Texas Rangers @ Anaheim Angels

Saturday, May 23, 2026, 9:05 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / Rangers Sports Network)

Angel Stadium

RHP Nathan Eovaldi vs. RHP Walbert Urena

Go Rangers!

On Saturday, news broke of Taijuan Walker signing with the Angels on a minor league deal. I’ve always felt the hate directed at Walker was a bit over the top. Sure, he wasn’t good, but he did have some stretches where he was an effective pitcher for the team. His time here was clearly up and they made the correct move in getting rid of him, but since they made that decision, something has changed.

That something is Zack Wheeler returning and being his usual, Cy Young caliber self.

It seems as though the season has turned on his return, which isn’t too surprising since going from Walker to Wheeler is quite the leap forward in talent. But it’s nights like tonight, where Wheeler didn’t have this top top stuff and was still able to carve up the Cleveland lineup. However, his offense was once again stymied by the Guardians starter, this time in the form of Slade Cecconi.

Cecconi was going through the Phillies lineup similarly to what Gavin Williams did last night. He was matched by Wheeler, perhaps even beaten, particularly in the fourth inning. In that inning, Chase DeLauter doubled to begin the inning, wobbling Wheeler a bit. He responded as pitchers of his caliber do by striking out the next two hitters and getting the third to ground out harmlessly to first to end that threat. Good teams respond to that by getting their starter some runs and that’s what the Phillies did.

In their half of the inning, with one out, Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm hit back to back singles to get things started. Brandon Marsh grounded out on a spectacular play by Kyle Manzardo to put the runners on second and third with two outs and Bryson Stott up, the team needing something to break their scoreless inning streak. Stott delivered and the Phillies were up, 2-0.

Wheeler continued dominating the Guardians, eventually going six innings and only allowing two hits and one walk, lowering his season ERA to 1.67. In the bottom of the sixth, Harper and Bohm got on to start things off, then were joined on a walk by Stott. J.T. Realmuto struck out for the second out to bring up the horrendously struggling Adolis Garcia. Somehow, he worked a walked and an insurance run was added, making it 3-0.

From there, the bullpen trio of Orion Kerkering, Brad Keller and Jhoan Duran were able to keep Cleveland off the board, only allowing one combined baserunner and never really being threatened. The losing streak of three games was snapped and the Phillies are back at .500. These two teams will be playing (maybe!) tomorrow in the rubber match to see who takes the series.

There is a lot of Little League to the best team in the American League.

Operating with the third-lowest payroll in MLB, per Spotrac.com, the small-market Rays are pitching well, making contact and running the basepaths just like they have during most of their best nuisance-making seasons over the last 20 years.

“The thing, I think, that amazes me the most is our ability to, on the days we don’t hit home runs, still score runs,” seven-year veteran Drew Rasmussen, who was scheduled to pitch Saturday’s rained-out game against the Yankees, said. “Shoot, baseball at the major league level my entire time has been striking guys out and watching guys hit homers.

“To see a team that has the ability to score without needing to run the ball out of the yard, it’s really refreshing. But also, I do think it can lead to more sustainability. Teams that are dependent on homers are just that — dependent on homers to put up big innings. Yes, we’ll always take them, and I’m definitely excited to see us hit some more, but it is really cool that our athleticism has the ability to put us in ball games.”

The Rays (34-15) have won the first four meetings of the season against the Yankees to open up a 5.5-game lead in the East.

While the $336 million Yankees entered Saturday leading the majors in home runs, the $108 million Rays lead in sacrifice bunts, have the fewest strikeouts and rank No. 4 in stolen bases (two spots ahead of the Yankees).

On the mound, the Rays are right with the Yankees in MLB’s top-five in ERA and WHIP.

“I think we are doing a lot of things well,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve kind of maximized opportunities with guys in scoring position. It’s a lineup filled with a bunch of guys who make contact and put pressure on pitchers, and then our overall speed. The up-the-middle defense has been good, pitching has been tremendous, the bullpen has really come together.”

The Rays’ game-winning four-run rally Friday started with a Yankees’ error and then included two singles, a walk, a double and a sacrifice fly to score a pinch runner.

And two first-to-third dashes.

“To see how everyone contributes to helping us win day-in and day-out has been awesome,” Rasmussen said. “It also kind of keeps everybody in the flow of playing and gives the opportunity for everyone to stay in rhythm.”

But it’s not exactly a cast of no-names considering former All-Stars Junior Caminero, Jonathan Aranda and Yandy Díaz might be the American League’s best trio of hitters outside of the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice.

“Their starting pitching is really good, they have three really linchpin hitters in the middle of their order and then a lot of complementary speed pieces that do a lot of different things that put pressure on you,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It kind of hasn’t bounced our way against them, but we have to find a way to beat that club.”

Sometimes it just takes a road trip to the Bronx to bring national attention to what the Rays are piecing together.

“If you take these games, these might come down and be the deciding factors later in the year,” Díaz said through a translator. “It’s time [people noticed]. For the last few years, we have been one of the best or better teams in MLB, so we’ll take all the attention. It feels really good.”

Díaz’s memory is a little faulty.

The Rays made five straight playoff appearances — including eliminating the Yankees en route to the 2020 World Series — but finished under .500 in each of the last two seasons.

So, what’s the difference now?

“We’re getting a little more alignment than we did last year,” Rasmussen said. “We’re doing the simple stuff — scoring runners in scoring position, throwing strikes. The stuff you learn about in Little League, but it still does pertain to the game at this level. Guys are willing to sacrifice at-bats to move a runner.

“What is it in particular? I don’t know. It just seems like we are playing an all-around team game, and I think that really has helped in our success at this point.”

Unlike other surprise teams — the White Sox, for example — the Rays aren’t being carried by surprise stud performances.

It’s more like a collection of high-end numbers on the back of a baseball card. Maybe that makes it more sustainable.

“I felt like that’s kind of how we were built going into spring training, learning the guys,” Cash said. “It was going to take a roster that was doing everything — doing their part. To date, it certainly feels like that.”

The A’s saw their three-game winning streak snapped last night in the first game of this series down in San Diego. The team remains in first place in the AL West though so can’t let last night’s struggles follow them into the second game of this weekend set against the Padres.

On the mound for the Athletics tonight will be right-hander J.T. Ginn. The right-hander is coming off a tough-luck loss last time out when he went eight no-hit innings before allowing a single and walk-off two-run home run to ruin his evening. That tough ending aside, Ginn’s 2.98 ERA leads the team’s rotation as the 26-year-old has been a revelation for the squad. Let’s hope his extended outing last time out won’t affect him tonight in what’ll be his ninth start of the season.

Here’s the A’s lineup for tonight brought to you by Mark Kotsay:

That starting nine will be facing veteran right-hander Lucas Giolito. The longtime White Sox starter only signed on with the Padres recently, inking a deal at the end of April as the Padres dealt with a slew of injuries to their starting staff. It was a bit odd considering his solid year last season with Boston but he’s on the older side for pitchers. After taking some time to ramp up he finally got promoted to the big league team last week and looked solid in his first and so far only start for the Padres, firing five inning of three-run ball against the Mariners. In four career starts against the A’s Giolito has a 5.01 ERA so history is on our side tonight.

And the Padres’ batting order for tonight looks like this:

Let’s go A’s!

Follow the Game:

Watch:
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Athletics – Talk 650 KSTE, KVMX 92.1/105.5, A’s Cast

False alarm. Former Dodgers star Chris Taylor is not retiring, after all.

A day after Major League Baseball’s transaction log stated that Taylor was retiring — and the league’s official social media account even put out a post recognizing his career — Taylor changed his mind on the decision and instead went on the injured list with the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake City, a source confirmed to The California Post.

Taylor had not played since being hit by a pitch in his left arm earlier this week in a Triple-A game. He is going on the minor-league IL now with a forearm fracture, as MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger first reported.

Taylor, 35, has been in the Angels’ organization ever since the Dodgers released him in the final year of his contract last May.

He played 30 games with the Angels at the big-league level over the second half of last season, batting .179 while missing time with a fractured hand.

He re-signed with the Angels on a minor-league deal this spring and has spent the entirety of the year in Salt Lake, where he was hitting .255 in 32 games this year.

News of Taylor’s supposed retirement on Friday night was met with a wave of gracious reactions from Dodgers fans online. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts also praised Taylor’s contributions in Los Angeles, where the utilityman was a two-time World Series champion and a 2021 All-Star selection over a productive 10-year stint.

Turns out, such plaudits were premature.

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According to a source, Taylor told the Angels’ organization he was planning to retire this week, leading the club to file official paperwork to the league Friday.

By Saturday, however, he changed his mind, electing to keep his career active and go on the minor-league IL instead.

Athletics (26-25) at San Diego Padres (30-20), May 23, 2026, 6:40 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Petco Park – San Diego, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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One step forward, two steps back. 

The Mets’ offense appeared to have found their footing in recent games, but they’ve quickly returned to their feeble ways down in Miami. 

New York struck against Marlins righty Eury Perez on a Juan Soto homer in the first inning of Friday’s series opener, but managed just three baserunners the rest of the way. 

They followed that with an even worse showing on Saturday. 

Max Meyer had just about everything working as he held the Mets to three walks and a 64 mph opposite-field single across his seven shutout innings of work. 

New York was held to only that hit until a Tyrone Taylor pinch-hit double in the ninth, followed by a Mark Vientos RBI single that finally got them on the board. 

That was the Mets’ first at-bat with a runner in scoring position over the first 18 innings of this weekend set, and it was quickly wasted as A.J. Ewing grounded out to end the game. 

They now have just two runs on six hits and four walks in the pair of losses. 

“We’re better, we’ve seen that,” Carlos Mendoza said. “We’ve ran into two pretty good arms the past couple of days.”

“Obviously we haven’t done what we’ve wanted at the plate, but you gotta give credit where credit is due,” Vientos added. “The pitchers we’ve faced have been doing their thing.”

Both Perez and Meyer were certainly at their best, but this continues a season-long skid in which the Mets have managed to score one run or less in a league-worst 14 games.

With these last two, they’ve now dropped four of their last five. 

Now 1.5 games back in the basement of the NL East, though, they know they have to turn the page quickly. 

“You can’t sit here and feel sorry for yourself,” Mendoza said. “You gotta keep going.”

“Once 12 o’clock hits tomorrow, it’s a new day,” Vientos added. “Today is in the past and we have to focus on tomorrow and come back and win the game tomorrow.”

Apparently, if the sun is out, all you have to do to beat the White Sox is hit pop-ups. Or hope they bring in Jordan Leasure.

The Giants took a 3-0 lead in the fourth thanks to Jarred Kelenic misplaying a Luis Arraez fly ball into a triple, which a sac fly and four singles followed, all off sorta starter (after a Bryan Hudson opening performance), Erick Fedde. Kelenic tried to atone by leading off the fifth with a double, which was followed by singles by Tristan Peters and Drew Romo and a shot by Sam Antonacci that drove in a run on a fielder’s choice, but it would have been more were it not for a great play by Willy Adames.

That made it 3-2. Munetaka Murakami then K’ed, but Miguel Vargas doubled Antonacci home to tie the game.

That would be the last point of the game where Vargas didn’t want to bury his head in the warning track.

In the bottom of the fifth, Arraez singled, and Casey Schmitt went deep to make it 5-3. Then with two outs Matt Chapman popped out behind third to end the inning, only Colson Montgomery didn’t chase it and Vargas lost it in the sun, so it went for a double. Fedde then walked the bases loaded, bringing up the only batter he’d had no trouble with, Harrison Bader.

Naturally, after Fedde proved he could handle Bader, Will Venable went to the freshly recalled Jordan Leasure, who served up a gopher ball after Miguel Vargas lost yet another pop-up — this one foul. The grand slam made it 9-3 and sent John Schriffen, Gordon Beckham, and Connor McKnight spiraling into an extended riff on Alcatraz, sharks, seals, kayaks, and just about anything besides baseball. Hard to blame them.

That was about it for anything interesting, except when Rafael Devers hit a pop-up, the wind blew fair in front of the plate, and Devers just stood and watched while Murakami lost that one in the sun and dropped it and ended up thrown out thanks to a nice stretch by Chase Meidroth.

Adames hit a homer in the eighth to make the final 10-3, but by then, the announcers were scheduling their kayaking for tomorrow. Again, can’t blame them.

Eight of the Giant runs were on Fedde’s tab, with Leasure only charged with Bader himself and not the guys Fedde put on the bases, and Trevor Richards tagged for the last run. In true hyper-inefficient White Sox fashion, despite only walking three and striking out six, the four pitchers needed 161 pitches to get through eight innings — Giants pitchers only needed 147 for nine, and they struck out 12 Sox, which takes more throws.

The Sox did have 10 hits, two each by Peters and Vargas, who were probably only about a net minus-five runs for the day.

The loss puts the Sox record at 26-25, with the series by the bay wrapping up tomorrow at 3:05 Central, Noah Schultz matching up against veteran lefty Robbie Ray, who’s fresh off being absolutely clobbered by the Diamondbacks.

The Dodgers and Brewers finish off their weekend series in Milwaukee with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound on Sunday.

Yamamoto is coming off a tough-luck loss on Monday in San Diego, in which he allowed a solo home run in the first inning and otherwise mostly nothing else in his seven innings. This is the right-hander’s third career start against the Brewers, all of which will have been in Milwaukee. The first two were on opposite extremes of results.

Last July 7, Yamamoto didn’t get out of the first inning and allowed five runs (three earned), in his only truly bad start of 2025. He made up for that and then some with a complete-game win in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers’ first postseason complete game in 21 years.

Right-hander Brandon Sproat starts Sunday for the Brewers.

Sunday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Brewers
• Ballpark: American Family Field, Milwaukee
• Time: 11:10 a.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

In this series, pitching has mostly ruled the day despite the two highest scoring teams in the league squaring off. That was especially true today. The Nats and Braves were locked in a pitchers duel. In the end, two solo home runs from Dylan Crews and Jorbit Vivas proved to be the difference. 

While the game started on time, there was an absolute downpour in the second inning, which led to a half hour delay. Both Grant Holmes and Jake Irvin seemed unaffected by the delay, and were absolutely dealing. Irvin was the better of the two though. He threw five scoreless innings, retiring 15 of the 16 batters he faced.

This was the best Irvin has looked all season. His fastball was sitting at 94 MPH and the curveball was absolutely dancing. Irvin’s curve has been a great offering for him all season, and this was the best it has looked all year. He got 11 of his 14 whiffs on the big hook.

Unfortunately, Irvin seemed to have tweaked something at the end of his fifth inning of work. He tried to give it a go in the 6th, but he could not even make it through his warm up pitches. It would be a real shame if Irvin was hurt after this dominant outing. The results have not always been there for Irvin, but he has been one of the most dependable starters in the big leagues the last few years. I do not believe he has missed a start in his career to this point.

While Irvin was dealing, the Nats offense was mostly quiet. They had a tough time dealing with Grant Holmes’ breaking balls. The slider and the curve were both there for the mustachioed right hander. However, Holmes did make a couple mistakes and the Nats made him pay.

The first one came on an 0-2 count to Dylan Crews, who looked all out of sorts on the first two pitches. However, Holmes gave him a hanging slider, and the former LSU star did not miss it. Crews hammered his first home run of the season into left field, and gave the Nats a 1-0 lead.

Crews has been up and down since coming back from the minors, but seeing him homer was nice. It does feel like he falls into 0-2 counts far too often though. Hopefully this homer can be the start of something for Crews. It would be amazing if the Nats could get him going.

The Nats other home run also came from an unlikely character. Jorbit Vivas had really been struggling at the plate, especially with runners in scoring position. However, with nobody on, Vivas ambushed a Grant Holmes fastball on the first pitch that just left Truist Park. It was a huge homer that gave the Nats much needed insurance.

The pitching is what ruled the day though. After Irvin departed, Brad Lord came in and delivered three scoreless innings. He was able to navigate a Vivas error to strand two Braves in the 7th. As usual, Lord was fantastic in his bulk relief role and helped the Nats save their bullpen. He is such a key piece to this Nats pitching staff and is a true glue guy.

In the 9th, Richard Lovelady came in the game to face the middle of the Braves lineup. The fiery lefty retired Michael Harris, Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies without incident to secure the Nats a 2-0 win. It was a pitchers duel in Atlanta, and the Nats got the upper hand. The 3 Nats pitchers only allowed one hit and dominated a very good lineup. That sets up a rubber match tomorrow, weather permitting of course.