Category: Baseball

ICYMI, the Cubs signed Liam Hendriks to a minor-league deal today. Can’t hurt, I suppose.

Wednesday notes…

• STREAKING THE WRONG WAY: The Cubs have lost three straight games since their 10-game winning streak ended Saturday, just as they lost three in a row following their earlier 10 straight wins. They also dropped three in a row after double-digit streaks of 11 games in 1935 and 10 games in 1998 and this year. They lost four straight after winning 13, May 5-19, 1928. They lost five straight after winning 10, May 6-17, 1917, and after winning 11, July 25-Aug. 4, 1944. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE CALENDAR MIGHT BODE WELL: The Cubs are 6-0 on Wednesdays this season: 3-0 at home and on the road. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE BUSCH LEAGUE: Michael Busch, last 21 games since April 20: .303/.432/.526 (23-for-76) with six doubles, a triple, three home runs, 16 walks and 20 RBI.
• TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Steve Trachsel allowed a leadoff double to Houston’s Brian Hunter. It was the only hit he gave up in a complete-game, one-hit shutout over the Astros. Luis Gonzalez and Sammy Sosa homered and the Cubs won 6-0. It happened 30 years ago today, Monday, May 13, 1996.

Cubs lineup:

Braves lineup:

Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. JR Ritchie, RHP

Shōta Imanaga has been just outstanding this year. Last seven starts: 1.70 ERA, 0.850 WHIP, 46 strikeouts in 42.1 innings with only three home runs allowed. The lack of home runs given up is a really positive development.

So, the complaint department is closed regarding Imanaga, at least for now.

Matt Olson is 4-f0r-8 with a triple off Shōta and Ozzie Albies is 5-for-9.

JR Ritchie was a Braves’ first-round compensation pick (35th overall) in 2022 out of high school in Washington state.

He’s 22 and was a top 100 prospect before this season and made his MLB debut April 23. He’s made three starts, all of which were at least decent. He’s obviously never faced the Cubs or anyone on their active roster.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Truist Park.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Braves site Battery Power. If you do go there to interact with Braves fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Here are the lineups for tonight’s game in Boston, let’s discuss.

For the Phillies:

For the Red Sox:

Wow. So it turns out that, on any given day, even the Orioles are capable of looking like a behemoth. Despite the fact that inclement weather forced a time change for Wednesday’s series finale, and that they were facing a team that had demolished them 39-9 in a series sweep last week, the Birds were unflappable today. Behind six scoreless innings from their de facto ace, Kyle Bradish, and ten hits from the offense—including a homer by Adley Rutschman and three hits from, of all people, Blaze Alexander—the Orioles chased the Yankees out of town and took a series win with a 7-0 spanking of New York today.

Today was a lot of fun. It’s been a crappy season for Baltimore so far, so it’s critical to enjoy the good times when fans can. Thus, a few pieces of good news.

First: Kyle Bradish is so back! I know, I know, it was just one start. But it’s not just the results; it’s how he looked. (I mean, the results were really nice: Bradish shut out MLB’s third best offense, with just one hit allowed in six innings — and that came on a nice effort by Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a second straight curveball.) Bradish’s stuff was great today. Normally, command and spin are challenges for Tommy John survivors, and while three walks is more than Bradish would like, there were no issues with his spin rates today. His curveball was ruthless: his spin rate on the pitch was up today, and he got a 50% whiff rate with it. Beautiful. Here’s a swaggy montage.

As for the offense, they didn’t freak out, even against a lefty! Max Fried has had great numbers this season, but he’s been off in his last three starts, including this one. Of 61 pitches, only 34 were strikes. Fried lasted just three innings and allowed three runs, all earned, on five hits and a walk. (According to reports after the game, the lefty was pulled early with elbow soreness and is going in for imaging. All best of luck to him.) Clearly, Fried wasn’t working with his best stuff today, but the Birds showed a good approach in exploiting his command problems. That counts as a win.

Let’s recap. From the start, Fried was having trouble landing his fastball. He allowed a Taylor Ward single in the first inning (guys, Ward swung!). But after falling behind 3-1 to Gunnar Henderson, Fried jammed the O’s shortstop inside with a bunch of sinkers, getting a rather lucky GIDP.

No more lucky escapes for Fried in the second. Pete Alonso led off with a single, showing nice timing. Two quick outs followed—Tyler O’Neill was frozen on a low strike that former O’s farmhand J.C. Escarra challenged, and Leody Taveras erased the Polar Bear with a fielder’s choice. But hottest-bat-in-the-lineup-lately (maybe?) Coby Mayo nicely built himself a 3-1 count, then melted a fastball past the third base bag, at 111 mph. Taveras, showing no hesitation, rounded the bases and scored. The Orioles had a 1-0 lead.

Ordinarily, a 1-0 lead isn’t worth a hill of beans against the Yankees, but in this case, the offense was just getting started.

Blaze Alexander, tablesetter par excellence today, led off the third inning with a great bunt. He got to take an extra base when Fried muffed the throw to first. Taylor Ward walked. Of course. A Gunnar groundout moved Alexander to third, and Adley boosted his RISP numbers by cracking a noisy flyout to center. 2-0 Orioles. They had one more run in them: Pete Alonso, who is hitting well lately, singled to right. Ward scored, making it 3-0. There might have been more, but Alonso got himself rung up at second trying to stretch the single into a double. Speed is not a leading quality of polar bears.

The Orioles offense—and for that matter Blaze and Adley—still had more in the tank. The Yankees lifted the struggling Fried and put in right-hander Paul Blackburn. Blaze Alexander singled on a hanging sweeper and stole second while Taylor Ward stood at the plate and stared at pitches. Gunnar flew out to center, but with two outs, Adley connected a little further. His immediate reaction suggested he thought he’d gotten under it—but he ran all the way to second, where he was told by the grounds crew that it was a home run. Kinda funny, but they counts all the same.

The Orioles added a sixth and seventh run in the sixth inning against former Ray Ryan Yarbrough—another lefty!! Tyler O’Neill led off with a walk, and Coby Mayo scorched another loud line drive into left field. Weston Wilson kept the line going with another line drive single, loading the bases for Blaze Alexander. Some days, this fact would kill the rally. But not today. Blaze connected on a low-and-outside offspeed pitch, and drove it past the third baseman and shortstop. Two more runs scored. 7-0, Orioles.

It’s weird—some days it just looks really easy. Over the last week, the Orioles offense has scored more than three runs only once: today, seven materialized with ease. And after giving up seven, nine, eleven and twelve runs to the Yankees in last week’s series, Orioles pitching nearly no-hit them today.

It starts, of course, with the starter. Like I said, Bradish was in command the whole game, save for the Chisholm double in the fifth, the Yankees’ first and only hit of the game, and the only time they created any suspense on the basepaths. That inning, with Chisholm already aboard, Bradish spiked a curveball, allowing the speedster to take third. But then he whiffed Ryan McMahon. He walked Spencer Jones, putting runners at the corners. But after a long battle with Anthony Volpe, he finally got him swinging, too, and left the mound with that emphatic-slash-disdainful walk Bradish does when he’s in the zone.

Then, a bullpen combo of Keegan Akin, Dietrich Enns, and Yennier Cano combined for three hitless, scoreless innings. Poetry.

Today’s convincing win doesn’t erase the frustrations of the prior 43 games, but it did help. Outclassing the scary Yankees today—winning the series against them, even!—has to be a confidence booster. If the rotation starts to take a cue from Kyle Bradish and the hitters can do more of this, well, the Orioles start to look like an excellent team.

So who was your Most Birdland Player today? A dominant Bradish, looking like himself? Coby Mayo, with two hits and the game’s first RBI? Adley Rutschman, who homered and drove in three runs? Offensive powerhouse and speedster Blaze Alexander?

Sound off in the comments.  

Owners of the worst production from the leadoff spot in all of Major League Baseball, the Cincinnati Reds have finally, mercifully seen enough of the way their old lineup produced.

Ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Washington Nationals, manager Terry Francona bumped up the stars of his lineup a slot and began to stack the top of his lineup full of the best bats he can find. No longer is TJ Friedl hitting leadoff with Matt McLain slumping in the #2 spot – instead, Elly De La Cruz will hit 2nd with Sal Stewart 3rd, JJ Bleday 4th, and Spencer Steer 5th tonight as the Reds face Washington starter Jake Irvin, a righty.

Will Benson will lead off again against the RHP, and it remains to be seen how Francona will adjust the top of the lineup on days when the Reds face a southpaw.

Notably absent from this lineup today is Ke’Bryan Hayes, who was a flashpoint during yesterday’s game for a) not being pinch-hit for in the 4th inning with the bases loaded (and grounding into a double-play) and later b) being pinch-hit for in a bases-loaded spot after the game had already gotten out of hand.

Nathaniel Lowe is also back in the lineup tonight at DH one day after questionably being on the pine against a RHP (and against his former club).

Here’s the lineup for the start of the second game of this series, one that will feature Nick Lodolo on the mound for the Reds for his second start of the season:

First pitch is set for 6:40 PM ET in GABP.

With the news that Gavin Lux has had another setback in his recovery from several injuries to begin the 2026 season, the Rays will be without their anticipated second baseman for the foreseeable future. This is unfortunate for Lux as he’s in a contract year and his injuries will almost certainly impact his earning potential in 2027. The Rays are still in relatively good shape at second base with Ben Williamson’s continued growth at the position and Richie Palacios settling into a consistent role.

Williamson is maintaining a 101 wRC+ against lefties and Palacios has a 109 wRC+ against righties – together they’ve formed a solid platoon at second base. The Rays production at second by wRC+ ranks a respectable 13th in the league.

Defensively, they each have -2 outs above average and Williamson has 1 defensive run saved while Palacios has none. They’ve also converted 92% of ground balls and line drives hit to them into outs which is league average for the position. They appear to be a roughly average defensive pair in the early part of the season. Given that Williamson is a plus defender at third base and solid at shortstop, I do expect him to be better than average at second base as he gets more reps there.

While the Rays do appear to be fine at second base, I don’t think that will stop them from exploring potential upgrades as the summer goes on. Carson Williams has played a few games at second base since his demotion and could be an interesting internal candidate to play there in the majors if needed. He’s already a plus defender at shortstop, so there’s reason to believe the athleticism would translate similarly to second base. Carson likely offers more upside on both sides of the ball than either Williamson or Palacios. However, he’s still refining his approach to reduce the swing-and-miss – and seeing encouraging results – so consistent playing time in Triple-A may still be best for his development.

There are a couple interesting external candidates if the Rays did decide to make a trade. Funny enough, they’re both former Rays. Brandon Lowe is set to become a free agent after this season and could be a somewhat affordable rental if the Pirates fall out of contention later this summer. He’s been able to stay healthy, there’s still plenty of impact left in his bat, and his defense is still passable.

Another option, although less likely given the cost and positional fit, could be Isaac Paredes. He would likely be more expensive given his extra year of team control, but the former Ray continues to outperform his raw exit velocity data by consistently pulling the ball in the air. He’s been working in at second base this season for the first time in a few years and he seems to be more than capable of holding his own there. Paredes’s data at the position looks solid in a small sample, and the eye test suggests he’s at least passable there:

There are a few other guys having some strong starts that could be available at the deadline, but none of them have the track record comparable to Lowe or Paredes.

Lux’s on-base ability would still add an important dimension to the lineup if he’s able to return later this season, but the Rays appear reasonably positioned to withstand his absence for now. Williamson and Palacios still look capable of forming a viable second-base platoon for the remainder of the season. Carson Williams could emerge as an internal option if the Rays are willing to give him consistent major-league reps, and a pair of former Rays may also become trade candidates if the organization looks to clear future 40-man roster pressure ahead of the Rule 5 crunch this winter.

Things stink right now. The Yankee offense has been present for one game out of the last six, and we’re in the dark about the Max Fried’s potential elbow injury. On top of all that, New York lost a game that it felt like they were never involved in in the first place, managing a single base hit — at least it was a double! — in a 7-0 loss to the Orioles.

I wrote about what I think is wrong with Max Fried in the middle of the game, and it turns out I was wrong and everything is worse! The lefty was experiencing posterior elbow pain and removed himself from action. He’ll be examined by team doctors today and head back to New York for further imaging tomorrow. This is almost exactly the same process José Caballero went through earlier this week. The key difference is of course that a finger injury is just plainly less worrisome than elbow pain.

I think it’s worthwhile to take this as a moment to remember that so much of the stuff we worry, fester, argue, complain, and speculate about end up being null. We’ve spent the last two weeks wondering what happens with the pitching when Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón are fully functional, whether Ryan Weathers or Will Warren go to the bullpen, and well we may have one of the answers presented to us.

Nature may abhor a vacuum but baseball abhors a surplus. The Yankees had too many starting pitchers, or at least they seemed like they would. Now, we’re left in the dark — the club clearly wants Cole to continue to build up despite throwing 77 pitches in his last outing, and who knows how long Fried will need before those elbow troubles are resolved.

That all this came in a game that was determined to annoy us regardless made everything worse. More than half the Yankee lineup no longer seems competitive, no matter how optimistic Michael Kay was about J.C. Escarra’s last eight games. Kyle Bradish has excellent breaking stuff, and has handled the Yankees well before, but the bottom four of the lineup all feature OPSs below .600. Jazz Chisholm Jr. had a booming double and finished the game at .608, and Trent Grisham is not at this time a leadoff hitter ahead of arguably the best two sluggers in the game.

That Jazz double was in fact the team’s only hit of the day, with Bradish posting six shutout innings before a trio of Oriole relievers shut down the rest of the game. The Yankees did manage five walks against seven strikeouts, a pretty good ratio for any game, but in that success the team kind of shows its weakness. They do walk a lot, and that’s good! Not making outs, getting yourself on base — these are things that should drive scoring.

Except, it’s very hard for a run to score because of a walk alone. Conversely, before certain commentators say certain things, it’s also very hard for a run to score because of a groundball to the right side alone. It’s much easier for a run to score because you drove a fastball into the gap for an extra-base hit. I think the determination to work counts, and wait for one pitch, is causing the Yankees as a group to be a little too passive. Take two of Aaron Judge’s ABs for example:

Look, I think that Aaron Judge is the most talented right-handed hitter in the game’s history, and any one pitch can take a guy by surprise. Both times here though, the best pitch he sees — indeed, the only strike he sees — is in a hitting zone, and is taken. Maybe if he swings, he swings through it, or he flies out, and who am I to tell Aaron Judge how to hit but the team from top to bottom looks a lot like they have a directive to see four pitches every at-bat regardless of where those pitches are. Or maybe I’m wrong about this too, and the plain fact is six hitters in the regular lineup probably shouldn’t be at this point.

The Yankees get an offday tomorrow, one that feels desperately needed. Of course we’ll spend it worried about the state of Max Fried’s elbow, but after a really frustrating six games, maybe this can be a good reset point. The Subway Series kicks off from Queens on Friday night, and if nothing else we’ll get to watch Cam Schlittler pitch. The annual battle for New York starts at 7:15pm Eastern, and if you have Apple TV+ you just might be able to view it.

Box Score

In Patrick Bailey’s second start in Cleveland, he showed why the Guardians decided to trade for the defensive-first catcher.

Bailey’s task on Tuesday was to handle the Guardians’ worst starting pitcher so far in 2026, Slade Cecconi. Coming into the game, Cecconi had a 19% whiff rate and had been attempting a fairly even pitch mix between his five offerings – 34% four seamers, 26% cutters, 16% sinkers, 15% curveballs, and 10% sliders/sweepers. Below, you can view a map of Slade’s pitch selection patterns for the year from Baseball Savant:

After the game, Cecconi told reporters that he did not shake Bailey off even one time, so we know that the game-calling was the catcher’s doing when analyzing differences below. During his four innings of work against the Angels, Slade achieved a 25% whiff rate while going to a fastball-heavy mix, throwing his sinker 38%, his four-seamer 33% and his cutter 22% of the time, cutting his curveball and sweeper usage to a combined 6%. He also displayed a significant change in location choices, as seen below with a chart from Baseball Savant:

If you do some quick math, here, you’ll see that Bailey had Cecconi avoiding wasting pitches below the zone, instead peppering the top of the zone and above. Cecconi’s sinker and four-seamer both are above average in vertical movement, so this seems to reflect Bailey trusting that this movement would result in more whiffs if aimed at a higher location, while encouraging Cecconi to let loose with his velocity (his fastball mix showed improvement over his year averages by over 1 mph for each pitch).

Bailey’s choice to focus on fastball mix was interesting because the Angels are solidly top five in MLB against four-seamers and cutters… however, they are 29th against sinkers in MLB. Cecconi’s sinker, meanwhile, has been his best pitch by run-value in 2026 at +2.5 runs above average. My guess here is that Bailey particularly liked how the sinker would play off of Slade’s cutter and fastball, and chose to risk the Angels’ ability to hit those two pitches in order to get the most out of a pitch in the sinker that has been the Halos’ kryptonite. This turned out to be an effective strategy, and demonstrates Bailey’s quickness in being able to analyze both pitcher and opposing team to devise an effective game-calling strategy.

Bailey also displayed his elite pitch-framing ability, particularly in an at-bat against the most dangerous hitter on the Angels, Mike Trout, in the third inning. As seen in the graphic below, Bailey was able to steal two strikes in that top of the zone section he was targeting throughout the game to neutralize Trout in pitches three and five (a big deal, for as any Guardians’ fan who has followed the future Hall-of-Famer’s exploits against Cleveland for the past decade knows). Not only was the umpire fooled, but Trout – who has one of the game’s most elite eyes at the plate – was confused, as he offered no ABS challenge.

Later that inning, Cecconi surrendered a double and Bailey’s framing went to work on Vaughn Grissom, as seen below:

Pitch number one was PROBABLY a strike, remembering that GameDay’s zone and the ABS zone do not always align. The umpire and Grissom believed it was, at least. He then expanded his zone later in the at-bat to get the swinging strikeout accordingly.

Homeplate umpire Jeremie Rehak had a very good game, but Bailey was still able to help provide a 0.15 run advantage in his framing work as outlined by @UmpScorecards on Twitter.

It will likely be difficult to watch Patrick Bailey hit. He is unlikely to be any better than what Bo Naylor was, there, during his cumulative time with the Guardians. So, when we ask ourselves why the team gave up valuable assets to acquire Bailey and risked disrupting their pitching and catching situations, we need to carefully watch how he affects the game defensively. The Angels did not attempt any steals against Bailey, who is excellent in the run-game management category, nor did Bailey allow any passed balls. Most importantly, Bailey seems to have the inherent trust of his pitchers due to his reputation, and demonstrated the ability to plan an execute an effective game-plan to get the most out of a struggling pitcher against a solid lineup.

I am not willing to say that Bailey’s defensive prowess will make up for his lack of hitting ability quite yet. It’s his second game catching, here, and I will likely need to endure some painful outs from him while hitting for a while to know how I feel. But, I do think it’s important to remember that one of the things analytics has most trouble capturing is catcher value. Catchers – especially as Cleveland uses them – have a dramatic impact on the confidence levels and talent maximization of pitchers.

If Bailey costs the team in run-production, he may be able to more than compensate by assisting them in run prevention. Some have called the Patrick Bailey-Austin Hedges tandem an “Iron Curtain” strategy by the Guardians. For one night, at least, the early returns were positive as the plan unfolds.

After ending yesterday’s game against the Chicago Cubs with a one-hitter, the Atlanta Braves are looking to secure an early series win and a whole new offensive plan with rookie JR Ritchie on the mound. Let’s look at who we have.

The one question that’s been surfacing is, “Where’s Dominic Smith on the starting lineup?”

With Ronald Acuña Jr. still absent, Manager Walt Weiss has been making a few adjustments to right field, and so far, it’s been working. That doesn’t mean, however, Braves Country isn’t missing their new heavy-hitter on the starting roster, especially since he’s been consistently producing results.

Regardless, the Braves lineup consists of Mauricio Dubón batting leadoff. Sandy León is set to take over the catching spot as Drake Baldwin occupies DH in the two-hole.

Both Dubón and León will be facing Cubs starting pitcher Shota Imanaga for the first time, while four member of the Braves’ offense (Ozzie Albies, José Azocar, Baldwin and Matt Olson) all averaging over a 1.000 OPS against the lefty.

The remainder of the lineup is identical to yesterday’s, with a few slight changes in order due to the shift in leadoff.

Though pulling off a win in yesterday’s matchup, the offense is looking to make a bigger impact on a team that’s also leading their division and known to get hot at the right times. To avoid a revenge run from the hot Cubs, they’ll have to establish their runs early to rattle Imanaga and impact their bats.

As for Acuña, he is set to continue running drills at Truist to test his hamstring, according to Braves insider Grant McAuley, and will be on standby for a return date.

First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m EST tonight.

TV: NESN

First Pitch: 6:45 p.m. ET

The Red Sox and Phillies will tell us a lot about themselves during Wednesday’s matchup at Fenway Park.

Boston and Philadelphia both notably fired their managers three weeks ago, with the former treading water (7-7) since dismissing Alex Cora in favor of Chad Tracy, while the latter has completely turned things around (11-3) after dropping Rob Thomson for Don Mattingly. It’s not like things will stay this way forever, though — right?

Willson Contreras will return to the lineup for the home team, batting fourth after receiving an extra day of rest. Connor Wong will replace Carlos Narváez behind the dish, while Ceddanne Rafaela gets the night off after playing every game this month.

Kyle Schwarber is back in the leadoff spot, so be careful if you’re sitting in the right field grandstand.

Sonny Gray will make his second start since returning from the injured list on May 6, where he pitched five scoreless innings in a victory over the Detroit Tigers. Andrew Painter will make his first career start at America’s Most Beloved Ballpark, carrying a 6.89 ERA with 30 strikeouts across 32.2 innings pitched during his rookie campaign in 2026.

It’s always nice to win a day game, especially when that win clinches the first team sweep of the season! Messick wasn’t as in control as he usually is today, but he still turned in 6.2 innings of quality baseball. His final line: 6.2 IP 4H 2R 7K 3BB. The only runs of the day came off a Zach Neto 2-run homer in the 5th.

The Guardians started off scoring quickly, with Angel Martinez hitting a leadoff homer.

Martinez had a great series, going 3/7 with 2 HR and 3 SB in the two games he played. Jose walked, DeLauter singled off the pitcher, and then Fry drove them in with an RBI groundout.

DeLauter drove in a run in the 3rd on a sac fly to center (which he smoked).

In the 6th, the Guardians tacked on an insurance run with a Daniel Schneemann RBI single.

Bullpen was great. Festa came on in relief of Messick in the 7th – with a runner on first – and got Adam Frazier (lol) to ground out. Sabrowski pitched the 8th, striking out 3. Cade got the save in the ninth striking out the side. He has been fantastic over the last month.

Relatively uneventful game today, but it ended in a W.

The Guardians welcome the Reds this weekend, where it’ll be Bibee against a presently unknown Reds pitcher.

The Yankees lost for the sixth time in their last eight games, falling to the Baltimore Orioles by a score of 7-0 on Wednesday afternoon. 

Here are the takeaways...

-- Max Fried never looked right on the mound. The lefty lasted just 3.0 innings before being pulled from the game, as he was seen heading down the tunnel with members of the training and coaching staff after the third. 

The team later announced that Fried exited with left elbow posterior soreness, and that he will be evaluated by team doctors and get imaging on Thursday, in what could potentially be a huge blow to the Yankees' rotation.

Fried was missing up and away to right-handed-hitters routinely, as just 34 of his 61 pitches went for strikes.

The lefty allowed three earned runs on five hits with one walk and two strikeouts in 3.0 innings pitched.

-- Paul Blackburn relieved Fried, and the right-hander allowed a two-run homer to Adley Rutschman in the bottom of the fifth inning. Spencer Jones nearly made a terrific play, but the ball hit off his glove and bounced over the wall for homer, making it a 5-0 game.

It wasn't a great day for the bullpen overall, as Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough combined to allow four runs.

-- Anthony Volpe was back in the starting lineup for the first time this season. Called up on Tuesday with Jose Caballero going on the IL, Volpe came up in a big spot with runners on the corners and two outs in the fifth inning, but went down swinging to end the inning. 

Volpe went 0-for-3 with a strikeout, and also committed a fielding error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning.

-- Kyle Bradish had a terrific afternoon on the mound for the O’s. The righty faced the minimum through the first three innings, allowing only a Trent Grisham walk. Jazz Chisholm Jr. finally notched a double with one out in the fifth to break up the no-hit bid, but Bradish shut the Yankees out over his 6.0 innings, allowing just one hit while striking out seven and walking three.

--That Chisholm double was the Yankees' only hit of the afternoon.Jones reach base twice on a pair of walks.

Game MVP

Blaze Alexander, who went 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored.

Upcoming schedule 

The Yankees are off on Thursday before beginning the Subway Series against the Mets on Friday night in Queens. 

Cam Schlittler will face Clay Holmes, with first pitch at 7:15p.m.

Usually when the San Diego Padres score four runs, they can eke out a win with their strong pitching staff. Tuesday night, that was not the case.

The Friars jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning. Unfortunately, that lead was immediately lost with starter Matt Waldron surrendering five runs to the Milwaukee Brewers in the bottom of the fourth. That might’ve been due to some bad luck, but it was a rough ending to an otherwise solid outing.

Waldron had been pitching much better lately, giving up only four runs across his previous 10 innings. That solid performance was made to look like a blip with his return to mediocrity yesterday. It seems more and more likely that newcomer Lucas Giolito will take Waldron’s spot in the rotation.

The offense turned a corner, with Miguel Andujar driving in two runs with a solo homer and an RBI double. If they can build on that production in tonight’s game, it would be a major turning point for San Diego.

Taking the mound

Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) v. Michael King (SD)

Misiorowski has been doing what he does best: throwing baseballs as hard as almost any human can. He’s been much more successful than last season, with his fastball run value going from ranking in the 63rd percentile (2025) to the 86th (2026). In his first eight games, he owns a 2.45 ERA and 0.95 WHIP.

The young phenom has anchored this Brewers rotation. He has been one of the best pitchers in the National League, giving Milwaukee a shot at staying in contention in the stacked NL Central division.

King has been just as much of an ace as he ever has been for the Friars. He’s pitched to a 2.76 ERA in 45 2/3 innings, with his sinker and changeup being his most valuable pitches.

He pitched a gem in his last outing against the St. Louis Cardinals, giving up one run across six innings. If he can do that again against a Brewers club that has struggled to score runs, tonight may turn out to be quite the pitcher’s duel.

Batter up!

Manager Craig Stammen made just about the most offense-focused lineup he could, putting Fernando Tatis Jr. at second base so Nick Castellanos could play right field, and having Andujar DH. That didn’t end up working out fully, with the Friars only scoring four runs in their loss.

1. Jackson Merrill, CF
2. Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
3. Manny Machado, 3B
4. Miguel Andujar, DH
5. Xander Bogaerts, SS
6. Gavin Sheets, 1B
7. Ramón Laureano, LF
8. Sung Mun-Song, 2B
9. Rodolfo Durán, C

Andujar is the only player who’s faced Misiorowski and, though it’s a small sample size (two at-bats), he’s batting 1.000 with a 2.000 OPS. Duplicating that would go a long way toward a San Diego win.

The lineup knocked eight hits last night, but couldn’t take advantage of all of their opportunities. They’ll need to do a much better job tonight if they hope to force the rubber match tomorrow.

Relief corps

With Bradgley Rodriguez serving as an opener for Waldron, the Friars used three relievers to get through the game. It was basically a bullpen game with Waldron only going 2 2/3 innings. Wandy Peralta and Yuki Matsui combined to pitch 4 1/3 scoreless innings.

With that, the bullpen has plenty of options for tonight’s game. Jason Adam, Jeremiah Estrada, Ron Marinaccio, Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon will each be readily available for Stammen to turn to. All but Marinaccio are obvious high-leverage options for the Friars.

Yet another Met is set for an extended period on the sidelines.

Starting catcher Francisco Alvarez will undergo surgery for a right meniscus tear, Carlos Mendoza said Wednesday, and the manager hopes for his return in six to eight weeks.

The 24-year-old has become the latest Mets starter on the shelf — joining Francisco Lindor, Luis Robert Jr. and Jorge Polanco.

Mendoza added that a firmer timeline for Alvarez, who was initially placed on the 10-day IL, will be known after his procedure. The manager tipped Luis Torrens to get the bulk of the starts in the meantime, with call-up Hayden Senger filling in behind him.

“I don’t want to sit here and speculate,” the manager said. “All we know is we have to wait until they go in there and find what we got.”

Alvarez, who has played in all but four games this season, injured his knee during an awkward sixth-inning swing Tuesday against the Tigers. The Venezuela native lost his balance as he fouled a ball away and then limped off the field without facing another pitch.

He’ll be replaced behind the plate by Torrens, who has elite defensive instincts but just a .208 batting average.

Alvarez is the third Met to encounter a meniscus issue this year, following injuries to Mike Tauchman and Jared Young.

“We’re always looking, especially if guys continue to get hurt with the same injury,” Mendoza said of his team’s injury trend. “But it’s hard to pinpoint. There’s years where you’re dealing with hamstrings. … It seems like this is the year of the knee.”

For Alvarez, it’s the latest in a spate of injuries in his Mets career, after he missed significant time with hand and wrist injuries the past two seasons.

“You feel for him. You feel for the person, for the human,” Mendoza said. “When you feel like he’s getting time to develop, to continue to learn, play — he hasn’t had that run, playing every day, go through struggles, find a way to get through it and keep going.”

Robert (back) and Polanco (left Achilles and right wrist) seem a ways away from a return. Mendoza said Lindor, who strained his left calf April 22, underwent an MRI exam Wednesday.

Alvarez’s injury quickly quashed some of the excitement around A.J. Ewing’s tremendous debut start Tuesday.

“Guys got to step up. I’ll continue to sit here and say the same thing,” Mendoza said. “A lot of teams are going through adversity. A lot of teams are dealing with injuries, we’re one of them, but we got to keep going.”

For mere mortals, an off-day means an off-day, but for Shohei Ohtani, the definition of it is a bit different. For the fourth time this season, the Dodgers will take the field without Ohtani as their designated hitter. If the recent track record serves as an indicator, it’s one of those bad with him and worse without him moments for the Dodgers offense. In the two most recent games without the reigning back-to-back NL MVP hitting, the Dodgers have scored one run in each, wasting a pair of great Ohtani outings, as his performance on the mound has been second to none in the National League this season.

Held in check by the bottom of the Giants’ rotation over the first two games of this series, the Dodgers’ offense will have a far more difficult challenge this time around. One of the few bright spots of what’s been a melancholic season for the Giants, Robbie Ray will face the Dodgers for the first time this season, having missed them in the earlier series at Oracle Park. As they look for anything to be optimistic about, the Dodgers might rely on the fact they’ve seen Ray well in recent duels—in fact, the former Cy Young winner allowed a combined 10 runs in back-to-back losses against the Dodgers in September of last year, his last two starts of that campaign.

Dalton Rushing filled in as the Dodgers’ DH in the other three times Ohtani took a seat, as they all came against left-handers. However, with multiple righty platoon specialists on the bench, it’s unlikely that Rushing will retain that position even if a minuscule sample size actually has him faring well against southpaws, going five for 15 this season. Miguel Rojas is likely to start over Hyesog Kim in the infield, leaving the DH spot to either Alex Call or Santiago Espinal, with the advantage to Call based on their 2026 numbers.

Wednesday’s game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Giants
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
• Start time: 7:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)