Category: Sports News

As the Yankees play out the final few games before the 2025 All-Star break, holes in the roster have begun to form.

Longtime GM Brian Cashman is well aware of these needs and when speaking with the media prior to Wednesday's game against the Mariners at Yankee Stadium, he listed what he sees as pieces the Yankees need.

"I’m definitely going to be looking for upgrades if I can. We’ve lost three starters out of our World Series rotation so far this year. So I’m going to see if I can find a starter despite getting some real quality starts from others who stepped up like Will Warren and others," Cashman said. "I would import a starter, some relievers, because our bullpen is taxed and some injuries. And an infielder, if possible. That’s a long list. I’m not sure if this will be a deep deadline or not. Not sure how active we can be but we’ll try to be active. And try to import improvements, that’s the gig."

Heading into Wednesday's games, there are 15 teams in Wild Card spots or within five games of the final spot, so the number of teams willing to sell is currently limited. Cashman knows this and points to this past offseason as an example of the disparity of opportunities between the winter and summer months.

When Juan Soto signed with the Mets, Cashman said there were opportunities to replace that production and fill out the roster. The Yankees signed Max Fried and Paul Goldschmidt, and traded for Cody Bellinger and Devin Williams this offseason. Opportunities like those may not be available for Cashman, but the GM will continue to look at all avenues.

"We're going to go to town. We're going to do everything we possibly can to improve ourselves and try to match up. Hopefully, at the end of it all, we'll have whatever's here on the current roster remains healthy, and we can add to it and be proud of it and take our shot. Hopefully, I can fix what ails us because there's some areas on this team that need fixing."

Is there a need more pressing than others? Cashman, as he's said in past seasons, pointed to pitching.

"Pitching is always going to be that," he said. "We’ve taken hits in the rotation when we lost [Gerrit] Cole and Luis Gil and now [Clarke] Schmidt. [Ryan] Yarbrough was a hell of a player for us. Fernando Cruz. Whether it’s bullpen guys or starting pitchers, it’s all of it. That’s the area."

Although Gil, Yarbrough and Cruz are expected to return from injuries this season, Cole and Schmidt are not so lucky. The Yankees are starting prospect Cam Schlittler on Wednesday as the team tries to make it to the All-Star break.

And just a few short weeks after that, the trade deadline will be here and Cashman will need to make moves to try and put the Yankees in a position to return to the World Series.

We'll see if he can do it.

The 2025 MLB trade deadline is set for July 31.

The Mets have been recovering from their early summer swoon without a reliable left-hander working in a high-leverage bullpen role. But it shouldn't be too long until this issue is resolved internally.

Among the handful of injured Mets pitchers completing rehab assignments is Brooks Raley, and the veteran southpaw has undoubtedly resembled a reliever eager to contribute at the big league level after a lengthy absence from the game.

In his second appearance for Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday, Raley recorded four outs with one strikeout and one hit allowed. His average velocity reached the same high-80s range that radar guns captured before he underwent Tommy John surgery at the age of 35 last season.

"Really good, really good [reports]. The breaking ball, the sinker, the life with the way the ball is coming out," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Raley on Wednesday. "He went one-plus yesterday, something that we wanted him to do. Now we're looking at back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday, and then obviously we have a decision. But the reports are encouraging. This is a guy who I'm really looking forward to having back here."

Raley aimed for a comeback with a familiar team -- he logged 61.2 innings for the Mets between 2023 and 2024 -- and right now, he represents much-needed help for a bullpen that owns the third-worst ERA (5.72) in baseball over the last month. He's struck out 12 batters across eight scoreless frames thus far, demonstrating clear value.

He's long valued movement on his pitches too, and he's struck out at least one batter in each of his seven rehab appearances this summer. Raley was an impact reliever at full strength two seasons ago, with a sharp 2.80 ERA in 66 games, and the Mets would obviously welcome similar production from him in the near future.

Carlos Mendoza says that the Mets have gotten "really good" reports on Brooks Raley from his rehab assignment: pic.twitter.com/JsEvWrJbDU

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 9, 2025

Winless Giants starter Justin Verlander makes unfortunate MLB pitching history originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Justin Verlander began the 2025 MLB season needing 38 wins to reach 300 for his career, and 15 starts into his first Giants campaign, he still needs 38 wins to achieve that milestone.

Somehow, Verlander is 0-7 this season after taking the loss in the Giants’ 13-0 defeat to the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday at Oracle Park.

Per OptaStats, Verlander is the first starting pitcher in the All-Star Game Era (1933) to enter the break with at least 65 strikeouts and zero wins.

Verlander pitched well enough to get the win Wednesday, but the Giants’ offense was silenced by starter Jesús Luzardo and the Phillies’ bullpen. In six innings, the 42-year-old allowed seven hits, four runs, two earned runs and didn’t walk any batters while striking out seven.

This certainly isn’t how Verlander or Giants manager Bob Melvin expected this season to go.

“I thought it was his best stuff of the year, by a pretty good margin,” Melvin told reporters after Wednesday’s loss. “We just didn’t play well behind him and we didn’t score many runs, and that’s kind of been a theme when he’s pitched. But I thought his breaking ball was really good, his heater was good. It’s too bad. [He] ends up [giving up] what, only 2 earned runs, but we just don’t do enough for him on today on either side of the ball. Like I said, he pitched well.”

In eight of Verlander’s 15 starts this season, the Giants have scored two or fewer runs, making it hard for him to pick up that elusive first win with San Francisco.

Melvin understands the frustration of everyone in the clubhouse.

“I come in here saying the same thing,” Melvin told reporters. “It feels like every time we don’t score runs for him and I don’t know. At this point in time, he should certainly have a couple of wins and he doesn’t, unfortunately. I think we all kind of feel it.”

Verlander gets a chance to rest and reset with the upcoming MLB All-Star break, and he’ll resume the pursuit of a win early in the second half.

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During the Dodgers’ season-long five-game losing streak this week, manager Dave Roberts cited a lack of “fight” from his lineup as the most troubling trend in the team’s recent skid.

On Wednesday in Milwaukee, more fight finally returned — only for the Brewers to still land the knockout punch.

In a 3-2 loss at American Family Field that extended the Dodgers' losing streak to six games, the lineup once again scuffled in a five-hit performance while closer Tanner Scott blew a ninth-inning lead to waste Tyler Glasnow’s encouraging return from the injured list.

It was a grind of a game, with the Dodgers scoring their only runs on a bases-loaded walk following a hit-and-run play and a sacrifice fly that briefly gave them a 2-1 lead. After Scott gave up a game-tying RBI single to Andrew Vaughn in the ninth, Jackson Chourio walked it off against Kirby Yates in the bottom of the 10th, sending the scuffling Dodgers their longest losing skid since April 2019.

While a shorthanded offense remained mired in its recent slump, Glasnow’s return at least provided the afternoon with a positive sign. Making his first start since going on the injured list in April because of a shoulder injury, and just his 28th start in two years with the Dodgers since signing a $136.5-million contract two winters ago, the lanky right-hander pitched decently over his five innings, giving up two hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

Glasnow ran into trouble in the second inning, when Christian Yelich singled on a first-pitch fastball, Isaac Collins drew a full-count walk, and both executed a double-steal to move into scoring position. A 10-pitch walk to Caleb Durbin — ending on a curveball that never ducked into the strike zone — loaded the bases with one out.

Read more:Dodgers Dugout: Who's better, Clayton Kershaw or Sandy Koufax?

However, Glasnow responded, jamming Jake Bauers with a sinker for a pop out before blowing Joey Ortiz away with an elevated 96 mph heater.

That sequence was Glasnow at his best: Going after hitters with his premium velocity, and showing no signs of the tentativeness — or, as Roberts described it in his pregame address, “search mode” — that has often derailed his Dodgers career.

“There’s always fine-tuning, but when you’re out there competing, it’s hard to be in search mode,” Roberts said pregame. “I know he’s healthy. The pitching guys feel good with where his delivery is at. So now it’s just go out there and keep that rhythm and execute pitches and compete.”

As Glasnow settled into a rhythm, however, the Dodgers continued to toil at the plate.

Having scored only one run in four of their previous five games, a shorthanded lineup, which got Tommy Edman back from injury but once again was without Teoscar Hernández in the starting lineup, struggled to get a beat on crafty veteran left-hander José Quintana.

With only a 90-mph fastball and a flurry of funky off-speed pitches, the 36-year-old navigated the first four innings without giving up a hit.

A breakthrough finally came in the fifth inning. After Miguel Rojas drew a leadoff walk, the Dodgers executed a well-timed hit-and-run play, drawing the second baseman out of position just as Esteury Ruiz lined a single through the hole he vacated. With two outs, James Outman then checked his swing just enough to draw a full-count walk, loading the bases for Shohei Ohtani to plate the game’s first run on a four-pitch free pass (benefitting from a couple borderline ball calls).

And while that 1-0 lead didn’t last long — in the bottom of the fifth, Glasnow walked leadoff man Bauers, moved him to second with a balk, then watched helplessly as Bauers stole third and scored on a throw that bounced to the outfield — the Dodgers went back in front in the seventh when Mookie Betts lifted a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

The Dodgers, though, squandered opportunities to stretch the lead from, leaving the bases loaded to end the seventh inning before stranding more baserunners in both the eighth and ninth.

That left Scott with too little margin to complete a four-out save. While the left-hander stranded a runner at second base he inherited in the eighth, three ninth-inning singles from the Brewers tied the score, culminating with a broken-bat, bloop single from Vaughn that made it 2-2.

Then, after Brewers closer Trevor Megill struck out the side in the top of the 10th, Yates surrendered the game-winning single to Churio in the bottom half of the inning, handing the Dodgers their second-straight series sweep.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Giolito becomes first Red Sox pitcher since 2018 to accomplish this feat originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Not only has Lucas Giolito stepped up as the Boston Red Sox’ most reliable starter after Garrett Crochet, but he has arguably been the best pitcher in MLB for the last month.

Giolito continued his torrid stretch with another stellar performance Wednesday vs. the Colorado Rockies. The veteran right-hander tossed six scoreless innings, striking out six while allowing four hits and no walks in Boston’s 10-2 victory.

According to MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith, Giolito is the first Red Sox pitcher to go six or more innings with two or fewer runs allowed in six straight outings since David Price in 2018. He has posted a 0.70 ERA over that span, the second-best mark in MLB after Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler (0.53 ERA across five starts).

Wednesday’s outing lowered Giolito’s season ERA to 3.36, the third-best on the Red Sox behind Crochet (2.39) and Brayan Bello (3.27). Bello tossed his first career complete game in Tuesday’s win over Colorado.

Giolito struggled to start the campaign after missing all of 2024 due to Tommy John surgery. The soon-to-be 31-year-old has since settled in and looked more like the pitcher who earned Cy Young votes for three straight seasons (2019-21) with the Chicago White Sox.

The Red Sox will turn to Walker Buehler on Thursday when they open their four-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park. Boston will enter its final series before the All-Star break on a six-game win streak, 5.5 games back in the American League East standings and a half-game behind in the Wild Card race.

After Tuesday's game between the Mets and Baltimore Orioles experienced a roughly 45-minute rain delay at the start, Wednesday's contest will be postponed altogether due to continued rain and thunderstorms in the area.

The game will be made up as part of a split doubleheader on Thursday. Game 1 will be played at 12:05 p.m., while Game 2 is scheduled for 5:05 p.m.

Both games will be broadcast on SNY.

Right after the postponement, manager Carlos Mendoza spoke to reporters and confirmed that LHP David Peterson, Wednesday's scheduled starter, will pitch in the first game of the doubleheader. As for the second game, it is still to be announced, but it will likely be a bullpen game, which was the case even before the postponement.

Originally, Thursday's series finale was scheduled to start at 1:05 p.m. with New York traveling to Kansas City right after to begin a three-game weekend set with the Royals on Friday night, which will take the Mets and the rest of the league to the All-Star break.