Category: Sports News

Jays 7 Twins 3

Kazuma Okamoto had a slow start to the season, but he’s picked things up lately. Today he had 2 home runs, a walk, 3 runs and 3 RBI. 31 games into his MLB career he has 7 home runs, and 18 RBI.

And, unlike yesterday, the pitching was good and the defense was good.

• Patrick Corbin went 5.1, allowed 6 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts. He gave up a home run to Byron Buxton in the third inning, which accounted for his 2 earned runs. Corbin wasn’t great but he got the outs when he needed them.
• Braydon Fisher got the last two outs of the sixth.
• Jeff Hoffman gave up a run in the seventh. He had a very soft single, in front of Okamoto. Then a strikeout. Next Buxton hit one right at Andrés Giménez. I thought Giménez should have moved up to get the ball, but he waited back and then made a bad throw to first. It was called a hit, but I thought it was a clear error. A well hit single loaded the bases. Then Ryan Jeffers ripped one to deep left, but Daulton Varsho caught it on the edge of the track. It scored a run. Then another easy grounder to short, but that one was the third out. 16 pitchers. It could have been 3-up, 3-down, since the first two singles were 3 and 5 feet (in the air), with expect batting averages of .050 and .200.
• Tyler Rogers got the eight. It went ground out, strikeout, strikeout.
• Louis Varland pitched the ninth. He’s had a couple of days off, so he was likely to pitch today, not matter what. He gave up a two-out infield single.

On offense, we had 11 hits. Lenyn Sosa and Yohendrick Pinango (who I’m calling Lips, as it is easier to spell than Yohendrick. And Okamoto had the two homers (he came within 4 feet of getting a third homer). 0 for went to Andrés Giménez, Vlad (with a walk) and Jesus Sanchez.

We scored:

• Two in the second: Varsho and Sosa had one out singles, and moved to third on a Simeon Woods Richardson wild pitch. Lips hit a ground ball to first, and Josh Bell threw home. Varsho should have been out by 10 feet, but Bell threw sidearm and missed his catcher. Both runners scored.
• Two in the fourth: Okamoto led off with a homer. An out later, Sosa doubled and Lips singled him home.
• Two in the fifth: Vlad walked and Okamoto homered.
• One in the seventh: Okamoto walked, went to second on a ground out, and scored on a Pinango single.

Jays of the Day: Pinango (.26 WPA), and Okomoto (.24).

Other Award: Sanchez had the number at -.11.

Tomorrow is a 2:00 start time. Dylan Cease (1-1, 2.87) vs. Connor Prielipp (1-0, 4.00)

The Orioles will be without one of their top bullpen arms for the near future.

Ahead of their 7-2 loss to the Yankees on Friday, the Orioles placed right-hander Ryan Helsley on the 15-Day injured list due to inflammation in his right elbow.

The extent of Helsley’s injury remains unclear, with Baltimore selecting righty Albert Suárez’s contract from Triple-A Norfolk to fill the roster void.

Helsley, 31, has experienced a solid start for the Orioles this season, boasting a 2.53 ERA with 15 strikeouts across 10⅔ innings.

Sliding into Baltimore’s closer role in place of the injured Felix Bautista, Helsley has already racked up seven saves in 12 appearances.

Helsley signed a two-year, $28 million deal with the Orioles this offseason following a disappointing stint with the Mets last year.

Helsley opened up to The Post this week about his struggles with the Mets and how he still does not really know the origin of what went wrong in Queens.

“Just for whatever reason, it just didn’t work out,” Helsley told The Post on Thursday. “I felt pretty good while I was there, and I felt like we had an insanely talented team, and for whatever reason we couldn’t win games. It was a weird, weird feeling.

“I’m sure for the guys who are there again this year, I’m sure it feels a little similar. It’s not a fun spot to be in.”

During his time in Queens, the two-time All-Star held an abysmal 7.20 ERA over 22 appearances along with blowing some key games in the season’s final stretch after they acquired him from the Cardinals at the trade deadline.

Helsley’s faults were primarily caused by a pitch-tipping issue, in which hitters could tell what pitch he was throwing based on his hand placement when he became set on the mound.

“Felt like I’d be good one outing, and then the next outing it would kind of creep back in,” Helsley added. “So I wasn’t really able to nip it out all the way completely.

“And then the last month there, I think I switched right as the calendar turned to September, and it felt weird the first few outings.”

For a Major League leading seventh time, the San Francisco Giants have been shutout, 22% of the 32 games played in the 2026 season. 

To put this dismal display in perspective, the 2019 Miami Marlins were shutout 22 times, the most in the Wild Card Era, which is roughly 14% of the 162 games in a regular season. The 1963 Mets, who lost 111 games, set the record in the Live Ball era at 30 shutouts, around 19% of their games. Currently, these 2026 Giants are on track to break that record by 6 shutouts. 

A sobering thought that may have occurred to Willy Adames and Rafael Devers at the same time, in this exact moment captured below.

The Giants offense is leading the league in hitters slouched over the dugout railing at the end of ballgames. They’re pacing the league in squinting at some far-off thing in the third deck just beyond the left field foul pole as they remove their batting gloves, their helmet, at the end of another fruitless offensive frame.

The offense recorded 6 total hits against Rays pitching. Their only extra base hit of the game — a Luis Arraez double in the 4th — was erased from the bases when, with the urging of third base coach Hector Borg, he tried to stretch it into a Luis Arraez triple.

A third base coach can have too much attention, and Borg might want to lay low for awhile. He was too cautious Thursday night in the 10th, and here, just too aggressive. All of its connected, of course. Everyone is frustrated and playing tight and overthinking and trying to do too much. Behavior that stems from team-wide ills.

San Francisco’s only at-bat with a runner in scoring position came an inning later against southpaw starter Shane McClanahan with runners at the corners and one out. To be more precise, the Giants saw two pitches in the entire game with a runner in scoring position. A slider in the dirt, and a change-up that Jerar Encarnacion rolled weakly to Junior Caminero for a 5-4-3 double play. 

Then in the 6th, still down by two — which, to be clear, is usually not an insurmountable run total to overcome — a lead-off single by Patrick Bailey was promptly undermined by a weak come-backer off the bat of Heliot Ramos that McClananahan fielded for a 1–4-3 double play.

An outfield assist. Two double plays. That was it. Trying to spark a rally for these Giants has been like trying to build a house of cards. They don’t walk, they don’t hit for extra bases, they don’t steal. There’s only so many singles you can string together before someone nudges the table, or sneezes, or breathes wrong, and sends the whole flimsy structure tumbling down. The Giants actually out-hit Tampa 6-to-5, they just didn’t out-slug them. If singles are Bicycle Playing Cards, extra base hits are Lincoln Logs. The Rays converted three hits and a sac fly into three runs off of Robbie Ray because two of them cleared the wall, and the other was manufactured off a double, a stolen base, and situational hitting. 

Ray turned in another quality start, giving up 3 earned on 4 hits, 0 walks, and 5 strike outs over 6.1 innings, and was stuck with his fourth loss of the year for his efforts. Three of those losses, bizarrely enough, have come in 3-0 shutouts.

So I guess Ray is the problem?

Friday’s college baseball game between Alabama and Vanderbilt had a scary moment.

During the second inning of the SEC matchup, Alabama graduate student Brennan Holt fouled a pitch off from Commodores starting pitcher Brennan Seiber straight into the face of home plate umpire Scott Kennedy.

Kennedy immediately collapsed upon getting hit with the ball, stumbling directly on his back with his mask being knocked off his face.

Umpire fell to the ground after taking a foul ball to the face mask and eventually walked off on his own power pic.twitter.com/TknuykmI7m

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 1, 2026

After falling over, Kennedy remained on the ground for several minutes as he was being assisted by trainers from both teams.

He was ultimately able to walk off the field on his own power, with second base umpire Anthony Perez replacing Kennedy behind the plate for the remainder of the game at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The game was delayed for roughly 15 minutes while the situation was resolved.

Kennedy was “doing better” following the game, but there has yet to be an official update on his health, and there will be a replacement umpire for Saturday’s game, an Alabama athletics spokesperson told The Post.

“I think first and foremost, you’re just hoping Scott’s OK, you know, and I think just get a report from our trainer,” Crimson Tide head coach Rob Vaughn told reporters following the game. “I think he’s OK, and he’s doing better.”

Vaughn added how rattling it is to see a situation where someone gets seriously hurt in a non-contact sport like baseball.

“Obviously it’s just an unfortunate situation,” he said. “Baseball is not a contact sport. You’re used to seeing guys in weird spots like that in football and some other physical sports.

“But baseball, you don’t see that often. So hoping Scott’s OK is the first thing and then you get back to the game.”

Alabama bested the Commodores 5-0 on Friday, improving its record to 31-16.

Here was something rare: legitimate, hard contact against Will Warren. Leody Taveras smoked a fastball that bore across the plate and sent it right back up the middle. 

By the end of his delivery, Warren was facing first base. By the time Taveras’ 101.5 mph grounded dart blitzed its way to the mound, Warren was facing second. 

“I just stood there and hoped it missed me, and it didn’t,” said Warren, who was blinded to the ball, raised his left foot and knocked it down with the bottom of the cleat, then scrambled to record the final out of the top of the second. 

Warren is smothering batted balls, opposing lineups and perhaps questions about his status in the rotation. 

The young right-hander was brilliant again, allowing one earned run while pitching into the seventh inning, and strengthened his case that he belongs among the Yankees starting pitchers as his club sailed, 7-2, over the Orioles in front of 41,239 in The Bronx on Friday night. 

“You say he’s the guy we haven’t talked about,” manager Aaron Boone said with a smile about an overlooked part of a starry rotation. “The body of work, just from jump in spring training, has just been excellent over and over again.” 

The Yankees (21-11) have the AL’s best record and have won 11 of 13, playing well in every phase of the game. 

Ben Rice clubbed home run No. 11, a three-run shot in the second that drained much of the drama from the proceedings. José Caballero remained hot with a homer of his own — hours after it became clear his play at least temporarily has kept Anthony Volpe in the minors — and RBI knocks from Cody Bellinger, Amed Rosario and Aaron Judge (who reached base in four of five plate appearances) kept the offense buzzing. 

Fernando Cruz relieved Warren in the seventh and inherited a second-and-third, one-out jam and allowed just a run on a swinging bunt. Camilo Doval and Jake Bird threw scoreless frames for a bullpen that has generally been solid. 

The club’s defense, particularly from Caballero and Judge, was strong. But the Yankees have had no greater strength this season than their rotation, which sports a majors-best 2.70 ERA and is not close to full strength. 

Carlos Rodón will pitch Tuesday in what could be his final rehab start. Gerrit Cole will be making his fourth minor league start Tuesday, too. 

Spots will have to be cleared in a rotation that already has demoted Luis Gil, has given a shot to Elmer Rodríguez and also includes Ryan Weathers, who owns a 3.21 ERA through six starts. 

The competition is on. 

“I think we’re going to have the best staff in all of baseball when they come back,” said Warren, who has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his seven starts. “And so the best pitchers are going to pitch the majority of the games. Gotta make sure that I keep going out there and doing my job.” 

He did Friday, limiting the Orioles to two runs (one earned) on three hits and one walk in 6 ¹/₃ innings in which he struck out nine, slicing his ERA to 2.39 — which is an ace-like number but ranks third (behind Cam Schlittler’s 1.51 and Max Fried’s 2.09) on the Yankees. 

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

The 26-year-old allowed a second-inning home run to Pete Alonso and then retired 16 of the next 17 batters he faced, silencing the Orioles through various means on a night he focused more on off-speed and breaking pitches than fastballs. He has the stuff to make hitters look silly, Baltimore’s Coby Mayo nowhere close as he meekly swung at a sweeper that swept far away from him. 

He did not have to rely upon chasing, though, and routinely challenged Baltimore hitters who looked overmatched. Gunnar Henderson stared at a perfectly placed strike-three sinker and walked back to the dugout without an argument. 

His changeup, a weapon especially against lefty hitters, might have been the strongest it has been all season. The Orioles swung four times at the pitch and missed three. 

Warren did not look like a pitcher who belongs in a bullpen. 

“He’s not satisfied,” Boone said of a righty who made a leap last season and appears to be doing it again. “For all the good he did last year, I don’t think he was satisfied.”

Two early Yankees home runs dug the Orioles a hole they couldn’t fly out of, as the O’s dropped their series opener in the Bronx 7-2.

As we’ve seen many times this season, a disastrous 2nd inning put the Orioles behind early and ruined the outing for Povich. With the game tied at 1-1, Povich began the inning strong, getting the former All-Star Jazz Chisolm Jr. to wave through a slider for the first out of the inning. From there, though, things went from bad to worse for the Orioles’ lefty. The very next pitch, José Caballero attacked a fastball up and in, hooking it around left field foul pole for a solo homer that gave New York a 2-1 lead.

Povich would come back to strike out catcher Austin Wells on another slider down and away. But the Caballero homer put a crack in Povich’s dam, a crack that Ben Rice would break wide open. With two outs, Trent Grisham attacked a 2-2 fastball, sending it into right field for a double. Paul Goldschmidt then worked a four-pitch walk to bring Rice to the plate. After Povich spiked a first-pitch slider in the dirt, he tried to go back to the breaking ball, only to leave it hanging and watch Rice pummel it into the right field bleachers for a 5-1 Yankees lead.

The Yankees almost chased Povich from the game, as Aaron Judge continued the two-out rally with a single to right, before Cody Bellinger ripped his second double of the night to move Judge to third. The Oriole starter was able to escape that jam, punching out Amed Rosario looking on a fastball down and in. However, after giving up four runs on 34 pitches in the 2nd, it was clear it wouldn’t be a banner night for Povich.

The signs of a potentially long night showed up from Povich’s very first inning. He again started the inning well, getting leadoff hitter Paul Goldschmidt to ground out to second before Taylor Ward robbed Rice of a hit with a sliding catch in left. Povich then got ahead of Judge 1-2, only to lose the 3x-MVP on a seven-pitch walk. Bellinger then lined a ball down the line in right, which got away from Dylan Beavers after a carom off the wall, allowing Judge to score from first and Bellinger to coast into second with a double.

In the top of the 2nd, Pete Alsono gave Birdland some hope that this would be a competitive game—if only briefly. With the O’s down 1-0, Yankee starter Will Warren left a sinker over the plate, and Alonso blasted it the other way into the right field second deck for his fifth home run as an Oriole.

However, the Alonso homer proved to be an anomaly, as the Orioles’ lineup struggled to find any answers against New York’s 26-year-old right-hander. Warren started his evening by punching out Gunnar Henderson swinging on a changeup low and away. Judge then gave his starter a defensive assist on a Taylor Ward fly ball, snagging a deep fly up against the right field fence. Warren then finished the inning with a strikeout of Adley Rutschman, freezing the Orioles’ hottest hitter with a fastball at the knees.

Strikeouts were a problem all night for the Baltimore bats, as they often seemed befuddled by the Yankees’ starter. Warren punched out another two Birds in the 2nd, getting Samuel Basallo to swing through a changeup before getting Dylan Beavers to chase another offspeed offering. Coby Mayo led off the 3rd with another strikeout by flailing at a sweeper that finished in the left-handed batter’s box. Warren then punctuated that frame with a punch out of Taylor Ward, getting the Orioles’ LF to swing through a low sinker.

After a Blaze Alexander single in the 3rd, Warren set down the next 12 Orioles he faced, with only two balls leaving the infield on a pair of F7’s in the 5th. Alonso finally broke that streak in the 7th, working a six-pitch walk to give the Orioles their first base runner in four innings. Basallo then followed that up with a single to center that took an awkward bounce past Grisham, allowing Alonso to move to third.

The Basallo bloop single set up the O’s only real scoring threat of the night, but the rest of the lineup couldn’t capitalize. Dylan Beavers tapped a grounder back to the mound that allowed Alonso to score to make it 5-2 with two outs. Leody Taveras then flew out to Judge to end the scoring threat—and any Orioles hopes of a comeback.

The Yankees would erase that consolation run in the 7th. Judge and Bellinger worked back-to-back two-out walks to give New York another runner in scoring position. Amed Rosario then singled up the middle to drive Judge home and restore the Yankees’ four-run advantage. The reigning AL MVP would then turn run provider in the 8th, singling up the middle on a sharp ground ball that drove home Rice from second and giving the Yankees their seventh run of the game.

The loss Friday night extends Baltimore’s losing streak against the Yankees to six games, with their last win against New York coming last September 19th in Baltimore. The O’s will try and snap that streak tomorrow when Kyle Bradish faces off against Ryan Weathers.

Spearheaded by a fantastic effort from Will Warren, the Yankees took early command of their first regular-season matchup against the Orioles in 2026, ultimately winning it 7-2. Specifically on Warren, seeing the front-level starters dominating is all well and good, but the built-in expectations may work against the excitement of it in certain instances. Although early, seeing a pitcher like Warren coming together to truly maximize his skill set—as it appears we’re doing—is the kind of thing we love to witness over the course of a 162-game regular season.

Immediately after being handed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, Warren coughed it up in the type of manner that could shake his confidence. Not often in baseball do you get no-doubter opposite-field home runs, but that’s exactly what Pete Alonso delivered against the Yankees starter, evening things up in the second.

Fulfilling the phrase that you’re only as good as the team around you, Warren enjoyed a little support right after that moment. It would’ve been one thing had he spent a prolonged period pitching with a tie game, but the Yankees quickly took control of this one, pouncing on Orioles starter Cade Povich, who simply didn’t have it on Friday night. It was the home team’s turn to leave the yard in the third inning, firstly with a José Caballero solo shot and then a three-run bomb from Ben Rice.

It’s fitting that these are the two players who would come up big, as they represent the two types of hitters who will determine how dangerous the Yankees lineup is against left-handed pitching—Rice as the primary of a group of lefties who can take their game to the next level if they’re able to put up solid numbers against same-handed pitching and Caballero, who is one of the complementary pieces that need to maximize on platoon advantages.

As it turned out, that home run Alonso hit would end up representing a third of the Orioles’ hits against Warren, who took full advantage of a commanding lead from the third inning onwards and shut down Baltimore. Relying less heavily on the fastball than his season norm, and utilizing all three of his off-speed pitches, Warren earned nine strikeouts—the last of them on a terrific challenge from Wells, overturning a backdoor 2-2 sinker against Taylor Ward that had been originally called a ball in the sixth inning.

Warren was cruising in such a manner that Aaron Boone tried to give him the seventh inning, but a walk and a single were enough for the hook with 6.1 innings pitched. As he is known to do, Fernando Cruz came in with runners at second and third—both having advanced on a Trent Grisham error—and he kept the damage at one. Because of the error, this second Oriole run to make it a 5-2 game at that time was unearned for Warren, delivering a performance just as dominant as the one he had against the Royals a couple of outings ago.

Answering back that run, the Yankees made it a 7-2 game, scoring one in the seventh and one in the eighth thanks to RBI knocks from Amed Rosario and Aaron Judge. They could’ve made it a full-scale blowout but managed to strand five baserunners in those two innings, not that the pitching staff missed those runs, with Cruz, Camillo Doval, and Jake Bird combining to give up just a walk in 2.2 innings.

The Yankees will go for their 12th win in 14 games tomorrow afternoon, with southpaw Ryan Weathers facing righty Kyle Bradish. First pitch is at 1:35pm ET.

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