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Last time out, Noah Cameron pitched a one-hitter and allowed only a single run in seven innings, but his team lost because Lucas Erceg blew a one-run lead in the ninth inning. Today, Cameron pitched six innings and allowed no earned runs. He struck out seven and walked no one. Thanks to an offense that put in some more work, they were able to survive Erceg’s ninth-inning struggles to complete a 6-5 victory. That finishes their series in Minnesota with three wins to only one loss, and results in a .500 road trip.

Almost exactly a month ago, Noah Cameron seemed on the verge of being demoted to the minor leagues due to his struggles on the mound after his arm angle shifted drastically this season. To that point, he had a 5.55 ERA, and while his 12.8% K-BB% last year had been a cause of mild concern, it had dropped all the way to 11% this year. Since then, he has lowered his ERA to 3.84, and his K-BB% has spiked all the way up to 16.7%! That fits him firmly in the top 50 starting pitchers in MLB in both categories. Last year, he was surprisingly good, and we hoped he could continue to be mostly that good. This year, he dipped down to being quite bad and has ascended to basically ace-level pitching, even when you include the awful starts.

If the Royals do accomplish some sort of miracle comeback in this season’s playoff hunt, a lot of it is going to be because Noah Cameron is able to join a healthy Kris Bubic and Cole Ragans in pushing this team forward. That’s a lot of ifs, but at least Cameron is doing his part, bless him.

The offense showed up today, too, thankfully. Through the first three innings, it looked like in the previewed battle of the immovable baserunners versus the unstoppable run-giver, the Royals were going to be defeated by simply not putting any runners on. Then, with two outs in the fourth, Vinnie Pasquantino went the other way for a two-out double, and Nick Loftin mirrored him to tie the game. Things got really exciting in the fifth inning, though, though it didn’t immediately look good.

Carter Jensen managed a lead-off single from the 8-spot, but Tyler Tolbert missed a bunt with two strikes and was sent back to the dugout. Tolbert needs to get much better at bunting if he’s going to find a way to stick in the big leagues beyond his pre-arb years. Lane Thomas singled! Yay! Bobby Witt Jr. struck out. Boo! Things were looking dire with the injured Maikel Garcia coming to the plate.

The Royals had a lead! And you’d be justified in wondering if that’s all they were going to manage, given their season and who was up next, Starling Marte.

Marte seemed to sell out his power for the ability to hit singles early in his Royals’ tenure; he wasn’t using his legs very much. He started incorporating them more into his swings of late, and while that didn’t lead to any more power, it did lead to fewer hits and more strikeouts. He had started today with a pair of strikeouts and I began wondering if it might be time for the Royals to move on from him.

Maybe he can stick around for a little bit longer.

The Royals added another run in the eighth on what has become a patented bases-loaded sacrifice fly; this one was performed by Carter Jensen, who just might be heating up. At the time, it extended the Royals’ lead to 6-1 and hardly seemed necessary. At least, if you hadn’t watched the 2026 Royals’ bullpen.

Now, to be fair, John Schreiber pitched a clean seventh. And Mason Black had a clean eighth with a strikeout. Beck Way was tasked with finishing the game, staked to that five-run lead. I had been hoping to see the rookie after his dazzling debut Friday night while behind. Three batters later, the Royals had only a two run lead off a Josh Bell three-run blast and I was reminded we must always be careful what we wish for.

Way got the next batter out, but then allowed a double, and Matt Quatraro knew he had no choice but to go back to the bullpen. Alex Lange-xiety had closed three of the last four games, so he wasn’t available. Danny Drips had done the same. Matt Strahm had only pitched three of the last five, but he’d also not gone back-to-back days since returning from the IL and had given up a run in two of those appearances, including yesterday afternoon. Schreiber, Way, and Black had already pitched. That left Quatraro with basically Lucas Erceg and Steven Cruz. Given those choices, he went with Erceg and you can argue that it was the wrong choice, but I don’t know that there was a right one.

Erceg gave up a lineout, a pair of singles to allow one to score, and put the go-ahead run on, but Brooks Lee hit a deep flyout to left that Isaac Collins was able to corral to finish the game. Suffice to say that Erceg may have earned the save, but he did little to convince anyone he should resume the closer’s role.

More bad news in this one, as the Royals, who couldn’t blame injuries for their earlier struggles, might be able to blame near-future struggles on them. They lost yet another key player to injury. As you know, Ragans and Bubic are still on the IL and progressing toward rehab assignments. During the broadcast, Joel Goldberg indicated both would likely need to at least two rehab starts and that Bubic is a hair closer to starting his than Ragans. Closer Carlos Estévez is still nowhere near his own rehab. Garcia is playing through two different injuries. The Royals lost Salvador Perez and Jac Caglianone to injuries sustained in Friday night’s contest. And today Bobby Witt Jr. left early with right knee soreness. Fingers crossed it was mostly precautionary with a moderately-sized lead and a day off tomorrow because the Royals aren’t going anywhere without Bobby in the lineup.

As I said, tomorrow is a well-earned day off for KC. They’ll play the Rangers Tuesday night. Stephen Kolek (3.32 ERA, 12.8% K-BB%) will return from the family emergency list, and one of the Rangers’ aces, Nathan Eovaldi (4.10 ERA, 18.2% K-BB%), will pitch for them. The game will start at 6:40 p.m. Central.

Has there ever been an MLB game in which a run was scored in all 17 or 18 half-innings of play? If there has, it wasn’t this one, but it sure felt like it for a few innings there.

Brandon Marsh’s scorching-hot series and season continued in the final game of the three-game set between the White Sox and Phillies, a 9-5 win for the latter that boosted the latter’s record to 35-30 and dropped the former’s to 34-31.

Using an opener is a perfectly sound strategy. The Sox have had plenty of success using it this year, and they did last year as well. This was not one of those days, as the combination of Tyler Gilbert and David Sandlin allowed four earned runs over four innings, rendering the time-through-the-order advantage of the opener strategy totally moot.

A few particularly cantankerous veterans notwithstanding, most starters these days don’t seem to take much issue by being used behind an opener now and then, but I’m willing to bet most starters don’t like the idea of not entering the game with a clean inning. That’s what happened to Sandlin, who wound up entering the game probably a little sooner than Will Venable intended when opener Gilbert allowed a run and two hits within the first four batters of the game. Sandlin limited the damage, but he never quite managed to get into a rhythm, ultimately finishing with three earned runs over three innings of work, another somewhat disappointing follow-up to his brilliant MLB debut.

Sandlin wasn’t terrible at locating his pitches, throwing 63% strikes and punching out six hitters, but as I noted in the game thread, Philadelphia is not a team that allows many mistakes to get past them. One could argue that the pitch that Rafael Marchán launched into the right field seats wasn’t even a mistake, as it looked like he simply got the pitch he was looking for on the two-run homer that put the Phillies back in the lead in the second inning:

On the other side of the ball, Tristan Peters just continued to do his thing. Another solid day at the plate left him hitting .307/.365/.448 at game’s end, and he now leads the team with 15 doubles and is playing at a remarkable 5-WAR pace on the year.

From the No. 7 spot in the order, Peters served as the sparkplug and engineer for Chicago’s first three runs of the day, first on a second-inning double that moved Jacob Gonzalez to third base, where he later scored before Peters himself came around on Sam Antonacci’s single. An inning later, Peters was the beneficiary of the kind of play the Sox are used to being on the wrong side of: His jammed two-strike swing resulted in a ball in play at just 82 mph, and while Aaron Nola might have recovered from the ball dropping between shortstop Bryson Stott and left fielder Marsh, but he didn’t get the chance. Marsh overran the ball, letting it squirt past him, opening a window for Chase Meidroth to motor around the bases and tie the game at three:

Of course, Marsh took the run right back the next inning, launching his eighth homer of the year to give the Phillies the lead for third time in three innings. So remains the way of the White Sox.

Nola’s stuff was zig-zagging like an alligator was chasing it, but he just wasn’t able to throw enough fastballs in the strike zone to avoid getting himself into trouble nearly every inning. It’s been quite a rough ride for Nola this season, as the 33-year-old entered the afternoon was a 5.55 ERA despite throwing six and five innings of two-run ball over his last two starts. After a nightmare-fuel 2025 resulted in a career-worst 6.01 ERA, Nola hasn’t been able to quite get the juice back on the knuckle curve that made him one of the most reliable workhorses in baseball between 2017 and 2024. Nola’s locations were actually pretty good, but the Sox chased at just 36% of the curveballs he threw, which makes it impossible to work with any kind of efficiency when you throw as many of them as Nola does.

Nola was chased from the game at the 93-pitch mark in the fifth inning. He was ultimately charged with the two runners he left on base, as lefty reliever Tim Mayza allowed pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk powered the fifth lead change in the first five innings of the game with a sharp single the other way. Grichuk is now hitting .308/.333/.692 as a member of the Sox, driving in a hefty 17 runs in just barely more than 50 trips to the plate.

I’m trying to find ways to bring this game alive without resorting to a simple blow-by-blow recap, but the bullpens did not make it easy today. By the time the fifth inning concluded, neither starter remained in the game, and a series of hits from the bottom end of the Philadelphia order pushed them to snatch a lead for the fourth time in five innings.

Even in blowing leads, though, this 2026 White Sox team is showing more and more promise by the game. Though the Phillies ended that fifth inning with a 7-5 advantage, it likely would have been a lot worse were it not for a brilliant inning-ending double play among Meidroth, Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery that kept the game within reach:

The alignment shuffling triggered by Grichuk’s pinch-hit appearance saw Meidroth finish the game with his fourth appearance at shortstop this season. While he simply doesn’t have the arm to play the 6-spot on any kind of regular basis, his ability to spell Montgomery if need be gives Venable the option to move Sam Antonacci into the infield while keeping all three of them in the lineup, flexibility that ought to be quite useful moving forward.

The crux of the game may have come in the fourth at-bat of the sixth inning, an impressive nine-pitch battle between Phillies reliever José Alvarado and pinch-hitter Edgar Quero. Trailing 7-5, a Sox rally — spurred by what else but an Antonacci hit-by-pitch, his league-leading 15th of the year — brewed with runners on first and second with one out. Quero battled valiantly against the high-octane lefty, fouling off six pitches and coming mere feet away from changing the lead yet again with a would-be home run. On the very next pitch, he kept his drive in fair territory, but a brilliant catch from who else but Marsh kept everyone where they were.

When Montgomery proceeded to strike out to end the inning, Chicago’s comeback momentum seemed to have stalled. Bryan Hudson took over for Tyler Davis, allowing an additional two runs in his partial inning of work, and Orion Kerkerinf took over for Alvarado, keeping a clean scoresheet as the Sox went down in the seventh.

Righthander and former starter Trevor Richards came on to soak up the remaining innings for the Sox, who went down more or less without a fight on the offensive side of the last three innings. You can’t shock the world every day, I suppose.

With a 2-4 road trip now in the books, the South Siders are off tomorrow before showing up at home for a three-game bout with the NL-best Atlanta Braves. Erick Fedde gets the ball for the series opener, with Davis Martin potentially getting a bit of an extra breather after his first genuinely rough start of the campaign. First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. CT, and we’ll see you there!

The series against the White Sox was not a strong one for the Phillies’ starting rotation. All three of their starters struggled, including Aaron Nola on Sunday. Fortunately, the Phillies’ lineup – particularly Brandon Marsh – did not struggle. For the second time in three days, the offense was able to overcome shaky pitching and lead the team to a win, this time by a score of 9-6.

The Phillies got the scoring started in the first inning with consecutive doubles against the Sox’s opening pitcher Tyler Gilbert. But the lead was short lived. Nola pitched out of a two-on jam in the first, but he did not escape unscathed in the second. Thanks to three hits, a walk, and a sacrifice fly, the Sox took a 2-1 lead.

The Sox similarly did not enjoy their lead for very long. In the bottom of the second, Rafael Marchan sent a ball over the fence in right center to make it 3-2.

Once again, Nola gave it right back. For the second straight inning, he walked the leadoff hitter, and for the second straight inning, it proved costly. Tristan Peters hit a double to tie it up at 3.

The Phillies immediately went back on top when Brandon Marsh led off the bottom of the third with a home run. Marsh – who has homered in three straight games – is as hot a hitter as there is in baseball right now. With two hits in the game, he improved his league leading average to .338. And if that wasn’t enough, he also made a leaping catch at the fence. (Vote early and often!)

That lead actually lasted an entire inning with both teams going in order in the fourth. But in the fifth, Nola was back on his BS, once again walking the leadoff hitter. Apparently not satisfied with just one walk, Nola walked the next batter as well. Then for some reason, on a day when they were hitting well against a struggling pitcher, the Sox chose to give up an out with a sacrifice bunt.

While the Phillies got the out, manager Don Mattingly had seen enough and pulled Nola in favor of Tim Mayza. Randal Grichuk greeted Mayza with a two-run single, putting the Sox back in front 5-4. Mayza was fortunate to escape further damage thanks to a great defensive play by Bryson Stott.

Reliever Tim Davis entered the game for the White Sox, and on a day when a lot of pitchers struggled, he was no exception. Bryce Harper started the inning with a single, Marsh walked, and then Alec Bohm hit a double to tie it up at five. Bryson Stott followed with a single to give the Phillies a 6-5 lead. After an Adolis Garcia strikeout, Justin Crawford hit a ground ball that scored a run but thanks to some questionable baserunning by Bohm, ended with a double play.

The Phillies’ pitching staff cleaned things up after that, but only barely. Jose Alvarado and Orion Kerkering both allowed two runners in their innings of work but were able to strand them. Sox reliever Bryan Hudson was not so fortunate. In the sixth, he walked two batters and they came around to score on singles by Marsh and Bohm to give the Phillies a 9-5 lead.

With a four-run lead, Mattingly turned to Jonathan Bowlan to retire the final six batters of the game, and he did so capably, only allowing one hit which was promptly erased by a game-ending double play.

It’s nice to see that the offense is capable of carrying the team to a series win. With Cristopher Sanchez scheduled to start on Monday, they probably won’t have to do as much work as they did on Sunday. On the other hand, if they want to give the ace a little bit of extra run support, I don’t think anyone would complain.

Unfortunately this will be a short one, since there isn’t much that needs recapped.

The Texas Rangers shut out the Cleveland Guardians in today’s rubber match. The Guardians scored no runs on 6 hits and no errors while the Rangers massively outscored Cleveland with 10 runs on 16 hits with no errors. Chase DeLauter, Angel Martínez, David Fry (PH for Steven Kwan), and Patrick Bailey all recorded single hits while Steven Kwan had a two-hit game. Travis Bazzana and Brayan Rocchio reached on walks.

Joey Cantillo fell to 4-3 on the season after giving up 7 runs on 9 hit sand 2 walks. In his 5.0 innings of work, Cantillo struck out 7 batters on 97 pitches. Will Dion threw 2.0 innings, allowing 1 run, 3 hits, and 1 walk. Austin Hedges came on in the eighth, saving the bullpen for tomorrow’s Yankees series, and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits.

Home runs were the bane of today with the Rangers hitting 3 off of Joey and 1 off of Dion.

The Guardians start a three game series against the New York Yankees at home tomorrow. First pitch is at 6:40PM EDT.

Recap

The offense got off to a slow start; through five innings, there were only three baserunners. But a good sign was that the Sox drove up pitch counts on Cam Schlittler, who was gone after 5 2/3 innings. The bats seemingly began heating up in the sixth, when Willson Contreras smoked a double that scored Ceddanne Rafaela on a wide throw to the plate. But the Sox missed some opportunities to break the 1-1 tie in the seventh. Until all was said and done, it looked like the hitters might be able to do just enough.

That wasn’t the way it played out, though, and offensively, everyone not named Rafaela, Contreras, or Anthony Seigler has a lot to answer for. Outside of that core group, Mickey Gasper and Andruw Monasterio did manage a single each.

It was the eighth inning when everything went south, with Justin Slaten giving up a solo HR that neither he nor the Sox as a team could recover from. Gasper made two terrible throws to second in the inning. One ended up in the outfield; both resulted in steals. Joe Sorsa, in his Sox debut, piled on as soon as Slaten exited the game by allowing a three-run HR. The wind was completely out of the sails after that.

Now I’m just mad and grumpy, which is how I imagine Ranger Suárez feels. He was cruising, and it seemed as though he was pulled a little early. In the end, that probably doesn’t change the outcome of this game.

Yankees 6, Red Sox 1.

Studs

Ranger Suárez

Suárez was sharp today; his first three innings were 1-2-3. In the fourth, he gave up three singles but pitched out of the bases-loaded jam. He owned Jazz Chisholm, Jr., striking him out three times. 6.1 IP, 6H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO. If only he had the W as well.

Willson Contreras

Contreras ripped the RBI double over the head of the outfield that put the Sox on the board.

Ceddanne Rafaela

Batting second in the lineup, he singled right away and was one of only three Sox baserunners through five innings (Anthony Seigler was the only other baserunner to that point, with a walk and a double; it should be said that he had a nice day at the plate.) Rafaela went 2-4, and scored from first on Contreras’ double.

Duds

Justin Slaten

He was off to a great beginning in the eighth inning, with back-to-back strikeouts. In the next at-bat, he gave up a go-ahead home run to Bellinger—and unfortunately, that tilted him. He couldn’t get back on track after that, issuing consecutive singles—each of which turned into a steal of second base—then a walk before being pulled. 0.2 IP, 3H, 4R, 4ER, 1 BB, 1 HR. And oh yeah, 2 SO. He took the loss.

Joe La Sorsa

He immediately—and I mean immediately; it was his first pitch—gave up a three-run home run to Chisholm, who had struck out three times previously. Painful debut for the Sox.

Offense

The same story it’s been all season: it was hard to get anything going and ultimately, what they did accomplish wasn’t enough. There were too many starters who never managed to get on base: Duran, Abreu, Yoshida, Durbin, Mayer.

Play of the Game

I’m never going to credit the Yankees in this category, so we go with Contreras’ RBI.

The Texas Rangers scored ten runs while the Cleveland Guardians scored zero runs.

In a total reversal of everything that went wrong yesterday, the Rangers went from a 6-0 loss to an 10-0 win to finish the weekend with a home series win over the Guardians.

Whereas yesterday the Rangers collected all of three hits to produce zero runs, today the lineup went off for 16 hits with four of those leaving the park as they scored a June-best ten runs. That output also ties their season-best total.

Whereas yesterday the Guardians hit two home runs and put together a two-out, three run rally that put Texas away, today Cleveland managed just six hits with none producing runs.

Whereas yesterday Jack Leiter cratered in the middle innings and allowed a round number-inning to bury any chance that Texas had to come back, today Jacob deGrom escaped his personal hell first inning without allowing a run and then cruised through six shutout innings on an economical 87 pitches.

Whereas yesterday the Rangers helped Tyler Bibee earn his first win of 2026 as he threatened a Maddux against them, today Cleveland’s starter Joey Cantillo was carved up for seven runs on nine hits in his five innings.

Whereas yesterday the Rangers had their long relief soak up some innings in a clear impending loss, today the Rangers got a shutout inning apiece from Peyton Gray, Tyler Alexander, and Luis Curvelo in relief of deGrom to finish off a shutout win one day after they themselves where held off the board.

Whereas yesterday the Guardians only needed one inning of relief to shut out Texas, today they had to use former Rangers postseason legend Austin Hedges to pitch the final inning to finish off the blowout loss.

Whereas yesterday the loss prevented the Rangers from guaranteeing a series victory and going for a sweep, today the win does give the Rangers the series win over AL Central-leading Cleveland and once again moves them to within a win over .500.

Player of the Game: Plenty to love today as everyone in the lineup except for Joc Pederson got at least one hit with both pinch hitters also chipping in a hit apiece. Justin Foscue, Josh Jung, Wyatt Langford, and Michael Helman each went deep in the win.

Leading the way today however was Ezequiel Duran who went 4-for-5 with a double, run scored, and a team-best three RBIs. On the year, Duran is now sporting a .293/.347/.457 slash to make himself worthy of your All-Star game considerations.

Up Next: The Rangers have the day off tomorrow again before beginning a stretch of 23 games in 24 days throughout the rest of June that starts in Kansas City on Tuesday.

The Mariners lost a super frustrating game today, dropping the series to the Tigers and letting a winnable game slip away from them, despite getting a strong start from Luis Castillo. But once again, the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead late and the offense failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities that could have opened up the game for the Mariners.

Castillo was strong in his first non-piggyback start in a while, working deep into the sixth inning and holding the velocity on his fastball well throughout. He also leaned heavily on his changeup today, using it as his main secondary pitch as a weapon against the Tigers’ lefty batters. Castillo’s location was excellent, working the edges of the zone and avoiding the middle of the plate, eliciting weak contact – of the 15 balls put in play against him only three were hit over 100 mph – and collecting five strikeouts. Unfortunately, the rest of his team let him down.

The Mariners had opportunities to open this game up at times but failed to hang a crooked number in any inning, partly due to some bad luck and partly due to their own failings. The Mariners made some hard contact against Tigers starter Jack Flaherty in the second – back-to-back-to-back exit velocities of 104.6, 107.8, and 102.7, but two of those found gloves and Patrick Wisdom, starting again at third base while J.P. Crawford remains down with a hand injury after being hit by a pitch, struck out to end the threat.

But the Mariners were able to scratch that run across in the third thanks to a Colt Emerson leadoff double, brought home by Cole Young, who made some more hard contact on a single. However, the Mariners couldn’t add on, and an inning later, the Tigers tied it up when Castillo made his lone mistake of the day, hanging a slider to Kevin McGonigle for a no-doubt, game-tying homer.

The Mariners went back ahead in the sixth, but could have had much more. Julio Rodríguez led off with a single, advancing to second on a poor throw from Riley Greene, and then Josh Naylor went after a fastball at the top of the zone, keeping it just fair down the right-field line to bring home Julio. The Mariners were in the position of breaking this game open after Randy Arozarena walked, prompting a pitching change where Hinch attempted to get Luke Raley out of the game by bringing in lefty Drew Sommers, but Dan Wilson let Raley stay in to lay down a sacrifice bunt, which he executed well, moving the runners to second and third.

Dominic Canzone, however, wasn’t so lucky, making way for Rob Refsnyder, who struck out despite the platoon advantage. The Tigers then walked the righty Wisdom to go after lefty Colt Emerson, putting the 20-year-old rookie in a tough situation. Emerson, to his credit, hung in there with a tough at-bat, eventually letting a pitch glance off his elbow to bring in a bases-loaded free base, but it was a squandered opportunity that would come back to bite the Mariners later.

The Tigers threatened back in Castillo’s last inning of work; Castillo got two outs in the sixth but also walked McGonigle, leaving a bit of a mess for Jose A. Ferrer. Ferrer, who had issued one walk in his last 17 appearances, didn’t have a solid handle on his stuff today, walking the bases loaded, but was able to keep the Tigers out of the scoring column, getting pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones to fly out harmlessly.

Julio and Randy teamed up in the seventh to give the Mariners another run; Julio singled off Kyle Finnegan, then stole second and third, and Randy brought him home with a single into right field. The Tigers brought in lefty Tyler Holton and Raley was given another opportunity against a lefty, this time parachuting a single into right field. But with runners on the corners and two outs, Refsnyder again couldn’t take advantage of a platoon advantage, grounding out to end the threat. Refsnyder’s -.11 WPA today was the lowest for any Mariners hitter and one wonders how much longer the Mariners can continue to hope the 35-year-old will turn his season around.

With a three-run lead, Dan Wilson went to Cooper Criswell in the seventh, and suddenly, all that work the Mariners had done to build a lead disappeared as Criswell’s groundball luck came up snake eyes, with back-to-back-to-back hits that squirted past Mariners infielders, the big blow being a Wenceel Pérez triple (xBA = .380) into the deep right field corner with no outs, scoring two runs. With the Mariners lead cut down to a run, Wilson brought in Gabe Speier, forcing Hinch to pull Kerry Carpenter for pinch-hitter Matt Vierling, who grounded out, bringing up the dangerous McGonigle, but Speier was able to get him to fly out shallowly in a left-on-left battle. Speier then went right after righty Gleyber Torres, striking him out on some high heat.

The Mariners had an opportunity to give Andrés Muñoz some extra cushion for the ninth but again couldn’t capitalize despite the first two runners reaching, making two outs on the bases as Josh Naylor was caught stealing (a curious choice considering he’d just fouled a ball off his foot and looked to be in obvious pain) and Arozarena was picked off first base. The mistakes continued as Muñoz couldn’t get a handle on his stuff, walking the eight and nine-hole before giving up the walkoff hit to McGonigle. It was a disappointing, sloppy effort from everyone but Castillo, the kind of mistake-ridden game that’s easier to wave away in April than it is in June. The Mariners will now head to Baltimore for the next leg of this long road trip.

After a devastating blown-save loss yesterday afternoon, today the again Byron Buxton-less Minnesota Twins looked to at least hold serve in this four-game series with the Kansas City Royals. It didn’t happen—and somehow it didn’t happen in exactly the fashion you’d probably expect (terrible bullpen & no offense until it was too late).

The homesteaders jumped out to a slim early lead in the bottom of the second inning when Kody Clemens singled, stole second base, and was moved to third on the exceedingly-rare Bobby Witt Jr SS error. A fielder’s choice ground-out from Ryan Kreidler plated Big K for the 1-0 advantage.

For 3.2 IP, Twins SP Connor Prielipp was mowing down KC batters like MN residents out in their yards during this current heat wave. But he stumbled a bit in T4 when a two-out Vinnie Pasquantino double was brought around by an immediate Nick Loftin two-bagger. 1-1 tie.

A Maikel Garcia error at 3B allowed the Twins a few two-out baserunners in B4—but then Garcia’s magnificent pick-and-throw to nip Luke Keaschall at 1B ended the scoring threat.

Prielipp exited mid-5th with one out and one man on base—a solid opener-esque outing for the youngster. But in keeping with today’s Toy Story Day theme at Target Field, the entrance of the MN bullpen indeed proved the perfect time to panic.

As soon as Andrew Morris started hurling towards home, two singles followed to give the Royals the lead. Starling Marte then pounded a Morris pitch 441 feet over the CF wall. 5-1 Royals.

In T8, Twins reliever Cody Laweryson surrendered a single safety on a Carter Jensen sac fly, but by then the outcome was fairly academic with the Twins’ offense having fallen silent.

Or was it?! A three-run homer from Josh Bell was followed by a one-out double off the bat of Trevor Larnach. After a Keaschall fly out, Victor Caratini then singled up the middle to make it a one-run game and Tristan Gray would follow suit with a similar single (this time to LF) to provide some real hope to the Twins faithful.

Alas, this bunch is exceedingly good at extinguishing that—a Brooks Lee poke dying on the LF warning track.

Your Final: Kansas City Royals 6, Minnesota Twins 5

A squad with a below-average bullpen at least splits this series. A squad with an average bullpen takes the series against this punchless KC assemblage. Your 2026 Minnesota Twins possess neither bullpen descriptor.

Zach’s Zealot

• Clemens: Continued to have a solid series—two hits today—getting things off on the right foot and starting the late rally.

Zach’s Zombie

• Tom Pohlad: No, sir—your “we’re going to be competitive this year” preseason proclamation doesn’t hold water any longer. Not when two months have gone by and your club is seemingly further from a competent bullpen than on Day One.

Egg-cellent Elocution

• Alas, this goes to yours truly for perfectly predicting a bullpen meltdown (as if that takes much skill)

Who’s Got Next

• After a much-needed off day Monday—their first since May 21—the Twins hit the road to the Motor City for three games with the Detroit Tigers (Tues. night, Wed. night, Thurs. afternoon).

We had about 20-minute rain delay to begin the day on Sunday, one of those sudden summer storms that disappears as quickly as it arrives. It did seem to put a bit of a damper on the Yankee offense to start, as they went nine up, nine down to start the game. Once the sun came out a bit—and once Ranger Suárez was out of the game—the bats finally had a breakthrough inning, the kind you hope spurs things for a hot week.

While that remains to be seen, we know for a fact the Yankees took care of business Sunday, with a 6-1 win over Boston. Combined with the Rays’ 4-1 loss to the Marlins, the Bombers are back in a share of first place in the AL East for the first time since May 9th.

I think we can put to rest any present concerns about Cam Schlittler and his velo drop:

We got good Cam again, who were it not for an errant — to be generous — throw home by Anthony Volpe, probably would have completed six shutout innings. His first pitch of the game was 99 mph, and it held steady there all day. The Red Sox don’t roll out the kind of offense we’re always used to seeing from them, but it’s the third time in his young career Schlittler’s faced them, and they haven’t figured him out yet.

Indeed, the lone run the Schlittler surrendered came off the bat of Willson Contreras and uh, yeah, it may be time to give Volpe a day off (or two):

There’s just no reason to rush a throw like that, Volpe completely misjudged how much time he has and should have been able to cut Ceddane Rafaela down. Then again, Jazz Chisholm Jr. also probably needs a day off, with three strikeouts and an error of his own on the day (this is a literary device called foreshadowing). Now that I think about it, like six guys on the team probably need a day off…

That the run came as Schlittler was attempting a shutdown inning also stung, as the righty has been so good at providing those when the Yankees manage a run or two. Today, that came courtesy of Paul Goldschmidt, professional hitter:

Ironically enough the 38-year-old Goldschmidt could probably stand a day off on his own, but between his own contributions this year and the relative impotence of anyone outside the top third of the lineup, he has become pretty close to irreplaceable.

Fortunately, the team finally broke something out in the eighth, with Cody Bellinger leading the way:

I expect that we’ll see Cody starting in the All-Star Game in July, and while that may carry variable meanings to all of you, in the spirit of the event, he’s certainly earned it. Amed Rosario found grass before being brought around on a Trent Grisham single, Anthony Volpe walked, and then, just like we foreshadowed:

Perhaps more than any player on the team, Jazz needs to be the guy to step up with no Aaron Judge. A run of 130ish wRC+ goes a long way to picking up some of that slack, and a long way to earning back some of that free agency money he’s cost himself with such a slow start.

Eagle-eyed viewers might notice — or were just shown it on the YES broadcast as we went to commercial — that Jazz was using Aaron Judge’s bat there, not the first time that’s happened since he was acquired. Between that and Giancarlo Stanton’s pants, we may have a good argument for everyone on the team lending Chisholm a piece of equipment to heat him up.

David Bednar had gotten ready in a tie game, picked up his warm-up for a save situation, and ended up coming into a relative laugher. The closer did his job though, sealing up the win and a split of this improvised two-game series.

The Yankees now head out to Cleveland for a rematch with the Guardians, who took two out of three in the Bronx last week. Will Warren is scheduled to face off against the AL’s strikeout leader in Gavin Williams, with first pitch at 6:40pm ET.

Box Score

Orioles 4 Blue Jays 6

This had all the signs of being another one of those games.

After 5 innings, we were down 4-0. Through four innings, Kevin Gausman had allowed one base runner, then it all fell apart in the fifth. Strikeout, home run, pop out, triple, double, home run, strikeout. 13 total bases in that one inning.

We only had two hits and a walk through the first five inning.

Then, in the sixth, we scored 5 runs:

• Yohendrick Piñango homered on the second pitch of the inning. Crushed it, 108 mph and 423 feet.
• Vladmir Guerrero ground out.
• Jesús Sánchez doubled, also crushed, 109.5 mph.
• Ernie Clement reached on an error by Orioles SS Gunnar Henderson.
• Brandon Valenzuela ground out, moving Clement to second.
• Kazuma Okamoto singled, driving home Clement (also crushed, 104.4 mph).
• Andrés Giménez doubled home Okamoto.
• And Nathan Lukes ground off the pitcher, and second baseman Jackson Holliday got to the ball, but too late, then he glove flipped it to first, which gave time for Giménez to score from second.
• George Springer ground out to end the inning.

We got one more run in the 8th, Valenzuela homered (just 103 mph), but 388 feet.

We had 10 hits. Piñango, Sánchez, and Giménez had two each. All the other starter, excepting Vlad (he had the hardest hit ball, for the Jays, a line drive up the middle but caught, 109.6 mph, with a .690 expected batting average, but when you are slumping, those get caught) and Springer had one run.

There were some moments of controversy. With Clement on first, in that sixth inning, the Orioles got a ground ball hit to second, which looked like it would be a double play, but Clement ran around the second baseman and was safe. The Orioles complained that he went outside the baseline but Jackson Holliday didn’t make any movement to tag him. If he had, they might have gotten a call for leaving the baseline.

At the end of the game Holliday ground one to the pitcher, and tried to run around him on the base path. He was tagged and the umpires called him for leaving the base path. The Orioles argued, but it didn’t help them. I think the arguing was mostly to ‘ice the pitcher’ but Varland was unaffected.

The bullpen did the job:

• Adam Macko had a nice quick sixth, giving up a singled but getting two strikeouts.
• Connor Seabold had a rough start to the seventh, giving up a hit and a walk. The O’s bunted, but Valenzuela got to the ball quick and got the out at third.
• Tyler Rogers, with the Jays needing a double play, and he got it. He is a ground ball pitcher, it was a great time for him to come in. He also got the first two outs of the eighth, then gave up a walk and in came
• Louis Varland, who got the strikeout to end the inning. In the ninth, he went single, fly out, ground out, and strikeout. Save number 11 for Louis.

Vlad also used up our last challenge, in the eighth, on a ball that was easily a strike.

Jays of the Day: Rogers (0.23 WPA), Giménez (0.22, plus the dash for home), Lukes (0.16 on a 1 for 2 night), and Varland (0.13). Let’s give Valenzuela an Honorable Mention for his homer and his throw to third on the bunt attempt.

Other Award: Gausman (-0.17), Springer (-0.10 for an 0 for 4) and Vlad (-0.09)

Tomorrow the Philles are in town for the first of three. Cristopher Sánchez (7-2, 1.46 ERA) vs. Patrick Corbin (2-2, 3.98).

After a tense afternoon that saw the Tigers forced to come back repeatedly to keep pace with the Mariners, they reached the ninth inning still down a run. The Mariners ran themselves into a pair of dumb outs on the bases with Will Vest on the mound, and that set the stage. The back of the Tigers’ order did a nice job waiting out a wild Andrés Muñoz to draw a pair of walks, and managed to turn the lineup over to star rookie Kevin McGonigle, who had already homered in the game. The kid delivered with a two-run, walkoff single into right field to send the home crowd home in thrilling fashion. What a game.

Jack Flaherty and Luis Castillo locked up in a duel of starters who have struggled this season to date. The Tigers’ right-hander popped up Cole Young to open the game, then dropped a curveball in on Julio Rodriguez for strike three. After Josh Naylor was announced and the crowd booed, a 2-2 fastball locked him up for strike three. It was called a ball, but Dillon Dingler challenged it successfully.

AJ Hinch had Kerry Carpenter in the leadoff spot and he worked Luis Castillo through a long at-bat but flew out. Kevin McGonigle struck out after a foul ball down the left field line that brought Randy Arozarena to the netting, where a Tigers fan offered him a snack in a moment that reminded me of Prince Fielder snatching a tortilla chip from a fan’s nachos. Gleyber Torres, getting a day as the DH, then blew a challenge contesting a called strike three, but he was wrong, striking out and burning a challenge.

Flaherty gave up some hard contact in the second inning, but other than a Luke Raley double off the left field wall, nothing dropped in, and a good fastball whiffed Patrick Wisdom to end the inning.

For all Luis Castillo’s struggles this year, we weren’t seeing any signs of them here. He couldn’t spot the changeup, but the slider was sharp and the right-hander was hitting 96-97 mph with good fastball location. Riley Greene struck out on a fourseamer up to start the bottom of the second. Dillon Dingler hammered a drive out to Rodriguez in center field and Colt Keith lifted a slider to right field but didn’t square it up, sending us to the third inning.

Colt Emerson started the third by drilling an 0-2 slider to right for a double. Jhonny Perada grounded out, moving Emerson to third. Cole Young followed with a hot ground ball into right field for an RBI single, and it was 1-0 Mariners. Flaherty tied up Rodriguez with a high fastball and got a routine fly ball to Carpenter in right field. That left it up to Naylor who popped out to Colt Keith in foul territory.

News came through prior to the game that Casey Mize would make a rehab start on Tuesday with the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers. Meanwhile, Tarik Skubal was getting underway in West Michigan in a High-A rehab outing against the Dayton Dragons. The left-hander struck out two in the first inning, getting a grounder for the third out. He needed just nine pitches, sitting 96-97 mph.

The Whitecaps roster was having a good day courtesy of the two-time AL Cy Young award winner.

Spencer Torkelson flew out to start the bottom of the third and Zach McKinstry struck out. Wenceel Pérez fought off a bunch of two strike pitches, including one that he chopped right back into the family jewels. That required a little time to shake off. Eventually he dug back in and drilled a single that Wisdom couldn’t handle, but Carpenter popped out to end the inning.

Jack Flaherty’s slider was coming around, and as he dialed it in the whiffs piled up. He got Arozarena swinging over the slide piece for strike three to start the fourth. Raley suffered a similar fate, and Dominic Canzone grounded out to McKinstry at second base.

Kevin McGonigle led off the bottom of the fourth, and he got a 1-0 slider up in the zone and crushed it to right field for his fourth home run of the season. Tie game.

Gleyber Torres grounded out for the first out of the fourth. Riley Greene gave the ball a ride to deep right center field, but Raley ran it down. Dingler grounded out to third, and we were onto the fifth.

Wisdom opened the fifth inning with a line drive over Colt Keith at third, positioned toward second base, for a leadoff single. A high fastball from Flaherty dusted Emerson for his sixth strikeout on the day. Perada lined out to Carpenter, and Cole Young whiffed on a high fourseamer for strike three. Nice job stranding the runner after a leadoff single.

Colt Keith grounded out and Spencer Torkelson struck out to start the bottom of the fifth. A Zach McKinstry grounder to Wisdom was thrown wide of Naylor at first and he couldn’t pick it as the ball skipped into foul territory. McKinstry never stopped running, cruising into second base. Unfortuantely, a soft liner from Pérez went right to Naylor for the final out of the inning.

Julio Rodriguez lined a single into left field to start the sixth. Riley Greene picked it up, spun, and tried to fire to second to prevent a double, but Rodriguez had actually started to hold up. The throw was wide, and so Rodriguez was handed second base on the throwing error. Naylor pulled a hot grounder off the glove of a diving Torkelson and down the right field line for an RBI double. The Tigers were down a run again. Arozarena worked a full count, and Flaherty bounced a curveball to walk him, and so his day was done with no outs, a run in, and runner on first and second in the top of the sixth.

Lefty Drew Sommers took over from Flaherty against Raley. Mariners’ manager Dan Wilson elected not to pinch-hit, and instead had Raley bunt the runners over. He did so, with Keith making the play for the first out on the inning. Sommers has shown much better command so far this year, albeit in a very small sample, and he carved up Rob Refsnyder for the second out. Hinch called for the intentional walk to the right-handed hitting Wisdom to load the bases. Wilson gave them a gift with the sac bunt, but it turned out that the intentional walk was the gift to the Mariners, as Sommers hit Colt Emerson with a 2-2 sinker, forcing in a run. 3-1 Mariners. Arrgghh.

That ended Sommers outing. Kyle Finnegan was warm and he took over to face Perada. Fortunately, he flew out to Pérez to strand the bases loaded, but the damage was done and the Mariners had re-captured the lead.

Castillo was still on the mound in the bottom half of the sixth as Jose A. Ferrer was warming up in the bullpen. Carpenter grounded out to start the inning, but McGonigle drew a one-out walk. Torres got into a 2-0 count, but popped out to Raley in foul territory down the right field line. That was the end for Castillo as Ferrer took over.

Ferrer gave up a walk to Riley Greene to put two on with two outs for the red-hot Dillon Dingler. The Tigers catcher challenged an 0-1 pitch that was called a strike. He was correct, and Ferrer eventually walked him as well to load the bases. Hinch then pinch-hit Jahmai Jones for Colt Keith against the hard-throwing lefty. Instead, Jones popped up a 99 mph sinker to shallow center field to strand three. Woof.

That move caused Zack Short to enter the game at shortstop, pushing McGonigle to third base. Finnegan got Cole Young to fly out to start the seventh. Dillon Dingler burned the Tigers last challenge against Julio Rodriguez, but was incorrect and the center fielder drew a walk. He then stole second base with ease as Naylor took ball one. Finnegan popped up Naylor on a high fastball after setting him up with a couple of splitters. That left it up to Arozarena. Finnegan wasn’t paying Rodriguez any attention, and he stole third base on him without a throw. Arozarena singled in the run, and it was 4-1 Mariners.

Tyler Holton took over to get Raley, and he failed as the outfielder flicked a sweeper into right field for a single. Arozarena went first to third, and Refsnyder dug in looking to expand the Mariners’ lead. He failed, grounding out to McGonigle at third.

So it was 4-1 and the Tigers were running out of time. They seemed to take some urgency, as Torkelson and McKinstry started the inning with singles off of right-hander Cooper Criswell. Wenceel Pérez stepped in and flicked a low changeup into the right field corner for a two-run triple, and it was 4-3 Mariners with Pérez on third and no outs. A tie seemed imminent, but we had to reckon with the Tigers bench.

Dan Wilson turned to lefty Gabe Speier to replace Criswell. Matt Vierling pinch-hit for Carpenter, who as you’ll all recall homered off of Speier in Game 5 of last year’s ALDS Game 5, and Vierling grounded out to Wisdom at third. The third baseman tried to tag Pérez as he got back to the bag, and still had just enough time to throw out Vierling anyway. McGonigle hit a routine fly ball to left field, too shallow to score Pérez. Speier climbed the ladder with a fastball against Torres in a 2-2 count and blew him away. The Tigers had scored two, but stranding Pérez at third with no outs was infuriating.

Drew Anderson took over from Holton in the top of the eighth inning. He quickly struck out Wisdom and Emerson. McGonigle couldn’t handle a chopper from Perada, and Young slapped a curveball into right field as Perada moved to third. The Tigers absolutely had to have an out here to snuff a two-out rally. They got it, as Rodriguez grounded out sharply to McKinstry.

Right-hander Eduard Bazardo entered for the Mariners in the bottom of the eighth. Greene grounded out, and Dingler was locked up by a tough backdoor sinker for strike three. That left Short hitting against a tough right-hander and he flew out to end the inning.

So the Tigers needed two runs to win, and they would have only three outs to come back. They would have Torkelson, McKinstry, and Pérez up in the bottom of the ninth before the lineup turned over, so things looked pretty bleak for a team that cannot afford to lose a series right now. First they needed to keep the Mariners from answering back.

Will Vest took the mound in the top of the inning. In a 1-2 count, Vest tried to go well above the zone, but Naylor was ready and paddled a single to left field to start the inning. Naylor tried to get a walking lead and then broke for second. Vest did a nice job holding and stepped off to fire to second base for the out. The home crowd enjoyed that, at least. Vest then turned the cheers to groans by hitting Randy Arozarena. On an 0-1 pitch for a strike, Dingler tried to backpick Arozarena and fired a strike to Torkelson. A nice swipe tag got the out, though it took a challenge to overturn the initial safe call. Nice work from Dingler and Torkelson there. Vest dropped in a slider for strike three against Raley, and it was last call for the Tigers, needing one to tie and two for a walkoff victory.

The task would be very difficult against closer Andrés Muñoz. Torkelson quickly popped out to Emerson and that did nothing for Tigers fans’ optimism. Muñoz was firing 98-99 mph heaters in there. McKinstry did a nice job taking a couple of close pitches and drew a walk. Muñoz remained a little wild, falling behind 3-0 to Pérez. The Tigers’ outfielder took a heater on the outer edge for a strike, but the next one was again quite wide of the mark and Pérez took first base. So, two on, one out for Vierling and Muñoz missed badly with two more pitches. However, the Mariners closer pulled it together with two good heaters to get back in the count and Vierling chopped one to third. Wisdom could only get the out at first, and so both runners were in scoring position for McGonigle.

Fortunately, Dan Wilson decided not to walk McGonigle. The stage was set. Muñoz missed with a slider first pitch. He came back with a triple digit heater on the inner edge, and the rookie smoked it off the tip of a leaping Emerson’s glove at second base and into right field for a walkoff two-run single. Holy cow. Kevin forever!

The Tigers really needed this one to keep some momentum going, and the rookie delivered in dramatic fashion. They’ll have an off day on Monday before welcoming in the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. After that three game set they’ll head to Cleveland for three against the Guardians, and based on Tarik Skubal’s rehab outing in West Mchigan, they may well have their ace back on the mound in that series.

With a couple of exceptions, Michael McGreevy gave the St. Louis Cardinals a good start Sunday. Fortunately, the St. Louis Cardinals woke up in time to complete the sweep of the Cincinnati Reds Sunday.

My fear is that the narrative of this game would be all of the runners the Cardinals stranded on base Sunday. Through the first several innings, St. Louis had left 11 runners on base including a bases-loaded opportunity in the bottom of the 1st inning. That combined with Michael McGreevy leaving two pitches right in the middle of the zone in the top of the 3rd inning resulting in home runs from McLain and Stephenson giving Cincinnati a 2-0 lead.

The St. Louis bats would greet the Cincinnati Reds bullpen in the bottom of the 5th inning as Alec Burleson slapped a double down the left field line followed by Jordan Walker smoking a 93 mph four-seam fastball to the left-center field wall scoring Burleson and cutting the Reds lead in half at 2-1.

Bryan Torres would eliminate that lead altogether giving the Cardinals their first lead of the game when he crushed a 92 mph four-seam fastball into the right field stands making it 3-2 Cardinals.

Michael McGreevy’s outing was a successful one. He gave St. Louis 6 solid innings allowing just 5 hits, 2 earned runs with 5 strikeouts and no walks.

George Soriano came in to take care of the 7th inning for the Cardinals. Unfortunately, McLain would connect with one of his 96 mph sinkers for his second home run of the day tying the game at 3-3. Soriano would only get 2 outs before being removed in the 7th inning as JoJo Romero came in to settle down a runners on first and second threat from the Reds which could have been worse if not for a fine defensive play from JJ Wetherholt getting a force out at 2nd base. JJ also made a leaping grab to end the inning keeping the game tied going into the bottom of the 7th. JoJo would hang in there through the first 2/3 of the 8th inning, but was removed by manager Oli Marmol after Myers singled into center. Ryne Stanek introduced himself by throwing a wild pitch to the backstop advancing Myers into scoring position at second, but he’d strike out Benson to end the Reds half of the 8th inning.

The Cardinals offense would threaten in their half of the 8th inning as José Fermín led off with a single. Instead of Nolan Gorman being allowed to change his 0-3 day, Nelson Velázquez pinch-hit instead. He ripped a single to left field to the delight of the tarps off crowd in right field giving St. Louis runners on first and second with no out. Victor Scott II, the team’s designated bunter dropped down a beauty which the Reds pitcher Moll decided to throw into left field which was a great decision (for the Cardinals) which scored Fermin giving St. Louis a 4-3 lead.

That spectacular effort was followed by a 8-pitch walk to JJ Wetherholt to load the bases. Ivan Herrera then hit a ball to McLain at short who was playing in. The ball caught him on an in-between hop and he botched it allowing Velazquez to score giving St. Louis a 5-3 lead. After 2 force-outs at home plate, Reds relief pitcher Santillan would get Lars Nootbaar to fly out to left field with the bases loaded to end the Cardinals 8th inning. Thank you again, Reds bullpen. We are going to miss you when you leave town. However, the Cardinals stranded WAY too many runners Sunday. Those extra runs would have been nice to make the 9th inning less stressful.

The St. Louis Cardinals would bring in Riley O’Brien to handle the Reds in the top of the 9th. Riley would face the 7-8-9 hitters at the bottom of the Reds lineup, but one of them was McLain who already had two homers Sunday. Unlike Saturday, O’Brien came in throwing strikes that included a 2-2 heater for the first out of the 9th. Stephenson would then double down the right field line bringing up Arroyo as the tying run because St. Louis just can’t bear winning the easy way. Fortunately, Arroyo flew out to center for the second out of the 9th bringing up Blake Dunn as the Reds final hope. That hope would be dashed as he also flew out to center for the final out of the game.

After a successful homestand against the Cincinnati Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals begin a road trip in New York Tuesday night taking on the Mets. The Cardinals starter is to be determined while the Mets are expected to start Stephen Kolek. First pitch scheduled for 6:10pm central time with the TV broadcast being handled by Cardinals.tv.