Category: Baseball

Well, we had our first “home game” in Mexico City this afternoon, and here at the end of it I find myself in an absolutely filthy mood. A big part of that, I’m sure, is how the game ultimately turned out. Some portion is also that, like others have remarked over the last couple of days, it seems grossly unfair that, in a divisional series, one team—the Diamondbacks, in this instance—got the “honor” of being assigned as the home team despite the fact that we, like the San Diego Padres, are playing very far from home in fact, and in facilities and at an elevation that are both deeply unfamiliar and likely uncomfortable for both teams. And given that end-of-year tiebreakers, should they happen to come into play in September when postseason berths are being decided, have division records and whatnot pretty high up on the list, having two less actual home games, in our actual home park, against a divisional foe puts us at a distinct disadvantage, and makes these games much more high-stakes for us than they would be otherwise, and much more high-stakes than they should be. It seems distinctly unfair, and also pretty wildly unnecessary, at least if one’s primary interest is Major League Baseball. But more on that later, I suppose….I’m supposed to be a recapping a baseball game here. So I suppose I should get to it.

The Padres brought former Rockie German Marquez to play today, while we brought Zac Gallen. Since we were pitching “at home,” Gallen got to go first, and while he was hardly wowing with his control or his efficiency—of the seventeen pitches he threw in the top of the first, only eight of them landed for strikes—he did retire the top of the San Diego lineup in order, and put up a welcome zero. Marquez did the same to us, in the bottom of the first, but with rather more efficiency, needing only thirteen pitches to sit down Geraldo Perdomo, Ketel Marte, and Corbin Carroll in order with two looking punchouts and a grounder to short. Gallen was a bit better in the second, recording another clean inning with two strikeouts of his own, and only throwing fifteen pitches.

In the bottom of the second, meanwhile, we managed to make Marquez work a little bit harder, to say the least. Adrian Del Castillo flew out to center and Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. rolled a grounder to second for two quick outs, but then the bottom half of our lineup showed that they, at least, had gotten their bats through customs. Ildemaro Vargas kept his hit streak going with a line-drive single to shallow center, Nolan Arenado hit a shot that glanced off Manny Machado’s glove and wound up in left field for another single. Jose Fernandez, today’s designated hitter, roped a line drive double into the gap in left center to drive in Vargas and Nolan. Then Alek Thomas stepped to the plate, and on the third pitch he saw from Marquez demonstrated what hitting a fly ball at 7,300 feet above sea level can do for your offensive production:

Steve and Tom, who were our broadcasters today, kept describing the hit as “towering” and so on and so forth, but if you look closely, he kind of got under it and hit it pretty much off the end of the bat, and if you look at where it lands (in what I presume is a bullpen area just over the right field fence), I don’t think there’s any way that ball goes for a home run in any MLB ballpark. But what the heck? We’ll take it. 4-0 DBACKS

And that was the Diamondbacks One Big Inning on offense. You may have noted in the “dek” or the tagline for this post that One Big Inning laid Brandon Pfaadt and the Diamondbacks low, but this wasn’t it. You may not have noticed, but the Diamondbacks definitely seem to have OBI problems fairly frequently, not only in terms of our pitching but also in terms of our offense. For our offense, it manifests a bit differently—we score a chunk of runs in one inning of the ballgame, usually early, and after that it’s, well, nothing. Crickets. So it was today.

Maybe we should give that phenomenon a slightly different acronym, to distinguish the offense problem from the pitching problem. Maybe call the offense one Only One Big Inning, or OOBI. Yeah. I think that works.

Anyway. Gallen allowed his first bit of traffic in the top of the third, though to be fair it was hardly his fault. With out out already recorded, Zac threw a knuckle curve to Padres catcher Freddy Fermin, who hit it right back up the box. It hit Gallen in his right shoulder and then dribbled away onto the infield for a single. The trainers came out, they had Gallen throw a number of practice pitches off the mound, and when they were satisfied, they went back into the dugout and Gallen finished up the inning with a grounder to second and his third strikeout of the game. That was the end of his outing, however, as presumably the shoulder started to swell and stiffen up, and by the time to top of the fourth rolled around Brandon Pfaadt was warming up in the bullpen, and it was announced that Zac was out of the game due to a “right shoulder contusion.”

That didn’t seem like so bad a thing, really, because Pfaadt came out dealing. He struck out two in a nine-pitch top of the fourth, and pitched around a two-out solo dinger from San Diego first baseman Ty France in the top of the fifth. 4-1 DBACKS

The top of the sixth started off a bit rougher, with Jake Cronenworth drawing an eight-pitch leadoff walk from the nine hole. He struck out Ramon Laureano, though, and induced a very hard grounder from Fernando Tatis, Jr. that Perdomo scooped to start a very slick inning-ending double play.

You may have noticed I haven’t mentioned the offense, but that’s because the offense wasn’t doing anything except swinging early at Marquez pitches and allowing him to cruise through the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings with only 38 pitches thrown. They scattered two singles, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch across those four frames, and yet Marquez wound up having to throw, on average, fewer than ten pitches in any one of those innings. It was uninspiring, to say the least.

Meanwhile, Pfaadt was only at 36 pitches through his three innings of work, so he came out to start the top of the seventh, and that was when the wheels came off. He walked Jackson Merrill on ten pitches to open up the action, then surrendered a single to Machado, and then stepped off the mound three different times to balk the runners to second and third before walking Zander Bogaerts on six pitches to load the bases with nobody out. That earned Pfaadt the hook, with Taylor Clarke coming on to try and get out of the mess. Long story stort: he failed, though not for lack of effort. Gavin Sheets greeted his first pitch with a two-run single to right, Ty France reached on a fielding error by Perdomo that led to Perdomo leaving the game with what was later diagnosed as a sprained ankle, and two sacrifice flies later, the Padres had the lead. 5-4 San Diego

And that was pretty much that. Ty France hit another solo dinger off Trevor Andrew Hoffman to lead off the ninth, the Diamondbacks managed a bit more traffic on the basepaths but couldn’t get anyone else home, and that gives us our disappointing final score of 6-4 San Diego

Loss Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

Your Neighborhood Arizona Taco Shack: Zac Gallen (3 IP, 1 H, 3 K, 0 BB, +14% WPA), Jose Fernandez (4 AB, 2 H, 1 2B, 2 RBI, +13% WPA)
That Taco Bell Just Off the Interstate Outside Dubuque, Iowa: Adrian Del Castillo (4 AB, 0 H, 1 K, -14% WPA), Brandon Pfaadt (3 IP, 2 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 HR, 5 K, -15% WPA)
Jack in the Box: Taylor Clarke (1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 IBB, 1 HBP, -31% WPA)

The Gameday Thread today was sparsely attended, at least, with only 137 comments at time of posting. Probably just as well, really, as this game was really pretty desultory and disappointing. By popular acclaim, Comment of the Game goes to MikeMono:

I don’t entirely agree with this one, though I do agree that this is another game that can and should be added to the 2026 list of games that we should have won but didn’t. Myself, I feel like this was a more unusual circumstance, and less of the same-old-same-old, which reminds me….

What’s Wrong with In-Season Junkets Like the “Mexico City Series”

Coming back to the point I gestured toward at the end of my intro paragraph, there seems to me that there is absolutely no reason for “events” like this to exist while the MLB regular season in going on, and it frankly offends me that things like this do happen. In hopefully succinct bullet-list form, here’s why:

• Nobody aside from the municipal authorities of Mexico City, the Mexico City Better Business Bureau, and the International-Market-Share-Growth Division of Major League Baseball give a crap about bringing in-season American baseball to other countries that don’t have MLB franchises of their own. It’s a cash grab by the league, and the owners who make up the league, pure and simple.
• A venue like Mexico City, which is maybe a good junket destination for baseball marketing execs and so forth, and seems like a perfectly lovely place to play or watch some baseball, nevertheless has some environmental and geographical aspects that make it a completely inappropriate place to force MLB teams to pick up and go and play for a couple of days before coming home again. To wit, the elevation at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in Mexico City is 7,350 feet above sea level, more than 2,000 feet higher than Coors Field, which as everyone already knows plays havoc with how the game functions in terms of, well, physics. Pitchers aren’t going to know how their pitches are going to behave in the very thin air at that elevation; hitters aren’t going to know how their swings and their approaches at the plate are going to be affected; position players aren’t going to know how their movement and their exertion and their physical conditioning are going to respond to playing at such elevations.
• As such, there are a whole bunch of potential health risks that come from throwing 54 professional baseball players who have trained and conditioned themselves with very particular parameters for playing environments in mind into an environment that is well outside those parameters, and giving them maybe 24 hours tops to acclimate themselves, and then making them go out and play ball for at least eighteen innings over a 48 hour period. You think it’s no big deal? Take your daily exercise routine—walking, jogging, working out, whatever—that you do down in Phoenix or Tucson or wherever, and drive up to Flagstaff (which has a comparable elevation to Mexico City), and try doing the same thing, and see how it goes and how you feel afterwards. I guarantee that, unless you’ve done years of high-altitude training, it won’t go smoothly.
• Do the teams, and the players, have a choice about whether or not to participate in this and other MLB international marketing stunts? I’m pretty sure they don’t. Do they get compensated for having to participate in these international junkets that disrupt the rhythm of the regular season just as they’re settling into that rhythm as we come up on the one-month mark in the season? Again, I‘m pretty sure they don’t.

So, yeah, that’s my rant. This sort of greedhead idiocy has no place in regular season MLB baseball. It should be abolished.

Anyway….

So join us tomorrow, if you feel so inclined, as we try to salvage a “series” split against the Padres. Michael King goes for San Diego, Ryne Nelson goes for us. Ulp. But I’m sure it will be fine. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 Arizona time, so bring your lunch, your beverage of choice, and your external oxygen tank. Hope to see you!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!

Introduction

Based on everything I’ve seen, it is incredibly difficult being a general manager of a major league baseball team. You have to balance the needs of the present and the future, wrangle the egos of any number of high-profile individuals, and negotiate with a media ecosystem that must always be fed and is likely less sympathetic than ever before. It also requires knowing when a veteran player might have to be released or moved to give a prospect or younger player an opportunity for more playing time. That final responsibility now faces Mike Hazen as Alek Thomas continues to struggle at the plate in his fifth major league season – his slash line for the year sits at .194/.239/.358 entering Saturday’s game against the Padres. And there are multiple high-level prospects currently sitting down in Reno chomping at the bit for an opportunity including Tommy Troy, Ryan Waldschmidt, and eventually A.J. Vukovich when he returns from injury. That’s also not taking into account Jordan Lawlar’s eventual return to the mix when his recuperation and rehabilitation are complete after looking much more like the former top prospect he was supposed to be in the season’s first few games. By my count, that would put six outfielders on the roster if you include utilityman Tim Tawa in the calculation (Thomas, Corbin Carroll, Lourdes Gurriel Jr, Lawlar, and Jorge Barossa).

Obviously, there aren’t enough at-bats to go around with that many outfielders and some decisions will need to be made about the roster – a problem further complicated by impending Rule 5 Draft eligibility for several top prospects including Troy (December 2026) and Waldschmidt (December 2027). Thomas has been a mainstay in the Arizona lineup since debuting in 2022 other than a down year in 2024 when he was hampered by a left hamstring strain that kept him out of the big leagues for most of the season. Amazingly, he’s already amassed over 1,400 plate appearances in his career and has likely demonstrated his ceiling at the plate.

Tommy Troy

Presumably the most likely candidate to be called up from Reno given his aforementioned Rule 5 eligibility, Troy has flown under the radar somewhat, appearing just once on the Top 100 list for MLB Pipeline prior to the 2024 season and promptly falling back off it. Thankfully, he’s thrived out of the spotlight appearing at six different defensive positions – including all three outfield positions – while making some excellent offensive contributions. The team seems to view him as another superutilty player given the crowded outfield, but putting him at second base seems counterproductive to me given how entrenched Ketel Marte is there. Regardless, in 61 combined games with the Aces, Troy possesses a .308/.396/.457 slash line and likely has little seasoning left with AAA before making his major league debut. Now it’s just a question of where he’ll play.

Ryan Waldschmidt

One of the last minor leaguers to be reassigned to minor league camp out of Spring Training, I thought there was a real, but slim, possibility Waldschmidt might make the big league club for Opening Day, but the front office decided to delay his debut given that he hadn’t yet even appeared in AAA before this season. The organization’s lone representative on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospect list, Waldschmidt has continued to impress since being drafted two years ago with Corbin Carroll’s Prospect Promotion Incentive pick. There isn’t quite the same kind of urgency for Waldschmidt as there is for Troy since he has another year of eligibility before being exposed to the Rule 5 Draft, but the ceiling for the young righty seems pretty high. He certainly hasn’t appeared intimidated by the highest levels of the minors, posting a .313/.422/.510 slash line through his first 25 games in Reno while roaming centerfield. I suspect that Waldschmidt is a prototypical September call up that gives him an opportunity for a Rookie of the Year campaign in 2027 – assuming baseball is still around then.

Conclusion

While Thomas seems like an excellent person and still holds the honor of one of the biggest swings in D-Backs history, it’s time that the front office starts having some serious conversations about his future with the organization if they haven’t already. He’s clearly an extremely capable defender who’s capable of using his excellent speed to cause chaos on the bases to make up for an underwhelming offensive contribution, but that strikes me as the profile of a fourth outfielder or depth piece rather than a starting outfielder in the major leagues for a contending team. I suspect that when the roster crunch eventually does hit, Barrosa will find himself as the odd man out first given his similar player profile to Thomas (with worse numbers) and a lack of minor league options leaves him the most vulnerable. But the time to make a decision about Thomas is approaching and would be made much easier if he started hitting even a bit more than he has in the past – like hitting a two-run homer this afternoon as I was writing this piece.

Braves News

Brian Snitker was inducted to the Braves Hall of Fame on Saturday.

The Braves lost what essentially turned into a coin flip of a game to the Phillies and will now go for a series win behind Chris Sale today.

MLB News

The Red Sox fired most of their coaching staff after a rough start to the season, despite winning Saturday’s game 17-1 over the Orioles.

The Cubs are expecting offseason addition Phil Maton back in the next couple of days.

2025 postseason star and Rookie of the Year candidate Trey Yesavage is expected to make his season debut for Toronto on Tuesday.

The Mets hope that Francisco Lindor can return from his calf injury by the end of May, as their rough start to the season continues.

Eugenio Suarez hit the 10-day IL with a mild oblique strain.

The streak is over. The streak is over. The Phillies actually won a baseball game.

For one night, it was the opposing team making mistakes. And for one night, it was the Phillies who capitalized on them. After a Harper walk with two outs, Mike Yastrzemski tried to lay out on an Adolis Garcia line drive and missed it by a foot. They took a 2-0 lead in the fourth when Bryson Stott hit a ball off Truist Park’s massive right field wall and scored Brandon Marsh from first. Bryce Harper got a clutch two-out hit in fifth to give them a 3-2 lead.

Zack Wheeler, one of the all-time Phillies greats, returned to the mound for the first time since August 15 against the Washington Nationals. The Dallas, Georgia native was clearly amped up for his first inning of work, firing 95 and 96 mph fastballs to the top of the Braves lineup.

Against Ronald Acuña Jr, Wheeler went four-seam, four-seam, sinker, and then another high four-seam fastball for a strikeout. He then struck out Drake Baldwin on a curveball.

There was rust, he struggled with command, having three walks, and ran into a 35 pitch fourth inning that nearly ended his night. He walked Baldwin and Olson to begin the inning, Albies singled to load the bases, and the Braves brought in two runs thanks to a sac fly from Harris and a double from Austin Riley. Wheeler was done after the fifth inning on 83 pitches.

But for one night, it didn’t matter that the depleted Phillies bullpen had to cover at least four (eventually five) innings.

It wasn’t pretty but it ended up working, at least for one night. Rob Thomson asked three different relievers to get four outs. Orion Kerkering entered the sixth inning after Tanner Banks had a disastrous three-batter stint against the Braves middle of the order. Matt Olson smoked a sinker past Brandon Marsh and down the left field line with a double. Ozzie Albies took a hanging sweeper to the left center field gap to tie the game at three. Michael Harris II then poked a down and away sweeper to left that gave the Braves a 4-3 lead.

Kerkering worked 1.1 innings of work. Then it was José Alvarado’s turn to get four outs. Brad Keller then entered the eighth inning and got the last four outs before extra innings.

In that span, the Phillies caught their second big break of the night when Braves center fielder Eli White slipped, which allowed Kyle Schwarber to get a leadoff triple to start the seventh. Bryce Harper hit a sac fly to tie the game at five.

None of this is going to match what the tenth inning brought. A determined manager and bullpen mostly worked them to this point but it was up to the offense to bring them home.

The Braves asked José Suarez to work against the top of the Phillies order, with Garrett Stubbs as the ghost runner, to keep the struggling Philadelphia bats down.

But for one night, it was the Phillies turn to take advantage of a short bullpen. Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber walked and loaded the bases, Harper singled in two runs. Brandon Marsh, who’s seen multiple high leverage at bats against left handed pitching the last few days, finally rewarded Rob Thomson for his (forced) faith, smacking a clutch single to extend the Phillies lead to four runs. It was their first four run inning in twelve days.

With the 2026 Phillies, nothing was going to come this easily. Kyle Backus came in to finish the game against the top of the Braves order because there was no other viable option.

Backhus has allowed an .870 OPS against right handed hitters this season, but Acuña hit a lazy flyball to Justin Crawford. Drake Baldwin smacked a single to left that made it 8-5 then Olson hit a blooper right between Turner and Crawford to send the tying run to the pate.

Albies has a .308 batting average against left handed pitching this season with three extra base hits. He rolled over to shortstop for a force out. Harris has crushed the Phillies this season, and delivered the big blow against Andrew Painter the night before. But for one night, really one moment, he didn’t have it and the Phillies ended their longest and most miserable losing streak of the century.

What does it mean? What damage did this losing streak cause? Even if it’s April, is it even possible for the Phillies to make a real run at the division? What about the Alex Cora news?

Those questions might be for tomorrow, or for Monday, or some other date.

For this one specific night, the Phillies won a baseball game for the first time in 12 days.

The Cincinnati Reds welcomed Aaron Harang, Lou Piniella, Brandon Phillips, and Reggie Sanders into their team’s Hall of Fame in ceremony on Saturday afternoon. And while the butts in the seats in Great American Ball Park may well have been there to see them honor the team’s past, it was the present that ended up putting on the greatest show of the night.

The Reds rocked Detroit Tigers starter Jack Flaherty early and often, a 3-run tater by Sal Stewart in the Bottom of the 1st the first big blow. Nathaniel Lowe followed with a homer of his own – his third in the last 24 hours – while both Elly De La Cruz and TJ Friedl eventually homered as the Reds blasted their way to a 9-2 win that secured yet another series victory.

Stewart, who takes home tonight’s Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game, was once again ridiculous at the plate. He consistently worked deep counts, fouling off countless pitches designed to get him to swing himself out after taking a few initial strikes. He eventually finished 3 for 4 with a walk, homer, and five ribbies on the night, a number that gives him 29 on the season through just 27 games played.

This tweet, for example, came before he drove in two more.

Sal leads all of Major League Baseball in ribbies with 29 as of the time of writing this, something that’s made even more incredible by how poor Cincinnati’s offense as a whole has been through the month of April. Quite simply, he’s been the best, most timely, most clutch hitter in the game so far this season, and he’s a rookie.

Rookie.

He’s Cincinnati’s rookie, though, and for that we are all incredibly thankful.

The Reds moved to 18-9 on the season with the win, tightening their grip on 1st place in the National League Central while improving their start to a season to levels not seen since 2003. On Sunday, they’ll send Rhett Lowder to the bump with a chance to sweep the series, and I’ve been gifted the ability to type the word ‘sweep’ more often this month than in any month of Reds baseball that I can remember.

The goings, folks, they are quite good right now. Here’s to them continuing ad infinitum.

As the Braves looked for another series victory, they faced Zack Wheeler, uncertain of exactly what to expect from the Phillies’ ace coming back from injury, while Bryce Elder started for Atlanta.

Bryce allowed some hard contact for two groundouts in the first, before going up 0-2 on Harper and then seemingly overthrowing to try to get Harper out and ultimately walking him. That turned costly as Yastrzemski failed to complete a diving catch on an Adolis Garcia triple that brought Harper home but might have left Harper on second or third if Yaz had simply moved to cut the ball off. The starting pitchers were able to keep things quiet through the third inning, but the Phillies struck again in the fourth, as a Brandon Marsh single came home for a run off a Bryson Stott .030 xBA triple that hit the right field wall just above Ronald Acuna’s grasp and bounced way back off the wall. Each run that Elder had given up to this point was fairly unlucky, but he had been allowing hard contact all night, so not necessarily undeserved.

Wheeler showed his first real weakness in the fourth, with two walks to Baldwin and Olson to start the inning, challenging a clear ball on the fourth pitch to Olson seemingly out of frustration as well. Ozzie grounded a ball softly up the middle to a spot that drew a diving stop from Turner, but Turner’s flip to second for a potential force out was wide, loading the bases with no outs ahead of the scalding hot Michael Harris II. Mike just missed a grand slam, but brought home Baldwin with a sac fly to the warning track, leaving runners on the corners with one out for Austin Riley. Austin came through huge with a double for his 500th career RBI, bringing home Olson and landing Ozzie on third. Dubon struck out for the second out, unsuccessfully challenging the third strike call, and Yastrzemski struck out looking as well to end the inning with a 2-2 tie, a bit of a disappointing outcome from runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, but better than a 2-0 deficit. The Phils got one run back in the fifth on three singles, the third of which was a soft ground ball single off the bat of Bryce Harper.

Now facing a lefty out of the Philadelphia bullpen, Matt Olson hit a nice opposite field double that almost turned into an out at second as Marsh got a very helpful bounce off the wall and made a nice throw. Right-handed Ozzie hit a double of his own on a line drive to the left field gap to score Olson and tie the game with no outs. Michael Harris dropped a ball over Trea Turner’s head and Ozzie got a great read on it to score from second, giving Atlanta their first lead of the evening. That was all the Braves got from the inning, but it was enough to give the formidable Atlanta bullpen a lead to work with.

Walt Weiss opted to keep Elder in the game facing the bottom of Philly’s order for the third time and he repayed that faith with a strikeout of Crawford and a soft lineout from Marchan before the lineup turned back over to Turner. Bryce got a chopper to first from Turner for the third out and ended his outing with a solid 7.0 innings of 3 run ball with only 2 strikeouts, but also only 1 walk and 0 homers.

Ronald drew a one out walk in the seventh, hoping to add an insurance run and forcing the Phillies to go to Jose Alvarado out of the bullpen. Ronald stole second on Alvarado’s first pitch, giving Baldwin and Olson a chance to bring him home from second with a single. Unfortunately, Alvarado caught Ronald leaning to third, which has been a disturbing trend for Atlanta on the basepaths this season.

Dylan Lee started the eighth and Kyle Schwarber hit a line drive to right center that should have been an easy out, but Eli White took a hard break to it as he misread the ball and tried to stop quickly but slipped on the grass wetted by a late drizzle, turning an out into a triple. Bryce Harper hit a sac fly to bring the run home. Lee was unphased by his misfortune and struck out the final two batters to end the inning. Alvarado came out again in the eighth and got Matt Olson out to start the frame but allowed a double to right-handed Ozzie with one out after a obligatory weird interlude to replace the rosin bags. Alvarado got Michael Harris out and Rob Thomson pulled him for the righty Brad Keller to face Austin Riley with two outs. Austin chopped out the Bryce Harper to end the inning, maintaining the 4-4 tie. Tyler Kinley got the ninth and gave the offense a chance to walk the game off with a scoreless frame, working around a 2-out single.

The bottom of the Braves’ lineup was unable to get anything going in the ninth and sent the game to extra innings with each team back to the top of their order. Tyler Kinley stayed in the game to face the righty Turner and walked him before making way for the lefty Jose Suarez to face Harper and Schwarber. While there is the platoon advantage, Jose Suarez in a tie game in extra innings is a scary prospect for Atlanta, especially with runners on and facing hitters in that caliber. While he didn’t allow a homer, Suarez walked Schwarber and allowed a two-run single to Harper. The two remaining runners were able to advance on a wild pitch and Brandon Marsh singled them home, giving the Phillies a commanding 8-4 lead. Suarez then allowed a line drive single to Bryson Stott. To his credit, Suarez did technically strike out the side, as his strikeouts have been up dramatically this season, but walks have been a recurring issue this season. The Phillies brought in Kyle Backhus to try and close out the game and with it their 10-game losing streak. Baldwin brought home a runner with a one out single to cut the Philly lead to 3. Matt Olson blooped in a single bringing the tying run to the plate, at least giving Atlanta a chance to come back from the huge lead that Philly accumulated in the 10th. Right-handed Ozzie grounded out and Philly took the out at second, but the tying run was still at the plate, now with two outs but in the form of Michael Harris II. Mike grounded out and the series was even at 1-1.

Join us tomorrow at 1:35 PM ET, as the Braves and Phillies decide the series with Chris Sale on the mound against Aaron Nola.

Casey Schmitt was not pleased with the way the series against Miami was going, as shown by this image below from the 2nd inning of Saturday’s game.

Note the expression: the dark shadows under his eyes, his slack-jaw and mouth ajar. Note his posture: the shoulders slumped, his arms thrown over the dugout railing for support. Clearly, Schmitt wasn’t doing too great. He had just made a dumb mental error that completely undermined a chance at an early lead. Thrown out at second base. Back-picked to be exact. He had inexplicably run through the bag on a lead-off double, rounded it too aggressively as the play developed in front of him in shallow left, and realized too late that he had strayed too far. In a desperate attempt to get back to second as the relay throw came in, he slipped well shy of the base. From his his knees, I distinctly remember him stretching out his arms and screaming up at the heavens as the tag was applied. Schmitt slammed the ground with his fist, cursing his stupidity, the hard infield, the studs on his feet before sulking back to the dugout.

Shock, disbelief, embarrassment, anger, bitterness — that’s a stiff emotional cocktail to swallow…again. Because, somehow, this had happened before. The night before to be exact. Not even 24 hours had passed. In the 6th inning in Friday’s game, Schmitt had rounded second on an infield single with an eye on third base, and shortstop Otto Lopez nabbed him as he drifted too far away from second. Lopez’s 180 and throw caught him completely by surprise. He stumbled, tried to scramble back to the bag, but had no chance.  

It’s the kind of mistake a player should make once in a blue moon, or once in their career. Schmitt made it twice in back-to-back games. We’ve all been in his shoes before — just not in front of 40,000 people, not including the viewers at home.

That’s what that vacant expression was in the 2nd: His mind and spirit and body awkwardly processing it all in real time. How could this have happened again?  

But this is a happy story, a story in which our main character goes through impossible hardship and comes out the other side better and stronger for it. This is a story in which Casey Schmitt goes from this

To this

To this

And really, what’s the only explanation to why two grown, professional sports men could be so touchy and friendly and smiley with each other?

Yup, that’s right: Dingers. Hot taters. The day, the series was rescued by three of them: Two solo shots from Drew Gilbert and Heliot Ramos, and a 2-run shot from Schmitt.   

Hit home runs, never feel sadness.

Saturday afternoon was shaping up to be another dud. Another lost day at the plate. Another game in which Robbie Ray labors earnestly on the mound while the ungrateful offense bends over and spins around their bats before collapsing into a heap.

Marlins starter Eury Pérez, and his 98 MPH four-seam, stitched together four pretty seamless scoreless innings. In a war of attrition against Ray, the Miami offense scratched a single run in the 3rd for the lead. The RBI cashed on a half-swing accidental single from Xavier Edwards. 

Knowing this offense and the fact that Robbie Ray has been the Matt Cain of 2026, the probability of that excuse-me single being the decisive hit in a 1-0 loss was high. But by the 5th inning, Pérez’s command started to wane. The tall right-hander had to work his way back into the at-bat against Drew Gilbert after falling behind in the count. He grooved a 3-0 fastball on the inside-third of the plate that Gilbert took all the way. He then grooved a 3-1 fastball to the exact same spot, and Gilbert lined it over the Wille Mays wall in left. 

An inning later, the game stilltied, Schmitt awoke from his coma on a mission of self-redemption. Matt Chapman stood in scoring position after his lead-off double. Rafael Devers’s pop up proved useless and unproductive. If the Giants were to take the lead, and if Schmitt wanted to be the one to give it to them, a hit would be needed. Schmitt provided. And he didn’t wait around either. With steam coming out of his ears, he dug into the batter’s box and hurled his bat at the first thing that moved. A fastball, up and in, and Schmitt barreled it, giving the baseabll the dirtiest look imaginable as it turned tail and bolted for the left field bleachers. 106 MPH off the bat. 404 feet from home. A no doubter with some attitude, and not a small bit of relief as well.

Amazing what a home run and a lead can do for one’s mental health. 

And then this was just good for the soul.

With Schmitt in his happy place again, the Giants, as a team, followed suit.

While the bullpen arms handled the Marlins line-up, the Giants’ offense added three more runs in the later innings, with Patrick Bailey and Luis Arraez both collecting 2-out RBI singles, and Heliot Ramos launching his third homer off the year to right in the 8th.

Though it started out looking like an awful case of déjà vu, Saturday’s 6-2 win turned into a much more dynamic display by the offense. After a night which lacked displays of power and hits of consequence, the San Francisco line-up woke up and slugged. 8 of their 11 hits went for extra bases. They also worked 5 walks as a team with two of those free passes coming around to score. Jung Hoo Lee and Matt Chapman both reached base three times. Ramos, Arraez, and Schmitt also had multi-hit efforts.

While the runs came too late to earn Ray a deserved win, it kept him from an undeserved loss. San Francisco will send Landen Roupp to the mound tomorrow to pitch for their third consecutive series win.

The Yankees arrived in Houston with all the momentum and a six-game winning streak following a sweep of the now-skipperless Red Sox at Fenway. A couple days later, they’re eyeing yet another dusting of a rival on the road.

Behind a poised start from Ryan Weathers and an offense that continues to “have liftoff,” the Yankees beat the Astros 8-3 on Saturday night at Daikin Park. The victory pushed New York’s winning streak to eight games—matching the 2025 club’s longest—and secured another road series win victory.

For a team that looked stuck in mud offensively during parts of early April, this recent stretch has been the exact opposite. The Yankees have now scored in bunches, mixed patience with power, and repeatedly punished mistakes. Once again, Houston’s pitching staff learned how dangerous this lineup can be when it gets rolling.

The Yankees were down early after the Astros struck first in the opening frame, but Trent Grisham helped answer and set the tone. He lofted a home run into the left-field seats and directly into the glove of a Yankees fan, one of those road moments that still somehow felt made for the Bronx.

The blast would have been even sweeter had José Caballero not just been thrown out attempting to swipe third base with the lefty Grisham at the plate.

Weathers continued what is becoming an encouraging trend. Fresh off the paternity list after welcoming a baby boy, the left-hander turned in another solid performance and looked in control throughout much of the night. He changed speeds effectively, attacked the zone, and kept Houston from ever building sustained momentum.

This outing came on the heels of his excellent start against Kansas City, and the Yankees have to be feeling increasingly confident about what they have in the 26-year-old. When Weathers was acquired, the appeal was obvious stuff and untapped upside. Right now, both are beginning to show. The final line was not nearly as dominant as his showing against the Royals, but any team will gladly take 5.1 innings of two-run ball with no walks and four strikeouts from one of its back-end rotation starters.

Caballero then put the Bombers ahead in the fifth when he sent his third home run of the season out to left-center.

That swing helped make up for his rougher moments on the bases, as Caballero was thrown out trying to steal third twice, both times with left-handed hitters at the plate. One aggressive mistake can be shrugged off, but repeating it in the same game cost the Yankees chances to make the score even more lopsided.

Carlos Correa evened the score with a home run of his own in the bottom of the sixth, but the Yankees answered immediately. Austin Wells snuck his second homer of the season over the fence in the seventh to put New York back in front, and from there Houston’s pitching staff began printing free passes to first base.

The Yankees drew seven walks over the final three innings, turning a competitive game into a grind for the Astros bullpen. Bases-loaded walks to Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm Jr. stretched the lead to 5-2, and the Yankees added another run in the eighth when Ben Rice lifted a sacrifice fly to deep center.

New York tacked on two more in the ninth after a beautifully executed hit-and-run by Amed Rosario and Bellinger. Wells brought Bellinger home, and Ryan McMahon followed by plating Rosario to make it 8-2. The Astros added their final run in the bottom of the ninth on a Christian Walker homer off Tim Hill, but by then the game was already well out of reach.

That late run was the only blemish on the bullpen. Fernando Cruz picked up the win in his fire extinguisher role and handed the ball to Jake Bird, who worked a clean seventh. Camilo Doval then navigated the eighth before Hill came on to finish off the ninth.

Eight straight wins in April do not define a season, but they can shape one. The Yankees now head into Sunday looking like one of the hottest teams in baseball, and suddenly the early bumps in the road feel much smaller in the rearview mirror. During this streak the Yankees are outscoring their opponents, 48-14.

New York will go for a ninth consecutive win—something they haven’t done since early 2022—on Sunday afternoon as Aaron Boone’s team closes out the series in Houston. The Yankees hand the ball to Luis Gil, who is coming off his best outing of the season in Boston. The Astros will counter with right-hander Spencer Arrighetti, with first pitch set for 2:10 p.m. EDT.

Box Score

On April 8, Cole Ragans took the mound in a rubber match against the Cleveland Guardians. Steven Kwan led off and struck out looking on five pitches, including three dotted on the outer edge by Ragans. Angel Martinez struck out looking on four pitches. You could feel it. Cole had everything working for him, and it was going to be nearly impossible for the Guardians to touch him.

Cole got ahead of Jose Ramírez 0-2 before he left a fastball a little too over the plate, and J-Ram lined it off of Cole’s throwing hand. From that moment until tonight, Cole Ragans recorded only 31 outs while giving up 10 runs on 6 hits and 13 walks with only 7 strikeouts.

Tonight was going to be different, and you could tell it from the start.

Ragans started off his night firing fastballs down the middle to Zach Neto and challenging him to catch up; the shortstop couldn’t do it. Cole got ahead of Mike Trout with a low heater, then dotted the outside corner with a knuckle curve, fired a fastball up and away, and then nailed the inner edge for strike three looking. Jo Adell battled a bit harder but ultimately struck out swinging on a 99-MPH fastball above the zone.

If I hadn’t known what happened in between those first two batters in Cleveland and what we saw tonight, I’d have assumed Cole never stopped making guys look foolish. I do know, but it doesn’t make what he did tonight any less impressive.

As you can see in the comparison above, Ragans toyed with the Angels all night long, basically only throwing two pitches. He upped his fastbball velocity 2 MPH over where it had been and added nearly 100 RPMs, but his changeup velo didn’t change much at all. The increased velocity difference meant that the Angels entirely missed literally half of the changeups they swung at.

The most interesting difference might be the fact that he ditched his slider entirely. I’ll be watching that closely in his next start to see if he just didn’t think he needed it tonight or if he stopped liking it for some reason. Remember, adding the slider back into his arsenal was considered one of the keys that turned him from a guy who could be traded for a middling reliever at the 2023 trade deadline into a frontline ace who was too valuable to trade for the proven outfield bat the Royals have coveted for years. But he sure didn’t need it tonight.

Ultimately, he tied his career high with 27 total whiffs and came up one short of his career high in strikeouts, but he still struck out almost two per inning. And – perhaps most importantly – he didn’t walk a soul after setting a new career worst with eight against the Yankees in his last outing.

We are 500 words into this recap, and we haven’t said one word about an offense that scored 12 runs. That’s how mind-numbingly fantastic Cole Ragans was tonight.

But hey, the offense was pretty good, too. As it so often has over the last decade-plus, it started with the captain.

That was the first and only home run hit by a Royal on the night. How do you score 12 runs with only a single solo home run? Every single Royal in the starting lineup reached at least twice, with most of them reaching three times. The team combined for a season-high 10 walks (with only 6 strikeouts!!!) and added 14 hits. The Angels also committed three errors. The line just kept moving.

Vinnie Pasquantino walked 3 times; that raised his walk rate 2 percentage points and added 15 points to his OBP. Jac Caglianone and Isaac Collins each walked twice and added a hit, scoring five times between them. Nick Loftin set a new career-high with 4 RBIs. But beyond Sal’s homer, only Witt and Cags managed extra-base hits, each coming up with a double. The Royals were 6-for-18 with runners in scoring position on the night, including two bases-loaded walks. They scored multiple runs in the second, third, seventh, and eighth innings. Plus a single run in the sixth.

The Royals are now 3-2 on this homestand with a chance to earn their first sweep of the season tomorrow on Sunday night baseball. They’ve averaged seven runs a game after tonight’s escapade. Their run differential went from -32 to -21 tonight (I was going to give you the difference over the home-stand, but they were even in the four games prior to this one, so it’s the same number.)

As I just said, tomorrow’s game will be their first appearance on Sunday Night Baseball of the season. It will be broadcast on NBCSN and Peacock. Seth Lugo and his shiny 1.15 ERA will face off against lefty Reid Detmers and his less-stellar 4.08 ERA. Detmers has pitched better than those numbers, but doesn’t have huge splits, so the Royals’ lefties might be able to get in on the action again. If not, the right-handers did just fine against Kikuchi last night, so we can hope lightning can strike again. The game will air at 6:20 PM Central, and I’m excited to watch a Royals team that has been a lot more fun on this homestand than they were on that devastating road trip last week.

For the last week, the Dodgers had been scuffling offensively.

In the fourth inning on Saturday, they finally looked like themselves again.

With a six-run rally keyed by quality at-bats, timely hits and the kind of relentless approach the team wants to pride itself on this season, the Dodgers built perhaps their best –– and most important –– inning at the plate all season, turning an early deficit into a massive lead en route to a 12-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.

“We broke out tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Just up and down the lineup, a lot of good stuff.”

Entering Saturday, the Dodgers had lost five of seven games thanks largely to a lack of production from the lineup.

During the skid, they’d scored more than four runs only twice. They were enduring slumps from Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández. And things had gotten so frustrating, Freeman and Ohtani shared a light-hearted, but telling, moment in the players’ parking lot walking into the ballpark Saturday morning.

“Can we please get hits today?” Freeman joked.

The answer was yes. Salvation was discovered.

Down 2-0 early, the Dodgers initially got on the board when Max Muncy belted a two-run homer off Cubs starter Colin Rea in the third.

The real explosion, however, came an inning later, when the Dodgers erased a 3-2 deficit with a six-hit, two-walk, 11-batter onslaught.

Hyeseong Kim got things started with a one-out single. Alex Freeland lofted a fly ball past Ian Happ in the left field corner that bounced off the top of the short wall for an RBI double. An Ohtani walk was followed by a go-ahead RBI single from Freeman on an opposite-field line drive. And then, with Rea knocked out of the game, Hernández broke things open with a two-run, two-out single through the infield.

Dalton Rushing and Andy Pages would later add RBI singles to make it the Dodgers’ highest-scoring inning of the season.

“We just smelled an opportunity, and we took advantage of it,” Rushing said. “That’s what good offenses do … Just a testament to showing how we just pass the bat in the lineup.”

All the scoring compensated for another uneven, but more optimistic, day from Roki Sasaki. He gave up four runs (three via solo homers) in five-plus innings, yet found better overall command while flashing a new-and-(mostly)-improved splitter; throwing it significantly harder and with much more spin than his traditional fork ball.

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For the first time this year, it allowed him to pitch into the sixth inning, while striking out five batters and finding the zone on 66 of 99 pitches.

And now, it might give him more tangible things to build off moving forward, even with his ERA still at 6.35.

“Today was a really good one,” Roberts said. “And I hope he feels the same way about his outing.”

The bullpen also bounced back from a nightmarish loss on Friday, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the sixth unscathed thanks to a couple strikeouts from Jack Dreyer and an inning-ending grounder from Will Klein.

After that, the Dodgers (18-9) put the game away with four more runs in the next half-inning, two of them coming on a bases-loaded double from Pages.

Just like that, the team’s league-leading offense appeared to be back in form.

What it means

In snapping a 10-game win streak for the Cubs (17-10), the Dodgers have staved off what would’ve been a third-straight dropped series, if you include their disappointing four-game split with the Colorado Rockies last week.

And while they remain in second place in the National League West, a half-game back of the San Diego Padres, they reaffirmed their status as one of the best offenses in baseball.

Even after their recent skid, they continue to lead the majors in team batting average (.280), OPS (.830) and home runs (44).

Those marks were aided by a team-wide effort Saturday. Every starter in the lineup got a hit. Everyone except Freeman and Tucker reached safely at least twice. And they were 7-for-16 overall with runners in scoring position.

Who’s hot

How about the two hitters at the bottom of the Dodgers’ order.

Kim continued his impressive return to the majors, going 2-for-5 to raise his batting average to .357 this year.

Freeland, who struggled mightily in the season’s first three weeks, also continued his recent turnaround with a 2-for-4 day (both doubles). He is now hitting .375 over his last six games.

Who’s not

Muncy and Will Smith, at least physically.

Smith was out of the lineup with some back tightness, though he is expected to be ready to start Sunday.

Muncy, meanwhile, was removed after his third at-bat while feeling “a little under the weather” –– not that it seemed to impact his play much on a day he hit his team-leading ninth homer (including his first non-solo shot of the season) and also walked twice.

Muncy will get a day off Sunday, but is scheduled to be back in the lineup Monday.

Up next

The series rubber match will be on Sunday afternoon back at Chavez Ravine. Justin Wrobleski (3-0, 1.88 ERA) starts for the Dodgers, while left-hander Shota Imanaga (2-1, 2.17 ERA) goes for the Cubs.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs shut out the Louisville Bats (Reds), 5-0.

Connor Noland gave up just three hits over six innings on his way to the win. Noland struck out two and walked just one.

Ethan Roberts relieved Noland in a rehab appearance and pitched the seventh inning. Roberts allowed one hit and one walk. He did not strike anyone out.

There is this, however.

Second baseman James Triantos was 3 for 4 with a double and a solo home run in the fifth inning. It was his third home run this year. Triantos had two total RBI.

RBI single for Triantos.

Triantos’s home run went 375 feet.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies couldn’t avoid the Chattanooga Lookouts (Reds), 5-4.

Tyler Schlaffer started this one and got tagged for four runs, but only two earned, on three hits over three innings. He walked four and struck out six.

Catcher Owen Ayers and left fielder Carter Trice both were 2 for 4 with a walk and one run scored.

Third baseman Devin Ortiz was 0 for 1 with three walks. One of his walks came with the bases loaded for an RBI. He also scored one run.

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs slew the Dayton Dragons (Reds), 6-1.

Just two pitchers for South Bend today. Brooks Caple pitched the first five innings and got the win with no runs and five hits. He struck out three and walked one.

Alfredo Romero had the four-inning save. He did not surrender a single hit, but he did give up one run thanks to three walks. Romero struck out one.

South Bend combined strong pitching with three home runs. Shortstop Christian Olivo hit a solo home run in the fifth inning, his second on the season. Olivo went 2 for 4.

In the sixth inning, catcher Miguel Useche connected with a man on. It was his second home run of the year and first with South Bend. Useche was 1 for 5.

Finally, right fielder Geuri Lubo smashed a solo home run in the eighth. Lubo was 1 for 4.

Second baseman Drew Bowser was 3 for 4 with a double and a walk. He drove in the first run of the game with a single in the fourth inning and also scored on Useche’s home run.

Third baseman Matt Halbach was 2 for 5 and scored once.

Left fielder Reginald Preciado was 2 for 5 with a a double.

Olivo’s home run.

Useche’s home run.

Lugo goes opposite field and just sneaks one over the wall in the corner.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans were winning 5-1 in the third inning when the rains came. They’ll finish this game on Sunday and play a seven-inning game afterwards.

LOS ANGELES — After five losses in seven games and blowing a four-run lead in the series opener, the Dodgers needed some good news, and got in on Saturday thanks to an offense producing enough to overcome any deficiencies in a 12-4 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday evening at Dodger Stadium.

Dave Roberts said Max Muncy was feeling under the weather, which was part of the reason he batted third on Saturday, so he could get his at-bats in before coming out later in the game. Muncy made the most of his trips to the plate, including a two-run home run in the third inning and two walks before getting pinch-ran for in the fourth. Muncy leads the team with nine home runs, and this one was his first non-solo shot of 2026.

The Dodgers made Colin Rea throw 92 pitches to get 10 outs, and by the time the Cubs starter was chased, four runs were already in the bank. Javier Assad walked Muncy but got Kyle Tucker for the second out of the inning, before three straight singles turned it into a six-run frame, the Dodgers’ largest of the season, after scoring eight total runs over their last four games.

Roki Sasaki threw strikes on Saturday, including 20 of 23 first pitches for strikes (87 percent), up from 52.9 percent in his first four starts.

Being in and around the strike zone was a blessing and curse, as three of those strikes were hit out — Seiya Suzuki pouncing on a fastball high in the zone in the second inning, Moisés Ballesteros on a splitter right down Broadway in the fourth, and Miguel Amaya expanding the zone to hit an opposite-field shot in the fifth. All three home runs were hit with two strikes, though because Sasaki didn’t walk anyone, nobody was on base and both longballs were solo shots.

With a four-run lead, Sasaki got more rope to open the sixth, but he walked Ian Happ and allowed a single to Suzuki, ending Sasaki’s night at 99 pitches, two thirds of them for strikes. That was the only walk of the game for Sasaki, his lowest total in his 13 MLB starts.

A four-run lead even later in the game wasn’t safe on Friday night, so Dodger Stadium was understandably a little queasy when the bullpen gates opened with two on and nobody out in the sixth on Saturday, even more so when Jack Dreyer walked his first batter to load the bases.

But Dreyer recovered to strike out Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong, before Will Klein made a nice stab of a grounder to somehow escape the inning unscathed.

The game was never that close again, as the Dodgers scored four more runs in the sixth. Andy Pages doubled in two with the bases loaded, after Teoscar Hernández drove in two with fourth-inning single. It’s the first time the Dodgers had two bases-loaded hits in the same game since last September 14 in San Francisco against the Dodgers. Los Angeles was 4-for-20 with the bases loaded entering Saturday.

Saturday particulars

Home runs: Max Muncy (9); Seiya Suzuki (4), Moisés Ballesteros (4), Miguel Amaya (2)

WP — Roki Sasaki (1-2): 5+ IP, 7 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts

LP — Colin Rea (3-1): 3 1/3 IP, 6 hits, 6 runs, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts

Up next

A battle of southpaws commences for the series finale at Dodger Stadium on Sunday (1:10 p.m.; SportsNet LA, MLB Network), with Justin Wrobleski and Shota Imanaga facing off with a combined five runs allowed in their last seven starts.

HOUSTON — Power combined with patience.

On Saturday night, that was the winning formula for the Yankees.

Austin Wells hit their third home run of the game, a go-ahead shot to lead off the seventh inning, before they added insurance runs on a pair of bases-loaded walks to secure their eighth straight win, 8-3 over the Astros.

Trent Grisham and José Caballero also went deep while Ryan Weathers became the latest starter to turn in a quality outing as the Yankees (18-9) matched their longest winning streak from last season.

Over the first two games of this series, the Yankees have racked up 20 runs on 25 hits, seven home runs and 16 walks, ganging up on the brutal pitching staff of the Astros (10-18).

“Patience was the difference tonight,” manager Aaron Boone said after his lineup drew 10 walks. “Just really good at-bats, deep counts, really good takes in walking situations. That’s just a lot of outstanding at-bats in winning times.”

With the game tied 2-2 entering the seventh inning, the scuffling Wells finally delivered a big hit, homering off Kai-Wei Teng to put the Yankees ahead by a run.

The catcher, whose underlying metrics suggested he was having better at-bats than the surface numbers would indicate, later added an RBI single in the ninth — giving him two RBIs in the game after entering Saturday with two RBIs on the season — as he went 2-for-3 with a pair of walks.

“It’s good to find some grass and have it not get caught,” said Wells, who now has more walks (15) than strikeouts (14) on the season. “There’s always tweaks and different stuff you think about, but just trying to keep it simple — swing at strikes and take balls.”

After Wells’ homer, the Yankees mounted a rally to create some more breathing room. Caballero, who had a three-hit night, nearly thwarted it by making the second out when he was thrown out trying to steal third (with a lefty at the plate) for the second time in the game. But Ben Rice followed with a single against lefty Bennett Sousa, and Aaron Judge came back from an 0-2 count to draw a nine-pitch walk to load the bases.

Cody Bellinger then fought back from a 1-2 count to walk and force in a run before Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew a five-pitch walk to score another run for the 5-2 lead.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

“It’s pretty dangerous, because we have a lot of guys that put at-bats together really [well],” Caballero said. “We just pass the baton and trust one another.”

Rice, who also had a three-hit night, came up just short of a grand slam in the eighth inning but settled for a sacrifice fly that made it 6-2.

Fresh off the paternity list, Weathers turned in a solid outing, giving up two runs over 5 ¹/₃ innings to continue a strong stretch of Yankees starting pitching.

The rotation has allowed two or fewer runs in each of its past eight starts and a total of seven earned runs in 54 innings during that stretch.

The Yankees tied the game 1-1 in the top of the third, when Grisham went the other way for a solo home run into the Crawford Boxes off right-hander Mike Burrows.

It could have been a two-run shot, except Caballero had just gotten thrown out trying to steal third base after successfully swiping second.

But Caballero made up for it by homering to the Crawford Boxes in his next at-bat — going deep for the second time in as many nights — to put the Yankees ahead 2-1.

The shortstop now has three straight multihit games.

“Just a gritty, tough player,” said Boone, who did not have an issue with Caballero getting thrown out twice because he did not want to temper his aggressiveness. “We’ll get that steal of third locked down and it would’ve been a Rickey [Henderson]-like night.”

Freshman Rylie Holder doesn’t consider herself a strikeout pitcher at the college level. It’s all about the ground balls and double plays. Those were key in Arizona softball’s 8-0 victory over Houston on Saturday afternoon, but the five strikeouts against the Cougars didn’t hurt, either. The mark tied her career high.

“That’s pretty good,” Holder said.

She was more impressed by the work she and her defense did together.

“I was just letting my D work, just trusting my spin, trusting myself, and then letting them hit the ball how I want them to,” Holder said. “I have all those ground balls, almost exactly what I want. It’s a good outing for me.”

Holder pitched all five innings of the mercy-rule game. Of the 15 outs she got, five came on strikeouts, six came on ground balls, and just one was in the air. She induced two double plays.

With all those ground balls, centerfielder Regan Shockey didn’t have as much to do on defense. She was very involved on offense, though.

Shockey went 3-for-3 for the second straight day.

She is very glad to be back on the hard ground of Hillenbrand Stadium. Over the past three weeks, Arizona had played nine games on soft fields in the Midwest and South. It has provided Shockey with some challenges that she thinks will pay off in the long run.

“Honestly, it just allows me to use more of my tools,” Shockey said. “I think sometimes I get caught away here just bouncing the ball, as we’ve seen, but being on the road, it just allowed me to find fight within myself, to use different things, and I think it’s helped me flourish as a person. It challenged my character a little bit, but it also made me realize that whatever for the team, right? So I lay a lot more bunts down, power slapped, and I just realized, anything I could do to help this team win, I’m gonna do it.”

She’s not the only Wildcat junior who’s finding things within herself and flourishing. Tele Jennings had another outstanding outing as the designated player.

Sydney Stewart hit two home runs in four innings on Friday evening. On Saturday, Houston opted to walk her three times. Two were intentional walks.

The three walks gave Stewart sole possession of the Big 12 lead for bases on balls with 38. She is also first in OPS at 1.601. Her 70 RBI are six more than anyone else in the league. Her 18 home runs are tied for second just one behind Houston’s Maddie Hartley, but Hartley has played in four more games than Stewart. The Cougars’ Makenna Mitchell is tied with Stewart at 18. On top of the power numbers, Stewart’s .426 average is seventh in the league.

“She’s earned that kind of respect [to be walked three times] because she’s been so consistent with how dominant she can be, and how much she can affect the game with one swing,” said Arizona assistant coach Lauren Lappin. “You saw that last night, after they walked her, and then they rolled the dice, pitched to her and she did damage. But that’s just universal respect.”

The crowd didn’t like it, but the respect that put Stewart on base provided opportunities for Jennings, Tayler Biehl, and Grace Jenkins to hit with runners on.

“Tele Jennings right behind [Stewart] has been completely composed in that spot, and she’s keeping it really simple,” Lappin said. “They-walk Stew, and she’s ready for an at-bat, and she’s produced.

Jennings came into the season as a reserve. She has worked herself into the position of everyday DP as she raised her batting average to .345. On Saturday, she went 1 for 2 with a walk and an RBI. Every time she came up to bat, Stewart was already on base. Jennings’ coaches and teammates are noticing how often she comes through.

“She’s hitting right now like she’s hungry, and I feel like that’s what we all have to embody,” Shockey said. “Fight like you have nothing else left. And that’s how I feel, every one of her at-bats, she inspires me. And if you saw her work throughout the whole fall, she wasn’t an initial starter, but the work never stopped. If anything, it got harder and she started doing more of it. So for anyone who feels like they’re sitting or whatnot, there’s always going to be an opportunity, and your hard work, it’ll pay off.”

Lappin believes a lot of the success has to do with the way Jennings was raised to view the game. The younger sister of Oklahoma great Tiare Jennings knows that things don’t come easy or get handed to anyone at the highest level of the game.

“She’s up to the challenge, but she was raised right,” Lappin said. “She’s in a really good family. I mean, we have great families all around this roster, but she’s in a family that they know how sports work, and she’s able to kind of keep her head down and grind and support her teammates along the way. So it’s been really awesome to see her come in and perform.”

Biehl had similar success on Saturday afternoon. Arizona’s senior shortstop went 1 for 3 with a run scored and two RBI. Behind her, Jenkins was 1 for 2 with a walk and three RBI.

Holder kept Houston off-balance all game. She walked the leadoff hitter, but that runner was immediately wiped away by a double play. Her first strikeout of the day ended the inning.

In the second, she struck out two of the three batters she faced.

Holder didn’t give up a hit until the top of the fourth. Two straight singles put a runner in scoring position with no outs, but a double play put her one out from another shutout inning. A grounder to Jenna Sniffen at third accomplished that task.

Holder threw five innings of three-hit ball. She walked two to offset her five strikeouts. Her ERA dropped almost .30 to 4.64. That’s the lowest it’s been since March 21, when it was at 4.55. It was the fourth straight outing that finished with a drop in her ERA.

Arizona’s eight runs came on seven hits, five walks, and five Houston errors. The Wildcats got into run-rule territory in the fourth when they scored three runs on one hit and three Cougar errors.

The Wildcats improved to 33-13 overall and 14-6 in the Big 12. They are a game ahead of Oklahoma State for second in the conference standings. However, the Cowgirls (13-7), Kansas (13-8), and UCF (12-8-1) can still overtake them for the second seed in the final days of the regular season.

Jack Flaherty had zero command of anything in this one and was mauled for six runs in two innings of work. Even accounting for Flaherty’s usual rollercoaster nature, this is two in a row where he really couldn’t put the fastball remotely where he wanted it with any consistency. Kevin McGonigle and Spencer Torkelson homered early on, but the Tigers offense couldn’t put together a rally as they dropped their second in a row to the Reds in Cincinnati on Saturday.

This one started off auspiciously and in classic Great American Ballpark fashion, as Kevin McGonigle got a 1-0 sinker away from Brady Singer, and hammered it into the seats for his second major league home run. Perhaps he felt the pressure to maintain his lead in Baseball Reference’s WAR metric. Good to see his right hand was alright after getting hit last night.

Matt Vierling grounded out, but Colt Keith slapped a single up the middle and Riley Greene followed with an oppo roller to the left side that went for a hit as well. Dillon Dingler grounded one in the hole and the Reds could only get the out at second. So it was first and third with two outs to Kerry Carpenter. Singer fell behind in the count but eventually Carpenter flew out to end the inning, stranding two.

Jack Flaherty started his day by striking out TJ Friedl, but he quickly fell behind Matt McLain and walked him and did the same with Elly De La Cruz. Bad Jack continues, and in this park a lack of control is a disaster. I wrote that last sentence before Sal Stewart hammered a 1-1 slider down over the middle for a three-run shot and a 3-0 lead. Nathaniel Lowe launched a solo shot to make it 4-1. Flaherty still had just one out, and he was going to have to wear this. Spencer Steer would have to wear something as well, as he then got plunked, bringing Chris Fetter to the mound as this was trending toward a bullpen game as Flaherty was already over 30 pitches. Tyler Stephenson took a called strike three, and Will Benson whiffed on a knuckle curve to end the inning. 4-1 Reds.

The Tigers went in order, and Ke”Bryan Hayes started the bottom of the second by hammering a first pitch fastball to the wall in center field for a double. Friedl dropped a good bunt toward third base, but Colt Keith made a nice play to get him at first. Still, it did the job of advancing Hayes to third. Flaherty got away with a 3-2 meatball of a slider that McLain whiffed on. Flaherty’s velocity continued to swing wildly as his mechanics from 89.5-95.2 mph. De La Cruz got into a 2-2 count and smoked a curveball for a deep drive to center field. 6-1 Reds.

Even before De La Cruz’s homer, this was already looking like the kind of game where you just want Flaherty to take an absolute beating if that’s what it takes to get four innings out of him and not hurt the bullpen too much. Coming back to win wasn’t really in the cards unless Singer fell apart entirely. Stewart was called out on strikes, but it wasn’t really close, and a challenge quickly overturned that. After an 11 pitch AB, he snoked a hot grounder that McGonigle could only dive for and keep in the infield for a single. After back-to-back disasters, Dillon Dingler apparently remembered that you need to pitch Nate Lowe up and in, finally getting a ground out to end the inning as RHP Burch Smith warmed in the Tigers’ bullpen. I won’t bore you with Flaherty’s line. It suffices to say it sucked, and you had to think his night was already over.

McGonigle led off the third by lining a cutter to center field for a single. Matt Vierling lined out to right, and Keith made an oppo bid with a drive to left that just fell short for the second out of the inning. Riley Greene continues to swing it great, ripping a hot one-hopper through the right side for a single that got McGonigle to third. Singer did the right thing with Dingler, staying down away from him with breaking balls. A ground out to second ended the threat.

Burch Smith’s outing didn’t begin well as he walked Steer. The veteran right-hander’s power curve got Stephenson to lift a routine fly out, and he froze Benson with a fastball for strike three. Hayes whiffed on a good curveball down, and we were on to the fourth.

Kerry Carpenter was ahead in the count to open the inning, but he whiffed on a sinker on the outer edge. Spencer Torkelson however, got a first pitch heater and killed it to right center field for his fourth home run of the year and fourth in as many days. The Tigers record is five straight from Marcus Thames in 2008. 6-2 Reds. Nice to see an oppo shot. Tork’s approach has been very good this year and he’s finally reaping the rewards.

Wenceel Pérez has been putting the ball in play a ton with horrific luck, but he got a sweeper and pulled it to right for a one-out single. Javy Báez chased a sweeper and struck out. With two outs, we were looking for Pérez to run on a pitcher that doesn’t hold runners well, but the Tigers continue to be really conservative with the base stealing. McGonigle flew out to center field to end the half inning.

Friedl landed a little bloop double to start the bottom half, but Smith went through the heart of the Reds’ order without issue, striking out McLain along the way.

The Tigers failed to take advantage of Singer, going 1-2-3 in the fifth. After a good two innings from Smith, Tyler Holton took over. He got two quick outs before walking Tyler Stephenson. Former Tigers’ farmhand Dane Myers pinch-hit for Benson against the left-hander, taking over in center field. A 2-1 cutter from Holton got a grounder to Báez at second to end the inning.

Dingler lined out to left to open the sixth inning with Singer’s outing coming to an end. Carpenter singled to center, and that was it for Singer with Connor Phillips ready to enter the game. Phillips dumped three straight sweepers in and struck out Torkelson, while Pérez flew out to center field.

Hayes and Friedl started the bottom of the sixth with consecutive singles off of Holton, and that ended his outing. Connor Seabold got McLain to fly out, but he walked Elly De La Cruz. That brought Sal Stewart to the dish with the bases loaded and one out. Not good. Seabold fell behind 2-1 but got a whiff on a 95 mph heater to even the count. He tried it again, but Stewart inside outed a hot grounder into the hole. Báez dove and got some glove on it but it bounced into right field as two runs scored for an 8-2 lead. Hopefully you moved on with your Saturday night if you hadn’t already.

Seabold threw three straight balls to Nate Lowe, and then collapsed to the ground. Replay showed that he slipped on his lead leg when he landed. He tried a practice pitch, but had to leave the game. Drew Anderson had to speed through a warm up and come into a 3-0 count with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Anderson walked Lowe to load the bases, but induced a 4-6-3 double play from Steer to clean up the mess. Nicely done.

Assuming Seabold hits the IL, my guess is that Ricky Vanasco gets the call after a great start in Toledo. He’s already on the 40-man roster. Brenan Hanifee and LHP Drew Sommers are the other relief options.

RHP Graham Ashcraft took over from Phillips to open the seventh inning. Báez chased a slider away from strike three. McGonigle got a 1-0 98 mph cutter and smoked it to right field for a double. Matt Vierling drew a walk, but Keith tapped one to Ashcraft and the Reds pitcher fired to second and on to first for an inning ending double play. Keith was ruled safe, but the Reds successfully challenged it.

Anderson carved up Stephenson to start the bottom half, spotting a perfect kick change on the bottom rail for strike three, then froze Myers with a good fastball for the first two outs. Myers wasted a challenge but it was clearly a strike. Anderson dialed up 98.2 mph against Hayes, and then fired a curveball down for a whiff to strike out the side.

At this point, the only thing the Tigers could do for themselves is close the gap and force Terry Francona to use his better relievers. They did not manage it in the eighth. Lefty Sam Moll came on for Ashcraft and walked Riley Greene, but Dingler grounded into a double play. Jahmai Jones pinch hit for Carpenter, but struck out on a sinker running back under his hands.

Anderson left a 2-2 curveball over the middle to TJ Friedl to open the bottom of the eighth and he launched it for a solo shot. 9-2 Reds. He bounced back to strike out McLain, and then Javy Báez made a brilliant diving catch on a 115 mph line drive from De La Cruz. Anderson walked Sal Stewart, but whiffed Lowe on a good changeup to send this to the ninth. One run in 2.2 innings of work with five strikeouts for Anderson. Good to see him coming around in terms of his command.

Emilio Pagan took over to finish this one out. Torkelson grounded out, but Pérez lined a single to right. Hao-Yu Lee pinch-hit for Báez, which was a little ominous after that incredible play on De La Cruz’s laser beam in the eighth. Lee flew out to left, while Pagan fell behind McGonigle and fired a wild pitch that got Pérez to second. McGonigle needed a triple for the cycle, but spanked a line drive to Myers in center field to end it.

The Tigers fall a game behind first place Cleveland, who lost to Toronto on Saturday. They are 7-5 over this 13 day stretch without a day off. If they can make it 8-5 on Sunday behind Keider Montero, we’ll take it. The Tigers will face a pretty good young right-hander in Rhett Lowder at 1:40 p.m. ET.