MLB 2025 SHOCKERS: Cubs to Win 99 Games? Tigers' Secret Weapon Revealed!
MLB's Money Divide EXPOSED: Are Dodgers & Mets Ruining Baseball?
Join us on the latest Sportsnaut Interview as we dive into the financial divide in Major League Baseball with Andy McCullough, senior writer for The Athletic. In this exclusive interview, we discuss his latest article, "Which MLB Teams Are Actually Trying? Charting a Divide Between the Haves and the Have-Nots," exploring how teams like the Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees dominate spending, while others lag. Are these big spenders disrupting competitive balance? Will a salary cap ever happen? Get the full scoop on MLB's economic landscape and what it means for the future of baseball! Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - Andy's Article Overview 2:00 - Does Spending Guarantee Wins? 5:00 - Competitive Balance in MLB 10:00 - Dodgers' Deferred Money Strategy 14:00 - Salary Cap Debate 17:00 - Closing Thoughts
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New York Times
15 minutes ago
- New York Times
Scenes from a Tigers victory: A daunting catch, a daring escape and another unlikely hero
DETROIT — Here was another dilemma. Sweat beat down on Tarik Skubal's head Friday under a strange summer haze. Smoke from Canadian wildfires infiltrated the Detroit sky and lingered as dusk descended on Comerica Park. The best pitcher in baseball was at 94 pitches. He had just surrendered back-to-back singles. There were runners on the corners and two outs. The Tigers were clinging to a 2-1 lead. Advertisement In Skubal's previous outing, manager A.J. Hinch removed him after seven innings and 90 pitches. Reliever Beau Brieske surrendered the lead to the Kansas City Royals in the eighth. Skubal keeps pitching so well that it's creating difficult decisions for his manager. Friday, Hinch again called to the bullpen. Right-hander Will Vest entered to face Seiya Suzuki, who was 0-for-3 against Skubal but entered play with a 1.173 OPS against left-handed pitching. The move made logical sense but still required some gumption. 'Suzuki is the at-bat of the game,' Hinch said. 'It's the most leverage, it's the biggest spot, and we've got to get a righty on him at that moment.' The right-handed Vest has been a dynamic force in his own right this season, the owner of a 1.72 ERA. So in the top of the eighth, Vest threw a 1-2 fastball that caught too much of the plate. Suzuki appeared to swing under the ball. It left his bat at a 39-degree launch angle. At the dais after the game, Hinch mimicked his thought process as the ball traveled through the air. 'OK,' Hinch thought for a moment, 'we got out of it.' But Suzuki's hit hung in the sky like a disco ball, slowly drifting deeper into the hazy twilight. 'I was like: 'Stay here. Stay in the ballpark,'' Hinch said. There at the wall, Kerry Carpenter, the right-fielder whose defense has been an adventure as of late, peeked toward the padding and ran. He always thought he'd make the catch, he said. Finally, the sphere came crashing toward the earth. Carpenter jumped. Extended his glove. And … there it was. Ball met leather. Carpenter made the catch, might have robbed a home run, and certainly kept the Tigers' lead intact. Now watching as a spectator, Skubal pumped his fists and shouted in celebration. 'You're doing everything you can in the dugout to reel it back in,' Skubal said. KERRY CARPENTER IS A BAD MAN.#VoteTigers ⭐️ — Detroit Tigers (@tigers) June 7, 2025 That was the peak of another dramatic Tigers victory, 3-1 against the Chicago Cubs, this one a win that encapsulated so much of what has made this team so good all season. The Tigers entered as the best team in the American League. The Cubs entered as the best team in the National League. Detroit was coming off a sleepy series on the South Side, where it split four games with the last-place Chicago White Sox. The Cubs rolled into town having won four out of five. Skubal was on the mound. The park was sold out. The game was flying by. Advertisement The Tigers struck first in the fifth. Gleyber Torres, the second baseman they shrewdly signed on a one-year deal this winter, hit a shrieking line drive over shortstop to bring home a run. The Cubs tied the score when Kyle Tucker doubled home rookie Matt Shaw in the sixth. And then the Tigers did what they have been doing all year. Finding ways. Some way, any way. Spencer Torkelson, entering on a 3-for-27 slump despite a redemptive season that will merit All-Star consideration, got down 0-2. Cubs starter Ben Brown threw three consecutive knuckle curves low, scraping the dirt. Torkelson took all three. Full count. Then he got a fastball. Torkelson smoothed out his swing, found his timing and detonated a blast that sent the ball crescendoing over the left-field fence. It was Torkelson's 15th home run of the year. The Tigers pulled ahead. That set the stage for the drama in the eighth. The Tigers escaped with the lead. Along the way, they benefited from a series of sterling defensive plays. Riley Greene caught a ball and crashed into the left-field wall. Javier Báez played impeccable shortstop, even redirected a throw from left in the fifth to nab Pete Crow-Armstrong, who ran past the base at third on a late stop sign, then was called out floundering back to the bag. Dillon Dingler threw out Shaw for a key out in the eighth. 'That was an absolute clinic by the guys,' Torkelson said. The Tigers have started wearing T-shirts with one of Hinch's mantras printed on the back. Everything matters. 'Everything matters in every game,' Hinch said. 'Everything matters to a greater extent in a close game. And any one of those plays could have changed the whole complexion of the score.' And in the ninth, a little more poetry. Before the game, the Tigers sent down Andy Ibáñez, their longtime right-handed-hitting specialist who has lost all feel in the box. Ibáñez was coming off a lackluster series against the White Sox, slumbering at the plate for much of the past two weeks, and the Tigers needed to infuse their offense, particularly with right-handed help. They brought up Jahmai Jones, a 2015 second-round pick who's on his fifth MLB team at 27 years old. Advertisement Jones has a unique connection to this city. His late father, Andre, was a defensive end for the Detroit Lions in 1992. His older brother, T.J., also played four seasons for the Lions as a wide receiver. In spring, Jones talked of all these connections, of the family legacy, of what it would mean to actually make it to Detroit. He impressed in spring but did not make the team. He lingered in Toledo, where his name was hardly mentioned in the endless roster talks that percolate through the season. But finally the Tigers sent down Ibáñez to find himself. Jones got the chance. He arrived at Comerica Park around 2:30 p.m. and launched straight into game prep. After first pitch, he sat near injured utility player Matt Vierling, talking about the best way to prepare for the possibility of a late-game pinch hit chance. Hinch called Jones' number in the ninth. And what did he do on his first pitch? He got a hanging curveball, then launched a looping torpedo over the left-field fence. This was his first bat, his first pitch, as a Detroit Tiger. And it was his first home run, only the second of his major-league career. He retreated to the dugout, saw Vierling and started laughing. 'I told you how to get ready!' Vierling shouted. 'My guy!' Jones said in response. In the bottom of the ninth, 40,000 people rose to their feet. Vest — once a Rule 5 pick who was returned to the Tigers after a mediocre stint with the Seattle Mariners — closed the door for the 10th time this season. Hinch was asked about the idea of his Tigers meeting the moment. Tough matchup, national broadcast, big crowd, all that. He practically shrugged. 'I appreciate the thought of raising the bar,' Hinch said. 'The bar is pretty high around here.' (Top photo of Will Vest: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler says he's 'f***ing embarrassing' after allowing 7 runs in 2 innings to Yankees
In their first meeting of the 2025 MLB season, the New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox, 9-6. The Yankees jumped on Red Sox starter Walker Buehler, roaring out to a 7-0 lead by the second inning. The onslaught began immediately with Trent Grisham drawing a leadoff walk and Aaron Judge hitting a double. Buehler looked like he might get out of trouble, getting Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt out. But he then dropped in a knuckle-curve that Jazz Chisholm Jr. golfed out to center field for a 3-run homer. Advertisement Jasson Domínguez followed with a single and came home on a 2-run shot by Anthony Volpe. Buehler threw a 94.7 mph fastball right down the middle of the strike zone that the Yankees shortstop smacked to the opposite field. The right-hander allowed one more hit, a single to Austin Wells, before getting DJ LeMahieu to ground out to end the inning. Buehler finished with seven runs (five earned), seven hits and two walks allowed before Zack Kelly took over in the third. In his past two starts, Buehler has given up 12 runs (10 earned), 17 hits (four of them home runs) and four walks in 7 2/3 innings. Following the game, the eight-year veteran gave a tough self-evaluation of himself to reporters. Advertisement "This organization put a lot of faith in me this offseason and I've been f***ing embarrassing for us," Buehler said, via MassLive's Christopher Smith. "So it's tough." 'It's obviously a big game and a big rivalry that I was excited to be a part of," he added. "And for it to go the way that it did is super disappointing, especially after the past two, three weeks of kind of prep and throwing and all that kinda shit and how I'm feeling. Physically I feel great and for it to happen that way, it sucks.' Buehler (4-4) has a 5.10 ERA after 10 starts for Boston with 44 strikeouts and 17 walks in 48 2/3 innings. In early May, he went on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation. Buehler signed a one-year, $21.05 million free agent deal with the Red Sox after seven seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and nearly three years removed from Tommy John surgery. The Red Sox did have some highlights, including Marcelo Mayer hitting his first career home run. (Rafael Devers later added his 13th of the season.) They scored four runs against Yankees starter Will Warren. But they couldn't overcome Buehler's terrible second inning. "He feels great physically, he feels his stuff is really good, and then that happened, you know?" Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Buehler after the game. "So it's not easy to be out there and get your a** kicked, right? I think we're all frustrated, you know, and he's trying to find a way.' Boston has lost nine of its past 12 games and dropped to 30-35 for the season. That leaves the Red Sox in fourth place, 10.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East. They're also five games out of the AL's third wild-card playoff berth.
Fox Sports
19 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Pedro Pagés hits a 2-run HR, Sonny Gray pitches into 7th inning as Cardinals beat Dodgers 5-0
Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) — Pedro Pages hit a two-run homer, Sonny Gray pitched into the seventh inning and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 Friday night in a game that started after a 1 hour, 17 minute rain delay. Willson Contreras hit his sixth homer of the season in the eighth inning off Chris Stratton, who was re-signed by Los Angeles before the game, and Nolan Arenado had three hits to help St. Louis improve to a National League-best 21-9 since May 4. Gray (7-1) allowed eight hits and struck out five without walking a batter in 6 1/3 innings to earn his second win against the Dodgers in eight career starts against them. JoJo Romero, Phil Maton and Steven Matz combined to pitch 2 2/3 innings in relief to secure the Cardinals' eighth shutout of the season. Pagés lined the first pitch he saw from Justin Wrobleski (1-2) over the left-center field bullpen in the second inning for his fifth home run of the season to put St. Louis ahead 2-0. Brendan Donovan blooped a two-out, two-run single to center field in the fifth inning to push the Cardinals' lead to 4-0. Wrobleski allowed four runs on six hits and three walks in a career-best six innings after being recalled from triple-A Oklahoma City prior to the game. Key moment Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts each singled to lead off the third inning. However, Gray struck out Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez, and Max Muncy flew out to right field to end the Dodgers' threat. Key stat Gray has tossed 20 consecutive scoreless innings dating back to the sixth inning of his start on May 25 against Arizona. Gray has not allowed a run in four of his last six starts. Up next Dodgers RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-4, 2.39 ERA) is scheduled to face Cardinals RHP Erick Fedde (3-5, 3.82) on Saturday. ___ AP MLB: recommended
