him since his surgery Friday but said he believes Schmitt, who played five positions, deserves an everyday role.

“I think he’s earned himself an everyday position and spot to start every single day, wherever that may be,” Chapman said. “He hadn’t put it together for a full season and maybe really shown that he’s an everyday player. But I told him that he should be proud because he solidified himself as an everyday player and somebody this team needs and can count on.”

In the outcome that the rest of the major leagues feared the most, the two-time defending champion Dodgers added to their starry stockpile Saturday night by agreeing to acquire Tarik Skubal from the Tigers.

The Yankees and Brewers were viewed as the two other teams trying at the finish line to land the two-time defending AL Cy Young winner.

The concern the rest of the league has with the Dodgers is that they not only have the greatest willingness to spend money on payroll and a refusal to ever stop adding elite players, but they possess a deep farm system from which to trade.

Outfielder Zyhir Hope and pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith were the cost to land Skubal — and make the Dodgers even greater favorites of becoming the first team since the 1998-2000 Yankees to three-peat.

The Dodgers lead the majors with a 3.36 starter ERA and have a rotation presently with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and first-time All-Star Justin Wrobleski. Two-time Cy Young award winner Blake Snell is due to make one more rehab start before rejoining the rotation. Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani are viewed as possible to return to the rotation around Sept. 1. And now the Dodgers are adding Skubal, who since returning from a new surgery to remove bone chips from his left elbow had a 2.87 ERA in his final nine starts as a Tiger.

Skubal can be a free agent after this season. The Dodgers lead the NL West by 10 games. They certainly want to seal the best record in the league to assure that they get a first-round bye. But mainly they are obtaining Skubal to make postseason starts considering their current status.

The Brewers were viewed as the other team going hardest after Skubal. They have arguably the best system in the majors and there was the dream of teaming Skubal with Jason Misiorowski atop the rotation. But it did not occur.

The Tigers began Saturday just 3 ¹/₂ games out of a wild card, but are six games under .500. Thus, they began to notify teams early in the day to make offers while giving concepts of what they wanted in return.

The Yankees had stayed engaged even as they heard a Tigers’ initial price that would involve two major leaguers, including a current starting pitcher, and two minor leaguers. It was not believed that Detroit requested the Yankees’ top prospect, George Lombard Jr., the son of Tigers bench coach George Lombard Sr.

If the Yankees were able to pull off a trade for Skubal, they would be improving what already is their strength — their starting pitching. The hope would be that maybe they could then more comfortably use another starter as a way to get much needed hitting.

But the Dodgers were always lurking — always seen as the team that could come in and close because of their willingness to never stop and the depth of their farm system to feed that philosophy.

And so the best team got better. It is everyone against the Dodgers — now plus Tarik Skubal.

No loss is a good one, but this one is annoying because the things the team is normally good at, they weren’t so good at. We accept the Yankees’ lineup is going to struggle to score, but we expect the bullpen to get the outs after a big night from the starter. Two of those three things happened today — the Yankees struggled to score, and the starter had a big night. Handed a slim 2-1 lead late, the New York bullpen collapsed in the late innings, and the Cubs tied up this series, with 5-2 your final score.

We had about one inning of worry about Max Fried tonight. He was a little scattershot in the first, with Pete Crow-Armstrong working his was back from 0-2 into an eight-pitch leadoff walk, before a pair of spiked curveballs allowed the NL MVP frontrunner to scamper home and put the Cubs up 1-0. Just like earlier this week against the White Sox, we had to contend with the fact the Yankee co-ace would labor his way through the opening frame.

And then, he was pretty well academic. Fried allowed just two hits and didn’t walk a batter after PCA in the first, freezing out the league’s second-best offense and taking advantage of heavy winds blowing in off Lake Michigan. Neither team had the best day at the plate but Fried had a slightly higher degree of difficulty — for as good as he was against Pittsburgh I would argue this outing is more impressive.

At 73 pitches through five innings, many of us assumed Fried’s day was done, but an in-depth discussion with
Ali Sánchez while the Yankees batted had me wondering if they’d let the lefty face PCA one more time. Sure enough, Aaron Boone rolled the dice against one of the better players in all of baseball, and Fried rewarded his skipper’s confidence.

On the offensive side, this side as constructed was always going to be a tough watch. They took advantage of Michael Busch’s error in the fifth, letting Spencer Jones reach first. Sánchez and José Caballero had singles in stereo to bring Jones in and tie the game at one.

The Yankees’ big prospect was front and center for the second run of the game too, taking David Peterson deep to the opposite field on a windy night at Wrigley:

That’s three dingers this week for Jones, who in 105 ABs this season is looking like a respectable enough hitter with some upside. I don’t know that I’ll ever enjoy the aesthetics of Spencer Jones, but if he can lengthen a lineup that’s awful short right now, runs are runs.

The Yankees briefly threatened for more after the Jones homer. Sánchez punched one through the right side but was thrown out at second on a botched hit-and-run with Caballero up. Cabbie then walked and swiped second before a pinch-hitting Trent Grisham earned a free pass as well. Paul Goldschmidt couldn’t do anything though, fouling out on the first pitch to end the rally.

Unfortunately, the vaunted Yankee bullpen couldn’t hold out forever. Nico Hoerner hit a near-impossible home run just over the left-field wall to re-tie the game at two against Fernando Cruz, and then PCA did PCA things with a Cub aboard and Brent Headrick on the mound:

Crow-Armstrong is very good, but boy do I need Aaron Judge back in right field so Jasson Domínguez is not there. Seiya Suzuki followed up with a single to bring PCA in, and although the Yankees did get Suzuki at second base, an insurance run was in. The newly-recalled Yovanny Cruz also allowed a run in the eighth to give the Cubs that three-run lead they wouldn’t reliquinsh. (Another Yankees rally has gone by the wayside in the top of the eighth when Jacob Webb retired Domínguez, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and a pinch-hitting Ben Rice in order.)

On the whole this isn’t a particularly remarkable loss, the Cubs are a good team and the Yankee lineup is quite weak right now. One thing I do want to complain about is how the Yankees deployed their ABS challenges today. Max Schuemann challenged a called third strike at the top of the zone on the very first at-bat of the game, he was wrong, and the Yankees were down to one review before many fans had even taken their seats. Yes, having the leadoff hitter walked aboard is a good thing — see the bottom of the first — but I don’t think it’s worth burning a challenge on so early, especially when the hitter challenging isn’t exactly Juan Soto.

Angel Chivilli, who has impressed as a relief option, also burned a challenge in the sixth inning, a reminder why pitchers generally should not be allowed to challenge calls. This loomed large in the ninth, where after Jones singled to lead off the frame, Sánchez took a first pitch that was awful inside:

Now if you have an ABS challenge left, you can now start your ninth inning at bat up 1-0 instead of 0-1. But you don’t have any challenges left, because a journeyman leadoff hitter and former Colorado reliever decided to use them instead.

The Yankees have been pretty mediocre on the year with the ABS system, and going into a stretch run and hopeful playoff push, they need to be better at this. They also probably need to designate players that are and aren’t allowed to challenge. It’s becoming one of those little things that adds up, and when the Yankees are this depleted, the little things have to be done right.

It’s easier to swallow a loss like this when the Yankees won last night and can win the series tomorrow. Gerrit Cole will be the man charged with delivering that victory, but he has to be aware there won’t be that much run support. The finale of this road trip comes at 2:20pm Eastern. It will be the final game before the Trade Deadline hits at 6pm ET on Monday.

Box Score

It would appear that the MLB Trade Deadline market is starting to kick into high gear with some major moves starting to happen. We’ll drop the latest trade news here as we learn of them.

Cross one right-handed hitting option off the list of names for the Yankees to possibly pursue ahead of the trade deadline.

The Braves acquired outfielder Lane Thomas — alongside left-handed pitcher Bailey Falter — from the Royals on Saturday, The Post’s Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman confirmed.

Minor-league pitchers Carter Holton and Lucas Braun will both head back to Kansas City, the team announced.

Thomas, in his first season with the Royals, was pulled from the middle of Kansas City’s game Saturday night and had hit .230 with a .717 OPS and 10 homers this season entering the game.

Falter has dealt with elbow inflammation this season and appeared in five games, with two starts, for the Royals, collecting a 13.97 ERA.

But Thomas, who was limited to just 39 games last season in Cleveland due to an injury, will get a chance to boost a Braves lineup ahead of another playoff push, with Atlanta leading the National League East by 8½ games.

Braun is the No. 8 prospect in Atlanta’s system, according to MLB.com.

Well, let’s start with the good feelings. There was a sentimental feeling percolating around the Yard well before tonight’s game, with a team Hall of Fame induction ceremony that saw former O’s slugger Chris Davis, 1983 World Series Champion Storm Davis, and late scout Jim Russo all get their green jackets. Both Storm and Chris were in attendance, along with lots of their former teammates, including, to give short pre-game remarks and stop by the MASN booth to chat about their favorite memories.

It was cool to learn that Storm Davis actually served as a mentor to a young Ben McDonald, then a rookie pitcher, now a MASN analyst, but I was especially sentimental about Davis’s reminiscences, which covered the especially sweet 2012-16 years, when the O’s led the AL in wins. Dishing about some of his favorite memories, Davis named several that brought up memories. There was his 2013 home opener grand slam:

This unreal broken-bat home run off lefty Tony Watson.

And, my favorite, the ludicrously improbable homer he hit off ambidextrous sinker-baller Pat Venditte, a tentative one-handed half-swing that somehow made it into the stands. Davis described it earlier this week: “The home run vs Pat Venditte where I literally ass out, one handed, I heard he tore up the video room on the visitor side after that… I’m like, I don’t know either dude. Like I don’t know what I’m doing.” Amazing!

Look, Chris Davis had his share of troubles on the field, especially toward the end of his career, but he is a beloved part of Birdland history, a fact that seemed confirmed by how many former O’s made it out to honor him.

OK, but that’s the extent of the sentimentality here, because there was a game to play, and for O’s fans, not a lot of sweet memories will be left from this one. This is because Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez is a true artist on the mound. The left-hander came into tonight with the NL’s fifth best ERA and a wicked 50-inning scoreless streak earlier this season, and tonight, you saw why it was deserved. Sánchez has one of the best sinkers in the game, and so it was again. He also has a changeup several miles slower but with the same path out of the hand. It wreaked havoc. Sánchez drew 9 swings and misses on 15 changeups tonight (60%), finishing with 11 strikeouts in just six innings.

Then again, for most of the game the score was 1-0, and O’s starter Shane Baz was really good, too: he threw 6 1/3 innings and only allowed one run. More on Baz in a sec.

The Birds had a few chances against Sánchez, believe it or not—even if they had to do it by free pass, and not by hard contact. In the fourth inning, Sánchez did something he hadn’t all season and walked three hitters in a row—Gunnar Henderson, Tyler O’Neill, Christian Encarnación-Strand. This brought up Leody Taveras with the bases juiced and two outs. Could he… ?? Alas, he could not. It was not a good at-bat. Taveras swung aggressively through the early pitches, and stared at a fairly routine pitch down the middle for Strike 3.

They gritted a second rally chance into existence in the sixth, but if you’ve been paying attention to the final score you know how that went. Taylor Ward worked a walk, and chugged his way to third base on a Tyler O’Neill dribbler the other way—nice hustle, Ward! CES had a chance to drive him in from third, but he walked, the second time Sánchez had loaded the bases with two outs. Sánchez looked mighty distracted, way overthrowing the ball twice to CES before walking him.

So, not much to report on offense. Now, despite what the badness of the score indicates, Orioles pitching was excellent until a bullpen meltdown in the eighth inning. O’s right hander Shane Baz went toe-to-toe with Sánchez, basically, continuing to look like a solid investment for this team and a great option in this rotation. Baz had dazzling spin on his changeup and knuckle curve, plenty of movement on his sinker, and even better velocity than usual—which is saying something! Baz allowed some loud contact, but no more than two hits out of the first fourteen batters.

Regrettably, he got the loss in this game, with one run surrendered in the fifth inning. With a man on second via walk, Baz allowed a two-out single to Bryan de la Cruz. Not a cheapie, it was a bad, middle-of-the-zone fastball, and De la Cruz responded appropriately. This was pretty much Baz’s only bad pitch of the night.

In the sixth, Baz allowed a leadoff single to Bryce Harper, but then retired the side on a groundout, popout, and—oh, a super nice play by new-guy catcher Jake Rogers, acquired last week from Detroit, who caught Alec Bohm wandering off of first and fired down to Pete Alonso, who tagged him out.

Baz came one strike short of completing seven, but Philly second baseman Bryson Stott was a huge pain in the neck, seeing 14 pitches before cuing an opposite-way single. It took Baz out of there, but doesn’t dampen what was a great outing by the starter: 6 1/3 innings, 1 ER, 6 H, 4 K, 1 BB.

What was not great was the Grant Wolfram + Andrew Kittredge tandem in the eighth, which coughed up four runs by virtue of three combined walks and three hits. Wolfram looked wild, and Kittredge hittable. The inning felt like forever, and a 1-0 pitcher’s duel became a 5-0 blowout, deflating the stadium.

At the time of this writing, the Twins lost and the Guardians are in a 12-7 hole, so the Orioles haven’t actually given up ground in the Wild Card race. Despite this stupid result, the hunt for the playoffs goes on. Tomorrow, Kyle Bradish v. Zack Wheeler. Let’s hope the bullpen is more rested by then.

CHICAGO — The way the Yankees have been hitting — or not hitting — lately, their pitchers have had to be just about perfect.

Their starters have done that.

Their bullpen has not.

So on another night when they got a strong start from Max Fried, but very little from their lineup, the Yankees asked their bullpen to walk a tightrope.

It could not deliver, faltering in a 5-2 loss to the Cubs on Saturday night at windy Wrigley Field.

After Spencer Jones swatted a solo home run to give the Yankees (62-49) a 2-1 lead in the top of the seventh, they wasted a chance to add on, which immediately cost them in the bottom of the frame when the Cubs (63-48) mounted a three-run rally against Fernando Cruz and Brent Headrick.

It was as if the Yankees lineup was screaming for help once again, just two days before the trade deadline, as it continued to flounder without Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton.

It has scored just five runs over its last three games and 13 over its last five — scoring three runs or fewer in 11 of its 15 games since the All-Star break — leaving them 3 ¹/₂ games back of the Rays for the division.

“It’s a tough moment for us,” said Jasson Domínguez, who went 1-for-4 with a double but misplayed a ball in the right field corner that allowed the go-ahead run to score in the seventh. “We’ve been grinding, trying to find a way every day.”

The Yankees received an outstanding turn through the rotation, as their last five starters combined to give up just two runs across 31 ¹/₃ innings, scattering 15 hits and seven walks while striking out 33.

Incredibly, though, the Yankees only managed to turn that dominant pitching into two wins.

“It’s baseball,” said Fried, who turned in 5 ¹/₃ innings of one-run ball. “There are going to be times where guys are throwing really well and maybe the bats aren’t putting up as many runs as we need. But there’s also times where we’re going to put up five, six, seven, eight, nine runs, and then we’re giving up some too.

“It’s just about being a really good baseball team and picking each other up and knowing that everyone’s doing everything they can to win today’s baseball game. Whatever you have that day, you got to make the most of and try to figure out how to scratch and get that one.”

Against former Mets lefty David Peterson — who entered the night with a 5.80 ERA — and three Cubs relievers, the Yankees tallied eight hits and two walks while stranding seven men on base.

Two of them came in the top of the seventh with two outs after Jones had put them ahead 2-1 with his second left-on-left home run in as many days.

José Caballero and pinch hitter Trent Grisham drew back-to-back walks against righty Trent Thornton, at which point manager Aaron Boone considered pinch hitting Ben Rice but stuck with Paul Goldschmidt, who popped out in foul territory to end the rally.

“Felt like I had [Rice] in my pocket there for the next hitter [Amed Rosario] if I needed it,” said Boone, who ended up using Rice as a pinch hitter in the eighth, when he grounded out with a runner on first. “We had the lead. So trusting our pen and wanting the defense in there. So I did consider it. Maybe with less than two outs, maybe more inclined to do it. I did consider, but decided not to.”

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Nico Hoerner led off the bottom of the seventh by crushing a Cruz splitter down the left field line for a home run that tied the game at two.

Cruz later issued a two-out walk to pinch hitter Pedro Ramírez, leading Boone to bring Headrick into the game.

The lefty had stranded all 15 of his inherited runners over his last 32 games before Saturday, but could not keep that streak alive.

Pete Crow-Armstrong ripped a line drive down the right field line that bounced off the side wall and got past Domínguez, ensuring Ramírez could score all the way from first for the 3-2 lead.

Crow-Armstrong, who raced around for the triple, then came in on Seiya Suzuki’s single up the middle to make it 4-2.

“We were set up to do it, we just couldn’t finish it off,” Boone said. “We don’t have a lot of margin for error when you’re not putting a lot of points on the board. We put some traffic out there, we probably had 10-plus base-runners tonight, so those are little signs hopefully for the offense getting things going a little bit. But obviously we need to keep doing a little bit more.”

According to a report by The Athletic’s Jesús Cano, Atlanta Braves first round pick AJ Gracia underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder and will miss the rest of the season. According to the report, the surgery was performed on Wednesday by Dr. Neil ElAttrache with Gracia expected to miss seven to 10 months.

Gracia was selected ninth overall by the Braves out of the University of Virginia. He took an under-slot deal when he signed. Gracia was ranked second on Battery Power’s mid-season prospect list.

Cano reported Gracia’s surgery based on information from anonymous sources as the team has not announced this news.

Here’s our own Matt Powers with some context via ex-Twitter:

The White Sox, one season removed from a 102-loss campaign and currently leading the American League Central, made a splash ahead of the trade deadline.

Chicago acquired two-time All-Star Luis Castillo from the Mariners in exchange for reliever Seranthony Domínguez, outfielder Nolan Jones and prospect Boston Smith, The Post’s Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman confirmed Saturday.

Castillo, who finished fifth in voting for the Cy Young Award in 2023, has struggled to start the 2026 season, collecting a 5.06 ERA and pitching to a 3-9 record across 20 starts.

But the potential is there, and he’ll add to a Chicago pitching staff that sits with the No. 16 rotation in MLB for ERA at 4.29, according to FanGraphs.

The White Sox will also take on the remaining money for Castillo’s contract, according to ESPN.

Castillo also set to make $22.75 million next season with a vesting option for 2028 if he throws 180 innings in 2027.

Domínguez has appeared in 43 games this season, collecting a 3.99 ERA, and will join a Mariners team that sits four games under .500 (54-58) but just 2 ½ games back in the AL West.