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Whenever Colorado Rockies pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano (菅野 智之) pitches or speaks to the media, you may notice the man who flanks him. This is Yuto Sakurai, who has served as Sugano’s interpreter for the last two years. 

However, before Sakuari worked for Sugano, he had other roles that shaped how he approaches his current work.

Early Life

Sakurai was born in Tokyo, Japan, but moved to the United States at a young age. 

“I was probably four or five,” he said. “I remember going to kindergarten in LA, so it was just a short stint in LA that I had.”

And after a few years, his family moved back to Japan where he completed elementary and junior high school. But when he was a teenager, he moved to Vancouver, Canada.

“I wanted to play baseball in the States, but with visa complications, Canada or Australia was my second option,” he recalled. “And I thought ‘Well, the United States is right next door, so close enough.’ And that’s why I chose Canada.”

Sakurai also attended university in Canada, where he initially studied psychology and business but ultimately finished his degree in marketing.

“My friends were all taking business classes, and I thought, ‘Why not take business?’” he said. “And then while doing my business major, I took one of the marketing courses and just fell in love with it. It was a course called ‘Personal Selling’ or something like that. I really enjoyed the negotiation tactics and the communication aspect of marketing, so I think that’s when I kind of shifted.

“Studying wasn’t really my thing,” he laughed. “But in terms of acquiring language, it was one of the good things I was able to do so I guess it all worked out in the end.”

And even though Sakurai isn’t currently working in marketing, he credits the skills he learned with “absolutely” helping him land his roles in Major League Baseball.

“Being in this role, I’ve had to communicate with various people from different departments,” he said, “someone like you from the media or the PR from our team, business and baseball ops people, and then, of course, players. So it has definitely helped me out.”

Pivoting to Major League Baseball

Before Sakurai was hired by Sugano, he worked for another Japanese pitcher, Shun Yamaguchi (山口 俊). Yamaguchi and Sugano played together on the Yomiuri Giants in the NPB, and Yamaguchi was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays in December 2019. Unfortunately, his MLB career never quite took off, in part because of the COVID-shortened 2020 season. 

Yamaguchi made his MLB debut on July 26, 2020 and made 17 appearances that year. He went 2-4 with a 8.06 ERA across 25.2 innings. He was designated for assignment in February 2021 and signed by the San Francisco Giants, but was eventually released in July after not making another appearance in the majors.

“He was supposed to be a starter, but he ended up becoming a middle reliever,” Sakurai recalled. “It was during the 2020 shortened season – the COVID year – so he didn’t really have a chance to play that year. The Giants picked him up, but he never got to the major leagues. I think we played half the season in Sacramento.

“When he signed with the [San Francisco] Giants, I was like, ‘I have a background in Vancouver,’” he continued, “so I thought I could help him out with making the adjustments – coming over here, but also playing. And when I saw the news, I applied, and luckily they saw my email, and that’s how things started.”

After his role with Yamaguchi, Sakurai took a sabbatical from being an MLB interpreter. 

But then another opportunity presented itself in 2025.

Connecting with Tomoyuki Sugano

After spending 12 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants, Tomoyuki Sugano signed a one-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles as he fulfilled a longtime goal of playing Major League Baseball. However, he needed an interpreter to help him navigate life in the United States. 

That’s when Sakurai decided to shoot his shot again.

“I saw Tomo sign with the Orioles last year, and I thought, ‘Why not shoot the GM an email and see what the response will be like?’ And luckily, I got a response, and that’s how the thing started rolling,” he said.

“I had an interview with his agent, Shawn Novak, who speaks both English and Japanese fluently,” Sakurai continued. “And I had two different interviews with him and his agency, and then I was one of the final candidates and then got to speak with Tomo next on Zoom. He asked me a bunch of questions, but it seemed like he was looking for someone who is willing to help not only on the field, but off the field and have a relationship with and hang out with. So I was like, ‘Sure, why not?’”

Sakurai was based in Japan at that time, but moved back to the US when he was hired by Sugano. And part of his role is to help Sugano communicate with coaches, media, etc., but also to help him adjust to life in the US.

“I guess it’s helped – in a good way – that he’s single and didn’t have any family to be with over here,” Sakurai said. “I’m basically kind of replacing the family component there, so we just hang out every day – go out for lunch, go out for dinner, go golf together. Whichever city we go to, we try to find something to do. He likes to go to amusement parks, so we’ve been to a couple different Six Flags in the last year. And just seeing each other every other day kind of helped with the bonding process.”

And the two are pretty much inseparable at this point.

“I’m pretty much with Tomo 24 hours everywhere except for the time I fall asleep,” Sakurai said. 

“I wake up and usually he tells me, ‘Let’s meet up downstairs’ or [we’ll] go have lunch or coffee. That’s how my day usually starts. We go grab lunch, and then on a road trip, we come back, take the bus to the stadium, and from there on, you see what’s going on. I’m always with him on the field, and once the game is over, we take the same bus back. And if we don’t end too late, we usually go grab dinner together or have dinner at the stadium and go our separate ways afterwards.”

Perks of being an interpreter

On top of being connected to a legendary pitcher like Sugano, Sakurai has been enjoying being an MLB interpreter.

One of the most surprising things, though, was how ‘normal’ most of these guys are.

“You used to think of all these guys as your childhood heroes,” he said. “I mean, they still are, but how they interact with myself and Tomo, they’re just regular people, too. I was surprised about how a lot of them are very humble. They have respect for each other. No matter who you are, they will treat you with respect.”

And specifically with guys like Mike Trout, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, he has made sure to stay the same and not get too caught up in the moment.

But the biggest lesson he’s learned so far?

“Maybe try not to stand out too much,” he said, “because I am a staff member. I’m not a player, so essentially I have to hide in the shadows, per se, and do my job discreetly and try not to get too ahead of myself.”

Having worked for four organizations, Sakurai has noticed a few differences, but noticed one thing in particular that the Rockies excel at doing.

“I feel like we have a family-like team, per se. Like, the first day of spring training, everybody was welcoming from top to bottom,” he said. “Not all the teams have that, so I really appreciate that component. And even still now, we have a good thing going on. Everybody says hi to each other every single day coming in, and I really like that. It’s a long season to battle, so you want to get along with everybody as much as possible, and I think this organization has the best of it.”

However, Sakurai has one favorite part of the job that’s unique to his particular role.

“When I get to go on the mound with Alon [Leichman],” he said, “talking about what to do with the next hitter and stuff like that in front of 30,000 or 40,000 fans.”

“That’s something that not everybody gets to do – even as players,” he emphasized. “Position players wouldn’t really go up to the mound during the game unless they’re on the field already. So I think that’s my favorite part about this job. But otherwise, pretty much everything you get to do, like talk to the players that you typically see on TV on a daily basis. I get to do what I like to do – play catch with the guys. And last but not least, I like to travel. If it wasn’t for this job, I probably wouldn’t go to places like Cincinnati or Kansas City.”

But at the end of the day, Sakurai feels the same as most players about what he’s looking most forward to for the rest of the 2026 season.

“I think it’s the same with all the players and all the staff for all 30 organizations,” he said. “I think everybody’s ultimate goal is to get that championship ring, and I would love to accomplish that dream with these guys.”

And any advice to anyone who wants to get into this field?

“I think it’s just like any other job or any other dreams that people have,” Sakurai said. “If you put in the work for it, or you have the desire – like, for me, I wanted to work in Major League Baseball, and of course I had to put some effort in – anything is achievable.”

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On the Farm

Triple-A:Sugar Land Space Cowboys 7, Albuquerque Isotopes 6

It was a back-and-forth affair in Albuquerque, but unfortunately, the Space Cowboys (HOU) came out on top. DH Nick Kent, second baseman Chad Stevens and catcher Jose Cordova all recorded two hits.

First baseman CJ Alexander got things started for the Space Cowboys in the first with a two-run homer, but Kent answered back in the bottom half with a solo shot of his own. Catcher César Salazar singled to put the Cowboys up 3-1, then Alexander walked with the bases loaded to score another run.

Kent doubled again in the third to score Dew Avans, and then Stevens singled to score Kent. Second baseman Pascanel Ferreras tripled to score left fielder Cavan Biggio in the sixth, and then Mike Antico hit a sac fly to score Stevens. A wild pitch by RHP Ryan Weiss then scored Cordova. Another triple, this time by third baseman Vimael Machín, scored first baseman Charlie Condon (No. 1 PuRP) to give the Topes the lead, but it was quickly erased by a Biggio two-run homer in the eighth to end the scoring.

Double-A:Hartford Yard Goats 7, Reading Fightin Phils 4

It was homer-fest in Hartford as the Yard Goats defeated the Fightin Phils (PHI) 7-4. DH Cole Messina (No. 26 PuRP) got things started in the first, scoring catcher Bryant Betancourt on a two-run homer to jump out to an early lead. Unfortunately, the Phils plated four runs in the third — all off RHP Fisher Jameson. Jameson ended up pitching three innings, but only allowed damage in his first inning. The Phils started off the third with a left fielder Bryson Ware homer, then center fielder Pedro León hit a three-run homer to put them on top. Goats’ first baseman Jimmy Obertop hit a homer in the fourth to cut into the lead, and then right fielder GJ Hill homered in the fifth to tie the game.

The first (and only) non-homer score came later in the fifth, when center fielder Conner Capel doubled to score shortstop Andy Perez. Betancourt wanted in on the homer parade, hitting a two-run shot as the final scoring hit.

High-A:Vancouver Canadians 9, Spokane Indians 5

DH Tommy Hopfe and right fielder Max Belyeu (No. 15 PuRP) each recorded multiple hits in the Indians’ 9-5 loss to the Canadians (TOR). Belyeu went 2-for-5 with two runs scored, one RBI, one walk and two strikeouts. Hopfe went 3-for-4 with three RBI.

Belyeu got things started with a leadoff homer to put the Indians’ up 1-0. Hopfe then hit a sac fly to score second baseman Roynier Hernandez later in the inning to put them up 2-0. In the third inning, DH Eric Snow hit a three-run homer to put the Canadians over the top. In the fourth, left fielder J.R. Freethy scored catcher Edward Duran on another sac fly, and then Hopfe doubled in the fourth to score Belyeu and Hernandez.

In the sixth and seventh, the Canadians blew things open with a double and two, two-run homers to put them up 9-4. Left fielder Jacob Hinderleider doubled in the seventh to score catcher Alan Espinal, but that ended the scoring and the comeback.

Low-A:Fresno Grizzlies 2, Inland Empire 66ers 1

It was a pitchers’ duel for most of the game in Fresno, as the scoring didn’t start until the seventh inning and ended with a walk-off. DH Luis Mendez led the way, going 3-for-4. Rehabbing second baseman Adael Amador and center fielder Roldy Brito (No. 11 PuRP) each went 2-for-4, and Brito also struck out once.

66ers (SEA) second baseman Dervy Ventura broke through the brick wall that was RHP Austin Newton when he hit a sac fly to score left fielder Ricardo Cova. It was the only run allowed by Newton, who also allowed three hits and struck out two batters in 6.1 innings of work.

In the Grizzlies half of the inning, catcher Jesus Freitez hit a sac bunt, and then right fielder Carlos Renzullo scored on a fielding error by pitcher Ray Cebulski. The walk-off also came off the bat of Freitez, who singled to score shortstop Ashly Andujar (No. 20 PuRP).

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Patrick Saunders is hanging it up after 28 years at The Denver Post. A baseball writer looks back with gratitude. | The Denver Post ($)

Patrick Saunders has covered the Rockies since 1998 and his final game will be this Wednesday, June 24th against the Boston Red Sox at Coors Field. He shares some of his favorite stories from his career as he bids goodbye to the Rockies beat. Thank you, Patrick, for your excellent coverage of Denver sports over the years. You will be missed!

What just happened?! Explaining rare call that ended Pirates-Rockies thriller | MLB.com

Saturday night’s game ended with a rare 5U out due to an interference call. Kyle Karros fielded a ground ball from Jake Mangum with the bases loaded, and immediately started to look around without throwing anything. Turns out, the foot of Billy Crook grazed his glove while he was running from second to third, triggering runner interference. Crew chief Todd Tichenor explained it as such: “The runner failed to avoid the defender in the act of fielding the baseball; therefore, he’s called out. It’s very simple.” Luckily, the Rockies were on the winning side of the bizarre ending!

Rumfield is one of MLB’s top rookies thanks to Minor League lessons | MLB.com

TJ Rumfield has been setting toe world league on fire, slashing .279/.359/.483 with 28 extra-base hits in his first 75 games as a Major League Baseball player. He’s making a case for NL Rookie of the Year, and Thomas Harding talked to him about the lessons he learned in the minor leagues that prepared him for this moment.

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Folks, I don’t think I got it today. I spent all of Thursday getting ready for a weekend trip, of course not giving myself enough time to do everything I wanted to do, so the entire day was hectic. I arrived at my destination that night, and then drank heavily for three straight nights. I am unfortunately saddled with the inability to sleep when I drink – I am a near guarantee to wake up at 5 or 6 in the morning and then struggle to go back to sleep. There is a bonus: I have avoided many a hangover because it hasn’t kicked in yet when I wake up. The downside is becoming a walking zombie.

Anyway, I drove home Sunday morning, but not to my house. It was Father’s Day after all. I drove straight to my parents house on something like a combined 15 hours sleep over the past three days. Actually 15 is probably optimistic. My dad got a JJ Wetherholt jersey and Masyn Winn bobblehead, so it was incredibly exciting when both hit homers in the 1st. I’m not kidding, we just finished giving him gifts and then the Cardinal game started not even five minutes later. I finally got home at 7 pm. And here we are.

So a quick article it is. But I don’t want to leave you with nothing so, some random observations for you

JJ Wetherholt’s ridiculous season

JJ Wetherholt is answer to the question: what if you just maxed out everything a baseball player does? JJ Wetherholt, at least in his first three months of professional baseball, has been an elite baserunner and elite fielder. It doesn’t matter what stat you use. He is +13 outs above average, which is quite literally 100 percentile among defenders according to Statcast. He is 95th percentile by baserunning value. He has 1.2 dWAR if you prefer Baseball-Reference. And his hitting isn’t bad either.

Wetherholt, now with 3.3 fWAR on the year, is on pace to have the best rookie season by a Cardinals player since Albert Pujols. And it’s pretty much equal to Pujols’ season. He’s on pace for 7.1 fWAR, Pujols had 7.2 fWAR. That’s a rounding error. I have comped him to Chase Utley before in sort of a pie-in-the-sky outcome – that is not a crazy comp. Utley was not a Hall of Famer caliber player because of his offense – well he sort of was – but he maxed out his baserunning and fielding value.

Ignore the power aspect – Citizen Banks Park is a much better park for homers than Busch Stadium, but even accepting that, Utley most likely has more power than Wetherholt ever will – if you look at the season by season wRC+ Utley had, it doesn’t feel THAT crazy anymore. Utley’s peak began with a 134 wRC+, which he followed with a 130 wRC+, and then a 150, then 134, 141, and 128 wRC+. Wetherholt still has work to do, since he’s “only” at a 127 wRC+ right now.

However, he is arguably getting unlucky. Maybe yesterday’s game fixes that. I don’t know. But he entered yesterday’s game with a .360 xwOBA and a .343 wOBA. His 3-5 day with two homers and a HBP rose his actual wOBA to .354. But you know, it probably raised his xwOBA too. Somewhat inexplicably his second homer carried an expected batting average of .030 while simultaneously being a homer in 19 parks. His single carried a .930 xBA and there’s no data on his first homer, but that was more of a no doubter. Point being, I think his xwOBA will still paint him as unlucky.

So that 130-140 wRC+ range doesn’t feel crazy, and we’re talking about a 23-year-old with 71 career games. While his baserunning and fielding really has nowhere to go but down, his hitting may not be a finished product. We really have a special player here.

Have faith in Masyn Winn

Even if I accepted that Masyn Winn was now an 80-85 wRC+ hitter carried by his defense, I have not really understood the discourse about replacing him. Let’s tackle positions that are actually a problem first. I don’t care if there are a lot of 3 win shortstops, that doesn’t make replacing him automatically easy. Wetherholt could most likely handle SS, but his greatest weakness is his arm, so he is very much not a guarantee that it would work and there’s very little chance he’s a better defender at SS than Winn.

I have also been very vocal in thinking he has more in the tank offensively. He’s still just 24-years-old. I don’t think his best offensive days are behind him. I also look at like this: we don’t need Masyn Winn’s bat to better. It’s almost a bonus. I think it can be better, but we’re not dependent on it being better. Winn will still be a valuable player and a worthy starter on a playoff caliber team even if his bat is what it is. Despite a slow start with the bat and with defensive numbers that I think will get better, he’s still nearly on pace for a 3 WAR season.

Is anybody else worried about Gordon Graceffo?

Graceffo is really working on a razor’s edge right now. He is not missing bats, he is walking too many, and he’s not really getting a lot of groundballs either. ERA is the only stat that makes him look good, the rest make him look… unplayable honestly. Every single one of them. His bad game on Thursday was a long time coming, and he has 4 walks to zero strikeouts in his last 3.1 innings of work. I had kind of assumed his advanced stats would start creeping towards his ERA at some point, and they really haven’t.

It’s interesting how much even the analytical fans will trust a good ERA, because I just haven’t seen a lot of talk about Graceffo. By literally any advanced stat and I genuinely think I’m using literally correctly here, we should trust Ryne Stanek more than Graceffo. We should trust Justin Bruhl more! Why can’t he miss any bats???

And that’s all I got for you.

The Pittsburgh Pirates and their ace Paul Skenes are in the midst of an all-time bad string of losses as after Saturday’s contest against the Colorado Rockies the club dropped their seventh straight with Skenes on the mound.

Skenes has been the center of criticism in this stretch with many questioning if he’s slipping in his third big league season. Many have cited his velocity being down, as his four-seamer averaged 98.8 mph as a rookie and 98.2 last season. This season Skenes is averaging 97 mph on his fastball. So there certainly has been a downtick, but the third year pitcher believes that he’s pitching better overall than he has in years past.

“I don’t think I’m necessarily the same pitcher I was my rookie year and last year,” Skenes said. “I do think I’m throwing better. I’m very happy with how I’ve been throwing. I think I’ve evolved. If you’re not getting better in this game, you’re getting worse. I feel I’m better than I was last year. I think there are some numbers that show that; others don’t. But the gut feeling is I’m better.”

In this stretch of losses Skenes certainly has not been dominating opposing hitters the way that fans have grown accustomed to, especially the third time through a lineup where his efficiency starts to slip severely. The commentary team during Skenes’ outing against the Houston Astros suggested that team’s game plans for trying to hit against Skenes could also be why the righty has struggled lately. When Skenes is on the mound, no matter what the count may be, batters are instantly going into protect mode. By taking this approach at the plate the opposing offense is effectively playing a game of attrition. In a batter’s first and sometimes even second time at the plate they’re not necessarily looking for base hits first as much as they’re looking to wear Skenes down by making it longer at bats, where they’re getting six or more pitches.

Paul Skenes tonight:

6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 SO
104 pitches, 63 strikes, 19 whiffs

Some run support would have been nice, but let's finish this one with a W at least. pic.twitter.com/vjbLDFmCo8

— Platinum Key (@PlatinumKey13) June 21, 2026

Skenes stylistically already racks up a lot of pitches because of the swing and miss work that he implements into his game. That aggressive style compounded with batters looking to draw out long at bats has Skenes getting into high pitch counts early and often. In his last five starts Skenes has thrown 103+ pitches in each contest and gave up two earned runs in each but one of those last five outings. Aside from his games against Philadelphia and Toronto in the last seven starts, Skenes has been fairly efficient in not giving up a lot of runs, but he is certainly being pushed to his limits on the mound.

The team as a whole has largely not been great at supporting Skenes when he’s on the mound. The team’s offense is often dormant in these matchups, and the lack of run support has not helped. Against Philly on May, 17 the Pirates scored zero runs. Against Toronto on May, 23 the Pirates scored two runs and repeated the same low on May, 28 against the Cubs. In Skenes’ start against the Astros the Pirates did a decent job on offense by scoring nine runs, but lost the lead once Skenes came out of the game. Against Houston Skenes gave up one earned run, and three runs were scored during his time on the mound, but the Pirates lost 11-9, so that one is on the bullpen which is it’s own disaster zone right now. This trend of no offense continued in Skenes’ starts against the Dodgers, Marlins and Rockies.

Don Kelly seems to always field the worst possible lineup on nights that Skenes pitches, which isn’t helping matters either. Ryan O’Hearn is regularly missing from the lineup, while poor performers like Marcell Ozuna and Jared Triolo are consistently getting at bats. Henry Davis always catches for Skenes and he is mostly an offensive liability as well. The amount of prospects and random call ups that are on the field for Skenes starts is laughable too. While Skenes has had his own fair share of struggles this season, it’s fair to say that the best product is not always being put on the field to support him either.

Defensively the Pirates are not nearly as sound this year as they were last year either. O’Hearn is being asked to play mostly outside of his natural position, and there have been some shortcomings with him in right field. Oneil Cruz is still not a great defender in center field and to this point has not been able to make the out of the ordinary plays that a Gold Glove defender is capable of. The rotating cast in the outfield has not helped either, and the right side of the infield is average at best but certainly not great.

Baseball is such a cruel game. Why?

Paul Skenes, a generational talent and one of the best pitchers in baseball has not won a game for his team since May 12th

He’s 100% the new Jacob DeGrom pic.twitter.com/b7TMEGpBcj

— Uncovered MLB (@UncoveredMLB) June 21, 2026

All things considered it could be a lot worst, as Skenes is still statistically right up there with the best pitchers in baseball, but there’s definitely a different feel around him and his most recent starts. Still though his Pirates’ teammates are confident in his abilities with Brandon Lowe saying he’s still pitching incredibly.

“That’s one of the things that everybody in baseball has been clouded by: how great Paul has been in his first two years,” Lowe said. “When you can look at a guy who has a (2.85) ERA, and the media says he’s having a down year … it’s pretty incredible, the numbers he’s been able to put up and what he’s been able to do, for people to question his ability at this point in the season.”

Some have also pointed to Skenes’ involvement in the World Baseball Classic and the hangover period that many players from the tournament have experienced, but Skenes stands by his conditioning and the work he continues to put in, and is not concerned by a perceived slip or downtick in velocity on his pitches.

“I mean, you can still blow it by them with 97 compared to 98,” Skenes said. “I’m feeling better after starts compared to the last couple years. If it weren’t for a couple short outings, I’d have more innings under my belt. I’m conditioned to throw more innings than I have been throwing.”

Kelly echoes his confidence in the work that Skenes does to keep his body in top shape during the season.

“I think we are trying to keep it in perspective,” Kelly said. “I think Paul has still done that, given us a chance to win, even though he hasn’t been maybe at the exceptional level he has been all of his career. He’s had stretches where he hasn’t been like that throughout the last two years. I think the one thing that we do know: The preparation, the work ethic, the man and how he goes about it, he’s always going to give everything he’s got.”

Skenes is scheduled to start against the Cincinnati Reds in a three game home stand following the team’s next series against the Seattle Mariners.

No starter named as of yet for tonight’s game, but I’ll bet that we see Alan Rangel throw some bulk innings for the team with Kyle Backhus returning to open the game and face James Wood.

Phillies have DFAd Bryse Wilson and optioned Max Lazar to Triple A. Kyle Backhus will be active tomorrow. Phillies haven’t announced yet, but Alan Rangel looks like a good bet for some innings.

— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) June 22, 2026

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• To hit for the cycle on Saturday, Bryce Harper used a heavier bat in batting practice. It sure did help him.
• The Phillies can make all the trades they want. Their success from here on out is going to depend on Trea Turner ($).

MLB news:

• The Rangers have been playing well lately, but they’ll be down a starter with Jack Leiter going to the injured list.
• Tarik Skubal is probably going to be traded this deadline, so what they’ll want in return is starting to become clearer.
• The Marlins designated Christopher Morel for assignment to clear roster spots. Maybe someone to consider on a minor league deal?

The Dodgers won the World Series last year, and the year before that. Their lead is the largest in any division this year. That success, and the money that nourishes it, has battalions of fans beyond Los Angeles all but marching outside ballparks with picket signs reading “SALARY CAP NOW.”

It’s a reasonable thought: The Dodgers can’t possibly keep winning if they can’t keep outspending the competition.

Or can they?

“There are a lot of little things that happen behind the scenes that people don’t see,” pitcher Will Klein said. “I understand where people are coming from. It’s easy to be a fan of a smaller team and get mad at other teams outspending you.

“But I think there’s a level of care here, and wanting to win, that exceeds other groups.”

Read more:Emmet Sheehan struggles in the haze in Dodgers' first consecutive loss since May

The obvious disclaimer: Any team would be better with Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, at a combined price of $1.6 billion. The counter argument: The Angels had Ohtani and Mike Trout and, well, you know.

It takes a roster. In Klein and pitcher Eric Lauer, the Dodgers have done something they do well besides spend: develop valuable contributors out of players discarded by other teams.

The Dodgers grabbed Lauer last month, desperate to fill a hole in their starting rotation. The Toronto Blue Jays had cut him, and he would be joining his seventh major league organization. The logical thought: The Dodgers had found a healthy arm to eat up some innings until they could find someone better.

That still might happen. But Lauer, who is scheduled to start Monday, has put up a 3.22 earned-run average in four starts with the Dodgers. Four starts is a small sample size, but in that time, Lauer is a career league-average pitcher performing 28% above league average.

“They got me immediately,” Lauer said. “They figured me out right away, and they knew exactly what was going to help me.”

For Lauer, the changes affected his delivery, but the specifics were not as important as finding a kindred spirit in Connor McGuiness, the Dodgers’ assistant pitching coach.

“I’ve always had a really hard time explaining myself and what I do, because I think a little differently,” Lauer said.

“When I was with the Brewers, it was running joke that it was ‘the language of Lauer,’ because I would describe things so differently and feel things so differently that, if you weren’t close to me and you didn’t know how I operate, it was very hard to understand what I was trying to do.

“Connor just immediately got it. It was like he’s been speaking it forever.”

At one point in his career, Lauer said, he struggled to explain the sensation of catching his heel on the mound as he completed his delivery toward home plate.

“I would describe it as, ‘I was falling backwards and I would catch myself,’ and it’s a really weird concept to think somebody was falling backwards when it doesn’t look like you’re falling at all,” he said. “It looks like you’re just moving forward.

“So they were like, ‘That’s not what you’re doing’ and I was like, ‘That’s what I’m feeling.’ We have to make the connection between the feel and the real so that we can understand each other.”

Klein, who joined his fourth organization when the Dodgers acquired him in a minor league trade last June, is in his first full major league season. He has a 2.37 ERA, and his 0.7 wins above replacement is better than any Dodgers reliever besides veteran closer Tanner Scott.

Klein said other teams had made suggestions on how to improve his game, and with the Dodgers, he has added a sweeper and dumped a slider. But what he needed to do most was throw more strikes, trusting that his lively fastball and curve were good enough to beat the best players in the world.

In the minors, Klein issued 6.9 walks per nine innings. This season, he has issued 3.6 walks per nine innings.

The credit, he said, should be shared with the Dodgers’ mental skills coaches.

“It’s easy to see the guys in the batter’s box, especially when you come up watching baseball and being fans of these guys,” Klein said. “It’s easy to see them being above yourself.

“But you’re on the mound with them, so you have to see that too. There’s a lot on the mental side that’s helped me here.”

The Dodgers did not include Klein on their postseason roster for the first three rounds last year, but he said coaches at all levels — in the majors, at triple-A and at the Arizona training complex — never stopped checking in on him, during the season and throughout October.

“When you’re down there, they don’t forget about you up here,” he said. “That kind of commitment and care was levels above what I had experienced.”

When the Dodgers added him to the World Series roster, Klein saved the season, with four scoreless innings to close out an 18-inning victory in Game 3.

Lauer called the communication in the Dodgers’ organization “miles ahead” of any other organization in which he has played.

“The training room, the weight room, the coaching staff, the players to each other,” he said. “Every form of communication is so seamless. Everybody knows what’s going on all the time. There’s no gray area.

“It’s all: ‘This is the plan, this is what we want to happen, this is how we’re going to make it happen,’ instead of: ‘This is the plan, this is what we want to happen, figure out a way to make it happen.’”

Read more:Dodgers’ Andy Pages strengthens All-Star selection bid with defensive gems vs. Orioles

Klein raved about how the Dodgers treat player families, and about a high-tech pitching machine so lifelike that he could see what it would be like to bat against him. Lauer reflected on his experience as a first-round pick turned journeyman who went to South Korea to revive his career.

“I have a hard time saying anybody has done a better or faster job of helping me than the Dodgers,” Lauer said.

What Lauer and Klein say substantially echoes what Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at last year’s World Series about turning the team into a preferred destination for players, and not just because the team wins and spends.

“Communication, being honest, having a really strong player development group in place at the major-league level, and how you treat families and treat the players,” Friedman said then, “I think matters a lot in that.”

To be clear: There is no indication the players’ union is willing to consider, let alone approve, a salary cap.

But, if that were to happen, Klein believes the Dodgers would be just fine.

“Our owners want to win, so they want to get the best product on the field, so they go and spend money,” he said, “and then everyone is mad that they want to win.

“I think they’ll find ways to win more if they can’t spend as much money. Friedman was with the Rays when they weren’t spending as much money and still had success there.

“I think they’re just better at wanting to win than some other people.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

For the third time this month, the Detroit Tigers have won a series against a first-place team — this time, a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park punctuated by a 5-4 walk-off victory in extra innings on Sunday afternoon. The win bumped AJ Hinch and Co.’s home record to a robust 21-16 overall and 11-6 in June.

There is still a way to go before the team is back in the wild card race, but at least they no longer inhabit the American League Central cellar, which is now occupied by the Kansas City Royals.

The Motor City Kitties look to continue their home-field magic this week when the New York Yankees come to town for a three-game series starting on Monday. With a series win, they can make it four over first-place teams as the Yanks have overcome the Tampa Bay Rays to hold the top spot in the AL East.

Opening things up on the mound for Detroit is left-hander Framber Valdez, who posted his eighth quality start of the season last time out on the road against the Houston Astros. The 32-year-old gave his team six frames of one-run ball — which was unearned — on six hits and three walks while striking out six in what turned out to be a 4-2 loss.

For the Yankees, right-hander Gerrit Cole will climb the hill looking to tame the Tigers in his sixth start of the year. The 35-year-old got a late start to the 2026 campaign as he worked back from Tommy John surgery, which he underwent in March 2025. Three of Cole’s five appearances so far were quality starts, while both of his non-QS came against the Cleveland Guardians.

Here is how Valdez and Cole match up on Monday evening.

Detroit Tigers (33-44) vs. New York Yankees (46-30)

Time (ET): 6:10 p.m.
Place: Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan
SB Nation Site:Pinstripe Alley
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network

Game 78: LHP Framber Valdez (3-5, 4.09 ERA) vs. RHP Gerrit Cole (2-1, 2.57 ERA)

Player	G	IP	K%	BB%	GB%	FIP	fWAR
Valdez	15	83.2	18.3	8.7	50.8	4.33	0.8
Cole	5	28.0	21.4	7.1	33.3	4.21	0.4

VALDEZ

COLE

Free of charge for the discerning reader.

Happy birthday to Jason Motte, and a mighty host of others.

Today in baseball history, in 1914 – The Giants shade the Reds, 3-2, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the 9th off Red Ames. Christy Mathewson gives up seven hits and no walks as the Giants increase their lead over the National League to four games. For the second year in a row, Matty will end the season with fewer walks than victories, the only pitcher ever to accomplish that, and other stories as well.

Today in baseball history:

• 1908 – Honus Wagner gets hit No. 2,000 in the 8th against Jake Weimer of the Reds, who win 4 0 over the Pirates.
• 1947 – Ewell Blackwell just misses pitching back-to-back no-hitters when Eddie Stanky of the Brooklyn Dodgers singles with one out in the ninth inning.
• 1951 – 20-year-old Willie Mays hits a 10th-inning home run, the first of his 22 extra-inning home runs, off 42-year-old Dutch Leonard of the Cubs.
• 1959 – At Kansas City, Mickey Mantle drives in six runs with a triple and two homers to lead New York to a 13-6 win.
• 1961 – Roger Maris leads the Yankees on an 8-3 thrashing of the A’s by belting his 27th homer of the year. Maris has now hit 20 homers in the past 30 days (May 24th to today), to tie the mark set by Ralph Kiner in 1947.
• 1962 – Stan Musial becomes the all-time total bases leader, raising his total to 5,864, in the first game against the Phillies. 
• 2002 – The scheduled game between St. Louis and the Cubs is postponed after 33-year-old pitcher Darryl Kile is found dead in his Chicago hotel room of an apparent heart attack.
• 2022 – One day after setting a personal best as a hitter with eight RBIs, Shohei Ohtani sets another one on the mound as he racks up 13 strikeouts in eight scoreless innings in a 5-0 win over Kansas City.

Cubs Birthdays:Jason Motte*, Brant Brown, Jim Asbell. Also notable: Carl Hubbell HOF.

Today in history:

• 1934 – John Dillinger is informally named America’s first Public Enemy Number One.
• 1937 – Challenger Joe Louis KOs James J. Braddock in the eighth round at Chicago’s Comiskey Park for the world heavyweight boxing title.
• 1938 – Joe Louis scores a stunning 1st round KO of German Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium, NYC to retain his world heavyweight boxing title.
• 1949 – Ezzard Charles beats Jersey Joe Walcott in 15 for National Boxing Association world heavyweight title, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1961 – Beatles record “Ain’t She Sweet”, “Cry for a Shadow”, “When the Saints Go Marching In”, “Why”, “Nobody’s Child” & “My Bonnie”, in Hamburg, Germany.
• 1963 – “Little” Stevie Wonder, aged 13, releases his first single “Fingertips” (first live non-studio recording to go to No. 1 on Billboard).
• 1969 – Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River catches fire due to pollution.
• 1971 – Reprise Records releases “Blue”, Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell‘s 4th studio album.
• 1979 – Larry Holmes TKOs Mike Weaver in 12 rounds for heavyweight boxing title.
• 1981 – John McEnroe‘s famous “You cannot be serious” rant in first-round win over Tom Gullikson at Wimbledon.
• 2007 – Patrick Kane is selected by the Chicago Blackhawks as the first overall pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.
• 2011 – After hiding for 16 years, Boston gangster Whitey Bulger is arrested outside an apartment in Santa Monica, California.

*pictured.