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The biggest moment of Eliezer Alfonzo’s professional career came amid the darkest moment of his personal life.

Ahead of Alfonzo’s MLB debut on Sunday, reports from Venezuela confirmed that his stepmother Patricia and 16-year-old little sister Eliana –– who had both been missing in the wake of last month’s devastating earthquakes in the country –– had been found dead in the rubble of a collapsed hotel.

The news came a day after Alfonzo said his family was still holding out hope of finding the two alive.

“I don’t know if I’m gonna see her again or not,” Alfonzo told the California Post on Saturday of his sister, whom he said had been as anxious to see him reach the majors as he had. “But I’m pretty sure God’s gonna give me the blessing to let her see me play here in the big leagues.”

Instead, when the rookie catcher took the field for the first time as a big-leaguer, he honored his late family members by writing “E y P, RIP” on his hat.

“I don’t really know what to say about it, outside of my heart goes out to him and his family,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “He is in there. He’s going to play today. But obviously, heavy heart is not even justifying. So, yeah, I don’t really want to go too far because I’ll get emotional. I don’t know. I know it’s tough. It’s very tough.”

The 26-year-old son of former MLB veteran catcher Eliezer Alfonzo Sr., Alfonzo had spent almost a decade in the minors awaiting his first big-league opportunity.

A longtime farmhand of the Minnesota Twins who signed with the Dodgers as a minor-league free agent this offseason, Alfonzo’s first career call-up came after hitting .313 with Triple-A Oklahoma City this season.

Upon arriving in the Dodgers clubhouse on Saturday, he expressed gratitude for the support he had received from the organization and his teammates.

“I’m not gonna lie to you,” Alfonzo said. “Last week was probably one of the toughest weeks of my life.”

During Sunday’s game, veteran teammate and fellow Venezuelan native Miguel Rojas –– whose wife and kids survived the earthquake while staying at a hotel in the capital of Caracas –– also had a message of recognition for the Alfonzo family written on his cap.

“I’ve had the support from the team, from the day that everything happened,” Alfonzo said Saturday.

Alfonzo’s family had been staying at the Hotel Eduards in Macuto, along Venezuela’s northern Atlantic coast, where Eliezer Sr. was managing a game in the Venezuelan league.

While he was already at the ballpark when the June 24 earthquakes hit, Patricia and Eliana were still at the hotel, along with other family members of the team.

For the last week and a half, Eliezer Sr. had overseen a search-and-rescue effort looking for them. On Friday, they were handed a glimmer of hope when their family dog was pulled from the carnage alive.

But then, in the lead-up to Sunday’s game, local reports announced that both Alfonzo’s stepmom and sister had not survived.

The most heart-wrenching of developments, on what should’ve been the most celebratory day of his career.

“I know it’s difficult with everything that is happening right now,” Alfonzo had said the day before. “But at the same time, I got my country, my family, on my heart, on my mind. Everything I do is because of them. So I’m gonna make them proud.”

The Texas Rangers scored three runs but the Detroit Tigers scored six runs.

The Rangers are an American League-best 22-17 against teams with records above .500 this season. The Rangers are a .500 team exactly. The Detroit Tigers came into today’s game 39-50. The Rangers lost to the Tigers for a second consecutive game to lose the series to Detroit.

There’s some unpleasant math here.

The Rangers actually scored the first run of the game and the final two runs of the game. Between those two runs, the Tigers scored twice in the fourth and four more in the fifth when Texas succumbed to poor pitching and even worse defense.

Player of the Game: Jake Burger hit a team-leading 15th home run.

Up Next: The Rangers remain at home but have tomorrow off for their final day off of the first half before opening a series against the Anaheim Angels beginning on Tuesday.

San Diego Padres (43-45) at Los Angeles Dodgers (59-31), July 5, 2026, 4:20 p.m. PST

Watch: NBC

Location: Dodger Stadium – Los Angeles, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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It’s been another busy afternoon on the board as the Colorado Rockies attempt to mount a comeback against the San Francisco Giants on Peacock.

And it’s been another busy day on the board, so here’s another overflow thread for the final 2.5 innings!

As a reminder, here are the lineups:

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Veteran Major League Baseball umpire C.B. Bucknor will retire at the end of the 2026 season, bringing to a close a three-decade career that was as controversial as it was lengthy.

Bucknor is one of seven umpires who accepted Major League Baseball’s voluntary buyout offer as he chooses to step away before the league’s full implementation of the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today,

The other umpires taking the buyout include Laz Diaz, Brian O’Nora, Lance Barksdale, Marvin Hudson, Tony Randazzo and Andy Fletcher.

Nightengale notes that the retirements could make way for Jen Pawol to become the first woman to be a full-time umpire in MLB during the 2027 season.

Bucknor, 63, debuted as a National League umpire in 1996 before joining the full MLB staff in 2000.

Over the course of his career, he worked more than 4,000 regular-season games, earned assignments to the 2005 and 2021 All-Star Games and officiated multiple division series.

Despite those accomplishments, he became one of baseball’s most polarizing umpires because of his strike zone and several highly publicized missed calls, which have become more notable in recent years.

During Opening Week, Bucknor had six ball-strike calls overturned through the ABS challenge system while working behind the plate during a game between the Reds and Red Sox.

Umpire scorecards later credited him with missing 26 ball-strike calls in that contest, one of the highest totals recorded during the season’s opening week.

Only days later, he missed an obvious call at first base during a game between the Brewers and Rays, a decision that was quickly overturned on replay and drew laughter from both dugouts.

Bucknor often found himself at the center of criticism over his work behind the plate. Many routinely questioned his consistency, and for good reason. His accuracy behind the plate is said to be 92 percent, well below the MLB average, according to UmpScorecards.com.

In player surveys conducted by Sports Illustrated in 2003 and 2006, he was voted the worst umpire in MLB.

An ESPN survey of active players in 2010 reached the same conclusion.

With ABS expected to play a larger role in future seasons, the veteran umpire elected to walk away on his own terms, which may be a sigh of relief for baseball players, fans and others moving forward.

Willson Contreras fought back tears as he publicly apologized for his role in a turbulent week that included two bench-clearing incidents.

These incidents led to multiple ejections and a seven-game suspension from Major League Baseball.

Speaking to the media before the Red Sox’s 8-1 win over the Angels on Saturday, Contreras said he felt it was important to take responsibility for his actions, even though his suspension was still under appeal.

“One thing I want to add, on the record, is an apology for all of the events from last week,” Contreras said through an interpreter. “All of the things that occurred with the Nationals and Yankees are very hard. It was a very emotional time for me.”

The veteran first baseman added, “People won’t understand why I’m apologizing now, but I think it’s something that’s important for me to do because I feel that it was an emotional time and those situations could have been avoided and controlled and handled better.”

Contreras’ statement came after a week in which he repeatedly found himself involved in the middle of on-field confrontations.

The first incident occurred during Boston’s weekend series against the Yankees.

After exchanging words with Yankees starter Will Warren following an inside pitch, Contreras flipped his bat, and both benches emptied.

Two days later, we had another incident involving the Nationals, when right-hander Cade Cavalli struck him out looking in the fourth inning, and television cameras captured Cavalli yelling, “Sit down, boy.”

Contreras immediately turned back toward the mound after hearing the racially charged insult, and the confrontation quickly escalated into another benches-clearing incident.

Contreras threw his helmet in Cavalli’s direction before he was ultimately restrained.

For his troubles, he was ejected from the game, as well as Cavalli, who also received a seven-game suspension.

Cavalli apologized the following day, saying he never intended his words to carry racial meaning and acknowledging the historical significance of the phrase.

“I’m extremely torn up about the way that things were perceived,” he said. “Obviously, there was no ill intention behind that.

“My teammates know me, my family knows me, this organization knows me. I couldn’t sleep because of it. It hurt my heart, knowing that if there’s a 13-year-old Black kid in D.C. that sees that — that looked up to me and thinks that he perceived it in a way that wasn’t intended the way that it came out, and then he’s not looking up to me anymore — that hurts my heart.”

Contreras acknowledged how difficult the past several days had been.

“It’s been a really tough week, an emotional week for me,” he said. “I hope that people understand how emotional it’s been. I’ll prove myself with my actions on the field moving forward and show them the kind of person that I truly am.”

The Venezuelan slugger has previously spoken about the emotional toll of devastating earthquakes in his home country, suggesting the tragedy had weighed heavily on him while he continued to play.

Contreras homered in the Red Sox’s Fourth of July victory. Despite the distractions, he has been one of Boston’s most productive hitters this season.

He entered Sunday batting .285 with 19 home runs and 56 RBIs with a .914 OPS.

The three-time All-Star most notably starred on the Cubs from 2016-2022 and started at catcher during the team’s curse-breaking 2016 World Series title.

Eliezer Alfonzo will make his major league debut Sunday, July 5, catching and batting ninth for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Diego Padres, the culmination of a lifelong dream for the 26-year-old.

That moment, though, will come with an unspeakable burden as his sister and stepmother remain missing amid earthquake rubble in Venezuela.

Alfonzo's family members had been missing since a pair of earthquakes – magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 – rocked an area of northern Venezuela, west of Caracas, on June 24. Alfonzo's father of the same name, a former major league catcher, spent that time attempting to locate his wife, Patricia and daughter Eliana.

Alfonzo is still in the lineup for Sunday night's game.

"I don't really know what to say about it, outside of my heart goes out to him and his family," Roberts told reporters in his pregame briefing, per the California Post. "I don’t really want to go too far (into it), because I’ll get emotional. I know it’s tough. Very tough."

Alfonzo, signed by the Detroit Tigers out of Venezuela in 2017, joined the Dodgers organization this year as a minor league free agent. He batted .319 with an .813 OPS in 49 games at Class AAA Oklahoma City and joined the major league club as incumbent Will Smith will remain on the injured list with a neck injury through at least the All-Star break.

The elder Eliezer Alfonzo played parts of six seasons with the Giants, Padres, Mariners and Rockies.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers' Eliezer Alfonzo to make MLB debut as sister, stepmother missing in Venezuela

ATLANTA — After getting bludgeoned the previous night, the Mets were off to a rough start Sunday, with their best starting pitcher unsteady.

But the long afternoon that appeared to await Nolan McLean and the Mets never materialized, as the rookie right-hander recovered to help lead a 10-9 victory over the Braves.

This one got dicey late as Huascar Brazobán and Devin Williams combined to surrender six runs in the ninth. But Williams struck out Dominic Smith with runners on second and third base to end it.

Both Mets wins on this road trip have been in games started by McLean, a bright spot in a rotation that has been besieged by underperformance and injury.

McLean allowed three runs (one unearned) in the first inning and then nothing over the next five. Overall, he surrendered five hits and one walk with five strikeouts.

“I’m satisfied with it,” McLean said. “We’ll take the wins any time we can get them. You want to shut guys out every time you go out there, but we’ll definitely take the win.”

The adjustments for McLean after scuffling through the first inning were minor. He cited discovering his changeup later in the game as providing a boost.

“He’s a competitor,” interim manager Andy Green said. “Falling behind in the first, he didn’t really have the feel for the zone like he did for the rest of the game. He settled in incredibly well. It was just really a control game, where he was moving through the lineup for most of the day.”

The Mets, who won for only the third time in 15 games, will try to escape with a series split Monday before beginning a homestand that will take them to the All-Star break.

As badly as the Mets (37-53) have played against most opponents, they are 3-3 against the Braves, leaders of the National League East.

Bo Bichette’s RBI single in the first got the Mets started after Francisco Lindor reached on Austin Riley’s error and Juan Soto singled — and subsequently was thrown out attempting to stretch the hit into a double.

McLean’s rough first inning included four hits allowed, and he didn’t help himself with an errant pickoff throw that led to an unearned run. Michael Harris II continued his big series with a two-run single and reached third when McLean’s pickoff attempt sailed past Mark Vientos. Mauricio Dubón’s RBI single extended the Braves lead to 3-1. Drake Baldwin was hit by a pitch leading off, and Ozzie Albies doubled him to third. Both run-scoring hits were grounders.

“I feel like I had some pretty good stuff in the first; just some unfortunate things happening,” McLean said. “The ground ball base hits are never fun, when I am a ground ball pitcher usually. It’s always good when those can find gloves.”

A.J. Ewing homered leading off the second against lefty Martín Pérez, but the Mets were just getting started. Luis Torrens walked and Brett Baty doubled before Lindor’s RBI single tied it 3-3. Soto followed with a two-run single, giving him 43 RBIs this season.

Vientos’ fielding error on Jim Jarvis’ grounder gave the Braves a leadoff baserunner in the fifth, but McLean overcame the miscue by recording three straight outs.

Tyrone Taylor homered in the ninth — his second straight game with a blast — to give the Mets a 6-3 cushion. Taylor went deep against former Met Carlos Carrasco. Before the inning was complete, Bichette and Jared Young each delivered a two-run double, extending the lead to 10-3.

Brazobán got only one out in the ninth before he was removed. The Braves scored five runs against the right-hander, highlighted by Baldwin’s grand slam. Williams allowed another run before the Braves got runners to second and third. Williams’ strikeout of Smith ended the drama.

It was a sloppy victory for the Mets, who committed three errors: Brazobán had one, in addition to McLean and Vientos.

“It’s talented individuals on the baseball field; we can play cleaner baseball,” Green said. “We should hold ourselves responsible to that and that’s to each individual man and to us collectively.”

The hot weather in Kansas City appeared to agree with Aaron Nola. The Phillies’ starter pitched his best start of the season, going seven innings while giving up three runs. Unfortunately, it was wasted because the Phillies’ offense and bullpen came up small in a 5-2 loss.

In the first inning, it didn’t look like it was going to be a good day for Nola. With one man on and two outs, Nola gave up a double to Lane Thomas and a single to Michael Massey to put the Phillies in a 0-2 hole.

Things improved in the second. With two men on and two outs, Nola got Bobby Witt, Jr. out to end the threat. That seemed to settle Nola down, and he pitched clean innings in the third and fourth.

The Phillies’ offense was racking up zero run innings of their own against an unspectacular array of pitchers. Starter Luinder Avila came in with a 5.40 ERA, but he limited the Phillies to one run in five innings. The only damage they did against him was in the fifth when they cut the lead to 2-1 in the fifth on a Bryson Stott triple and a Gabriel Rincones sacrifice fly.

The Royals got that run right back in the bottom of the inning thanks to two hits and a sacrifice fly of their own.

The Royals handed the Phillies a run in the seventh by botching two potential double plays. Stott led off with a single, and after Rincones flied out, Justin Crawford hit a ball to third base that looked like it might end the inning. Instead, Josh Rojas threw the ball into right field giving the Phillies runners at the corners.

Garrett Stubbs then hit a comebacker to the mound, but pitcher John Schreiber double clutched on his throw to second. The delay let Stubbs beat the relay throw to first, allowing Stott to score a run.

That was it for the Phillies’ offense. The Royals bullpen isn’t well thought of, but they didn’t give up any earned runs in four innings and retired the final seven batters in order. The top five batters in the Phillies’ lineup went a combined 1-18, and Bryce Harper had a particularly rough game. He struck out three times and had two decisive ABS challenges go against him.

Nola’s day was over after seven, and if nothing else, he kept the game close. Once he left the game, the Phillies’ bullpen made it not so close. Seth Johnson walked two batters, and Kyle Backhus gave up a double to Perez that scored them, essentially sealing the game for the Royals.

The Phillies might have played as if it was a getaway game, but the series will continue tomorrow afternoon when Cristopher Sanchez takes the mound looking to secure a series victory. Hopefully, Sanchez will pitch the way we’re accustomed to, and this time, the rest of the team will follow suit.

Jorge Polanco is finding his power during his rehab assignment. 

The slugging Mets infielder was back in action with Triple-A Syracuse on Sunday afternoon, and he lifted his second homer over the past three games. 

That was Polanco’s lone hit across four at-bats, but it’s good to see him tapping into his power again as he continues working his way back. 

The two-run blast came on a 1-1 sweeper in the heart of the zone, and he lifted it 360 feet to right.

Mets interim manager Andy Green said on Saturday night that the team has been encouraged by how Polanco has done coming back from his Achilles injury. 

While he’s doing well, Green did say it’s still premature to target a return date yet. 

The plan is for Polanco to play with Syracuse again Tuesday, then the team will see how he’s doing from there. 

The veteran is expected to mainly handle DH duties upon his return.