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Anthony Kay dealt, the White Sox offense punished Tampa Bay pitching mistakes, and Chicago felt control of this game virtually from start to finish, culminating in a 9-1 victory for the South Siders that keeps them three games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central entering the post-deadline stretch.

It was a career day for Kay, by virtually any measure. He completed a career-high 6 1/3 innings, blanking the American League leaders while scattering seven hits and flashing some leather to boot, helping himself out of a couple of tough jams with acute defensive chops. He faced a career-high 27 hitters and didn’t issue a free pass until the very last one, coming an eyelash away from going without a walk or a hit batsman for the first time this season. These are the kinds of games scouts envisioned when the Mets made him a first round pick out of UConn a decade ago.

The lefty’s typically scattershot command was as locked in this afternoon as we’ve ever seen it. Kay threw 60 of his 89 pitches for strikes and kept nearly every one of his sweepers, cutters and sliders in the vicinity of the plate, limiting hard contact. While he did allow nine hard-hit batted balls, all but one of them came on either a fastball or changeup, and Tampa’s inability to get good wood on anything with spin on it contributed to their stranding the bases loaded twice without a run, in the fourth and sixth innings.

Kay’s ERA now sits at a very solid 4.01 in an even 110 innings, the most he’s thrown in America since his 133 2/3 minor league innings in 2019. He averaged just more than 150 innings per season over his two years in Japan, so he’s still got a while to go before he hits anything unprecedented. Even though underlying and expected stats think Kay’s been the beneficiary of a healthy amount of good luck, one has to imagine the White Sox are feeling like their $5 million-per-year deal with Kay has been well worth the investment.

Opposite the 31-year-old lefty, Rays starter Griffin Jax had solid stuff himself, setting down eight Sox hitters on strikes without issuing a walk. But a pair of first-inning errors — one by Jax himself — led to a pair of unearned runs before most of the fans had found their seats, and the Rays trailed the entire way thereafter. Jax was otherwise quite sharp, with the only other Sox damage coming on a back foot breaking ball that caught too much of the plate and too much of Andrew Benintendi’s barrel, for his 12th homer and 57th run driven in on the season. It was still less remarkable than Benintendi’s first trip around the bases, which saw him push Colson Montgomery around the plate with some flag football moves on a bizarre stolen base attempt.

It’s already been a magical season full of magical moments, but the most unlikely thing the 2026 White Sox have done yet might be the rehabilitation of Benintendi’s standing with the fanbase. His OPS since being unknowingly helmet-taped by Sam Antonacci in early May is now north of .840, and despite being fully DH-bound he’s producing more than enough runs to justify a roster spot. He may not look rejuvenated in the traditional sense, but three-and-a-half years into his tenure on the South Side, Benintendi has a clear of a place on the team as he’s ever had.

Benintendi struck first against Jax, but the offensive star of the show for the victors was Everson Pereira, who entered the lineup as a late replacement for the scratched Braden Montgomery and responded with a homer, a double and four runs driven in. It’s been somewhat of a revenge tour for Pereira against the team that traded him last winter, as he previously homered twice against his former squad when they met in Chicago last April.

Pereira’s sixth-inning double brought the Sox lead to 5-0, and when Grant Taylor slammed the door upon entering the game for Kay with one on and one out in the seventh, the candle felt all but extinguished for Tampa Bay. Matching two-run blasts from Pereira and Miguel Vargas in the ninth inning simply salted it away. It also made for Vargas’s 50th extra-base hit of the season, matching his total from 2025 in nearly a hundred fewer trips to the plate.

On the back end, Duncan Davitt failed to find similar success to Pereira against his former organization, allowing Ben Williamson to take him deep on the first pitch of the ninth inning to get Tampa Bay on the board and earning himself a ticket back to Charlotte after the game. Those Rays fans who stayed to the end were rewarded no further, though, with a 9-1 Sox victory etched into the books. This despite an 11-9 advantage in the hit column to the home side, who hadn’t lost a series at Tropicana Field in over two months.

The Good Guys are off tomorrow, taking a flight to Boston for a three-gamer with the surging Red Sox before returning home for a critical series against the Guardians next weekend. Starters have yet to be announced, but with Monday off and Erick Fedde officially shifting to the bullpen, our Sox should be able to send out Davis Martin, Sean Burke, and Luis Castillo in more or less whatever order they wish. They appear to set to see some combination of Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez, and Payton Tolle, if Boston’s recent rotation holds. First pitch from Fenway Park is on Tuesday at 6:10 p.m. CT, and we’ll see you there!

MVP
Anthony Kay: 6 1/3 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Runners-Up
Everson Pereira: 2-for-4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI
Chase Meidroth: 2-for-3, BB, 2 R

Cold Cat
Drew Romo: 0-for-4, 3 K

Runners-Up
Munetaka Murakami: 1-for-5
Sam Antonacci: 0-for-5

Seth Lugo was bad and Aaron Bummer’s Royals debut was worse as the Royals fell to the Rockies 8-1.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that Brian Henry wrote that the Royals needed to learn from not trading Seth Lugo last year. Lugo put an exclamation point on that point today with just a hair over 24 hours remaining before the 2026 trade deadline. Lugo ended up pitching 5+ innings and allowed 5 runs while walking 5 and striking out only 3. Rumors continue to persist that he is considered valuable on the trade market, but the Royals still seem disinclined to do anything with either him or Michael Wacha.

Meanwhile, they added Aaron Bummer to the roster today with Luinder Avila heading to the IL. Bummer might not be long for the roster as the Royals will probably summon the newly acquired Lucas Braun to pitch in Avila’s vacated rotation spot later this week. Bummer debuted in relief of Lugo with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth inning. He gave up a 2-run double, a 3-run home run, and another RBI double before escaping the sixth inning.

Nate Pearson and Steven Cruz each put up a quality inning of relief, so that was nice, I guess.

The Royals scored their lone run in the second inning when Luke Maile singled home John Rave. Jac Caglianone had a one-out double in the third inning, and that was the last hit KC would get off of Kyle Freeland until one out in the ninth when Salvador Perez hit his own one-out double and Starling Marte added a single. Still, Freeland worked around both for the first Rockies complete game since 2022. It was also Freeland’s first career complete game, which leaves Eduardo Rodriguez as the only pitcher in MLB history with 250+ starts and no complete games.

I don’t really have anything else to tell you about this game. The Royals are off tomorrow; the trade deadline is at 5 PM Central, so look out for Starling Marte and John Schreiber to be traded for your Royals-related entertainment tomorrow. At least Bobby Witt Jr. is scheduled to return Tuesday, barring a setback the likes of which have seemed to plague the Royals this year.

I don’t know what I expect anyone to do about this. I am not sure there is anything that realistically can be done about this. But ye gods, the Yankee offense is putrid. Rancid. Foul. Pick your adjective. Regression and injury have laid waste to the Yankees and there is no 6-foot-7, three-time MVP and single-season home run king riding to the rescue any time soon.

We’ll see what if anything the Yankees do at the deadline to bolster the offense (live editing update: hello, Luis Garcia Jr.) but I have strong doubts it will be enough to make a meaningful difference. Too many automatic outs litter the lineup. Accordingly, the pressure on the pitching staff is extraordinary. On Sunday, Gerrit Cole and the Yankee bullpen were up to the challenge and got just enough offense to eke out a series win, finishing this road trip at 6-4.

Cubs starter Colin Rea entered today with one of the worst K% in all of baseball – in the 12^th percentile, to be exact. So of course, a lineup that only a 2013 Yankees fan could love proceeded to strike out five consecutive times to start. Not until Jazz Chisholm Jr. put a ball in play to end the second inning did a Yankee hitter manage to square up Rea. It’s not what you want.

In the third, we got an all-too-brief glimpse of what happens when you make contact with the baseball. After Ryan McMahon led off the frame with a single to right, José Caballero demolished a Rea offering to center field. Suddenly, the Yanks led 2-0.

It was the first time in 42 innings that New York scored more than one run in an inning. Gross! (But at least the streak was over.)

Gerrit Cole, meanwhile, picked up where he left off in his last start. He spun three scoreless innings to start Sunday, finally yielding a run when Michael Busch hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.

Unfortunately, the offense went back to its factory setting (feckless) after the Caballero home run. So, Cole had no room for error. In the sixth, that looked like it would haunt the Yankees. Pete Crow-Armstrong walked and Seiya Suzuki singled, putting runners on first and third with no one out. Cole retired Busch on a fly out but a terrible throw from Jasson Domínguez allowed both runners to advance, killing the possibility of a double play.

Cole struck out Alex Bregman but a walk to Ian Happ ended Cole’s day, after 99 pitches with the bases loaded and two outs. Brent Headrick entered and, after falling behind Nico Hoerner, 3-0, induced a harmless fly ball to center. Crisis averted. Cole’s final line: a perfectly cromulent 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K.

Headrick came back out for the seventh and struck out the side, passing the ball to Paul Blackburn, who’d also have to be flawless given the Yankees’ narrow lead. Blackburn managed to get a pair of outs but also walked two Cubs, including PCA, who drew his third free pass of the day. It feels like a year ago you would have had to physically restrain PCA in the batter’s box to get him to walk multiple times in a game. That extension looks more like a steal for the Cubs every day.

But with runners on the corners and needing four more outs to escape Chicago with the win, Boone went to David Bednar. Facing childhood friend Ian Happ, Bednar got the first of the four, extinguishing the threat and sending the contest to the ninth.

The Cubs’ last gasp got a bit sticky with the tying run at second and two out. But Bednar struck out pinch-hitter Michael Conforto to earn the four-out save. Breathe, everyone. The man continues to be nails in the ninth as his first calendar year as a Yankee comes to a close.

Join us tomorrow back in the Bronx after this 10-game road trip. The Cardinals come to town for a three-game set. Michael McGreevy versus the presumptive favorite for the AL Cy Young Award, Cam Schlittler. First pitch is at 7:05 pm ET. (And stay tuned for more on Luis Garcia Jr.!)

Box Score

Not much went right for the Mets on Sunday.

Off the field they continued what's shaping up to be a massive trade deadline sell-off, shipping Freddy Peralta out to the Tampa Bay Rays in a deal for three prospects.

On the field their offensive struggles continued, as they went a combined 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left a total of 10 men on-base, suffering their 11th shutout loss to the season.

One of the lone positives, though, was the performance from Robert Stock.

The 36-year-old right-hander was spectacular making his first MLB start since 2021, mowing down the Marlins lineup across a career-high five innings of work.

“Really impressive, his stuff is good,” interim manager Andy Green said.

Stock retired the first six batters he faced before running into some trouble following two singles in the third, but he was able to set down Kyle Stowers on strikes to strand the pair.

The righty followed that with a perfect fourth, but the Marlins were able to finally break the scoreless tie in the fifth, as young catcher Joe Mack smacked a solo homer to right.

Stock retired the next two to end his strong big-league return with just the one run allowed on three hits while striking out four over five terrific frames.

“It felt great,” he said. “Thinking about where I was a couple of months ago where I couldn’t even put my arm over my head to pitching today in Citi Field, it was as much of a dream come true as could be.”

Stock, a career journeyman, spent the past four months progressing his way back in the minor league after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery in March.

He impressed in his eight rehab appearances down there and was able to  carry that success over into his MLB return, putting him in the mix for a rotation spot with the selling Mets down the stretch.

“He should take a lot of pride in the way he threw the baseball today,” Green said. “He earned the right to be in the conversation at this point in time, and we'll definitely have that conversation.”

It’s Sunday once more, and you know what that means — it’s time for our weekly social media roundup! As the Bronx Bombers have spent a week-long vacation in Chicago, back here in the state of New York, a pair of former Yankees (even if they weren’t exactly known for their times in the Bronx) were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. On its own, that means we’ve got a full week on this week’s social media roundup, but even beyond the annual celebration of baseball history, we have a lot on tap this week. So without further ado, let’s get started!

Cooperstown

Last weekend, Andruw Jones (NYY 2011-12), Carlos Beltrán (2014-2016), and Bill White (2026 Buck O’Neil Award winner, former Yankees broadcaster, first Black play-by-play announcer in baseball history) were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Now a year since his induction, CC Sabathia took the opportunity to reflect on his own experience as well.

Wells’ Burritos

In Philadelphia, Austin Wells revived his long-dead breakfast burrito account. Since then, he has a .728 OPS (his season OPS is .536). Coincidence? I THINK NOT.

On the Road Again

With the Yankees on an extended road trip, the members of the broadcast teams had some fun hanging out with some old friends. In Philadelphia, Meredith Marakovitz had dinner with family and friends and took a picture with the man who engineered Philly’s second-greatest underdog win, Rocky Balboa (the first is, of course, Kris Jenkins, whose buzzer beater in 2016 helped Villanova upset UNC). Dave Sims also visited the Art Museum as well, although he didn’t take a photo with Rocky, and then went to a Holy Cross reunion.

In Chicago, though, things got a little bit crazy. We had a monsoon prior to one game, which Michael Kay described as apocalyptic, and Suzyn Waldman thankfully shared some pictures of it.

Then, the broadcasters got to sample some pop-up sushi.

Game Belts

The Yankees’ catchers featured heavily in this week’s Game Belts, which included Ali Sanchez receiving one for hitting his first career home run.

Pitching Posts

This past week, Kervin Castro took the opportunity to celebrate making it back to The Show, while Cam Schlittler took to his Instagram story last Friday night to thank Brent Headrick escaping a bases loaded jam and preserve the shutout, leading the Yanks to a 1-0 victory over the Phillies in which yours truly was in attendance.

LeBron Nonsense

When LeBron James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, all of Philadelphia directed all their attention towards basketball. In fact, that night, the Phillie Phanatic welcomed him to the city by trying to dunk over a Knicks fan wearing a Patrick Ewing jersey, only to miss the dunk (the Phanatic still celebrated anyway, because, well, it’s the Phanatic). Not surprisingly, the Yankees’ minor league teams, who had some fun with James’ free agency, had to comment about James’ decision.

Although, the Renegades got it a touch wrong. The Knicks swept the Sixers, and it wasn’t all that difficult either.

Question of the Day

For this week’s Question of the Day, the Yankees players were asked their favorite phrase in baseball lingo.

Later in the week, the fans were brought into the shenanigans, as the YES Instagram asked fans to identify which color is the YES Network shade of blue — a game that would be more difficult if not for the fact that the logo is literally right in the account’s profile picture.

The Yankees are acquiring Luis Garcia Jr. in a deal with the Nationals, according to SNY MLB Insider Chelsea Janes.

New York is sending four RHPs to Washington -- Ben Grable, Yovanny Cruz, Jack Cebert and Jake Bird.

Garcia is an interesting fit in the Bronx, having spent the majority of this season playing first base, but he'd certainly provide a much-needed boost to their shorthanded offense.

New York, of course, is down All-Star's Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger to injury.

Garcia shook off a bit of a slow start to the season to become one of the more productive bats in the NL, racking up an league-leading .560 slugging percentage and an impressive .880 OPS.

He's also already topped his career-high's in triples (five), homers (23), and RBI (76).

The 26-year-old will look to continue adding onto those numbers now playing in a home ballpark in the Bronx that should be a perfect fit for his power-hitting left-handed swing.

Garcia figures to take over the bulk of the 1B at-bats against righties, with Ben Rice as the DH.

He’s also seen some time at second base during his big-league career.

The Texas Rangers scored three runs but the Houston Astros scored seven runs.

While Kumar Rocker was fighting for his life early in this one, the Rangers waited until the fifth inning before reaching base for the first time against some dude who had a 5.72 ERA for the Colorado Rockies last season. By that point, it was 3-0 Astros and Texas was lucky it wasn’t much, much worse.

When Brandon Nimmo walked to lead off the top of the fifth for Texas’ first base runner, Houston had already had ten opportunities with RISP and had delivered on just one of them. That Jose Altuve RBI single in the bottom of the third ricocheted off Rocker for Houston’s only RBI base hit in their first nine chances through the game’s early innings.

The Astros didn’t need a runner in scoring position to score their next two runs as leadoff man Jeremy Pena hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth with a runner on first. That two-run blast was yet another barrage from Houston that came with two outs, something they did often over the weekend. No surprise there. After all, they convincingly swept the series.

Following Nimmo’s walk a half inning later, the Rangers finally got to Houston starter Peter Lambert for a rally that produced two runs to bring Texas back in the game. Ironically the Rangers had two scoring hits in their first two at-bats with runners in scoring position. They would not collect another hit with RISP in three more opportunities, however.

They did eventually tie the game though when Nimmo hit a solo home run in the top of the seventh off Steven Okert for some lefty on lefty crime. The Rangers extended their rally in that inning with an opportunity to take the lead but Nicky Lopez struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch on a ball way out of the zone.

You’d anticipate that perhaps he would have challenged that call but Rangers catcher Elias Diaz had already wasted Texas’ two challenges trying to shepherd Rocker through his early trouble innings. Nevertheless, while Diaz had a bad game, home plate umpire Todd Tichenor was terrible. I was enjoying going through this debut ABS year without knowing the name of the day’s home plate umpire only for it to happen in the season’s most important game to date.

A half inning after Lopez’s phantom strikeout, the Astros immediately scored plenty off Texas’ dreadful bullpen to render any umpire related bellyaching moot. Cole Winn in particular was bad, allowing the eventual winning run that Tyler Alexander had put on base and then loading the bases against the bottom of Houston’s lineup to set up a golden chance for the Astros.

If you’ve observed anything from this series — or this season, really — you know how that turned out. At the very least, no one had to sweat out the final innings after Yordan Alvarez’s 87th double of the series made it 7-3. Manager Skip Schumaker even got to hit the showers early after getting ejected. If Schumaker was attempting to fire up his moribund club, it worked about as well as most of the things Skip Schumaker tries.

And so the Rangers have lost five games in a row, are 2.5 games out of first place, and have their worst mark since they were two games below .500 back on June 26.

Player of the Game: Nimmo, I guess.

Up Next: The marathon continues with Texas returning home to take on the Giants beginning tomorrow night. The Rangers haven’t listed a starting pitcher but San Francisco is expected to go with RHP Logan Webb in the opener.

The Monday evening first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CDT and you can watch it via a national telecast on ESPN.

The Yankees won Sunday's rubber match against the Chicago Cubs by a score of 3-2 at Wrigley Field.

Here are the key takeaways...

-- Gerrit Cole had a strong outing on the bump. The right allowed just three hits his first two times through the order, though the Cubs got to him for a run in the fourth inning thanks to a Seiya Suzuki double and a Michael Busch RBI single.

He got in some trouble in the sixth, though, walking Pete Crow-Armstrong before allowing a single to Suzuki to put a couple of runners on. Then, on a flyball to right, both runners were able to tag up and move up 90 feet as Jasson Dominguez sailed his throw over the cutoff man to third base, making yet another mental mistake in the outfield.

Cole later walked Ian Happ to load the bases with two outs, and at 99 pitches, his afternoon ended there. Brent Headrick went to a 3-0 count but got Nico Hoerner to fly out to end the threat and close Cole's line at 5.2 innings, one earned run on four hits with five strikeouts and three walks.

-- Jose Caballero got the Yankees on the board in the bottom of the third, smacking a two-run homer to left-center off of Cubs starter Colin Rea. Caballero, who had a pair of hits on the afternoon, now has 11 homers on the season, and his blast ended up being all that the Yankees needed.

-- How great has Headrick been out of the Yankees bullpen this season? Not only did the lefty get out of the bases-loaded jam in the sixth, but he then struck out the side in the seventh. He lowered his season ERA to a miniscule 1.42.

-- After Paul Blackburn allowed a couple of runners to reach in the eighth, Aaron Boone went to closer David Bednar in a four-out save situation. Bednar got Happ to end the eighth, and while he allowed a walk and a stolen base in the ninth, he struck out Michael Conforto to close out the win.

-- It was a tough day for the top of the Yankees lineup. Trent Grisham and Ben Rice combined to go 0-for-8 with four strikeouts, with Rice accounting for three of those strikeouts himself.

Game MVP

Caballero, who provided just enough offense.

Highlights

José Caballero two-run homer! pic.twitter.com/pKegUNZfbw

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) August 2, 2026

Next up

The Yankees return home for a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals, starting on Monday night at 7:05 p.m.

Cam Schlittler and Michael McGreevy are scheduled to pitch.

The Colorado Rockies’ bats are as hot as the temperatures in Denver this afternoon, as they lead the Kansas City Royals 8-1 in the seventh inning behind a Kyle Freeland gem.

There’s still a lot of baseball left, so it’s OVERFLOW THREAD time!

Here are the lineups:

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

On the eve of the 2026 MLB trade deadline, the Tampa Bay Rays have bolstered their starting rotation by acquiring right-handed pitcher Freddy Peralta from the New York Mets in exchange for three prospects: OF Aidan Smith, INF Emilien Pitre, and RHP Gary Gill Hill.

Peralta, 30, was acquired by the Mets prior to the start of the 2026 season. The veteran hurler had been the ace of the Milwaukee Brewers for several years prior to the trade. Unfortunately, Peralta’s time in Flushing has been less than ideal, compiling a 4.99 ERA | 4.45 FIP over 22 starts during his Mets’ tenure. During his time Milwaukee from 2020 through 2025, Peralta was stellar, compiling a 3.33 ERA | 3.60 FIP; the Rays hope to get this version of the veteran hurler.

Heading to New York are three prospects.

Outfielder Aidan Smith was acquired by the Rays as part of the return for Randy Arozarena at the 2024 trade deadline. There was hope that he’d develop into a premier prospect and looked on his way to doing so registering a 158 wRC+ immediately following the trade. However, Smith has been unable to rise past High-A and holds a 68 wRC+ on the season.

Infielder Emilien Pitre was the Rays 2nd round pick in 2024 and has been an above-average offensive perfomer since joining the Rays organization thanks to an excellent ability to draw walks which significantly boosts his on-base percentage. He recently received a promotion to Double-A where he was hitting .323/.451/.492 over 163 plate appearances.

Gary Gill Hill at one time was among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects but he has been unable to take that next step in his development and has since seen his prospect status plummet. Gill Hill was originally selected by the Rays in the 6th round of the 2022 draft, meaning he’d be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason. The 21-year old was in Double-A and had a 4.49 ERA | 4.60 FIP over 108.1 IP.

After a three game series in which they scored exactly three (3) runs over 27 innings, I think I’m going to need to see proof of life photos for the Rays offense.

We’ll get to the errors and pitching mistakes, I promise, but when a team scores only one very late run, we need to start and end our critique with the hitters.

Today, the Rays got eleven hits and walked once, so it’s not like they had no opportunities. But almost all those hits were singles, and nearly all from the same three guys (Vilade, Caminero and Simpson) so those guys singled their way on to base and no one could drive them in. The only extra base hits came in the bottom of the ninth, at which point the game was entirely out of reach and no doubt the Rays were facing whoever the White Sox use for mop up duty.

Rays hitters didn’t strike out much, but they kept pounding the ball into the turf, grounding out twelve times, two of which were turned into double plays.

The game got off to an inauspicious start. Jax got into first inning trouble, with two men on base. But there were already two outs and it would have been possible to get out of the top of the first scoreless. But alas. First, Jax bobbled a not very challenging dribbler and could not get a runner at first, which allowed a run to score. Then the infield somehow failed to get either runner in a double steal that plated run number two.

I usually only post Rays highlights in these recaps, but I’m so disgusted with this inning I’m going to post a low light:

The White Sox scored again on a Benintendi solo home run in the fourth, but the Rays had a good chance to get back in the game in the bottom of that inning, loading the base on three singles (with an out coming on the one really well hit ball, 111 mph from Caminero, caught at the warning track). But neither Williamson nor DeLuca could get a run home.

Craig Kimbrel relieved Jax in the sixth, and I was hopeful when he got two quick outs. Was this going to be…a clean inning? Well, he gave up a walk. And a second walk. OK, could it at least be a scoreless inning? Nope. Hard hit double, two RBI, 5-0 Chicago.

But wait, the Rays came back swinging in the bottom of the inning. Once more, they loaded the based on three singles. With two outs, Ben Williamson came up to try to get the Rays on the board. But he grounded out weakly to short. Inning over.

And for the finishing touch, newcomer Alex Cook, pitching his second inning, yielded a two-run homer to Everson Pereira.

Oops that was not the finishing touch. Because Cook was replaced by Chris Roycroft, and HE gave up another two-run homer to Miguel Vargas, and giving the White Sox their eighth and ninth runs.

The Rays offense avoided total humiliation when Ben Williamson hit a solo home run in the ninth, and it was a little fun watching three White Sox fielders do a ninth-inning Keystone Kops routine tracking down a foul ball (unfortunately for the Rays one of them did catch it, fortunately for all the them, no one got hurt). Too little, too late.

Cardinals 5 Blue Jays 1

Well….it was a close game until the top of the ninth.

Tie game, Louis Varland comes in. He’s been so good, I’m already thinking about the bottom of the inning. Well, he wasn’t ‘so good’ today. His inning went:

• Six-pitch walk. He missed the zone by a lot on the balls. He doesn’t walk many and rarely misses by that much.
• Ground ball single.
• Line drive single. Run scores. 2-1.
• Bunt pop up….amazing play by Alejandro Kirk to make the catch.
• Ground ball force at second, Okamoto (playing first) to Andrés Giménez.
• Lars Nootbaar hits an easy ground ball to second, and Luis Urías throws it wide of first. Run scores 3-1. Just a terrible throw by Luis.
• Jordan Walker singles in two more. 5-1 and Varland is out of the game. Four runs against but only one earned. ERA jumps to 1.11.
• Mason Fluharty gets the third out.

Max Scherzer was terrific. 6 innings, 4 hits, 1 earned, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. Likely his best start of the season, but he did go 6 two other times.

A little late to build some trade value, but I won’t be dreading his starts as much the rest of this year.

Spencer Miles threw 2 scoreless innings giving up a hit, a walk and getting a strikeout.

The offense was offensive……

Just 5 hits, 4 singles and a double with a walk.

We tied the game in the top of the eighth. With two outs, Andrés Giménez lined a single to left and Luis Urías doubled him home. Vlad followed with a ground out (hard hit, 108 mph) right at the shortstop. He had a rough day with three strikeouts before that.

Really all the batters had a bad day.

Jays of the Day: Scherzer (0.19 WPA), Miles (0.11) and Springer (0.10). Urías had the number too (0.31) but that error. It wasn’t a long throw, he was so close to second that Okamoto had no chance at the ball.

Other Award: Varland (-0.48, though some of that was on the Urias error), Vlad (-0.17), Kirk (-0.15, 0 for 4, tho he had that great catch, and made a couple of excellent challenges behind the plate), Clement (-0.14, 0 for 4) and Varsho (-0.11, 0 for 3, 2 k).

Tomorrow is the trade deadline.

Tomorrow the Jays will be in Houston. Shane Bieber (2-2, 5.74) is the listed starter, but tomorrow is trade deadline time. I would think the Jays would love to move him, but I’m not sure there is a market. Cristian Javier (1-1, 7.17) starts for the Astros.

The Mets have claimed 26-year-old catcher Shawn Ross off waivers from the Pirates and designated 29-year-old right-handed pitcher Joey Gerber for assignment to open up a spot for Ross on the 40-man roster. Ross has spent the vast majority of this season and his professional career in the minors.

Between his Double-A and Triple-A stints this year, Ross has hit .181/.325/.432 with 10 home runs. He made his major league debut on July 25 in a brief appearance at first base with the Pirates. He got the start behind the plate the following day and hit a two-run home run in that game, but Pittsburgh designated him for assignment on July 27.

As for Gerber, he’s spent most of this season in the minors, too. In 27.2 innings there, he has a 7.81 ERA and a 4.29 FIP. He’s thrown 8.1 innings at the major league level this year, and he’s fared better at baseball’s highest level, as he has a 4.32 ERA and a 4.18 FIP in that time.

On Sunday afternoon the Mets took on the Marlins at Citi Field, the last game before the trade deadline, one that would most likely see massive changes to the Mets. There were several Mets who would be on other teams by Monday evening, as the Mets looked to try and recoup some sort of future from a failed season. The Mets had called Robert Stock up to make the start, after undergoing surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome in March, his first appearance in the majors since 2021. They’d be facing Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara, who had a 2.96 ERA against the Mets in 118.2 innings.

It was a relatively quiet game for both sides, with nothing of real note happening during the first four innings. Both teams got a few baserunners, but neither were able to cash in. Robert Stock went five innings for the first time in his major league career. The only earned run he allowed in the game was on a fifth inning solo home run by Marlins catcher Joe Mack, and he struck out four while only giving up three hits.

The most exciting moment for the Mets during the first half of the game was when news broke during the first inning that Freddy Peralta was being traded to the Rays, netting three prospects in return. Carson Benge made a couple of spectacular plays in the outfield as well, robbing the Marlins of a few hits with his defense.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Mets started showing some signs of life. Luis Robert Jr. hit a single to lead off the inning, and Jared Young followed that with a double to put two runners in scoring position with no outs and driving Alcantara from the game in favor of reliever Michael Petersen. Marcus Semien drew a walk that loaded the bases, but back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout kept any runs from scoring.

The three relievers brought in after Stock all kept the Marlins scoreless (and hitless) through the eighth inning. All three of them, Brooks Raley, Luke Weaver, and Huascar Brazobán, have figured heavily into the multitude of Mets trade rumors and could have thrown their final pitches as New York Mets. Devin Williams, brought in for the ninth, gave up a single to Otto Lopez that hit off his leg and made it unplayable for Semien. Then Lopez stole second, and was driven in on an RBI single by Xavier Edwards. After Griffin Conine popped out for the second out, Francisco Alvarez threw out Edwards on an attempt to steal second, ending the Marlins ninth inning scoring at the one run.

Despite the Mets having two runners on with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, neither came in to score and the Mets lost both the game and the series. The deadline is tomorrow, and even though some big names have already departed this team, this team will probably look a lot different the next time they take the field in Cleveland on Tuesday, with Sean Manaea currently expected to get the start in the opener against the Guardians.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Jared Young, +26% WPA
Big Mets loser: A.J. Ewing, -35% WPA
Mets pitchers: +19% WPA
Mets hitters: -69% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jared Young’s seventh inning double, +22.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Francisco Alvarez’s base loaded strikeout in the seventh, -15.6% WPA

How sweet it is. In a four-game set between two NL East teams, the Atlanta Braves have swept mopped the Washington Nationals, extending their win streak to five and improving to 67-45.

This one will sting for Nationals pitcher Cade Cavalli, who can add another quality start to his streak (now five in a row) with his final line: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R (2 ER), 3 SO. But two solo shots would doom him and give him the loss.

JR Ritchie started strong in the first inning, freezing James Wood with four pitches, allowing a first-pitch single to Daylen Lile, almost getting Dylan Crews to ground into a double play, and then getting CJ Abrams to strike out swinging to end the frame. But he would flirt with disaster in the three innings that followed. 

The Nationals threatened in the second with a Keibert Ruiz leadoff walk and Nasim Nuñez single to right. They would thankfully end up stranded on second and third base.

Things were a little easier in the top of the third, where Ritchie worked around a Lile walk. It helps when your center fielder does what he does best – Michael Harris II made a great catch at the wall for the second out.

The Braves drew first blood with a Mike Yastrzemski homer to the Chop House to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. 

A lengthy fourth would be JR Ritchie’s last inning of work. The Nats loaded the bases with one out with a Ruiz single, José Tena walk, and Jorbit Vivas single. A bad miss from Ritchie came up and in to hit Andrés Chaparro on the earflap of his helmet, leading to a scary moment and a tie game. Chaparro was shaken but ultimately smiling and seemingly okay; he was later replaced in the fifth inning by Brady House. The Nationals would tack on another with a Wood sac fly to take the lead and make it 2-1. 

Worry not – the Chop House would be graced by yet another leadoff Braves home run – this one by Matt Olson. His 31st longball of the year tied the game in the bottom of the fourth. 

Austin Riley smoked a double off Cavalli to be in scoring position with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Jim Jarvis this, Ha-Seong Kim that, and don’t forget Jorge Mateo. But secret fourth Braves shortstop CJ Abrams and his fielding error allowed Riley as the go-ahead run to come home while Jarvis reached first base. 

Some much-needed breathing room came in the bottom of the seventh, where Orlando Ribalta came in to relieve Cavalli. Mauricio Dubón reached on a solid single to left and would come home a batter later after a stolen base, throwing error by Ribalta, and Yaz sac fly to make it 4-2 Braves.

With Ritchie done for the day, Dylan Dodd and Didier Fuentes combined to work three perfect innings, setting down the Nats in order in the fifth through seventh. Dylan Lee allowed a leadoff walk to Crews, but an Abrams strikeout and Harry Ford double play took us to the bottom of the eighth.

Raisel Iglesias jogged in to face the 6-7-8 in the Nationals order for his 24th save of the year. Tena grounded out and Nuñez lined out to center field before Jorbit Vivas walked to bring the tying run to the plate. But Brady House swung at an Iggy slider to end it. Braves win!

Despite the records of these two teams, Braves Country was rightly a little nervous with the pitching situation and potent Nationals offense set to square off four times. The trauma of several consecutive one-run games didn’t help, either. But this team is looking Right again after the struggles of June and hopefully some more help is on the way before the Fish come to town on Tuesday.

While the Braves are off tomorrow, Battery Power certainly won’t be – stay tuned and keep up with everything trade deadline with us as we inch toward 6 pm ET tomorrow night.