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Marte Stays Hot, Diamondbacks Fell Giants
Ketel Marte hit the farthest home run at Oracle Park this season during the seventh inning on Tuesday, as the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the San Francisco Giants 7-5.

Arenado Exits Game with Groin Issue
Arizona’s fandom will be holding its collective breath that this is a nothing burger issue.

Eduardo Rodriguez’s Odd Start
E-Rod’s latest start was a gritty quality start that he managed to pull off despite not having his best stuff. But, when he needed to make the big pitches, he did. This is the E-Rod of old, the one that Arizona thought they were signing a few winters ago.

Brandon Pfaadt Could Become Valuable Bullpen Arm
As starters are going deeper into starts and some arms are nearing return, it is going to be important to find Pfaadt’s best role, sooner rather than later.

Other Baseball News

How are the Giants Walking this Rarely?
If they could wait at least one more game before figuring it out, that sure would be nice.

Travis Kelce Purchases Minority Stake in Guardians
After making over $111 million in his playing career with the Chiefs, Travis Kelce is investing in professional sports clubs.

As Labor Fight Looms, Success of Some Division Leaders Is Creating Intriguing Trade Deadline
Ken Rosenthal takes an early look at what is shaping up to be an unprecedented trade deadline.

Chase Burns has been a revelation for the Cincinnati Reds this season, the former #2 overall draft pick emerging as a legitimate rotation-carrying ace during the first third of the season. Andrew Abbott, an All Star in 2025, has turned the corner after a rough start and once again looks a more-than-competent mid-rotation arm. Even Nick Lodolo looks potentially back to form after his 6.0 IP of ER ball against the New York Mets to start this week.

Still, this Reds rotation revolves around Hunter Greene, even though he’s been sidelined all season after needing cleanup surgery in his prized right elbow right before the start of the 2026 season. Ever since going under the knife, it’s been expected that he would return to the Reds at some point in July, and yesterday he took the first huge on-mound step towards making that a reality by firing his first bullpen session.

Greene posted some footage on his Instagram page, which the Reds later relayed on Twitter.

Despite the ‘knowns’ I laid out in the opening paragraph about Cincinnati’s starting rotation, several pertinent caveats need to be added to them.

For one – as the Reds TV crew began to dive into during last night’s start against the Mets – is that Burns is going to run smack into an innings limit at some point this year. He threw just 66.0 IP last year and only topped out at 100 IP during the 2024 season with Wake Forest, and he’s already thrown 64.1 IP so far this season. Finding a way to keep him from throwing 160, 170, 180 IP and still being able to contribute down the stretch for the Reds this year will take some serious rotation juggling at some point, and Greene’s return in July could help throttle that in a way where Burns is still a rotation option in September.

The Reds will also ultimately get to play that game with Rhett Lowder, who is nearing a return soon from his shoulder clicking after missing almost the entire 2025 season with other injury issues, too. How they work him back in, throttle Burns a bit, add Greene back in, and decide what to do with pending free agent Brady Singer amid his struggles will be quite the job for Derek Johnson and Tito Francona, but having too many healthy arms is a problem any management would kill for during the dog days of summer in a baseball season.

Anyway, Greene’s making the right kind of progress, and that’s fantastic given that there’s nary a guarantee when it comes to getting pitchers back from arm surgeries.

The most successful players in the world aren’t only successful because of their innate abilities. Sure, some of those who walk this planet can naturally throw a ball harder than others, but being able to throw a ball hard and honing the craft enough to make it to the major league level are two very different things. And that’s where coaches come in.

Every single player who has walked away with a major award at the highest level has likely had many influential coaches in their baseball lives. And there have been a handful of big names who credit Mark Connor as their guiding light.

Mark Peter Connor
Born: May 27, 1949 (Brooklyn, NY)
Yankees Tenure: 1984-87, 1990-93 (all as coach)

Connor was born in Brooklyn and played college baseball at both Belmont Abbey College and Manhattan University. He was a right-handed pitcher and ended up drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 22nd round of the 1971 MLB Draft out of Manhattan. He would only play two pro seasons, the first with the Low-A Auburn Twins in 1971 and the second with the Low-A Wisconsin Rapids Twins in 1972. He was primarily used as a reliever, pitching in 20 games (and starting only three) with a 4-5 record in 1971, finishing with a 2.78 ERA. His second season saw him post a 3.83 ERA and a 3-3 record in 32 games with zero starts.

The major drop-off in ERA from one year to another was caused by a brutal injury to Connor’s pitching shoulder in that first season with Auburn. In a future interview with Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) during his time with the Baltimore Orioles, he talked about having completely blown out his shoulder and having to take lots of painkillers and medicine to try to ease the inflammation.

However, he also spoke about that injury sparking a desire in his brain to figure out why he got hurt and how improving pitching mechanics can help prevent injuries.

And thus, Connor’s future in baseball was decided: his time would be spent in the dugout, the bullpen, and in the clubhouse as a scout and pitching coach.

Following the end of his playing career, Connor headed to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville not just to earn his Master’s Degree, but also to be the Volunteers’ pitching coach under manager Bill Wright. He was a member of the staff from 1974 to 1978 and saw four seasons of success with the team going 29-15 (1974), 32-16 (1975), 33-17 (1976), 24-24-1 (1977), and 25-21 in 1978. And following his time in Knoxville, he received a call to come help a major league squad — the New York Yankees.

Connor didn’t automatically start with the big club. Instead, he was brought in to be a scout in 1979 and worked his way into the pitching realm with the Yankees’ minor league teams the following seasons. He first worked with the Greensboro Hornets from 1980 to 1982, where he threw batting practice to a crop of hopefully-future Yankees players. One of those hopefuls who became a legend in his own right within the organization, Don Mattingly, was with Connor as he moved up the minor league ranks from Greensboro to Columbus with the Clippers in 1983. He even gave Connor his nickname, “Goose,” as Connor would serve up batting practice to the left-handed hitters on the team, and they would be smashed into the street called “Goose Creek” over the fence.

Connor started in 1984 with the Clippers, but was promoted to pitching coach for the Yankees on June 18th after the firing of Sammy Ellis, marking the first time he worked with a major league squad. He would be working alongside Jeff Torborg and under manager Yogi Berra, becoming the 20th pitching coach that George Steinbrenner had in his 12 years (to that point) as the club’s owner.

Until August of 1985, Connor was with the Yankees, but he was soon demoted to the Fort Lauderdale Yankees, where he also served as pitching coach. That demotion was temporary as he returned to the Yankees in May 1986 as the team’s pitching coach, holding the position through the 1987 season. Such was the turbulent life under Steinbrenner at the peak of his meddling days.

Through his first few seasons, Connor worked with the likes of Ron Guidry, Phil Niekro, and Dave Righetti, and with Tommy John at the end of his career. John was one of the players who said he owed a lot to Connor’s brain and understanding of the pitching motion, mentioning in his book “T.J.: My Twenty-Six Years in Baseball” that because of what Connor did for his motion, it added multiple seasons to the end of his career.

“He knew what to look for in my motion and had an intuitive understanding of the way I threw the baseball.” – Tommy John

Connor eventually returned to Tennessee to become the head coach of the Volunteers program in 1988 and 1989. His tenure as manager, though, did not yield great results, as he finished with a 44-65 record and finished in ninth and 10th in the SEC, respectively.

Following his return to college and a less-than-ideal time as head of a program, Connor found himself back in the Bronx first as a bullpen coach in 1990, then as the pitching coach in 1991 and 1992, and back to the bullpen coach in 1993. He played a role in a bit of notable Yankees history as well, advising Jim Abbott on September 4, 1993 to “work the outside more and mix in breaking pitches” since his velocity had been lacking of late. The southpaw had been rocked in his last start by the burgeoning Cleveland offense. This time around, he no-hit them.

However, following the 1993 season, just before the Yankees’ dynasty was to begin in the late 90s, the team decided not to renew Connor’s contract, and his time in the Bronx ended. Connor spent the rest of his career elsewhere.

The rest of Connor’s career was linked to another key player in Yankees history — Buck Showalter — whom he met first in Triple-A Columbus when Showalter was in his late-20s. Connor coached under him in 1992 and 1993 with New York as the Yankees slowly resurrected themselves from their early-’90s nadir before a staff overhaul by Steinbrenner that led to Connor’s dismissal.

In 1996 and 1997, Connor was the pitching coordinator for the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks, who had hired Showalter as their future manager when Steinbrenner forced him out of New York as well. Connor assisted Showalter and company with the 1997 expansion draft that birthed the first D’Backs roster, and continued to help with scouting duties during that period before becoming the big-league pitching coach from 1998 to 2000 under Buck. And while a 65-97 season in 1998 wasn’t an ideal start to his time as pitching coach, the 1999 season proved worth it for Connor, as he helped lead a staff anchored by the Big Unit Randy Johnson, who won back-to-back National League Cy Young Awards under Connor’s tutelage in 1999 and 2000.

Showalter and Connor were let go after a disappointing 2000 season following their National League West title in 1999, and while Showalter had a couple of years off, Connor went north of the American border to Toronto and coached the Blue Jays in 2001 and for the early part of the 2002 season. His stint with the Blue Jays did not last past June, as he submitted his resignation following the firing of manager Buck Martinez.

Then, when Showalter returned to the top step of the dugout, this time in Arlington with the Texas Rangers, he came calling to his old friend Connor, and he took the job down south as the bullpen coach from 2003 to 2005, and then served as the pitching coach in 2006 before Showalter was, once again, fired by management after a disappointing season and four straight years of no playoffs. While Showalter was on his way out, the new manager, Ron Washington, decided that Connor was worth keeping around, given his previous work. He remained the pitching coach for Texas until 2o08, when he was fired, but he didn’t leave the organization until 2010, staying with them as a Player Development Consultant.

Connor’s final stop on a major league coaching staff came under Showalter in Baltimore in 2011. But his tenure there was short-lived, as he resigned from his position as pitching coach for personal reasons, a move the Orioles brass was not aware of until it happened. Three months following the surprise departure, he was rehired by the Rangers as a Special Advisor to Baseball Operations and also served as their Minor League Special Assistant for Pitching from 2012 to 2018.

Mark Connor lived and breathed baseball, and he lived and breathed pitching. He worked with so many influential hurlers in his time as a bullpen coach and pitching coach for multiple organizations, and while he wasn’t with the Yankees during the glory years of the late ’90s, he still had a part to play in the team’s development to success. Happy birthday, Mark!

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

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The New York Yankees will look to extend one of the longest head-to-head win streaks in the MLB with a sweep of the Kansas City Royals today.

A win yesterday gave the Yankees their 13th straight win over the Royals. Can they make it 14? I think so. Noah Cameron has struggled to miss barrels, while Gerrit Cole’s early return indicators are far more stable than the surface sample suggests.

Here are my Yankees vs Royalspredictions and MLB picks for Wednesday, May 27.

Who will win Yankees vs Royals today: Yankees (-149)

Hey, look, it's a starting pitcher facing the New York Yankees with a hard-hit issue, and I'm backing the Bronx Bombers. I'd play this rather comfortably to -165.

Noah Cameron’s contact issues are poorly aligned here. Cameron has allowed a 49%+ hard-hit rate and 10%+  barrel rate, while New York has been dangerous against left-handed pitching with a .476 SLG and 128 wRC+.

On the other side is Gerrit Cole. Turns out he's still pretty good! While you can't take much away from what he's done this season, his 2.53 expected ERA is enough validation that he'll have a sizable edge here.

COVERS INTEL: The Yankees own an 11.3% walk rate against southpaws this season.

Yankees vs Royals Over/Under pick: Under 9 (-120)

The Under works if Cole handles the Kansas City Royals' contact-heavy lineup. 

Kansas City does not strike out much against righties, but Cole’s current profile is less about pure strikeouts and more about limiting damage.

That directly attacks Kansas City’s issue: the Royals have a team barrel rate of just 8%.

This is an angle we've hit on throughout the series. The Royals' path to scoring is stringing together multiple hits, and the quality of pitchers that New York has thrown out haven't allowed that to happen.

This isn’t a huge edge, though, and I’d play to -130.

Yankees vs Royals odds

• Moneyline: Yankees -155 | Royals +125
• Run line: Yankees -1.5 | Royals +1.5
• Over/Under: Over 9 | Under 9

Yankees vs Royals trend

The Kansas City Royals have hit the Team Total Under in 10 of their last 13 games (+6.95 Units / 45% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Yankees vs. Royals.

How to watch Yankees vs Royals and game info

Yankees vs Royals latest injuries

Yankees vs Royals weather

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The Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox have split the first two of their three-game set and will play the series finale at Rate Field on Wednesday, May 27.

My top Twins vs. White Sox predictions and MLB picks are calling for Chicago to win a high-scoring Game 3 tonight. 

Who will win Twins vs White Sox today: White Sox moneyline (-111)

The Chicago White Sox rank fifth in wOBA against left-handed starters this season and second in overall xwOBA while averaging 4.9 runs per game in May.

Chicago righty Davis Martin is also dealing and sports an elite 2.04 ERA and 1.02 WHIP backed by a high-end 2.85 xFIP and 22.4 K-BB%.

As a result, I give the edge to the White Sox on the mound and at the dish.

The Minnesota Twins are countering with lefty Connor Prielipp, and in addition to him coming off his worst start of the season, the rookie’s 4.03 ERA and 4.34 xFIP are run-of-the-mill marks.

I’d back Pale Hose to -125.

COVERS INTEL: My support for the Chicago moneyline is strengthened by starter Davis Martin holding opposing hitters to a miniscule .569 OPS and .261 wOBA while posting a 2.76 xFIP at Rate Field this season.

Twins vs White Sox Over/Under pick: Over 7.5 (-115)

Both the Twins and White Sox have trended to the Over, and in addition to the highlighted strength of the Chicago lineup against lefties, Minnesota is also rolling.

The Twins have won seven of their past nine games with a solid .325 wOBA and an average of 4.4 runs per game, so I’m anticipating them chipping in enough to send this total Over the number.

Additionally, the Chicago bullpen ranks 25th in xFIP while allowing the second-highest squared-up contact rate in baseball, and the White Sox have tasked their relievers with 21 innings across the past five games.

This Over is in play until -125, and I’d also bet the Over 8.0 at +100.

Twins vs White Sox odds

• Moneyline: Twins +100 | White Sox -120
• Run line: Twins -1.5 (+155) | White Sox +1.5 (-210)
• Over/Under: Over 8.0 (+100) | Under 8.0 (-120)

Twins vs White Sox trend

The Minnesota Twins have hit the Over in 23 of their last 40 games (+7.55 Units / 17% ROI), and the Chicago White Sox have played to the Over in 11 of their last 14 games (+8.95 Units / 59% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Twins vs. White Sox.

How to watch Twins vs White Sox and game info

Twins vs White Sox latest injuries

Twins vs White Sox weather

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The Rays surprised the baseball world by signing likely future Hall of Fame pitcher Craig Kimbrel, adding a veteran presence to the bullpen well ahead of any forced move at the trade deadline, but with a similar effect.

Kimbrel joins his 11th professional team in Tampa Bay, having been designated by the Mets after allowing 10 runs in 15 innings, despite league average strikeout and walk rates through the first two months. He’d joined the Mets on a minor league deal that paid $2.5 million once he made the roster out of camp.

For Kimbrel, going from a last place team to one of the American League’s best, with a reputation for getting the most out of pitchers in the last years of their career, must be a boon. For the Rays, they gain a veteran presence with playoff experience. It’s hard to see the addition as anything other than a win-win.

Kimbrel isn’t what he once in his age-38 season, but his fastball is as lively as it’s been in years — getting used 75% of the time — and we can trust the Rays will have some keen ideas on how to get the most of out his secondary pitches. It also helps that Kimbrel has an ability to go multiple innings as well, having faced 10 batters in his final appearance for the Mets.

A gamer, Kimbrel showed up to the Rays bullpen in Baltimore…

And went straight into an ugly game to help his new crew get through the night, picking up two strikeouts — including one on the slider.

Here is the Rays press release on signing Kimbrel:

The Tampa Bay Rays have signed right-handed pitcher Craig Kimbrel to a major league contract. To make room on the active roster, right-handed pitcher Jesse Scholtens was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right wrist strain. The club’s 40-man roster is now at 40 players.

A nine-time All-Star, 2018 World Series champion, and 2011 National League (NL) Rookie of the Year, the 37-year-old Kimbrel went 0-2 with a 6.00 ERA (15.0IP, 10ER), 15 strikeouts, six walks, and a 1.47 WHIP over 14 appearances with the Mets this season before being designated for assignment on May 22 and becoming a free agent on May 25. He signed a minor league contract with a non-roster invitation to spring training on Jan. 29 and was selected to New York-NL’s major league roster on April 11.

Kimbrel has gone 56-50 with a 2.65 ERA (836.2IP, 246ER), 1,297 strikeouts, 352 walks, 440 saves, 30 holds, and a 1.03 WHIP over 865 career appearances spanning 17 seasons with the Mets (2026), Astros (2025), Braves (2025, 2010-14), Orioles (2024), Phillies (2023), Dodgers (2022), White Sox (2021), Cubs (2019-21), Red Sox (2016-18), and Padres (2015).

The right-hander’s nine career All-Star selections are tied with Rich Gossage for second most in major league history by a reliever, trailing only Mariano Rivera’s 13. He was tabbed as the Mariano Rivera American League (AL) Reliever of the Year in 2017 and earned inaugural Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Years honors in 2014. Kimbrel, who made four relief appearances for Team USA at the 2013 World Baseball Classic, was voted the sixth relief pitcher to earn NL Rookie of the Year honors in 2011, becoming the 10th player to unanimously win the award, after setting a major league rookie record with 46 saves. He debuted with the Braves in 2010 and made four consecutive All-Star appearances over his first four full seasons (2011-14), finishing among the top 10 in NL Cy Young Award voting following each of those campaigns.

Kimbrel’s 440 career saves are second most among active pitchers behind Detroit’s Kenley Jansen (483) and fifth most by any pitcher since saves became an official statistic in 1969, also trailing Hall of Famers Rivera (652), Trevor Hoffman (601), and Lee Smith (478). He recorded four consecutive 40-save seasons from 2011-14, tying the majors’ longest streak since 1969 (fourth time), a record he shares with Hoffman (two times: 1998–2001, 2004-07) and Francisco Rodríguez (2005-08). Kimbrel has recorded 12 seasons with 20 saves or more, tied with Billy Wagner for fifth most in the majors since 1969, trailing Rivera (16), Hoffman (15), Jansen (13), and Smith (13).

His 1,297 career strikeouts are tied with Jansen for second most among active relievers behind Boston’s Aroldis Chapman (1,354) and are tied fourth most by a relief pitcher in the modern era (since 1900), also behind Hall of Famers Hoyt Wilhem (1,363) and Gossage (1,340). Kimbrel’s seven seasons with 95 strikeouts or more in relief are tied with Chapman for the most in major league history.

The Huntsville, Ala. native was selected by the Braves in the 2008 (third round) and 2007 (33rd round) First-Year Player Drafts out of Wallace State (Ala.) Community College. At 37 years, 363 days, Kimbrel would become the oldest pitcher to appear for the Rays since Rich Hill (41.129) on July 18, 2021 at Atlanta.

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

Prior to Tuesday’s 10-7 win, the Rangers had lost four in a row, getting swept in Anaheim and then no hit by the Houston Astros.

Texas is currently 25-29, 1.5 games back of the Athletics in the putrid A.L. West.

Have you thrown in the towel on 2026?

Cast your vote below…

Another fun packed night down on the farm for the prospects. Here are recaps of each game.

Buffalo 5, Lehigh Valley 4

This one was a thriller. Lehigh Valley was down for most of the game, yet got home runs in the eighth and ninth innings from Dylan Moore and Carter Kieboom to knot the game at three a piece. However, in the tenth inning, Nolan Hoffman was unable to record an out, allowing two runs to score and giving Buffalo the game. Felix Reyes continued his assault on minor league pitching, going two for four with an RBI.

Reading 10, Harrisburg 1

A solid pitching effort from Braydon Tucker was the highlight of this victory, as was a huge day from the offense. The former went seven innings, giving up only a single run on five hits, his (and Reading’s) best starting pitching performance on the season. The offense had several players have multi hit days, including Austin Murr, Alex Binelas, Kehden Hettiger and Raylin Heredia. Aroon Escobar chipped in a home run, topping off the offensive onslaught.

Frederick 10, Jersey Shore 2

Not the greatest of evenings for the BlueClaws as the pitching struggled and the offense was shut down. Ryan Drombowski started off hot, retiring the first nine batters he saw, but had the wheels fall off in the fourth and fifth innings thanks to some timely hitting and an untimely balk on his own part. For the offense, Luis Caicuto was the lone spark of offense, homering in the fifth inning, collecting two hits on the day.

Clearwater 10, Dunedin 8

The lone victory in the minor league organization, Clearwater rode a 14 hit barrage to ten runs and the win. There were multiple stars on offense on the evening, five players having multi hit games, led by a three hit game from Juan Villavicencio and a two double night from Allirio Ferrebus. For me, the highlight is Victor Cardoza. You get a guy that hits a baseball in the minors at 104 and I’m going to pay attention.

We’d have to travel in the way back machine to 2017 to find a team that had two 10+ game winning streaks and one 10+ game losing streak. That team was the Dodgers. It won 104 games and reached Game 7 of the World Series. So nothing in the numerology department says that the ship has struck an iceberg and we should all be heading for the life boats. If per se, you were looking for where you stowed your life jacket, I wouldn’t fault you though.

I’m not sure I’ve given up, but I will say after the first inning Tuesday night, I realized I hadn’t yet watched the Survivor Season 50 finale. In fact, I still haven’t finished it, so for the three of you who have watched it, not spoiling it would be appreciated. If I can insert some gallows humor, I noted that the first inning did not, in fact, sink the Cubs. It was 5-0 after that first inning. They lost the other eight innings 7-1. So as bad as the first was, it got worse.

Life jackets. Yeah, depending on what your job is, if you work in the Cubs organization you might want to be looking for your life jacket. You know, or updating your resume. This kind of belly flop, with where the organization is right now today, it isn’t going to wholesale flip the front office. Most of those people have job security. But if this goes off the rails this badly, there are going to have to be some who pay the price. There’s a lot of season to go, but this looks like a fire the hitting coach(es) type of year. Perhaps take a look at your strength and conditioning or your training staff.

The injuries have ravaged the pitching staff and the offense continues to be inept. The offense is the really vexing part. They were really good. Until a few weeks ago. Then it just all collapsed. Increasingly since 2017, the Cubs have too many hitters with similar approaches. They go into long slumps and they tend to happen in concert with one another. This has been a reoccurring problem for years. I believe that the team has put so much emphasis on defense and good baserunning that they end up lacking enough really good hitters.

I don’t pretend to entirely understand all of the stats I see on Fangraphs. But I certainly understand relativity. The Cubs lead all teams on Fangraphs in terms of defensive WAR. It is indicated at 12.0 with the Dodgers second at 11.4. Third place (Red Sox) is 11.2 but then fourth drops all of the way down to 4.7. There are three teams WAY beyond all of the others defensively. Never get me wrong, that is a good thing. I love the defense that this Cub team plays.

BsR is the measure of baserunning on Fangraphs. The Cubs are at 0.1 which isn’t great. It’s 17th of 30 teams. Decent, but nothing amazing. If Nico Hoerner, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Matt Shaw got on base more, I suspect the Cubs would bump up some notches. The Cubs do rank 5th in the Fangraphs Offensive metric. That’s impressive. But the difference between 1st and 5th is 45.1 to 20.5. I may not understand everything that goes into the metric, but I do get relativity. The Dodgers by this measure are more than twice as good as the Cubs. That’s insane.

What does that difference look like in a slash line? As a team, the Dodgers have a .021/.010/.040 edge over the Cubs. Almost half a run per game. That’ll add up over time. So while offense remains the secondary strength of this team, this team lags a good bit behind the Dodgers, the standard bearer for offense in the modern game. Without an endless line of guys throwing in the upper 90’s and above, offense is the next best way to win ball games. Having both is the gold standard.

Cub pitchers are 21st in strikeouts per nine innings. They are a bit shy of two strikeouts per game behind the Brewers. They are 5th in walks per nine innings. They are 29th in homers per nine innings. Too many balls in play. Too many balls out of the park. 30th in homers per fly ball. 24th in FIP and these numbers are before the debacle that was game 55.

Not good enough.

Three Positives:

• Alex Bregman had two hits, one a double, and the only run scored.
• Carson Kelly had a pair of singles
• Pete Crow-Armstrong had a single and was hit by a pitch.

For what it’s worth, if you tuned out on the game like I did, Fangraphs had the FIP at 1.07 and the xFIP at 2.46 for Hoby Milner’s outing. For that matters, they had xFIP at 3.43 for Jordan Wicks. I know I saw one of those scorecard features that show up on social media that the stuff was decent for Wicks but the execution terrible. I always hope after a first inning like this one that the pitcher is tipping his pitches. As rough as that is, that’s at least something you can fix. Five runs because they picked something up on you is rough. Five runs because you just weren’t up the challenge is a problem.

Game 55, May 26: Pirates 12, Cubs 1 (29-26)

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Alex Bregman (.074). 2-4, 2B, R
• Hero: Michael Busch (.023). 1-4, BB
• Sidekick: Kevin Alcántara (.000). 0-1
• Note: Hoby Milner also posted .000, but in this instance, I utilized official scorer’s discretion and credited the performance that was “better” or “more valuable” to the team. Or in this case, less detrimental.

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Jordan Wicks (-.331). 4.1 IP, 24 BF, 9 H, BB, 8 ER, 5 K (L 0-1)
• Goat: Seiya Suzuki (-.088). 0-3, HBP, DP
• Kid: Nico Hoerner (-.060). 1-5

WPA Play of the Game: Brandon Lowe batted with a runner on first in the first inning with no outs. He singled and the runners ended up at second and third after Pete Crow-Armstrong threw to third to try to get the lead runner. (.099)

Cubs Play of the Game: Ian Happ batted with a runner on second and no outs in the second, the Cubs down 5. He doubled, driving in the lone Cub run. (.059)

Cubs Player of the Game:

Game 54 Winner: Ben Brown received 112 of 114 votes (at 98.25%, the highest percentage to date this year).

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Michael Busch +20
• Nico Hoerner +12
• Michael Conforto +9
• Alex Bregman +7.5
• Shōta Imanaga +7
• Ryan Rolison -8
• Phil Maton -9
• Matt Shaw -10
• Dansby Swanson -12
• Seiya Suzuki -25.5

Current Win Pace: 85.42 wins

Up Next: Game three of the four-game series on Wednesday night. Jameson Taillon (2-4, 5.20, 55.1 IP) makes his 11th start of the season. He’s lost three straight and allowed 12 runs over his last 9.2 innings of work. 23-year-old Bubba Chandler (1-6, 4.60, 47 IP) is also making his 11th start of the year. He’s lost his last two starts and hasn’t won since April 17. Last time out, he was undone by his defense, allowing three unearned runs over five innings. Taillon’s most recent win is April 29, so he’s had the more recent success of the two. Chandler was the 72nd pick of the 2021 draft by the Pirates, right out of high school.

One of these days, the tide will turn. But it’s getting hard to keep the faith.

1933
On the same day that the White Sox were awarded the very first All-Star Game, the club suffered their second-worst turnaround loss ever. Up 11-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth at Yankee Stadium, the White Sox surrendered 12 runs and wound up losing the game an inning later, 15-11. Ted Lyons surrendered the first six runs but left the game still ahead, 11-9; relievers Jake Miller (none retired, three hits including a single to Babe Ruth and a double to Lou Gehrig, three earned, loss) and Ed Durham (two-thirds of an inning, three hits, two earned, walk, two Ks, homer, blown save) put the nails in the coffin. For Miller, the three runs were the first earned runs he’d surrendered all season.

1938
With a home run into the center field bleachers, more than 440 feet from home plate, Hank Greenberg became the second player in baseball history to put a ball both in the bleachers and over the roof at Comiskey Park. Greenberg had hit a homer over the roof just a month earlier, on April 21.

With the blast, Greenberg became the second player to put a ball in the bleachers along with having been the fourth to homer over the roof at Comiskey Park. Jimmie Foxx preceded Greenberg in accomplishing both home runs. The only other hitters to accomplish this feat before home plate was moved eight feet closer to the fences in 1982 were White Sox sluggers Dick Allen and Richie Zisk in the 1970s.

Just 3,000 fans witnessed Greenberg’s blast, which helped push Detroit starter Vern Kennedy to 7-0 for the Tigers with a 5-2 win. The White Sox dropped to 12-14, and they would not be even that close to .500 for the rest of the season.

1950
Red Corriden was named the interim manager of the White Sox, after Jack Onslow’s firing on May 26. The White Sox hit the field at Comiskey and won the new skipper’s debut, 6-1, behind a complete-game effort from Billy Pierce and a five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth to snap a 1-1 tie with Cleveland.

Onslow had gotten the White Sox off to a 8-22-1 start, after overseeing the Sox to a 63-91 record in his first year as skipper in 1949; thus it was his horrible record, and not merely the fact that new GM Frank Lane wanted his own man in the manager’s chair. Corriden led the White Sox to a 52-72-1 record — a .419 pace, compared to .267 under Onslow.

Alas, despite the brighter play (the new skipper won five of his first six games) Corriden was a true interim manager, as Lane settled on Paul Richards as White Sox manager for 1951. Corriden became a Dodgers scout for all of the 1950s, before passing away just three weeks after his 49th birthday, in 1959.

1951
In sweeping a doubleheader in Cleveland, 5-2 and 6-4, the White Sox completed an 11-0 road trip, which remains the best in their history. It included triumphs over five different teams: Boston (two games), New York (one), Washington (three) Philadelphia (one), and Cleveland (four).

The road trip began with the White Sox at 12-9-1 and in third place in the American League, three games out. Unfortunately, the first-place Yankees got hot at the same time, so by the end of the road trip the White Sox were 23-9 and in second place, but still one game behind New York.

Returning home, the White Sox would win another three games to close out May, running a winning streak of 14 games and unbeaten to 15. It remains the second-longest winning streak in team history. The club finished May 1951 with a 20-5 record. In fact, their very next win pushed the White Sox into first place, where they remained for the next 34 days. Not bad for a team that had lost 94 games in 1950!

1994
Wilson Alvarez was masterful in extending his winning streak to a club record-tying 15 games. The lefthander fired a six-hit shutout at the Baltimore Orioles in a 3-0 win before 34,351 at Comiskey Park. The win was the last in Alvarez’s streak, which began on Aug. 24, 1993. Darrin Jackson doubled in a run in the first, Tim Raines’ sac fly brought home a run in the seventh and Frank Thomas homered in the eighth. 

Alvarez’s streak would end on June 7 at Comiskey Park, when he was bombed by the Blue Jays in a 9-5 loss, going three innings and giving up six runs.   

1997
Cleveland pulled off the first triple-steal in the majors in 21 years, in an 8-2 win over the White Sox. In the sixth inning with the bases loaded, Ehren Wasserman made a pickoff attempt at first base that caught Jamey Carroll off-guard. During the rundown, David Dellucci scampered home, Grady Sizemore took third base and Carroll beat the rundown to get to second base safely.

2017
The White Sox scored a coup and surprised the baseball world by announcing the signing of 19-year-old Cuban outfield prospect Luis Robert Jr. to a minor-league contract. Robert’s deal included a stunning, $26 million signing bonus. While the St. Louis Cardinals were big bidders for Robert, reportedly offering more than Chicago, Robert appreciated the White Sox having such a rich heritage of Cuban players. With the influence of first baseman/Cuba native José Abreu, Robert signed on the South Side.

Robert had been on the radar of major league teams since he was 15 years old because of his speed, power and compact swing. He was considered one of the top amateur players in the world and represented a significant addition as the White Sox were rebuilding a franchise that had grown stale and had limited success on the field and in the stands. 

Robert had a tremendous 2019 minor-league season and then signed a long-term contract extension with the White Sox before making his big league debut in 2020; that year, he won a Gold Glove and finished second in Rookie of the Year voting. Injuries have slowed his development in both 2021 and 2022, but his potential remains unlimited.

The St. Louis Cardinals – and even his own manager – did not care for Abner Uribe's "triple crotch chop" celebration. Uribe took issue with his belief the Cardinals threatened to intentionally throw at his Milwaukee Brewers teammates.

And the latest drama in the National League Central unfolded in a predictably absurd fashion.

Uribe was upbraided by Brewers manager Pat Murphy after directing his histrionics toward the Cardinals dugout after striking out Alec Burleson to end the eighth inning of Milwaukee's 6-0 victory at American Family Field on Tuesday, May 26.

"It’s just unacceptable," Murphy told reporters following the victory. "I don’t know what got over him. I mean, he’s been an emotional guy. That’s just not how we do things. I was embarrassed by it. Why are we doing it in a 6-0 ballgame?

"There must be something deeper that I don’t know about. I love the kid, believe me. I love the kid. There’s so much good in this kid. He’s been great for us in so many ways, but that’s unacceptable. Whatever’s going on, you can’t tolerate that – for his teammates and for everyone else. It’s just not going to be tolerated. That’s all there is to it."

Abner Uribe hits the D-Generation X crotch chop after an inning-ending strikeout against the Cardinals. 😳 pic.twitter.com/ZPnV6atxyD

— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) May 27, 2026

Turns out, at least in Uribe's mind, there was something deeper going on. He claimed the Cardinals were intimating before their game Monday that they were going to intentionally throw at Brewers stars Christian Yelich and William Contreras.

So he issued an apology to his own team, but not the opposition.

"First and foremost, everyone here knows me and know who I am and knows I have a little bit of a history of being emotional out there," Uribe told reporters. "I think, first, I owe an apology to the Brewers, I owe an apology to my teammates, my manager, all the bosses of the team. It’s unacceptable to go out there and react in a way like that.

"But at the same time I don’t think it’s professional for their manager to be making signs to the dugout saying he’s going to be hitting guys. There was an event that occurred during practice today. I don't think that was right."

The apparent tension was heightened when Uribe threw a pitch up and in on Cardinals catcher Ivan Herrera in the eighth inning.

"It’s not fun if you throw 2-0 in here up to your head," Herrera told reporters. "I said, 'Keep it down, and he started laughing.' So, I mean, I didn’t do anything crazy."

Neither, the Cardinals claim, did they, telling the Belleville News-Democrat that they did not threaten the Brewers. Milwaukee has won the first two games between the clubs, with the series finale set for 1:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brewers' Abner Uribe explains 'crotch chop' incident with Cardinals

One of the axioms I always live by is that I really don’t buy heavily into trends until Memorial Day. Obviously, Memorial Day has now come and gone. I have to admit that this early season has tested that axiom and my own patience as an analyst. I suppose this is my own version of a mea culpa. There are the numbers and they are what they are, but there are also the underlying reasons for the numbers. We should explore those before we get to the numbers themselves.

Reason One: Changes from the ABS system

The pitching lab works the way that any lab works. Science doesn’t happen without data. The Astros have famously taken pitchers that have struggled in other organizations and made them work here because they have relied more heavily on data than most organizations. That data pushed towards certain kinds of pitchers. The Astros have favored higher spin rates and pitchers that live successfully at the top of the zone and above.

Justin Verlander is probably the most famous of those examples but we could rattle off the names fairly easily here. They all had one thing in common. They had impressive four seam velocity and got hitters to chase near the top of the zone. The new ABS system has neutralized the high fastball considerably as the entire zone has moved lower. That could partially explain the heavy walks in the first month plus as pitchers suddenly weren’t getting the high strike calls and hitters weren’t chasing those four seam fastballs.

Obviously, the numbers (as we will see) have not completely stabilized and likely won’t throughout the season. That spills us into our second point, but the idea of data is important here. If the lab is built on data then there needed to be a healthy amount of new data to help the strategy evolve. Obviously, this alone will help performance some. We could certainly break each pitcher down between March/April and May, but suffice it to say, most of the Astros pitchers (that are still in Houston) have performed better than they did in March and April.

Reason Two: The who is more important than the what

One of the things that Joe Espada and Dana Brown will have to answer for are the slow starts. It is a noticeable trend and comes down to two very clear takeaways. First, there are some fundamental issues about how this team prepares in February and March. This year in particular saw very few pitchers building up the kinds of innings that we are traditionally used to. We were told they were throwing on the back fields and we were told not to worry. Clearly, those things were a concern and we were right to be concerned.

However, the Astros as an organization have lived around the margins with their pitching staff for over half a decade now. Each season is its own universe and the “back of the baseball card” gang have collectively failed to see that. Relief pitching in particular is a fungible asset which clearly points to a year to year quality of this whole thing. Espada has needed time to figure out who he can trust and how he can trust them.

This is not unique as every season has brought unique challenges in finding a reliable rotation and reliable high leverage relievers outside of Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader. Even if Abreu was the Abreu of old for the whole season, the Astros were still going to struggle with a new cast of characters and some obviously failed and failed pretty spectacularly. Some of those arms are no longer there and their absence has helped with the resurgence for the last four weeks.

The Numbers

We should start by talking about what these numbers mean and what they don’t mean. Absolutely, the staff has been considerably better overall. In particular, the total number of base runners per nine innings has fallen considerably. Obviously, they are doing a better job of keeping the ball in the ballpark. We did not list the strikeouts because there isn’t a considerable difference there.

Over a long enough timeline the survival rate drops to zero. With smaller samples there will always be random variance involved. That’s a fancy sounding term, so what does that mean exactly? It means that the numbers you see cannot be completely attributed to the quality of the pitchers or their performance. Sometimes there is good and bad luck involved. That can impact the batting average on balls in play (BABIP) but also the amount of home runs given up.

This means that if left to their own devices, the pitchers that started March and April would have likely improved naturally. The home run rate was unsustainable. Guys like Mike Burrows have not been good, but their underlying statistics show they would not have continued to be that bad. Over the course of a full season, those numbers will always normalize some.

These numbers do say two very important things. First, the Astros have made some personnel changes and usage changes that have positively impacted performance. We could name the names, but the current five or six man rotation is performing much better than the one that started the season. Maybe more importantly, whether through health or a better understanding of how to use each pitcher, the bullpen has become much more functional than it was in the first month.

Secondly, while the last month has been a bit of a lime wedge, the overall performance is not the kind of performance we saw from this team over the course of their dominant seasons. The team ERA over the last month has been nearly league average. They are still walking too many guys and giving up a few too many home runs to be called a good staff. In other words, they are not the historically horrific staff they were in the first month plus, but they are still not what any honest analyst would call a good staff either.

Obviously, some of that could change. Hunter Brown is set to return in another week or so. Josh Hader is set to return in another couple of weeks. One could easily foresee those two pitchers alone changing the calculus some. It also could be said that pitchers like Nate Pearson and Alimber Santa could potentially add to that when given more opportunities. I’m obviously not predicting that, but the possibility cannot be ignored.

The long and short of it is that this is likely an average pitching staff over the balance of a full season. The gains from Brown and Hader could be enough to offset the damage the first month caused. Also, it should be noted that the hitting between the first month and this past month has been a mirror image of the pitching gains. This leads me to the same math conclusion I reached before this recent road trip. The Astros on balance are no longer a bad baseball team. The question is whether they will be good enough to dig out of the hole the first month put them in. That remains to be seen. How optimistic are you for a total rebound?