Category: Sports News

It’s almost a shame the Orioles have another game of baseball to play today, because it’s going to be hard to top their game one performance.

The O’s opened a doubleheader with an all-around fantastic win over the Astros, 10-3. Chris Bassitt posted his most impressive outing as an Oriole by a long shot, shutting down the AL’s best offense for just one run in 6.2 innings. The Orioles didn’t score until the fifth but opened the floodgates after that, crushing two grand slams — by Adley Rutschman and Jeremiah Jackson — to reach double digits in runs for the second time this season.

This game pitted a guy with a 6.75 ERA this season against one with a 6.15 ERA in five career seasons. So of course it turned into a pitcher’s duel. But for Chris Bassitt and the Orioles, that was just fine. Bassitt was in dire need of a quality performance as an Oriole, and boy, did he get it this afternoon.

From the get-go, Bassitt was absolutely dealing. It was impressive enough that he started his day with two straight strikeouts, but even more impressive that the second one came against Yordan Alvarez, who historically has crushed Bassitt in his career (9-for-22 with five home runs, his most against any pitcher). But Bassitt carved him up with no issues on his way to a perfect inning.

Bassitt allowed a baserunner in the second but twice got help from Adley Rutschman, who first pulled off a successful ABS challenge to eventually strike out Yainer Diaz and then threw out Jose Altuve trying to steal. Bassitt worked past another baserunner in the third and two more in the fourth, and he followed up with his second perfect inning in the fifth. The veteran right-hander looked every bit like the pitcher the O’s thought they were signing. He was hitting his spots, mixing his pitches, and generally making a very good Astros offense look very silly.

Early on, the O’s had trouble giving Bassitt any support. They were stymied by Peter Lambert, who’d had a very bad MLB career with the Rockies (something that happens to a lot of pitchers, to be fair) before reinvigorating his career in Japan last year. Lambert started the game with three scoreless innings of his own before the O’s broke through in the fourth. Pete Alonso walked, and with two outs, Jeremiah Jackson started his excellent day of work by lacing a double down the left-field line. Alonso huffed and puffed around the bases as fast as his Polar Bear legs could carry him, crossing the plate with the game’s first run.

From then on, the Orioles scored lots and lots of runs, and none of them required a lumbering slugger to breathlessly chug around the basepaths. The O’s chased Lambert from the game in the fifth on a Blaze Alexander one-out double, snapping his 0-for-14 drought. Lefty Steven Okert tried to defuse the rally and instead poured gasoline on the fire. Gunnar Henderson reached on a check-swing squib infield single to third and Taylor Ward walked, loading the bases for Adley Rutschman.

Folks. Adley is so back. If you hadn’t gotten the memo, allow Rutschman to demonstrate. He crushed a sizzling fly ball to deep center field. Astros center fielder Brice Matthews made a leaping attempt at the wall and nearly pulled off an incredible, home run-saving catch. Nearly. The ball was in his glove, but it popped out into the O’s bullpen when Matthews slammed into the wall. The Orioles’ relievers, with an up-close look at the play, erupted into cheers and celebrations while Matthews looked forlornly at his empty glove. GRAND SLAM, Adley Rutschman! The O’s catcher has 11 hits, four homers, and 14 RBIs in his six games since returning from the IL. See my earlier comment re: Adley and his backness.

During the home run call, MASN announcer Kevin Brown gleefully exclaimed that analyst Jim Palmer was now obligated to eat a chicken wing, something that the Hall of Fame O’s legend somehow had never done in his 80 years on this earth. Apparently Palmer made an on-air promise during a 2025 game that he’d eat a chicken wing if the O’s hit a grand slam during a game he was calling. Here it was, and so he delivered: Palmer dug into some chicken wings in the bottom of the eighth, proclaiming, “These are actually pretty tasty.”

Good times at Camden Yards, everyone. And they only got better.

Two innings later, the Astros turned to long reliever Jason Alexander, and today definitely was not the Summer of George. The O’s battered the poor guy for five runs with an incredible rally after there were two outs and nobody on base. It started harmlessly enough with a Ward walk, and then Rutschman did his thing again with a single and Alonso walked. Alexander couldn’t find the strike zone, walking Dylan Beavers on four pitches to force home a run.

Alexander was gifted an automatic strike when Jeremiah Jackson didn’t get to the batter’s box in time. No matter. Jackson swung at the next pitch and blasted it 380 feet into the left-field seats, to a very similar spot as his comeback-inspiring grand slam against the Diamondbacks a couple of weeks ago. It’s another salami for Jeremiah! He increased his team-leading RBI total to 24. Where would the Orioles be without Jackson this year? My goodness.

The offensive explosion made things easy for Bassitt, not that he needed any help. The right-hander ultimately 6.2 strong innings, giving up just one run on seven hits. His seven strikeouts were a season high by far; his previous best was three. Wonderfully done, Chris. That’s exactly what the O’s needed to save their bullpen in the first game of a doubleheader.

Rico Garcia stranded two of Bassitt’s baserunners in the seventh. Anthony Nunez gave up two runs in the eighth, but both were unearned thanks to two O’s errors (good thing the Orioles were already way ahead). Newly recalled Jose Espada, a second cousin of Astros manager Joe Espada, worked through a ninth-inning jam with help from Jackson, who made a nice defensive play at second to start a double play.

And there you have it. A fun, easy, 10-3 Orioles win. What a beautiful day of baseball. Any chance we can keep it up in game 2, guys?

After an exciting walkoff win that extended their season-opening streak of not losing series on Wednesday night, the Braves got to work in a short turnaround matchup against the Tigers with a chance for a sweep. For a while, a sweep seemed likely, but the Braves were undone by poor pitching and defense in the game’s final frames. Meanwhile, they had their hands relatively full with Framber Valdez, scoring just two runs en route to a 5-2 loss.

Bryce Elder got the start, and, well, it looks like at least in the early going, the universe is paying him back a bit for his lines in past years. Elder’s overall line wasn’t all that great, with a 5/3 K/BB ratio and a paltry 22 percent grounder rate that is the lowest he’s ever recorded in a start, but he nonetheless deked and ducked his way through six innings, only getting a run on his ledger the third time through.

Elder got into a spot of trouble in the first with a random two-out, four-pitch walk after a single. He followed with a get-me-over sinker that Spencer Torkelson took a very awkward swing on and lifted harmlessly to right field. After a quick second, another walk and a single put two on against Elder with one out, but a groundout and a wave from Riley Greene on a hanging, crushable slider stifled that threat. Elder worked around a Torkelson leadoff single in the fourth, and had a 1-2-3 fifth thanks to Ronald Acuña Jr. throwing out Gleyber Torres trying to stretch a down-the-line single into a double.

While all this was happening, the Braves opened up a 2-0 lead on Valdez. They stranded a couple in the first as Valdez bamboozled Austin Riley, but plated the game’s first run when Eli White singled Kyle Farmer (making his first start of the year) home on a hard liner to center. The Braves had a chance for more, especially when a Valdez pitch clipped Acuña’s foot, but it was confusingly ruled as not doing so on replay because there apparently “wasn’t enough evidence” to overturn the call at the plate, and consecutive strikeouts ended the rally. Not to worry, though, as Mauricio Dubon’s single to center in the third plated Ozzie Albies, who had a leadoff double earlier in the inning.

The Tigers got to Elder in the sixth — Riley Greene drew another walk, Torkelson hit another single, and after Elder battled back to strike out Kerry Carpenter on a high four-seamer (for the second time in the game), Matt Vierling blooped a ball in front of Acuña to plate Greene. A soft tapper in front of the plate ended the rally and Elder’s outing. Again, hooray for the 2.95 FIP (and one run charged in six innings), but a 5.10 xFIP is Elder’s second-worst mark of the season, and now gives him three straight starts with a below-average xFIP.

Valdez rolled through the middle innings, as the Braves made ten straight outs after Dubon’s RBI single. He finished with a sparkling 0.95 FIP and 2.15 xFIP in six innings of 8/0 K/BB ratio ball, by far his best start of the year so far.

Tyler Kinley had an adventurous seventh. The Tigers loaded the bases with one out on a walk, a “normal” single, and then a slow bouncer. But, Kinley struck out Greene on three pitches, showing him two sliders in the zone that were fouled off, and then burying a slow curve in the dirt for a whiff. Torkelson then followed with a hard liner to left, but Dubon was able to run it down, and the Braves still led.

The Braves got a couple on against reliever Drew Anderson in the seventh (Acuña two-out double, intentional walk), but Albies grounded out. And then, things fell apart.

The Braves’ bullpen has been a bit short-handed, somewhat in preventable ways, and somewhat just due to the injury to Raisel Iglesias and the fact that Dylan Lee missed a game on paternity leave before returning and throwing a lot of pitches. While I don’t really blame Walt Weiss and company for messing around at all given where the season is, going with your “guys you don’t really wanna use” relievers with a one-run lead will blow up in your face, and yeah, it did here.

Joel Payamps got the call for the eighth, and woofing commenced. Carpenter crushed his fastball to center, where Eli White didn’t track it down — it bounced off the boards for a triple. Vierling followed with a weak bouncer that nonetheless got by given where Riley was positioned at third for a game-tying double. After a walk and a strikeout, Payamps was out and Aaron Bummer was in — but Bummer missed with four straight to Kevin McGonigle, who drew his third walk of the day. Gleyber Torres followed with a weak fly that pushed the go-ahead run across; Bummer ended the top of the eighth with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones.

Oh, but we weren’t done with foibling (that’s not a word) yet. After Anderson threw a perfect second frame of work, it was Jose Suarez time with a one-run deficit, and… yeah. Suarez looked dominant striking out both Greene and Torkelson, but there’s his enigma in two-minute showcase: he goes from tantalizing to unpitchable from batter to batter, if not from pitch to pitch. Despite being so close to giving the Braves a chance to mount another ninth-inning rally, Suarez walked Wenceel Perez (after being ahead of him 1-2). Vierling followed with a hard grounder that A) Riley couldn’t snag, sending it shooting up in the air, B) Mike Yastrzemski goofed picking up in left, and C) resulted in a slow replay back home, such that D) Perez scored. After another walk (I want to spray Jose Suarez with a spray bottle so badly), Dillon Dingler uncorked a double down the left-field line, which made it 5-2 but also sent the game to the bottom of the ninth as an attempt at a sixth Detroit run was thrown out at home.

The bottom of the ninth, now with a three-run deficit in play, was not very exciting. Facing Kyle Finnegan, all the Braves managed was a one-out single by Yastrzemski. Acuña went down looking to end the game.

This was not really a showcase game for the Braves, as they managed just two extra-base hits, and were diced up to the tune of an 11/1 K/BB ratio by Valdez and the subsequent Detroit relief duo. Meanwhile, Braves arms managed just a 10/8 K/BB ratio.

But hey, they’re still doing great this season, they won the series yesterday, and now they’re off to see what adventures await them on a long and hopefully fruitful road trip. Stay tuned.

Missed opportunities at the plate once again spelled doom for the Colorado Rockies as they dropped the rubber match 6-4 to the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday. The Rockies end the road trip having gone 4-2 and end the month of April 13-14.

Striking First

The Rockies started the game on a high note against Andrew Abbott. Brenton Doyle managed to draw a one-out walk in the top of the first inning to give Colorado the first baserunner. After Hunter Goodman was called out on strikes, and Doyle swiped his seventh bag of the year, it fell to Tyler Freeman to bring him home. Notoriously good with runners in scoring position, Freeman again came up in the clutch to belt a two-run home run to right field and give the Rockies an early 2-0 lead. It was the first home run of the season for Freeman that traveled 357 feet to right field.

Better than the result

With an immediate lead in hand, Michael Lorenzen set out to work against the Reds’ lineup. Cincinnati got on the board in the bottom of the second inning thanks to the red-hot Nathaniel Lowe. The first-baseman blasted an 84.2 mph 0-1 changeup from Lorenzen 399 feet, his fifth home run of the season. Unfazed, Lorenzen continued to attack the zone, putting up zeroes over the next two innings.

The Reds struck again in the fifth after Spencer Steer drew a lead-off walk. After a strikeout of Will Benson, TJ Friedl stepped up to the plate and delivered a go-ahead home run to give the Reds a 3-2 lead. A fastball on the inside part of the plate was lofted out to right field and while it looked like Troy Johnston may have a chance at a play, the ball got out just far enough out of reach for Friedl’s second home run of the year.

Lorenzen was chased from the game after giving up a one-out double to Lowe in the bottom of the sixth, who would eventually score. His day ended after 5.1 innings of work, having allowed four runs on four hits with five strikeouts and two walks. While the box score may not reflect it, Lorenzen pitched fairly well in the game.

Missed Opportunity

Once again, the Rockies found themselves in a familiar situation they were in on Tuesday offensively. Before the Friedl home run in the bottom half of the fifth inning, the Rockies had their best chance to score in the top half. Kyle Karros, Ezequiel Tovar, and Jordan Beck all managed to reach, loading the bases with one out. Leading 2-1 at the time, the Rockies needed to keep building and had Doyle coming up to the plate. Unfortunately, he poked a groundball to Elly De La Cruz, who promptly fired the ball home for the forceout. Goodman then followed with a strikeout to end the scoring threat.

Colorado didn’t manage to score again until the ninth inning after the Reds built up a 6-2 lead. Mickey Moniak delivered an RBI single, and Jake McCarthy drove in another on a sacrifice fly. Representing the tying run, Goodman flew out to center field to end the rally.

On the day the Rockies out-hit the Reds 9-7, while striking out nine times and drawing three walks.

Up Next

The Rockies head home to welcome the Atlanta Braves to Coors Field on Friday. Jose Quintana (1-2, 4.91 ERA) will take the mound and face off against Grant Holmes (2-1, 3.62 ERA).

First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 pm MT.

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• Yankees face a tough decision on Anthony Volpe’s role upon his return from injury.
• José Caballero’s stellar play at shortstop complicates Anthony Volpe’s path back to the starting lineup.
• Yankees’ aggressive roster moves suggest Anthony Volpe may have a shorter leash this season.

Whether the Yankees activate Anthony Volpe from the injured list on Friday, or wait till Monday, may be the simple part.

Exactly what his role is and how long of a runway he gets to prove himself in it is the decision that was staring down the Yankees on Thursday’s off day before opening a four-game set against the Orioles on Friday in The Bronx.

Aaron Boone had said the Yankees would re-evaluate Volpe’s status on Thursday after he played back-to-back nine-inning games at shortstop for Double-A Somerset, giving him 10 total games (with 34 plate appearances) on his rehab assignment. All indications are that he is healthy and feeling strong, following October surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, and he just needed to build his workload in what was essentially his spring training.

Volpe seemed to be trending towards a Friday return, though Boone would not yet commit to that on Wednesday, and given that his 20-day rehab clock runs through Sunday, it is possible he could get a few more days of rehab games in.

“We’ll see,” Boone said five times answering two questions about Volpe’s status, including whether he would play in a role like he has in the past.

Nearly three weeks ago, general manager Brian Cashman said Volpe reclaiming his starting shortstop job upon returning from the IL had “always been the plan.”

“But ultimately, that’ll be the manager’s call,” Cashman added, as he usually does on issues regarding lineups and playing time.

Of course, that was easier to say back then, on April 10, when José Caballero was off to a slow start, finishing the day batting .150 with a .384 OPS in 12 games along with two errors. In 18 games since then, Caballero was batting .338 with a .915 OPS. While his underlying offensive metrics suggest that may not be sustainable, his six Defensive Runs Saved were the most of any shortstop entering Thursday, his 12 steals were tied for the most in the American League (as were his four caught stealings) and his 1.2 bWAR was tied for sixth among all shortstops.

Boone recently described Caballero as a “winning player” who “does so many things to help you win a game,” but the manager has declined to publicly reveal a plan for what the playing time will look like at shortstop once Volpe returns — perhaps because he is sensitive to Caballero potentially losing some at-bats while he was playing a key role in their success.

“Cabby’s playing at a really high level,” Boone said earlier this week. “Obviously we think very highly of Anthony too. But those are answers for another day. Bottom line is José has learned a lot of opportunities and has been right in the middle of us winning a lot of games.”

All of this may have been manager-speak from Boone, not wanting to make any proclamations until the Yankees were ready to activate Volpe — though even after, he likely won’t — because of the possibility that something could have changed the equation before then.

But when it boils down to it, the reality is that Caballero offers much more value in a utility/10th man role than Volpe does. He can still play shortstop on occasion, but also bounce around to left field, third base or second base against a lefty, or be a legitimate speed weapon off the bench.

All along, the expectation has been that Volpe will get some kind of runway to start at shortstop and prove that his rough season last year was due in part to playing through the shoulder injury. His defense prior to that had been mostly strong while his bat has been wildly inconsistent over three seasons in the big leagues.

“Volpe’s a big piece of what we’re doing here and has been the past couple years,” Aaron Judge said. “Hopefully we can get him back and he keeps swinging the bat like he is in his rehab starts [10-for-33], which has been great. The boys definitely miss him. … It’ll be good to see him back in pinstripes.”

But as he begins a crucial Year 4 — with a potential longer-term replacement, George Lombard Jr., just promoted to Triple-A — Volpe’s leash may be shorter than it has been in the past, especially because the Yankees now have a real option behind him in Caballero.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

They have also been more aggressive in their roster moves early this season than in years past — calling up Elmer Rodríguez for Luis Gil and designating Randal Grichuk for assignment earlier than they needed to to give Jasson Domínguez a longer stay, to name a few.

“That’s the thing, we have real options waiting in the wings,” Boone said Wednesday when asked about that aggressiveness. “So I think that’s good for creating competition, and ultimately just serves us well, whether an injury comes up or whether a guy earns more and more opportunities with performance. I like where we’re at.”

After losing two in a row against the Braves and dropping below the .500 mark for season wins, the Tigers were hoping to dodge a series sweep before heading back to Detroit. Despite a losing record, the Tigers only trailed the division-leading Guardians by half a game, because the AL Central is not having a great year so far. To get themselves back on track, Detroit had Framber Valdez on the mound, and the Braves would be depending on Bryce Elder, who is off to a really strong start this season, three wins coming into today’s game, a 1.93 ERA and 0.96 FIP. There’s a reason Atlanta has the best record in baseball right now, so the Tigers would have a fight on their hands to come away with the win.

The Tigers made a push to get baserunners on in the first. Colt Keith got a two-out single, and right on his heels, Riley Greene took a walk. However, a Spencer Torkelson flyout ended the inning, leaving both baserunners stranded. In the home half, Drake Baldwin got a one-out single. Valdez does typically pitch to contact, getting a lot of outs on the ground, but the Braves were going to take advantage of that where they could. Ozzie Albies then singled, putting two on. A Matt Olson groundout got the second out of the inning, but advanced both runners into scoring position. A strikeout did end the inning, thankfully, with no harm done, but a decidedly rough start to the game.

The second inning saw the Tigers go 1-2-3, with bonus thanks to a Braves ABS challenge that ended in the second out of the inning for Matt Vierling. Valdez really started to struggle in the home half, with a leadoff hit-by-pitch to Mauricio Dubon. Kyle Farmer then singled. With one out an Eli White single brought the first run of the game in for Atlanta. There was then some lengthy drama as Ronald Acuña Jr decided he was hit by a pitch and walked to first. The home plate ump belatedly disagreed, and there was a review requested. Some debate later, it was determined he wasn’t hit, and he came back to the plate to get struck out for the second out of the inning. Very peculiar. By some miracle the inning ended with only the one run scored.

Kevin McGonigle got a one-out walk in the top of the third. Right after him, Gleyber Torres singled. A Colt Keith groundout managed to advance both runners into scoring position. Two outs followed, though, leaving things scoreless for the Tigers. Ozzie Albies doubled to start the home half. With one out, Valdez threw a pitch so wild he might as well have been 50 Cent throwing the opening pitch of a game. Albies easily advanced to third. With two outs, Dubon singled, bringing Albies home. Kyle Farmer then hit into a force out to end the inning.

In the fourth, Spencer Torkelson got things going with a leadoff single. Too bad three outs followed that. Thankfully for the Tigers Valdez turned things around in the home half of the inning getting the Braves out in order for the first time in the game.

With two outs in the fifth, Torres singled, but he tried to leg it out into a double and got snagged at second, ending the inning. Valdez continued to look good in the bottom of the inning, going three-up, three-down.

In the top of the sixth, Riley Greene got a one-out walk. Spencer Torkelson followed that with a single. With two outs, Matt Vierling singled, bringing Greene home and putting the Tigers on the board for the first time in the game. They’d need to settle for the one run, but it put them within one run of tying things up.

The Braves once again went 1-2-3 in the home half. If Valdez had this kind of command against the Braves all game, things might be looking very different at the moment.

After six innings and one run, Elder’s day was done. He was replaced by Tyler Kinley. McGonigle had a foul tip hit him on the inside of the thigh and knee. It took a little bit for him to walk it off, but ouch. He worked a walk out of it, getting on base for the second time in the game (but not yet extending his impressive hitting streak). Torres won an ABS challenge by a sliver, then got a single. Colt Keith singled and suddenly the bases were loaded. A Torkelson lineout into left ended the inning, with three men left stranded and the Tigers still trailing. Not sure they’re going to see a better opportunity this game.

In the home half, Valdez was done as well, being replaced by Drew Anderson. Valdez’s final line for the game was 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K on 99 pitches. It started rough, but he really hit his stride mid-game, impressive against these red-hot Braves. With two outs, Acuña doubled. Anderson then walked Drake Baldwin intentionally. The Tigers got through a nail-biting inning with no runs added to the score.

In an effort to prove me wrong, Detroit got the eighth started with vigor. Kerry Carpenter kicked things off with a triple to dead center against new pitcher Joel Payamps. Matt Vierling, RBI hero, came in and singled, tying the game up 2-2.

Hao-Yu Lee took a walk. AJ Hinch went to his bench, swapping out Jake Rogers for Dillon Dingler. After striking out Dingler on a full count, Payamps was done, making way for Aaron Bummer. McGonigle walked for the third time in the game. Torres hit a sac fly, deep enough into the outfield to score Vierling and bumping the Tigers into the lead.

A pinch-hitting Jahmai Jones came in and ended the inning with a strikeout. Anderson continued for the eighth, getting three outs in a row.

José Suarez was the new Atlanta reliever for the ninth. While the Tigers were fighting it out in Atlanta, we got some updates from the minors regarding our injured players.

A pinch-hitting Wenceel Perez worked a great at-bat and worked a walk, something the Tigers were doing well in this game. Vierling then continued his dominance against the Braves with a groundball that took a weird little hop. Thanks to a fielding error by Mike Yastrzemski, who couldn’t catch the little bobbling hit, and Perez made an incredible run from first all the way home on the play.

Lee walked for the second time in the game. Dingler then doubled right into the left field corner, giving Vierling enough leeway to get home for another run. Lee tried to get another one across, but was tagged out at home to end the inning. The Tigers were up 5-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth.

Perhaps learning from last night’s walk-off nightmare, the Tigers turned things over to Kyle Finnegan for the ninth. Yastrzemski got a one-out single. With two outs, Yastrzemski advanced to second on defensive indifference. Finnegan worked out of the jam, getting the final out of the inning and the Tigers had a win to take them home and avoid the sweep.

Final: Tigers 5, Braves 2

Things got off to a saucy start for the Cincinnati Reds in Thursday’s series finale against the Colorado Rockies in Great American Ball Park. If you, like me, are still trying to figure out exactly what that means, let’s just say that Andrew Abbott began the game by serving up a meatball that Tyler Freeman turned into a 2-run homer, a product of Abbott having again issued an ugly walk to put a runner on-base early.

That sequence has been the theme of the early going for Abbott, who in 2025 seemed to find ways to both limit those scenarios and pitch out of them when they did arise. 2026, though, has been very much the opposite, and the groans from those watching probably were audible in Colorado itself after it repeated itself again.

The best possible thing happened from then on, however – Abbott actually settled in.

Cincinnati’s All-Star lefty ground his way through 6.0 IP in total and yielded no more runs on the day, scattering 5 hits and a pair of walks against 5 K to earn his first win of the season. That win came thanks to the bats of Nate Lowe and TJ Friedl, each of whom homered off former Red Michael Lorenzen as Cincinnati rallied back to win the game 6-4.

Things got saucier in the Top of the 9th when Reds closer Emilio Pagan came on in a non-save situation and immediately began operating the singles dispenser. Pagan had only pitched once since April 19th (on April 25th) and needed work, and he clearly had some rust on his right arm on the day, but the Reds made enough plays defensively to seal the win – and yet another series victory.

Other Notes

• The Reds move to 20-11 on the season.
• Lowe went 2 for 3 with a walk, double, and a pair of runs scored, and earns today’s Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game. There’s no way you keep him out of the lineup even when Eugenio Suarez returns.
• Spencer Steer began the season looking awful, going 1 for his first 17 across four games played. Entering play today, though, he’d hit .260/.337/.519 across his most recent 23 games (86 PA), which is the kind of bat that can make this lineup shimmy. He went 2 for 3 with a walk and a huge 2-run double that provided the insurance runs Pagan ended up needing, and he’s making a wonderful case that he should be hitting in the top third of the order once again.
• JJ Bleday walked twice before being replaced by Dane Myers late. It would be super cool if the good version of Bleday is what the Reds signed out of the bargain bin.
• Cincinnati heads out next on a crucial road trip through the NL Central, first to Pittsburgh and then to the north side of Chicago to face the Cubs. They do so as the current 1st place club in the NL Central, and it’s a pleasure to be able to finally write these kinds of sentences.

In 2022, the “It’s Not My Money(ball)” series was created in response to the owners’ lockout, which disrupted that year’s Spring Training and arguably cost Clayton Kershaw a perfect game in Minneapolis (I had fun). As the season completes its first month, the World Baseball Classic now a memory, we must conclude the revival of this series as trouble looms in the distance, hanging in the air, exactly in the way a brick does not.

This trilogy in five parts (it’s yet another Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy joke) was initially conceived from a single essay that ballooned in size to the point where a split was necessary. As I worked on Pandora’s Boxand MLB’s Dirty Dozen, I realized there was a deeper story than skinflint owners and a perception problem that the Dodgers are more than happy to lean into. Before any new business, we take a well-deserved victory lap.

Called it!

Last time, in The Vulture of Private Equity, I called out the practices, in part, of both the San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox. The essay was published on April 23. On April 24, word broke that the Giants were selling a portion of the team to a private equity firm owned by Joshua Kusher.

Joshua Kushner, the brother of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, announced on [Twitter] on Friday that his firm Thrive Capital has agreed to acquire a stake in the San Francisco Giants. The news of Thrive’s purchase was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“Our first partnership is expected to be with the San Francisco Giants – an institution built on more than a century of shared identity and community, and among the most iconic sports franchises in America,” Kushner wrote. “We have reached an agreement, subject to league approval, to acquire an ownership stake. We feel privileged by the opportunity to be long-term partners to the Giants.”

Sometimes, a demonstration of the point requires no further explanation, apart from wondering what other landmarks the Giants will purchase, rather than properly spending on their mediocre baseball team.

And then, as if the gods were to decree, “Listen to this man, mortals!” on the next day, April 25, there was a wholesale Stalinesque purge of the managerial core in Boston. Alex Cora and most of his staff? Gone. Jason Varitek? Demoted. The vibes? Rancid.

I suppose the baseball equivalent of “shut up and dribble” is “pipe down and shag some flies.” The firings will continue until morale improves, eh? Joon Lee wrote about the ills of private equity’s involvement in Boston, which can be read in parallel with the last feature in our series, from the perspective of a Red Sox fan. It’s not pretty.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic(paywalled) had the following to add about the sad state of affairs in Boston:

Are the Sox better today than they were yesterday? Doubtful. Can they compete for a wild-card spot in a wide-open American League? Perhaps, if [interim manager Chad] Tracy somehow finds a way to get more out of the players than [former manager Alex] Cora did and the pitching starts to click.

Even with the offensive questions, Cora maintained the Sox would be competitive as long as their pitchers performed to expectations. They haven’t, at least to this point. It sure will be interesting Sunday to hear [Red Sox President Craig] Breslow explain why he left that part of the coaching staff largely untouched.

But enough about Breslow, who in the end is just another [owner John] Henry pawn, positioned to take the next fall. Under Henry, the Red Sox are incoherent, dysfunctional and forever poised to overreact. Yet, why should the owner operate any differently? The turnstiles at Fenway keep spinning. “Sweet Caroline” keeps playing.

Yo-played

For the record, the venerable, actual French yogurt company had nothing to do with this portion of this essay, but the pun was too delicious to pass up. Sam Blum of The Athleticwrote an investigative feature on a mostly fraudulent yogurt company, Cremily, which again has nothing to do with Yoplait, which needs to be read in full to be digested.

The story of Cremily features facts that would not be out of place in a screwball comedy that was an unholy mix of The Producers and Major League. In real life, though, the feature demonstrates a comical lapse in foresight, judgment, due diligence, and acumen one would expect of several major league franchises in dealing with a vendor who met the textbook definition of “overpromising and underdelivering.”

Cremily was a yogurt company that sold French frozen yogurt that was advertised as healthy, keto, and lactose-free, and claimed to donate 100 percent of its profits to “empower girls globally.” In retrospect, the company’s dubiousness probably should have been a little easier to spot.

Just in baseball alone, Cremily had partnerships with the Anaheim Angels, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, and Arizona Diamondbacks. During the Diamondbacks’ sweep of the Dodgers in the 2023 National League Division Series, there are photographs of the Dbacks celebrating in their pool (…but when the Dodgers do it, it’s gauche apparently…) with the yogurt company’s materials in the background.

From Mr. Blum:

Multiple former employees said Cremily could not produce product to scale, leaving teams with “untenable delays” and subsequently providing the Angels and Diamondbacks with product that was not made by Cremily. The Angels argued in a court filing Cremily was “fraudulently passing (third-party) ice cream off as its own” and knew it didn’t have a viable ice cream formula. An ex-marketing employee even said he was asked to create Cremily labels for generic ice cream.

Ultimately, the Angels and the Diamondbacks separately sued Cremily for failing to pay the teams under their respective deals. Naturally, the organizations that worked with Cremily were taciturn about their dealings.

Who wants to admit to being bamboozled? For the regular person, it happens from time to time without shame whatsoever, because they do not have a legal team or anyone conducting due diligence. What were these teams’ excuses? Ultimately, with Cremily, we’re talking about contract sums that would be a rounding error on a baseball team’s ledger, but there are genuine real-world consequences for those caught in the middle.

Saying the quiet part out loud

There is only one Shohei Ohtani, one Mookie Betts, one Paul Skenes — singular talents that make baseball fans take notice. While Max Muncy and Will Smith are part of the Dodgers’ constellation of stars, their initial pedigree was anything but.

Accordingly, nothing is stopping teams from investing in their front offices, whether in scouts, analytics, or a combination of both, to develop their own players. Yes, we mocked the Milwaukee Brewers for their overreliance on this strategy, but it’s better than the firm masterly inactivity employed by other clubs.

Instead of expanding, many teams are cutting back on scouting, including those that are spending on players, including the Anaheim Angels. Speaking of the Angels, Arte Moreno said the quiet part out loud for owners before the season started.

“The number one thing fans want is affordability,” Moreno said. “They want affordability. They want safety, and they want a good experience when they come to the ballpark. Believe it or not, winning is not in their top five.”

Moreno said that information comes from surveys they’ve done.

“The moms want to be able to afford to bring the kids,” Moreno said. “Moms make about 80% of the decisions. They want to be able to bring their kids and be affordable and they want safety and they want to have a good experience, so they get all the entertainment stuff or whatever. The purists, you know, it’s just straight winning.”

When asked what his top priority is, Moreno said: “For me, I’ve always wanted to win. It’s just what’s the cost of winning right now?”

(emphasis added.)

Naturally, everyone gravitated toward an owner’s statement alleging that fans do not care about winning, which is utterly ridiculous. Can you imagine having Ohtani for multiple years and not making the postseason, much less being a winning team? One need not imagine, but only watch what passes for Angels baseball.

Originally, the backhanded remark towards the Anaheim Angels spoke for itself, but owner Arte Moreno actually said the quiet part out loud and admitted what most Angels fans have known in the pit of their souls for years: winning is not a priority in Anaheim.

It went about as well as expected, as Moreno said the quiet part out loud: some of the more self-austere owners eschew scouting and analytics spending, which would not break the bank and would improve their respective clubs.

Clearly, this self-defeating penny-pinching also applies to the legal department, stadium pest control apparently, and the maintenance of the team’s locker room. Never forget that shortly after Yisei Kikuchi publicly complained about the lack of air conditioning in the Angels’ weight room, the team publicly denied it while putting up a want ad for a part-time HVAC technician.

The creeping death that is private equity in baseball is slow and methodical until it’s not. So if teams are cutting useful spending on things like due diligence and scouting, and spending all this time and effort acquiring commercial real estate, what is the league focusing its energy on?

Baseball forgets the lessons of the Black Sox Scandal

At a time when there is a literal epidemic of addiction to online sports betting, especially with young men, in the United States, baseball has been slowly wrapping its figurative mitts around gambling for years.

It’s a shocking development, because gambling interests nearly toppled the sport in 1919, leading to the creation of the Commissioner’s office in the aftermath of arguably the worst gambling scandal in sports history: the fixing of the 1919 World Series by the Chicago White Sox.

One would think that a fixed World Series would act as such a scar on the psyche of baseball that no one would dare touch gambling again. But 107 years later, what is old is new again. Now-dead and still-disgraced gambler Pete Rose has been reinstated for Hall of Fame eligibility (after presidential pressure, which really merits its own essay from a site that focuses on the Cincinnati Reds), so clearly, time is a flat circle.

The Clase Scenario Writ Large

Before dealing with the pervasiveness of actual gambling in baseball, with actual sportbooks being on stadium grounds, with advertising dollars from DraftKings and the like seemingly everywhere, it often feels like the horse is so far out of the barn at this point that it will die of old age before it returns.

Seeing betting odds on AppleTV telecasts, and in the margins of articles in both reputable publications and blogs, there is an entire industry trying to get you to spend money. One would be tempted to tune it out as background noise. But one cannot ignore this growing problem, not anymore, as recently covered in The Guardian:

Gambling addiction is spiraling “out of control” in the US, a leading campaigner for stricter guardrails has warned, as experts from around the world are set to gather in Boston to push for more regulation of the industry.

The rapid expansion of online gambling, prediction markets and sports betting platforms, “demands a public health response”, according to Harry Levant, director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), urging policymakers to intervene.

“You regulate the distribution, the speed, the type, the access to the product, because the product is what’s dangerous,” he said, calling for gambling to be treated like alcohol or tobacco. “The problem is the product, not the people,” said Levant. “We have a crisis here.”…

“We firmly believe gambling should be regulated like any other addictive product,” said Mark Gottlieb, executive director of PHAI.

Sports betting has been legalized in 39 states and Washington DC since the landmark 2018 supreme court ruling.

With such conditions, is it any wonder that players would eventually get drawn in? Most recently, Cleveland Guardians (and frequent hypothetical future Dodger) closer Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted for fraud, conspiracy, and bribery stemming from an alleged scheme to rig individual pitches, resulting in gamblers winning hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Christopher G. Raia, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, announced the government’s allegations against the pair:

…The defendants agreed in advance with their co-conspirators on specific pitches that they would throw in MLB games.  The co-conspirators then used that information to place hundreds of fraudulent bets on those pitches.

Beginning in or around May 2023, Clase, a relief pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians, agreed with corrupt sports bettors to rig proposition bets – or “prop” bets – on particular pitches he threw.  The bettors wagered on the speed and type of Clase’s pitches, based on information they knew in advance by coordinating with Clase, sometimes even during MLB games.  Clase often threw these rigged pitches on the first pitch of an at-bat.  To ensure certain pitches were called as balls, Clase threw many of them in the dirt, well outside the strike zone.  The bettors used the advanced, inside information that Clase provided about his future pitches to wager thousands of dollars at online sportsbooks.

Clase at times received bribes and kickbacks from the bettors in exchange for providing advanced, non-public information.  He also sometimes provided money to the bettors in advance to fund the scheme.  The indictment includes numerous examples of pitches that Clase rigged, including one in the Eastern District of New York in a game against the New York Mets.  In total, by rigging pitches, Clase caused his co-conspirator bettors to win at least $400,000 in fraudulent wagers.

In or around June 2025, Ortiz, a starting pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians, joined the criminal scheme.  Together with Clase, Ortiz agreed in advance to throw balls (instead of strikes) on pitches in two games in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.  Before an MLB game on June 15, 2025, Ortiz agreed with his co-conspirators to throw a ball on a particular pitch in exchange for bribes. The bettors agreed to pay Ortiz a $5,000 bribe for throwing the rigged pitch and Clase a $5,000 bribe for arranging the rigged pitch.

Clase and Ortiz are innocent until proven guilty, and their trial is scheduled to start on May 4, 2026. One would think even this offramp of a story would be enough to get the league, or any league, to reconsider buddying up to gambling interests.

But like with a certain financial crisis 18 years ago, the money is apparently too good. Online sports betting is legal in 33 states as of February 2025. The sports betting industry hit a record revenue figure of $16.96 billion in 2025, an 11% percent increase from 2024, according to the American Gaming Association.

Remember how bad everyone felt after 2017, which was only compounded after it was revealed that the Houston Astros were blatantly cheating? It was like reliving the loss all over again, but worse.

Mark my words: the shoe that will eventually drop from this entirely foreseeable fiasco will make any scandal (including the Clase affair) look insignificant and quaint in comparison. It is knowingly setting up shop in Chornobyl after the nuclear accident, and acting surprised both that something bad happened and that the consequences were somehow unforeseen.

Either way, it’s a lesson that must apparently be relearned, but it’s not my money(ball)…

If the story ended there, I could sign off, but it gets even worse. Sites like FanDuel, Draft Kings, etc., are the devil you know and the devil you can avoid. But the league has embraced something far more nihilistic, which deserves your full attention: prediction markets.