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The Red Sox probably should’ve swept the lowly Colorado Rockies (though they’re pretty close to the same category these days). They should’ve at least won the series.

They couldn’t even do that.

Ranger Suárez struck out nine batters in six innings with solid run support. Instead of returning home to Fenway this weekend with a 4-2 record on the road trip thanks to series wins in Seattle and Colorado, Boston watched a 6-3 lead turn into an 8-6 loss in the final three innings Wednesday afternoon in a second embarrassing defeat this week. 

Here’s three takeaways from Wednesday’s loss. 

THANK YOU, COORS FIELD

The emphasis of the “Coors Field effect” should not take away from hitters who made a living there in the better Colorado days of yesteryear. Don’t diminish the accolades of great hitters in Larry Walker and Todd Helton to name a few. 

With that said, there’s no doubt the ballpark can reward the below-average bat on a visit to Denver. Andrew Monasterio and Connor Wong graciously accepted that gift with home runs each in the matinee contest. For reference, Monasterio’s solo shot marked just his third long ball of the season while Wong homered for the first time since 2024. 

That’s until the Rockies flipped the script in rough fashion for Boston over the final few innings. 

KEEP AN EYE ON DURBIN
The Red Sox third baseman left the game with a left fifth finger subluxation after diving into first base attempting to beat out an infield hit. Romy Gonzalez is close to a return, but let’s see what the Red Sox infield looks like for the rest of the month depending on Durbin’s status upon the return to Boston.

CAN YOU DO SOMETHING AGAINST THE YANKEES? 

The Red Sox are 1-4 against the Yankees and start the four-game set against New York with another installment of Connelly Early vs. Cam Schlittler. 

The teams also still get the national spotlight, whether these teams are worthy or not, with a 1:10 p.m. start on Saturday on ABC (basically an ESPN game but cool to say) and round out the weekend on Sunday Night Baseball on NBC.

Derek Hill delivers thrilling homer as Phillies keep comeback magic going originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

WASHINGTON — Derek Hill was down to the Phillies’ final strike.

Again.

One night after the Phillies scored eight runs with two outs in the ninth inning, Hill stepped in as a pinch-hitter against left-hander Richard Lovelady and delivered another late jolt.

Kyle Schwarber, out of the starting lineup with lower back tightness, came off the bench with two outs and worked a walk to keep the inning alive.

Then Hill took over.

He drove Lovelady’s pitch into the first row above the high wall in right field for a go-ahead two-run homer, then leaped in celebration between second and third base when he saw it had enough distance.

Unbelievable.

The Phillies acquired Hill in a trade to help against left-handed pitching, a matchup their right-handed hitters have struggled with all season.

He gave them exactly that in Philadelphia’s exciting 5-4 win on Wednesday.

It was another wild turn in a series that has already produced one of the Phillies’ most improbable wins of the season.

The Phillies had trailed early after Aaron Nola allowed solo homers in the first and second innings. Luis García Jr. took Nola deep six pitches into the game. Washington added another solo shot three pitches into the second.

But the Phillies answered in the fourth.

Brandon Marsh led off with a single. Alec Bohm reached on a fielding error after fouling a ball off his foot earlier in the at-bat and limping down the line.

Bryson Stott, coming off a three-hit game, got ahead 2-1 and turned on a low-and-in slider from Miles Mikolas. His 106.2 mph drive sailed over the head of Nationals right fielder James Wood, bringing Marsh home.

J.T. Realmuto followed with a sacrifice fly to score Bohm and tie the game.

Rookie Gabriel Rincones Jr. then jumped on Mikolas’ first pitch and lined a run-scoring single through the middle, giving the Phillies their first lead.

That type of inning has become a familiar sight during the Phillies’ turnaround. During their 9-19 start, they struggled to stack baserunners. Lately, they have found ways to build innings and keep them moving.

Nola did not dominate, but he gave the Phillies five innings and two runs.

He allowed hard contact. Of the 13 balls put in play against him, 54 percent were hit at least 95 mph. His average exit velocity allowed was 95 mph.

Still, he found enough outs.

Nola struck out four hitters with his knuckle curve and another with his changeup. He threw only one slider, a pitch he has begun mixing in over his last few starts.

The four-seam fastball remains his biggest concern. It entered the night tied for the worst pitch in baseball by Statcast run value at minus-13. Opponents were hitting .406 and slugging .828 against it.

But five innings and two runs kept the Phillies in the game.

Then former Phillies prospect Curtis Mead changed it.

With a runner on in the sixth, Don Mattingly turned to Jonathan Bowlan, who had dominated right-handed hitters all season. Entering the night, righties were slashing .167/.167/.214 against him with one extra-base hit.

Bowlan left a sweeper up.

Mead sent it into the left-field seats for his second homer in three games during the series, putting Washington back in front.

For a while, it appeared that swing would hold up.

Then Schwarber came off the bench.

Then Hill got his chance.

Lovelady was making his third consecutive relief appearance. Hill entered to pinch-hit against the lefty, the precise situation the Phillies had in mind when they brought him in.

With the count down to its final strike, Hill did not miss.

His homer gave the Phillies another late-game breakthrough, one night after the club turned an 8-6 ninth-inning deficit into a 14-9 win.

The struggle has become apparent for this Atlanta Braves team, who are currently on a three-game losing streak. The name of the game is to score early and not let up…of course, pitching will have to do a pretty solid job as well to keep the San Diego Padres from finishing what they started in Tuesday night’s matchup.

Let’s take a look at these lineups for the series finale.

In today’s Baldwin-less lineup, Mauricio Dubón is leading off and playing left field with Ha-Seong Kim– who’s averaging .500 against San Diego’s JP Sears in his two total past at-bats– will be batting in the ninth hole while taking over shortstop for the night.

Jorge Mateo has returned as DH and is hoping for better production since his last three-hitless outings. As for the remainder of the lineup, well, let’s just say, they have a big advantage against San Diego’s lefty, and would be amiss not to take it.

As for the Padres, with Sears on the mound, after recently being called up from Triple-A, due to Lucas Giolito being placed on the 15-day IL (right elbow inflammation), he’s looking for the offense to hold it down, in case the Braves decide to take advantage of the 56 runs and 28 walks he’s earned so far this season in the minors.

Ty France, who has an OPS of .535 but a .176 batting average against Pérez, will be taking over first base and batting seventh in the lineup. And Manny Machado moved up to the third slot, currently averaging a .350 and 1.030 OPS against the Braves’ lefty.

The battle of the lefties, starting tonight at 8:40 p.m. EDT. The Braves are hoping to avoid a sweep, but will need to show an immediate change in the way they’ve been approaching this series if they want to see any glimpse of hope. They failed to salvage the opportunity in extra innings on Tuesday; therefore, they’ll need to play with a chip on their shoulder to turn things around.

Seattle Mariners vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, June 24, 2026, 6:40 p.m. ET

The Pittsburgh Pirates are looking for revenge after a tough 3-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners last night at PNC Park.

The Pirates held a 2-1 lead going into the seventh inning, but a pair of runs surrendered by Mitch Keller off of a home run from Cole Young did the Buccos in.

Tonight, the Pirates will hand the ball to Braxton Ashcraft, who is continuing to build off of an impressive season. Ashcroft is fresh off a win in his last start against the Athletics on June 17. He pitched six innings, giving up just one earned run while striking out seven batters in a 12-4 victory. The Pirates are 9-6 in games where Ashcraft starts, which is a good sign going into their game against the Mariners.

On the flip side, Bryan Woo is starting for the Mariners. In his last start on June 18 against the Baltimore Orioles, he pitched seven innings, giving up no earned runs and striking out nine in a 3-0 victory. Woo has gone five or more innings in each of his last four starts, suggesting that he could be in for the long haul once again.

Woo might not be playing at the All-Star level he was at a year ago, but he provides a tough matchup for the Pirates tonight.

Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet Pittsburgh

Pitching Matchup: Bryan Woo (6-5, 3.94 ERA) vs. Braxton Ashcraft (6-3, 3.18 ERA)

BD community, chime off in the comments section below.

The offense is killing it right now despite losing the best three hitters from last season for varying lengths of time. In June it is the young guys carrying the load. Jac Caglianone’s wRC+ this month is 232! Carter Jensen is at 122. It has been fun to watch. If only this had started in April or May this year might have turned into something. They have won six of nine and gotten back to 12 games below five hundred. Today they can lock in a series win against a Tampa Bay team that has been one of the best in the American League.

Today it will be Noah Cameron and Griffin Jax facing off. Cameron is coming off of two consecutive sub-par starts where he has given up 15 hits in 9 1/3 innings. Overall, his strike out and walk rates are better than last season, but the results have not been as good or consistent. Jax has a tidy 3.67 ERA on the season but peripherals that say he cannot keep that. Hopefully today is a mean reversion day for him and the Royals can keep the wins a coming.

Bobby Witt Jr. is out again. That is the fifth consecutive day and there was a day off too. Maybe 10-day IL makes some sense at this point?

Per Baseball Reference, the two best starting pitchers (and two of the three most valuable overall members) on the Milwaukee Brewers are ace Jacob Misiorowski and lefty Kyle Harrison. The Cincinnati Reds managed to dodge facing either one of them during this series in Great American Ball Park, yet here they are on the cusp of being swept (again) by their division rivals.

(Are they even still rivals at this juncture?)

A loss this evening would sink Cincinnati to 5 games under .500 for the first time all season. They’re already sporting a comically awful 2-15 record against NL Central opponents this season. And unlike recent series, they can’t even hand the ball to ace Chase Burns in the final game of a series to help them salvage it.

Instead, they’ll hand it to Rhett Lowder, who yielded a pair of homers and 4 ER in 5.1 IP his last time out against the New York Yankees. The Reds, if they’re to go anywhere this season, simply must get more out of their 2023 1st round pick tonight and going forward.

Milwaukee will send swingman Shane Drohan to the mound to start tonight. He has alternated between the bullpen and starting rotation often this year, though each of his most recent four appearances have come as a starter. He’s a lefty, too, so manager Terry Francona has stacked his lineup accordingly to begin (including with Dane Myers, of all folks, batting in the #3 spot in the order).

First pitch is slated for 7:10 PM ET. Here’s how the Reds will line up to start:

Series finale with the Brewers.

Powered by @PNCBankpic.twitter.com/NusE33Y3J2

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 24, 2026

If there is any good Reds news at the moment, it’s that they didn’t immediately make a roster move to place Nick Lodolo on the IL after his pitching wrist was hit by a 107 mph comebacker last night. Hopefully that’s an indication that they think he’ll emerge from that scary incident mostly OK, though it remains to be seen whether he’ll need to have a start pushed back, or not.

Anyway, go win a baseball game, Reds. It would really make a lot of very, very disappointed people happy for a few minutes.

Marlins 4, Rangers 2

• The Rangers did not win the series in Miami.
• They did not win the series in Miami despite some excellent work from Jacob deGrom.
• Jacob deGrom ended up taking the loss in the game due to allowing a pair of runs and leaving the game with the team down 2-1. Its unfortunate, because he pitched really, really well.
• deGrom is not vintage deGrom. He’s not “best pitcher in baseball” Jacob deGrom any more. But he’s still awfully damn good.
• Like Kumar Rocker on Monday, deGrom threw the slider for about half of his pitches. And like Rocker, he missed a bunch of bats with it, generating swings and misses on 12 of the 25 sliders that the Marlins swung at, out of 45 sliders total.
• Unlike Rocker, deGrom has a fastball and a changeup that can also miss bats. He got whiffs on 9 of 15 swings on his fastball and 3 of the 5 swings the Marlins attempted on his changeup.
• In all, that’s 24 swings and misses, tied for the 6th most in MLB this season. He racked up 8 strikeouts in all.
• Unfortunately, deGrom also issued a pair of walks in the game. One of them, a leadoff walk to Otto Lopez to start the fourth, came around to score on a two out Griffin Conine double. The other, which came with no one out in the fifth, put Owen Caissie, who had a leadoff single to start the inning, at second. Caissie came around to score on a Xavier Edwards one out single after a sac bunt.
• That Edwards single was the only hit with a runner in scoring position today. The Rangers were 0 for 1 with runners in scoring position, the Marlins were 1 for 5.
• deGrom allowed just four hits in the game — three singles and the Conine double. They came at inopportune times, though, and with a Ranger lineup that, well, only had one at bat with runners in scoring position all game, deGrom needed to be close to perfect for the Rangers to win.
• Cole Winn gave up a two run homer in the eighth to turn a one run game into a three run game, which ended up being all the more lamentable when the Rangers scored in the top of the ninth.
• Winn’s ERA is now up to 6.38 on the season.
• Last year, Winn’s 1.51 ERA was belied by his 4.19 xERA and 3.90 FIP. He’s doing the opposite this year, with a 4.35 FIP and an xERA that won’t be updated until tomorrow, but is, I’m pretty sure, less than 6.38.
• Still, the real problem was the lack of offense. The Rangers scored twice, on a Wyatt Langford solo homer and Joc Pederson’s solo shot in the ninth off of Pete Fairbanks. That Pederson shot makes you want to metaphorically shake your fist at Winn for allowing the two runs in the eighth, but then, maybe Fairbanks doesn’t challenge Pederson if its just a one run game, pitches him more cautiously.
• The Rangers got just four other hits in the game, all singles, one of them by Wyatt Langford. They drew no walks. They also sent four batters more than the minimum to the plate because Nick Lopez, who had one of the hits, was caught stealing, and Ezequiel Duran, who hit into a fielder’s choice after a Jake Burger infield single, got picked off first to end the inning.
• Langford did successfully steal a base, and that’s good and all, but Meat Loaf’s song wasn’t called “One Out Of Three Ain’t Bad.”
• There was some bad luck for the Rangers on balls in play. Brandon Nimmo had a couple of blasts that qualified as “barrels” by the Statcast measure, each of which went 390+ feet, but both of which were caught. Justin Foscue, pinch hitting for Lopez to start the sixth, crushed a line drive off of former Ranger John King that, a little to the left or right, could have been a double, but instead was caught for an out by former Ranger Heriberto Hernandez.
• But even taking that into account, the bats let the team down on Wednesday.
• Maybe the much awaited return of Corey Seager, expected to be in the opener against Toronto on Thursday, will provide a shot in the arm.
• Jacob deGrom topped out at 98.9 mph with his fastball, averaging 97.4 mph. Tyler Alexander hit 92.1 mph with the one fastball he threw. Cole Winn touched 95.9 mph with his fastball. Robby Ahlstrom’s sinker maxed out at 93.4 mph.
• Wyatt Langford’s homer was 106.5 mph off the bat, and he had a 100.5 mph single. Justin Foscue had a 105.8 mph fly out. Joc Pederson had a 103.9 mph ground out and a 102.0 mph home run. Brandon Nimmo had a 103.8 mph fly out (that would have been a homer in 10 of 30 major league parks) and a 100.5 mph fly out.
• Three down, seven to go.