Category: Baseball

Munetaka Murakami hit his first career grand slam, Davis Martin gave up three hits over seven innings, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Athletics 9-2 on Friday night.

Murakami went 3 for 5 with singles in the third and fourth innings before his 431-foot grand slam in the seventh, the third of the season for the White Sox, who now lead the majors. It was Murakami’s sixth homer of the season.

The White Sox had 15 hits. A’s starting pitcher Aaron Civale (2-1) gave up a career-high 11 through 4 2/3 innings. He threw 103 pitches and gave up five earned runs with four strikeouts and a walk.

Colson Montgomery doubled in a run in the first to get the White Sox rolling early and followed it up with an RBI single in the third. Edgar Quero hit an RBI groundout in the third and Luisangel Acuna and Andrew Benintendi both hit RBI doubles in the fifth.

Martin (3-1) had four strikeouts and gave up three hits, two walks and only one earned run.

Nick Kurtz hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth for the Athletics, sending Shea Langeliers home, and Andy Ibanez drove in Max Muncy in the bottom of the eighth.

Up next

The White Sox and Athletics continue their three-game series on Saturday, with Erick Fedde (0-3, 3.38 ERA) taking the mound for Chicago opposite Luis Severino (0-2, 5.59).

Reporting by The Associated Press.

Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports

Jose Soriano pitched two-hit ball into the sixth inning of his fifth consecutive win, Yoan Moncada and Josh Lowe homered, and the Los Angeles Angels snapped the San Diego Padres‘ eight-game winning streak with an 8-0 victory Friday night.

Adam Frazier had an RBI triple and Jo Adell had a two-run double for the Angels, who opened a six-game home stand by blowing out a Southern California rival.

Soriano (5-0) continued his spectacular start to the season despite four walks, recording eight strikeouts and lowering his ERA to 0.28 with just one run allowed in his 32 2/3 innings this season. The Angels’ ace increased his major league-leading strikeout total to 39, and he joined the Milwaukee Brewers‘ Aaron Ashby as MLB‘s only pitchers with five wins.

Three Los Angeles relievers wrapped up a combined three-hitter in San Diego’s first shutout loss of the season.

Before the first pitch, Angel Stadium aired a tribute video and observed a moment of silence for Garret Anderson, the longtime Angels outfielder and franchise hits leader whose death at 53 was announced by the team earlier Friday. The Angels are wearing a patch bearing Anderson’s initials on their uniform shoulders.

Matt Waldron (0-1) yielded six runs on eight hits in his season debut for the Padres, who followed a perfect 7-0 home stand with only their second loss in two weeks. San Diego had won 11 of 12 since its 2-5 start to the season.

Waldron started 26 games for the Padres in 2024, but just one last year — and then the occasional knuckleballer got a late start in the current season after undergoing a procedure on a hemorrhoid in February.

After Moncada’s homer began a three-run rally in the second, Soriano escaped a bases-loaded jam in the third by getting Jackson Merrill to ground out.

Nolan Schanuel chased Waldron with an RBI single in the fourth before Adell and Lowe delivered two-RBI hits off David Morgan.

Soriano left after Manny Machado singled and Xander Bogaerts walked, but Chase Silseth got Gavin Sheets to fly out to the warning track in right.

Up next

Germán Márquez (2-1, 5.54 ERA) takes the Big A mound for the Padres on Saturday to face the Halos’ struggling Yusei Kikuchi (0-2, 7.50).

Reporting by The Associated Press.

Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports

The family of late San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler is nearing a sale of the team, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Friday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Padres aren’t commenting publicly on the process.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the imminent deal with private equity billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones. The team is expected to be sold for $3.9 billion in a record deal for a Major League Baseball team, easily topping the approximately $2.4 billion paid by Steven Cohen for the New York Mets in 2020.

The 53-year-old Feliciano is the co-founder and managing partner of Clearlake Capital, a private equity firm based in Santa Monica, California. The firm was part of an investment group that purchased Premier League club Chelsea in 2022, with Los Angeles Dodgers minority owner Todd Boehly becoming the Blues’ chairman.

Seidler’s family began to explore a sale of the Padres last November, two years after the death of the popular Peter Seidler. His brother, John Seidler, has served as the Padres’ chairman since then.

Peter Seidler was part of a group that bought the Padres in 2012, and he became the team’s primary owner in 2020. He enthralled San Diego’s baseball fans with his free-spending eagerness to win the Padres’ first World Series, and general manager A.J. Preller built a series of exciting teams that have reached the MLB playoffs in four of the last six seasons — a first in team history.

The Padres’ potential sale price reflects their value as San Diego’s only franchise in North America’s four traditional major sports leagues, leading to a passionate fan base in their attractive home at downtown Petco Park. The team has set attendance records in each of the past three seasons, capped last season by drawing a whopping 3,437,201 fans — the second-most in the majors to the Dodgers, who play in their much larger stadium in Chavez Ravine.

Feliciano was born and raised in Puerto Rico before attending Princeton and Stanford. He co-founded Clearlake Capital two decades ago.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports

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

Two years ago, Luis Arraez was traded away from a floundering Marlins team embarking on another rebuild under new leadership. The veteran infielder seemed to understand the business and the reality of the Marlins’ plight, and he harbored no obvious resentment toward his former employers as the team changed direction. 

In fact, weeks after getting dealt from Miami to San Diego, he was still raving about his old manager. 

“I respect that man a lot,” Arraez said. “He’s a special man.”

That man, Skip Schumaker, oversaw an unexpected 15-win year-over-year improvement in Miami in 2023. The Marlins’ 84 wins allowed them to reach the postseason for the first time in a full season in 20 years — they also made it to the playoffs in the shortened 2020 season — and earned Schumaker the honor of National League Manager of the Year in his first season as a big-league skipper. He got the most out of a Marlins team that had a minus-57 run differential, finding ways to win close games and instilling belief. 

The euphoria, however, was fleeting. 

The Marlins got swept in the wild-card series. Weeks later, Kim Ng, the general manager who gave Schumaker his opportunity, parted ways with the team after ownership reportedly sought to hire someone above her. The Arraez move began a firesale early in the 2024 season amid a 9-24 start, as new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix attempted to restock what was, at the time, one of the weakest farm systems in the sport. 

Schumaker tried to steer the ship through choppy waters. Jake Burger, a Marlins corner infielder and DH in 2023 and 2024, still remembers the energy his manager brought every day amid the turmoil and sudden change in direction. 

“I think we broke the major league record for transactions that year,” Burger recalled to me last week during the Rangers’ West Coast road trip. “It’s part of the game, part of the business. But for him, it was about showing up and doing the little things right on a daily basis.”

Positive vibes, however, can only do so much when the talent is inadequate. The novice group finished with 62 wins. Schumaker departed at season’s end, immediately becoming one of the hottest commodities on the coaching circuit. The problem? There weren’t many seats open.

Instead of trying to jump back into another rebuild somewhere else, Schumaker spent the 2025 season as a senior adviser to Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young. Schumaker used some of that time out of the manager’s chair to seek feedback around the league from coaches and players about what they felt he did right and what he did wrong in Miami. One such opportunity presented itself at an annual winter ski trip he takes with a handful of MLB managers. 

“You’re asking because feedback is growth,” Schumaker told me. “I just wanted to know what I was missing, what I did wrong, so you can grow from it.” 

Now, he can put the advice to practice. 

When the Rangers and manager Bruce Bochy parted ways after three seasons and a World Series championship together, Schumaker emerged as the heir apparent. 

“You don’t know if you’re ever going to get this chance again to manage,” Schumaker said. “To be here in this type of organization, with my son going to college at TCU next year, all of this is surreal.”

‘Players want to know where they stand’ 

Arraez was far from alone in his effusive praise of Schumaker, particularly when it came to his ability to communicate. 

“He’s very clear about what he expects from each guy and what role they’re going to be in,” said Burger, who has the unique perspective of having played for Schumaker both in Miami and now in Texas. “As baseball players, we understand the game, we understand there’s a 26-man roster and a 40-man roster and all that, but him being able to communicate that and portray ‘we still need you no matter what role you’re in’ I think is the most influential thing that stands out.”

The way multiple Rangers players described it to me, Schumaker leads like a player would, which makes sense considering he was an 11-year big-league veteran who played until 2015. In his current role, the 46-year-old manager seeks to fill in the gaps that occasionally were missing during his playing career. 

“I’m just convinced that players want to know where they stand,” Schumaker said. “That’s it. When I was a player, I was a bench player, I was an everyday player, I was back to a bench player, and there were times when I didn’t know where I stood. I’d have to come in and check the lineup and kind of wonder what they’re thinking.”

It could be awkward and intimidating for a player to walk into a manager’s office to ask those questions. Schumaker doesn’t want that uncertainty lingering, so he’s proactive. 

“I’m going to tell them why I think they should be hitting in the lineup where they are, what leverage situation, the reasons why,” Schumaker said, “and players prove me right or prove me wrong. That’s just what it is. You’re always allowed to pivot. It’s OK to be wrong. I’ve got no ego in this thing, and I’ve been wrong plenty of times.”

Immediately after Brandon Nimmo was traded from the Mets to the Rangers in November, Schumaker laid out to the veteran outfielder what was expected of him and asked to know more about his routine. 

“He told me right away, ‘If you’re not opposed to it, we’re looking at you at right field and leading off,’” Nimmo said. “He’s open-minded with all that stuff and just wants to make sure he has a plan, he’s prepared, and that he’s able to keep you in the right positions to keep you prepared.”

Schumaker’s hands-on techniques differ from the usual big-league manager. 

Before a game, you might see him throwing batting practice, then dropping by to chat with a fielder taking live reads off the bat, then walking to the outfield to meet with a reliever shagging balls, all within the same hour. 

“It is different,” Nimmo acknowledged, “but I think it’s good. He was a player. He understands it. And he still has that competitive drive in him to be the best he can be, so you see that when you’re around him.”

Added Rangers reliever Tyler Alexander: “If you need to talk to him, you can find him. He’s with us after games, hanging out with us in the clubhouse when he gets a chance. You see him in the weight room. He’s just available.” 

Is that a good thing? 

“Well, if he’s a good guy, it’s a good thing,” Alexander said with a grin. “And he is. He’s fun to talk to. You can have a conversation with him.”

Bibles And Bourbon 

Back home in Orange County, Schumaker holds a bible study group every Thursday night called Bibles and Bourbon. 

One night, one of the group members suggested that every person share their story. Schumaker had known most of the people in the group for more than a decade, but he obliged. 

“We each wrote down our story and shared it,” Schumaker recalled last week, “and it was super impactful.”

Immediately, he knew he wanted to take that idea to his team. 

“If I don’t know exactly who you were, who your heroes were, how you grew up,” Schumaker said, “how do I know what’s going to motivate you?” 

The work of discovering his players’ motivations is an ongoing, everyday process.

“If we don’t get them better every day or give them a little something, then we’re not doing our job,” Schumaker said. “If our staff is scared to talk to our players, then I hired the wrong guys. And I feel like we hired the right guys.”

Understanding how a player was raised can help. 

One time, on an off day in the middle of a Marlins season, Schumaker and his bench coach, Luis Urueta, flew down to Miami’s complex in the Dominican Republic just to get a better idea of how the players grew up. 

“We just spent a day and a half there, and flew home,” Schumaker said. “It wasn’t to get a report on it. It was literally to find out what these guys go through and where they live. Some guys have tough upbringings, and to get to the major leagues, it’s really impressive. That’s part of their story.”

Schumaker is intent on collaborative communication and wants the information and the messaging from the front office down to the players to be consistent. He wants to put players in the best position possible. 

Most importantly, though, he wants his players to know he cares. That he has their back. 

“This thing,” Schumaker said, “is all about relationships.”

“He cares about you, your family, what your needs and wants are on a daily basis, what makes you tick on a daily basis,” Burger said. “That’s the easiest way to explain it: He wants to get to know the person before the baseball player, that way he can get the most out of you as a baseball player.”

The Team Meeting 

One of Schumaker’s best traits, according to Nimmo, is his ability to keep things in perspective. 

“He does a really good job of wanting you to be prepared and do everything you can in order to be successful,” Nimmo said, “but not base your identity off that.”

One example came back in spring, when Schumaker called a team meeting to introduce his players to Cade Spinello, a 20-year-old brain tumor survivor he met through his involvement with the Jessie Rees Foundation. 

The foundation is inspired by Jessica Joy Rees and her motto to “Never Ever Give Up.” In the midst of her own fight with terminal cancer, the 12-year-old Rees wanted to help other kids receiving long-term, in-patient treatment at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, so she created and distributed JoyJars, stuffed with toys and games, to provide encouragement. 

Spinello, who was Rees’ “chemo buddy,” has talked to Schumaker’s teams every year for the last decade. The message this spring resonated with Nimmo.

“Whatever you do, and whatever you’re given, it’s such a blessing,” Nimmo said. “Do it to the best of your ability, but also realize this life is precious, and the time you get is precious, and enjoy it.”

The Rangers have followed their surprising 2023 World Series run by missing the playoffs each of the last two years, unable to get the most out of the talent in place. They hired Schumaker on a four-year deal, believing he was the best option to foster an environment of positivity, growth and development. 

If it works, it wouldn’t be the first time Schumaker has extracted the most out of a group. 

“If you like coming to work every day,” Schumaker said, “you’re going to have success.” 

___

In “Touching Base,” we check on the top players and topics making headlines around baseball and what comes next.

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.
 

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.

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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.

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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.

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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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