Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani has been dealing with a knee and biceps injury.
Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani is making progress in a return to the rotation.
Ohtani threw his first bullpen in nearly a month on Friday and the next step for the right-hander will be another bullpen session and a live batting practice if all goes accordingly, manager Dave Roberts said Saturday.
The Dodgers have revealed their plan to ramp up Shohei Ohtani before returning to the mound. Brad Penner-Imagn Images
“Then,” Roberts said, “I would see him in a major league game.”
Ohtani was in the midst of a Cy Young performance, sporting a 1.79 ERA with 95 strikeouts across 85.2 innings of work this season. The 32-year-old’s pitching clinic was halted by a knee and biceps injury, which essentially halted his two-way duties for the foreseeable future.
Barring any setbacks, it appears Ohtani is on track to return to the rotation in the coming weeks.
While the rotation certainly misses Ohtani, his absence has also caused problems for the Dodgers bullpen. The overtaxed unit has gone from eight to seven relievers, a factor in the recent poor performance from Dodgers relievers.
Ohtani, the pitcher, hasn’t made a start for the Dodgers since July 3. But Ohtani, the hitter, has continued grinding.
Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani has been dealing with a knee and biceps injury. Wally Skalij for CA Post
The Dodgers two-way star is hitting .290 with 27 home runs, 74 RBIs and a .930 OPS. There have been several questions surrounding Ohtani’s performance at the plate in 2026, particularly surrounding the taxing workload of a dominant pitcher.
Though Ohtani’s offensive numbers haven’t been as strong as his first two seasons with the Dodgers, his success as a two-way star has put him at the forefront of the MVP race.
Former members of the Vancouver Canucks will take the spotlight in this off-season article series. From those skating with new NHL teams heading into the 2026–27 season to those who are now playing for international clubs, these featured players have skated in at least one game at the NHL level as a member of the Canucks.
Today’s segment will take a look at the 11 former Canucks that are set to compete for teams in the NHL’s Metropolitan Division during the 2026–27 season.
While Chatfiled may have only played in 18 games with Vancouver, the defenceman was part of the Canucks organization for much longer than that. Prior to making the jump to the NHL with Vancouver, Chatfield playaed for the Canucks’ then-AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, from 2017–18 to 2019–20. After his 18 games with Vancouver in 2020–21, he signed with the Hurricanes in free-agency.
After five seasons with the Hurricanes, Chatfield became a Stanley Cup champion in 2025–26, winning the trophy alongside Carolina after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in six games during the Stanley Cup Final. The defenceman had a goal and seven assists in 19 post-season games. He’ll enter the final season of a three-year contract with the Hurricanes come the start of 2026–27.
As a Canuck, Garland quickly made a name for himself as a hustling, no-quit player who put effort into every shift that he played in. He set a new career-high in points in his first season with the Canucks in 2021–22, scoring 19 goals and 33 assists in 77 games. In every near full-season he played for Vancouver in, he consistently registered season point-totals of above 45.
Though he signed a six-year contract extension with Vancouver during the 2025 off-season, he was traded ahead of the 2026 Trade Deadline and now plays for the Blue Jackets. In his first 21 games with Columbus, he scored five goals and two assists. Four of these goals came within his first three games with his new team.
Danton Heinen, Columbus Blue Jackets
Vancouver acquired Heinen by signing him to a two-year contract during the 2024 free-agency period. The forward only ended up skating in 51 games for the Canucks though, scoring six goals and 12 assists, before he was shipped back to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a trade package for defenceman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor.
Heinen was traded once again in 2025, this time being sent to Columbus along with two picks in exchange for Egor Chinakov. The forward skated in 33 games with the Blue Jackets in 2025–26, putting up five goals and five assists. Columbus signed him to a one-year, $1M extension during the off-season.
Erik Gudbranson, Columbus Blue Jackets
A veteran defenceman who spent three seasons with the Canucks, Gudbranson came to Vancouver via trade with the Florida Panthers. In his first year with Vancouver, 2016–17, he averaged a near career-high of 20:20 minutes per game, but saw his ice time drop slowly in the following seasons. He was traded to the Penguins in 2019 in exchange for Tanner Pearson.
After stints with the Penguins, Anaheim Ducks, Ottawa Senators, Nashville Predators, and Calgary Flames, Gubranson seems to have found a fit in Columbus, having spent the past four seasons with the Blue Jackets and re-upping with the team with a one-year extension. In 2025–26, he scored a goal and two assists in 37 games but missed most of the season due to various injuries.
The captain of the Canucks for four of the nine seasons he spent with the team, Horvat quickly established himself as a leader as his time with Vancouver went on. The forward put up his first 20-goal season with Vancouver in 2016–17, registering his first 30-goal year in 2021–22. After 621 games with the Canucks, Horvat was traded to the Islanders in January of 2023.
After being acquired by New York, Horvat signed an eight-year contract that enters its fourth year at the start of the 2026–27 season. Though injuries slightly derailed his season, Horvat notched the fourth 30-goal season of his NHL career in 2025–26, putting up 31 goals and 26 assists in 68 games. He was also named to Canada’s 2026 Winter Olympic team.
Mar 3, 2025; New York, New York, USA; New York Rangers left wing J.T. Miller (8) controls the puck against New York Islanders center Bo Horvat (14) during the second period at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Miller was acquired via draft-day trade in 2019, with the forward immediately setting a then career-high (72 points) in his first year with the Canucks in 2019–20. He continued to follow these efforts up with more career-highs in 2021–22 (99 points) and 2023–24 (103 points), before he was traded to the team that drafted him, the Rangers, in January of 2025.
Miller, who’d spent six seasons with New York in his first stint with the team, was named the captain of the Rangers at the beginning of the 2025–26 season. He scored 17 goals and 36 assists in 68 games with New York and also won a Gold medal with Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Including the 2026–27 season, Miller has four more years remaining on the seven-year contract he initially signed with Vancouver.
Marcus Pettersson, New York Rangers
Part of one of the most notable days in recent Canucks history, Pettersson was acquired in the second trade made by Vancouver on January 31, 2025. The defenceman was signed to a six-year contract extension only a couple of games after that, though he only ended up playing in one of them for Vancouver before being flipped to the Rangers for a 2030 first-round pick.
In his first and only full-season with the Canucks, Pettersson was one of only three players to skate in all 82 games for Vancouver. He put up three goals and 15 assists but struggled defensively at times. Pettersson still has five years remaining in his $5.5M AAV deal.
A former near 40-goal scorer for the Canucks, Kuzmenko was a highly sought-out free-agent when Vancouver first signed him in July of 2022. He put together an impressive 74-point campaign in his first NHL season in 2021–22 but quickly saw his play drop-off after. Kuzmenko was packaged up and sent to the Flames in the Elias Lindholm deal in 2023–24.
Since his time with the Canucks, Kuzmenko hasn’t quite hit that same offensive gear that he found in his first NHL season. He spent the 2025–26 season with the Los Angeles Kings, scoring 13 goals and 12 assists in 52 games. The forward missed a good chunk of the end of the regular season recovering from surgery for a torn meniscus, slotting in to play in one game during the Kings’ post-season run. He has since signed a one-year, $5M deal with the Penguins.
Artūrs Šilovs, Pittsburgh Penguins
Šilovs has had some of the most memorable moments in his career throughout the past few seasons, ranging from helping Latvia to their first medal at the IIHF World Championships in 2023, to being named MVP of the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs with Abbotsford. He made a name for himself in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs by backstopping Vancouver to Game 7 of the second-round after injuries to both Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith.
Traded to the Penguins during the 2025 off-season, Šilovs continued his stretch of notable play in pressure-filled situations by winning two of his three starts in Pittsburgh’s first-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers in 2026. He registered a SV% of .900 or higher in all three games, including allowing only one goal in the eventual series-clincher for the Flyers. With Stuart Skinner departing in free-agency, it appears Šilovs could take the role of starting goaltender for Pittsburgh.
One of three pieces acquired in the Horvat trade, Beauvillier spent a total of 55 games with the Canucks split over 2022–23 and 2023–24. He put together 11 goals and 17 assists during this span of time. In November of 2023, he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks for a conditional fifth-round pick in 2024.
A couple more trades resulted in Beauvillier finding his way to Washington, with whom he signed a two-year contract extension with in 2025. He played in all 82 games for the Capitals in his first full season with the team, doing so for the first time in his NHL career, and scoring 15 goals and 13 assists.
Vincent Desharnais, Washington Capitals
Signed and traded by the Canucks within the span of less than a season, Desharnais skated in 34 games in his time with Vancouver, recording three assists. He was traded to the Penguins as part of the Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor deal, finding himself on the move a month later after also being traded from Pittsburgh to the San Jose Sharks.
Desharnais stuck with the Sharks for the 2025–26 season, playing in 53 games and logging a career-high average of 18:11 minutes played per game. He also put together a goal and six assists in this span. Notably, he signed a four-year, $4.2M AAV contract with the Capitals during the 2026 free-agency period.
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TORONTO — Perhaps because there is not much else he can do at the moment, Aaron Boone sat in his office Saturday after another familiar loss and pointed to his lineup card.
“I’m looking at these names, [they’re] all capable of doing really big things for us,” the Yankees manager said.
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And yet, in the same breath, he acknowledged the other reality they are facing.
“This is who we got,” Boone said. “These are our guys.”
And more often than not lately, regardless of who they are facing or which names are in the lineup, they have not been good enough.
Once again, the Yankees were shut down Saturday, this time being four-hit by a parade of seven Blue Jays relievers in a 4-1 loss on an otherwise beautiful afternoon at Rogers Centre.
Including the playoffs, the Yankees (68-55) are just 3-11 north of the border dating back to last year, but they can’t hit in any country these days. Since June 20 — a few weeks after Aaron Judge last played a game — the Yankees have averaged just 3.3 runs per game. It has been worse of late, scoring just three runs over their past 27 innings — resulting in three losses that dropped them to seven games back of the Rays entering their Saturday night game — and scoring two runs or fewer in 10 of their past 15 games.
Cam Schlittler of the New York Yankees pitches against the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning in their MLB game at the Rogers Centre on August 15, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Getty Images
“Of course, you’re going to go through ups and downs in a season — I’d say we definitely wouldn’t ever expect it to go so long,” Ben Rice said. “But with that being said … we’re going to come out of it. Once we get rolling, hope to start stringing more wins together.”
Before this series — which will end Sunday with the resurgent Blue Jays (61-64) throwing their ace, Dylan Cease — the Yankees had gone 5-1-1 in their past seven series, four against playoff teams. And yet, even most of their wins have been excruciating, nail-biting games in which their offense has mustered just enough to narrowly avoid wasting quality starting pitching.
That was not the case Saturday, with Cam Schlittler becoming the latest victim, as the Blue Jays broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning off Brent Headrick then added two insurance runs in the eighth off Tim Hill.
“Having some of the right at-bats, but then at the back end of the game, just shut down and kind of went silent again,” Boone said. “Broken record. Obviously, we know we got to be better.”
Asked about what he could do to get his offense going, Boone responded that he could “maybe shake up the order a little bit here and there,” which sounded more like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And there is no magic bullet sitting on the bench — instead it resides on the injured list, in the form of Judge (who just started playing catch Friday), Cody Bellinger (who could be back by next weekend) and Giancarlo Stanton (who has been out since late April and remains a mystery for when and in what form he will return).
Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk (30) celebrates hitting an RBI single against the New York Yankees during the third inning at Rogers Centre. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
But the Yankees do, in fact, have to continue playing games until they return, and cannot afford to just wait for them to save the day.
Saturday, they got off to a solid start when their two youngest hitters in the lineup, Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr. strung a single, stolen base and single together to create a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
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But they did not have another hit until the seventh inning, when Luis García Jr. led off with a single, just to be promptly erased as he was caught stealing second base. García stole just four bases with the Nationals this season but Boone cited Blue Jays righty Spencer Miles being slow to the plate and trying to “exploit” that to make something happen.
Along the way, the Yankees’ best run-suppressing starter (Schlittler in 5 ¹/₃ innings) and reliever (Headrick) each dared to give up a run, which was effectively too much for their offense to overcome.
“We had one offensive explosion [scoring 10 runs Wednesday against the Mariners], and if not for what we’ve been going through the last couple months, these last few days are a little bit of tough luck involved, where guys are hitting some balls on the screws, we’re putting the ball in play mostly,” Boone said. “But it’s the big leagues and we’re fighting down the stretch now to be a playoff team.”
TORONTO, ON - AUGUST 15: Spencer Jones #78 of the New York Yankees celebrates after hitting a single in the second inning during the game between the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Saturday, August 15, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Colton Hall/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
There are ways and ways of losing a low-scoring game, and when it feels as though you’ve underperformed far more than simply being dominated, the frustration level rises, such as in this 4-1 defeat to the Blue Jays. Held quietly by the Jays in a bullpen game, the Yankees lost their fourth straight Schlittler start.
Making matters even worse, the Yankees actually got on the board early thanks to George Lombard Jr., who has been a breath of fresh air for an offense in desperate need of one. His early numbers aren’t spectacular, but as a shortstop who puts the bat on the ball and makes key plays both ways, the RBI single in the second—driving in Spencer Jones—was just the latest of these.
That one run could’ve led to more if the Yankees as a whole were more reliable in seizing opportunities, Lombard taking second after the Jays left fielder foolishly didn’t throw the ball to second. Then in scoring position with just one out, Lombard was stranded as the Blue Jays pounced on the sequence of lefties at the bottom of the Yankees order—Ricky Tiedemann, making his major league debut, retired Ryan McMahon and Austin Wells.
It didn’t take long for the Jays to hurt Cam Schlittler for the first time, stringing a sequence of unlikely hits together—none more so than a Nathan Lukes single to the opposite field on a fastball well above the belt. Lukes’ knock presented a two-on and one-out situation for Alejandro Kirk, who hit a groundball to second, just escaping Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s glove and a potential double play to instead drive in a run. Facing an even bigger threat than Tiedemann an inning before, Schlittler punched out Jesús Sánchez and came back from a 3-0 count to retire Kazuma Okamoto and keep the score at one-all.
That sequence in the second of Lombard reaching only to be stranded by the bottom of the order’s inability to make something happen happened again in the fifth—this time even without a lefty to retire McMahon and Wells, the latter on a double play induced by Simeon Woods Richardson. Needing to look somewhere for length in the hope of not completely wearing down the bullpen, the Jays got 2.1 scoreless from Richardson. The right-hander has found success in the early samples of his return to Toronto, being this long-relief option out of the bullpen.
In the sixth, the Yankees had a favorable matchup with Helliot Ramos hitting against the lefty Mason Fluharty, who was brought in to handle Trent Grisham and Ben Rice. Not only did Ramos not manage to make strong contact, but without hustling down the line, he was thrown out despite Andrés Giménez’s initial bobble at short.
Schlittler left the game during the sixth after a couple of men reached with just one out and was at the mercy of the bullpen. The Yankees’ starter saw his line preserved by Brent Headrick, who punched out Andrés Giménez and retired Brandon Valenzuela.
Changing things up on the path to not scoring, the Yankees’ disappointment in the seventh came on an ill-advised stolen base attempt from Luis Garcia Jr. after leading off the inning with a single. Afterward, Spencer Jones was struck out by Spencer Miles on six pitches, not a single one of them a strike. The list of letdown at-bats grew longer by the minute.
Each of these wasted chances felt like it brought the Blue Jays closer and closer to a win. Eventually, the Yankees staff wasn’t going to keep up the zeroes, and that happened in the bottom of the seventh. Charles McAdoo narrowly missed out on a home run but got enough for an RBI double off the left-hander Headrick. Paul Blackburn pitched his way out of the mess created by Headrick and stranded the bases loaded. However, an inning later the Jays added a pair of insurance runs off Tim Hill, the first Yankee pitcher in this game to truly be off it, allowing the first four hitters he faced to reach safely. Even then, much like in the previous frame, a Yankees pitcher stranded the bases loaded, this time Yerry De Los Santos.
Those insurance runs felt as irrelevant as they could be because Louie Varland dominated the bottom of the ninth in such a fashion that getting someone on base would’ve been a massive task. The Blue Jays closer struck out the side to wrap up yet another loss at Rogers Centre.
If the life of the Yankees offense hasn’t been easy in the first two games of this series, expect further difficulties in Sunday’s finale at 1:37 p.m. The Yanks will try to avoid the sweep, sending Ryan Weathers to face off against the Jays’ ace, Dylan Cease.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow pitches during the top of the fifth inning of a game against the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif., on Friday, April 10, 2026. (2026 Carlin Stiehl)
Tyler Glasnow will rejoin the Dodgers’ rotation after making one more start in the minor leagues, manager Dave Roberts said on Saturday.
Glasnow, who hasn’t pitched in a major league game since May 6, retired 11 of 13 batters he faced on Friday night in a start for the Dodgers’ triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City.
Los Angeles Rams player Myles Garrett meets Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow before a game against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, June 6, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij/For the California Post) Wally Skalij for CA Post
“It was a good one yesterday,” Roberts said. “I think our thought is going to do another one, five (innings) and 75 (pitches), and then he’ll join us.”
Glasnow threw 67 pitches in 3 ⅔ innings on Friday night.
Glasnow was 3-0 with a 2.72 earned-run average in seven starts when he was placed on the injured list.
The 6-foot-8 right-hander made a conscious effort to put on weight over the offseason in hopes that it could help him remain healthy. In his first season with the Dodgers, in 2024, his season was cut short by an elbow strain. He missed 2 ½ months last year because of a strained shoulder.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow pitches during the top of the fifth inning of a game against the Texas Rangers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif., on Friday, April 10, 2026. (2026 Carlin Stiehl) Carlin Stiehl for CA Post
Roberts and the front office could be forced to make difficult decisions leading into the postseason. The Dodgers are expected to use a four-man rotation in October, and if Ohtani is able to pitch an inning or two per game as an opener, Glasnow could be asked to pitch out of the bullpen.
Glasnow started three playoff games on the Dodgers’ championship run last year, but he also pitched in three games as a reliever, including the Games 6 and 7.
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CLEVELAND, OHIO - JULY 18: Jared Jones #17 of the Pittsburgh Pirates throws a pitch during the first inning in game one of a doubleheader against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on July 18, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Pittsburgh Pirates are in the middle game of a three-game set, as they take on the Boston Red Sox at PNC Park.
Jared Jones will get the start for the Pirates, and he is hoping to get out of a recent funk. He has lost each of his last three starts, including his most recent appearance against the New York Mets on August 9, when he pitched only three innings and gave up six hits and eight earned runs in an 11-1 thrashing of the Pirates. Jones has not won in nearly a month, but his team has struggled to score on offense with him on the mound. During the last four games he has pitched in, the Pirates have scored a combined five runs and have not scored more than two in a single game.
It won’t be easy for the Pirates to score tonight as Sonny Gray takes the mound for the Red Sox. Gray has the most wins out of any pitcher in the American League with 14, but he is coming off a loss in his last start against the Toronto Blue Jays. He pitched six innings, giving up six hits and two earned runs, but the offense was not clicking like it normally does, resulting in a 2-1 loss at the Rogers Center.
Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA
Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, FOX
Pitching Matchup: Sonny Gray (14-3, 2.79 ERA) vs. Jared Jones (2-4, 5.03 ERA)
BD community, chime off in the comments section below.
Douglass had first broken record with 23.49sec in heats
Kate Douglass lowered her own world record in the women’s 50m freestyle for the second time in one day, winning the Pan Pacific Championships final in 23.19sec.
In the morning preliminaries, the 24-year-old American swam 23.49 to take the mark away from teammate Gretchen Walsh, who finished second in the evening final in 23.74. Australia’s reigning world champion Meg Harris was third in 23.89.
This past week, the Portland City Council approved $120 million to pay for much-needed renovations to the Moda Center, home to the Portland Trail Blazers. Combined with already approved state and county funds, that totals $586 million for the renovations.
However, all the funding hinges on the Trail Blazers agreeing to a new lease that would keep the team in Portland through 2050. The Trail Blazers — particularly owner Tom Dundon — and the city disagree over some key terms of that lease and are entering negotiations. There is a deadline to sign that lease by the end of the year, or the state money ($365 million) goes away.
There are two ways this is likely to play out: Either, by Dec. 17 (a deciding City Council vote on the lease terms), the City of Portland and Dundon's Trail Blazers will have agreed on a new lease that will keep the beloved franchise in Portland for another two decades; or we will know that Dundon bought the team with the intention of moving it, a script the Pacific Northwest has seen before.
What does Dundon want?
Notice that the Trail Blazers themselves are not on the list of groups contributing to the Moda Center refurbishment — Dundon said at a meeting in Portland he thought the team contributed enough by the taxes it pays in the state. That follows his pattern since buying the team.
Dundon has not made friends in Oregon since buying the Trail Blazers — and absolutely wasted the honeymoon period new owners usually get with fan bases. He has come off as entitled, a billionaire penny-pincher treating the team like a private equity asset, not acting as a steward of a brand and franchise important to the community.
There have been so many penny-pinching moves. There was the public relations mess of not bringing two-way players to a postseason game. There was the story of the team masseuse and other Portland personnel waiting for hours in a hotel lobby because he wouldn't pay for late checkouts. There was the lowballing of coaching offers — something he denied but was discussed plenty around the league — that ultimately saw a successful coach in Tiago Splitter head to Chicago (while they found a good coach in Mica Nori, he had to sign an owner-friendly contract, essentially a one-year deal, that the coaches' association decried). A lot of team staff was let go on the business side. Most recently, long-time and popular Trail Blazers television play-by-play voice Kevin Calabro walked after refusing a "subprime" offer, while analyst Michael Holton, studio hosts Neil Everett and Jamie Hudson, radio voice Travis Demers, and Tom Haberstroh, who brought a statistical take, were all let go.
Dundon and the Trail Blazers say the organization has been losing money, and argue this was cutting out fat and waste. The team says the primary reason it is losing money is an unfavorable lease deal. Dundon and the Trail Blazers argue that in negotiations with the city, they need to get the best deal possible to make the team profitable. To fans in Portland? It all reads as what people nationwide have come to despise about billionaires and private equity.
The City Council approved a term sheet with the money, and that's what the negotiations over the coming months will be about. The city sees its term sheet as putting in protections for itself in this process, but Dundon has already dismissed the sheet out of hand.
What are the expected issues with the negotiation?
• It's going to start with the $3 million annual rent charge.
Portland City Council approves amended Moda Center by an 8-4 vote.
Added more than $3m annual rent to a term sheet that Blazers already scoffed at, so some tough negotiations ahead. But it's a term sheet nonetheless.
• Taxes. The city gets a six percent tax on each ticket sold and every parking fee at the building. The team wants that number reduced.
• The city wants the Trail Blazers to agree to hire union workers for the renovations and construction process, as well as for concession workers and others on game night.
• The Trail Blazers want increased security in and around the arena on game night and for the city to pay for that.
The Trail Blazers see all of this as costing the team money.
Could Dundon move the team?
Never say never, but this would be an incredibly tough sell to the NBA league office and the 29 other owners. While the term sheet can be negotiated, local and state governments stepped up with money to do the renovations. That matters.
Also worth noting, one of the challenges with the Trail Blazers has been that they are isolated on the map, there is not another team in the Pacific Northwest, which makes travel much longer. That appears likely to change in the next few years if (really, when) an expansion team in Seattle is approved — the league doesn't want to put a team in Portland and have them be the ones isolated.
Where would Dundon move the team? With expansion teams — paying massive franchise fees — targeted for Seattle and Las Vegas, the league is not going to let another team swoop in and take over those markets. Maybe he wants to move the team to Raleigh, North Carolina, where his NHL team, the Hurricanes, play. That, however, is about 170 miles from an existing NBA team in Charlotte, and you can bet that ownership group would push back about having another team in what they see as their market.
Also, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, back when he was David Stern's deputy, led the push to find an owner and keep the Kings in Sacramento. He didn't let that team move to a bigger market in Seattle. Silver likes stability. Finally, make no mistake, moving the team out of Portland would be a public relations disaster for the league.
Never say never with the NBA, but Dundon finding the political will with the league and the other 29 owners to sign off on him moving the team is a long shot.
That is not going to make the negotiations over the next couple of months any easier. Expect both sides to try to negotiate through the public in the coming months, there will be contentious moments, but in the end, the money is on the table to get the upgrades done. A deal should be struck.
Unless Dundon never had any intention of striking a deal.
CLEVELAND, OH - AUGUST 14: San Diego Padres pitcher Bradgley Rodriguez (72) and San Diego Padres catcher Freddy Fermin (54) celebrate following the Major League Baseball interleague game between the San Diego Padres and Cleveland Guardians on August 14, 2026, at Progressive Field in Cleveland, OH. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
San Diego Padres (66-57) at Cleveland Guardians (59-64), August 15, 2026, 4:10 p.m. PST
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DYERSVILLE, IOWA - AUGUST 13: Bryce Harper #3 of the Philadelphia Phillies looks on during the second inning against the Minnesota Twins at Field of Dreams on August 13, 2026 in Dyersville, Iowa. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images
First Pitch: 6:10 pm CDT
TV: Twins.TV
Radio: TIBN / WCCO 830 / The Wolf 102.9 FM / Audacy
The Twins have had a full Friday off to wash their nationally-televised Field of Dreams performance out of their mouths, and recenter focus onto the reality that they’ve still got two home games left against a strong opponent with playoff hopes. As Connor Prielipp takes the mound this evening, he does so for a team tied for the final Wild Card; with the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers both losing already today, it’s a three-way, 60-63 tie for one playoff position.
If you’d asked me months ago, or truly even a few weeks ago, I’d have sure bet a lot of money that the Wild Card race would have separated itself by now. Sub-.500 playoff hopefuls are only really in the race for as long as it takes until a random team finally has a dominant two weeks. And yet, it’s mid-August, and that still hasn’t happened. The Twins, Tigers, Rangers, Blue Jays, Orioles, and Guardians all have nearly identical records, but none of the above have been able to take the reins, climb over .500, and create actual separation. In three weeks’ time, the playoff picture might look obvious. For now, it’s the same muddled mess it’s been all year, and while the vibes haven’t been spectacular in Minnesota lately, the Twins could end the evening alone in a playoff position.
Since we last saw the Twins, third catcher Alex Jackson has seen his roster spot finally dry up. Byron Buxton technically takes his spot, remaining on the roster after being activated as the neutral site’s 27th man on Thursday evening.
The talented lefty Jesus Luzardo will give the Twins another chance to solve their southpaw woes, although there are easier pitchers to try that against. Luzardo is a reigning All-Star, has put up 4.3 bWAR, an ERA+ of 135, and is probably the third-best starter in Philadelphia’s monstrous rotation that includes standout veteran Zack Wheeler and the dominant Cristopher Sanchez, last year’s Cy Young runner-up. Thankfully, the Twins will miss both Wheeler and Sanchez, but that means the big challenge of the series will lie in besting Luzardo tonight.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - AUGUST 14: Michael Harris II #23 of the Atlanta Braves lunges for a fly ball in the seventh inning of a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Truist Park on August 14, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Edward M. Pio Roda/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Join us in the comments below as the Braves look to even the series!
Game Info
Game Time: Saturday, August 15, 7:15 PM ET
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
Watch: FOX
Radio/Audio: 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM
MINNEAPOLIS — When you think of the Phillies’ offense, the thump usually comes first.
Kyle Schwarber. Bryce Harper. The hitters who can drive the ball out of any ballpark at any point in a game. Plenty of strikeouts have come with that, too.
But since the start of August, the Phillies have not looked so one-dimensional.
That is no coincidence.
It lines up with the deadline acquisition of National League batting leader Luis Arraez, and it was clear again Saturday evening in a 9-1 win over Arraez’s former team at Target Field.
Before August, the Phillies ranked eighth in the majors in home runs but had the lowest on-base percentage in baseball at .303. Their 7.8 percent walk rate was the third worst in the league, and their 33.8 percent chase rate was the second highest.
The power was there. The traffic was not.
That has started to change.
The Phillies still have the top-end starting pitching needed to carry a postseason run. Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler and Jesús Luzardo give them a dangerous front three. Aaron Nola has been better. Andrew Painter has shown signs of progress.
But the key at the deadline was getting more runners on base and finding a cleaner path to Jhoan Duran, another former Twin, at the back end of games.
Those two issues have hurt them in previous postseasons.
The first one has looked different so far.
After J.T. Realmuto pushed across a run with a sacrifice fly in the second inning Saturday, the Phillies broke the game open with seven runs in the fifth against Twins starter Connor Prielipp.
With one on and two out, they strung together six straight baserunners.
Trea Turner walked. Harper walked. Arraez walked. Alec Bohm followed with his third hit of the day, an RBI single, on his way to a career-high five-hit game. Edmundo Sosa added another run-scoring single. Then Bryson Stott cleared the bases with a three-run homer.
It was the kind of inning that showed what the Phillies have become capable of when they are not relying on one swing to carry them.
FLIPPED THE SCRIPT
The Phillies look like a different offense.
The numbers say the same.
Since the start of August, they have produced the second-lowest strikeout rate in the majors at 16.2 percent, down from 23.7 percent before the month began. Their .367 on-base percentage leads baseball.
They are not expanding the zone nearly as often, either.
Their chase rate has dropped to 28.4 percent, more than five percentage points lower than it was before August. Their walk rate now leads MLB, and that climbed again with six more walks Saturday.
The power is still there.
But the Phillies are no longer living only on it.
AND HARP?
One of the biggest beneficiaries has been Harper.
He extended his on-base streak to 18 games Saturday, and a lot of that has come with Arraez hitting behind him in the cleanup spot.
Before the Arraez trade, Harper had a 34.6 percent chase rate, one of the highest marks of his career.
Since then, he has drawn 18 walks, the most in baseball, compared with eight hits. His 35.9 percent walk rate leads the league by nearly 13 percentage points. His .510 on-base percentage trails only Stott for the league lead over that span.
Harper said before the deadline that he would like some protection in the lineup.
Arraez has given him that.
And with Stott’s emergence since June, the Phillies’ lineup suddenly has more ways to create offense than it did earlier in the season.
ZEUS AGAIN
It has been an incredible year for Luzardo.
Especially with the context.
He has had six starts this season in which he allowed five or more earned runs. Three times, he allowed five. Twice, he allowed six. Once, he allowed eight.
Outside of those outings, there have not been many pitchers in the game who have been more dominant.
That has been especially true over his last 12 starts.
Luzardo allowed one run over 6 2/3 innings Saturday, struck out nine and lowered his season ERA to 3.23. Since June 10, he owns a National League-best 1.98 ERA with a league-leading 105 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings. His .183 opponents’ batting average over that span is the fourth lowest in baseball.
As the Phillies’ No. 3 starter, that says a lot about what this rotation can look like in October.
In a three-game or five-game series, Sánchez, Wheeler and Luzardo give the Phillies a serious front. And for a team that now does not have to rely solely on the long ball, that gives them a different feel as they chase their fifth straight playoff appearance.
HOT STOTT
Stott’s value has shown up on both sides of the ball.
According to the Phillies, Stott leads the club in fWAR since June 4 at 2.7, tied for second among all MLB players over that span behind only Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.
He showed why again Saturday.
His three-run homer came off a lefty. Stott leads the Phillies with a .318 average against left-handed pitching, nearly 100 points higher than where he finished against lefties in both 2024 and 2025.
It was his second homer against a lefty this season. It also came with runners in scoring position, where Stott is now hitting .344, the 12th-best mark in baseball.
That is part of a larger turnaround.
Stott finished April with a .576 OPS. After Saturday, that number had climbed to .763.
His game has become more complete. He is giving the Phillies contact, defense, speed, better production against lefties and more impact in scoring spots.
That kind of depth is what makes this version of the lineup look different.
The Phillies can still thump.
They just do not have to wait around for it anymore.
The Yankees' offense continued its sleepwalk of late, mustering just four hits in their 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon in Toronto.
New York's only offense came in the second inning with Spencer Jones, who led off with a single, stole second and scored on a George Lombard Jr. single. Against the Blue Jays' bullpen game, seven Toronto pitchers allowed just four hits and walked two batters while striking out nine batters.
The Yankees have now lost three games in a row while being outscored, 8-2.
Here are the takeaways...
-Cam Schlittler worked in and out of trouble in the first inning, but couldn't in the third. After a walk and a single with one out, Alejandro Kirk tied the game with an RBI single. He now has three RBI in two games this series. Schlittler held the line. He'd keep the Blue Jays offense in check until the sixth, when a one-out walk and single forced Aaron Boone to pull his ace.
Brent Headrick came in and got the next two outs (strikeout, groundout) to end Toronto's threat and put a bow on Schlittler's day. The right-hander tossed 97 pitches (56 strikes), allowing one run in 5.1 innings, on four hits and three walks while striking out seven batters.
Saturday was Schlittler's 13th road game with five-plus innings pitched and one or fewer earned runs allowed. That's the second most in a season by any AL pitcher.
-Headrick came out for a second inning of work, but gave up a leadoff single to Ernie Clement and then Charles McAdoo -- starting at first base after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was placed on the IL (concussion) following Friday's game -- lined a double off the wall in left-center field to give the Blue Jays the 2-1 lead. A bunt single and a failed safety squeeze later, and Headrick was pulled.
Paul Blackburn came on and intentionally walked Kirk to load the bases. Blackburn struck out Myles Straw before getting Kazuma Okamoto to line out to right field.
Tim Hill was not effective in the eighth. A single, a hit-by-pitch and a single loaded the bases with no outs. McAdoo singled to put the Jays up 3-1. Hill would record two outs (a flyout and a groundout), but another run would come across home plate. Yerry De Los Santos came on and, after intentionally walking Kirk again, recorded the final out of the inning as the Yankees entered the ninth down three runs.
-Louis Varland mowed down the Yankees for the second night in a row, striking out Ben Rice (0-4 on the day), Heliot Ramos (0-4) and Luis Garcia Jr. (1-4) to end the game.
Game MVP: Charles McAdoo
McAdoo pushed across two of the Jays' four runs, which was more than enough.
I don’t really like putting photos of Cubs opponents as the lead image on these recaps, but as I did after Thursday’s game in Washington, I felt I had to do that again for this one, even though it’s a Cardinal, because the story of this game is Joshua Baez, the top Cardinals prospect who made his MLB debut Saturday at Wrigley Field.
That’s quite the debut, Mr. Baez — three home runs in his first three MLB plate appearances. That’s never been done before by anyone, so at least those of us who saw the Cubs’ 8-4 loss to the Cardinals were witnesses to major league history, though not the sort of history we’d have liked.
I don’t really want to complain about Craig Counsell sitting Dansby Swanson for a day. Counsell is trying to get all his regulars some rest. But while Nico Hoerner and Pedro Ramirez are both good defenders, neither is quite as good at the position he was playing in this game. Nico’s a good shortstop but Swanson is better. Ramirez is a good second baseman but Nico is better.
And thus, the Cubs couldn’t turn a double play in the first inning that would have ended that inning with no scoring. Instead, a run scored on the second force play to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead. That brought up Baez, who otherwise would have led off the second inning.
Instead, he smashed Matthew Boyd’s first pitch for a 449-foot home run. Pretty impressive for a MLB debut, even though his power was known — 34 home runs in 103 games in Triple-A, and the Cardinals fans in the Wrigley Field crowd today cheered his name when lineups were introduced.
So the Cubs were down 3-0 before they came to bat, and then the first five Cubs were set down in order. Then Cardinals third baseman Blaze Jordan booted Nico’s grounder with two out in the bottom of the second, and Ramirez followed with a double, with Nico stopping at third.
Okay, that’s good! The game is tied. More from BCB’s JohnW53:
Until Michael Conforto’s three-run homer, the Cubs had scored runs in just one of the previous 75 plate appearances, going back to the eighth inning Wednesday at Washington: Seiya Suzuki’s three-run homer in the sixth inning Friday. ….. Conforto’s was the Cubs’ 26th three-run homer of the season, most by any team. The Nationals and Yankees began the day with 22. The combined average of the 29 other teams was 16.
The Cubs hit 27 all of last season, which ranked seventh. The Mets and Red Sox tied for the most, with 30.
It remained that way until the top of the fourth, when Baez took Boyd deep again.
That was the third time any player had hit homers in his first two MLB plate appearances, and the others were also connected with St. Louis teams. Bob Nieman, a St. Louis Browns player, did it in 1951, and Keith McDonald did it for the Cardinals in 2000.
Boyd managed to hold the Cardinals down and keep it a one-run deficit until the top of the sixth, when he walked Alec Burleson to lead off the inning.
Now, I ask you: Why on Earth would you throw Baez anything near the plate? He’s already taken you deep twice, Matthew Boyd. Honestly, I think I just would have walked him. Instead, he smashed pitch 2 here for his third homer of the afternoon:
Okay, not right down the middle, but still.
So it’s 6-3 Cardinals now and two batters later, Boyd served up his fourth home-run ball of the day to Jordan and his day was done. Boyd’s been so good lately that I think we can forgive him one clunker of a start.
More from John:
Today’s start was Matthew Boyd’s 46th as a Cub and 214th of his 12-season career. It was the third in which he allowed four home runs. The first two were Aug. 13 and 31, 2019, as a Tiger. He never has given up five.
Two previous Cubs served up at least four this year: Jameson Taillon, five, on the South Side vs. the White Sox on May 16, and Shota Imanaga, four, at home vs. the Athletics on June 4.
The Cubs were going down in order, with just one walk in the fifth and sixth, and also Miguel Amaya hit into a pair of double plays, in the fourth and seventh. The Cardinals added one more homer, by Burleson off Colin Rea in the eighth, and the Cubs did make an attempt to come back in the bottom of the inning. Seiya Suzuki led off with a double and Michael Busch singled, with Suzuki stopping at third.
So that ended that rally, and the Cubs went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to end the game.
Props to Baez, that is an impressive accomplishment for your first MLB game. Baez drove in five runs, which means the MLB record for RBI in a debut game still belongs to Starlin Castro, who drove in six in his debut for the Cubs May 7, 2010.
One more note from John:
This was the third game of the year in which the Cubs surrendered at least five homers. The first was five, on May 16, in an 8-3 loss at the White Sox. The second was seven, in an 18-3 drubbing at home by the Giants.
Fortunately, this game only counts as one loss and the Cubs still have a chance to meatloaf this series Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Edward Cabrera will be activated from the injured list and make the start for the Cubs, and the Cardinals will counter with right-hander Hunter Dobbins. Game time Sunday — and note, it’s different! — is 2:15 p.m. CT. That’s because this game is being nationally televised on ABC (no blackouts) and also streamed on the ESPN App. The BCB game preview will post at 12 noon CT.
Joshua Báez smashed the first pitch he saw in the majors about 450 feet, then flashed a grin to the St. Louis dugout as he began his home run trot.
“There was a calmness and a smile, like, ‘I’m here,’” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “It’s rare for me to pick my head up to enjoy parts of it. He didn’t exactly give us an option but to actually take a step back and enjoy the heck out of what was going on there.”
There has never been a show quite like it.
Báez became the first player to hit a home run in each of his first three at-bats in the majors, leading the Cardinals to an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.
Called up from Triple-A Memphis before the game, Báez had 30 members of his family in attendance at Wrigley Field. The traveling party, which included his mother, Yris, gathered on the field for photos afterward in spite of rain.
“It’s just unreal,” the 23-year-old Báez said. “To not only get a hit, but three home runs? It’s crazy.”
He did it with flair, too. The first came on the first pitch he saw from Matthew Boyd and landed an estimated 449 feet away in the bleachers in left-center. The left fielder’s next at-bat ended with a solo shot down the left-field line and the third, on his ensuing at-bat, went the opposite way, giving him five RBIs.
Major League Baseball said Báez was the first player in modern baseball history to hit three home runs in his debut. The league cannot say with certainty whether the feat happened before 1901 due to a lack of game logs.
“He hit three different pitches for home runs. He had a great game. He beat us for sure,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.
Báez showed plenty of power in the minors this season. When he was called up, he was leading all Triple-A hitters with 34 home runs, including four multihomer games.
He’s the ninth player to make his major league debut for the Cardinals this season.
Báez also is the 11th St. Louis player to homer in his first career at-bat (the last was Lane Thomas in 2019) and sixth in club history to homer on the first pitch. Former pitcher Adam Wainwright last did it in 2006.
