Category: Sports News

Just about three months ago, the Rockies opened up the 2026 season in Miami against the Marlins.

It didn’t go very well.

Colorado got swept 3-0, but the good news is that the Rockies lost each game by one run, including a walk-off 4-3 loss in game three. Now, the 1993 expansion teams will face each other again, but this time for a four-game series at Coors Field.

The Rockies (33-50) have gone 5-5 in their last 10 games and are 18-22 at home this season. The Marlins (44-40) have been on a hot streak, going 8-2 in the last 10 games. Miami’s success is largely due to its successful employment of small ball and MLB-leading 92 stolen bases.

Making his fourth MLB start, Sean Sullivan (0-2, 8.25 ERA) will try to help the Rockies earn their first win over the Marlins this season. After throwing three scoreless innings against the A’s in his debut, the 23-year-old lefty struggled in start No. 2 when he gave up eight runs on nine hits, including two homers, in four innings against the Chicago Cubs. He was better in his last outing, when he surrendered three runs on five hits with five walks and three strikeouts in five innings against the Boston Red Sox.

The 2022 NL Cy Young winner, Sandy Alcantara (8-4, 4.01), will be on the mound for Miami. Alcantara, 30, has also been on a hot streak in June, posting a 2.60 ERA and a 5-0 record with 29 strikeouts and only six walks in 34.2 innings.

First Pitch: 6:40 p.m. MDT

TV: Rockies.TV

Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM KOA Rockies Radio Network; KNRV 1150 AM (Spanish)

Lineups:

For the Marlins:

For the Rockies:

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It’s another round of rotations through the injured list for the Seattle Mariners. Monday, they placed their righty-hitting platoon for right field and/or designated hitter on the 10-day IL, sidelining OF Rob Refsnyder with issues in both knees. In his place is the newly acquired 3B/1B/cOF Buddy Kennedy. The club has acknowledged Refsnyder having battled through injury to some degree, however, unfortunately, he has been notoriously, unable to muster productivity in any way. The issue for Refsnyder appears to be a lingering one more than something easily healed, which has been the club’s reasoning for attempting to manage and work through his health, however it’s clear only so many injuries could be managed at once. He received injections in both knees last week, however he has not progressed and will rehab in Arizona to try and find his way back that is less painful.

To that end, the club also provided updates on several dinged up and injured M’s. OF Luke Raley and OF Dominic Canzone will remain active, with Raley dealing with a strain in his left (non-throwing) arm that he has demonstrated the ability to swing through and perhaps even return to right field with in a few days. Similarly, Canzone is playing through tightness in his hamstring which will curtail his capacity to play in the field. Canzone’s situation seems a bit more similar to Jorge Polanco a season ago at times, where the lefty’s bat is too valuable to take out of the M’s lineup but requires management to avoid aggravation. Connor Joe is present but not activated, should Seattle need to make a change pregame or in this series.

Further out, General Manager Justin Hollander offered an impassioned defense of the caliber and efforts of Seattle’s training staff, while also providing updates on several sidelined M’s. Both RHPs Matt Brash and Cooper Criswell are likely to return in “August” per Hollander, with MRIs scheduled for July 6th to track if their healing process is on the expected track. UTIL Brendan Donovan “had a good week” which included running at near full effort and a full run through the batting cage, but it does not sound as though his return is coming until August or later.

Asked about the M’s tendency to keep injured players on the roster this year instead of giving guys full injured list stints, Hollander noted their calculation has ultimately been in a belief and assessment that players can, on a case-by-case basis, return or be effective in the shortened time provided relative to their options for longer time sidelined on the IL.

Other min0r-league injury updates of note:

• INF Leo Rivas has been out essentially since he was optioned back to Tacoma on May 18. He’s apparently dealing with vertigo, and although his symptoms have improved he still gets dizzy while tilting his head up quickly, such as looking up to catch fly balls.
• Promising lefty pitcher Mason Peters has been sidelined for the past two weeks with forearm soreness. He had an MRI and it didn’t show anything significant. The team will build him back slowly over the next couple weeks.
• Similarly, righty Jackson Steensma is also dealing with forearm soreness. He had a cortisone shot last week to try to calm some inflammation and swelling; Hollander says his progression has been “a little slower than we would have hoped.”
• There’s no update on OF Brennan Davis, who continues to deal with a left hamstring strain.

It feels like the Brewers just played the Reds because… well, they did.

Last week, Milwaukee swept a three-game series in Cincinnati while holding the Reds to just six total runs — five of which came in the series finale. Tonight, the two teams open a four-game series, this time within the friendly confines of American Family Field.

Tonight’s pitching matchup is a battle of the lefties, with Robert Gasser (1-3, 4.50 ERA) squaring off against Nick Lodolo (2-2, 5.59 ERA). Gasser struggled in his first couple of appearances this season but has been great in June, going at least five innings in each start and allowing two or less runs except for a blowup outing in Las Vegas (6 ER in 5 IP). Even factoring in that outing, Gasser has a 3.74 ERA this month.

Lodolo’s last start was last Tuesday against the Brewers. He was pitching as well as he had all season through three hitless innings, but got hit on his left wrist by a Jackson Chourio comebacker to start the fourth. Lodolo ended up leaving the game after the fourth due to what the Reds deemed a contusion of that wrist, but he should be all good to go.

Tonight’s lineup against is pretty similar to last week’s, with Jackson Chourio, William Contreras, Brice Turang, and Andrew Vaughn again occupying the first four spots in the lineup. Jake Bauers, who started last time around against Lodolo, is out of today’s lineup, but lefty masher Gary Sánchez (.977 OPS vs. LHP) will DH. Rounding out the lineup are center fielder Blake Perkins (.702 OPS vs. LHP), right fielder Sal Frelick (.453 OPS vs. LHP), shortstop Cooper Pratt, and third baseman Joey Ortiz.

Finally, one more piece of roster news from this morning; per Curt Hogg, pitcher Logan Henderson should be back before the All-Star break. Henderson struck out seven in three innings yesterday in a rehab start with Triple-A Nashville.

Tonight’s game, as usual, will be broadcast on Brewers.TV, WTMJ 620, and the Brewers Radio Network. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m.

First Pitch (CT):7:10 PM
TV: Twins.TV
Radio: TIBN/830 WCCO/102.9 The Wolf /Audacy App
Know Yo’ Foe:Crawfish Boxes

After taking a series from the Colorado Rockies, the Twins are heading to Houston to face the Astros. An up-and-down season has Astros in a similar spot as the Twins: just below .500 and fighting to cement themselves in the playoff race. Also like the Twins, Houston has pretty much one good hitter who is among the best players in baseball (Byron Buxton/Yordan Alvarez) while the rest of the lineup is pretty suspect despite decent numbers as a team.

The Twins already took a series from the Astros in mid May but have been very good since then, going 22-12 while winning five straight series. The Twins, meanwhile, have gone 17-18 since their last matchup while winning four their past five series (and who counts the Dodgers anyway).

Tonight it’s Zebby Matthews vs Peter Lambert in a matchup of pitchers that makes you ask, “are either of these guys actually good?” We likely won’t get an answer but the parallels between these teams simply never end.

Roster Notes:

• Byron Buxton is out again with his recurring hip issue. The team is being optimistic but Buck is getting imagine done and more information will be known later. For now, he’s out and there’s hope he can avoid the IL.
• Should Buxton miss time, Alan Roden and top prospect Walker Jenkins just returned from their own IL stints. Kaelen Culpepper also returned, but all three are still having their workloads managed closely.
• Anthony Banda is expected to miss multiple months with a significant lat strain. It’s a disappointing development for an already bad bullpen. Yoendrys Gomez and Andrew Morris have been huge success stories, but there’s very little reliability behind those two.

Lineups

PHOENIX — With Heliot Ramos’ return, the Giants’ roster is more or less back to where it was when the season began. As in: More square pegs for circular holes.

Make no mistake: the homegrown 2024 All-Star is a welcome addition to a lineup that, despite showing signs of life, still averaged only three runs per game over its latest home stand.

“It’s just good to have him in the locker room and the dugout because he’s full of energy,” manager Tony Vitello said of Ramos’ return after missing 37 games with a quad strain.

And yet, his presence only makes the rookie manager’s job more complicated.

When Ramos landed on the injured list in the middle of May, there were already positional logjams being sorted through. In a way, it acted as a blessing in disguise of sorts.

Casey Schmitt took up left field, giving Vitello an easy way to get their most productive bat into the lineup everyday. Same deal with Bryce Eldridge, who hasn’t had to sit much while splitting duties between first base and designated hitter with Rafael Devers.

And consider Jung Hoo Lee and Luis Arraez, who not only keep hitting — both among the top three hitters in the NL by batting average — but also look increasingly comfortable in the field.

Inserting Ramos into the picture could amount to adding oil to water — it won’t mix.

Vitello said it himself while gaming out the likeliest scenario to incorporate the power-hitting but defensively challenged 26-year-old outfielder, whose 102 wRC+ and .731 OPS trailed only Schmitt and Arraez among San Francisco’s roster at the time of his injury.

“I don’t think that would be our first choice defensively,” the manager said. “But on any given day, I could see it being our first overall best choice.”

Vitello got one gimme in Ramos’ first game back Sunday, opting to sit Eldridge, a rookie left-handed hitter, against one of the game’s fiercest southpaws in Chris Sale.

That opened up the DH slot for Ramos, who didn’t play many nine inning games in the field on his rehab assignment. Because of that, Vitello said the Giants hope to “ease” him back in.

But once Ramos is fully ramped up, the positional alignment to which the manager alluded wouldn’t only not be anyone’s first choice. It should be a last resort.

The “most likely” option, according to Vitello, would keep Schmitt in left, a position he has played capably but still has only 30 games of experience. That would move Ramos, one of the worst defenders in the majors last season, to the other corner, despite the prowess Lee has shown prowling right.

Lee would be required to cover center, where he rated about as poorly as Ramos last season, prompting the move to right field, which has largely been a success.

In other words: Vitello’s proposed solution would stick an infielder in left field, a right fielder in center and, realistically, a designated hitter in right. Then again, despite Lee’s improvement, the Giants’ outfield already ranks as the second-worst defensive group in the majors.

In fairness, some within the team have suggested Ramos would fare better in right field anyway because of Oracle Park’s dimensions, which makes for less ground to cover than in left.

What if we told you there is an easier, almost inevitable solution?

Because the real sticking point isn’t in the outfield grass; it’s on the infield dirt.

And it will almost certainly sort itself out by Aug. 3, which so happens to be the MLB trade deadline and more likely than not the last day Arraez is on the Giants’ roster.

The signing of Arraez to a one-year, $12 million deal just before spring training may go down as one of president of baseball operations Buster Posey’s most successful moves to date.

But it was superfluous at the time and even more so now given the emergence of Schmitt, who is better suited to be the club’s second baseman of the future than a newcomer to the outfield.

The roster imbalances don’t stop there: As it stands, Arraez is one of just five infielders — counting Schmitt — on the 26-man roster, two of whom can only play first base.

They’ve instead decided to carry six outfielders — again, including Schmitt — leaving sparse playing time to go around between Jonah Cox, Drew Gilbert and Victor Bericoto.

If the Giants could trade Arraez now, rather than wait another month, they should. All the more so in regards to any of their other infielders on bloated, longer-term contracts, who are also standing in the way of Schmitt playing his natural position or Ramos taking over DH duties.

The problem is it takes two to tango and teams generally don’t make their best and final offers until closer to the deadline. The Giants, for their part, spent last week finalizing their big board for the amateur draft that predates the deadline by a few weeks. This week, they turn their focus to the deadline with a conference of all their pro scouts.

In the meantime, the task of constructing the lineup everyday only gets tougher for Vitello.

“It’s impossible to have too many good players,” the manager said. “Certain guys will get a little hot or a little cold at the plate, so there will always be puzzles to solve. But the more weapons we have the better off we are.”

San Diego Padres (43-39) at Chicago Cubs (46-38), June 29, 2026, 5:05 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Wrigley Field – Chicago, Ill.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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