Author: rincon

Garret Anderson, the multitalented outfielder who became the Los Angeles Angels‘ career hits leader and led the team to its only World Series title, has died. He was 53.

The Angels announced Anderson’s death Friday morning without immediately disclosing the cause or location.

Anderson reached the majors with the then-California Angels in 1994 and played for the club until 2008, primarily as a left fielder. He was a fixture in the heart of their batting order for his entire tenure, becoming the franchise’s career leader in games played (2,013), hits (2,368), RBIs (1,292), total bases (3,743), extra-base hits (796), doubles (489) and grand slams (8).

“The Angels organization is mourning the loss of one of our franchise’s most beloved icons, Garret Anderson,” Angels owner Arte Moreno said in a statement. “Garret was a cornerstone of our organization throughout his 15 seasons, and his stoic presence in the outfield and our clubhouse elevated the Angels into an era of continued success, highlighted by the 2002 World Series championship. Garret will forever hold a special place in the hearts of Angels fans for his professionalism, class and loyalty throughout his career and beyond. His admiration and respect for the game was immeasurable.”

The Angels will wear a memorial patch this season bearing Anderson’s initials, the team announced. They will hold a moment of silence Friday before the Angels host the San Diego Padres.

Anderson was a three-time AL All-Star who finished as high as fourth in the AL MVP balloting, and he won two Silver Slugger awards. He memorably won the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game MVP award in 2003 in Chicago.

His 272 career homers are third in Angels history behind Mike Trout and Tim Salmon. Only Trout has scored more runs in Angels history than Anderson.

In 2002, Anderson batted .306 and drove in a team-leading 123 runs for the then-Anaheim Angels, who won 99 games and earned a wild-card playoff berth. The Halos stormed through the playoffs to this franchise’s only championship, overcoming a 3-2 series deficit to Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants to win the World Series.

Anderson was a key factor in the Fall Classic, batting 9 of 32 with six RBIs. He drove in the final three runs of the series with a tiebreaking three-run double in the third inning of the Angels’ 4-1 victory over the Giants in Game 7.

Anderson finished his career with the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers before his retirement in 2011. He was inducted into the Angels’ Hall of Fame in 2016, and he regularly worked for the team as a television broadcaster on its pregame and postgame shows over the ensuing decade.

Anderson was born in Los Angeles on June 30, 1972. He attended Granada Hills High School in the suburban San Fernando Valley before the Angels drafted him in the fourth round in 1990.

The Angels said Anderson is survived by his wife, Teresa, daughters Brianne and Bailey, and son Garret “Trey” Anderson III.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

A near no-no for the Guardians

Cleveland has had baseball long enough to have multiple no-hitters in its history — 14 of them, in fact — but the last one came all the way back in 1981. To give you some perspective on how long ago that was, it’s three years before the Guardians’ manager, Stephen Vogt, was born. And hell, Vogt was born 10 years before FOX Sports was first founded. It’s been a while, is the thing.

On Thursday, the Guardians had a chance at their first no-no in 45 years, when rookie starter Parker Messick got through eight no-hit innings against the Orioles. It was just the 11th start of his career, as he made seven of them in 2025 without losing his rookie eligibility, and Thursday was his fourth of the current season. He has shined throughout his brief time in the majors — his combined ERA through his first 65.1 innings in the bigs is 2.07 — but has never been better than on Thursday.

Messick tied a career-high with nine strikeouts, walked two and didn’t allow a hit through the first eight innings against Baltimore. He would enter the ninth inning already at 106 pitches — his first time over 100 in the majors, and also the first time he pitched into the eighth or ninth — and give up a hit on the first pitch of that frame to center fielder Leody Taveras.

The Guardians kept Messick in the game at first, to pitch to shortstop Blaze Alexander and see if he could get out of this with a complete game, at least, but another single followed, and he was pulled. While Messick was charged with two runs on the day, those came about because the runners he bequeathed to closer Cade Smith both scored.

Cleveland did not end up breaking the no-hitter drought, but on the bright side: Parker Messick. He’s been pitching like the kind of shutdown starter the Guardians — which are not exactly an offense-first team — need if they are going to thrive in the AL Central. That’s not nothing.

Messick had help in securing the 4-2 W, most notably from star third baseman Jose Ramirez. Ramirez had a great catch in foul territory where he somehow managed to hold on to a ball that he snowconed while coming up against the wall…

…and he was also responsible for the first two runs of the day for the Guardians, when he belted a middle-middle 96 mph four-seamer over the fence in right-center field in the bottom of the first inning.

That’s 289 career homers for Ramirez now, who looks likely to become the ninth-ever player with 300 home runs and 300 steals at some point this summer.

Padres sweep Mariners for eighth-straight W

The Padres barely put up a fight for last year’s inaugural Vedder Cup between San Diego and the Seattle Mariners, but things are going very differently in 2026. The Padres won on Thursday, 5-2, sweeping the M’s and ensuring that the best result Seattle can get here is a season split with San Diego.

A four-run second inning did the job for the Padres. First baseman Gavin Sheets hit a one-out double, which was followed by back-to-back singles from DH Miguel Andujar and catcher Luis Campusano. Second baseman Jake Cronenworth would then reach on a fielding error to load the bases, which allowed a ground out by left fielder Ramon Laureano to score another run. Right fielder Fernando Tatis would then hit a two-run single to make it 4-0, and while the Padres didn’t need another run for the dub, they got it in the seventh on an RBI single by third baseman Manny Machado.

Mason Miller came in for the save and struck out the side to give San Diego its eighth-straight victory.

Miller is on an absurd run at the moment: he now holds the second-longest scoreless streak in Padres’ history, as he passed Randy Jones in this outing and is now at 30.2 innings without allowing a run. (The Padres are wearing patches to honor Jones this season, as died in November at the age of 75.) Cla Meredith’s franchise record is 33.2 innings.

Oh, and Miller is getting there by being dominant in a way that has literally never happened before.

Miller has pitched in nine games and thrown 9.1 innings. He has 23 strikeouts against two (2!) baserunners. The last time he gave up a run in a Padres’ uniform was Aug. 5, 2025, in his second appearance with the team: he struck out 42 batters with nine walks, four hits and no runs allowed for the rest of the regular season.

Caminero’s timely homer, for his mom

Junior Caminero bashed 45 homers in 2025, so his going yard in 2026 isn’t exactly a shocker. However, the Rays’ third baseman promised his mother that he would hit a homer for her on her birthday, and like a good, devoted son, he delivered.

This wasn’t just some random homer for mom, though. The Rays were down 3-2 to the White Sox in the ninth inning on the road when Caminero strode to the plate to leadoff the inning against new pitcher, Chicago closer Seranthony Dominguez. Dominguez missed with his first three offerings, and Caminero watched a 3-0 sinker up in the zone for strike one. Next came another 98-mph sinker, this time inside as it broke across the plate and right into the path of Caminero’s bat instead of underneath it. It barely made it over the wall, but it got out in a hurry and counts all the same.

Tampa Bay would end up plating three runs that inning, and the White Sox couldn’t muster a response in the bottom of the frame. The White Sox are now just 6-13, while the 11-7 Rays are winners of six in a row and atop the AL East. 

Angels rout Yankees as Trout makes history

Angels’ star center fielder Mike Trout was in position to make history against the Yankees on the road on Thursday — all he needed was one home run, and a couple of best-ever accolades would come his way. New York starter Max Fried pitched him carefully for most of the game, walking him twice early, putting Trout’s ability to hit a home run for the fourth-straight game — and his fifth in four days — into question for most of the series-concluding matchup.

Then, the seventh inning came, and reliever Angel Chivilli was on the mound instead. He threw one too many pitches in the strike zone, and did not fool Trout with an 89.7 mph changeup low in the zone following a much quicker slider in the same place a pitch before. The result? Explosive.

Trout didn’t just hit a homer. He drove that pitch 446 feet to deep left-center field, with an exit velocity of nearly 115 mph. He crushed that changeup, and put the Angels up 7-4 in the process. With this dinger, Trout became the first-ever opposing player at Yankee Stadium — any version — to hit a home run in four-straight games, and as it was his fifth of the series as well, he tied the all-time lead for home runs by a visiting player in a series against the Yankees, joining George Bell (1990), Darrell Evans (1985) Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx (1933).

Not wanting Trout to become the first-ever player to hit six long balls in a series against them, the Yankees then walked the red-hot slugger the next time up. It worked, sort of: the Yankees avoided another dinger from Trout himself, but that walk loaded the bases for right fielder Jo Adell, who hit a grand slam instead to get the game to its final score of 11-4.

The dinger after an intentional walk; there’s nothing quite as satisfying. 

The Yankees lost, but: Aaron Judge

Mike Trout obviously deserves attention for a series by a visiting player unlike any that has come before at Yankee Stadium, but living in his shadow a bit was the Yankees’ own star slugger, Aaron Judge. Judge went deep again on Thursday, too, giving him four home runs during the series.

That also ties Judge with Cardinals’ outfielder Jordan Walker for the MLB lead, while putting him atop the American League — one ahead of Trout. Both had a bit of a slow start to the season, but Trout is now up to .246/.416/594 with seven dingers, and Judge is at .236/.321/.597 with eight, so, safe to say they seem to be coming out of their respective early funks.

Brewers bunt three times in a row, win

The Blue Jays and Brewers were both having trouble scoring runs on Thursday, with the game still tied up at 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh. So, Milwaukee decided that playing for one run wasn’t so bad when a single run might end up being all that was needed to win. They took this concept to the extreme, and bunted in three consecutive plate appearances.

Garrett Mitchell pinch-hit and drew a walk to start the inning, and then the bunting began. Outfielder Greg Jones was out on a sacrifice bunt to move Mitchell over, and that was followed by a bunt for a hit from third baseman David Hamilton when the throw to first took Kazuma Okamoto off the bag. Milwaukee decided to roll the dice a third time, having shortstop Joey Ortiz attempt to bunt Mitchell home from third, and while Ortiz ended up out, the damage was done; the Brewers now led, 2-1.

And that would end up being the final score. Hey, when you play for one run, that’s all you’ll get, but sometimes one run is enough.

Oneil Cruz has your hardest hit of 2026

Not a home run, no, but Pirates’ center fielder Oneil Cruz tattooed this ball all the same. That’s an exit velocity of 119 mph for Cruz on this double off of Nationals’ lefty Foster Griffin.

Cruz is no stranger to hitting baseballs very hard, but it is still funny that Cruz’s earlier hit, a single to center, came off the bat at “just” 94 mph. Guess he had to course correct a bit, and did he ever.

Tigers walk it off for sixth-straight win

What a game between the Tigers and Royals. It took a late rally for Detroit to come out ahead and notch their sixth-straight W, but they got there in the end. It took until the middle of the game for the scoring to truly get going, too, as it was just 2-1 Tigers through four innings, but then everything opened up. Detroit scored four runs in the fifth to extend the lead to 6-1, but then catcher Salvador Perez hit a sac fly to cut into the lead slightly, and a huge sixth inning put Kansas City ahead, thanks to a six-run effort.

The Tigers clawed back a run in the seventh, but things could have gone better than that for Detroit, if not for this incredible sliding catch out in right-center field by Kyle Isbel.

He had to consider not just his own place in the outfield relative to the wall, but also his incoming teammate, right fielder Jac Caglianone, who was also speeding to the fence to make the grab. The only way to make it work without incident was by sliding, and Isbel pulled it off — luckily, Calgianone knew enough to hop up against the wall to avoid running right into Isbel as he was defenseless on the ground.

On top of this bit of run prevention, the Royals got the one they did give up back in the top of the ninth to make it 9-7, Kansas City, with three outs to go for Detroit. This was not an insurmountable lead: Royals’ closer Lucas Erceg came in for the save, but instead, he allowed a leadoff single to second baseman Gleyber Torres and a walk (after an ABS challenge) to rookie infielder Kevin McGonigle. It looked like Erceg might escape trouble after getting the next two batters out, but left fielder Riley Greene doubled in both Torres and McGonigle, and suddenly it was tied up 9-9.

Third baseman Colt Keith, who entered the game earlier as a pinch-hitter, got an 89.8 mph changeup middle-middle from Erceg, and was not fooled. He laced it through the hole in the right side of the infield, and Greene came around to score the winning run.

The Tigers were in real trouble for a bit very recently, but have turned things around from a 4-9 start to now be 10-9. Meanwhile, the Royals just made getting back to .500 or better more difficult thanks to Detroit getting the brooms out. But hey, it’s early on both fronts: Detroit was a mess a week ago, and now they’re surging!

Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports

Cleveland Guardians rookie Parker Messick lost his no-hitter on the first batter in the top of the ninth inning. Baltimore Orioles outfielder Leody Taveras knocked a single into right field to spoil Messick’s bid.

He carried the no-hitter through eight innings, in which Messick walked two batters and matched a career high with nine strikeouts. 

Messick was pulled from the game after allowing another hit to shortstop Blaze Alexander, and was ultimately tagged with two earned runs when relief pitcher Cade Smith allowed RBIs to Gunnar Henderson and Pete Alonso.

Messick came close to throwing the first no-hitter in the majors since Sept. 4, 2024, when Shota Imanaga and two Chicago Cubs relievers combined to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 12-0, and the first no-hitter for Cleveland’s organization since Len Barker’s perfect game on May 15, 1981, against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Cleveland has the majors’ longest current gap between no-hitters. 

Carlos Carrasco went 8 2/3 innings against Tampa Bay on July 1, 2015, and Gavin Williams had a no-hitter for 8 1/3 innings last season on Aug. 6 against the New York Mets.

Carrasco came within one strike of a no-hitter when Rays left fielder Joey Butler lined a slider on an 0-2 count that just eluded the glove of leaping Cleveland second baseman Jason Kipnis.

Juan Soto broke up Williams’ no-hit bid with a home run to center.

Messick faced one batter more than the minimum. He walked leadoff hitter Taylor Ward before retiring the next 15 batters. Ward hit a deep flyball to center field in the third inning that Steven Kwan caught at the wall, and Jose Ramirez made a nice stop on a grounder by Coby Mayo deep in the hole at third to end the fifth.

Messick walked Taveras leading off the sixth, but Ward grounded into a double play to end the inning. Ramírez also made a terrific grab in foul territory to retire Samuel Basallo leading off the eighth.

This was just Messick’s 11th career start at the major league level. He was the 54th overall pick in the 2022 amateur draft out of Florida State and made his big league debut last year.

Messick came into the game with a 5-1 career mark and a 2.04 ERA. He was 2-0 with a 0.51 ERA in his first three starts this season.

The Guardians backed up Messick with Ramírez’s two-run homer in the first and RBI singles by Kwan in the fifth and George Valera in the sixth.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports

NEW YORK — For Jose Caballero, coming through in clutch situations is normal. It’s what he has expected of himself since he grew up playing baseball in Panama. 

So, all these years later, three years to the day since he made his Major League Baseball debut, nothing has changed. The stakes are higher, with Caballero taking charge as the starting shortstop for the New York Yankees. But his mentality is always the same. 

“I like the pressure,” Caballero told me on Wednesday in the Yankees clubhouse after he seized yet another opportunity at the plate. “I like the big moments. I like to contribute to the team. And I did it.”

Two days after scoring the deciding run in a thrilling come-from-behind win, Caballero again was at the center of it all, delivering a two-run walk-off double off Angels closer Jordan Romano, leading to a 5-4 win on Wednesday in the Bronx.

Caballero is getting an extended runway as the starting shortstop while Anthony Volpe continues to work his way back from an offseason shoulder surgery. But, the way he’s been hitting lately, there should be no question about his playing time. 

Caballero battled against Romano, eyeing a couple of sliders before connecting on the third and lacing it to center field. The crowd was trying to match Yankee Stadium’s loud sound system, but for Caballero, the world seemed to quiet around him. The 29-year-old was locked in, patiently waiting to do damage on an offspeed pitch in the zone.

Nearly an hour after the final out, long after he received an ice-cooler bath on the field, Caballero didn’t even realize reporters were waiting to talk to him. He sat in his chair in front of his locker for several minutes, decompressing after the adrenaline rush of hitting the game-winning hit. The Yankees electric infielder didn’t seem to understand that what he did was special and worth unpacking. For him, it’s the standard.

“I’m living for those at-bats,” Caballero said. “I want those at-bats every time I step into the box. It’s the at-bat that the team needs, and it’s the at-bat that I really want.”

Even as “it’s not easy” for the Yankees right now, as manager Aaron Boone said, Caballero’s unshakeable confidence is exactly what the team needs. 

The Yankees have lost seven of their last nine games, and eight of their last 11. Their series against the Angels was a seesaw, highlighted by Aaron Judge and Mike Trout trading home runs throughout the four-game set. Trout launched five home runs, while Judge went yard four times. Two future first-ballot Hall of Famers one-upping each other wasn’t enough to cover up some of the Bombers’ weaknesses. Yankees pitchers combined to cough up 32 runs in the Angels series, with 21 of those coming on home runs. 

Caballero, meanwhile, has turned it on after a slow start. He’s hitting .348 (8-for-23) in his last six games, with the majority of his at-bats coming from the eight-hole. 

“He loves the action,” Boone said. “And he’s really confident. That’s one of his biggest strengths. He thinks he’s the best player on the field. And that’s an important thing to have and play the game with. It does seem like the bigger the stakes, the more he’s able to dig in.”

If Caballero keeps hitting like this, his recent resurgence just might force the Yankees to make a somewhat difficult decision because …

Volpe Is Closing In On His Season Debut

The shortstop played in a baseball game on Tuesday for the first time since his October surgery to repair a torn labrum. Volpe, who went 0-for-2 in a minor-league game against the rehabbing Zack Wheeler, is continuing to ramp up with the Double-A Somerset Patriots for now. He’s expected to build up his at-bats and test his shoulder throughout the next week in the minor leagues. Volpe will play in back-to-back games on Thursday and Friday, rest on Saturday, and play again on Sunday.

He’s viewing this workload build-up as an opportunity to assess how comfortable his shoulder feels while diving for plays in the dirt, stealing bases and throwing to first. 

“I wish I could play more to test it more, but it felt amazing,” Volpe said this week while joining the Yankees on an off-day in his rehab schedule. “I’m not thinking about testing it, but then after the fact, you think about how it felt. And it just feels normal.”

Volpe feeling normal will help the Yankees evaluate whether he can be an impactful hitter in the Bronx. The team has maintained that his season was derailed due to his shoulder injury last year, when he slashed a mediocre line of 212/.272/.391 in 153 games. As much as the Yankees will argue that Volpe is capable of being better than that, his 82 OPS+ in 2025 was nearly identical to his production in 2024 (86 OPS+) and 2023 (81 OPS+). 

Boone announced last weekend in Tampa, Fla. that when Volpe returns from rehab, he will be the Yankees starting shortstop. But at that time, Caballero was ice-cold at the plate. Now, he’s actually making it a tougher debate. Still, there’s no question the Yankees need more pop from the left side of the infield. The .529 OPS from their shortstops is ranked 27th in MLB, and the .607 OPS from their third basemen is ranked 20th. 

That’s part of why Volpe will receive every opportunity to get settled in at the plate this season. The Yankees have an influx of infielders on the roster, and someone between Amed Rosario, Ryan McMahon, and Caballero is likely to be the odd-man out after Volpe returns. 

Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports

Landen Roupp allowed one hit in six innings and Matt Chapman had an RBI double to spark a three-run rally in the seventh and help the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-0 on Thursday.

Roupp (3-1) didn’t allow a hit until No. 9 batter P.J. Higgins led off the sixth with a single. That ended up being the Reds’ only hit of the day.

Roupp hit TJ Friedl with a pitch, but Matt McLain struck out and Elly De La Cruz grounded into a double play to end the threat. Roupp walked two, struck out six and left after 87 pitches.

Ryan Walker pitched the seventh and Keaton Winn struck out two in the eighth. Erik Miller struck out the side in the ninth for his first career save.

Miller’s impressive ninth inning ended with controversy. After he struck out Reds’ budding star Sal Stewart to seal the game, he and Stewart exchanged pleasantries as Miller screamed at him. 

In response, both dugouts cleared, pitchers and coaches ran out of each bullpen to join the fracas. There were no physical altercations, but a rivalry could be brewing between two NL teams with playoff hopes. 

The Giants rallied when Luis Arraez reached on an error by De La Cruz at short leading off the seventh against reliever Brock Burke (1-1). Arraez scored from first on Chapman’s two-out double off the wall in left-center field. Jung Hoo Lee followed with an RBI single. Connor Phillips entered and walked Heliot Ramos before Casey Schmitt singled in a third unearned run.

Reds rookie Chase Burns allowed two hits and a walk, but still faced the minimum through six scoreless innings. He struck out four and left after throwing 87 pitches.

Phillips was ejected in the eighth for intentionally hitting Willy Adames with a pitch after Roupp plunked Spencer Steer in the second.

The Reds had homered in seven straight games.

The win snapped a four-game skid and helped the Giants avoid a three-game sweep.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:

The Cubs wrecked the Phillies

Things started out so well for the Phillies on Wednesday. Look, shortstop Trea Turner hit a leadoff home run and everything.

The problem was that the game didn’t end right then and there. Good news for Cubs fans, not so much for Philadelphia, which didn’t score again until the ninth inning. In between, Chicago dropped 11 runs on them. Three in the third wasn’t insurmountable, but then the scoring just kept going: two more in the fifth, and then four in the sixth. Second baseman and leadoff hitter Nico Hoerner was responsible for quite a bit of the damage, as he drove in five runs and scored twice himself with his 3-for-5 performance.

Phillies’ starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo bore the brunt of it, giving up nine runs — eight earned — in 5.1 innings of work. He struck out four batters and walked just one, but he was way too hittable throughout, allowing an even dozen knocks to Cubs’ hitters. And while there was an error that let a run score, Luzardo also didn’t help himself there: another run that same inning actually crossed the plate because he had a wild pitch to let it in.

Things settled down a bit after Luzardo left, but not entirely, as the Cubs plated a couple more over the next few innings. Shortstop Dansby Swanson got them to double digits with a dinger off of lefty reliever Kyle Backhus.

And Philly just stopped using actual relievers before the end, putting second baseman Dylan Moore in to pitch the ninth instead. Not the kind of game that feels great.

The W moved the Cubs back to .500 for the season, at 9-9, while the Phillies continue to waste the Mets’ early season struggles — Philadelphia is just 8-10, leaving them all of 1.5 up on the Mets in the NL East despite New York having lost eight in a row. And while the Mets are being brought up here as they were (and are!) expected to contend, both are behind the Braves, which look nothing like last year’s disappointment and are second in run differential to the defending champion Dodgers, on top of being 12-7 and in first in the East. Philly isn’t building much of a lead on one competitor, but it’s also already 3.5 behind another. And there’s a whole lot of season left — we’re halfway through April and all — but this is the kind of stretch you look back on in September and curse.

Padres come from behind, walk it off

There was just a tad more drama in the second game of the now-annual Vedder Cup between the Padres and Mariners. It didn’t seem particularly dramatic at first, though. Instead, it looked like it might be going to similar places to Cubs-Phillies, since Seattle dropped six unanswered runs on San Diego in the first five innings.

And nearly more than that, too, if not for some acrobatics out in center field by Jackson Merrill. Mariners’ center fielder Julio Rodriguez nearly went deep, but the ball hung up there long enough for Merrill to get under it and time a jump over the fence to bring it back in, keeping the score at 2-0. Temporarily, anyway.

Third baseman Brendan Donovan would single in a pair the next inning, and then right fielder Luke Raley would hit a ball where Merrill couldn’t reach it — 434 away — to make it 6-0 Mariners in the fifth.

The Padres would finally answer back in the sixth, when shortstop Xander Bogaerts picked up his third dinger of the year to make it 6-2. Then, in the bottom of the ninth against Seattle’s closer, Andres Munoz, San Diego’s bats finally got going for real. Third baseman Manny Machado opened things up with a walk, then designated hitter Gavin Sheets doubled him over to third. Right fielder Nick Castellanos struck out swinging, but first baseman Ty France would then hit a single to load the bases. Fernando Tatis Jr. would pinch-hit for Jake Cronenworth, and hit a sacrifice fly to bring the Padres to within three.

Luis Campusano, who had come in to replace starting catcher Freddy Fermin after Fermin was struck in the mask by a foul ball and had to be tested for a concussion — he was negative for one, by the way — singled in Sheets and advanced France to third. Left fielder Ramon Laureano would then single in another run, putting Campusano at second. The Mariners would swap pitchers, bringing in Jose A. Ferrer with San Diego just one down and the tying run on second, but up came Jackson Merrill, whose catch earlier in the game was a big part of why the Padres were even within one at this moment.

Merrill would double in both runners on a 97.8 mph sinker that stayed up and away, after fouling off two that fell lower in the zone.

The Padres walked it off, thanks to Merrill’s huge moments on both sides of the ball. And thanks to the dub and the five-run rally that generated it, we get to see one heck of a win-probability chart.

The Padres were down 6-0 after five, and 6-2 in the ninth. San Diego managed to rally long enough to get the Mariners’ closer out of the game, though, then pounced on his replacement for the W. They now lead the six-game Vedder Cup series 2-0 against the defending champs.

More like Longesteliers

A 467-foot homer is truly a long ball. And Athletics’ catcher Shea Langeliers launched one exactly that far on Wednesday against the Rangers. Texas’ right-handed reliever Cole Winn threw a 94-mph sinker that did not sink, and it came off of Langeliers’ bat going 112 mph.

 Sometimes you know a ball is gone the second you see it connect, and this was one of those — Winn knew without even turning around, given his body language, but he still eventually finished his spin to admire the shot. Well, not admire, but you get it.

That’s the furthest anyone has hit a dinger in 2026, and it sure looked the part. The A’s would end up defeating the Rangers, 6-5, as a late homer from first baseman Jake Burger wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit Texas faced.

Mike Trout homered again

Mike Trout is on one right now. The Angels’ center fielder hit another dinger, his fourth in three games, all against the Yankees. This wasn’t as much of a moonshot as the others this series, but he still took a 95.3 mph fastball and launched it back 383 feet in the other direction at a higher speed.

The homer is also a nifty one, statistically. Trout, per MLB’s Sarah Langs, is just the second visiting player to homer in three-straight games at this iteration of Yankee Stadium, joining Tigers’ legend Miguel Cabrera, who pulled it off in 2013.

This is a four-game series, though, meaning that, per Langs again, Trout has a chance to become the first-ever visiting player to hit a homer in four consecutive games against New York, in any version of Yankee Stadium. If he goes yard once more, he would also join another small crew, as just the fourth-ever player with five homers in a series against the Yankees: most recently George Bell in 1990, Darrell Evans in 1985 and all the way back in 1933, Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx. The Yankees and Angels conclude the series on Thursday afternoon, so, we won’t have to wait long to find out if he pulls it off.

But Romano blew it again

The Angels will be attempting a series split, though, despite Trout’s performance, because closer Jordan Romano just can’t seem to get it together. Romano got DH Giancarlo Stanton to line out to start the ninth, but then second baseman Jazz Chisholm singled and stole second and catcher Austin Wells walked. Then, shortstop Jose Caballero would double in both Chisholm and Wells, giving the Yankees the walk-off, come-from-behind win.

While there was a challenge on the play before anything was official, with the Angels thinking that backstop Logan O’Hoppe got Wells at the plate, the call was upheld and the game was over. Romano now has an 8.44 ERA, which seems like a small sample size thing until you remember it’s a continuation of last year’s 8.23 mark over 42.2 innings, itself the sequel to a disaster 13.2 innings the year before: he has a 7.88 ERA since 2023 over 61.2 innings, which, given the time involved, feels less and less like a blip every time he goes out there.

Sal Stewart goes 2×3

Reds’ first baseman Sal Stewart is a rookie, but you wouldn’t know it from the way he’s been playing. He’s leading the National League in slugging percentage, at .726, thanks to hitting two homers in four trips to the plate on Wednesday against the Giants. Even better, they were both three-run shots, so he pulled in six RBIs, or three-quarters of the Reds’ total for the day.

The first came against right-hander Tyler Mahle in the first inning, and saw him drive a 94.5-mph four-seamer on the outside of the zone to right-center field, 387 feet away.

The second, his seventh dinger of the young season, came in the very next inning. With Mahle still on the mound, he hit another 95-mph four-seamer to right-center, this one 383 feet. Within four feet of each other, on the same kind of pitch at the same speed and both three-run shots? Now that’s consistency.

Stewart is batting .323/.434/.726 with seven homers and 17 RBIs, and he has four doubles and three steals in three chances, to boot. Just a great run for the rookie to start the year, and if he keeps on slugging it will help solve a big problem with the lineup of the 2025 Reds. It certainly helped on Wednesday, when Cincinnati took down San Francisco, 8-3.

Well that was fast

Not every homer is a towering flyball that you can describe as majestic. Sometimes, they are lasers. Orioles’ second baseman Jeremiah Jackson had an excellent example of the form against the Diamondbacks. Look at this thing go.

It had a launch angle of just 18 degrees, but an exit velocity of 110.4 mph. That thing got out of there in a hurry, in just under three seconds — a little under half the time it took for the camera to realize that Langeliers’ shot had landed… somewhere outside the stadium.

Sadly for Baltimore, this laser was a highlight to remember, but the game as a whole was not: the Orioles lost to Arizona 8-5 in extra innings, as the Diamondbacks dropped three runs on Tyler Wells in the 10th.

Parkour!

It’s not just the leap and the bounce, but also the holding onto the ball afterward that ties it all together, you know? A great grab by left fielder Brandon Lockridge there.

And hey, it helped: the Brewers would win against the Blue Jays, 2-1 — every out matters in a game with a margin that narrow.

Javier Baez knew the score

Come for the incredible slide into home, stay for the finger wag from Javier Baez.

Ohtani finally allowed a run, but it didn’t matter

Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani didn’t play that way on Wednesday. Sorry, he still played like a star, but he wasn’t doing the two-way thing despite taking the mound: he got his first day off from hitting while pitching since 2021, thanks to a bruised right shoulder from a hit by pitch. That shoulder didn’t keep him from throwing a gem, however: Ohtani limited the Mets to one run over six innings while striking out 10 and giving up two walks and hits a piece.

Alas, that run — scored in the fifth inning on a ground-rule double after Ohtani handed out both of his free passes for the day — meant the end of his scoreless inning streak, which dated back to 2025’s regular season. It ended at 32.2 innings, but it did go long enough that, per MLB, he was able to join Hall of Famer Babe Ruth as one of just two players to ever produce a 30-game on-base streak and a 30-inning scoreless streak over a career. Oh, and Ohtani’s 48-game on-base streak? That’s still active, too: only one other player ever managed 30 of each at any point in their career, and Ohtani was doing both simultaneously.

While Ohtani exited with the game still close at 3-1, the Dodgers added all kinds of insurance in the eighth with a five-run inning powered by a Dalton Rushing grand slam.

The Dodgers’ designated hitter — playing there instead of Ohtani — has appeared in just five games and logged 18 plate appearances for Los Angeles in 2026, but he has made the most of them: Rushing is batting .529/.556/1.353 with six of his nine hits of the extra-base variety. He’s got two doubles and four homers, which is a pretty good run for a backup catcher.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers shattered Major League Baseball’s spending record with a combined $515 million in payroll and luxury tax last year en route to their second straight World Series title, according to final figures compiled by the commissioner’s office, and Los Angeles is projected for the highest total again in 2026.

Los Angeles’ 2025 spending included records for payroll at $345.3 million and tax of $169.4 million for a total of $514.6 million. Despite several contracts discounted to reflect deferred payments, the Dodgers’ total was seven times the $68.7 million payroll of the Miami Marlins, the lowest-spending team, and more than the payrolls of the bottom-six clubs combined.

Spending by the Dodgers last year topped the previous high of $430.4 million by the 2024 New York Mets — and Los Angeles’ total didn’t include the $6.5 million signing bonus given pitcher Roki Sasaki as part of a minor-league contract.

The Mets and Dodgers combined to spend $948.3 million. The ratio of the five highest spenders to the five lowest increased from 3.6 in 2021 to a record-high 4.7 last year.

The Dodgers in 2025 ended the Mets’ three-year streak as the top payroll, boosted by $8.5 million in earned bonuses by retiring ace Clayton Kershaw.

Los Angeles’ total would have been about $71 million higher but for the use of deferred money for seven players that resulted in discounting for their payroll calculations. Shohei Ohtani counts at $28.2 million because $68 million of his $70 million salary last year isn’t due until 2035.

The Mets finished second in payroll at $342.1 million and, with tax, had a total spend of $433.7 million.

In the first five seasons after owner Steve Cohen bought the team, the Mets spent $1.44 billion without winning a title: $1.11 billion in payroll and $320 million in tax.

Both the Mets and Dodgers exceeded the previous record-high payroll set by the 2024 Mets at $333.3 million.

Los Angeles is projected as of MLB’s opening-day figures to lead in 2026 spending with a $323.3 million payroll for its 40-man roster and a $163.7 million tax for a $487.1 million total. The Mets began with a record payroll at $358.4 million and have a projected tax of $124.1 million for a $482.5 million spend.

The Cleveland Guardians have the lowest opening day 40-man payroll this year at $75.5 million.

Total spending, based on regular payrolls, rose 3.1% to $5.32 billion last year from $5.16 billion in 2024 and has increased 31.3% in four seasons under the current labor contract from $4.05 billion in 2021.

Those figures do not include the $50 million annual pre-arbitration bonus pool that began in the 2022 collective bargaining agreement or allocations for benefits, which are included in MLB’s luxury tax payrolls.

Among luxury tax payrolls, eight teams began 2026 over the $244 million tax threshold. The Dodgers ($415.2 million), Mets ($379.2 million) and New York Yankees ($339.6 million) were followed by the Toronto Blue Jays ($319.5 million), Philadelphia Phillies ($315.2 million), Boston Red Sox ($263.7 million), San Diego Padres ($260.1 million) and Atlanta Braves ($247.9 million).

The Chicago Cubs started $25,000 under and the Detroit Tigers $2.5 million below. Payrolls increase and decrease during the season due to trades and roster moves.

The Yankees finished 2025 with the third-highest regular payroll at $301.5 million, followed by Philadelphia ($291.9 million), AL-champion Toronto ($253.1 million), the Houston Astros ($236.4 million) and the Texas Rangers ($229.9 million).

Four of the top five spenders reached the playoffs, except the Mets, along with teams whose payrolls ranked ninth, 10th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd and 25th.

The Dodgers boosted payroll the most in 2025 at $74.4 million. Other teams with big 2025 increases were Detroit ($61.9 million), the Baltimore Orioles ($60.2 million to $165.6 million), San Diego ($45.6 million to $217.6 million), Philadelphia ($42.8 million) and Toronto ($34.7 million).

Fifteen teams cut payrolls from 2024 to 2025, led by the Chicago White Sox (by $66.1 million to $87.9 million), the St. Louis Cardinals ($39.3 million to $139.1 million), Miami ($29.4 million to $68.8 million) and the San Francisco Giants (by $28 million to $182.9 million). The Cardinals have further slashed payroll to $102.3 million on opening day this year, and that includes about $47.4 million attributable to trades involving three players no longer with the Cardinals: Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray and Willson Contreras.

The Yankees cut payroll by $9.4 million from 2024 to 2025 and have raised it to $302.8 million this year.

Eleven teams topped $200 million in 2025, matching the record set in 2023. Five teams were below $100 million, one more than the record-low in 2024.

Regular payrolls for last year are based on 2025 salaries, earned bonuses and prorated shares of signing bonuses and non-cash compensation for 40-man rosters. Deferred salaries and bonus payments are discounted to present-day values, and termination pay, option buyouts and cash transactions among clubs are accounted for.

MLB calculated the average salary as of Aug. 31, the last day before active rosters expanded to 26, at $4,611,595. The players’ association, using a slightly different methodology, arrived at $4,721,393,

Luxury tax is based on payrolls with average annual values that include benefits and the pre-arbitration bonus pool. The players’ association doesn’t think tax payments should be used in measuring disparity, because half the tax money goes to a commissioner’s discretionary fund distributed among teams eligible to receive revenue-sharing money which has grown their non-media local revenue.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles) – In the aftermath of the Mets’ sixth straight defeat Monday night, shortstop Francisco Lindor sat reclined in a chair, jersey off, chatting quietly with Luis Robert Jr. The only audible noise in the visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium came from the scraping of dirt off cleats by the clubhouse attendants.

“It sucks going through it, whether it’s early, middle of the season, late,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “You know that at some point during the regular season of 162, you’re going to face adversity, and here we are, pretty early, facing adversity. You’ve just got to find a way to get through it.”

Instead, it only got worse from there as the Mets’ losing streak stretched to eight games after getting swept by the Dodgers on Wednesday night. New York was outscored 14-3 over its three games in Los Angeles.

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Here are my takeaways from the series:

1. The Juan Soto-less Mets offense looks lifeless

On Wednesday night, Francisco Alvarez was halfway up the line on a soft groundout to Dodgers second baseman Alex Freeland in the seventh inning when he spiked his bat into the ground, a sign of the growing frustration from a remade offense that has been one of the worst in baseball to this point.

The Mets entered the series finale at Dodger Stadium having been outscored by 26 runs over a seven-game losing streak during which they were hitting .182 with a .215 on-base percentage as a team. No other team in that span had an on-base percentage lower than .255.

It was a short sample, but up until the Mets lost Soto to a calf injury on April 3, their offense ranked 14th in OPS. They now rank 29th, and the losing streak is up to eight.

This week in Los Angeles, New York’s offense was held down by stars and supporting cast members alike. On Monday night, Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski threw a career-high eight shutout innings in the longest outing of his professional career. The next night, Francisco Lindor greeted Yoshinobu Yamamoto with a leadoff home run before Yamamoto retired the next 20 batters he faced. By night’s end, the Mets had scored one run in their last 29 innings. 

That drought stretched to one run over 33 innings until an RBI double by MJ Melendez in the fifth inning on Wednesday off Shohei Ohtani. It was the only run the Mets scored off Ohtani in an 8-2 loss.

2. No two-way Shohei, but Ohtani’s shoulder looks fine on the mound

In the Dodgers’ first at-bat of the series on Monday night, Mets starter David Peterson plunked Ohtani with a 94-mph, 0-2 sinker directly behind the four-time MVP’s right shoulder. Ohtani was in clear discomfort, but he remained in the game and finished the night 0-for-4 with a run scored.

After going 0-for-3 with a walk on Tuesday, there came a surprise on Wednesday: For the first time since 2021 — before the “Ohtani rule” was created, allowing two-way players to remain in the game as a hitter even after their pitching outing ends — Ohtani was not in the lineup as a hitter on his start day on the mound.

Manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani was still dealing with some soreness behind his shoulder, and he wanted Ohtani to just focus on pitching Wednesday night. He did that job expertly, holding his velocity and cranking his four-seamer up as high as triple digits while striking out 10 batters and allowing just one run in six innings.

That one run, which scored on a ground-rule double from MJ Melendez, was the first earned run Ohtani has allowed in the regular season since Aug. 27 of last season.

The plan is for Ohtani to return to his usual two-way duties for his next start on the mound. His on-base streak — 48 games, the longest active streak in MLB — is still ongoing.

3. The Dodgers still have plenty of pop from the DH spot without Ohtani

Having Ohtani serve only as a pitcher Wednesday night gave backup catcher Dalton Rushing an opportunity to get into the lineup as the DH. He took advantage, breaking the game open with a grand slam in the eighth.

Rushing has taken advantage of his few chances as the catcher behind Will Smith. The 2022 second-round pick is 9-for-17 with four home runs. He has recorded a hit in all five games he has played in this year and has homered in three of them.

The hit prevented closer Edwin Díaz from appearing against his former team. He was held out of Tuesday’s game after throwing a bullpen session earlier in the day after reporting some discomfort in his knee, but he insisted he was fine. He was warming up, getting ready to enter before Rushing’s grand slam.

4. The Dodgers’ supporting cast is thriving; the Mets’ newcomers … are not

Even with Mookie Betts and Blake Snell on the shelf and Kyle Tucker not yet performing to his capabilities, the Dodgers look every bit the juggernaut expected. 

As Rushing’s power display demonstrated, the supporting players on their roster are helping pick up the slack. Andy Pages ranks fifth among all qualified MLB hitters in OPS and mashed a three-run homer in the opener. Hyeseong Kim, who was playing shortstop Wednesday night with Betts out, started the scoring on Wednesday with a two-run homer after Rushing doubled.

The support continues on the pitching staff. Wrobleski, the Dodgers’ sixth starter, spun a gem on Monday. With Díaz down on Saturday, Alex Vesia struck out the side in the ninth to secure the save.

As a team, the Dodgers’ offense ranks first in OPS and home runs while their pitching staff ranks second in ERA.

The Mets, with Soto down and Lindor struggling, meanwhile, have not received much help from their supporting cast. 

Bo Bichette has started the first year of a three-year, $126 million deal with a .575 OPS. Marcus Semien is batting .182. Jorge Polanco is banged up and hitting .179. Rookie Carson Benge is hitting .151. Luis Robert Jr. has been one of the bright spots, but his .716 OPS isn’t enough to carry the sputtering offense, which was inevitably going to have a spotlight on it after this winter’s obliteration of the team’s nucleus of players.

The early results are … not promising.

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DODGER STADIUM (Los Angeles) — As Miguel Rojas rounded third base after his improbable season-saving World Series Game 7 home run last October, the cameras cut briefly to his manager. Dave Roberts, who decided to ride with the light-hitting veteran infielder with the Dodgers’ season on the line, screamed in excitement before briefly raising his arms in the air. 

He then immediately placed his hands on his head, closed his eyes and exhaled.

 The emotional gamut Roberts experienced — elation, disbelief, relief, all in a matter of seconds — offered a glimpse into the pressure of his high-stakes job, though Roberts believes he has gotten better over the years at handling and masking the stress. Deep breathing exercises and an unwavering belief in his process have helped. So has golf. He takes his clubs on the road and tries to sneak in time to play during the season as a way to “balance out this crazy life of managing the Dodgers.” 

Of course, winning three championships in six years has also lightened the load that once existed, quieted the criticisms that were once pervasive and helped the man with the highest winning percentage of any manager in modern AL/NL history find more delight in a journey that was once, amid unfulfilled October expectations, less joyful. 

“I can honestly say that, at times, the joy has been taken out because of the cynicism from the eyes looking in at my job or the job I’ve done,” Roberts told me last weekend during a reflective 12-minute conversation from his office at Dodger Stadium. “But I do think that that has considerably dissipated after winning in 2024.”

Even before that World Series victory earned Roberts a four-year extension, the 2024 triumph brought more jubilation than the championship four years prior, when a 2020 pandemic-shortened World Series title snapped a 32-year drought for the Dodgers but failed to stifle the noise around their manager. 

“2020 was just a relief,” Roberts explained. “I still felt that, I don’t know, whatever, the unease, or just kind of not as joyful, and it was unfortunate because I love this game so much. I love our city. I love our players. But unrealistic expectations are hard to kind of realize all the time, right?

“And that’s the job I signed up for, which I completely understand, but it did at some points take away the joy. So I’ve had to intentionally, consciously, enjoy moments. Because the question is, if you can’t enjoy moments, then what am I doing this for?”

After back-to-back World Series wins, he no longer has to question that.

‘Just trying to slow down time’ 

Roberts has grown accustomed to short offseasons after leading the Dodgers to the World Series in five of the last nine seasons. So when the pressure of October gives way to a calmer November, he tries to take advantage of every second, detaching from the game and keeping a busy itinerary.  

“I think I’ve done a very good job of getting away,” Roberts said, “and our front office does a great job of kind of letting me get away.”

This winter, Roberts took a couple of trips to Maui. He played more golf. He went to Japan and visited his birthplace of Okinawa. A week after celebrating his third World Series win as the Dodgers’ manager (and fourth overall, including his 2004 win as a player in Boston), he was on the sidelines in Tuscaloosa taking in his first SEC football game in an Alabama rivalry clash against LSU. 

“Coach [Kalen] DeBoer’s a good friend of mine,” Roberts explained. “I saw some UCLA games — football games, a basketball game — spent time with the family, and I think when you have two short offseasons in a row, you’re just trying to slow down time.” 

He has found that to be more challenging than slowing down a game, which has gotten easier with more experience and success. 

Roberts isn’t on social media, which protected him from some of the vitriol spewed by fans after the Dodgers lost back-to-back World Series in 2017 and 2018 and were stunned by the eventual champion Nationals in the 2019 NLDS. More acrimony followed after the 2020 success when the Dodgers were bounced in the 2021 NLCS before suffering consecutive NLDS exits against division rivals in 2022 and 2023. 

Beyond the boos from his own home crowd, he would get wind of fan sentiment another way. 

“You know how you hear about it? Is when I get texts from good friends saying, ‘Hey, we still love you,’ and, ‘It’s not that bad,’” Roberts recalled. “I’m like, shoot, it must be really bad.” 

Those messages aren’t as prevalent anymore, not after becoming the first manager to lead his team to back-to-back World Series titles since the 1998-00 Yankees. The jeers at home have turned to cheers every time Roberts is introduced. His Dodgers are the odds-on favorites to three-peat, and they’ve started the 2026 season with 13 wins in their first 17 games. 

 “The thing is, there’s no better teaching tool than experience,” Roberts said. “There really isn’t. You can always say, ‘Just enjoy it,’ right? But when you’re hearing all this stuff and the expectations are almost unrealistic, that’s hard to enjoy. But you’ve got to kind of wrap your head around that to then say, ‘The world’s not going to end, the sun is going to come up.’”

‘If that goes wrong…’

Roberts prefers to think forward, not dwell on the past. He hasn’t even taken his 2024 World Series ring out of the safe in his house, though he knows what that postseason run meant for his career. 

“If that goes wrong,” Roberts said, “there’s a chance that I could not be out here. I could not be in this job.” 

Roberts understood that at the moment, but he projected confidence despite the beleaguered state of the Dodgers’ rotation, the two elimination games his team faced against the Padres and the bullpen games that would be required to ultimately prevail. 

With the season on the line in San Diego, he told his players he believed in them more than any team he had ever coached. 

“Everyone’s aware of the noise and narratives out there,” Roberts recalled, “but I didn’t want anyone to feel that.”

That postseason was Roberts’ masterpiece. He pushed all the right buttons as the Dodgers rebounded to shut out the Padres in Games 4 and 5 in an NLDS victory that many on the team considered a turning point in the franchise’s history. 

On a personal level, it was around that time when Roberts felt the full buy-in and trust of his players, which he credits in part to the support of veterans Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Blake Treinen, who has found it easy to open up to Roberts.

“As a manager, there are times where he’s in the right and he could easily come in barking at people, but he doesn’t,” Treinen told me. “He meets them where they’re at, gains understanding, and he’s willing to listen to people. That’s why he’s such a great leader.”

Roberts doesn’t think much about the “what-ifs” from that 2024 run unless someone else brings them up. But the widespread criticisms of his past October bullpen decisions ended with that potentially make-or-break postseason. 

“No one likes to hear bad things about them,” Roberts said. “No one does. Every single day, you’re opening yourself up to criticism with my job. And it’s hard not to take things personal, but I’ve realized as time has gone on, it’s like, it’s really not about me. There’s a lot of miserable people in this world with a platform. Anyone that has a phone or some account, they have a voice. And a lot of people are never around, have their own issues personally, and they’re lashing out. For me, it’s like, I actually have grace for them.”

Who helped him get to that place? 

“More self-reflection,” Roberts said. 

Winning didn’t hurt, either. 

Roberts has led the Dodgers to the postseason in each of his first 10 years as the team’s manager, something no other National League skipper has done before, but the postseason success of the last two years has put him on a different pedestal. 

In 2024, his prudent bullpen decisions shielded a shorthanded rotation. Last year, he leaned on his starting pitchers to protect a shoddy bullpen and relied on the players he trusted with the season on the brink. 

The result, one of pure elation, put him on a track toward Cooperstown and helped remove any doubt that might have existed before about why he’s doing this. 

“Not everyone that’s involved in this game loves it,” Roberts said. “I love this game. I feel like I want to be a steward for this game, and I love players, and I feel like that’s what keeps me joyful — because I feel like I’m impacting the game in a positive way.” 

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.

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The Minnesota Twins and Major League Baseball are investigating Jarren Duran‘s allegation that a fan he pointed his middle finger at during a game had told the Boston Red Sox outfielder to kill himself.

Duran made the gesture as he returned to the dugout after a fifth-inning groundout in Boston’s 6-0 loss to Minnesota on Tuesday night at Target Field.

“We were made aware of the situation late last night and are looking into it,” Twins senior vice president of communications and public affairs Dustin Morse said. “There’s no place in our game for conduct like that.”‘

MLB confirmed its own investigation, per standard practice of reviewing the conduct of both the player and the fan before determining any potential discipline.

“Somebody just told me to kill myself. I’m used to it at this point, you know?” Duran said after the game, adding that he “shouldn’t react like that, but that kind of stuff is still kind of triggering.”

Duran discussed bouts with severe depression and a suicide attempt in a Netflix documentary series that debuted last year.

“Honestly, it’s my fault for talking about my mental health because I kind of brought in the haters. So I’ve just got to get used to it,” Duran said. “I was just trying to hold it in and not really bring that up to the team. I mean, we’re trying to win a game. I shouldn’t even bring that up to anybody. … It just happens.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said after the game he hadn’t witnessed the confrontation or reviewed video of it, but he shared his thoughts with reporters ahead of the series finale on Wednesday.

“I know the Twins are all over the case and trying to find out who he was, and hopefully they find the person,” Cora said, adding that, if found “it’s probably the last big-league game that that person is going to attend.”

“We have Jarren’s back. Like I said last year, for him to open up, he saved lives,” Cora added. “And it’s not easy. It’s not easy because, like he said, we’re in the business of winning games, and he doesn’t want to be a distraction. And he’s not a distraction. He’s not. He’s just a player that plays for the Red Sox and has our full support.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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