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Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani stepped into the batter’s box at Rate Field for the first time this series on Saturday, greeted by a smattering of boos from Chicago White Sox fans.

He took his first swing at the second pitch of the game. And he sent it into the right-field stands. A no-doubt homer, proclaiming that his availability no longer was in doubt.

Ohtani returned to the lineup for the Dodgers’ 7-1 win against the White Sox, after exiting the game Thursday at Pittsburgh and missing Friday‘s game because of inflammation in his left knee.

“I felt good waking up in the morning,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton after going one for three with a home run and three walks. “I feel good now. So I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to stay healthy, and should be good to go tomorrow as well.”

Ohtani also tested his knee playing catch before the game. And the Dodgers will continue to monitor him as he prepares to take the mound Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays at Dodger Stadium.

“It wasn’t 100% today,” Ohtani said. “But with the next three, four days, I feel pretty confident, with enough recovery, that I should be able to make the next start.”

Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto flirts with perfect game, MLB record in Dodgers' victory

Ohtani said he hasn’t been able to pinpoint the cause of the swelling. But he has a theory.

“All I can really know for sure is that I think my mechanics weren’t quite great in terms of my pitching side,” he said, “so I believe that had something to do with this.”

Even before Ohtani’s knee swelled, the Dodgers planned to have him pitch the day before their day off Thursday. They switched Ohtani and left-hander Justin Wrobleski in the rotation order to have Wrobleski pitch Tuesday on regular rest.

That remains the plan, even after Wrobleski was hit in the leg by a comebacker during his start Thursday. He left the game after that play in the fifth inning with a bruised right hamstring.

The Dodgers considered bringing in a spot starter, manager Dave Roberts said, in order to keep the full rotation on extra rest.

“But considering how Wrobo’s start went short, feels good after it, we feel the four days’ rest will be fine for him,” Roberts said. “And then where Shohei is at, we feel good about just leaving it status quo.”

Ohtani returned Saturday without restrictions in his designated hitter role — except one request from his manager, after a couple of days of parsing whether a steal attempt that was snuffed out by a foul ball had contributed to Ohtani’s inflammation.

Though they didn’t find a clear cause for it, Roberts made it clear Saturday: “There will be no base stealing.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

José Ramírez, the Cleveland Guardians' seven-time All-Star third baseman, fractured the hamate bone in his left hand Saturday, June 13, an injury that will likely sideline him well into the second half of the season. 

Ramírez was removed from the Guardians' 3-1 victory over Detroit and the club announced the fracture after the game. His absence will be considerably longer if surgery is required to remove the bone, but the likely minimum absence is six weeks. 

Tarik Skubal start highlights: Tigers ace pulled in fifth in 3-1 loss

That's a harsh blow for the Guardians (39-33), who on Saturday pulled into first place, a half-game ahead of the Chicago White Sox. Ramírez leads the American League with 24 stolen bases and his .754 OPS trails only Brayan Rocchio's .762 mark on the Guardians. 

Ramírez was the third Guardian to leave Saturday's game due to injury. Outfielder Chase De Lauter suffered a right ribcage contusion hitting the wall while making a first-inning catch, and Angel Martinez left the game with a left foot contusion shortly after fouling the first pitch of the game off his foot.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jose Ramirez injury timeline after hamate bone fracture

The list of things the Cincinnati Reds got on Saturday evening in Great American Ball Park amounts to a what’s what of things that have proven to be pitfalls for them so often over their last ~40 or so games.

First, they put together some back to back hits with 2-outs, as Matt McLain socked an early double and was immediately driven in by an Edwin Arroyo single. Hits with 2-outs, hits of any variety with a runner in scoring position have been so few and far between from this offense that the stranded runners on the bases might as well have bought real estate out there.

Then, they got a lockdown performance from a starting pitcher after an early foible. Rhett Lowder turned in his best start since the first week of April (5.2 IP, ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 K) and did so even after serving up a homer to Corbin Carroll in the Top of the 1st that immediately put the Reds in a hole. He limited walks, finally, and showed once again how good he can be controlling all parts of the zone when his arm, body, experience, etc. are all in the right place.

That run Lowder allowed in the Top of the 1st? It proved to be the only run allowed by Reds pitchers all game, which is an endorsement of just how good the bullpen managed to be once Lowder yielded. Caleb Ferguson, Chase Petty (in relief!), and Tony Santillan combined to fire 3.1 IP of scoreless ball, and did so while only issuing a lone walk – that’s a marked improvement for a unit that’s been so maligned.

And while the offense on the day only managed to muster a pair of runs, the second one came on a big swing in a huge spot. Noelvi Marte swatted a homer for the second straight game, his coming with an out in the Bottom of the 8th to give the Reds a 2-1 lead that Santillan would hammer down with a save minutes later. It’s precisely the kind of momentum-changing swing that Cincinnati simply has not been able to muster of late, and the life it breathed into the dugout was palpable through the TV feed.

Cincinnati won, 2-1, and leveled the series with Arizona. On Sunday, they’ll send the red-hot Andrew Abbott to the mound to try to win a series and eschew the absolutely abysmal vibes they’ve been mired in during their four-series losing streak, a period of time that also saw them lose their face in Elly De La Cruz.

Maybe, just maybe, Marte’s homer ends up a demarcation point in this season where things began to finally, mercifully turn back towards the positive.

Well, this was yet another game that the Diamondbacks should have won. Michael Soroka really seems to be back to the form that earned him second place in the 2019 Rookie of the Year vote. He pitched seven innings, only allowing two hits and one hit batsman while striking out 7. The Diamaondbacks, meanwhile, racked up seven hits, three walks, with three other baserunners reaching thanks to two hit-by-pitch incidents and one fielding error. Over the course of the game nine of those baserunners wound up in scoring position. Sadly however, if you saw those comparative numbers and expected that the team with so many more chances to score would win the game, you would be wrong.

There’s honestly not that much more to say about this one. Things started off well enough, with Corbin Carroll launching the first pitch he saw from Reds starter Rhett Lowder over the right field wall for a one-out solo dinger:

One out later, Nolan Arenado drew a five-pitch walk and, somewhat hilariously, stole second to make himself the first Diamondback of the game to get into scoring position. Pavin Smith, as one might expect, did Pavin Smith things, so Arenado remained where he was. 1-0 D-BACKS

Geraldo Perdomo was hit by a pitch to begin the second, and was left standing there after the bottom of the order did bottom-of-the-order things with a lineout to center and then consecutive strikeouts. Ketel Marte lined a single to right to lead off the third, and one out later Gabriel Moreno dropped a bloop single just inside the right field line to advance Marte to second (which is to say scoring position) with less than two outs. Arenado struck out, however, and Pavin Smith did another Pavin Smith thing, grounding out to first base.

Meanwhile, after cruising through his first two innings of work with only 27 pitches thrown after all, Soroka hit his first and only patch of trouble after striking out the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the third. Matt McLain lined a double to deep left field, and then Reds’ leadoff hitter Edwin Arroyo blooped a single to shallow right that allowed McLain to score from second. 1-1 TIE

After that, it was smooth sailing for Soroka, who didn’t allow another baserunner as he proceeded to cruise through the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh innings. The Diamondbacks offense, meanwhile, continued to threaten: Marte hit a comebacker with one out in the fifth that hit Lowder and rolled away for an infield single. One out later Moreno lined a double to center that Reds center fielder Noelvi Marte dove for and missed. It looked like he might catch it, though, right up until he didn’t, so Ketel had to stay put at second and was only able to advance to third. So that was two more runners in scoring position, though with two outs this time. Nolan Arenado, who really sucked today at the plate, grounded weakly back to the mound, bringing the number of runners in scoring position who were left there to four. Perdomo walked with one out in the sixth and stole second base, but was left standing there (RISP #5) as Tommy Troy and Adrian Del Castillo struck out.

The Diamondbacks even managed to load the bases in the top of the seventh against the Reds bullpen, thanks to a one-out Marte walk (#6), a Corbin Carroll infield single (#7), and Moreno getting drilled in the arm by a pitch. However, Nolan Arenado struck out and Pavin Smith flied out to left on the first pitch he saw. Tommy Troy reached with one out in the eighth on an error by Reds third baseman Sal Stewart, and was able to advance to third (#8) on a two-out Ryan Waldschmidt double (#9). That flipped the lineup over for Ketel Marte, who, despite having reached base on three of his four trips to the plate to that point, only managed a weak grounder to second.

So onto the bottom of the eighth with the game still all tied up and Juan Morillo taking the mound. The good? He struck out three of the four batters he faced. The bad? The one batter he didn’t strike out was Noelvi Marte, to whom he hung a slider that Marte promptly sent into the left field seats. And given that Carroll, Moreno, and Arenado all grounded out on the infield in the top of the ninth, that’s yer ballgame right there. 2-1 CincinnatiFINAL

Loss Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

Overachiever: Michael Soroka (7 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, +36% WPA)
Achiever: Gabriel Moreno (4 AB, 2 H, 1 2B, +10% WPA)
Underachievers: Juan Morillo (1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 HR, 3 K, -21% WPA), Pavin Smith (4 AB, 0 H, -23% WPA), Nolan Arenado (4 AB, 0 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 SB, -26% WPA)

Kind of a slim Gameday Thread this afternoon, with only 162 comments at time of writing. The rec rationing, too, seems like it continues, as while several comments went “Sedona Red,” none of those got more than four recs. So I’m giving this one to gzimmerm, for saying something that, while it’s been said before, needs to be said again and again until it becomes a reality, or until reality changes:

Thanks to our win on Friday night, at least we still have a shot to take our first series in quite awhile. Unfortunately, Zac Gallen is taking the mound for the Diamondbacks, while the Reds send out lefty Adam Abbott, whose numbers aren’t that great (4.10 ERA) but who’s still performing far better than our guy. This will be an early one, as well, with first pitch scheduled for 10:40am AZ time. Hopefully you can join us for the rubber match.

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!

Well, the good times were bound to run into a blip eventually, and this blip happened in overwhelming fashion.

Sean Burke fed Shohei Ohtani an upper-zone fastball on the second pitch of the game and it ended up 409 feet away. Then, after a Mookie Betts single, Burke went 3-0 on Max Muncy, at which point Steve Stone warned Muncy would have the green light. Burke didn’t hear him and fed another fastball in the zone, this one deposited 415 feet away to make it three-zip.

After that, the only thing of interest in the game for the sellout crowd was whether Yoshinobu Yamamoto would throw a perfect game. That drama lasted through 23 Sox hitters, until Mookie Betts booted a routine grounder by Chase Meidroth:

(For those keeping track of such things, getting on via error does not extend an on-base streak, so Meidroth’s ended at 22 and his hitting streak died at 12.)

Yamamoto ended up losing the no-hitter and shutout when Tristan Peters led off the ninth with a 388-foot shot just inside the foul pole, but who’s to say whether Peters would have gotten a nice fastball right down the middle from a pitcher who hadn’t thrown such a thing all game if the perfect game was still in play?

Whilst the Sox were flailing — Yamamoto ended up with seven strikeouts — the Dodgers mainly just watched pitches go by. Burke ended up walking five and first reliever Joe Rock, just up from Charlotte, added five more in three innings and hit a couple of Dodgers as well.

The mighty L.A. lineup did little more to help itself until Muncy hit a second two-run shot in the eighth — Ohtani being given little chance to do anything because he was walked three times and Betts being the only other Dodger to do much (three singles to raise his average to a mighty .196). The Dodgers left 11 on base in the first six innings alone, and that was after hitting into rally-killing double plays twice, and were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Save that, things could have been truly ugly.

The loss runs the White Sox record to 37-32 and puts them a half-game behind the Guardians, who beat the Tiges and Tarik Skubal this afternoon. But José Ramírez suffered a broken hamate in the game, so Cleveland may be in trouble.

Rubber match against the Dodgers is tomorrow afternoon, Erick Fedde vs. Emmet Sheehan, who couldn’t even make it through the second inning against the Angels last time out.

SAN FRANCISCO — Saturday notes…

• ONE DAY AT A TIME: A win today would be the Cubs’ third straight for the first time since their second 10-game winning streak ended on May 8. They are 9-22 since then and have won back-to-back games three times. The first two were May 14-15, at Atlanta and at the White Sox, and May 27-28, at Pittsburgh. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• I LEFT MY WINS IN SAN FRANCISCO: The last time the Cubs won the first two games of a series at San Francisco was in 2023. That was the first since 2013, when they completed a three-game sweep. They lost the third game in 2023. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• SATURDAY IN THE PARK: The Cubs already have lost more games on Saturdays on the road than they did all of last season. They are 3-3 this year. They finished last year 11-2. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Terry Shumpert hit a three-run walk-off homer in the 14th inning — one of just two home runs he’d hit as a Cub — and the Cubs defeated the Padres 6-3. It happened 30 years ago today, Thursday, June 13, 1996.

Cubs lineup:

Giants lineup:

Ben Brown, RHP vs. Trevor McDonald, RHP

Ben Brown has been the Cubs’ best pitcher for a month now. That’s great for the team and great for him.

Since joining the rotation May 8: 1.44 ERA, 0.766 WHIP, 1.89 FIP, 34 strikeouts in 31.1 innings, and of course his great homerless streak, which is now 219 batters since the first hitter he faced this year (Jacob Young of the Nationals) homered off him.

Do good again, Ben.

Trevor McDonald threw five innings against the Cubs last Sunday at Wrigley Field and allowed one run in five innings, striking out six.

The Cubs will need to do better than that today to win.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Oracle Park.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Why did the umpires overturn Juan Soto's home run in the ninth inning?

When asked about the umpires' explanation for the controversial overturning of a solo homer hit by Juan Soto, Mendoza responded that "they didn't see the ball leave the ballpark.

Soto's homer would've been a much-needed shot in the arm for a Mets lineup that struggled all day against the Braves, and it came in a pivotal spot, as the slugger was leading off in the bottom of the ninth with the Mets down 3-1.

Given the lengthy review, and the presence of a fan reaching over the railing in right field to attempt catching the long fly ball (much to the frustration of Braves left fielder Mike Yastrzemski), many were wondering if the call of a ground-rule double was made due to fan interference. However, Mendoza clarified, "there was no fan interference" on the play.

"It was tough to tell from the big screen," the skipper lamented.

Lack of clutch hitting continues to cost the Mets

Today's loss was yet another instance of the Mets offense not being able to get going when it matters most.

The Mets have the fourth-worst OPS in all of MLB with runners in scoring position (.679), and today they were 0-for-3 with RISP.

Two of those opportunities came in the ninth inning, after the aforementioned double by Soto to lead off the inning. Mark Vientos struck out swinging, Marcus Semien walked, and Francisco Alvarez grounded into a double play to end the game.

"We created traffic," Mendoza said when asked about the team's inability to come up clutch. "We couldn't come up with the big hit, that's how good modern-day bullpens are, especially [Atlanta's], gotta give them credit."

Mendoza also called for a more disciplined approach from his hitters.

"We have to do our thing. Get better at-bats against good pitching... you have to be able to work some really good at-bats."

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was nearing major league history on Saturday afternoon.

Mookie Betts doomed any chances of that, however.

The Dodgers shortstop booted a routine grounder in the bottom of the eighth inning against the White Sox in Chicago, ending any chance the star right-handed pitcher could achieve baseball immortality in the Los Angeles’ 7-1 win.

Already with two outs in the frame, Yamamoto induced a ground ball from Chase Meidroth. Betts shuffled to his left and got in perfect position to field it, but the grounder bounced off him and caromed toward second baseman Santiago Espinal, who bobbled the ball and dropped it without being able to make a throw.

“Just a routine ground ball that I missed,” Betts told reporters after the game. “Not making any excuses.”

Yamamoto got out of the rest of the inning unscathed, so a no-hitter was still intact in the ninth. But Tristan Peters ended that chance at history with a lead-off solo homer.

The Dodgers hurler, had he thrown the perfect game, would have become the 25th pitcher to do so in MLB history and the first since ex-Yankees right-hander Domingo German did so in 2023.

Instead, Yamamoto’s effort will likely become just a small footnote in baseball history in the Dodgers win at Rate Field.

For Betts, who shifted to shortstop full-time last year, it marked just his second error of the season after having seven last year.

Betts has been mired in a slump at the plate this season, but he went 3-for-5 with three runs scored on Saturday.

The 2018 American League MVP’s average (.196) and OPS (.611) still remain far below career norms.

Occasionally there are games where a bad first inning is enough to make you consider doing something other than watching Orioles baseball that day. That was the case here as the Padres scored four runs before the O’s even got a chance to hit and eventually prevailed to a 9-3 win on Saturday afternoon in Baltimore.

It was a mixed day for rookie Trey Gibson. As mentioned, the first inning was brutal. He gave up two walks in the opening frame, and each one was shortly followed by a home run to get the visiting Padres out to an early four-run lead.

Gibson found his footing a bit after that, working three straight scoreless innings from the second through the fourth. But the fifth inning was trouble once again. He walked the lead-off hitter. Later, he hit Xander Bogaerts in the head with a wayward sinker. Craig Albernaz pulled him at that point, but his line wasn’t quite wrapped up as Keegan Akin came on and allowed both inherited runners to cross the plate.

When it was all said and done, Gibson tossed 4.1 innings and allowed six runs on three hits, five walks, and seven strikeouts. Missing bats had been an issue for him coming into this game. His 14.7% whiff rate was near the bottom of the league. He more than doubled that to 30% in this game, which was shown in the box score with the seven strikeouts. What he seemed to sacrifice to get there was control of the strike zone. The sky high walks and the bean ball to Bogaerts speak for themselves.

This is the sort of game that a rookie is going to have. He’s still figuring things out. The whiffs and strikeouts are good. The home runs and walks are bad. Sometimes you have to suffer through the growing pains and hope it all pans out on the other side.

The bullpen was not much better. Akin only recorded those two outs in the fifth inning, and while he wasn’t charged with any runs of his own, he failed to prevent any of Gibson’s runners from pushing the lead even higher. At least Albert Suárez was able to provide length. He worked the final four innings, but also allowed three solo home runs.

The Orioles lineup showed some early life. They responded in the bottom of the first inning with two runs. Pete Alonso hit a two-out homer. Samuel Basallo followed with a walk and then came in to score on a Leody Taveras triple to right field. Maybe we had a game on our hands after all?

Not really. The Orioles had runners on base throughout the afternoon. But time and time again they failed to cash in on them. As a group the team went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base.

Alonso and Blaze Alexander were the two most active on offense. They each had three hits. Alonso had the homer, a double, and two RBI. Alexander’s three knocks were all singles, but he added a stolen base on top of it all. Tyler O’Neill and Coby Mayo both had a double each, but were stranded.

Something to watch coming out of this game relates to Bogaerts being hit. The Padres, understandably, weren’t happy about it. Gibson had been wild all day, so there is no question about it being an accident. But it’s dangerous to pitch up in that area. If you don’t know where the ball’s going to that degree, you probably shouldn’t be in the game. Albernaz quickly pulling him was, at least in part, an acknowledgment of that.

San Diego was intent on retaliating, which probably would have been fine if they succeeded the first time. Bradgley Rodriguez went up and in on Gunnar Henderson twice in the seventh inning, but missed both times. Henderson eventually walked. Then, in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, Ron Marinaccio successfully nailed Henderson in the ribs with a 94 mph fastball. That got the Orioles’ hackles up. Henderson gestured something about trying “three times” towards Marinaccio. The umpires quickly got together and decided the San Diego pitcher was gone. His ejection riled up the skipper Craig Stammen, who clearly wanted to be thrown out himself at the point, when there was essentially nothing to lose. Eventually, he got his wish and was sent to the showers about five minutes before the rest of his team.

Padres reliever Adrian Morejon came on to throw two pitches and get the final out without any additional fireworks. But it’s possible that more is brewing. The Padres got to throw at Henderson twice on purpose. The Orioles had only thrown at Bogaerts once, and it was by accident. Do they now get to throw at Manny Machado or Jackson Merrill in the series finale now? Hopefully not. The Padres are probably looking at suspensions for someone coming out of this. Intentional hit by pitches usually come with consequences.

The best comeback from the Orioles perspective would be to go out and win the series on Sunday. The Padres aren’t some division (or even league) rival. Just beat them and wrap this series up on a positive note.

Trevor Rogers (3-6, 6.15 ERA) will be on the bump as he continues to keep his encouraging June going. The lefty has a 3.18 ERA this month. He will be opposed by Walker Buehler (3-3, 4.33 ERA). Buehler has also been good recently, allowing just two runs over his last 10.2 innings. First pitch is set for 1:05 from Camden Yards.