Category: Sports News

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — It was an old-school reminder to the way baseball used to be played, the way we looked at the game, and the stats that shaped our opinions Sunday afternoon at the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The new Hall of Fame trio of Jeff Kent, Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones were here to remind everyone that the traditional statistics should still matter. Runs batted in should not be considered a fluke stat in a box score. There really is a clutch element in a players’ psyche. And while everyone is engrossed with on-base percentage these days, even if some sluggers are only clogging the bases by drawing a rash of walks, future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker has a question for you:

“If driving in runs or scoring runs isn’t important,’’ future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker said, “then why are we bothering to keep score?’’

Kent, Beltran and Jones, who were inducted into the Hall of Fame with a record 60 Hall of Famers in attendance and 12,000 fans in attendance, certainly represented baseball’s greatest values throughout their brilliant careers.

They didn’t celebrate drawing a walk with a runner on third base with less than two outs, instead wanting to drive them in, not letting the responsibility fall to someone else.

They didn’t sit out games when they weren’t feeling well, or treat the injured list like a paid vacation. They posted, season after season, oftentimes playing in pain, knowing that they were a whole lot more valuable to their teams at 70% than sitting on the bench.

They didn’t try to create a brand. They didn’t try to draw attention to themselves. They played to win, game after game, season after season.

Go ahead, check out their resumes:

Mets right-hander Freddy Peralta said that he believes he “probably” made his final start with the club ahead of the August 3 MLB Trade Deadline.

“I know it probably is,” Peralta said when asked if it crossed his mind that he could be pitching for the club for the final time.

“I have to focus and keep giving the best of myself,” he continued. “If it happens, it happens. I’m thankful and grateful to be part of this organization. 

“I know so far I’ve let them down. I haven’t done what I was supposed to do, but I’m grateful to be here.”

In the game, an 8-3 win for the Mets over the Los Angeles Dodgers, Peralta allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits and two walks over 4.0 innings with three strikeouts

Peralta said that he has not had any conversations with anybody from the organization about him being dealt. 

“I understand how it works, but I can not control that,” he said. “I just have to wait, and come back here tomorrow and the next days and do my best and keep working hard and just keep myself healthy.”

Despite that chatter just being that, the starter admitted that it has been tough to keep the trade noise out of his mind, “especially because I’ve been treated here really good.” 

“My teammates, everybody here in the organization have been amazing,” he said. “It’s not easy to not think about it, but at the end of the day it's business and I have to understand that.”

Over 22 starts this season, Peralta has pitched to a 4.99 ERA and 1.48 WHIP over 113.2 innings.

“We haven’t done what we expected to do, in general, but especially myself,” Peralta said Sunday. “I know I can be way better than this. I still believe in myself. I am born to be a winner and not a loser. 

“I think I have a lot in me, a lot to show. I know it can change because I still have time to make a change, to make it better.”

Carlos Beltrán and Bad Bunny haven’t met yet, but the Hall of Fame slugger and the superstar rapper share a love of family and their beloved Puerto Rico. So while thinking of a way to honor his parents during his induction speech, Beltran pulled from one of Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio’s hits Sunday afternoon at the Clark Sports Center.

Most of Beltrán’s induction speech at the National Baseball Hall of Fame was in English, but he delivered part of it in Spanish to address his parents, Wilfredo and Carmen.

That’s when he quoted Bad Bunny’s “La Mudanza,” one of the songs the Puerto Rican star sang during the last Super Bowl halftime show.

“Un aplauso pa Mami y Papi porque en verdá rompieron.”

(In English, “One round of applause for Mom and Dad because they truly crushed it.”)

“I love that song,” Beltrán said after he was inducted into the Hall along with former DodgersJeff Kent and Andruw Jones before an estimated crowd of 12,000. “I like it because it’s a tribute to our parents.

“I think it’s cool what [Bad Bunny] does with his music. There’s no doubt that he looks for a way to promote Puerto Rico, recognize the family, recognize relationships. I think it was an important moment to mention them and for the fans that follow his music react to those words.”

Beltrán was born in Manati, Puerto Rico, where his father, Wilfredo Beltrán worked at a pharmaceutical company. Carlos Beltrán credits his father with instilling his work ethic by winning “perfect attendance” certificates every year for 35 years at his company. Carmen Beltrán was a homemaker, and Carlos credits her with raising him.

Long before Bad Bunny became one of the most popular artists in the world, Beltrán devoted his work off the field to helping Puerto Rican youths and promoting his island.

“I feel proud of what he does,” Beltrán said of Bad Bunny. “I think he represents our island. He’s part of our culture, and at the same time he’s doing a pretty good job promoting the island. As a baseball player myself, I try to do the best that I could also to do the same.”

Kent explains how a truck changed his life

Jeff Kent explained why he has kept the 1985 Toyota 4x4 truck that he received from his parents, Alan and Sherry, when he was a teen in Huntington Beach.

“When I was 16 years old I was racing motorcycles and driving my great-grandparents’ old Plymouth Volare,” Kent said during his induction speech. “My dad knew motorcycles weren’t taking me anywhere. He made me a bet. He knew that if I were to earn a college scholarship, he would buy me a pickup truck.

“My dad was a simple guy, a police officer in Southern California, and that was all we could afford in my family at that time. That truck meant everything to me. I quit racing and focused on school and baseball, and won that baseball scholarship, because I got that truck. That truck is still with me. It sits in my garage as a simple reminder that some of the simplest things can change the entire direction of your life.”

Read more:Huntington Beach's Jeff Kent credits his parents for helping fuel his Hall of Fame career

With that commitment to baseball and education while he was a student at Huntington Beach’s Edison High School, Kent secured a scholarship to Cal Berkeley.

Lasorda’s words made an impact on Kent

Kent, who spent the final four seasons of his 17-year career with the Dodgers, quoted the late Tommy Lasorda in his speech.

“The money lies in the RBIs,” Kent said while attributing that quote to Lasorda during his speech.

Kent clearly took that message to heart, driving in 1,518 runs during his career. He didn’t actually get that quote directly from Lasorda. He heard it while sitting around home plate at Cal listening to a motivational talk that longtime Cal coach Bob Milano made the team hear over the stadium’s loudspeakers.

“At Cal Berkeley,” Kent explained, “our manager made us sit around home plate. … He made us sit in the dirt at home plate, and on the loudspeaker he played a motivational tape of Tommy Lasorda.

“And in that speech, 20 minutes in that motivational talk, I got out of that, ‘The money lies in the RBIs.’ That stuck in my brain forever, and it never, never left my brain.”

Jones connects Curaçao to Cooperstown

Jones, a former Braves star who spent the 2008 season with the Dodgers, became the first native of Curaçao inducted into the Hall.

“There’s no easy way to get here from the small island of Curaçao, more than 2,000 miles away,” Jones, a five-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, said during his speech. “But today Cooperstown and Curaçao are forever joined together.

“Being the first Hall of Famer from my island is an incredible moment. That’s why they make such a memorable day. I’m overjoyed to share this day with people from my homeland.”

Jones paid tribute to Hensley Meulens, who became the first native of Curaçao in the majors when he debuted on Aug. 23, 1989, with the Yankees. Meulens played parts of seven seasons in the majors. Almost seven years later, Jones became the second player from his island to reach the majors when he debuted at 19 years old with the Braves on Aug. 15, 1996.

An elite audience

Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax, who was inducted in 1972 and is the longest tenured honoree, was among the record 60 Baseball Hall of Famers to gather Sunday at the Clark Sports Center for the ceremony.

Former Twins and Angels star Rod Carew, 80, powered through to attend the induction.

David Ortiz helped Carew get to his seat on the stage after Carew was introduced to the crowd.

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Welcome to the Third Annual Connections Recap. Here are the versions from 2024 and 2025 if you missed them. It will be guided by a Lookout Landing edition of the New York Times game called Connections, in which you try to group 16 words into four groups of four that share a similarity. Here are the directions from the creators:

Find groups of four items that share something in common.
– Select four items and tap ‘Submit’ to check if your guess is correct.
– Find the groups without making 4 mistakes!
Category Examples
– FISH: Bass, Flounder, Salmon, Trout
– FIRE _____: Ant, Drill, Island, Opal
Categories will always be more specific than “5-LETTER-WORDS,” “NAMES” or “VERBS.”
Each puzzle has exactly one solution. Watch out for words that seem to belong to multiple categories!
Each group is assigned a color, which will be revealed as you solve: Yellow is the most straightforward, then green, then blue, and purple is the trickiest. You don’t have to guess in that order.

Here’s the link to today’s puzzle from the New York Times, if you want to play a round to try to get the hang of how the game works.

And here is the link to the version I made for your recap today. It’s on an interactive site, and the main difference between that site and the NYT version is that this version will not cut you off after four wrong guesses. You can continue guessing forever. So if you give up, come back here for the answers. And if you want, I’ve embedded the analog version below as a static image, though you won’t know if you have a group right, thus helping you get the other groups by having eliminated four words. Here’s the link to the interactive one again. Use the interactive one.

And here, after several lines of periods to hide it from view, are the answers and your recap.

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Globe Life Field has been a house of horrors for the Mariners this year, and I’m not just talking about the bad camera angles, the lack of anything to do around the stadium other than a Subway, the AI mid-inning entertainment, the Home Depot aesthetic . . . sorry, I got lost in a digression. The Mariners had lost all five games at the Rangers’ ballpark this season, scoring a total of just seven runs across those five games. The Mariners’ performance in Arlington alone basically accounts for the trouble the team is in right now, entering the game in third place and 2.5 games behind the Rangers, despite having a far superior run differential over both them and the Astros while also getting unlucky and underperforming. So having lost the first two games of this crucial series, this was a game that had higher stakes than you’d have expected. Seattle really needed to win.

The green category tees up the two Hatters, Stetson alumni Logan Gilbert and Jacob deGrom, who faced off for the third time this year. The Rangers won both Round 1 and Round 2, even though Gilbert pitched a touch better both times, in my view. Today, Gilbert pitched a touch better yet again.

It didn’t start great, with deGrom shutting the top of the Mariners’ lineup down on six pitches and Gilbert then giving up a quick run. But in deGrom’s half of the inning, both Cole Young and Dominic Canzone registered hard-hit balls. As for Gilbert, while Joc Pederson’s leadoff double was legit, Wyatt Langford’s single that moved him to third was on a pretty good pitch, and Pederson scored on a lame sac fly before Gilbert got out of the inning on a 58-mph ground ball and a strikeout.

It was a theme that would carry through the starters’ outings.

The Rangers scored two more runs in the fourth, despite never topping a 90-mph exit velocity. The dumbest part of that sequence was when a ball ricocheted off Gilbert’s foot, but don’t sleep on the seeing-eye single that Cole Young corralled, but couldn’t quite flip to second in time given how slowly the ball was moving.

But Gilbert was good, sitting 97 with his fastball and with his slider working for enough outings in a row to call it a trend. No wonder its usage was back up to the one-third mark he’s used when he’s been at his best. The Rangers just managed to cluster all their offense together, while Gilbert retired seven in a row at one point and ten in a row at another.

Meanwhile, the Mariners were touching deGrom up, recording 10 hard-hit balls, including the only barrel either starter would give up, a Cole Young triple struck at 102, somehow slower than his 103-mph lineout in the first. Young scored on a Julio Rodríguez single. But other than that, they were getting BABIPed to death, with several at ‘em balls.

Facing the lineup for the third time and sitting on 86 pitches, deGrom was vulnerable heading into the sixth. The Mariners half-completed the assignment, with base hits from Canzone and Randy Arozarena, but deGrom was pulled for a lefty. Josh Naylor smashed one at 104, but right to the second baseman. Then, Cal Raleigh absolutely let it rip, giving his A-swing to three fastballs that he couldn’t get close to, and Weston Wilson pinch-hit for Luke Raley and watched two pitches sail right down Broadway before whiffing at a pitch up out of the zone.

So, yeah, not a great outing from Cal Raleigh. Yet again. Despite the team and the region going all-in on Cal as the face of the franchise, he’s put up just 0.4 fWAR this year. What should be the heart of the team, Cal, Julio, and Naylor, have combined for a 95 wRC+ and 2.8 fWAR, when their pre-season projections should have had them at about 128 and 10.2 at this point in the season.

But the Mariners have stayed afloat thanks in no small part to the emergence of Young and Canzone.

Coming into the seventh inning, Young had been robbed of a base hit in the first and a double in the fifth to go with the triple he actually got in the third. When he came up with Colt Emerson on in the seventh, he hit the ball at 108.5 mph, his third time in triple digits on the day. This one got through, an opposite field hit to put two on for Canzone.

Canzone, who won the Sun Hat Award on Friday, laid off two uncompetitive pitches from Cole Winn before taking a splitter at the bottom of the zone for a ride. In the comments, Jacob Hausdorf is correctly harping on the fact that Canzone’s swing came through at 84 mph. That’s a top ~5% figure among all competitive swings in MLB this year. The ball left at 111, seemingly just to outdo Young. It was a no doubter, and the understatement of Canzone’s bat drop was the ice cold move in the Texas heat.

Randy, the member of this offense’s heart and soul that has lived up to his potential this season, then made it back-to-back home runs to get the score to 5-3.

Now working with the lead, Gabe Speier was dominant. Having been brought in for the last out of the sixth, he pitched the full seventh too, retiring all four batters he faced with three strikeouts. Some people have said Gabe’s strikeouts are on the way back. Big day for those people.

Eduard Bazardo had a harder time in the eighth, giving up a solo shot to bring the score back within one. But we should not be worried. He looks fine. He’s just had a random cluster of bad outcomes at a time when the team is glaringly on the struggle bus, so it feels worse. And in any event, Canzone got that run right back in the ninth, driving in Julio on a double down the left-field line.

The letter Y is a tricky little fellow, most famously associated with the word “sometimes.” That’s how it’s felt for Mariners’ closer Andrés Muñoz this season. A lockdown reliever for most of his career, he had a few blow-ups and a few close calls in the first half. But he’s turned that right around over his last eight innings. Twice, he was a pitch away from an immaculate inning. His velo’s back into triple digits. And this afternoon, he blew the doors off the Rangers with three ugly-looking strikeouts. For working his way back to his dominant form, and locking down a win the team really needed, Muñoz wins today’s Sun Hat Award.

I’d love to see your results in the comments:

Well, if the Padres series wasn’t dramatic enough for you then hopefully you got enough of it during this series between the Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards! Two games went to extra innings and the only game that didn’t went to a walk off. There was barely anything separating these two ballclubs across the three games, so the Braves can certainly count their blessings that they were the ones who came out of. this series on top since it definitely could’ve ended differently!

Let’s take a quick look at just how intense this series was, shall we?

Friday, July 24

Braves 7, Orioles 6

For the first seven innings of this game, it was mostly frustrating for the Braves as Trevor Rogers had himself a very nice start. The only blemish for Rogers came in the fourth inning, which is when Mauricio Dubón scratched a run past him with a sacrifice fly and then Austin Riley bounced one up the middle to tie the game up at 2-2 at that point. That was the only wobble for Rogers and the Braves soon found themselves down 4-2 heading into the late portion of the game.

The eighth inning was when the drama truly began. Rico Garcia entered the game in relief for Trevor Rogers and Drake Baldwin rudely welcomed him to the game by taking a low pitch and sending it flying into the seats in right-center for a game-tying homer. The Orioles had the go-ahead run at third base in the bottom of the eighth but Elieser Hernández kept his nerve and prevented the run from scoring.

It only got nervier from there, as the O’s proceeded to load up the bases in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Fortunately, a smart intentional walk from Walt Weiss (not the first time we’ll be seeing that during this recap) gave Hernández the opportunity to get Taylor Ward to ground out and send it to extras. The three scoreless innings from Hernández were massive and it was honestly a crying shame that the cold realities of baseball saw him get DFA’d right after the game.

Propelled by the performance, the Braves had a big tenth inning as a result. A hilariously-bad throw to second from Jackson Holliday on a ground ball from Jim Jarvis pushed the Braves out in front and then Matt Olson seemingly broke the game open with a moonshot to right center that made it 7-3 Braves. Smooth sailing from there, right? Wrong! Dylan Lee got the tenth inning and he ended up giving up a sacrifice fly and a two-run dinger to Christian Encarnacion-Strand to bring the O’s within one run. Fortunately, Lee struck out Sam Huff to end the game so yet another late comeback attempt was thwarted by the Braves. Good grief, what a doozy this one was.

Saturday, July 25

Orioles 3, Braves 2

Bryce Elder got the ball to start this one for Atlanta and it was your typical productive Elder start where he did mostly fine for five innings but still couldn’t avoid hanging one for a dinger. This time, Gunnar Henderson was the fortunate recipient of the Elder Hanger and he made no mistake by crushing it out to right-center for a solo shot that put the O’s up 2-0 in the fifth inning. The good news is that Elder was done after the fifth and then Victor Mederos kept Baltimore quiet while he was on the mound for two innings, which gave the Braves the chance to stay in the game.

The Braves slowly but surely got themselves back into the game after they were able to scratch one run past Brandon Young with a productive out from Mauricio Dubón in the seventh inning and then Ozzie Albies bopped one out over the fence in right field for a game-tying solo shot in the eighth. Just like that, the Braves had new life and we were in for another nervy finish during this week’s action.

Unfortunately, the Braves were probably due to roll snake eyes in one of these situations and Saturday night just happened to be the night. An admittedly nervous Didier Fuentes attempted to get through the final two innings but he ended up coming one out short. Jackson Holliday hit a one-out double in the ninth inning and then Dylan Beavers brought him home with an RBI single that walked things off and gave Baltimore the win.

Fuentes wasn’t the only nervous one out there, as Jim Jarvis made a couple of really bad errors with one of those in particular essentially setting the table for Baltimore’s first run of the night. Tough night for the youngsters but that’s baseball for you! Welcome to the Show!

Sunday, July 26

Braves 3, Orioles 2

It sure would’ve been nice for all of the Braves fans out there who wanted to have a nice and relaxing Sunday win to see the Braves acquiesce to those demands and make things easy for the fans. Instead, we got what we got. Despite a strong outing from Reynaldo López and two RBIs from Dominic Smith that gave the Braves a 2-0 lead heading into the eighth inning, drama ensued nonetheless.

Pete Alonso hit a a deep shot to left field for a dinger off of Dylan Lee to make it a 2-1 game and then the ninth inning got nervy because it feels like there have been nothing but nervy ninth innings, lately. Raisel Iglesias walked Christian Encarnacion-Strand to lead off the ninth and as is becoming custom for whenever the leadoff runner gets on against Iggy, you may as well have buckled your seat belts from that point forward.

However, you could make a serious argument that this was not on Iggy, as he induced what looked like a totally manageable grounder from Leody Tavares directly towards Ozzie Albies. Somehow, the ball went through Ozzie’s legs and instead of two outs being on the board, it was runners on the corners with just one out. Jackson Holliday delivered a productive out (via a great play from Ozzie Albies, go figure) to tie the game and Iglesias was able to get the pinch-hitting Jeremiah Jackson to ground out to send the game to extras.

The Braves were quiet in their half of the tenth inning but the Orioles threatened to the point where the Braves were on the very precipice of a painful loss. Danny Young got the ball for the tenth inning and the bases were loaded with nobody out after he walked Dylan Beavers and the Braves gave Pete Alonso the free pass. Baltimore had a 93.6 percent chance of wining the game at this point.

Those chances dropped precipitously to 63.3 percent after Gunnar Henderson lined one directly into Matt Olson’s glove, who then proceeded to beat Pete Alonso to first for an astonishing double play. It was baseball poetry in that all the way back in the first inning, Alonso was the one who completed an unassisted double play. Baseball gives and baseball takes.

A harmless pop fly from Taylor Ward ended the inning and then Austin Riley wasted no time putting the Braves back in front with a hustle double. Atlanta was unable to add any more runs but Tyler Kinley made sure that they didn’t need to. Walt Weiss intentionally loaded the bases in order to force the O’s to use the extremely light-hitting Sam Huff with the game on the line. The decision paid off, as Huff grounded it to Riley who tossed it to Olson to end the game. Phew!

So yeah, Atlanta’s last five wins have been of the one-run variety (and six of the past eight have been one-run wins as well) and those are the types of dramatic, gritty wins that really start to pay dividends in terms of actual wins and the nebulous confidence factory. Staying confident in those types of situations could end up being huge for the Braves once the drama factor ratchets up in October. You could argue that it may not be that big of a deal considering what Baltimore’s record looks like but also the O’s have been playing some really good baseball as of late so it’s pretty impressive to see this Braves team go into Camden Yards and take this series in such dramatic fashion.

Atlanta now heads into a stretch where 13 of their next 17 games will be against divisional foes. They still won’t be seeing the Phillies again until September but for now, they’ll have a chance to really put some serious distance between themselves and the Nationals, Mets and Marlins. 10 of those 13 games will come at home but the first three will take place in New York, where the Braves will be looking to finally take care of business against the Mets. I think we could all do with seeing some nice, comfortable wins but knowing how things have been going recently and also knowing how the season series usually tends to go against the Mets, I’d say that it’s safe to just go ahead and prepare yourself for more drama going forward. Apparently, that’s how the Braves like it for now!

The San Francisco Giants appear ready to sell before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, but their disappointing season will not lead to a complete teardown.

Jung Hoo Lee is among the players expected to remain in San Francisco, while fellow outfielder Heliot Ramos could be moved, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

“The San Francisco Giants are telling teams that right fielder Jung Hoo Lee is staying, but they will move left fielder Heliot Ramos,” Nightengale wrote.

The distinction offers an early look at how the Giants are separating potential building blocks from players they are willing to use to reshape the roster.

Lee, 27, is having his best season since joining San Francisco on a six-year, $113 million contract. He is batting .302 with six home runs, 37 RBIs, 51 runs and six stolen bases through 96 games. His low strikeout rate and ability to contribute defensively have made him one of the few dependable pieces in an otherwise uneven lineup.

He showed that value Saturday by collecting two hits, including a three-run homer, and making multiple strong defensive plays during a 9-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

“He put on a show for the fans today, really all facets of the game,” manager Tony Vitello said.

Lee was removed after being hit near the elbow later in the game and did not start Sunday.

Ramos, meanwhile, is batting .262 with nine home runs, 31 RBIs and a .737 OPS. At 26, he is young enough to remain part of the Giants’ future, but San Francisco appears willing to move him for a return that better fits its long-term plans.

Lee reportedly joins top prospect Bryce Eldridge and starting pitcher Logan Webb among the players considered unlikely to be dealt. The Giants may listen on most of the remaining roster, including veterans who could help contenders over the final two months.

That leaves the front office facing a delicate assignment. San Francisco is 44-60, fourth in the National League West and far removed from the postseason race, making it difficult to justify standing pat.

At the same time, the organization does not appear interested in stripping the roster down completely.

For now, the clearest indication of the Giants’ deadline strategy is in the outfield: Lee is staying, while Ramos can be had.

The Yankees have relied on lights-out pitching to pinch the first two games of this series, the offense managing just four runs while their pitchers have held a dangerous Phillies lineup to one run in 18 innings. However, they face their sternest test as they go for the sweep with Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez on the mound. They have the added challenge of playing without Cody Bellinger, who joins Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on the IL with a left hamstring strain suffered while legging out an eighth inning double in last night’s win.

Last Wednesday, Will Warren made his first relief appearance since the disastrous Game 2 of the 2025 ALDS against the Blue Jays. That, the recent doubleheaders, and Max Fried’s return from injury rearranged the rotation order to hand him the all-important series finale in Philly. After a strong start to the season, Warren has allowed 20 runs (16 earned) in his last 26.1 innings, most of his troubles coming when pitching out of the stretch. In 19 starts, Warren is 7-4 with a 4.00 ERA (105 ERA+), 4.11 FIP, and 97 strikeouts in 99 innings.

If it weren’t for a certain flamethrower named Jacob Misiorowski, Sánchez would be the runaway leader in the NL Cy Young race, trailing only the Brewers ace in fWAR (4.2) among all pitchers. He owns the third-lowest walk rate (4.5-percent) of any qualified starter, which is a major factor in him placing in the top-ten in MLB in ERA, FIP, and K-BB%. He has taken his game to another level since extending with the Phillies for a bargain six years and $107 million over the spring, his changeup and slider each boasting whiff rates in excess of 45-percent. In 21 starts, Sánchez is 12-4 with a 2.65 ERA (172 ERA+), 2.66 FIP, and 151 strikeouts in 132.2 innings.

Despite the Yankees calling up Spencer Jones to take Bellinger’s place on the roster, the rookie starts the game on the bench as they face their third straight lefty starter this series. Instead, it will be Max Schuemann who gets the start in left as part of three changes to last night’s lineup. Anthony Volpe starts at short, sliding José Caballero to second and Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the bench. Austin Wells hit the longest home run of his career last night, but he rests in favor of Ali Sánchez for catching duties.

The Phillies also make three changes to last night’s lineup, opting for wholesale substitutions in the outfield. Brandon Marsh replaces Edmundo Sosa in left, Justin Crawford replaces Derek Hill in center, and Gabriel Rincones Jr. replaces Bryan De La Cruz in right. The Yankees may have been able to silence this lineup for the first two games, but Warren cannot fall into the trap of taking them lightly for one second.

How to watch

Location: Citizens Bank Park – Philadelphia, PA

First pitch: 7:20 pm ET

TV broadcast: NBC

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY) | 94 WIP, 106.1 Rumba (PHI)

Streaming: Peacock

For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

The Cincinnati Reds entered the All Star break completely on the skids, out of luck, out of effort, and mired in the depths of last place in the National League Central division. Staring them square in the face was the inevitability of a sell-off at the upcoming trade deadline, especially with a daunting three-city, nine-game road trip the first thing greeting them in the season’s second half.

To their credit, they didn’t let that phase them one bit.

Sunday saw the Reds plate a trio of runs in the Top of the 10th inning to lock up what eventually became a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Busch Stadium. The win gave the Reds the series over St. Louis, and it also locked up a third straight seried victory on said road trip as they went 6-3 overall in their road grays.

The Reds got an early homer from Elly De La Cruz, a later one from Ke’Bryan Hayes that knotted the game 2-2 at the time, and another rock solid (6.0 IP, 2 ER) outing from steady lefty Andrew Abbott. Sal Stewart, who got the day off for most of the action, was summoned to pinch-hit with the Manfred Man on in the Top of the 10th and delivered with an RBI single (as he is wont to do), and Nate Lowe chipped in with a 3-hit day that featured a 2-ribbie single later in the 10th to wrap the good guys’ scoring output on the day.

The lone real blemish on an otherwise excellent day was that Spencer Steer exited early with what was ultimately called ‘right wrist pain.’ He fouled off a pitch and pretty instantly was wincing, and he was pulled and replaced by Edwin Arroyo. There are very few ways you can lightly injure a wrist, but that’s certainly the hope. If it is, god forbid, a hamate injury – which is so damn common among hitters these days – it’ll be enough to sideline him through the August 3rd trade deadline and beyond, likely taking one of Cincinnati’s biggest potential trade chips off the board altogether.

As for said trade deadline, the 49-55 Reds will return home this afternoon and open a 10-game homestand that will take them through it. First up will be the Cleveland Guardians, while the Pittsburgh Pirates and Oaklasvegas A’s set to follow. Chase Burns will get the start in the opener against the Guards at GABP at 7:00 PM ET on Monday, with ESPN carrying it nationally.

What we learned as Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm help salvage series vs. Yankees originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Phillies have had quite the rollercoaster of a season.

When they finished out the first half with what Don Mattingly called their “best game of the year,” when they outplayed the Tigers and Tarik Skubal, it felt like the break was coming at the perfect time after the long midwest trip.

Lately, it hasn’t been pretty.

But for a stretch before that, the club had looked sluggish — a squad that boasted six All-Stars at its home ballpark.

Was it much of a break, then, if their core was barely getting any time away from the game?

Don Mattingly noted pregame that it was obviously an “honor” for sluggers like Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber to take part, but he didn’t think the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game were “great things for those guys.”

That can be the case, but they needed to put all of that aside and salvage the series against the Yankees Sunday at Citizens Bank Park. And they did just that in their 11-4 win, snapping their four-game losing streak.

Who and what stood out in game No. 106?

QUIETLY STOTT

Since Mattingly took over and Bryson Stott began getting regular playing time at second — without Edmundo Sosa spelling him against most left-handers — his offensive numbers have taken off.

In the second inning Sunday, after the Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the first, Stott lined a low-and-in fastball into the first row of the right-field seats. Bringing his hands in, the Phillies’ second baseman clubbed the pitch 110.5 mph off the bat — the hardest homer of his career.

Not only has Stott been one of Philadelphia’s most consistent hitters, batting .289 since May 31, but it’s where he’s making contact that tells the story.

For Stott, his key has been where his hands are at the point of contact. His softly-hit batted balls typically head to the left side, but when he really connects, he predominantly pulls it.

Entering Sunday, Stott had pulled the baseball at a 36.2 percent rate, a career-high (second is 32.6 in 2022). His year-to-year jump (from 2025) is the 14th highest in baseball.

What has that led to?

A career-high in hard-hit rate. Last year, Stott produced a 29.5 percent hard-hit rate. That has soared to 38.3 percent — the second-highest jump from last year of all 181 qualified hitters.

You’re starting to see a number of Phillies, like Trea Turner and Alec Bohm, find a rhythm pulling the baseball.

One inning later, Stott knocked another base hit through the right side. And in the sixth, he pulled another — his 14th multi-hit game in his last 48-game stretch.

THE DISRESPECT?

The Yankees made an interesting decision that may have cost them the game.

In the third, with runners on second and third and two outs, Yankees righty Will Warren fell behind in the count 2-0 to Brandon Marsh, who, over his last 18 games entering play, was hitting just .129 — and just .140 against right-handers.

New York decided to intentionally walk Marsh, loading the bases — and pitch to Alec Bohm instead.

The Phillies’ third baseman has been one of the club’s best hitters with runners in scoring position. He’s batting a team-best .304 with a .983 OPS with two outs and runners in scoring position.

Bohm proceeded to work a nine-pitch at-bat, and on the ninth pitch, he dug out a sweeper and swiped it into left field. Neither outfielder could cut it off — hit just 87.5 mph, it rolled all the way to the wall, allowing all three runners to score.

It was a four-run third, and gave the Phillies a 6-0 lead.

Did Bohm have a chip on his shoulder in that spot?

The Phillies were fortunate to get that opportunity. Cristopher Sánchez wasn’t at his sharpest, but he still turned in six innings, allowing three earned runs. He got ahead of hitters all night long. That was enough, especially after the Phillies tacked on five more runs in the sixth.

DOWN ON THE FARM & ROTATION TALK

With all the talk surrounding the Phillies’ fifth-starter spot — which has now lost 11 turns in a row — a reinforcement from within would obviously be preferable.

Andrew Painter, who was sent down on June 18, has found some success recently at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. On Sunday, the tall right-hander made his fifth start, and dazzled. Six innings of one-run ball — the run coming on a homer — with six strikeouts and no walks.

Three of his last four starts have gone at least five innings with two or fewer earned runs. He touched 99 mph on Sunday. He fired 90 pitches, 61 of those for strikes.

Good life on his fastball, paired with strike-throwing, is exactly what the Phillies want to see.

Mattingly also pointed to Painter’s growing feel for a wrinkle in his arsenal.

“He’s kind of a secret slider guy at this point,” Mattingly said, noting it’s a pitch they want more developed than just a right-on-right weapon.

But even with the flashes, Mattingly made clear there’s no artificial timeline pushing Painter back to the majors.

“It’s not going to be something like, ‘Oh hey, now he’s ready, now he’s good,'” Mattingly said. “It’s going to be, let’s let Andrew develop — same pitch, same work, keep getting better — and when he’s ready, we’ll see him.”

The club has not optioned Brian Keller after he spun three innings Saturday following the opener, so there’s reason to think, as Mattingly put it, that Keller could be in play again in Baltimore this Friday.

With how thin the end of the Phillies’ bullpen is, it’s also reasonable to think Painter could be a contributor there, but the club has not changed his throw-day schedule recently. He’s built up, and the club wants him to be a starter long-term.

If the Phillies are unable to land a back-end starter, an Aaron Nola–Painter opener-bulk strategy could be an outside-the-box look in a playoff format, assuming they clinch later in the season.

Continue to keep an eye on how Painter progresses at Triple-A.

WHAT’S AHEAD

The Phillies have a strong opportunity to get in a rhythm after facing off against the Yankees and Dodgers this past week.

They’ll head to Miami and face the Marlins, who lost their 12th straight game on Sunday. The Phils, just a game over .500 at home (28-27), are 29-22 on the road this year and could build some comfort in the Wild Card race. Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Jesús Luzardo will go in South Beach.

After that, they’ll head north to play the Orioles, who sit fourth in the American League East at 51-55. That three-game set will precede the August 3 trade deadline.

When Jeremy Peña led off the game with a homer off Erick Fedde, it seemed to portend a rough day for the White Sox. It portended wrong.

It only took two Sox batters to turn things around. Sam Antonacci led off the bottom of the first with a walk, and then Munetaka Murakami started his celebration of his own bobblehead day.

Peña tied the game at two with another solo shot in the third, so Murakami struck back by grounding in a run in the bottom of that inning to make it 3-2. Then in the fourth, Braden Montgomery decided to at least stall of the next Astro dinger for an inning.

Still, Taylor Trammell did the solo-shot bit for Houston in the fifth to tie it again in the fifth and it looked like the Astros would have another big sixth inning as they’d had the first two games of the series, but they left the bases loaded and were apparently so discouraged by the failure they gave up on offense for the rest of the day.

Not so the White Sox, who hadn’t hit a homer in a week and decided to make up for that all in one day. Miguel Vargas went deep in the bottom of the sixth to make it 5-3, and then it was time to sit back and have fun.

Chase Meidroth parked one to lead off the seventh, and the bobblehead man drove in two more runs with a single:

Then Andrew Benintendi decided there might as well be a cheap run, too, and blooped a 68 mph RBI to make it 9-3, White Sox.

Not enough long ball? Of course not. Even .171 hitter Junior Perez, a defensive replacement, got in on the action with a two-run shot. And that gave one more at-bat to the man of the hour … and day … and he showed his appreciation.

Make that six RBIs on the day for the bobblehead, and five long balls for the Sox — a season high.

The final score was 12-3, running Chicago’s record to 55-49 with the Yankees heading to town tomorrow and putting Gerrit Cole on the mound for the opener of a four-game series. With the Guardians losing to the Rays (understandable) for their fifth loss in a row and the Tigers falling to the Royals again (huh?), the lead in the AL Central is now 2 1/2 over Cleveland, 3 1/2 over Minnesota, and six over Detroit.