In his first game of a rehab assignment with Triple-A after suffering a right thumb sprain against the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 17, Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez had to leave in the top of the sixth inning after getting drilled on the left hand.

Already 1-for-2 in the game after a double in the first inning against Sean Boyle, Alvarez was plunked on the left hand by the right-hander on a 89 mph sinker that ran in on him. Clearly in pain after getting hit, Alvarez took his time getting to first base and was met by trainers who took a look at him.

After checking on his hand, Syracuse decided to remove the 23-year-old for a pinch-runner.

Beginning the season on the IL with a wrist injury, Alvarez has dealt with a lot of hand injuries in his career. The right thumb sprain he was rehabbing resulted from sliding head-first into second base, although he has been hit by numerous pitches and gets banged up behind the plate, as well.

After the Mets' 6-0 win against the Phillies on Wednesday, manager Carlos Mendoza was asked if he had an update on Alvarez. The Mets skipper said he hadn't heard anything yet, but he's getting "checked out." Mendoza did confirm that the backstop was hit in the pinky of his left hand.

Francisco Alvarez has left the game for Triple-A Syracuse after being hit on the hand pic.twitter.com/Y53td17K2t

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 28, 2025

Here are five things to watch and predictions as the Yankees hit the road to take on the White Sox in a four-game series starting on Thursday...

Preview

Can Anthony Volpe get a hit?

Volpe is in a major slump, worse than he's experienced in his short career so far. 

Entering Thursday's series opener, Volpe is 1-for-37 with 14 strikeouts in his last 11 games. In the Yankees' 11-2 pounding of the Nationals on Wednesday, Volpe went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and was the only starter to not get a hit. 

The Yankees tried to give Volpe a breather and reset with two games off earlier in the week, but at this point, the team is going to try and push through and see if Volpe gets out of his slump by playing. 

On the other side of it, is the shortstop set up for another day off? Jose Caballero was the starting shortstop when Volpe was benched, so it'll be interesting to see how manager Aaron Boone writes up his lineups during this series. 

How much will Giancarlo Stanton play?

As Aaron Judge continues to work his way back to playing in the outfield, Boone has to decide whether to play Stanton in right field in his captain's stead. 

The Yankees need Stanton in the lineup as much as possible. Over his last 30 games, Stanton is slashing .362/.429/.819 with 13 home runs and 32 RBI. Over his last seven games, Stanton launched five long balls and hit .421. Stanton played the outfield in two of the three games at Yankee Stadium against the Nationals, but the last time the Yankees were on the road (and not at George M. Steinbrenner Field), Stanton sat out all three games against the Cardinals in St. Louis. 

Cam Schlittler, Will Warren trying out to be Game 3 starter

If the Yankees make the postseason, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon will pitch the first two games of any series they are in. But who will start Game 3?

Warren is set to start Thursday's series opener and will hope to bounce back from his rough outing against the Red Sox. In his four prior starts, Warren had allowed only four runs across 22.1 innings pitched. The 26-year-old is having a solid season for the Yanks. In 27 starts, he's pitched to a 4.47 ERA with 146 strikeouts across 131 innings pitched.

For the rookie Schlittler, he has the tougher matchup, going up against All-Star Shane Smith on Saturday. In only eight starts, the 24-year-old is pitching to a 2.76 ERA with 46 strikeouts across 42.1 innings pitched. But Schlittler has really started to blossom his last few times on the mound.

In his last two starts (Rays, Nationals), Schlittler has pitched 12.2 scoreless innings while allowing just five hits and striking out 16 batters. If Schlittler repeats that performance on the road against the White Sox, his name will be in serious consideration to pitch behind Fried and Rodon in October.

Is Aaron Judge back?

Judge is still trying to go on a tear like he did pre-injury, but Wednesday's performance may be the start of it. Against the Nationals, Judge went 2-for-4 with a home run in the Yankees' win. It's been tough sledding for the reigning AL MVP. Prior to the series finale against Washington, Judge was 2-for-17 in his previous five games. A series against the lowly White Sox could be what he needs to go on a run.

Taking care of business

The Yankees are one of the best teams in MLB against under-.500 teams and the White Sox come into the four-game set with the second-worst record in baseball.

Like how they did sweeping the Nationals this week, the Yankees need to take care of business and win the series in Chicago. It's hard to sweep a four-game set no matter who you're facing, but the Yankees should take three games from the White Sox. Doing so will continue to solidify their spot in the postseason and perhaps even help them bridge the gap with the Blue Jays and Red Sox.

Predictions

Who will the MVP of the series be?

Aaron Judge 

Judge seemed very comfortable at the plate on Wednesday and should be the start of a great run for him.

Which Yankees pitcher will have the best start?

Carlos Rodon

Rodon has been the most consistent pitcher for the Yankees and going up against the White Sox, his former team, will continue that streak.

Which White Sox player will be a thorn in the Yankees' side?

Colson Montgomery

The rookie shortstop is dealing with a left side injury that sidelined him on Wednesday, but his MRI came back clean, so he should be back in the lineup sooner rather than later.

Phillies get swept by Mets as lead in NL East shrinks to four originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

NEW YORK — The flight patterns for planes landing at nearby La Guardia Airport had them going directly behind Citi Field during much of the game between the Phillies and Mets. The patterns were a little more varied when it came to the Mets hitting Wednesday, as they flew the baseball all over the field in a lopsided 6-0 win.

It was the 10th straight loss against the Mets on their home field for the Phillies, who got swept in the three-game series and now have just a four-game lead in the National League East.

When things are going the way they are for the Mets at home in this rivalry, everything just seems to go a little better. Extra bases are taken without much thought, spectacular fielding plays seem to be the norm and driving in runs when they are out there to be had is expected.

New York did all of that in the three-game series and has climbed itself right back into the divisional race.

“We’ve got a series tomorrow and we’ve got to be able to turn the page and go out there and play the Braves,” Kyle Schwarber said. “I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of people that are going to be thinking about the series, whatever it is, try to do different. But when we show up tomorrow, it’s a new day. We’ve got to be able to walk out of the clubhouse and expect to win the game.

“I don’t think we’re focused on that (the Mets getting back into the race). I think we’re focused on ourselves. It’s about us, us as a team, we’ve got to get back. We have another important series in front of us. Moving forward, we still have another series against these guys. We’re not looking to that, we’re looking to the series ahead. Things happen.”

If the Phillies were itching to get away from the area, the stadium, the other team, their offense sure played like they wanted to climb on the bus and head south as soon as possible. Rookie Nolan McLean, making just his third start in the majors, stymied them during his eight innings as he allowed just four hits, two coming in his final inning of work, walked none and struck out six.

The Mets strung together five straight hits in the third inning off starter Taijuan Walker. Brett Baty started it off with a double to left-center, followed by a bunt single from catcher Hayden Senger that just got past a charging Walker. Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso each followed with RBI singles and the familiar beatdown was on.

Walker was out after a fifth inning in which he gave up three hits, a walk and allowed the Mets’ fourth run of the night. In all, he allowed 10 hits and four earned runs.

“I feel like I made some good pitches,” Walker said. “They had a really good approach today. I feel like when I had two strikes, they really battled me, got to deep counts and put the ball in play and found holes. Just one of those series for us. We hit some balls hard, they were just in the right spot and the rest just didn’t go our way.”

McLean has now pitched 20 1/3 innings in his three starts and has given up only two earned runs and 10 hits while striking out 21. He’s also won all three games. So fooled did he have Phillies hitters that twice bats went flying out of hitters’ hands on swings and misses.

“He was as advertised,” Rob Thomson said. “Good sinker, good four-seam fastball and he can spin it. I don’t think we were pressing as much as it is not seeing him before. There are times that I think that guys try to do too much. I kind of chalk it up to not seeing him.”

Added Walker on the rookie: “He’s good. He’s got good stuff. Six pitches. I feel like you have young guys that have one or two pitches, maybe three. But he has a good six-pitch mix and I think that’s going to be key for him moving forward.”

The talk among Thomson and players during the series was often to debunk the idea that there is something more going on when the Phillies visit than just the Mets playing better baseball, that there may be some mental side of the competition that is leaning very heavily in the Mets’ favor. Understandably, manager and players must believe that. But to Phillies fans and observers, it certainly seems to be there for now.

The top of the Mets’ lineup destroyed the Phillies as the first five batters in the order went 9 for 19 with four runs scored and all six RBI. Mark Vientos had a pair of hits, including a two-run home run in the seventh inning. It was the third baseman’s sixth home run in his last 10 games. Brandon Nimmo had three of the Mets’ 12 hits on the night.

Perhaps results will be better for the Phillies when the Mets visit Philadelphia for four games in less than two weeks. What the standings will look like then is anybody’s guess after these three games.

“We’ve got an experienced group, I don’t think it does much,” Thomson said of the team’s confidence moving forward. “We know that we need to play better. It’s one of those series. We just need to flush it and move on. It’s one series and I know it’s against the Mets, but admittedly so, we need to play better. We will. We’ve got a good club and that’s not going to change.

“I think there’s disappointment, but again they’re experienced players. I don’t think they get too high or too low. They just keep moving on and that’s what you’ve got to do in this situation. The first game I didn’t think we played well, but the last two I think we battled. The kid today was good.”

The Phillies for three games were not and now the fun really begins with 29 games remaining.

The New York Rangers have the 24th-best prospect pool according to The Athletic’s prospect pipeline rankings. 

Corey Pronman of The Athletic listed Malcolm Spence, Brennan Othmann, E.J. Emery, Gabe Perreault, Carey Terrance, Noah Laba, and Scott Morrow as the Rangers’ top prospects. 

In last year’s prospect pipeline list, the Rangers ranked as the 15th best team, as the Blueshirts saw a slight drop off. 

The only teams ranked behind the Rangers in this list are the Winnipeg Jets, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Vegas Golden Knights, Edmonton Oilers, and Colorado Avalanche. 

The Rangers’ opening-night roster may consist of a number of young players, including Othmann, Perreault, Morrow, and Brett Berard.

Rafael Devers' huge night, bizarre Matt Chapman play spark another Giants' win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — Matt Chapman stood on second base and smiled as a ballpark tried to digest a game-altering throw that had hit his helmet and skipped more than 100 feet to the backstop. He held one finger in the air as 30,000 fans alternated cheers and laughter. The grin on his face said it all, but if anything was actually said on the field or in the Giants dugout, the veteran wasn’t going to let it slip.

“I can’t remember,” he said later, smiling. “Maybe I’m concussed.”

When you’re going right, you’re going right, and the Giants finally feel headed back in that direction. They have played solid baseball for five straight games now, winning four of them, and the breaks once again are backing their efforts. 

There were a few of them Wednesday, none bigger than a throw from right field that bounced off Chapman’s helmet as he stood on first base and allowed another two-out run to score in the three-run fifth. When Casey Schmitt followed with a single, Chapman cruised home from second. The Giants kept pouring it on from there, beating the Chicago Cubs 12-3. 

Chapman — who was fine, by the way — was part of the strangest play, but most of the damage came from another man who has played plenty of third base in the big leagues. Rafael Devers homered twice and also had a double, single and walk. He drove in five runs, showing exactly why president of baseball operations Buster Posey jumped the line in June to bring him to San Francisco. 

“This is the guy that everybody is accustomed to seeing,” Chapman said. “It’s not easy to get traded and come in and instantly be yourself. [We’re] seeing him get more comfortable … when he feels good, he’s that dangerous.”

The Giants are a ways away from being officially eliminated from the MLB playoff race, and Chapman reiterated several times Wednesday that the focus is simply “on tomorrow.” But when the attention does fully turn to 2026, the Giants will be reminded that this summer wasn’t a total loss. 

Devers, their big acquisition, is sneaking up on 30 total homers. His 26th went out to dead center at Oracle Park and his 27th was an opposite-field shot, his specialty. When he’s comfortable at the plate, he’s ballpark-proof, the type of player the Giants have sought for years. On Wednesday, Devers became just the third Giant since 2015 to have at least three hits leave the bat at 106 mph or above. 

“He hit it everywhere today,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We know he’s capable of having games like that.”

The same could have been said of the Giants the past two months. They knew this was in them somewhere, but they couldn’t summon a stretch like this until they already were in a deep hole. With 29 games to go, they remain seven games out of a playoff spot. 

Barring a miracle, they’ll look up in the offseason and wonder where this was against the Pittsburgh Pirates right before the trade deadline, or the Washington Nationals, San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays right after. 

But that’s something they don’t want to think about at the moment. For the first time in a long time, they’re having fun. They’re scoring in traditional ways and in hilarious ways. 

“I don’t know if you get an RBI for hitting one off your head,” Chapman said as the victory soundtrack played in the background. “Hopefully …”

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Ceddanne Rafaela makes up for rare defensive gaffes with game-winning home run originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Ask anybody involved with the Red Sox in any way whom they believe to be the best center fielder in baseball, and they won’t hesitate. It’s Ceddanne Rafaela.

It was downright shocking, then, to see Rafaela make not one but two defensive gaffes on Wednesday night in Baltimore. Both were costly, too, as Rafaela dropped a ball while diving to allow a run to score in the bottom of the second and later didn’t take charge as a fly ball fell directly between him and left fielder Jarren Duran in the seventh, allowing another run to score.

Both plays should have resulted in third outs, but they instead accounted for the entirety of Baltimore’s offense on a night when Brayan Bello was dealing.

It was uncharacteristic, to say the least, and it put the Red Sox in position to lose a game they should have won.

Yet baseball has a funny way of creating opportunities for those who need them. And in the top of the ninth, Rafaela got his.

With Duran — who did bear some responsibility for the fallen fly ball — reaching base on a leadoff single, Rafaela stepped to the plate as the go-ahead run in the final frame. After taking the first two pitches from Keegan Akin, Rafaela got an off-speed pitch over the heart of the plate and unleashed on the offering.

The re-modified dimensions of Camden Yards helped out, and by the time the ball came down, Rafaela was casually jogging around first base, having known right off the bat that he had given his team a 3-2 lead.

The home run was Rafaela’s 15th of the season but his first since July 13, and only his second after hitting a walk-off home run against the Rays on July 11.

From there, Aroldis Chapman — in the midst of the best season of his life — shut down the Orioles in a 1-2-3 inning with three strikeouts to secure the victory.

For the Red Sox, the victory secured a second consecutive four-game series win, after they took the first three in the Bronx over the weekend. They’ll have the chance to make this one a four-game sweep on Thursday afternoon.

For Rafaela, it might have meant a little more. He had cost his team a shutout, but he managed to make sure the unexpected miscues didn’t hurt in the standings.

Before MLB’s newest trophy was offered up as the prize in a competition between the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres, it had to pass through the hands of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.

The custom Fender Telecaster guitar, named the Vedder Cup, is said to have been played by its namesake for “about an hour” before it was shipped off to T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

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“He gave it a good run through,” George Webb, Pearl Jam's equipment manager, told the Seattle Times on Monday. “He always likes to feel like he puts a little energy, you know, spiritual energy, into an instrument. Not just hand off something that’s brand-new, never-touched kind of thing. So yeah, jammed on it for about an hour. Had a good time.”

The trophy features many nods from the 60-year-old musician, including a hand-drawn “cresting wave” illustration and an arrow and mod symbol — an allusion to Vedder’s tribute to the Who on his personal guitar. On the back, the Padres and Mariners logos appear alongside text hand-written by the singer and guitarist: “The Vedder Cup Established 2025 by Major League Baseball.”

It also contains a logo from EB Research Partnership, a nonprofit co-founded by Vedder and his wife, Jill, after a childhood friend's son was born with the painful skin condition epidermolysis bullosa. The nonprofit funds research on the disease.

Read more:Seattle's Cal Raleigh becomes first catcher to win MLB All-Star Home Run Derby

The cup is intended to bring “meaningful awareness” to the rare disorder, Mariners Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Trevor Gooby said in a statement in March, when the longtime rivalry became official.

“We can't wait to see this rivalry series grow and look forward to battling the Mariners for the Vedder Cup,” Padres Chief Executive Erik Greupner added.

The rivalry, such as it is, arose from forces both real and manufactured, apparently. Vedder has strong ties to both cities, having grown up in San Diego, then moved to Seattle to start Pearl Jam with Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament — hence, the "Vedder" Cup.

Also, upon the introduction of interleague play in the late ’90s, MLB looked for "natural" rivalries between teams like the Padres and Mariners. This year, the league canonized the rivalry, which is said to have begun as geographic, given both teams' West Coast homes, Reuters reports.

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The two teams have met almost annually since 1997. In the informal all-time series, Seattle currently leads 68-63. Additionally, they share a training complex in Peoria, Ariz.

Some fans are still left with questions as to why the competition has turned official, with one claiming on Reddit that "padres and mariners fans literally give no s— about each other."

Still, they conceded it is "likely the most meaningless and yet kinda fun thing in MLB."

The trophy was in the spotlight Monday when the teams met for the fourth time this season. The Mariners notched a 9-6 victory over the Padres, taking the season series after three previous wins in San Diego. The Padres beat the Mariners Tuesday, 7-6, and the final game is Wednesday, but the contest has already been decided. Cal Raleigh, the Mariners’ switch-hitting, homer-hammering catcher, known as "Big Dumper," hoisted and played the trophy in celebration Monday night.

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The name and logo for the cup were first shown off in March, but its final design wasn’t finished until the weeks leading up to the fixture.

“Typically on a custom build like this it will take us six months or so to source the wood, get everything mapped out ready to go and take our time to vet the process, apply the graphics, do some test runs,” Chase Paul, director of product development for Fender, told the Seattle Times. “On this we just kind of headed into it in parallel with testing and the production version at the same time, and kind of getting it ready to go.”

In all, it took Fender eight or nine weeks to get the work done, which Paul called a "really incredible effort by the team in the shop."

Naturally, Vedder doesn’t want the trophy guitar to sit on a shelf for the next year while it's in the Mariners’ possession. According to Webb, “He wants it to be played.”

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“That’s his attitude with everything. It’s a living, breathing instrument. It sounds great,” he added.

As an added bonus to fans, the league announced it would give away limited-edition Vedder Cup hats during the last 2025 game between the two on Wednesday.

To no surprise, the exclusive ticket package that included the hats has sold out.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

What we learned as Rafael Devers homers twice in Giants' blowout win vs. Cubs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO — With two outs in the bottom of the fifth and the Giants nursing a one-run lead, Dominic Smith hit a single to center. Rafael Devers eased into third, and then looked around in confusion as the ball rolled around near the bag. 

Had Chicago Cubs rookie Matt Shaw fielded the throw cleanly, Devers might have been out because he slowed down as he approached the bag. Instead, he scored a few seconds later on Matt Chapman’s bloop single, and then turned and watched as Smith scored, too, after a throw from right field hit Chapman’s helmet and bounced all the way to the backstop.

It was the type of sequence that would have fit right in with games of April or May. Right now, everything once again is going right for the Giants, who crushed the Cubs 12-3 to clinch a second straight series against an NL Central team headed for the MLB playoffs. 

The Giants’ own postseason odds haven’t improved much in recent days since the New York Mets picked up steam at the exact same time. They completed a sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies earlier Wednesday, leaving the Giants seven out with 29 to play.

Stranger things have happened, but right now they’re happy to just be back on the right track. Their fourth straight win got them to 65-68, and they’ll go for a sweep Thursday behind ace Logan Webb. 

Devers Demolishes

Here’s how Rafael Devers’ night went: 106 mph homer, 107 mph double, walk, 106 mph homer, single. 

The first blast went to dead center and got the Giants on the board in the first inning, and the second one was a three-run shot to left in the sixth that got them to double-digits. With the two-homer night, Devers reached 27 homers on the season. 

Devers won’t really break the long-running 30-homer drought since most of that damage happened with the Boston Red Sox, but he certainly looks capable of doing it next year. When he’s right, Devers is the kind of hitter who can make even Oracle Park feel small. 

W for Whis

Willy Adames’ athletic double play got Carson Whisenhunt through the fifth and allowed him to pick up his second big league win. It wasn’t easy, but Whisenhunt twice got double plays with the bases loaded. 

Whisenhunt gave up five hits, walked three and hit one, but allowed just three earned over those five innings. The Giants are watching everything he does right now, and that includes dealing with adversity. Wednesday wasn’t the cleanest night, but Whisenhunt found a way to limit the damage, which is a positive sign as he tries to lock up a long-term rotation spot. 

Double Trouble

Jung Hoo Lee caught a break in the fourth when left fielder Willi Castro misjudged his liner to left. It went for a double, his 30th of the year, and that put him in a small club.

Lee became the fifth San Francisco Giant to pick up 30 doubles and 10 triples in a single season, joining Willie Mays, Bobby Bonds, Garry Maddox and Angel Pagan. Lee is second in the National League in triples and now ranks eighth in doubles. 

While there have been some home runs, most notably in New York, peppering the gaps is what the Giants expected when Lee signed a long-term contract. He had just four doubles and no triples as a rookie, but he has found his stride in the second half of his sophomore season. Lee has now picked up a hit in 21 of 23 games this month. 

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