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You follow the San Francisco Giants, so you’re familiar with bad baseball. You’re well aware of it from watching the Giants, both this year and in many other years. But you’ve also become keenly alert to bad baseball through divisional foes such as the woeful Colorado Rockies, who, in most years, make you feel a little better about the Giants.

Through all of this you’ve learned something critical to the baseball-watching experience: there are levels to the badness. There are bad teams and there are bad teams, and there’s a whole gradient betwixt the badness, plus a little something something past the extreme end of the spectrum.

The Giants have been a bad team if you look at the year as a whole, but they’ve sneakily only been a bad bordering on mediocre team in recent weeks. Entering tonight’s game, the Giants were 25-27 over the last two months. Not the stuff dreams or even playoff teams are made of, but certainly not bad.

Well let me tell you something, folks: that might have been a borderline competent team you watched for the last two months, but it’s going to be a downright bad team that you watch for the next two months. That’s just the nature of the beast when you sell at the deadline, as the Giants absolutely, positively, most definitely needed to do and, thankfully, did (and very well, I might).

You don’t get rid of your best position player, your second-best starting pitcher, your fourth-best starting pitcher, two of your best relievers, and your everyday outfielder and expect to get anything other than categorically worse, especially when the haul in return only featured two rostered players, one of which is playing fairly poorly in AAA, and the other of which is injured with no timetable for a return.

That’s not to say the Giants aren’t worth watching. There will be storylines and prospects and debuts and first hits and first homers and milestones galore. But a good baseball team? No. A bad baseball team? No. A bad baseball team?

Now we’re getting somewhere.

That was fully evidenced on Tuesday night, when the Giants took the field against the Texas Rangers. Robbie Ray is gone, and replacing him was Blade Tidwell, someone who has spent the year in AAA for a reason. Heliot Ramos is gone, and replacing him was Eddys Leonard, an infielder who has exhausted all of his Minor League options despite never making the Majors, is on his fifth team, and was making his MLB debut as a left fielder, rather than at his home on the dirt. Luis Arráez is gone, and replacing him was Osleivis Basabe, who is in his fourth season of trying (and failing) to hit league average in AAA. And just for old time’s sake, Buddy Kennedy was the DH so Bryce Eldridge, nursing a sore thumb, could get the day off.

So yeah. You’ve got eyes. You’ve got baseball knowledge. You understand the situation. The Giants will win some games, and they might even entertain the heck out of you, but they are going to be bad.

Which made Tuesday’s loss to the Rangers that much funnier. Because ultimately, it was all those reasons why the Giants should be bad that they almost won … and primarily the reasons why they were decent for a while that led them to defeat.

It sure didn’t feel that way at the onset, though. Tidwell made his first Major League appearance in more than three months, and his first start as a Giant, and it almost didn’t last a full inning. He got ahead of the leadoff hitter, old friend Joc Pederson, 0-2, but ended up walking him. He had a nine-pitch battle with Corey Seager, who roped a 108-mph one-out single. He gave up an RBI double to Brandon Nimmo and an RBI single to Ezequiel Duran, and when he finally escaped the inning you could almost see the oil that he was leaking. He’d thrown 32 pitches. It was ugly.

And then he retired the side in order on nine pitches in the second. And he had a relatively easy third, with just a two-out single, and a relatively easy fourth, with just a two-out single, and a relatively easy fifth, with just a two-out single.

It wasn’t an overpowering performance by any stretch of the imagination: he needed 100 pitches to get through his five innings, and only struck out three. But it was a very solid outing, and if you’re crafting a list of reasons the Giants lost, Tidwell’s name is nowhere to be found.

Shortly after Tidwell’s night ended, the Giants offense finally broke through. After six dominant innings from MacKenzie Gore, the Rangers moved to the bullpen and righty Chase Silseth. Drew Gilbert welcomed Silseth into the game by drawing a leadoff walk in the seventh, and stealing second base. After the Giants recorded two outs, the hottest man on the planet, Basabe, stepped to the plate. The same Basabe who has five home runs in 75 games in the Pacific Coast League this year, where baseballs fly like tennis balls in the dreams of a labrador retriever.

And in his sixth game with the Giants, Basabe demolished his third home run to tie the game.

A youngster leading a pitching charge. A youngster getting on base. A youngster tying the game with one swing of the bat.

Veterans gave it right back. After Jason Foley cruised through the sixth on five pitches, and JT Brubaker handled the seventh with ease, Brubaker opened the eighth with a walk. With a pair of lefties due up, Reiver Sanmartin entered the game, and promptly loaded the bases by allowing back-to-back singles to Seager and Nimmo. Forced to stay in against a righty, Sanmartin had no choice but to challenge Duran, who punished the very first pitch he saw for a two-run double.

Credit where it’s due, though: with runners at second and third and no outs, Sanmartin got two unproductive outs, before Adrian Houser entered and finished off the inning, keeping the Giants within striking distance.

And strike they did. With, you guessed it, a parade of youngsters in the top of the ninth.

It began in the most improbable fashion: with Gilbert knocking a one-out single off of Jacob Latz. Not just a single, but a single in an 0-2 count.

To recap, for the uninitiated: Latz was an All-Star this year, has a 1.80 ERA on the season, and, critically, is left-handed. Gilbert, a left-handed hitter, entered the game having hit 3-51 against southpaws in his career.

So yeah, naturally he got an 0-2 knock.

Next up was Grant McCray, another lefty, who also fell behind 0-2. McCray who, as a refresher, entered the game having drawn 12 walks in 185 plate appearances in his career. And who also entered the game with a career .427 OPS against lefties.

He worked the 0-2 count to a 4-2 count, putting the tying run on base. And then a somewhat rattled Latz threw a wild pitch, allowing the runners to move over.

And that set the table for the best youngster of them all: Eldridge, yet another lefty, who came off the bench to pinch-hit, and he delivered in style, drilling a game-tying single.

To the ninth we went, and in came Dylan Smith, who gave up a double on the first pitch he threw. But being something of an unproven youngster himself, Smith remembered the theme of the day. He got an unproductive fly out, then issued an intentional walk to Seager, and then struck out Nimmo. The stage was set for Smith to work his heroics and get the game to extras. He went to work against Duran, getting the count to 2-2. And then Smith briefly won, as Duran hit what felt like a harmless enough fly ball to right field.

And then Jung Hoo Lee took one of the worst routes I’ve seen in my entire life and didn’t even get close to catching the ball, and the Giants lost 5-4.

And so the Giants, who project to be bad for the next two months because of their reliance on youngsters, got heroics from Basabe and Eldridge, an improbable rally prompted by Gilbert and McCray, a delightful pitching performance from Tidwell, and some magic from Smith.

And those same Giants, who have been surprisingly competent for the last two months because of their capable veterans, got next to nothing from Willy Adames and Rafael Devers, had a mini blowup from the bullpen, and were walked off by Lee not catching a routine fly ball.

Baseball’s a funny sport. Is “funny” the right word?

Dbacks manager Torey Lovullo started off his postgame interview stating that this game had a ‘funky rhythm’ to it, and I think that is a great way to summarize it.

Eduardo Rodriguez who went 8 scoreless in his last outing, got jumped in this outing. The Padres came out of the gates with a lot of hard contact scoring 3 runs in the first inning and 2 more in the second inning and before anyone could get settled in, the Dbacks were already chasing 5 runs. ERod certainly didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but due to the amount of hard contact he was giving up early in this game, Im sure there are going to be people who are suspecting there was atleast some degree of pitch tipping going on.

The defense behind ERod also let him down multiple times as multiple balls clanked off of Arenado’s mitt at 3^rd base, none of them errors, but still not common to see from the perennial gold glove winner. Ketel Marte also missed a critical double play on a bobble that allowed extra runs to score as of the 7 runs scored tonight while ERod was pitching, only 5 of them were earned. Certainly not the crisp defense this team typically relies on to win games. It should be noted however that despite not having his best stuff, ERod was still able to pitch into the 6^th inning tonight.

The offense did nothing for 8 of the 9 innings tonight with the exception of the 7^th when the Dbacks offense blasted 2 homeruns. Nolan Arenado hit the first, a 2 run shot to get the Dbacks on the board. James McCann hit the second of the inning another 2 run shot, and then all of a sudden its an 8-4 ballgame and the Padres are getting up Mason Miller in the 8^th. However the Padres would then tack on another run in the 9^th inning to sit Miller back down and solidify the final score of 9-4.

Of particular note in this one, Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll combined to go 0-8 as they continue to slide as they have done the past 6 weeks or so. This team desperately needs them to step up if this team is going to maintain any kind of wild card lead and make a playoff run. Hopefully this is just the calm before the storm.

All in all, this game was a frustrating one tonight as the final score appeared closer than the game really ever felt. The Dbacks will face newly acquired Casey Mize tomorrow night and will send rookie Mitch Bratt to the hill in a huge game in which they need to get back out in front of the Padres and hold them off in this tight wildcard race.

The Guardians debuted their post-deadline roster last night against the woeful Mets, but they were the ones who were woeful.

Jo Adell was awesome; he left nobody on base. So how did the other 9 participants leave 29? Bazzana left 7, Hoskins left 6, Martinez left 5. There’s 18. Arias’s 4 gets us to 22. More on him in a minute. Lowe 3, Kwan 2. 27. DeLauter and Rocchio 1 each. 29. Austin Hedges, who was hitless, was the only new friend of Adell’s who also left 0.

The gawdawful situational hitting wasn’t the only fundamental that the Guardians neglected last night.

It was Rocchio who made the last out at third, and it was Arias who made a terrible throw for the error. He might be DFA’d by the time you read this becauuuuuuusssseeee…..

Let’s hope it’s that, and not Jose Ramirez going back on the IL with the wrist soreness that kept him out of this game v NYM.

They couldn’t even score against Kodai Senga who entered the game 0-8 with a 8.66 ERA. Senga walked the 8th Guardian of the night. None of those 8 scored.

Stephen Vogt might need a new staff more than he needed new players.

Around baseball

• ZIPS loves what the Guardians did at the deadline. Same. But, um, that was unacceptable last night.

• The White Sox lost 14-2. Cool that Dan Orlovsky gave them those 2 pity runs.

• Twins lost 8-2 to the Royals. lol.

• Detroit beat Seattle 8-0. lol. For Seattle.

This was Tampa Bay Rays starter Freddy Peralta’s third time to face the Rockies this season following two starts with his previous team, the New York Mets. He came into the game with a 3-0 record at Coors in addition to a 1.23 ERA.

But it didn’t seem like it would matter against a persistent Colorado Rockies club that took an early lead.

However, the Rockies offense stalled after the fourth inning, and the Rays got back in the game ultimately winning 9-7 in extra innings.

The offense got an early start — and then stopped

The Rockies got off to a quick start on the offensive side in their third time facing Peralta this season. (They faced him twice when he was with the New York Mets.)

Jake McCarthy kicked things off with a lead-off single, and Cole Carrigg followed his example with another single that moved McCarthy to third. Mickey Moniak then hit into a double play, but it was enough to score McCarthy and give the Rockies a 1-0 when the first inning had concluded.

The Rays did not have a baserunner until the third inning when Cedric Mullins hit a single. After that, Gabriel Hughes walked Richie Palancios, and Taylor Walls executed a successful bunt single, loading the bases with no outs. He struck out Yandy Díaz before issuing a walk to Jonathan Aranda, and the score was tied with the Rockies desperate for a double play with Junior Caminero at the plate. Hughes struck him out with a four-seam fastball The Rockies just needed one more out to minimize the damage.

It didn’t happen.

Newly acquired catcher Liam Hicks hit a grand slam home run, the first of his career, to give the Rays a 5-1 lead.

Hughes came back to get a groundout and end the inning.

Jordan Beck made his presence felt in the Rockies half of the third when he led off with a triple, his second of this season. Coming off a four-hit night, Ezequiel Tovar picked up where he left off. After a 10-pitch at-bat, he singled to bring home Beck and make the score 5-2 Rays. After that, McCarthy singled giving the Rockies runners at first and second.

The 2026 Colorado Rockies are nothing if not persistent, and such was the case in the third inning.

Moniak stepped to the plate and belted a three-run, 380-ft homer — his 19th of the season — tying the game and celebrating his two-year contract extension.

Hughes got back in track with a one-two-three fourth.

And then the Rockies decided they wanted some taco’s.

Kyle Karros led off with a walk, and Willi Castro followed that with a homer — his 13th and a career high.

With that, the score was 7-5 Rockies as Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta visited the broadcast booth.

After that, Peralta got two quick outs before allowing McCarthy to hit a single, and that was it for him. Although he’s had a history or success at Coors Field, that was not the case tonight. His final line was 3.2 IP, allowing seven runs (all earned) on nine hits. He walked one, struck out three, and allowed two home runs on 71 pitches.

Hughes was terrific in the fifth inning, striking out all three batters he faced and kicking the sixth off with a fourth K. However, when he allowed Hicks a double, Warren Schaeffer went to the bullpen for LHP Brennan Bernardino.

Although Bernardino allowed a single, no runs scored, and the Rockies finished the sixth inning with their 7-5 lead.

The Rockies went quietly in their part of the sixth, and recently recalled Parker Mushinski came in for the seventh, a rare stretch when the Rockies were able to pitch back-to-back lefties. Although he had some traffic, the Rays did not score.

That said, the Rays bullpen was successful in quieting the Rockies offense, which did not have a base runner after a McCarthy single in the fourth until the eighth inning when TJ Rumfield hit a double. However the Rockies failed to score.

Schaeffer haded the ball to Juan Mejia in the eighth, who allowed two hits but no runs.

Jordan Romano entered to close, and things went sideways.

He struck out Ben Williamson before surrendering a walk to Walls, who then stole second, and a single to Díaz, who followed suit, grabbing second as well. A base hit from Aranda tied the game with one out and Caminero at the plate.

Romano struck out Caminero with the Rockies opting to intentionally walk Hicks to get to old friend Ryan Vilade. A 5-3 ground ball to Karros ended the Rays half of the inning with a blown Romano save and a tie game.

The bottom of the ninth would bring up Castro, Beck, and Tovar. After Castro failed to get on base, Rays manager Kevin Cash went to Kevin Kelly while Troy Johnston entered for the Rockies to pinch hit.

Although Johnston was a quick line out, Tovar stayed hot and hit a double, which brought McCarthy to the plate — 3-for-4 so far on the night. But he was unable to get on base, and the game went to extras.

Warren Schaeffer went with Jimmy Herget for the 10th inning. With Vilade as the ghost runner, the Rockies got a 4-3 out that moved the runner to third. He struck out Jonny DeLuca and Williams to end the inning without allowing a run.

The stage was set for a Rockies walk-off with McCarthy the ghost runner.

The Rays begin by walking Carrigg, which brought Tyler Freeman to the plate. He executed a successful bunt that advanced the runner and brought up Hunter Goodman.

That led to a pitching change for the Rays who went to LHP Garrett Cleavinger. Goodman flew out to right, but it wasn’t enough to bring McCarthy home.

With two outs, everything came down to Rumfield.

He flew out to left, and the game went to the 11th inning with recently acquired Nick Frasso making his MLB debut.

It wasn’t the start he wanted as a wild pitch scored ghost runner Williamson from third, and the Rays took a 8-7 lead with one out. Following that, Díaz hit a double. He advanced to third on a fly ball, and a Caminero single gave the Rays a 9-7 lead. Hicks flew out to left to end the inning.

Cash turned to his closer, Bryan Baker and a wicked elevated changeup, for the Rays half of the 11th while the Rockies ghost runner Rumfield started at second. Karros was unable to advance the runner; Castro struck out; and Johnston struck out.

Game over.

In total, the Rockies had seven runs on 11 hits. They walked once and struck out six times.

“They got the job done in a battle,” Schaeffer said of the Rays bullpen. “It was a great baseball battle back-and-forth.”

Walks came back to haunt Gabriel Hughes — but then he called Ghost Busters

If anything has defined Gabriel Hughes’ time with the Rockies, it’s been his ability to get ahead in counts and avoid walks.

That did not happen for him in the third inning, when he surrendered two walks and a grand slam, but he kept his composure for the rest of his outing.

He relied primarily on his four-seamer (44%) followed by his curveball (23%) and changeup (14%).

Hughes final line was 5.1 IP with five runs (earned) on four hits. He walked two, struck out seven, and allowed one home run on 71 pitches.

He continues his quest to notch his first MLB win.

“Just one rough inning with a couple of walk mixed in there,” Schaeffer said. “I thought Gabe gave us a chance to win.”

The bullpen picked up where Hughes left off — until it didn’t

Although Bernardino had some traffic, his streaks across 23 games of not allowing an earned run continues. He went 0.2 IP, allowing one hit but no walks, strikeouts, or runs.

Mushinski’s Rockies debut was not without a few hiccups, but no harm, no foul. His final line was 1.0 IP with one hit and one walk.

Mejia’s eighth inning was mostly uneventful: 1.0 IP with two hits and no runs.

Then it all came down to closer Jordan Romano, who blew the save by allowing two walks (one intentional), two runs, and two hits while notching two strikeouts.

Jimmy Herget pitched a lovely scoreless 10th inning that saw him striking out two and setting up the Rockies for the walk-off.

“Obiovusly it’s big for Jim to get that inning in,” Schaeffer said. “That’s the Jimmy we know, and it was good to see that.”

As for Nick Frasso’s MLB debut, it would not without its problems, but ultimately, he allowed two runs and did not strike out or walk any batter. He also earned the loss.

Up next

Join us tomorrow for Game 3 when Nick Martinez will face Tomoyuki Sugano (菅野 智之) as the Rockies look to avoid the sweep.

First pitch is at 1:10.

See you then.

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It was an impressive showing for the Rays offense last night, as Junior Caminero’s two homers and Jonathan Aranda’s four hits led the way to a 13-9 victory.

But tonight it was all about the brand new battery, as trade deadline acquisitions Freddy Peralta and and Liam Hicks both made their Rays debuts at pitcher and catcher, respectively. On the other side it was Gabriel Hughes, with just four major league starts under his belt coming into tonight.

Peralta got into some trouble immediately, giving up two hits out of the gate in the bottom of the first, but a double play and a strikeout on an elevated heater to catcher Hunter Goodman limited the damage to just one run. Whether is was just nerves or not to start the game, he recovered nicely to pitch a clean second.

Things were quiet until the top of the third when Cedric Mullins opened the Rays offense with the team’s first hit of the night. After a Richie Palacios walk and a Taylor Walls bunt single, the bases were loaded with no outs. Hughes promptly struck out Yandy Diaz, but Aranda followed up with a game tying walk. Caminero gifted Hughes another strikeout, and it looked like Hughes was going to get out of it.

Until newcomer Hicks delivered the big blow:

Not only was it the first grand slam of Hicks’ young career, it was the first for the Rays this season.

Unfortunately though, the Rays couldn’t quite coast after that, as the Rockies came roaring back in the bottom half. Jordan Beck led off the inning with a triple off the top of the right field wall. Ezequiel Tovar drove in the Rockies’ second run and two batters later, they delivered a big blow of their own:

And that wouldn’t be all, as the Rockies scored two more in the fourth from a two run homer off the bat of Willi Castro for six unanswered runs. Peralta wouldn’t finish the inning. To put it nicely, it was not a good debut for the Rays’ shiny new starter.

Hughes, on the other hand, settled in nicely after the grand slam, retiring the next 7 batters he faced. For the Rays, it was Cam Booser who was tasked with keeping the deficit at two, and did so for the next one-and-a-third innings. Casey Legumina held the Rockies down for the next two.

Despite having two on in the sixth, seventh and eighth, the Rays were unable to score, as Brennan Bernardino, Parker Mushinski and Juan Mejia held the Rays scoreless. But it was old foe Jordan Romano who would cough up the lead in the ninth, as an Aranda single drove in two, tying things up at seven.

Steven Matz came back out for the bottom of the ninth after pitching a clean eighth when Kevin Kelly came in to finish the frame. After fielding a few comebackers, they were on to extras!

The Rays pulled ahead in the 11th after Walls’ second bunt of the day (third attempt) moved auto-runner Ben Williamson to third. A wild pitch from Nick Frasso brought him in. Diaz broke out of his slump to inside out a double off of the right-center wall, then Caminero added a much needed insurance run on a ground ball single to center. Closer Bryan Baker came in to seal the victory in the ninth, recording his 32nd save of the season.

The story was the bullpen for the Rays, as they allowed only three baserunners in five-and-two-thirds innings. Hicks said it best in his post game interview when he described the unit as ‘A Bunch Of Nasty Guys.’

The Rays will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon as Nick Martinez takes the ball opposite Tomoyuki Sugano for a 3:10 PM eastern start time.

Blue Jays 2 Astros 7

Not a good night. The Jays lost the game and Trey Yesavage came out the game with, what the Jays are calling left knee discomfort. It looked like more than discomfort. He was warming up for the third inning, and his left knee seemed to buckle on two warm up pitches in a row. Trey said there was a ‘little pinch’ in his knee. He is getting an MRI tomorrow. Trey had thrown 2 innings allowing just 1 walk, before the injury.

I’m not going to try to diagnose him from the couch, but I’m guessing he won’t be making his next start.

Beyond that, we scored just 2 runs. And, when your bullpen has to throw six innings of a game, 2 runs isn’t going to be enough.

Chad Dallas turned out to be the bulk man and he gave up the bulk of the runs. 6 earned in 3 innings, on 7 hits, 4 walks with 3 strikeouts.

Braydon Fisher, Brendon Little (giving up the 7th run) and Mason Fluharty each pitched an inning.

On offense, we only had five hits. Myles Straw had two of them (including a triple, picking up our only RBI and scored our other run on a wild pitch, which, at that point tied the game in the fifth inning). George Springer, Alejandro Kirk and Andrés Giménez had one hit

Other than that, the Jays threw Daulton Varsho at the plate, a nice relay from Davis Schneider to Andrés Giménez to Alejandro Kirk. And Ernie Clement made a couple of nice plays at second.

Varsho also had a nice sliding catch in the outfield. We’ve seen that enough when he did it for us.

Jays of the Day: Straw (0.26 WPA) and Yesavage (0.10).

Other Award: Dallas (-0.50) and Lukes (-0.09).

Tomorrow we have a day game, a 2:00 Eastern start. We get our first look at new Blue Jay Jameson Taillon (2-6, 5.92) with Hunter Brown (3-1, 3.42 in 10 starts) going for the Astros.

The Tigers started their post-Gage Workman era with a three-game series in Seattle against the Mariners after a day off on Monday. The pitching was magnificent and the hitters more than did their part, especially late, as the Tigers rolled to an easy 8-0 victory in the series opener.

The Tigers’ starting pitcher was Troy Melton. The young right-hander was coming off a sensational performance against the Orioles in which he pitched seven shutout innings and giving up a mere trio of hits, walking two and whiffing five. He had a fantastic July: five starts, 29 1/3 innings, three earned runs, and one single home run surrendered. Curiously, by WHIP (walks + hits per inning pitched), it was actually his worst month, as his per-month WHIP went 0.947, 0.800, 1.023 (after missing all of April). I know that’s a cherry-picked statistic, but it’s my recap and I’ll do what I like.

Emerson Hancock took the mound for the Mariners, and he’s been solid so far. He had a great seven-shutout-inning start himself in July, at home against the Blue Jays, and his WHIP for the season was a meagre 1.042 coming into tonight. He made his debut in 2022, and the biggest thing that jumps out about his statistics this year is a significant uptick in strikeouts per nine innings: last year it was a pedestrian 6.4, but this year it’s a more-robust 8.3.

After walking the leadoff hitter in the first, Melton really dialed-in his stuff, efficiently mowing down the Mariners. His four-seam fastball was hitting 97 mph, and he had both his cutter and changeup working against both lefties and righties.

In the top of the third Zach McKinstry led off with a double, and Kevin McGonigle’s grounder to second advanced McKinstry to third with one out. Gleyber Torres hit a chopper to shortstop and McKinstry immediately broke for home; a perfect throw barely got McKinstry at the plate for the second out, and the Tigers really should have challenged the call. Dillon Dingler singled to push Torres up to second; Riley Greene hit a grounder to the shortstop’s right, and Colt Emerson tried an off-balance throw to second base but it got away from him, allowing Torres to score.

Colt Keith then followed with a two-run single to make it 3-0. You gotta love it when errors are capitalized-upon.

In the top of the fourth, Max Clark made a lovely sliding, tumbling catch. He was playing deep but made up a ton of ground in a hurry, reaching a peak sprint speed of 30.1 ft/s (33.0 km/h, 9.17 m/s), per Jason Beck, per Statcast, per sophisticated cameras and computers.

With a single and a walk, the Mariners got runners on first and second with one out in the fourth. But Melton got Josh Naylor to strike out on a low splitter, and Cal Raleigh waved and missed at an outside changeup, and that was that for the threat.

Greene extended the lead in the top of the fifth with a one-out solo home run to centre for a 4-0 score. It was his sixteenth home run of the ear.

Melton looked great and capitalized on the Mariners trying to be aggressive early in counts: plenty of first- and second-pitch grounders kept his pitch count low and let him cruise through seven shutout innings, surrendering three hits, walking a pair, and striking out four. Fantastic.

Jacob Waugespack came in for the eighth and gave up a two-out walk, but otherwise did a mighty fine job at keeping Mariners hitters off-balance.

Seranthony Domínguez made his debut for the Mariners and let’s just say it didn’t go well for him, as the Tigers got to him pretty good. Javier Báez, whose swagger and confidence I really missed in his absence, challenged a full-count strike pitch to lead off the top of the ninth and was successful, getting on via a walk. McKinstry singled up the middle off the second baseman’s glove to push Báez up to third, and McGonigle’s grounder to second allowed Báez to score, putting the Tigers up 5-0. Torres followed with a two-run home run to left to make it 7-0, and Dingler followed that with a home run of his own for an 8-0 score.

Greene singled and Keith walked, and that was it for Domínguez. Cole Wilcox took over and got a pair of strikeouts to end the inning but plenty of damage had been done by that point.

Yilber Díaz, a waiver pickup from the Diamondbacks in June, made his new-team debut in the bottom of the ninth in a low-pressure situation. He struck out his first batter on a 98-mph fastball, but then he served-up a single and walked Naylor. However, Raleigh looked at a perfect bottom-rail strike three for the second out, and a challenged ball on a 2-2 count was overturned to a strike for the final out of the game.

Final score: Tigers 8, Mariners 0

How hot have the bats been?

Very!

Numbers and Notes

• I looked at the standings in the American League as a whole lately, and of course much has been said of the Tigers being 2.5 games out of the final Wild Card entering tonight. But something else jumped out at me, that I’d heard bandied-about: the Tigers had the second-biggest Run Differential in the league, only behind the Yankees.
• Tigers bench coach George Lombard’s son, George Jr., made his major-league debut tonight with the Yankees — and he hit a home run! George Sr. managed to make it to New York for the game.
• A certain ex-Tigers left-handed pitcher made his debut for the Dodgers tonight: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K. The Dodgers lost to the Cubs 5-1. Make of that what you will.
• On this day in 1914, both Belgium and the British Empire declared war on Germany after the Germans invaded Belgium. This happened a bit more than a month after Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated; the complex set of treaties between nations in Europe ended up precipitating the Great War, and this was a big event in its evolution.

Tigers 8, Mariners 0

I’m a winner, see my prize: The Tigers
You’re a loser who sits and cries: The Mariners

Game Thread Comment of the Day

Every game after a trade deadline in which the Yankees did not add to their bullpen (and in fact subtracted) can feel like a referendum on Brian Cashman’s Aug. 3 decision-making.

After Monday’s loss, when Angel Chivilli imploded, Cashman could have been torched.

A night later, Cashman could have felt justified.

Fernando Cruz, Brent Headrick and David Bednar were excellent in combining for three scoreless innings in relief of Ryan Weathers to preserve a 2-0 victory over the Cardinals.

Headrick and Bednar did well to escape inherited danger. In the seventh, Headrick entered and induced a ground out from Nathan Church to strand a runner on third, before he passed a jam on to Bednar in the eighth, who struck out Nelson Velázquez on three pitches with the bases loaded before completing the club’s 12th shutout of the year.

“He’s been great,” manager Aaron Boone said of Bednar, who pitched a clean ninth and has not allowed a run in 24 of his past 25 appearances. “It’s been a couple months now where it’s been really lockdown by him.”

Their trade deadline inaction, when the only Yankees bullpen moves were shipping out Camilo Doval and Yovanny Cruz, will place additional pressure on the bullpen and its expected additions.

One of those possible additions, Clarke Schmidt, was expected to see a doctor Tuesday night after a shortened live batting practice earlier in the day, though the Yankees were not expressing much concern.

Schmidt, building up from 2025 Tommy John surgery and facing hitters again in what might have been a final step before a rehab assignment, felt some cramping in his forearm, which cut short his afternoon.

Expected to throw three “innings,” Schmidt settled for two.

“Hopefully it’s not much, but enough for him to say, ‘Let’s not do the third up,’” Boone said. “We’ll see what that looks like today and tomorrow.”

Boone said there were no immediate plans for Schmidt to receive imaging and, “Hopefully it’s just some cramping.”

Along with Schmidt, Will Warren and/or Weathers could become bullpen additions. One of the latter two would be transitioned if the Yankees’ rotation is at full health.

That dream is growing closer to becoming reality, Carlos Rodón coming through his own live BP on Monday well and expected to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Saturday, Boone said.

Taking at-bats against Schmidt, for a second straight day of facing live pitching, was Giancarlo Stanton, Boone said.

Stanton, who had not faced live pitching before Monday since suffering the setback with his calf injury, continues to feel well as he slowly adds more to his regimen, Boone said.

Cody Bellinger (hamstring strain) is still weeks away from a return, but he is making encouraging progress, Boone said, after Bellinger ran in the outfield before the game.

“Belli’s trending in a really good direction, so I don’t think that’ll be too long,” Boone added.

Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s second-inning home run snapped an 0-for-13 stretch.

The White Sox (59-53) folded on offense and waved the white flag on the mound as the Red Sox (61-51) rolled to a 14-2 victory in Tuesday’s series opener, outhitting Chicago, 15-6. Davis Martin floundered through five innings while Patrick Sandoval worked smoothly through the South Siders despite struggling with his control, earning the W for the Red Sox.

Tonight was the second time this season that Martin has allowed nine runs; the other was June 16, while visiting the Yankees, when things really started to go downhill. There are definitely some red flags to consider as we head into crunch time in a tight division race, since this was the third outing in a row where he surrendered four or more runs. Davis owned a 3.62 ERA just a few hours ago, but Tuesday’s implosion has inflated it to 4.13 on the season. In his last seven starts (34 1/3 innings), he owns a rough 6.55 ERA with a 1.60 WHIP, and he’s been striking guys out at a much lower rate with just 20 Ks in this time span.

There may have been at least one explanation for Tuesday’s disaster. After the game, manager Will Venable said Davis Martin was tipping his pitches, an issue catcher Kyle Teel identified during the game and brought to the coaching staff’s attention. That doesn’t erase Martin’s recent struggles, but it does provide some context for why Boston’s hitters looked so comfortable from the opening inning.

Martin’s recent inconsistency is still worth monitoring. While tipping pitches may have contributed to Tuesday’s outing, his results over the past several starts have been uneven. His recent inconsistencies were one of the main reasons I was hoping Chris Getz would trade for another starting pitcher before Monday’s deadline, especially when everyone not named Sean Burke is a wild card when they start. Before the All-Star break — through June, really — Davis looked like he was approaching ace status, but he has been regressing lately, and it’s hard to imagine how he would perform in a playoff game at this moment in time. I’m still optimistic, and I’ve not given up on him by any means, but if we are being realistic, there’s quite a bit of uncertainty around his performance for the remainder of the season.

Right off the bat, Nick Sogard rattled Martin with a leadoff double off the Green Monster, then hit Ceddanne Rafaela square in the back on a curveball that got away to put two runners on. Davis navigated an out on a deep fly that advanced the runners, but back-to-back base hits from Willson Contreras and Masataka Yoshida scored the first run for the Red Sox, 1-0, and then loaded the bases with just one out. Naturally, Caleb Durbin demolished the second pitch he saw for a grand slam over the Green Monster in left, increasing the Boston lead to five, 5-0.

The way Boston has played over the last month needs to be studied for generations, because whatever chokehold they currently have on the baseball gods seems to be enough to overpower both the Pope AND a wizard. What I mean by that is Jarren Duran blasted a solo shot for the Red Sox to go back-to-back, tallying six earned for Davis in just the first inning, 6-0. Ouch.

It took 26 pitches for Martin to get out of the first, but he was fairly efficient through the next four frames, using just eight pitches in the third, ranging up to 15 in the other three. Davis did eventually work a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, and the South Siders finally scored a run in the top of the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Miguel Vargas, 6-1. Miguel’s fly out seemed like it was sailing over the Monster before it was caught against it.

But of course, the Good Guys did not carry that momentum through their at-bats in the fifth inning: Randal Grichuk grounded into a double play to end the scoring threat, and Davis conceded his third home run of the game in the bottom of the fifth to hand the run right back and increase the Boston lead back to six, 7-1.

Still, the White Sox didn’t quit, making Patrick Sandoval work in some tough at-bats while drawing four free passes. Consecutive walks in the sixth put runners on for the Good Guys, but they managed only one run on Braden Montgomery’s RBI ground out. The Chicago bats went just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base, so they could have walked several more times and probably still wouldn’t have been able to catch up without some clutch hits.

Earning his first official win of the season, Sandoval had a much better day on the mound and only gave up the two runs on six hits while striking out five. The Boston bullpen didn’t seem to have a problem either, as the South Siders didn’t get another hit after five, and Brayan Bello was set up nicely for a three-inning save, his first of the season.

On the other hand, Chicago went to righthander Erick Fedde out of the bullpen, who was tasked with essentially eating innings and getting through this disastrous game. Still, he, too, gave up five runs (four earned) on five hits, and that was on top of two more runs attributed to Martin. Not that the bats were promising enough to complete the five-run comeback, but the Red Sox tallied a half-dozen between the two pitchers in the sixth to extend the lead to 13-2.

It almost felt like things were going to settle down so we could just end the suffering, and I could stop watching, but Fedde went out with a bang, and Abreu blasted his second bomb of the game on a solo shot to pour salt in Chicago’s gaping wound, 14-2. Bello was able to retire the Sox in order during their final at-bats, and the South Siders need to reset after that wimpy performance in the series opener.

The only good news of the night is that both the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins lost Tuesday, leaving the White Sox to reflect on that horrific game while still holding a three-game division lead. Righthander Sean Burke is on the mound tomorrow as the Good Guys attempt to revive themselves and even out the series, so we’ll do it again tomorrow and hope for the best.

MVP
Miguel Vargas: 0-for-2, RBI, BB, 2 K, SF
Braden Montgomery: 0-for-3, RBI, BB

Runners Up
Chase Meidroth: 1-for-3, R, BB, K
Colson Montgomery: 1-for-3, R, BB
Brenton Doyle: 1-for-2, outfield assist in first game as a White Sox

Cold Cat
Davis Martin: 5 IP, 10 H, 9 R, 2 BB, K, 3 HR, HB, LOSS (9-5)
Erick Fedde: 3 IP, 5 H, 5 R (4 ER), BB, K, HR
Randal Grichuk: 1-for-4, 2B, GIDP, E

With Brian Cashman not adding a reliever before the trade deadline Monday, and with a pair of Yankees starters inching closer to returns, each start has become an audition for Ryan Weathers.

Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt are both tracking toward rehab assignments, though Schmidt’s live batting practice Tuesday ended after two ups instead of three with forearm cramps that, at the very least, created a temporary scare.

Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole and Max Fried are already positioned atop the rotation. That’d create a rotation logjam and force two — with Will Warren also factoring into the equation — to shift to the bullpen if everyone remains healthy, but Weathers continued to make his case for a spot in the rotation Tuesday, tossing six scoreless innings in the Yankees’ 2-0 win over the Cardinals to extend his scoreless streak to a career-best 17 ²/₃ consecutive innings.

“We’re all in the same ballpark of like, if that’s what my job is and that helps us win ballgames, I mean, we all have the same end goal,” Weathers said when asked if he’d welcome a move to the bullpen or if he’d want to make a case to stay in the rotation. “So if that happens, then it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

Weathers needed just 88 pitches to navigate the Cardinals while scattering four hits, walking one and striking out six. He received plenty of help behind him from 21-year-old shortstop George Lombard Jr., who turned a pair of nifty double plays in his MLB debut. Weathers didn’t allow a runner to reach second base until the sixth inning, when JJ Wetherholt walked with two outs, Iván Herrera singled and Weathers stared down his first true jam of the night.

José Fermín drilled a sinker that carried an expected batting average of .940, according to Baseball Savant, but Heliot Ramos, making his Yankees (64-50) debut, made the catch.

“Just ran off the barrel enough to fly out to left,” Weathers said.

Manager Aaron Boone considered sending Weathers back out for the seventh inning before the walk and hard contact in the sixth, but it still marked the first time in Weathers’ career where he compiled consecutive starts with at least five scoreless innings. His ERA dropped to 3.79, the lowest it has been since May. Weathers abandoned his reliance on throwing the four-seam fastball over the past month — dropping from 28.2 percent in June to 13.3 in July, according to Baseball Savant — and threw it just seven times Tuesday, mostly due to the fact that “the other pitches stay in the ballpark,” Weathers said.

And with each of his past three starts, Weathers has started to answer the durability question that followed him to The Bronx when the Yankees acquired him in January, too. Injuries derailed his 2025 season, and he hadn’t made more than 16 starts in a season since 2021. After Tuesday’s outing, he’s up to 22 and 121 innings pitched — both career highs.

Those numbers will only continue to climb over the final two months, though that rate would significantly decrease in a bullpen role that, at the very least, Weathers is open to.

“He was efficient, he was on the attack and I thought just used his stuff really well,” Boone said.

CLEVELAND — Jefry Yan’s celebration is just beginning.

The demonstrative lefty reliever was called up from Triple-A Syracuse on Monday, landing him with the Mets as a 29-year-old rookie ready for his major league debut.

Yan, who celebrated strikeouts in the minor leagues with dances and gyrations on the mound, said he intends to continue those displays with the Mets.

“I am going to continue to go out there the same way,” Yan said through an interpreter before the Mets beat the Guardians 6-2 at Progressive Field. “I am going to go out there with the same type of emotion, the same type of fun — have fun like I am playing a kids’ game, like I always have.”

Yan, who originally signed with the Angels, was out of baseball for five seasons beginning in 2016 before returning with the Marlins, for whom he advanced as far as Triple-A. A stint playing in Japan followed before pitching in the Rockies minor league system last season.

He recalled working as a roofer during his years removed from baseball.

“I used to have a lot of friends there, a lot of Mexicans that I worked with and they always told me, ‘Don’t give up, you can make it to where you want to be,’” Yan said. “We always had a lot of camaraderie working there working there, but they always pushed me to strive for more.”

In 35 appearances this season split between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse he pitched to a 3.24 ERA with 77 strikeouts in 41 ²/₃ innings.

He is looking forward to his first major league appearance and strikeout.

“I am going to enjoy that first one,” he said. “I have worked a long time for that moment.”

Kodai Senga, who has been utilized in long relief since his removal from the starting rotation, will receive a chance to pitch in one-inning, high-leverage spots, according to interim manager Andy Green.

Senga aced his first chance on Tuesday, pitching a scoreless ninth inning against the Guardians.

“I am grateful for the opportunity and to be able to pitch in situations like that,” Senga said through an interpreter. “At the same time, I made sure to tell the team that I signed as a starter and starting is something I would like to do. But I understand my results, my stats, don’t show that I necessarily deserve a starting pitching rotation spot.”

Green noted that such one-inning bursts for Senga weren’t possible with Luke Weaver, Huascar Brazobán, Brooks Raley and A.J. Minter assuming such high-leverage roles. All four veterans were traded in the last week.

“I don’t think you can expect [Senga] to pitch three out of four [days] at this point in time, but his right arm has 100 mph in it and a nasty forkball and that profile plays for a late-inning reliever,” Green said.

Robert Stock will remain in the rotation as the fifth starter, according to Green. The right-hander allowed one earned run over five innings in his start against the Marlins on Sunday.

Green said he anticipates Luis Robert Jr. will continue to play regularly, but he could see some action in the corner outfield positions. The Mets were unsuccessful in trading the veteran center fielder before Monday’s deadline.

Just when you think it can’t get any worse…A comically pathetic 8th inning turns a possible actual win into just another disheveled loss and the “free fall” stats keep mounting.

It’s hard to believe that on June 19th the A’s were 38-38, winning percentage that would earn them a spot 1.5 games out of 1st place had they maintained it through this evening. In hindsight, it was probably a relatively poor strategy to go 7-30 thereafter, 5-26 in their most recent 31.

Before continuing, we need to take a moment to appreciate just how “Bad News Bears” the bottom of the 8th inning was. Tasked with holding a 4-3 lead, Hogan Harris began the inning with the obligatory lead off walk. To his credit he was efficient and needed only 4 pitches, cleverly conserving himself so he could offer his greatness to many ensuing batters.

Then he walked the second hitter because walking the first 2 you face has become a reliever’s mantra. No fewer than 3 different relievers did that in the same game not too long ago — I would tell you the exact date but the games all blend together now.

In the only normal at bat, JJ Bleday struck out. What followed was somewhat remarkable in that it took blunders from 3 different players to occur. Tyler Stephenson flied to RF deep enough for Elly De La Cruz to tag and go to 3B. Butler’s throw was one hop to the cut off man, Jacob Wilson, but Wilson let the ball go through. It went through to 3Bman Tommy White, who fielded the throw by not catching it and the ball rolled to Hogan Harris backing up. Harris looked at the ball, counted the stitches, and thought about his grocery list, but did not call time. So Sal Stewart, who had been anchored to the bag at 1B the entire time, jogged to 2B.

Undaunted, Harris got back on top of the mound where he proceeded to do his best Nick LaLoosh impression. He threw one pitch so far high and outside Jonah Heim checked his back pocket for a 1st row ticket to see if he was allowed to catch it. Another wild pitch appeared to hit Eugenio Suarez in the foot — until you realized what it hit was Heim’s glove clanking it. And so the A’s lost 5-4.

Every time you think, “Well, nowhere to go but up” the A’s manage to make a further mockery of the game. Without a doubt injuries have greatly impacted the team of late, but it’s also notable that Butler, Wilson, and Harris were all with the team out of camp and Heim has been healthy throughout his time with the A’s. It’s not all scrubs and fill-ins who are in the middle of each embarrassment. It’s everyone.

Which makes one wonder: so what’s next? Are we destined to witness Tyler Soderstrom range back for a fly ball only to trip over his shoelace and send the ball caroming over the wall for a HR? Might Jacob Lopez somehow commit a pitch timer violation, balk, and adultery all on the same pitch? Can we expect Alika Williams, with the bases loaded, to catch a pop up and toss the ball into the stands not remembering that it was the first out? Could Elvis Alvarado try the “hidden ball trick” and then cause a 30 minute delay because he can’t remember where he hid it? Will Donovan Walton push a suicide squeeze so hard to 3B it smacks Henry Bolte in his “good testicle” ending his season and any chance at fatherhood?

Probably.