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The St. Louis Cardinals road trip travels to Philadelphia for a weekend series against the Phillies. Jesús Luzardo is the scheduled starter for the Phillies while the Cardinals will start Hunter Dobbins. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.

⚾️ First Pitch: 7:10PM EDT – Fenway Park, Boston, MA

📺 TV: NESN

📻 Radio: WEEI

The New York Rangers made a smaller signing during this offseason that could end up paying dividends. 

On July 1, the Rangers signed Joe Veleno to a one-year, $1.2 million contract. 

Coming into the 2018 NHL Draft, Veleno had strong offensive potential, which is why he was selected late in the first round by the Detroit Red Wings.

However, six years into his NHL career and about to play for his fourth NHL team, that offensive potential has still not been unlocked. 

One Montreal analyst believes there’s promise for Veleno to make a real impact for the Rangers. 

“Maybe this is that fresh start on a team that, in my opinion, is in more of a rebuilding than retooling mode,” Jon Goyens said via The Montreal Gazette. “I think he can find himself quickly. It’s still the NHL and people want to win … but they’re far removed from their Presidents’ (Trophy) of a couple years ago.

“I think he has the opportunity to start in the middle of the pack, a top-nine role. After that, it comes down to executing and being consistent. If he can do that, there have been many NHL players who have started their career at 26. He just happens to have a few hundred games under his belt.”

In his most recent stint with the Montreal Canadiens during the 2025-26 season, Veleno played a bottom-six role, with his expanded two-way game helping him gain trust with Martin St. Louis and the Canadiens coaching staff. 

The 26-year-old forward served a role on the penalty kill, and his defensive reliability led to him playing 61 out of the 82 regular-season games. 

Veleno is likely to slot in as the Rangers’ fourth-line center, and his newfound two-way game can help him earn a regular spot in the lineup. 

If Veleno could also tap into his offensive potential to go along with his reliability in the defensive zone, the Rangers’ small signing would ultimately become their biggest offseason steal.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Yankees fans and fans across the country.

The New York Yankees are the New York Yankees. This statement means that getting into the dance isn’t enough outside extreme circumstances. And if we’re being honest, whatever their circumstances are, the Yankees should have enough firepower to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the American League.

The gap to the Rays makes it extremely plausible that the Yankees don’t win the AL East. Still, FanDuel has the Yankees as the likeliest World Series winner on the American League side, with +750 odds. Consequently, the Yankees show up as the favorites to win the Junior Circuit at +280 odds, just ahead of the Rays and Red Sox, in a trio of AL East clubs leading the pack

As the Yankees aim for their second AL pennant in the past three years, we asked, “What concerns you the most in this challenging effort?”

Virtually all the voters, 98 percent to be exact, acknowledged something that raised doubts heading into the playoffs, with the disappointment of last year lingering quite heavily. As much as we can talk about the grass always being greener and several opponents also sharing concerns, it’s important to understand your weaknesses heading into such a crucial period of the season.

In a way, this poll has many connecting points and is primarily attempting to assess one’s focal point of frustration. Part of the faltering offense is due to the key injuries (although the pitching staff still has notable absences); one can also connect it to the struggles of deadline acquisitions. Key injuries put a bigger strain on those very same key deadline acquisitions, and so on and so forth.

The injury to Max Fried is a heavy blow, but through adversity, this pitching staff has thrived all year long. It makes sense that the majority of voters would focus on the general failing of an offense that has scored three or fewer runs in 12 out of the Yankees’ last 21 games.

As contagious as a rolling offense is, a struggling one can carry the same effect. Your hitters who are performing well start to press because they feel they must carry the load all by themselves—we discussed the negative effects of this with a hitter like Ben Rice here, whose second-half struggles might undermine the narrative of his 2026 campaign. And the hitters who have been struggling all season, of whom there are far too many, seem to dig too deep a hole to climb out of.

We’d be remiss to write this article and not touch on the elephant in the room that is Aaron Judge and all that he represents to each of those options on the poll. Although this is a speculative theory, perhaps what led to such a discrepancy between votes for a faltering offense and key injuries was the optimism from a recent Judge update.

After an unsettling period of silence, Aaron Boone updated the media ahead of the series finale against the Orioles with news that Judge has hit off a tee two days in a row and appears to be slowly progressing toward a return. It makes sense that the Yankees will be conservative, eyeing October above all else with their prized superstar, but the optimism in his availability has increased.

The Yankees’ offensive struggles run deep enough that even with Judge potentially available in the playoffs, one could still share some concern about this lineup’s ability to deliver when it matters most. That being said, it’s as much of a game changer as one could ever wish for.

Speaking of optimism, if we want a bit of that in the near future, a repeat look against a Blue Jays staff in the span of a week—a couple of series against the Astros and Angels, whose pitching is questionable, all present opportunities for this offense to come alive. Or at least, more realistically, produce somewhat consistently, which would already be a plus.

The Jays arrive in Yankee Stadium today to take on the current top wildcard. As things currently stand, it’ll be the last team above .500 they play this season. From Tuesday on out they play, in descending order of current record, the Rangers (63-65), Guardians (62-66), Tigers (61-66), Reds (61-67), Orioles (2x) (61-67), Mariners (60-68), Royals (2x) (55-74), and A’s (49-79). The Tigers do have a positive run differential, but then that’s a product of when Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize played for them and, well. So for the final quarter of the season they aren’t exactly facing murderers’ row. I’m not saying they’ll grab the third wildcard, but I am saying that the rule book says someone has to and they’re the only team in the hunt that’s shown any recent evidence of wanting it. A good showing in the Bronx and the promise of an easier path forward than their rivals would set them up nicely.

The first step, though, is going to be a tough one. It’s Cam Schlittler (10-6, 2.19) today, up against Mason Fluharty opening for (probably) the just activated Spencer Arrighetti (7-5, 4.60).

Here are the lineups:

Some minor roster news:

Josh Smith goes to the IL with hamstring inflammation and Brendan Cellucci is optioned. That opens spots for Spencer Arrighetti and Davis Schneider.

In other little bits of news, former Jay Jon Berti hung ‘em up today. Berti was an 18th round pick by the Jays back in 2011. It took him seven years to make his way up to the big club, and he only got a cup of coffee before being shipped off to Miami. To probably everyone’s surprise, he carved out a pretty solid career there, playing decent defence all over the field and stealing a bunch of bags, including a majors-leading 41 in 2022 when he was already 32 years old. All in all he hit .256/.333/.357 across eight seasons, posting 6.5 fWAR in 1731 PA. Happy trails, Jon.

Didi Gregorious also retired today, so if the league feels just a little less classy today it’s because there’s no longer an actual knight on the field.

Lastly, Dylan Cease is exhibiting a painting at the AGO. Personally, while it’s cool to have hobbies, I think it’s probably good for ol’ Dylan that baseball worked out as a day job. That said, if you’d like some Cease art merch, it will apparently be sold in support of the AGO’s charitable mission.

After having "a good day" throwing in New York on Thursday while the Yankees concluded their series in Baltimore with the Orioles, left-hander Max Fried will throw another side session on Saturday, manager Aaron Boone said prior to Friday's series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The session sets up a potential live batting practice for Fried, who was placed on the 15-day IL, retroactive to Aug. 14, with a bone bruise on his left elbow. In fact, after an initially grim outlook, it's still in play for the left-hander to return to the field following the minimum of 15 days which would be Aug. 29.

Fried has made just 15 starts this season after landing on the IL earlier in the year with the same injury and missing over two months. Still, when he's been on the mound, the 32-year-old, in his second year with the Yanks, has been fantastic once again with a 2.81 ERA in 86.1 IP and an opponent's batting average of .197 which would be a career-best.

New York enters Friday's division battle with a 72-55 record and second in the AL East, 4.0 GB of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Texas Rangers lineup for August 21, 2026 against the Anaheim Angels: starting pitchers are MacKenzie Gore for the Rangers and Reid Detmers for the Angels.

Texas begins a three game series at home tonight against an Anaheim team that has a terrible record, but that won three of four at home against the Rangers last week and just took two of three in Houston. Reid Detmers goes for the Angels. Detmers has had one great start against the Rangers this year, when he struck out 14 in a game where the only Ranger hit was a Jake Burger homer, and MacKenzie Gore allowed just one run in six innings but the Rangers lost when Justin Foscue threw an inning ending double play ball away to allow the walkoff run to score in the ninth; one really good start, last week, when he and Gore each allowed just one run and then the Rangers scored three in the top of the tenth, resulting in all the Angels pitching coaches getting fired the next day; and one not-good start, when he allowed five runs in four innings going up against Nathan Eovaldi, only for Eovaldi, Peyton Gray and Tyler Alexander to allow the Angels to score five runs in the seventh to tie the game before Wyatt Langford hit a walkoff single in the ninth.

Hopefully the Rangers will break the trend of scoring just one run in regulation in games Detmers and Gore go up against each other. The lineup below is what is officially posted, though Jeff Wilson says that Wyatt Langford says he’s playing left field tonight, not DH, so maybe this will change. UPDATE — It has changed.

The lineup:

Foscue — 2B DH

Seager — SS

Langford — DH LF

Nimmo — RF

Duran — LF 3B

Burger — 1B

Freeman — 3B 2B

Diaz — C

Carter — CF

7:15 p.m. Central start due to the game being on Apple TV. Rangers are -138 favorites.

The Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals begin a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night. These teams squared off in St. Louis earlier this month with the Cardinals taking two out of three.

Jesus Luzardo will start for the Phillies. The lefty has been excellent in August with just three earned runs allowed in 21.2 innings.

Hunter Dobbins is expected to start for the Cardinals. He’s 3-3 with a 3.42 ERA and gave up three runs (one earned) in five innings when he faced the Phillies last time.

Game time is 6:40 PM and will be televised locally on NBCSP.

When Ryan McMahon jammed his left thumb sliding into second base on Wednesday night, the Yankees seemed hopeful that the third baseman would be able to avoid the injured list. Alas, it seems that the team has decided to use an abundance of caution: prior to tonight’s game, the Bombers announced that they had placed McMahon on the 10-day injured list with a left thumb sprain, recalling Max Schuemann from Triple-A Scranton to take his spot on the roster.

Ahead of yesterday’s game, reports indicated that initial X-rays had come back clean, although McMahon — who had injured the thumb in the second inning, but remained in the game until the eighth — indicated that it was “still sore” and remained “swollen.” He was set to undergo additional imaging upon the team’s return to New York today, and clearly, that didn’t go quite as well as hoped.

With McMahon on the shelf, the Yankees have a number of options to man the hot corner, none of which are particularly exciting. The recently-recalled Schuemann has not played well in 40 games in the Majors so far this season, slashing just .194/.333/.361 slash line (94 OPS+) accruing -0.4 rWAR; against lefties, though, he has a .211/.333/.395 line. Amed Rosario has been better at the plate, even if he has struggled against southpaws this season, but has been an absolute butcher defensively. José Caballero has had an up-and-down season at the plate, although he has been hitting well since becoming a part-time player after George Lombard Jr.’s promotion at the beginning of August, slashing .227/.393/.500 in 29 plate appearances.

Chances are, in truth, the Yankees will use a combination of the three, depending on matchups, at least for the next few days; with Cody Bellinger currently on a rehab assignment with the RailRiders, Schuemann might well be back in Scranton before too long (though Spencer Jones could also be optioned if they prefer Schuemann’s versatility).

McMahon’s injury adds to what has been a brutal season for the Bombers, who have sent a whopping 16 players to the IL, including both key minor leaguers and players who began the year on the shelf: Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Bellinger, Jasson Domínguez, Caballero, Austin Wells, George Lombard Jr., Anthony Volpe, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt, Luis Gil, Angel Chivilli, Carlos Lagrange, and Kervin Castro.