Category: Sports News

Blue Jays 10 Rays 5

A win at Tropicana. I always think I’m more likely to find a $20 bill on the ground than to see the Jays win at that House of Horrors.

The Jays, very democratically, scored two runs in each of five innings:

• In the first: With two out, Alejandro Kirk doubled. A ‘hustle double’, just safe at second on ball hit into the right field corner. George Springer singled him home. A0nd Jesús Sánchez doubled him home. I wonder if we have ever scored in the first in St. Petersburg before?
• In the third: Nathan Lukes led off with a walk. And Kirk homered (two at bats and six total bases).
• In the fourth: Ernie Clements started this one with a single. An out later, Brett Bateman singled (and then stole second, his first MLB steal). After another out, Kirk singled home Clement (seven total bases). And a wild pitch scored Bateman.
• In the fifth: Kazuma Okamoto homered (#25 of the season, setting a new Jays rookie record, sorry Eric Hinske). An out late, Clement singled. Josh Smite put down a sac bunt (up 7-3 and we can’t let the guy SWING THE BAT??). Bateman singled home Clement.
• In the seventh: One out, Clement singled and Smith homered (see, let the man swing, good things happen).

We had 17 hits (let me double check, maybe that’s for the season, nope, tonight 17 hits). Kirk, Springer and Clement had three each. Bateman and Smith had two each. Every starter had at least one hit. Kirk’s average is up to .279. In a season where he broke a thumb, that’s very impressive.

On the pitching side, José Soriano looked terrific for three innings, then gave up three in the fourth (but we already had six). He ended up going 5.2, with the three runs against. Another out and it would be a Quality Start.

Mason Fluharty got the last out of the sixth.

Matt Waldron gave up two runs in his two innings.

Spencer Miles pitched a clean ninth.

Smith made a very nice play at third, I was a bit worried about his glove at third, but he looked good.

Jays of the Day: Kirk (0.16), Springer (0.11) and Soriano (0.09).

No one gets the Other Award.

Tomorrow, we have another 6:40 start. Max Scherzer (1-5, 6.59, but on a nice run of good starts) vs. Drew Rasmussen (12-5, 2.78).

The Rays lost another blowout tonight, one in their starter could not complete four innings and the subsequent relievers didn’t offer much relief.

Nick Martinez….I don’t know, I love the guy for so many reasons, but after his amazing first couple of months, it seems like every three, maybe even two outings is a clunker. The only good news is that best I can recall he’s never had two clunkers in a row, so I look forward to him pitching 7 strong innings five days from now.

Tonight he put the Rays behind 4-0 early on, a homer, some doubles, yada yada yada

The Rays tried their “let’s hit a bunch of singles and see what happens” approach and what happened was little, ergo the bases loaded one out third inning that ended with a double play.

And as often happens, after the Blue Jays retired the Rays without letting them score, they came back the next inning and yada yada yada 6-0.

The Rays did manage to cut that lead in half in the bottom of the fourth. Again it was single, single, single, single with a wild pitch in the mix to score three runs. Can someone please hit a double? Please?

But then Steven Matz, who had replaced the struggling Martinez the previous inning, returned for inning two against the Blue Jays and yada yada yada 8-3 Blue Jays. Bottom of the fifth inning Rays again had an opportunity but it was single, single, double play. No runs home.

Seventh inning: Jesse Scholtens back from the IL. He pitched a scoreless sixth but in the seventh, yada yada yada Blue Jays up, 10-3.

The Rays did get another two runs in the eighth inning — again, a bunch of singles and a couple of sac flies, to make the score 10-5.

Now when your team gives up ten runs you naturally look at the pitching, and there was nothing to be proud of tonight. BUT. The Rays had 13 hits. Every single hit was a single. This happened the last time they had a bad stretch as well — it wasn’t that they weren’t hitting at all, but that no one was hitting for power. So yes I want to see a better pitching performance (looking at you, stopped Drew Rasmussen), but could someone please hit a ball out of the park?

We’ve seen this game a lot lately. The starting pitcher has himself a good day, the bullpen has arguably a better day, and the lineup just manages to scratch across enough runs for the club to win. Tonight it wasn’t even “the lineup” so much as it was “just Trent Grisham”, but every win counts the same. Critically, the win tonight came on a bad night for Tampa, and the Yankees took the series opener in Maryland, 3-1 over the Orioles your final score.

It’s felt like the Yankees haven’t scored in the first half of a game since June, so it was nice to see Trent Grisham give his team the lead relatively early for once:

We’ll have more to admire about Trent a little later.

I thought Carlos Rodón was…fine? in his return to game action. We got 66 pitches out of the veteran lefty, good for four innings after he threw 54 in his final rehab outing. A 2:1 K:BB ratio kinda highlights the problems he’s had with free passes all year, a likely symptom of him not yet being 100 percent stretched out between his two injuries.

I will give him his due on one play though. One of the things that’s troubled Rodón since signing with the Yankees is his tendency to get spooked — he’ll lose a guy in a tough AB or give up a big hit, and he seemingly can’t find a way to settle down. In the second inning, he walked Christian Encarnacion-Strand before Leody Taveras singled. Carlos got the groundball that he needed, ticketed right for Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Jazz bobbled it. Instead of an inning-ending double play, we had the bases loaded, one out.

Jazz seemed to have a case with second-base umpire Ryan Additon, who looked like he was standing in Chisholm’s line of sight. That’s something you learn in Little League though, that you can ask an umpire to shift position and as long as you’re not a complete hater or lunatic, they’ll probably acquiesce. For whatever reason that didn’t happen, and Jazz was dinged with an error, the latest example in a long season where he has done himself no favors.

This is exactly the kind of thing that would make you think Rodón would fall apart, but he didn’t. He got a pair of strikeouts — one a great challenge by Austin Wells — to get out of danger.

Coby Mayo did tag Carlos for a solo shot to make it 1-1, but that was the extent of the damage against the southpaw. With Max Fried going on the IL, the Yankees can’t really afford to baby Rodón back, but repeating this effort in five days, with another 10-15 pitches allowed, would be welcome.

Knotted at 1-1, Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr. both singled to get the Yankees in business with one out in the seventh. Aaron Boone began pulling strings against lefty reliever Josh Walker, deploying both Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario from the bench. Goldy walked but Rose couldn’t deliver with the bases loaded, turning the lineup over and leaving Grisham as the team’s best hope. He delivered:

That’s Trent Grisham 3, Orioles 1, and one of the league’s better bullpens just had to do their job.

Enter Brett Headrick, who was pretty rocky — not at all what we’re accustomed to. A leadoff single was followed by a titanic 10-pitch walk to put two on, and Headrick had already thrown more pitches to the two men than he often throws in an overall appearance. He did blow strikes past Jeremiah Johnson before getting Jackson Holliday to fly out, a rather lazy ball that Heliot Ramos seemed to struggle to find. With Pete Alonso looming, Boone went to Fernando Cruz, who gave up a liner that found Spencer Jones’ glove. Threat averted.

David Bednar rebounded well from a blown save Sunday, one that wasn’t his fault, and nailed down the save in the ninth. At the time the final out was recorded, the Blue Jays were up on the Rays 10-5 at the Trop, and if that score holds (editor’s note: the score held!) the Yankees all of a sudden would be just five games back in the loss column. We can see Cody Bellinger’s return, even if Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge are a little fuzzier, a little further toward the horizon.

Will Warren’s likely bullpen demotion was staved off by Fried’s injury, and the righthander will be tapped to start game two of this set tomorrow. Perhaps no pitcher in the entire division needs a good start as much as Warren does given his track record of late, so hopefully he can figure out what’s plaguing him in time for a solid outing. First pitch of that contest once again comes at 6:35pm Eastern in Baltimore.

Box Score

Shohei Ohtani hit his 30th home run of the season on Tuesday night, his sixth consecutive season reaching the milestone, including all three years with the Dodgers. He’s the seventh Dodger to hit 30 home runs three seasons in a row, and the first to do so in 25 years.

Ohtani’s 30th home run came in the third inning on Tuesday against Colorado Rockies right-hander Ryan Feltner. He’s tied for eighth in the majors with 30 homers this season.

Ohtani is the first Dodger with at least 30 home runs in three consecutive seasons since Gary Sheffield from 1999-2001.

Ohtani has the 62nd individual season of at least 30 home runs in Dodgers history, with these seven players accounting for 30 of those years. Gil Hodges and Duke Snider lead the way with six 30-homer seasons, and they are the only Dodgers with streaks longer than three seasons, each of them hitting at least 30 homers in five straight years. Snider from 1953-57 hit at least 40 home runs in five straight seasons.

There were near misses, including Roy Campanella (1950-53), Pedro Guerrero (1982-85), and Max Muncy (2018-2021) hitting 30 home runs in three out of four years. Muncy was robbed of the chance due to the 2020 season getting shortened by a pandemic to 60 games.

In his first two years with the Dodgers, Ohtani set a franchise record for home runs with 54 home runs in 2024 and 55 in 2025. He’s the only player in franchise history to hit 50 home runs in a season. His 139 home runs with the Dodgers are the most in any three-year period in franchise history, surpassing Snider, who hit 125 home runs in two overlapping three-year periods, from 1954-56 and 1955-57.

Ohtani’s 139 home runs since the start of 2024 are most in the majors, eight more than Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber.

Trent Grisham drove in all three Yankees runs in their 3-1 win over the Orioles in Baltimore on Tuesday night.

Here are the takeaways...

-The Yankees offense struggled mightily against Shane Baz to start. The Orioles right-hander struck out five of the first six batters he faced. The right-hander pushed that to six in the third, but Grisham got the best of Baz, slamming a 403-foot shot to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. It was Grisham's fifth home run in his last eight games.

Aside from the Grisham homer, Baz was in cruise control, striking out 10 batters and pitching into the seventh. But the right-hander allowed two singles and was pulled with one out. 

Aaron Boone emptied his bench after Baz was pulled for a left-hander. Paul Goldschmidt, pinch-hitting for Ryan McMahon, walked to load the bases with one out. Amed Rosario, pinch-hitting for Austin Wells, struck out before Grisham hit a two-run single to retake the lead. 

-Yankees had just five hits and three walks while striking out 14 times. They were 1-for-5 with RISP and left six on base. 

Grisham and George Lombard Jr. (2-4, run scored) were the only Yankees with more than a hit.

-Carlos Rodon was making his first start since June 28 and was predictably lacking command. He walked two batters in the first two innings but was in trouble in the second. Jazz Chisholm Jr. botched a grounder that could have been a potential inning-ending doubleplay, but Rodon pitched out of trouble, striking out Carlos Narvaez and Jackson Holliday. 

Rodon wouldn't get out of this game unscathed, as Coby Mayo smashed a game-tying solo shot with two outs in the third. But that's all the southpaw would allow, tossing 66 pitches (39 strikes) in his four innings of work. He allowed the one run on two hits and two walks while striking out four.

-Behind Rodon, the Yankees bullpen did its job. Yerry De Los Santos allowed one hit in two innings of work. Brent Headrick pitched into trouble in the seventh, allowing a single and a walk (on 10 pitches) before striking out the next batter and getting a flyout before Fernando Cruz came in to try and get the final out of the inning. Cruz got Pete Alonso to line out to Spencer Jones in right to end the threat. 

Paul Blackburn walked a batter in a scoreless eighth before David Bednar pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.

Game MVP: Trent Grisham 

Grisham's offense saved what would have been another lackluster offensive performance.

Highlights

Solo homer for Trent Grisham gets the Yankees on the board! pic.twitter.com/iRsvaZG2Xg

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) August 18, 2026

What's next

The Yankees and Orioles play Wednesday night for the second of their three-game series. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m.

Will Warren (8-6, 4.42 ERA) will take the mound against Chris Bassitt (4-4, 5.11 ERA). 

Safe to say that many expected the St. Louis Cardinals vs Cincinnati Reds series to be some high-scoring affairs. Tuesday night was not that kind of game as both Kyle Leahy of the Cardinals and Andrew Abbott of the Reds were mowing down batters with only a few exceptions. The Cardinals bats would provide the necessary offense later in the game led by Masyn Winn’s 3 extra-base hits including a home run.

For the first half of the game, the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals only had 2 hits apiece. Fortunately for the St. Louis Cardinals, one of those hits cleared the left field wall as Masyn Winn connected on a 90 mph four-seam fastball from Abbott and sent it 368 feet over the left field wall for a line drive homer to make it 1-0 Cardinals.

Kyle Leahy held the Reds scoreless through 5 innings, but his pitch count hit 90 so the Cardinals solution for the 6th inning was Ryne Stanek. He set the Reds down 1-2-3 with a couple of pop-outs and a ground out in the bottom of the 6th inning. Kyle Leahy’s final stat line for Tuesday night was an impressive 3-hit shutout through 5 innings while striking out 6 and walking no one.

The Cardinals would double their lead in the top of the 7th inning and Masyn Winn would again play a role in that. He led off the inning with a double, but seemed to jam his left hand as he slid into second base which resulted in a visit from the training staff. He stayed in the game and scored two pitches later when José Fermín ripped a double off of the bottom of the left field wall giving St. Louis a 2-0 lead.

The Cardinals missed an opportunity to score even more after Pedro Pagés punched a single just over the head of Cruz into short centerfield for a single to give St. Louis runners at first and third with just one out. Unfortunately, JJ Wetherholt struck out and Iván Herrera grounded out to end the Cardinals half of the 7th.

The Cardinals asked Gordon Graceffo to handle the Reds in the bottom of the 7th inning. After he walked Suarez leading off the bottom of the 7th, he was helped by a strikeout and then a nice defensive play up the middle when JJ Wetherholt was able to snag a ball hit by Myers and turn it into a force out to Winn at second.

St. Louis would threaten again to extend the lead in the top of the 8th inning when Jordan Walker reached on an infield single to Elly De La Cruz followed by a double that Alec Burleson hit off of the left-centerfield wall which moved Jordan Walker to third. Joshua Baez then lifted a sacrifice fly to center which scored Walker and gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the 8th inning.

George Soriano entered the game in the bottom of the 8th inning. He got Rodriguez out on a ground out, Hayes on a pop-out and then struck out Cruz. The Cardinals did not help their cause in the top of the 9th as Fermin, Pages and Wetherholt went down in order.

The bottom of the 9th would be handled by the National League saves leader Riley O’Brien. Sal Stewart was first up and he lined the first pitch he saw into JJ Wetherholt’s glove for the first out. JJ Bleday was next up and he flew out to short left field for the second out. Eugenio Suarez was the last hope for the Reds, but Riley struck him out to secure a St. Louis Cardinals shutout of Cincinnati.

It’s game 4 of the St. Louis Cardinals 5-game series vs the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday evening as Matthew Liberatore will hopefully be the best version of himself as he’s the scheduled starter. The Reds will force Chase Burns onto the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

BALTIMORE — Aaron Judge is set to take the next step in his comeback from a fractured rib that’s already kept him out for nearly three months.

Aaron Boone said Tuesday that Judge will be “introduced to his hitting progression this week.” Judge, according to the manager, has been doing “swing-related stuff” in the pool in recent days.

“He’s progressing,’’ Boone said. “It’s all part of the process. Hopefully it goes well. The fact that he’s responded in this first week of added intensity, as far as being allowed to do some things upper-body-wise — playing catch, running — it’s all part of his buildup.”

Judge had been limited to lower-body and light resistance training before playing catch last week for the first time since hitting the IL.

Boone wasn’t sure exactly when Judge would start swinging, but it’s a sign that he at least hasn’t suffered any setbacks.

There remains no timeline for Judge’s return.

Cody Bellinger’s return from a strained left hamstring to a lineup that has collapsed without him and Judge — as well as Giancarlo Stanton — is more imminent.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

The outfielder was at Camden Yards Tuesday and said he will play a minor league rehab game with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Thursday.

He anticipated needing more than just the one game before a return to the Yankees lineup, but didn’t rule out getting back to the majors.

He’s well aware of the lineup’s struggles without their big bats.

“I’ve wanted to get back for a while,’’ Bellinger said. “But you always want to be realistic. You want to come back and stay.”

As for Stanton, out since April with multiple calf strains, Boone said he was “towards the end of his running program. The intensity has picked up. He’s responded well.”

But it’s Judge’s absence that has hurt the most, as the Yankees entered Tuesday with the third-worst OPS and third-fewest runs scored since he’s been out.

George Lombard Jr. continues to impress with his glove and bat.

He had a pair of singles in a 3-1 win Tuesday and made a strong throw from deep in the hole to get Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the fourth.

The Yankees lost two challenges by the top of the fourth, as Heliot Ramos challenged a call in the first on a clear strike and Spencer Jones missed on a pitch to end the top of the fourth.

“Those weren’t good ones,’’ Boone said.

But the manager noted Austin Wells’ challenge from behind the plate on a Jackson Holliday strikeout in the second “might have [been] the best challenge of the season.”

It ended a bases-loaded threat.

Clarke Schmidt pitched off a mound Tuesday as he progresses in his comeback from Tommy John surgery, while Luis Gil ended his rehab assignment and is now at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Both right-handers are potential options to join the bullpen down the stretch.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. was back in the lineup after sitting against a right-hander Sunday in Toronto.

Boone said he considered putting José Caballero in the lineup again after Caballero sparked the offense in a victory against the Blue Jays.

BALTIMORE — Max Fried made just five starts after his return from a left elbow bone bruise before hitting the injured list again Monday with what Aaron Boone called “low-level inflammation as a result of the bone bruise.”

But because the Yankees believe they caught the recurrence of the injury early, they feel confident the left-hander won’t miss nearly as much time as they prepare for the stretch run.

“I was told it was good news and this gives us the best chance to have him healthy the rest of the way,” Boone said before Tuesday’s game at Camden Yards.

Before Fried was placed on the 15-day IL Monday, the Yankees said they were considering having Fried make his scheduled start Wednesday.

Instead, an MRI exam showed inflammation and pitching coach Matt Blake said the organization decided to “err on the side of caution.”

And Boone added it’s “possible” Fried is back in the rotation by the end of the month, when he’s eligible to come off the IL.

He played catch again Tuesday in New York and depending on how the elbow responds, the Yankees will decide how to move forward. Fried could potentially throw off a mound in the coming days.

With Fried sidelined, Carlos Rodón returned Tuesday from his IL stint that was caused by elbow inflammation and Will Warren is set to start Wednesday.

But the Yankees still need to determine why the injury popped up again.

“Any injury can be a precursor for another injury,” Blake said. “I don’t think anyone is shocked this cropped up again. Obviously, we didn’t want it to and we’ll try to mitigate it with workload and delivery management.”

Blake called it “a little frustrating it got to this point,” but added that since he wasn’t forced out of a game — like he was with the initial injury — Fried won’t be out long.

Dr. Spencer Stein, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at NYU Langone, said the recurrence wasn’t unusual and the Yankees’ optimism could indicate a lack of severity of the injury.

When Fried suffered the injury in May, he was immediately shut down from throwing for weeks. That’s not the case this time around.

Initially, Fried said the injury was caused by “hyperextending” and “the banging of the two bones” around the elbow.

The Yankees hoped some mechanical adjustments might help avoid the issue arising again.

Since it hasn’t, Blake said he was unsure if Fried would have to deal with some kind of discomfort in the area the rest of the season.

“I don’t know,’’ Blake said. “It’s something we have to be aware of and try to stay ahead of. He felt good throwing his side [session] the other day [but] there was too much question about if he went out there [Wednesday], would he make it worse?”

As long as Fried is out, it means the Yankees remain without all five of their top starters at the same time, with Ryan Weathers and Warren remaining in the rotation for now.

The plan is still for Fried — as well as Rodón, Gerrit Cole and Cam Schlittler — to be able to go in the playoffs.

But so far, the Yankees haven’t been able to keep their potentially fearsome rotation together.

Fernando Tatis Jr. added to his career highlights during the San Diego Padres’ game against the New York Mets on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

Tatis denied Francisco Lindor a grand slam in the bottom of the second inning while the Padres had a 1-0 lead.

Tatis jumped up and caught the ball just before it could go over the fence in right field. He stared down toward the infield after making the catch while Padres pitcher Robbie Ray celebrated from the mound with a look of shock as the inning came to an end.

In addition to defensive prowess, Tatis excelled at the plate in the Padres' 5-2 win over the Mets, hitting two home runs.

The biggest stories, every morning. Stay up-to-date on all the key sports developments by subscribing to USA TODAY Sports' newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. robs grand slam from Mets' Francisco Lindor

The Dodgers and Rockies keep things going at Coors Field.

Tuesday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Rockies
• Ballpark: Coors Field, Denver
• Start time: 5:40 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)