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After a tense afternoon that saw the Tigers forced to come back repeatedly to keep pace with the Mariners, they reached the ninth inning still down a run. The Mariners ran themselves into a pair of dumb outs on the bases with Will Vest on the mound, and that set the stage. The back of the Tigers’ order did a nice job waiting out a wild Andrés Muñoz to draw a pair of walks, and managed to turn the lineup over to star rookie Kevin McGonigle, who had already homered in the game. The kid delivered with a two-run, walkoff single into right field to send the home crowd home in thrilling fashion. What a game.

Jack Flaherty and Luis Castillo locked up in a duel of starters who have struggled this season to date. The Tigers’ right-hander popped up Cole Young to open the game, then dropped a curveball in on Julio Rodriguez for strike three. After Josh Naylor was announced and the crowd booed, a 2-2 fastball locked him up for strike three. It was called a ball, but Dillon Dingler challenged it successfully.

AJ Hinch had Kerry Carpenter in the leadoff spot and he worked Luis Castillo through a long at-bat but flew out. Kevin McGonigle struck out after a foul ball down the left field line that brought Randy Arozarena to the netting, where a Tigers fan offered him a snack in a moment that reminded me of Prince Fielder snatching a tortilla chip from a fan’s nachos. Gleyber Torres, getting a day as the DH, then blew a challenge contesting a called strike three, but he was wrong, striking out and burning a challenge.

Flaherty gave up some hard contact in the second inning, but other than a Luke Raley double off the left field wall, nothing dropped in, and a good fastball whiffed Patrick Wisdom to end the inning.

For all Luis Castillo’s struggles this year, we weren’t seeing any signs of them here. He couldn’t spot the changeup, but the slider was sharp and the right-hander was hitting 96-97 mph with good fastball location. Riley Greene struck out on a fourseamer up to start the bottom of the second. Dillon Dingler hammered a drive out to Rodriguez in center field and Colt Keith lifted a slider to right field but didn’t square it up, sending us to the third inning.

Colt Emerson started the third by drilling an 0-2 slider to right for a double. Jhonny Perada grounded out, moving Emerson to third. Cole Young followed with a hot ground ball into right field for an RBI single, and it was 1-0 Mariners. Flaherty tied up Rodriguez with a high fastball and got a routine fly ball to Carpenter in right field. That left it up to Naylor who popped out to Colt Keith in foul territory.

News came through prior to the game that Casey Mize would make a rehab start on Tuesday with the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers. Meanwhile, Tarik Skubal was getting underway in West Michigan in a High-A rehab outing against the Dayton Dragons. The left-hander struck out two in the first inning, getting a grounder for the third out. He needed just nine pitches, sitting 96-97 mph.

The Whitecaps roster was having a good day courtesy of the two-time AL Cy Young award winner.

Spencer Torkelson flew out to start the bottom of the third and Zach McKinstry struck out. Wenceel Pérez fought off a bunch of two strike pitches, including one that he chopped right back into the family jewels. That required a little time to shake off. Eventually he dug back in and drilled a single that Wisdom couldn’t handle, but Carpenter popped out to end the inning.

Jack Flaherty’s slider was coming around, and as he dialed it in the whiffs piled up. He got Arozarena swinging over the slide piece for strike three to start the fourth. Raley suffered a similar fate, and Dominic Canzone grounded out to McKinstry at second base.

Kevin McGonigle led off the bottom of the fourth, and he got a 1-0 slider up in the zone and crushed it to right field for his fourth home run of the season. Tie game.

Gleyber Torres grounded out for the first out of the fourth. Riley Greene gave the ball a ride to deep right center field, but Raley ran it down. Dingler grounded out to third, and we were onto the fifth.

Wisdom opened the fifth inning with a line drive over Colt Keith at third, positioned toward second base, for a leadoff single. A high fastball from Flaherty dusted Emerson for his sixth strikeout on the day. Perada lined out to Carpenter, and Cole Young whiffed on a high fourseamer for strike three. Nice job stranding the runner after a leadoff single.

Colt Keith grounded out and Spencer Torkelson struck out to start the bottom of the fifth. A Zach McKinstry grounder to Wisdom was thrown wide of Naylor at first and he couldn’t pick it as the ball skipped into foul territory. McKinstry never stopped running, cruising into second base. Unfortuantely, a soft liner from Pérez went right to Naylor for the final out of the inning.

Julio Rodriguez lined a single into left field to start the sixth. Riley Greene picked it up, spun, and tried to fire to second to prevent a double, but Rodriguez had actually started to hold up. The throw was wide, and so Rodriguez was handed second base on the throwing error. Naylor pulled a hot grounder off the glove of a diving Torkelson and down the right field line for an RBI double. The Tigers were down a run again. Arozarena worked a full count, and Flaherty bounced a curveball to walk him, and so his day was done with no outs, a run in, and runner on first and second in the top of the sixth.

Lefty Drew Sommers took over from Flaherty against Raley. Mariners’ manager Dan Wilson elected not to pinch-hit, and instead had Raley bunt the runners over. He did so, with Keith making the play for the first out on the inning. Sommers has shown much better command so far this year, albeit in a very small sample, and he carved up Rob Refsnyder for the second out. Hinch called for the intentional walk to the right-handed hitting Wisdom to load the bases. Wilson gave them a gift with the sac bunt, but it turned out that the intentional walk was the gift to the Mariners, as Sommers hit Colt Emerson with a 2-2 sinker, forcing in a run. 3-1 Mariners. Arrgghh.

That ended Sommers outing. Kyle Finnegan was warm and he took over to face Perada. Fortunately, he flew out to Pérez to strand the bases loaded, but the damage was done and the Mariners had re-captured the lead.

Castillo was still on the mound in the bottom half of the sixth as Jose A. Ferrer was warming up in the bullpen. Carpenter grounded out to start the inning, but McGonigle drew a one-out walk. Torres got into a 2-0 count, but popped out to Raley in foul territory down the right field line. That was the end for Castillo as Ferrer took over.

Ferrer gave up a walk to Riley Greene to put two on with two outs for the red-hot Dillon Dingler. The Tigers catcher challenged an 0-1 pitch that was called a strike. He was correct, and Ferrer eventually walked him as well to load the bases. Hinch then pinch-hit Jahmai Jones for Colt Keith against the hard-throwing lefty. Instead, Jones popped up a 99 mph sinker to shallow center field to strand three. Woof.

That move caused Zack Short to enter the game at shortstop, pushing McGonigle to third base. Finnegan got Cole Young to fly out to start the seventh. Dillon Dingler burned the Tigers last challenge against Julio Rodriguez, but was incorrect and the center fielder drew a walk. He then stole second base with ease as Naylor took ball one. Finnegan popped up Naylor on a high fastball after setting him up with a couple of splitters. That left it up to Arozarena. Finnegan wasn’t paying Rodriguez any attention, and he stole third base on him without a throw. Arozarena singled in the run, and it was 4-1 Mariners.

Tyler Holton took over to get Raley, and he failed as the outfielder flicked a sweeper into right field for a single. Arozarena went first to third, and Refsnyder dug in looking to expand the Mariners’ lead. He failed, grounding out to McGonigle at third.

So it was 4-1 and the Tigers were running out of time. They seemed to take some urgency, as Torkelson and McKinstry started the inning with singles off of right-hander Cooper Criswell. Wenceel Pérez stepped in and flicked a low changeup into the right field corner for a two-run triple, and it was 4-3 Mariners with Pérez on third and no outs. A tie seemed imminent, but we had to reckon with the Tigers bench.

Dan Wilson turned to lefty Gabe Speier to replace Criswell. Matt Vierling pinch-hit for Carpenter, who as you’ll all recall homered off of Speier in Game 5 of last year’s ALDS Game 5, and Vierling grounded out to Wisdom at third. The third baseman tried to tag Pérez as he got back to the bag, and still had just enough time to throw out Vierling anyway. McGonigle hit a routine fly ball to left field, too shallow to score Pérez. Speier climbed the ladder with a fastball against Torres in a 2-2 count and blew him away. The Tigers had scored two, but stranding Pérez at third with no outs was infuriating.

Drew Anderson took over from Holton in the top of the eighth inning. He quickly struck out Wisdom and Emerson. McGonigle couldn’t handle a chopper from Perada, and Young slapped a curveball into right field as Perada moved to third. The Tigers absolutely had to have an out here to snuff a two-out rally. They got it, as Rodriguez grounded out sharply to McKinstry.

Right-hander Eduard Bazardo entered for the Mariners in the bottom of the eighth. Greene grounded out, and Dingler was locked up by a tough backdoor sinker for strike three. That left Short hitting against a tough right-hander and he flew out to end the inning.

So the Tigers needed two runs to win, and they would have only three outs to come back. They would have Torkelson, McKinstry, and Pérez up in the bottom of the ninth before the lineup turned over, so things looked pretty bleak for a team that cannot afford to lose a series right now. First they needed to keep the Mariners from answering back.

Will Vest took the mound in the top of the inning. In a 1-2 count, Vest tried to go well above the zone, but Naylor was ready and paddled a single to left field to start the inning. Naylor tried to get a walking lead and then broke for second. Vest did a nice job holding and stepped off to fire to second base for the out. The home crowd enjoyed that, at least. Vest then turned the cheers to groans by hitting Randy Arozarena. On an 0-1 pitch for a strike, Dingler tried to backpick Arozarena and fired a strike to Torkelson. A nice swipe tag got the out, though it took a challenge to overturn the initial safe call. Nice work from Dingler and Torkelson there. Vest dropped in a slider for strike three against Raley, and it was last call for the Tigers, needing one to tie and two for a walkoff victory.

The task would be very difficult against closer Andrés Muñoz. Torkelson quickly popped out to Emerson and that did nothing for Tigers fans’ optimism. Muñoz was firing 98-99 mph heaters in there. McKinstry did a nice job taking a couple of close pitches and drew a walk. Muñoz remained a little wild, falling behind 3-0 to Pérez. The Tigers’ outfielder took a heater on the outer edge for a strike, but the next one was again quite wide of the mark and Pérez took first base. So, two on, one out for Vierling and Muñoz missed badly with two more pitches. However, the Mariners closer pulled it together with two good heaters to get back in the count and Vierling chopped one to third. Wisdom could only get the out at first, and so both runners were in scoring position for McGonigle.

Fortunately, Dan Wilson decided not to walk McGonigle. The stage was set. Muñoz missed with a slider first pitch. He came back with a triple digit heater on the inner edge, and the rookie smoked it off the tip of a leaping Emerson’s glove at second base and into right field for a walkoff two-run single. Holy cow. Kevin forever!

The Tigers really needed this one to keep some momentum going, and the rookie delivered in dramatic fashion. They’ll have an off day on Monday before welcoming in the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. After that three game set they’ll head to Cleveland for three against the Guardians, and based on Tarik Skubal’s rehab outing in West Mchigan, they may well have their ace back on the mound in that series.

With a couple of exceptions, Michael McGreevy gave the St. Louis Cardinals a good start Sunday. Fortunately, the St. Louis Cardinals woke up in time to complete the sweep of the Cincinnati Reds Sunday.

My fear is that the narrative of this game would be all of the runners the Cardinals stranded on base Sunday. Through the first several innings, St. Louis had left 11 runners on base including a bases-loaded opportunity in the bottom of the 1st inning. That combined with Michael McGreevy leaving two pitches right in the middle of the zone in the top of the 3rd inning resulting in home runs from McLain and Stephenson giving Cincinnati a 2-0 lead.

The St. Louis bats would greet the Cincinnati Reds bullpen in the bottom of the 5th inning as Alec Burleson slapped a double down the left field line followed by Jordan Walker smoking a 93 mph four-seam fastball to the left-center field wall scoring Burleson and cutting the Reds lead in half at 2-1.

Bryan Torres would eliminate that lead altogether giving the Cardinals their first lead of the game when he crushed a 92 mph four-seam fastball into the right field stands making it 3-2 Cardinals.

Michael McGreevy’s outing was a successful one. He gave St. Louis 6 solid innings allowing just 5 hits, 2 earned runs with 5 strikeouts and no walks.

George Soriano came in to take care of the 7th inning for the Cardinals. Unfortunately, McLain would connect with one of his 96 mph sinkers for his second home run of the day tying the game at 3-3. Soriano would only get 2 outs before being removed in the 7th inning as JoJo Romero came in to settle down a runners on first and second threat from the Reds which could have been worse if not for a fine defensive play from JJ Wetherholt getting a force out at 2nd base. JJ also made a leaping grab to end the inning keeping the game tied going into the bottom of the 7th. JoJo would hang in there through the first 2/3 of the 8th inning, but was removed by manager Oli Marmol after Myers singled into center. Ryne Stanek introduced himself by throwing a wild pitch to the backstop advancing Myers into scoring position at second, but he’d strike out Benson to end the Reds half of the 8th inning.

The Cardinals offense would threaten in their half of the 8th inning as José Fermín led off with a single. Instead of Nolan Gorman being allowed to change his 0-3 day, Nelson Velázquez pinch-hit instead. He ripped a single to left field to the delight of the tarps off crowd in right field giving St. Louis runners on first and second with no out. Victor Scott II, the team’s designated bunter dropped down a beauty which the Reds pitcher Moll decided to throw into left field which was a great decision (for the Cardinals) which scored Fermin giving St. Louis a 4-3 lead.

That spectacular effort was followed by a 8-pitch walk to JJ Wetherholt to load the bases. Ivan Herrera then hit a ball to McLain at short who was playing in. The ball caught him on an in-between hop and he botched it allowing Velazquez to score giving St. Louis a 5-3 lead. After 2 force-outs at home plate, Reds relief pitcher Santillan would get Lars Nootbaar to fly out to left field with the bases loaded to end the Cardinals 8th inning. Thank you again, Reds bullpen. We are going to miss you when you leave town. However, the Cardinals stranded WAY too many runners Sunday. Those extra runs would have been nice to make the 9th inning less stressful.

The St. Louis Cardinals would bring in Riley O’Brien to handle the Reds in the top of the 9th. Riley would face the 7-8-9 hitters at the bottom of the Reds lineup, but one of them was McLain who already had two homers Sunday. Unlike Saturday, O’Brien came in throwing strikes that included a 2-2 heater for the first out of the 9th. Stephenson would then double down the right field line bringing up Arroyo as the tying run because St. Louis just can’t bear winning the easy way. Fortunately, Arroyo flew out to center for the second out of the 9th bringing up Blake Dunn as the Reds final hope. That hope would be dashed as he also flew out to center for the final out of the game.

After a successful homestand against the Cincinnati Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals begin a road trip in New York Tuesday night taking on the Mets. The Cardinals starter is to be determined while the Mets are expected to start Stephen Kolek. First pitch scheduled for 6:10pm central time with the TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.

A pitchers’ duel between Cam Schlittler and Ranger Suárez on Sunday afternoon eventually gave way to a battle of the bullpens.

And while that meant another good day of Yankees pitching, they were at risk of wasting it because an Aaron Judge-less lineup lacked much punch for most of the game.

Turns out it was saving its best for last.

Cody Bellinger delivered a go-ahead blast in the bottom of the eighth inning before the Yankees piled on from there, leading to a 6-1 win over the Red Sox at a sold-out Yankee Stadium.

After Red Sox reliever Justin Slaten struck out the first two batters of the frame, Bellinger, arguably the Yankees’ most valuable all-around player so far this season, clobbered his ninth home run to break a 1-1 tie.

That marked the first of five straight batters to reach base, including an RBI single from Trent Grisham and a three-run homer from Jazz Chisholm Jr. against lefty Joe La Sorsa to give David Bednar some more breathing room in the ninth.

Fernando Cruz, Brent Headrick, Tim Hill and Bednar combined for 3 ⅓ scoreless innings in relief of Schlittler as the Yankees (38-26) split the two-game series with the Red Sox (27-36).

Facing his hometown team that he dominated in the AL wild-card series clincher last October, Schlittler was not quite as sharp but still plenty good as he held the Red Sox to one run across 5 ⅔ innings.

The only problem for the Yankees was that Suárez was even better, holding them to one run across 6 1/3 innings before his bullpen let him down.

Suárez retired the first nine Yankees in order before Paul Goldschmidt led off the fourth inning with a bloop single. One out later, Bellinger added another bloop single and one out after that, Grisham lined a single to center, though Goldschmidt was held at third.

That loaded the bases for Anthony Volpe, who drew a 3-0 count before flying out on a 3-1 pitch to end the threat.

But the Yankees broke the scoreless tie the following inning, as José Caballero doubled before Goldschmidt sliced a two-out single for the 1-0 lead in the fifth.

The Red Sox quickly tied it back up, though, in the top of the sixth while knocking Schlittler out of the game. After Ceddanne Rafaela singled, Willson Contreras came up with two outs and smoked a bullet off the base of the left-field wall. The Yankees may have had a chance to nab Rafaela at the plate, but Volpe’s relay throw was well up the line, allowing him to score easily on Contreras’ double.

Cruz then relieved Schlittler and got Masataka Yoshida to fly out to strand Contreras in scoring position.

The Yankees had another chance to score in the bottom of the sixth, after Grisham drilled a two-out double, but Volpe popped out on the first pitch he saw from Suárez.

What we learned as Matt Chapman delivers Giants' game-winning hit to defeat Cubs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — For a second straight day, the Giants went to extra innings at Wrigley Field. This time they were able to avoid a walk-off. 

Matt Chapman drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th and right-hander Dylan Smith kept the Chicago Cubs off the board in the bottom of the inning as the Giants won 2-1, taking the three-game series and finishing with a 5-5 road trip. The road trip was their best by record since their first one, when they won two of three against the San Diego Padres.

Smith picked up his first career save in his third appearance for the Giants. He struck out Michael Conforto and then got a pair of pop-ups with the tying run on third. 

The Giants had a historic offensive day on Friday and then went down quietly Saturday. In the series finale, they didn’t waste any time getting back on the scoreboard.

A walk of Rafael Devers and single by Luis Arraez got them going in the top of the first, and Jung Hoo Lee drove Devers in with a single. The Cubs tied it up in the third, setting up a battle of two tired bullpens.

After starter Jameson Taillon left in the second with a hamstring strain, the Cubs got 6 1/3 dominant relief innings from Javier Assad, who allowed just one hit and took the ball to the top of the eighth. 

Trevor McDonald handed it over to JT Brubaker and Caleb Kilian, who took the tie game to the bottom of the eighth, which turned into a wild frame. 

Erik Miller ran into trouble right away, walking the leadoff batter and then making an errant throw on an infield single, which put runners on the corners with no outs. Alex Bregman hit a liner to first that found Devers, and pinch-runner Kevin Alcantara inexplicably broke for the plate. He was easily doubled off and the Giants escaped. 

The Cubs got the winning run to second in the bottom of the ninth, but this time Keaton Winn won the battle with Pete Crow-Armstrong. A day after hitting a game-tying homer in the ninth, the center fielder grounded out to first. 

The Giants had just one hit over the final eight innings of regular ball, but Chapman opened the 10th with a single to right that brought Jonah Cox home from second. 

He’s Going Streaking

Lee didn’t waste any time extending his hitting streak, lining a single to center in the first inning to put his hitting streak at 15 games. He finished the game with a .323 average, which is third in the National League.

Lee was batting .265 at the start of the hitting streak, but the string of multi-hit days have given him at least an outside shot to be in consideration for the 2026 MLB All-Star Game if he can stay hot. He entered the day ranked 13th among NL outfielders in wRC+ and 17th in fWAR.

Lee also stole his second base of the series — and the season. He didn’t even have an attempt until Saturday, and that’s certainly an area where the Giants hoped Lee would be much more impactful. Lee is right at league-average in sprint speed, but he stole 10 bases last year and regularly reached double-digits in the KBO.

Trevor Delivers

McDonald had allowed at least three runs in each of his previous three starts, but he went five innings Sunday night and gave up just the one early run. The rookie allowed four hits, walked three and struck out six while leaning heavily on his slider. 

McDonald got six whiffs on the pitch, and it finished off half of his strikeouts. The biggest one came in the fourth, when he loaded the bases ahead of No. 9 hitter Carson Kelly. The catcher has been an ABS master, but he expanded the zone and swung through a filthy slider that ended up well out of the zone glove-side. 

McDonald has allowed exactly one earned run in three of his seven starts. He lowered his ERA to 4.15 and his FIP to 3.51.

Everyday Bryce

Tony Vitello certainly has changed the way he’s handling Bryce Eldridge, and that helped the Giants have a huge offensive trip, even if it wasn’t a season-altering one overall. Eldridge appeared in all 10 games and started nine of them, including all three at Wrigley Field.

Eldridge was 0-for-3 with a walk on Sunday but still returns home in a much better place. He had 15 hits and four walks on the trip, raising his average to .280 and his wRC+ to 126. Most importantly, Eldridge continued to somewhat limit his strikeouts, going down eight times in 41 plate appearances.

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For the first six innings, the Atlanta Braves were looking like they were going to be denied another sweep as the Pirates did just enough to Bryce Elder to salvage a win. But a huge theme of this season is how this team continues to find different ways to win from different contributors, and the stars of this one? 1) Someone who was NOT in the starting lineup 2) bullpen arms coming up absolutely huge in high-leverage situations who aren’t our usual 7-8-9.

Elder grinded through six innings of two-run ball after being greeted rudely by a leadoff homer by Spencer Horowitz to start the afternoon. He only gave up the two hits, but Elder matched a season-high in three-ball counts and some walks came back to bite him in the third. Two walks and a pesky infield single loaded the bases with no outs. Nick Gonzales’s double play minimized the damange, but it did allow Jared Triolo to score and make it 2-0 Pirates.

And so the score would remain through six innings. The Braves had a promising first inning versus the opener Mason Montgomery with a walk from Mauricio Dubón, a double from Ozzie, and a walk from Dominic Smith to put a Brave on every base. But Austin Riley’s late swing on a 99 mph fastball would end the threat.

Scheduled starter Bubba Chandler entered in the second inning for the Pirates with Mike Yastrzemski leading off. The only damage done would be a single from Sandy León (!); the Braves were set down in order in the third, fourth, fifth, AND sixth. For someone known to walk guys and regularly only last five innings, Chandler racked up seven K’s from the Braves lineup in his 5.1 innings of work. 

But that lack of command reared its head in the bottom of the seventh, teeing up a wild sequence. Please don’t forget that all of this is happening with a light but constant little rain shower that would continue until the game concluded. The rally would begin with Dom Smith reaching on a throwing error by rookie Tyler Callihan, giving the Braves their first baserunner since Sandy’s single in the second. Yaz finally worked a walk off of Chandler, and then Jorge Mateo saw four straight balls. The bases were loaded for Sandy León. 

Except it wasn’t Sandy León, and it was never going to be. Sound operator, hit shuffle on the Michael Harris II walk-up songs playlist, please. Walt Weiss has pulled the lever.

In response, the Pirates did the most slow-walking I’ve ever seen that resulted in Chandler’s departure to give way to reliever Evan Sisk. But it didn’t matter. Pinch-hitter Money Mike is a cheat code, and he delivered by smoking the second pitch he saw 109.5 mph to right field for a bases-clearing double to give the Braves a 3-2 lead. Absolutely nuts.

Reynaldo López came out of the bullpen and worked a much-needed scoreless frame in the seventh to wash the taste of his Thursday appearance out of our mouths. But eyebrows raised across Braves Country when he was left in to pitch in the eighth with this tenuous lead. It was understandable to some extent – the bullpen has been taxed this week, particularly the big three of Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez, and Raisel Iglesias. He recorded one out, allowed a single, and walked Braves menace Horowitz. That would end his day. Tyler Kinley came in, got a lineout, walked Bryan Reynolds, and got a massive groundout to preserve the lead. No insurance runs would be added in the bottom of the eighth, so we all collectively strapped in for the top of the ninth. 

Out of the bullpen jogs Didier Fuentes, who is ten days shy of turning 21 and on for the first save opportunity of his career at any level. 

Reports of Brandon Lowe’s death (read: knee injury after yesterday’s game) were greatly exaggerated – they Michael Harris’d us right back with a pinch-hit maneuver that worked beautifully. Lowe ripped a double to right to start the inning and was replaced by pinch-runner Oneil Cruz. Cool cool, Cruz is very fast. Our collective anxiety could power a small city. Fuentes struck out Callihan for out #1. Jake Mangum’s eight-pitch at-bat resulted in an infield single, putting runners at the corners. Triolo popped out for a huge second out. But thankfully, it would end with Endy – Endy Rodríguez’s strikeout secured Didier’s first career save and the Braves officially swept the Pittsburgh Pirates. They may be a little damp at this point, but break out your brooms, y’all. It’s been a minute, which makes it all the sweeter.

Thus concludes a 5-1 homestand as the Braves now sport a 45-21 record. That, some have said, will play. After the off day tomorrow, the Braves will embark on a two-city road trip to Chicago to face the Pope’s own White Sox and then to Queens for the first series of the season vs. the New York Mets.

The Yankees scored a couple of late runs to come away with a 6-1 win over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday afternoon in the Bronx.

Here are the takeaways…

-- Cody Bellinger gave the Yankees the late lead, and they never looked back. With the game knotted 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning with two outs, Bellinger unloaded on a Justin Slaten pitch, demolishing a solo home run to right to give the Yankees a 2-1 edge. 

The Yankees will be without Aaron Judge for some time, so it was good to see Bellinger have a big moment. 

-- After Bellinger's bomb, the Yankees did a good job of tacking on more insurance runs. Amed Rosario singled, stole second, and came around to score on a Trent Grisham single. Grisham had three hits on the afternoon. Then, with the lead 3-1, Jazz Chisholm Jr., who had been 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, crushed a three-run homer of Joe La Sorsa, breaking the game wide open.

-- Sunday’s matinee featured a pitchers’ duel between Cam Schlittler and Ranger Suarez. Schlittler struck out four over his first three scoreless innings, while Suarez went nine-up, nine-down the first time through the order. 

-- The Yankees had a good chance to get to Suarez when they loaded the bases in the fourth, but Anthony Volpe flew out to center fielder on a 3-1 pitch to end the threat. 

Finally, the Yankees scratched across a run in the fifth inning. After a Jose Caballero double, Paul Goldschmidt came through with a two-out hit to right, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

-- The Red Sox answered back in the top of the sixth on an RBI double from Willson Contreras. On the play, Ceddanne Rafaela scored from first base, but he likely would have been out at the plate if not for a poor throw from Volpe. The shortstop had plenty of time to cut down the run, but his throw was way off the mark.

That ended Schlittler's afternoon, as he went 5.2 innings allowing one earned run on four hits with five strikeouts and a walk. Suarez, meanwhile, went 6.1 innings, allowing one earned run on six hits with six strikeouts. 

-- Volpe had another tough moment in the bottom of the sixth, when he popped up on the first pitch with the potential go-ahead run in scoring position and two outs. Volpe has not a hit with two outs and a runner in scoring position since he was called up earlier this season. He went 0-for 3 with a walk at the dish.

-- The Yankees are now 2-3 since Judge went down with his rib injury.

Game MVP

Bellinger, who put the Yankees ahead for good in the eighth inning.

Highlights

Goldy gets us on the board 👏 pic.twitter.com/iv5GatZtJK

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 7, 2026

Cody Bellinger gives the Yankees the lead! pic.twitter.com/IYtON3aPgL

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) June 7, 2026

Trent Grisham singles to send Amed Rosario home! 3-1 Yankees lead!pic.twitter.com/REwhgPc3KI

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) June 7, 2026

Three-run home run for Jazz Chisholm Jr.!! pic.twitter.com/YDM1LmXtWj

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) June 7, 2026

What's next

The Yankees start a three-game series in Cleveland against the Guardians on Tuesday night at 6:40 p.m.

Will Warren will face righty Gavin Williams.

The Orioles appeared to be cruising toward a series win before a missed call and some shoddy defense resulted in a five-run sixth inning. The Blue Jays rode a bizarre stretch to a come from behind 6-4 victory, leaving the O’s to return to the United States with a bad taste in their mouths.

The disaster inning started with an absolute moon shot from Yohendrick Piñango. Baz entered the inning with five zeros and less than 65 pitches, but he left a changeup up to the Blue Jays number two hitter. Piñango sent the ball 423 feet from home plate, but the Orioles still held a three-run advantage.

Baz retired Vladimir Guerrero Jr., but Jesús Sánchez lined a ball out of Tyler O’Neill’s reach in right field. Baz generated a ground ball from Ernie Clement, but Gunnar Henderson committed a fielding error to place runners on the corners with one out.

Baz, in need of a double play, induced a grounder from Brandon Valenzuela. The bouncer took Henderson to the right side of second base, and the shortstop set his sights on a tag and throw double play. Clement made a clear and obvious attempt to run away from the tag toward the outfield grass, which prompted Henderson to throw the ball to first. However, second base umpire Nic Lentz ruled that the runner did not stray from the baseline, so Clement reached safely and the second run scored.

Alonso and Baz immediately expressed their objection to the call, and Craig Albernaz left the dugout for an explanation. After a discussion, the call stood. The Blue Jays had cut the lead in half, and Clement remained at second base.

Baz, potentially still bothered by the error and controversial call, allowed a base hit to Kazuma Okamoto. Clement raced home to score the third run, and Okamoto avoided being caught straying too far from first base. Andrés Giménez followed with a double down the right field line, and suddenly the game was tied.

Despite entering the inning with a low pitch count and a four-run advantage, Baz failed to complete the sixth. Albernaz summoned Yennier Cano from the bullpen, and Baz voiced his displeasure toward the second base umpire before he entered the dugout.

Cano entered and got Nathan Lukes to put the ball on the ground, but the ball deflected off the mound and to the right side of the infield. Holliday, with no time to transfer the ball to his throwing hand, flipped the ball directly from his glove to first base. Unfortunately for Holliday, he never stood a chance with either type of play. Instead of eating the throw, his lollipop attempt allowed Giménez to break for home. Alonso bounced the ball to the plate, and Samuel Basallo aggravated his wrist on a late tag attempt. The Blue Jays stole a 5-4 advantage as Baz continued to steam in the dugout.

The Orioles should have escaped the inning with only one run allowed, but Baltimore was done in by more than just one blown call. Henderson should have made the play on Clement’s grounder, and he could have made a more aggressive effort to tag Clement to prevent a runner from reaching scoring position with a multi-run lead. Jackson Holliday never should have flipped the ball to Alonso, and a better throw home may have nailed the go-ahead runner.

The Orioles squandered a golden attempt to bounce back in the top of the seventh. Tyler O’Neill and Holliday reached on a single and walk, but the hot-hitting Blaze Alexander decided to lay down a bunt. Alexander failed to push the bunt far enough beyond home plate, and the Blue Jays got the lead runner at third base. Taylor Ward stepped in with the tying run in scoring position, but Ward bounced into a tailor-made double play to end the inning.

The Blue Jays added an insurance run when Valenzuela tagged a solo shot off of Rico Garcia.

The Orioles attempted to start a rally in the ninth when Colton Cowser reached on an infield single. Holliday bounced a ball to the right side and attempt to dodge the tag when running to first base. Holliday was called out for running outside of the basepaths, which added insult to injury to Albernaz and his squad. Blaze Alexander struck out looking to end the game.

The Orioles jumped out to their early advantage with a four-run fifth inning. Colton Cowser got the party started with a solo shot, and the Birds used some two-out lightning to extend their advantage. Holliday tripled off the wall, and Alexander drove him in with a double to right-center. Kevin Gausman left a splitter up to Taylor Ward, and Ward cleared the fence for his third homer of the season.

The Orioles will return home with a 31-35 record. The team has officially listed tomorrow’s starter as TBA. Chris Bassitt would be on turn, but he left his last start early with back tightness. Trey Gibson remains an option at Triple-A.

Today, the Marlins played a sort of game that felt familiar. Their pitching, from starter to bullpen, was outstanding. Their defense possibly robbed Cedric Mullins of a home run and was sharp across the board.

They ran the bases well, making just one mistake (Heriberto Hernandez was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single to a double) but otherwise stole four bases, including a double steal that led to two runs.

I realized, this style of play felt familiar for a reason: this had been the way the Rays were playing until about a month ago.

But now that is gone. They have lost their good luck but also lost some of their basic ability to play clean baseball.

Griffin Jax started and pitched five shutout innings, bouncing back after his last (four inning, six run) start. And the Rays got on the board early as well, piecing together a hit, a stolen base, and an RBI single for a 1-0 lead. Things were looking up!

But their offense, after that, was AWOL. They scored just one run on six singles, and managed to lose two runners who were caught stealing.

And their relievers struggled to avoid walking people (Rays pitchers gave up six walks altogether), with several of the batters they walked ultimately scoring.

Catcher Hunter Feduccia had an especially terrible day. He blew the Rays two ball/strike challenges early on. Now, I have been frustrated in the past when the Rays DON’T use their challenges — you can’t save them up for a rainy day! But if you have lost your first challenge and it’s not even the fifth inning I would be very very cautious about using another.

But his biggest error? Following that double steal, with Miami runners on second and third base, Joe Mack hit a weak grounder that was fielded by Taylor Walls. Walls fired to Feduccia and the throw was in time to get the runner out….but Feduccia muffed the catch, the ball bounced away, and not just run but two runners scored. Was it a difficult throw to corral? Sure. Should he have held on to it? Yes! Here’s the video, what do y’all think?

The Rays continue to disappoint on both sides of the ball, although at least in this series we got some decent starting pitching. Now it’s up to Boston, and it would be really nice to win that series and NOT give the Red Sox any glimmer of hope.

Emmet Sheehan faces José Soriano as the Dodgers look to win every contest against the Angels this year.

SUNDAY GAME INFO

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Angels
• Stadium: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 1:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 (Spanish)