Worldwide Sports News

With how this month of May went for the Nats, it was only fitting that they finished it off by taking a series against a team above .500. That is what this team has been doing all month, and it is why they had a 16-12 record in May. It is even more fitting that the battery of Zack Littell and Keibert Ruiz led them to this win.

Both Ruiz and Littell had tough starts to the season, but really turned things around in May. Ruiz hit .379 with a 1.107 OPS on the month, while playing great defense. Meanwhile, Littell posted a 2.35 ERA in 30.2 innings, after having an ERA over 8 in April. For Ruiz, he needed to find his confidence and Littell just needed to get back up to speed after signing late in the offseason.

It also appears that the two have developed a mutual respect for each other. After the game, Ruiz credited Littell for “attacking hitters and getting quick outs”. Littell seemed very impressed with Ruiz, especially on the defensive side of the ball. He admitted that prior to playing here, he knew that Ruiz was not exactly known as a defensive minded catcher. After working with him though, Littell said that Ruiz has been “Unbelievable” and says that he “loves working with him”. 

Littell also credited Ruiz’s work ethic, which has been a common theme this year. In Spencer Nusbaum’s great piece about Ruiz, it talked about how the work ethic has always been there for him. The difference this year is that Ruiz is working smarter as well. 

While the Nats catcher went 2 for 3 today, his biggest contributions were on the defensive end. He gunned down three runners today including two huge strike em out throw em out plays that ended stressful innings. Ruiz got the Nats out of a nervy 7th by gunning down a runner, and did the same to end the game in the 9th.

This version of Keibert Ruiz has absolutely shocked me. He is playing like an elite catcher. Who knows if it will last, but now we can see what Keibert is capable of when he is at the top of his game. Ruiz seems like a really easy guy to root for, and he has taken a lot of flack over the years from people like myself and others. It is just great to see him succeeding and playing to his potential.

I feel like we have been saying this after each of his last few outings, but Zack Littell may have had the best outing of his season yet again, at least for the first six innings. The veteran absolutely cruised through the Padres lineup for 6 frames. He was getting quick outs at will, while also getting swing and miss when he needed it. Littell credited his increased whiff and chase numbers to staying in the zone more. When he gets ahead of hitters by pounding the zone, he is able to force them to chase later in counts. This start finished off a fantastic month for the righty.

The Nats offense may not have been at their electric best today, but they still got the job done, thanks largely to a couple laser beam home runs. Luis Garcia Jr. hit the first one, swinging away on a 3-0 count. He hit a 111 mph line drive that just kept going out to right field.

In the next inning, James Wood found a way to one up Garcia. He hit a very similar line drive home run, just slightly harder and slightly further. Wood’s homer was 113.8 MPH off the bat and traveled 417 feet. It was an absolute missile that got out of Nats Park in the blink of an eye.

After the Wood homer, the Nats had a seemingly comfortable 3-0 lead with Littell rolling. However, things got dicey in the 7th when Littell allowed three straight base runners. Blake Butera turned to his fire man Orlando Ribalta to get out of the jam. He started things out by allowing a sac fly and then walking a batter. However, after a long battle with Miguel Andujar, he got the strikeout and Keibert Ruiz gunned down Sung-Mun Song at second.

The Nats then added a key insurance run in the bottom of the frame. This run came thanks to three unlikely heroes. Jose Tena, Jorbit Vivas and Andres Chaparro have not exactly been crushing the ball lately, but they sparked this mini rally. Tena and Vivas got on base to start the inning. Then with two outs, Chaparro hit a double down the line to bring in a key insurance run. Chaparro has not played a ton, but he has gotten two clutch knocks.

The Nationals outstanding month of May was capped off by yet another runner gunned down by Ruiz. Clayton Beeter looked a little shaky, but he was able to get through the inning without much trouble, in part due to his catcher. The Nats won again and improved to 31-29.

If you told me that this team would be two games over .500 heading into June, I am not sure I would have believed you, yet here we are. This team is playing inspired baseball under Blake Butera, and only seem to be improving. Things are looking up in DC for the first time in a while.

Before Sunday afternoon’s loss to the Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves President of Baseball Operations/General Manager Alex Anthopoulos spoke with BravesVision Play-by-Play commentator Brandon Gaudin in something of a “state of the front office”-type interview. With that being said, the biggest question of the session had to do with the status of a couple of injured players. Drake Baldwin is currently on the IL with an oblique strain and there’s been little news when it comes to hammering down a potential return date for Atlanta’s rising star of a catcher.

AA did provide a little bit of an update but it’s still something that’s more of an estimate rather than something concrete to look forward to. With a Grade 1 oblique strain, the time frame is usually around 3-4 weeks and AA mentioned that when it comes to that sort of thing, he and the rest of the front office like to use the latter estimate instead of the former. If it’s four weeks then that would mean that mid-June would seem like the time to hopefully start expecting an imminent return for Baldwin.

AA also mentioned that he isn’t anticipating that Baldwin’s return would be preceded by a rehab stint. He explained that since Sean Murphy and Ha-Seong Kim didn’t have a spring training, they needed the rehab stint when compared to Baldwin’s situation. In the case of Baldwin, since he’s been getting plenty of regular season reps (and swinging the bat very well, to be frank) that would mean that they’d try to just throw him back in the action once it’s clear that he’s healthy.

Again, this is all pretty nebulous and when you once again consider that this is an oblique injury that we’re talking about, I’d imagine that the Braves are going to take it very easy when it comes to bringing Drake Baldwin back into the fold. They also have the benefit of having the best record in baseball with a comfortable lead in the division, so it’s not like they have to rush Baldwin back into the fold. It also helps that Ronald Acuña Jr. appears primed to pick up the baton that Baldwin unfortunately had to drop due to his injury.

All of this is to say that Baldwin is likely still at least a couple of weeks away from starting to really ramp up for a return. As I mentioned above, it’s good that the Braves don’t have to rush him but it’s also fun to imagine what this lineup could look like with everybody firing on all cylinders. We still have yet to see this lineup in it’s fully healthy form and it’s very exciting to think about what this offense could do with its full compliment of players.

For now, it’s time to remain patient when it comes to Drake Baldwin coming back in the near future. There are plenty of reasons to be patient and hopefully Baldwin will go back to raking once he does eventually make his return from a notoriously tricky injury to deal with. We’ll see what happens.

Meanwhile, AA did provide some tangible good news when it comes to their injured pitching. He told Gaudin that Hurston Waldrep is apparently going to begin a rehab stint on Monday, so that’s obviously good news. Waldrep is clearly on the road to recovery and apparently he’s been throwing bullpen sessions where he’s been hitting 96-99 mph on the radar gun. That’s pretty exciting to hear and hopefully this means that Waldrep will be arriving to join a Braves pitching staff that has already been doing a great job of holding down the fort without the likes of Waldrep or Spencer Schwellenbach as well.

Friends, you’ve been so engaged that we had to put together another overflow thread!

Unfortunately, the Rockies are currently losing to the Giants 12-5 in a game that started over 2.5 hours ago after a ghastly seven-run fifth.

In case you forgot, here are the lineups:

Keep it civil, friends, and please remember the Purple Row Community Guidelines as you’re commenting!

If you’ve seen a band with two bassists live, you’d understand why it’d be an odd sight to see three catchers in the starting lineup (Wong as DH, Gasper as 1B, and Narvaez actually doing the catching for Ranger Suarez.) But, at first, there appeared to be no LOW END (music pun!) for the offense against the Guardians, as Jarren Duran cranked a ball into the stands by the time I turned my television on and Mickey Gasper had also gotten on base with a single into the outfield. 

It didn’t take too long, though, for Suarez to fall into some early trouble in the second and fourth innings, but he whiffed two to end the fourth before any damage can be done, upping his total to seven through four innings. Unfortunately, in the bottom of the fifth, Masataka Yoshida lost a ball in the sun that dropped in and scored Cleveland’s third run, and exactly one (1) pitch later Chase Delauter smacked Jose Ramirez in. Gone was the confidence of Suarez, evidently, along with the Red Sox’s short-lived lead, an issue that has plague them all season, but Suarez was still able to finish that inning – and his afternoon – strong with his tenth strikeout. 

In the late going, namely, the 7th, the Guardians fell victim to a common Red Sox trope: letting failed ABS challenges come back to bite them. With the bases loaded, Tim Herrin threw a third strike to Wilyer Abreu that was a called ball four to walk a run in and tie the game. The Masataka Yoshida redemption arc then concluded with maybe his biggest hit of the year to score one, and IKF and Caleb Durbin each added insult to injury following the pitching change to Codi Heuer, and the lead was 9-4. A couple more innings of stagnant action, and the Red Sox brought Aroldis Chapman in to get his first work in since May 20 in a non-save situation to slam the door.

The Red Sox win the series but there’s still some work to do, as the next three series are all against divisional opponents.  

Four Studs

Jarren Duran: The Guardians’ Tanner Bibee hasn’t gotten a win in his 13 appearances yet, and, thanks in part to Duran getting to him by firing that lead-off shot within 30 seconds of the first pitch, that continues here. After struggling in April, he finished May off with 9 home runs and an .871 OPS.

Ranger Suarez: It wasn’t the most beautiful outing he’ll ever have, as he gave up three runs and looked very shaken after that Yoshida bobble, but he finished extremely strong and avoided melting down like he did in his last start. 10 strikeouts now have him tied with Connelly Early for the lead on the team (57.)

Caleb Durbin: Any time you get your first career triple along with two RBIs, you can get a stud nod. He’s still got some work to do, but he’s really starting to turn a corner in the last week.

Connor Wong: With this double, his career OPS against Cleveland continues to drift well over 1.300.

Three Duds

The Guardians’ ABS challenging skills: The Red Sox have been an enemy of the ABS challenging system since its’ implementation, as they’re the worst in the league. But, today, it helped them. Wilyer Abreu taking that walk in the 7th had consequences, as that was indeed a strike but the Guardians had incorrectly challenged two calls prior and were left to deal with that call. That resulted in five more runs as the Red Sox broke it open.

That’s it. Everyone who started had hits. Even Greg Weissert didn’t allow a run today. Nothing could bring the vibes down after Red Sox nation initially biting their nails for six and a half innings.

Play of the Game

Here’s that Yoshida hit.

And for measure, here’s Marcelo Mayer running a foul ball down and giving a great effort to give Jovani Moran a much-needed second out of a pivotal 6th inning. Moran would go on and get the relief decision win.

And thus concludes my first Major League Game Recap since September of 2023, and the month of May.

Sunday notes…

• AT ST. LOUIS: Last season, the Cubs lost the last of three games at St. Louis after having lost the first and won the second, just as they have the last two nights. They won the rubber game in 2022, after winning, then losing. They lost, won and won in 2021. This is the Cubs’ sixth three-game series at St. Louis since then. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• SUNDAY IS NOT FUNDAY ON THE ROAD: The Cubs have lost on every Sunday they have played on the road this season. They won the opener of a doubleheader at Cleveland on April 5, then lost the second game, followed by losses at Los Angeles vs. the Dodgers on April 26, at Texas on May 10 and on the South Side vs. the White Sox on May 17, making their record 1-4. They are 3-2 on Sunday at home. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• WINNING WHEN NOT SCORING FIRST: Last night’s win was the Cubs’ 12th of the season in which their opponent scored first. They have lost 21 such games. Their previous win had been on April 6, when they walked off the Reds for the third straight game, 7-6 in 10 innings. That had been their fourth such win in a row. They are just 4-10 when they have given up the game’s first run on the road. The previous win had been April 24, at Los Angeles, when they beat the Dodgers, 6-4, for the final win of their first 10-game streak. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• HAPP-ENSTANCE: Ian Happ is on a five-game hitting streak in which he is batting .417/.417/.917 (10-for-24) with three doubles, three home runs and 11 RBI.

Cubs lineup:

Cardinals lineup:

Jordan Wicks, LHP vs. Matthew Liberatore, LHP

Jordan Wicks’ first 2026 start was awful. Not going to dwell on it. Turn the page.

I will say that Wicks threw three solid innings in that first start after a horrid first inning, before falling apart again in the fifth. So… maybe there’s something there to build on.

His last appearance vs. the Cardinals was three shutout innings at Wrigley Field in the last game of the 2025 regular season. A throwaway game, to be sure, but… channel that today, Jordan.

Matthew Liberatore was part of an important trade six years ago when he came to the Cardinals from the Rays in the deal that sent Randy Arozarena to Tampa Bay. He was the first-round pick of the Rays in 2018 out of high school in Arizona and already a Top 100 prospect at age 20 at the time of the deal, and stayed on those lists for several years.

His MLB numbers have been lukewarm, given that prospect profile. He has a 4.65 career ERA in 131 games (64 starts) and it’s right around that level this year (4.76 in 11 starts). His last start against the Cubs was July 5, 2025 in St. Louis, and he allowed two runs in five innings, which is better than a lot of his outings this year.

Current Cubs are a small sample size .273 (15-for-55) against him with two home runs (Michael Busch, Ian Happ).

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Busch Stadium.

Today’s game is on NBC (full national broadcast, no blackouts). It’s also streaming on Peacock. NBC announcers: Jason Benetti, Jim Deshaies and Albert Pujols.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva el Birdos. If you do go there to interact with Cardinals fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

The Texas Rangers scored six runs while the Kansas City Royals scored three runs.

The Royals appear to have been just what the doctor ordered for a Rangers squad that had been having trouble making good on an alleged manageable portion of their schedule.

After dropping a four-game set three to one to the Houston Astros in the first leg of this final stint at home in May, the Rangers required a sweep of KC to come away with a winning homestand. That didn’t seem particularly likely considering the Rangers had gone just 4-9 against teams below them in the standings in their four most recent series, including two series losses to Houston bookending a disappointing series loss to Anaheim last weekend.

The prospect of a sweep seemed even less likely when you consider that the Rangers had won at least three games in a row just once this season and that came all the way back in early April when they swept the Seattle Mariners.

Nevertheless, the Royals were just the team for the job having dropped 15 of 25 games this month coming into the series while challenging the Detroit Tigers for the cellar in not only the American League Central but the American League overall.

After nearly blowing their chance at a sweep yesterday before a three-run ambush in the ninth inning produced their second walk-off win of the year, the Rangers opened up today’s finale on a mission by scoring four first inning runs.

Maybe Jack Leiter is the good luck charm for the first inning. In his last outing, a day after Texas was no-hit in the first game of this homestand, Leiter received eight runs of support in the first frame.

While that was halved today, it was no less welcome as the Rangers sent eight batters to plate and in between a Josh Jung double that started the rally with one out, and the Nicky Lopez strikeout to end it, every Ranger reached (or at least probably should have) with Ezequiel Duran tripling in two runs following a Jake Burger walk, Alejandro Osuna singling in a third run, and Kyle Higashioka doubling in Osuna to make it 4-0.

All of those runs came with two out because No. 3 hitter Brandon Nimmo was bafflingly called out by foul tip despite replay showing the ball barely clipping the fringe of his batting mitt. The replay center in New York chose to be kind to KC but the ball don’t lie.

With ample wiggle room to work with, Leiter turned to swing-and-miss stuff to collect ten strikeouts in his 5.2 innings of shutout ball. Leiter allowed just three hits and a couple of walks as he kept KC off the board. He potentially could have stayed in to collect a quality start but at 101 pitches, he was lifted after his second walk of the game in the top of the sixth.

Meanwhile, the Rangers had added to their lead in the fourth when Jung singled in a couple of runs with the bases loaded. Up 6-0, and with Leiter out, the bullpen ended up making things closer than it appeared by allowing a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth, but the Rangers had a fairly easy go of it today and get to leave the month of May on a positive note with that winning homestand.

Player of the Game: Leiter is certainly worthy after following up a couple of rough starts with a scoreless outing, but Jung was again a catalyst for the outburst from the lineup today, as he so often has been when Texas actually scores runs.

Today Jung went 2-for-4 with a walk, double, run scored, and two RBIs while hitting second in the lineup. The nice day at the plate elevated Jung to an impressive .316/.372/.495 slash line on the year while he also contributed his team-leading 23rd extra base hit with the first inning double.

Up Next: The Rangers open June on the road in St. Louis as they take on the Cardinals with RHP Jacob deGrom looking to move past a dinger-prone May opposite RHP Michael McGreevy for the NL squad.

The Monday evening first pitch from Busch Stadium is scheduled for 6:45 pm CDT and will be carried on the Rangers Sports Network.

The Mets moved out of last place in the NL East again Sunday when they completed a sweep of the Marlins at Citi Field.

Now comes a bigger test: actually moving up in the standings.

Facing a Marlins team that replaced them at the bottom of the division, the Mets won their fourth straight game — matching a season high — with a 10-1 rout.

The offense, dormant for an ugly stretch on the road, scored 25 runs in the series against Miami.

That production, they hope, follows them to the West Coast, where the Mets open a six-game trip Monday in Seattle, with three against the Mariners followed by three in San Diego.

“For us to get where we want to get, we need to play well here and on the road — especially with the position we’re in,” Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s an important road trip here.”

And that’s because the Mets at least woke up following a lost weekend in Miami just a week ago, when they were limited to two runs in a three-game sweep that went the other way.

“We’re showing signs of who we are as a team,” Mendoza said of a lineup that was sparked by good at-bats up and down the order, with the biggest blow a Juan Soto sixth-inning grand slam.

Even after this series, it’s hard to know just what this team is because just as they start to tease that they might right themselves, they fall off a cliff.

The Mets are just 11-18 away from Queens and have lost seven of their last nine on the road and it likely won’t be as easy in Seattle as it was against these Marlins.

On Sunday, they took advantage of Miami, loser of five in a row, being forced into a bullpen game when scheduled starter Janson Junk was scratched and put on the injured list with right shin inflammation.

Nolan McLean, coming off the two worst starts of his young career, gave up just one run in five innings, but he walked a career-high five batters — and hit another — in his 94-pitch outing.

It didn’t take the Mets long to pounce, as Carson Benge hit a home run to center to open the bottom of the first.

The 418-foot shot was the rookie’s first leadoff homer and came against lefty John King, who was used as an opener.

It was also Benge’s first homer against a left-handed pitcher. He’s put up impressive numbers so far versus lefties, with a .757 OPS entering Sunday’s game.

Marcus Semien greeted Miami’s next pitcher, Anthony Bender, with a two-run shot in the second.

The Mets added to their lead in the bottom of the fourth. They loaded the bases with two outs and Luis Torrens singled through the right side to drive in Ewing and Brett Baty for a 5-1 lead.

Soto’s grand slam in the sixth put the game away. It was the only hit in the inning, as the Mets walked four times and Torrens was hit by a pitch.

“I feel everybody knows what to do,” Soto said of the offensive turnaround. “We have a plan we executed through the whole series. The whole lineup came ready to attack and we attacked as a team.”

Soto has stayed hot, with nine homers in his last 15 games. That’s the most in the majors during that stretch.

And with a bullpen game set for Monday in Seattle, David Peterson’s ability to throw four scoreless innings to finish the game sets the pen up well.

Of course, the Mets thought the end of their previous homestand would alter the course of their season, when they took two of three from the Yankees in the Subway Series.

That didn’t happen.

“The way we set ourselves up this year, we need as many wins as we can [get],” McLean said. “There’s definitely some good momentum.”

The season has officially come to an end for the Deacs. Wake Forest was eliminated on Sunday afternoon after falling to the hosting West Virginia Mountaineers by a score of 10-5. They finish the season with a 39-21 record.

This one was mostly just a combination of all the issues the Deacs had during the regular season: costly errors, wild pitches, and an inability to generate offense on anything other than home runs. Things started to go south in the 2nd inning, where a wild pitch from starting pitcher Troy Dressler brough in the first run of the game, and then an error from RF Luke Costello allowed 2 more runs in the inning to give the Mountaineers a 3-0 lead.

Wake tied things up a couple of innings later on a 2-run homer by Matt Conte.

It was basically all WVU from there. The Mountaineers scored 7 unanswered run—6 in the 6th inning—to put this one out of reach. The Deacs got a couple of runs on an Andrew Costello home run in the 6th inning and a wild pitch that brough in Dalton Wentz in the 8th, but they ultimately just couldn’t generate enough offense to catch up. The Deacs finished the game with just 5 hits—3 outside of the 2 homeruns—to West Virginia’s 13. Wake also finished with 4 wild pitches, 4 walks, and allowed a run on a failed pick off attempt at 2nd base that sent the ball sailing into center field.

The Deacs simply did not hit the ball enough to cover up for the many mistakes they made in this one, and it’s hard to win doing that.

Football season is officially on the clock.

Go Deacs.