Category: Sports News

Pittsburgh Pirates’ starting pitcher Paul Skenes has come out and revealed that he believes his involvement in the World Baseball Classic is one reason to blame for his inconsistency and alarming drop in velocity in 2026.

Skenes spoke to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on Monday and discussed his mechanics throughout the year, and the challenges that came with playing in the WBC before of the regular season.

“There are a lot of other factors, so I don’t want to put everything on [the WBC],” Skenes said. “But I feel like that was kind of the root of it a little bit.”

Of course the most glaring disparity in Skenes’ game in 2026 was his drop in velocity. His fastball velocity averaged 96.8 mph in 2026, a big tick down from 98.1 mph in 2025 and 98.8 mph in 2024. As the season has gone on it has gotten worse as in his most recent start against the Kansas City Royals saw his fastball average 96.1 mph, and just 95.7 mph in his last start against Miami, which was the lowest in his career.

Although he does not regret his participation in the WBC for Team USA, Skenes did acknowledge that it did completely change his process in the offseason and how he did not have ample time to prepare his body for live innings so early in the year.

“Usually, that time of year, you’re kind of ramping up and it’s a little bit slow,” Skenes said. “You can kind of get onto the slope and find your body. One live [batting practice], you’re topping at 97, and then the next you’re 98, 99. And that wasn’t the case this year. … Looking back, I don’t think that really helped.”

Skenes went on to say that even in the early months of April and May where he looked like his usual dominant self, he wasn’t satisfied with his mechanics and knew that something was off. The former National League Cy Young Award winner had a 1.09 ERA through eight starts in April and May.

“Even then, I didn’t feel like I had my delivery,” Skenes said. “It’s just weird. It’s easier to kind of put your finger on it after the fact than it is in the moment. It definitely affected the year. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m the only one. … Yeah, I don’t know. [The WBC] definitely didn’t make things easier.”

Skenes has a 10-11 record this season with the Pirates and with a 3.91 ERA was often all over the place with pitch delivery, location, mechanics and the aforementioned velocity. He’s hopeful to get back to his dominant self next season with a full and healthy offseason ahead of him, with regaining his mechanics being a top priority for the Pirates’ ace.

MLB Trade Rumors | Steve Adams: The Yankees do not expect Aaron Judge to be ready for the Wild Card round, manager Aaron Boone announced Tuesday. While not surprising given his exit from a game last week with a calf strain, Judge’s absence deals a blow to a squad that’s been without its captain for most of the season. With Judge back on the shelf, the Yankees’ outfield consists of Cody Bellinger, Spencer Jones, and Heliot Ramos. Trent Grisham, who’s on the IL, could return in time for the postseason, and Jasson Domínguez lurks as a dark horse as well.

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: ($) With their victory in the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Rays, the Yankees clinched home field advantage for the Wild Card round. After dropping the second game, and with it the AL East, that means they’ll host the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium for a best-two-out-of-three set for consecutive seasons. “You gotta give them credit,” Boone said of the Rays. “They’ve won a ton of games this year, games that have been probably up in the air late and they’ve come out on top. So they’ve had a great year, and they’re always a challenge to play.”

The Ringer | Ben Lindbergh: As the season winds to a close, Lindbergh uses the test cases of Pete Crow-Armstrong and Jacob Misiorowski to explore the chasm between pitcher and position player value. Despite being utterly dominant — posting a 1.86 ERA and recording 247 strikeouts — the Miz’s 6.5 fWAR is dwarfed by PCA’s 10.4. This disparity has become the norm in recent years as starting pitchers have seen their workloads rapidly diminish, a phenomenon that will continue to impact their stature in the game (and at the negotiating table).

The Cleveland Guardians [any common phrases for when a group of people travels east of Worcester?] yesterday and in the process picked up a big win.

Pitching for the Guardians was Parker Messick. Pitching for Boston was Payton Tolle. Fun matchup of two very good rookies.

Messick allowed just 1 run. Tolle allowed 2, but it should have been like 7. The Guardians were allergic to the big hit in this one. David Fry especially. But he’s also allergic to the little hit and frankly, any kind of hit.

But all the missed opportunities didn’t matter because Parker and Erik Sabrowski and Cade Smith were so darn dominant. W, 3 to 2.

Around baseball

• The ChiSox continued to show that they don’t really have the pitching, but they did win anyways, 14-11 over KC.

• EDLC has reached the famous 29/29 plateau.

• Justin Verlander is ready to return from the IL on Saturday—just in time for the playoffs that he and his team WON’T BE A PART OF.

• The Mets made Andy Green permanent.

• CBA update: https://bsky.app/profile/jon-becker.com/post/3mw4m36mxuk26

The Mariners were pushed to the brink of elimination Tuesday night, losing to the Astros 7-0.

Logan Gilbert never found a rhythm in this one, allowing baserunners to lead off each of the first three innings. Over only four innings of work, Gilbert allowed 10 hits, walked two batters and struck out only three. He avoided disaster in both the first and second, but couldn’t perform the escape act a third time, giving up a three-run homer to Christian Walker in the top of the third to open up a larger Astros lead, one that would never be threatened.

“Should have been a little more outside,” Gilbert said on the home run pitch to Walker. “It was kind of middle low. Not a great spot. It was 1-0 but still you gotta get it to the spot that we’re trying to go to.”

Keeping the current rotation, Gilbert would be slated to start in the final game of the season Sunday. When asked about his feelings on making that start, he said, “I mean, that’s my job. I love pitching. Like, it’s going to be taken away one day. So if I can have the ball, I want it. There’s fans showing up that pay their hard-earned money to watch up play, regardless of the situation. So, you know, I owe it to them, to the organization, everybody. But honestly I just love pitching.”

The Astros jumped out in front quickly in the top of the first. Jeremy Peña reached with an infield single on a ball that forced J.P. Crawford to dive to his right. After Peña stole second on the first pitch of the next at bat, Yordan Álvarez grounded an RBI single through the right side to drive him in. The next two hitters singled as well to load the bases with nobody out. Despite a rough beginning to his start, Gilbert wiggled his way out of trouble and stopped the bleeding right there. In the process, he struck out Yainer Díaz to pass Mark Langston for fourth on the Mariners’ all-time strikeout leaderboard. The Mariners managed a couple of baserunners in the bottom half of the inning and made Cristian Javier labor a bit, but Julio Rodríguez flew out to the warning track to leave the runners stranded. After an inning, the M’s trailed only 1-0.

The vibes of this game were gross from the get-go and one of the few moments that commanded my complete attention came on a bungled appeal call in the top of the fourth. Cam Smith never touched first base while avoiding a collision with Josh Naylor, who was attempting to field an errant throw from Brock Rodden. Cal Raleigh, who was backing up on the play, applied a tag to Smith before he could return to the base, and first base umpire Marvin Hudson signaled the runner safe. The Mariners then formally appealed with Gilbert stepping off the rubber and throwing to first, and when Hudson again signaled Smith safe — objectively the wrong call, mind you — Dan Wilson attempted to challenge the call and was denied for taking too long. He came out of the dugout to mount a protest, which convinced the umpires to huddle and discuss it, but they ultimately decided to leave their decision the way it was.

The play didn’t end up having consequences — the Mariners did get through the inning unscathed despite an additional base hit by the following hitter — but it is going to allow me to beat the drum about my hatred for the modern appeal play. Hudson gets it wrong on the field twice, though his interpretation of the first tag by Raleigh seems ambiguous; Wilson said Raleigh’s first tag during the play was because he thought the runner had made an attempt at second, a separate issue altogether. Either way, the rules allow for challenging a fact-based appeal, and Wilson was denied this opportunity for taking too long to challenge despite making said challenge immediately after attempting the formal appeal. Wilson apparently would’ve had to submit the challenge after Raleigh’s first tag, even though Raleigh was appealing something entirely different with it.

These days, in a fashion that’s emblematic of the sport as a whole grappling with its past, the line between archaic appeal play rules and instant replay challenges creates controversy more often than it doesn’t. In this case, it resulted in the wrong call being made. If formal appeals are to be encouraged, then teams shouldn’t be timed out of challenging incorrect appeal decisions immediately after they are made. MLB should probably find a way to sort out this weird gray area before it rears its ugly head in a more consequential moment.

Anyway, the last three paragraphs were a testament to how uneventful this game was from the Mariners’ side of things. I spent multiple innings writing that out and nothing of note happened in the meantime.

In the sixth inning, the Astros tacked on an additional run with a solo homer to left by Isaac Paredes. It was around this time I switched over to the radio to take one of my last opportunities to hear Rick Rizzs, who is finishing up his final year in the booth calling Mariners baseball. I cherished every moment, even as he choked out a dejected call of an Álvarez two-run homer in the eighth to extend the Astros’ lead and set the eventual final score. It’s been talked about ad nauseam at this point, but one of the true calamities of the 2026 season is Rizzs getting stuck with one of, if not the most disappointing season in franchise history for his swan song. A true injustice.

Tuesday night marked the fall equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and while the Mariners still need another loss or Rangers win to be officially eliminated from playoff contention, their loss to the Astros might as well have marked an end to summer in the baseball sense as well. The Mariners will not be playing meaningful fall baseball in 2026. For the 44th time in 50 seasons, the Mariners will head inside for the long winter as another team from their division keeps playing.

In a perfect world, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, the team would like to have one set closer entering the playoffs.

And by the end of Tuesday’s 7-0 win over the San Diego Padres, one unexpected name might have thrown their hat back into the ring.

A week ago, the Dodgers were not certain Edwin Díaz would even be on their playoff roster, after the $69 million offseason signing lost his closer job amid an injury-plagued season marred by an ERA of nearly 12.00.

In three outings since returning from the injured list, however, the three-time All-Star has suddenly looked like his old dominant self again.

So much so, Roberts said it remains “certainly possible” that he could factor into the Dodgers’ ninth-inning October plans.

Roberts made that claim after Díaz’s best performance yet, when he retired the top of the Padres’ batting order in order in a dominant fifth-inning sequence. 

That marked the right-hander’s third scoreless appearance in a row –– a stretch that has included only one hit, one walk and six strikeouts –– and continued an unforeseen return to form triggered by a recent mechanical adjustment he made during a minor-league rehab stint.

“His last three have been fantastic with us,” Roberts said. “I wanted to see him against their better hitters, and he did a really nice job.”

Indeed, Díaz began his inning by ringing up Fernando Tatis Jr. on a front-door slider. He then fanned Dustin Harris at the end of a nine-pitch at-bat with a swing-and-miss slider. Had he used an ABS challenge, he could have punched out Manny Machado too. But he retired him all the same with a soft tapper back to the mound.

“Given all that he’s had to go through this year,” Roberts said, “to right the ship is a big credit to him.”

But will it be enough to put him back in consideration for closing duties?

Roberts made sure not to shut that door yet.

“The way he’s throwing, the ninth is possible, yes,” the manager said.

At the very least, it adds one more subplot to the final week of the Dodgers’ regular season.

The team, of course, has other closer options to consider. Tanner Scott has converted 23 of 27 save opportunities with a 2.77 ERA as Díaz’s replacement this year. Roki Sasaki has also returned to relief duties as he did at the end of last season, when he emerged as an emergency closing option during the Dodgers’ run to a second-straight World Series.

And as Roberts noted Tuesday, a closer-by-committee plan remains in play, as well.

But as the Dodgers set out for a three-peat this year, they always envisioned Díaz –– and his trademark trumpet bullpen entrance –– being a staple at the end of games.

Though he suffered a career-worst campaign, converting just seven of 11 save opportunities while missing three months with an elbow injury and another with neck inflammation, there might be time for him to reclaim his original role yet.