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San Diego Padres affiliates went 1-3 Thursday as the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas won 7-6 in 10 innings over Round Rock, the Double-A San Antonio Missions lost to Frisco 6-3, the High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps were walked off by Dayton 5-4 and the Low-A Lake Elsinore Storm fell in 10 innings to Ontario 10-8. Padres Minor-League Transactions No roster moves. Strange Double Play Completes Chihuahuas' 10th-Inning Victory Carlos Rodriguez scored on a wild pitch in the top of the 10th inning and the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas pulled off a rare game-ending double play at home to squeak out a 7-6 victory over the host Round Rock Express. Rodriguez extended his hitting streak to a career-high 17 games and on-base streak to 21 with a sixth-inning single. Nick Solak, Nick Schnell and Nate Mondou each had two hits, while newly signed Nick Pratto hit a solo homer in his second game with the Chihuahuas, his sixth of the season. Pratto was released by the Texas Rangers, the Express' parent team, on Tuesday and switched clubhouses for his first game Wednesday. Chihuahuas left-handed starter JP Sears gave up four runs in 5⅓ innings on nine hits and no walks with one strikeout. Rodriguez was the zombie runner to begin the top of the 10th and went to third on a wild pitch. After Solak walked, another wild pitch by Alexis Diaz brought in Rodriguez. But the real drama was in the bottom of the 10th. With one out, zombie runner Josh Smith stole third, with the hitter then walking. Jarred Kelenic pinch-ran. Kelenic was picked off first by left-hander Kyle Hart, with Pratto, the first baseman, throwing him out at second. Second baseman Nate Mondou spotted Smith trying to score and threw home to catcher Blake Hunt, who applied the game-ending tag to complete the double play. EP_0611.mp4 Player AB R H RBI BB K Pablo Reyes 3 2 1 0 1 0 Clay Dungan 5 0 1 0 0 3 Carlos Rodríguez 5 1 1 0 0 0 Nick Solak 4 2 2 1 1 1 Nick Schnell 5 1 2 0 0 1 Mason McCoy 1 0 0 0 0 0 Marcos Castañon 3 0 0 0 0 0 Nick Pratto 4 1 1 1 1 1 Blake Hunt 4 0 0 0 0 2 Nate Mondou 4 0 2 2 0 2 Player IP H R ER BB K HR JP Sears 5 1/3 9 4 4 0 1 0 Michael Flynn 2/3 0 0 0 0 2 0 Alek Jacob 2 2 1 1 0 2 1 Kyle Hart 2 2 1 1 1 2 0 Missions Throttled By 5-Run Inning From RoughRiders A five-run third inning proved to be the difference as the host Double-A San Antonio Missions lost to the Frisco RoughRiders 6-3. Ryan Jackson went 3-for-4 and Albert Fabian homered for the Missions, who scored all three of their runs in the second inning. Jackson singled with one out and scored on Francisco Acuna's double before Fabian launched his two-run blast, his fourth homer of the season. Missions right-handed starter Miguel Mendez, Padres Mission's No. 3 prospect, had a rough night, giving up five runs on six hits with a walk and a strikeout in four innings. All five runs came in the third inning. Left-hander Omar Cruz struck out eight in three innings, allowing up an unearned run in the seventh, while Andrew Moore pitched two hitless innings. SA_0611.mp4 Player AB R H RBI BB K Ethan Salas 4 0 0 0 0 0 Braedon Karpathios 3 0 1 0 1 2 Romeo Sanabria 4 0 0 0 0 2 Tirso Ornelas 4 0 0 0 0 2 Ryan Jackson 4 1 3 0 0 1 Francisco Acuna 3 1 1 1 1 0 Albert Fabian 4 1 1 2 0 2 Luis Verdugo 3 0 0 0 0 1 Kai Roberts 3 0 0 0 0 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Miguel Mendez 4 6 5 5 1 1 0 Omar Cruz 3 2 1 0 0 8 0 Andrew Moore 2 0 0 0 2 2 0 Walk-Off Steal Of Home Sends TinCaps To 8th Straight Loss The High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps suffered their eighth loss in a row in heartbreaking fashion as the host Dayton Dragons stole home with two outs in the bottom of the ninth for a 5-4 win. Kavares Tears and Kasen Wells each went 2-for-4, with Wells driving in a pair of runs and Tears with an RBI and a run scored. Mason McCoy singled, walked and scored twice. TinCaps right-handed starter Carson Montgomery lasted four innings, surrendering three runs on four hits with a walk and six strikeouts. Five relievers followed, allowing two runs on three hits, with five walks and six strikeouts. Two of those walks came with one out in the ninth by TinCaps closer Clay Edmondson, who had already recorded three outs in the eighth. Edmondson was relieved by right-hander C.J. Widger, who hit the first batter he faced to load the bases. Widger struck out the next batter, then the runner at third stole home for the walk-off. FW_0611.mp4 Player AB R H RBI BB K Justin DeCriscio 5 0 0 1 0 0 Carlos Rodriguez 4 0 0 0 1 2 Lamar King Jr. 3 0 0 0 0 1 Oswaldo Linares 1 0 0 0 0 1 Jake Cunningham 4 0 1 0 0 1 Alex McCoy 3 2 1 0 1 1 Rosman Verdugo 3 0 1 0 1 1 Kavares Tears 4 1 2 1 0 1 Zach Evans 0 0 0 0 0 0 Jack Costello 3 1 0 0 1 1 Kasen Wells 4 0 2 2 0 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Carson Montgomery 4 4 3 3 1 6 2 Braian Salazar 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 Javier Chacon 1 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 Tucker Musgrove 2/3 1 0 0 1 2 0 Clay Edmondson 1 1/3 0 1 1 3 1 0 C.J. Widger 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 Storm Stumble Late, Fall To Tower Buzzers In 10 Innings An offense that scored eight times over seven innings was held scoreless for the final three as the host Low-A Lake Elsinore Storm was upended by the Ontario Tower Buzzers 10-8 in 10 innings. The Storm walked 10 times in addition to outhitting Ontario 9-7, but four Lake Elsinore pitchers also issued 10 walks. A white-hot Luke Cantwell went 2-for-5 with a walk, an RBI and three runs scored, while Bradley Frye went 2-for-3 with a double, a pair of walks and a run scored, Ryan Wideman drove in a pair and Jorge Quintana reached base three times on two walks and a single. Every Storm hitter reached base via a walk or a hit. Storm right-handed starter Bryan Balzer went six innings, but yielded five runs on five hits and three walks while fanning four. Right-handers Carson Swilling (one strikeout), Will Koger (two strikeouts) and Sean Barnett (three strikeouts) each went 1⅓ innings. Swilling and Barnett walked a pair and Koger three. The Storm were down 5-1 after the top of the fourth inning before tying it with a four-run bottom of the fourth. A wild pitch brought in one run, Conner Westenburg doubled home another and Wideman, Padres Mission's No. 5 prospect, had a two-run double, his 19th of the season, one off the California League lead. Quintana had an RBI single in the sixth, while Cantwell had a run-scoring single in the seventh and scored on a balk for an 8-5 lead. Ontario came back with two in the eighth, one in the ninth and two in the 10th before holding the Storm scoreless in the bottom of the 10th for the win. LE_0611.mp4 Player AB R H RBI BB K Ryan Wideman 6 0 1 2 0 3 Kerrington Cross 6 0 1 0 0 2 Jose Verdugo 5 1 0 0 1 1 Luke Cantwell 5 3 2 1 1 2 Yoiber Ocopio 4 1 1 0 1 0 Bradley Frye 3 1 2 0 2 1 Jorge Quintana 3 0 1 1 2 1 George Bilecki 3 1 0 0 2 3 Conner Westenburg 3 1 1 1 1 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Bryan Balzer 6 5 5 5 3 4 1 Carson Swilling 1 1/3 0 2 2 2 1 0 Will Koger 1 1/3 1 1 1 3 2 0 Sean Barnett 1 1/3 1 2 1 2 3 0 Padres Mission Top 20 Prospect Performance Ethan Salas: 0-for-4 Kash Mayfield: DNP Miguel Mendez: 4 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, BB, K Kruz Schoolcraft: DNP Ryan Wideman: 1-for-6, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 K Jorge Quintana: 1-for-3, RBI, 2 BB, K Ty Harvey: On injured list Kale Fountain: Injured, out for season Braedon Karpathios: 1-for-3, BB, 2 K, SB Lamar King Jr.: 0-for-3, K Jagger Haynes: DNP Alex McCoy: 1-for-3, 2 R, BB, K Truitt Madonna: DNP Tucker Musgrove: ⅔ IP, H, BB, 2 K Garrett Hawkins: DNP Michael Salina: DNP Eric Yost: DNP Rosman Verdugo: 1-for-3, BB, K Bryan Balzer: 6 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, HR Deivid Coronil: DNP View the full article

TRANSACTIONS RHP Jacob Wosinski was released by the Wind Surge. RHP Christian Becerra went on the Kernels seven-day injured list. RHP Nick McAuliffe was moved to the Mighty Mussels roster from the FCL Twins roster. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 1, Toledo 0 Box Score Now this was definitely a pitcher’s duel. Through eight innings, it was a 0-0 game. So to start, let’s jump right to the ninth inning. With one out in the top of the ninth, Gabriel Gonzalez launched his 10th home run of the season. He got a hanging sweeper on 2-0 and uncoiled on it. 32 degrees at 102.3 mph, and the ball traveled 401 feet. Five Saints pitchers combined on the nine-inning shutout. Austin Voth started. He gave up three hits and four walks over 4 2/3 scoreless innings. He worked out of tough situations thanks to eight strikeouts. Drew Smith got the final out of the fifth inning. C.J. Culpepper gave up a hit and a walk and struck out one over two innings. Taylor Rashi struck out two batters in a perfect eighth inning to earn the Win in his Saints debut. Raul Brito got the ninth inning, and he struck out two batters and got a Max Clark ground out to earn the save. The Saints batters had five hits and three walks. Obviously the Gonzalez home run was the big hit in the game. Aaron Sabato added his 17th double. Kaelen Culpepper and Ben Ross each went 1-for-3 with a walk. Ross stole his fourth base. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 6, Tulsa 7 Box Score I feel like there has to be an old school country song about a long night in Tulsa. Thursday night was a long night in Tulsa at least for those involved in this ball game. The game was delayed an hour and five minutes by the weather. The Wind Surge got on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning. Andrew Cossetti scored when Kala’i Rosario reached on an error. Newcomer Cody Moissette joined the Surge on Thursday and went 0-for-5 in his Twins organization debut. In the top of the second inning, the leadoff batter came up with Maddux Houghton on second base. He recorded his first hit, his first home run, his first run and his first two RBI in a Wichita uniform. Then in the top of the fourth, he came up with Miguel Briceno on second. He singled to right field to drive him in. Kala’i Rosario led off the top of the fifth inning with a walk. He stole second and went to third on a throwing error. After Jaime Ferrer was hit by a pitch, Jorel Ortega drove in Rosario with a deep fly ball to center field. Sam Armstrong made the start and went the first four innings. He gave up three runs on three hits and two walks. He had five strikeouts. Paulshawn Pasqualotto went the next two innings. He gave up two runs (1 earned) on two hits and a walk. He had three strikeouts. William Fleming issued a walk in a scoreless seventh inning. Kyle Bischoff threw a scoreless eighth inning. The game headed to the ninth inning tied at 5-5. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Rosario drilled his eighth homer of the season to give the Surge a 6-5 lead. Bischoff returned to the mound in the bottom of the ninth. He got the leadoff man out on a fly ball. The next batters reached on an error. Josue De Paula singled the lead runner to third. A walk loaded the bases. Then a walk tied the game at 6-6. Bischoff got a strikeout for the second out. Unfortunately, the second unearned run of the inning scored when Bischoff hit Griffin Lockwood-Powell to end the game. Rosario went 2-for-3 with two walks, two runs, two RBI and his eighth homer. Morissette went 2-for-5 with three RBI and his first homer. Miguel Briceno went 2-for-4. KERNELS CHRONICLE Cedar Rapids 4, Lansing 7 Box Score A four-run bottom of the eighth turned a nice, tidy game into a tough loss to the Lugnuts in Lansing. Lansing took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Khadim Diaw led off the top of the second inning with a double. Jay Thomason singled him to third. Thomason stole his 16th base. Diaw scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 1-1. With one out in the top of the fourth inning, Diaw dropped his second double of the game. Thomason singled to drive him in and make it 2-1. Quinn McDaniel led off the top of the fifth inning with his second Kernels home run. Riley Quick made the start for Cedar Rapids. He gave up three runs on four hits. He walked two and had a career-high nine strikeouts in a career-high 4 2/3 innings. Adam Falinski came on and tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up no hits, walked three and had two strikeouts. Marek Houston led off the top of the eighth inning with a single off of the pitcher. He then stole second. With two outs, Diaw came through again. Sometimes it's not about exit velocity! His infield single gave the Kernels the 4-3 lead. Xavier Kolhosser came in for the bottom of the eighth. He gave up four runs on three hits and a walk. He had two strikeouts. Khadim Diaw went 3-for-4 with his 14th and 15th doubles. Jay Thomason went 2-for-3 and was hit by a pitch. Marek Houston went 2-for-4 with his 18th and 19th stolen bases. In the first three games of this series in Lansing, Diaw is 7-for-13 with two doubles, two home runs, four runs scored, and four RBI. MIGHTY MATTERS Game 1: Ft. Myers 5, Dunedin 10 Box Score The Mussels opponent this week is the Dunedin Blue Jays, Low-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Check out Jays Centre for much more on the Blue Jays organization. Four players who were key in this game are among the Jays Centre Top 20 Prospects. If you’re interested in checking out our other DiamondCentric team sites, click here. And if you’re interested in writing at one or more of them, let us know. This game was actually a good baseball game, until it wasn’t, which happened very quickly. Merit Jones was scheduled to start, but Charlee Soto made his second rehab start for the Mussels. The flamethrower gave up two runs on three hits (including a homer by the also-rehabbing Hedbert Perez) in 1 2/3 innings. Jones entered the game with two outs in the second inning. He tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up three hits, walked none and had three strikeouts. Back to the offense, the Mussels got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second inning when Jayson Bass muscled a ball beyond the wall in center field. Then in the bottom of the third, it was Dameury Pena who powered up and drilled a two-out solo home run to tie the game at 2-2. The Mussels grabbed the lead and put themselves in a strong position to win game one in the bottom of the sixth frame. Dameury Pena led off with a walk and went to second on a wild pitch. Alan Roden walked. Ryan Sprock singled sharply to left field, too hard maybe as Pena was only able to advance to third base. Ramiro Dominguez illustrated the soft bloops single next and drove in two runs to give the Mussels a 4-2 lead. The runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch, and Graham Brown walked to reload the bases. Bass drove in Sprock with a sacrifice fly to left field to make it 5-2 Mussels heading to the final inning (7-inning games for doubleheaders). Just three more outs to get! Eric Hammond came on to replace Merit Jones to start the seventh inning. He gave up a leadoff single, but erased the lead runner on some PFP .He fielded a grounder and threw to second for the out. But then he walked a batter to put runners on first and second. On a 3-2 pitch, Hammond thought he had a called third strike. Unfortunately, the batter challenged and ABS showed that the pitch was 1/2-inch above the strike zone. Instead of two on with two outs, the bases were now loaded with just one out. Mussels manager Jordan Smith went to the bullpen and summoned Brent Francisco. Remember the first sentence of this game recap? I wrote “This game was actually a good baseball game, until it wasn’t, which happened very quickly.” This was pretty much that moment. Francisco walked the first batter he faced, Jake Cook, to make it a 5-3 game. Next, a bloop single by Blaine Bullard that didn’t top 80 mph dropped in for a run-scoring single and made it 5-4. Herbert Perez lined an 0-2 pitch for a single up the middle and a one-run lead became a one-run deficit. Blue Jays top prospect JoJo Parker lined out to second for the second out of the inning. Damage control? Nope. After a double steal, Juan Sanchez singled to right to drive in both runners and make it 8-5. After a Cade Doughty double put runners on second and third, Aldo Gaxiola singled to left to drive in both runners and make it 10-5. After another single, Francisco got the final out on a strikeout. But the damage was (Dun-edin, or just) done. The eight-run outburst meant the Mussels needed to score five to tie the game and send it to extra innings. They went down 1-2-3 to end the game. The Mussels scored their five runs on five hits and four walks. Bass’s home was his sixth of the season. Pena was 1-for-3 with a walk and his first homer of the season. Roden, continuing his rehab, went 0-for-1 with two walks. Game 2: Ft. Myers 1, Dunedin 0 (Game suspended with one out in the top of the fifth) Box Score Justin Mitrovich has been fantastic and was again on Thursday night. Unfortunately, it was cut short by the weather. In 4 1/3 scoreless innings, he gave up four hits, walked one and had four strikeouts. He also hit a batter. His ERA has dropped to 0.72. The Mussels offense had some chances, but were only leading 1-0. The runs scored on a Graham Brown sacrifice fly. The teams will attempt to complete this game on Friday before their regularly-scheduled game. . COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 7, FCL Pirates 1 Box Score The Twins scored their first two runs in the top of the first inning. They added another in the third frame and then broke it open with four runs in the fifth inning. Rehabbing Caden Kendle led off the game with a double. Yovanny Duran walked. With one out, Jhomnardo Reyes doubled to drive in both runs to make it 2-0. With two outs in the top of the third, Miguel Caraballo and Reyes walked. Teilon Serrano singled to drive in the game’s third run. Caraballo led off the top of the fifth inning with a walk and stole second base. Reyes drove him in with a single. Serrano walked. Ricardo Pena reached on an error. Reyes scored on the play to make it 5-0. Darwin Almanzar drove in two runs with a single to center. Reyes led the offense. He had three of the team’s seven hits. He went 3-for-3 with a walk, his seventh double and three RBI. The Twins also walked nine times in the game. Duran and Caraballo each walked twice. Frederick Hiciano, 18, started for the Twins and tossed three scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked two and had four strikeouts. Jake Covey, 24, came in and was charged with an unearned run over 2 1/3 innings. He gave up no hits, but he walked four batters. He had two strikeouts. Brad Rudis, 23, got the final five outs, three of them on strikeouts. DSL Twins 2, DSL Yankees 13 Box Score The Twins grabbed the first lead of the game in the top of the third when they took a 1-0 lead when Daiyer Barboza scored on an error. However, the Yankees scored five runs in the bottom of the third and by the end of seven innings, they held a 13-1 lead. The Twins scored their other run in the top of the eighth inning when Anibal Beltre hit his first professional home run. The Twins scored their two runs on 10 hits and four walks. Daiyer Barboza was 2-for-4 with a walk. Fabian Ulloa went 2-for-5. Beltre was 2-for-4 including his home run. Luis Suarez went 1-for-2 with two walks. Fernando Hernandez, 19, made the start and struck out five batters over two scoreless innings. He gave up two hits. Alam Soriano, 19, came in and gave up nine runs (7 earned) on seven hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings. Yolcar Garcia, 18, worked the next 2 1/3 innings. He gave up four runs (1 earned) on five hits. Aldwin Morillo, 18, came on and worked a perfect inning. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter(s) of the Day Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids): 3-for-4, 2-2B(15), 2 R, RBI, K Jhomnardo Reyes (FCL Twins): 3-for-3, BB, 2B(7), R, 3 RBI. Pitcher(s) of the Day Merit Jones (Fort Myers): 4.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 52 pitches, 35 strikes (67.3%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did today. #2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, BB. (batted first, played SS) #5 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, K (batted second, played DH). #7 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, R, K, 2 SB(19) (batted first, played SS) #8 - RHP Riley Quick (Cedar Rapids) - 4 2/3 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 2 Balk, HBP, 72 pitches, 45 strikes (62.5%) #10 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 1-for-4, HR(10), R, RBI, K (batted fourth, played RF) #11 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Rehab in Fort Myers: 1 2/3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, K, 32 pitches, 18 strikes (56.3%) #14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - 1-for-3 (batted seventh, played DH) #15 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 2 K (batted third, played 3B) #17 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (St. Paul) - 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 33 pitches, 17 strikes (51.5%) #19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 3-for-4, 2-2B(15), 2 R, RBI, K (batted fourth, played C) #20 - 2B/SS/CF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-for-4, BB, 3 K, E(6) (batted fifth, played SS) UPCOMING PROBABLES Friday, June 12 St. Paul @ Toledo (6:05 pm CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (2-2, 6.43 ERA) Wichita @ Tulsa (7:00 pm CT) - RHP Cory Lewis (0-2, 5.60 ERA), Cedar Rapids @ Lansing (6:05 pm CT) - LHP Cesar Lares (0-0, 4.50 ERA) Dunedin @ Ft. Myers (6:05 pm CT) - RHP Kolten Smith (2-4, 5.40 ERA) FCL Twins @ FCL Red Sox (11:00 am CT) - DSL Twins @ DSL Tigers (10:00 am CT) - CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 31-39 (3rd place (of 5) in AL Central, 6.5 GB)) St. Paul Saints: 36-29 (3rd place (of 10) in IL West Division, 4.5 GB)) Wichita Wind Surge: 22-36 (5th place (of 5) in TL North Division, 17.0 GB)) Cedar Rapids Kernels: 28-31 (4th place (of 6) in MWL West Division, 9.5 GB)) Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 33-26 (2nd place (of 6) in FSL West Division, 3.5 GB)) FCL Twins: 15-13 (3rd place (of 6) in FCL South Division, 3.5 GB)) DSL Twins: 3-5 (3rd place (of 7) in DSL East Division, 3.5 GB)) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss today’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View the full article

The Columbia Fireflies erased an eight-run deficit, scoring nine unanswered runs behind home runs from Roni Cabrera and Ivan Sosa and four scoreless innings of relief from Denis Samudio in a 9-8 win. Spencer Nivens homered and doubled in a losing effort for Northwest Arkansas, while Aaron Sanchez tossed three scoreless innings for Omaha. Josh Hammond and Hyungchan Um each drove in multiple runs to fuel Columbia's comeback. Note: The Quad Cities River Bandits' game against Beloit was postponed due to weather. It will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Friday, June 12th. Royals Transactions Kansas City Royals placed CF Kyle Isbel on the 10-day injured list. Left plantar fasciitis. Kansas City Royals recalled CF Kameron Misner from Omaha Storm Chasers. Sanchez Sharp But Storm Chasers Fall Late The Omaha Storm Chasers could not solve Las Vegas in a 5-2 loss at Werner Park, managing just four hits across the afternoon on the eve of the College World Series, which is taking place at nearby Charles Schwab Field in downtown Omaha. Sanchez set the tone with three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out three. Andrew Pérez followed and took the loss, surrendering one run on four hits over two innings with two strikeouts. Anthony Gose struggled in his two innings, giving up three runs, including a home run, on three hits and a walk while striking out three. The Omaha offense was quiet until the seventh inning, when the home side pushed across both of its runs. John Rave came around to score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Brett Squires, and Matthew Lugo followed home on a Luca Tresh double to left. Tresh and Squires each drove in a run, and Lugo added a double of his own. Drew Waters and Abraham Toro combined for five strikeouts at the top of the order. Omaha left five runners on base and never threatened again after the seventh. They went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position on Thursday. Player AB R H RBI BB K Josh Rojas 3 0 0 0 1 0 Abraham Toro 4 0 0 0 0 2 John Rave 4 1 1 0 0 2 Matthew Lugo 4 1 1 0 0 2 Brett Squires 3 0 1 1 0 0 Luca Tresh 3 0 1 1 1 1 Drew Waters 4 0 0 0 0 3 Gavin Cross 3 0 0 0 0 2 Connor Kaiser 2 0 0 0 1 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Aaron Sanchez 3 2 0 0 2 3 0 Andrew Pérez 2 4 1 1 0 2 0 Jose Cuas 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 Anthony Gose 2 3 3 3 1 3 1 Eric Cerantola 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 Nivens Homers As Naturals Drop Decision In Arkansas The Northwest Arkansas Naturals fell 6-2 to in-state rival Arkansas, the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. The Naturals were undone by a rough start on the mound by the Royals' No. 12 prospect. Felix Arronde, who made his first start since returning from the IL, took the loss, allowing four runs on three hits over 1 2/3 innings with three walks, two strikeouts, and two home runs. Oscar Rayo followed and provided a steadying influence, throwing 3 1/3 scoreless innings with no walks and four strikeouts. Caden Monke gave up two runs on one hit and three walks in his lone inning, and Chase Jessee added two scoreless frames with three strikeouts. Nivens supplied most of the offense, going 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, and two runs batted in. His solo home run in the seventh inning cut into the deficit, and his run-scoring double in the ninth brought home Sam Kulasingam for the Naturals' final run. Kulasingam reached base twice and scored a run, while Jorge Alfaro and Omar Hernandez each collected a hit. Northwest Arkansas left four runners on base and struck out seven times as a group. They also went 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position. Player AB R H RBI BB K Jack Pineda 4 0 0 0 0 0 Colton Becker 4 0 0 0 0 0 Sam Kulasingam 3 1 1 0 1 1 Jorge Alfaro 4 0 1 0 0 3 Spencer Nivens 4 1 2 2 0 0 Daniel Vazquez 4 0 0 0 0 2 Rudy Martin Jr. 3 0 0 0 0 1 Omar Hernandez 3 0 1 0 0 0 Justin Johnson 3 0 0 0 0 0 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Felix Arronde 1 2/3 3 4 4 3 2 2 Oscar Rayo 3 1/3 2 0 0 0 4 0 Caden Monke 1 1 2 2 3 2 0 Chase Jessee 2 1 0 0 1 3 0 Fireflies Erase Eight-Run Hole In Wild Comeback The Columbia Fireflies, decked out in their special Chicharrones uniforms for the Copa de la Diversion, rallied from an 8-0 deficit to stun Delmarva 9-8. Starter Darwin Rodriguez had a night to forget, allowing eight runs on ten hits over four innings with two walks, four strikeouts, and a home run, as the Shorebirds plated five in the third and three in the fourth. The bullpen then slammed the door. Samudio earned the win with four scoreless innings, allowing no hits and two walks while striking out five, and Luis Valdez struck out three in a scoreless frame. The offense came alive in the seventh, when Columbia sent the deficit tumbling. Hammond singled home Roni Cabrera and Connor Rasmussen, Um tripled in two more runs, and Sean Gamble singled home Um on an infield single as the Fireflies pushed across six runs in the inning. Columbia completed the comeback in the eighth, when Cabrera homered, and Sosa launched a two-run home run to take the lead. Hammond finished 2-for-5 with two runs batted in, Um drove in three runs, Sosa added two, and Rasmussen reached base three times. Columbia stranded six runners and went 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position. That said, Columbia did just enough at the plate to earn their 30th win of the year and get back to .500. Player AB R H RBI BB K Yandel Ricardo 4 1 0 0 1 2 Josh Hammond 5 1 2 2 0 2 Stone Russell 4 1 0 0 0 1 Hyungchan Um 3 1 1 3 1 2 Sean Gamble 4 0 1 1 0 0 Angel Ramirez 3 0 0 0 1 2 Roni Cabrera 4 2 2 1 0 1 Connor Rasmussen 3 2 3 0 1 0 Ivan Sosa 4 1 2 2 0 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Darwin Rodriguez 4 10 8 8 2 4 1 Luis Valdez 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 Denis Samudio 4 0 0 0 2 5 0 Top-20 Prospect Performance Kendry Chourio: DNP David Shields: DNP Sean Gamble: 1-for-4, RBI Blake Mitchell: DNP Josh Hammond: 2-for-5, 2 RBI, 2 K Ramon Ramirez: DNP Drew Beam: DNP Asbel Gonzalez: DNP Ben Kudrna: DNP Carson Roccaforte: DNP Yandel Ricardo: 0-for-4, R, BB, 2 K Felix Arronde: 1 2/3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 2 HR Blake Wolters: DNP Michael Lombardi: DNP Luinder Avila: DNP Steven Zobac: DNP Frank Mozzicato: DNP Daniel Vazquez: 0-for-4, 2 K Warren Colcano: 0-for-4, 1 BB, 3 K Shane Panzini: DNP View the full article

Miami Marlins Once again in 2026, I will be monitoring Miami Marlins predictions from our valued SuperSubs, Fish On First staffers and livestream guests. Individual article pages like this one will be created prior to every Marlins series and featured prominently on the FOF site. Consistent participation is key if you want to win this annual contest. Submissions only take a few seconds. Scoring system A "perfect" series is worth three points: Earn one point for predicting which team will win the upcoming series Earn one point for predicting the precise number of victories for each team Earn one point for predicting the “Series MVP” who accumulated the highest win probability added (WPA) during the series as calculated by FanGraphs (could pick a player from either team) FOF SuperSub Nicholas Milton and FOF staffer Jeremiah Geiger are currently tied atop the 2026 season leaderboard, which will be updated between every Marlins series. If you are a SuperSub, leave a comment with your Prediction Time picks on this page, or join the Marlins Discord Server and submit there. We'll feature them on the upcoming Fish On First LIVE episode and track your points throughout the season! Any picks submitted prior to the first pitch of the series opener will be counted. If you are not a SuperSub, please consider signing up here to support the FOF staff. Series preview notes Probable starting pitchers: RHP Sandy Alcantara (MIA) vs. RHP Braxton Ashcraft (PIT) on Friday TBA (MIA) vs. RHP Bubba Chandler (PIT) on Saturday RHP Max Meyer (MIA) vs. RHP Paul Skenes (PIT) on Sunday The Marlins rank 18th in MLB with a 98 wRC+ and 10th in MLB with a 3.96 FIP. They are 5-5 in their last 10 games and have a 11-19 record on the road this season. The following Marlins players are on the injured list: Griffin Conine (60-day IL), Josh Ekness (15-day IL), Ronny Henriquez (60-day IL), Janson Junk (15-day IL), Adam Mazur (60-day IL), Andrew Nardi (60-day IL), Eury Pérez (15-day IL) and Robby Snelling (60-day IL). The Pirates rank eighth in MLB with a 106 wRC+ and seventh in MLB with a 3.80 FIP. They are 3-7 in their last 10 games and have a 13-17 record at home this season. The following Pirates players are on the injured list: Joey Bart (10-day IL), Oneil Cruz (10-day IL), Chris Devenski (60-day IL) and Konnor Griffin (10-day IL). View the full article

When a new teenager joins the Mets organization out The Dominican Republic — or Venezuela or Columbia, or The Bahamas or Panama or the like — we usually have very little offer. It takes a lot to gather a birthdate and a blurry photo of him from a back field. If we can find out which arm he throws with and which side of the plate he bats from, that's a bonus. And if he has a common name like Jose Hernandez, well, it's going to take a lot of detective work to get his deets. But sometimes, they come with a backstory. Transactions, 6/10/2026 GOING Signed as International Amateur Free Agent out of The Dominican Republic, Assigned to DSL Mets Blue Infielders Angel Osuna S/R DoB: 2007-07-06 High Level: Academy (2026) This brings us to Angel Osuna. Shortstop Angel was one of the top prospects from the 2025 class of amateur foreign prospects. The Yankees, as a matter of fact, thought he was the very top of the class, and that's why they signed him for the very highest bonus of $5 million. That's some cheddar for a kid who hasn't grown into his body yet. But — and you probably have some idea where this was going — Angel was more grown than his representatives were letting on. He was, in fact, three years older than they were billing him as. Nobody likes to be defrauded. The ripoff is bad, the insult is bad, and feeling really stupid that you missed all the clues along the way must really be the worst. The contract was voided, the bonus money returned, and the representatives were sanctioned and presumably will never get to represent a teenager again — and will presumably be treated as pariahs on the fields of Dominican baseball fields. But what of young Mr. Osuna. Presumably a pretty impressive player at some level at least. He was young and presumably naive, but certainly not entirely innocent of the game being played, and he got sent back on the pile and banned from signing with any organization for a year — a year critical to his development. And there he lay until two days ago, when he was inked by the Mets for $10 thousand dollars. It's something, though probably less than the money his family got taken for by his unscrupulous agents, and far less than $5 million. But it is a new start, and now his story starts again, and the Mets get to find out if he is a good player for what he is now, almost 19 years old, rather than the 18-year-old masquerading as a preternaturally gifted 15-year-old that almost took the Yankees for a ride. Transactions, 6/11/2026 COMING Sent to Binghamton on Rehab Assignment Starting Pitchers Kodai Senga L/R DoB: 1993-01-30 High Level: MLB (2026) The ongoing saga of Kodai Senga is relentless. There's an irony in this, as in so many tales, as he came into the season throwing harder than ever — up to 97 and 98 in his first start or two — far higher than the 94-ish he previously used to set up his devastating ghost fork. But seemingly, in pursuit of the higher velocity, he incurred enough impact on his body that he lost even the middling velocity that helped him be so damned effective. The ghost fork works like a change, and so it needs a decent fastball that Senga can safely put over the plate once or twice in order to set it up. In several rehab starts to date, that velocity and control hadn't been there, and he's been hit. But his first start back in Bingo was what we are looking for — six innings, one earned run on one hit (a homer), one walk, and five strikeouts, so maybe another start at Syracuse along the line and maybe we might have some version of the guy we know he can be. Your 2026 New York Mets Starting Pitchers Sean Manaea Nolan McLean Freddy Peralta David Peterson Christian Scott R/L DoB: 1992-02-01 R/R DoB: 2001-07-24 R/R DoB: 2996-06-04 L/L DoB: 1995-09-03 R/R DoB: 1999-06-15 Relief Pitchers Huascar Brazobán Daniel Duarte A.J. Minter Cionel Pérez Brooks Raley Austin Warren Luke Weaver R/R DoB: 1989-10-15 R/R DoB: 1996-12-04 L/L DoB: 1993-09-02 R/L DoB: 35176 L/L DoB: 1988-06-29 R/R DoB: 1996-02-05 R/R DoB: 1993-08-21 Relief Pitchers Catchers Infielders Devin Williams Francisco Alvarez Luís Torrens Bo Bichette Brett Baty Vidal Brujan Marcus Semien R/R DoB: 1994-09-21 R/R DoB: 2001-11-01 R/R DoB: 1996-05-02 R/R DoB: 1998-03-05 L/R DoB: 1999-11-13 S/R DoB: 1998-02-09 R/R DoB: 1990-09-17 Infielders Outfielders Mark Vientos Eric Wagaman Carson Benge A.J. Ewing MJ Melendez Juan Soto Jared Young R/R DoB: 1993-12-11 R/R DoB: 1997-08-14 L/R DoB: 2003-01-20 L/R DoB: 2004-08-10 L/R DoB: 1993-11-29 L/L DoB: 1998-10-25 L/R DoB: 1995-07-09 Also on 40-Player Roster Starting Pitchers Relief Pitchers Clay Holmes Tylor Megill Kodai Senga Zach Thornton Jonah Tong Alex Carrillo Reed Garrett R/R DoB: 1993-03-27 R/R DoB: 1995-07-28 L/R DoB: 1993-01-30 L/L DoB: 2002-01-17 R/R DoB: 2003-06-19 R/R DoB: 1997-06-06 R/R DoB: 1993-01-02 Relief Pitchers Catchers Joey Gerber Justin Hagenman Tobias Myers Dedniel Núñez Jonathan Pintaro Dylan Ross Hayden Senger R/R DoB: 1997-05-03 R/R DoB: 1996-10-07 R/R DoB: 1998-08-05 R/R DoB: 1996-06-05 R/R DoB: 1997-11-07 R/R DoB: 2000-09-01 R/R DoB: 1997-04-03 Infielders Outfielders Francisco Lindor Ronny Mauricio Jorge Polanco Nick Morabito Luis Robert, Jr. Tyrone Taylor S/R DoB: 1993-11-14 S/R DoB: 2001-04-04 S/R DoB: 1999-11-13 R/R DoB: 2003-05-07 R/R DoB: 1997-08-03 R/R DoB: 1994-01-22 Your Mets Coaching Staff Manager Bench Coach Pitching Coach Hitting Coordinator Third Base Coach First Base Coach Bullpen Coach Ass't Pitching Coach Carlos Mendoza Kai Correa Justin Willard Jeff Albert Tim Leiper Gilbert Gomez José Rosado Dan McKinney DoB: 1979-11-27 DoB: 1989-07-14 DoB: 1990-09-09 DoB: 1992-08-16 DoB: 1996-07-19 DoB: 1992-03-08 DoB: 1974-11-09 DoB: 1989-06-06 Hitting Coach Strategy Coach Catching Coach Coaching Assistant Bat'g Practice Pitcher Equipment Manager Bullpen Catchers Bullpen Catchers Troy Snitker Danny Barnes J.P. Arencibia Rafael Fernandez Kevin Mahoney Kevin Kierst Eric Langill Dave Racaniello DoB: 1988-12-05 DoB: 1989-10021 DoB: 1986-01-05 DoB: 1988-08-03 DoB: 1987-05-11 DoB: 1964-07-09 DoB: 1979-04-09 DoB: 1978-06-03 Your Mets Training Staff Director of Player Health Head Athletic Trainer Assistant Athletic Trainer Reconditioning Coordinator Reconditioning Therapist Head Performance Coach Assistant Performance Coach Performance Coordinator Soft Tissue Specialist Brian Chicklo Joseph Golia Bryan Baca Sean Bardanett Josh Bickel Dustin Clarke Tanner Miracle Jeremy Chiang Hiroto Kawamura DoB: 1972-07-17 DoB: 1978-??-?? DoB: Circa 1980 DoB: 1988-06-23 DoB: 1996-??-?? DoB: 1987-??-?? DoB: 1991-??-?? DoB: ????-??-?? DoB: 1962-07-19 View the full article

The Twins currently have a revolving door at shortstop, with journeyman utility players they can’t keep for much longer—if for no other reason, then because none of them fit that role well enough to lock it down. Having one such player is understandable, but the Twins are currently rostering three. One is likely to go when Kaelen Culpepper debuts, and the Twins would be wise to get rid of at least one more at a later time to better utilize the 26-man roster. Who has the best chance of sticking around? Orlando Arcia An All-Star for Atlanta in 2023, Arcia has been a true super utilityman, playing all four infield spots in his brief time with the big-league club. He posted a .932 OPS for Saint Paul before his promotion, but has posted a sub-.700 OPS in a small sample, which is in line with his production over the last two seasons. While Arcia’s defensive flexibility is helpful, it’s worth wondering what else he has to provide at this stage in his career. At 31 years of age, it’s hard to envision him holding onto a role beyond 2026 with the Twins, making him especially expendable if the team continues to fall further under .500. He has also only been trusted a handful of times to start games at shortstop, and if the Twins put him behind Tristan Gray and Ryan Kreidler on the shortstop depth chart, his utility in 2026 is worth questioning. He may be the first to go when Culpepper gets the call. Tristan Gray After winning a bench job in spring training, Gray got off to a hot start in 2026 and has been an above-replacement-level player on the season. He started eating into Royce Lewis’s playing time at third base, where he played regularly until Brooks Lee shifted over full-time. His hot start and handful of clutch hits have carried him, but his slightly below-average .697 OPS is more than acceptable production for a bench player who can fill in at shortstop. The problem is that Gray doesn’t appear to be a trustworthy option now that he’s been exposed to more playing time up the middle. As bad as Lee was defensively at short, Gray has matched him, with -5 Outs Above Average in a fraction of the time. It’s looking more and more like Gray is not a viable option at shortstop, even as an emergency fill-in. He may get more time since the Twins liked him most out of spring training from this group, but his utility will come into question when the Twins get an everyday shortstop on the roster. He's also leading the majors in a rather dubious category: no one misses by more, on average, when they whiff on a swing. Ryan Kreidler Kreidler has been a pleasant surprise offensively, posting a .761 OPS and already clubbing a career-high 3 homers this season. Brought in as a glove-first utility player, the glove has actually been the disappointment so far. Before 2026, Kreidler was an average or better defender across several infield and outfield spots, including shortstop and center field. At 28 years of age, it’s hard to imagine that Kreidler has suddenly lost a step. It’s more likely that we see things even out for him defensively as the year goes on. Kreidler’s age and subsequent team control make him the most interesting option to keep on the roster moving forward. If his glove evens out, that alone may be enough to utilize some of his five remaining seasons of team control. If his bat can keep up this pace to any degree, he becomes a valuable player in the Willi Castro vein. This long-term upside, however remote reaching it may be, should be enough for Kreidler to be the last man standing if the Twins decide to purge their current veteran super-utility group and look toward the future. The Twins can’t continue to waste 26-man roster spots the way they have been, especially if they continue to fall further out of contention. Lewis himself is sliding into this role, too, further muddying the picture. If their sights turn toward 2027 and beyond, the current super-utility infielder group should be the first place to look when it comes to swapping younger players in. Which, if any, of these three names should stick around? View the full article

Seiya Suzuki hardly ever gets a clear runway to start the season. He's dealt with oblique strains (in March 2023 and April 2024), and this spring, he suffered a knee sprain on a slide at second base during the World Baseball Classic. That delayed his 2026 debut until April 10, but it didn't slow him down much at all. He burst from the gate with a .328/.430/.567 stretch to end April, and was in the thick of the Cubs' blazing run of 20 wins in 23 games. Then: thud. He (and the Cubs' offense, as a whole) hit the cellar floor like a sack of flour. In May, Suzuki's OPS was barely over .550, some 200 points off what the team hopes to get from its bat-first right fielder. The slump was the worse of his career, and it threatened to derail the entire season—not on its own, of course, but in tandem with the similar funks into which Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson and other Cubs hitters plunged at the same time. For a solid month, Suzuki looked thoroughly lost, in a way that he'd never looked for more than a week or two before. That's all over now. On Thursday, Suzuki launched a cathartic grand slam in the top of the fourth inning in Denver, giving the Cubs the lead in a game in which they faced a real risk of falling below .500 for the first time since before the midpoint of April. It wasn't really a slump-buster, though, because Suzuki has been pulling out of his nosedive for over a week, now. The homer was his third of June, and he's flirting with a 1.000 OPS in that short span. He's hit in eight straight games—and that's not a coincidence. One of the great benefits of the new Statcast data providing swing timing details for batters will be slump analysis. Teams have already been using this, behind the scenes, but now, fans can see it, too. Here, for instance, is the distribution of swing timings for Suzuki against fastballs this season, split by month. In this image, you can think of orange and green as 'good Suzuki' and red as 'bad Suzuki'; we got a bit lucky in the way his slump confined itself (mostly) to one calendar page. Three things stand out about May, relative to the other two months, when it comes to the way Suzuki timed up the fastball: He mostly centered the ball on his barrel, but not perfectly; his most frequent horizontal intercept point was just off the sweet spot, toward the label. He was late more often. That's a big one. Hitters talk endlessly about the importance of being on time for the fastball, and in May, Suzuki was late on it too often—22% of the time, versus 18% of the time in April and 15% of the time so far in June. He was under the fastball more often, too. That's related to being late on it, but distinct, and Suzuki had both problems going against him last month. In June, he's much more on the ball. His most frequent horizontal intercept point on heaters has moved to the sweet spot, or a hair off toward the end of the bat. He's late much less often, but still in the later half of the on-time window. And he's squaring it up most of the time, vertically, neither hitting the top of the ball nor clipping underneath it. Ah, but Suzuki's huge homer Thursday came not on a fastball, but on a Ryan Feltner slider. Does the above really apply then? Well, look, you know a rhetorical question when you see one. Yes, it does. Here's the same set of monthly timing distributions, but for breaking balls, which Suzuki (like most Cubs hitters) has seen tons of recently. At first, these look so noisy as to be analytically void, but there's a good bit of signal in there—including in what looks like noise, itself. Note the fact that he's rarely missing the sweet spot of the barrel by just a little, this month; that's what was happening to him in May. Now, he's either squaring up the breaking ball, or whiffing on it entirely, way off the end of his bat. The latter sounds like a bad thing, but not all whiffs are failures. Sometimes, you'd rather swing and miss than mishit the ball and make an easy out. Now, move to the middle image. Suzuki has been early much less often on breaking stuff this month. That's huge, and it's where we see the value of his adjustment on the fastball. For his swing, the sweet spot, timing-wise, is to be very slightly late on the heater. When he can consistently be that way, he can also be on time for slower offerings. He couldn't stay in that happy zone in May, and got eaten alive by spin. In June, he's back in the groove. Finally, note the right-hand image. Whereas he was often swinging over breaking pitches (slightly or significantly) in May, he's now under them more often than over them, and on plane with them plenty of the time. That, too, is a result of having his swing well-timed to the fastball, in a way that can cover other pitches, too. These data really expose the fragility of great hitting. Suzuki could start getting out of rhythm again tomorrow and be back in a slump next week. Right now, though, he's on time for the heater—and, because he's willing to be slightly late on it when needed, on time for other stuff, too. He might even be just in time to save the Cubs' season. View the full article

MIAMI — The Marlins are in the midst of their best stretch of the regular season. Winners of eight of their last nine games, the Fightin' Fish were victorious again in Thursday's getaway day contest at loanDepot park, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-0. It was Miami's second consecutive shutout and sixth overall this season. The win improved the club's record to 34-35, just one game under .500. A major reason for the Marlins' recent success has been their middle-infield duo, which has arguably been the best tandem in Major League Baseball. Second baseman Xavier Edwards and shortstop Otto Lopez have combined for 5.2 fWAR this season, comfortably the highest total among any middle-infield pairing in the majors. During Miami's three-game sweep of Arizona, Edwards and Lopez went a combined 10-for-22 with seven runs scored, six RBIs and just one strikeout. When asked whether they should be the National League's starting middle infield at this year's All-Star Game, manager Clayton McCullough didn't hesitate. "I certainly think so," he said. "It's hard to find a duo that has played this well on both sides of the ball and on the bases. I don't think there's a better double-play combination in baseball right now." Following another multi-hit performance on Thursday, Lopez has recorded at least two hits in five straight games, the longest such streak by a Marlins shortstop since José Reyes in 2012. It was also his 29th multi-hit game of the season. "Everything just feels smooth throughout my body," Lopez said. "I'm staying aggressive, and good things are happening." Lopez currently leads the National League in batting average and is on pace for 218 hits and 30 stolen bases. No shortstop in MLB history has ever reached both marks in the same season. Thursday's starter for Miami was another emerging All-Star candidate in right-hander Tyler Phillips, who admitted after the game that he wasn't feeling his best heading into the outing. "To be honest, I felt terrible today," he said with a smile. "I don't know if what I ate for breakfast never settled in my stomach or if I didn't get enough sleep, but I was able to figure it out." Phillips made just his third start of the season for Miami after previously appearing in 16 games out of the bullpen. In Thursday's matinee, he spun five scoreless innings with a season-high five strikeouts to earn his first win of the year, lowering his ERA to a minuscule 1.86. "He set the tone, and his ability to miss bats has really increased for us this year. It's a lot of fun to watch," McCullough said. "When he's getting ahead in the count, there's not much the hitters can do." McCullough allowed Phillips to face the first batter of the sixth inning before turning things over to the bullpen. Michael Petersen, Anthony Bender, Calvin Faucher and Pete Fairbanks combined for four scoreless innings to complete the shutout. The Marlins' pitching staff racked up 13 strikeouts in the victory. Fairbanks earned his eighth save of the season. Despite being struck by a barrage of pitching injuries in late May, the Marlins are thriving in the run prevention department. So far in June, they've surrendered just 2.6 runs per game. Following the series sweep, Miami will travel to Pennsylvania for a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates before heading to Philadelphia for a date with the Phillies. Right-hander Sandy Alcantara is scheduled to be Friday night's starter at PNC Park. View the full article

Box Score SP: Zebby Matthews - 6 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 1 BB, 4 K (81 pitches, 51 strikes (63% strikes)) Home Runs: None Bottom 3 WPA: Zebby Matthews (-0.22), Brooks Lee (-0.06), Tristan Gray (-0.05) Win Probability Chart The Twins entered Thursday’s series finale against the Tigers in Detroit looking to secure a series victory. With a win, Minnesota would not only take the series, but also build a much-needed response within the division. Instead, it turned into a rough afternoon from the start. Zebby Matthews took the mound coming off seven strong innings in his previous outing, but the Tigers quickly seized control and never let go, rolling to an 11-0 win that sent Minnesota to another frustrating defeat. The Twins dropped to 31-39 on the season. EARLY OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES SET THE TONE Detroit starter Keider Montero needed just eight pitches to dispatch the top of the Twins’ order in the first inning, setting an early tone of dominance. Trevor Larnach popped out, Byron Buxton popped out, and Kody Clemens struck out to end a quick frame. The only real spark early came in the second inning, when Royce Lewis worked an eight-pitch at-bat and lined a two-out single. Minnesota couldn’t build on it. That pattern repeated throughout the afternoon—brief baserunners, but no sustained pressure. MATTHEWS RUNS INTO EARLY TROUBLE AGAIN The first inning immediately tested Matthews, as Kevin McGonigle ripped a leadoff double that just barely stayed in the park. A sacrifice fly from Riley Greene brought home the game’s first run, giving Detroit a 1-0 lead before Matthews had settled in. He did briefly stabilize, needing just 21 pitches through two innings, but the third and fourth proved costly. In the fourth, Dillon Dingler continued his strong series against Minnesota with a double, and Austin Martin made a highlight-reel diving catch to save additional damage. Still, the Tigers broke through when Colt Keith drove in a run, and Spencer Torkelson launched a two-run homer to left, turning a tight game into a 4-0 lead. Matthews’s efficiency couldn’t mask the damage—he continued to avoid long innings, but the ball kept leaving the yard or finding gaps. It felt like the TGwins gave him strict instructions to keep filling up the zone no matter what, since they needed length from him to reset their bullpen. He did his best, but paid for that approach. TIGERS BREAK IT OPEN WITH THE LONG BALL The fifth inning brought more of the same. Gleyber Torres jumped on a fastball and sent it over the right-field wall for a solo homer, pushing the lead to 5-0. In the sixth, Colt Keith added another blast—this time a no-doubt shot to right-center—making it 7-0 and marking Matthews’s third home run allowed of the day. It was the first dinger Keith had hit all season. Despite pitching efficiently in terms of pitch count, Matthews couldn’t escape the long ball, and Detroit steadily stretched the lead. By the time his outing ended, he had thrown six innings on just 81 pitches, but had allowed seven runs and three home runs in a difficult start. NO ANSWERS OFFENSIVELY The Twins’ offense never found traction against Montero or the Detroit bullpen. A brief seventh-inning rally saw Lewis collect his second hit of the day and Victor Caratini add a single, but Minnesota stranded runners and couldn’t break through. Earlier opportunities were few and far between, and even when they reached base, the Twins struggled to deliver anything resembling a sustained threat. LATE INNINGS TURN INTO A ROUT The game spiraled further in the late innings. After Matthews exited, the Tigers continued to pour it on. Kerry Carpenter added a walk, Riley Greene homered again in the seventh, and Dillon Dingler collected yet another hit in a dominant series. The eighth inning turned into a full-blown avalanche, with Detroit hitting multiple home runs to extend the lead to double digits against position-player pitcher Alex Jackson. The ninth inning came and went quickly, as Lewis struck out looking to end the game, sealing an 11-0 defeat. It was a series that began with opportunity and ended with a lopsided loss, as Minnesota once again struggled to compete within the division. The Twins will head into their next stretch still searching for consistency on both sides of the ball after a day where nothing clicked in Detroit. What’s Next? The Twins return home tomorrow to begin a three-game weekend series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Stopper Joe Ryan toes the rubber for Minnesota, and it’ll be right-hander Kyle Leahy for St. Louis. First pitch is set for 7:10 PM. Postgame Interviews Coming Soon! Bullpen Availability Chart View the full article

Blue Jays Affiliate Overview (June 9-10) Triple-A Buffalo Bisons Series vs Syracuse Mets (New York Mets): 1-1 Season Record: 29-36 Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats Series vs Hartford Yard Goats (Colorado Rockies): 1-2 Season Record: 30-27 High-A Vancouver Canadians Series vs Everett AquaSox (Seattle Mariners): 2-0 Season Record: 25-34 Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays Series vs Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (Minnesota Twins): 1-0 Season Record: 26-32 FCL Blue Jays Week Record: 0-1 Season Record: 20-8 DSL Blue Jays Blue Week Record: 0-1 Season Record: 3-4 DSL Blue Jays Red Week Record: 1-0 Season Record: 2-5 Triple-A Buffalo Bisons Season Record: 29-36 Series vs Syracuse Mets (New York Mets) June 9: Buffalo opened a new series on Tuesday, this one against the Syracuse Mets. CJ Van Eyk would be the first starting pitcher to tackle their potent lineup that features top-100 prospect Ryan Clifford. Opposing Van Eyk on the mound was a fellow elite prospect for the Mets, Jonah Tong. Andy Ibáñez got to Van Eyk first, knocking home a run on an RBI single in the opening frame of the game. In the bottom half of the inning, Davis Schneider continued his stretch of being in the middle of the action for Buffalo; he tied the game up with a sacrifice fly to center field. Tong then continued to be a little wild, walking another batter, and a run scored on a wild pitch. For Buffalo, Clase would get to Tong again in the bottom of the third. After a hit-by-pitch and a double by Sean Keys, Case singled to left, scoring both runners. The Bisons added more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Willie MacIver singled in Schneider (who had walked), then Je'Von Ward added two more from his two-RBI double. The lead was enough for Buffalo to take the win, as Van Eyk completed five innings and only allowed one run. The game was marred by rain before, during, and at its conclusion, with it being called in the top of the sixth. Buffalo won 7-2. June 10: While Buffalo's pitching held down the Mets’ bats on Tuesday, Wednesday was the exact opposite. Syracuse scored four to open up the game, getting two runs from Andy Ibáñez's single, another run from a balk, and the fourth on a groundout. Buffalo tried to claw back, getting an RBI triple from Sean Keys in the bottom of the fourth inning. A bases-loaded walk in the fifth would get three under back for the Mets, though. Josh Kasevich tried as well, getting an RBI single in the sixth. Unfortunately for Buffalo, the Mets loaded up the bases in the seventh and got a groundout to score a run and then two more runs on an RBI single. Buffalo could not cut the lead anymore, as they fell to Syracuse 8-2. Eloy Jiménez did make his return for Buffalo, collecting a single in his first game for them since April 11. Double-A New Hampshire Season Record: 30-27 Series vs Hartford Yard Goats (Colorado Rockies) June 9: Tuesday kicked off a series between the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and the Hartford Yard Goats. There wasn't much offense going for either side, and Fisher Cats starter Austin Cates was a big reason why. He threw five no-hit innings, not allowing a run, walking two batters and striking out seven. It was his third start allowing two runs or less. Jay Harry continued his great season in the third inning, this time launching his eighth home run of the year. In the fifth inning, Jorge Burgos hit a home run as well, giving New Hampshire a two-run lead. Things were quiet until the ninth, when Nick Goodwin hit a home run to center field. With the Fisher Cats up three, things fell apart. Bryant Betancourt hit a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the inning. In extras, New Hampshire failed to score, and then Hartford walked off on a wild pitch. The Fisher Cats lost 4-3. June 10, Game 1: In the first game of the doubleheader on Wednesday, the New Hampshire offense struggled overall. Aaron Parker crushed a first-inning two-run home run, and Nick Goodwin added a double later in the game, scoring on a bases-loaded walk. That was it for the offense. Hartford grabbed the lead for good in the sixth inning with an RBI groundout and a two-run double by Benny Montgomery. New Hampshire lost this one 4-3 again. June 10, Game 2: In the second game of the doubleheader, New Hampshire had more of their traditional offense working. In the third inning, they came out swinging with a Jay Harry RBI single, followed by a run on a throwing error, and then a blast from Victor Arias – his fourth on the season. Eddie Micheletti Jr. crushed his ninth home run of the year in the next inning to put the Fisher Cats up six. Cole Messina added a couple of RBI hits for Hartford, but it wasn't enough, with the Fisher Cats winning this one 7-5. High-A Vancouver Season Record: 25-34 Series vs Everett AquaSox (Seattle Mariners) June 9: It was once again Daniel Guerra bump day, and despite getting taken out after only three innings pitched, he once again was excellent, only allowing two hits and striking out three batters without allowing a run. British Columbia’s very own Sam Shaw gave Vancouver an early three-run lead with his first homer as a Vancouver Canadian, after dealing with a circulation issue earlier on in the season. Kendry Chirinos joined in on the fun with a homer of his own in the second inning. Jay Schueler replaced Guerra and was also good, but gave up a solo shot in the fourth for the first run of the game for the AquaSox. But the homers continued for the Canadians, with Dub Gleed hitting his eighth of the year to bring it back to a four-run lead. The 23-year-old infielder took a step back down to Single-A after arriving from the Marlins, but has raised his ISO by over .100. The Canadians had a four-run sixth inning as well, taking advantage of a bases-loaded situation with a hit-by-pitch, a walk, a single, and a sac fly. And in the seventh, Alexis Hernandez made it double-digit runs for Vancouver with another RBI single. NDFA Carson Myers struggled a bit adjusting to Vancouver after being promoted, but once again had a strong outing, earning the save with three scoreless innings and striking out six batters, as the Canadians won 10-1. June 10: The Canadians had their second straight game of good pitching and good hitting, with Danny Thompson Jr. once again taking the mound. He went 4.2 innings and struck out six batters, but struggled a little bit with his command, walking four. He allowed a run in the third on a sac fly, but the Canadians took the lead with RBI singles from both Sam Shaw and Maddox Latta. Thompson walked the first batter in the fifth, then, after a passed ball from Jacob Sharp, allowed a single to have runners on the corners with no outs. He struck out the next batter, but then subsequently gave up a hit, which tied the game up. Thompson struck out another batter before getting taken out for Gilberto Batista, who piggybacked off of someone new for a change, and was able to get out of the inning. The Canadians took the lead right back again, with a two-run double from Alexis Hernandez. Batista had his first scoreless outing since April 21, and Jonathan Todd earned the save with two scoreless innings of his own. The Canadians added on three insurance runs in the eighth, as with the bases loaded, J.R. Freethy was able to drive in a run with a single. Peyton Williams then drew an RBI walk before they scored the third run of the inning on a balk, for a dominant 7-2 win. Single-A Dunedin Season Record: 26-32 Series vs Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (Minnesota Twins) June 9: The Jays got the first run of the game with an Adam Hackenberg RBI single in the second inning. Troy Guthrie was the starter for the Jays, and after three scoreless innings, he allowed two singles in the fourth before striking out the next two batters. He just needed one more out to get out of the inning, but then he allowed a double to Merphy Hernandez, which tied the game up, then allowed another hit to Dameury Pena, which scored two more runs after Blaine Bullard made a throwing error. Old friend Alan Roden was on rehab assignment and reached on a throwing error from JoJo Parker, which allowed the fourth run of the inning to score. Luis Victorino replaced Guthrie and kept the score 4-1 until the bottom of the sixth, where he made a throwing error on a pickoff attempt, allowing a run to score on a sac fly immediately after. A passed ball allowed Hackenberg to score in the seventh inning, as the Jays slowly clawed their way back, and Eric Snow’s hot stretch continued with another RBI-single to bring it within two. Jake Cook’s speed forced an error, and then Hedbert Perez, who’s in Dunedin for a rehab assignment, knocked in a run with a double. Parker tied it up with an RBI single for a four-run inning for the Jays. The Jays' bullpen pitched well, not allowing a run as the game headed to extras, with Franly Urena pitching the bulk with 2.1 innings with four strikeouts, without allowing a hit. In the 10th inning, Raimundo De Los Santos moved Juan Sanchez to third on a bunt single, then as De Los Santos went to steal second, Juan Sanchez stole home as the Mighty Mussels threw to second, which ended up being the winning run. Josbel Garcia earned the save in the 10th inning for a close nailbiter win. June 10: Postponed FCL Blue Jays Season Record: 20-8 June 9: Seojun Moon got the start in this one for the FCL Blue Jays and was a bit up and down. His fastball sat between 90 and 93 mph, and he also threw a curveball, cutter, and changeup. He was a bit off in his command and left a fastball over the plate for a home run and a changeup for an RBI double. Overall, he was still solid, going 2.2 innings and striking out three batters. Jake Casey got the FCL Blue Jays on the board in the first inning with a 103.4 mph home run. In the bottom of the fourth, Franklin Rojas added a 105.1 mph RBI single to move the Blue Jays team closer to the Tigers. The Tigers team would add another two-run home run in the eighth inning, as the FCL Blue Jays lost this one 7-4. Angel Guzman continued his good stretch with another hard-hit single and two walks. DSL Blue Jays Blue Season Record: 3-4 June 9: Jose Andrades couldn't keep the Cubs Red (CUR) team off the scoreboard; he gave up four runs. What he did do was flash some serious strikeout stuff. He sat down eight opposing batters via the strikeout over his 3.1 innings. BJB managed to have one big inning, but it wasn't enough. In the third, they scored three runs, with Michael Mesa continuing his hot start to the season with an RBI double and Sebastian Casanova knocking in two with a single. BJB just didn't have it going outside of the third, as they fell 4-3 to CUR. DSL Blue Jays Red Season Record: 2-5 June 9: BJR was well on their way to losing another game on Wednesday. That was until the top of the seventh inning began. BJR exploded for seven runs in the inning, thanks in part due to wildness from the Rockies' pitchers. Down 1-0, they started the inning with two hit-by-pitches and a walk to load the bases up. Then, Frelian Flores knocked in two runs with a single to give BJR the lead. Elaineiker Coronado added a run from his ground out, Alex Linares put one across with his single, Aneudi Severino tripled home a run and then scored on a wild pitch, and finally Diego Arce scored the final run of the inning on his RBI double. BJR began the inning down one and left it up six. They would win 7-1 and move to 2-5 on the season. Transactions 06/10/26 Dunedin Blue Jays activated C Will Cresswell from the 7-day injured list. 06/09/26 Dunedin Blue Jays activated LHP Luis Fonseca. 06/09/26 New Hampshire Fisher Cats sent LF Hedbert Perez on a rehab assignment to Dunedin Blue Jays. 06/09/26 New Hampshire Fisher Cats sent 2B Cade Doughty on a rehab assignment to Dunedin Blue Jays. 06/09/26 LHP Luis Fonseca assigned to Dunedin Blue Jays from FCL Blue Jays. 06/09/26 LHP Ramon Suarez assigned to FCL Blue Jays from Dunedin Blue Jays. View the full article

The complaint — a worthwhile one — with back-end bullpen roster churn is that these guys end up pitching for your team and sent away before you get to know them. Well, damn it, make it your business to get to know them. Transactions, 6/11/2026 GOING COMING Demoted to Syracuse Promoted from Syracuse Relief Pitchers Jonathan Pintaro Daniel Duarte R/R DoB: 1997-11-07 High Level: MLB (2026) R/R DoB: 1996-12-04 High Level: MLB (2026) Jonathan Pintaro, for instance, returned to the Mets having previously given the 2026 version of the team 3 2/3 hitless innings. As awesome as that was, he wasn't done, entering late into last night's game to throw two more hitless innings. Impressive! But when he was sent out to pitch a season-high third inning, it was clear the Mets had already had his ticket punched back to Syracuse. You don't want to blame that reality check for the streak-ending homer he then gave up to Alec Burleson, but the temptation is there. In the transaction, the Mets welcome back — and we will likely see today — Daniel Duarte. Daniel himself has similarly had a strong start as one of the circle of cameo-ing Mets shuttle relievers, having yielded no runs on one hit and no walks in 2 1/3 innings. The Mexican Daniel has lived up the name of his scriptural predecessor by making a living slinging, and by summarily dispatching Giants (with 2 2/3 scoreless innings in his career vs. San Francisco. Let's hope he's equally slingy against the Cards or Phils or whoever. Your 2026 New York Mets Starting Pitchers Sean Manaea Nolan McLean Freddy Peralta David Peterson Christian Scott R/L DoB: 1992-02-01 R/R DoB: 2001-07-24 R/R DoB: 2996-06-04 L/L DoB: 1995-09-03 R/R DoB: 1999-06-15 Relief Pitchers Huascar Brazobán Daniel Duarte A.J. Minter Cionel Pérez Brooks Raley Austin Warren Luke Weaver R/R DoB: 1989-10-15 R/R DoB: 1996-12-04 L/L DoB: 1993-09-02 R/L DoB: 35176 L/L DoB: 1988-06-29 R/R DoB: 1996-02-05 R/R DoB: 1993-08-21 Relief Pitchers Catchers Infielders Devin Williams Francisco Alvarez Luís Torrens Bo Bichette Brett Baty Vidal Brujan Marcus Semien R/R DoB: 1994-09-21 R/R DoB: 2001-11-01 R/R DoB: 1996-05-02 R/R DoB: 1998-03-05 L/R DoB: 1999-11-13 S/R DoB: 1998-02-09 R/R DoB: 1990-09-17 Infielders Outfielders Mark Vientos Eric Wagaman Carson Benge A.J. Ewing MJ Melendez Juan Soto Jared Young R/R DoB: 1993-12-11 R/R DoB: 1997-08-14 L/R DoB: 2003-01-20 L/R DoB: 2004-08-10 L/R DoB: 1993-11-29 L/L DoB: 1998-10-25 L/R DoB: 1995-07-09 Also on 40-Player Roster Starting Pitchers Relief Pitchers Clay Holmes Tylor Megill Kodai Senga Zach Thornton Jonah Tong Alex Carrillo Reed Garrett R/R DoB: 1993-03-27 R/R DoB: 1995-07-28 L/R DoB: 1993-01-30 L/L DoB: 2002-01-17 R/R DoB: 2003-06-19 R/R DoB: 1997-06-06 R/R DoB: 1993-01-02 Relief Pitchers Catchers Joey Gerber Justin Hagenman Tobias Myers Dedniel Núñez Jonathan Pintaro Dylan Ross Hayden Senger R/R DoB: 1997-05-03 R/R DoB: 1996-10-07 R/R DoB: 1998-08-05 R/R DoB: 1996-06-05 R/R DoB: 1997-11-07 R/R DoB: 2000-09-01 R/R DoB: 1997-04-03 Infielders Outfielders Francisco Lindor Ronny Mauricio Jorge Polanco Nick Morabito Luis Robert, Jr. Tyrone Taylor S/R DoB: 1993-11-14 S/R DoB: 2001-04-04 S/R DoB: 1999-11-13 R/R DoB: 2003-05-07 R/R DoB: 1997-08-03 R/R DoB: 1994-01-22 Your Mets Coaching Staff Manager Bench Coach Pitching Coach Hitting Coordinator Third Base Coach First Base Coach Bullpen Coach Ass't Pitching Coach Carlos Mendoza Kai Correa Justin Willard Jeff Albert Tim Leiper Gilbert Gomez José Rosado Dan McKinney DoB: 1979-11-27 DoB: 1989-07-14 DoB: 1990-09-09 DoB: 1992-08-16 DoB: 1996-07-19 DoB: 1992-03-08 DoB: 1974-11-09 DoB: 1989-06-06 Hitting Coach Strategy Coach Catching Coach Coaching Assistant Bat'g Practice Pitcher Equipment Manager Bullpen Catchers Bullpen Catchers Troy Snitker Danny Barnes J.P. Arencibia Rafael Fernandez Kevin Mahoney Kevin Kierst Eric Langill Dave Racaniello DoB: 1988-12-05 DoB: 1989-10021 DoB: 1986-01-05 DoB: 1988-08-03 DoB: 1987-05-11 DoB: 1964-07-09 DoB: 1979-04-09 DoB: 1978-06-03 Your Mets Training Staff Director of Player Health Head Athletic Trainer Assistant Athletic Trainer Reconditioning Coordinator Reconditioning Therapist Head Performance Coach Assistant Performance Coach Performance Coordinator Soft Tissue Specialist Brian Chicklo Joseph Golia Bryan Baca Sean Bardanett Josh Bickel Dustin Clarke Tanner Miracle Jeremy Chiang Hiroto Kawamura DoB: 1972-07-17 DoB: 1978-??-?? DoB: Circa 1980 DoB: 1988-06-23 DoB: 1996-??-?? DoB: 1987-??-?? DoB: 1991-??-?? DoB: ????-??-?? DoB: 1962-07-19 View the full article

Hitters love to boast about what they could time up, if you just told them it was coming. Henry Aaron talked about being able to hit a speeding bullet. Some people, strangely, say a hitter could hit a jet at top speed, which sounds like it would be the jet hitting them, really, or else would set off some cataclysm like the one xkcd imagined years ago—a scenario, by the way, that does sometimes feel nearly possible when you watch Jacob Misiorowski. Anyway, hitters (and baseball people in general) are eager to tell you that merely throwing hard is not enough to get the ball past big-league bats. It's true, too. Now, we have Statcast data that lays out exactly how true it is. Of the pitchers against whom batters have swung at least 100 times on four-seamers and/or sinkers this year, do you know who induces the most late swings? Far from being either Misiorowski or Mason Miller, it's (this is truly delightful) the Blue Jays' Tyler Rogers. The submariner gives hitters such an uncomfortable look (and mixes in his perversely rising slider so often) that they're late on his heat over half the time, even though he throws in the low to mid-80s. That doesn't mean that velocity doesn't matter, though. Of course not. Firstly, great velocity can often help a pitcher move off the center of the barrel horizontally, as a hitter rushes to get to the hitting zone. It can also get over a bat, because the batter has time to get to the contact point laterally, but not enough to get uphill into the pitch. This is why high fastballs are, generally, more effective than low ones. Still, the idea behind the fastball is to force hitters to be late, right? The more often you force them to be late, the more they have to cheat to catch up, at which point they become vulnerable to your other offerings. And while a batter can hit the ball hard even if they're not on time, hard contact on late swings is less damaging than hard contact on on-time (or even early) swings, too. So, let's talk about how four Brewers hurlers do an exceptional job making opposing batters late on their heaters. Misiorowski's method is obvious, and we won't spend too much time on it here. (There's more to come on him tomorrow; I promise you won't be disappointed.) His heater is faster than any in the history of baseball, especially when you factor in his elite release extension. That extension adds deception and makes it hard to time up 103 MPH. It's already hard to time up 103 MPH, of course, but Misiorowski's delivery makes it even harder. That covers him. But (again, perhaps surprisingly) Misiorowski isn't even the Brewers hurler who best makes hitters late on his heat. That honor goes, instead, to an unlikely candidate: DL Hall. The southpaw reliever has been hunting for velocity he lost to injuries for years now, but he induces late swings on 39% of his four-seamers and sinkers, good for 13th of those 259 qualifying pitchers. That's remarkable, but the reason for it is remarkably simple: Hall is a hurler with lots of pitches, who works mostly in relief. Specifically, he throws both the sinker and the four-seamer, plus a changeup with about 10 MPH of separation from his heat and three flavors of breaking ball. For a guy opponents only see once in most outings, that's a dazzling array. It makes it very hard to sit on a fastball, and because Hall has two distinct heaters, even a hitter sitting on that speed has to wait an extra millisecond or two to decide which one he's attacking. This is the power of pitch mix (and a role that limits one's exposure) in action. (It also doesn't hurt that Hall, too, has exceptionally good extension.) Next among the Brewers, though just one spot ahead of Misiorowski on the leaderboard, is another lefty: Kyle Harrison. We've already talked at length about what has made his fastball such a weapon this year, but let's briefly touch on it again. By slightly raising his arm slot to get into a position where he can better tunnel the fastball with his slurve (and perfecting the spin mirroring on those two pitches), he's made it almost impossible for a batter to recognize either offering early. They differ in speed by about 13 MPH, so if the hitter can't commit to either pitch right out of the hand, they're likely to get caught in-between, both in terms of timing and in terms of the X-Y movement of bat and ball. Harrison is getting late swings on 35% of his heaters, virtually identical to Misiorowski's rate, despite throwing about 5 MPH slower. Finally, there's Chad Patrick. That name, too, might surprise you, but he's gotten late swings on 31% of swings against his four-seamer and sinker this year, good for 47th on the list. The reason here is simple, too: Everyone has to be ready for his cutter. That's the pitch Patrick throws most often, and it's about 5 MPH slower than his two true fastballs. Thus, hitters can't let themselves get all the way to those offerings very much. They're usually sitting cutter, which means that in addition to being late when he throws the sinker or four-seamer, they're usually underneath those pitches (41% of the time, easily above the league average) and often either jammed or getting the ball off the end of the bat. In fact, in this quartet, Patrick is the best at finding his way off the center of the barre with his fastballs by tying hitters up. Much of that goes back to what I wrote about earlier this year: being willing and able to throw glove-side sinkers and arm-side cutters, as well as the more natural, opposite locations. Working east and west. Changing speeds often. Getting down the mound in an extraordinary way. Maximizing deception. There are a lot of ways to disrupt timing; that's why pitchers get hitters out most of the time. The Brewers have four aces in this aspect of the game this year, and while they're not all the guys you might first guess, these four hurlers have driven much of the team's success on the mound, by making hitters be late early and often. View the full article

Owen Hill makes his return to the Jays Centre Podcast where he's joined by Jesse Burrill. The two take an overarching look at what has been an overwhelmingly disappointing season from the Blue Jays before finding some positives in Dylan Cease's historic 11 K performance, Jesús Sánchez's homer, and a double off Zack Wheeler. They also provide some Ernie Clement All-Star propaganda, and debate whether Tyler Heineman will be DFA'd with the imminent return of Alejandro Kirk or if the Jays will decide to go with three Catchers. They finish with a conversation about Clement's quote about "identity" and a preview of the upcoming series against the New York Yankees. Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jays-centre-podcast/id1846108462 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Bi7SzfpcqMo5xYWnbCeoL Listen on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-jays-centre-podcast-300304824/ Listen on Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/2qk9wqxd Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jayscentre View the full article

The New York Mets' bullpen churn continues. Right-handed reliever Daniel Duarte was called up from Triple-A Syracuse on Thursday by the Mets, with right-handed reliever Jonathan Pintaro going back to Syracuse. Also, the Mets sent right-handed starter Kodai Senga on a rehab assignment to Double-A Binghamton. Senga has been out since late April due to lumbar spine inflammation and a right UCL irritation. Pintaro had been called up Wednesday to replenish the bullpen after right-hander Joey Gerber threw two innings Tuesday. Pintaro was put into immediate use, going the final three innings in a 9-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. Pintaro was very effective, allowing just a solo homer and striking out two. But his price was a ticket back to the minors. Duarte came up in mid-May for a couple days and similarly pitched just one game. He went 2⅓ innings and allowed no runs on one hit with no walks and a strikeout in a 9-6 loss to the Washington Nationals on May 19. He was sent down the next day. That was Duarte's 37th MLB appearance over the last four seasons with the Cincinnati Reds (2023-24), Minnesota Twins (2025) and Mets. He has a 3.76 ERA with a rather high 14% walk rate and a below-average 16.9% strikeout rate. View the full article

As the Minor League Podcast officially hits 10 episodes, Nick accidentally turns this week's episode into a Woosox session as he talks about their four-game winning streak, along with how guys like Braiden Ward and Tsung-Che Cheng have provided value and appear to have broken out of their May slumps. He also breaks down a few Portland pitchers he really likes in Blake Wehunt, Dalton Rogers, and Hayden Mullins. And of course, he can't ignore the optioning of Brayan Bello. Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-talk-sox-podcast/id1783204104 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3qPrPXEngu0CxgTmlf0ynm Listen on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-talk-sox-podcast-244591331/ Listen on Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/4tmd121v Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@talksox View the full article

Syracuse rode a four-run first inning to an 8-2 win behind Xzavion Curry, who struck out five over five innings, and Grae Kessinger drove in three. Brooklyn poured five runs across the second inning and got a home run from JT Benson in a 7-2 victory, with Dakota Hawkins fanning four in three frames. Bryce Conley turned in a quality start with five strikeouts for Binghamton, but the offense was shut out 3-0. St. Lucie managed just two hits and fell 17-0. Mets Transactions New York Mets optioned RHP Joey Gerber to Syracuse Mets. New York Mets recalled RHP Jonathan Pintaro from Syracuse Mets. Early Outburst Lifts Syracuse Past Buffalo Syracuse jumped on Buffalo in the top of the first inning, scoring four runs before recording an out. Andy Ibáñez delivered a two-run single to score Ji Hwan Bae and Nick Morabito, Grae Kessinger added a run on a groundout that plated Ibáñez, and the lead held the rest of the way in an 8-2 win. The Mets added single runs in the fifth and tacked on three more in the seventh, when Yonny Hernández drove in a run on a groundout, and Kessinger followed with a two-run single. Kessinger finished with three RBIs, Bae had three hits, and Morabito added two hits and scored twice. Ibáñez drove in two. Xzavion Curry set the tone, working five innings and allowing one run on two hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Dylan Ross allowed a run in his lone inning, while Ben Simon and Nate Lavender combined for two scoreless innings to finish it. Player AB R H RBI BB K Ji Hwan Bae 4 2 3 0 1 0 Nick Morabito 4 2 2 0 1 0 Ryan Clifford 3 1 0 0 2 2 Andy Ibáñez 4 2 1 2 1 3 Yonny Hernández 2 0 0 2 2 0 Grae Kessinger 5 0 1 3 0 0 Cristian Pache 4 0 0 0 0 1 Hayden Senger 4 0 0 0 0 1 Matt Rudick 3 1 0 0 1 0 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Xzavion Curry 5 2 1 1 2 5 0 Dylan Ross 1 2 1 1 1 2 0 Adbert Alzolay 1 2 0 0 1 1 0 Ben Simon 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nate Lavender 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 Binghamton Blanked In Somerset Binghamton could not solve Somerset in a 3-0 loss, stranding nine runners on base. The damage against the Rumble Ponies came in two innings. In the bottom of the second, Somerset pushed across two runs on a double, and in the bottom of the fifth, a solo home run accounted for the final margin. Bryce Conley was sharp enough to earn a quality start, allowing three runs on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts over six innings. Jefry Yan and Guillo Zuñiga followed with a scoreless inning each, with Yan striking out two and Zuñiga adding one. At the plate, Binghamton collected just five hits. Chris Suero doubled, and TT Bowens added a double, while Vincent Perozo and Wyatt Young each singled. The Rumble Ponies drew four walks but could not bring any of those runners home. Player AB R H RBI BB K Chris Suero 4 0 1 0 0 0 Eli Serrano III 4 0 0 0 0 0 Jose Ramos 3 0 0 0 1 2 Nick Lorusso 3 0 0 0 1 0 JT Schwartz 4 0 0 0 0 1 Vincent Perozo 3 0 1 0 0 0 Wyatt Young 3 0 1 0 1 0 TT Bowens 4 0 1 0 0 1 Kevin Villavicencio 3 0 0 0 1 2 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Bryce Conley 6 5 3 3 4 5 1 Jefry Yan 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 Guillo Zuñiga 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 Five-Run Second Carries Brooklyn Over Frederick Brooklyn broke open a scoreless game with a five-run bottom of the second inning and never looked back in a 7-2 win. JT Benson started the rally with a run-scoring triple, Colin Houck doubled home a run, Ronald Hernandez reached on a fielder's choice that plated two runs, aided by a throwing error, and Corey Collins added a sacrifice fly that brought in another. The Cyclones added single runs in the sixth, on a John Bay double, and the seventh, when Benson homered. Benson finished with two hits, two runs, two RBIs, and the home run. Hernandez and Houck each collected two hits and drove in runs, and Mitch Voit reached base three times with a double and two walks. Dakota Hawkins worked three innings, allowing one run on three hits with four strikeouts and no walks. Garrett Stratton, Gregori Louis, Juan Arnaud, and Cristofer Gomez combined for steady relief, with Stratton striking out three over two scoreless innings. Player AB R H RBI BB K Mitch Voit 3 2 1 0 2 1 John Bay 3 1 1 1 2 1 Ronald Hernandez 4 0 2 2 1 1 Corey Collins 3 0 0 1 1 1 Yonatan Henriquez 4 0 0 0 1 2 Daiverson Gutierrez 5 1 2 0 0 1 JT Benson 3 2 2 2 1 1 Colin Houck 4 1 2 1 0 1 Sam Biller 3 0 0 0 1 2 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Dakota Hawkins 3 3 1 1 0 4 0 Garrett Stratton 2 2 0 0 0 3 0 Gregori Louis 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 Juan Arnaud 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 Hunter Hodges 1 1 1 1 0 2 1 Cristofer Gomez 1 1 0 0 2 3 0 St. Lucie Buried By Big Innings In Palm Beach St. Lucie was overwhelmed in a 17-0 loss to Palm Beach, managing only one hit. The Cardinals built their lead with a six-run fourth inning and a nine-run fifth. In the fourth, Palm Beach strung together run-scoring singles before a grand slam blew the game open. The fifth brought more of the same, with a double, a home run, and a string of singles and doubles plating run after run. Conner Ware took the loss, allowing three runs on four hits over 3 1/3 innings with four strikeouts and two home runs allowed. Christian Rodriguez and Caden Wooster were each charged with multiple runs while recording only one out apiece, and Ernesto Mercedes allowed five runs in his inning of work. Joe Charles and Jackson Hauge combined for three scoreless innings to close it out. At the plate, the Mets managed only two hits, and Antonio Jimenez accounted for one of them with a single, while the team drew six walks but never pushed a runner across. Player AB R H RBI BB K Elian Peña 3 0 0 0 1 0 Trey Snyder 3 0 0 0 1 2 Antonio Jimenez 4 0 1 0 0 1 Yohairo Cuevas 3 0 0 0 1 1 Julio Zayas 4 0 0 0 0 1 Chase Meggers 2 0 0 0 1 0 Branny De Oleo 3 0 0 0 0 1 Jeremy Rodriguez 2 0 0 0 1 1 Simon Juan 3 0 0 0 0 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Conner Ware 3 1/3 4 3 3 0 4 2 Christian Rodriguez 1/3 6 5 5 1 0 1 Caden Wooster 1/3 3 4 4 1 0 1 Ernesto Mercedes 1 5 5 5 2 1 0 Joe Charles 2 1 0 0 3 1 0 Jackson Hauge 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 View the full article

The Minnesota Twins entered the 2026 season without a clear-cut, consensus top-100 pitching prospect anywhere in the organization. That isn't necessarily a criticism of the system. They have several intriguing arms throughout the minors, but none carried the kind of national attention typically associated with elite pitching prospects. The hope, however, was that Dasan Hill would eventually become that guy. After a breakout 2025 campaign that saw him post an ERA in the low 3.00s while striking out 31% of the hitters he faced, Hill looked like one of the most exciting young pitchers in the organization. At 6-foot-5 with a power left-handed arsenal and swing-and-miss stuff, the upside was obvious. If everything clicked, there was a path for Hill to develop into a future frontline starter. Unfortunately, this season has brought far more questions than answers. Through 33 innings with High-A Cedar Rapids, Hill owns a 6.82 ERA and a 1.94 WHIP. He's allowed 34 hits and struck out an impressive 53 batters, but those strikeouts have largely been offset by 30 walks. That's where the real concern lies: the command issues are becoming impossible to ignore. Hill's stuff is still gross, there's no denying that. In fact, the bat-missing ability that made him so intriguing in the first place is still very much present. After posting a 31% strikeout rate last season, he's actually increased that number to 33% in 2026. That's an elite figure. But when you're not locating, it doesn't really matter how good the stuff is. Hill's walk rate currently sits at an absurd 18.6%, and he's essentially handing out a free pass nearly every inning he takes the mound. That simply isn't going to work at higher levels of professional baseball, and opposing hitters have clearly figured that out. One of the most telling statistics in Hill's profile this season is his swing rate. Opposing batters are offering at just 40% of the pitches he throws. That's an absurdly low number, especially when considering the quality of his arsenal. For comparison, Taj Bradley (who has been dealing with command issues of his own this season) has a swing rate of 46%. A lot of his misses aren’t remotely close, either, and Hill is still significantly lower than that. Hitters have essentially adjusted their approach. They're forcing Hill to prove he can throw strikes consistently before offering at anything. And until he demonstrates that ability, there's little reason for opposing lineups to become more aggressive. What's even more concerning is that this problem has gotten worse as the season has progressed. Over his last four starts, Hill has issued 14 walks in just 8 1/3 innings. Even if you remove the worst outing from that stretch — the appearance in which he walked six batters while recording only two outs — he's still averaging roughly a walk per inning. At this point, the lackluster command can no longer be written off as early-season rust. We're more than two months into the season, and this has become a very legitimate problem. And that's especially frustrating, because despite the ugly ERA and the alarming walk totals, there are still plenty of things he's doing well. For starters, he's generating ground balls at an extremely strong rate and doing an excellent job limiting extra-base damage. Opponents haven't been consistently squaring him up, which is important context when evaluating a pitcher whose surface-level numbers look this rough. There's also a significant amount of bad luck mixed into the equation. Hill currently owns a .427 batting average on balls in play, which is an outrageously high number. While pitchers certainly have some influence over BABIP, a mark that extreme is not sustainable, even with the worse defense generally played in the minors. Eventually, that number is going to come down, and when it does, his hit totals should improve considerably. Hill will keep missing bats, too. Which means this entire conversation really comes back to one thing: the walks. If he can reduce the free passes and throw strikes more consistently, many of the other issues could begin correcting themselves rather quickly. The problem, of course, is that command isn't something pitchers simply decide to improve overnight, and this isn't exactly a new issue. Ever since the Twins selected Hill in the 2024 draft, command has been the biggest question surrounding his profile. The stuff has always been outstanding, but the ability to consistently locate within the strike zone has remained a work in progress. That's why these struggles are particularly concerning. This isn't a pitcher who suddenly lost command after years of throwing strikes. This is an existing weakness that has gotten even worse. The Twins were hoping he would take a major step this year toward becoming a future ace. Instead, he's spent the first two months raising serious questions about whether he'll be able to stick as a starter long term. Regardless of how much upside is in there, pitchers eventually have to throw strikes; that’s why they’re “pitchers” and not “throwers.” And until Dasan Hill gets that piece under control, he's likely going to remain stuck in the lower levels of the minor leagues. View the full article

Chicago Cubs Transactions No Roster Moves Cowles And Dean Drive Early, But Louisville Buries Iowa The Iowa Cubs jumped ahead early but were overwhelmed in a 20-5 loss to the Louisville Bats. Iowa built a lead in the second inning when Ben Cowles doubled home Kevin Alcántara, and Justin Dean followed with a single that scored Cowles to make it 3-1. The cushion did not last. Starter Jordan Wicks struggled through three innings, allowing eight runs, four earned, on eight hits and three walks while striking out one. The Bats kept pouring it on against the Iowa bullpen, with Luke Little surrendering five runs while recording just two outs. Offensively, Alcántara, James Triantos, Cowles, and Dean each collected two hits, and Cowles and Dean drove in two runs apiece. Iowa left six runners on base and could not keep pace once Louisville seized the lead in the fourth. Player AB R H RBI BB K Brett Bateman 4 0 1 0 1 1 Owen Miller 5 0 0 0 0 0 BJ Murray 3 0 0 0 0 1 Casey Opitz 1 0 0 0 0 0 Jonathon Long 4 0 0 0 0 0 Kevin Alcántara 4 2 2 0 0 1 James Triantos 4 1 2 0 0 2 Ben Cowles 2 2 2 2 1 0 Eric Yang 2 0 0 1 0 1 Justin Dean 3 0 2 2 0 0 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Jordan Wicks 3 8 8 4 3 1 1 Ryan Jensen 1 2 1 1 0 1 1 Ty Blach 1 3 4 4 2 0 1 Luke Little 2/3 4 5 5 1 0 1 Luis Peralta 1 1/3 1 1 1 2 3 0 Casey Opitz 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 Ayers Collects Four Hits And Three Doubles In Knoxville Loss The Knoxville Smokies fell 10-6 to the Montgomery Biscuits despite a standout afternoon from Owen Ayers, who went 4-for-4 with three doubles and three RBI. Starter Connor Schultz could not find the strike zone, allowing seven runs, six earned, on five hits and four walks over 2 1/3 innings while striking out three. Knoxville trailed for most of the day before mounting a late push. The Smokies plated two in the sixth on an Ayers double that scored Alex Ramírez and an Andy Garriola groundout. They added four more in the seventh, as Hayden Cantrelle singled home Ethan Hearn, Alex Ramírez reached on an error that scored Edgar Alvarez, and Ayers capped the rally with another double that brought in Cantrelle. Jackson Kirkpatrick was the lone bright spot on the mound, working 1 1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Knoxville left four runners on base and could not overcome the early deficit. Player AB R H RBI BB K Alex Ramírez 4 2 0 0 0 0 Jefferson Rojas 3 1 0 0 1 1 Owen Ayers 4 0 4 3 0 0 Andy Garriola 4 0 0 1 0 0 Carter Trice 3 0 0 0 0 2 Ethan Hearn 3 1 0 0 0 1 Karson Simas 2 0 1 0 0 1 Ed Howard 1 0 0 0 0 1 Edgar Alvarez 3 1 1 0 0 2 Hayden Cantrelle 2 1 1 1 1 0 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Connor Schultz 2 1/3 5 7 6 4 3 1 Frankie Scalzo Jr. 2 1/3 3 3 3 3 0 1 Jackson Kirkpatrick 1 1/3 1 0 0 1 2 0 Hartshorn And Valdez Lead South Bend Past Peoria The South Bend Cubs earned a 5-3 win over the Peoria Chiefs behind a dominant relief outing from Kevin Valdez, who struck out eight and allowed one run on three hits across five innings without issuing a walk. The Cubs broke through in the third inning when Josiah Hartshorn launched a two-run home run that scored Kane Kepley and tied the game at 2-2. South Bend took the lead for good in the fifth, when Hartshorn lifted a sacrifice fly to bring home Kepley and Jose Escobar doubled to score Ty Southisene, pushing the margin to 5-2. Hartshorn finished with three RBI on the day. Starter Eli Jerzembeck worked two innings, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out four. Kane Kepley reached three times with a triple and a walk and scored twice atop the lineup. South Bend left eight runners on base but got enough from Valdez to close it out. Player AB R H RBI BB K Kane Kepley 3 2 1 0 1 1 Ty Southisene 2 1 1 0 1 1 Josiah Hartshorn 2 1 1 3 1 1 Matt Halbach 4 0 1 0 0 1 Cole Mathis 2 1 1 0 1 0 Jose Escobar 3 0 1 2 0 1 Justin Stransky 2 0 1 0 1 1 Alex Madera 3 0 1 0 0 1 Christian Olivo 3 0 0 0 0 1 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Eli Jerzembeck 2 4 2 2 2 4 1 Kevin Valdez 5 3 1 1 0 8 0 Mettert Slams The Door As Myrtle Beach Edges Augusta The Myrtle Beach Pelicans pulled away for a 5-2 win over the Augusta GreenJackets, with the bullpen providing the difference. Braylon Myers opened with three scoreless innings, striking out four while allowing one hit and three walks. The Pelicans struck first in the second inning when Jairo Diaz doubled to score Derniche Valdez. Myrtle Beach broke the game open in the seventh, scoring three runs. Alexis Hernandez singled home Henniel Alcala, Eli Lovich followed with a single that scored Darlyn De Leon, and Logan Poteet grounded into a force out that plated another run to make it 5-1. Sam Mettert closed the game with five strikeouts over two innings, allowing one run on one hit for his debut at the Pelican's ball park. Eli Lovich led the offense with two hits and an RBI, and Hernandez also drove in a run. Myrtle Beach left seven runners on base but never trailed. Player AB R H RBI BB K Alexis Hernandez 4 1 1 1 0 2 Eli Lovich 3 0 2 1 1 0 Logan Poteet 4 0 0 0 0 2 Michael Carico 3 0 0 0 1 1 Derniche Valdez 4 1 1 0 0 2 Yahil Melendez 3 1 1 0 1 1 Geuri Lubo 4 0 0 0 0 3 Jairo Diaz 1 0 1 1 0 0 Henniel Alcala 3 1 1 0 0 1 Darlyn De Leon 3 1 1 0 1 0 Player IP H R ER BB K HR Braylon Myers 3 1 0 0 3 4 0 Hayden Frank 4 3 1 1 2 1 1 Sam Mettert 2 1 1 1 2 5 0 Top-20 Prospect Performance Jefferson Rojas: 0-for-3, BB, K Jaxon Wiggins: DNP Pedro Ramirez: DNP Kevin Alcántara: 2-for-4, 2 R, K Josiah Hartshorn: 1-for-2, HR, BB, K, 3 RBI Ethan Conrad: DNP Kane Kepley: 1-for-3, 3B, BB, 2 R, K Jonathon Long: 0-for-4 James Triantos: 2-for-4, 2B, 2 K Cole Mathis: 1-for-2, BB, R Owen Ayers: 4-for-4, 3 2B, 3 RBI Brooks Caple: DNP Juan Cabada: DNP Kaleb Wing: DNP Angel Cepeda: DNP Dominick Reid: DNP Jostin Florentino: DNP Ty Southisene: 1-for-2, BB, R, K Will Sanders: DNP Brandon Birdsell: DNP View the full article

Boston Red Sox Affiliate Recap (June 10) Triple-A Worcester Red Sox Season Record: 33-29 Hardly any traffic on the base paths and a terrible first inning led to a loss for Worcester 5-2 against the Red Wings on the road. After serving most of his time in the bullpen, Eduardo Rivera made his second consecutive start for the WooSox and had a rough outing, not even finishing the first inning. Rivera had no location of the strike zone, throwing 17 of his 38 pitches for strikes while walking four batters. With one out, Rivera gave up a solo shot, then proceeded to walk two straight batters. He recorded a strikeout to make it two outs, giving Worcester hope of getting out of the mess. The bases were jammed after another walk was allowed; a couple of very costly errors from Tsung-Che Cheng and Kristian Campbell put a combined four runs on the board for Rochester, giving them a 5-0 lead to end the first inning. Although the starting pitching was not great, the bullpen was the bright spot. Seth Martinez (2 ⅓ IP 2 K), Osvaldo Berrios (3 IP, 4 K), and Angel Bastardo (2 IP, 4 K) combined for ten strikeouts and one walk in 7 ⅓ scoreless innings, keeping Rochester off the board. Offensively, Mikey Romero carried the lineup, going 2-for-4 with a solo homer in the fourth and an RBI single in the ninth, both of Worcester's only runs. Vinny Capra added a triple in the ninth to set up that final run. Braiden Ward doubled in the third. Beyond that, the bats were quiet: the 4-5-6-7-8 hitters (Campbell, Matt Thaiss, Allan Castro, Matt Lloyd, and Nathan Hickey) went a combined 0-for-16 with seven strikeouts. The bottom line: a disastrous first inning and a couple of bad throwing errors were way too much to overcome, despite some outstanding pitching from the bullpen. Standout Performances: Seth Martinez: 2 ⅓ IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 K Osvaldo Berrios: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 4 K Angel Bastardo: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K Mikey Romero: 2-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI Double-A Portland Sea Dogs Season Record: 29-29 The Sea Dogs struggled with men aboard in their 6-4 defeat to the Fightin Phils. Portland's offense was quiet for most of the night, managing just six hits and striking out 11 times, but Johanfran Garcia was the bright spot, going 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs. His double in the third inning scored Marvin Alcantara to cut the early deficit to 3–1, and another double in the eighth brought in Arias to make the game 5-2. The Sea Dogs trailed 3–0 early in the first inning when Reading launched a three-run homer. Starter Blake Wehunt gave up five earned runs over 4 ⅔ innings on seven hits, taking the loss. Wehunt settled in after the three-run blow in the first but got stuck in the fifth, giving up a pair of RBI singles that ultimately took him out of the game. Caleb Bolden was solid in relief (3 ⅓ IP, 1 ER, 3 K), keeping Portland within reach and not forcing the game to get out of hand. Portland entered the ninth with a 6-2 deficit and made their best attempt to make a push, scoring once on a Fightin Phils fielding error and a Brooks Brannon RBI groundout to pull within 6–4, but the Sea Dogs unfortunately could not complete the comeback. Franklin Arias and Garcia carried the lineup, combining for five of the team's six hits while the six different Portland batters went hitless. The seven walks drawn kept some rallies alive, but too many strikeouts and the unwillingness to cash in runners in scoring position (1-for-11 with RISP) kept them out of reach. Standout Performances: Johanfran Garcia: 3-for-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI Franklin Arias: 2-for-4, R, BB High-A Greenville Drive Season Record: 24-32 Three long balls for the Greenville Drive were just enough to take down the Dash 7-4. It was a great day at the plate for Greenville, scoring in the first after Yoeilin Cespedes got caught stealing while Justin Gonzales took advantage of that play, taking off for home plate in the process. The big blow came in the second inning when Jack Winnay launched a three-run homer (his 11th) to left-center, turning a 1-0 lead into a 4-1 cushion. Luke Heyman extended Greenville’s lead 5-1 with an RBI single, but got thrown out at second while attempting to snag an extra base. Isaiah Jackson added a solo shot in the sixth to make it a 6-3 game, reaching double-digit homers on the season with his 10th while reaching base three times. Enddy Azocar had the best night at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a solo homer in the seventh (his 2nd High-A homer), 7-3. In the eighth inning, Danny Kirwin got into trouble as he was unable to find the zone. With one out, he gave up a double, then the runner moved to third base on a wild pitch. He proceeded to walk two straight batters to load the bases, putting his team in a major hole. Kirwin walked the next batter once again, bringing in a run, which was the end of his night. Steven Brooks came into the game and saved Greenville, striking out the next two batters to get out of the jam with no further damage, 7-4. Dylan Brown started and was solid, tossing four innings, allowing two runs on five hits with an impressive six strikeouts. Brooks locked it down at the end of the game, finishing with 1 ⅔ scoreless innings and three K's, earning his second save of the season. Standout Performances: Enddy Azocar: 3-for-4, HR, 2 R, RBI Isaiah Jackson: 1-for-2, HR, 2 R, RBI, BB, HBP Jack Winnay: 1-for-4, HR, R, 3 RBI Dylan Brown: 4 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K Steven Brooks: 1 ⅔ IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 K Low-A Salem RidgeYaks Season Record: 24-35 The RidgeYaks dropped their fifth straight game in a close 6-5 defeat against the Woodpeckers. D'Angelo Ortiz got Salem on the board first with his first professional home run, a solo blast to left in the third inning, giving the Yaks a 1-0 lead. Fayetteville answered with a pair of RBI singles and an RBI groundout in the top of the fourth, taking a 3-1 lead. Salem clawed back to tie it in the sixth inning. Anderson Fermin and Givian Sirvania got on base; afterward, Skylar King drove in Fermin with a single, and Kleyver Salazar brought home Sirvania on a sacrifice fly, tying it 3-3. With Louis Andujar at the plate with two outs and runners on the corners, Andrews Opata stole his 29th base of the season, causing the catcher's throw to trickle in the outfield, bringing in Skylar King, giving Salem the lead once again, 4-3. The lead didn't last long. Fayetteville broke through, scoring three runs in the seventh against Jay Allmer, highlighted by a two-run double to make it 6-4. Allmer ended up taking the loss. Salem made it interesting in the ninth, facing a 6-4 deficit. Salazar led the game off with a single, then Adonys Guzman followed with a double, putting runners on second and third with no outs to give the RidgeYaks a good spot to walk it off. Andujar came up to the plate and hit into a devastating double-play: a line-drive comebacker to the pitcher caught the runner on second, slipping, and was thrown out to complete the double-play. Avinson Pinto laced an RBI double to cut it to 6-5, but that is where it ended. What makes the loss more heartbreaking is knowing the Pinto double would have at least tied the game. Joey Gartrell was sharp in his relief appearance, throwing 2 ⅓ innings, giving Salem the best possible chance to make a comeback. View the full article

On Fish Unfiltered, Marlins All-Star candidate Otto Lopez gets emotional reflecting on how far he's come since being designated for assignment twice in early 2024.View the full article

The Minnesota Twins announced this week that they traded Simeon Woods Richardson to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Cash Considerations, once again proving that baseball's most valuable asset isn't a five-tool prospect or Cy Young contender. It's a guy named Cash. For most organizations, Cash Considerations is simply a transaction detail buried near the bottom of a press release. For the Twins, however, sources say it's much more personal. "No player has done more for this franchise over the last two decades," one team official said. "Every few years, he finds his way back to us." Despite appearing in hundreds of transactions throughout Major League Baseball history, Cash remains one of the sport's most mysterious figures. He has never thrown a pitch, taken an at-bat, or appeared on a Top 100 prospect list, but general managers continue to pursue him aggressively. Twins Daily was granted exclusive access to Cash shortly after the Woods Richardson trade became official. The veteran asset appeared relaxed as he sat in a conference room at Target Field surrounded by calculators, accounting ledgers, and several framed photos of previous Twins cost-cutting measures. "It's great to be back," Cash said. "Minnesota has always felt like home." Cash acknowledged that he has been involved in countless baseball transactions over the years. "I've been traded for utility infielders, backup catchers, waiver claims, international bonus pool space, and at least six relievers nobody remembers," he said. "Sometimes teams don't even mention me in the headline. That hurts." While fans often focus on the players involved in a trade, front offices see things differently. "Cash is one of the most reliable assets in baseball," an American League executive explained. "He's durable, flexible, and never complains about playing time." The acquisition reportedly generated significant excitement within Twins ownership. Sources familiar with the situation say members of the Pohlad family immediately gathered to review the details of the transaction. "There was a standing ovation," one witness said. "I haven't seen that much excitement since someone suggested lowering payroll projections." A representative of the Pohlad family released a statement shortly after the trade. "We've always had tremendous respect for Cash Considerations," the statement read. "His contributions to this organization cannot be overstated." Another ownership source spoke glowingly about the newest addition to the organization. "People talk about building around young talent, but Cash has been helping this franchise for years," the source said. "Prospects come and go. Cash is forever." Cash admitted he has developed a special bond with Twins ownership over the years. "They've always believed in me," he said. "Some organizations see me as a transaction. The Pohlads see me as family." The relationship has become so strong that league insiders now consider Minnesota a perennial favorite whenever Cash becomes available. One rival executive even suggested the Twins could eventually retire his number. "Assuming he gets one," the executive clarified. Despite his popularity, Cash insists life on the transaction wire is not always easy. "You wake up with one organization and go to sleep with another," he said. "One day you're helping complete a trade in Tampa. The next day you're part of a deal involving a struggling bullpen arm and a player to be named later." Still, he understands why teams keep calling. "When a front office needs flexibility, they know where to find me." The Twins appear optimistic that Cash can immediately contribute in several key areas, including future roster moves, budget discussions, and ownership presentations. Club officials declined to reveal whether Cash would report to Triple-A St. Paul. "He's already where he needs to be," one executive said. As the interview concluded, Cash received a text message and smiled. "Looks like another team is interested," he said. Before leaving, he stopped to thank the Twins organization and the Pohlad family for their continued support. Outside Target Field, ownership sources reportedly gathered for a Minnesota goodbye. "We'll see each other again," one shouted. History suggests he is probably right. Players come and go. Front offices change. Prospects rise and fall. But through every rebuilding plan, payroll discussion, and minor transaction, one constant remains. Cash Considerations always finds his way back into the conversation. View the full article

Coming into the season, Dasan Hill looked like the Twins' best chance at developing a future ace. But two months into 2026, there's a growing problem that's becoming impossible to ignore. View the full article

Everyone knows the tragic tale of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun just to fall down and meet a grisly fate. The Royals have seen a story like that happen in real life with Gil Meche, a pitcher whose stubbornness to get a complete game eventually cost him down the road. But the story of how he got to June 16, 2009, is just as interesting as the man himself. Gilbert Albert Meche was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, on September 8th, 1978. Meche was a star pitcher at Acadiana High School and eventually found a place in the U.S. Junior Olympic Baseball Team in 1995, where they would win gold at the World Junior Baseball Championship. That same year, Meche would earn most valuable pitcher honors at the National Amateur All-Star Tournament when he was just 16 years old. Unfortunately for him, he would suffer a viral infection, causing him to miss almost all of his senior year season. He would still be named to the All-America Second Team and announce his intention to play college ball at LSU. However, when he was surprisingly drafted 22nd overall by the Seattle Mariners in 1996, he would end up foregoing college and signing professionally. After a solid three-year stint in the minors, Meche would make his big league debut on July 6, 1999, just two months before his 21st birthday. Meche would become the second-youngest player to ever debut for the Mariners behind Ken Griffey Jr. He pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up two earned runs on four hits, striking out five. He wouldn’t get a first win until July 19th against the Diamondbacks when he pitched seven innings and only gave up three earned runs. He would finish his first season with a record of 8-4 and an ERA of 4.73 in 15 starts. The next year would not be kind to Meche as he lost his first five starts to begin 2000. He would bounce back and even pitch a rain-shortened shutout, tossing just 5 scoreless innings against the Royals. However, his season would be cut short due to having a dead arm, and he was put on the disabled list in July. He would make a few rehab appearances but would not pitch in the majors the rest of the season. Meche would pitch for the Mariners until 2006, putting up solid numbers for them as he went 43-36 with a 4.75 ERA. He would become a free agent at the end of the 2006 season, and with a big-time demand for pitching, Meche was going to get paid big time. He received interest from the Cubs and the Blue Jays, but ended up surprising everyone and signed with the Royals for five years and $55 million. The contract would tie the largest in club history, and Meche would wear the number 55 in honor of that contract. Meche would start off his Royals career strongly, amassing a record of 5-6 with a 3.28 ERA before being named an All-Star in 2007. He finished the year with a 9-13 record and posted career bests in ERA (3.67), innings pitched (216), and a league-leading 34 starts. Meche would have another great year the following season, finishing 2008 with a 14-11 record and a 3.98 ERA. But then 2009 would be the year when the wheels started to fall off. Meche would start off the year solidly, though, with a record of 3-5 with an ERA of 3.70, but then came June 16th. In a memorable game against the Diamondbacks, Meche pitched a complete game shutout, only giving up four hits and striking out six. At the time, it was seen as Meche’s masterpiece, but there was only one stat that stuck out like a sore thumb: his pitch count. Meche threw 132 pitches, which is too many pitches to throw for a shutout, and it would eventually take a toll on him. Manager Trey Hillman again gave Meche too long a leash in his next two starts as he threw 121 and 114 pitches in back-to-back starts. He would finish 2009 with a record of 6–10 and an ERA of 5.09 while giving up almost 8 earned runs per game over his last nine starts. He would not be the same pitcher after that. 2010 would be another forgettable year for Meche as he would not be given the Opening Day nod, which went to Zack Greinke, the Cy Young Award winner the year prior. Meche started the year 0-4 with a 6.66 ERA before being placed on the disabled list with right shoulder bursitis, which marked his second stint on the DL for the season. After five rehab appearances, he would return to the Royals as a reliever and put up admirable numbers, pitching 11 innings to an ERA of 2.08. However, it would be the last time Meche would pitch in the majors, as he would make the surprising decision to retire rather than play out the final year of his contract, where he was guaranteed $12 million. Meche believed that he wasn’t the pitcher that he once was and that he was not deserving of the money. It’s hard to know what kind of pitcher Meche would've become if he hadn’t thrown so many pitches in 2009. Would he have won a Cy Young? Probably not. But he would've been a staple in the Royals' rotation for years to come, and that is the real tragedy of it all. In the many what-ifs Royals fans have been through, Meche certainly represents one of the most interesting stories in Royals lore. View the full article

When it comes to the offense and pitching staff (the latter of which specifically applies to the rotation), the San Diego Padres are floundering. Despite keeping up with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West standings through more than a month to open 2026, they're currently mired in third place with very little optimism of working themselves out of a late-May-early-June swoon anytime soon. That doesn't mean it's all bad, though. In addition to the bullpen, which has been a predictable strength of the roster, the team's defense has been much-improved. That progression comes despite the team routinely spending time lingering in the bottom half of the league in defensive output over the last handful of seasons. No position seemed to be immune to the struggle on that side of the ball. Take 2024, for example. The Padres ranked 22nd in the league in Fielding Run Value (-16). FRV represents the most logical route toward evaluating the collective, given its comprehensive approach to not only glove work but also throwing value (i.e., arm strength, accuracy, etc.). Jackson Merrill led the way that year with a FRV of 10, with Ha-Seong Kim's 4 FRV ranking second on the team. From there, it was a steady stream downhill. Regulars Xander Bogaerts (-1), Jake Cronenworth (-4), Luis Arráez (-4), and Jurickson Profar (-6), all finished under the average threshold by the metric. The catching situation was nothing short of a disaster, with Kyle Higashioka (-2) and Luis Campusano (-13) weighing down the group further. The 2025 campaign demonstrated a continued struggle on that side of the ball. Even with a rapid ascent up the FRV board from Fernando Tatis Jr. (9) and Xander Bogaerts (7), the group still finished 17th with a -2 FRV as a collective. Cronenworth and Arráez were below average at two positions each, while trade deadline acquisition Ramón Laureano managed that feat at all three outfield positions. Meanwhile, Manny Machado checked in at -4 FRV, while Martín Maldonado was the caboose at -6. Even with steady work behind the plate from catching mate Elías Díaz, the catching in particular was another source of struggle that compounded with modestly-below-average play elsewhere to give the Padres a firmly below-average defense. Things have shifted heavily in 2026, however. The Padres are fourth in the league with a FRV of 17. That trails the first-place Chicago Cubs (27) by a heavy amount, but is just one notch below second-place Boston's 18. It's the result not only of improvement at key positions, but a progression by multiple players who had struggled over the last couple of years. Catching represents the most obvious area of improvement, especially given the struggles of individual backstops over the last couple of seasons. This year, however, it's an area of strength. Each of Freddy Fermin (2) and Rodolfo Durán (2) are comfortably above average in FRV, while Luis Campusano (0) is checking in at exactly average in his own right and demonstrating significant improvement defensively from two years ago. Durán's work has helped to ensure stability in Campusano's absence, as well. While that group is the most notable among the improvements, a couple of changes behind made to the roster configuration have also helped. The obvious one is moving Tatis from full-time work in right field to regular work at the keystone. Across 2024 and 2025, the Padres' -7 FRV at second base ranked 25th in the league. Tatis, though, is working with a 4 FRV in 225 innings there while continuing to offer above-average play in right field (2 FRV). As a result, they're now seventh in the league in their defensive performance at the position. First base is also a key area of improvement. Ty France was coming off a Gold Glove season in Minnesota when the Padres added him on a minor-league deal this winter. His 5 FRV is pacing the team and proving to be a massive improvement on the combination of Arráez, Cronenworth, et al. from last season. Only two teams (Chicago & Atlanta) have a higher Fielding Run Value at that spot than the Padres do in their cumulative first base work. Those key changes come in addition to improvements from Manny Machado (3 FRV) and continued stability at shortstop from Xander Bogaerts (also 3 FRV). Ramón Laureano had also been above average in this regard prior to his injury. It's possible that there's a positioning component — Machado, for example, has moved in a couple of feet on his average start point — but there isn't any one change that appears to be indicative of the more individual improvements manifesting on the roster. The full-time run for Fermin and change in personnel at first base are obvious factors yielding big benefits, as well as Tatis' move to second base. Regardless of the how, there isn't any doubt that this is a much better defensive team than it has been the last couple of years. Of course, how much that matters in the standings remains to be seen. Pitching and defense are always noted as the pillars of contention. The Padres have all of one and half of the other at present, given their deficiencies in the rotation. The defense isn't going to prop them up against their counterparts in the NL West, but it could certainly be a separator if the team is able to overcome its present shortcomings when at the plate and starting the game on the mound. View the full article

It's been six weeks since Brandon Woodruff last pitched in a big-league game. After leaving his start on April 30 with a dead arm and having a cyst drained in his surgically repaired right shoulder, he and the Brewers have taken his rehab slowly. It seems he's finally nearing a return, though, as he threw 68 pitches in an Arizona Complex League game on Tuesday night. Before that outing, Woodruff threw three simulated innings of live at-bats in Milwaukee last week. With media present for that session, he appeared to lean heavily on cutters and changeups. There were no public velocity readings, but his main fastballs looked slower than his usual post-surgery cruising speed of 92-93 mph. Velocity didn't look like the focus of the session, anyway, as MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reported that Woodruff was testing a lower arm slot so that his shoulder could work more efficiently. Those changes in release, velocity, and pitch usage all carried over to the ACL, where Woodruff worked 3 2/3 innings. The results from that outing don't matter, but there are takeaways to glean from how his stuff moved and how he used it. Like his simulated outing, there were signs that Woodruff might return to the big leagues as a slightly different pitcher than he was several weeks ago. Woodruff's four-seamer and sinker combined to average 90.6 mph on Tuesday. That's a welcome improvement after his fastballs dropped into the mid-80s in his last big-league appearance, but it's also more than a tick below his season average of 92.2. He was also cutting the ball more from his lower slot, leading to less induced vertical break on his four-seamer—the late carry that got hitters to swing underneath the ball for whiffs, even at 92—and less arm-side run on his two-seamer and changeup. Perhaps Woodruff will find more of that backspin carry as he settles into that lower slot. The adrenaline boost of pitching in meaningful games could also nudge that velocity closer to that 91-93 range, where he learned to succeed last year by tunneling his two-seamer and new cutter to work both sides of the plate. Right now, though, he looks like a pitcher responding to the possibility that his raw stuff has further declined. If Woodruff is indeed preparing to navigate hitters differently, his cutter might be at the center of that new approach. Last season, he threw it just 12% of the time to left-handed batters. Facing a lineup with eight lefties on Tuesday, he used it more than 30% of the time, another sign that it may be a bigger part of his pitch mix moving forward. Because that cutter is a true cut fastball, Woodruff could miss barrels with it as his primary pitch if necessary. While he threw fewer four-seamers last year, it still played well over the heart of the plate when he did use it. If that pitch is less effective in the zone with diminished velocity and movement, throwing more cutters would help him change lanes even more effectively and give that four-seamer more perceived life. Woodruff's next outing could come in Milwaukee next week, which would shed more light on where his stuff is and how best to use it. For now, the signs suggest he's adapting again and entering a new chapter of his post-surgery career. View the full article