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A semi-random stop over for the D-backs in St. Louis, on their way to Washington. This is the make-up of a game which was rained out at Busch Stadium on June 25. Much to the ire of Paul Sewald, who clearly felt there was enough warning for the game time to have been moved up, and the cancellation avoided. It’d be nice if he successfully closed out a save opportunity in this afternoon’s game. A win would definitely be helpful, since we go into this game in sole possession of the third wild-card, but by the narrowest of margins over the Cardinals and Pirates (who are off today). Victory would put us 1.5 up on St. Louis and a game over Pittsburgh.

The bullpen looks in a better state today. The blowout win yesterday allowed Torey Lovullo to run out debutant Gerardo Carrillo for an extended spell – his 42 pitches was a season high. With a 12-run lead in the ninth, he then turned to Ildemaro Vargas, who became the first Arizona position player to pitch in a win. And, as far as I can tell, the first player to pitch the day after having a walk-off hit. I’m still digging into this, mostly from the angle of the surprisingly high (218!) number of pitchers to get walk-off hits. There’s only one of those after 1994 though: Randy Keisler of the Reds did so in the 14th inning of a game against Washington in 2005. More on all that some off-day.

I won’t be about for the end of this. Going off with Mrs. SnakePit, the SnakePitette and her teenage stepdaughter, SurlySnakette, to the Titanic exhibition in Scottsdale. Which explains the home-page picture: it is not intended as a visual representation of Sewald’s season trajectory as our closer. Curious to see what it’s like. Hopefully, considerably shorter than the 195 minutes of James Cameron’s version (I was largely on #TeamIceberg for that one). Pretty much all I know about the disaster, comes from the movie. Which I’m sure was an entirely factual and accurate representation of events. Report to follow tomorrow, I imagine.

Some team will give the Cincinnati Reds something semi-tangible for the services of Brady Singer. The veteran righty eschewed a miserable start to the season and has turned things completely around, pitching to a 2.92 ERA and 3.56 FIP across 52.1 IP during his last 9 starts. That includes his typical durability as well as pitching into the 7th inning in four of those outings.

That’s got a bit of value even if he will be a free agent at season’s end. Someone will give the Reds something, even if it’s likely to be a lottery ticket we won’t hear about for years down the road. Singer, admittedly, at least gives the Reds front office an avenue to a legitimate (even if far off) prospect.

The thing is, the rest of the free agents to-be on the Reds roster don’t actually afford the front office that opportunity right now given how poorly they’ve collectively performed this season. That’s certainly the case for Eugenio Suarez and his $15 million deal, while Caleb Ferguson ($4.5 million) and Pierce Johnson ($5.5 million) have both chipped in with sub-par seasons out of the bullpen. Even Brock Burke’s durability (league-high 51 appearances and 2.79 ERA) are sunk by a plummeting K-rate, just a 1.38 K/BB, and unsightly 4.45 FIP so far in his first season with the Reds.

Could the Reds potentially get something back of value for Tyler Stephenson? Perhaps, as valuing catchers (especially in the age of ABS challenges) is a bit diffucult to do. Still, the number of times catchers get traded into pennant races mid-year with how hard it is to learn entirely new pitching staffs is woefully small, and it’s hard to envision any club going over the top to land a backstop with just a 94 OPS+ at this juncture.

Even Nathaniel Lowe, whose 116 OPS+ this season matches his career number, will be a hard sell for the Reds. They’ll likely get something for him as teams search for 1B/DH types who can hit RHP, but there’s a reason Lowe couldn’t even land a big league deal guaranteed this offseason in the first place.

The reality is that aside from Singer, and Stephenson if you squint, the Reds really aren’t going to get much for the rest of their pending free agents. The group of Suarez, Ferguson, Burke, Johnson, and Ty Steves have the prorated portion of roughly $34.2 million left on their contracts, or just shy of $13 million between now and the end of the season. So, if the Reds are truly going to move them for next to nothing in return player-wise, they’ll be moving them simply to try to recoup some of that $13ish million that is still owed their way.

In Suarez’s case, they’ll likely have to eat a couple million of even that prorated total just to get a team to take a flyer on him, which they’ll still undoubtedly do due to there being enough streakiness in his bat to make his first half numbers a bit more irrellevant. They’ll take him for that reason, sure, but they aren’t going to pay the Reds as if he’s actually been a 49 dinger a season guy to do so.

So, it’s $13 million for the Castellinis to decide over. Is it worth a $13 million gamble that the Reds, at 47-54 and 5.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot right now, might have a miracle run in them down the stretch now that Hunter Greene is back? There are still a half-dozen teams ahead of them in that chase, of course, and even when this team shot out to a 20-11 record to start the year they never once looked good enough to play the kind of ball they’d need to play down the stretch to make it reality. Or, rather, is having $13 million back in the checkbook to spend (or pocket) in other ways next year and punting this season completely into the sun the look they want to give off after so many other years of premature disappointment?

Some times during teardowns and sell-offs, it’s about moving old pieces for new pieces because the someone actually wants the old ones elsewhere. This time, though, it’s going to come down to just cold, hard cash. I think we all know what that means with this ownership group, though.

KANSAS CITY — For too much of this season, in manager Tony Vitello‘s eyes, the Giants have been playing as if they have “everything to lose.” He’d like to see more of the opposite.

“And that’s understandable,” Vitello said. “It’s one of the most, if not the most, proud organizations in the MLB. We’ve got a lot of talent on the roster. But I think somewhere along the line, we were a little late to the party on flipping that switch a little bit.”

At this point, 18 games below .500 (42-60) and 22 ½ back of the Dodgers, you could say Vitello’s squad has nothing left to lose. And never has that mindset been more evident than the past two times a Giants player has taken off from first base attempting to swipe second.

Bryce Eldridge and Daniel Susac made it safely, just as the Giants’ previous 10 base stealers had before them. San Francisco is 12-for-12 on steals in 16 games in July, already matching its most in one month with still more than a week of games left to play.

It might be too late for it to matter, but it’s never too late to improve an area that has been a problem, especially if it can carry over into next season. Even with their recent uptick, the Giants still only have six more stolen bases (39) than the league’s least successful running team, the Tigers (33). Dating back to 2022, no team has been less aggressive on the basepaths. 

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“We’ve tried to be more aggressive,” Vitello said. With calls from the dugout, “We’ve tried to be a little bit more ambitious about initiating just a straight steal.”

But in the case of Eldridge and Susac, neither of whom would call themselves particularly fleet-footed, the steals weren’t a product of a call from the coaching staff. Both players possess sprint speeds in the bottom 40% of big leaguers, among the four-slowest Giants.

But each of them took off on his own.

Eldridge didn’t even need to get his uniform dirty to notch his first career stolen base.

“He was basically just giving it to me,” Eldridge said. “They didn’t think I was going to run, and I don’t blame them. … Guys don’t really pay attention to me on the bases, so that’s something I can take advantage of. I’ve really got nothing to lose in that situation.”

Music to Vitello’s ears.

“With Bryce,” the manager joked, “it’s a hold-your-breath moment, to be honest with you.”

Susac wasn’t as fortunate. He scraped his hand on a slide into second that showed his inexperience on the basepaths — and made him the butt of some jokes.

But consider the thought process.

“I just saw the first pitch was a little slow, and with the clock being at like five (seconds), I was like, I don’t think he’s gonna pick, so I’m just gonna take off and take my chance,” Susac said. “Obviously it ended up working out. But I’m definitely not a burner by any means, so I pick and choose my spots.”

Again, that’s the kind of smart-but-carefree ball Vitello would like to see more of.

“It goes to show you he’s fully capable of doing those things,” Vitello said. “We were kind of joking about the slide out there when we made a pitching change. … It wasn’t ideal.”

Both steals came when the Giants were trailing late in the game and with two outs in the inning, and neither resulted in anything more. But they shared something else in common: Players trying to make something happen on their own. Susac wanted to put himself in scoring position for Luis Arraez; Rafael Devers was at the plate when Eldridge took off.

Jesus Rodriguez later dropped down a successful sacrifice bunt.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that was the theme of a recent hitters’ meeting.

“A couple of the team leaders spoke up [Tuesday] in the offensive meeting about don’t be afraid to wait for the coaches to initiate anything,” Vitello said. “Whether you see an opportunity for a bunt, or an opportunity to run, anything like that, don’t be afraid to try and create.”

There’s nothing the Giants can realistically do about their dashed postseason dreams. But they can control the mindset they take to the ballpark each day.

“You’re not playing like you have nothing to lose because you don’t care,” Vitello said. “But I think a little bit more of a loose and a little bit more of a carefree approach could benefit us.”

If José Caballero is going down — and it seems as if he is, now forced to begrudgingly adjust a routine he had perfected — he is going down swinging at Major League Baseball.

The Yankees shortstop, whose pre-pitch habit designed to take advantage of every allowable second of the pitch clock became the subject of an MLB crackdown — without any warning — Wednesday, still was upset a day later and said the league knows it is “wrong.”

“It’s very easy to simply invent rules and change the world’s most beautiful sport and then not be responsible for those mistakes,” Caballero said in Spanish in an Instagram post Thursday. “They know they’re wrong but it’s very difficult to accept that a regular player, who only wants to play the sport he has always loved, can adapt and use it in his game.”

All season — and far earlier than that, toying with the timer since he was a Mariners minor leaguer even before the majors adopted the clock in 2023 — Caballero has used a technique that appeared to be within the rules and yet led to frequent arguments with opposing pitchers and home plate umpires.

To prevent quick pitches or pitchers pitching to unprepared batters, hitters must make eye contact with the pitcher with at least 8 seconds on the clock.

And thus Caballero would refuse to look at the pitcher — perhaps playing with his bat or staring into the dugout or crowd — until there were 8 or 9 seconds left.

Doing so 1) put pressure on the pitcher, who had to be engaged at that moment to ensure an automatic ball would not be called, 2) provided the pitcher the least allowable amount of time to then release the pitch and 3) often annoyed the pitcher, which a pest like Caballero considered an advantage.

That changed Wednesday, when MLB instructed the Yankees-Pirates umpiring crew to police the routine by enforcing an on-the-books rule that restricts hitters from attempting “to deceive a pitcher into beginning their windup or coming to the set position.”

The league’s sudden focus on the routine followed an incident Monday in which Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana became irked at Caballero’s clock manipulation, which led to words being exchanged and the dugouts emptying.

During the opening game of Wednesday’s doubleheader, Caballero was issued a pitch-clock violation in the sixth inning for the same pre-pitch procedure he has always used, which prompted arguments, hitting coach James Rowson getting tossed and, ultimately, a strikeout in a Yankees loss.

“Maybe my English is so bad that I don’t understand,” the Panamanian, who has a good command of the language, said after the game, “but ‘deceiving’ kind of means that you’re trying to trick someone. And I’m not trying to trick someone because I do the same thing over and over.”

After the game, manager Aaron Boone called the league’s lack of warning to Caballero and the Yankees “embarrassing.”

The league’s reasoning, according to the umpires, was that Caballero has been “warned all season.”

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“We were instructed not to warn him,” crew chief Adrian Johnson told a pool reporter. “We were instructed to violate him. That’s what it is. It’s a violation.”

What is a violation?

“It’s talking about when he gets in [the batter’s box], he’s not allowed an inordinate amount of time looking down, trying to get the pitcher to cause a violation,” said home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott. “There’s no other hitter that gets in the box [and] takes the amount of time that Caballero does while looking down and not making eye contact with the pitcher. Obviously, it’s caused a lot of problems in the past. It’s not going to be allowed anymore.”

As heard on YES Network, on-field microphones caught Caballero repeatedly telling the umpires they were “picking on me.”

It seems as if that accusation is now aimed toward the league.

“Bottom line,” Caballero wrote in his post, as interpreted by Carolina Sánchez Calabese, “they are in charge and will do and undo whenever and however they want and everyone else has to be silent and obey.”

The cadence of the long baseball season lends itself to lots of streaks. Nobody in a Cubs uniform understands that better this year than Nico Hoerner. The Cubs second baseman has had an unusually streaky season that saw a red hot April fade into a soul-crushing slump beginning in May that had fans wondering if perhaps there were lingering effect from the ball that hit him in the helmet on April 29. Whether there were lingering effects of that or not, Nico’s been on another torrid tear since the All-Star break so today I wanted to take a closer look Nico’s 2026 season and what fans can expect going forward.

An MVP April

Hoerner signed his six-year, $141 million extension in March, and instead of the predictable post-deal letdown, he came out of the gate playing like a top-five player in the National League. Through the season’s first month, he was doing everything, slashing .291/.370/.449 while striking out just 9.6 percent of the time with an uncharacteristic four home runs on top of his normal elite defense. His wRC+ of 129 indicated he was 29 percent better than league average at creating runs for a Cubs team that looked like they might just steamroll the division. That extension was looking like a bargain for a player who might be leveling up on the power front, like this leadoff home run in Tampa Bay in early April [VIDEO].

The slump

Baseball is nothing if not capricious, however, and one of the worst stretches of Nico’s career followed his hot start to the 2026 season. From May 1 until the All-Star break Hoerner slashed .202/270/.263. He lowered his strikeout rate to 6.9 percent, but nothing else was really going right. What’s pretty strange about the whole affair is nothing in the numbers really looked off. His hard hit rate was about 4 percent higher in April, but a 29.6 percent hard hit rate vs. a 25.1% hard hit rate shouldn’t really be the difference between hitting .300 and hitting at the Mendoza line. Similarly, he pulled the ball slightly more in April (38.3 percent) v. 33.3 percent in the months that followed. But again, nothing that screamed a change in approach that should cause the type of fall off the Cubs were seeing from Hoerner.

In fact, the one stat that looks like an outlier during this 63-game stretch was an uncharacteristically low .216 BABIP. That mark is .081 off the .297 BABIP Nico put up in March and April, and .084 off his career mark of .300. I’ll spare you every set of permutations I ran at FanGraphs looking for correlations, only to land on “this really looks like bad BABIP luck,” as you can see below:

A resurgence since the All-Star break

The good news about slumps that are luck-based rather than skill-based is that they almost always tend to regress to the mean. While it may seem counterintuitive, regression can be good or bad depending on the direction of the outlier. In Nico’s case, that could mean the hot streak he’s had since the All Star Break may be the start of his season returning to his career norms.

Since the All-Star break Nico’s hitting .407/.407/.481. with a slightly elevated 11.1% strikeout rate and an uncharacteristic stretch of not talking a walk. Admittedly, a six-game, 27 plate appearance sample size is minuscule, but if Nico’s struggles over the last two-plus months are truly the result of batted-ball luck, as I suspect they might be, this hot start since the break is possibly the beginning of another hot streak. That would be good news for a Cubs team fighting to stay at the top of the National League Wild Card standings with 60 regular season games left to play.

2023 Yankees first-round pick George Lombard Jr. entered the season with questions about his offense. Scouts, fans, and media all agreed that his defense was—and is—MLB-ready, but there were still doubts about his ability to hit big-league or high-minors pitching right out of the gate.

It’s safe to say that Lombard has done his best to put those concerns to rest. Even though they still exist to some extent, which is natural for a 21-year-old with no college baseball experience, Lombard is showing that his promotion to the majors is a matter of time. It’s safe to say that the shortstop prospect and top name in the Yankees’ system has gotten so much better at the sweet science of hitting, and he is now knock, knock, knocking on the door of Yankee Stadium.

The highly athletic Lombard is now on a 15-game hitting streak (interrupted by an injured list stint) in which he entered play yesterday slashing an incredible .400/.475/.860 with five dingers, a 1.335 OPS, a 222 wRC+, and 14 runs scored. In fact, he did this on his first game back from the shelf last week:

Lombard began Wednesday batting .249/.389/.414 with five long balls, eight stolen bases, and a 116 wRC+ in 45 games and 211 plate appearances on the season in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. This comes after slashing a robust .312/.400/.571 with a 157 wRC+ in 20 games and 90 trips to the plate in Double-A Somerset to open 2026.

Lombard’s incredible ability to make adjustments is evident if you zoom in to his game log with the RailRiders. After a brief adjustment period from the moment he was promoted to Triple-A on April 29th until May 16th, he slashed a putrid .127/.351/.127 with a .479 OPS and a 58 wRC+. Yes, he drew some walks, but wasn’t a good hitter and took a little while to get going.

From that point forward, however, Lombard has hit a jaw-dropping .316/.427/.607 with 13 doubles, seven round-trippers, a 1.033 OPS and a 161 wRC+ in 143 plate appearances. It’s not a huge sample, but it’s significantly more than nothing and enough to get people’s attention.

It will be interesting to see how Lombard impacts the Yankees’ Trade Deadline. New York could theoretically call him up at any point when they deem he’s ready, but it seems most likely that if it happens, it will be once August 3rd has come and gone and they know what their depth chart looks like at the six in the home stretch. If, say, Anthony Volpe ends up on the move, then it would be logical to see Lombard come up and bump José Caballero to his more natural utility role. Unlike other occasions in which fans have clamored for his name as an MLB option, this time he does seem ready for the challenge.

It is, of course, also possible that Lombard is the key man in a big swing, as much as it seems more probable that they’ll keep him. If the Yankees do indeed hold onto him and give the kid a chance to contribute in the next few weeks, he could give the team a significant boost. His excellent defense would go a long way toward fortifying the left side of the infield, and we know it can be a liability sometimes. His bat, however, will dictate his ceiling and how much he can help this season.

Lombard hasn’t shown any marked platoon issues in the 67 games he has played in the high minors this year. He boasts a 1.123 OPS against lefties, and a .813 mark while facing righties: he is much better vs. southpaws but can more than hold his own vs. right-handed hurlers. It is worth noting that he has needed a little bit of an adjustment at each level, so it might take a bit for everything to click (if indeed it does; remember that Volpe was the can’t-miss name not so long ago, as was the since-departed Oswald Peraza before him).

The Yankees can afford to keep Lombard a few more weeks in Scranton while they work out their strategy, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that he doesn’t really have much left to prove there. The promising prospect, once a slick-fielding, light-hitting infielder with limited potential, is blossoming into a future star with the glove and with the bat.

Following a disappointing series loss to the New York Yankees that concluded with another bullpen meltdown, the Pittsburgh Pirates return home to begin a stretch of games that could define their aggressiveness at the trade deadline.

The Pirates are 53-50 and entered Thursday just a half-game back of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the final wild card in the National League.

Arizona comes to PNC Park on Monday, but first a three-game weekend series against the Cubs sets the table for Yinzerpalooza Weekend.

Pittsburgh is 4.5 back of Chicago, which holds the top wild card in the NL, but 

The Bucs took two of three from the Cubs at Wrigley Field in mid-April, nearly sweeping the series before the bullpen gave the lead up (a sign of what was to come), and split a four-game set in mid-May. 

The teams haven’t played each other in two months and have both been defined by their offense during that stretch.

A year after finishing bottom five in nearly every offensive category, the Pirates are first in hits per game (9.1), tied for first in batting average (.261), second in on-base percentage (.339), second in runs scored (5.3), third in slugging (.424), and third in OPS (.763). 

Shockingly, the Pirates have hit more home runs (132) than the Cubs (128) after totaling only 117 last season, dead last in baseball.

The Pirates have won 27 games at PNC Park in 2026 (27-24), while the Cubs have the same win total away from Wrigley Field (27-23). 

The Bucs are 17-12 against the NL Central in 2026 after only winning 19 games against the four teams last season (19-33). 

On paper, the Pirates have the upper hand with the starting pitching matchups, including two All-Stars.

Jared Jones will oppose Matthew Boyd on Friday night. Paul Skenes takes the hill on Saturday against Shota Imanaga, a lefty who has notoriously dominated the Pirates. Braxton Ashcraft will go to the mound in the finale against former Pirate Jameson Taillon.

The Pirates have been bad against left-handed starting pitchers and are tied for the third-fewest wins against southpaws.

Don Kelly’s lefty-heavy lineup is 9-20 against left-handed starters, tied with the Marlins (9-16) and just better than the Royals (8-21) and Mets (7-20) for the poorest performances in all of baseball.

It’s something the Pirates must improve upon moving forward if they’re going to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

The bullpen remains a mess and hasn’t been positively addressed all year, longing for the trading deadline on August 3 to fix all the problems. 

A losing streak could change the Pirates’ level of aggressiveness a week and a half from now, benefiting the rest of the division.

Pittsburgh is battling Arizona, Miami, Washington, and St. Louis for the final wild card, but does have a chance to chase down Chicago for a bigger prize.

The Pirates’ top three starters are pitching, and it’s pivotal that the Bucs win the series to gain ground on the Cubs and continue their success in the NL Central.

Is Mason Miller on the trade block? That’s the question teams around Major League Baseball want answered.

The San Diego Padres reliever is the best closer in baseball, sporting a 0.86 ERA with 78 strikeouts across 41.2 innings pitched this season. Miller has accrued a 2.1 bWAR in 2026, but his success has been overshadowed by the struggles of his team.

The Padres are three games below .500 and 15 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. With the trade deadline quickly approaching, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller will have to decide whether to keep or part ways with their closer.

Robert Murray of Fansided reports the Padres are unlikely to trade Miller.

However, that doesn’t mean Preller won’t listen to interested teams. The Padres essentially gutted their farm system to acquire the coveted Miller from the Athletics last summer, so the offer would need to be enticing enough for Preller to deal the 27-year-old just a year later.

The Padres sent their No. 1 prospect Leo De Vries to the Athletics in addition to three other minor league players.

In Murray’s words, the Padres would “need to be blown away” in order to trade Miller.

Despite the rollercoaster season, San Diego is only 3.5 games shy of the final Wild Card spot. So, there’s a chance the Padres reach the playoffs. It’ll be up to Preller whether he wants to roll the dice, but as always, San Diego is expected to be active at the deadline.

What remains a mystery is the route the front office will choose to go this summer — buying or selling.

Had it all the way – what a completely normal and resounding series win for your Atlanta Braves. Win number 60 and taking three out of four from the Padres at home… Per the game notes, the Padres have beaten the Braves more than any other team since the beginning of last year (10-3), so this feels particularly sweet.

Chris Sale did his job, and the math checks out to me that four home runs are greater than one. The Braves loved the longball in this come-from-behind win at Truist Park this afternoon. 

Chris Sale’s rocky second inning was not entirely on his shoulders. A Gavin Sheets single, a Freddy Fermin single, and Jake Cronenworth HBP had the bases loaded with two outs. Mauricio Dubón’s misplay in left field would loom large when Sale walked Fernando Tatis Jr. to give the Padres their first run. He had Luis Rengifo down 0-2, but Rengifo’s single to right drove in two to make it 3-0. 

Sale settled in nicely after that, and the offense had their marching orders.

The Padres, weirdly half-committed to their last-minute plan to use an opener, sent out reliever Kyle Hart to start the game. He only needed five pitches to throw up a zero and looked like he was in great shape to continue mowing down Braves hitters. But the Padres gave the ball to planned starting pitcher Griffin Canning to start the second. And for that, we thank them. 

The good for Canning – he lasted two more innings than the last time he faced the Braves a month ago. Other than immediately giving up a tank to Michael Harris II to lead off the second, he even had a stretch of retiring six Braves. 

But that streak came to an end in the bottom of the fourth, courtesy of Ozzie Albies. His solo homer chipped away at the Padres lead to make it 3-2. 

After a Matt Olson popup, a Harris II single and Dubón reaching on catcher’s interference set the table for a sorely-missed sight: a big Dominic Smith moment. An absolute bomb to the Chophouse gave the Braves the 5-3 lead. 

And so the score would stay for a bit. Chris Sale racked up double-digit strikeouts, ending his day with eleven. He surrendered five hits and walked one in his six innings of work. Dylan Dodd replaced him and threw a perfect inning with one strikeout.

Catching for three straight days didn’t phase Drake Baldwin. The reigning NL Player of the Week is an absolute freak (complimentary), golfing a home run in the seventh to make it 6-3 Braves. Spoiler alert: this would be a much more important homer than it seemed in the moment!

Do you get deja vu? Because it became two straight games where the Braves offense tacked on some insurance runs that felt like “nice to haves” before every single one ended up being crucial. Things went from comfortable to concerning in the top of the eighth when Tyler Kinley gave up a two-run homer to the hot-hitting Ty France to make it a one-run game. Danny Young entered and got Gavin Sheets to fly out to center to end the frame. 

The Braves wouldn’t get any more breathing room in the bottom of the eighth with Harris II, Dubón, and Riley going down quickly. 

Raisel Iglesias, just like last night, was tasked with getting three outs to seal a win for the Braves. He started solidly facing two pinch-hitters at the bottom of the Padres order, striking out Sung-Mun Song and getting Jackson Merrill to fly out to left. “A one-run game is dramatic enough, Iggy,” I said. “But it could be spicier,” he seemed to reply. Consecutive singles from nine-hole hitter Jake Cronenworth and Tatis Jr. built up the familiar dread and brought Luis Rengifo to the plate. Rengifo had been a menace this series AND had a homer off Iggy last night. Cool cool cool.

One changeup for a swinging strike. A second changeup, fouled off. And finally, a four-seam fastball for strike three. Raise your arms up to the sky and/or unclench, lunchtime crowd. Braves win another close one, 6-5.

Happy flight! Old friend Pete Alonso and his Orioles await the Braves as they begin a three-game set in Baltimore starting tomorrow night. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers already have enough Shohei Ohtani injury concerns, as the two-way superstar is currently not pitching because of lingering left knee irritation.

These concerns took another form during the Dodgers’ 9-5 win against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.

A video of Ohtani jumping out of the Dodgers’ dugout moments after the win has surfaced on social media. In the video, Los Angeles outfielder Alex Call is seen jumping next to Ohtani, and Call’s left cleat spikes Ohtani’s right elbow while both are hurdling over the dugout barrier.

Ohtani jerked his arm away before grabbing it, clearly in pain. He walked away for a few moments, seemingly trying to collect himself and shaking out his arm, before turning back around to the Dodgers’ handshake line.

It appears that Ohtani is now fine, as there hasn’t been any reports or indications that the incident created an actual injury.

But Call needs to be more careful with his body awareness, as the Dodgers can’t afford their best player and baseball’s biggest star to miss any more time because of an errant cleat slicing his arm.

The most recent update regarding Ohtani’s knee is that he had a bullpen before Wednesday’s game, marking the first time Ohtani had thrown off a mound in exactly two weeks.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts noted that Ohtani’s doing so was a, “big sign”, but there’s still no timeline for when he might return to the mound in an actual game.

Ohtani has said he believes the irritation stems from putting too much pressure on his front landing leg when throwing, while Roberts has also described it as “wear and tear” from Ohtani being a full-time two-way player this season.

Thankfully, Ohtani’s recovery timeline doesn’t appear to also factor in the arm abrasion he might’ve suffered from Call’s cleat on Wednesday.