Category: Sports News

Good morning, baseball fans!

We are in the middle of a new feature for May that I’m calling the “12 Days of Mays-mas” because I won’t be around for this week, and I want to leave you guys with some fun things to watch while I’m gone.

For the fourth day of Mays-mas, I thought we could take another look at Matt Cain’s perfect game!

I vividly remember this game, but not because I was watching it. I was still living in the bay at the time, and I remember getting about a half dozen text messages telling me to get to a television.

It was my brother’s birthday, and I remember very clearly him telling me that he refused to turn the game on because he felt he had the worst luck in the world and would jinx it. For his sacrifice, Matt Cain gave him the best birthday present a baseball player could give someone that would be forever associated with his day.

So grab your coffee, settle in, and enjoy!

What time do the Giants play today?

The San Francisco Giants return to Oracle Park tonight to begin a three-game series against the San Diego Padres at 6:45 p.m. PT.

Good morning to fans of a first-place team.

• On Saturday, the Pirates tied a major-league record by walking seven-straight times against the Reds. Mark Sheldon with the details.
• I don’t think that’s what he meant, but Jay Jaffe notes that with the advent of the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system this year, walks and runs scored are up.
• Mike Axisa has five “burning” questions as the calendar turns to May.
• Brian Murphy has the positions that teams have improved the most this year over 2025.
• Mark Feinsand polled front office executives on who will be the biggest names to be traded at the deadline.
• Feinsand also polled executives on which free agent signings looks the best so far.
• A plane flew over Fenway Park urging the team to fire team president Craig Breslow and for John Henry to sell the team. Seems awfully Premier League of them. Sean Leahy reports.

• Mets team president David Stearns told reporters that the team “doesn’t plan to move on” from manager Carlos Mendoza.
• Dan Szymborski looks at whether teams really improve after changing managers mid-season.
• Already dealing with an injury to starting shortstop Francisco Lindor, backup shortstop Ronny Mauricio is now out for 6-8 weeks with a thumb fracture.
• Michael Baumann examines all the injury troubles the Mets are having.
• The Mets did sign backup catcher Luis Torrens to a two-year contract extension.
• The Yankees optioned shortstop Anthony Volpe down to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
• The Giants are off to a terrible start to the season, but they’re calling up their top prospect Bryce Eldridge for his major league debut.
• Michael Rosen notes that Giants second baseman Luis Arraez has made big strides forward on defense and Rosen tries to figure out how.
• Jayson Stark asks if Padres closer Mason Miller is the most-unhittable pitcher who ever lived? (The Athletic sub. req.) Signs point to “yes.”
• Twins pitcher Joe Ryan, expected to be one of the most-attractive free agent targets at the trade deadline, left his start on Sunday after two batters with a sore elbow.
• Mike Axisa has six prospects off to a hot start down in the minor leagues. The Cubs’ Pedro Ramírez made his list.
• Kiley McDaniel updates his top ten prospects for each team.
• Tyler Kepner looks at how the Brewers turned around the career of left-hander Kyle Harrison. (The Athletic sub. req.) Plus other notes from around baseball.
• Similarly, Theo DeRosa believes that Harrison is the Brewers latest successful reclamation project of which there are more that a few pitchers.
• Left-hander Blake Snell is almost ready to return to the Dodgers starting rotation. James H. Williams looks at who might get bumped from the rotation to make room for Snell.
• Emmet Sheehan is Williams’ top candidate to get bumped, but Sonja Chen looks at how Sheehan fights for ALS awareness with his “K ALS” glove. He gifted one of the gloves to MLB’s Sarah Langs.
• Dayn Perry examines how Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani has been a more productive pitcher so far this year than a hitter.
• If you’re confused about the whole “two-way player” rule in MLB that Craig Counsell was complaining about earlier, Sonja Chen answers questions you may have about the two-way player rule.
• Yankees slugger Aaron Judge features his two dachshunds on his custom cleats.

• Some people on the internet thought Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. was playing a game with AirPods in his ear. He actually had cotton in his ears after an getting hit in the head with a grounder. (Free The Athletic sub. req.)
• Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. played a trick on teammate Ozzie Albies by filling his glove full of dirt.
• Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel couldn’t get the ball out of his glove on a grounder to first. So he just tossed the entire glove to the pitcher for the out.
• And finally, Jacob Feldman has the story of the fall and rise of the great art of keeping score at the ballgame.

With one out in the top of the 7th, Rich Simonds woke up in his hospital bed to the Cardinals getting shut down by a series of Pirates relievers. He had missed the previous 6 innings, being too tired to stay awake, but the sounds of Cardinals baseball gradually seeped into his consciousness and his eyes opened with Ivan Herrera at the plate. Somewhat groggy, he was still half asleep when Herrera grounded out. But when Alec Burleson broke up the perfect game with an infield single, he was at least awake enough to start paying attention to the game. And he stayed awake to watch the Cardinals come back in the 9th inning and win the game.

Earlier that day, the doctors had deemed my dad able to breathe on his own for the first time since the previous Wednesday. And while that Monday was a good day, he was mostly still pretty miserable, because he couldn’t do a lot on his own, his voice was very raspy and sore from having a tube down his throat for five days, and he still had double pneumonia, the disease that caused him to need help breathing in the first place. Barely able to stay awake for most of that first day, he was improbably awake for the improbable comeback.

While he was unconscious, I had a running joke that I would tell my dad whenever I saw him, which is that the Cardinals were waiting for him to wake up. And then it became not a joke. I rushed to the hospital in the middle of my work day before he was intubated, and shortly after that, the Cardinals lost to the Marlins. Wednesday was a tough day, because he needed 100% oxygen and the doctor was not comforting when explaining the situation. It wasn’t her job to make me or my family feel comfortable, I was just hoping for more “This is nothing, he will be back.” And we didn’t get that. The seriousness of the situation settled in.

But Thursday morning, we got the update that he had an uneventful night and his oxygen percentage needed from the machine went down. And then every new day came with slightly better news. I got excited at things I did not understand, but was told was good news, like the pressure from the machine dropping from 10 to 8. It quickly became clear that he had a good chance to get off the tube by next week. Meanwhile, the Cardinals lost on Friday to the Mariners. And then Saturday. And I was in the ICU with him unconscious with my mom watching the Cardinals get swept by the Mariners. I again told him that he needed to wake up because the Cardinals were waiting for him.

Leaving the hospital that night, I was hopeful they would take out his breathing tube the next day or Tuesday, but I was surprised to wake up to a text message that they had already removed the tube. He was woken up before the tube was removed, and I was told he motioned for his tube to be taken out, but they were waiting for a reason I can’t remember, and he threw up a couple of middle fingers. He has no memory of this, but I knew my dad was back when I heard that.

He still didn’t feel very good on Tuesday. He was still making progress, but you don’t see it as progress when you’re living through it. I was unable to see him on Monday due to the tornado warning, but I went straight after work on Tuesday. I left before the Cardinal game started, but made plans to see the game with him the next day. He said it was probably good I was leaving, because he didn’t think he could stay awake for the game. Well, he did. He watched the Cardinals’ offense explode for 11 runs and beat the Pirates despite the best efforts of the Cardinals’ bullpen to blow it.

You see my dad, in case it wasn’t obvious, is an enormous Cardinals fan. It’s something I picked up from him and my mom, who both shared season tickets with my grandparents for years. When I went to college (and the prospect of two siblings not far behind), they were forced to drop it. Also, I believe it was because neither my brother nor sister are as big of Cardinals fans as I am and I think that was just too many games where if I’m not an option, it might be a struggle to find people to go to the game.

But we did start a tradition during that period of time, which continues to this day, which is that I go to Opening Day with my mom. My dad was a construction worker and couldn’t ever go because of work. My mom would take me out of school and we would go to Opening Day together. It stopped briefly when I went to college, but it continued as if he had never stopped after I graduated. My dad retired a few years after that, but graciously let the tradition continue between me and my mom. He even drives us to the game and then picks us up after.

Another reason developed why he couldn’t go to Opening Day, which is that he got an infection on his foot maybe five years ago that has never quite healed. It has constantly been on the verge of healing, and then something comes up, and it’s like he has to start from scratch. He is very rarely not been under orders from doctors to stay off his foot as much as possible. It has prevented us from taking baseball trips and from him going to a lot of games. He has attended Cardinals games – not as many as he’d like and none so far this year – but we would park as close as possible, walk directly to our seat, and then stay in our seat until we were ready to leave. You can see how this would be a problem on Opening Day.

Because of his foot, he was prescribed antibiotics. He’s used to those, and when he felt the side effects, it didn’t raise any alarm bells. He’s used to side effects. If there’s a bad side effect he can get, he’ll get it. His new nickname is “Worst Case Rich” which he has more than earned even before this recent development. It turns out this side effect was actually double pneumonia, which is an extremely rare side effect. He was lethargic, sick and had no appetite for a couple weeks before it became all but impossible not to go to the doctor’s. He went to the hospital on Monday, they exhausted other options, but he couldn’t keep his breathing rate above 90, and he was absolutely miserable. Intubation became the only option.

On Wednesday with my mom and sister, we all watched the Cardinals run up the score to 5-1 in in his tiny hospital room, and then once again, the bullpen tried their hardest to blow the game, culminating in the game-saving catch by Nathan Church that we all thought was going to be a homer. The next day, I get a call asking me if I’m watching the game. Unfortunately, I was at work. He told me JJ Wetherholt homered to lead off the game against Paul Skenes. After I hung up, he called me almost immediately to share that Jordan Walker just homered. He also shared excitedly that he was sitting down watching the game, and that he could sit for as long as he wanted. Trust me, this was big news.

By the time I saw him next, on Saturday night, we watched the game again and he was in a chair the entire game. He was animated and talkative – two things he was very much not on Wednesday. We talked baseball the entire time, interrupted at points by the helpful nurses at Mercy. Eventually my uncle joined us and we watched a relatively stress free game – until the end when the Cardinals almost made a bunch of plays before Riley O’Brien decided he better just strike the guy out to avoid another almost catch.

The magical streak came to an end on Sunday, but the streak did its job. We had a great day on Sunday with my entire family which included my nephew and his grandson. He was pretty down at the beginning of his recovery, looking at the long road ahead, but he had the Cardinals. The unknown, incomprehensible spirit that lives within us sometimes needs a little bit of a boost. The Cardinals’ winning streak provided that.

I will never have any way of proving it, but I do believe the Cardinals winning streak did a lot for my dad. At the beginning, I kind of suspect he needed the Cardinals to win in a way, and winning has a way of instantly improving any fan’s mood. Mood can be very important for recovery and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my dad seemed to improve by leaps and bounds each day and seems to be himself, now to ready to face the rehab process. There’s even hope for his foot which as it turns out, the one positive of being stuck in a hospital bed for a week, is that you are off your foot. Very strange bright side, but a bright side nonetheless.

The winning streak did its job. Now he’s like the rest of us, desperately wanting the Cardinals to win and being invested in every pitch, but if they lose, oh well there’s another day tomorrow.

The Royals struck out 17 times on Saturday, yet managed to win the game, writes Josh Kirshenbaum, filling in for Anne Rogers.

“Runs were going to be tough to come by,” Massey said. “You might have to find some unorthodox ways to figure it out.”

Jaylon Thompson writes that Jac Caglianone’s big hit on Saturday is a sign he is heating up.

“I hadn’t faced Munoz before, but you know, watching videos and everything, I knew he had an electric heater,” Caglianone said. “So I told myself, just be on time for the heater. And if it’s there, just go.

“And luckily, first pitch, saw it pretty good and put a good swing on it. Props to Lane for busting it and getting around the bases and scoring that run. That was huge. So it was just a really cool moment to do that on the road.”

Maikel Garcia talks about battling back against the Mariners.

“You know, the game was close,” Garcia said. “(Hancock) did a great job. Game was on the line, like 2-1, so we can’t give up. We know we have the talent to come back and we did.”

They also showed resiliency in Friday’s win, doing the little things to advance runners.

“I think the bigger thing to talk about is Carter moving (Perez) over,” Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said. “That’s a professional at-bat. It’s not going to show up in the box score and it’s not going to help his (Baseball) Savant page. It’s not going to help any of those things people love to talk about. It’s a good baseball play.”

Randy Johnson had his number retired with the Mariners with the Royals in town, so Kirshenbaum talked to Royals hitting coach Marcus Thames about facing the Big Unit.

Carter Jensen and Seth Lugo were named Royals April Player and Pitcher of the Month, respectively.

Preston Farr reviews 2026 first-round pick Sean Gamble so far.

The swing isn’t there yet. Gamble gets his hips open early but ends up out of sync as he adjusts to the pitch, resulting in a weakly hit ground ball. His upper half drifts towards first base as he begins his swing. The margin of error becomes so slim here that Gamble isn’t going to get a hit unless he grounds it weakly through the hole or finds the barrel perfectly. He appears to be selling out early to get to some of that power.

Nolan Schanuel throws his glove to first to record an out.

Reds pitchers tie a MLB record by issuing seven consecutive walks.

The Braves lose outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. to a hamstring injury.

Angels pitcher Yusei Kikuchi is out with shoulder inflammation.

The Marlins will promote top catching prospect Joe Mack.

The Mets extend catcher Luis Torrens with a two-year, $11.5 million contract.

David Schoenfield at ESPN ranks his April All-Stars and disappointments.

There has been a resurgence in fans keeping score at the ballpark.

The Padres announce an agreement to sell the team to a group led by Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano.

A Japanese umpire accidentally hit by a bat has emergency surgery and has been in a coma for weeks.

Golden Tempo’s win makes Cherie DeVaux the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby.

Has the window closed for the Denver Nuggets?

Sugar doesn’t actually cause cavities.

Inside the final hours of Spirit Airlines operations.

A $150 million Saudi-backed movie starring Anthony Mackie may be one of the biggest flops ever.

Your song of the day is Foster the People with Call it What You Want.

David Peterson will be pitching following an opener this afternoon against the Colorado Rockies in Denver. The Rockies recently swept the Mets at home in late April, and Peterson’s return to pitching after an opener comes after his difficulties in his last appearance, a start against the Nationals. 

Peterson has floundered in all five of his starts this year and was sent to the bullpen for two games until the Mets’ need for healthy starting pitchers was too great. He returned to a traditional starting role for an April 29 start at home against the Nationals, But he allowed five hits and walked three as he gave up seven runs in three-and-two-thirds innings. His ERA now sits at 6.53.

Nevertheless, Peterson has done well against the Rockies historically, with a 3-1 record and a 1.99 ERA. In his one start at Coors Field in 2024, he only gave up one run and five hits in five innings. 

That week sucked, man.

Even with a couple of wins for the Red Sox here and there, I think we can go ahead and generally chalk up the recent play we’ve seen one week into the post-Cora era as “uninspiring” as this dreadful start to the season slugs along. Another series L against Houston only reinforces how bored I am with this team. It’s a shitty feeling. I need the spark to be back within my baseball-related life.

Say what you want about the dismissal of the manager and members of his coaching staff (which, believe me, we have here at OTM) but all of the warts of the 2026 team were not gonna magically disappear with them. The lineup, by and large, is still not doing enough to succeed. Most of the starting pitching staff—something that was supposed to be a strong foundation of this team—is either hurt or hasn’t met the standard. We’re staring down a pair of games in Detroit this week against two of the best left-handed pitchers in the sport—a pair of guys who already shoved against us recently—along with a series at the end of the week against a good Rays team. It could get real spooky by the time I sit down to write the next MMBB. We got outfielders throwin’ their hands up at infielders, we got hit pieces comin’ in, our pets’ heads are fallin’ off—the vibes are just putrid right now, even if I did find a pair of positive things to talk about in this edition of the Brushback. Little victories, people.

And here’s the kicker: we’re now the main show in town. The C’s and B’s biting the dust means the stage is ours. The ire in Boston will be squared directly on the Sox. Sometimes I feel that talking points like that are a bit corny, but the bad vibes could be even worse if the boys don’t turn this around fast. The old adage is that you can really start panicking by Memorial Day, right? Well, the calendar just turned to May. I don’t want this 2026 campaign to get out of hand, though it just might.

It’s Monday Morning Brushback time, y’all.

Bell-oh, No

I feel like I’ve stuck my neck out for Brayan Bello over the last few years. Whether it’s here on OTM or on Pod On Lansdowne, in person or online, I’ve given him grace. Just a few weeks ago on this very site, I wrote in a Brushback article that I still believe there’s a good pitcher in there somewhere in spite of what was (and still is) a real rough start to 2026.

Since that shout out, things have only gotten worse for Bello. In seven innings over his last two starts, he’s surrendered 19 hits (and three walks, so not as bad I guess?) and 12 runs—all of ‘em earned. His ERA has now ballooned beyond 9 and his WHIP is a ghastly 2.26. He’s gotten some more swing-and-miss in his game, sure, but that isn’t resulting in K’s. I’ll concede that hasn’t been his game in the past, but the qualities he’s shown in the past have also been mid. He’s technically keeping the ball on the ground a lot, I suppose, but is that because everyone right now knows they can tee off of him? I suppose not every ball can be barreled up (although Bello’s body of work seems to be trying to disprove that notion considering his barrel rate sits in the 7th percentile as I’m writing this), right?

I’m baffled at how bad this has been for Bello. I can’t really tell you exactly what’s causing this, because so much of the stuff under the hood looks bad. My patience is wearing thin, if it’s not completely gone already. I’ll leave it to others to dive deep on his body language when he’s being taken off of the hill and whatnot, but the fact of the matter is that he’s only made it through five full innings in one of his six starts. Hell, he’s only made it into the fifth twice! It is, simply put, unacceptable stuff from number 66. If he doesn’t want to get all pissed off, I’d suggest he stop throwing absolute cookies that are practically tailor-made for clobbering en route to another outing where he fails to qualify for a winning decision.

Interim manager Chad Tracy said they might utilize an opening pitcher for Bello’s next start. Maybe that does something; it worked for Nick Pivetta a few years ago if you recall. Or maybe it does nothing at all and it’s just window dressing. Either way, I don’t think a trip down to Worcester is out of the question for him in the near future, especially when you remember that he’s still got minor league options remaining. The issue is that the amount of MLB-caliber arms available for Boston at this point in time is thin (although it sounds like Sonny Gray could return soon), so the team might feel like they need to have Bello out there to eat more innings.

(Note: Of course, now it looks like Ranger Suarez is hurt. I’m writing this just as we’re all finding out that he got pulled after just four innings. Yikes.)

While that might be true, I think the clock’s ticking here folks. Something’s gotta change or something’s gotta give. Not to repeat myself, but Bello’s pitching has been unacceptable for a team claiming to contend for something this season. Figure it out, man.

HEY MAYERRRRRRR!!!!!!!

I know the production at the plate fell off towards the end of his cup of coffee in 2025 and it was a slow start for him to begin 2026, but infielder Marcelo Mayer has impressed me with the lumber recently. His nine-game hit streak came to a close in Saturday’s loss, sure, but his OPS climbed over .100 over that stretch (.549 to .685; gotta start somewhere, right?) while he struck out just once in that same time frame.

The strikeouts—or lack thereof—for Mayer have certainly been the most positive development in my book. His swing was always beautiful and we’ve seen flashes of the type of hard contact he can make when he’s on, but he struck out about 30% of the time across his 136 plate appearances last year. Entering play on Sunday, he’s almost slashed that K-rate in half; he had only struck out 16.3% of the time, good for the 79th percentile in the league prior to Sunday’s action.

The reasoning behind that, simply put, is that he’s not chasing at junk. For a team that has so many noncompetitive ABs over the first month-and-change of the season, Mayer’s plate approach recently has been a breath of fresh air.

Now, of course, the point about limiting strikeouts is all well and good, but it isn’t everything. Mayer’s offensive production is still subpar at the end of the day. The OPS still starts with a 6 since he’s not excelling at either component of that formula. It remains to be seen if he can continue to deliver against left-handed pitchers, though Tracy has said he wants to give him more looks against those guys (thankfully).

But the building blocks to Marcelo’s continued offensive development are showing themselves now. It’s gonna be hard for a 23-year-old to make any sort of progress with the bat if the ingredients aren’t in place. If he’s staying competitive in the box and not bailing pitchers out by chasing at stuff out of the zone, that sets the table for everything else. His swing is beautiful, he controls the bat on a good plane, and his bat speed is very good. If he’s pairing good swing decisions with his physical tools, then I believe that positive regression is in the cards for Mayer.

Maybe that Car Shield heckler motivated him to be better.

Bennett’s Beginnings

A hearty congratulations to lefty Jake Bennett on making his MLB debut Friday night and logging his first victory! He threw five innings en route to the W, as he struck out a trio of ’Stros while surrendering just one earned run. It was a perfectly cromulent debut for the 25-year-old.

Three words on what you can perhaps expect from Mr. Bennett, courtesy of the wonderful Prospect Savant resource: extension, extension, extension. CBO Craig Breslow loves pitchers who are literally letting go of the ball closer to the plate than the average bear, and Bennett’s got that in spades as evidence by his 93rd percentile extension within the Arizona Fall League. He doesn’t throw insanely hard (easy for me to say that a fastball sitting at around 95 MPH isn’t that fast, I suppose) but the location and command he’s shown has been impressive; MLB Pipeline rated him a 60-grade command guy on the 20-80 scale. The 4SFB-change-sinker triumvirate looks to be his main offerings, as he threw those three offerings 74 out of 85 times on Friday.

Pipeline writes: “He has a high floor as a No. 4 starter and Boston believes it can help him add some more strength and velocity, which could make him more than that.” I’ll take that, especially right now given the pitching injuries. Crochet and Gray, like I said earlier, won’t be on the mend terribly long (although I have no idea what the deal with Suarez is right now, TBD), but those IL stints along with the performance of the guy who I just wrote about could open the door for some more Bennett appearances.

One thing to watch the next time Bennett’s out on the bump, perhaps, is the walks. He issued two free passes on Friday, but historically that’s not been an issue for him. He walked just 6% of batters in the AFL a few months back, and again: that control is damn good.

Bennett could be a quite useful pitcher to have, and his emergence could be coming at the right time for Boston. I’m interested to see him continue to develop.

Song of the Week: “Nothin’ But The Taillights” by Clint Black

A lil’ honky-tonk action for ya to begin the week.

Same time and same place next week, friends! Go Sox.

Hello and happy Monday, folks.

The Boston Red Sox baseball club is at it again tonight. They travel to Detroit to face the Tigers in the first of a three-game series. First pitch from the Motor City is 6:40 EST. The best lefty on the planet will be taking to the mound, as Payton Tolle faces off against Tarik Skubal. I’ll let you guess who that best lefty on Earth is.

Seriously, though, Skubal again? This soon after the last time we saw him? Man, that’s annoying. Here’s hoping he doesn’t totally carve us up again.

Can our guys do better than driving in just one run across six innings, like what happened when Tarik pitched at Fenway a few weeks back? Can we improve on the four hits and two walks we registered that time around? I’m gonna guess no, but who’s to say!

Be good to each other and go Sox.

Welcome to week 6 of our 2026 NL Central Power Rankings — let’s rank some teams!

1. Chicago Cubs (22-12); 5-1 this week; 82.8% chance to make postseason (FanGraphs)

The Cubs had another strong week, winning five straight over the Padres and D-backs after dropping their series opener in San Diego on Monday night.

Moisés Ballesteros and Pete Crow-Armstrong each slugged a pair of homers for Chicago this week, though they certainly weren’t the Cubs’ best hitters. Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki tied for the team lead with six hits, each adding a homer. Happ also led the team with seven runs scored, adding a pair of doubles and a triple, too.

Shota Imanaga had the best start of the week for Chicago, going seven scoreless with five strikeouts in his outing. For the bullpen, HOby Milner totaled 2 2/3 scoreless frames over three outings, striking out two and picking up a save. Jacob Webb and Ben Brown also picked up a save each.

Chicago now hosts the Reds for four games beginning Monday night before beginning a nine-game road trip this weekend, starting in Texas against the Rangers.

2. St. Louis Cardinals (20-14); 6-1 this week; 26.2% chance to make postseason

Before I go any further, I just want to say that I had a very difficult time ordering the bottom four in these rankings. I can see a case for having any of these teams in the No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, or No. 5 spot. Based on the fact that the Cardinals swept the Pirates and the Pirates swept the Reds, though, I felt I must order those three teams in that order. That just left the Brewers to slot somewhere in the pack. Continuing on…

As I just mentioned, the Cards swept the Pirates in a four-game series to begin the week, and they then stretched that win streak to six with a pair of wins over the Dodgers before dropping Sunday’s series finale.

It was a big week on the power front for St. Louis, as Alec Burleson, Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker, and JJ Wetherholt all had two homers apiece. Burleson and Wetherholt also added three doubles each, with Burleson and Walker leading the team with 11 hits on the week (and 11 RBIs each, too). Victor Scott and Walker each swiped a pair of bags, and Iván Herrera added three doubles and eight walks for a .469 OBP this week.

Andre Pallante and Michael McGreevy turned in solid starts this week, as Pallante went six innings with one run allowed and six strikeouts, and McGreevy went six scoreless frames with three strikeouts. Riley O’Brien got two more saves, and George Soriano added a save of his own. Ryan Fernandez and Gordon Graceffo both had scoreless weeks for the bullpen, with Fernandez going two perfect innings with four strikeouts and Graceffo spanning four innings over three appearances.

St. Louis now welcomes the Brewers to twon for three games before they head west to take on the Padres and A’s over the next week.

3. Milwaukee Brewers (18-15); 4-2 this week; 41.4% chance to make postseason

The Brewers took two of three against both the D-backs and Nationals this week, moving back to three games above .500 by the end of the weekend.

Sal Frelick managed to lead the Brewers with two homers this week, though he had just five hits total. William Contreras led the offense with 11 hits on the week, including a homer and a double, as he also led the team with nine RBIs and seven runs scored. Tyler Black made the most of limited opportunities, going 7-for-13 with three doubles and seven RBIs in four games this week. Brice Turang added eight hits and seven runs over 17 at-bats.

Jacob Misiorowski went 5 1/3 no-hit innings in his start on Friday night, striking out eight and allowing just two walks. Logan Henderson took the loss on Sunday but was solid overall, striking out eight and allowing two runs on three hits and no walks. Shane Drohan, Jake Woodford, DL Hall, Easton McGee, Abner Uribe, and Trevor Megill all had solid weeks for Milwaukee’s bullpen, with Woodford and Uribe picking up a save apiece.

The Crew wraps up the road trip in St. Louis to begin the week before an off day on Thursday. They’ll then welcome the Yankees to Milwaukee for three games beginning on Friday.

4. Pittsburgh Pirates (19-16); 3-4 this week; 60.1% chance to make postseason

The Pirates had an odd week, as they were swept by the Cardinals over four games before bouncing back to sweep the Reds this weekend, finishing their homestand with a 3-4 record.

Henry Davis picked up a pair of homers this week for the Bucs, with seven other players adding a homer each. Nick Gonzales led the team with 11 hits, though he had just one extra-base hit (a double), while rookie Konnor Griffin added 10 hits, including a homer, two doubles, and a triple, slashing .370/.433/.630 for the week. Ryan O’Hearn and Bryan Reynolds each had eight hits.

Braxton Ashcraft had a really rough start against St. Louis but bounced back nicely on Sunday against the Reds, spanning 7 2/3 scoreless innings with six strikeouts on just 82 pitches. Mitch Keller also turned in a solid start, going seven innings with one run allowed and six strikeouts. Wilber Dotel, Justin Lawrence, Mason Montgomery, Cam Sanders, and Gregory Soto had scoreless weeks for the bullpen, totaling 11 2/3 innings with nine strikeouts between them.

Pittsburgh now heads to Arizona and San Francisco, as they’ll take on the D-backs and Giants for three games each beginning Tuesday night in Phoenix.

5. Cincinnati Reds (20-14); 2-4 this week; 27.1% chance to make postseason

The Reds take this final spot mostly because they took a sweep at the hands of the Pirates, even though they’re still tied for second place in the division. Prior to that sweep, they took two of three from the Rockies to begin the week.

It wasn’t a great week for the Cincinnati offense, but Will Benson led the way with a pair of homers and a double. Nathaniel Lowe and Spencer Steer each had six hits, with a homer and two doubles apiece, while Spencer Steer led the team with seven hits, including a homer.

Chase Burns made a pair of solid starts, totaling 13 innings with two runs allowed and a team-high 16 strikeouts. Andrew Abbott picked up the other win in his start, going six quality innings with two runs allowed and five strikeouts. Graham Ashcraft and Sam Moll were the only real bright spots for the bullpen, as they totaled 4 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and no runs allowed this week.

The Reds now head to Chicago to face the Cubs for four games beginning Monday night. They then return home to host the Astros and Nationals beginning Friday.

The Guardians lost to the A’s and moved on to Kansas City while making some significant prospect moves at the same time.

Deborah had the recap. She has really drawn the short straw with Sunday recaps but she always does a good job, anyway. Chase DeLauter homered. The Guardians just couldn’t knock Aaron Civale out, which is annoying. Parker Messick had a rough game, but that’ll happen.

The Guardians promoted Angel Genao to Triple-A Columbus. Genao had a 125 wRC+ at Akron with a 17/21 K/BB%. Making it to Triple-A as a 21 year-old is super impressive. I’d like to see if he can find a little more power (.113 ISO so far) and reduce that 54% groundball rate. I would not expect him to be in Cleveland until 2027, even with this promotion.

Justin Campbell moved from Lake County to Akron. While trying to prove he has put injury concerns behind him, Campbell has put up a 2.40 ERA/1.96 FIP and a 13.2/3 K/BB/9 in High-A. Time to see if he can do the same kind of tortures to Double-A hitters. …If so, things start to get pretty exciting.

Finally, Jaison Chourio moved from Lake County to Akron as well. Chourio has opened with a 142 wRC+, .167 ISO, 18.6/17.5% K/BB. He had 10 games in center, 5 games in right and 2 games in left with the Captains. Nice to see the 20 year-old switch-hitter bouncing back after an uneven 2025.

AROUND MLB:

Tigers, Twins and Royals won, and the White Sox lost. The Tigers and Guardians are tied atop the Central.

It was a bloodbath in the National League West last week, with all five teams in the division piling up defeats. The Dodgers, Padres, Giants, and Diamondbacks all had their longest losing streaks of the season last week, while the Rockies at four straight losses to end the week was two shy of their worst stretch in 2026.

Neither the Dodgers nor Giants hit a home run all week, and San Francisco lost all six of its games. The entire division combined to go just 6-24 for the week. Brutal.

Division notes

Ildemaro Vargas was hitless on Saturday, which was notable because that’s the first such game for him this year. The utility man, who has played all four infield positions for Arizona, had a 27-game hit streak dating back to 2025, during which he hit .400/.427/.667. Samath and Jim McLennan at AZ Snake Pit examined the longest Diamondbacks hit streak since 1999.

The Giants did not hit a home run in any of their six games last week, and have gone homerless in an MLB-high 21 of their 34 games this season. They have lost 18 of those 21 games, fueling their worst-in-baseball 3.12 runs per game. “Runs have been hard to come by for this club,” wrote Steven Kennedy at McCovey Chronicles. “Wall-clearing power, nearly impossible.”

Mason Miller on Tuesday allowed two runs to the Chicago Cubs, which snapped his scoreless streak at 34 2/3 innings. though the Padres did win that game before their losing streak. Dating back to last year’s trade deadline, Miller has allowed a run in only two of his ..37 games with San Diego.

Samantha Bradfield at Purple Row laid out the details of the Rockies cultural education and development program for their Dominican academy and summer league team.

NL West standings

Dodgers 21-13, – –
Padres 20-13, 0.5 GB
D-backs 16-17, 4.5 GB
Rockies 14-21, 7.5 GB
Giants 13-21, 8 GB

The week ahead

• Dodgers: at Astros, vs. Braves
• Padres: at Giants, vs. Cardinals (4 games)
• D-backs: vs. Pirates, vs. Mets
• Giants: vs. Padres, vs. Pirates
• Rockies: vs. Mets, at Phillies