Category: Sports News

ST. LOUIS — For the last two weeks, the Dodgers hadn’t felt good.

Both at the plate and behind the scenes.

Starting with last month’s trip to Denver, the club’s lineup had been in a rut, averaging barely four runs per game during a 5-9 skid that derailed their hot start to the season. Over that same period, a nasty bug had been going around the clubhouse, impacting up to 90% of the roster in the estimation of one team staff member.

Slumps and sicknesses, of course, are inevitable realities of a grueling six-month season.

Rarely, however, do teams so severely endure both at the same time.

“I know this doesn’t quantify anything, and no one will care,” veteran third baseman Max Muncy said earlier this weekend, “but for me, one of the side effects when everyone’s feeling bad is, the team doesn’t have the same joy when we show up every day.”

Which meant, as the losses piled up and the search for offense lingered, laughter and levity seemed equally short in supply.

“You have to conserve your energy, so you don’t have the same shenanigans going on in the clubhouse,” noted Muncy, who was so sick during the team’s recent homestand that he had to leave one game early and wear a heavy jacket in the dugout to regulate his body temperature. 

“When you take out any of that joy that comes from being around everybody, it has a negative effect on people.”

Finally, on Sunday, such vibes began to shift. 

In a 4-1 win over the Cardinals, the Dodgers did more than just snap a season-long four-game losing streak. For the first time in a few weeks, energy and enjoyment levels were pulsating through the team again. 

The day started with a telling observation from manager Dave Roberts, who noticed an upbeat atmosphere around the clubhouse ahead of what he described as a “gut check” game.

“I think that there’s a sense of pride that our guys have, that they understand that enough’s enough,” Roberts said before first pitch.

“I think we were just trying to over-caffeinate this morning,” first baseman Freddie Freeman joked later. “I’m glad our aura was a little different this morning. But we try to be the same every day.”

The Dodgers made one intentional change for Sunday, debuting a new drop-kick celebration whenever they reached base.

lol pic.twitter.com/rNZ8j67Otj

— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) May 3, 2026

Several veteran players were coy about the origin of the new move –– which may or may not have been inspired by something backup catcher Dalton Rushing did at the end of the previous night’s game (when he frustratedly kicked out his leg upon returning to the dugout following a game-ending strikeout).

#山本由伸 投手 #YoshinobuYamamoto#ドジャース#Dodgers#LetsGoDodgerspic.twitter.com/VgOLJMDnhI

— ℕ.♡* (@Frontier__y18) May 3, 2026

Either way, the message it was intended to send was clear:

“We needed to kick away the negativity,” one player quipped.

That wasn’t the only lighthearted aspect of Sunday’s much-needed victory.

While the Dodgers didn’t exactly break out at the plate, they did enough to warrant a postgame media scrum with one of their top hitters. Thus, reporters initially approached Muncy in the clubhouse for an interview –– only for him to pin the task on Freeman instead.

“Freddie’s coming,” Muncy said with a laugh, before going into the dining room to drag Freeman out for the cameras. “Here he is.”

In the other corner of the locker room, Emmet Sheehan began cracking up as starting pitcher Justin Wrobleski was asked about his uniquely dominant start –– including a question about whether he realized he had failed to record any strikeouts in his scoreless six-inning outing.

“I mean, yeah,” Wrobleski said with a smirk and a shrug. “I had a lot of two-strike counts, and then they kept putting it in play. So I was like, ‘All right, I’ll take the out.’”

In much the same way, the Dodgers will happily take Sunday’s win, as well.

Their hope is that it will mark a small-but-important step toward getting back on track after the struggles of the last few weeks. All the better if it reignites the joy that had been missing on and off the field.

“Offensively, we just haven’t been very good the last week,” Freeman said. “Just call a spade a spade sometimes. There’s no way to sugarcoat it … But no one’s worried in here. And it’s good to get a win on a day game, salvage a series and hopefully start a better streak tomorrow.”

“You just have to bow your neck and find a way to win,” Roberts echoed. “Doesn’t matter how good or bad it looks, we needed a win today. So [now] we can have a happy flight.”

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs were cast out by the St. Paul Saints (Twins), 8-7.

Jordan Wicks had a rough start in a rehab assignment. He took the loss after giving up six runs on nine hits over 3.2 innings. The positive news is that he struck out four and walked just one and 50 of his 75 pitches were strikes.

The also-rehabbing Ethan Roberts threw the ninth inning without allowing a run or a hit. He issued a one out walk, but picked the runner off first. Roberts did not strike anyone out.

For the third-straight game, DH Kevin Alcántara homered. It was a solo home run in the eighth inning and was his league-leading 12th overall. Alcántara was 1 for 5.

Second baseman Pedro Ramírez went 3 for 5 with an RBI double in the sixth inning and he knocked home another one with a single in the seventh.

Right fielder Justin Dean went 1 for 2 with two walks and three runs scored. He also had an RBI single in the seventh.

The Ramírez double.

An RBI double for Hayden Cantrelle. He was 1 for 4.

The Ramírez RBI single.

This one went 426 feet.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies shut out the Rocket City Trash Pandas (Angels), 1-0.

Frankie Scalzo Jr. went two innings as the opener. He allowed two hits but no walks and he struck out three.

Nick Dean threw the next 4.2 innings and got the win. Dean surrendered four hits. He struck out six and walked no one.

Marino Santy relieved Dean after he gave up back-to-back two out singles in the seventh. Santy got out of that jam with a strikeout and then retired the side in order in the eighth.

Luis Rujano pitched the ninth inning and got the save. He allowed a leadoff single, but nothing else. He did not strike anyone out.

Right fielder Carter Trice led off the game with a solo home run. The Smokies only managed one more hit the rest of the game, but that was enough. It was Trice’s second home run this year. He was 1 for 4.

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs were cooked by the Ft. Wayne TinCaps (Padres), 11-10.

The wind was howling out in South Bend today, but starter Jackson Brockett was only around for part of the first inning of it. Brockett allowed two home runs in the first inning and was pulled after giving up five runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning. The saving grace there for Brockett was that only one of the five runs was earned.

The loss, however, went to Nate Spears, who gave up three runs on four hits over the next 3.1 innings. Just one of the four hits was a home run. Spears walked two and struck out five.

Right fielder Kade Snell connected in the third inning with a man on for his second home run of the season. Snell went 2 for 5 with three total runs batted in.

Third baseman Cole Mathis then went back-to-back with Snell for his first South Bend home run and his eighth overall. Mathis went 2 for 5. He scored twice and drove in two.

In the sixth inning, first baseman Cameron Sisneros hit a two-run home run that I think still hasn’t landed. Sisneros went 1 for 4 with a walk. He now has four home runs this season.

Shortstop Ty Southisene went 3 for 6 with a two-run double in his High-A debut. Southisene scored one run and had three total RBI.

Southisene’s double.

Snell’s home run.

Cole Mathis goes back-to-back.

I don’t think this one landed.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans got plucked by the Columbia Fireflies (Royals), 7-3.

Birds starter Luis A. Reyes failed to retire a batter. He allowed one hit, walked three and hit one batter. All five runners came around to score, three after he left the game.

Noah Edders relieved Reyes with the bases loaded and no outs in the first. He let all three runners in, but he steadied the ship by going 4.2 innings and allowing no runs of his own. Edders surrendered two hits and issued three walks. He struck out five.

Third baseman Derniche Valdez got the Pelicans on the board with a solo home run in the third inning. It was his third of the season. Valdez went 1 for 4.

First baseman Michael Carico went 2 for 4 with a walk and a two-run double.

Shortstop Alexis Hernandez was 2 for 5 and scored on the Carico double.

Valdez’s solo home run.

The Mets’ offense has been in desperate need of some power to start the season, and on Sunday afternoon Mark Vientos was the man to deliver. 

Vientos crushed not one, but two homers to help New York secure the series win over the Angels.

His first came in the top of the fourth when he demolished a 2-0 Jack Kochanowicz sinker 427 feet to the rock pile in center to give the Mets a 2-1 advantage.

Vientos joked postgame that he liked that one better.

“I got all of it, hit it pretty good,” he said. 

The second one was also a big one for the Mets, though, as it helped extend the lead and put the game away for good in the top of the eighth.

Vientos jumped on a 2-1 Nick Sandlin sinker at the top of the zone, ripping it 103.3 mph over the left-field fence. 

It was the sixth multi-homer game of Vientos’ career.

“I was just trying to put together good at-bats,” he said. “I know when I’m on and I’m feeling good that I’m a game-changer especially with the bat, and I got the job done today.”

And it wasn’t just today, as Vientos has been swinging a much-better bat of late.  

The slugger has turned things around very nicely at the plate -- hitting .275 with two doubles, three homers, seven RBI, and a .891 OPS over his last 12 games. 

“I feel good,” he said. “I like the at-bats I’ve taken the past few days, I just want to keep on it, keep putting good at-bats together, and just take it into this series in Colorado.”

With all of the Mets’ injuries, this would be the perfect time for him to catch fire.

“We’ve seen it when he’s going, when he’s driving the ball,” Carlos Mendoza said. “We haven’t seen it in a while, but when he gets hot he can carry a team -- that’s the power and the hitter he’s capable of, he came through today.”

It’s no longer just a crazy idea – Clay Holmes is a bona fide starting pitcher for the New York Mets.

After another stellar outing against the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday in which he went 6.2 innings while allowing one run on four hits and three walks in the Mets’ 5-1 win, Holmes is now 4-2 with a 1.69 ERA (0.98 WHIP) in seven starts. 

That’s more than simply a good beginning to the season, Holmes is pitching himself into the Cy Young award conversation and it’s time people everywhere took notice.

“It’s unbelievable,” said manager Carlos Mendoza about his right-hander’s performance. “We saw it again today. That first inning was a battle after the first couple of guys get on and he’s up to like 30-something pitches, [but] before you know it he’s able to get to those middle innings.

“[He] kept making pitches and for him to go back out for the seventh, he’s just on another level right now physically, mentally.”

It’s true, Sunday’s outing didn’t start out the best for Holmes who walked the first two batters he faced as part of a 27-pitch first inning. But after giving up a run four batters into the game, Holmes turned it on and settled in nicely, not only holding the Angels scoreless the rest of the way, but keeping his pitch count low enough to go deep into the game.

After the game, Mendoza marveled at the former reliever’s ascension into ace starting pitcher.

“The way he’s making adjustments in games, the way he’s using his pitches, trusting the defense when he needs to… overall from Clay, solid,” the skipper said.

Over his last three starts, Holmes has allowed three earned runs over 19.2 innings and has gone at least six innings in all of them. Twice already this season Holmes has pitched seven innings after achieving that just once in 2025.

Holmes’ 1.69 ERA is the fourth-lowest in the majors and his 42.2 innings pitched this season is top-10, wildly impressive for a guy who made the switch from reliever to starter just last year.

Holmes credits his success with the “confidence and trust” of his sinker, the pitch that made him so effective as a late-inning reliever in his career and why David Stearns believed he could make the transition to the rotation in the first place.

While the sinker is his bread and butter and the pitch he throws 49 percent of the time, according to Baseball Savant, Holmes knew he would have to expand his arsenal to more than just one pitch, which he did.

Mixing in a sweeper, changeup, cutter, curveball and four-seamer, Holmes has options up there. However, instead of shying away from his sinker this season and abandoning what makes him so special just because his role has changed, the right-hander has embraced who he is and is using it to his advantage.

“I think for me there’s kind of a comfort thing and I feel like – you know the trust with the sinker was always there, but I feel like, especially now I just feel like there’s a lot of confidence and trust with the sinker,” he said. “That’s who I was as a reliever and I knew that was who I would be as a starter, but I felt like I kinda had the confidence and the trust of the sinker and when I have that I feel like I’m able to pitch off of it and really feel like myself and pitch with some confidence.”

Now in his second year as a full-time starter, Holmes knows the ropes a bit more and rather than learning how to be a starting pitcher and focusing on superfluous things, he can dial it in on what kind of starter he wants to be.

So who does Holmes want to be? Someone who unapologetically throws his greatest weapon, the sinker, nearly half of the time.

“I knew I would have to expand the arsenal, it wouldn’t be all sinkers, but with that, I’m not gonna say distracted but you know there has to be some kind of widening of the arsenal and so there’s focus there,” he said. “And I think more than anything this year is just the confidence with the sinker, like I can still pitch off this and it’s more of a mentality thing, just kind of attacking with the sinker.

“That’s kind of what I had as a reliever and it’s not so much, okay let me get ahead with the sinker or kind of use it to set up something else, it’s like here’s the sinker. So I think just getting back to that mentality with it has kind of just helped the life and the finish to it and I think it’s just been helpful so far this year.”

Ronald Acuna Jr. was placed on the injured list on Sunday morning due to a hamstring strain that he suffered the day before. 

Acuna had come out of the Braves’ 9-1 win over the Rockies on Saturday after starting to limp in pain during the second inning when he was running out a ground ball he hit to second base. 

Acuna had undergone an MRI in Denver to understand how severe the injury was and will now be on the IL with a left hamstring strain. 

The MRI revealed a Grade 1 hamstring strain and Braves manager Walt Weiss said it “could have been a lot worse.” 

“Not too serious, but serious enough that we had to put him on the list,” Weiss told reporters on Sunday. “It’s not going to be just a couple of days. It’s going to be more than, so we need to put him on the IL. Hopefully, it will be sooner than later. No idea with these soft tissue injuries, how long they’re going to take. 

“But I think the silver lining is the MRI showed it wasn’t too serious.”

An update on Ronald Acuña Jr. from Braves Manager Walt Weiss: pic.twitter.com/rXxpWG6ubH

— BravesVision (@BravesVisionTV) May 3, 2026

The Braves called up José Azócar to fill the spot left by Acuna. 

The five-time All-Star was off to a slow start this season, slashing .252/.362/.378 over 152 plate appearances, while hitting just two home runs. 

Atlanta has also dealt with its fair share of injuries this season, with the loss of Acuna being the latest one. 

The Braves have eight pitchers listed on their IL as of Sunday, with a varying degree of injuries that they’re recovering from, which includes closer Raisel Iglesias, reliever Dylan Dodd and starter Spencer Schwellenbach.

The Braves won Sunday’s game 11-6 over the Rockies to take the weekend series. 

Atlanta is in first place in the National League East with an 8 ½ game lead over the Marlins.

When Anthony Volpe began his minor league rehab assignment on April 14th, it felt like a foregone conclusion that he has headed to the big league roster once he completed it. Fast-forward to today, and the organization has made the decision to go the other direction, activating him from the IL just to option him down to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

The move comes after days of speculation, as manager Aaron Boone was notably noncommittal on Volpe’s immediate future with his rehab assignment nearing the end. What was seen as his likely activation target in the start of this most recent homestand with the Orioles came and went without a word on his status, pushing the final decision into the weekend. Eventually, time ran out and the Yankees showed their hand, sending down their everyday shortstop since his arrival to the majors in 2023 in favor of keeping José Caballero as the starter.

Caballero’s play has been the biggest factor in this development, seeing as general manager Brian Cashman deemed Volpe’s return a near-automatic assumption right before Volpe’s rehab began, saying “that’s always been the plan.” Caballero was hitting for a paltry .384 OPS at the time of those comments, but has since gone on a heater raising his OPS to .719. His last 12 games he’s been particularly hot, hitting for a .302/.348/.535 triple slash (.883 OPS). Coming off of a season where he played most of the year hurt and consequently looked terrible, Volpe needed his competition to look unimpressive if he hoped to be handed the starting gig back, but that just hasn’t happened.

During his rehab assignment, Volpe played four games with Scranton and eight with Double-A Somerset, earning a .683 OPS with one homer and six RBI when combining his games across the two teams. Had he hit the ground on fire during his rehab, perhaps he still could’ve won out and retained his position, but the team’s last-minute decision indicates that they were waiting to see something from the 25-year-old that didn’t manifest in time for them to feel comfortable inserting him back in their lineup. Volpe will now have to work on his game in Triple-A in order to earn his playing time back, in what may prove to be his first real run through the level of competition. Volpe played just 22 games with Scranton at the end of the 2022 season before winning the starting job with the Yankees in spring training ahead of 2023, and had been with the team through the good times and hard times since.

Volpe’s future will also be impacted by the development of George Lombard Jr., the team’s top prospect who was also recently promoted to Triple-A after raking to start the year in Somerset. Lombard’s trajectory through the organization could see him make his MLB debut as early as the end of this season, with a decent shot at earning a role with the 2027 team. Lombard shifted over to third base to allow Volpe to play his natural position during his rehab, and the fastest track to the majors might see Lombard move around the infield should the team want to play him over Ryan McMahon or Jazz Chisholm Jr., but he’s already an elite defender and finding his bat in the upper levels of the minors. That’s reminiscent of how a young Anthony Volpe looked when he was the team’s top prospect and rising through the organization, but now he finds his security in the team’s future threatened in the short and long-term if he cannot tap into that nascent talent again.

Tomorrow’s series opener between the Mets and Rockies at Coors Field has been moved up from 8:40pm EDT to 5:40pm EDT. Adjust your viewing plans accordingly.

The change was made due to the expected inclement weather, with temperatures expected to reach a high of 70 around midday before diving into the 30s in the evening. This, paired with forecasted freezing rain, has resulted in an earlier start time, much like what the Mets did earlier in the year for some home games.

The team will face some weather whiplash after leaving Anaheim, where they took two of three from the Angels this weekend. At their lowest, temperatures during the series never dipped below 60 degrees. To contrast, Denver is expecting snow later in the week, which could potentially affect the later games in the series. For now, no further changes have been announced. The high temperatures for Tuesday and Wednesday’s games are not expected to eclipse 40 degrees.

The Mets announced that they will use an opener on Monday, with David Peterson serving as the bulk man for New York following his most recent ineffective outing. The Mets have not revealed who the opener will be, but he will be opposed by Rockies’ right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano. Freddy Peralta and Christian Scott will pitch on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, weather permitting.

Carson Benge is looking more and more comfortable at the big-league level with each passing day, and on Sunday afternoon he put together easily his most complete showing to this point. 

The youngster helped the Mets on both sides of the ball as they defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-1 to secure their first series win in nearly a month. 

Benge pieced together tremendous at-bats each of his first two times up, walking on six pitches in the top of the third and then eight pitches in the fourth.

The second one proved to be a big one, as the Mets took the lead just two pitches later when Mark Vientos crushed his first two-run homer of the day. 

Benge grounded out in the sixth but was able to do some damage of his own in the eighth, lining an RBI double down the right-field line to give New York an insurance run. 

Vientos followed that again with a two-run shot, putting this one away for good.

The 23-year-old wasn’t done there, though, as he made the best catch of his career to this point to rob Vaughn Grissom of extra-bases in the bottom of the ninth. 

Benge raced over to the right-field line before laying out full extension to somehow make the pulchritudinous play, as Gary Cohen described it on the SNY broadcast. 

"I was kind of surprised to tell you the least," Benge said. "If I see a ball that I think I can get to, I'm going to go after it -- I'm just glad that I was able to come down with that one there."

"If that ball falls that's a completely different inning," Carlos Mendoza added. 

This is just the latest of what’s been a string of strong performances from the former first-round pick as he continues finding his footing at the big-league level. 

He's now hitting .290 with three XBH’s, four RBI, and a .333 OBP over his last 10 games. 

“It just feels like a juiced baseball game now," Benge said. "It kind of took me a while to get my feet settled and different things like that, but now I feel like I’m finding my groove and getting comfortable out there."

"He can play," Mendoza added.

OH WOW, CARSON BENGE! pic.twitter.com/I57Gf0Rkjw

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 3, 2026