Category: Sports News

Harper out for Phils-Braves doubleheader after HBP, but doing ‘a lot better than we expected'  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Bryce Harper was absent from the Phillies’ lineup for both games of the team’s split doubleheader Thursday vs. the Braves. 

However, Rob Thomson was encouraged overall by Harper’s progress since he took a Spencer Strider fastball to the arm Tuesday night and exited the game with a right elbow contusion.

“He came in yesterday for treatment,” the Phillies’ manager said before Game 1. “He’s in there now, I believe. Still had swelling, still was in pain, but it was a lot better than we expected.” 

After his team’s 5-4 afternoon win, Thomson reiterated that Harper was “feeling better.” He did note following a 9-3 nightcap loss that “there’s still some swelling in there and he’s still got some pain. We want to knock that out before we run him out there because he’s going to change his swing and it could lead to a lot of problems.”

Thomson moved Alec Bohm to first base for both legs of the doubleheader. Edmundo Sosa got two starts at third base.

Thomson was asked why the Phillies didn’t retaliate following Strider’s first-inning HBP.

“Because it’s not on purpose,” he said. “Simple as that. If I think somebody’s throwing at one our hitters, I don’t know what I’d do. But if it’s a pitch that gets away from a pitcher, which I believe it was and I think everybody in our clubhouse thinks it was, that’s baseball. It happens.”

As far as when Harper might be back, Thomson didn’t have anything definitive to offer.

“He’s going to miss a few games, I would think,” he said. “Moving forward, I don’t know. We’ll check it out tomorrow. It’s not an IL or anything like that. Not at this point.”

When Harper does return, Thomson certainly wouldn’t mind seeing his right elbow protected at the plate with a guard.

“I think it’s a little uncomfortable for him,” he said. “I think he feels like it restricts him a little bit, but I hope he wears it.”

What's gone right, wrong for Giants through first third of 2025 season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — At the same time as the Giants were failing to get a runner in from third on Wednesday in Detroit, the Los Angeles Dodgers were watching their bullpen implode in Cleveland. 

It turned into a five-loss day for the National League West, which has come back to earth in May. Early on, it looked like the division could put four teams in the National League playoff field, but the Dodgers (13-12) are the only team in the West with a winning record in May.

Each team has its own issues, and it’s easy to pinpoint what has sunk the Giants. They have stopped hitting, failing to score more than four runs in each of their last 11 games, their longest streak since … 2024. This is what they have done quite often over the past four seasons, although this year they at least have some company. With the others in the West dealing with their own warts, the Giants are just three games out of first place after getting swept in Detroit. 

As they head for June, here are three things that went right for the Giants over the first third of the season, and three issues that they need to fix if they want to stay in the race:

Near the bottom

Having a rough 50-ish games would be one thing, but that’s not what’s most worrisome for Patrick Bailey and LaMonte Wade Jr. The real issue is that this is not just a 2025 development. 

Since the 2024 All-Star break, Bailey (.172) and Wade (.191) are in the bottom four in the majors in batting average (Joc Pederson and Michael Conforto are also in the bottom 15, so at least the Giants moved on before it got really ugly). Bailey is the only big leaguer hitting under .180 during that stretch, which covers more than 100 games, and has just two homers. 

The catcher’s Gold Glove defense at least allows him to contribute in some way on a nightly basis. Wade has been below league-average there, too, and it seems the Giants are preparing to move on. Marco Luciano got his first start at first base in Triple-A on Wednesday and Jerar Encarnacion should be back next week. 

There are no decisions to be made with the highest-paid player on the roster. Willy Adames is 3-for-20 on this road trip and his average for the year is down to .208, with a .621 OPS that’s the lowest of his career by about 100 points. After hitting 32 homers and driving in 112 runs last year, he’s on pace for 14 and 72. When you throw in some early defensive issues, he’s sitting at 0.1 Wins Above Replacement through his first 56 games in orange and black.

The Giants will address first base in the coming days, and if Bailey doesn’t turn it around, they can look for a better offensive option in the offseason. But Adames is just beginning a seven-year deal. There’s nothing to do there but wait and hope their shortstop finds his old form. 

Where did it go?

The Giants stole six bases on their successful season-opening road trip and then ran wild in their home opener. Adames, Jung Hoo Lee, Heliot Ramos and Tyler Fitzgerald all took off that afternoon, making the team 10-for-10 on the bases through seven games. They had at least one steal in each of the next three games, and it looked like — after years of talking about being more athletic — the Giants would finally be making an adjustment. 

Currently, they rank 28th in the majors.

The running game has been shut down, with just five stolen bases in 10 attempts in May. After stealing 13 bags in their first 10 games, the Giants have taken 13 over their last 46. They have been caught 11 times during that stretch, too. 

That percentage bothers manager Bob Melvin and has led to a change in strategy in the dugout, although when he was asked over the weekend about the lack of running, he first pointed to another area. 

“We haven’t had any baserunners and we go when we feel like there are opportunities to steal,” he told reporters in Washington D.C. “There was a period where we were too aggressive and got some guys thrown out, so we have to pick the right times.”

Given how slow it’s been offensively in general, the Giants need to be more aggressive the rest of the way. Fitzgerald, one of the fastest players in the big leagues, is six-for-eight. Lee has just one attempt since April 5

Hitting snooze

On May 18, Ramos crushed Jeffrey Springs’ first pitch of the game into the bullpen. The Giants didn’t pick up another hit until the seventh, and all too often, that’s been the norm.

They have outscored opponents by an MLB-best 34 runs from the seventh inning on, but they’re at plus-five in the first six innings of games, and in recent weeks, those early-game numbers have fallen off a cliff. Over their last 20 games, they have a .644 OPS in the first six innings and have just 45 runs in those frames, which are primarily against starting pitchers. 

The offense has been bad in general lately, but the early innings have been particularly ugly, especially against left-handed pitchers. The Giants have six walk-off wins already, but waiting for late-game heroics isn’t a sustainable approach. 

The best around

The Giants have played an MLB-high 42 games decided by three-or-fewer runs. They’re 21-21 in those games, but you can’t blame the guys pitching the late innings. 

The bullpen has a 2.48 ERA, the lowest in baseball and lowest in the NL by nearly half a run. 

It’s hard for relievers to make an All-Star team, but this group has three real candidates. Randy Rodriguez has a 0.73 ERA and is among the league leaders in both strikeout and walk rate. Hitters are batting .154 off his slider and .152 off his fastball. 

Tyler Rogers is doing Tyler Rogers things. He leads the Giants with 26 appearances and has a 1.78 ERA, but there’s a twist this year — he’s striking out nearly a batter per inning. 

Camilo Doval may now be the best bet to represent the bullpen in the All-Star Game, having been moved back to the closer role. Doval has a 1.16 ERA, has cut his walk rate in half, and hasn’t allowed a run since April 7. 

The bullpen has easily been the best unit on the team, which actually makes this first third of the year a bit disappointing. The Giants are 21-2 when they lead after six, but their lineup hasn’t been able to get many leads to this group lately. 

Double trouble

When the Giants traded for Robbie Ray, Farhan Zaidi said he viewed the lefty as an ideal long-term partner for Logan Webb. Ray needed some extra time to return to form — which partially led to the disappointing second half last year that cost Zaidi — but that trade looks like an absolute heist by the former president of baseball operations.

Ray is 7-0 and the Giants have won all of his starts but one. He has a 2.56 ERA and 3.19 FIP, and those numbers are 1.41 and 1.57 in May. Ray has said this is the best he has felt since 2021, when he won the Cy Young Award, and described a recent dominant start as being on autopilot. The return to Cy Young form has given the Giants perhaps the best one-two punch in baseball.

Webb has had a couple of off starts recently, but still carries a 2.82 ERA and league-leading 2.18 FIP. He is fifth in the NL in groundball rate and his strikeout rate is easily the highest of his career. Webb wants to check 200 strikeouts off his bucket list, and he’s well on his way to leading the league in innings for a third straight year. 

There has been inconsistency with the rest of the rotation, but Justin Verlander was throwing better before he got hurt and Landen Roupp had a 1.73 ERA in May. As expected, the Giants have one of the deeper rotations in baseball, with a top two that would give them a real shot in a short playoff series. 

Taking the leap

Matt Chapman and Lee lead Giants position players in WAR, and one of the cooler stories for the organization has been the full embrace of the center fielder at home games. Wilmer Flores briefly sat ahead of Aaron Judge atop the MLB RBI leaderboard, and he has seemingly won a half-dozen games with clutch hits. 

But if you’re looking for the best development with the hitters, it might be the fact that there’s been no sophomore slump with Ramos.

Alright, technically Ramos isn’t a sophomore. He has played in parts of four big league seasons, but this is his second as a full-time player, and he has taken a step forward in just about every respect. 

After slashing .269/.322/.469 last year, Ramos is at .288/.349/.486, and with 10 homers, he has a real shot at ending the 30-homer drought. He leads the Giants with a 133 wRC+ and he has slightly lowered his strikeout rate while fixing a huge hole in his game. 

There were times in the second half last year when it looked like Ramos might be headed for semi-platoon life, but his splits are just about even. He had a .673 OPS against righties last year but is at .838 this year with eight homers. 

There is still work to be done. Ramos went 25 games without a homer at one point, and the defensive metrics are disappointing. Given his background as a center fielder, he really should be a more reliable defender in left. 

But overall, Ramos has taken his game to a new level, giving the Giants a homegrown 25-year-old outfielder who is looking like a foundational piece. 

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For Dodgers fans, the must-have souvenir from last year’s World Series was not a cap or T-shirt commemorating the team’s championship. It was one of the stickers that popped up all over town, reproducing the Fox Sports score box that showed the New York Yankees leading, 5-0, with two out in the fifth inning.

For the Yankees, it was the image that encapsulated an inning of extremely unfortunate events: Aaron Judge dropped a fly ball, Anthony Volpe committed a throwing error, Gerrit Cole did not cover first base.

The Dodgers tied the score before the Yankees could secure that third out and, a couple hours later, boisterously raised the championship trophy atop a makeshift stage in the Yankee Stadium outfield.

The celebrations raged for days, including a Mookie Betts podcast on which Chris Taylor said the Yankees had "s— down their leg” and a “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast on which Joe Kelly said the Dodgers’ scouting reports had highlighted the Yankees’ deficiencies: “They can’t make a play.”

You cannot glorify bat flips, as Major League Baseball itself does these days, and you cannot encourage players to market themselves and share their personalities, as the league also does, without running the risk of what the old-fashioned among us might call poor sportsmanship. To the Yankees’ credit, they get it.

“The way I personally look at it is, when you go out and you are on the right side of the victory, you’ve got a leg to stand on,” Yankees closer Luke Weaver told me this week at Angel Stadium. “When you lose, you ain’t got much to say.

“They said what they said. That’s what they felt. I don’t take it too personally. In a perfect world, yeah, you don’t want to hear that type of stuff. We know what happened. We know we had to do a better job. We just didn’t quite do what we wanted to do. With that being said, it is what it is.”

For the first time since the World Series, the Yankees return to Dodger Stadium this weekend. The Dodgers are sold out of suites advertised this week for as much as $15,000 per game. As of Wednesday, available tickets on the team website for Friday’s series opener ranged from $103 to $567 in general, $146 to $607 with early entry included.

Read more:How one 'crazy' inning ignited Dodgers' comeback in World Series clincher

The entire series will be nationally broadcast: Friday on Apple+, Saturday on Fox, Sunday on ESPN.

“I understand that it’s going to get a lot of eyeballs,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I think that’s great for our sport.”

Said Weaver: “It’ll be a big series because, one, they’re a great team, and we feel like we’re a great team. It’s hard to say it’s not a rematch.

“To be honest, there’s probably some deeper pride that wants to go in there and play good ball and play clean ball, and make sure that we take the series and do our job.”

ESPN played up the “rematch” angle during Sunday’s Dodgers broadcast. However, of the 10 players who started that fateful Game 5 of the World Series for the Yankees, only three are active on the Yankees’ roster: Judge, Volpe and catcher Austin Wells.

Gone in free agency: outfielders Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo and infielders Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres. On the injured list: Cole, infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. and designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton. New to New York: former Dodger Cody Bellinger, former Dodger-killer Paul Goldschmidt and L.A.’s own Max Fried, who is Friday’s scheduled starting pitcher.

In spring training, Judge said there was a simple solution to whatever verbal shots the Dodgers took in the wake of the World Series: “Play better.”

At the time, Boone said he hoped the Yankees would “handle things with a little more class” if they won the World Series this year. He also noted the Dodgers’ stars did not say anything to diminish the Yankees.

“Some guys are more inclined to spout off and be a little more colorful than others, and that's their right. They won,” he said then. “And again, hopefully we're in that position and do things a little better."

Have the Yankees used that fifth inning for motivation or just flushed it?

“I’ve used the phrase ‘another log on the fire,’” Boone said this week. “We’ve had some really tough ends to the season, and probably in some way, shape or form serve as some motivation.

“But I’d like to think that, had we won the World Series last year, we’d be hell-bent on getting back again. You put this uniform on, and this hat, and what it represents, and our goal is to get back and do that again.”

Read more:Shaikin: Apple's documentary on Dodgers provides 'all-access' look at World Series run

The Detroit Tigers, not the Yankees, have the best record in the American League. The Philadelphia Phillies, not the Dodgers, have the best record in the National League.

Yet the projections at Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs say the most likely World Series matchup is a Dodgers-Yankees rematch. That would be great for L.A. and New York, and for Fox, but that also would make a lockout after the 2026 season even more likely than it already is.

You can hear the owners now: If the price of admission to the World Series again is a team in one of the two largest markets in baseball, how can a team in any other market hope to compete? And, if the Dodgers spend $1 billion on free agents, win, spend another half-billion on free agents, and return to the World Series, are the Dodgers ruining baseball?

“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kinds of things that they’re doing,” an owner said last January.

Read more:'You want your chance to win one.' New Dodgers feel World Series hunger during celebrations

Oh, wait: That was Hal Steinbrenner, owner of the Yankees, the one team that CNBC estimated generated more revenue than the Dodgers last year.

This, we hope, is Steinbrenner being a team player. One high-ranking sports industry executive told me he never has seen baseball owners so united on pursuing major changes to the sport’s economic structure, salary cap or otherwise. Either the large-market owners and small-market owners truly are on the same page, or at least they need the players’ union to believe they are.

It is difficult to imagine Steinbrenner willfully offering to surrender some of the Yankees’ competitive advantage so the Pittsburgh Pirates can squander a few more bucks. What Steinbrenner said is reasonable at a time cable television revenue has dried up for many teams, even as the Dodgers and Yankees continue to cash in, but the “us” makes the comment look silly.

If a couple players on the Dodgers can make a silly comment, so can the owner of the Yankees. Bring on the World Series rematch.

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Entering Wednesday's series finale against the Angels, Yankees manager Aaron Boone wouldn't admit if Luke Weaver and Devin Williams, his top two relievers, were available if the team needed them, but it was fairly obvious that they weren't.

Weaver had pitched two of the last three games and the same was the case for Williams, the latter throwing 19 pitches in a shaky save situation on Tuesday night.

So, how did Boone and the Yankees finish off a 1-0 win for the three-game sweep? By utilizing their bullpen depth, including Mark Leiter Jr.

But the Yankees skipper admitted after the win that he was also trying to stay away from Leiter, but the situation of the game called for it.

"I was going to use Mark tonight, but I actually wanted to get him a little bit of rest, too," Boone said. " So, it was only going to be a save only. Obviously, Clarke [Schmidt] put us in a really good position there, giving us six really stellar Innings. And then, it is really encouraging to see [Ian Hamilton] come in and get five big outs for us, and then [Tim] Hill, coming in and getting a lefty on the ground with one pitch. Great job by the whole pitching staff and the defense tonight and making one run stand up."

"You gotta just stay in the moment, stay with the same thing that got you in that spot," Leiter said. "With a couple of guys down, you know it’s your turn and go and get the job done."

As Boone laid out, Schmidt pitched six scoreless while the combination of Hamilton and HIll got the next six outs. But with just a one-run lead, Leiter was the name called to get the final three outs.

When asked why he chose Leiter to close out the game -- having just eight career saves entering Wednesday -- Boone pointed to his reliever's demeanor and improved arsenal.

"He's super competitive. The bigger the spot, the more he thrives," he said. "Whether you get a result or not, he's fearless out there, and stuff's been good all year with the better velocity with the sinker. He's using the curveball really effectively, and then obviously the splitter. Just a really good job there by him after [Jo] Adell smokes that first pitch of the inning off him. We get a big out there, and then he goes to work."

Adell smashed a first-pitch sinker from Leiter right at third baseman Jorbit Vivas for the first out of the ninth. The ball went 12.7 mph off the bat and could have easily rattled the right-hander. But Leiter settled down to get Taylor Ward striking out on three pitches for the second out. Jorge Soler worked a walk after being behind in the count 1-2 but Leiter didn't falter.

That set up the dangerous Logan O'Hoppe as the winning run. Leiter got ahead 0-2 and after some splitters out of the zone, he got O'Hoppe looking on a curveball off the plate -- helped by J.C. Escarra's framing -- to end the game.

"Soler had some good takes for it. Good at-bat by him," Leiter said. "[As for O'Hoppe] Just getting ahead and giving us a chance of having a couple of shots to put him away. Any time you can win a game, especially when it’s a 1-0 game. It’s tight, everyone pitched well. One more guy’s got to do their job. That’s where we’re at." 

Wednesday's save was the culmination of how far the trust in Leiter has come for Boone and the Yankees after they acquired him from the Cubs at last year's trade deadline. He pitched to a 4.98 ERA in 21 appearances with the Yankees last season and was left off the postseason roster to start. But after some bullpen injuries, Leiter was added and stepped up.

In six postseason appearances, he pitched to a 1.69 ERA, including getting six outs during the World Series without allowing a run.

"He ended up being really good for us and in the biggest of moments," Boone said of Leiter. " Last year was a little bit up and down in those final couple months, but he had some good moments in there and then finished really strong in the postseason for us when he got on the roster. I think we noticed this year that the stuff was crisper. More life to the sinker; he's up, probably two, three miles an hour with that pitch, which is allowing his breaking ball and splitter to play even a little bit better."

According to Statcast, Leiter ranks in the 94 percentile in exit velocity (85.5 mph), whiff percentage (34.5), strikeout percentage (35.9) and hard-hit percentage (28.8) after Wednesday's performance.

Leiter's second save this season also proved that the Yankees bullpen isn't just about Weaver and Williams, and Leiter can be a big piece to the Yankees' pursuit of a World Series this year.

The hope was that the Angels could use Tuesday’s ninth-inning rally to muster up something worth talking about at the plate.

On Tuesday, Yoán Moncada homered. Taylor Ward singled. Luis Rengifo brought home a run with a line drive up the middle. Despite falling a run short, stringing a few hits together showed that the Angels could build off each other to produce runs.

However, instead of breaking through as an offense, the Angels were shut out by the Yankees 1-0 on Wednesday night, securing a sweep and turning the Angels’ eight-game win streak of weeks past into more of a blip on the radar than a sign of life.

Entering the game, the Angels (25-30) walked the least and struck out the second-most in MLB. Wednesday was mostly more of the same. The Angels drew two walks, one of them with two out in the ninth, but were able to snap their three-game streak of double-digit strikeouts — punching out just seven times.

Angels manager Ron Washington managed the game as if his team needed the victory. He tried anything to salvage a homestand in which the Halos ultimately dropped five of six and scored just three runs. When Aaron Judge walked to the plate in the first and second innings, Washington greeted the Yankees slugger — owner of the top batting average (.391) in MLB — with a free base.

The strategy that made Judge the first Yankees player to intentionally walk twice in the first two innings of a game since Gene Woodling on Aug. 30, 1953, worked once, but led to the only run of the game in its other appearance.

After Judge was walked with a man on in the first, Cody Bellinger walked — one of Angels starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi’s five walks — to load the bases. The next batter, Anthony Volpe, hit a sacrifice fly to center field and brought home a run.

Read more:Shaikin: Why Wayne Randazzo and Mark Gubicza might be best Angels broadcast duo in 50 years

Kikuchi (93 pitches, 51 for strikes) struggled with command once again, with his league-high walk rate rearing its ugly head. The Japanese southpaw loaded the bases in each of the first two innings, but settled down to make it through five innings, giving up five hits and striking out four. Despite Kikuchi battling through the fifth — and the Angels bullpen tossing four scoreless innings — with how the Angels have been at the plate over their last five games, one run was all the Yankees needed Wednesday.

In perhaps the biggest cheer of the night at the Big A, right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn struck Judge out looking with a 99.1-mph fastball in the seventh inning.

Now, the offense will look to recover away from Anaheim and see if it can rediscover what made it click against the Dodgers and Athletics.

Cleveland and Boston await the Angels next as they’ll first face the Guardians at Progressive Field on Friday to begin their six-game trip.

Angels reshuffle roster

The Angels made a flurry of roster moves before Wednesday’s game, designating veteran infielder Tim Anderson and catcher Chuckie Robinson for assignment, while optioning left-hander Jake Eder to triple-A Salt Lake City.

In corresponding moves, right-handed relief pitcher Robert Stephenson — who’d been out after undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2024 — was activated off the 60-day injured list, and infielder Scott Kingery was recalled from triple-A Salt Lake City.

Washington said his hope for Stephenson, who signed a three-year, $33-million deal with the Angels before the 2024 season, is to be eased back into a high-leverage role. Stephenson said he is looking forward to the role he can play on the major league roster.

“To me, it's like, probably just like, up there with making my debut,” said Stephenson, who made his season and Angels debut Wednesday, tossing a scoreless sixth inning. “I feel like it's gonna be pretty special for me."

Kingery, on the other hand, hasn’t appeared in the major leagues since 2022. Bursting on the scene as a top prospect with the Philadelphia Phillies, he featured heavily in the 2018 and 2019 campaigns after signing a six-year, $24-million contract extension before making his MLB debut.

The 31-year-old, who Washington said will play center field, second base and third base, put up 2.7 wins-above-replacement in 2019 before struggling to find any resemblance to his previous success — playing in just 16 combined games in 2021 and 2022 — and was eventually traded to the Angels in November 2024 after spending most of the last four seasons in the minor leagues.

“It's hard, it's a hard game,” Kingery said. “Stuff happens throughout your career, and you got to find ways to battle that and just keep on going. Just keep the foot on the pedal and find ways to make things work."

Trout nears return

Mike Trout (left knee) continues to check the boxes as he nears a return from the injured list. The longest-tenured Angel and three-time MVP faced live pitching from a minor league pitcher on Wednesday, and performed baserunning drills with more intensity than earlier this week, Washington said.

Washington added that Trout began to cut and stop while running, but he still wasn’t going at 100%.

“Came out of it very well,” Washington said. “He looks good.”

Trout was hitting .179 with nine home runs and 18 RBIs before suffering a bone bruise in his left knee on April 30.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.