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Wednesday was getaway day for Dodgers, so before the final game of the team’s brief six-game homestand suitcases were lined up outside the clubhouse and equipment bags in various states of packing were strewn about the floor of the locker room.

And while few places have been sweeter than home for the Dodgers over the past two seasons, the team may be happy to get out of town after falling 3-2 to the Miami Marlins.

The loss before a sun-splashed matinee crowd marked the first time the Dodgers have lost consecutive games at home since last fall’s World Series. Of more concern is the fact the Dodgers scored just three times in the two games, going four for 17 with men in scoring position and leaving 16 runners on base in the two contests.

Read more:What Shohei Ohtani's start against Marlins says about how Dodgers are handling his workload

The Dodgers still lead the majors in home wins with 12 and have the best home ERA in baseball. On the road, meanwhile, the team ERA is nearly a run a game higher and the Dodgers’ record isn’t even the best in their own division.

For Tyler Glasnow, the results have been just the opposite. The right-hander was unbeaten in three starts on the road, where he has been nearly unhittable, and winless in his first two at home, where he struggled.

And while he didn’t get a decision Wednesday his performance on a brilliant cloudless afternoon was his best of the season at Dodger Stadium, with Glasnow scattering three hits and striking out nine in 5 2/3 innings. Two of the hits were solo home runs, however, so he left trailing 2-1.

Read more:'This is sick.' Kyle Tucker's walk-off single lifts Dodgers to comeback win over Marlins

Liam Hicks opened the scoring for Miami, driving Glasnow’s first pitch of the second inning into the lower stands just inside the right-field foul pole for his seventh home run of the season. The run was the first Glasnow had given up in his last 12 innings and the right-hander didn’t allow another hit until the fifth, when former teammate Esteury Ruiz hits his first homer of the season into the first row of the left-field pavilion.

In between, the Dodgers accepted a gift run with Max Muncy starting the second with a double off the glove of center fielder Jakob Marsee, then scoring two outs later when shortstop Otto Lopez lost Alex Call’s popup in the bright midday sky.

The Dodgers had Miami starter Sandy Alcantara on the ropes most of the afternoon, putting runners on in five of the six innings he pitched. But aside from the tainted run in the second, they couldn’t break through against the right-hander until the sixth.

Kyle Tucker led off that inning with a double to right-center, moved to third on a ground out, then scored on Dalton Rushing’s two-strike single to right. But Alcantara escaped the jam when Alex Freeland to bounced to second with two runners on.

Read more:Shohei Ohtani homers, Justin Wrobleski shines as Dodgers shut out Cubs for series win

After that, it became a battle of the bullpens — a battle the Marlins won when Javier Sanoja blopped a two-out single to shallow right off reliever Will Klein in the eighth, scoring Xavier Edwards with the winning run.

The Dodgers had a chance to that back in the bottom of the ninth when right-hander Calvin Faucher walked the first two batters he faced. After a sacrifice, Faucher walked Shohei Ohtani intentionally to load the bases but Freddie Freeman hit into an unassisted double play.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

In our unofficial series “What’s wrong with a variety of Guardians’ hitters”, let us examine the strange case of Steven Kwan.

From Opening Day 2022 to May 31st, 2025, Steven Kwan put up a 119 wRC+ with a 9.7/9.4 K/BB%, a .182 ISO,a .310 BABIP and a .328 xwOBA. From June 1st, 2025 to today, Kwan has managed a 79 wRC+ with a 9.2/8.9 K/BB%, a .084 ISO and a .254 BABIP, his xwOBA dropping to .282. A 34% decline in production is, obviously, the difference between a valuable major league hitter and a player who isn’t capable of helping a big league offense.

To begin at some more surface level metrics, Kwan has gone from a 22.1 hard-hit rate to a 17.9% hard-hit rate The rest of his batted-ball metrics look virtually unchanged. Kwan hasn’t hit the ball hard at high rate in the first three years of his career, so he could ill afford a noticeable drop in that area, but 4% decline there doesn’t explain 33% loss of production.

Let’s continue investigating. I next looked at specific pitches and uncovered something of interest. Over the past 700 or so plate appearances, Kwan has a -10.1 run value against fastballs, -2.5 run value against cutters and -1.9 run value against sinkers, compared to his first three and half seasons where he ran a 14.1+ run value against fastballs, a 1.7 run value against cutters and a -2.3 run value against sinkers. So, Kwan is now a bad hitter because he went from hitting four-seam fastballs well and cutters decently to not being able to hit either pitch at all.

Why has this occurred? My next point of investigation went to examining if hitters are attacking Kwan differently and, here, we seem to have an answer. When looking at the percentages of pitches Kwan sees on the inner third of the plate and further inside, here’s what we are seeing:

Kwan is seeing more pitches in this portion of the hitting zone than he ever has and performing significantly worse against them than he ever has. Similar numbers emerge when we look at four-seamers and cutters in this hitting zone:

One thing that seems abundantly clear – 2024 Kwan was likely an outlier. He is probably something a lot more similar to a league average hitter that he’s mostly been outside of that season. Combined with excellent left field defense, this would still be likely a 3 win player. But, the question is whether or not Kwan can get back to league average, as an 80 wRC+ will not play even with gold-glove defense in left field (should the Guardians return Kwan to that spot, or average defense in center).

Why is the decline happening against pitches in the inside part of the plate? I do think part of the answer is luck. Kwan’s xwOBA’s indicate he should be performing better than he is, especially against fastballs and cutters. However, he has definitely lost some slugging ability, especially over the inside of the plate. Here’s where we enter the area of speculation. Kwan sustained a wrist injury somewhere in the middle of last season. Is it possible his wrist has not fully recovered its strength and he simply lacks the ability to get the limited oomph he managed to get on those pitches in the past? Is this, when it comes down to it, mostly bad batted ball luck that will eventually even out?

In the days to come, I would monitor whether or not teams continue to throw mostly inside to Kwan, specifically with four-seamers. If Kwan cannot turn around on those pitches with any sort of regularity, more and more pitchers will look to exploit that weakness. If this is mostly a luck issue, chances are that Kwan’s ability to make contact and still manage a 14-20% hard hit rate will eventually get him back to more of a .310-.320 wOBA. If this is a wrist strength issue, his wrist will either regain strength and get him back some of his lost power, or it will continue to plague him. In any case, I suspect we are at the beginning of teams pounding Kwan inside and daring him to make them pay.

For Kwan, the only way out is through. He needs to continue to execute a good eye at the plate, make elite contact, and try to pull inside pitches and slap outside pitches. Time will tell if there is a course correction coming or if his lack of elite bat speed and raw power makes him a below average hitter easily exploitable by four-seamers and cutters. Today, Kwan looked more like his old self, so let’s hope it is the beginning of a turn around.

Note: Thank you to Matt Seese for his help sorting through some data queries for this article.

GLOSSARY:

wOBA – OPS adjusted for the run-scoring weight of each batter-produced event. .320 is roughly equivalent to league average.

xwOBA – this is the wOBA number adjusted for the results we would expect given a hitter’s exit velocity and launch angle

Red Sox 1 Blue Jays 8

That turned into a surprisingly comfortable win.

I didn’t think Eric Lauer looked great today, lots of deep fly balls finding gloves, but he only allowed one run in his 4.1 innings, on a Willson (who puts two L’s in Wilson?) Contreras home run. He gave up 5 hits, with 1 walk and 1 strikeout.

He came out in the fifth, after giving up three one-out singles. He wasn’t happy coming out, I could read his lips and he said ‘bull’ something when coming off the mound. I was on John’s side. Eric seemed to be getting a lot of fly balls, we didn’t need one to become a grand slam, and make a game out of this.

Braydon Fisher came in and got a line out to short that became a double play with a throw to second. The runner on second did come off the bag too far, but I don’t think it would have mattered if he stayed closer. Fisher pitched the sixth as well, getting five outs, with just one hit against and a strikeout.

Tommy Nance got the first two outs of the seventh, giving up a single and John took him out to have Joe Mantiply come in to face the lefty Roman Anthony. I guess we have to use our quota of relievers in every game, but, up six, I’d have left Nance in.

Spencer Miles pitched the eighth and loaded the bases with one out, but got out of it with the help of a pretty nice play by Okamoto. He came back out for the ninth (good job, John) and had a cleaning inning.

We had a pretty good game with the bats. We scored:

• Three in the third: Singles from Brandon Valenzuela, Jesús Sánchez and Vladimir Guerrero loaded the bases with singles. Kazuma Okomoto singled home two. A walk to Daulton Varsho loaded the bases again. Yohendrick Pinango singled home Vlad. Okamoto tried to score but was out at the plate. I was ok with the send with two outs. It was pretty close, but Kazuma isn’t fast.
• Two in the fourth: Valenzuela walked and Ernie Clement hit his first home run of the season.
• Two in the fifth: Vlad started it off with a single. An out later, Varsho was hit by pitch. And then George Springer, pinch-hitting, singled in Vlad. Myles Straw followed with a sac fly.
• One in the eighth: Valenzuela homered.

Vlad had another good day with the bat, going 3 for 3 with a walk, raising his average to .358. More homers would be nice, but that seems like nit picking. Valenzuela had two hits, single and homer, with a walk.

Clement, Sánchez, Okomoto, Varsho, Pinango, Springer, and Valenzuela had a hit each.

Ernie Clement made an excellent play, in the fourth inning, making a nice pickup of a ball on the third base side of second and then made very nice one hop throw to first, ending the inning. And Valenzuela challenged three pitches, called balls, and got them overturned. One was just at the time of the zone, the other was easily inside the zone. Good job Brandon. Valenzuela also had a nice play on a ‘swinging bunt’ that ended up just in front of getting to the ball and not rushing the throw to first. He looked very relaxed. He impressed me, I’d rather he get most of the playing time until Alejandro Kirk comes back.

Jays of the Day go to: Okamoto (.17 WPA) and Fisher (.13). I’ll give honourable mention to Clement (homer and nice defensive play), Valenzuela (single, homer, walk and three successful challenges) and Vlad (for the 3 for 3).

No one had the number for the ‘Other Award’. Giménez had the low mark at -0.4.

Speaking of not being happy about being taken out, Brayan Bello came out of the game with 2 out in the fourth after giving up a walk and Bello was not happy to be pulled. When Clement homered a few seconds later, he was even less happy. But he really didn’t pitch great, 3.2 innings, 6 hits, 4 earned (one after he left the game), 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.

Tomorrow the Jays are in Minnesota to play the Twins. Kevin Gausman (2.57) vs. Bailey Ober (3.94).

The Red Sox have lost the quick-flash momentum of the managerial change already. 

Chad Tracy fell to 2-2 as the interim after another poor starting pitching outing and insufficient run production. Boston failed to lock up a pair of series wins against division opponents, as the Blue Jays earned the advantage of this three-game set. 

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s series finale.

BAD BELLO (AGAIN) 

The right-hander looked refreshed through two innings before another early unraveling. The Blue Jays sent eight hitters to the plate in the third inning as Bello allowed three runs on five hits and zipped a wild pitch. 

Bello failed to finish four innings and disagreed with Tracy’s early hook with visible frustration on the mound. 

When the rotation gets healthy, the status of Bello’s spot will be a real conversation for the Red Sox. 

SOLO POWER

The Red Sox as a team still don’t hit enough home runs as a team. Luckily, Willson Contreras doesn’t subscribe to that MO. 

Boston’s first baseman tattooed a solo shot off Eric Lauer in the first inning in a fast start for the lineup. 

The rest of the group failed to follow his lead. Not to say they didn’t have chances. The Red Sox tallied nine hits, but left an incomprehensible 19 RUNNERS on base. 

The offense isn’t good enough to overcome that level of missed opportunity. 

SPLITS AGAIN

The Red Sox fell to 7-11 on the road, though they went .500 on each of the last six-game trips.

The San Francisco Giants continue this three-game road series against the Philadelphia Phillies this afternoon.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be right-hander Logan Webb, who enters today’s game with a 4.86 ERA, 3.32 FIP, with 32 strikeouts to 13 walks in 37 innings pitched. His last start was in the Giants’ 3-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers last Thursday, in which he allowed three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.

He’ll be facing off against Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez, who enters today’s game with a 2.94 ERA, 2.62 FIP, with 43 strikeouts to 10 walks in 33.2 innings pitched. His last start was in the Phillies’ 8-7 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Thursday, in which he allowed six runs on 12 hits with four strikeouts and two walks in five and a third innings.

Game #30

Who: San Francisco Giants (13-16) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (10-19)

Where: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

When: 3:10 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: MLB Network

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

MLB debuts aren’t always sunshine and rainbows, and expectations should always be tempered when a young player is suddenly donning a major league uniform. Cam Schlittler’s electric debut last season is a rarity, not an expectation.

Elmer Rodríguez held the Texas Rangers off the scoreboard for the first four innings, but his inability to throw enough strikes eventually bit him in the fifth, resulting in the Rangers taking a lead they would not relinquish. It didn’t help that the offense was shut out for just the second time this season, allowing Nathan Eovaldi to throw his best start of the year in a 3-0 defeat to close out a 7-2 road trip.

It was a clean start for Eovaldi, who pitched around a one-out single by Ben Rice to sit down the top of the order in the first. For Rodríguez, he struggled with command, walking a pair, but perfectly located a 3-2 pitch to Josh Jung for what turned into a strike-em-out-throw-em-out for his first MLB strikeout in a scoreless first.

A weird throwing error by Jake Burger (which should’ve been charged to Eovaldi) allowed Jasson Domínguez to reach in the second, but he was stranded. Rodríguez gave up a two-out single to Kyle Higashioka, walked Alejandro Osuna, and allowed a single to Ezequiel Duran to suddenly load the bags in a long second inning, but he survived by getting Brandon Nimmo to fly out.

The two pitchers exchanged 1-2-3 innings in the third before the Yankees finally got multiple baserunners against Eovaldi in the fourth on a single by Cody Bellinger and a hit-by-pitch that wound up taking Domínguez out of the game with an apparent left elbow injury. J.C. Escarra got a chance to break the tie with two out, but grounded out to first.

Another 1-2-3 inning seemed to be settling things down for Rodríguez in the fourth, but things fell apart in the fifth. He plunked Osuna and walked Duran, putting the eight and nine hitters on base. Nimmo reached on an infield single that deflected off the glove of Rice to load the bases, and this time, the rookie couldn’t get out of it. A two-run single by Jung knocked him out of the game and gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead.

There’s a lot to unpack from this start for ERC (yes, he still likes being called that). He’s not some control wizard, but he’s generally regarded as being a strike thrower, but he was just a tick off today, missing all around the plate. He couldn’t get ahead enough to throw his curveball and slider in two-strike counts and leaned much more on his four-seamer than usual. It wasn’t a good start, but you can see why they’d rather throw him out there than Luis Gil.

Brent Headrick, whose elbow must be made of vibranium, was able to put out the rest of the fire behind Rodríguez, striking out Seager, getting a forceout out of Joc Pederson, and inducing a long flyout of Jake Burger. Nimmo seemed to have pulled a hamstring running to third on the Pederson grounder and was removed from the game.

Rice led off the sixth with a single off Eovaldi, but was erased by a line drive double play by Bellinger. The scorcher went 107.8 mph off the bat and had a .690 xBA. Not fun! Headrick and Jake Bird combined to get through the bottom half, 1-2-3.

Max Schuemann drew a walk against Eovaldi in his first Yankee plate appearance, and both he and Escarra (who had a hard lineout) both worked lengthy at-bats to drive up the pitch count of the two-time All-Star, but he finished off seven shutout innings in yet another strong start against the Yankees.

Bird stayed in after the seventh-inning stretch, and Duran greeted him with a double down the left-field line. Sam Haggerty, an underrated Yankee killer, lined an RBI single after two failed bunt attempts to make it 3-0. Tim Hill replaced Bird and continued to be a ground ball monster, inducing an inning-ending double play.

Jacob Latz was tasked with throwing the last two innings for the Rangers. Aside from another hit for Rice, he did the job to avoid the sweep for the home team. Rodríguez is saddled with the loss in his major league debut, the first Yankee to do so since Randy Vasquez on May 26, 2023.

After a Thursday off-day, the Yankees return home to begin a three-game set with the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on Friday at 7:05 on YES. It’s Will Warren against a pitcher to be determined for the O’s.

Box Score

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, April 29, 2026, 6:40 p.m. ET

Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet-PIT

Pitching Matchup: Andre Pallante (2-2, 4.26 ERA) vs. Bubba Chandler (1-2. 4.88 ERA)

The Pittsburgh Pirates are at home hosting the St. Louis Cardinals this evening at beautiful PNC Park.

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BD community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!

Yesterday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds was a lot closer than the score would indicate. The Reds didn’t bust the scoring open until very late in the day, and the Colorado Rockies had plenty of opportunities to score. The problem was that the Rockies didn’t capitalize on those opportunities.

This evening the Rockies are once again in the Queen City and it’s delightful Great American Ballpark, looking to bounce back after their three-game winning streak was brought to an end. The Rockies also have a nice and fresh bullpen after Monday’s off-day and only using two total pitchers yesterday.

Making his sixth start for the Rockies is right-handed pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano 菅野 智之. Without being flashy, Sugano has quietly been one of the Rockies’ best starting pitchers so far this season. Through his first five starts he carries an ERA of just 3.42 over 26.1 innings. He’s given up more than two earned runs just once an has issued only six walks to 19 strikeouts.

On the bump for the Redlegs is left-handed pitcher Brandon Williamson, who has made five starts so far this season after missing the entirety of 2025 due to Tommy John surgery. Williamson enters today’s game with a 5.40 ERA over 25 innings. Where the Rockies will need to capitalize is with long, patient at-bats. Williamson has issued 16 walks to just 15 strikeouts this season with four home runs allowed as he works on finding his footing.

The Rockies have seen Williamson twice before, where he holds a 3.38 ERA over 10.2 innings with two home runs allowed and 11 strikeouts. His primary pitch this season is a cutter that sits in the high 80s. He backs that up with a changeup he uses to get whiffs. Williamson also throws a sinker and a four-seam fastball—both in the low 90s—a curveball, and a sweeper.

First Pitch: 4:40 PM MDT

TV: Rockies TV

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

Reds SB Nation site:Red Reporter

Lineups:

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