Category: Sports News

The Braves are back in town for one game against the White Sox to finish a series from June 11. The White Sox have already taken the first two games and have a chance to sweep the Braves this afternoon. Atlanta was just swept by the Twins after losing two of three to the Diamondbacks, so ideally that trend will carry over today.

The Good Guys are back to their regular pitching rotation today with Anthony Kay on the mound. Since the team no longer has today off and went deep into the bullpen during the Crosstown Classic, a lengthy outing from Kay would give the relief corps a much-needed break. Sam Antonacci is back in the leadoff spot today, Drew Romo is behind the plate, and it’s Montgomery squared with Braden and Colson hitting back-to-back.

Grant Holmes (7-5) will be on the mound for the visiting team. Holmes is fresh off a poor start in which he gave up six hits, six earned runs and three walks in 3 2/3 frames in a 10-3 loss against Arizona. Holmes was also the starter for the June 9 game against the White Sox.

First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. CT. You can watch the game on CHSN or listen on ESPN Chicago 1000.

Back on July 7, with the Mets toiling at 38-53 and the writing on the wall ahead of an eventual trade deadline, sell-off, I wrote that the lost 2026 season seemed more like an isolated nightmare than the start of a prolonged downturn. 

That was a hard sell at the time, given the recent firing of manager Carlos Mendoza and the freshness of the failed campaign -- following an offseason where president of baseball operationsDavid Stearns engineered wholesale changes to the roster and coaching staff.

But the main thesis of my argument was that, while Stearns had seemingly miscalculated a number of things, nearly everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong.

In April, there was a season-crushing, aberrational 12-game losing streak that coincided with Juan Soto's first calf injury of the year.

Freddy Peralta, acquired in the offseason to help lead the rotation, inexplicably posted a 4.99 ERA in 22 starts for New York before being traded to the Rays, where he has a 7.53 ERA in three starts. 

Major injuries hit not only the players who had checkered injury histories (such as Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr.), but those who were almost always healthy (including Francisco Lindorand Soto). New York lost one of its most important pitchers and clubhouse leaders (Clay Holmes) to a freak injury when his leg was broken by a line drive in the middle of May, throwing the rotation into disarray. 

Nearly every bounce back candidate (Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga, and David Peterson) had flopped.  

Bo Bichette, potentially due to a bit of an adjustment period on a new team in a new city while learning a new position, started off very poorly at the plate, and didn't get his legs under him until June. 

Through July 7, the Mets had also been unlucky, including a 9-16 record in one-run games that was shocking given how good their bullpen was. In other words, it seemed like something that would revert to the mean -- along with their injury luck and some better performance from players who were too good to be that bad.

New York's BABIP to that point was the second-worst in baseball. And the difference between their wOBA (weighted on-base average) and xwOBA (expected weighted on base average) was also massive. The Mets' xwOBA was .322, which was 11th in MLB. Their actual wOBA was .299, which ranked 29th. That 23-point spread was tied with the Mariners and Reds for biggest gap between actual production and expected production.

To be clear, this is in no way meant to excuse the Mets' play over the first three months of the season, which was often uninspired and sloppy. But it was quite clear that all was not lost, that there was a foundation in place that could help New York turn things around quickly and -- with some offseason reinforcements -- contend again in 2027.

Since July 8, the Mets' record is 20-16. They are 17-13 since the All-Star break, and 11-4 since the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

Their record in one-run games during that span is 5-4, with the Mets' outcome in tight contests normalizing.

The Mets' wOBA since July 8 is .319 (11th-best in the majors), while their xwOBA is .309 -- a spread that is more indicative of their talent than the wild 23-point spread they had prior.

Bo Bichette looks like Bo Bichette, with a .313/.357/.457 triple slash since June 18, Lindor (whose career was left for dead by some because he had a rough 10 days to start the season) has an .802 OPS since returning from the IL, Manaea has a 3.71 ERA and has regained his velocity since returning to the rotation on June 13, and Senga is excelling in a late-inning relief role.

If you go all the way back to June 25, which was the day after Lindor was activated from a two-plus month IL stint, the Mets are a .500 team. And if they win on Friday against the White Sox, their record since May 1 will be 49-49. That's nothing to write home about given their initial expectations, but certainly not a hopeless disaster that is doomed for seasons to come.

So it's fair to say things have evened out.

But the most promising thing about the 2026 Mets has been the emergence of the homegrown players who look like they'll be mainstays.

There's Carson Benge coming into his own offensively while unleashing seeds from right field to nail runners at the plate, A.J. Ewing emerging as an answer in the outfield, Nolan McLean displaying moxie and often dominating near the top of the rotation, Christian Scott missing bats at an elite rate in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, and Zac Thornton impressing at the back of the rotation.

Since the trade deadline, which saw New York deal nearly one-third of its active roster (including four key bullpen members), the remade relief corps with Senga now at the back end hasn't missed a beat. Left-hander Nate Lavender's swing-and-miss stuff has translated, Daniel Duarte has emerged as a legitimate option, and jumping Jefry Yan is firing 100 mph fastballs.

Meanwhile, most of the prospects the Mets got back in their deadline deals have been on fire since joining the organization. That includes Jefferson Rojas, who could figure prominently in the second base mix next season. Another possible second base option in the near future is Mitch Voit, New York's first-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, who has been having an offensive breakout since being promoted to Binghamton.

With all of this as a backdrop, the Mets are playing a crisp, fun, exciting brand of baseball that has reignited the fanbase -- making these technically meaningless (barring a miracle) late-season games at Citi Field something to look forward to.

That's because when you squint just a bit, it's easy to see that this has been coming together for months, and that many of the players who are helping to author this change should figure prominently in 2027. While this season will not be remembered fondly, it might be a year that is eventually looked back on as the start of things coming together -- even if it took longer for the Mets to get there than they originally hoped.

Amid the summer heat, and on a Monday no less, the Yankees announced they were placing Max Fried on the injured list. The news broke with a very general release saying the move was retroactive to Friday and due to a left elbow bone bruise. The same injury that cost Fried two months already this year.

Since Monday was an off day, we had to wait a full night and day before we got to hear from Aaron Boone on the news. When he was finally in front of the cameras, the skipper downplayed the news and made it seem like Fried and the team, or a collective “we,” made the decision for an injured list stint. Us fans were then treated to four good innings from Carlos Rodón, which made the place start skipping his last rehab start like Fried did on his way back.

On Wednesday, Boone went on a podcast and said that Fried did not want to miss time and further downplayed how serious the injury appears to be at the current time. He doubled down on the idea that the team wanted to ensure they did not let a little thing become a big thing. The slight shift in message and the big shift in tone make it feel like a game of telephone.

However, this relatively consistent information and positive reassurance should make us feel better, right? But I cannot be alone in wondering why this does not make me feel any better.

After consideration, I have decided I, or the collective “we,” have some traumatic, or probably just dramatic, fan stress disorder. This can most realistically be traced back to the first time for many of us when the Yankees punted the season and sold off players at the deadline. One of those acquired players was Clint Frazier.

Many have their opinions on Frazier. The nuts and bolts of it are that he went on to have an injury-riddled career stemming mostly from a concussion suffered with the Yankees in 2018. The team pushed the star prospect narrative hard on us and then quickly blamed injuries as the cause for his washout. Frazier has since publicly criticized how the Yankees handled his injuries and given legs to the “we can’t trust the team” argument for many fans.

Frazier was really just the visible part of the iceberg. Anthony Rizzo is the big chunk and main cause of our still-prevalent angst. Remember watching Rizzo get absolutely trucked and then play like a shell of himself for over a month back in 2023? Rizzo was officially diagnosed with a concussion after playing 46 games.

I am not a medical doctor, but the eye test, numbers, and quick decline raised alarms in all of us, it seemed, other than the team itself. Before the collision, Rizzo had an .880 OPS. During that month-plus, his OPS was .496. It made many of us feel like they simply needed to save the player from himself, if nothing else.

In the 2025 season, we got essentially the combination of Frazier and Rizzo with Anthony Volpe’s injury. The former star prospect was clearly battling something for essentially the whole year. Boone pounded the table for his young shortstop all season, and they kept saying it was not the issue.

Then, following the season, surgery revealed Volpe’s shoulder injury was far more extensive than what their initial in-season MRIs had indicated. Cashman, in the most Cashman way, even admitted that it was likely part of the issue after all. So another player clearly fought through an injury for a large stretch of the season, with the team trying to tell us logic, data, and our own eyes were not adding up correctly. Volpe might not be much better than his performance in 2025, but the team should have given the young man a break instead of cortisone and hope.

Sebastian Junger himself could have written the perfect storm of injuries the Yankees have had during the 2026 season and how they directly contribute to the reluctance to accept the Yankees’ optimism on Fried. When Giancarlo Stanton goes down with soft-tissue stuff, it is hard to put a date on his return. Then you have the Yankees captain, who prefers to stay private in his affairs. Since the team likely lacks a true ETA on Stanton and has respected Aaron Judge’s wishes about return timetables, both situations only further fuel all of our stomach aches.

That brings us full circle back to Fried. A recurring injury. But not a big injury this time. A move meant to make sure a little thing does not become a thing, even though it was already once a pretty big thing not long ago and is usually a precursor for a really big thing. Ugh.

How the team has handled injuries in the past, and the way it communicates, has led us to this point. Will Fried, Stanton, or Judge come back this season? Will any of them end up having surgery in the offseason? Your guess is as good as any.

And if you feel hesitant to buy into the injury optimism with Fried, I am with you. I want to accept the optimism, but recent history makes it hard to take the positive news without at least a grain of salt.

Game three in the ballpark of the damned. This is game #129. It is starting to get serious.

I spent a fair bit of time, this morning, cleaning a fish tank. I had a few fish in it and then we went on holiday, with my son looking after the house. Well, the filter stopped working and he didn’t notice until way too late. I kept it going until the last fish died (he was a fighter) and now I’m trying to make it livable again.

I’m not sure I’m really a fish guy, but I’m going to refill it with water tomorrow and hopefully, in a week or two add fish.

Today’s lineup:

Worcester: W, 9-7 (BOX SCORE)

The entire farm won on Wednesday, but we’re seeing in real time what happens to the WooSox pitching staff when the Red Sox lose a portion of their arms to injury. The Triple-A club used six pitchers in Syracuse (Mets AAA), and only a pair of them – Sam McWilliams and Hobie Harris – came out of their inning of work unscathed. Early home runs allowed also had the WooSox scrapping early, but the lineup was up for the challenge. Trevor Story, in what may have been his last rehab game, went 2-4 and drove a run in, Romy Gonzalez hit a 3-run shot, and everyone in the starting lineup had a knock including a rehabbing Iaiah Kiner-Falefa. Story’s impending return to the Major League club now raises the question of who is returning to Worcester out of their cluttered infield. Most may point to Nick Sogard, who got his first Major League home run Wednesday, and some may opt to demote Anthony Seigler, as he’s on an option year anyway and has been slumping of late. Time well tell.

Portland: W, 6-4 (BOX SCORE)

The Sea Dogs also got less length out of their starter than desired, but their bullpen carried them to a pretty solid performance they could hit behind. Two first-inning home runs off of the Reading (Phillies AA) pitching staff set the tone. Those dingers were courtesy of Henry Godbout – again! – and Justin Gonzales, who certainly has made his hype viable as 2026 has progressed. Tyler McDonough essentially called game in the fifth inning with a 3-run shot, his sixteenth total between Double-A and Triple-A, and the bullpen held solid. Portland is now officially on a winning streak.

Greenville: W, 5-1 (BOX SCORE)

Have a night, Brady Tygart! Jacob Mayers dazzled in his start, striking seven Dash (White Sox High-A) batters out in his ten outs. The 23-year-old righty from Arkansas said “hold my gatorade”, went out and struck out ten. The Drive as a whole allowed just four hits and struck twenty out. It’s easy to win with pitching like that, and while Greenville had just five hits of their own, three were with runners in scoring position, including Jake Schaffner’s RBI knock. Schaffner is really seeing the ball well in his first month playing professional ball.

Salem: W, 8-0 (BOX SCORE)

The RidgeYaks now have 29 runs in the last 24 hours. Andrews Opata, the base stealing machine, showed he also has some power in him, taking the Warbirds (Brewers A) deep on a three-run blast. He’d get a fourth RBI by grounding into a sac double play later on. But, with this Salem pitching, it was never going to be close. Christian Foutch got his first professional win through five innings of one-hit ball, and Ethan Walker came in and wasn’t hit for the rest of the game. The pair allowed just one total base all the way back in the first inning and only walked three. Wilson did not have an at-bat with a runner in scoring position in the game; so far, this series has been a complete domination by the RidgeYaks.

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Games are going off all day long! Even with a small slate in front of us, there's still plenty of value in the MLB player props market.

Join me as I break down three of my favorite MLB picksfor Thursday, Aug. 20, including why I expect Pete Alonso to go nuclear again.

Best MLB player props today

Player	Pick	Odds
Taylor Trammell	Over 0.5 Hits, Runs, RBI	-148
Pete Alonso	Over 1.5 Hits, Runs, RBI	-109
Grant Holmes	Over 2.5 Earned Runs	+118

Taylor Trammell Over 0.5 hits, runs, RBI (-148)

HALF. HALF a hit, run, and/or RBI. HALF!!!

Right out the gate, you can get Houston Astros outfielder Taylor Trammell to record a hit at a great price, but for HALF an HRR, this is a great price to pay.

Trammell enters Thursday with an elite rating on Batters-Box's current season dataset. Over his last 60 at-bats against right-handed pitching, he owns a .500 SLG and 15% walk rate while generating a 51.6% hard-hit rate and 22.6% barrel rate. Over the last 10 days, the Astros' outfielder has been racking up a bunch of hard-hit outs, with one triple sprinkled in there.

If Trammell makes contact against Los Angeles Angels right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, he should be due for at least a base hit. Rodriguez has allowed left-handed hitters to produce a 49.1% hard-hit rate, 33% ground-ball rate, and 1.76 HR/9. Those lefties also own a .310 xBA, .506 xSLG, and .360 xwOBA against him.

Take this down to -150, or pivot to just a hit.

• Time: 8:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: SCHN, ABTV

Pete Alonso Over 1.5 hits, runs, RBI (-109)

We're going right back to Baltimore Orioles slugger Pete Alonso after he cashed for us last night while nearly providing another home run late in the game. This evening against New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole he's in another great spot with an even better price tag.

So far this season, when rated elite on Batters-Box, Alonso has gone Over this prop 68.18% of the time, which comes from a 22-game sample size. Alonso also covers over 85% of Cole's arsenal, which is huge. On top of that, the big fella owns a 1.000 SLG and .500 ISO while producing a 67.7% hard-hit rate and 22.6% barrel rate over his last 10 games.

Cole, on the other hand, comes with some concerning underlying metrics against right-handed hitters that Alonso should be able to exploit. Over the last 30 right-handed hitters he's faced, Cole is allowing a 50% hard-hit rate and 36.4% ground-ball rate, while those hitters have produced a .445 xBA and .604 xSLG.

Even with Alonso going yard yesterday, the price for him to go over 1.5 HRR is simply too good to pass up this evening. Take this down to -120.

• Time: 6:35 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: YES, MASN

Grant Holmes Over 2.5 earned runs (+118)

Despite the Chicago White Sox's tough week at Wrigley, their bats have been red-hot. Over their last 12 games, the team's lineup sports a 131 wRC+, .361 wOBA, and .818 OPS. This afternoon White Sox enter with the third-highest-rated offense, according to Batters-Box, with two elite-rated hitters and four with strong ratings.

The Atlanta Braves send right-hander Grant Holmes to the mound, who owns the third-worst pitcher rating on the slate. On top of that, he get poorly rated matchup ISO, hard-hit, and strikeout rates. The Braves' hurler owns a 5.04 xERA and 1.38 WHIP while allowing a 43.59% hard-hit rate and 11.54% barrel rate over his last five starts. With the White Sox's lineup featuring seven left-handed hitters, combined with Holmes' 4.55 xERA against lefties, this matchup screams early runs for Chicago.

Take this down to +110 at the most, or pivot to White Sox first-five team total over 2.5.

• Time: 2:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: CHSN, BravesVsn

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

The St. Louis Cardinals wrap up the Cincinnati part of their road trip Thursday afternoon as they take on the Reds at Great American Ball Park. Michael McGreevy will start the game for the Cardinals while the Reds will turn to RHP Brady Singer. First pitch is scheduled for 11:40am central time and the game broadcast will be available through Cardinals.tv.