Phillies activate Bohm, send down Kemp before road trip finale  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

WASHINGTON — The Phillies made a series of Sunday morning roster moves before the finale of their 10-game road trip.

Ahead of an 11:35 a.m. first pitch at Nationals Park, the club announced the following:

• Aaron Nola has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list 
• Alec Bohm’s been activated from the 10-day IL 
• Otto Kemp was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley
• Cal Stevenson was released 
• Daniel Robert has been reinstated from the 15-day IL and optioned to Triple-A

Nola and Bohm’s returns were expected. Nola’s start Sunday against the Nationals is his first since May 14. Bohm’s in the Phils’ lineup and hitting cleanup in his first MLB game since July 18. Both Nola and Bohm were sidelined by rib injuries and recently wrapped up rehab assignments with Lehigh Valley.

“I know he got off to a slow start this year, but he constantly got better as the season went on and his defense has been really, really good,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said of Bohm. “He just lengthens our lineup out a bit more. We don’t have J.T. (Realmuto) in there today, but him and J.T. behind (Bryce Harper), that’s pretty good protection.”

Kemp rose to the major leagues for the first time in June after a brilliant start to the year in Triple-A. The 25-year-old has gone 2 for his last 20, dropping his season average to .228. Kemp has a 1.010 OPS this season for Lehigh Valley and a .657 OPS for the Phillies. 

“He just needs at-bats,” Thomson said. “That’s all. As I said to him, he’s a big part of what we’re doing this year and in the future. I loved his at-bats early, and then he was getting kind of sporadic at-bats and he was scuffling a little bit. So he needs to get everyday at-bats. 

“Play third, play second, play left, and get ready. No guarantees, but by sending him down today, he’s eligible to come up on (Sept.) 1st.” 

The latest on Wheeler 

Thomson didn’t have much new information on Zack Wheeler, who’s been diagnosed with a right upper extremity blood clot and is out indefinitely.

He said the 35-year-old is “heading back to Philly today and testing will start tomorrow.”

Thomson left open the possibility that the Phillies could use a six-man rotation down the line. He named top prospect Andrew Painter as one call-up option, as well as “someone else.”

“Whoever’s pitching good,” he said with a smile. 

Justin Verlander keeps climbing MLB strikeout list, but Giants can't capitalize originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — Justin Verlander was a bit confused when some Giants fans started to rise and cheer in the fifth inning. The home plate umpire had stepped back so they could show some love, but when Verlander looked up at the scoreboard he didn’t see anything. 

Verlander did, however, know that he was coming up on Walter Johnson on the all-time strikeout list. That was the message that flashed on the scoreboard for a moment before he turned around, although it was a bit misleading. 

MLB.com, Baseball-Reference and the Elias Sports Bureau all have different career strikeout numbers for Johnson, who started his career more than 100 years ago. The most official of the three is Elias, which has Johnson at 3,515, six more than Baseball-Reference, meaning Verlander is still four shy of tying the Hall of Famer. 

In a quiet clubhouse after a 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Verlander at least found some humor in that. He scrunched his face when told of the discrepancy and asked for further details about how it was possible.

“Sheesh,” he said, smiling. 

That word is as good as any to describe everything that happened Saturday, both good and bad. On a positive note, Verlander became just the fifth 42-year-old to throw at least seven innings, allow just two hits and strike out at least eight. It was his best start of the 2025 MLB season, a throwback that had him talking about how his stuff feels as good as it did three years ago, when he won a Cy Young Award. 

But there were a lot of other reasons to exclaim “sheesh.” Here’s a short list …

— The bullpen blew a Verlander lead for the sixth time this season, tying him for the MLB lead. 

— The loss was the 15th in 16 home games, something the Giants had not done since 1901.

— They have lost all three series on this homestand and have dropped six straight home series for the first time since 2008.

— If they don’t win Sunday, they’ll lose eight games in a row at home for the first time since … well, July. 

— A loss Sunday would give them a 1-8 homestand for the first time since 1993.

There’s only one word for it: Sheesh.

Verlander more than did his part, and when Christian Koss found a hole, he took a 1-0 lead through seven. For years, that would lead to a shutout for Verlander, but he was at 88 pitches and had gone seven full innings for the first time all season. 

Giants manager Bob Melvin turned to a bullpen that lost Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval at the deadline and is missing Ryan Walker because of paternity leave. With two outs in the top of the eighth, the Rays rallied for two runs off José Buttó and Matt Gage. 

It was the kind of sequence that shows just how bizarre this slide has been. The Giants only traded Rogers and Doval because of that previous eight-game losing streak at home, but with the New York Mets playing even worse baseball lately, there has been a small opening to get back into the fringes of the wild-card race. But because they traded Rogers and Doval, the bullpen has not been good enough to finish out the close games that could have turned into needed wins. 

“Look, we still had a great chance to win that game,” Melvin said. “We had two out and nobody on in the eighth and we can’t finish it off. It’s pretty frustrating.”

Verlander has tried not to show his frustration, although he admitted Saturday that for as much as he has enjoyed his teammates, this has not been that fun a season overall.

“We have a great group of people. I’ve enjoyed every moment that we’ve experienced in the locker room and off the field,” he said. “On the field has been a struggle. It’s been hard, yeah.”

Verlander is throwing well enough lately that it doesn’t seem out of the question that he would try to pitch a few more years and make a run at 300 wins. At the same time, his early struggles, along with the fact that he’s second-to-last in the majors in run support and has lost multiple wins because of the bullpen, have made 300 seem pretty unrealistic. 

There was a version of this season where Verlander snagged a few wins early and then got rewarded for nights like Saturday. Perhaps he could have picked up seven or eight wins, getting into the 270s and making a run at 300 more possible. Instead, he’s sitting at 1-9, and the Giants are not playing like a team that will give him many more opportunities at victories over the final six weeks. 

Verlander does, however, continue to make history. He got to 3,511 strikeouts for his career, and his next time out, he should catch Johnson on the Elias list. He’s just 24 away from passing Giants Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry and moving into eighth all-time. It’s one small thing for fans to root for in a season that quickly has spiraled out of control.

“I grew up a fan of the game and I think there’s just these names that come up and you’re like, ‘OK, you just passed so-and-so, and it’s like, I did what? Who? That’s a freaking legend,'” Verlander said. “You just don’t think about yourself that way. You just kind of [put your] head down, work hard, just keep plugging along, but I feel like moments like that — you hear Walter Johnson, even though I’m not there yet technically, I guess I’m in limbo — everybody knows that name. 

“Every pitcher that has ever picked up a baseball and played for a significant period of time knows who Walter Johnson is. It’s pretty cool.”

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Max Fried had a two-run lead before he threw his first pitch on Saturday in St. Louis. But despite that boost, the Yankees' left-hander couldn't find the answers to his recent struggles as he allowed a season-high seven runs.

"I haven't been sharp, I haven't had the good results," Fried said after allowing four runs or more for the fourth time in five starts since the All-Star break. "When you gotta go out there and have good outings, I haven't been able to do that.

"I'm working hard in between to make the best adjustments that I can, and they haven't really been showing... I know that going forward, I gotta be way better."

When asked for his level of concern, the first-year Yank said he is "not in any panic mode," but there is "definitely motivation to make sure I don't keep doing this."

Three batters into the game, Fried allowed his first run (partially thanks to Jasson Dominguez's misplaying a single into a triple) before he turned the lead into a deficit in the second when he followed a walk with back-to-back singles and a three-run homer. 

"It's been going the same way for me for a little bit now, where I've given up a little bit of a crooked number in an inning," Fried said of the four-run second inning.

But he got the next two batters on strikes, the lefty found his groove for the first time, retiring 11 of the next 12 batters with five strikeouts, allowing only an infield single on a slow chopper to second.

"I think he was just commanding the strike zone at a really high level," manager Aaron Boone said of Fried's good run. "I think he was starting to have a presence on a little bit on the arm side – with the changeup over there, sinker on that side of the plate, and then that set up his cutter even better or his curveball. 'Cause he's got so many ways to beat ya.

"He's gotta make sure he uses that and uses both sides of the plate. He just got into a good rhythm from a command standpoint, too."

His night came to an end seven pitches into the bottom half of the sixth when Jordan Walker smoked a double off the wall in right center and Nolan Gorman hooked a two-run home run just around the right-field foul pole.

"It was good for a little bit," Fried said of finding his groove. "Just made two bad pitches again in the sixth."

That ended his night after 5.0 innings, surrendering seven runs on eight hits and one walk with six strikeouts.

Fortunately for the southpaw, Ben Rice drove in seven of the Yanks' 12 runs as New York outlasted the Cardinals in the Saturday night slugfest, 12-8.

"I can't give the guys enough credit," the starter said. "They came out today and played a really great game and picked me up big-time, especially with the performance that I had. Can't say enough about them. Wish I had been a little bit better and less runs up there, but at the end of the day, we got a win. That's the most important thing."

But going back to his final start before the break, in which Fried developed a blister on his left index finger, he has now pitched to a 7.20 ERA over his last six starts, allowing 29 runs (24 earned) on 40 hits and 13 walks with 30 strikeouts in 30 innings (1.767 WHIP). And since the end of June, his ERA has jumped from 1.92 to 3.26.

When asked about the struggles, the manager pointed to "the next-level strike throwing."

"For several starts in there, it was not consistently getting ahead at all," Boone said. "A lot of 1-0, start from there. Then the Astros got him where he was just not putting guys away. I think it's just that next level of command, making sure he's using all his stuff, and using both sides of the plate.

"But this is the gauntlet that is the season. He'll get through it. He's working his tail off, the stuff's there, we just gotta find that next level of execution."

Fried said that throughout his career, he's been able to find ways to be able to get ground balls and weak contact even when down in the count.

"It's frustrating in this stretch that I haven't been able to do that, and it's putting us in holes," he said. "I definitely have to change something and change up quick." 

The San Diego Padres’ performance on Saturday could probably be put in a tutorial video.

Suggested title: How NOT to play a baseball game.

On a night the surging Padres were trying to bounce back from the Dodgers’ opening win in this weekend’s pivotal three-game series, one that tied the two Southern California rivals atop the National League West standings, the club instead put on an exhibition of poor, sloppy and outright comical execution.

While the once-slumping Dodgers have raised their level of play the last two nights, the Padres have made mistakes even Little League coaches would be reprimanding.

Read more:Plaschke: The 'legend' Clayton Kershaw is legendary again for Dodgers

Except in their case, even the coaching appeared to be part of the problem.

In the Dodgers’ 6-0 win — a victory that restored their solo lead in the division, and clinched their head-to-head season series against the Padres in case of a tiebreaker at the end of the year — San Diego did all it could to give the game away from the start.

In the top of the first, three of the Padres’ first four batters recorded a hit against Blake Snell, the ex-Padre left-hander making his first start against the team since leaving in free agency at the end of 2023. But twice, Dodgers catcher Will Smith caught a runner trying to steal second, gunning down Fernando Tatis Jr. after his leadoff single before getting Manny Machado on the back end of an attempted double-steal to retire the side.

“We had a plan,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “And they made some plays.”

Lo and behold, the plan backfired again in the second, with Smith throwing out yet another runner, Xander Bogaerts, with yet another strike to second. 

“Through two innings,” Snell joked, “he had three outs and I had three outs.”

It was the Dodgers’ first game with three caught stealings since 2021, and it made Smith the first Dodgers catcher with three individually since Russell Martin in 2010.

“Obviously we feel that Will is the best catcher in baseball in totality,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Tonight, he showed it with his arm.” 

And, just as importantly, Roberts quickly added: “Essentially, they played 24 outs.”

Somehow, the Padres’ pitching and defense found a way to be even worse.

Starting pitcher Dylan Cease began his outing with three-straight walks in the bottom of the first, spraying the ball around the plate while visibly frustrated.

After a one-out sacrifice fly from Teoscar Hernández, Cease reloaded the bases with another free pass to Andy Pages, and followed that with a hanging curveball to Michael Conforto in a 3-and-0 count that had run full. Conforto was ready for it, ripping a two-run single into right. Seven batters in, the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead.

“Definitely you don't want to help him out in that situation,” Conforto said. “But he fell behind 3-0, and came back into the zone, and showed that he was going to throw strikes. He wasn't going to put me on. So, being ready to hit 3-1, and then being ready to hit 3-2, was obviously the plan.”

Walks continued to abound in the second, with Cease putting Shohei Ohtani and Smith aboard to create more traffic. This time, the right-hander had appeared to work his way out of it, after Freddie Freeman hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in right-center. But on this night, even routine outs were no sure thing.

Sensing Tatis converging from right field, center fielder Jackson Merrill briefly hesitated while pursuing the drive, before awkwardly reaching for it with an underhanded attempt. Predictably, he couldn’t hold on, the ball hitting the heel of his mitt before falling to the ground for a two-run error.

The Dodgers, who went on to get six shutout innings from Snell and a second home run in as many nights from Hernández, would never be threatened again.

“It’s certainly good to be on the other side of things,” Roberts said, after his club had for so long had been the one shooting itself in the foot. “We’ve caught some breaks ... but for us to take advantage of them is huge.”

To recap the first two innings one more time:

The Dodgers (70-53) had just one hit, and saw their starting pitcher retire only one of the first five batters he faced — but drew six walks, were gifted a dropped ball and somehow led 5-0.

The Padres (69-54) had four hits — but apparently forgot how to throw up a stop sign, committed the costliest of imaginable errors defensively, and watched their starting pitcher throw 31 balls to only 27 strikes.

That, kids, is decidedly not how it’s done.

“It just got out of hand a little early,” Bogaerts said. “Obviously a little, couple of mistakes.”

Not that the Dodgers seemed all too much to mind.

Over the last couple months, as Roberts eluded to, they had been the team on the wrong end of sloppy fundamentals. What was once a nine-game division lead evaporated in the space of six weeks, thanks to un-clutch offense, unreliable relief pitching and one maddening close loss after another.

But in Friday’s series opener, they had finally played clean baseball, and even more importantly, grinded out a one-run win.

Read more:Shaikin: Max Muncy's absence creates major matchup challenges for Dodgers hitters

“If you win the close games, that’s how you build,” Freeman theorized last week. “Then you’ll score nine, 10 runs. Then you’ll start putting some things together. But just need to find a way to win those close ones.”

So far in this series, that prediction has come true.

Not that he, or anyone else with the Dodgers, could have expected the Padres to offer so much self-destructive help.

“I'm just happy that we're playing better baseball,” Roberts said. “We're playing clean baseball. We're minimizing the walks, taking walks. Not making outs on the bases, and converting outs when we need to. When you have the talent that we do, you just gotta kind of play good baseball. ... So this is a good time to go for the jugular [with a potential series sweep Sunday].”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.