MLB ROUNDUP: RANGERS RALLY, TOP YANKEES IN 10TH ON JOSH JUNG’S HR
Josh Jung’s two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning provided the winning runs as the Texas Rangers rallied for an 8-5 walk-off victory over the slumping New York Yankees on Monday in Arlington, Texas.
After New York did not score in the top of the 10th, Yankees reliever Jake Bird (4-2) retired the first two batters he faced before intentionally walking Wyatt Langford. Jung then rocketed his homer into the left field stands.
Danny Coulombe (2-0) worked through a two-out walk in the top of the 10th to earn the win. The Rangers’ Joc Pederson ripped a one-out pinch-hit solo homer in the ninth inning off Devin Williams that tied the game at 5-5 and sent it to extra innings.
Paul Goldschmidt had three hits and scored three runs to lead the Yankees, who have dropped four straight games.
Blue Jays 15, Rockies 1
Bo Bichette homered twice, singled and drove in six runs, Ernie Clement had a career-high five hits, and Toronto routed Colorado in Denver.
Toronto’s Daulton Varsho went deep for the first time since coming off the injured list on Friday and finished with two hits and four RBIs. Nathan Lukes and Joey Loperfido had three hits apiece and Addison Barger, Alejandro Kirk and Davis Schneider contributed two hits each as the Blue Jays collected season highs in runs and hits (25) to back a strong outing by Eric Lauer (7-2), who held Colorado to one run on seven hits over six innings.
Ezequiel Tovar had two hits for Colorado, including an RBI single.
Phillies 13, Orioles 3
Kyle Schwarber blasted his 39th and 40th homers and drove in six runs to ignite Philadelphia to a home win over Baltimore.
Schwarber’s grand slam capped an eight-run sixth inning for Philadelphia, which scored all of those runs with two outs. Recently acquired Harrison Bader hit a go-ahead three-run homer earlier in the frame — his first home run since joining the Phillies — while three other Philadelphia players homered in the game. Jesus Luzardo (10-5) worked six solid innings to earn the win.
Tyler O’Neill and Jordan Westburg each went deep for Baltimore, which has lost four of its last five games. Orioles starter Cade Povich (2-6) gave up four runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings before the flood gates opened.
Brewers 3, Braves 1
Quinn Priester threw seven quality innings and Isaac Collins hit a three-run home run to propel visiting Milwaukee to a victory over Atlanta.
Priester (11-2) won his fifth consecutive start, allowing just one run on two hits. The Brewers mustered just three hits, but Collins’ 376-foot homer to right field was enough to help the club post its seventh win in eight tries. In the ninth, closer Trevor Megill needed just seven pitches to retire the Braves in order, picking up his 25th save.
Fedde (3-12) surrendered three runs on three hits in 5 1/3 innings, walking two and striking out none. Jurickson Profar homered and walked twice, but the Braves fell to 5-11 after the All-Star break.
Astros 8, Marlins 2
Jason Alexander pitched six scoreless innings to lead visiting Houston to a win over Miami.
Astros outfielder Jesus Sanchez, who made his MLB debut with the Marlins in 2020, slugged an RBI double to open the scoring during Houston’s five-run fourth inning. It was Sanchez’s fourth game with the Astros after being acquired on July 31. He played 532 games over his first five-plus MLB seasons with the Marlins. Alexander (2-1) allowed just three hits and one walk.
Javier Sanoja and Derek Hill homered for Miami in the seventh. It was the first time in 19 years that the Marlins slugged consecutive pinch-hit homers. Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara (6-10) lasted seven innings, allowing nine hits and six runs.
Reds 3, Cubs 2
TJ Friedl’s tiebreaking seventh-inning single helped the visiting Cincinnati defeat Chicago.
Friedl’s blooper to shallow center on a 2-2 pitch from Caleb Thielbar was the Reds’ third two-out in the inning. His single brought home Jake Fraley, who doubled to right-center off Ryan Brasier (0-1), with the go-ahead run. Emilio Pagan pitched a perfect ninth for his 24th save.
Tyler Stephenson homered for the Reds, while Dansby Swanson hit a two-run shot to account for the Cubs’ offense. Right-hander Michael Soroka left his Chicago debut after two innings with a sore shoulder, and he is headed for the injured list.
Pirates 5, Giants 4
Jack Suwinski hit a two-run shot and later scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth as Pittsburgh rallied for a walk-off victory over San Francisco.
After a lengthy rehab from Tommy John surgery, Pirates right-hander Johan Oviedo got his first start since 2023, but lasted just one inning. He surrendered two runs on two hits while throwing 43 pitches. Relievers Yohan Ramirez, Kyle Nicolas, Ryan Borucki and Dauri Moreta (1-0) combined to allow only two runs on five hits over the next eight innings.
Giants starter Justin Verlander gave up one unearned run and three hits over five innings. Randy Rodriguez (3-3) walked Andrew McCutchen and hit Suwinski in the ninth to set up the game-winning force out from Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
Tigers 6, Twins 3
Kerry Carpenter, Wenceel Perez and Dillon Dingler hit home runs as host Detroit doubled up Minnesota to open their three-game series.
Ryan Jeffers, Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner responded with solo shots for the Twins. Travis Adams, in his first MLB start after four relief appearances, surrendered two runs on four hits while striking out seven in five innings. Noah Davis (0-2) was roughed up in the sixth to take the loss.
Detroit starter Casey Mize (10-4) gave up the long balls but allowed only one other hit over six innings. Kyle Finnegan struck out two in the ninth to earn his 22nd save and second since being acquired by the Tigers last week.
Diamondbacks 6, Padres 2
Tyler Locklear and Alek Thomas homered, Brandon Pfaadt tied a career high with his 11th victory, and Arizona beat San Diego in Phoenix.
Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had two hits and two RBIs apiece as the Diamondbacks extended their winning streak to three games. Pfaadt (11-7) gave up two runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings, and Kyle Backhus pitched two innings for his first career save.
Jackson Merrill and Jake Cronenworth had the Padres’ RBIs. JP Sears (7-10) gave up five runs on 10 hits in five innings during his first start for San Diego.
Angels 5, Rays 1
Jo Adell hit a two-run homer and Yusei Kikuchi allowed one run on four hits over six innings, leading Los Angeles to a victory over Tampa Bay in the opener of a three-game series in Anaheim, Calif.
Taylor Ward went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Bryce Teodosio had a career-high three hits, stole a base and scored a run for Los Angeles. Kikuchi (5-7) walked two and struck out seven while picking up his first win since July 12 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Yandy Diaz doubled, walked and scored a run for Tampa Bay, which lost for the 10th time in the past 12 games. Adrian Houser (6-3), making his Tampa Bay debut after being acquired from the Chicago White Sox at the trade deadline, gave up five runs on 11 hits over 5 2/3 innings.
Cardinals 3, Dodgers 2
Masyn Winn and Ivan Herrera hit home runs, Yohel Pozo delivered a go-ahead, pinch-hit single in the ninth inning and St. Louis pulled off a victory over Los Angeles in the opener of a three-game series.
Cardinals right-hander Sonny Gray shook off recent struggles to give up one run on one hit over seven innings as St. Louis improved to 2-2 on a six-game road trip to San Diego and Los Angeles.
Freddie Freeman homered and Tyler Glasnow went seven strong innings, but the Dodgers still lost in the opener of a six-game homestand. Glasnow yielded one run on three hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Guardians 7, Mets 6 (10 inn.)
Gabriel Arias hit a three-run homer and later delivered an insurance sacrifice fly in the 10th inning as visiting Cleveland outlasted New York.
Mets’ reliever Ryan Helsley (3-2) allowed a pair of unearned runs in the 10th. Pete Alonso went 4-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs, while Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto had two hits each.
Cade Smith (4-4) tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings and wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth. Rookie Nic Enright allowed a run in the 10th, but notched his first save. David Fry and Carlos Santana had RBI singles while Steven Kwan and Brayan Rocchio had two hits apiece for the Guardians.
Red Sox 8, Royals 5
Jarren Duran hit a three-run home run and Boston extended its winning streak to six games by beating visiting Kansas City.
Duran’s home run, his 12th of the season, came against Royals starting pitcher Bailey Falter (7-6), who was making his Kansas City debut after being acquired from Pittsburgh. Falter gave up seven runs on eight hits in four innings. He struck out two batters and walked two. Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia hit solo home runs for Kansas City.
The Red Sox received a strong pitching performance from Brayan Bello, who limited the Royals to one run on six hits in six innings. Bello (8-5) struck out five and walked one. Aroldis Chapman pitched the ninth to earn his 21st save. Romy Gonzalez, Alex Bregman and Wilyer Abreu — the first three hitters in Boston’s batting order — each collected two hits in the win.
YANKEES OF AARON JUDGE COULD RETURN TO ACTION TUESDAY
Two-time American League MVP Aaron Judge could make his return to the New York Yankees’ lineup on Tuesday.
Judge has been on the 10-day injured list with a flexor strain in his right elbow, but he has been hitting off Yankees minor league pitchers at the team’s complex in Tampa for the past few days. He was expected to join the Yankees in Texas as they opened a three-game series against the Rangers.
New York manager Aaron Boone told reporters on Monday that Judge could make his return to the lineup on Tuesday.
“I don’t want to say definitely because I haven’t seen him yet, but I think that’s the plan,” Boone said. “I think he’s expected in here tonight and we’ll make that call.”
An MRI did not reveal acute damage to Judge’s ulnar collateral ligament. The outfielder received a platelet-rich injection on July 27 and was placed on the 10-day IL retroactive to the previous day.
Boone noted that if Judge does make his comeback, he will do so as a designated hitter. He will play catch while with the Yankees to help the team determine when he could return to the outfield.
“I’m hoping that Judgie’s clean and is playing catch either (Tuesday) or the next day,” Boone said, “and we’ll start to get an idea about a timeline for that and then we’ll see when we get back home what happens there.”
Judge has batted .342 this season, best in the majors, to go along with 37 home runs (fourth in MLB) and 85 RBIs (fifth).
SURPRISE! THERE’S BEEN QUITE A BIT OF PARITY IN THE RACE FOR BASEBALL’S BEST RECORD
The 2025 regular season was supposed to be about Dodger dominance.
Instead, the race for baseball’s best record has turned into a free for all.
If there were any concerns about a Los Angeles behemoth running roughshod over the sport, that hasn’t materialized so far. In fact, eight different teams have spent the past three months passing baseball’s best record around like a hot potato.
The race for the top record in the major leagues is in many ways symbolic. Home field advantage in the postseason isn’t quite the prize it is in the NFL or NBA, and there’s no Presidents’ Trophy given for regular-season excellence like in the NHL. But the number of teams that have taken a turn at the top is noteworthy. Since May 1, the Dodgers, Tigers, Padres, Mets, Phillies, Cubs, Brewers and Blue Jays have all held the best record at some point.
Five of those teams have held the top spot in an even more recent span — since July 1.
Since the American League and National League began expanding significantly in 1961, this is only the fifth time at least eight teams have held (or tied for) the best record in baseball through games of May 1 or later, according to Sportrader. One of those seasons was 2020, when the whole 60-game schedule was after that date. The others were 1963 (eight teams), 1982 (eight) and 2021 (nine).
The largest lead any team has been able to open on the rest of the majors — all season — is when Detroit was three games up for a few days shortly before the All-Star break.
Here are the teams (or pairs of teams) that have led the major league standings at the end of each day since the start of May.
May 1-7: Dodgers
May 8-9: Dodgers and Tigers
May 10: Padres
May 11-12: Dodgers
May 13: Mets and Tigers
May 14: Tigers
May 15: Dodgers and Tigers
May 16-22: Tigers
May 23-27: Phillies
May 28-June 10: Tigers
June 11-12: Mets
June 13-24: Tigers
June 25-26: Dodgers and Tigers
June 27: Dodgers
June 28-30: Dodgers and Tigers
July 1-4: Dodgers
July 5: Dodgers and Tigers
July 6-18: Tigers
July 19: Cubs
July 20: Tigers
July 21: Brewers
July 22: Brewers and Cubs
July 23-24: Brewers
July 25-27: Blue Jays
July 28-Aug. 3: Brewers
Trivia time
Seven of baseball’s current franchises have never finished with game’s best regular-season record. Who are they?
LA’s story
For the first few weeks of the season, it looked like the Dodgers might indeed be on their way to well over 100 wins. The defending champs — who had added pitchers Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki in the offseason — won their first eight games, but since then Los Angeles has looked mortal. In early June, the Dodgers had 14 pitchers on the injured list, and although they’re in first place in their division, their current winning percentage of .580 would be their worst since 2018 if that’s where they finish the season.
Line of the week
Pittsburgh’s Liover Peguero hit three home runs Saturday in an 8-5 loss to Colorado. It was a tough defeat to swallow for the Pirates, who actually gave ace Paul Skenes some run support, only for him to allow four runs in five-plus innings.
Comeback of the week
On the topic of tough losses to swallow, the Pirates also fell to the Rockies on Friday night — after scoring nine runs in the top of the first. Pittsburgh led 16-10 before allowing two in the eighth and five in the bottom of the ninth. Brenton Doyle hit a two-run homer to win it 17-16 for Colorado, which had a win probability of 0.5% in the eighth according to Baseball Savant.
The Rockies are the only team this season to win after falling nine runs behind, and they continue to make progress in their effort to avoid matching or breaking the modern record for losses set by the Chicago White Sox last year. Colorado went 3-3 this week and is now 30-81 on the season. The White Sox went 41-121
Trivia answer
Unsurprisingly, the seven are among the majors’ younger franchises — the Rays, Diamondbacks, Marlins, Rockies, Blue Jays, Padres and Rangers.
Of the teams that have finished with the best record in baseball, the one with the longest current drought is the Twins, who last did so in 1965.
BIG DUMPER’S BIG YEAR: CAL RALEIGH’S ‘STAGGERING’ SEASON LEADS AN OFFENSIVE SURGE BY MLB CATCHERS
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh — better known by the catchy nickname “Big Dumper” — has lived up to the moniker, dropping baseball into the outfield seats all over the big leagues this season.
Manager Dan Wilson has been in awe of his talents.
“That’s what you get from Cal,” Wilson said. “Night in, night out, blocking balls, calling the game, leading a pitching staff, throwing runners out — that’s what Cal does and he does it very well.”
Oh … wait a second. Wilson obviously wasn’t taking about Raleigh’s prodigious power — he’s talking about how the 28-year-old handles the most demanding defensive position on the baseball field: Catcher.
Raleigh has smashed 42 homers this season, putting him on pace for 60, with a chance to catch Aaron Judge’s American League record of 62. That would be fun to watch under any circumstance. The fact that the All-Star and Home Run Derby champion is also responsible for guiding the Mariners’ pitching staff on most nights makes it even more impressive.
Seattle is currently in the thick of the American League playoff race with a 60-53 record, and the Mariners are relying on Raleigh’s bat and his brain to try and make the playoffs for just the third time since 2001.
There’s the mental side of the job — meetings, film study, calling pitches — but there’s also the wear and tear of the physical side. The 2024 Gold Glove winner is also squatting, handling the run game, taking painful foul tips off all parts of his body, putting his 6-foot-2, 235-pound frame through the ringer four or five nights a week.
All while hitting those homers.
Catching is demanding and can wear on power hitters
The fact that it took Raleigh a few years in the big leagues to emerge as a true superstar — this is his fourth full season with the Mariners — isn’t surprising. The learning curve for young catchers can be severe and the defensive part of the job takes precedence. There’s a long list of backstops who couldn’t hit a lick yet carved out long MLB careers.
Raleigh is a man of many talents and his power was always evident. He hit 27 homers in 2022, 30 in 2023 and 34 last season. Now he’s on pace for 50 long balls and maybe more. There are only five other players in big league history who have hit at least 40 homers while primarily playing catcher: Salvador Perez, Johnny Bench (twice), Roy Campanella, Todd Hundley and Mike Piazza (twice). Bench, Campanella and Piazza are Hall of Famers.
It’s evidence of a player at the top of his game — and one who has come through plenty of experience.
“I don’t think I’m trying any harder or doing any more than I have in the past,” Raleigh said. “Maybe a little more focused on the right things, and not constantly trying to tweak or change something that I have been in the past. So, I think that’s been the biggest part to the success, and just trying to keep that consistent and steady.”
Wilson was more direct, putting into perspective what Raleigh has accomplished through the first four months of the season.
“It’s pretty staggering,” Wilson said.
Raleigh’s big numbers are part of an offensive surge for MLB catchers: Will Smith, Hunter Goodman, Logan O’Hoppe, Shea Langeliers, Alejandro Kirk, Salvador Perez and William Contreras are among roughly a dozen at the position who are more than holding their own at the plate.
Veteran catcher Carson Kelly is on pace to have his best offensive season in the big leagues at 31, batting .272 with 13 homers and 36 RBIs for the Chicago Cubs. He’s been in the big leagues for 10 years and said the balance between offense and defense is tough for young players.
“It’s almost like you’re drinking from a firehose with how much information you have,” Kelly said. “And I think, as you see catchers, as the years go on, you get smarter.
“You get smarter in your routines. and you’re able to focus on the little details,” he continued. “When you get called up as a young guy, there’s so much going on. And as the years go by and as the days go by, you get more comfortable. ‘OK, I know this, I know that, how do I really funnel this down into a couple points?’
“I think that’s, you know, when you see catchers kind of take off.”
Some adjustments are helping catchers stay fresh
One major factor for the increased offensive production for catchers could be the one-knee down defensive stance that’s been adopted by nearly every MLB catcher over the past five years.
The argument for the stance is its helpful for defensive reasons, including framing pitches on the corners.
But there’s also the added benefit that it’s a little easier on the knees than squatting a couple hundred times per game.
“A hundred percent,” said Goodman, the Rockies primary catcher who is hitting .279 with 20 homers. “You think about back in the day when everybody was squatting … being in a squat for that long can be can be hard on your legs. Getting on a knee gives your legs a little bit of rest for sure.”
Statistical trends suggest he has a point. Catchers have accounted for 12.2% of all MLB homers this season, making a slow climb from 10% in 2018.
Raleigh’s been the best of the bunch and fans — along with his catching peers — are noticing.
“It just seems like on both sides of the ball, when he’s behind the plate he’s really focused on his pitchers and calling a good game and all the things that a catching position entails, and then when he comes up to the plate, he can do damage,” Kelly said.
