Wood has 2 homers, 5 RBIs as Nats win their first home series victory over Dodgers since 2014
Wood has 2 homers, 5 RBIs as Nats win their first home series victory over Dodgers since 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — James Wood homered twice and matched a career high with five RBIs, leading the Washington Nationals over the Dodgers 8-2 on Tuesday night for their fourth consecutive victory and their first home series win over Los Angeles since 2014.
Los Angeles lost four of five following an 8-0 start. Shohei Ohtani was 1 for 5 with a ninth-inning single.
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Wood hit a two-run homer off Justin Wrobleski (0-1) in the first, drew a bases-loaded walk in a three-run second and hit another two-run shot in the fourth for an 8-0 lead.
Wood, who also went deep in Monday's series opener, had the second two-homer game of his big league career. The first was Sept. 15 against Miami.
Wrobleski started in place of two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, who went on the injured list Sunday with shoulder inflammation. Wrobleski allowed eight runs in five innings.
Washington's Brad Lord, a 25-year-old right-hander, allowed two hits and two walks in three-plus scoreless innings in his first major league start. He struck out Ohtani swinging for two of his four strikeouts.
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TIGERS 5, YANKEES 0
DETROIT (AP) — Tarik Skubal allowed four hits over six innings, Spencer Torkelson hit the first of three homers in the fourth inning off Carlos Carrasco and Detroit extended its winning streak to five, beating New York and dealing the Yankees their first shutout loss this season.
Skubal (1-2), the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, struck out six and walked none, lowering his ERA from 5.91 to 3.78. He allowed singles to Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice starting the game, then retired 16 straight batters. He escaped the first-inning trouble when he struck out AL MVP Aaron Judge, retired Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a groundout and threw a called third strike past Anthony Volpe.
Brant Hurter finished a six-hitter for his second save in a game that took 2 hours, 4 minutes.
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Zach McKinstry and Dillon Dingler added consecutive homers in the fourth against Carrasco (1-1), who has a 7.71 ERA, and Kerry Carpenter homered off Ryan Yarbrough in the fifth.
New York has lost three straight games and has scored just two runs in the first two games of the series, shifted to daytime because of cold weather. The game started with a 34-degree temperature and 28-degree wind chill.
Goldschmidt had three hits and is batting .381.
GUARDIANS 1, WHITE SOX 0
CLEVELAND (AP) — Nolan Jones drew a bases-loaded walk from Mike Clevinger in the ninth inning, and Cleveland won its home opener over Chicago.
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Carlos Santana reached on an infield single off first baseman Andrew Vaughn's glove starting the ninth for his second hit of the game. Kyle Manzardo and Jhonkensy Noel walked against Clevinger (0-2), Jones hit a 3-1 pitch just to the foul side of the right-field pole, then took a fastball low.
Cleveland, which had just three hits, got its 13th walk-off win in a home opener, its first since 2017 against the White Sox. It was the second game-ending RBI for Jones after his home run for Colorado against San Diego on June 11, 2023.
Emmanuel Clase (2-0) pitched a hitless ninth, finishing a two-hitter.
Chicago's Shane Smith, a 25-year-old right-hander making his second major league appearance, didn't allow a hit until José Ramírez's slow-rolling infield single down the third-base line with two outs in the sixth. he allowed two hits in six innings.
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METS 10, MARLINS 5
NEW YORK (AP) — Pete Alonso drove in four runs, Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff homer and the Mets beat Miami.
Clay Holmes (1-1) struck out a career-high 10 in 5 1/3 innings for his first win with the Mets and second as a major league starter. Brandon Nimmo broke a fifth-inning tie with a two-run double, and Starling Marte blooped a two-run single.
Juan Soto had two singles and scored twice, including on Alonso's wind-aided RBI double that eluded Kyle Stowers in shallow right field. The temperature at first pitch, moved up three hours Monday to 4:10 p.m. because of a harsh weather forecast, was 43 degrees at blustery Citi Field.
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Derek Hill hit a two-run homer for the Marlins and made an incredible diving catch on the left-center warning track to save three runs. Liam Hicks had three RBIs.
CARDINALS 5, PIRATES 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh ace Paul Skenes was knocked around by St. Louis, allowing a career-high five runs in a loss at frigid PNC Park.
Skenes (1-1), who was electric in his first two starts this season, was spotty this time around. The 22-year-old reigning National League Rookie of the Year allowed six hits with a walk and seven strikeouts as his ERA more than doubled from 1.46 to 3.44.
Victor Scott II had two hits, including a two-run triple off Skenes in the third. Brendan Donovan had two hits for St. Louis and followed Scott's first-career three-base hit with an RBI single that put the Cardinals up 3-0.
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Sonny Gray (2-0) breezed through five innings for St. Louis, surrendering just one run and three hits. Gray's only mistake came on a sinker to Bryan Reynolds in the fourth that the designated hitter sent into the right-field seats for his second homer this season.
BLUE JAYS 6, RED SOX 1
BOSTON (AP) — George Springer homered through a cold and gusting wind, and Easton Lucas pitched another 5 1/3 scoreless innings to maintain a perfect 0.00 ERA and lead Toronto to a victory over Boston.
One night after going 4 for 4 with three RBIs, Springer broke a scoreless, sixth-inning tie with a 404-foot homer to the flagpole in center field. Tyler Heineman and Bo Bichette added singles in the four-run inning, when Toronto also took advantage of two walks and two errors to chase Garrett Crochet.
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Lucas (2-0), a well-traveled reliever who pitched five scoreless innings in his first career start against Texas on Wednesday, shut Boston down on three hits and a walk, striking out eight.
Crochet (1-1) gave up four runs — just one earned — on five hits and four walks while striking out five in 5 2/3 innings.
BRAVES 7, PHILLIES 5
ATLANTA (AP) — Sean Murphy homered and drove in four runs in his return from a rib injury, and Atlanta beat Philadelphia.
Austin Riley hit two doubles for Atlanta, including a tiebreaking shot to the wall in right-center in the seventh inning. Jarred Kelenic walked three times and scored two runs.
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Riley's second double of the night drove in Marcell Ozuna, who walked and moved to second on a wild pitch by Orion Kerkering (1-1).
Kyle Schwarber homered and drove in three runs for Philadelphia.
ANGELS 4, RAYS 3
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Luis Rengifo drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth inning and Kenley Jansen got in and out of trouble in the bottom half for his third save as Los Angeles rallied to beat Tampa Bay.
Logan O'Hoppe got the rally started with a one-out, pinch-hit single. Kevin Newman pinch ran after O'Hoppe moved to second on a ground out and Newman scored on Rengifo's single to center.
Jansen surrendered singles to Jake Mangum and Taylor Walls, who both stole bases to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Mangum was thrown out at home trying to score on a grounder to Rengifo at third. Jansen struck out Brandon Lowe and José Caballero to end the game.
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Can he turn things around, or do the Brewers need to give him a break at Triple A to refine his mechanics? — Flores Record: 28-37 Last Power Ranking: 10 One big question: What happened to the offense? The window for offensive firepower can be frustratingly brief. In 2023, Atlanta's lineup was relentless: more than 300 home runs and just under six runs per game from a lineup mostly comprised of 20-somethings. Poor health relegated that offense to a league-average outfit last season, and the offense has fallen into the bottom third in baseball in runs per game this season, even as a healthier unit. Yes, overall the offense should produce better moving forward as Ronald Acuña Jr. plays in a larger percentage of its games. But the entire infield and Michael Harris II in center field have all taken steps backward over the last two years, some of them significant. Most of those guys are signed through the end of this decade. — Britton Record: 34-32 Last Power Ranking: 18 One big question: Is Jac Caglianone enough to lift the offense? That question is quite the burden to place on a 22-year-old rookie, but it's almost assuredly the exact kind of question that the Kansas City front office hoped to answer when it called up the 2024 first-round pick to the big leagues. The Royals have become a pitching factory of sorts (3.31 team ERA, fifth in MLB), which are probably not the words anyone thought they'd be typing in 2025, but the offense continues to struggle. Caglianone, who absolutely demolished minor league pitching (.982 OPS in 199 at-bats in Triple A and Double A), could be the answer, or his K-rate could be an easy exploit for pitchers to take advantage of. It's the exact kind of gamut a team runs when it calls up a prospect, but the Royals believe it's a risk worth taking. — Flores Record: 34-31 Last Power Ranking: 19 One big question: What if Shane Bieber doesn't return? OK, that's a rough question to propose, but it's a legitimate possibility. Earlier this week, Bieber, who is coming off Tommy John surgery and inked a two-year, $26 million deal in the offseason, was shut down from throwing after experiencing elbow soreness following a bullpen session. He'll be re-examined in a week, at which point the Guardians will hope it's a minor scare and they can continue to ramp up Bieber for a midseason return. But what if it's more than that? Would Cleveland entertain the possibility of adding a starter at the deadline to boost its rotation (4.09 ERA, 20th) and playoff odds? Can Bieber, who has a $16 million player option for next season that he would almost certainly exercise barring a banner finish to this season, get healthy enough to show he's still a Cy Young-caliber starter? There's a lot riding on Bieber's return for both sides. — Flores Advertisement Record: 32-34 Last Power Ranking: 17 One big question: Will the Diamondbacks sell at the deadline? That certainly wasn't the plan coming into 2025, not after adding Corbin Burnes to supplement one of the best offenses in baseball in 2024. But the team had been sputtering for weeks, even before Burnes injured his elbow and saw his season ended by Tommy John surgery. Arizona is several games under .500 and plays in perhaps the sport's best division. The club could push for a Wild Card spot. Or it could attempt to take advantage of a seller's market and try to flip pending free agents such as third baseman Eugenio Suárez, outfielder Randal Grichuk, starting pitcher Merrill Kelly or reliever Shelby Miller. — McCullough Record: 32-36 Last Power Ranking: 22 One big question: How should all the pieces fit? Years ago when reading David Halberstam's 'The Breaks of the Game,' I was struck by how rigid NBA teams of the 1970s viewed positional fit. If a team had two good players at one position, inevitably, one needed to be traded to fill a need somewhere else. This doesn't really happen in the NBA anymore, and in baseball, it's been a while since the Phillies needed to trade Jim Thome to make room for Ryan Howard. The collection of talent the Red Sox have amassed — with Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony now in the bigs — is enviable, and figuring out how it should all fit together is what executives and managers will doubtlessly tell you is 'a good problem to have.' It is still a problem, which encompasses good and bad solutions, and Boston's approach to similar problems this year has not engendered optimism it will nail the landing in finding time for all of its young, left-handed-hitting potential stars. For now, Anthony replaces the injured Wilyer Abreu and Mayer has been filling in for Alex Bregman. But what happens when Abreu and Bregman return? — Britton Record: 34-33 Last Power Ranking: 20 One big question: Can TJ Friedl make the All-Star team? The 29-year-old lefty has flown under the radar this season, but the fact is he's been one of the NL's best outfielders. Among qualified NL outfielders, Friedl is eighth in fWAR (1.5), 11th in OPS (.800), third in batting average (.292) and fourth in hits (69). Those are all marks for becoming an All-Star, but Friedl faces an unfortunate challenge in that Pete Crow-Armstrong, Corbin Carroll, Kyle Tucker and James Wood all have been phenomenal, that Juan Soto is now in the NL and that Kyle Stowers (left field) might be the Marlins' only representative. That makes his chances of showing up in Atlanta all the more distant. — Flores Record: 31-35 Last Power Ranking: 21 One big question: Can Bret Boone wake up the offense? Can anyone? When the Rangers fired hitting coach Donnie Ecker on May 4, the offense ranked 29th in runs, 28th in on-base percentage (.284) and 25th in slugging percentage (.358). Under Boone, who returned to the game as Ecker's replacement, the group has been just as ineffective: 26th in runs, 30th in OBP (.282) and 28th in slugging (.353). The lack of production has been exasperating for a team playing in a winnable division and receiving stalwart efforts from its starting rotation. The Rangers took two of three from Washington this weekend, and Marcus Semien's bat is beginning to defrost. It's not too late to make up ground in the West. — McCullough Record: 30-35 Last Power Ranking: 23 One big question: Who else can be part of the core? Pull up Washington's page on Baseball-Reference and you get a good feel for how the Juan Soto trade has helped the Nationals: On the line of top 12 performers for the 2025 squad, the first three all came from San Diego in that 2022 deal. Now it's a matter of supplementing that group, be it from the remaining piece of the trade (Robert Hassell III) or from within (Dylan Crews, Brady House, Cade Cavalli, etc.). It's a nice start of a core, but a start of a core isn't enough to compete in this division yet. — Britton Advertisement Record: 26-38 Last Power Ranking: 24 One big question: Can they do enough by July 31 to encourage the front office? When I covered the 2023 Mets, one player looked at his stats in September and remarked how they were about where they should be — how over 162 games the stats eventually evened out. Problem was, he said, you actually don't have 162 games. You have until the deadline to give your front office a reason to trust you for the last two months. The Orioles are trying to provide that encouragement now. They're 10-4 in their last 14 games as their starting rotation has stabilized — hey, Charlie Morton wasn't totally cooked, after all — and they have some vitally important series coming up. The American League is not a juggernaut, and its competitive flatness has provided Baltimore with an opportunity to get off the mat here and now. — Britton Record: 31-34 Last Power Ranking: 25 One big question: Is this the real Nolan Schanuel? As bleak as recent seasons have been, at least the Angels appear to have found long-term answers at shortstop (Zach Neto) and catcher (Logan O'Hoppe). The hope was that Schanuel, a 2023 first-round pick, could provide the same stability at first base. He held his own as a rookie in 2024, and in recent weeks has offered glimpses of a brighter future. He may not provide the power of a classic slugger, but if Schanuel can keep getting on base at a .402 clip, as he did in May, the Angels will take it. — McCullough Record: 27-40 Last Power Ranking: 26 One big question: What do you do with Paul Skenes? They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome. If there's one person who's experiencing it right now, it's Paul Skenes. Case in point: last week, Skenes took the loss on Tuesday after pitching eight innings of one-run ball against the Astros, and took a no-decision on Saturday after 7 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball. It's the exact kind of thing Skenes experienced in May, April and March. If the team has no intention of building around him, then perhaps fielding some trade offers isn't the worst thing in the world. If these past few seasons, and especially this week, tell us anything, it's that Tommy John or some variation of an elbow injury comes for us all, meaning Skenes' value has never been higher than it currently is. — Flores Record: 26-42 Last Power Ranking: T-27 One big question: Can the pitchers adjust to Sutter Health Park? This temporary home in West Sacramento has been hellish for the Athletics, who are 12-23 there this season, even after winning a series against Baltimore over the weekend. Only Colorado has won fewer games at home than the Athletics. The team understood the conditions would not be ideal in the Triple-A ballpark. But it has been brutal for the pitching staff. The A's entered Monday's games with the worst collective ERA (5.68 overall and 5.85 at home) and worst home run rate (1.53 per nine innings) in the sport. No team had allowed more runs, and that included the Rockies. It will be years before the team moves to Las Vegas. The group will have to learn to adjust, or risk more years in the basement of the AL West. — McCullough Record: 24-40 Last Power Ranking: T-27 One big question: Can Sandy Alcantara be salvaged? Look, we acknowledge it is probably not any fun for a Marlins fan to Ctrl+F for their team, only to read more about the drop in trade value for what was once its best player. We'd have been happier writing about Ryan Weathers' improved repertoire, too, until he got hit in the head by a warmup throw down to second base and landed on the 60-day IL with a lat strain suffered later in the game. But the best thing that could have happened for Miami's 2025 season, more so than a breakout by Weathers or Kyle Stowers or Edward Cabrera, was a return to form by Alcantara and a trade for a boatload of prospects in a trade market that favors sellers. Instead, Alcantara's ERA entering his start Tuesday night is a grade-school riddle: Why is six afraid of his ERA? Because 7.89. — Britton Advertisement Record: 22-44 Last Power Ranking: 29 One big question: Is it time to lower the asking price on Luis Robert Jr.? At this point, Robert is who he is. That player who bashed 38 homers en route to an All-Star selection and Silver Slugger award in 2023 isn't coming back. Up until now, the White Sox have seemingly held firm on his potential, as well as his desirable contract in trade negotiations. However, it seems high time that they lower that asking price just a bit. It's highly unlikely that the White Sox will pick up the club options in his current deal ($20 million in 2026 and 2027), meaning that any return is a good return for a player they're likely to DFA at season's end. Robert is still valuable (league-leading 21 steals and is a true centerfielder), just in a different light, which requires the Sox to view him in a different light (less future Mike Trout and more Harrison Bader — sorry, Harrison). — Flores Record: 12-53 Last Power Ranking: 30 One big question: Can the Rockies avoid breaking the White Sox's record? After getting swept by the Mets over the weekend, the Rockies entered Monday on pace for a 30-132 record, a mark that would demolish the recent mark of 121 defeats set last year by the White Sox. To avoid that ugly piece of history, the Rockies will need to play at a .309 clip over the next 97 games. That feels . . . doable? But considering Colorado has played at a .185 pace thus far, it will require a serious burst of winning. Hard to foresee. — McCullough
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Sparks Send Strong Message to Kelsey Plum on Monday
Sparks Send Strong Message to Kelsey Plum on Monday originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Kelsey Plum has another milestone under her belt. The Los Angeles Sparks went against the Golden State Valkyries at Arena in Los Angeles on Monday evening. Tied at the end of the fourth quarter with a score of 78, Golden State's Janelle Salaun led the charge with 18 points and hauled in six rebounds. For the Sparks, Dearica Hamby scored 20 points, while Plum, with 24 points, contributed seven assists. Advertisement In the middle of the game, which the Valkyries won 89-81, the Sparks' official X account posted Plum's latest achievement. "KP is dishing it out!" the Sparks posted on X. "Congrats to @Kelseyplum10 on earning 1,000 career assists." Originally from Poway, California, Plum starred at the University of Washington from 2013 to 2017 and became the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer with 3,527 points. Throughout her college basketball career, she earned major awards including the Naismith, Wooden, Wade, USBWA and Nancy Lieberman trophies, as well as Pac‑12 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors. Advertisement Drafted No. 1 overall in 2017 by the San Antonio Stars, Plum spent her early WNBA seasons struggling but rebounded impressively after a 2020 Achilles injury. She won Sixth Player of the Year in 2021 and became a three‑time All‑Star in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons, earning All‑Star Game MVP in 2022 and securing back-to-back WNBA championships in 2022 and 2023 with the Las Vegas Aces. LA Sparks guard Kelsey Plum (10)© Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Plum joined the Sparks earlier this year, acquired through free agency. Plum and the Sparks will be going against the Aces on Wednesday at 7 p.m. PT. Related: Los Angeles Sparks Cut Two of Cameron Brink's Teammates on Friday This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.
