Category: Sports News

Adames was rare Giants free-agent target not scared off by ballpark originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SCOTTSDALE — Willy Adames’ first home run at Scottsdale Stadium this spring was a towering fly ball that at first looked like it would be caught on the outfield grass. The right fielder lifted his glove before even reaching the warning track, but the ball kept carrying and carrying in the thin air and landed on the Charro Lodge deck as Adames flipped his bat toward the home dugout.

At Oracle Park, it would have been a routine fly ball, and Adames knows that’s what he signed up for. In December, he became the first free-agent position player to ever take a contract of more than $150 million from the Giants, and he’s just the third hitter, period, to sign a nine-figure deal with the organization. The first went to his new boss, Buster Posey, who was drafted by the Giants and would never leave, and the second to Jung Hoo Lee, a bat-control artist and line drive hitter who is an easy fit with Oracle Park’s dimensions.

Adames is coming off a 32-homer, 112 RBI season and has 112 homers since the start of 2021, tied with Corey Seager for the most among MLB shortstops. He brings rare power to the position, but still, he signed up to spend his prime at a pitcher’s park.  

And he has no regrets. 

Asked about the ballpark on Monday’s “Giants Talk” podcast, Adames smiled and pointed out that Barry Bonds spent much of his career dealing with the dimensions. So did Posey, who had the previous record contract by a Giant before Adames signed for $182 million.

“At the end of the day, it’s just the mentality that you have. If you go with that mentality that I can’t hit here, the ball doesn’t fly and this or that, I think that will eat you up,” Adames said. “I don’t really care about it. If the ball goes, it goes. I’m not trying to hit homers every time. It just happens. I’m just trying to hit the ball hard and put the barrel (on the ball) every time. I don’t really worry about if the ball flies here, I don’t care. 

“I just want to win some games and I’ll do my best to help the team win. We’re not going to win by hitting homers at Oracle Park. We’ve just got to play the right baseball.”

So far this spring, Adames has looked like the perfect fit for a team that hopes to surprise outsiders. He’s hitting .361 with an OPS over 1.000 and three homers, including a loud one over the weekend that would have gone out in any park. 

Adames, as expected, also has been a game-changer in the clubhouse. He has formed a quick bond with Matt Chapman, his partner on the left side of the infield, and teammates rave about the energy he has brought every morning.

The Giants are in a much better place behind closed doors than in the past two seasons, but if they are to surprise, they will need Adames to bring his usual power to the heart of the lineup. He will hit second for Bob Melvin, right between LaMonte Wade Jr. and Jung Hoo Lee. The hope is that Adames takes full advantage of having Wade, one of the game’s best at reaching base, right in front of him, along with anyone else who happens to be on. Last year, Adames was the only big leaguer with double-digit three-run homers, hitting 13 of them. 

Of Adames’ 32 home runs overall, 18 came at American Family Field in Milwaukee, which was ranked eighth by Baseball Savant in terms of best places to hit homers. Oracle Park, of course, was last, but Adames has fared well in 16 career games in San Francisco, posting a .321/.381/.446 slash line with a pair of homers. He said he also is comfortable with the division. 

“You don’t play 162 games (at Oracle), the division is great to hit (in),” he said. “You go to the Dodgers’ stadium, the ball flies, and you go to Petco Park and the ball flies there, and then you go to Colorado. For me, you’re going to hit what you’re going to hit at the end of the day.”

That hasn’t been the mindset of most free-agent hitters who have met with the Giants in recent years. Adames was the exception, and even if his numbers take a slight hit from all of those cold, windy nights at Third and King, the Giants know they still are going to have one of the league’s best shortstops. They also have a leader who isn’t afraid of the challenge, whether it’s taking on Oracle’s dimensions or a loaded division.

Adames has played in the postseason in three of the last four years. He signed up to spend his prime in a division that could be dominated by the Los Angeles Dodgers for the rest of the decade, but he’s ready for it.

“The big part about being the underdog is nobody expects you to win, so that’s kind of a motivation thing for the team,” he said on Giants Talk. “Obviously the boys get fired up, like, ‘Okay, let’s show the world what we’re made of.’ I think having that mentality of ‘we’re going to prove everybody wrong’ is a good mentality to have because that way you know you’re going to go every day and handle (your) business. I think we can have some of that.

“At the end of the day, a lot of people are not expecting us to win. The guys acknowledge that and have that as motivation. I think that’s a really cool spot to be in because it motivates you to work even harder and get better every day.”

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Phillies notes: Injuries, outfield, bench, Opening Day originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

With just seven days of spring training games to go, the Phillies have nearly reached the end of their stay this year in Clearwater, which means one more week of crossing fingers for manager Rob Thomson.

On Sunday in Sarasota, starting outfielders Max Kepler and Brandon Marsh left early for precautionary reasons. Kepler collided with the wall in left field on a catch, though it didn’t look violent. Marsh exited with a bruised left knee. Both downplayed the injuries to reporters after the game and were back in the lineup Tuesday in Bradenton against the Pirates.

Offensively, the Phillies had one of MLB’s weakest outfields last season. They added to it by signing Kepler to a one-year, $10 million contract to play left field. The thought going into spring training was that Kepler would play left, Nick Castellanos would play right and Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas would platoon in center field. Weston Wilson was in the mix as well in left and potentially center against some left-handers.

Wilson suffered a Grade 2 strain of his oblique, a six-week injury, just before Grapefruit League play began, altering the Phillies’ bench battle and increasing the importance of Edmundo Sosa’s acclimation to the outfield. Sosa has played five innings in center field and 21 in left this spring.

Rojas also has not played the field once this spring because of a shoulder injury suffered on a headfirst slide into second base in winter ball. The Phillies hope he can ramp up his throwing this week.

If Rojas’ injury lingers, Oscar Mercado could become a bigger part of the conversation. Mercado is a veteran, right-handed-hitting center fielder with nearly 1,000 big-league plate appearances, mostly with Cleveland. He played one game with the Phillies late in 2022, spent time in the organizations of the Padres, Dodgers, Cardinals and Tigers over the next two years and then was invited to spring training by the Phils in mid-February.

Neither of the Phillies’ next two center fielders after Marsh and Rojas have hit much this spring. Mercado is 4-for-25 and Cal Stevenson is 4-for-31. Stevenson has a minor-league option remaining and hits from the left side, making him a longer shot to make the Opening Day roster even if Rojas isn’t ready to play the field. Right-handed bats on the bench make more sense for the Phillies than lefties because they wouldn’t realistically pinch-hit for Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto or Nick Castellanos, and if/when they pinch-hit for Rojas, Marsh would be available.

This is also why Sosa’s ability to play a passable center field could be valuable if the Phillies can get him enough reps to feel comfortable. It might allow them to carry a better hitter on their bench. If Sosa can play center, for example, maybe they can open the season carrying right-handed Christian Arroyo, who’s hit .355 this spring with two homers and has had a few solid offensive seasons as a reserve with Boston. Arroyo is a corner infielder but the Phillies have also gotten him 11 innings in left field this month.

This all could be relevant as soon as Opening Day with the Phillies facing Nationals lefty Mackenzie Gore, though Gore has reverse platoon splits. Lefties have hit .297 off him the last two seasons with an OPS in the mid-.800s. The Phillies are starting Zack Wheeler in the opener for the second straight year, not much of a surprise given he’s become their unquestioned ace and currently trails only Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani in per-year salary.

MLB Tokyo Series: Ohtani and Yamamoto lead Dodgers to 4-1 win over Cubs in opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

TOKYO — For a moment, it felt like all of Japan held its collective breath. The Tokyo Dome, known throughout the globe for its energy and electric atmosphere, fell silent as the sheeted dead. Then, as Shohei Ohtani’s bat connected on a curveball, the crowd erupted. 

Shohei Ohtani, an international megastar playing on his home soil for the first time as a major leaguer, delivered the hit that jolted the Los Angeles Dodgers to life, setting the stage for the team’s thrilling 4-1 comeback over the Chicago Cubs in the opening game of the 2025 MLB season.

The journey to Opening Day was nearly a year in the making as both teams traveled over 6,000 miles for this moment. None of the other 28 teams in Major League Baseball had to travel across the world to play two games before heading all the way back across the Pacific Ocean for more exhibition games. 

No one else had to arrive a week early to spring training, break camp early, disrupt their lives and routines for a couple of games on the other side of the world. But nobody else is Shohei Ohtani and the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

In front of a packed house, in a city that is buzzing with baseball fever, two historic franchises clashed under the Tokyo lights. The 2025 MLB Tokyo Series was a celebration of Japanese baseball at its finest. Five Japanese-born players were on the active rosters and will play in the series.

Even though this was a series between two of baseball’s iconic franchises, it was still the Shohei Ohtani show. 

Ohtani is more than just famous in his home country. He’s an A-list celebrity, a rock star and a cultural icon all rolled into one. During the two-game series, over a dozen different commercials featuring Ohtani flashed across TV screens in Tokyo. His face is featured on billboards, taxi cabs, subway trains, storefront windows and more. 

Each and every time Ohtani stepped to the plate, fans roared and cheered. They all took out their phones to record his every movement and held their collective breath during each pitch. They oohed and aahed at every ball he put into play and gasped when he struck out.

So, after the flags were unfurled and the national anthems, played by Japanese musician Yoshiki, were completed, after the Pokemon introductions and the plethora of Pikachu’s danced across the diamond, there was finally baseball being played in 2025.

For the first time since the Dodgers defeated the Yankees in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, the games actually counted, and LA’s title defense has officially begun.

Ohtani finished the game 2-for-5 with a single, a double and two runs scored. His first hit of the 2025 season, a line drive to right field, came in the top of the fifth inning. 

Tommy Edman tied the game with a line drive to left field, and Ohtani scored the go-ahead run on an errant throw by Cubs second baseman Jon Berti. 

Teoscar Hernandez added an insurance run in the top of the ninth.

That would be all the Dodgers would need as their pitching staff did the rest. Anthony Banda, Ben Casparius, Blake Treinen, and free agent acquisition Tanner Scott combined for four shutout innings with the latter earning his first save in Dodger blue.

Dodgers’ starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto knows what it’s like to travel across the world to pitch in a baseball game. He’s no longer a rookie with the weight of the world on his shoulders. After a dominant postseason in which he was the ace of the Dodgers injury riddled World Series-winning pitching staff, Yamamoto has emerged as the ace of this year’s staff.

Yamamoto’s three-pitch mix of fastball, curveball and splitter kept the Cubs hitters off-balance all night long. His only blemish was an RBI double to Miguel Amaya in the bottom of the second. 

In a polar opposite performance from his first start of the 2024 season, Yamamoto allowed just one run on three hits with four strikeouts in five innings. He seized the opportunity in his home country and earned the win over his fellow countryman Shota Imanaga in the first all-Japanese Opening Day starting pitching matchup in MLB history.

Both teams will play again tomorrow, but the memories of this game will last a lifetime, and for the 42,635 fans in attendance at Tokyo Dome, they will remember it for years to come.

MLB Tokyo Series: Ohtani and Yamamoto lead Dodgers to 4-1 win over Cubs in opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

TOKYO — For a moment, it felt like all of Japan held its collective breath. The Tokyo Dome, known throughout the globe for its energy and electric atmosphere, fell silent as the sheeted dead. Then, as Shohei Ohtani’s bat connected on a curveball, the crowd erupted. 

Shohei Ohtani, an international megastar playing on his home soil for the first time as a major leaguer, delivered the hit that jolted the Los Angeles Dodgers to life, setting the stage for the team’s thrilling 4-1 comeback over the Chicago Cubs in the opening game of the 2025 MLB season.

The journey to Opening Day was nearly a year in the making as both teams traveled over 6,000 miles for this moment. None of the other 28 teams in Major League Baseball had to travel across the world to play two games before heading all the way back across the Pacific Ocean for more exhibition games. 

No one else had to arrive a week early to spring training, break camp early, disrupt their lives and routines for a couple of games on the other side of the world. But nobody else is Shohei Ohtani and the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

In front of a packed house, in a city that is buzzing with baseball fever, two historic franchises clashed under the Tokyo lights. The 2025 MLB Tokyo Series was a celebration of Japanese baseball at its finest. Five Japanese-born players were on the active rosters and will play in the series.

Even though this was a series between two of baseball’s iconic franchises, it was still the Shohei Ohtani show. 

Ohtani is more than just famous in his home country. He’s an A-list celebrity, a rock star and a cultural icon all rolled into one. During the two-game series, over a dozen different commercials featuring Ohtani flashed across TV screens in Tokyo. His face is featured on billboards, taxi cabs, subway trains, storefront windows and more. 

Each and every time Ohtani stepped to the plate, fans roared and cheered. They all took out their phones to record his every movement and held their collective breath during each pitch. They oohed and aahed at every ball he put into play and gasped when he struck out.

So, after the flags were unfurled and the national anthems, played by Japanese musician Yoshiki, were completed, after the Pokemon introductions and the plethora of Pikachu’s danced across the diamond, there was finally baseball being played in 2025.

For the first time since the Dodgers defeated the Yankees in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, the games actually counted, and LA’s title defense has officially begun.

Ohtani finished the game 2-for-5 with a single, a double and two runs scored. His first hit of the 2025 season, a line drive to right field, came in the top of the fifth inning. 

Tommy Edman tied the game with a line drive to left field, and Ohtani scored the go-ahead run on an errant throw by Cubs second baseman Jon Berti. 

Teoscar Hernandez added an insurance run in the top of the ninth.

That would be all the Dodgers would need as their pitching staff did the rest. Anthony Banda, Ben Casparius, Blake Treinen, and free agent acquisition Tanner Scott combined for four shutout innings with the latter earning his first save in Dodger blue.

Dodgers’ starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto knows what it’s like to travel across the world to pitch in a baseball game. He’s no longer a rookie with the weight of the world on his shoulders. After a dominant postseason in which he was the ace of the Dodgers injury riddled World Series-winning pitching staff, Yamamoto has emerged as the ace of this year’s staff.

Yamamoto’s three-pitch mix of fastball, curveball and splitter kept the Cubs hitters off-balance all night long. His only blemish was an RBI double to Miguel Amaya in the bottom of the second. 

In a polar opposite performance from his first start of the 2024 season, Yamamoto allowed just one run on three hits with four strikeouts in five innings. He seized the opportunity in his home country and earned the win over his fellow countryman Shota Imanaga in the first all-Japanese Opening Day starting pitching matchup in MLB history.

Both teams will play again tomorrow, but the memories of this game will last a lifetime, and for the 42,635 fans in attendance at Tokyo Dome, they will remember it for years to come.