Tulsa, Great Lakes,, and Ontario all won, with a highlight for the Drillers’ 16-hit effort in a commanding win over the Sod Poodles.

Player of the day

Now batting .333, Chase Harlan was at the forefront of a winning effort for the Tower Buzzers, managing to hit his eighth home run of the season, anchoring that lineup and helping Ontario move above .500 ball, now sitting at 27-26.

Selected in the third round of the 2024 Draft, Harlan is a month away from turning 20, and a call-up to a higher level might be in the cards for him if he keeps up this kind of production.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Despite having eight of its nine hitters who started the game reach safely at least once and out-homering their opponent two-to-zero, the Comets dropped this one at home by a score of nine to five. Jackson Ferris had a choppy start, allowing three runs in as many innings, and reliever Ryder Ryan was ambushed for another five runs.

Offensively, the standout name for the Comets was shortstop Noah Miller, who homered and tripled, raising his OPS to .811. The other home run for Oklahoma City came from the former Diamondback Alek Thomas, who was making his debut for the Comets, batting eighth and playing center field.

Double-A Tulsa

It was a good day for hitters at the bottom of the lineup, with Chris Newell responsible for half of the Drillers’ RBI in an 8-3 win over the Sod Poodles—this included a two-run shot in the sixth that gave Tulsa the lead for the first time in this game.

Other than standout prospect Zyhir Hope, who went 0 for 5, everyone else chipped in—shortstop Elijah Hainline didn’t record an out across five of his plate appearances with three hits and two walks, while Josue De Paula has now reached base safely in 20 straight games.

Starter Adam Serwinowski overcame his struggles in 2026 to earn his fourth win by allowing just one run in six innings of work. The walks were a bit of a problem, conceding four of them and only two hits, but nothing that would spoil his start. Recently activated reliever Lucas Wepf allowed back-to-back solo shots in the ninth and still didn’t risk this win for the Drillers.

High-A Great Lakes

After squandering an early 3-0 lead, the Loons took advantage of poor defensive work from the Lugnuts by scoring two of their final three runs on a wild pitch and a throwing error, winning the game 6-4. Responsible for blowing the lead and ultimately the winning pitcher of record, Jakob Wright was the bulk man out of the bullpen, covering 4.2 innings and allowing four runs in the process.

One of the more stable performers for the Loons this season, center fielder Charles Davalan had the go-ahead RBI in the seventh, his 29th of the year. Number two hitter Emil Morales had three of the Loons’ eight hits on this one, including a mammoth blast.

Single-A Ontario

There aren’t too many hitters outperforming Chase Harlan across the board in the Dodgers minor league system, and the young third baseman was yet again responsible for a Tower Buzzers win, securing two RBI in a 4-2 effort over the Ports.

Highlighting Harlan’s performance buries the lede, as this game also saw the rare four-inning save for Ontario. Tyler Gough covered the game’s first five innings, allowing just one run, and the Tower Buzzers gave the final four to Jesus Tillero for the final four. Tillero dealt with traffic all the way through, but held onto the lead.

Transactions

The Tulsa Drillers activated right-handed pitcher Lucas Wepf from the injured list.

Wednesday’s scores

• Oklahoma City 5, Round Rock 9
• Amarillo 3, Tulsa 8
• Great Lakes 6, Lansing 4
• Ontario 4, Stockton 2

Thursday’s schedule

• 4:05 p.m. PT: Great Lakes (Christian Zazueta) vs. Lansing (Zane Taylor)
• 5:05 p.m. PT: Oklahoma City (River Ryan) vs. Round Rock (TBD)
• 5:05 p.m. PT: Tulsa (Payton Martin) at Amarillo (Daniel Eagen)
• 6:35 p.m. PT: Ontario (TBD) vs. Stockton (Shotaro Morii)

Daylen Lile is one of my favorite players on the Washington Nationals, but he is really struggling right now. The 23 year old is 4 for his last 27, and has scuffled badly since his amazing series against the Reds. When you watch Lile hit, it is easy to diagnose his problem, he is swinging at everything.

Lile has been chasing more than he did last year all season long. However, this problem has really caused him trouble lately. Last season, Lile’s chase rate was 26.7%, which is slightly better than the league average. This year that chase rate is up 10 points to 36.7%, and it is causing him to struggle. 

One of the secrets of Daylen Lile’s success last year was that his swing decisions were very sharp. He was chasing less than the average hitter while swinging at pitches in the zone at a 75% clip, which is very high. Lile was using his premium hit tool to make contact on pitches in the zone while laying off the junk. Being aggressive in the zone and patient out of it is part of what makes guys like Freddie Freeman and Corey Seager such special hitters.

It is also one of the reasons I loved Lile so much entering the season. His rookie season was so impressive offensively. Lile hit .299 with an .845 OPS as a 22 year old. I love comparing him to Michael Brantley, and I still think he has that ability offensively. However, he needs to get back to making good swing decisions, or else that comparison will not stick.

I am being harsh on Lile right now, but he has not been awful either. Despite a heavy slump, his OPS is still above .700 and he is close to a league average hitter. Once he gets on one of his signature heaters, that OPS will be right back up towards .750. Lile has also been much better defensively this season, which helps his profile massively.

Lile’s batted ball data is pretty similar to last year as well. He is whiffing more, but part of that is due to the chase issues. Fundamentally, he is still the same guy other than the chase problem. We still see the flashes of excellence from him as well. That series in Cincinnati in front of his family was absolute fireworks. I thought that would kickstart his campaign, but instead, he has gone into a tailspin since then.

All of those home runs in that Reds series may have given Lile some of the wrong ideas as well. There are times at the plate where he is trying to do too much. You see that a lot with runners in scoring position, where Lile is a dreadful 9 for 64. When you talk to Lile and people in the building, you get the sense that he is a guy who has very high standards and can be hard on himself. Right now, that is leading to a lot of pressing and trying to break out of his slump with one swing.

Having high standards is a positive quality, but it can be a curse as well. In a 162 game season, you do not want to get too high or too low. Lately, it feels like Lile is chasing that magic from last September, both figuratively and literally. He just seems like a player who needs a day off right now.

Long term, I am still very bullish on Lile, especially with his defensive improvements. His fielding run value has gone from -10 to +3 in just one season. Lile’s elite speed always gave him the ability to be a good defender, but this year he has a much better idea of what he is doing in the outfield.

If he can combine this year’s defense with last year’s hitting, Lile can be a borderline star player. I truly believe that player is in there as well. He is just 23 years old and in his first full season as a big leaguer. Daylen Lile has a sweet swing, but right now he is just using it too much. 

With this coaching staff, I have faith that they can get Lile back to his best. That would make this lineup even more dangerous. Sophomore slumps are a real thing, and Daylen Lile is going through one right now. However, he will come out the other side of this better than ever once he recalibrates his swing decisions.

The game of baseball requires many player archetypes to compete for positions on major league (and professional) rosters. Sluggers, contact hitters, and defensive wizards all have their place within the game. But there’s another group of players (albeit a smaller genre) who are still around and have made their way onto World Series-winning rosters: the utility players.

This group usually has a higher floor and lower ceiling than the others, but if you can find an excellent one, the goal is to keep him around as long as possible. And while a player like Phil Linz wasn’t a star utility man, he still carved out a seven-year career in the major leagues, while also being the key cog in one of the most famous stories in Yankees history.

Philip Francis Linz

Born: June 4, 1939 (Baltimore, MD)
Died: December 9, 2020 (Leesburg, VA)
Yankees Tenure: 1962-1965

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Linz grew up playing baseball. He wasn’t the biggest kid, but he was good enough to be signed by the Yankees straight out of Calvert Hall College High School in 1957. His hometown squad in the Baltimore Orioles didn’t sign him because one of their scouts, Walter Youse, was also Linz’s head coach at Calvert Hall, and he knew that Linz’s vision was terrible. He couldn’t see and, most importantly, he refused to wear glasses. But after signing, he began wearing them in the minor leagues.

In 1957 and 1958, Linz, at 18 and 19 years old, played Class-D ball for the Kearney Yankees in Kearney, Nebraska, and the Auburn Yankees in Auburn, New York. He batted .230 with Kearney and then, following that first season in the minors, saw his average jump up to .283. In 1959, he got promoted to the Class-C Modesto Reds, where he hit .298 in 141 games played, and he saw another jump to Class-B with the Greensboro Yankees in 1960 at the age of 21. He hit for over .300 for the first time in his career (.321 to be exact) in 126 games, excelling in the contact area of the game as he hit only four homers out of his 505 at-bats and 162 hits. He also won the Carolina League batting title that season by .0002 points as well.

Linz’s performance year-over-year earned him the call-up to the Double-A Amarillo Gold Sox, where he played 105 of his 119 minor league games that season (the other 15 were when he was called up to Triple-A Richmond). He hit .349 in Double-A with an .851 OPS. He won his second straight minor league batting title that season, earning a trip to the major leagues and the opportunity to wear the pinstripes for the first time.

While he did receive that chance in 1962 under manager Ralph Houk, it wasn’t in a full-time role. Instead, Linz battled for the starting shortstop position in spring training, lost to Tom Tresh (who ended up playing 157 games that season), and was used as a utility player, playing all around the infield and even a few games in the outfield, mostly as a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner. In total, he played 71 games that season, slashing .287/.316/.372. And despite not playing a game in the postseason, he still received a World Series ring after a 4-3 series defeat of the San Francisco Giants. It was more of the same in 1963, playing where his manager needed him and as a pinch-hitter or runner in 72 games. He did go back to the World Series that year, but the Yankees were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, this time he did manage to make three separate appearances, all of which were of pinch-hit variety. Linz’s biggest feat was singling off Sandy Koufax in Game 4.

The 1964 season was the best for Linz in a variety of areas, including games played, on-base percentage, OPS, and OPS+. But that wasn’t the biggest story of the season for Linz. Instead, the biggest story came because of a hobby. On a road trip to Chicago to play the White Sox, Linz ended up purchasing a harmonica for fun. But following the wrong end of a four-game sweep in a tight pennant race, the harmonica was the last thing that Yogi Berra, a first-year manager unhappy with his team’s performance before going to play the Boston Red Sox, wanted to hear from the back of the team bus.

Linz decided to practice the instrument to take his mind off not playing during the series, and began playing the only song he knew: Mary Had a Little Lamb. And, of course, it sounded as good as a first-time harmonica player could make it sound. The rest of the story is told best by Yankees player and former teammate of Linz, Jim Bouton, in his book “Ball Four:”

“Yogi, who was in the front of the bus, stood up and said, “Knock it off.”

Legend has it that Linz wasn’t sure what Berra said, so he turned to Mickey Mantle and asked, “What’d he say?”

“He said play it louder,” Mantle explained.

Linz didn’t believe that. On the other hand he didn’t stop. In a minute Yogi was in the back of the bus, breathing heavily and demanding that Linz shove that thing up his ass.

“You do it,” Linz said, flipping the harmonica at him. Yogi swatted at it with his hand and it hit Pepitone in the knee. Immediately he was up doing his act called, “Ooooooh, you hurt my little knee.” Pretty soon everybody was laughing, even if you’re not supposed to laugh after losing, especially a doubleheader.”

The story went around like wildfire, as team journalists who were on that bus couldn’t wait to write it and turn it in to their editors for publication. Linz was inevitably fined $200 (approximately $2,148.52 today) for the incident, even though it blew over and he wasn’t suspended. However, while earning $14,000 on his contract that year, he also received a $5,000 endorsement deal from harmonica maker Hohner, making the $200 not even a dent in his earnings. He also received $200 from Houk for music lessons.

But the story got even better when it was viewed as the turning point for the Yankees’ season. They lost the first two games in Boston but went on a 23-6 run, finishing 30-13 the rest of the season to finish ahead of the White Sox for the American League pennant by one game. From then on, Linz became a legend.

Linz ended up becoming the starting shortstop following an injury to Tony Kubek’s wrist, and he batted leadoff against the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. He was given the leadoff hitter position and hit .226 with two solo home runs off Barney Schultz and Bob Gibson, but the Yankees ultimately lost the title in seven games and then Berra was fired after the season.

Linz was with the Yankees for one more season under a new coach (playing 99 games and batting .207) before being traded to the Phillies for utility player Ruben Amaro in a one-for-one deal. He appeared in only 63 games over a season and a half before he was traded in July of 1967 to the New York Mets for second baseman Chuck Hiller. In 102 total games for the Mets, he hit .209 with a 46 OPS+. Linz played his final season of major league baseball at age 29 in 1968 after rejoining the Mets because he still wanted to play. But his best days were behind him, and he moved on to the restaurant business, where he created and owned a sports bar, Mr. Laffs, for 23 years, along with a couple of other restaurants. Linz passed away at the age of 81.

One of the most famous Yankees to play the game came not from his ability to crush the baseball over the outfield fences, but instead from a measly harmonica. The legend of him will live forever through books, articles, and oral stories from Yankees legends who passed it down through generations. Happy birthday, Phil.

The San Diego Padres continued their freefall toward mediocrity with their fifth straight loss to the Philadelphia Phillies this time by the score of 3-2 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Wednesday night. The Padres were finding ways to win despite their inconsistent offense through the first 50 games of the season but have not had that same luck over their last 10 games. San Diego is 2-8 over that span and is in danger of being swept by Philadelphia for the second time as they enter the final game of the series today at 10:05 a.m.

The Padres had their chances, yet again, to win a game against the Phillies, who had Christopher Sanchez on the mound, but like the day before, they failed to come up with a clutch hit with one out and runners on the corners in the top of the eighth inning. Fernando Tatis Jr. reached on a one-out single and was followed by Miguel Anduja, who singled to put runners on the corners. Manny Machado struck out for the second out of the inning, but then Gavin Sheets walked to load the bases and Xander Bogaerts was hit by a pitch to force in a run to make the score 3-2. With the bases loaded Ty France hit a ground ball to Philadelphia second baseman Bryson Stott who forced out Bogaerts at second base to end the threat and the inning.

Phillies closer Jhoan Duran got his second save of the series facing just three Padres in the ninth inning. He got Jackson Merrill to lineout and then struck out Bryce Johnson and Samad Taylor to close out the contest. Merrill provided the lone highlight for San Diego with an RBI-single off Sanchez in the top of the seventh inning. He followed France who hit a two-out double and came into score with Merrill’s hit. It was the first run allowed by Sanchez in 50.2 innings.

Walker Buehler started for the Padres and pitched six innings, allowing one run on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts. Jason Adam, who has not been the same dominant reliever since returning from his ruptured quadriceps tendon, allowed home runs to J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber in the bottom of the seventh inning, which proved to be the difference in the game. San Diego will try to salvage the series with a win today.

Padres News:

• The moved seemed inevitable based on his struggles at the plate and his limited defense in the outfield, but Nick Castellanos was officially released by the Padres on Wednesday. The move allowed San Diego to callup Samad Taylor from Triple-A El Paso and he made his first appearance with the Padres in the eighth inning last night. Thomas Conroy of Gaslamp Ball provided details about Taylor and how he played his way onto the big-league roster.

• German Marquez may rejoin the San Diego rotation soon. He started his rehab assignment with the El Paso Chihuahuas with 2.1 innings pitched without allowing a run and striking out three batters.

Baseball News:

• Shohei Ohtani continued to dominate both sides of the baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers with a six-inning scoreless performance on the mound and a day at the plate that saw him reach base five times in their 7-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

• MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred provided his thoughts on the initial proposals from the owners and MLBPA.

• The Atlanta Braves continued their run of success with a 7-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays at Truist Park.

• The Cleveland Guardians won their second game in as many days with a 5-4 win over the New York Yankees, which allowed them to clinch the series victory.

• The Boston Red Sox rolled to an 8-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park.

• Fromer Padres closer and current Houston Astros closer, Josh Hader made his season debut and got his first save with Hoston’s 11-9 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

• Logan Webb led the San Francisco Giants to a win by making a no-hit bid and not allowing a run in their 1-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

• The Los Angeles Angels recorded 16 hits and scored 11 runs to beat the Colorado Rockies.

The 2026 Red Sox continue to find themselves in an excessively bizarre situation. On one hand, they’ve looked like a trainwreck on the field; particularly their home field, where they still haven’t won a game at Fenway Park with Chad Tracy at the helm in which the opponent has scored more than one run. Every day, they reach a new depth of futility and do something that hasn’t been done by a Red Sox team since before the television was invented. In short, there’s a large contingent of fans who (probably rightfully) believe the club needs a giant enema.

But I don’t think they’re going to get it, because even after all the toxic waves that have battered the ship, the Red Sox still find themselves a mere 3.5 games out of a playoff spot thanks to the combination of that ridiculous third Wild Card spot, and a historically ghastly American League, where just five teams currently reside over .500. Even crazier, Fangraphs expects that number to drop between now and the end of September, with only four teams (the Yankees, Rays, Guardians and Mariners) projected to finish north of 81 wins.

Combine this landscape with the current temperature inside the walls of Fenway, and some have concluded that Craig Breslow is going to make the Red Sox buyers over the next eight weeks to save his own skin, particularly after John Henry sided with him and dumped Alex Cora at the end of April.

Those thoughts were only further amplified yesterday afternoon when Buster Olney reported on The Just Baseball podcast that the Red Sox were aggressively looking to add a right handed bat. Here’s Tyler Milliken with the quote and the clip:

If it were just Craig Breslow making this push, that would be one thing, but when I hear that the Red Sox are “aggressively” pursuing a right handed hitter and they’re “willing to take on money” to get it done, that has John Henry’s fingerprints all over it. Craig Breslow can mortgage the farm system in a quest to save his own job, but he can’t loosen the purse strings. Only the top dog can change the budget.

So the obvious question is “Why now?”

Well, if I had to guess, I’d say it has everything to do with the enormous Fenway Corners Real Estate project that’s about to get underway in the neighborhood(s) surrounding Fenway Park. (They’ve already started moving the Citgo sign.)

Directly from that link, this project is going to include:

• 2 million square feet of commercial, residential, retail uses
• 200+ new residences
• 40+ new retail doors
• 2 acres of new/improved public open space
• 1 acre of public open space at the front door to Fenway park through the pedestrianization of Jersey Street

The health of this project is going to be at or near the top of John Henry’s priority list for the foreseeable future, and one of the single biggest things he can do to bolster its success and raise the value of every square foot that’s being developed is to aggressively ensure Red Sox are putting a competitive product on the field.

Think about it: Henry can’t afford to have the Red Sox be the laughing stock they’ve become for most of the post Mookie Betts era if he wants people to pay top dollar for Fenway Corners. The project is categorically more lucrative if the Red Sox are playing good baseball and there are postseason games being played at Fenway Park.

And on that note, there hasn’t been a postseason game at Fenway Park since October of 2021. Couple that with the looming lockout this winter, and there’s a chance that if the Red Sox don’t find a way to get postseason baseball back to Fenway this October, we might not see it again until at least 2028. That is way, way too long to fit into the Fenway Corners timeline, which is supposed to be nearing completion in the fall of that year.

In other words, based on the shots publicly fired in recent days between the MLBPA and the owners, Henry might need the 2026 Red Sox to make a serious run at October. If they do, you can sell it as “we made the playoffs in 2025, then we came back and did it again after a rough start in 2026, and in general were on the up and up.” If the current disaster continues though, then 2025 becomes the anomaly, and the Red Sox could be headed for their longest stretch without a playoff baseball game played at Fenway Park in decades.

Knowing this, it’s also a good time to review John Henry’s history, because when he puts his focus on something, he generally gets results. He did it with soybean futures to make his fortune, he did it in his early days in Boston winning multiple World Series titles, he’s done it with Liverpool in recent years (including a UEFA Champions League title and two Premier League titles since the Red Sox last won it all in 2018), and, most recently, he successfully backed the PGA tour in their war with LIV Golf, which they won.

That last one is important, because not only was it something that had Henry flying all around the world in 2024 to establish a foothold, but it also marks the last time he gave a really informative public quote about where Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is going. And so far, it appears he was telling the truth. Here’s what I consider to be the money passage from a story in the Boston Globe about Henry’s PGA investments from 2024:

Asked how FSG’s investment in the PGA Tour, its first in a sports league, fits within FSG’s growth strategy, Henry initially indicated it could mark the final asset addition.

“It means that we’re not looking to grow at this point,” Henry said. “I hate to say that on the record, but we’ve got our hands full with Boston, Liverpool, this, Pittsburgh [Penguins], NASCAR, real estate.”

Not only has that proven accurate over the last two years (most notably, FSG didn’t pursue the Celtics or another NBA franchise), but they’re also selling the Pittsburgh Penguins for about double the value from when they acquired them in 2021. (That transition of ownership is expected to occur later this month.)

Not only does that give John Henry more cash to play with in the shot-term, but it also means that for the first time in a long time, his primary focus appears to be in Boston. The physical signs are also there: He’s been at just about every Red Sox home game this season, he’s been signing autographs for fans, and he even logged back on to Twitter in the spring to troll Dan Shaughnessy.

In the macro, this is a positive, because one of the worst things to happen to the Red Sox in recent years was them becoming just another line item in John Henry’s portfolio. The pattern is pretty clear: When you’re John Henry’s primary focus, you get his full attention, and you’re usually successful. When you’re just part of John Henry’s empire, you blend into the background and wilt into decay.

Based on recent evidence, it seems the Red Sox are moving back into the foreground due to their obvious role in Fenway Corners, and if you view Buster Olney’s comments through that lens, it’s hard to envision the Red Sox being sellers at this deadline.

You can argue Henry won’t be successful this time, but it’s becoming harder to argue he’s not going to at least try to save the 2026 season.

The Red Sox have to make a decision on Tommy Kahnle today. He opted out of his minor league deal with the Red Sox on Tuesday, and we’re approaching the end of 48-hour window where the team needs to call him up to prevent him from becoming a free agent. Since he would both provide a veteran presence in the clubhouse and has been great in Worcester (to the tune of a 1.40 ERA), it seems like the prudent move to clear a roster spot for him.

The spot that seems to make the most sense is Ryan Watson, who is a Rule 5 guy and needs to be offered back to the Giants if he doesn’t stay on the Red Sox 26-man roster all season. The fact the Red Sox let Ryan Watson go three innings to close out Payton Tolle’s gem last night also makes me think it could be him. This essentially burns all his bullets and rests the rest of the bullpen before you make the switch. We’ll know more in a few hours though.

Talk about this and whatever else you’d like in this thread, and as always, be good to one another.