Category: Sports News

The Cardinals jumped the Royals for 5 runs in the top of the first inning and held on to defeat the Royals 12-10 in a Father’s Day matinee, salvaging the series and avoiding the sweep.

Stephen Kolek has been dynamite for the Royals in his tenure, but he simply didn’t have it today. Three pitches into the game, Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt blasted a solo shot into the right center seats. A hit batter, walk and double gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead. Masyn Winn put the exclamation point on the inning, hitting a 3-run homer into the Cardinals bullpen.

The Royals did respond with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning, Carter Jensen led off with a single, Jac Caglianone walked, and Michael Massey hit a two-out single, to make it 5-2.

Kolek got smashed again in the top of the second, a leadoff double was followed by Wetherholt hitting an opposite field two run homer, making it 7-2. A single and RBI triple made it 8-2, Kolek did get two big outs not allowing the run to score, but Winn legged out an infield single to make it 9-2, ending Kolek’s day. Connor Seabold came on to get the last out of the 2nd.

In the bottom of the inning, Kameron Misner led off with a single, and scored on Nick Loftin’s two run homer, Loftin’s 2nd on the year, a 416-foot blast to left center. Isaac Collins singled, and after two straight outs, he scored on Caglianone’s mammoth two run shot into the second deck of fountains in right center, a 444-foot blast, making it 9-6. It was Cags 3rd straight game with a homer, and his 11th on the year.

Fast forward to the bottom of the 4th, Jensen and Cags worked walks, making it 1st and 2nd with two outs for Salvador Perez, who smacked an RBI single into center, making it 9-7. Massey flew out to right to end the inning.

Steven Cruz was rolling, striking out 3 batters to get his first 5 outs, but a 4 pitch walk to the number 9 batter, Nathan Church, opened the door for St. Louis. Wetherholt hit an opposite field single, and Iván Herrera blasted a crucial three run homer, making it 12-7 Cards, giving them some much needed breathing room.

Jensen got in on the home run party, slamming one to the opposite field, for his 10th on the year, making it a 12-8 ballgame.

To the bottom of the ninth, on the first pitch of the inning, Cags did it again. Smoking a homer to right field, his 4th of the series, second of the day and team leading 12th on the season. A 426-foot towering blast.

Salvy was hit by a pitch, Massey singled and it was 1st and 3rd, nobody out, with the tying run coming to the dish. Lane Thomas hit a high chopper to third, Blaze Jordan’s only play was at home, Salvy would make a nifty move and slide to avoid the tag. After a St. Louis challenge, Perez was still safe. 12-10, 1st and 2nd nobody out for the Royals. Misner laid down a good bunt, making it 2nd and 3rd with one out. John Rave pinch hit for Loftin, (which I didn’t like because Loftin has been good with RISP this season), and he struck out looking on a pitch that was inside, but the Royals were out of challenges. Collins grounded out to the pitcher on the first pitch to end the game.

Outside of Cruz giving up the three run homer, the bullpen of Seabold, Erceg, Strahm and Way were good. Shoutout to them.

The Royals drop the series finale and finish the year 3-3 vs St. Louis, they are 32-46 on the season. They are off to Tampa Bay for a four-game series starting tomorrow night. Michael Wacha gets the start; first pitch is set for 5:40 p.m. CT.

With the biggest series of the year (so far) looming ahead this week, I thought it’d be a good idea to look into what the White Sox do well — specifically against the pitches that our 3 best starters (all of whom are slated to pitch against Chicago) throw.

We’ll start with Gavin Williams (who is starting tomorrow).

Gavin has really struggled recently with an ERA of 4.65 in his last 10 starts. He’s slashed his fastball usage from 28.5% in April to just under 10% in June. He’s been primarily curveball/sinker/sweeper this month, with some cutter and 4-seam usage mixed in. We’ll go in order of highest usage to lowest, looking at each pitcher’s 3-4 most used pitches and the metric range around their pitches.

Gavin Williams

Curveball. 80-84 mph, 11-15in vertical drop

Jacob Gonzalez, .907 xwOBA

Sam Antonacci, .491 xwOBA

Tristan Peters, .161 xwOBA

Edgar Quero, .099 xwOBA

Braden Montgomery, .040 xwOBA

Sinker. 95-97 mph, 14-17in armside break

Chase Meidroth, .282 xwOBA | 10.5% whiff%

Miguel Vargas, .353 xwOBA | 20% whiff%

Andrew Benintendi, .567 xwOBA | 25% whiff%

Tristan Peters, .593 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Sam Antonacci, .370 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Colson Montgomery, .469 xwOBA | 28.6% whiff%

Sweeper. 86-88 mph, 9-11in gloveside break

Austin Hays, .000 xwOBA | 100% whiff%

Colson Montgomery, .701 xwOBA

You’ll notice that, on breakers like Gavin’s, the White Sox have very little seen pitches like those. Leaning on those pitches will be the key to his success. Against 4-seams like Gavin’s, the White Sox have the 7th worst xwOBA and highest whiff rate (.300 xwOBA, 28% whiff%). The 4-seam and his breakers will be the key to his success, and both his success with his breakers and the White Sox fragility against fastballs like his bode well for his tidings tomorrow. Of course now that I’ve said that, he’ll implode.

Parker Messick

Messick has been mostly the same pitcher (by usage) all year. He’s been 4-seam, changeup, sinker around 70% of the time all year.

4-Seam Fastball. 92-95 mph, 15-18in vertical break

Chase Meidroth, .316 xwOBA | 7.7% whiff%

Miguel Vargas, .605 xwOBA | 25% whiff%

Edgar Quero, .005 xwOBA | 10% whiff%

Colson Montgomery, .472 xwOBA | 40% whiff%

Randal Grichuk (RHH specialist), .731 xwOBA | 10% whiff%

Changeup. 84-87 mph, 13-16in armside break

Chase Meidroth, .362 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Edgar Quero, .390 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Randal Grichuk, .051 xwOBA | 20% whiff%

Colson Montgomery, .112 xwOBA | 33.3% whiff%

Miguel Vargas, .341 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Sinker. 91-94 mph, 11-15in armside break

Chase Meidroth, .385 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Miguel Vargas, 2.042 xwOBA (not a typo) | 0% whiff%

Sam Antonacci, .106 xwOBA | 25% whiff%

Colson Montgomery, .307 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

The key, for Messick, will be location. If he can expertly tunnel his fastball and changeup (while working sinkers in to right-handers), he’ll do well. The White Sox are an extremely young lineup, and Messick’s craftiness, for a lack of a better word, should give him an advantage over an inexperienced lineup.

Tanner Bibee

Bibee has really changed up his mix in the last few months but, so far this month, he’s gone almost exclusively fastball (sinker/cutter/4-seam). He’s dropped off his breaking ball usage almost entirely to account for that. It’s worked well for him so far (2.24 ERA in 3 starts in June. 18K:6BB in 20.1 innings)

Sinker. 92-96 mph, 13-16in armside break

Chase Meidroth, .268 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Miguel Vargas, .646 xwOBA | 14.3% whiff%

Sam Antonacci, .499 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Andrew Benintendi, .338 xwOBA | 18.2% whiff%

Edgar Quero, .088 xwOBA | 33.3% whiff%

Tristan Peters, .534 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Cutter. 85-87 mph, 5-8in gloveside break

Chase Meidroth, .368 xwOBA | 37.5% whiff%

Miguel Vargas, .000 xwOBA | 33.3% whiff%

Andrew Benintendi, .654 xwOBA | 66.7% whiff%

Sam Antonacci, .428 xwOBA | 0% whiff%

Tristan Peters, .166 xwOBA | 33.3% whiff%

4-Seam Fastball. 93-96 mph, 15-18in vertical break

Sam Antonacci, .534 xwOBA | 20% whiff%

Colson Montgomery, .306 xwOBA | 30% whiff%

Miguel Vargas, .525 xwOBA | 31.3% whiff%

Tristan Peters, .343 xwOBA | 29.6% whiff%

Chase Meidroth, .274 xwOBA | 22.2% whiff%

Andrew Benintendi, .445 xwOBA | 16.7% whiff%

The key for Bibee: no same-handed sinkers. He’s probably going to need to mix back in his curveball (and maybe changeup) for this lineup. Not necessarily sure how well he’ll fare being mainly sinker-cutter, but if he commands it well, perhaps this mix could work.

MIAMI — Once again, Rafael Devers is stirring up drama.

This time, the Giants first baseman, who refused to play the position with the Red Sox, again tried to stand in the way of what his manager thought was best for the team.

Manager Tony Vitello, for what it’s worth, chalked this incident up to Devers’ competitiveness.

“I don’t have any problem with Rafi,” Vitello said, adding that he didn’t feel the need to speak to Devers about the incident because “we talk every day.”

“He probably wants to win as much as anyone in that clubhouse. He wants to stay in the game. We’ve talked during this road trip about how he feels [physically], and obviously part of how he feels is he’s 100% good to go running-wise.”

Even at full speed, though, Devers wouldn’t have given the Giants a better chance at tying the game than the speedy Jonah Cox. He walked to lead off the ninth inning of the 2-1 loss that completed a sweep by the Marlins. Representing the tying run, it was only common sense to pinch-run for the player whose sprint speed (26.2 feet per second) is the slowest on the team.

But Devers wasn’t having it.

Standing on first, Devers wagged his index finger back and forth as if to wave off the move. When Cox came out of the dugout, Devers attempted — to no avail — to shoo him away.

Instead, after some protest, it was Devers who ultimately returned to the dugout, where he veered to avoid a pat on the back from bench coach Jayce Tingler and stormed in a huff directly back to the clubhouse. He declined an interview request through a team PR official.

“Once we announce the move, the move was made,” Vitello said. “Just going with our best effort to win the game. Obviously you’d like Jonah to go get a bag. [Miami’s closer Lake Bachar] is relatively quick to the plate. But on a double, going with our best chance to be able to score.”

Third baseman Matt Chapman agreed that it was the right move.

“There’s a reason why Tony made the move,” Chapman said. “It’s just a heat-of-the-moment thing [with Devers]. Rafi wants to play and wants to win.”

The Giants haven’t done much winning this season and took their third loss in a row after Jung Hoo Lee flew out and Willy Adames grounded into a game-ending double play.

The losing streak comes on the heels of San Francisco’s fifth three-game winning streak of the season. But the Giants have yet to win a fourth in a row and fell 15 games below .500, matching a season worst.

“It’s frustrating,” Chapman said, “because it seems as soon as we have some momentum, it’s a couple steps forward and a couple steps back.”

Say what you will about Devers and his performance on a $313.5 million contract, he doesn’t like to take days off or, apparently, come out of a game. He played 163 games last season, a rarity made possible by his midseason trade from the Red Sox.

Vitello compared Devers to Logan Webb, the Giants’ workhorse ace, in that regard.

“I’d rather have guys like Webby that you have to rip them off the field,” Vitello said, “as opposed to vice versa.”

But Devers has a history of diva-adjacent behavior. It is, in part, what brought an end to his time in Boston, where he signed a 10-year extension only a year before being offloaded to San Francisco.

In Boston, manager Alex Cora asked Devers to play first base after their starter, Triston Casas, went down with a season-ending injury. Devers had been the Red Sox’s third baseman before they signed Alex Bregman that winter and then became their designated hitter.

The Red Sox never got their way in that situation; this time, Devers had no say except to express his displeasure with his dramatic reaction to the move.

“You know how competitive he is,” Vitello said. “He wanted to stay in the game.”

Dustin May was not in his finest form Sunday, but it didn’t matter as JJ Wetherholt, Iván Herrera and the St. Louis Cardinals offense absolutely unloaded on the Kansas City Royals Sunday afternoon eventually winning a slugfest. The St. Louis Cardinals bullpen would be worn out by the end of it, though.

It only took JJ Wetherholt 3 pitches before he would alert the Kansas City Royals that the St. Louis Cardinals bats would not be sleepy on Sunday as he slammed a 90 mph cutter over the right field wall for an immediate 1-0 Cardinals lead.

The very next pitch hit Iván Herrera in the head for his 21st HBP of the season. Fortunately, it only hit helmet and not skull. (He would get sweet revenge later) How much longer are the St. Louis Cardinals going to tolerate this? At least the Cardinals made the Royals pay for this sin as Alec Burleson followed that with a walk and two batters later, Lars Nootbaar hit a double to right-center scoring Herrera and doubling the St. Louis lead to 2-0. Masyn Winn would improve on that by slamming a 79 mph sweeper into the left field bullpen making it 5-0 Cardinals.

Unfortunately, the Kansas City Royals would not just quietly accept their defeat as they scored two runs of their own when Jensen reached on an infield single and Jac Caglianone walked followed by a single by Massey scoring both of them and cutting the St. Louis lead to 5-2.

The St. Louis Cardinals understood their need to keep adding runs to the board Sunday and JJ Wetherholt was more than up to the task. After Nathan Church doubled, JJ took a 93 mph four-seam fastball the other way a long way 360 feet over the left field wall getting those two runs back and upping the St. Louis lead to 7-2. Rookie of the Year tendencies, much?

The Kansas City Royals were hitting Dustin May hard on Sunday. The bottom of the 2nd inning went much worse than the bottom of the 1st. Nick Lofton and Jac Caglianone hit a pair of 2-run homers severely reducing the Cardinals advantage at 9-6. Caglianone’s home run was the loudest of them all soaring 444 feet into the right-center field fountains. The 2nd inning would be Dustin May’s last as his line looked unlike his most recent starts with just 2 innings pitched allowing 6 hits and 6 earned runs while only striking out 2 and walking 1. That would kickoff an unintentional bullpen game as Max Rajic would give St. Louis their first scoreless inning against Kansas City shutting the Royals down in the bottom of the 3rd and would continue until 1 out in the bottom of the 4th inning when he was replaced by Matt Svanson. He would enter the game after Rajic walked Jensen. He would strike out Garcia, but walked Caglianone. Salvador Perez would make the Cardinals pay for that walk as he singled scoring Jensen and reducing the Cardinals lead further to 9-7.

Never fear as the St. Louis Cardinals never stopped piling on runs and the next burst would come with two outs in the top of the 5th. Nathan Church walked followed by JJ Wetherholt’s third hit of the game which was a single to left. Iván Herrera would say bye bye to a 96 mph four-seam fastball jolting it 414 feet over the left field fence giving the Cardinals back a more commanding 12-7 lead.

The St. Louis Cardinals bullpen carnival merry-go-round would bring Gordon Graceffo into the game to face the Kansas City Royals in the bottom of the 5th. He would keep the Royals off the board in the 5th shutting Kansas City down 1-2-3. JoJo Romero was given the responsibility of handling the bottom of the 6th inning after the Cardinals failed to score in the top of it. He would give up a leadoff home run to Jensen reducing the Cardinals lead to 12-8, but would shut down the Royals for the remainder of the 6th inning.

The Cardinals late inning hall monitors would start with Ryne Stanek who was tasked with keeping the Royals under wraps in the bottom of the 7th inning. He would get a Major League assist from Jordan Walker who snagged a Salvador Perez ball on a home run trajectory over the top of the right field wall keeping it 12-8 Cardinals…barely. The Royals would threaten after a throwing error by Masyn Winn which allowed Lane Thomas to reach second, but Stanek would strike out Misner to end the 7th.

George Soriano kept the Royals scoreless in the bottom of the 8th inning only allowing a walk. The bottom of the 9th inning would be handled by Riley O’Brien. What version of Riley O’Brien would the St. Louis Cardinals see Sunday? Well, the first pitch he threw went 426 feet over the right field wall launched by Jac Caglianone reducing the Cardinals lead to 12-9. His second pitch hit Salvadore Perez in the elbow. If this was retaliation for all of the Herrera hit-by-pitches, it was poor timing. The tying run would come to the plate in the form of Lane Thomas after O’Brien gave up a single to Massey. Blaze Jordan would make a great play on a high chop by Thomas throwing home to nail Salvador Perez, but he was called safe even after St. Louis challenged even though it appeared his hand missed home plate. That cut the Cardinals lead to 12-10. Misner then successfully laid down a sacrifice bunt which moved the tying run up to second base with just one out. O’Brien was very fortunate that the Royals did not have any ABS challenges left as Rave struck out looking. He then was able to get Rave out on a another high chopper narrowly throwing him out at first. Whew.

The St. Louis Cardinals will begin a homestand and welcome a former teammate as the Arizona Diamondbacks come to town. It’s Andre Pallante taking the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals while the Diamondbacks starter is yet to be announced. Let’s hope Nolan Arenado gets the welcome home he deserves Monday night. First pitch at Busch Stadium is scheduled for 6:45pm and the broadcast will be available on Cardinals.tv.

The Nats got into a bullpen battle with the Rays, and inevitably that did not end well. Tampa got three scoreless innings out of their bullpen, while Gus Varland and Orlando Ribalta both faltered for the Nats. The crushing blow came in the 7th, when Jonny DeLuca hit a 2-run homer off a hanging slider from Ribalta.

Overall, this was a very grindy series that was not overly memorable. The Rays just made a few more plays than the Nats over the course of the 3 games. Tampa’s starters went deeper into games and put less pressure on the bullpen. That allowed guys like Bryan Baker and Kevin Kelly to be utilized to their fullest potential.

Right now, the Nats do not really have a Baker or a Kelly in the ‘pen. We have Brad Lord, but due to his role, he can only pitch once a series. As the Nats continue their build, Paul Toboni will have to find his versions of Kelly and Baker at the back of the bullpen.

You can do that in a number of ways. With Baker, the Rays picked him up in a relatively splashy trade with the O’s. We wrote about a few controllable bullpen arms the Nats could acquire, and those guys could be the Nationals version of Baker. Meanwhile, Kevin Kelly was a waiver claim that the Rays have developed. The Nats have had some success on the wire, but none of their guys have really hit the way Kelly has yet.

Offensively, the Nats had their moments, but like the rest of this series, they were not able to truly explode. They had their moments, including a big double by Dylan Crews. However, as has been the case for most of this season, this was a one step forward, two steps back game for Crews. He got that big double, but also struck out 3 times, including in the 9th inning.

For most of this weekend, the games were played on the Rays’ terms. It was more of a chess match rather than a back and forth brawl. Kevin Cash’s veteran Rays were able to make more plays in big spots than Butera’s young Nats.

The one Nats hitter who did have a big series was CJ Abrams, who needed to get hot after a few quiet weeks. For a third straight game Abrams hit a homer. However, all of his home runs were solo shots. Besides CJ, the top of the lineup was pretty quiet this weekend. James Wood did not do much this series, and Luis Garcia Jr. had a brutal game today.

Getting Abrams going before the Nats huge 4 game clash with the Phillies is massive. This upcoming series is one of the biggest the team has had in years. The Nats need to get at least a split here to show they are the real deal in this division.

In the past, the Phillies have bullied the Nats, but this team has shown so far this season that they are different. This week we will find out just how different they are. Will this be a passing of the torch or big brother beating up on his little bro? We will find out this week. It was a bummer to drop this Rays series, but it is not worth getting too worked up over.

The Texas Rangers scored four runs while the San Diego Padres scored three runs.

It feels mildly inappropriate to beat the Padres on Father’s Day but the Rangers were perhaps finished with niceties after securing a losing homestand with an extra innings defeat yesterday.

Today, after being pushed back a day with a bit of the old man knee, Nathan Eovaldi didn’t allow a first inning home run nor even a first inning run. In fact, Eovaldi was cruising along until a peculiar bump in the road in the top of the fourth when he allowed six of the seven hits that he’d allow today.

Those six hits amounted to three runs for the Padres but when they scored those runs, the Rangers were already leading 3-0 after Wyatt Langford had connected for a three-run dong a half inning prior, his third home run in the last four games of this homestand.

With the game tied 3-3, the Rangers reclaimed the lead in the following half inning after San Diego’s outburst when Josh Jung singled in a run in the bottom of the fourth.

From there it was nothing but zeroes from both clubs. Eovaldi rediscovered his swing-and-miss pitches and tossed a couple more scoreless innings to finish the day allowing three runs over six innings with just one walk and nine strikeouts. Other than the fourth inning, he allowed just one hit. I guess hitting actually is contagious sometimes.

Though the Rangers could never muster an insurance run, the bullpen was up to the task of hanging on today where it was not yesterday. A trio of Peyton Gray, Robby Ahlstrom, and Jakob Junis combined for three shutout innings with Junis making us sweat out a save with Jacob Latz unavailable today.

It certainly wasn’t an overall successful homestand and the Rangers now face their longest remaining road trip of the season without a breather, but maybe give your dad a call and talk to him about how Langford is getting hot and Eovaldi looked fine after being skipped for a day, eh?

Player of the Game: Langford — who had a couple of hits, including the three-run home run — perhaps loves his father the most.

Up Next: The Rangers head out on the road for the remainder of June beginning with a series against Skip Schumaker’s former team, the National League’s Marlins. RHP Kumar Rocker is expected to make the start for Texas in the opener opposite RHP Tyler Phillips for Miami.

The Monday evening first pitch from loanDepot park is scheduled for 5:40 pm CDT and will be available to watch via the Rangers Sports Network.

I want to be more annoyed about this game, but honestly the moment that it ended I didn’t really remember much about it. There were two moments the whole game — Ben Rice hit a home run to give the Yankees the lead, Tyler Stephenson hit a three-run shot to put the Reds ahead. I had to check MLB.com to be reminded Cincinnati tacked on a fourth run in the ninth. The Yankees lost 4-1, and it feels like nothing at all happened.

Sometimes baseball is like that, this is the whole “you play every day” thing.

Elmer Rodríguez…Paul O’Neill said that he didn’t take a step backward today, and I think that’s true. I also think that the flaws in the prospect were on display. He did strike out more batters than he walked, which has been a challenge for him in his previous three outings, so good for him. But you still see that his command isn’t what it needs to be — he reminds me a lot of what Will Warren was a year ago, where he was called upon before he was ready.

The stuff is very much there, especially his breaking stuff. But he’s so married to his two-seamer, and I don’t know that it’s a major league quality pitch. Every time he throws his slider or curveball, I’m impressed. Every time he throws his four-seam, I’m at least on board. Throwing the two-seam as often as he does, 40 percent of the time today, he just never seems to hit the spot he’s going for. Some of that leads to nibbling, some of that leads to easy takes. He did give up the big three-run home run to Stephenson on the four-seam fastball though, so what do I know.

That was the entirety of the Yankee offense. Rice had himself a very good game, with the home run, a walk, and a hustle infield single. The team did manage five stolen bases, so there was traffic, and there were chance, there was just a stubborn refusal to cash in at all. Chase Burns is a very good pitcher, but the Yankees gave him a lot of help today. Even that homer from Rice could have been a two-run blast if Anthony Volpe hadn’t been picked off at first.

I thought this was a trap series from the start, the Yankees were coming off a run of hot games, closing out the homestand against a team that’s not very good and missing their best player. With Burns going today and Cole pushed to tomorrow, it was pretty important to get the win yesterday, which of course didn’t happen. That the Yankees have sleepwalked through two days’ worth of at bats makes that trap series prediction even more prescient.

I am often asked by my non-baseball fan friends what there is to love about the game. I’ll point to Aaron Judge’s ALDS home run last October or Corey Kluber’s inexplicable no-hitter a couple years ago. I do not imagine I will point to this game; this was perhaps not an example of baseball at its best, but perhaps an example of what a lot of baseball sometimes looks like. On the solstice, it seems the dog days of summer have arrived.

The Yankees head to Detroit for a set with the Tigers, and Tarik Skubal looming on Wednesday. On paper they’ll have the edge pitching-wise to open the series, with Cole slated to start against familiar foe Framber Valdez. First pitch from Comerica Park comes at 6:10pm Eastern.

Box Score

The Rays eked out a win over the Nationals with good pitching and defense and just enough offense to win their first series since they took two of three from the Angels a few weeks ago.

Nick Martinez got the start, and while he probably isn’t, over a full season, the Cy Young caliber guy we watched earlier in the season, he is the sort of bulldog fighter who every team needs in their rotation. Uncharacteristically he gave up three walks, and the homerun and two double he surrendered were on pitches over the heart of the plate, suggesting that his concern about command made him reluctant to try to paint corners.

But a guy who can give you six innings with three runs is a pitcher who can keep you in ballgames even when it’s not his best day. I’ve grown quite fond of Nick Martinez.

My usual complaint in the many games where they fail to score runs is that they get very few hits, or their only hits are singles. Today they actually connected for some nice extra base hits, but least early in the game these always seemed to come with two outs, which made it hard to turn those hits into runs. They did score in the bottom of the third on back to back doubles from Taylor Walls and Yandy Diaz, but in other innings they simply left men on base, which is why they found themselves down 3-1 in the middle of the sixth inning.

They were able to come back, however, with some timely homers against the Nationals bullpen.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Ryan Vilade cut the deficit to one with this homerun:

An inning later, Jonny DeLuca put the Rays ahead for good with this one:

The combo of Cleavinger, Baker and Kelly pitched three scoreless innings, and your Tampa Bay Rays came away with the victory. I liked seeing Bryan Baker used in the eighth, to face the heart of the Nationals order; I was worried that Cash had reverted to rigid bullpen roles and I for one like the idea of using your best pitcher against their best hitters.

A few shout outs. The Rays slump did seem to coincide with DeLuca’s IL stint. Maybe that’s just coincidence, but seeing him come back with a little extra oomph in his bat is great.

Chandler Simpson — his ability to make contact and steal bases — was a key part of the Rays earlier success, and in recent weeks he was looking rough. He wasn’t getting on base very often, and when he did he wasn’t making the kind of ruckus that makes him effective. He’s a young player, not yet an established major league guy, so while it’s possible others teams had simply caught on to him, it’s also possible that a bad run had gotten into his head. At any rate, I hope this series is evidence:

(You can thank/blame Jason Collette for this image).

Finally, Yandy. Don’t need to say more.

It took 77 games, but things finally got weird between Rafael Devers and San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello.

Devers, the Giants' slugging first baseman, wagged his finger vigorously toward Vitello after the rookie manager sent in a pinch-runner for him in the top of the ninth inning at Miami, the Giants trailing by a run.

Yet speedy pinch runner Jonah Cox had already entered. Devers, who'd drawn a leadoff walk, tried to shoo him away from the bag. Yet he had to yield to the rookie who was called up from Double-A on June 1 and left the field cursing into his helmet.

And then, before Cox could even think about stealing second base, Jung Hoo Lee flied out and Willy Adames hit into a game-ending double play, sealing the Giants' 2-1 loss and a desultory sweep in Miami.

Devers was NOT happy.. especially once he got back to the dugout pic.twitter.com/AiQmFQpUcb

— Matthew Crory (@matthewcrory) June 21, 2026

Vitello said in his postgame news conference that Devers' leg had been bothering him a little bit, and that Cox represented their best chance to tie the score, although noting that Marlins reliever Lake Bachar was challenging to steal a base against.

"You know how competitive he is. He wanted to stay in the game," Vitello said. "Once we announce the move, the move is made. Just going with our best effort to win the game. (Devers) was signaling over to us he was good to run. Obviously, would like Jonah to get a bag. He’s relatively quick to the plate. But on a double, going on our best chance to win the game.

"In a perfect world, you’d like to see Cox get a bag at second, if he can. At the very least, if you go down, you go down swinging with your fastest guy."

Yet if Cox found his way home, that still would have only tied the score. Devers' bat would have been removed from the middle of the lineup in extra innings, likely the source of Devers' consternation. Devers is third on the Giants with 11 homers and has 246 for his career.

Still, Vitello insists he and the Giants first baseman, owed roughly $225 million through 2033, are good.

"We talk every day. We’re good. I’d rather have guys you have to rip off the field," Vitello said shortly before the Giants headed to the airport for a cross-country flight back to San Francisco.

"I don’t have any problem with Raffy. We talk every day; he’s one of the most entertaining guys to be around. He wants to stay in the game."

Devers refused comment after the game, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The loss wasted a complete-game effort from ace Logan Webb, who gave up five hits and two runs in eight innings. The Giants are now 31-46 in the first season for Vitello, the first manager to make the leap from college coaching - at Tennessee - to the major leagues.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rafael Devers fumes after Tony Vitello removes him for pinch runner

The Yankees lost consecutive games for the first time in three weeks when they dropped a second straight to Cincinnati on Sunday in The Bronx.

While they have larger plans in mind — pushing Gerrit Cole and the rest of the rotation back a day and moving top pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange into the bullpen at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — that didn’t make Sunday any easier to stomach.

Following Saturday’s sluggish defeat, the Yankees put on a similarly messy display to finish the homestand.

Despite six stolen bases, they made some ugly errors due in part to players playing out of position. The lack of depth in the Yankees lineup without Aaron Judge was also apparent in a 4-1 loss at the Stadium.

Most damaging of all, after going hitless in 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position Saturday, they went 0-for-9 Sunday.

“I’ll take the opportunities,” Aaron Boone said of the failure to capitalize over the two games. “We’ll cash in. They held us down for days, but we’ve given ourselves opportunities.”

In Cole’s place Sunday was Elmer Rodríguez, who nearly gave the Yankees what they wanted but saw his afternoon ruined by a two-out, three-run homer by Tyler Stephenson in the fourth inning.

That, coupled with the Yankees’ inability to break through against Reds pitching again, was enough to do them in.

Against Chase Burns, who entered the game fourth in the majors with an ERA of 2.01, the Yankees got just a solo homer from Ben Rice in the third.

Rodríguez, who escaped trouble in the first by striking out Spencer Steer, faltered in the fourth.

Nathaniel Lowe walked to start the inning, but Rodríguez struck out Steer and Eugenio Suárez.

Noelvi Marte extended the inning with a base hit to right before Stephenson went deep to left on a 3-1 four-seamer to give Cincinnati a 3-1 lead.

It was the first homer allowed in Rodríguez’s young career.

“I fell behind and gave up a home run,” said Rodríguez, who learned Friday he was starting Sunday in The Bronx and was optioned back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after the game. “One pitch didn’t go where it was supposed to go and he did damage.”

The Yankees left runners in scoring position in five of the first six innings and only scored when Rice gave them the lead with his fourth homer in seven games, a one-out solo shot in the third after Anthony Volpe was picked off first base.

Volpe argued that first baseman Sal Stewart interfered with him getting back to the bag, to no avail.

A Yankees lineup that had been clicking even without Judge was stifled for a second straight game — especially in clutch situations.

“A little like [Saturday], we couldn’t break through with a hit when we needed it,” Boone said. “We just haven’t finished off the inning.’’

They got Burns out of the game after five innings by forcing the right-hander to throw 96 pitches. Against lefty Sam Moll, they drew a two-out walk from José Caballero and a pinch-hit single by Amed Rosario.

The Yankees went to their bench again, sending Paul Goldschmidt up for Austin Wells, but Goldschmidt flied out to right to keep it a two-run game.

With Spencer Jones out of the game —Max Schuemann pinch hit for him in the sixth — the Yankees played the rest of the way with the unusual outfield alignment of Schuemann in left, Caballero in center and Jasson Domínguez in right, where he still doesn’t look good.

That was especially evident in the ninth, when a grounder up the middle by Steer, which got past Jazz Chisholm Jr. and into center, turned into a double and a throwing error by Caballero. Steer scored on a ground-rule double by Marte after Domínguez took an awkward route to the ball.

The Cleveland Guardians drop both this series and the season series against the Houston Astros in another one run loss. Slade Cecconi fell to 3-6 with today’s loss. Both Astro’s runs came off of Cecconi in his 6.0 innings of work. Yordan Alvarez hit a home run in his first at bat in the first inning. In the bottom of the fourth, things got dicey for Cecconi. He allowed a lead off walk and back-to-back singles to account for the second Houston run. He got out of the inning and worked two more relatively calm innings, earning himself a quality start.

Colin Holderman and Hunter Gaddis both pitched clean innings of relief, both striking out one. Hunter Gaddis did give up a single, but otherwise had a solid outing.

The Guardians offense only recorded four hits and two walks the entire game. Bazzana continued to solidify his position as the lead off hitter with a lead off single on the third pitch of the game. Brayan Rocchio hit a one-out single to follow Bazz’s hit and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. However, with two-outs, both runners were left in scoring position.

In the top of the fifth, Petey Halpin hit a one-out triple to get into scoring position as the batting order turned over to the top.

Travis Bazzana hit into a ground out to second, allowing Petey to score in the process for the Guardians sole run.

The Guardians are floating four games above .500 despite the three injuries that are haunting this line up. They have a 1.0 game lead on the White Sox, who got swept by the Tigers in Detroit this weekend. This next series, in Chicago against the White Sox could be a do or die series for the Guardians. Here’s to hoping Travis Bazzana, Brayan Rocchio, and Kyle Manzardo have what it takes to prop up this offense.