Category: Baseball

Edwin Diaz’s time with the Los Angeles Dodgers has not been what any of the parties had hoped for. Diaz on Tuesday went on the IL for neck inflammation, his second stint on the IL with his new team so far this season.

On Wednesday, Diaz went for neck imaging, and the MRI showed the “best case scenario”, according to manager Dave Roberts. He went on to say that the injury seems to be more muscular than nerve related.

“I think he’d been feeling the tightness in his neck,” Roberts said. “But I think where it went to the other night, he hadn’t felt that sensation. So that’s what really checked him up.”

Roberts surmised that the closer would not be shut down very long for throwing, that it could only be a couple of days.

Maddie Lee of the L.A. Times has more information on the injury here.

Patrick Saunders of MLB.com also covers the Diaz injury, as well as who will be the closer while he is out. That man is Tanner Scott.

“His stuff, right now, today, is as good as it’s been all year,” manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday before the finale of a three-game series against the Rockies at Coors Field. “Right now, it’s easy to say that he’s our best reliever and most consistent reliever. I certainly see him as our closer.”

Scott already has the team-high saves for the season with 17, in 19 opportunities.

“Man, Tanner doesn’t complain,” the skipper said. “He’s always ready, wants to pitch, wants to help his teammates, his team, and certainly, given how last year went, for him to come back and right the ship.”

Hunter Feduccia was out of the Dodgers lineup on Wednesday, after he left Tuesday’s game early feeling ill.

“We’re just trying to hydrate him,” Roberts said after Tuesday’s game. “He’s got this stomach bug or food poisoning, something like that. He was scuffling all game, and he went as long as he could go. Obviously, he’ll be down (Wednesday). But he gave us a great effort.”

With Feduccia out and a lefty on the mound, the Dodgers did a little lineup shuffling. Freddie Freeman was moved down to the four slot, and Max Muncy and Tommy Edman were both given the day off, although both were available off the bench.

Owen Perkins of the OC Register covers some more details on Diaz as well as other updates to the lineup here.

The National League Most Valuable Player award race is going stupid hard right now. It is the definition of a dead heat, with Pete Crow-Armstrong and Shohei Ohtani vying for every inch of territory for an award that most (myself included) had already declared for Ohtani in early June. We have walk-off home runs, questions about how much half a season of pitching matters and ESPN features interviewing MLB players about what they think. It’s an NL MVP industrial complex, and I’m here to add my two cents. Maybe three, and (spoiler alert) I don’t think this race is as close as people are making it out to be.

Buckle up, because this will be a distillation of a number of personal passion points in baseball analytics and discourse. Frankly, I think Ohtani is obviously the MVP, and I reject the arguments being made in PCA’s favor. And I’m going to convince you I’m right with the fire of 1000 suns.  

If I wanted to bet my two cents instead of putting them in writing, Crow-Armstrong (-165) and Ohtani (+140) are essentially tied on FanDuel, with only a narrow edge for PCA because of a recent, visible surge (all these stats are current as of Wednesday morning). Ohtani’s odds have tailed off because he hasn’t been pitching lately, but he did rack up 3.0 pitching WAR with a 1.79 ERA before his injury in early July and has thrown down a .949 OPS just for fun; because, ya know, he’s Shohei Ohtani. 

The fact that Crow-Armstrong is even in this race is astounding, given that a player who is essentially Yordan Alvarez and Paul Skenes rolled into one should really never not win the MVP award. But Ohtani not even pitching 90 innings this year has apparently flipped things in favor of PCA, whose centerfield defense has captured the imagination of millions and whose chase for 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases has vaulted him narrowly above Ohtani. So has voter fatigue, given Ohtani has won the last three NL MVP awards, and PCA giving him a challenge is bound to give him bonus points.

You could argue that a 40-40 season, of which there have only been six in MLB history, should automatically grant you the MVP award, but you’d be surprised. Ohtani won it with his 50-50 2024, Ronald Acuña Jr. did too in 2023 with his 40-70 campaign and Jose Canseco won it in 1988 with the first ever such season. But the middle three: 1996 Barry Bonds (fifth in MVP voting), 1998 Alex Rodriguez (ninth in MVP voting) and 2006 Alfonso Soriano (sixth in MVP voting) all didn’t even come close. A-Rod and Bonds led their leagues in WAR those seasons too, but it didn’t matter at the time.

This might just be me, but I don’t think a 40-40 season (which PCA does not have yet, mind you) is more impressive than half a season of Cy Young pitching and a 155 wRC+ Silver Slugger-tier masterclass. Stolen bases are a supremely overrated statistic in baseball, and PCA’s 30+ stolen bases have only added about TWO runs for the Cubs all year. Ohtani added 21 runs as a pitcher in 82 ⅔ innings. 

Now, you will retort, PCA plays some of the best centerfield defense we’ve ever seen, and you’d throw my run value crap right back at me and say “PCA has racked up 24 fielding runs above average!” You will also say that, because of this fielding prowess and because Ohtani does not play in the field, PCA’s WAR (we’re using fWAR for all of this because I like it better) blows Ohtani out of the water, with PCA’s 8.4 beating Ohtani’s 7.1 and running away fast — Ohtani is not accumulating any pitching WAR while PCA continues to farm fielding stats.

Here’s the thing about fielding stats, though: PCA is obviously a generational centerfielder, all you have to do is watch one single Chicago Cubs game to know that, but these metrics leave a lot to be desired. I need you to trust me through this next part and not fall asleep: 

fWAR, which we’re using (and which the recent ESPN article about this debate used, weirdly, since ESPN’s own leaderboards use bWAR) is based on Outs Above Average (OAA, which PCA leads the league by far in). bWAR, the other flavor, has Ohtani closer to PCA because it is based on Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), which PCA is 10th in the majors in, behind two other centerfielders: Ceddanne Rafaela and Andy Pages. 

OAA really just measures how a defensive player turns batted-balls into outs. DRS, calculated by the Fielding Bible, supposedly measures a whole lot more than that, but they also do not make it easy to check their work given we have an idea of how their formula works … but it also isn’t actually published anywhere. Still with me? Okay. What that all means is that PCA is maybe the best defensive player in the league. But it’s definitely not a slam dunk, and I think pro-PCA arguments cherry-pick fielding data that fits their agenda. 

Ohtani, meanwhile, has no such fielding data to cherry-pick. He is disadvantaged by his position, given that you have to be a better hitter as a DH than you do as a CF to accumulate WAR, and these metrics aren’t built to parse that Ohtani is literally a pitcher as well. That reality is flying completely under the radar in this discussion.

PCA and Ohtani are both having roughly equal hitting seasons. Crow-Armstrong is indeed a much more impactful baserunner and fielder, and Ohtani (again) is a pitcher who just hasn’t pitched in a while. This whole debate boils down to your opinion about which thing is more valuable: half a season of godlike pitching or elite centerfield defense and baserunning? Even ignoring underlying contact-quality stuff that suggests Ohtani is actually a much better hitter and would lead me to believe he will have a better final month-and-a-half, I will take half a season of godlike pitching, please and thank you.

Finally, there’s the conceptual argument, which I will briefly make because I think it hammers the Ohtani case home. Is it humanly possible to disagree more about the definition of a word than sports fans disagree about what “valuable” means, specifically as it pertains to “most valuable player” awards? 

Some smart alecks will tell you that “valuable” just means “the player with the most value to their team,” but that is probably best defined by trade value, or the guy who would command the largest return in a trade. That is not how MVP awards have ever been doled out, and a far better title would be “Best Player” or, if you want to be needlessly verbose (I usually do), “player who had the best season.” 

Put simply: I don’t think it’s possible to be prime Jacob deGrom for half a season and peak Paul Goldschmidt for a full season AS ONE SINGULAR PERSON and not have “the best season.” I mean that with all due respect to PCA, but 82 ⅔ innings of that pitching just knocks everything else out of the picture for me. Ohtani is, for all the stats, the most unique, the most impressive, the most completely ridiculously impossibly stupidly good. The most, say it with me now, valuable.

Willson Contreras had some interesting comments following yesterday’s 7-6 loss to the D-Backs in which an angry contingent of Fenway fans booed him for not running hard up the first base line during his tenth inning groundout. But before we get to the quotes, here’s a look at the play just to make sure everybody’s up to speed:

Immediately after he arrived back in the dugout, the fuming first baseman engaged with one of the more aggressive fans and had them removed from the ballpark.

So I just witnessed Contreras just screaming at a fan for talking shit and got him kicked out during the final out. pic.twitter.com/nWcI9jRrrx

— Jen (@ForgettingJenM) August 19, 2026

After the game, Chris Cotillo of MassLive got the follow quotes from Contreras regarding the incident:

“If you’re a smart fan, you know what’s going on,”

“I’m not gonna get hurt running on a ground ball. If you’re a real fan and you know baseball, there’s no case for me to hustle out of the box.”

“I’m not 100%. We never are, but I’m taking care of my leg. If I have to run, I push it a little bit. If I don’t, my manager has my back. I talked to him and he gave me permission to do whatever it takes to take care of my legs.”

“I was feeling better until last night when I full-stretched my leg and it grabbed me a little bit. My manager knows that.”

On one hand, Contreras is absolutely right. No single groundout is worth hustling over if it means risking blowing out your leg, particularly if you’re unlikely to beat it out anyway. It’s far more prudent to nurse it where he can and save the more taxing efforts for high leverage moments. In this larger context, it all makes sense.

Or, at least it would make sense if the Red Sox were in a slightly different place in the standings. Because while the philosophy holds water while zooming out from an individual play to an entire game, it all gets flipped on its head once you zoom out further from the perspective of an individual game to the remaining season as a whole.

Right now, thanks largely to the gluttonous owners and their absurdly bloated playoff structure, the Red Sox find themselves in the rather ridiculous position of being both far enough behind Tampa for the division lead that they’re extremely unlikely to catch them, but also far enough ahead of the third Wild Card cutoff that they’re extremely unlikely to fall out of a postseason spot. They’re so far removed from a meaningful tension point, Fangraphs gives them a 95.1 percent chance to make the playoffs, but just a 2.7 percent chance to win the division. In other words, there’s a 92.4 percent chance they’re going to end up in that best-of-three Wild Card round.

Circling back to Contreras and his leg, if we’re going to apply the principle of giving up on certain plays with a low likelihood of mattering in favor of long-term health, shouldn’t we apply that same concept to the season as a whole? More to the point: If Willson Contreras can only run some of the time, why isn’t he on the IL?

If his leg is bothering him enough that he needs to (rightfully) manage it on certain low leverage, low probability plays within a game, why aren’t the Red Sox demanding he do the same on certain low leverage, low probability games within a season?

Unfortunately, the single most important thing Contreras can do to help the team right now is be as ready to go as possible for a best-of-three series starting on September 29th. I detest that MLB has come to this, but it’s the reality of being in an oversaturated playoff field. If this was 20 years ago, with just one Wild Card available, the Red Sox and Yankees would be locked in a highly captivating duel for the last crumb on the table. Every game would matter, animosity would be building, and we’d be scoreboard watching like a hawk for six weeks.

In that world, Contreras’ approach of playing through injury in this manner would be on the money. But we don’t live in that world anymore. Instead, we’re basically sitting around seeing how healthy everybody can get for a best-of-three series at the end of September. (I can’t tell you how angry this makes me as a baseball fan!)

In any case, the Red Sox are already playing the “get ready for September 29th” game with Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock, who are both on the IL. And the funny thing is, not having either of them around to pitch in the top of the tenth yesterday was a whole hell of a lot more impactful in terms of why they lost that game than Contreras not running out his grounder. So if we’re going to swim in those waters, why be inconsistent about it?

Oh, and if your concern here has anything to do with the bottom falling out in a potential Contreras absence, don’t worry about it. This group has already proven they can handle the ship in short bursts without their stars. Since July 1st, Contreras has missed or left 11 games from either suspension, sickness, injury or rest, and the Sox are 10-1 in those contests.

Ultimately, the bottom line is this: Contreras is either healthy enough to run down the first base line consistently or he’s not, and if he’s not, he shouldn’t be in these games. They’re not important enough. (Thanks MLB!)

Lastly, the Red Sox medical staff has already had a disastrous year in terms of diagnosing the initial severity of injuries, and if this season ends up crashing and burning in part because Willson Contreras ends up out for the year on an injury that could have healed with rest, I’m going to be a whole lot angrier than the fans who were booing Contreras at Fenway Park yesterday.

Thirteen years ago, on the final Sunday in September, Skip Schumaker struck out. It was the last out in the last game of the regular season.

For the Dodgers, no big deal: They had won the National League West, and the playoffs were four days away.

For Dodgers fans that subscribed to Cox Communications, it turned out to be the start of a bizarre and protracted blackout that cost viewers the final years of Vin Scully and the golden years of three World Series championships.

After 4,560 days, the blackout is over.

Read more:California regulators approve $34.5-billion Charter-Cox merger

On Friday, for the first time in 13 years, Cox subscribers within the Dodgers’ broadcast territory will be able to watch the team on their local television home. Fans can find SportsNet LA on Channel 63 in Orange County, Channel 54 in Palos Verdes, Channel 36 in Santa Barbara and Channel 50 in Las Vegas.

How did this finally come to pass? Those channels no longer belong to Cox.

Charter Communications, the company responsible for getting SportsNet LA on as many cable, satellite and streaming options as possible, on Thursday closed its $34.5-billion purchase of Cox.

For Dodgers fans, the takeaway is this: It no longer matters that Cox did not want to pay Charter for the rights to air SportsNet LA. Charter made the 13 years of that moot by buying Cox.

Charter offers broadcast service under the Spectrum brand.

In 2013, with the team in the final year of its local television agreement with Fox Sports, the Dodgers announced it would launch a team-owned channel the following year.

Read more:Shaikin: MLB’s wild pitch: Using fan-despised TV blackouts as leverage against players

In exchange for the rights to market and distribute that SportsNet LA channel, Time Warner Cable agreed to pay the Dodgers $8.35 billion over 25 years. It was the last great regional sports network deal, with traditional broadcast audiences about to fragment amid the rise of streaming and cord-cutting.

The guaranteed rights fees are as sure of a revenue stream as anything in baseball, and the Dodgers’ success amid all that cash is one of the triggers for major league owners in their push for a salary cap.

However, the great regional sports network deals relied on cable and satellite subscribers paying for every channel in a bundle, most of which viewers never watched.

With DirecTV leading the resistance, cable and satellite providers balked at signing up for SportsNet LA: a few dimes per month per subscriber for a news or entertainment channel was fine, but they drew the line at $5 per month subscriber for a baseball channel.

No major Los Angeles outlet besides Time Warner Cable carried SportsNet LA until 2016, and then only because Charter bought Time Warner Cable. Even then, less than half the households in the Los Angeles market could get SportsNet LA.

In 2020, DirecTV and AT&T struck a deal with Charter, not so much to liberate Dodgers fans as to help the parties maintain a shrinking base of subscribers amid a proliferation of video options.

“I think I can speak for a lot of people who will say this is, maybe, long overdue,” Dodgers star Justin Turner said then.

Six years later, as a longtime Cox subscriber excited to see SportsNet LA for the first time, your humble correspondent can say this: I think I can speak for a lot of people who will say this is definitely long overdue.

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Every pitcher in the Little League World Series works under a hard limit. Once a 12-year-old reaches 85 pitches in a game, he or she comes off the mound, and how many pitches they threw determines how many days they have to sit before they can pitch again.

The rules come from the Little League rulebook. They apply the same way in Williamsport as they do on any field in the country. Managers plan around them from the first day of the tournament, because a double-elimination bracket rewards teams with a third and fourth pitcher more than teams with one good arm.

Little League moved to pitch counts in 2007, replacing a system that limited pitchers by innings. Under the old rules a 12-year-old could throw well past 100 pitches in a six-inning game, a number big league starters rarely reach. A 2011 University of North Carolina study commissioned by Little League found the program cut shoulder injury risk among pitchers ages 8 to 13 by half.

Here is how the limits, the rest chart and the catcher restrictions work:

How many pitches can a Little League pitcher throw?

Limits go by league age, not calendar age.

• Ages 13 through 16: 95
• Ages 11 and 12, the World Series division: 85 pitches
• Ages 9 and 10: 75
• Ages 7 and 8: 50

When a pitcher hits the number they're done. The one wrinkle is that they can finish the batter they're facing, staying in until that hitter reaches base or is retired or the third out ends the inning. So you'll occasionally see a kid finish with 89 in a game that caps at 85, and nothing is wrong.

Warm-up pitches don't count. Only what a pitcher throws to a hitter counts.

How many days of rest does a pitcher need?

Rest runs on calendar days and starts the day after the game.

• 66 to 85 pitches: four days
• 51 to 65: three days
• 36 to 50: two days
• 21 to 35: one day

Stretch that across a 12-day tournament and the problem shows up fast. Throw 70 on a Wednesday and you're not available again until Monday. An ace can win a team one game and leave it thin for the next three.

Nobody pitches on three calendar days in a row, whatever the counts say. And once a pitcher leaves the mound, they can't come back to it later in the same game.

The catcher rules

The pitching limits don't stop at the mound. Little League recognizes the catchers throwing as heavy arm work as well. The two positions are regulated together.

Three rules govern it.

A pitcher who throws 41 or more pitches can't catch that day. A player who catches four innings or more can't pitch that day. And a player who catches three innings or fewer and then moves to the mound and throws 21 or more pitches, can't go back behind the plate.

Catch more than three innings and you cannot pitch that day. The cutoff is strict. Three innings plus a single pitch in the fourth is enough to trigger the rule.

What happens if a team breaks the rule?

If a manager leaves a pitcher in past their limit, or brings them back without the required rest, the other team can protest.

Every game has an official pitch count recorder. That person has to give the current count to either manager or any umpire on request, and has to tell the umpire-in-chief the moment a pitcher reaches their limit. Whatever the recorder has is the count. What a coach has, or a parent has, doesn't matter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Little League World Series pitch count rules explained

I’m writing on August 19, and Jake Bauers has a 146 OPS+ in 452 plate appearances. The last time a Milwaukee Brewer had a 146 wRC+ in a season in which they had even 350 plate appearances was in 2019, when Christian Yelich was in the second of his back-to-back MVP-caliber seasons.

Of course, there’s a good chunk of season left, so we don’t know how things will end up. But Jake Bauers, right now, is as good an offensive weapon as the Brewers have had in the past seven years — a span in which the Brewers have made the playoffs in all but one season and in which they’ve won four, perhaps soon to be five, division titles. On top of his on-field play, Bauers has also turned into a team leader; it was he who spoke out after the Brewers’ tough series in San Diego last week, and he who sparked their turnaround in Los Angeles, where they took three of four to salvage a solid road trip at the end of a 17-games-in-17-days stretch.

How did we get here?

If you told someone in 2017 that 10 years later Bauers would be one of the league’s best hitters (Bauers is eighth in the league in OPS+ at the start of play on Wednesday), that wouldn’t have surprised anyone. Bauers was a seventh-round pick of the Padres out of high school all the way back in 2013, but he was included in a massive trade after the 2014 season (one which included such highly regarded prospects and young players as Wil Myers, Trea Turner, and Joe Ross) that sent him to Tampa Bay. In the Rays system, Bauers thrived; in 2016, when he was just 20, he hit .274/.370/.420 with 14 home runs and 28 doubles at Double-A Montgomery, and he started appearing on top 100 prospect lists heading into 2017. Another strong season in 2017 (.263/.368/.412 as a 21-year-old at Triple-A Durham) put him on the major league doorstep. He was 22, and Baseball America had him as a top 50 prospect.

After that, things got rocky. He debuted with the Rays in 2018 and slugged a bit with 11 homers and drew a bunch of walks in 388 plate appearances, but he hit just .201. After the season, he was sent to Cleveland in a big trade that ended up with Carlos Santana in Cleveland and Yandy Díaz in Tampa (the Mariners took back some cash, a pick, and the shell of Edwin Encarnación). Bauers played 117 games for Cleveland in 2019 but hit just .226/.312/.371 (a 78 OPS+). He didn’t make Cleveland’s roster in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and thus didn’t play baseball; in 2021, he got off to a poor start and was traded yet again, to Seattle, but the names in the trades that Bauers was included in at this point were losing some shine; Seattle sent a pitcher named Damon Casetta-Stubbs who never got above High-A.

The struggles continued in Seattle, and Bauers could only manage a minor league deal as a free agent in 2022. He played 29 games in Cincinnati’s system and hit .135/.276/.271. The Yankees brought him on and he hit .226/.352/.406 for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Things finally turned around a bit for the now 27-year-old Bauers in 2023; it was just a 24-game sample, but Bauers hit .359/.485/.897 (!) with 11 home runs in 97 plate appearances before he earned another chance in the big leagues with New York. The batting average was still poor, but Bauers did flash some power; 12 homers in 272 plate appearances for the Yankees in 84 games in 2023.

The Brewers traded for him after the season, sending a couple of lottery tickets, Jace Avina and Brian Sanchez, for him. As we all know here, the struggles continued for Bauers: in 117 games and 346 PA in 2024, he hit only .199. He did walk a lot, and he hit 12 homers, and Pat Murphy seemed to like him. He stuck around in 2025. Through 60 games played, Bauers was hitting .197 with five home runs in 151 plate appearances. On July 18, he went on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.

What changed?

It’s not entirely clear what happened in the four-ish weeks that Bauers spent on the injured list, but something happened. Bauers has talked about simplifying his approach, and in interviews these days you’ll hear him talk often about mental things like remaining even-keeled, not letting himself get too high or too low, valuing his family, and keeping a long view of things.

Whatever happened, Bauers was a different hitter. After a few games shaking the rust off, Bauers hit .360/.458/.560 in 22 games in September. In six postseason games, he hit .308 with a double and a homer in 14 plate appearances. This season, he has shown that whatever happened in that small sample at the end of the 2025 season has endured.

So what actually happened?

The fact is, Bauers always had some good indicators. Look at his Statcast pages going back to 2023; Bauers was always good at finding the barrel and hitting the ball hard. He didn’t chase much. He always swung the bat hard — he’s a strong guy. But the thing that really sticks out is strikeouts. Check out his strikeout percentages:

• 2023: 34.9% (unqualified on Statcast, but bottom five-percent-ish)
• 2024: 34.1%, 2nd percentile
• 2025: 27.1% (unqualified, but 15th percentile-ish)
• 2026: 24.8% (27th percentile)

Bauers still strikes out a lot, but he is vastly improved from four years ago, and the change that has made to his other indicators is enormous. While he was always getting his barrel on the ball and hitting it hard, he wasn’t putting the ball in play enough to be a major factor. But now look at the effect the increased balls in play have had on his expected batting average and slugging percentages:

• 2023: .221 xBA, .475 xSLG
• 2024: .199 xBA, .389 xSLG
• 2025: .234 xBA, .457 xSLG
• 2026: .260 xBA, .484 xSLG

Bauers has also always been an elite walk-taker; I mentioned the chase percentage as a major strength earlier, and to illustrate the point he was in the 88th percentile in walk percentage even when he was badly struggling in 2024. Bauers has sported walk percentages of 14.7 and 14.6% in the last two seasons; he’s in the top 10 in walk percentage this year and would’ve been last year if he’d qualified.

Bauers is a poor fielder. His reputation as a good defensive first baseman is merely a reputation at this point — his numbers don’t back it up. He does offer the Brewers value by being able to play in the outfield, and it has enabled them to opt for some offense-heavy lineups during times when they’ve really needed a boost. But let’s not pretend that Bauers is by any means a good, or even decent, defensive outfielder.

That does not diminish his value to the team, though. With Christian Yelich and William Contreras struggling badly for huge swaths of the 2026 season, with Jackson Chourio still in the “young and streaky” phase of his career (and absent for the first six weeks of the season), the Brewers needed someone to step up and lead the offense. Brice Turang has done his part, but Bauers is the guy who has been there all year, steadily. Bauers has five more homers than any other Brewer, he’s walked more than every Brewer except Turang (who has two more walks in 75 more plate appearances), his OPS+ is 12 points higher than the next highest (Andrew Vaughn) and 25 points higher than another player with 300 plate appearances (Turang).

Where do we go from here?

It’s certainly a question as to whether Bauers will be back to ply his trade with the Brewers beyond this season. He is a free agent, and he’s played well enough this season that he’s very possibly going to be the best free agent first baseman on the market. The Brewers very well may offer Bauers the qualifying offer (a decision that would be made before the looming lockout); would Bauers take it?

My guess is no — he’ll be 31 before the postseason is over, and according to Spotrac, Bauers’ career earnings are currently less than $10 million. I mean, I’d be happy to take that for my own career earnings, but we’re talking relatives here; this will be Bauers’ best chance to lock in generational wealth for his family. The roughly $22 million qualifying offer is a lot (and the Brewers should offer it, with Brandon Woodruff coming off the books), but at his age and with his limited track record of success beyond this season, I strongly suspect Bauers would be more likely to take a longer-term, higher-value deal even if the average annual value was lower.

Could the Brewers still be in on that deal? I’m looking at something like Christian Walker’s three-year, $60 million deal signed with the Astros before the 2025 season. Walker definitely had a longer record of success at that point — he’d averaged over three WAR per 162 games over the previous six seasons — but he was also entering his age-34 season, three years older than Bauers. Three years and $60 million would be a lot for the Brewers. Would Bauers settle for something like three years and $45 million? Or two years and $40 million? It’s hard to say, and it’s kind of difficult for me to believe that, given the offensive struggles of some of the league’s wealthiest teams this season, there wouldn’t be a team out there that would beat an offer like that. Plus, we’re all working in hypotheticals here, anyway — we do not know exactly what sort of limits on free agent contracts may or may not exist after the lockout.

(One other quick note that could apply here: if the Brewers do offer Bauers the qualifying offer and he declines it and signs elsewhere, Milwaukee does recoup a draft pick. But where that pick ends up could be a question; under current rules, if he signed for less than $50 million, it would be after the second round; if more than $50 million, it’s after the first round.)

For now, let’s worry about next year next year. Bauers has been immense for the Brewers this season, and given how long it took him to get to his place, it’s a good story, too. He’s probably going to end up with some down-ballot MVP votes this year, a nearly unthinkable outcome after the first couple years of Bauers’ Brewers tenure. Great teams often need a player like this to step up unexpectedly, and Bauers, at a bargain price, is doing that for the 2026 Brewers as they march toward the league’s best record.

Hello, friends.

Pete Alonso hit a fair ball into the left field seats last night that should have been a go-ahead home run. Let’s just get that one out of the way right off the top. It’s unbelievable that the umpire did not call a fair ball live and it’s even more unbelievable that the replay center did not accept the decisive angle that would have given the Orioles a 4-3 lead. I don’t subscribe to any conspiracy theories. I think those people are just bad at their jobs.

It is one of those times I would have liked to see some fire from the manager. The figurative shadow of Earl Weaver looms over any major league field involving the Orioles. Craig Albernaz doesn’t have to do it Earl’s way, but he does need to do it some way. Just get caught being mad at the umpires when the process has screwed over your team. Point, yell, gesticulate, whatever, let the team know you’re not going to take it sitting down. Go around yelling at people until they eject you, then yell a little more.

Albernaz doesn’t seem to do this; he didn’t do it last night anyway. I don’t think it’s why the Orioles lost the game. They lost because they have an insufficient number of relievers to rely upon, and also because they went 0-6 with runners in scoring position. I just think it’s something that Albernaz should have done.

After this mishap, in classic 2026 Orioles fashion, a variety of stupid things occurred and the result was a 5-3 loss at the hands of the Yankees. Check out John Beers’s recap of the game for more of the not-so-lovely totals.

The Orioles bullpen being what it is lately, maybe Alonso getting the home run that he deserved would have only set up an even more tragic way of blowing the freshly-earned lead. Two runs were charged to Cam Sanders in an eighth inning outing where he hit two batters and walked another one. It’s not good to have to rely on guys of this ilk. You might get a few pleasant surprises out of them initially but guys like this are relatively cheaply available for a reason and the longer you give them, the more likely they’ll show you.

It’s a bad way to build a bullpen and these weaknesses have been exposed even more since Mike Elias decided to trade Tyler Wells ahead of the deadline. Grant Wolfram has fallen apart. Rico Garcia had his problems recently. Yennier Cano has hit a rough patch since being called into higher-leverage later-game situations. And those are just the ones you might have liked at one time. There are other, rougher names involved.

Perhaps there’s going to be at least one new face coming soon to the bullpen. Orioles beat writers, including The Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka, put this one out last night:

Is De León going to be anything? I don’t know. He was only promoted to Triple-A Norfolk recently and he’s got a 5.28 ERA and 1.83 WHIP through his first four games. Just last night, he walked three batters over the course of a scoreless inning of relief. He is the #7 prospect on MLB Pipeline’s recently-updated top Orioles prospect list. He becomes Rule 5 draft eligible this offseason. Perhaps they think he can be an extra weapon out of the bullpen. Perhaps they’ll even be right.

The 2026 American League playoff situation being what it is, the Orioles did not lose any ground in the wild card chase. The Blue Jays lost. The Guardians lost. The Tigers lost. The Rangers lost. Only the Twins were winners, so they now stand in the third wild card spot, half a game ahead of Texas and a touch farther ahead of others. Minnesota is off today. The Orioles only have to win to peel back the half game.

They need the win also to avoid being swept by the Yankees. I’ve gotta say, folks, it is entirely in character for the 2026 team to really rope people in with winning the first three games of that Rays series only to fall apart after that. They lost the next three games, each in fairly agonizing fashion. They try to avoid a fourth straight loss as the series concludes starting at 6:35 tonight. It won’t be easy: Gerrit Cole is pitching for New York. Kyle Bradish makes the start for the O’s.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

Which teams have suffered the most due to injuries? (FanGraphs)
You probably won’t be surprised to know that the Orioles are in the top 5 of this ZiPS-projected WAR lost to injury.

To try and get his bat going, Gunnar Henderson needed more than batting tweaks (Baltimore Baseball)
There are some encouraging signs for Henderson recently. Hopefully we continue to see encouraging signs.

Albernaz must trust starters when they earn it (The Baltimore Sun)
The Sun was taking Albernaz to task yesterday for pulling Shane Baz in Tuesday’s game. Many people took the opposite view, that Baz wasn’t pulled soon enough.

Alexander nearing rehab assignment and return (School of Roch)
Samuel Basallo is back, Blaze Alexander is close to a rehab assignment, is there enough time for things to come back together? On that question, make sure you vote in our poll that’s running this week.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

The most recent Orioles victory on today’s date came two years ago, when they knocked off the Mets by a 9-5 margin to pull into first place in the AL East by a half-game margin. Anthony Santander and James McCann each homered in the game. Dean Kremer was pretty good. Just four of the fifteen players who appeared in that box score for the team are on the 40-man roster right now.

There are a pair of former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 1996-2001 outfielder Gene Kingsale, and 1955-59 pitcher George Zuverink.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Chilean Supreme Director Bernardo O’Higgins (1778), 23rd president Benjamin Harrison (1833), horror author H.P. Lovecraft (1890), baseball Hall of Famer Al López (1908), musician/actor Isaac Hayes (1942), TV weatherman Al Roker (1954), actor Ke Huy Quan (1971), and singer-songwriter Demi Lovato (1992).

On this day in history…

In 636, the expanding Rashidun Caliphate defeated the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of the Yarmuk, seizing control of the area of modern-day Syria from the Byzantines.

In 1648, France defeated a Spanish-Lorraine force in the Battle of Lens, a decisive victory that paved the way for the Peace of Westphalia and the end of the Thirty Years War later in the year.

In 1858, the theory of evolution developed by Charles Darwin was first published in a journal titled The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London.

In 1882, the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky had its premiere performance in Moscow.

In 1977, the Voyager 2 probe launched, actually launching before Voyager 1 even though it’s numbered second. The probe passed by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune over the next 12 years and is now over 13.3 billion miles from Earth.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on August 20. Have a safe Thursday. Go O’s!

The Phillies have the day off today before they will look to continue their recent streak of good play against the Cardinals this weekend at Citizens Bank Park. It’s probably for the best the off day is today, as it looks like it would have been incredibly difficult to play a ballgame with tonight’s forecasted weather.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• ICYMI, the Phillies agreed to a major league deal with former All-Star starting pitcher Nestor Cortes.
• Zack Wheeler hasn’t been quite his usual ace self lately. He’s still working on making adjustments. ($)
• Derek Hill has been a godsend for the Phillies this season, coming through in multiple clutch moments despite pedestrian playing time and an unassuming stat line. Here’s a deep dive in exactly what all of that means from FanGraphs’ Michael Baumann.

MLB news:

• Dodgers owner Mark Walter’s businesses are shifting around billions of dollars as the mogul’s sports portfolio comes under federal investigation with the sale of his ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers. ($)
• The first of Jorge Polanco’s two seasons with the Mets is officially over, as he was placed on the IL yesterday and is headed for ankle surgery, ending his disastrous debut in New York.
• Statcast has a new metric that measures a first baseman’s ability to receive throws from other infielders. Here’s where notable players, including Bryce Harper, rank.

BALTIMORE – There’s nothing quite so bottomless as a 162-game Major League Baseball season. Brent Headrick is discovering that three excruciating outs at a time.

After pitching a scoreless seventh inning and getting a favorable ruling on a questionable foul ball call, Headrick has pitched in 65 of the New York Yankees’ 126 games this season. That is an 84-game pace, which would rank second in franchise history, one game ahead of Scott Proctor and two games behind Paul Quantrill, who were used, shall we say, liberally by manager Joe Torre in the mid-2000s.

Back then, usage and load management and the long-term effects of a heavy season on an arm weren’t so copiously tracked. Nearly three decades into this century, arm care and the desire to avoid three appearances in three days, or four in five, are canon on most pitching staffs.

But these are the 2026 Yankees, wracked by injuries to the lineup and short in the rotation with aces Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón and Max Fried all recovering from elbow maladies at various points.

Close and late is the Yankee way right now. And so more nights than not, the bullpen phone rings and summons Headrick.

Answering that call night after night after night is as much a mental challenge as a physical one. And Headrick, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound left-hander, leans heavily on the words imparted by the Yankees’ mental skills staff.

“I’ve said this since early in the season: Attack the day,” Headrick tells USA TODAY Sports. “Each day can lead to the next. You can look two weeks in advance, but it’s not going to do any good. For me, with every aspect of the game, I try to live in today. Take care of what today needs.

“And worry about tomorrow when it gets here. That mentality has allowed me to be more present and take care of my body and do things the right way so I’m prepped for a longer season.”

And oh, what a season.

Headrick has posted a 1.55 ERA in his 65 games, striking out 79 in 64 innings. His 20 holds are eighth in the American League, and he’s holding opponents to a .224 average, with just three homers surrendered.

Yet any number of statistics don’t illustrate Headrick’s value as much as any phrase that exemplifies reliability.

The man posts, as they say.

“We’re always trying to take inventory with guys on a daily basis,” says Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake. “Are they emotionally up for it? Are they mentally or physically exhausted? He’s done a good job communicating when he needs a day. We typically avoid three in a row and four out of five. There have been a couple instances this year we’ve had to push a guy because of the schedule or where the starters were at.

“He’s always been up for it. It’s a testament to how he’s taken care of his body, how he’s managing his throwing program and how efficient he is out there.”

He’d better be efficient. Running your fastball up to 95 mph, mixing in a slider, a sinker and a splitter isn’t necessarily easy on the arm.

Proctor remains one of the game’s cautionary tales. He pitched in 83 games in both 2006 and 2007 but by 2009 his right elbow had, in the words of orthopedist James Andrews, “turned to mush.”

In fact, nine of the top 10 games pitched totals in Yankees history came under Torre’s watch between 1997 and 2007. Safe to say the Yankees are warier of the season’s odometer in this era.

“Definitely something we’ve got to be mindful of, especially as we head down the stretch,” says Blake. “You gotta be smart.”

But the way these Yankees are built makes this challenging. At 71-55, they have a firm grasp on the No. 1 wild card in the AL, and are five games behind Tampa Bay in the East. Minus reigning MVP Aaron Judge, though, and with Cody Bellinger starting a rehab assignment Thursday, it has been a grind.

The value is reflected in the team’s WAR totals. Cy Young Award favorite Cam Schlittler is No. 1, followed by Bellinger and Fried. No. 4, with 2.6 WAR? That’d be Headrick, selected off waivers from the Twins in February 2025.

Righty set-up man Paul Blackburn (2.3) is tied with 34-homer All-Star Ben Rice for fourth. Weird year.

Yet Headrick and Co. keep answering. They’ve taken two games off the Orioles here by 3-1 and 5-3 scores, with four of their relievers – Fernando Cruz, Headrick, Blackburn and closer David Bednar – all pitching back-to-back.

While Cruz gave up a game-tying home run Wednesday, all got their jobs done, with the other lefty, Tim Hill, retiring all four batters after starter Will Warren went just four innings.

The Yankees are 41-24 when Headrick pitches, perhaps the best proof of his high-leverage lifestyle.

“They’ve been awesome,” says manager Aaron Boone. “It’s why we’re in this position playing where we are now, is the strength of our starting rotation, anchored by Bus at the end.”

Headrick calls the bullpen’s success “contagious,” and it is evident. The unit ranks second in the majors with a 3.02 ERA and seventh in strikeouts per nine innings, buttressed by a precision that comes with a 2.49 strikeout-walk ratio that ranks ninth in MLB.

He’s pitched three times in four days on a half-dozen occasions, though the Yankees have avoided throwing him three days in a row, for now.

Still, showing up, in a sense, is half the battle.

“I take a ton of pride. I love being able to help this team win games any day I can,” says Headrick. “Whenever that opportunity comes and they call my name, it’s my job to be ready and I’m going to go out there and give it everything I have.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: When Yankees call, lefty reliever Brent Headrick answers every time: 'Attack the day'

The Pittsburgh Pirates made a minor move yesterday, acquiring catcher Christian Bethancourt from the New York Yankees for the ever nebulous cash considerations.

The 34-year-old Bethancourt was playing in the Minors for the Yankees organization, and while he will be a Minor League player for the Bucs, officially to be assigned to Triple-A Indianpolis, he will be part of the taxi squad for the Bucs for their extended road trip on Friday.

Bethancourt has bounced around the league quite a bit, spending time with the Atlanta Braves, Tampa Rays, San Diego Padres, Oakland A’s, Chicago Cubs, Miami Marlins, and even did a stint with the Bucs back in 2021.

He hit 11 homers in 2022 and again in 2023, but he’s just a career .225 hitter, and his high water mark for RBIs was 34.

Nonetheless, with Endy Rodriguez once again dealing with injury issues, the Bucs are shorthanded at catcher, and having another backstop in the mix, especially for the upcoming road trip, was a priority for the team.

So a minor move for the Bucs, but one that appears neccessary. Welcome back to the ‘Burgh, Christian.

When the news broke last week that Mark Walter was selling the Lakers just one year after buying the storied basketball franchise, executives working for another crown jewel in his sports empire — the Dodgers — were quick to say the billionaire had no plans to sell the team.

The Dodgers have won three of the last six World Series and 12 division titles since an ownership group led by Walter bought the then-bankrupt team in 2012, and the Dodgers now are considered the most successful — and lucrative — franchise in Major League Baseball.

Yet, amid Walter’s financial difficulties, including a federal inquiry into his insurance empire regarding $16 billion to $21 billion in undisclosed loans to his own companies, questions remain over whether the blowback will hit the Dodgers.

Walter has denied wrongdoing, and sports business experts say it’s far too soon to know whether the Dodgers will be in play. No charges have been filed against Walter or anyone associated with his businesses.

“If you’re judging on that — winning and revenue created — he’s been at the helm of all of that. … He does truly look like a white knight as it relates to his ownership of the Dodgers,” said Patrick Rishe, executive director of the Sports Business Program at Washington University in St. Louis. Still, “we don’t know what the issues are, and we don’t know the severity and the magnitude.”

Aside from the Lakers, the Dodgers are, by far, the most valuable of Walter’s handful of sports franchises, and industry sources not authorized to speak publicly about any potential sale told The Times that the team could fetch $10 billion to $13 billion.

Walter’s sports portfolio includes the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Assn.; the Cadillac Formula 1 racing team; a premier women’s tennis competition, the Billie Jean King Cup; and the entire Professional Women’s Hockey League. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates Walter has a net worth of $18.3 billion.

There have been reports that he is putting his shares of his most valuable professional soccer franchise, the Chelsea Football Club of the English Premier League, on the market.

But the Dodgers are the greatest show in baseball, playing before stadiums packed with fans willing to shell out top dollar to see a roster that includes international superstars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Last week, Dodgers president and part-owner Stan Kasten said the Lakers sale “really has nothing to do with the Dodgers” and that “there are no changes here or contemplated here.” And Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said at a news conference that he was “shocked” by news of the Lakers sale and had not heard of any potential changes to Dodgers ownership.

Andrew Granato, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in corporate finance and insurance, said that although it was not yet clear whether Walter would offload the Dodgers, it would not be impossible, given the speed and scale of the billionaire’s recent financial transactions and the mounting federal and public scrutiny.

“I imagine that no fan feels particularly comfortable if the owner of their favorite team is under ... investigation. Certainly, it’s not an ideal situation,” he said.

---

Walter was riding high after the Dodgers’ success and his $10-billion purchase of the Lakers last year. But the last few months have been challenging.

The loans by two Delaware life insurers that Walter owns were made to companies tied to him or his TWG Global holding company but were not disclosed as “related party” transactions as required, the Wall Street Journal reported. Related-party transactions made by insurers are required to be reported to limit conflicts of interest and protect policyholders, who have an interest in the financial strength of their insurers.

Walter, the 66-year-old chief executive of Chicago investment firm Guggenheim Partners, led a group that included another Guggenheim executive and Magic Johnson in acquiring the Dodgers for $2.15 billion in 2012, then a record for an MLB team.

The Times has reported that he tapped the insurers he owned for financing, a deal that was later vetted by state insurance regulators.

However, the amount of related-party loans made by the two affiliated life insurers now under federal scrutiny is vastly more, amounting to 40% of the invested assets of Delaware Life as of Dec. 31, according to Fitch Ratings. The credit rating firm said that is the most of any North American life insurers it reviews.

It’s unclear where the money went, but the Wall Street Journal reported that billions were passed through a third party before being received by entities tied to Walter or his TWG Global holding company.

Last week, Walter stunned the sports world by selling a majority stake in the Lakers for $12.5 billion to former Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner, who is the brother of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Walter has declined to comment on whether the sale was tied to the federal investigation.

The framework for a deal was consummated in a matter of days, Iger told interviewers last week. It still must be approved by the NBA Board of Governors, which meets in September.

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Projecting an exact value for the Dodgers is difficult because MLB and its players union are engaged in contentious collective bargaining negotiations that many experts believe could result in a lockout when the current agreement expires in December.

Should a salary cap be agreed upon for the first time in MLB history, the valuation could jump to the high end, the source said. And about $1 billion of any sale would be subtracted to cover the Dodgers’ future commitments on deferred contracts.

The Dodgers’ massive local television deal with SportsNet LA directly elevates the franchise’s overall valuation.

Listing potential buyers should the Dodgers be for sale is challenging because the estimated value of the franchise is so much greater than almost any other MLB team. The record price for a sports franchise was the $12.5 billion for the Lakers.

Besides Kushner and Iger, those who have bid for teams aren’t in the $10-million-plus ballpark. The San Diego Padres were sold last week for $3.9 billion to José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones.

Another question that has arisen as Walter’s financial troubles have garnered headlines is whether MLB would conduct its own investigation into Dodgers ownership or pressure the billionaire and his partners to sell the team.

“Any time there is any kind of public question about owners, they look into it,” former Dodgers president Bob Graziano told The Times. “I would guess, because there is a federal investigation going on, they’re not launching their own investigation, but they are going to wait to see what comes out of the federal investigation.”

No investigation of any kind into the matter has been announced by MLB.

MLB has never formally stripped an owner of a franchise or forced an outright sale through a vote of franchise owners. But the league forced Frank McCourt to sell the Dodgers in 2012 by exerting pressure and threatening a financial takeover or disciplinary action that would have stripped operational control.

When McCourt sold the team to Walter’s Guggenheim group, the franchise was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

When Guggenheim purchased the team in 2012, it outbid billionaire hedge fund manager Steven Cohen, who now owns the New York Mets. A group headed by former Yankees and Dodgers manager Joe Torre and L.A. developer Rick Caruso dropped out of the bidding ahead of Cohen. Additional bidders included media executive Leo Hindery, billionaire Tom Barrack, then-St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke and Jared Kushner.

Times staff writer Laurence Darmiento contributed to this report.

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Toledo Mud Hens 2, Iowa Cubs 1 (box)

Sawyer-Gipson Long, Beau Brieske, Brenan Hanifee, and Ricky Vanasco combined to dominant Cubs pitching as the Hens took a 2-0 lead in the series with a walkoff victory.

Gipson-Long’s first season back from Tommy John surgery has gone quite badly, but he was on in this one. He hit the first batter of the game, gave up back-to-back singles that scored a run, and from there the right-hander handled the Cubs comfortably.

The Hens got that run right back in the bottom of the first. Jace Jung was in an odd spot leading off, but he started the inning with a double and scored on a Max Anderson single to tie the game.

Gipson-Long scattered two hits and two walks through the rest of his five innings of work, striking out six. Brieske handled the sixth, allowing just a walk. Hanifee took care of the seventh. Ricky Vanasco got three quick ground outs in the eighth, and he allowed just a Jordan Nwogu single in the top of the ninth.

So it was 1-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth. Cal Stevenson came up big with a one-out double and took third on a Michael Siani ground out. Bennett Lee stepped to the dish and smashed a single to the wall in center field to walk off the Cubs.

🚨Mud Hens Walk-Off Win🚨

Bennett Lee drives the ball deep over the head of the center fielder to score Cal Stevenson with 2 outs in the 9th, and Toledo wins 2-1. pic.twitter.com/HlsZrmRbAb

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 20, 2026

Stevenson: 3-4, R, 2B, K, CS

Jung: 1-3, R, 2B, BB, K

Lee: 2-4, RBI

Gipson-Long: 5.0 IP, ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 6 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a 6:35 p.m. ET start on Thursday.

Erie SeaWolves 6, New Hampshire Fisher Cats 5 (box)

Carlos Peña ran out of gas late in his start, but the SeaWolves built an early lead and fought off repeated challenges from the Cats to win again on Wednesday.

The SeaWolves started off quickly. Peyton Graham led off the bottom of the first with an infield single and then stole second for his 57th swipe of the season. Woody Hadeen singled him to third, and Zyhir Hope lifted a sacrifice fly to left.

In the second, Andrew Jenkins led off with a triple and scored on a Luke Shliger double for a 2-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Peña was carving through the Fisher Cats until allowing a run in the top of the fifth. His outing finally went sideways in the sixth as he allowed three runs.

So it was now 4-2 Fisher Cats, but Hadeen led off the bottom of the sixth with a double and rode home on Thayron Liranzo’s 14th homer of the season. Jenkins followed him with a double, and Izaac Pacheco singled him in for a 5-4 lead.

Thayron Liranzo crushes a 2-run homer off the scoreboard in right center to tie the game for Erie. @BurgessLuke03 on the call. pic.twitter.com/bjWpmSrpuR

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 19, 2026

Johan Simon coughed up one of Pena’s inherited runners in the sixth, and then gave up two singles and balked in a run in the seventh. But again in the bottom half the SeaWolves answered back. Seth Stephenson led off with a single and then stole his 55th base. Graham smashed a one-hopper over the left center field wall to score him and take a 6-5 lead.

Moises Rodriguez returned to the fold after his rehab work and tossed a 1-2-3 eighth, while Wandisson Charles collected his fourth save.

Graham: 2-4, R, RBI, 2B, SB

Liranzo: 1-3, R, 2 RBI, HR, BB, SB

Jenkins: 2-4, 2 R, 2B, 3B, K

Pena: 5.1 IP, 4 ER, 8 H, 3 BB, 6 K

Coming Up Next: The series is tied up heading into a 6:05 p.m. ET start on Thursday.

West Michigan Whitecaps 9, South Bend Cubs 0 (box)

Ben Jacobs was great, and Bryce Rainer set a franchise record by homering for the fifth straight game as the Whitecaps evened up the series.

The left-hander had some struggles moving to the High-A level, but he’s on a roll now. He blanked the Cubs on three hits and two walks, striking out six, over 5.1 innings of work. All he really needs to do is keep refining his command and building himself up, but he’s very much on track to tackle Double-A and perhaps even move quite quickly next season.

The Whitecaps started building a big lead in the second. Clayton Campbell singled with one out and Samuel Gil reached on an error. Stephen Hrustich doubled in Campbell, and Gil scored on a Cristian Santana ground out.

So it was 2-0 heading into the top of the third. Jackson Strong, who has heated up quite a bit since the break, led off with his 14th home run of the season. The 22-year-old is still striking out a lot, but he walks quite a bit, is showing average power already, and plays a pretty good center field for his experience level. Keep an eye on him.

Jackson Strong crushes a solo homer to right to give the Whitecaps a 3-0. It’s his 14th home run of the year. pic.twitter.com/B4IQLtWBV9

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 19, 2026

Bryce Rainer followed Strong with a double and later scored on an Edian Espinal single. Campbell then mashed a two-run shot to make it 6-0.

In the fifth, Beau Ankeney walked with one out, took second on another Espinal single, and both scored on a double from Campbell. That made it 8-0, and in the seventh, Rainer led off with a missile to left-center for his 15th home run of the season.

Bryce Rainer does it again! His 5th straight game with a homer, setting a new Whitecaps record. pic.twitter.com/FpUM0Mc1zu

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 20, 2026

Luke Hoskins, Eliseo Mota, and Ryan Harvey were perfect in relief.

Rainer: 2-5, 2 R, RBI, 2B, HR, 2 K

Campbell: 3-5, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2B, HR

Espinal: 2-5, 2 R, RBI

Jacobs (W, 4-2): 5.1 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 K

Coming Up Next: The Whitecaps now hold a 2.5 game lead in the division. The series is tied 1-1 heading into a 7:05 p.m. ET start on Thursday.

Lakeland Flying Tigers 11, St. Lucie Mets 1 (box)

Cameron Flukey was pretty impressive in his short start, and once again the Flying Tigers hammered Mets’ pitching to win easily.

Flukey started things off with two scoreless innings of work. He threw 23 of 42 pitches for strikes, so he certainly wasn’t sharp, but he’s still just getting stretched out again and was working heavily with the fastball. He allowed a hit and a walk, while striking out two on the outing. He sat 94.1 mph with his fourseamer, showing off 19 inches of induced vertical break. He got six whiffs, four on the heater and two on the cutter. Zach MacDonald had a huge game at the plate, but he also robbed a homer on Flukey’s behalf in the first.

Detroit Tigers Prospects 2026: Cameron Flukey’s 2nd Pro Starthttps://t.co/ORwbs4XB6J

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 20, 2026

Ronald Ramirez led off with a double in the top of the second. Zach MacDonald followed with his 20th home run of the season for a 2-0 lead.

Donye Evans handled the third and fourth innings without giving up a run. In the top of the fifth, Enderson Delgado led off with a single and Javier Osorio followed with a double. They both scored on an Angel De Los Santos double, and he scored on a Jesus Pinto sacrifice fly for a 5-0 lead.

Paul Wilson took over in the bottom of the fifth. He was still wild, but the gas is in place as he averaged 95.5 mph with his fourseam and sinker, collecting whiffs on all four pitches, including the slider and curveball.

MacDonald hammered a solo shot in the sixth for a two-homer game.

Zach MacDonald launches his 2nd home run of the night to put Lakeland up 6-0. It’s his 22nd overall home run this year. pic.twitter.com/ejxaj8YRsk

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 20, 2026

In the seventh, Osorio and Yost singled, and then De Los Santos singled in Osorio. Pinto walked to load the bas1es, and the Mets wild pitched in a run. Nick Dumesnil walked to re-load the bases, and De Los Santos scored on a Jude Warwick ground out. At this point, Mets pitching was a mess and another walk and a ground out made it 10-0. De Los Santos singled and scored on a Dumesnil single in the eighth to make it 11-0.

In the eighth, Wilson finally cracked a bit. He hit the leadoff hitter and then wild pitched him to second base before giving up an RBI single for the Mets only run. Pedro Garcia closed it out from there.

MacDonald: 2-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 HR, BB, K

De Los Santos: 3-6, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2B, SB

Dumesnil: 2-4, RBI, BB, K

Yost: 2-6, R, K

Flukey: 2.0 IP, 0 R, H, BB, 2 K

Wilson: 3.0 IP, ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: The Flying Tigers have won six of their last seven. They hold a 2-0 lead in the series with first pitch set for 6:10 p.m. ET on Thursday.

It’s a bit of a cliche, but one of the great things about baseball is that it never fails to surprise us. You can go to the ballpark and see something you’ve never seen before every night. The worst team in the league is liable to beat the best team in the league on any given day. And most crucially, ballplayers themselves are breathing, dynamic people that can and do change. Players who you thought were backups at best can shake up their offseason regimen, learn a new pitch, overhaul their plate approach, make any number of infinite changes, and turn into something you’d never dreamed of.

Of course, the process works in reverse too (players you never thought could regress and fail manage to surprise and go backwards). But let’s focus on the bright side right now and consider the Yankees that have surprised in positive ways this year. Now that we’re three-quarters into the season, which Yankee has raised your opinion of them the most?

Early in the season, I thought the answer to this question was sure to be Ben Rice. On May 3rd, Rice had a 1.214 OPS, and his 222 wRC+ led the majors. Rice carried a high level of production into the summer, but he’s cratered the last month or two. His 140 OPS+ on the year is still excellent, but it’s also probably not a hugely surprising figure to anyone that watched Rice closely in 2025.

Cam Schlittler also seemed like a great answer to this question early in the year, and thankfully, that remains the case even as we head toward the home stretch. Though he hasn’t been quite as dominant as he was during the season’s first couple months, Schlittler is still at or near the top of every AL pitching leaderboard and has a very real shot at the AL Cy Young. He’s an Ace, which was not a guarantee at the beginning of the year.

If no one on the Yankees has moved your expectations of them more than Schlittler, that’s fair. But there are some other candidates on this roster. Ryan Weathers comes to mind; his 3.56 ERA/3.62 FIP on the year are excellent for a mid-rotation arm, and if you put a little added weight onto his most recent stretch in which he’s allowed just three runs over his last five outings, Weathers starts to resemble a front-line starter.

There’s also the matter of the rooks. Everyone knew entering the year that George Lombard Jr. had real talent, but the idea that he’d be ready to contribute at a high level in the majors by the summer seemed a bit of a stretch. While we don’t know how long he can sustain this, Lombard has been a plus player in every way during his first few weeks in the majors after looking extremely polished in Triple-A. We also can give an honorable mention to Spencer Jones, who still strikes out too much but at least has looked like a major-league caliber player during his debut.

If you’re able to look past the Anthony Volpes and Jasson Domínguez’s of the world, there really are quite a number of Yankees who have taken steps forward and shifted our expectations of them. David Bednar has solidified himself as the Closer that was promised, Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn have flourished into high-leverage arms, hell, even Gerrit Cole has done a lot to wipe away any concerns during his return from elbow surgery.

What do you think? Try and go back to the start of the season, and remember how you felt about each player. Who’s done the most to raise your opinion of them since then?

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We’ve got the finale in Baltimore tonight, and we’ve got lots on the site to keep you busy beforehand. In the morning, Nick reviews Wednesday night’s action, and Michael calls for the Yankees to amp up their aggressiveness on the base paths. Later, Peter profiles the great Graig Nettles, and also praises Carlos Rodon’s work in his return against the Orioles this week, while Jonathan discusses the Yankees’ tendency to downplay injuries at times.

Today’s Matchup:

New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles

Time: 6:35 p.m. EST

TV: YES Network, MASN

Venue: Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: To say that Heliot Ramos is off to a rough start with the Yankees would be an understatement. Before Wednesday’s game, he had a .371 OPS as a member of the Bombers, yet he has been hitting third or fourth in the order. Manager Aaron Boone implied he might be pressing a little bit, but he continues to back him. “I think there’s a level of, ‘He wants to show us,’ but we know we got a good player here and a good hitter,” Boone said. “He’s fit in very well here. I think you just want to prove yourself, so there’s probably a little bit of that going on.”

The skipper said that Ramos is “definitely hit into some tough luck” as a Yankee, and he might be right. As Phillips explained, the .121-point difference between his .178 wOBA and .299 xwOBA since August 4 was the second-largest of any player in the majors with at least 40 plate appearances over that stretch. A .299 xwOBA is not particularly impressive, but the main takeaway is that there might be better days on the horizon for Ramos.

New York Post | Matt Ehalt: If you were a Yankees or Mets fan in 2000, you surely remember the Roger Clemens-Mike Piazza feud. It all started in July that year, when the seven-time Cy Young Award winner hit the Hall of Fame catcher with a pitch in the head. Then, in the World Series, the ace sawed off Piazza’s bat in the first inning of Game 2, picked up a piece of the barrel, and threw it in the catcher’s direction as he jogged down the first-base line.

Clemens wouldn’t return to Shea Stadium until June 15, 2002. Shawn Estes, who wasn’t on the Mets in 2000, had the responsibility of hitting Clemens, but instead, he missed the target and threw behind him in front of a crowd that, quite frankly, was thirsty for blood. To this day, he resents the instruction given to him and explains why. “The reason why I resented it is not that I felt like that it didn’t need to be done and it wasn’t like the ‘woe is me, why am I the guy that has to take care of this?’ I kind of felt like it was more of it wasn’t my responsibility,” he told Tony Reali.

“I feel like it should have fallen on someone that had more skin in the game, that had more emotions toward the situation that was at hand,” the former pitcher said.

MLB Trade Rumors | Charlie Wright: Former Yankee Néstor Cortés signed a major league deal with the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday, agreeing to go to Low-A to build up. He is working his way back from arm surgery and is expected to be ready in a few weeks. Good luck to Nasty Nestor in his next adventure.