Worldwide Sports News

Offense was hard to come by again for the Yankees this weekend against the Dodgers, as they scored just five runs in total across the three games. Meanwhile, Los Angeles scored eight yesterday afternoon alone. Thankfully, Johnny Wholestaff came up with a gem on Sunday night to help the mostly-punchless Yanks eke out a win and avoid a sweep. Ryan Yarbrough was the opener and went a little deeper than expected, covering eight outs before departing with two down in the third and two men on. Paul Blackburn got the last out there and then got the next two innings before turning it over to Brent Headrick for two of his own. The 1-0 lead went “poof” under Fernando Cruz, but David Bednar picked him up and got the last five outs himself, becoming the winner when Jazz Chisholm Jr. went yard in the eighth. Good team effort!

Today on the site, Jeff will preview the upcoming three-game series against the Pirates (who thankfully will not be pitching Paul Skenes), Kevin will run through the Rivalry Roundup, and Jonathan will follow with a one-two punch — first on the 149th (!) birthday of a forgotten New York Highlanders catcher and then a trade target post on long-shot Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman, fresh off a big three-homer day to reach 30 in 2026. Later, Madison will have the weekly mailbag prompt.

Today’s Matchup:

New York Yankees vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

Time: 7:05 p.m. EST

TV: YES, Sportsnet Pittsburgh

Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

Questions/Prompts:

1. Who was yesterday’s Yankees pitching MVP?

2. What did you think of he World Cup Final? Did you watch it between games of the doubleheader?

It has spanned 17 days and two halves of this Major League Baseball season, hatched during the World Cup's round of 32 and lasting all the way through the awkward handshakes and trophy lifts in the Meadowlands.

So, where do the Boston Red Sox go from here now that their 13-game winning streak - second-longest in their storied history - is knocking on August's door?

For now, they're zooming right up USA TODAY Sports' power rankings.

The Red Sox began this streak July 3, at 37-48 and in last place in the American League East. It is still going and now, after sweeping the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, the Red Sox are 50-48, in wild card position in the AL and firmly not going to break up the squad at the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

They've won 18 of their last 20 and predictably enough, the backbone of this run has been pitching. They "pivoted to run prevention" after getting outbid on Alex Bregman and despite the absence of left-handers Garrett Crochet and Connelly Early, Red Sox starters have recorded a quality start in 19 of their last 27 games, going 14-2 with a majors-best 2.27 ERA in that span.

Now, after powering up four more spots to No. 15 in our power rankings? Six more games against division rivals, Baltimore and Toronto.

A look at our updated rankings:

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (-)

• Is it time to have a conversation about best allocation of Shohei Ohtani's resources?

2. Milwaukee Brewers (-)

• Garrett Mitchell's OPS up to a career-high .827.

3. Atlanta Braves (+1)

• Roar out of the gate with 29 runs in three games against Rangers.

4. Tampa Bay Rays (-1)

• A season-high five losses in a row after four-game sweep at Fenway.

5. Chicago Cubs (+1)

• Offense is back, and better yet, so is Shota Imanaga, it seems.

6. New York Yankees (-1)

• More imaging, but no baseball activities for Aaron Judge. Not great.

7. Philadelphia Phillies (-)

• Forget right field. A No. 4 and No. 5 starter have to be top deadline priorities.

8. Chicago White Sox (+1)

• These dudes have lost just one series since June 21.

9. Miami Marlins (-1)

• Rough start to second half compounded by Otto Lopez tweaking his finger.

10. Pittsburgh Pirates (+2)

In a tie for a wild-card spot. Now fix that bullpen.

11. St. Louis Cardinals (-1)

• Very quietly, losers of eight of their last 12.

12. Cleveland Guardians (-1)

• Bullpen has multiple reinforcements nearing return.

13. Arizona Diamondbacks (+3)

• Stunning comeback from seven runs down tempered by potential loss of Corbin Carroll.

14. Texas Rangers (-1)

• Ugly second half opener at Atlanta, but at least their broadcast limbo kept folks from watching it.

15. Boston Red Sox (+4)

• Hottest team in baseball still not selling out Fenway consistently.

NJ.com | Randy Miller: Outside of a Tarik Skubal all-in move, it wasn’t looking like there was a flashy upgrade for the Yankees to pursue this deadline. The team has a number of needs, but given that they’re mostly at catcher and the bullpen getting a big move to line up there just doesn’t happen all that often, let alone with the Yankees involved. That may change if Mason Miller is actually on the market though, and AJ Preller might be enough of a wild card to consider it.

The Padres’ wheeling and dealing GM acquired Miller at last year’s deadline for a package centered around Leo De Vries, now the No. 2 prospect in all of baseball, but with San Diego underperforming and with an offense that looks largely underwater he may need to recoup as much as he can from the ace reliever with few leads for him to protect. The Yankees had scouts out at this weekend’s San Diego/Kansas City series, but I can spoil the findings for you: Miller is incredible. The best reliever in the game, he’s pitched to a 0.89 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 40.2 innings.

Scouts say that the Yankees have a shot at affording him a year removed from him drawing one of the best prospects in the game, but if they want to hold onto their own top prospect in George Lombard Jr. and send a horde of options instead they may need to offer a major leaguer like Will Warren instead. Could it make sense for the Yanks to deal from the bottom of their rotation in exchange for a monster 1-2 combo in the back of the ‘pen? Perhaps, though they’d also likely lose another arm from their depth that would otherwise fill that hole like Elmer Rodriguez or Carlos Lagrange as well.

NY Daily News | Peter Sblendorio: Hunter Dietz ended up as the Yankees’ first-round pick this year, but they’ve done their homework on him for a while. He played high school ball close to the Yankees’ Tampa facilities, and stayed on their radar as he went to college and wound up breaking out this past season. Now in the organization, the team sees a top of the rotation ceiling for the big left-hander and were thrilled to land the Arkansas Razorback ace where they stood at No. 35 when he ranked much higher on some scouting boards. Dietz talked about recovering from his earlier elbow injury at the start of his collegiate career as well as meeting current Yankee starter Carlos Rodón in an introductory press conference.

Newsday | David Lennon: The Yankees managed to salvage the finale of their series against the Dodgers on Sunday winning the second game of a day-night doubleheader, but the way in which they won did little to dispel the concerns that this opening bout of the second half has recast on the offense. After scoring just one run on Friday in a 2-1 loss and getting just two more in the first game of the doubleheader, the Yankees again blew a 1-0 lead late but managed to get it right back with Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s bomb in the bottom of the eighth. Before that game Lennon tore into the Yankees’ deadweight sections of the lineup, and they did little to argue his points — in the fifth inning, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs and watched as Jasson Domínguez struck out, Chisholm popped out in foul territory immediately, and Anthony Volpe flailed through another strikeout to strand them all. They walked away with the win thanks to Jazz’s long ball later on, but a solo shot here and there isn’t going to get the job done more nights.

NY Post | Dylan Hernandez: Cody Bellinger faced off against his old team this weekend, but he could’ve been in the other dugout had the offseason gone a little differently. Bellinger contemplated rejoining the Dodgers over the winter before ultimately choosing the long-term deal he got with the Yankees to stay in pinstripes. Bellinger’s star shone fast and bright in LA, winning an MVP in 2019 and a title with the team in 2020 before he burned out leading to being non-tendered from the organization, but even though he’d been let go he still had fond memories with the team. At the end of the day, it seems like LA only wanted a shorter-term deal like the (more expensive) one they handed to Kyle Tucker, and Bellinger preferred securing his roots a little more with his daughter becoming old enough to start school.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Padres fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

The San Diego Padres came out of the All-Star break with a .500 record, staring at 16 games before the MLB trade deadline on Aug. 3. The hope was that San Diego would carry the momentum it built up before the break with back-to-back wins against the Toronto Blue Jays as they headed to Missouri to take on the Kansas City Royals. The momentum the Padres had built apparently missed the flight and was left somewhere in San Diego.

The Padres dropped the first game of the series in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the 10th inning. San Diego tied the game in the ninth with a solo home run from Ty France and Mason Miller was somehow able to load the bases with no outs before striking out three batters in a row to strand the runners in the bottom of the ninth and send the game to extra-innings. The Padres scored three runs in the top of the 10th, but Miller did not pitch the bottom of the inning after throwing 16 pitches in the ninth. Sure, he threw four pitches to strikeout Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox in the All-Star game last Tuesday, but 20 pitches over four days does not seem to be too taxing for a guy who is 27 years old, stands 6-5, weighs 200 pounds and is arguably the most dominant reliever in the game.

San Diego manager Craig Stammen chose to keep Miller in the dugout and call on Kyle Hart to attempt his first MLB save in a game the Padres needed to win. Hart imploded, although none of the hits he allowed were struck extremely well, and the Royals earned a walk-off win with four runs in the bottom of the 10th. While Hart allowed all four runs, only three of which were earned because of the Manfred Man on second base to start extra-innings, the loss should not fall solely on him. The loss can and should be attributed to Stammen. He was asked after the game why he went to Hart and he said he and the staff liked the matchups and felt good about Hart in that situation. Miller is better than Hart against every batter the lefty matched up well with. Mille should have remained in the game.

Stammen seems to fail to understand where his team sits at this point in the 2026 season. Before the break, he told reporters he cannot manage every game like it is Game 7. That is fair to say. But you should manage a game you need to win with a three-run lead with the urgency the situation and the season calls for. The Padres looked lifeless in a 6-1 loss on Saturday before they salvaged the series and avoided a sweep with a 19-2 win on Sunday. San Diego should have been 2-1 to start the second half and had the Padres won on Friday night, Saturday could have played out completely different, and they might have started 3-0.

While the offense has started and stopped and struggled throughout the year and the pitching, which was solid to start the season, has fallen off as of late, it is decisions by Stammen and the way the rookie manager handles his players and his team that will determine the fate of the 2026 season for the Padres. If he continues to limit the ability and opportunity of his greatest commodity in Miller the respondents from this week’s Padres Reacts Survey will be saying, “I told you so!” at the end of the year. Players have to play and they have to execute, but the manager has to understand that his team needs him to have a win-now mentality if they are going to find their way back into a postseason position.

Brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.

Cam Schlittler chose not to pitch in the All-Star Game, but in his first start since then, he faced a lineup that was certainly star-studded.

The Yankees ace had swing-and-miss stuff, just not enough in the right spots as the Dodgers made it a frustrating day for him and forced him out of the game by the fifth inning in an 8-2 loss Sunday afternoon in the first game of a doubleheader.

Schlittler racked up a career-high 20 swings-and-misses and eight strikeouts, but at the same time, the Dodgers fouled off 27 pitches — including 16 with two strikes — as they made him throw 98 pitches across 4 ¹/₃ innings in which he gave up three runs.

“As a starter, [if] you can’t get through five, that’s not a good sign,” Schlittler said. “I think that’s the most frustrating part.

“I feel like the miss was there, the strikeouts are good, but it doesn’t matter if you can’t put a competitive outing together. They made me battle.”

Schlittler came out firing, striking out the side in the top of the first inning on 17 pitches — including whiffing Shohei Ohtani on a 100 mph fastball, Andy Pages on a 99 mph fastball and Freddie Freeman on a 96 mph cutter.

But the Dodgers began hiking up his pitch count in a 27-pitch second inning, which included Max Muncy reaching on a double after skying a pop fly to right field that Max Schuemann and Jazz Chisholm Jr. both appeared to lose in the sun.

Ohtani then put the Dodgers ahead for good in the third inning when he scalded a 111.1 mph RBI double to the gap to go up 1-0.

Freddie Freeman added an RBI single to make it 2-0 before another 27-pitch inning was over.

Schlittler racked up three more strikeouts in the fourth inning before hitting Tommy Edman on an 0-2 fastball to lead off the fifth inning.

Edman came in to score on Pages’ bloop double down the right field line that ended Schlittler’s day, leaving with a 3-1 deficit.

The short outing was less than ideal in the first game of a doubleheader.

“They put a good swing on pretty much everything,” catcher Ali Sánchez said.

While Schlittler’s 20 swings-and-misses surpassed his previous career high of 19, they did not translate to the kind of success he is used to having because of the relentless Dodgers approach.

“I thought Cam was really good, but they did [have] a lot of heavy at-bats,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He had a ton of swing-and-miss going, which was getting him into 2-2 and 3-2 counts, and then they did a pretty good job of extending some at-bats with a lot of foul balls. So it was kind of death by a thousand cuts. I thought he was on his game. They just had a ton of long at-bats, so it didn’t enable him to get deep in the game.”

The worst of the Yankees bullpen turned a close deficit into a blowout in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader.

But the best of it won them the nightcap.

Five relievers combined for nine innings of one-run ball against arguably the best lineup in the majors, quieting the Dodgers in a 2-1 win at Yankee Stadium.

Ryan Yarbrough (2 ²/₃ innings), Paul Blackburn (2 ¹/₃ innings), Brent Headrick (two innings), Fernando Cruz (one-third of an inning) and David Bednar (1 ²/₃ innings) delivered about as much as the Yankees could have hoped for — aside from Cruz allowing a solo home run to pinch hitter Tommy Edman in the eighth inning — to help stave off a series sweep.

“Yarbs getting almost three innings … he was great and efficient,” manager Aaron Boone said. “And then Blackburn being able to get seven outs for us. That was huge. That gave us a chance then to leverage it at the backside of the game.”

After the Dodgers forced Cam Schlittler to throw 98 pitches across 4 ¹/₃ innings of Game 1, Yarbrough (36 pitches), Blackburn (25 pitches) and Headrick (22 pitches) were all much more efficient. Headrick, the unsung MVP of the bullpen to date, has not allowed a run in 41 of his 49 relief appearances, which leads the majors.

Boone sacrificed the end of Game 1 to make the nightcap possible.

The Yankees trailed only 3-1 entering the eighth inning when Boone used Jake Bird and Camilo Doval, who combined to allow seven straight Dodgers to reach as their lead ballooned to 8-1.

Bird, who was charged with all five runs, was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after the game, as his ERA reached 5.93 across 36 games and 30 ¹/₃ innings this season.

The Yankees called up Kervin Castro to take Bird’s spot in the bullpen in time for the nightcap, trying to see if another internal option could give them some better relief before they likely bring in reinforcements at the trade deadline.

Saturday’s rainout allowed the Yankees to rearrange their rotation to try to make it through the rest of Max Fried’s injury absence without a fifth starter.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

They pushed Ryan Weathers (Saturday’s scheduled starter) to Monday against the Pirates and called up Elmer Rodríguez to be the 27th man for the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader, though they ended up not needing him on a night when they pieced together a bullpen game.

The Yankees have been trying to pick their spots with Rodríguez because he only has two of his five options to the minor leagues remaining this season, but being sent down after coming up as the 27th man does not count against that.

So instead of likely throwing a bullpen game on Tuesday — or potentially burning another option for Rodríguez — they got by with Rodríguez just offering length in reserve.

Weathers will go Monday, followed by Will Warren and Gerrit Cole against the Pirates.

The Yankees then have an off day Thursday, which could allow them to keep their four starters on normal rest and then slot Fried back in next week after one more rehab start if everything goes well.

After throwing 10 pitches off the bullpen mound on Friday, Carlos Rodón (left elbow inflammation) received a second round of shots (including a PRP injection) the same day.

He was already feeling good enough to play catch on flat ground Sunday, and the Yankees are hoping he will advance to throwing a full bullpen session at some point this week.

After hitting a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning on Sunday night to lift the Yankees over the Dodgers, you'd expect Jazz Chisholm Jr. to be buzzing.

Instead, the 28-year-old was open about his rough 2026 when asked to describe his season prior to the clutch HR.

"It sucked. I've sucked all season," Chisholm said.

"The numbers speak for themselves."

Chisholm is hitting just .224 with 14 home runs over 94 games this year, which would be his lowest batting average in a full major league season. Following a tough April and better month of May, the second baseman hit just .177 in June across 79 at-bats as that trend has continued in July. 

Manager Aaron Boonesaid earlier Sunday after the Game 1 loss that Chisholm is a player they "expect a lot of" and are hopeful he can turn it around to get back on track. Following the Game 2 win, Boone credited Chisholm for stepping up in the moment after the Yanks squandered a bases loaded opportunity earlier in the game.

"That's a bomb right there," Boone said. "Obviously we have that inning where we're bases loaded, up one, no outs, and a chance to really take the game there in a lot of ways. Aren't able to come up with a big hit. It turned into a real big hit. Where he went there as a lefty, that's a pretty good shot.

"Big at-bat. Every win is precious."

Despite dropping the series to the Dodgers, Chisholm expressed confidence that the Yankees can match up against anyone when they lock in their focus. He knows that's something they'll need to be more consistent with if there will be a rematch of the 2024 World Series later this fall.

"I feel like we match up against any team in the league," Chisholm said. "I feel like we beat ourselves a lot. I feel like that stuff, we're going to clean up as it goes."