The Yankees optioned right-handed pitcher Scott Effross and infielder Jorbit Vivas to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after Friday's trade with the Colorado Rockies for third baseman Ryan McMahon to prepare for his arrival.
Will McMahon play for New York in Saturday's 1:05 p.m. game against the Philadelphia Phillies?
The 31-year-old Effross threw 23 pitches (13) strikes and allowed four runs on four hits in one inning, the ninth, where the Phillies (59-44) put Friday's game out of reach. He has allowed 10 runs on 16 hits while striking out six and walking three in 10.2 innings pitched over 11 games.
Vivas, 24, entered Friday's game at third base in the eighth inning and flew out to right field for the ninth's second out. He is slashing .161/.266/.250 with one home run and five RBI through 29 games.
The 30-year-old McMahon, who was a 2024 All-Star, joins the Yankees (56-47) at a pivotal time. He does so with a .217/.314/.403 slash line, 16 home runs and 35 RBI through 100 games this season.
"He's a really good player, great defender," said first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. "... He's a good hitter, and he's going to help us."
McMahon will take Vivas' spot on the roster while a corresponding move for Effross -- likely a fresh arm for Saturday's game -- was not announced.
HOUSTON (AP) — Nick Kurtz became the first major league rookie to hit four homers in a game, leading the Athletics to a 15-3 victory over the Houston Astros on Friday night.
Kurtz went 6-for-6 with eight RBIs and six runs scored. He’s just the second player in Major League Baseball history to have four homers in a six-hit game, joining Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 23, 2002 at Milwaukee, and he matched Green’s MLB record with 19 total bases.
It was the first six-hit game for the Athletics since Joe DeMaestri on July 8, 1955 at Detroit.
The 23-year-old also had a single and a double that hit just below the yellow line over the visitor’s bullpen in the fourth inning.
Kurtz singled in the first and his two-run homer in the second put the Athletics ahead 5-0. His solo shot in the sixth made it 10-2. His third homer was his longest, a 414-foot drive into the second deck in the eighth.
Kurtz’s final homer came against outfielder Cooper Hummel, a three-run, opposite-field line drive to the Crawford boxes in left field that made it 15-2.
Kurtz extended his hitting streak to 12 games and his 23 home runs are the most for an A’s rookie since Yoenis Céspedes in 2012 and fourth most in franchise history.
Tyler Soderstrom and Shea Langeliers also homered for the A’s, who had a season high in runs.
Jeffrey Springs (9-7) allowed two runs over six innings. Zack Short hit a two-run homer for Houston in the fifth.
Ryan Gusto (6-4) allowed eight runs on eight hits over 3 1/3 innings.
Key moment
Hummel had allowed one run and retired two batters in the ninth when Kurtz hit a 77 mph, 2-0 pitch for his fourth homer.
Key stat
Kurtz is batting .553 (26 for 47) with nine homers and 20 RBIs during his 12-game hitting streak.
Up next
Houston RHP Hunter Brown (9-4 2.57 ERA) opposes LHP Jacob Lopez (3-6 4.60 ERA) when the series continues Saturday.
The Colorado Avalanche announced on Friday that they have acquired forward Danil Gushchin from the San Jose Sharks in return for forward Oskar Olausson.
We have acquired Danil Gushchin from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Oskar Olausson.
Gushchin, 23, was drafted by San Jose in the 3rd round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, 76th overall.
He made his NHL debut with the Sharks in the 2022-23 season against the Arizona Coyotes. Since then, he's skated in 18 total NHL games, 12 of which came just last season. He cracked the Sharks' opening night roster, playing in all 9 games in October before being sent down to the San Jose Barracuda (AHL). He was called up two more times, once for one game against the Vancouver Canucks in November, then again in April for the last two games of the team's regular season. His only NHL point last season was an assist in a 5-4 OT win against the Utah Mammoth.
The Yekaterinburg, Russia native played 56 regular season games with the Barracuda and totaled 51 points (28g/23a), finishing third on the team in points and second in goals. He earned one point in the form of a goal in four GP in the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Gushchin is a smaller forward, coming into Colorado's system at 5'8", 165 lbs.
He's a great, tenacious back checker who often almost functions as a third defenseman in transition at times. He takes smart routes to the puck on the forecheck, and he's surprisingly physical for someone his size. He sets up really well by faking a shot or a pass first and then separates by accelerating inside his movements.
- EliteProspects 2020 Draft Guide
As mentioned above, the Avalanche received Gushchin in exchange for Sweden native Oskar Olausson, who was drafted by Colorado 28th overall in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. During his three years in the Avalanche system, he appeared in four NHL games. In 61 GP with the Colorado Eagles (AHL) this past season, he tallied 26 points (11g/15a).
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Third T20I: WI 214-4, Aus 215-4; Australia win by 6 wickets in St Kitts
Middle-order powerhouse hits 11 sixes in 37-ball unbeaten hundred
A remarkable record-breaking innings from power hitter Tim David has carried Australia to a six-wicket win and an unassailable 3-0 lead in their five-match T20I series against the West Indies.
Chasing a testing target of 215, Australia were struggling at 87 for 4 in the ninth over of their run chase at the small Warner Park ground in Basseterre, St Kitts.
Brandon Sproat scattered two runs on five hits while striking out three and walking two in five innings of Friday's 8-2 Triple-A Syracuse Mets win over the Kansas City Royals-affiliated Omaha Storm Chasers.
The scoreless streak snapped in the top of the third inning when Michael Massey's ground-rule double on a fly ball to center field scored Jordan Groshans and Rudy Martin.
Sproat's stretch without an earned run spanned 25 innings, starting June 22. He allowed an unearned run in this past Saturday's five-inning start. His ERA is down to 4.30 after April and May struggles.
Sproat, who is 5-5 and has a 1.29 WHIP, threw 60 strikes on 86 pitches. He responded strongly to his two-run third, working out of trouble with a fourth-inning-ending double play before retiring the side in the fifth -- including two strikeouts to end the frame and the outing.
In four July starts, Sproat pitched to a 0.82 ERA and 0.73 WHIP. He allowed three runs (two earned) on 11 hits while striking out 24, walking five and hitting three.
Teoscar Hernández, right, celebrates with teammate Freddie Freeman after hitting a two-run home run in the eighth inning of a 5-2 win over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Friday night. (Mark Stockwell / Associated Press)
It remains unclear exactly how much, if at all, the Dodgers will bolster their offense ahead of next week’s trade deadline.
But after a pitiful start to the month of July, their current lineup is finally showing renewed signs of life.
The Dodgers might not have bludgeoned the Boston Red Sox in a 5-2 win Friday — when they were without shortstop Mookie Betts while he was away with his family because of a personal situation — picking up their third victory in the last four games in a series-opener at Fenway Park.
But, after averaging three runs per game with a .205 team batting average over the first nine games of July, they continued showing signs that the ship is turning around again, recording at least five runs for the seventh time in their last 10 games.
The most impactful performance Friday came from one of the Dodgers’ most disappointing hitters over the last two months: veteran outfielder Teoscar Hernández.
After re-signing with the Dodgers (61-43) this offseason — over interest from several other teams, the Red Sox (55-50) chief among them — Hernández started the season hot before missing two weeks with an adductor strain in May. Ever since, the veteran had looked glaringly off, batting below .200 over 48 games.
Dodgers' Will Smith scores on a sacrifice fly by teammate Andy Pages during the third inning against the Red Sox on Friday. (Mark Stockwell / Associated Press)
At the end of this past week’s homestand on Wednesday, however, Hernández recorded his first three-hit game since April. And on Friday, he kept the momentum going, drawing a run-scoring walk with the bases loaded in the third inning before belting a two-run insurance homer in the top of the eighth.
“Obviously, a huge at-bat,” manager Dave Roberts said of Hernández’s home run, just his second in the last 27 games.
Andy Pages played a key role Friday, as well, continuing his own upward trajectory after a trying couple of weeks.
From June 26 to July 19, Pages saw what was once a near-.300 batting average tumble, hitting .206 over an 18-game stretch. The slide helped keep him from reaching the All-Star Game, then continued for the first two games coming out of the break — making him one of many Dodgers hitters mired in a midseason slump.
But in the last four games of the team’s recent homestand, Pages had two home runs and two multihit games.
On Friday, Pages' recent surge continued, including a double that set up Tommy Edman (another recently slumping hitter) for the opening run in the second inning, a sacrifice fly after Hernández’s walk in the third, and a single again after Hernández’s big fly in the eighth.
“I think they’re just taking better at-bats,” Roberts said of Hernández and Pages. “Having those two guys in the middle of the order doing what they’re doing makes life easier for all of us.”
There were other bright spots in the Dodgers’ win. Will Smith went two for five to raise his National League-leading batting average to .325. Freddie Freeman had a pair of singles, recording consecutive multihit games for only the second time since early June. And while Shohei Ohtani saw his home run streak snapped at five games, he still reached base twice.
Two hitters who could be more important to the Dodgers’ deadline calculus struggled, with Michael Conforto going only one for four (albeit with a sixth-inning double) and Hyeseong Kim extending his recent slump with a golden sombrero (four strikeouts).
But on the whole, the offense (which combined for 10 hits, the third time that has happened in the last 10 games) did enough — backing up a five-inning, two-run start from Emmet Sheehan (a Connecticut native who attended nearby Boston College) and the first scoreless effort from the Dodgers’ beleaguered bullpen since July 3, including a first career save for Ben Casparius (another Connecticut native who grew up playing high school tournaments at Fenway Park).
“It was pretty cool, especially to do it behind Emmet,” Casparius said. “We kind of talked about that, hopefully getting into the same game. So it was special, and a great way to start the road trip.”
The Yankees enter the 2025 MLB trade deadline with a bullpen problem, and moves could be on the horizon, as evidenced in Friday's 12-5 series-opening loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Takeaways
Will Warren's start gave the Yankees (56-47) a chance. The right-hander allowed two runs on five hits while striking out seven and walking three in 5.2 innings pitched. Manager Aaron Boone pulled Warren (6-5, 4.82 ERA) after 89 pitches (57 strikes) and got the sixth's first two outs for left-handed reliever Tim Hill, who struck out Bryson Stott to end the inning, but the seventh was another story. Ultimately, Hill and those who followed unraveled -- all while New York entered the final three frames with a lead, following designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton's go-ahead sixth-inning home run put the Yankees up 3-2.
While right-hander Luke Weaver's high-leverage relief appearance after Hill was a disaster, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt's costly seventh-inning error should not go unmentioned. With one out and runners at second and third after Weaver relieved Hill, Goldschmidt's airmailed throw home on Nick Castellanos' grounder allowed Trea Turner to score and tie the game at 3-3. J.T. Realmuto's three-run home run on the second pitch of the next at-bat pushed the Phillies ahead, 6-3, and Philadelphia (59-44) never looked back despite New York's two-run bottom half.
To extend the point about the bullpen, after the Yankees' bats chipped away to make it a 6-5 deficit, New York gave that right back. Right-hander Ian Hamilton served up Kyle Schwarber's second home run of the evening, a three-run shot to bury the Yankees at 8-5, and the hole dug deeper in the ninth when right-hander Scott Effross allowed Edmundo Sosa's RBI single, Stott's two-run double and Turner's RBI triple -- all with two outs.
Who's the MVP?
Schwarber, whose two home runs -- tying and putting the game away -- made the biggest impact.
The Yankees and Phillies continue their three-game series with Saturday's 1:05 p.m. matchup. New York RHP Marcus Stroman (2-1, 5.64 ERA) and Philadelphia LHP Ranger Suárez (7-4, 2.66 ERA) are set to start.
With the majority of sought-after players already signed, players are beginning to look at the possibility of joining clubs on professional tryout contract. Usually the hockey version of musical chairs begins in late August or early September with a few weeks to go before training camp opens, but the thin group of free agents may have accelerated players searching for a landing spot.
According to Mollie Walker of the NY Post, former Buffalo Sabres forward Conor Sheary was the first to agree to a PTO this summer, agreeing to a tryout contract with the NY Rangers. The two-time Stanley Cup winner played 133 games with the Sabres from 2018 to 2020 after playing three seasons in Pittsburgh and winning consecutive championships in 2016 and 2017 under new Rangers coach Mike Sullivan.
The Sabres acquired Sheary along with defenseman Matt Hunwick from the Penguins for a conditional draft pick in the summer of 2018, and was traded back to Pittsburgh along with Evan Rodrigues just before the COVID shutdown for Dominik Kahun. The diminutive winger scored in double figures three straight seasons with Washington, but declined the last two years with Tampa Bay.
Sheary scored four goals in 57 games with the Lightning two years ago, and played most of last season in AHL Syracuse, where he led the Crunch in scoring with 61 points (20 goals, 41 assists) in 59 games.
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The Mets' farm system is filled with talented prospects and outfielder Drew Gilbert's recent play has drawn the attention of the team's front office.
Speaking with the media in San Francisco ahead of Friday's series opener against the Giants, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns spoke about what he hoped to accomplish at the trade deadline after dealing for left-handed reliever Gregory Soto. The Mets' outfield was a subject brought up to Stearns since the centerfield platoon of Tyrone Taylor and Jeff McNeil has, while playing admirably, not produced consistently enough.
There have been rumblings of a deal to address it at the deadline, but while Stearns shared he was comfortable with Taylor/McNeil the rest of the season, he was asked about Gilbert's recent play and whether he's on the team's radar for center field.
"Drew’s doing a tremendous job," Stearns said. "I think to his credit, he’s putting himself on the radar a little bit and deserves a lot of credit for that. Both offensively and defensively, he’s taken a step forward over the next month or two."
Stearns didn't necessarily answer the question, but gave his flowers to the 24-year-old who has turned his offensive game up with Syracuse.
Entering Friday, Gilbert was hitting .310 with a .990 OPS over the last 30 days, and that doesn't include the power performance he put on in Syracuse's game against Omaha.
That offensive outburst raised his batting average to .248, his OBP to .351 and his OPS to .796 in 78 games in Triple-A. Across 17 games in July, Gilbert is hitting .338 with six home runs while driving in 17 RBI a posting an OPS of 1.126.
Entering Friday, Taylor is hitting .209 with two home runs and 17 RBI to go with his .570 OPS across 91 games. McNeil, in 68 games entering Friday, is hitting better. He's averaging .251 with nine home runs and 32 RBI, but splits time between the outfield and infield.
While Jesse Winker continues to recover on the IL, Gilbert could be the left-handed bat the Mets are looking for to pair with Taylor. Stearns made it clear on Friday that upgrading the position with an external option isn't a priority.
"I’m comfortable with the setup we have right now," Stearns said of his centerfielders. "Mendy is doing a great job of finding the right days for Jeff to be out there and for Tyrone to be out there. It’s two skill sets that complement each other, so I‘m comfortable with that. Like with the rest of the team, we’re going to explore areas of upgrades and that’s one of them."
Perhaps that's because he knows who he has waiting in the wings.
But, more needs to be done if the Mets hope to make a deep playoff run, and president of baseball operations David Stearns is well aware of the team's holes and is actively looking to fill them. Speaking with the media in San Francisco ahead of the team's series opener against the Giants, Stearns said talks with the Orioles had been going on for a couple of weeks and this was the time to push the deal through.
Soto will be the Mets' second high-leverage southpaw out of the pen -- along with the returning Brooks Raley -- and Stearns was asked whether getting that second lefty was his first priority.
"It was important, you never know whether you’ll be able to line up," Stearns said. "Not sure how many lefty relievers are going to be traded this deadline. We weren’t certain, but with the injuries we had from that side of the pen over the course of the season, we recognize the importance an arm from the left side can potentially have down the stretch and into October. It was something we definitely wanted to accomplish."
Teams aren't usually content with dealing for just one reliever at this time of the season. The Mets are likely to keep searching for more quality arms for the bullpen and Stearns is keeping the door open for more trades.
"We’re still talking. There’s still the ability to upgrade our bullpen," he said. "We’re certainly not going to close the door on it."
He later added, "Wherever we can upgrade the team, we’re going to try to do that. We’ll continue to have discussions on the bullpen. We’re not going to close the door on other aspects of the team. But as we said all along, the bullpen is the priority and probably remains that way."
But what about the rotation? There have been reports that the Mets have checked in on starters like Dylan Cease and Sandy Alcantara.
While Stearns wouldn't say he's not in the market for an arm for the rotation, he made it clear that it's not high on his list of deals to make.
"I like our starting rotation. Our current five is a very talented set of five," Stearns said. "We’re still in the process of building some of those guys up. And that’s unusual to happen this time of the year, where you’re doing that with multiple starters. That’s the spot we’re in right now. Because of that, it puts a little extra burden on the bullpen…But we know as we go through this over the next two months, we’re going to need to ask more for more out of starters. We’ll get there, we’re not there quite yet."
Currently, the Mets have David Peterson, Frankie Montas, Clay Holmes, Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea as the starting five. Senga and Manaea are coming off injuries and have not been built up, while Holmes, a converted reliever, has reached a workload he's never had in his career.
Stearns and the organization are in a tricky spot, but the second-year Mets POBO believes in his starters. But offered the caveat that if there's a difference-maker available, they'll be checking.
"I think if you’re going to add to the team in general, you try to raise the ceiling of the team. That’s how I look at that group," he said. "Again, you don’t know exactly what’s going to be available and what’s ultimately going to be traded. Acquiring starting pitching at this time of year is pretty difficult. I don’t know how many 'raise the ceiling' type of players are going to be traded in that segment. If those guys are available, we’ll be involved."
And what about the lineup? There's been plenty of talk regarding the Mets' pursuit of an outfield bat and whether they should. Like other aspects of the team, Stearns maintains he'll look into all opportunities to improve the team, but is comfortable and complimentary of how Jeff McNeil and Tyrone Taylor have played in center this season.
"I’m comfortable with the setup we have right now," Stearns said of his centerfielders. "Mendy is doing a great job of finding the right days for Jeff to be out there and for Tyrone to be out there. It’s two skill sets that complement each other, so I‘m comfortable with that. Like with the rest of the team, we’re going to explore areas of upgrades and that’s one of them."
Taylor is having a tough year offensively. In 91 games entering Friday, Taylor is hitting .209 with two home runs and 17 RBI to go with his .570 OPS. McNeil, in 68 games entering Friday, is hitting better. He's averaging .251 with nine home runs and 32 RBI, but splits time between the outfield and infield.
When asked if he believes he needs to add a bat of any kind at the deadline, Stearns, again, was complimentary of how his team has played so far.
"I don’t think we need to," he said. "We have the offensive players who can help us score a lot of runs and turn the lineup over. I continue to maintain we are taking good at-bats by and large, I’m growing increasingly comfortable with the length of our lineup and the contributions we’re getting from the bottom half of our lineup. With that said, we have to figure out a way to score more runs. I don’t think anyone would shy away from that."
The 2025 MLB trade deadline is set for Thursday, July 31, at 6 p.m.
The Buffalo Sabres are facing massive pressure to at least qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 15 years. But there's intense competition for each and every standings point teams can generate, and the Sabres' don't benefit by playing in the Atlantic Division -- the most competitive division, in our estimation, in the league. And Buffalo is going to have to get a leg up on more than a few Atlantic rival teams, Tampa Bay included if they really intend to claim a Cup anytime soon.
In the next day, we'll be finishing up this series on the Sabres' chances against Atlantic teams when we focus on the Toronto Maple Leafs. But in his file, we're talking about a team that is probably a playoff team, but that may find itself sliding past the Sabres in the standings -- the Tampa Bay Lightning:
What's the state of the rivalry between the Sabres and Lightning? And what's likely to happen when these two teams two teams square off this year? These are a couple key questions we've addressed below.
BUFFALO SABRES VS. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
NEW LIGHTNING PLAYERS: Pontus Holmberg, LW
2024-25 SERIES: Sabres 1-2-0, Lightning 2-0-1
2025-26 GAMES AGAINST EACH OTHER: February 3 at Tampa Bay; February 28 at Tampa Bay; March 8 at Buffalo: April 6 at Buffalo
CAN THE SABRES BEAT THIS TEAM? The Lightning played well against the Sabres in three games last season, staying undefeated in regulation time in all three games. And this will mark the second consecutive season in which the Sabres and Tampa Bay don't play each other until the second half of the regular season.
Indeed, four games in two months near the end of the year should make for some compelling hockey. If things go well for the Sabres, they can challenge for fourth place in the Atlantic. And if things don't go well for the Lightning, they could slip out of their second-place finish last season and finish in fourth spot for the second time in three years. That may be all the regression needed by a team to allow the Sabres to vault over them and into a post-season position.
We're certainly not suggesting Tampa Bay will completely collapse next season. There's too much talent there to not be a playoff team. But again, only two years ago, the Bolts finished in fourth spot in the Atlantic with a 45-29-8 record; Tampa Bay climbed two standings spots the following season -- last season -- but they posted only two additional wins in 2024-25. And they haven't done much of anything in terms of trades or free-agency to improve their attack to begin next season.
As that reality settles in, you can see why the margin for error in this Atlantic Division is about as thin as it gets, and that if the Lightning aren't careful -- or if the injury bug tears into Tampa Bay's lineup in a major way -- the Bolts could find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.
The teams get a fourth game against each other next season, and that final game will come when the Sabres play their fifth-to-last game of the regular season. And both of the two teams' final two games against one another will take place in Buffalo, within about one month of each other near season's end, so we're looking at a few possibilities for that final game:
Possibility Number One: The Sabres Have Vaulted Over Tampa Bay
This possibility would see Buffalo fans rocking and rolling through the arena, and Tampa Bay in a place it's rarely been -- behind the Sabres in the standings. Buffalo would need to be nearly perfect to be much better than the Lightning. So we're not saying it's a probability. But a possibility? Sure.
Possibility Number Two: The Sabres And Lightning Are Both Good, And Still One Of Them Aren't In The Playoffs
This possibility would also provide tons of drama. Both fan bases would have meaningful hockey to enjoy down the stretch, and they'd be raising the bar for Atlantic teams as other Atlantic teams make their own push for post-season action.
Possibility Number Three: The Lightning Are Well Ahead Of Buffalo, And The Sabres Are Basically Out Of It
Let's not focus too much on this possibility. But suffice to say, Western New York hockey fans are going to be irate if the playoff drought reaches 15 years. And that goes double if the Sabres don't even come close to challenging for a playoff berth. The potential for it getting really ugly is considerable for the Sabres, but if they can take three of four against the Lightning, suddenly they could conceivably be a team that rises higher in the standings.
The two teams won't see one another until February, but let's never forget the NHL trade deadline's impact on the standings: teams like the Bolts and Sabres could look considerably different between their games prior to the deadline and the games they play after the deadline.
The Lightning have a chance to contend for top spot in the Atlantic, but if the hockey gods aren't kind to them, that could spell the difference between missing and making the playoffs. And Tampa Bay wouldn't be the first team to crumble under the weight of expectation. There's a way this all lines up in a row in the Sabres' favor to rise as high as third in the Atlantic, but it's going to take just about every element clicking at the right time. And a team like Tampa Bay will have to fall off to open up that spot in the division.
And if that doesn't happen for Buffalo, we're most likely going to see the Lightning finishing ahead of them, in the regular-season and playoffs, as is usually the case.
The Anaheim Ducks have missed the playoffs every year since 2017-18 and in doing so, have drafted in the top ten for seven consecutive seasons and procured one of the NHL’s deepest and most potent prospect pools.
Despite several young players having graduated and become full-time NHLers, such as Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish, Pavel Mintyukov, and Olen Zellweger, the Ducks still have an impressive pipeline of potential impact and depth prospects yet to make the jump.
For this exercise, only players who haven’t lost rookie status are eligible for a ranking, and to be clear, these are my (Patrick Present) subjective rankings.
Honorable Mentions: Yegor Sidorov, Herman Traff, Tarin Smith, Lasse Boelius, Calle Clang
6. Eric Nilson, 18, C, Michigan State University (NCAA)
Just outside of top-five prospects in the Ducks organization, and coming at number six is a true two-way center selected in the most recent NHL Entry Draft (45th overall in 2025): Eric Nilson.
Nilson comes from an NHL family, as his father, Marcus, is a former first-round pick (20th in ’96) of the Florida Panthers who had a long professional career, playing nine years in the NHL, two in the AHL, ten in the SHL, and a year in the KHL.
“He reminds us a lot of William Karlsson at the same age,” Ducks assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting Martin Madden said of Eric Nilson. “Really smart, really competitive, great skill, great edge work, he’s also 165 pounds. So he’s got some work to do in the gym, and he understands that, and that’s why he’s taking the path to go to Michigan State.
“He wanted to get the best program off the ice. That was his focus, and we kind of agree. He’s going to a great spot for him. He’s a good two-way player. He’s the first off the bench on the PK, he’s on the first power play unit for the national team. He’s a hockey player.”
Nilson is as detail-oriented and high-motor as an 18-year-old center gets, drawing comparisons to some of the NHL’s top 200-foot centers like the aforementioned Karlsson, Jake Evans, and Mikael Backlund.
With the puck on his stick, he displays plus-vision as well as an effortlessly quick release, and away from the puck, he’s always in a fundamentally sound defensive position to win a battle should an attack break down.
He stands at only 6-foot and 165 pounds, so to this point, his ability to win board battles has come purely from technique and proper engagement with an active stick, as well as the knowledge to engage through opponents’ hands.
Nilson is an effortlessly terrific skater in small areas, utilizing perfect edges to become as shifty as possible, but could afford to gain power in his straight-line stride.
He’d played the majority of the last two seasons in Sweden’s J20 Nationell division. Most recently, in 2024-25 with Djurgardens IF, where he scored 38 points (12-26=38) in 37 games and added 13 points (6-7=13) in nine playoff games.
His hockey IQ has far exceeded that of most in his age group, but his body will need to catch up desperately. He will make the jump to North America in 2025-26 to play for loaded and young Michigan State University team in the NCAA, where a college hockey schedule should allow him to be in the gym as much as possible, as teams typically only play games on weekends and will only play roughly 35-40 in total.
Nilson is likely several years from making any impact at the NHL level. Still, his defensive prowess, shift-by-shift habits, and work ethic alone will pencil him in for at least 100 NHL games in his career, and if he hits that number, the Ducks made a tremendous selection in the second round.
Anything and everything exceeding that 100-game mark would be icing on the cake, with the smart money being on him achieving that and becoming an effective two-way middle-six forward who can become a quality penalty killer.
NEW YORK – Phillies starting pitcher Taijuan Walker provided the guts for the team Friday night in their series opener against the New York Yankees. The Phillies bats provided the glory.
Walker gave all he had in his, somewhat unknown, pitching tank through 5.2 innings and Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto provided the needed power as the Phillies bulled their way to a 12-5 win over the Yankees. Schwarber belted two more home runs and picked up his 1,00th career hit on the first homer, which was caught by a Phillies fan. After the game, Schwarber met with the three friends and gave them each a baseball and took some pictures with them.
“I’ve said all along I don’t know where we’d be without him,” said Rob Thomson of Schwarber. “Comes up with big hit after big hit after big hit. It’s amazing.”
Famously bounced from starter to reliever and back to starter throughout the season, it’s pretty much anybody’s guess how much the hulking right-hander is asked to give on any given outing. Well, he and Thomson certainly know, though no one knows how the outing may unwind.
To that end, there was a “hold your breath” kind of half inning for the Phillies earlier in the game, before they started bashing the ball all over the Bronx.
Walker loafed out of the visiting team’s dugout at Yankee Stadium Friday night to take the mound for the sixth inning. In the previous five innings, he had only thrown 65 pitches and allowed a pair of solo home runs. It was an outing you had to be more than pleased with up to that point. As Walker strolled (he doesn’t exactly use up much energy when there’s no need and added to that a sore ankle) to the mound, Aaron Judge, he of the .345 average and 37 home runs, was grabbing a bat to get ready to leadoff the inning.
“He was at 65 pitches after the fifth,” Thomson said. “And his limit was probably 85. So we were going hitter to hitter right there. We had (Tanner) Banks ready to go.” Walker got a groundout from Judge on four pitches, and retired Cody Bellinger, who earlier homered, on a flyout with six pitches. After getting Giancarlo Stanton down 0-2, the DH hit the sixth pitch of the at-bat into the Yankees bullpen for a 3-2 lead.
“He was great,” said Thomson. “He gave up three home runs but they’re all solo. He didn’t walk a guy. They got a lot of soft contact. I thought he was really good.”
All this came after Walker tweaked his right ankle on a bouncing ball up the middle in the second inning. After a lengthy meeting on the mound with trainers and Thomson, Walker waved them off and continued.
“I thought it went well,” said Walker of his 5.2 innings in which he allowed six hits and three earned runs. “Got into the sixth and really wanted to get that last out but just left it over the middle. Supposed to be a two-seam in there, try to get some weak contact. I thought overall it was good.”
The Phillies offense didn’t have much weak contact on the night as Trea Turner got on base five times as he and Schwarber combined to go 7-for-10 with six runs scored.
Before the game, Thomson spoke of the recent uptick in the offensive production from Realmuto. Thomson alluded to when Realmuto is at his best, he hits the ball to center and right field.
Maybe the veteran catcher got wind of Thomson’s remarks and wanted to show that’s not all he can do. Realmuto turned perfectly into a Luke Weaver changeup and launched it deep into the left-field seats to give the Phillies a 6-3 lead in the seventh.
“I feel like mechanically I’ve been in a better spot recently, starting to feel good, my timing’s felt better and seeing the ball better,” said Realmuto. “I feel like it’s heading in the right direction. It’s mostly timing with me. I’m more of a line drive and focus on right field hitter, but I’ll catch those mistakes out in front a little more often.”
There is pretty much nothing Schwarber isn’t doing right at the plate as his first home run of the night tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth and his two-run shot in the eighth upped the lead to 8-5.
“We’ve got such a really good group here,” Schwarber said. “It’s been a lot of the same faces for quite a while now. Obviously, you keep adding and new faces every single year. Obviously, we’ve gone through a lot of different things. We also want to create some new experiences as well. We’ve just got to keep going about our business, putting our heads down and keep working and see where we’re at at the end of the year.”
In the meantime, don’t miss what Schwarber is doing now, because it’s pretty special.
Nick Kurtz might have locked up the American League Rookie of the Year Award on Friday night in Houston.
The Athletics rookie crushed four homers, collected six hits and drove in eight runs in a 15-3 win over the Astros at Daikin Park.
Kurtz is the first player in the long, storied history of the Athletics franchise to hit four homers in a game and the first rookie ever to accomplish the feat.
The 2024 first-round draft pick now is the 20th player in MLB history to go deep four times in a game and the youngest by nearly three years.
Moments after his historic performance, Kurtz had trouble finding the words to describe what he had just accomplished.
“It’s hard to think about this day being, you know, kind of real,” Kurtz told Chris Caray and Dallas Braden on “A’s Cast” following the win. “Still feels like a dream. So it’s just, it’s pretty remarkable. I’m kind of speechless. I don’t really know what to say.”
WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF WORDS. NICK KURTZ. THREE HOMERS. FIVE HITS. FIVE RBI. 😱 pic.twitter.com/CWb8sm22W4
Kurtz is authoring one of the greatest starts to an MLB career, as he now has 22 homers and 59 RBI in his first 66 big-league games to along with a 1.060 OPS following Friday’s performance.
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay has seen a lot in nearly 30 years in professional baseball, but nothing quite stacks up to what Kurtz did Friday night.
“I don’t really know how to describe that one,” Kotsay told reporters in Houston. “It’s arguably the best game I’ve ever watched from a single player. And I say that because, I watched Barry Bonds and the season he had. I was in center field for it. And what Barry did was hands-down one of the greatest seasons you can have.
“Shawn Green is a memory you have, I think Shawn hit four homers in a game in Dodger Stadium. But tonight was special. This kid continues to have jaw-dropping moments. And to witness that tonight was pretty special for all of us.”
“It’s absolutely crazy,” Kurtz told Caray and Braden. “To think a year ago I was probably in Arizona right now, right after the draft and just getting ready to go out and play in Stockton and now I’m here and today kind of happened, it’s insane. I kinda, I don’t know what to say Dallas. I mean I got no idea.”
Maybe even more remarkable is that Kurtz’s family made it to Houston just in time to watch his otherworldly performance.
“To see Pops and Mom there and the godparents as well, it’s pretty awesome to have them here,” Kurtz told Caray and Braden. “[They] just got in this morning, so going to be here is really cool.”
There are over two months left in the 2025 season, but it might be a safe bet to start inscribing Kurtz’s name on the AL Rookie of the Year award. He has been that good over the last few weeks.
It had been nine months since Walker Buehler struck out Alex Verdugo, stretched his arms on the Yankee Stadium mound, and was dogpiled after recording the final outs of last year’s World Series.
But on Friday afternoon, ahead of Buehler’s first reunion with the Dodgers since departing for the Boston Red Sox in the offseason, the memory remained vividly fresh — for him, his former teammates and coaches, and even a traveling contingent of Dodgers fans in town for this weekend’s series at Fenway Park.
As Buehler chatted with members of his old organization hours before Friday’s series opener, Dodger fans taking a pregame tour of the stadium spotted him on the diamond. Within moments, an otherwise empty ballpark was echoing with cheers and applause, the fans shouting Buehler’s name as he acknowledged them with a wave of his hand.
“That was really cool,” Buehler said later, the moment reminding him of a conversation he had with Dodgers broadcaster Orel Hershiser (a World Series hero of a different generation who became a mentor of Buehler’s during his time with the team).
“Talking to Orel about some of that stuff that he’s gone through and the way people react to him, I think it’s obviously two different situations,” he added. “But for the fans walking around to yell at me, I kind of imagine in L.A. it’ll be like that for a while, I hope.”
Indeed, if there was any doubt about how Buehler’s Dodgers tenure was destined to be remembered, his role in last year’s World Series enshrined it in legendary status.
No, the right-hander didn’t quite reach the Cy Young-winning expectations many had when he first came up as a highly touted prospect with a big fastball and fiery mound presence. For as dominant as he was from 2018-2021, when he went 39-13 with a 2.82 earned-run average and two All-Star selections, the end of his seven-year stint was derailed by a 2022 Tommy John surgery (the second of his career) and a disappointing regular-season performance upon his return in 2024 (when he was 1-6 in the regular season with a 5.38 ERA).
Buehler’s best Dodger moments, though, always came in the postseason: From his division-clinching gem in Game 163 as a rookie in 2018, to his 1.80 ERA in five starts during the Dodgers’ 2020 World Series run, to when he took the ball on short rest twice in a failed title defense in 2021, to his 10 consecutive scoreless innings in the final two rounds of last year’s postseason most of all; an unexpected star turn following his post-Tommy John struggles throughout the summer.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler delivers against the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday. (Matt Slocum / Associated Press)
“That moment means a lot to all of us, that we were a part of it with the city and the fans that came out every day for us there,” he said, while talking to reporters in the Red Sox’s home dugout. “I think it would have been hard to leave that for anywhere — except for here.”
While Buehler expressed interest in remaining with the Dodgers ahead of his free agency last winter, his eventual departure became clear in the first week of the offseason.
The team didn’t extend him a one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer — which ended up being the same amount he signed for with the Red Sox. The Dodgers instead went after Blake Snell with a $182-million contract, and won the January sweepstakes for Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.
“It was an interesting situation. I think there’s obviously two sides to that situation,” Buehler said when reflecting back on his free agency. “We had conversations about it, we talked through it. And they went and signed guys that they wanted to sign. And I signed with a place that I wanted to play. It kind of is what it is.”
In hindsight, it was an outcome neither side seems to regret.
In Buehler’s absence, the Dodgers have managed to work around first-half injuries to several key starters, and are on track to have a potential postseason rotation featuring Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani and Snell (who could return from a shoulder injury after one last minor league rehab start with triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday).
Meanwhile, Buehler said he has enjoyed playing for the Red Sox, even though he has regressed with a woeful 5.72 ERA (sixth-worst in the majors among 107 pitchers with at least 80 innings).
“It’s been a really fun year, outside of some of the playing stuff for me,” he said. “But my family and me, we’re loving it here and have felt really very welcomed here, as well, just like we were in L.A.”
Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler, far left, celebrates with teammates after recording the final out of the Dodgers' World Series victory over the New York Yankees on Oct. 30. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Buehler has been better lately, giving up just three earned runs in his last 18 innings to help the Red Sox maintain the final wild-card spot in the American League.
His next start, fittingly, will come in Sunday’s series-finale against the Dodgers.
“It'll be interesting,” Buehler said with a laugh. “Obviously, I was one of the last of the wave coming up there. So I’ve kind of got little bits and pieces of it playing against Joc [Pederson] and [Cody Bellinger] and Corey [Seager]. So it’ll be nine of those for me, I guess.”
Buehler wished he could have squared off against Clayton Kershaw; something he said he and the future Hall of Fame left-hander (who will instead pitch Saturday’s game) joked about while meeting up on Thursday’s off day.
Still, Buehler added, "I think you just try to keep it as normal as you can. Obviously it'll be a little awkward or funny or whatever. But I don't know. At the end of the day, we're all playing a sport for a paycheck. The goal is go and to get one over on them. I don't think the preparation against them is really different."
Friday, on the other hand, was a day for nostalgia, with Buehler receiving his World Series ring from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and most of the remaining players from last year’s team during pregame batting practice.
“I was very fortunate to be drafted and developed and get to spend so much time there,” Buehler said. “Should credit a lot of good success that I've had to them, and how they handled and treated me. Nothing but good things to say there."
As for if his ring — a diamond-studded reminder of what, for now at least, remains the lasting image of his Dodgers career — gave him any closure, Buehler smirked.
"I think you already have it,” he said. “But I think everyone kind of knows I'm on a one-year contract, so you never know what's going to happen down the road.”
Betts absent for Friday
The Dodgers were without shortstop Mookie Betts, who was home in Nashville with his family attending to a personal matter. Roberts said Betts was expected to rejoin the club on Saturday, but was unsure if he’d be back in the starting lineup for that day’s game.
