Category: Sports News

Good news: Cody Bellinger is back today! Bad news: The Yankees’ winning streak was snapped, Ryan Weathers left with forearm tightness, and Giancarlo Stanton might be officially toast. So… 1-for-4? But call some of those non-hit ABs tough ones, like a double play with the bases loaded.

Today on the site, Scott will have the live report from the past couple days of Cody Bellinger’s rehab assignment at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, I’ll have the Rivalry Roundup, Jonathan will pay tribute to the first-ever DH for his 78th birthday, and John will have the weekly Social Media Spotlight.

Today’s Matchup:

New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays

Time: 1:35 p.m. EST

TV: YES Network, Sportsnet, TVA Sports

Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

Questions/Prompts:

1. On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that Max Fried is back in the rotation by the first week of September? (He started throwing again yesterday.) And same question, but with Clarke Schmidt in the bullpen, post-Tommy John rehab? Let’s say “by mid-September” for Clarke.

2. Without going purely by record (it’s a minor morass at the bottom), who do you think has been the worst team in baseball in 2026?

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Cody Bellinger is slated to return from the IL today. The outfielder had a short rehab stint at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as he recovered from a Grade 2 left hamstring strain that’s kept him off the field since late July. “I’ve been wanting to get back for a while,” Bellinger said. “You always want to be realistic, and for me, I want to come back and stay. You don’t want to make anything worse. I’m itching to get back, but I’ve got to continue to play it safe and make sure I’m 100 percent ready.” In his second year with New York, Bellinger was an All-Star this season and figures to fortify an outfield that’s also been without Aaron Judge in right.

New York Post | Andrew Crane: Giancarlo Stanton strained his left calf earlier this week, calling into question whether he’ll be able to return this season, Aaron Boone revealed Saturday. The DH was working back from multiple strains to his right calf when he fell while running the bases, leading to a moderate strain in his left. “We’re at a point in the calendar where it gets challenging,” said Boone, acknowledging the reality that Stanton’s return this season is in jeopardy. Big G has appeared in only 24 games this season, adding to the struggles to stay on the field that have plagued his Yankees tenure.

(As a related aside, you should read Josh’s editorial, “Giancarlo Stanton and outrunning the sunset.” It’s quite good.)

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: In other injury news, Ryan Weathers exited his start Saturday in the fourth inning with left forearm discomfort. He’s scheduled for imaging on Sunday. In his first season in the Bronx, the left-hander had been a strong contributor to the rotation, including during a recent stretch in which he posted a 1.94 ERA in his last seven starts. For more on Weathers’ departure and some musings on short- and long-term implications, check out Andrew’s breaking news post.

The Athletic | Brendan Kuty: ($) There was a world where Bellinger’s return could have cost Spencer Jones his roster spot. The rookie outfielder has been playing well of late, though, going 12-for-41 with two homers and four stolen bases in his last 12 games.“(He’s) certainly proved that he can play up here,” said Boone. “I think there’s a lot more in the tank for him to continue to go and learn, but he’s showing the ability to do that, and that’s been really encouraging.”

With Ryan McMahon hitting the IL Friday, the Yankees ultimately choose to send down his replacement, Max Scheumann, instead, at minimum giving them a left-handed platoon option in Jones to pair with the struggling Heliot Ramos. The Schuemann demotion was made official after the game on Saturday.

On a dark afternoon for the Yankees, who revealed Giancarlo Stanton had again strained a calf and then watched Ryan Weathers exit with injury in the fourth inning, there were Cody Bellinger and Max Fried silver linings.

Bellinger is set to be activated Sunday, and Fried’s return to the mound went well.

First Bellinger: The left fielder survived two rehab games, including playing six innings in the outfield for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Friday, and said his hamstring was tested on a few plays and passed each.

“For me, come in, help the team win as much as I can and play my best ball,” Bellinger said before the Yankees lost, 4-3, to the Blue Jays in The Bronx on Saturday.

After four weeks sidelined, Bellinger will return to a club that has been changed by the trade deadline and Spencer Jones’ emergence as a useful player. The Yankees have been playing Heliot Ramos — a righty hitter brought in to do damage against lefties — most days in left and the lefty-hitting Jones most days in right.

It is possible that the two become a right field platoon tandem until and if Aaron Judge returns, though manager Aaron Boone did not want to tip his hand regarding right field.

“Wait and see,” Boone said before the team officially optioned utilityman Max Schuemann to the minors, which ensures Jones — who might have been on the bubble — will remain in the majors.

Fried, meanwhile, threw a bullpen session before the game for the first time since hitting the injured list with a recurrence of his elbow bone bruise. Fried threw 26 pitches, and his whole repertoire, and said he felt encouraged by his afternoon.

“Hopefully we’re moving in a good direction there,” Boone said of Fried, “and we’ll see what’s next if that’s a live [batting practice] or another side.”

Already a major piece, the lefty’s importance probably grew as Weathers left the loss with forearm discomfort and was sent for tests.

Judge’s rehab is going “well,” Boone said, and the team’s captain remains hitting. He graduated Friday to tee-and-toss and has not yet faced machine or live pitching.

There are no definitive updates regarding Judge, who has said he will return this season from his fractured rib.

“He’s throwing, running, lifting,” Boone said. “He seems to be in a good place and moving. For him now, it’s about just getting the body built up.”

Luis García Jr.’s two-run shot in the eighth inning was his career-high 26th homer of the season and third as a Yankee. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers will have to regroup after seeing their talented roster lose another key player to injury.

Center fielder Andy Pages suffered a left hand fracture after he took a 100.2 mph sinker, thrown by Pittsburgh Pirates right-handed pitcher Bubba Chandler in the third inning Friday night, to his hand.

Manager Dave Roberts announced after the Dodgers’ 5-4 win against the Pirates on Aug. 21 that Pages' injury was "not season-ending," but he expects the first-time All-Star to be out 4-5 weeks.

Pages is considered the team’s top defensive player, leading the team in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and outfield assists.

Offensively, Pages has produced 80 RBI, 21 home runs and 72 runs this season.

The Dodgers will have to explore options that will not only help the team defensively but also provide another solid bat in the lineup.

CHICAGO — Luis Robert Jr.’s visit to his old stomping ground undoubtedly will be remembered as a highlight of his season.

Saturday night, the veteran outfielder blasted two homers against his former team to help the Mets beat the White Sox 10-5.

Robert heard boos from the home crowd after hitting both homers.

“It feels good to hit homers against any team at home,” Robert said through an interpreter. “But I will say it felt good to hit the home runs here, just because it was a stadium I played so many games over my career.”

Robert, who spent seven seasons with the White Sox, hit a two-run homer in the third that gave the Mets a 4-1 lead. He also delivered a solo blast in the seventh.

Overall, the Mets hit five homers.

“[Friday] it felt a little weird here and a little strange,” Robert said. “Today, it was pretty normal.”

Francisco Alvarezsnapped an 0-for-14 with a single in his first at-bat, but his frustration level has mounted lately in inverse proportion to his OPS.

The Mets catcher had an outburst on Friday after a strikeout, returning to the dugout and snapping his bat in half. Alvarez finished 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.

“The frustration was from [Friday], because it only matters the day we played,” Alvarez said before the game. “What happened before is in the past. It’s more about the day.”

Alvarez began play 8-for-52 (.154) in August with an anemic .536 OPS. He had strikeouts in 25 of those at-bats.

“He’s incredibly passionate — he wants to be great for the team,” interim manager Andy Green said of Alvarez’s emotional display. “He wants to be great because he puts a lot of work in.”

Green said Alvarez’s issue simply hasn’t just been chasing pitches outside the strike zone.

“I think chase usually shows up after you have missed your pitch,” Green said. “He’s had some pitches to hit but he hasn’t necessarily squared up. When that happens he’s found himself outside of the strike zone.”

Mark Vientos, who began a minor league rehab assignment as the DH on Friday for Double-A Binghamton, will see action at first base and third base before returning to the Mets, according to Green. Vientos is rehabbing a right-hand fracture that has kept him sidelined since July 10.

Jo Adell has been everything the Guardians were hoping for and more. His mammoth 3 run HR tonight completely changed the game. He also singled and scored in the 6th inning from a Patrick Bailey single, so he was involved in all four of the Guardians runs tonight. He is now slashing .243/.323/.526 in 16 games as a Guardian. If we are able to get back into this playoff race, Jo Adell will be a huge part of it.

It’s also noteworthy that we have seen Angel Genao start two games in a row at SS, considering the season that Brayan Rocchio has had. Rocchio has had a rought stretch offensively as of late, but he has still been one of the best SS defenders in the MLB this season. As long as Rocchio is healthy I imagine he will be in the lineup tomorrow.

The Guardians will go for the sweep tomorrow at 3:10 pm ET. It will be Foster Griffin vs Tomoyuki Sugano.

On paper, anyway, Michael Soroka was the better starting pitcher than Reds starter Rhett Lowder. Especially after the beatdown we put on Cincinnati last night, it seemed like pretty good odds that we’re stomp the Reds again. Sadly, however, that was not the case. Soroka sucked tonight, Lowder was good until he wasn’t so much, but by then the Diamondback were already in a hole that, despite some sporadic efforts by the offense, we couldn’t climb our way out of. Especially because the hole kept getting deeper.

In fact, it started to feel, at least to me, like it might be a foregone conclusion before we’d even gotten our offense involved. Elly De La Cruz lined a very hard-hit double into the right field corner to lead off the game, and one out later was driven home by a very hard-hit JJ Bleday grounder that got past Tim Tawa at first and rolled into the right field corner for another double. That was the only damage at first, it that was the start of the hole. 1-0 Cincinnati

Soroka managed to put up a zero in the second, though in some respects it was an even harder inning for him, and one that inspired even less confidence. There was a two-out hit-by-pitch. Then there was a ten-pitch at bat by the guy in the Red’s nine hole that ended in a walk. Soroka had thrown 18 pitches in the first, and he needed 22 more to get through the second, and he really looked like he had no idea where his pitches were going to land once he let them go.

The third inning was another bad one, as Sal Stewart blooped a single just behind second base to lead off the frame. JJ Bleday struck again, seeing six pitches before sending the seventh out to that notch in the wall just to the right of straightaway center field for an RBI triple. A fly ball to center scored him, and after an eight-pitch walk, Soroka finally got the final two outs. Two more runs in, though, and 27 more pitches thrown, putting him at 67 for the night. 3-0 Cincinnati

The top of the fourth sucked even more, thanks to a seven-pitch walk to kick things off, and then two one-out singles, the second of which brought another run home. That earned Soroka the hook with 84 pitches thrown total, and ten outs recorded. Zack Littell came out with his mop, and surrendered a sac fly and two walks as he worked to get the Reds back out onto the field. 6-0 Cincinnati

So, yeah. That’s the margin of victory right there. Meanwhile, we’d only managed a leadoff Lars Nootbaar double and a Tim Tawa bloop single against Lowder, who cruised easily through his first three innings of work. We managed to get to him a bit with two outs in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to Nolan Arenado sending his 21st home run of the year just over the left field fence. 6-1 Cincy

Didn’t really matter, though, as Littell gave the run back on a two-out De La Cruz to right in the top of the fifth. 7-1 Cincy

Andf so it proceeded from there. Ildemaro scored off a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to some hits behind him, to close the gap to 7-2, but Littell gave the run back in the top of the sixth on a solo shot that completed JJ Bleday’s cycle and made it 8-2. Arenado reached on catcher’s interference to leadoff the bottom of the sixth, and crossed the plate again thanks to a Tim Tawa homer over the fence in left center, making things 8-4, but Littell gave back both runs in the top of the seventh to bring it to 10-4.

About this time, folks started dropping into the Gameday Thread to excoriate Torey Lovullo for having given up the game when we were only down by six and leaving Littell in there, etc, etc, and while I suppose I can sort of see the argument if I squint, the sad fact is that, even with the offense we were able to muster in the later innings, we still didn’t manage to score enough runs to surpass that initial 6-0 deficit that Soroka’s work created. Torey did pull Littell for Dennis Santana to start the eighth, though, and aside from giving up a leadoff solo home run to Matt McLain to bring things to 11-4, he did his job. We got another run off of the Reds’ bullpen in the bottom half, thanks to a couple of walks and a two-out Ryan Waldschmidt RBI single, but that simply gave us the last scoring in the game. 11-5 Cincinnati

Loss Probability Added, courtesy of Fangraphs

Paragons: None
Antihero:Zack Littell (3 2/3 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 HR, 2 BB, 1 K, -12% WPA)
Reprobate: Michael Soroka (3 1/3 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, -24% WPA)

Tonight’s GDT was a ghost town for the vast majority of the game, for good or ill, with us eventually limping to 153 comments at time of writing. I certainly hope that the folks who didn’t drop by found something better and more pleasant to do with their time. To be honest, I would likely have gone off to prune some thornbushes or practice body-blocking some cacti or perhaps exfoliating with a belt sander had I not been contractually obligated to sit through the whole nine innings. But I’m a professional, damnit. Precious few comments turned Sedona Red, but there is one hands-down winner that appeared from onedotfove at a point in the game where a turnaround still seemed like it might be possible:

Hope is always the better choice, so thank you for that. On the upside, Cabriel Moreno did manage to extend his hitting strreak with a one-out double in the bottom of the ninth, so while the huge comeback didn’t happen, there was a positive or two.

So, assuming you have a paid Peacock account, I hope you can join us for the rubber match tomorrow as we try to win the series against these pesky Reds. Andrew Abbott goes for them, Mitch Bratt goes for us, first pitch is scheduled for 1:15pm AZ time, and JustRonn will be your guest recapper. Come and keep him company if you can, and root us on as we try for a needed series win.

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!

After the Mets' 10-5 win over the White Sox on Saturday night, interim manager Andy Green and the players broke down the 16-hit, five-HR performance...

It was so nice, he had to do it twice

Playing against his former team for the first time this weekend, Luis Robert Jr. made his presence felt on Saturday night. The outfielder blasted two of the team's five home runs, recording his first multi-homer game with New York, and said it was rewarding to do it in a place he played for six seasons.

"You know it feels good to hit home runs against any team to be honest with you," Robert said via an interpreter. "But I will say it did feel good to hit the home runs here just because it was a stadium that I played so many games in, especially my whole career."

Green said he was "really happy" to see Robert have a performance like he did, adding that "he deserves" it after working his way back from a long injury and rough season.

"Luis, I mean, the oppo home run is just so special from him," Green said. "Hardly anybody in baseball hits a ball that hard the other way the way he does that so well. And then obviously he turned on the last one and crushed it, so those are great swings."

He added: "He's just having great at-bats, he's put in a lot of work. He's been grinding really hard. It's fun to see somebody have success that works that hard."

Robert has only played in 51 games this year, as he was placed on the IL on April 27 and didn't return until July 20. Since coming back, the 29-year-old has struggled, but hopes Saturday's game will help get him back on track for the rest of the year.

"I feel good, I feel a lot better compared to where I was in the beginning when I first came back," Robert said. "But I think now, it’s just you got to continue to work, you got to continue to try to be as consistent as possible. I think that’s going to be the key for the rest of the season."

Carson Benge feeling 'pretty good' 

Right fielder Carson Benge had a brief scare in the bottom of the third inning, as he crashed hard into the chain link fence and the ball popped out of his glove and over the wall for a HR.

The 23-year-old toughed it out to stay in the game and made up for it later in the fifth inning, launching a towering solo home run to go up 5-3. He finished 3-for-5 on the night and joked that getting the win helps make up for the collision.

"Pretty good, pretty good. After a win, that always makes it feel better," Benge said.

He added on the play: "I saw it hit, I didn't get the best read on it, can't always be perfect. Went back on it fast toward the wall. And then kind of caught it in my glove, and then it popped out as I hit that fence."

"First thing, I checked my glove and I saw it wasn't in there, so I was kind of mad at that. After the adrenaline kind of wore off there quickly, I knew I was OK."

Benge then explained why he wanted to keep playing after getting checked out by the trainers, and was proud he could get the run back for the team with the homer.

"I like playing the game," Benge said. "I don't want to be taken out for anything unless it's anything too serious. Being able to get back in there and kind of take away the one I let up is good."

Christian Scott hoping 'to learn from' tough outing

Scott had a tough outing Saturday night, allowing four runs on five hits over just 4.2 IP. His night ended after loading the bases in the fifth inning with two outs, and wishes he could have some of those at-bats back.

"Just didn’t really have it today,” Scott said. "Especially with the offspeed stuff, didn’t really locate the zone well. Thought the bullpen did a really good job coming in there and cleaning it up and obviously going the rest of the game. Thought the offense played really well.

"Just put us in a tough spot, especially after getting a lot of runs early. Wish I had a couple of those at-bats back. Bullpen did a great job, good to get the win."

Overall, Scott threw 94 pitches against Chicago and said he'll be able to use it as a learning experience, especially the fifth inning.

"Obviously hit a guy first pitch and then walk a guy, obviously want those at-bats back," Scott said. "Just had to battle after that. Didn't think I was locating my sweeper very well or my cutter very well. Something to learn from for sure, just grind it out."

While the Braves are perhaps not quite yet in a precarious position, they have put themselves in a position to be in a precarious position with their play over the last two weeks or so, facing down the barrel of another game against the Brewers and then a series against the Dodgers. Their division lead is down to 3.0 games and they have a 6.5 game cushion in the wild-card that is still strong, but no longer feels insurmountable. With six games remaining against the Phillies, the division title very much still hangs in the balance of these last 5 weeks of the season. While this team has found ways to win games, sometimes convincingly for stretches this season, the roster has never really had the feel of a dominant team after all of the pitching injuries early on and the continuing underperformance of their offensive talent. It would be a real shame for this team to squander what was such a commanding division lead to land in or even outside of the wild-card. If this season ends without a division title and/or some quality postseason performances, it could spur some serious changes this offseason.

Braves News

The Braves lost another to the Brewers, as the offense continues to flounder.

MLB News

Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow is expected to make his return from injury on Tuesday against the Braves, as he threw 77 pitches in his final rehab outing.

Andy Pages is expected to miss around a month for the Dodgers, after fracturing his hand via a Bubba Chandler fastball.

One of baseball’s top pitching prospects, Kade Anderson made his debut for the Mariners in what was a mixed performance overall.

Brandon Woodruff is trying to return to pitching for the Brewers this season, after previously expecting to be out for the year.