Category: Sports News

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: The Yankees’ captain, Aaron Judge, is slowly working his way back from a rib fracture sustained in late April. He took a significant step towards returning in September on Tuesday, taking some swings against overhand pitching for the first time in months. He has been throwing at distances of 100 feet, running, shagging fly balls, and performing other baseball-related activities, including tee-and-toss drills.

SNY | Phillip Martinez: Yankees left-hander Max Fried, currently in the midst of his second bone bruise-related IL stint of the season, has a chance to return this weekend. The Bombers will have a busy schedule this week, including a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, and manager Aaron Boone suggested that we could see the southpaw that day. The veteran threw four innings, about 60 pitches, of live batting practice on Monday. “We’ll see where we are as the next couple of days unfold,” Boone said. 

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: With Ryan Weathers hitting the injured list, the Yankees needed some good news on the pitching front. They definitely got them on Tuesday: not only is Max Fried on the way back and potentially an option for the weekend, but Clarke Schmidt threw about 20 pitches, with velocity in the mid-90s range. Per the reports, as long as his arm and body recover well, he should start a rehab assignment in the coming days. The right-hander will return as a reliever this year.

Schmidt, recovering from Tommy John surgery performed last summer, posted a 3.32 ERA in 2025 after making playoff starts for the 2024 team’s pennant run.

Yankees PR: The Yankees made a procedural move early on Tuesday, selecting recently-signed reliever Justin Topa’s contract to the active roster. Joel Sherman had reported that this move would be made. To make room for him, the organization transferred DH/OF Giancarlo Stanton to the 60-day injured list after a recent setback seriously jeopardized his chances of returning this season.

Also of note: Triple-A prospect Elmer Rodríguez reportedly has a locker in the Bronx this week, and since tonight’s starter is TBD, that could very well be him in his fifth career appearance (or at least serving in a bulk role). Bradley Hanner is a candidate to be demoted after throwing 25 pitches last night.

Eighteen pitchers in Mets history have concluded their first 10 major league starts with a sub-3.00 ERA.

There have been rocket ships such as Tom Seaver (2.64), Nolan Ryan (2.80) and Matt Harvey (2.73).

There is at least the making of a promising arm in Nolan McLean (2.16).

There have been footnotes such as Masato Yoshii (2.25) and Charlie Puleo (2.94).

And now there is a curiosity who might be turning into something more because through his first 10 major league starts, Zac Thornton’s ERA is 2.88.

With the 2026 season unofficially over, the 2027 rotation is looking a bit more promising every time the lefty is given the ball.

Tuesday that meant Thornton holding down the Brewers — who entered as the fourth-highest-scoring offense in the sport — for six innings in which he allowed just one run during a 3-2 victory at Citi Field.

“I thought I did a fine job just kind of changing speeds on them, basically one through nine, kind of used all the pitches,” said the left-hander, who mixed in seven distinct pitches, six of which induced a swing-and-miss.

He did not issue a walk and threw 62 of his 89 pitches for strikes.

A pitcher known for guile had a bit more gas, maxing out at 95.4 mph and later acknowledging with a smile, “I’m definitely seeing those 95s up there.”

He would love to maintain that velocity, but it’s possible he was a bit fresher pitching on six days’ rest.

Whether he has the extra tick or not, he continues to impress for a club that might be beginning to pencil him in to the 2027 rotation.

“I think he is who we thought he was: a fearless competitor who doesn’t care who gets in the batter’s box,” said interim manager Andy Green, “who might give up a home run on the first pitch of the game, and the rest of the game, he’s going to do what he does.”

Thornton only allowed one fourth-inning run — which probably deserves an asterisk, William Contreras awarded a double when a soft ground ball took a strange turn away from Bo Bichette — and otherwise, the Brewers did not have an answer for Thornton’s kitchen sink.

Virtually no one has since Thornton debuted with a four-run, 4 ¹/₃ inning clunker in Washington, which is the last time he has allowed four earned runs in a game.

Luis Robert Jr. drilled his sixth home run in his past 14 games, red-hot during a span in which his OPS has risen from .606 to .737.

Carson Benge tallied three more hits and an intentional walk, slashing .303/.363/.466 since May 1.

How Green will handle the playing time of his catchers the rest of the season will bear watching.

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For a second straight game, Francisco Alvarez sat in favor of Luis Torrens, this time against Brewers lefty Kyle Harrison.

Sometimes against opposing righties Green has played both, but against the southpaw it was Eric Wagaman who served as designated hitter rather than Alvarez.

Alvarez has been the typically unquestioned starter when healthy since 2023, while Torrens has been among the game’s best backups since arriving in the 2024 trade.

Before going 1-for-4, Torrens — who is the superior defender — entered hitting .393 with six home runs and 13 RBIs over his past 10 games. Alvarez is in a 2-for-33 slide.

“I think we’re still going to see Alvy out there very consistently,” Green said. “I think both of those guys are continuing to see the field quite a bit as we wrap up this season.

“Alvy obviously has gone through a stretch where he hasn’t swung the bat the way he has traditionally, but he’s really received well.”

Green defended Alvarez’s “under the hood” defense, in which Statcast has believed him to be a roughly average framer, slightly above average at throwing out runners and poor at blocking.

The usually lighter-hitting Torrens excels at each defensive category.

“I still believe immensely in Alvy’s upside,” Green said of the 24-year-old, who has had nice seasons but not yet the breakthrough that reminds of his former No. 1-prospect-in-baseball pedigree. “He’s still going to get a lot of at-bats.”

Green said he had no real update on Juan Soto, who has been sidelined for over a month (since July 24) with a left calf strain, or Devin Williams, out since Aug. 7 with a right shoulder strain.

Green said the club still believes both will return this season.

Mark Vientos is “not particularly close” to being an option for the Mets, Green said.

Vientos has gone 0-for-8 with a walk in three games with Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse so far in his first action since fracturing his hand on July 9.

“We’ll let kind of his play, how he feels and kind of the progression in general be determined by what happens on the field a little bit,” Green said. “When you hurt your hand, you need to get some at-bats and get going.”

PHOENIX — Their star second baseman hasn’t shown his face in the Arizona Diamondbacks' clubhouse since he went AWOL a week ago, and has yet to publicly apologize to a single teammate.

Their manager has been privately mocked and scorned inside and outside the organization for his public response to Ketel Marte's disappearing act.

Their starting rotation is a patchwork job with only one current starter who has been on their opening-day roster this entire season.

Their closer was released.

And yet, here are the Diamondbacks, staying alive in the National League wild-card race, showing uncanny resiliency with their MLB-leading 40^th comeback victory of the season, winning 5-4 over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, Aug. 25, capped by rookie Ryan Waldschmidt’s pinch-hit, walk-off homer with two outs in the ninth inning.

The Mariners brought a dumper to a duel.

George Kirby outpitched Aaron Nola on Tuesday in the Mariners electric 4-1 win over the Phillies. Kirby struck out nine over 7 2/3 innings and turned in his best outing of the year. Cal Raleigh smacked another homer, giving him four on the series. And the rest of the lineup scratched and clawed a few more runs late to give the Mariners an impressive, all around, and fun win. That’s back-to-back series victories over the top two Wild Card teams in the National League.

It’s been a weird season for Kirby, something I feel I’ve written a dozen times in the last five months. He’s walked a lot of batters (relative to himself) and struck out very few (relative to everyone). He survived the early part of the season by keeping the ball on the ground, but that’s no longer the case and he’s since been getting crushed. He’s often seemed to nibble at the edges of the zone, unable to get chase out of it, and unable to get whiffs in it. He gave up 11 runs in his last two starts, making early exits in both.

But Kirby on Tuesday looked like the near-ace level pitcher of the past. He attacked the zone relentlessly with his four-seamer, ripping upper-90s fastballs with his best velocity of the season (97.9 mph). When he did expand the zone with the slow and bendy stuff, he got chase 49% of the time. Kirby generated 21 whiffs on Tuesday — the second most in a game for his career. He was aggressive, sharp, and borderline unhittable.

It was obvious right from the jump that something was special for Kirby. He led off the game throwing three pretty much middle-middle fastballs to Kyle Schwarber, each greater than 98 mph, and Schwarber swung through them all. “I knew I had it today,” Kirby said of the four-seamer after the game. He then got ahead of Trea Turner with a few more fastballs registering 99 mph, before finishing him off with devastating sweeper away.

One of my favorite Kirby’s nine strikeouts came in the third. He painted a fastball low and away to Bryson Stott for a called strike, then threw a sweeper that made Stott swing at his shoes. Kirby ramped up and blew 99 mph past him on a pitch way up and out of the zone. It’s the sort of pinpoint power pitching that Kirby was once known for.

The Phillies did get to Kirby once in the second. A ground ball single, a bloop single, and a line drive single made it 1-0. It was a pretty weak run. Kirby followed it up by retiring 15 consecutive batters from the fourth inning until the eighth inning, when Bryce Harper picked up a two-out single that knocked Kirby out of the game. José Ferrer made quick work of Luis Arraez to escape the inning unscathed and preserve the Mariners 4-1 lead.

Four runs didn’t seem likely for the Mariners early. They couldn’t touch Aaron Nola for most of this one. I gotta admit: I love watching Nola pitch. I’m a huge fan of the Phillies Ace Factory of the last 15 years, from Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, and Cole Hamels, to Nola and Zack Wheeler, to the more contemporary choices of Jesús Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez (one might even give Ranger Suarez a nod for his performance last year).

Nola is a fun variation on the ace formula, an early adopter of “pitching backwards” approach — he throws his curveball as a primary pitch, and then has a trio of fastballs (plus a changeup) to attack each quadrant with precision. He’s the rare righty who’s never averaged better than 93 mph on his four-seamer but posts tip-top strikeout numbers regardless. There’s no such thing as a Hall of Fame pitcher these days, but Nola is right there as an inner-circle, Hall of Very Good pitcher, and I’ll be sad when he hangs it up.

Now, it’s fair to say Nola is a bit past his prime. He entered the day with a 5.12 ERA and 4.92 FIP over 26 starts. He’s still proven capable of missing bats, but he’s had a pesky walk issue and a peskier home run issue that seems to be getting worse with age. He’d given up 31 homers this year when he took the mound Tuesday, the most in the majors.

And he gave up homer number 32 in the second inning when Cal Raleigh stepped to the plate for the time. It was Cal’s fourth home run of the series after he clobbered three — yes, three —in Monday’s series opener. It seems, after five months of misery, Cal is finally breaking out. His teammates greeted him the dugout with borderline disbelief. 

But Nola was otherwise dominant. He got some nice chase and whiff on that biting curveball. He dotted up the Mariners for 20 called strikes, including 15 on the fastball and sinker. It’s not often a team watches that many fastballs for strikes, but snarky “Mariners” grumblings aside, he was getting tons of arm-side run Tuesday that froze batters on the black. He even broke out the cutter, which he uses like a slider, on the third time through the order. I mean, look at this at bat against J.P. Crawford, who was playing in first game after a month-long trip on the IL. (If you want to see what that called strike three look like, it’s the third clip in this pretty filthy highlight package wrapping up Nola’s day).

The Mariners did finally scratch another run across in Nola’s sixth and final inning. Julio hit one of his classic slow choppers to the left of second base and beat the throw to first. He got himself into scoring position with a steal of second. And then he came around to score when Josh Naylor hit a rope back up the middle. Julio has been in a bit of a slump the last few weeks, but his speed hasn’t, and sometimes that’s all he needs to create a run.

It was the pressure the Mariners put on Nola in the sixth that finally chased him from the game. Orion Kerkering got the ball for the Phillies in the seventh. He got a quick groundout, then loaded the bases by plunking Taylor Ward, giving up a seeing-eye single to Crawford, and walking Brock Rodden The moment felt right for a Randy Arozarena grand slam, but he swung way out of the zone and popped out.

That compelled Don Mattingly to bring in Brooks Raley , apparently unaware of the Mariners longstanding history of winning games against Brooks Raley. He tried catch Dom Canzone on the low-and-away quadrant with a sweeper, and Canzone stayed right on it, slapping a hard liner the other way for a clutch two RBI single to extend the Mariners lead to 4-1.

Canzone said he was going over the game plan as the inning unfolded, knowing Raley was warming up in the bullpen to face him.

“When he’s warming up, probably about four or five batters deep, just trying to develop a plan with Seitzer, especially with runners on,” Canzone said. “I had an idea he was probably going to try to spin me to death, as they’ve been trying to do all series. So just trusting in that process and just trying to stay behind it. Just trying to stay through the middle of the field, keep it simple as possible.”

The hit gave Andrés Muñoz a bit of cushion for the ninth. It wasn’t the coziest inning, with a pair of walks to put the tying run at the plate. But after pumping a pair of triple-digit heaters, Muñoz spun a brilliant slider low and away that Bryan De La Cruz couldn’t touch for strike three. The Mariners won 4-1, taking the series from the Phillies.

The Cleveland Guardians and Los Angeles Angels faced off in game two of a three game series. Cleveland had the Big Rig Gavin Williams on the mound and were expecting a typical, incredible performance from the ace.

Things did not turn out as expected. Every starting pitcher, especially this late in the season, are liable for a stinker. Gavin Williams chose to cash in his one free stinker coupon for tonight’s game. He didn’t even make it out of the second inning. Gavin gave up five runs on six hits and a walk and threw 62 pitches in the process. It made for a bullpen game, and the bullpen showed up.

Matt Festa finished the second and pitched the third, only walking a batter. Craig Yoho gave up a hit but kept the fourth scoreless. Logan Allen threw three innings, gave up a solo home run, and struck out two. Colin Holderman came on in the eighth. He kept it scoreless in his inning of work, with Angel Martínez robbing Mike Trout of a two-run home run to retire the side.

I’m sure plenty of fans turned off the game, expecting the worst, when it was 5-0 going into the fourth. At that point in the game, the Guardians had already left four runners in scoring position and blew two bases loaded situations. It was looking like what many fans have come to view as the norm for this team’s offense.

In the fourth inning, catcher Patrick Bailey drew a lead off walk and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. With two outs, Steven Kwan singled to third to put runners on the corners. Travis Bazzana slapped the first pitch, a four-seamer, to center for an RBI double.

José Ramírez followed up with a double of his own to score two and bring the Guardians within two.

The fourth inning marked the start of the Guards mounting a comeback and a back and forth battle with the Angels. In the bottom of the fifth, three singles gave the Guards one more run with two outs thanks to a Brayan Rocchio RBI single. Steven Kwan singled on a ground to right scoring Petey Halpin to tie the game.

The Angles came back, but Cleveland had an answer in the top of the eighth. Steven Kwan lead off the inning with a single to center. José hit a one-out RBI double to left to tie the game at six runs each. Erik Sabrowski came on in the ninth to try and push the game into extras. He looked about as sharp as he has this season, with three strikeouts to retire the side and give the offense a chance to take the lead.

In the top of the tenth, Steven Kwan singled to right, moving the ghost runner (Brayan Rocchio) to third. With one out, José hit his third double of the night, scoring both Rocchio and Kwan to give the Guardians the lead for the first time this game.

Cade Smith came on in the tenth, looking for this 35th save of the year. Smith hit the first batter and a sac bunt put the tying run in scoring position. That didn’t matter for Cade. He struck out the next two batters, extending the win streak to six games.

This game felt like a pivotal moment for this team. At any other point in the season, this would have been a wash and a loss. The offense rallied together to pick up their starting pitcher and still pull off a win. Steven Kwan went 5-for-5 with a walk, three runs, and an RBI. José Ramírez went 3-for-6 with three doubles and five RBIs. He also stole his 30th base on the season in tonight’s game.

Cleveland will finish off this series tomorrow with a 4:07 PM EDT start with Joey Cantillo on the mound. With tonight’s win, the Guardians are sitting back above .500 and in second place in the AL Central.

Mark Grace perhaps said it best in the postgame show when he said, “Im not sure we have seen a more unlikely Dbacks win the season”

The almost Dback Clay Holmes shut this Dbacks offense down for 7 innings. The Dbacks had a deal in place for Holmes per multiple reports but the deal fell through at the last minute due to medicals. The fact that he was almost a Dback made the first 7 innings of this game sting all that much more, especially given the current status of this rotation.

Brandon Pfaadt was pretty good today pitching into the 7^th inning tonight and allowing 4 runs while keeping his team within striking distance. The Cubs have the 2^nd best offense in the league and Pfaadt did a decent enough job of keeping them in check. His first 3 innings were pretty easy getting lots of soft contact, however he gave up a 3 run HR in the 4^th inning on a hanging curveball to Ian Happ. Most importantly however, like I mentioned earlier, he was able to settle back in after the home run and give his team 6.2 innings against a red hot offense.

The Dbacks offense finally woke up in the 8^th inning as they were able to finally get on the board with 3 runs due to some linked up at bats with a couple of walks and a huge double from the red hot Gabi Moreno and a single from Geraldo Perdomo. When this offense has been clicking this season, it seems as though it is starting with the bottom of the order getting on base for the top of the order.

The story of the game however was Ryan Waldsschmidt who for the second time this season hit a walkoff home run off of a contending team’s closer. This time it came as a pinch hitter with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9^th with Jose Fernandez pinch running at first base for Tim Tawa. The Dbacks were inches away from losing this game as Jose Fernandez was narrowly able to steal 2^nd base and get into scoring position down 4-3. Then Waldschmidt got a hanging slider and did not miss it! What an electric moment and perhaps the biggest swing of the season thus far considering that the Dbacks were able to gain a game on both the Padres and the Phillies tonight on 1 single swing. What a great moment for this team!

The Dbacks will look to win the series tomorrow night and in the postgame interview Torey Lovullo insisted that Jordan Lawlar will be in the lineup tomorrow which is tremendous news for this team and for a guy that has had such unfortunate injury luck in his early career. So all is right in the desert tonight and what a tremendous boost for this team as the Dbacks will go into tomorrow 1 game out of a wild card spot!

As the race for the National League Rookie of the Year heats up, Carson Benge continues to make his case, and he did so again on Tuesday.

Going up against the MLB-best Brewers, the Mets outfielder went 3-for-4 with a walk in the team's 3-2 win. But it's that walk that's particularly interesting.

With the ghost runner on second with one out in a tied game in the 10th, the Brewers elected to intentionally walk Benge. Of course, the outfielder had three hits already in the game, but the Brewers felt it was necessary to walk the rookie in this key situation. As interim manager Andy Green sees it, the move was a sign of respect.

"I wish they pitched to Carson," Green said after the win. "When you’re sitting on the top step of the dugout wishing they’d pitch to your guy, it’s pretty shrewd they don’t pitch to your guy. Fairly straightforward there, just a really good contact hitter with a runner on second and a base open in the 10th. I get what they were thinking on that side.

"It’s a little bit of a declaration to the league that this guy is a really good hitter."

And Benge has shown that, especially of late. 

Tuesday was Benge's 11th game this season with at least three hits, which is the most by a rookie in Mets history and tied for the ninth-most in the majors this season, per Elias. 

He's hit safely in each of his last five games and has recorded multiple hits in four of them. His 134 hits this season are tied for the seventh-most in franchise history with Lee Mazzilli. 

And while the Reds' Sal Stewart may have an edge in the offensive department and the Cardinals' JJ Wetherholt on defense, Green sees Benge as having the best of both worlds.

Before the game, the Mets skipper was asked whether Benge has a legit case to be named NL Rookie of the Year, and he said he does for that reason.

"Well-rounded players that impact the game are what every manager wants, and you want that every single time and Carson has been that," Green explained. "When you look at where he’s come from the start of the year to where he is now, it’s fun to see him take steps forward."

In August, Benge is batting .359, the fifth-best in the majors this month, with a 1.015 OPS.

Since May 1, he is slashing .303/.363/.466 with an .829 OPS. In the majors over that span, he ranks fifth in hits and seventh in average among qualifiers.