Worldwide Sports News

Box Score

Jacob Misiorowski doing incredible things has become shockingly routine this season, especially this month. He came into his start today not having allowed a run in four outings covering 24 1/3 innings in May. But he looked as good as he has at any point during that streak today, if not better, before he finally allowed a sole run in the sixth inning. His offense, meanwhile, jumped on Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore early and handed the Brewer pitching staff everything they’d need, and the Brewers took the first game of the first series of the year with their division rivals.

Misiorowski brought the heat in the first inning. His first six pitches were all at least 103 mph. Unfortunately four of them were balls, so Cardinals leadoff hitter JJ Wetherholt reached on a walk. After that, though, Misiorowski didn’t throw another ball in the inning. He struck out Iván Herrera and Alec Burleson on three pitches each before getting Jordan Walker to ground out on the first pitch of the at-bat.

The Brewers also got a leadoff walk after Jackson Chourio worked back from a 1-2 count. Liberatore almost walked Brice Turang, too, but came back to strike him out. Chourio should’ve been the second out when Liberatore threw over to first with Chourio stealing, but Burleson, the first baseman, made a weak throw to second base and Chourio just beat it (on a play that needed to be reviewed in order to make the correct safe call). That turned out to be big, as William Contreras followed with an RBI single and Christian Yelich followed that with his fourth homer of the season. The Brewers handed Misiorowski an early 3-0 lead.

The Cardinals didn’t have any better luck in the second inning. Miz struck out Nolan Gorman, got a groundout from Masyn Winn, and blew away Bryan Torres on three pitches. Blake Perkins struck out to start the bottom of the second. Garrett Mitchell picked up a hit on a grounder up the middle, one which Masyn Winn was surprisingly able to glove despite it hitting the bag at second base, but he wouldn’t have had a throw even if it hadn’t hit the base. After a Joey Ortiz strikeout, Mitchell was thrown out trying to steal second to end the inning.

Miz looked untouchable in the third. After a first-pitch ball to Pedro Pagés, Miz nearly got an immaculate-inning-minus-one, as he struck out Pagés and Victor Scott II on the next six pitches (including a filthy backdoor curveball on 0-2 to get Scott looking) and then got ahead of Wetherholt 0-2. Misiorowski did end up needing a couple more pitches, but he struck out Wetherholt, too. After walking the leadoff hitter, Misiorowski retired the next nine in a row with seven strikeouts… and needed only 30 pitches to do it.

Liberatore decided to do his best Misiorowski imitation in the bottom of the third, and struck out Chourio, Turang, and Contreras in order. Miz had another 1-2-3 inning with a couple of strikeouts in the fourth—Burleson hit one to the warning track, the first real contact for the Cardinals of the game, but Mitchell caught it without much trouble.

Liberatore continued his strikeout streak by getting Yelich to start the bottom of the fourth, but Andrew Vaughn lined a fastball into the right-field corner for a one-out double. Rengifo followed with a single into center, but Vaughn had to pause to make sure it fell and thus had to hold at third base. Unfortunately Vaughn was caught in a rundown and became the second out on the next pitch when Perkins hit a hard grounder right at the third baseman, Gorman. With runners on first and second and two out, Mitchell battled but struck out looking on a tough slider on the low-outside corner.

Misiorowski picked up his tenth strikeout to start the fifth, then got Winn on a weak groundout to first. Torres nearly got the Cardinals’ first hit with two outs, but Rengifo reached up and snagged his soft line drive to end the inning. Oritz led off the bottom of the inning with a single to left. Chourio hit a ground ball up the middle that was hit a little too softly for Winn to turn two on, so Chourio replaced Ortiz at first base. After Turang struck out looking (Liberatore’s career-high 10th strikeout), Chourio took off for second with Contreras batting—Chourio probably would’ve been out with a good throw, but the throw bounced into center field and Chourio made it to third. Contreras walked a couple pitches later—with first base open, Liberatore didn’t seem all that interested in pitching to him—but Yelich grounded out to second to end the inning.

Pagés, leading off the sixth, finally ended Misiorowski’s no-hit bid with a blooper that landed just out of the reach of Turang in right field. After Scott traded places with Pagés on a fielder’s choice, Wetherholt got the Cards’ first non-cheap hit, with a hard grounder through the right side that put runners on the corners with one out. Suddenly, the Cardinals had the tying run at the plate. A weak grounder from Herrera resulted in the second out but easily scored Scott from third, but a grounder by Burleson ended the inning. St. Louis was on the board, and Misiorwoski’s 29 1/3 inning scoreless streak was over, but the Brewers still had a 3-1 lead.

Liberatore, who crossed 100 pitches in the fifth, was done in the sixth, and his replacement was a lefty making his major-league debut, Brycen Mautz. He was rudely greeted by Vaughn, who lined a single into right, and after Vaughn advanced to second on a wild pitch, Rengifo walked. Perkins put a charge into one but he hit it to the deepest part of the ballpark, and Scott caught it with a leap (that was a little unnecessary, maybe) on the warning track, but Vaughn tagged and got to third. That set up runners on the corners with one out for Mitchell, who blooped one into left that landed just beyond the outsretched glove of the diving Scott. Vaughn scored from third, and Milwaukee still had runners on first and second with one out.

Mautz spiked a curveball with Ortiz at the plate that enabled both runners to advance to scoring position. Ortiz struck out, though—the first of Mautz’s career, and also a big one in the game situation—and Chourio struck out, too. The Brewers did finally get an add-on run, but it definitely felt like they’d left at least one more on the table.

Misiorowski was out for the seventh with 81 pitches on his ledger. He got Walker to fly out to center, then struck out Gorman and Winn to end the inning. The strikeout of Winn was Misiorowski’s 12th of the day, matching a career high, and it put an exclamation point on the end of another brilliant outing for the Brewer ace. He finished his day with one run allowed on two hits and one walk, and he lowered his ERA to 1.83.

Turang walked to start the bottom of the seventh. Contreras flew out to right on a pitch that he clearly thought he should’ve hit over the fence, but Yelich hit a base hit up the middle that was followed by a deep drive by Vaughn that bounced off the warning track in the left-field corner and went over the wall. The ground-rule nature of the double was unfortunate, as Yelich would surely have scored on the play; he tried to score on the next play, when Rengifo hit a medium-deep fly ball to right, and initially appeared to have done so. But on review, Yelich’s lead foot bounced up off the plate as he slid, and he was called out. Milwaukee had added another, though, and led 5-1 heading to the eighth inning.

Aaron Ashby came in to relieve Misiorowski in the eighth. The Cardinals squared him up pretty well, but the Brewers defense did what they needed to, as Torres grounded out to third, Pagés flew out to the warning track, and pinch-hitter José Fermín popped out behind second base.

Mautz pitched was out for a third inning in his debut in the bottom of the eighth against the bottom of the Brewer order. Perkins and Mitchell both grounded out, and Ortiz flew out to center. The Brewers headed to the ninth with a four-run lead.

Ashby didn’t need it. Wetherholt grounded out, Herrera struck out, and Burleson popped out. The Brewers won 5-1.

Misiorowski, as he has been, was the game’s big star. But several Brewers had solid days offensively, too, even if the team couldn’t manage more than five runs: every batter except Perkins reached base today (and even Perkins made solid contact a couple of times), and four Brewers had multiple hits. Yelich had the game’s biggest hit, the first-inning two-run homer, and he also hit a single later on. Vaughn had three hits on the day, including his RBI double. Rengifo added two hits and a walk, and Mitchell had two singles and an RBI.

It was a nice win to start the series against the team closest to them in the NL Central standings. The series continues tomorrow night, with Kyle Harrison taking on Michael McGreevy. That game is at 6:40 p.m.

Well, that stuff about Dylan Cease making his next start? Not so much.

The team has put him on the IL.

“It doesn’t look too terrible, knock on wood. Just trying to be smart and not have it get worse. Don’t know the exact timeline yet, hoping it’s a minimal stay.”

The team hasn’t said who is coming to take his roster spot, but likely a reliever for now and then a starting pitcher when it is Cease’s turn in the rotation again.

And Vlad isn’t in tonight’s lineup. They say he is available off the bench, but I have my doubts.

Tonight’s lineup:

Sometimes you just have to tip your cap and admit that someone was better than you. Today’s cap is tipped to Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski who overwhelmed the St. Louis Cardinals on Memorial Day Monday as Milwaukee won 5-1.

If you could erase the first inning, Matthew Liberatore had a better-than-average start for the Cardinals. He registered a career-high 10 strikeouts. Unfortunately, the 1st inning did happen and it was a punishing one for Matthew as he gave up a leadoff walk to Jackson Chourio who ended up stealing second base when Liberatore’s pickoff attempt was tardy and he was ruled safe on a successful Brewers challenge. Chourio then scored on a single to left by William Contreras making it 1-0 Brewers. That wasn’t nearly as damaging as what Christian Yelich would do when he slammed a 381 foot opposite field home run giving Milwaukee a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead.

That 3-0 lead felt “insurmountable” because Jacob Misiorowski was dealing. He didn’t allow a St. Louis Cardinals hit for the first 5 innings. The no-hit bid would end in the top of the 6th inning when Pedro Pagés managed a single into short right field. After Victor Scott II reached on a fielder’s choice, JJ Wetherholt smoked a single between first and second base and Victor advanced to third base. Suddenly, the St. Louis Cardinals had the tying run at the plate in Ivan Herrera, but all he was able to manage was a groundout to third which scored Victor Scott II and cut the Milwaukee lead to 3-1. Jacob Misiorowski ended up throwing heat for 7 innings and striking out 12.

Matthew Liberatore’s final stat line for Monday was 5 innings pitched allowing 3 earned runs on 7 hits while striking out 10 and walking 2. Brycen Mautz made his Major League debut in the 6th inning and got off to a shaky start allowing a single to Vaughan who advanced to second on a wild pitch. Brycen then walked Rengifo and then gave up a single to Garrett Mitchell which scored Vaughan making it 4-1 Brewers. Mautz finished the bottom of the 6th inning strong, though, with strikeouts of Ortiz and Chourio.

Milwaukee would tack on a run to their lead in the bottom of the 7th inning when Brycen Mautz walked Turang. After getting Contreras to fly out, Yelich singled and then Vaughan hit a ground-rule double scoring Turang and making it 5-1 Brewers. It could have been more, but Christian Yelich gave a clinic on why you don’t slide into home with your lead foot sticking straight up in the air as he was thrown out by Jordan Walker after a successful Cardinals challenge. Kudos to Brycen Mautz for setting the Brewers down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 8th inning. Imagine making your Major League debut in a tight 3-1 game against your NL Central Division-leading rival. He should feel good about his first game.

The St. Louis Cardinals will try again on Tuesday night as Michael McGreevy will start for the good guys while Kyle Harrison takes the mound for the villains. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

Former All-Star shortstop Wander Franco was found guilty of sexual and psychological abuse of a 14-year-old girl but will not serve prison time, according to a verdict delivered Monday, May 25 by a three-judge panel in the Dominican Republic and reported by ESPN.

Franco, 25, was facing a second trial after he received a two-year suspended sentence when he was convicted in June 2025 of having an intimate relationship with a 14-year-old girl when Franco was 21. The girl's mother was convicted of trafficking her daughter and received a 10-year prison sentence that was overturned on appeal; prosecutors allege that Franco had paid off the mother.

The mother was once again convicted of trafficking her daughter and again received a 10-year sentence, ESPN reported. Although the outlet reported that the court issued a judicial pardon to Franco, he was still convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, which would prevent Franco from obtaining a visa to work in the USA.

The court's decision will be issued June 16. Franco remains on Major League Baseball's restricted list for failure to report.

"We are aware of today's verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time," MLB said in a statement.

Both the prosecution and Franco's attorney appealed the first trial's outcome, and according to "Diario Libre," a Dominican Republic newspaper, the state sought a five-year prison sentence, while Franco sought to have the conviction overturned – which would likely be his only hope to continue a major league career.

Franco responds to sentence, wants to play in MLB again

As he exited the courtroom, Franco expressed relief and hope he might resume his MLB career, unlikely though that may be. 

"To my fans, keep supporting me, trust in God, and with faith in God, I'll soon be back (in MLB)," Franco said in a video by Dominican journalist Luis Tomas Rae Barett. "In this process, I learned to never give up and to value family. Value your family, because they will always be there. I've always kept training thanks to my dad. I will continue training and waiting for God's decision."

Franco was in the second year of an 11-year, $182 million contract in 2023 when posts emerged on social media of Franco and the 14-year-old girl. Franco's conviction meant the Rays have not had to pay Franco in the years since, and that's likely to continue.

Franco was named to the American League All-Star team in 2023 and had accumulated 5.4 WAR before he was placed on the restricted list that August. He played his last game on Aug. 12.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Wander Franco guilty of sexual abuse of minor in Dominican Republic

The headline represents about all I’ve got for the Cubs’ 2-1 loss to the Pirates Monday afternoon, their ninth consecutive defeat.

Ben Brown was absolutely dealing. He allowed four hits and a run and struck out seven in six solid innings, throwing 83 pitches (58 strikes). The six-inning effort was his longest of the season, but the 83 pitches were just one more than he’d thrown in his previous outing. It was a warm day in Pittsburgh (73 degrees) but not overly hot and humid, so why not let him go one more?

Perhaps that would have prevented Henry Davis from hitting the solo home run off Trent Thornton that was the difference in the game.

We’ll never know, of course.

The other difference in the game, naturally, was the Cubs’ almost-complete offensive failure. They had six hits and three walks off Carmen Mlodzinski and Wilber Dotel over eight innings (and no runners in the ninth), but again couldn’t get any of the runners across the plate. It was so bad that the RISP numbers were just 0-for-2, largely because they simply couldn’t get anyone to scoring position. Overall the Cubs left seven on base, with one runner (Alex Bregman) picked off.

The only Pirates run off Brown came in the third when he walked Spencer Horwitz with one out and Brandon Lowe doubled him in.

The Cubs tied the game in the fifth when Michael Busch homered off Mlodzinski, his sixth [VIDEO].

Busch has now homered in back-to-back games. So that’s good. Too bad there wasn’t anyone on base. That home run went a long way [VIDEO].

A bit more on Brown’s outing from BCB’s JohnW53:

Ben Brown finished with one run on four hits, two walks and seven strikeouts in six innings.

Only 12 previous Cubs starters since 1901 had exactly the first four numbers in at least six innings. Just three did not get a decision: Rube Kroh, first of the 12, in 8.0 innings in 1908 at Philadelphia; Tom Gorzelany, in 6.1, in 2010 at Cincinnati; and Jeff Samardzija, the last before today, in 6.0, on June 23, 2014 at home vs. the Reds.
Eight were winners: Orval Overall (1910), Dick Selma (1969), Fergie Jenkins (1972), Scott Sanderson (1987), Jon Lieber (2000), Mark Prior (2003), Carlos Zambrano (2004) and Rodrigo Lopez (2011).

Prior and Lopez pitched 6.0, as Brown did.

Matt Garza pitched a complete game in 2011 vs. the White Sox and lost, 1-0.

Here’s more on Brown’s day [VIDEO].

As you can see there, Brown used a really good pitch mix and mostly baffled Pirates hitters. Could it be that Ben Brown has finally arrived as a MLB starter? You know I had my doubts, but the fact that he has developed good secondary pitches appears to have made the difference. Great for Ben, and great for the team. Here are Brown’s seven strikeouts [VIDEO].

Thornton retired the first two Pirates in the seventh on ground balls before Davis homered. The pitch wasn’t a bad pitch, either, a cutter down and away, but Davis just got it.

Jacob Webb threw a scoreless eighth, helped in part by this fine catch by Pete Crow-Armstrong [VIDEO].

Craig Counsell sent three pinch hitters to the plate in the ninth, the first was Nico Hoerner for Pedro Ramirez.

I’m having trouble understanding why you’d bat for a switch-hitter (Ramirez) in that situation. Okay, Nico’s experienced at leading off innings, I guess you can make a case for it.

Nico swung at what would have been ball three and grounded out.

Seiya Suzuki, batting for Moisés Ballesteros, struck out and Carson Kelly, batting for Miguel Amaya, grounded out to end the game.

You can tell these guys are pressing, which can happen when a team’s on a long losing streak. All the team can do is pick up and try to win tomorrow.

A couple of likely meaningless notes on the Cubs losing recently: First, this game ran 2:24. It’s the sixth game this year the Cubs have played in that time or shorter. They’ve lost all of them.

Second, and even more meaningless:

Maybe wear the blue alternates the rest of the road trip? Just for the heck of it? Can’t hurt, right?

The Cubs will once again attempt to end the losing streak Tuesday evening at PNC Park. Jordan Wicks will make his first 2026 start for the Cubs and Braxton Ashcraft will go for the Pirates. Game time Tuesday is 5:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.

The San Francisco Giants welcome the Arizona Diamondbacks to Oracle Park this afternoon to begin a three-game series. Just like we did last week, only this time at home!

As of the time this is being pre-written (due to the holiday), neither team has announced pitchers for this game. So make sure you head down to the comments for the most up to date information.

Game #54

Who: San Francisco Giants – Arizona Diamondbacks

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 2:05 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Our first visit of the year to San Francisco, and we’re hoping it goes as well as the last time the D-backs faced the Giants. You probably remember, considering it was the dim and distant depths of… last week. Arizona swept San Francisco handily, outscoring them by a margin of 23-8 across the three games. But like most teams, the Giants have been harder to beat on their own turf. They have gone 12-13 at Oracle Park, as opposed to 10-18 on the road. So I’d be perfectly fine with Arizona taking two of three. That’d give the team a 10-3 record across two weeks of games against divisional rivals (albeit the bottom of the barrel), and you can’t argue with that.

Merrill Kelly will seek to post a fourth straight quality start. Though to be fair, those games were against the three worst teams in the league, in the Mets, Rockies and Giants. It did include our first complete game at Coors in a very long time, which is no mean feat. Merrill held the Giants to three runs over six innings in a 6-3 victory last time out, scattering eight hits and no walks with four strikeouts. Kinda meh, considering the Giants offense. They did scored 18 runs against the White Sox on Saturday and Sunday. But they scored 16 against the Athletics on Saturday and Sunday before coming to Chase Field, and that didn’t help them there, did it?

Bit of an odd start time. I get the day game on a Monday thing, with it being a holiday, but 2:05 pm is a bit odd, especially since I don’t believe it’s a national broadcast or anything. Oh, well. I’ll have to convince Mrs. S to delay the barbecuing until after I get the recap posted. I’ve been on good form of late: haven’t had a losing Monday recap since April 13. Admittedly a slew of off-days helped! But my last two recaps were victories in completely opposite ways: one was 1-0, while the other was a 12-2 win, our biggest margin of the season. I think I prefer the latter: always nice to start work on the recap in the fourth inning!

Per Wilner:

Lukes isn’t having a great season, slashing .250/.286/.327 (a 73 wRC+) in 56 PA before he went down with a hamstring injury. To be fair, though, he was hampered by some strange issues with vertigo in the first three weeks of that time. In 21 PA since seeing a specialist to work out a treatment plan for that issue, he had notched 10 hits including four doubles. Hopefully that means that the Lukes we’ll see is closer to the guy who was a solidly league average hitter in 2025.

Davis Schneider takes the fall to make room. It’s been a rough start for him, with a .127/.295/.211 line through 89 PA. He’s not barreling the ball up as often as he usually does, accounting for the collapse in his power production, and while he still works an absolute ton of walks it hasn’t been enough to overcome a nearly 35% strikeout rate. He’s shown no signs of breaking out of his slump, either, with May numbers worse than what he posted in March and April. Hopefully some everyday time in Buffalo gets him straightened out. It’s worth remembering that he’s been prone to horrific slumps for his entire career, and has always bounced back eventually to post solid overall production, so there’s every reason to hope he can get right.

I’m not sure I agree with Wilner that Lenyn Sosa would have been the alternative. It’s true that he’s somehow been even worse, with a 29 wRC+ on the season and 25 since he became a Blue Jay, but he’s out of options and this front office is loathe to give a guy up for nothing if they have any belief in him left at all. I can’t say I have any faith in a guy who’s below replacement level through four and a quarter MLB seasons, but the Jays just acquired him and I’m not surprised that 76 horrendous PA aren’t enough for them to give up on whatever they think they see there.

In other minor news, it’s the first roof open night of the year:

And Today In Injuries: Dylan Cease told John Schneider he expects to make his next start before going in for an MRI on the sore leg that knocked him out of yesterday’s game. He also apparently told Vladimir Guerrero jr. that he thought it was just a cramp. I’ll believe it when I see it, and obviously everything is up in the air pending the results of the MRI, but it still seems like they probably avoided a major injury here.

Regarding Vlad, the same story notes that x-rays on his elbow were negative. He came out of the game because he couldn’t feel his hand, but apparently experienced the same feeling after a similar HBP last year and played the next day. He’s not in tonight’s lineup, but hopefully it won’t be more than a day or two.