Category: Sports News

ATLANTA — It didn’t just cross Robbie Ray’s mind when he had made it through his fifth no-hit inning Wednesday afternoon. This exact scenario came up in his pregame meeting to go over his plan of attack.

“It’s funny,” Ray said. “We were talking about before the game going no-hit through eight innings, [and] like you don’t get a no-hitter.”

It didn’t quite get that far, but there was at least a moment where it looked like the decision for Ray to pick up where things left off in the bottom of the second inning of the Giants’ suspended series opener against the Braves could cost him a place in the history books.

Entering in relief to begin the bottom of the second, Ray tossed 6 1/3 shutout innings, struck out eight and didn’t surrender a hit until the seventh inning of a 7-2 win in the first game of a split doubleheader.

“The offense certainly did a good job of swinging the bat, but I felt like they were feeding off the vibe of how he was throwing,” manager Tony Vitello said. “Regardless of whatever’s true, he kind of led the way and got us in a great spot at the end of the game.”

It looked like the Giants would make it through the first game of the doubleheader having only used one reliever in addition to their two starters. Dylan Smith, however, issued a pair of walks with one out in the ninth, prompting Vitello to use his closer, Caleb Kilian, to protect a five-run lead.

“Not looking to mess around,” Vitello said. “Just looking to win whenever we have an opportunity.”

It had been a little over 18 hours since Adrian Houser threw his last pitch of the bottom of the first when Ray started the bottom of the second with a grunt that bounced off the walls of a more than half-empty Truist Park shortly after 2 p.m.

Only a small sliver of the 31,266 who bought tickets for Tuesday night’s rain-shortened contest returned the following afternoon. The teams played an inning and half followed by a 1 hour, 52 minute delay before the series opener was suspended shortly before 10 p.m. local time.

“When I was warming up before the game, there was no fans,” Ray said. “And then when I went to the bullpen, they opened the gates and there were like 10 fans. So it definitely felt empty.”

The sparse crowd witnessed Ray flip the Giants’ fortunes on the mound, after Houser was tagged for two runs in a rainy first inning Tuesday night, while their bats picked up right where they left off.

After pouncing on Grant Holmes the night before, the Giants were already up 3-2 and solo shots from Rafael Devers, Jung Hoo Lee and Willy Adames made sure Ray pitched with a comfortable lead.

Devers started things off with his 10th of the season in the fifth, and Lee went back-to-back with two outs to make it 5-2. Adames added on another insurance run in the eighth with his 12th of the season.

What it means

Thanks to Ray’s strong effort, the Giants are able to enter the second game of the doubleheader and look ahead to the rest of their road trip without too many concerns about their pitching depth.

They won’t however, have a fresh closer after Vitello called on Kilian in a non-save situation. That said, the manager didn’t rule out using Kilian if they have a late lead. He only used eight pitches.

Who’s hot

Despite allowing five runs in his last start, Ray looked to be moving in the right direction with his longest outing in more than a month and only his second this season without issuing a walk.

Ray took that progress and built on it against the Braves.

“He rolls through those first three innings, really, close to a 15-pitch average, and it’s a little different than what he’s had,” Vitello said. “He looked like he was excited to throw today and he was efficient right out of the shoot.”

The only base runners Atlanta mustered against Ray until Austin Riley led off the seventh with a double were two lone walks, neither of which made it past first base.

Leaning on his sinker over his four-seamer, Ray’s eight strikeouts were his most in 15 times toeing the rubber this season and his 6 ⅓ innings of relief represented his second-longest outing of the year — his first time completing six or more innings since May 8.

“Everything’s kind of coming together,” Ray said. “Everything felt good in my last one. It just felt like the results weren’t there. I was just able to build on that today. The two-seam has been a good pitch for me lately. It’s something I’m still developing and still getting comfort for.”

Ray, who has traditionally relied on his four-seamer at the top of the strike zone, turned to his two-seamer 29 times in 94 pitches, more than any other offering. He had been throwing it only about 5% of the time.

“The game’s kind of changed a little bit,” Ray said, with the Automated Ball-Strike System. “You used to be able to exploit the top of the zone, especially when you’re ahead. I feel like the two-seam is a pitch that allows you to get some early outs. That’s kind of what I’ve been able to use it for.”

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Who’s not

It had only been a little more than a week since Adames’ last home run, but it might as well have been a year. Between his two-homer game in the Giants’ opening game at Wrigley Field and his solo shot in the eighth, Adames had been 1-for-31 with 11 strikeouts.

Likewise, Devers’ home run was also only his second of June while batting an equally poor .161 (9-for-56). Neither player is exactly making it easier to move their hefty contracts as the Giants reportedly listen to offers for their highly paid, underperforming stars.

Up next

A short break, and then the second game of the double header. Both teams can add a 27th player, and the Giants used their roster spot on Carson Whisenhunt, who will make his first start of the season in the nightcap against the Braves’ regularly scheduled starter, JR Ritchie.

Whisenhunt was named the Pacific Coast League’s pitcher of the month for May and is 5-2 with a 3.65 ERA in 14 games (13 starts) — 2.76 dating back to his last start of April.

Royals put together a complete game to avoid the sweep in the nation’s capital. The 6-2 final score was a product of a mostly solid all-around game for a team that needed it. Things got off to a very quick start when Carter Jensen led off the game with the first solo home run of the day.

Three more solo home runs came in the early parts of the game for the Royals. John Rave hit his first big-league homer of the year in the 2nd inning. In the 3rd they took it up a notch with two more solo blasts when Lane Thomas and Michael Massey went back-to-back to give Kansas City of 4-0 lead.

Every Royal in the starting lineup reached base today and only Nick Loftin failed to get a hit. It really was Carter Jensen’s day though. After opening the game with a blast, he proceeded to get on base four more times and ended the day 4-4 with a walk. His OPS went up 43 points in one game. Hopefully this means he is back on track after struggling a lot in May and early June. Rave deserves the honorable mention here too with a home run and a triple.

The final two runs for the Royals were started by Rave opening up the 6th inning with a triple because James Wood misplayed a liner off the wall and he fell down in doing so. Nick Loftin moved him to third on a ball hit back to the pitcher and then Isaac Collins bunted him home. It counted as a sac bunt though there were no outs on the play when Luis Garcia Jr. decided to go home. He almost made a nice play, watch below.

This was easily Luinder Avila’s best start of his young career. Walks have been a major problem for him, and he finally avoided the free passes this afternoon except for the very last batter that he faced. His final line was 5 2/3 IP, 3H, 1BB, 1ER, 5K dropping his BB/9 from 6.19 to 5.5 on the year. He barely gave up any hard contact. It was a great day for Avila. The one run was on a double given up by Matt Strahm who continued his recent struggles. He faced two batters, gave up two hits and run scored on each. He was bailed out on the second one when Dylan Crews tried to stretch a single into a double and was thrown out on a very close play that the Nationals challenged and lost.

Lucas Erceg looked better than I have seen him look in at least a month. He took the 7th inning and knocked them down one two three. One ball was hit hard but it was on the ground. The third batter, Jose Tena, struck out on a slider. John Schreiber took care of the 8th and turned it over to Alex Lange still 6-2. Lange did plunk the first batter and then move him to second on a passed ball that Jensen just missed. Second base is all the further Curtis Mead would go as Lange took care of the next three.

The three game road trip is over and the boys will be playing baseball in Kauffman for a weird series with the Cardinals starting tomorrow night. They play Thursday, Friday, and Sunday with an almost unheard-of off day on a Saturday thanks to the World Cup. It will be Ecuador and Curacao that get the parking lot that day.

The current rough patch for the Atlanta Braves continued on for another game as they simply got outclassed by the San Francisco Giants over the course of a rain-delayed/suspended contest in Cobb County.

This game started on Tuesday night in wet conditions, which ended up being a double-edged sword for the Braves in particular. Grant Holmes got the ball to start things off and the Giants proceeded to jump all over him while he was busy trying to get his bearings about him in the terrible conditions. San Francisco had already put a run on the board before loading up the bases with just one out. Fortunately, Holmes was able to get out of that situation without giving up much damage but he walked in a run and gave up a sacrifice fly in the second inning so by the time the game was suspended, the Braves were down 3-2.

Those two runs came in the first inning, which was easily the high point of the entire game for the Braves. Drake Baldwin led off and the very first swing he took ended up with a ball that landed deep in Chattahoochee Falls in center field for a leadoff dinger that tied the game up. Michael Harris II singled immediately afterwards and he was brought in by Mauricio Dubón for what was then the go-ahead run. Unfortunately, Harris tweaked his back while crossing home plate and so he ended up leaving the game after that since Walt Weiss didn’t want to chance anything due to the conditions.

After the Braves finished off that frame, we ended up getting an unofficial rain delay that turned into a game suspension. The game was restarted at 2:00 p.m ET on Wednesday and from that point forward, the Giants dominated the Braves. Despite struggling for most of 2026 so far, Robbie Ray was seemingly back in Cy Young form as he delivered his best start since April 7 when he held the Phillies scoreless for nearly seven innings. Ray went 6.1 innings in the restart and gave up two hits and two walks while striking out eight batters and giving up zero runs. Atlanta’s lineup had no answers for Ray on this particular afternoon in what was one of the low points for the Braves in terms of plate performance.

Things weren’t much better on the mound. Dylan Dodd came on in the fourth inning and while he was able to get through his first five batters without giving up a hit, it all came to a screeching halt in the fifth inning which is when Rafael Devers and Jung Hoo Lee hit back-to-back dingers to make it a three-run lead for San Francisco.

The two teams traded scoreless innings in the sixth and the seventh before the Giants got back onto the scoreboard with another home run — this time, Willy Adames cracked his 12th dinger of the season to push the lead to 6-2. For reference’s sake, the Giants had hit the fourth-fewest amount of homers in the National League so far this season but they went deep three times in this one.

Anthony Molina gave up the homer to Adames and then he surrendered another run in the ninth inning to make it a 7-2 game after two singles from Luis Arraez and Bryce Eldridge culminated in a productive out from Matt Chapman plating a run.

Once it was Atlanta’s turn in the ninth, they did get a single from Mike Yastrzemski and Ha-Seong Kim got on base (!!!) with a four-pitch walk that prompted the Giants to have to go deeper into their bullpen with Caleb Kilian getting the nod to finish things off. Kilian proceeded to strike out the final two batters and that was that!

This was just a comedy of errors from the words “Play Ball” for the Braves. Well, “errors” is probably a bad word to use here since Atlanta actually played some solid defense in this one but in all other facets, this was not a good performance from the Braves at all. Hopefully things will be better later on tonight with JR Ritchie taking the mound and they’ll also have their offering of high-leverage bullpen guys available for the nightcap. Still, the offense has got to wake up because that was just very dull to watch them get dominated by present-day Robbie Ray and the rest of San Francisco’s pitching staff.

They go again at 7:15 p.m. ET, as scheduled.

The New York Yankees’ greatness can be measured and appreciated in many different stats; one of them is that at some point or another, they’ve played at least one playoff series against 26 of the other 29 active teams in Major League Baseball, eye-popping even for a team with 27 World Series titles and 41 pennants to its name. Surprisingly, not all three exceptions are members of the National League—that is the case for the Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals, but the third one resides on the South Side of Chicago, a 1901 founding member of the American League that predates the Yankees themselves. One might excuse expansion teams such as the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays for not featuring in this contingent, but for the Chicago White Sox to be a part of this select group, that’s just strange.

Beginning a weeklong homestand this week, the Yankees host the White Sox in a rare battle—particularly over the last few seasons—of these two teams both fighting for division leads. Just as the Yankees overtook the Rays, the White Sox fell to even with the less surprising Cleveland Guardians. While it is far too early to be certain of the Pale Hose sustaining this level of play as a legitimate threat to make the postseason, their current presence in the hunt and upcoming matchup with the Yankees provide the ideal segue to discuss the history, or in this case, lack thereof, between them.

For well over a century, the Yankees’ success has been as close to a constant as any team could get, and thus, the reality of assessing never-before-seen playoff matchups involving them leaves the responsibility entirely on the other side. It’s the Rockies’ fault for only making one Fall Classic in their history, and the same applies to the Nationals. And even then, the Yankees could’ve easily faced one of the two with better luck in the 2007 or particularly the 2019 postseason. If we want to include the Montreal Expos as part of the Nats’ history, they fell just two runs short of a showdown with New York in 1981 after losing to the Dodgers in a winner-take-all NLCS Game 5.

Around for far longer than those two aforementioned NL clubs, the White Sox playoff history is equally lacking given its context, with Chicago having played in a total of 11 postseasons dating back to 1901. It is a staggeringly low total for a team with 125 years of history. Out of those 11 appearances, four came prior to the existence of divisional play and postseason series in each league, with Chicago advancing straight to the Fall Classic in 1906, 1917, 1919, and 1959.

Here we’ll note that if said divisional play had been introduced earlier in the ’50s or ’60s, perhaps the Yanks and White Sox would have gone head-to-head in an American League Championship Series. Modern fans might not realize that those White Sox were quite competitive with the dynastic Yankees between 1952-64, but finished third six times and runner-up on four occasions. The Yankees were also third during Chicago’s lone pennant-winning season in 1959.

So we move on to 1969 and the beginning of the ALCS. The Yankees have never shared a division with the White Sox, who were quickly sorted into the AL West prior to the existence of the AL Central. A playoff matchup was possible! But they were rarely contenders at the same time. The White Sox won two AL West crowns, in 1983 and 1993. Both came during the Yankees’ 14-year playoff drought. Another White Sox division title in 2008 arrived in conjunction with New York’s run of 13 consecutive postseason appearances coming to a close.

We’re left with only four occasions in MLB history when both these teams made the playoffs.

Through one of the postseason’s most impressive runs back in 2005—when they won the championship, losing only one game across three playoff series—the White Sox nearly had the Yankees in their way, but New York faltered in the do-or-die Game 5 of the ALDS against the Angels. Whatever one’s feelings are regarding that 2005 Yankees team, they probably could’ve offered the Sox a bigger challenge than the Angels, who lost four straight after winning Game 1, seeing the elder Vladimir Guerrero wrap up that series with a 1-for-20 line. There is also an alternative path: if the Red Sox had finished ahead of the Yankees in the standings (both teams finished with the same record and the Yanks won the division on an off-field tiebreaker) the Yankees would’ve been the ones matching up with the Pale Hose in the ALDS.

While the Yankees didn’t get a chance to run into the eventual champs in 2005, the opposite was the case a few years prior in 2000. The American League’s top seed in that season, the White Sox were swept by the Mariners, a turn of events that handed the Yankees home-field advantage in that year’s ALCS against the Alex Rodriguez-led Seattle club. Despite having the worst record, the Yankees got the edge as division winners on their way to winning the Fall Classic.

Decades later, while the 2021 campaign didn’t present a particularly close possibility given that the Yankees lost the Wild Card Game to the Red Sox and the White Sox were on the other end of the bracket, scheduled for an ALDS matchup against the powerhouse Astros (one that they lost in a gentleman’s sweep), the 2020 campaign tells a more interesting story.

The way seeding worked in the shortened 2020 campaign with each of the three divisions guaranteed at least two playoff teams, meant that even though Cleveland and Chicago finished with the same record, Cleveland, which had the tiebreaker, secured the fourth seed, while the ChiSox had the seventh seed. Had the White Sox finished ahead of Cleveland, they would’ve played the five-seed Yankees, who actually had a worse record than both. Instead, Chicago lost to Oakland in the first round, and that was that.

To this day, the 2020 through 2021 period is the only one in which both the Yankees and White Sox made the playoffs simultaneously in consecutive years. Unfortunately for Chicago, things spiraled miserably for their window of contention after that, and 2026 is the first year with signs of life since then.

Lastly, with the possibility of a lockout looming, we’d be remiss not to touch on what transpired in the 1994 campaign, another one with unfulfilled potential for a Yankees-White Sox playoff series. When play stopped, the Yankees and White Sox were the top two teams in the American League. Cleveland was chasing Chicago, only a game back, but even if they managed to pass the White Sox, it would only turn a likely ALCS matchup into a certain ALDS one. While the Yankees went on to dominate the second half of the ’90s, the White Sox didn’t get back to the postseason until 2000, leading to several lean years wasting the prime of Frank Thomas.

This won’t go on forever. Remember, the Yankees had never played the Blue Jays in the postseason until last year either. The deck of cards metaphorically representing an MLB season will eventually deal us a Yankees/White Sox playoff matchup — it could even happen in 2026 if both sides keep up the good work. May the Ron Hassey Bowl one day come to pass.

Max Scherzer is scratched from today’s game with back spasms, which turns tonight’s game into a bullpen day. We were hoping we were finished with those.

Whoops, a change, Max has been put on the IL, so he’s gone for 15 days at least. Chad Dallas is back on the roster and apparently will be active tonight, so they knew about Max’s back for at least a few hours. I’m wondering if he’s had his last game as a Blue Jay. Next week, Shane Bieber should be back, and would be a much better choice for that spot in the rotation.

Braydon Fisher will be the opener. Spencer Miles last pitched three days ago, 2.2 innings, so he will be available, but Simeon Woods Richardson hasn’t pitched in nine days, so he will likely be the bulk guy. He’s only pitched in one game with the Jays, which is out of character for our team. We usually pitch a guy until his arm falls off.

Tonight’s lineup:

After dropping the first two games in Cincinnati and draining the bullpen, the Mets needed a strong performance out of Nolan McLean on Wednesday afternoon.

The right-hander stepped up and delivered perhaps his most dominant outing of the season, going 7.0 innings with no earned runs (one unearned), nine strikeouts and just one walk. He threw 101 pitches and looked much more like the 2025 version of himself who came up to the majors and absolutely overmatched hitters, doing his part as the Mets’ bats came to life in a 9-1 win over the Reds.

“Man, that was excellent there. He dominated that lineup,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “It starts with the command of all of his pitches, and he was on today, he was spot-on. He attacked, and the way not he was not only using the four-seam, the sinker, the cutter, that allowed him to use his secondary pitches, but man, that was pretty impressive there.”

McLean, who lowered his season ERA to 3.67, acknowledged that Wednesday’s start was his best of the season from a complete performance standpoint, and his four-seam fastball usage was a big part of it. Of his 101 pitches, McLean threw 27 four-seamers, getting eight called strikes and generating five whiffs on 11 swings. 

"I was establishing the zone early, and I was able to get some chases late," he explained.

It’s no secret that the Mets’ starting rotation has been in a state of disarray. Christian Scott landing on the IL with a hip issue was the latest blow to the rotation, and Kodai Senga struggled on Tuesday night in his return to the big league mound, adding even more uncertainty.

But McLean said that he’s not feeling any extra pressure to perform. In his mind, the goal is the same every single time he steps between the white lines.

“I wouldn’t say I put any more pressure or responsibility on myself. Every time I go out there, I’m trying to win a baseball game,” he said. “I think if everybody’s trying to do that and we’re all pulling the same rope, good things will happen.”

Danny Rohl thanked Rangers after leaving the Scottish Premiership outfit for Red Bull Salzburg and taking his first training session with the Austrian club.

The German, 37, departed Ibrox after eight months, having previously managed Sheffield Wednesday. Derek McInnes was appointed Rangers manager shortly after Rohl's departure was announced.

"I've been here several times in the past and know Salzburg well – the club has always stood for attacking, courageous football," Rohl said at his first news conference with RB Salzburg.

"That's precisely the path we want to take. We want to return to the identity that distinguished the club for so many years.

"I have to also thank Rangers, who agreed to this move."

Sporting director Marcus Mann commented: "It's true that we had agreed with Danny a week ago.

"A few points came up that needed clarification, which is why the matter dragged on a bit. We certainly would have liked to finalise it a few days earlier but the important thing is that it worked out. Sometimes you can have different opinions on things – those have now been resolved."