Category: Baseball

The Detroit Tigers activated outfielder Matt Vierling from the 10-day injured list on Monday.

He was slated to start in center field and bat sixth as the Tigers look to snap a nine-game losing streak in Monday’s series opener against the visiting Atlanta Braves.

Vierling, 26, landed on the IL on May 29 with soreness in his lower back. He is hitting .241 with four homers and 15 RBIs in 46 games.

Detroit cleared room on the 26-man roster by optioning infielder/outfielder Nick Solak to Triple-A Toledo.

Solak, 28, made his Tigers debut in Saturday’s 5-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, appearing as a pinch runner in the bottom of the ninth inning.

–Field Level Media

The streaking Baltimore Orioles go for their fifth straight win when they open a three-game series against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.

The Orioles are 17 games over .500 for the first time since July 26, 2016, after they swept a three-game weekend series from the Kansas City Royals. It was their third three-game sweep of the season.

Gunnar Henderson went 3-or-5 on Sunday, including an epic 462-foot home run.

“I feel like when I finally get to the man-strength phase I might be able to get a little bit farther,” joked Henderson, who turns 22 later this month. “It feels like it’s been a long time coming. I feel like I’ve had a lot of good at-bats, put some good swings on the ball, and it was just a matter of time until I got one like that.”

Henderson is 10-for-19 (.526) over his past five games, with three home runs, six RBIs and five runs. He has hit leadoff the past two games after batting fifth or higher in 52 of his 57 games this season.

“He’s definitely more confident right now,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “I can tell he’s feeling a lot more comfortable at the plate.”

Ramon Urias had four hits Sunday and is 8-for-14 (.571) over his past four games, raising his average from .238 to .272.

The Orioles have not named a starter for Tuesday, while the Blue Jays will go with right-hander Chris Bassitt (7-4, 3.29 ERA).

Bassitt has followed up one of his worst starts of the season with a pair of strong performances. On May 27, he was blitzed by the Minnesota Twins for seven runs and nine hits over four innings of a loss. He has given up just two earned runs over 15 2/3 inning in his past two starts.

Last time out, he went eight innings to beat the Astros on Wednesday, giving up two runs on four hits while striking out five without a walk.

“I had my sinker really working,” Bassitt said. “They were really aggressive on it. When I’m throwing it well and they’re swinging, it’s going to be a lot of quick outs.”

Despite the clunker against the Twins, the right-hander has a 2.40 ERA over his last 12 starts. Bassitt is 3-0 with a 2.36 ERA in four career starts versus the Orioles.

Toronto opens a nine-game road trip after completing a 4-3 homestand with a come-from-behind 7-6 win over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday. On the verge of being swept, the Blue Jays rallied from five runs down in the fifth inning for the win.

Cavan Biggio hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the eighth inning and Matt Chapman had a two-run shot for Toronto, which is 8-3 in June.

On a day when starter Kevin Gausman allowed six runs over 4 2/3 innings, the Blue Jays’ bullpen stepped up and shut down Minnesota the rest of the way. Nate Pearson tossed two scoreless innings and earned the win, improving to 4-0 with a 2.05 ERA. He allowed one hit and struck out three.

“Nate has turned the corner in believing in who he really is, challenging hitters and having that confidence and demeanor,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

Brandon Belt (hamstring) and Kevin Kiermaier (wrist) remain day-to-day for Toronto.

–Field Level Media

For more than a quarter century, regular season games between the New York Mets and New York Yankees have been about seeing the best and highest-profile players in baseball on the same field a handful of times per season.

But Pete Alonso and Aaron Judge will be mere observers Tuesday night, when the sidelined sluggers watch the Mets host the Yankees in an opener of a brief two-game interleague series.

Max Scherzer (5-2, 3.71 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Mets against Luis Severino (0-1, 5.75) in a battle of right-handers.

Both teams were off Monday after losses in the deciding games of their three-game series on Sunday. The visiting Mets were limited to three hits in a 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates while the host Yankees squandered an eighth-inning lead and fell to the Boston Red Sox 3-2 in 10 innings.

The quiet offensive games underlined the struggles the New York teams face without Alonso and Judge, who lead their respective leagues in homers — Alonso has 22 homers and Judge has gone deep 19 times — and rank first and second in the majors in homers since 2019.

Alonso, whose 53 homers in 2019 broke the rookie record set by Judge just two years earlier, has 168 homers over the last four-plus years. Judge, who hit an American League-record 62 homers last season, has 156.

But it will likely be July before either player gets to add to his total. Judge is sidelined indefinitely with a right big toe sprain that happened when he ran into a concrete curb beneath a fence at Dodger Stadium while making a catch on June 3. Alonso is expected to miss three to four weeks with a left wrist bone bruise and sprain absorbed when he was hit by a Charlie Morton pitch last Wednesday.

The Yankees are 3-4 without Judge and have been limited to 21 runs, the fourth-fewest in either league since June 4. After maximizing their opportunities in a 3-1 win on Saturday night — when Willie Calhoun and Gleyber Torres homered and Kyle Higashioka added an RBI single — an eighth-inning miscue by Torres led to the frustrating loss Sunday.

Torres made no attempt to field a bounced throw from right fielder Billy McKinney following a single by Enrique Hernandez, who went to second and eventually scored the game-tying run.

“The little mistakes, when we are playing low-scoring, tight games — those are separators sometimes,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

The Mets, who dropped the fifth of their seven straight losses the night Alonso was hurt, scored 22 runs in their first three games without the slugging first baseman.

But Alonso’s absence was felt Sunday, when the Mets recorded just one hit after Jeff McNeil’s homer leading off the fourth. Tommy Pham doubled with one out in the ninth but was left there when Brett Baty and Mark Canha each flew out as the Mets tied a season high by slipping four games under .500.

“Absolutely we miss (Alonso), but we still got to get the job done,” Mets catcher Omar Narvaez said, according to Newsday. “We don’t really rely on one hitter. We’re still a group and still a good team.”

Scherzer didn’t factor into the decision last Wednesday, when he gave up five runs over 5 2/3 innings as the Mets fell to the Atlanta Braves 7-5. Severino didn’t factor into the decision last Thursday, when he allowed four runs over five innings in the Yankees’ 6-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox in the first game of a doubleheader.

Scherzer is 4-5 with a 3.67 ERA in 11 career starts against the Yankees. Severino is 2-2 with a 2.75 ERA in four games (three starts) against the Mets.

–Field Level Media

The Arizona Diamondbacks, who went 52-110 two seasons ago, are tied for the best record in the National League as mid-June arrives.

It has been quite a turnaround for the Diamondbacks, who look for their sixth straight victory and 12th in 14 games when they host the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night in the opener of a four-game series in Phoenix.

The Diamondbacks last made the playoffs in 2017 but are suddenly looking like a possible postseason participant as they sit 15 games above .500 and are tied with the powerful Atlanta Braves for the best mark in the NL.

Arizona leads the big-market Los Angeles Dodgers by 3 1/2 games in the NL West race after rallying for a 7-5 victory over the host Detroit Tigers on Sunday. The Diamondbacks pushed across four runs in the ninth inning to snatch the win.

“You’re down to your final out, you’re fighting and scratching all day long for every inch, and you come up with the big hit,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said afterward. “It’s just a testament to what these guys believe every single day. That they can go out and win a baseball game no matter what the circumstances are.”

Fueling the Diamondbacks’ rise is rookie outfielder Corbin Carroll, who is 10-for-19 with three homers, two doubles, one triple, seven runs and eight RBIs over his past four games.

On Sunday, Carroll went 3-for-5 for his third three-hit outing in the four-game span. He also stole his 19th base of the season while scoring twice and knocking in a run.

Carroll, 22, was impressed with the composure of his teammate as Arizona scored five runs in the final two innings.

“There’s no panic, everyone’s relaxed,” Carroll said. “And when you’re playing relaxed, you’re playing good baseball.”

Philadelphia is also playing solid baseball with seven victories in its past eight games.

The defending NL champions are still one game below .500 despite their recent flurry and will be looking to end some recent issues in Arizona.

The Phillies are just 4-12 in Phoenix since the start of the 2017 season.

They arrive with some momentum as the recent hot stretch includes taking two of three from the Dodgers, including Sunday’s 7-3 home victory.

“We’ve been playing well for a bit now, so that’s good,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said afterward. “Now we’ve got to go play a really good team and win on the road. That’s our next goal.”

Bryce Harper reached base four times on two singles and two walks. Trea Turner had three hits and scored three times.

“This is the kind of baseball we knew we could play,” Turner said of the recent stretch.

Left-hander Matt Strahm (4-3, 3.61 ERA) will make his ninth start of the season for the Phillies in the opener. He is expected to pitch one or two innings.

Strahm pitched one inning of relief against the Dodgers on Friday and allowed three runs on two hits, both homers. He had served as the opener in his previous outing on June 3 when he retired all six batters he faced against the Washington Nationals.

Strahm was the opener against Arizona on May 23 and allowed two runs and three hits in two innings. He is 2-3 with a 4.30 ERA in 21 career appearances (four starts) against the Diamondbacks.

Arizona’s Evan Longoria is 3-for-6 with two homers against Strahm.

The Diamondbacks will counter with left-hander Tommy Henry (3-1, 4.37), who beat the Phillies on May 22. Henry gave up two runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings during the 6-3 triumph.

Henry was roughed up for a season-worst five runs in his last outing when he received a no-decision against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday. He gave up five hits and three walks while striking out two.

Henry is 1-1 with an 8.38 ERA in two career starts against Philadelphia. Kyle Schwarber and Bryson Stott have each homered off Henry.

–Field Level Media

In search of more offense, the Boston Red Sox return home to open a three-game homestand against the Colorado Rockies on Monday night.

Although Boston won two of three games against the New York Yankees over the weekend, the Red Sox were held to seven runs in the series. Boston has scored three runs or fewer in eight of its last nine games and has a 3-6 record over that span.

“We have traffic,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of the Red Sox’s ability to get on base following Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the Yankees. “We’re working the counts, but obviously we’re not scoring runs. We’re not finishing anything. The two-out hits … they’re always important in this game and we’ve just got to find a way to get it going, finish the at-bats.”

Monday’s contest will be the start of a 10-game road trip for Colorado, which ended a six-game losing streak by beating San Diego 5-4 Sunday. That victory also ended the team’s five-game losing streak at home.

Ryan McMahon hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning for the Rockies, and, after a 1-hour, 25-minute rain delay, Nolan Jones hit a game-winning home run later in the ninth.

Colorado also got a home run from second baseman Coco Montes in his major league debut.

Left-hander James Paxton (2-1, 3.81 ERA) is scheduled to start on the mound for the Red Sox on Monday. He’s 1-3 with a 4.82 ERA in four career starts against the Rockies.

Paxton struck out nine and gave up two runs in seven innings during his last start to help the Red Sox defeat Cleveland 5-4 last Tuesday.

“We feel really confident whenever Paxton is taking the bump right now,” Red Sox outfielder Rob Refsnyder said. “He’s got pretty special stuff as you see. A high 90s fastball, kind of just bearing in. He gives us ace-caliber stuff.”

The Rockies will be looking for another strong start from right-hander Connor Seabold, who took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of Wednesday’s 5-4 loss to San Francisco. The no-hit bid ended when LaMonte Wade singled with one out in the sixth.

Seabold (1-2, 5.10) limited the Giants to two runs on two hits in six innings before departing in and ultimately receiving a no-decision. He struck out four and walked two.

“That’s the version that you’d like to see out of Connor and his stuff,” Colorado manager Bud Black said following that game. “Four pitches — fastball command to both sides of the plate, good changeup, slider, a couple of curveballs. A mix of pitches, changing speeds, disrupting timing of the hitters, crowding some guys on their hands.”

Before facing the Giants, Seabold allowed one run on three hits in 5 1/3 innings against Arizona on June 1. He struck out five and walked two in that game — also a 5-4 loss in which he did not get a decision.

The Rockies acquired Seabold from the Red Sox in January. He spent most of the 2022 season with Triple-A Worcester, where he went 8-2 with a 3.32 ERA. Seabold has never pitched against the Red Sox.

Colorado catcher Elias Diaz was not in the lineup Sunday after he was hit in the mask by a foul ball during Saturday’s game. Catcher Brian Serven was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque for Sunday’s game against San Diego, though he did not play.

–Field Level Media

The team with the longest active winning streak in the majors and the club with the best overall record collide on Monday night when the Oakland Athletics play host to the Tampa Bay Rays to open a four-game series.

The set is a rematch of a lopsided three-game sweep by the Rays over the A’s while Tampa Bay was opening the campaign at a record-setting pace and Oakland was enduring a historically bad start.

The Rays and A’s still rank as the major league’s best and worst, respectively, in terms of wins, but that hasn’t been the case over the last five days, during which Oakland, on the road, shocked the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers for five consecutive wins.

The fifth straight victory came Sunday and capped a three-game sweep that knocked the Brewers out of first place in the National League Central.

“The clubhouse is just becoming closer,” Athletics outfielder Seth Brown said after contributing a three-run homer to Sunday’s 8-6 win. “Guys are really starting to get to know each other and just starting to kind of jell as a team a bit.”

Coincidentally, the run has occurred just as A’s fans, seeking to get owner John Fisher to sell the team in hopes of keeping the club in Oakland, have scheduled a “reverse boycott” for Tuesday night. The goal of the banner-hanging, T-shirt-wearing group is to sell out the Oakland Coliseum to demonstrate the problem in Oakland isn’t the stadium or the fans, but rather the disinterested owner.

Looking to extend the team’s winning streak to six games before Tuesday’s scheduled event will be right-hander James Kaprielian (1-6, 7.21 ERA), who got the run going with his most impressive start of the season his last time out in Pittsburgh. With the A’s having lost their previous five games, he limited the Pirates to one earned run in six innings in an 11-2 road win.

Kaprielian was bombed for seven runs in 4 2/3 innings in an 11-0 loss at Tampa Bay in the earlier series, a game in which he served up home runs to Wander Franco, Brandon Lowe and Harold Ramirez. It was his first and only career matchup with the Rays.

Franco drilled his eighth homer of the season Sunday when the Rays won an early-season series with the top team in the American League West, the Texas Rangers, by taking the rubber match 7-3.

“All the guys are showing what they’re capable of doing,” said Franco, whose homer was his first since May 9. “We’re going to keep putting pressure on the other guys. Hopefully we can keep it going. Hopefully we can get 100 wins.”

The Rays rank second in the majors with 391 runs. Despite their recent surge, the A’s are third from the bottom with 245.

Right-hander Zach Eflin (8-1, 2.97) will attempt to extend his personal winning streak to five games when he is scheduled to get the ball for the Rays in the series opener. He is coming off 6 2/3 shutout innings in a 7-0 home win over the Minnesota Twins last Tuesday.

Eflin will be making his second start of the season against the A’s, having beaten them 9-5 at home on April 7. It will be his third career start against the A’s. He has gone 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA in his first two head-to-heads, neither of which were in Oakland.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Angels are coming off a 5-1 homestand. The Texas Rangers lost two of three on a brief road trip to Tampa Bay as the top teams in baseball squared off.

Next up is a matchup between the American League West foes as the Angels and Rangers meet for a four-game series starting Monday in Arlington, Texas. It’s the second series of the season between the teams as the Rangers took two of three in Anaheim from May 5-7.

The Angels are riding high, though, following a 9-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Sunday to close the successful six-game homestand. Shohei Ohtani had three hits to extend his hitting streak to eight games, but shortstop Zach Neto was the star of the game with two home runs.

“I’ve been working for this for a long time,” Neto told Bally Sports West during a postgame interview. “Everything happens for a reason. Today, I had a really good day in the box and I’m just going to try and keep it going.”

Neto went on to say the Angels will be looking to carry this momentum into Texas.

“Just trying to keep it going in there and having the guys in the locker room just moving in the right direction and keep winning baseball games,” he said.

Left-hander Tyler Anderson (3-1, 5.62 ERA), Monday’s starter for the Angels, earned a win in his previous start against the Cubs on Tuesday. He gave up four runs on five hits with three walks and five strikeouts over five innings.

Anderson will be facing the Rangers for the second time this season. In a no-decision effort on May 5 in Anaheim, he allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits with five walks and six strikeouts over five innings in the Angels’ 5-4 victory.

Anderson is 1-0 with a 2.64 ERA in six career games against the Rangers, including five starts. His lone victory came on Aug. 17, 2021, as a member of the Mariners when they faced the Rangers in Arlington. Anderson threw six innings of one-run ball that day.

For the Rangers, Monday starter Dane Dunning (5-1, 2.52) has been arguably the most pleasant surprise of the season. Dunning stepped into the rotation for Jacob deGrom in early May and has gone 3-1 with a 2.97 ERA in six starts.

The first start Dunning made was against the Angels on May 5. He took a no-decision after throwing five scoreless innings, scattering two hits. Against the Angels over his career, Dunning is 2-3 with a 4.89 ERA over nine starts.

Dunning earned the win in his last start vs. St. Louis on Tuesday despite not having his best stuff. He allowed a season-high four runs on seven hits with two walks and one strikeout over 5 2/3 innings. Three of the hits were home runs, the most Dunning has given up in his career and ending what had been a streak of 48 2/3 innings without allowing a home run.

As a team, the Rangers might have lost two of three to the Rays but have still won 15 of their last 21 and are 21-9 at home.

“A hard-fought series,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said after Sunday’s loss. “You saw two good teams going at it. Two teams that put up runs, have good pitching. We’re disappointed we lost the series, but I thought we played well.”

–Field Level Media

For all the recent positivity around the Cincinnati Reds’ youth movement, there remains plenty of uncertainty around the Kansas City Royals’ future plans.

The teams begin a three-game series in Kansas City on Monday, and Cincinnati will be bringing to town one of baseball’s most buzzworthy players in third baseman Elly De La Cruz.

The 21-year-old is 8-for-22 (.364) with a home run, four RBIs and three stolen bases in his first six games since being brought up from Triple-A Louisville last week. He scored the go-ahead run and had two hits, an RBI and a steal in Cincinnati’s 4-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.

“He’s a special player,” Reds outfielder Will Benson said. “I can hands down say I’ve never played with a player like that. I’ve played with really good hitters like Elly, but I’ve never seen a complete package like that before.”

While Cincinnati has gone 24-20 since opening the season with a 7-15 mark, Kansas City has been outscored 41-14 during its current six-game losing streak.

The Royals were swept in three games over the weekend by the Baltimore Orioles, who cruised to an 11-3 win in the finale on Sunday. Kansas City has scored a total of eight runs in its last five games.

“It’s been a handful of days now where we’ve struggled to score,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “Nobody is going to be happy with that. These guys are all diligent workers. They give their best, and when it’s not coming through or getting the results, it’s frustrating.”

Kansas City will send right-hander Zack Greinke (1-6, 4.59 ERA) to the mound in the series opener. He is seeking his first victory since May 3, and in his last start, he gave up five runs over 4 1/3 innings in a 6-1 loss to the Miami Marlins on Tuesday.

Greinke, 39, has provided a strong veteran presence in the young Royals’ clubhouse. He has gone 1-2 with a 3.00 ERA in six home starts this season.

“Whether it’s five, six, seven innings, whatever it is, you can count on him to keep you in the game,” Quatraro said. “Being able to control all the stuff going on around him. Not just facing hitters. He’s great with the run game. He’s great at fielding his position. Calm demeanor. Just all of that.”

Greinke is 8-2 with a 2.38 ERA in 14 career starts versus Cincinnati and has completed at least six innings in 13 of the 14 starts. He last faced the Reds on July 19, 2017, when he allowed three runs over five innings as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Cincinnati will counter with right-hander Luke Weaver (1-2, 6.27), who escaped with a no-decision on Tuesday after allowing a season-high seven runs over 3 2/3 innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Weaver, 29, is looking to snap a five-game winless streak. He has given up a total of 15 runs with a 25-to-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 25 1/3 innings in that stretch.

Weaver is facing his former team after posting a 5.59 ERA in 14 relief appearances with Kansas City last season.

Kansas City will be facing a rising Cincinnati team led by an impressive group of rookies, including De La Cruz, starting pitcher Andrew Abbott and infielder Matt McLain.

“Their level of preparation when they’ve gotten here is really incredible,” Reds manager David Bell said. “So we’ve talked about how our player-development system deserves a lot of that credit, and they’re just really good players. So it’s been an easier transition than maybe it should be so far.”

–Field Level Media

The struggling St. Louis Cardinals will look to generate more offense and clean up their fielding when they begin a three-game set against the visiting San Francisco Giants on Monday night.

The Cardinals have lost nine of their last 12 games heading into the series opener. St. Louis hitters went 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position over the last two games, a pair of losses to the Cincinnati Reds.

St. Louis also made multiple mental and physical mistakes in the field.

“We have to be perfect to win right now,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said after Sunday’s 4-3 loss. “We don’t have the luxury of giving up extra outs or making a mistake or walking a guy. That’s where we’re at.

“There’s certain guys in our lineup that feel pretty good and there’s certain guys that don’t. It’s been difficult to string together quality at-bats to produce a crooked-number type inning.”

Catcher Willson Contreras is 3-for-24 in June after batting just .158 In May. Shortstop Paul DeJong is 6-for-32 in June after hitting just .202 in May.

The Cardinals open the series by turning to left-hander Matthew Liberatore (1-2, 6.00 ERA), who will make his first career appearance against the Giants.

Liberatore threw five scoreless innings in his first start since his call-up from Triple-A Memphis. Since then, he has allowed 11 runs (10 earned) in 10 innings over his last three outings — one relief appearance and two starts.

He blamed his lack of curveball command for his recent struggles.

“I think it’s being more consistent with it,” Liberatore said. “When I’m able to land it for a strike and establish the fastball, I tend to have better results. So it’s just going this week and making sure that every day the curveball feels good and it’s where I want it and carrying that into the next outing.”

The Giants will try to get right-hander Logan Webb (4-6, 3.09) back on track on Monday. He has a 5.11 ERA in two starts this month, allowing seven runs on 12 hits and three walks in 12 1/3 innings.

Those struggles have come after Webb posted a sterling 1.30 ERA in five starts in May.

Webb lost his previous start against the Cardinals this season on April 27. He allowed just two runs on seven hits while striking out seven, but he fell to 2-2 with a 5.55 ERA against St. Louis in five career starts.

The Giants have won four of their last six games. They got their offense rolling during their 13-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday, which featured shortstop Brandon Crawford making his pitching debut in the blowout.

Giants second baseman Thairo Estrada hit two homers and drove in four runs in Sunday’s win. He has a 1.076 on-base-plus-slugging percentage in June.

“He’s been a catalyst to our team,” Giants outfielder Joc Pederson told NBC Sports Bay Area in reference to Estrada. “He hits the ball all over the field, he steals bases, he makes web gems and then he can also knock it out of the park. He’s doing it all, it’s fun to watch, I’m really happy for him.”

Pederson also hit two homers and had four RBIs against the Cubs on Sunday.

–Field Level Media