Worldwide Sports News

Sports Illustrated | Joseph Randazzo: The Yankees bullpen remains the team’s most wobbly unit and it could be getting an exciting internal reinforcement soon. Relaying a report from Joel Sherman of the New York Post, Randazzo noted that Brian Cashman is considering calling up top pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange to provide a boost to a relief corps that could use some more swing-and-miss. Lagrange dazzled in spring with a fastball that reaches as high as 103 mph as well as a much improved slider and changeup. He still has a ways to go in the command department with just a 46.5-percent first-pitch strike rate and 11.5-percent walk rate in 11 appearances at Triple-A, but his high-octane raw stuff is certainly MLB-ready, and his potential call-up is being likened to Joba Chamberlain’s 2007 debut.

MLB.com | Thomas Harrigan: Much of the Yankees’ success this season can be tied to the performance of three homegrown stars. Cam Schlittler, Aaron Judge, and Ben Rice are currently the three most valuable players in baseball by fWAR. Since the start of free agency in 1976, the Yankees have only ever had one season where three homegrown players eclipsed the 5.0 fWAR mark: Andy Pettitte, Alfonso Soriano, and Jorge Posada in 2003. Judge, Schlittler, and Rice are well on pace to eclipse five wins each and could wind up with the greatest ever season by a trio of homegrown Bombers.

NJ Advance Media | Randy Miller: The Yankees raised eyebrows when they decided to bring back Paul Goldschmidt on a one-year, $4 million pact, but so far they have been vindicated in their decision. The 38-year-old has stabilized the DH role with Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Domínguez out injured (enabling Rice to slide over to the DH spot, if not occupying it himself), with six home runs, 18 RBIs, and a 146 wRC+ in 32 games. For his part, Goldschmidt says he is learning to enjoy the small moments of what he called the back nine of his career, and relished the opportunity of getting to suit up for a World Series contender, one of the few prizes that has eluded him in his long and distinguished career.

The Sacramento Bee | Sean Campbell: Last Thursday, Sacramento officials lodged their proposal for an expansion MLB team, and Aaron Judge is a fan. Judge was born outside Sacramento and grew up 40 miles south in Linden, and has enjoyed the opportunity to play in front of family in friends with the A’s playing in West Sacramento the last two seasons. He met with Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarthy prior to their current series against the A’s and learned some of the details of the city’s proposal, Judge calling West Sacramento “great baseball town” deserving of an expansion franchise after the A’s complete their move to Las Vegas.

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The heavily favored New York Yankees look to secure a series win against the Athletics on Sunday.

Will Warren takes the mound after a strong start to the season, and our Yankees vs. Athletics predictions expect his ground-ball profile to help produce a low-scoring game and a comfortable Yankees victory.

Read on for my MLB picks for Sunday, May 31. 

Who will win Yankees vs A's today: Yankees -1.5 (+105)

The New York Yankees send Will Warren to the mound against an Athletics lineup heavily vulnerable to high-spin horizontal movement.

Warren owns a 3.17 xERA through 11 starts, with his newly optimized 29-degree vertical release slot allowing his 3,005 RPM sweeper to break an elite 17.3 inches horizontally away from right-handed barrels.

Athletics starter Jacob Lopez carries a 3.90 xERA and has struggled to miss bats consistently.

With New York's bullpen leading the majors with a 54.2% rolling groundball rate to insulate the late innings, the cushion is there. Play the Yankees -1.5 to -105. 

COVERS INTEL:Jacob Lopez (3.90 xERA) sits in the bottom fifth percentile for fastball velocity at 90.5 MPH. A Yankees lineup running a 128 rolling wRC+ will punish that early and often. 

Yankees vs A's Over/Under pick: Under 10.5 (-130)

Warren's 29-degree release slot doesn't just generate horizontal break; it suppresses launch angle. 

His ground ball profile, combined with New York's bullpen leading the majors at 54.2% rolling groundball rate, means the score is built to stay low.

Lopez sits in the bottom fifth percentile for fastball velocity at 90.5 MPH, but allows soft contact, not hard damage. His slider-heavy approach produces the same result from the other side.

Two ground-ball-oriented staffs, two contact-suppressing starters, and a 10.5 total that assumes both offenses perform at peak level. They won't on this pitching. Play the Under to 9.5. 

Yankees vs A's odds

• Moneyline: Yankees -144 | A's +138
• Run line: Yankees -1.5 (-100) | A's +1.5 (-104)
• Over/Under: Over 10.5 (+108) | Under 10.5 (-122)

Yankees vs A's trend

The Yankees are 9-2 when Will Warren starts a game in 2026. Find more MLB betting trends for Yankees vs. A's.

How to watch Yankees vs A's and game info

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It was a rough game for the Guardians on Saturday. Travis Bazzana went 2-4 with two doubles, and José Ramírez went 1-3 with an RBI double and a walk. Petey Halpin also went 2-4 with a double. Other than that, it was a really tough day for the offense. I’m not worried about them long term, but a lot of guys are in slumps at the same time which isn’t ideal.

Parker Messick did typical Parker Messick things, his ERA is down to 2.21 after allowing just one earned run in his 5 innings pitched. Matt Festa continues to struggle this year, he kind of got bailed out tonight by a weird home run overturn. Will Dion had a pretty rough outing that put the game way out of reach for the Guardians.

The Guardians will look to take the series Sunday at 1:40 pm ET. It will be Tanner Bibee vs Ranger Suarez.

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As someone who played the game himself, Aaron Boone knows that diagnosing and fixing a hitter’s slump is easier said from the dugout than done from the batter’s box.

But as Austin Wells has continued to sink deeper into an offensive rut, Boone believes he knows what is ailing the Yankees catcher.

“I feel like he’s making a conscious effort to go the other way so much,” Boone said. “When that happens, sometimes you end up waiting, and you don’t get started, you don’t make your move. Everyone’s a little bit different in how they load and things like that. But sometimes you can get stuck and it’s just, ‘Go.’ So I don’t feel like he’s been as accurate as he should be on some pitches.

“From my eye, and sometimes it gets easier from the side or whatever, I feel like it’s as simple as that. I feel like if he gets started and gets on time, he’s got the ability to be impactful. That’s my expectation and hopefully he can string some at-bats together where he starts to feel that and he can take off.”

Boone had Wells out of the lineup Friday — with J.C. Escarra continuing to eat into some of his playing time of late — following Thursday’s team off day, hoping that the double day off could serve as a reset of sorts.

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Because as important as Wells has been behind the plate and in calling games for one of the best pitching staffs in the majors, his lack of offense has become increasingly troubling.

Going 1-for-2 in Saturday night’s 6-4 loss to the Athletics raised his average and OPS to .180 and .568, respectively, through 43 games.

Wells’ underlying metrics do not suggest he has just been unlucky, either. He was hitting balls hard and drawing his fair share of walks during the first month of the season, but both of those areas have taken a downturn in May.

“As a hitter, you got to get started, you got to have a move, you got to have a hitch or a load that allows you to be aggressive,” Boone said. “I’m getting way in the weeds and it’s not going to make sense, but you got to be able to shut down and have brakes, as I would call it. He’s got that ability, but I feel like he’s been a little stale and trying to be too, ‘Wait, see it, go the other way,’ and then it’s just, ‘Go,’ and you end up beat.”

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Yankees nearly pulled off a miraculous ninth-inning comeback Saturday night by almost never swinging the bat.

It ultimately fell short, making for a tough 6-4 loss to the Athletics at Sutter Health park, but not before a wild finish.

The Yankees entered the ninth inning trailing 6-1 and A’s reliever Jack Perkins got it started by striking out Paul Goldschmidt. Ryan McMahon then hit a bloop single and J.C. Escarra walked before Anthony Volpe struck out.

From that point on, over the final 28 pitches of the game, the Yankees swung just twice and it almost proved to be a winning recipe against the wild A’s bullpen.

Perkins walked Trent Grisham on five pitches to load the bases before Scott Barlow entered and walked Ben Rice, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger, each on a full count, to force in three runs. Of that group. Judge had the only swing, taking a big hack through a curveball in the zone.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. then worked a 2-2 count on Barlow before grounding out, stranding the tying run on second base.

“Just great at-bats to give us a chance there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “To not only get the tying run to the plate but then have the go-ahead runs on base there at the end, just a lot of patient, real quality at-bats, forcing them to come into the zone.”

The Yankees’ six baserunners in the ninth inning came after they had nine through the first eight innings combined.

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“There was a lot of belief that we were going to come through and do it,” McMahon said. “It didn’t go our way, but putting pressure on a team like that, they’ll remember that, and next time we’re down, hopefully we come through.”

The Yankees played a man short Saturday night and likely will again on Sunday after Amed Rosario was placed on the paternity list shortly before the game.

The utilityman left clubhouse in street clothes a few hours before first pitch to head home for the birth of his child, and because of the timing, it did not make sense to fly a replacement cross-country just for Sunday’s series finale before the Yankees return home for an off day Monday.

Players may take up to three days on the paternity list, meaning Rosario could be back on the active roster by the time the Yankees open a homestand on Tuesday against the Guardians.

Since going through an 0-for-24 skid earlier this month, McMahon finished Saturday batting 9-for-29 (.310) with a .965 OPS over his last eight games.

“Just trying to trust it,” McMahon said. “This game’s extremely hard. Just trying to work every single day so I can go out there and try to do things to help the team win.”

With a pair of walks, Grisham has now reached base multiple times in each of his last four games and seven of his last nine.

His on-base percentage was up to .329, the highest it had been since April 13.

Luis Severino landed on the 15-day injured list Saturday with a right shoulder strain after leaving Friday’s game against his old teammates before the second inning started.

Welcome back to the best version of Roki Sasaki.

And, in a frustrating setback for the Dodgers, the worst version of Tanner Scott.

Entering the eighth inning at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night in Los Angeles, the red-hot Dodgers seemed to be rolling to a seventh-straight win and a series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

They had gotten 5 ⅓ spectacular innings from Sasaki, who rediscovered 100 mph life on his fastball for the first time this year. They were also protecting a two-run lead, thanks to some big outs from relievers Alex Vesia and Kyle Hurt in the prior two innings.

That’s when Scott came trotting in, trying to extend a 12 ⅓ inning scoreless streak that resembled nothing of the career-worst campaign he endured last season.

Instead, the veteran left-hander quickly imploded in a 4-3 defeat, succumbing to the exact same two-strike issues that plagued him through so much of his 2025 struggles.

He got leadoff man Justin Crawford in an 0-2 hole, before throwing a low slider that was hit for a single.

With two outs in the inning, he was ahead of Bryce Harper in a 1-2 count, but threw a down-and-in fastball that the two-time MVP ripped to right for an RBI single.

In the next at-bat, Scott got to two strikes again against Edmundo Sosa, this time trying to climb the ladder with a putaway fastball. His heater, however, stayed in Sosa’s “wheelhouse,” as manager Dave Roberts acknowledged. 

Sosa walloped it to left for a go-ahead two-run home run.

“We were trying to go up and I thought I could get it high enough, [but] I left it too much in the zone,” Scott said. “Just a bad pitch.”

Just like that, the Dodgers had squandered a lead they had held since Santiago Espinal’s sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, and extended on an RBI single from Mookie Betts in the seventh.

Even worse, they let Sasaki’s one-run, three-hit, seven-strikeout gem go to waste, snapping a season-long winning streak that had seemed so certain to continue.

What it means

For the first time since the start of the Dodgers’ recent 13-3 tear, their bullpen finally faltered.

In the previous two losses of that stretch, lackluster offense had been to blame. The bullpen, meanwhile, had been almost flawless, at one point setting a club record with a 38-inning scoreless streak.

On Saturday, however, the loss fell most squarely on Scott, marking the first time this season he took the mound with a lead and failed to protect it.

“[When] you get count leverage, then you have to be able to put them away,” Roberts said. “And tonight we couldn’t do that.”

Who’s hot

Sasaki, especially with his fastball.

From the very start of the night, the right-handed phenom had found renewed life on his four-seamer. In his very first at-bat against Kyle Schwarber, he hit 99 mph twice, then eclipsed 100 mph for the first time since he was pitching out of the bullpen in last year’s playoffs.

Sasaki would keep lighting up the radar gun the rest of the game, averaging a season-best 98.5 mph with his heater.

It allowed him to attack the Phillies’ star-studded lineup in a way he has rarely been able to as a big-league starter, bouncing back from a second-inning home run from Alec Bohm by retiring the next 13 batters he faced consecutively.

Sasaki’s night only ended after back-to-back one-out singles in the sixth, forcing manager Dave Roberts’ hand with a couple left-handed hitters on deck. But Alex Vesia escaped that jam, preserving what was only Sasaki’s third one-run start this year.

In his last three outings overall, Sasaki has now posted a 2.08 ERA in 17 ⅓ innings, while striking out 19 batters and walking only three.

For the first time this season, he had 100 mph heat to go along with it, marking the most encouraging step yet in his continued growth process in the big leagues.

Who’s not

While Scott was the main culprit, the Dodgers’ offense didn’t help matters either.

Despite racking up nine hits –– including three from Betts –– the club failed to cash in on several chances and went just 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

Kyle Tucker’s 0-for-4 loomed particularly large, especially after he took pregame batting practice on the field for the first time this season in hopes of finding a better feel for his swing.

Instead, he left two runners aboard by grounding out to end the first inning, then failed to get Betts home after a one-out double in the third. He also recorded the final out of the seventh, rolling over to second base again right after Betts had pushed the Dodgers’ lead to 3-1.

With that, Tucker’s season batting average is back down to .236, amid a 1-for-16 slump since the start of this homestand.

“It’s a work in progress,” Roberts said of the $240 million slugger. “I think he’s frustrated with his swing [and was] really getting beat on some pitches today, not hitting it hard.”

Up next

The Dodgers will try to salvage this series in a Sunday afternoon rubber match, when Yoshinobu Yamamoto (4-4, 3.09 ERA) faces off against right-hander Andrew Painter (1-5, 5.40 ERA).

Well, there’s honestly not so much to say about this one. Ryne Nelson was going for us today, which I actually felt pretty good about, given that the Ryno had pitched at least seven innings in his last three starts, and was rocking an ERA right around 2.70 for the month of May. He was going up against Bryan Woo, a very talented Seattle right-hander who’s been pretty good but who has had a middle-of-the-road performance so far this year, much like the rest of the Mariners’ ballclub.

Sadly, though, tonight it was no contest.

It started off okay, or it seemed to. Ketel Marte led off the game by making good contact on the first pitch Woo threw him for a fading liner into shallow right. I thought it was going to drop for a hit, but Mariners’ right fielder Luke Raley made a nice diving-ish catch to snag it just before it landed in the right field grass. Corbin Carroll then struck out looking, and Geraldo Perdomo struck out looking, getting Woo out of the top of the first with all of ten pitches thrown.

Ryne Nelson matched him, sorta, and even did better, sorta—he gave up a leadoff single, but then induced a one-pitch double play and then a lineout to Tommy Troy in left to face the minimum with only eight pitches thrown. So that was cool….maybe it would be a pitching duel.

Woo came out for the second, however, and promptly struck out Gabriel Moreno, Adrian Del Castillo, and Ryan Waldschmidt on fifteen total pitches. So, six batters faced, and after what turned out to be a lineout he struck out the next five. Yeah. It was all like that.

Meanwhile, Ryne Nelson stumbled in the bottom of the second. After getting a one-pitch flyout to start things off, he allowed a solo home run to Raley, who sent a middle-middle fastball over the wall in right center. One out later, he threw a hanging curveball to old friend Dominic Canzone for the same result. 2-0 Seattle

Woo recorded three more outs in order against the bottom of our lineup in the top of the third, though in what seemed like it might be a hopeful sign (SPOILER: it wasn’t), there were no strikeouts involved. In the bottom of the inning, though, Nelson pretty much repeated what he’d done in the previous inning, surrendering his third solo homer to Mariners’ rookie and nine-hole hitter Colt Emerson, and then his fourth one out later to Julio Rodriguez. 4-0 Seattle

But the real story, aside from all the jokes that erupted in the Gameday Thread about “solo homers won’t lose you the game” and so forth, was really Bryan Woo, who continued to deal. He retired the top of our order again in the fourth, continuing what was to that point a perfect game. That, thankfully, was broken up with one out in the top of the fifth, as Adrian Del Castillo lined a single to center, and then, after Waldschmidt grounded to third but beat the throw that would have resulted in an inning-ending double play, Ildemaro Vargas singled to center. That was that, though, as Jose Fernandez, playing third after Nolan Arenado was a late scratch from the lineup, struck out looking to end our one threat. Woo then retired the Diamondbacks in order in both the sixth and the seventh. We could do nothing against the dude.

Nelson, meanwhile, settled down, I suppose, at least insofar as he stopped giving up solo dingers to random Mariners. He pitched around traffic in both the fourth and the fifth, but managed to put up zeroes in both frames, and given that he’d actually been very efficient, he was only at 78 pitches after five innings of work so he came out to start the sixth. Sadly, however, it did not go well, though this time it was not entirely his fault. Randy Arozarena hung a seven-pitch AB on him to start the frame, but hit an easy grounder to Jose Fernandez for what should have been the first out of the inning. Fernandez, however, air-mailed the throw to first, putting Arozarena on second on the two-base error. Luke Raley then singled to left to advance Arozarena to third, and a Cole Young sac fly to right scored him. All that mishegaas brought Nelson to 99 pitches, and with only the one out recorded, Torey Lovullo swapped him out for Ryan Thompson. Thompson gave up a double down the left field line to Canzone, but recorded the last two outs without any further damage. 5-0 Seattle

And you might think that that would be your ballgame—I expected it to be, myself. Woo was basically unstoppable through his seven innings of work, and our offense, which was basically everywhere all the time when they were needed over the last three series, were nowhere to be found. Their bullpen did their job, our bullpen did its job, with Thompson pitching a second scoreless inning for us and Taylor Clarke putting up a zero in the bottom of the eighth, and us squandering a leadoff single from Waldschmidt in the eighth and then going down to our last out with Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll making easy outs on the infield to start the ninth.

But no! While everyone else on the team would have liked nothing more than to simply put this one to bed and absquatulate back to the hotel with all speed, Perdomo decided that he was having none of it. Facing Mariners reliever Alex Hoppe, Gerry drew an eight-pitch walk, then promptly took second on defensive indifference. Hoppe then uncorked a pitch that I thought was wild, but was scored a passed ball instead. It rolled to the backstop, Gerry advanced to third, and when Hoppe forgot to cover home plate, Gerry just kept on going:

Moreno promptly grounded out to short to end things after that, but at least Gerry’s hustle spared us the indignity of a shutout loss? 5-1 Seattle

Loss Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

Good Rhinos: NONE
Bad Rhino: Ryne Nelson (5 1/3 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 3 K, 4 HR, -26% WPA)

So, yeah. That was pretty much that. Only one Diamondback had a positive WPA contribution, and that was Ryan Thompson, who managed to contribute a whopping +1%. Adrian Del Castillo and Taylor Clarke at least managed to be neutral, contributing 0% apiece in total. But, well, it was that sort of game.

Perhaps surprisingly, given that, we had a pretty well-attended Gameday Thread tonight, with 274 comments at time of writing, so that was nice. Comment of the game goes to Fearless Leader for this one that got the most rec’s, though to be fair it was one of many that appeared around the same time that worked the same theme:

To be fair, it wasn’t the solo home runs that beat us, I don’t think. It was more that we couldn’t score any runs of our own. Well, at least not until the very end.

Anyway.

Tomorrow we will try to avoid being driven back to the desert by sailors brandishing brooms, I guess. Merrill Kelly goes for us, Bryce Miller takes the mound for Seattle, first pitch is scheduled for an actually reasonable time for a weekend game, which is to say 1:10pm AZ time. Join us if you can, we hope to see you!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Yankees do seem to like Ryan Weathers, but they have a funny way of showing it for their new teammate.

The left-hander took the mound on Saturday night and an offense that had been red-hot went cold, until it was too little, too late — just barely.

The Yankees’ one run before the ninth inning gave Weathers little margin for error, and another strong outing for him turned sour when he gave up his third home run of the night on his 107th and final pitch — resulting in five runs overall — as the Yankees snapped a five-game winning streak with a 6-4 loss to the Athletics at Sutter Health Park.

The Yankees made a wild — emphasis on the wild — last push in the top of the ninth, loading the bases with two outs and forcing in three runs on three straight full-count walks by Ben Rice, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. But Jazz Chisholm Jr. grounded out to end it, leaving the tying run at second base in crushing fashion.

“It’s a tough one to swallow, but just got to move on from it,” Weathers said.

After stranding a pair of runners in the top of the seventh, the Yankees (35-23) trailed 3-1 as Weathers went back out to the mound and retired the first two batters in the bottom of the inning. He then walked leadoff hitter Colby Thomas on a full count, at which point Aaron Boone went to the mound to check on him.

The Yankees manager wanted the left-on-left matchup against Nick Kurtz, but it backfired, as Weathers’ next pitch was a 94 mph fastball up and in that Kurtz deposited just over the wall in center field to put the A’s (28-30) up 5-1.

Boone said he did not second-guess the decision to keep Weathers in to face Kurtz, but indicated he could have pulled him before facing Thomas.

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“I feel like kind of kicking myself — probably after he got the second out, through the bottom [of the order] … definitely a case there to go for the leadoff hitter,” said Boone, who had Camilo Doval warming but wanted to keep the A’s lefty hitters on the bench. “I don’t’ question leaving him in there for Kurtz, I’m going to take my left-on-left shot there with two outs. But after he got those first two, and throwing quite a few pitches to that point, that’s the one where maybe I go to Doval there.”

It made for a rough ending on a night when Weathers struck out 10 across 6 ²/₃ innings but was victimized by three long balls — a two-run homer from Shea Langeliers in the first inning, a solo shot from Tyler Soderstrom in the sixth and the two-run blast from Kurtz in the seventh — and a lack of support from his offense.

For the eighth time in Weathers’ 11 starts, the Yankees scored two runs or fewer while he was in the game. They have now averaged 2.95 runs scored per nine innings while Weathers is pitching, the fourth-lowest mark among qualified starters.

This week alone, Yankees starters had received plenty of run support, only for that to dry up on Saturday for their first loss in over a week.

“I put them in a bad spot giving two runs up in the first,” Weathers said. “This is a game of momentum, so if we don’t score, I got to put up a zero and just keep momentum. We create momentum if we score and same for them. I gave them momentum early and this is a game of that. I just can’t do that.”

In a dugout that had no tunnel to the clubhouse (in center field), Weathers expressed his frustration in full view of the cameras after coming out of the game, slamming his glove and other objects after an otherwise encouraging night was spoiled.

“It’s just a competitive kid that pitched his heart out, pitched a whale of a game, frankly,” Boone said. “Two-run homer there to finish sours it, but thought he threw the ball great.”

The Yankees nearly finished off a furious comeback in the top of the ninth, when they recorded one single and five walks against A’s relievers Jack Perkins and Scott Barlow. Before Chisholm grounded out, the Yankees had taken just one swing in their last 27 pitches as the A’s almost self-destructed.

“Love the finish,” Boone said, “just didn’t quite get over the hump there.”

West Coast trips stink. Unless you’re one of the many Yankees fans who live out west, I think a lot of us can agree on that. When they win, it’s chill, especially if it’s a relative blowout like Friday night, where you could catch some shut-eye a little early.

When they lose, you just feel like you stayed up for nothing. This one wrapped up around one in the morning on the East Coast and I kind of wish that I just went to bed after learning the Knicks will face the Spurs in the NBA Finals on Wednesday.

The story of tonight’s game was the power of the (Sacramento) Athletics. A lineup that can be truly scary at times showed why, as they took what was overall a pretty solid night from Ryan Weathers and completely wrecked his line with a trio of long home runs to center field. Couple that with an offense that blew some opportunities early and couldn’t finish off a marathon rally in the ninth, and you get a 6-4 defeat to set up a rubber game tomorrow afternoon.

Ben Rice got things started for the Yankees’ offense with a one-out single in the first off J.T. Ginn, but was erased on a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Aaron Judge. Weathers took the bump in the bottom half and gave up a fair amount of hard contact, including an absolute bomb off the bat of Shea “Bangeliers” Langeliers to dead center to give the A’s a quick 2-0 lead.

The second went in a similar fashion for the Yanks, as Paul Goldschmidt ripped a single with two outs before being stranded. Weathers induced more soft contact in a 1-2-3 second. Both teams got a baserunner in the third on an Austin Wells single and Langeliers walk, but both pitchers had settled into a groove.

By the time the fourth came around, the Yankees were able to take advantage of the Athletics’ poor defense. Ginn walked Cody Bellinger with one out before giving up a single to Jazz Chisholm Jr. A bad hop caused Henry Bolte to boot it in center field, allowing Bellinger to advance to third.

That proved costly, as Chisholm bolted for second a few pitches later and forced an E4 on a stolen base that scored Bellinger and got Jazz to third with one out. A Goldschmidt walk set up runners on the corners in a prime position to tie or take the lead, but Ryan McMahon struck out, and Wells flew out to get Ginn out of trouble, but not before the Yankees cut the deficit to one. Weathers’ strikeout stuff came back to him in the bottom half, striking out a pair after a leadoff walk.

After coming oh-so-close to tying the game in the fourth, the Yankees somehow managed to get even closer in the fifth. A two-out walk by Rice set up Judge for the third time through, and the three-time MVP put a charge into a fastball and sent it to deep right field, only for it to be caught at the wall. That ball is a home run in 16 ballparks, including Yankee Stadium. Ouch

Ginn wrapped up six strong innings with a 1-2-3 sixth, while his offense added some extra insurance. Weathers was in a groove into the sixth inning after allowing the early home run, but was tagged by Tyler Soderstrom with one out to deep right-center field for a solo shot, making it 3-1.

Ginn was finally lifted after six for the lefty Hogan Harris. McMahon, who was taking the at-bat because Amed Rosario left on paternity leave, ripped a leadoff single. After a pinch-hitting José Caballero and Anthony Volpe were both retired, Trent Grisham worked a walk to set up Rice with the tying run on first. Despite working a full count, the third of the inning, Harris’ slow, looping curveball neutralized him the same way it did with Caballero earlier in the inning, ending the threat.

Despite his pitch count climbing, Weathers remained in the game and appeared to be on the verge of completing seven strong innings, but he lost Colby Thomas with two away, prompting a visit from Aaron Boone. With the powerful lefty Nick Kurtz due up, the Yankees’ skipper elected to stay with his laboring left-hander, hoping he had enough in the tank to get him out, rather than go to Camilo Doval.

Sometimes, the ol’ “fake manager hook” works. Sometimes, it doesn’t.

It didn’t work this time.

The Big Amish obliterated the first pitch he saw for a dagger home run that knocked him out after a career-high 107 pitches. 5-1 A’s.

Weathers pitched better than his line of 6.2 innings and five runs allowed, but you are what your numbers say you are. The Athletics can slug, and Weathers gave up three long homers. It happens, but the 10 strikeouts and the ability to grind past 100 pitches are the parts that encourage you here.

Justin Sterner got the eighth for the A’s and sat down the heart of the order 1-2-3. Jake Bird got the eighth and immediately got in trouble, plunking Bolte and allowing a double to Soderstrom. After a strikeout, Zack Gelof lined a two-strike RBI single to left to extend the lead to 6-1. Fortunately, the rally stopped there after some bad baserunning from the A’s, coupled with all-around head’s-up defense, led to a *checks notes* 5-2-6-4-5 double play.

Jack Perkins came on to get the final three outs for the Athletics, but despite the five-run lead, it was never that simple. McMahon blooped a one-out single, Escarra worked a walk, and Grisham extended the game with a walk of his own. With the bases loaded, Mark Kotsay turned to Scott Barlow, who walked Rice to bring in a run and bring up Judge as the tying run in a 6-2 ballgame.

The game got really interesting as Barlow straight up refused to throw strikes with the heart of the order just one swing away from tying the game. He walked Judge and Bellinger to force in another two runs before Chisholm took two called strikes and then finally put one in play. He was jammed on a 2-2 fastball on the inside part of the plate, grounding out to first and stranding the tying run on second.

The final game of the six-game road trip is a much easier watch for those on the East Coast, as the Yankees play the rubber game against the A’s tomorrow at 4:05 pm EST on YES. The pitching matchup will feature Will Warren against lefty Jacob Lopez, who was just announced a few minutes ago.

Box Score