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It’s Wednesday night here at BCB After Dark: the coolest spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Thank you for taking time out to visit with us. We always like to see a friendly face. There’s no cover charge. We still have a few tables available. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

Last night, I asked you about a proposed trade for Tarik Skubal. The deal, which sent four players to Detroit, was considered too rich for your blood as 84 percent of you said you wouldn’t make that deal.

The Cubs did make a deal for a starting pitcher tonight and it’s not Tarik Skubal. We’ll get to that in a little bit.

Here’s the part with the jazz and the movies. You’re free to skip ahead if you want. Or skip the baseball stuff at the end. You’re free to read this however you want.

Tonight we’re featuring legendary vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater singing “Bye Bye Blackbird” in Berlin in 1997.

I’ve been watching a lot of World Cup games this past week, so I’ve only had a chance to watch one film: director Gary Hustwit’s 2024 documentary Eno on former Roxy Music member, ambient music pioneer and producer to much of the great music of the last 50 years, Brian Eno. Oh, he’s also famous for being a crossword puzzle clue. I could write about Eno tonight, but for reasons that will become clear when I do write about it, I really need to see it at least twice before writing on it. And I can’t watch it again until next week–again, for reasons that will become clear when I do write about it.

If anyone has seen Eno somewhere other than on the Criterion Channel, I want to know about it. Preferably before I write about it.

So I thought I’d just throw things open to you right now, in honor of the World Cup, for you to talk about your favorite non-baseball sports movies. We’ve gone over baseball movies lots of times and honestly, I don’t think any sport works as well on the screen as baseball, with the possible exception of boxing. But there are good non-baseball sports movies. Slap Shot is one of my favorite films. Hoop Dreams is a documentary, but it’s a great movie. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen Raging Bull, but I need to see that film again. I loved it the first time I saw it back in the eighties.

So if you want, share some of your favorite sports films, not baseball edition. I’m pretty confident most of you will list Space Jam, but we will see.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.

I don’t have to tell you that the Cubs have had major issues with injuries to the starting rotation. The bullpen has taken their hits too, but the Cubs’ have lost Cade Horton for the season, Jameson Taillon a few weeks ago for at least two months and Edward Cabrera and Ben Brown went to the injured list today. Matthew Boyd has been out months and is only making his return tomorrow/today.

So the Cubs need a starting pitcher and they made a move for one tonight.

Later reports have the Cubs sending corner infielder Cole Mathis to the Mets for Peterson.

There’s a lot to unpack there. Peterson has been a Met throughout his entire career and last year he made the National League All-Star team. That was mostly because he was 6-4 with a 3.05 ERA in the first half of 2025.

Peterson kind of fell off a cliff in the second half of 2025, putting up a 6.34 ERA in 12 starts. This year, Peterson has lost his spot in the Mets starting rotation as he sports a 6.09 ERA in eight starts and eight relief appearances.

However, there is reason to think that Peterson could be much better with the Cubs than that with the Mets.

Peterson’s walk percentage is slightly up this year and his strikeout percentage is slightly down. However, the difference in the two is small enough (9.0% to 9.4% and 20.7% to 19.7%) that that could just be random fluctuation. He’s not a hard-thrower, but there’s been no drop in velocity on his pitches this year. His hard-hit rate is down as well as the average velocity he’s giving up on balls in play.

In fact, it seems that the Mets’ crappy infield defense might be a huge reason for Peterson’s struggles this year. You’ve seen that terrible defense this week as the Cubs play the Mets and Peterson is the kind of pitcher who needs his defense to make plays behind him to be effective. His batting average on balls-in-play has jumped from .293 in 2024 and .316 last year to .350 this year. His “strand rate” is way down this year as well. Maybe he’s just not pitching as well with men on base, but with a veteran like Peterson, it seems more likely that it’s just random chance. Or the Mets’ crappy defense again.

In any case, while Peterson’s ERA this year is a poor 6.09, his FIP is a very solid 3.85. With that ground ball rate, Peterson seems exactly like the type of pitcher to benefit from the Cubs’ elite defense.

Peterson is a free agent at the end of the year, so this is a rental.

Going the other way is corner infielder Cole Mathis, 22, the Cubs’ second-round pick in 2024. Mathis is currently on the injured list, where he’s spent much of his professional career. Mathis had Tommy John surgery in 2024 and wasn’t able to make his pro debut until the next season. There he was limited to being a DH and even then, only managed to play 29 games in 2025 before the Cubs shut him down until the Arizona Fall League. He was able to play first base in the AFL this past winter.

This year, Mathis has played 39 games between Myrtle Beach and South Bend and has hit .272/.396/.585 with ten home runs. As you might expect, his numbers are much better in Low-A Myrtle Beach and seven of his ten home runs were hit there in almost half as many games.

As you can see from those numbers, Mathis is a solid hitter. He makes a lot of hard contact, mostly on a line. He can draw a walk and doesn’t strike out too much. The Cubs took him in the second round because there’s nice right-handed swing there and some real promise that he can make consistent hard contact.

However, despite the Cubs still insisting that Mathis is a third baseman, he’s only played five games there in his entire professional career. He’s also had trouble staying healthy. He’s a player with some real upside in that he could develop into an average major league hitter with average power, but that there’s some real risk that he’s limited to being a first baseman, where 50 tools on hit and power aren’t going to cut it. Maybe he could be better than that as a hitter. There’s always a chance that a player who makes that kind of contact might have a higher ceiling than that. But there’s also a real chance that Mathis never stays healthy enough the have a major league career, like former Cubs second-round pick Brennen Davis, who was a far more promising prospect than Mathis.

Baseball America ranked Mathis as the Cubs’ 9th-best prospect and MLB Pipeline had him at 13. I put him at nine in my offseason rankings, but I did note that there was a real drop-off after eight in my rankings and that 9 through 18 or 19 could be in almost any order.

So what do you think of the David Robertson trade?

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We’re all in a pretty good mood. I hope you didn’t get in too good a mood and overdo it. Please get home safely. Call a ride if you need to. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip the waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.

They can ignore him no longer. After smashing so many records since breaking through as a 13-year-old, India are likely to hand a debut to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in Friday's first T20 international against Ireland in Belfast.

He will be 15 years and 91 days, younger even than India's most famous teenage prodigy, Sachin Tendulkar, who played a one-day international against Pakistan in 1989, aged 16 years and 205 days.

Given his age, Sooryavanshi will have to change in separate changing rooms from his team-mates for safeguarding reasons.

His imminent debut comes off the back of a stellar season in the Indian Premier League where he was the highest run-scorer with 776 in 16 innings at a strike-rate of 237.30 for the Rajasthan Royals.

Days ago, batting for India A against Sri Lanka A, he broke the record for the fastest half-century in the history of List A 50-over cricket when he reached the landmark off just 11 balls.

But beyond the statistics, what really makes teenage opening batter so special?

To find out, BBC Sport spoke to three legendary former batters - Rahul Dravid, Michael Vaughan and Justin Langer - who have all watched him at close quarters.

'Like a hose in a swimming pool'

Ex-Australia international Justin Langer, coach of Lucknow Super Giants, and was, like Sooryavanshi, a left-handed opener.

"Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is only the second selfie I've ever asked for! The other was with an AFL champion who I used to watch when I was a little kid.

"I said 'I've never done this before in the IPL, but do you mind if we have a selfie together? Because I am in awe of your talent, I'm in awe of your mindset, I'm in awe of the way you play cricket'. Watching him bat is mind-blowing.

"What makes him so special? He's got extraordinary hands. I always say the really great players, their hands are like a hose in a swimming pool.

"He almost does a figure-eight in his hands in his backswing. You know, it's tiny, it's subtle, but they're just so loose.

"A lot of left-handers, when they're trying to hit sixes, they go from the sight screen round to the leg side, which is different with Sooryavanshi who sets up to hit it off side.

"First ball of his IPL career, he hit a six over cover. Not over long-on, not over deep mid-wicket like a lot of left-handers. He hit a six over cover and it went about 20 rows back into the stand.

"This kid not only has the game and the curiosity and hand-eye coordination, but also the hunger to score more and more runs. He is also so humble. That's the mark of a champion player."

'He's fearless, but hits lots of balls'

Former India batter Rahul Dravid was coach of Rajasthan Royals in 2025 and gave Sooryavanshi his IPL debut at 14.

"You're looking at a really unique talent. I think it's an incredible combination of ability to pick up a bowler's speed and then cricket smarts, fearlessness. It's a whole combination of things.

"I don't think there's a recipe for making a Sooryavanshi, I don't think you can take any kid and say, do this, and he will become that good.

"There are certain things they are just gifted with. But he's worked very hard as well, so it's not just a gift.

"From a young age, he's hit a lot of balls. I saw that at Rajasthan.

"I just hope that he's supported and helped along the journey to be able to actually achieve that potential.

"You need to protect someone like him, but it's always going to be that fine line because sometimes you need to let somebody fly."

• Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: The teenager hitting the IPL for six

'Cartoons... and spotting a bowler's cues'

Former England captain Michael Vaughan worked as a commentator during the IPL where he got to see Sooryavanshi up close.

"I actually bumped into him in Mumbai. I had a bit of a fan moment. Honestly, I don't think I've had that since meeting Chris Waddle back in the 1990s!

"We had a great conversation. I asked him 'how did you prepare for the game?' He said 'watching cartoons'. I said 'what do you eat?' He said 'I eat everything!'.

"He clearly has an incredible eye and bat swing, but he's also got an amazing awareness of the cue of the bowler.

"He can assess the field, but as a batter, you see a cue in what the bowler's going to deliver. The real great players can just see it before the ball's released.

"Then he can smack it over extra cover, over deep square leg. He can hit it over third man for six.

"You miss your length by an inch, and he's smacking you out the ground. Forget where the field is, he just hits it over the top of the field.

"Imagine him putting on the whites for India and playing Test cricket."

• 'Why hit a single when you can hit six?' - the making of a teen IPL star
• Sooryavanshi, 15, wins car as he sweeps IPL awards

The Athletics took on the San Francisco Giants in the second game of this three-game interleague series on a breezy summer night in The City by the Bay”.

It looked like Max Muncy’s eighth inning home run would be enough to win this pitching duel. However, the A’s beleaguered bullpen had a final say, blowing its sixth save of June as the Giants rallied with two home runs in the ninth inning for the 2-1 series clinching victory. Not only did the A’s lose a fourth straight game, but they now could be without shortstop Jacob Wilson for another extended period of time.

Pitching Duel

Both pitchers—Giants right-hander Tyler Mahle and A’s left-hander Gage Jump—got off to strong starts, working scoreless first two innings. Jump struck out the side in his first inning of work before stranding a runner at second base in the next inning.

In the bottom of the third, A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz made a nice diving catch to rob Giants’ third baseman Matt Chapman of a base hit. Kurtz then stepped on the bag to complete the unassisted, inning-ending double play.

A’s First Scoring Chance

A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson recorded his team’s first hit off Mahle with a one-out single in the fifth inning. Mahle then walked designated hitter Joey Meneses.

Right fielder Lawrence Butler crushed a ball right to the Giants second baseman Casey Schmitt, who made the catch for the second out. He tried doubling off Wilson at second base, but his throw was wild. Wilson tried scoring on the errant throw, but he was thrown out at home and appeared to hurt himself trying to evade the tag. That was a super aggressive send, especially considering that Wilson is not the fastest runner. He would have been better served staying at third to give the next batter a chance to get a two-out RBI hit.

Jump Dominant Again

Jump pitched exceptionally well once again. He completed five scoreless innings, only allowing three hits and one walk, while accumulating a career-high nine strikeouts. Jump likely would have gone deeper into the game had the Giants not fouled off 30 pitches against the A’s young left-hander. According to A’s MLB.com reporter Martin Gallegos, Jump became the third A’s pitcher in the Integration Era (since 1947) to not allow a home run in their first six career starts, joining Tim Conroy (1978-82) and Jim Archer (1961).

Kurtz Fails to Come Through

With two outs in the sixth, Bolte crushed a double for the A’s first extra-base hit of the evening. That was the final batter Mahle faced. The Giants turned to left-hander Sam Hentges to face Kurtz. Mahle pitched well in his first start off the injured list, holding the A’s scoreless over 5 2/3 innings, striking out four and inducing six groundouts and three fly outs.

Kurtz swung at the first pitch and drove a deep fly ball to center that died at the warning track where center fielder Jonah Cox made the catch. That was the second straight inning in which the A’s just fell short of breaking the deadlock in this pitching duel.

Maximum Muncy!

A’s relievers Justin Sterner and Hogan Harris kept the game scoreless, each tossing a scoreless inning of relief.

With two outs in the top of the eighth inning, A’s third baseman Max Muncy put his team ahead with his fifth home run of the season, a 416-foot shot to center field off Giants reliever Dylan Smith. The solo homer gave the Athletics a 1-0 late lead.

Medina Holds the Lead

In front for the first time tonight, hard-throwing right-hander Luis Medina entered out of the A’s bullpen to pitch the bottom of eighth, hoping to preserve the visitors slim lead. He issued walks to two of the first three batters he faced, with Cox’s sacrifice bunt between them. Medina escaped the jam unscathed by striking out San Francisco’s first baseman Bryce Eldridge and Schmitt.

A’s Rally Fizzles Out

Seeking some insurance runs, Bolte was hit by Smith’s first pitch of the ninth inning. The Giants promptly brought in left-hander Erik Miller to face the “Big Amish”. With one out, Bolte stole second, his ninth stolen base of the season.

The A’s squandered a chance to add a prime insurance opportunity. Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom popped out and then Giants right fielder Jung Hoo Lee took an RBI hit away from backup catcher Jonah Heim, who was pinch-hitting for Wilson. Heim entered the game because the A’s shortstop’s left shoulder was bothering him so much that he could not swing the bat at that moment.

A’s Blow Another Save

Heim stayed in the game to play third base, a position he had never played before.

That did not matter as Athletics reliever Elvis Alvarado quickly blew the save opportunity. San Francisco’s designated hitter Rafeal Devers led off the bottom of the ninth with a game-tying solo home run to center field, his 12th of the season.

The Giants did not want to play extra innings. Alvarado hung a slider in the middle of the plate which left fielder Victor Bericoto crushed for a 445 foot walk-off home run to send Giants fans home happy and leave A’s players and fans dejected.

What looked to be the team’s biggest weakness entering this season has indeed proved their biggest barrier to winning more games. The Athletics still do not have anyone consistently trustworthy at the back of their bullpen. Alvarado’s recent success seems to be wearing off, while the team for some reason designated one of their best performing relievers Joel Kuhnel for assignment earlier this month.

Following this crushing defeat, the Athletics will look to avoid the sweep tomorrow afternoon. Left-hander Jeffrey Springs will take the mound seeking to stop his team’s bleeding and earn his first win since April. He will be opposed by right-hander Landen Roupp, who is 5-7 with a 4.15 ERA through his first 15 starts of the season.

Where has this Tyler Mahle been?

The woeful Giants walked off the A’s, 2-1, with two homers in the ninth, but don’t let that distract you from the biggest development of a foggy Wednesday evening at Oracle Park.

Mahle looked like a totally different pitcher than the one that owned a 1-7 record and 6.04 ERA before a monthlong stint on the injured list with a hamstring strain. Even operating on a pitch limit in his first start back, Mahle needed only 70 to stymie the A’s for 5 ⅔ scoreless innings.

He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, limited the A’s to two total and only put on two other batters via bases on balls. He found the strike zone 44 times, a good sign after throwing strikes on only 33 of his 63 pitches in his one rehab start while walking five.

Before the game, manager Tony Vitello singled out two keys to turning Mahle’s suboptimal start to his Giants tenure around upon his return to the starting rotation.

No.1 Throwing strikes.

No. 2 Getting healthy.

A bit of evidence for the latter: Mahle’s average fastball velocity of 93.2 mph, up 1.2 notches from before the injury,

That was still only enough to match A’s starter Gage Jump, who fanned nine Giants and stranded three hits and a walk over five scoreless innings. Jung Hoo Lee was responsible for two of the Giants’ four hits through eight innings and about their only competitive at-bats, as well as a sensational catch crashing into the chainlink fencing in right field to end the top of the ninth.

The catch proved critical, as it came with runners on and likely prevented the A’s from padding what was a 1-0 lead. That kept the Giants within two swings going into the bottom half.

Rafael Devers delivered one to begin the inning against Elvis Alvarado, and Victor Bericoto provided the second and the walk off blast. Both players knew theirs were gone off the bat.

Devers admired his 416-foot blast to center, but it was no match for Bericoto’s: a 445-foot tank that left his bat at 108.7 mph. Entering the inning, the Giants had hit one ball at 100 mph.

The game remained scoreless into eighth, when Max Muncy squared up an 0-1 fastball from reliever Dylan Smith and knew it was gone as soon as it left his bat at 106.7 mph.

Mahle benefitted from a rollercoaster of a play that ended up in the final out of the fifth being made at home plate to keep the score tied at zero.

The A’s had two on with one out in the inning when Lawrence Butler sent a line drive to second baseman Casey Schmitt. He nabbed it for the second out. But, in an attempt to double up the runner at second, fired wide past the glove of Willy Adames and into left field foul territory.

Jacob Wilson, who was at second, easily made it to third and made the turn home. Awaiting him was the throw from Bericoto, clocked at 93 mph. Wilson attempted to dance around the tag of Eric Haase but wasn’t able to evade him.

What it means

The Giants are finally enjoying some stability in their starting rotation, though it remains to be seen how long it lasts. Mahle’s outing followed back-to-back starts of eight innings apiece from Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, the first time they’ve gotten even six innings from their starters in consecutive games since May 16-17.

If Mahle and Ray keep pitching like this, they will certainly draw interest from teams at the approaching trade deadline. Both starters’ contracts expire after this season, making them obvious candidates to move in the Giants’ impending selloff.

Who’s hot

Lee continued to climb the National League batting leaderboard with two more hits, raising his average to .335. Only the Marlins’ Otto Lopez (.340) is above him.

Lee’s first knock was a line drive double that left his bat at 102.7 mph. He made an out despite hitting the ball just about as hard his second time up, but it all evened out as he legged out a soft hopper up the middle that the shortstop Wilson lost on the transfer for an infield single.

Before the game, Vitello made the case for Lee’s All-Star candidacy. He was not among the top 10 vote-getters among NL outfielders in the latest update released Monday.

“It’s a fans’ game, and I don’t know who’s more fun to watch — [Luis] Arraez or Jungy — but the fan, crowd noise speaks for itself,” Vitello said. “Those guys on both sides of the ball have proven All-Star caliber defense, All-Star caliber offense. … Voting impacts it too, so I guess that’s my small rallying cry.”

Who’s not

The top five spots in the Giants’ lineup were 0-for-17 until Devers tied things up with his homer in the ninth as they struggled to crack the A’s deceptive left-handed starter.

Jump’s dominance helped bring an end to Casey Schmitt’s streak of seven straight multihit games. He would have tied the franchise record with one more but was among the hitless top of the order, including an inning-ending strikeout with two on in the eighth.

It has been a hard time for the Giants to get on the scoreboard much at all since they left Atlanta. They were held to three runs or fewer for the fifth straight game.

Up next

Landen Roupp will look to continue the stretch of strong starting pitching as the Giants look to secure only their first three-game sweep of the season in the series finale set for Thursday at 12:45 p.m.

Roupp is 0-6 with a 5.40 ERA in nine starts since his last win, April 26.

Marcus Semien was brought over to the Mets more for his glove than his bat, but it was his defensive lapses that hurt his team in the second game of New York's doubleheader with the Cubs.

The Mets had six errors -- not to count the number of misplays that were not errors -- in Wednesday night's loss and Semien was charged with two of them. 

The first came in the fourth when he made an errant throw that allowed the Cubs to get runners on the corners with no outs. Chicago would score three runs in that inning.

Semien's second error was a pop-up that he couldn't come down with in the seventh. That one did not cost the Mets any runs, but it was a troubling sight for the 14-year veteran.

The veteran second baseman's two errors alone matched his season total in 127 games a season ago with the Texas Rangers -- a year he won his second Gold Glove award. He's now up to six on the season, all coming in the last 33 games.

When asked what the cause of the defensive errors was, Semien could only point to the attention to detail when playing.

"It’s always going to be attention to detail with defense," he explained. "First step was not great on the first [error]. Seems like when I’m trying to pick the ball up and rush, the throw isn’t good. I feel like it’s a play that I could have saved and got the out and I didn’t. Those ones hurt. 

"Pop-up, same thing, drifted to the ball. The wind was a little funky out there, and just took my eyes off the ball. Those are plays that I want to make, plays that I want to make tomorrow to help us win."

President of baseball operations David Stearns swapped Brandon Nimmo for Semien this offseason to shore up the infield defense. Semien has regressed in that area this season, and is having arguably the worst offensive year of his career. Entering Thursday, Semien will have career worsts in batting (.216), slugging (.348) and OPS (.623). 

Going 1-for-11 with three strikeouts in the first three games of the series with the Cubs didn't help those numbers.

"Today was just a tough day. A tough day all the way around," Semien said. "We didn’t play well for two games. It became frustrating after game one. We wanted to come out to play well in game two and it didn’t happen. That’s mostly what I’m thinking about. Performing way under par today and just want to get back here tomorrow, and play better baseball and get a win."

Wednesday's performance could not have come at a worse time for Semien and the Mets. After being swept by the Cubs in the doubleheader, New York's losing streak is now at five and they are 12 games under .500, a season-low mark for the season.