Category: Sports News

Padres 7, Mariners 4

Tom DeLonge, musical artist: J.P. Crawford, .07 WPA

Tom Brokaw, musical artist: Logan Gilbert, -.30 WPA

Game Thread Comment of the Day:

Paging Luis Castillo.

In a play reminiscent of the former Mets second baseman’s infamous error in the Subway Series, rookie Carson Benge made an ugly miscue in the top of the seventh with the Mets up by three runs over the Yankees at Citi Field.

Carson Benge drops a fly ball and allows the Yankees to make it a two-run game pic.twitter.com/E1NJzsJiPW

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 17, 2026

After Aaron Judge opened the inning with a double off Brooks Raley, Cody Bellinger sent a fly ball to right field, where Benge was ready to make a routine catch.

But Benge, who had made some highlight-worthy plays and some head-scratchers, dropped the ball for a two-base error that allowed Judge to score and Bellinger to reach second.

It gave the Yankees a big chance to spark a rally with the Mets already reeling in the wake of Clay Holmes’ injury on Friday night.

But former Yankees reliever Luke Weaver entered and struck out Amed Rosario and Trent Grisham before Anthony Volpe grounded out with the bases loaded to end the inning.

That turned out to be the key moment in the Mets’ 6-3 win over their crosstown rivals. Game 3 of the Subway series is on Sunday.

Folks, we have to have a conversation about Angel Martinez.

After tonight’s two-run homer to put the Guardians’ ahead of Tito Francona’s persnickity Reds, Martinez has a 125 wRC+ with eight homers and eight doubles. Martinez has a sustainable .290 BABIP. While he as outperformed his xWOBA a bit (.338 to .315 coming into tonight), but he is also third on the team and 36th in MLB in pulled-fly ball rate at 25.2% which generally helps players outperform their expected stats.

Most excitingly, Martinez had a wRC+ of 127 vs. RHP coming into tonight, and 93 against LHP. Up until this season, in the majors, Martinez had a wRC+ around 60 vs. RHP and a wRC+ of 120 against LHP. If he is capable of hitting right-handers now, this is very likely a valuable hitter on a sustainable basis. He’s also stolen 8 of 10 bases and flashed 65th percentile sprint speed, which is another very positive development.

So, why wouldn’t you believe in Angels? Well, he still has only a 4% walk rate and he chases 40% of the time. But, hey, he makes contact with 85% of all pitches he sees. And he has demonstrated the ability to lay off the worst pitches he sees and keep fouling off other bad pitches until he gets one to hit. There is no way to say anything for sure with a player as young as Angel, but I think what he’s doing looks extremely sustainable and he has earned himself everyday playing time at this point.

Angel is still not a defensive standout, but he looks competent in the corner outfield positions, especially, and playable, so far, in center. I have cautioned folks against comparing him to Jose, and I think that his chase rate still prevents exact comparisons there… but I’m done putting a ceiling on this kid. He is so much fun, his smile is so infectious, and I am ready to give him all the at-bats at this point for finally helping this team beat the Reds.

You’ll notice I did put AngelS in the title, and that’s so I can throw in this paragraph about Angel Genao. The Columbus Clippers’ shortstop had a 134 wRC+ so far in Triple-A with five homers and three steals and he added a single and another homer in tonight’s game. Genao has a 19/16 K/BB% which is more than adequate. His 27% chase rate is a little high, but not too alarming and he has only a 7% swinging-strike rate. He has an average exit velocity of 91.7 mph and a 53.1% hard-hit rate, which is amazing. The one knock against him is his 57.3% groundball rate, which is alarming. You can hit the ball 100 mph every time in the bigs and infielders are going to make most of those plays. However, if he can continue to slug homers regularly and take walks, he has potential to make up for it. He looks like someone who is going to be knocking on the door of the big leagues by August… making it a challenge to figure out where he will play. But, shortstops can generally play anywhere (Rocchio being the exception), so we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I thought Angel Martinez should probably stop switch-hitting. I am so glad to be wrong. I thought he was probably a 4th outfielder who should start against LHP. I am so glad to be wrong. He is one of the most pleasant athletes I have ever had the chance to meet and this start to the season for him is such a delight.

Believe it or not, currently the Colorado Rockies bullpen is tied for eighth place with its 1.6 accumulated fWAR. (They are tied with the Miami Marlins.)

Their 4.35 ERA comes in 20th, and their BB/9 of 3.38 comes in ninth.

Probably, a lot of that is due to Chase Dollander’s working with an opener, so let’s set him aside as well as Tanner Gordon, who appears to be headed for Dollander’s spot in the rotation.

Instead, consider the rest of the bullpen:

• Zach Agnos
• Brennan Bernadino
• Jimmy Herget
• Jaden Hill
• Juan Mejia
• Sammy Peralta
• Antonio Senzatela
• Victor Vodnik

Right now, who’s your All-Star pitcher? Who’s impressed you with his evolution? And who are you concerned about?

Let us know in the comments.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

Remember when we just complained about the third time through the order? We didn’t know how good we had it.

Holding on to a slim lead and wanting to give their top bullpen arms a break, the Braves opted not only to run Bryce Elder through the Red Sox order a third time, but also a fourth. While the first two outs of the eighth occurred with little drama, the Braves didn’t budge when a double put the tying run on second. Up came Willson Contreras, and not much later, a no-doubter of a two-run shot turned the game around. While the Braves rallied in the ninth, a ricochet didn’t quite go their way, and that was that. They’ll need to win tomorrow to take the series.

The beginning of this game zipped along, though things got a bit muddy in the middle innings. Jarren Duran hit a double to start the game, but Elder held fast and struck out two to prevent him from advancing. Drake Baldwin then jumped all over a mis-located Payton Tolle sinker and smashed it to deep center for another leadoff homer. Ozzie Albies followed with a barrel of his own, but his didn’t carry out to left. The game then went into turbo mode. There were 13 straight outs before Jose Azocar ripped a double off Tolle. Baldwin then worked a walk, but Albies and Matt Olson made outs in the air to keep it a 1-0 game.

The Red Sox threatened with a couple of soft singles to start the fourth. A number of Braves losses this season have been precipitated by terrible defensive plays in key moments, and that also happened here: Contreras hit a routine, probably should’ve been a double play ball to Austin Riley at third, but Riley booted it and then didn’t even get a force at second in time. The next batter hit a lineout to left that worked a sac fly: the Braves inexplicably took forever to decide whether to challenge, ultimately opted to, but to no avail. (I’m not sure why they thought, if they took them so long to decide whether to challenge, that somehow the borked replay system currently in place in MLB would reward them with an overturn, but here we are.) Elder and the Braves were able to wriggle out of the jam with a couple of outs in the air, but the game was now tied.

And, thus it stayed tied, as there were ten consecutive outs before Azocar hit another double. Starting Tolle’s third trip through the Braves’ gauntlet, Baldwin then came through again, lashing a 108+ mph liner to left that gave the Braves another lead, though he was thrown out trying to take second.

The Braves have been somewhat inconsistent with the urgency of their pitching management this season. I think both sides are understandable, though understandable doesn’t mean pleasant to watch. Pushing the reliever button early could suggest needing to take it easy here and there, though the Braves have played a number of close games due to their great position player production on both sides of the ball, which has made it somewhat hard to find a place to do so. To his credit, Elder didn’t melt down the third time through, working around a two-out Contreras single in the sixth, and then getting three straight balls on the ground to strand a leadoff double in the seventh.

Meanwhile, the Braves just weren’t doing much against Tolle. He wasn’t exactly defeating them, more just letting them hit the ball in the air over and over, but Cedanne Rafaela made a number of nice catches in center and the Braves just didn’t get any ball-in-play fortune, receiving a .130 BABIP on the night.

So, then came the fateful bottom of the eighth, which also heralded Elder’s foray into ye olde 4TTO. There was a pop-out. There was a groundout. Wilyer Abreu poked a double the other way, but the Braves didn’t press the bullpen button. Contreras fouled off a hanging changeup. He chased a buried slider. He took a buried slider. Elder threw a third straight slider. It was low, below the zone, but not so low that Contreras couldn’t demolish it for a game-winner.

Tolle went 1-2-3 in the eighth, finishing his night with a pretty weird line that included just a 3/1 K/BB ratio, a homer allowed, and a grounder rate below 20 percent. Elder was similar with a 3/0 K/BB ratio, but his grounder rate was over 50 percent. The part that would’ve made me gnaw on my shirt if I had pica or whatever was that the Braves ultimately summoned Martin Perez for the ninth, where he had little trouble. If you were going to use Martin Perez for an inning in a close game, why not just use him for two innings, and not have Elder pitch to a lineup a fourth time in the same game? On the one hand, these are the luxuries you can afford to partake in when you have the best record in baseball. On the other hand, I’d rather it be some other team engaging in the eff-ayy-eff-oh Olympics.

The Braves actually threatened in the ninth against Aroldis Chapman, though it didn’t actually result in a comeback. Albies popped out, and Olson hit a very hard liner that was unfortunately right at the shortstop. Riley then reached on a botched throw from that same shortstop, and Chapman floundered about a bit with back-to-back walks on four pitches each.

That brought up Ha-Seong Kim, who hasn’t really hit at all since returning from his Injured List stint and rehab assignment. Kim had a chance to play hero, and he almost did, lining an 0-2 pitch back up the box and off Chapman, who tumbled to the ground but recovered and tossed it to first in time to end the game. If the ball had gone through Chapman, it’s likely an easy out; if it ricochets away a bit further, this game is tied and I’m probably writing some other flavor of recap, the massive 34TTO blunder/self-inflicted wound overshadowed by whatever else happened. But, as we’ve seen for a while now, the beneficence, or lack thereof, of a ricochet off the pitcher seems to be nigh-deterministic, and this one did not go the Braves’ way.

They can still win the series tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll go back to chasing wins and whatnot.

The Dodgers finish off their weekend series against the Angels on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, with Roki Sasaki on the mound for the series finale.

This will be the first career game against the Angels for Sasaki.

Grayson Rodriguez is expected to be activated from the injured list to make his Angels debut on Sunday, after missing the first seven-plus weeks of the season with right shoulder inflammation. Rodriguez struck out 11 last Sunday in 4 2/3 innings in a rehab start for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga against the Dodgers’ affiliate Ontario.

Sunday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Angels
• Ballpark: Angel Stadium, Anaheim
• Time: 1:07 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA, KCOP channel 13 (Angels broadcast)
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

The Texas Rangers scored one while the Houston Astros scored four home runs.

The Rangers had five more hits tonight than last night! Six hits! That’s pretty good. That’s one more hit than Houston! They also walked eight times. That’s a ton of baserunners!

The bad news is none of Texas’ hits went for extra bases and only one of them produced a run — a run that scored when the game was 4-0 — which means Texas has now scored one run in 18 innings against the team that has allowed by far the most runs in the big leagues this year.

Meanwhile, the Astros hit the most home runs that Jacob deGrom has ever allowed in a start. I guess on the bright side, they were all solo shots.

The Rangers have not gotten off on a good foot in their quest for the Silver Boot, I dare say.

Player of the Game: Joc Pederson singled in the Rangers’ first and only run of the series in the top of the seventh.

Up Next: The Rangers will try to avoid getting swept tomorrow afternoon with RHP Nathan Eovaldi expected back on the mound for Texas opposite RHP Peter Lambert for Houston.

The Sunday matinee first pitch from Daikin Park is scheduled for 1:10 pm CDT and will be carried on the Rangers Sports Network.

The Twins got a career-best start from Connor Prielipp, who struck out eight Brewers and held them to three hits in a six-inning start, but could only prop up a single run despite outhitting the visiting Milwaukee victors.

After squandering a second-inning opportunity with two men in scoring position and nobody out — then a one-out, bases loaded situation — the Twins were able to touch Logan Henderson in the third, when Trevor Larnach welcomed himself back to the batting order by smacking a homer just over the right-field wall.

The lead, unfortunately, proved short-lived. After a single and a walk set up a scoring chance for the Crew, it was a left-side bouncer getting past Royce Lewis that allowed Brice Turang to rush home and tie the game. But it was an unearned run, and the hit that put Turang on the basepaths was the only knock allowed by rookie Connor Prielipp through the first five innings of another rock-solid start.

At right around 70 pitches, Prielipp was trusted with entering the sixth inning for the first time in his big-league career. Jackson Chourio decided to call that decision into question immediately, blasting his first dinger of the year into left-center field, and putting Milwaukee up 2-1 on only their second hit of the ballgame.

Prielipp stayed locked in through the rest of his start, striking out two more batters in the sixth to bring his line up to eight on the evening. So far, he’s done what it says on the tin; a strong xBA and an ability to generrate chase and swing-and-miss has rewarded him with a 2.88 ERA to open up his Baseball Reference table.

With the bullpen able to hold the score tonight, the Twins’ best chance to tie the game came in the seventh, when James Outman’s one-out triple put him 90 feet away from home; unfortunately for him, a bloop flyout snagged by Chourio and a 3-1 groundout that saw reliever Chad Patrick beat Brooks Lee to the bag ended the threat.

So, with the game improbably held by a combination of Eric Orze and Yoendrys Gomez, Minnesota remained down by a 2-1 score heading into the bottom of the ninth. For Milwaukee, Chad Patrick effectively piggybacked with Henderson, taking over in the sixth and going the distance in a 50-pitch relief appearance. A pop-out from Kody Clemens and a rather rough swinging strikeout by Royce Lewis set the stage for Tristan Gray to line out softly to short, and send the mostly-Wisconsinite crowd home happy.

As has been the case in far too many Twins games in 2026, there were some inspiring takeaways from some of the young starting pitching, but the rest of the team failed to put together a complete effort.

Minnesota plays to avoid the sweep tomorrow. See you then!

STUDS:

SP Connor Prielipp (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, ER, 2 BB, 8 K)

1B Kody Clemens (2-for-4, 2B)

DUDS:

RF Austin Martin (0-for-4, 2 K)

SS Brooks Lee (0-for-4)

Blake Snell is the latest pitcher headed for elbow surgery, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. Snell is having loose bodies removed from his left elbow and is out indefinitely.  

The procedure has become an unwelcome trend across the sport. New York Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodon had a delayed start to the 2026 season after having the surgery to remove loose bodies and a bone spur shaved down.  

Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, a two-time Cy Young Award winner like Snell, underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies after a flare-up earlier this month. 

The typical recovery time for this surgery is two to three months. But Skubal’s surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, used a device called the NanoNeedle Scope 2.0, which could significantly shorten that timeline. Nine days after the procedure, Skubal had already started playing catch.  

Snell, 33, shares the same agent as Skubal, Scott Boras, so there has been speculation he could use the same procedure. Roberts said he was not sure what surgery Snell would have.  

After four losses in a row, the Dodgers try for their fourth win in a row on Saturday night in Orange County. The day-off carousel lands on Kyle Tucker for this one, with Alex Call starting in right field.

Saturday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Angels
• Ballpark: Angel Stadium, Anaheim
• Time: 6:38 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA, KCOP channel 13 (Angels broadcast), MLB Network (out of market)
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

It’s time for game two of the series between the San Francisco Giants and their former neighbors, the one-named Athletics.

At the time of me writing this, a few days in advance, the scheduled matchup is right-handers Trevor McDonald and Luis Severino. McDonald has made two starts on the season, and is 1-0 with a 2.92 ERA, a 4.00 FIP, and 12 strikeouts against two walks in 12.1 innings. Severino has made nine starts, and is 2-4 with a 4.07 ERA, a 4.42 FIP, and 47 strikeouts against an MLB-worst 29 walks in 48.2 innings.

Enjoy the game, everyone! Go Giants!

Game #46

Who: San Francisco Giants at Athletics

Where: Sutter Health Park, West Sacramento, California

When: 6:40 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell is set to undergo surgery next Tuesday to remove loose bodies from his elbow, according to manager Dave Roberts, but there is optimism he could return sooner than the 2-3 months such procedures typically require.

While the exact nature of the operation Snell will have next week is still being determined, multiple sources told The California Post that there is hope he will be able to utilize a new medical technology called the NanoNeedle Scope 2.0 — which is a smaller version of a typical arthroscope that allows for less invasive procedures and a potentially faster recovery time.

On May 6, two-time reigning American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal became the first known major-league pitcher to have such a procedure, which was performed by renowned sports surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache (who is the Dodgers’ head team physician and will also perform Snell’s surgery).

Already, Skubal is back to playing catch. And according to The Post’s Jon Heyman, he could return in as little as six weeks.

Snell’s exact timeline won’t be clear until his surgery is completed, according to sources. But Roberts said “it’s supposed to be a lot quicker recovery,” citing the surgical options that would be available for the 33-year-old pitcher.

Snell had a more traditional loose-body removal to address the same elbow problem in 2019 while he was playing with the Rays. That year, he missed two months before returning to the mound.

Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz also had loose bodies removed from his elbow last month. He is expected to be sidelined until the second half of the year.

The reason Snell’s current situation makes him a candidate for the NanoNeedle procedure, one source said, is because of where the loose bodies in his elbow are located.

As ElAttrache explained in an interview with The Athletic while discussing Skubal’s recent surgery, the NanoNeedle method also has little downside. If it’s unable to remedy the problem, a traditional arthroscope can still be used instead.

Snell will certainly be hoping to return as fast as possible.

Already this year, he had missed more than a month to begin the campaign while recovering from offseason shoulder fatigue, which stemmed from a shoulder injury that cost him four months during his debut campaign with the Dodgers in 2025.

He only made his season debut last weekend, pitching three innings in a loss to the Atlanta Braves.

While the Dodgers had Snell take his time with his build-up process this year –– hoping to avoid another elongated absence like he experienced last year –– the left-hander ultimately returned to the active roster a week sooner than expected, skipping a final scheduled minor-league rehab outing after Tyler Glasnow went on the injured list with back spasms.

Now that they are without both Snell and Glasnow, the Dodgers are facing their first true pitching crunch of the season, down to just five healthy starters.

They are hopeful of getting Glasnow back in the somewhat near future, though he has been limited to only flat-ground catch play in recent days and likely remains at least a couple weeks away from returning.

Former top prospect River Ryan is their best option to call up from Triple-A. But he recently missed a month on the minor-league injured list with a hamstring problem and has made just three outings this year in his return from a Tommy John surgery.

Thus, the Dodgers might have to roll with just a five-man rotation for now — which presents complications as they work around the roughly one-start-per-week schedule of their three Japanese pitchers: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani.

It could result in an added short-term strain on their bullpen, which had to cover all nine innings of Friday’s game after Snell was scratched.

But if things go as the Dodgers hope, Snell might not be out as long as initially feared, raising the possibility of their pitching staff getting back to full strength at some point this summer.

“He said he was just excited to have a date on the calendar [for the surgery],” Roberts said of Snell, whom he has communicated with via text, “to get it taken care of, get back to playing catch and getting back to joining us.”

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