Worldwide Sports News

The Mets are calling up Tommy Pham, a league source confirms to SNY MLB Insider Chelsea Janes. 

Pham will join the team in Los Angeles for their three-game set, which kicks off Monday night. 

The veteran returned to the organization on a minor league deal on Opening Day. 

After taking some time to build himself up, he jumped into Low-A games earlier this month. 

Carlos Mendoza said this week that he wasn't sure exactly how many at-bats Pham would need, but he didn't think he was too far off from joining the big-league roster. 

Now after five games, he's being recalled to try to spark the Mets' struggling offense. 

New York was shut out for the second time in three games by the Athletics on Sunday as they closed out an ugly 1-5 homestand with their fifth consecutive loss.

The Mets are now averaging just 3.38 runs per game since Juan Soto went on the IL.   

Even at 37 years old Pham was able to put together a very strong showing last season, racking up 28 XBH's and a .330 OBP across 120 games with the Pirates.

It remains to be seen exactly how he'll fit into the Mets' outfield rotation, but he figures to compete for playing time with Carson Benge, Brett Baty, Jared Young and Tyrone Taylor in the corners. 

White Sox pitchers these days have to feel something like the cavalry riders of Lord Tennyson’s vivid description of the Charge of the Light Brigade: Galloping hopelessly into a unrepentant line of cannonfire (or Cannon-fire, in today’s case) knowing that offensive support is minimal and death is more or less certain.

The Kansas City Royals lineup isn’t exactly a valley of death these days, but the situation that Will Venable threw Jonathan Cannon into this afternoon might as well have been. Dating all the way back to his college days at Georgia, 116 of Cannon’s last 120 appearances have come as either a starting pitcher (111 games) or a bulk reliever (5 games). Yet, for reasons that may become clear in today’s postgame press conference but are not so to this author, Cannon was thrown into a two-on, one-out situation in the third inning of this afternoon’s game, despite his role as opener having been seemingly planned for the better part of a week now. To be sure, some of the blame for today’s chaos lies with Sean Newcomb, who failed to retire either of the lefties that he was brought in specifically to handle. Nonetheless, it felt to me like an abdication of a manager’s top priority as an authority figure: Put your players in a position to succeed. Point blank.

The reason I’m saying this is to ask the question: Why the hell would you take a guy who’s only ever been a starter and instead of giving him a clean inning as he surely expected, stuff him into a pressure situation that he’s actually not all that well suited for? Cannon pitches to contact, for the most part — if it were the eighth inning, you wouldn’t think of bringing him on in the same situation, because it’s one that very clearly and obviously calls for bat-missing ability.

Thrown into an entirely unfamiliar situation, surely with the added pressure of trying to make good on a major league chance that he failed to win out of Spring Training, Cannon walked all three batters he faced before being removed from the game in what the White Sox later called a “right hip contusion.”

Yet, somehow, the White Sox actually won this game.

While Cannon’s struggles may have been a consequence of his unconventional usage, Venable got away with it partly because Grant Taylor was absolutely filthy in his fourth appearance as an opener. Excitingly, the powers-that-be in the Sox dugout let him get a second inning of work, leaving Taylor with two perfect innings on his final line.

Less excitingly, the latter two of Cannon’s three walks resulted in runs scored, which leveled the game at two runs apiece not too long after the Sox had struck first with Tanner Murray’s first major league bomb, a towering fly ball that just kept carrying until it left the yard:

The last two walks wound up giving the Royals a 3-2 advantage, but Brandon Eisert managed to work his way out of Cannon’s jam. One must give Eisert credit where it’s due: Dropping back down to the minors after a full year spent putting up a very acceptable league average ERA in the bigs has to be tough psychologically, and Eisert responded admirably to his number being called for the first time this year.

The back-and-forth carried on for virtually the entire game. The Cannon sequence was highly discouraging, but it didn’t take long for the Sox to pick their spirits up again when Colson Montgomery found a barrel on a hanging breaking ball and turned a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 Sox lead:

Unfortunately, Eisert’s second inning out of the pen didn’t go quite as well as his initial relief of Cannon. After the lefty allowed two runners to reach base in the fifth inning, Jordan Hicks came on and came this close to holding the lead before Bobby Witt Jr. did what Bobby Witt Jr. does and gave the Royals a 5-4 lead:

Apropos of nothing, when was the last time you saw not one but both teams walk in a run in the same inning? I couldn’t tell you myself, but it did happen today when John Schreiber and Daniel Lynch IV couldn’t quite find the zone enough to hold Kansas City’s lead, with the tally that would ultimately be the game-winner scoring on a White Sox-esque wild pitch:

Meanwhile, after Hicks allowed Eisert’s runners to score, the Sox bullpen put up an incredibly game effort in holding on to a hair’s-breadth lead, with Bryan Hudson, Jordan Leasure, Lucas Sims and Seranthony Domínguez fully shutting down the Royals offense, none of them allowing a single hit in salvaging the split for the South Siders.

Given the Kauffman Stadium losing streak (12 games!) the White Sox entered this series with, a split doesn’t seem like such a terribly bad outcome after all. Last year’s Sox team didn’t win their sixth game until April 24. In 2024, it took until April 28. It was April 15th in 2023. Progress is being made! We think, at least.

The squad gets the day off tomorrow as they travel back to Chicago for a brief three-game homestand against the Tampa Bay Rays. The next first pitch — and the first pitch of Noah Schultz’s MLB career — comes on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. Central time, and we’ll see you there!

Logan Gilbert needed this game almost as much as I needed Logan Gilbert to have this game. I’ll admit I was nervous at the beginning when the game started with Jose Altuve hitting a line drive into centerfield. But things quickly turned around when Josh Naylor deked a move back to first base that sent Altuve scrambling back. When Altuve realized Naylor was faking, he loped back toward second, and at that exact moment, with Altuve relaxed and leaning toward second, Gilbert struck. It notched Gilbert just the second pick-off of his career, with Altuve caught so flat-footed he didn’t even try to get back. According to Gilbert, the move was planned and was called from the dugout, with Naylor’s deke, Cal’s read and call for the pick-off with a glove drop: “Basically, everyone else picked him off. I just threw the ball.”

Despite his limited role in the affair, it still elicited a huge smile from Gilbert, who thought it was his first in MLB, saying, “I was about to throw the ball out, but I didn’t know if that would like, look bad.” I think the moment might have served as a hardware reset for him because the rest of his performance was, in my view, his best since his breakout 2024.

The key, as I’ve been obsessing over, was Gilbert’s slider. He picked up his first strikeout today—against Yordan Álvarez—on an 89-mph slider with more bite than I’ve seen on a Gilbert slider in a year. It was the first of five whiffs against it on just eight swings, with another three called strikes, for a CSW% of 47%. He even used it to put five batters away, something he used to rely on it for in his best seasons.

Just as exciting as the slider was the bounceback in Gilbert’s four-seamer velocity, regularly sitting 96-97 all game, a mile-per-hour faster than he sat at for most of last year, even before his injury. And there may be more in store, as he usually gains most of his velocity as the season rolls along.

He only had two bad PAs all game. The first came against Isaac Peredes in the third, in which he got away with three inside pitches to the pull-happiest hitter in baseball. That’s a better bet in T-Mobile Park in April than at Enron Field where those pitches are liable to end up in the Crawford Boxes, but it’s bad pitching regardless. The sequence ended on a hit off a cutter (a Gilbert pitch I’m coming to hate again). The second bad PA did more damage but seemed like a flukier sequence. Despite his fastball being hot both before and after this at-bat, he was at 95 three separate times pitching to Yainer Diaz in the fourth, the final one being parked in the bullpens. But it was the only run Gilbert gave up all day.

Other than those blemishes, this was a vintage Logan Gilbert start. He was even efficient for the first time in what felt like forever, never taking more than 15 pitches in any of his seven innings. After a 2025 in which he struggled to put batters away, he was cruising today. It was the result of a real change in approach: In the run-up to today’s game, he focused on being more efficient, saying he tried to act as though “if they swing, it’s a good thing.”

He wanted to just stay in the zone “instead of just trying to out-stuff everybody.” I’m going to try to write about this later this week, but this totally tracks with when he struggled to put batters away last season. As a preview, I’m thinking my thesis will be: was the issue that all Logan’s tinkering made his arsenal too good?

But getting back to today, he probably even had some left in the tank after his seven innings, getting pulled at 85 pitches. It was the first time he’s pitched seven innings since Opening Day of last year. “Didn’t know it’d been that long,” he said after the game. “That doesn’t feel great.” 

Of course, much as I wanted more out of him, the Astros were there to serve as a walking (pun intended) reminder of what happens when you don’t take care of your pitchers. After drawing 17 walks in the first two games, the Mariners offense started today in much the same fashion, facing literally Cody Bolton, who’d taken Hunter Brown’s place in Houston’s rotation. Brendan Donovan led off by reaching on a hit-by-pitch and Naylor walked to set up an RBI single from Randy Arozarena. They kept it going in the second, loading the bases on a trio of walks with nobody out. But just as they got Bolton on the ropes, he too left the game with the trainer. The back tightness that took him out today marks the seventh Astros starter with an injury issue.

The Mariners only cashed one of those runs in, but they kept getting opportunities, loading the bases again in the third, and scoring another pair of those runners on a Cole Young RBI walk and a Donovan sac fly. But despite having scored four, it felt like they were wasting a lot of chances, leaving nine runners on base through five innings. That’s enough LOBsters in the pot to make you nervous no matter how well Logan was pitching. I had to keep reminding myself they had, in fact, scored four times.

Things got even dicier in the sixth when Julio Rodríguez was thrown out at the plate. But they finally broke through on the next batter, when a Luke Raley double scored two, including Randy Arozarena losing his helmet rounding second but scoring from first.

The Mariners certainly could have scored more today given their eight hits and nine walks, but six was enough. Those nine walks bring their total to 26 over just 25 innings of offense against the Astros this series.

Josh Naylor earns today’s Sun Hat Award for providing a perfect bookend with an unassisted double play in the ninth, once again putting down a Jose Altuve who’d gotten too far off first base. This time it was Naylor’s turn to smile. As Gilbert put it, “Sometimes you can have fun out there. That’s OK.”

Iowa Cubs

Rained out. The game with the Omaha Storm Chasers will not be made up. Maybe they shouldn’t have run towards the rain.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies were left on the launchpad by the Rocket City Trash Pandas (Angels), 7-4 in ten innings.

Jake Knapp started and gave the Smokies four strong shutout innings. Knapp surrendered three hits. He struck out five and walked no one.

Erian Rodriguez then pitched two scoreless innings, but Nick Dean allowed a three runs in the eighth. Dean pitched 1.2 innings and gave up three runs on three hits and no walks. He struck out three.

But the Smokies managed to come back and send the game into extra innings. But Vince Reilly ran out of gas in the tenth and took the loss. Reilly’s final line was four runs, two earned, on three hits over two innings. Reilly struck out two, walked one and hit two batters.

Devin Ortiz connected on a solo home run in the fifth inning. It was his second of the season and second in as many days. Ortiz went 1 for 4.

DH Haydn McGeary sent the game to extras with an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth. McGeary went 2 for 4 with a walk.

Karson Simas was 2 for 5 with two steals.

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs reassigned the Peoria Chiefs (Cardinals), 5-4.

Koen Moreno bounced back from his disastrous first start of the year by tossing four scoreless innings, allowing just three hits. He struck out four and walked no one.

Kenten Egbert relieved Moreno and got roughed up for four runs in the fifth. That included a three-run home run to Tai Peete, who was a key part of the Brendan Donovan trade this winter. Egbert finished with four runs on four hits over two innings. He struck out two.

Marino Santy pitched the final three innings without allowing a run and got the win. Santy allowed two hits and one walk. He struck out two.

DH Owen Ayers gave the Cubs the lead with a two-run home run in the top of the ninth. It was his second home run this year. Ayers went 2 for 5.

Third baseman Matt Halbach homered in his second-straight game. His blast came with the bases empty in the fourth inning. Halbach went 1 for 5.

Center fielder Kane Kepley was 2 for 4 was hit by a pitch. Kepley doubled to lead off the top of the first and then scored when the next batter, right fielder Leonel Espinoza, singled him home. Espinoza went 2 for 5 with a double. He scored on Ayers’ home run in the ninth.

Left fielder Brian Kalmer was 3 for 4 with a double.

First baseman Cameron Sisneros was 2 for 4 with an RBI single in the fourth inning.

Halbach’s home run.

Owen Ayers’ game-winning blast.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans had their wings clipped by the Columbia Fireflies (Royals), 8-3.

Starter Riely Hunsaker was a last-minute replacement for Victor Zarraga and he may not have been ready as he was jumped on for four runs in the bottom of the first inning. Hunsaker took the loss after allowing four runs on one hit, three walks and one hit batsman over two-thirds of an inning. He did not strike anyone out.

Zarraga came to relieve Hunsaker in the first inning and he gave up four runs on three hits over 2.2 innings. Zarraga walked two and struck out four.

Third baseman Cole Mathis hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth inning. Mathis went 2 for 3 and was hit by a pitch. It was his third home run this season.

Right fielder Eli Lovich chipped in a solo home run in the top of the ninth. Lovich was 2 for 4.

First baseman Josiah Hartshorn went 2 for 5.

After a three-hour rain delay, the Kansas City Royals blew a lead, dropping the series finale to the Chicago White Sox, 6-5.

The first three games all had final scores of 2-0, but this one was a fun, back and forth affair. The White Sox got on the board first, in the second inning. After Noah Cameron got two quick outs, Colson Montgomery smacked a double up the right field line, and Tanner Murray, who got his first major league hit yesterday, smoked his first major league home run to left field, and the Royals were down 2-0.

After the first seven Royals were sat down, Isaac Collins singled and Kyle Isbel walked. Jonathan Cannon then came in, the planned bulk pitcher today for the White Sox. Well, that didn’t go as planned. He came in and walked three straight Royals to help the KC offense tie the game at 2. Cannon would then leave the game with an injury.

The Royals were still 0 for their last 32 with a runner in scoring position after Salvy struck out. Carter Jensen came up, bases loaded, two down, game knotted at 2. Jensen broke the streak on a swinging bunt on the first pitch. A 40.4 mph exit velo, roller up the 3rd base line was picked up by the pitcher and he had no play. The Royals took the lead 3-2.

In the top of the fourth, Cameron gave up a one out single, but got a pop out to Jr. However, on the first pitch Montgomery blasted one inside the right field foul pole, 4-3 Chicago.

Jac Caglianone led off the bottom half of the inning for the Royals. He promptly smashed a double into the corner, and Collins smashed a single up the middle to tie the game again at 4. Isbel bunted Collins over to second, and Witt smacked a two out single to center to pull the Royals back in front 5-4. All of a sudden, the Royals were hot with RISP.

The 6th inning is where Cameron started to get erratic. After a quick first out, he walked Munetaka Murakami, Lenyn Sosa singled and a walk to Edgar Quero loaded the bases. Cameron would be relieved by Nick Mears. Cameron went 5.1 innings, giving up 6 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks and striking out 4.

Mears would go 3-1 with Montgomery, before getting him to pop up. However, he would walk Andrew Benintendi to tie the game back up at 5. Mears struck out the next batter to end the threat.

John Schrieber got the 7th, and as it has been for him all season, it didn’t go well, a leadoff double, hit batter and sac bunt, had the White Sox with 2nd and 3rd and one out. The Royals intentionally walked Murakami, the lefty to face Sosa. Schrieber threw a wild pitch to let the run score. He retired the next two hitters.

In the bottom of the 7th, Witt led off with a walk, but Vinnie, Salvy and Jensen couldn’t do anything with it.

Michael Massey looked to have tied the game to lead off the bottom of the 8th with a solo homer, but Dustin Harris reached over to bring it back. White Sox carried the 6-5 lead into the bottom of the ninth.

Isbel struck out to start the inning. Maikel Garcia weakly flew out to center, and Bobby Witt Jr . walked, giving Pasquantino a chance with two out. Vinnie quickly struck out in an ugly at bat. Splitting series at home against the lowly White Sox is not a good omen for the season. The Royals have won just one series 16 games in, they have either split or lost every other series. The schedule doesn’t get any easier ahead either. Man, sometimes I hate how much I care and stock I put into this team.

The Royals drop to 7-9 on the season. They split the series with the White Sox. They are off tomorrow, before being back in action Tuesday in Detroit, with first pitch being at 5:40 p.m. CT. Cole Ragans will pitch against Framber Valdez. After a three-game series in Motown, the Royals will be in the Bronx for a three-game set against the Yankees next weekend.