MLB's Luis Ortiz investigation, explained. Plus: Why now, Nats?
Missed out on the action this weekend? We got you.
Plus: The Nationals cleaned house (but at a weird time), we make the case for a few All-Stars who aren't (yet), and how the heck did two pitches trigger a gambling investigation? I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!
If you spent the weekend at the beach or grilling out with family, fret not: Here's a recap of a few key series over the weekend.
Yankees at Mets: The Yankees were fresh off being swept out of first place. The Mets were showing signs of righting the ship, coming off two wins against the Brewers after going 3-13 in their previous 16 games. The Mets took the first two to run the Yankees' losing streak up to six before the Yankees took the series finale. Even worse for the Yankees? Clarke Schmidt is 'likely' to have Tommy John surgery.
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Angels at Blue Jays: Coming off that sweep of the Yankees, the Blue Jays notched back-to-back extra-innings 4-3 walkoffs Friday and Saturday. They played it a little less dramatic yesterday, holding a 3-2 lead for the final three innings. Toronto has won eight straight and now leads New York and Tampa Bay in the AL East by three games. Mitch Bannon has a roundup of what's going right in Toronto.
Astros at Dodgers: The Astros have spent the last month proving to the baseball world that they're legitimate contenders in the AL. After losing Jeremy Peña to the IL with a rib fracture, they went out and put an exclamation point on that sentence over the weekend, sweeping the Dodgers in Los Angeles — including an 18-1 boat-racing on Friday.
Cardinals at Cubs: St. Louis took the middle game of the series between two blowouts by the Cubs — including an eight-homer game on the Fourth of July. As the trade deadline approaches, Patrick Mooney says it's time for the Cubs to go all in, while Jon Greenberg says this is the next great Cubs team fans have been waiting for.
Tigers at Guardians: 57-34 Detroit is starting to look a little bit unstoppable. Tarik Skubal is dominant, Casey Mize looks great and the Tigers swept the Guardians over the weekend. They now have a 13 1/2-game lead in the AL Central. The Guardians, by the way, are starting to look a little bit 'unstartable' — they've lost 10 straight.
White Sox at Rockies: Well, that happened.
From my latest column:
Indifferent. Apathetic. Disconnected. All of those words seemed to apply in recent seasons to the Nationals ownership group headed by Mark Lerner.
Well, wonder of wonders, ownership just snapped out of it, at just about the oddest time imaginable — one week before the Nats will make the No. 1 pick in baseball's amateur draft, and less than a month before the trade deadline.
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The timing of the Nationals' dismissals of president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez yesterday was so sudden, ownership did not even appear fully prepared.
Lerner named a successor for Rizzo, assistant GM Mike DeBartolo, but held off announcing Martinez's replacement until today. Bench coach Miguel Cairo and Triple-A manager Matthew LeCroy would appear the most logical candidates.
If Lerner and Co. were desperate to draw attention away from themselves, a theory advanced by one former team executive, they sure had an odd way of going about it.
Not that Rizzo, the game's second-longest tenured head of baseball operations, and Martinez, the manager who led the franchise to its only World Series title in 2019, necessarily deserved to keep their jobs. The Nationals' 37-53 record is the fourth-worst in the majors. More telling, the Nats rank second in the majors in losses, ahead of only the Colorado Rockies, since 2019.
True, ownership needed to decide this month on 2026 options for both Rizzo and Martinez. But general managers almost never get fired before the deadline. The last time it happened, as far as I can tell, was when the Minnesota Twins dumped Terry Ryan on July 18, 2016. In dumping Rizzo, the Nationals are leaving both the draft and deadline to DeBartolo.
The No. 1 pick, as the Nationals know well, is a monumental opportunity for any franchise. But picking first isn't always about simply choosing the best fit for an organization. Teams sometimes operate strategically, taking a player they can sign for less in order to spread their bonus pool money to other talents in later rounds. That strategy might make particular sense this year, with no clear No. 1 pick emerging.
More here.
The All-Star rosters have been announced — at least the first draft, before guys start dropping out and the replacements are named — and you can find the full lists in this story about the biggest snubs. Why? Because that's half the fun? Obviously?
In that story, Chad Jennings gives us one player at each position (and one bonus outfielder) with the best cases that they were unjustly left off.
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Trea Turner wasn't a random name, by the way. His 3.9 fWAR ranked eighth in the sport, higher than either of the NL shortstops — Francisco Lindor (3.3) and Elly De La Cruz (3.0). This is not a suggestion that either guy was undeserving, though.
Seiya Suzuki also has a legit case: He already led the entire sport in RBIs before last night's two-RBI performance. He's at 77. Alas, the RBI just doesn't mean what it used to, I guess.
On the pitching side, there will always be deserving candidates left out on the first draft. More will be added later — starters who pitch on the Sunday before the game will be replaced on the roster. The top of the list of replacements should probably be Joe Ryan of the Twins. After another quality start last night against the Rays, he's 8-4 with a 2.76 ERA and 0.89 WHIP.
Also … no Juan Soto, eh?
More All-Star news:
News broke Thursday that Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz was placed on 'non-disciplinary paid leave' through the end of the All-Star break while the league completes an investigation that has something to do with gambling.
What we later learned was that the league is investigating two specific pitches that Ortiz threw. Both pitches had a higher-than-usual number of bets placed on them — action that was flagged by a betting integrity firm.
Why would two specific pitches trigger a red flag? Buddy, there are essentially an infinite number of ways you can bet on sports these days. One of them is a micro-bet about what the first pitch of a given inning might be: ball, strike, swinging strike, etc.
Both of the pitches — the first pitch of the second inning against the Mariners on June 15, and the first pitch of the third inning against the Cardinals on June 27 — resulted in pitches thrown well outside the zone (you can see video in this story).
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That's really all we know for now, but it's worth pointing out that this is just the latest in a recent uptick of gambling investigations. Remember Ippei Mizuhara? Tucupita Marcano? Pat Hoberg?
I can't imagine this is the last investigation we'll see. In the meantime, we'll keep you posted if there are any further developments in Ortiz's case.
When we left you at the end of last week, Clayton Kershaw had just notched his 3,000th strikeout. Over the weekend, we got some more stories: Kershaw reflecting on the journey, his former catcher trying to will it to completion over the phone and Tyler Kepner's Sliders column reflecting on Kershaw's place among the greats.
There's never been a right-handed high school pitcher taken with the first pick of the draft. Melissa Lockard and Dhani Joseph tell us why that might never change.
In April, Sam Blum told you about former White Sox closer Bobby Jenks' battle against stomach cancer. Jenks died Friday at 44 years old.
After battling elbow inflammation and soreness all season long, Yu Darvish will make his 2025 debut for the Padres tonight.
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Fox Sports
6 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
MLB First-Half Check-In: Biggest surprises, favorite moments from the 2025 season
The start of All-Star festivities signals the end of the first half of the Major League Baseball season, and this season's first half has been one for the history books. In this week's roundtable, FOX Sports' MLB reporters Rowan Kavner and Deesha Thosar share their standout players, teams and moments from the first half of the season, and look ahead to the second half: Among the first-half league leaders for home runs (Cal Raleigh, 35), batting average (Aaron Judge, .360), ERA (Hunter Brown, 1.82) and strikeouts (Garrett Crochet, 151), who do you see still having the lead at the end of the season? And who's your most-likely pick to slip Kavner: I think Judge ends up winning his first batting title. Jacob Wilson should continue to challenge him, but even after Judge looked somewhat mortal in June, he (.360) still has a commanding lead over Wilson (.335) and company. Let's also remember that despite his high whiff rate, Judge still managed to hit .322 last year. So it's not out of the realm of possibility that he can keep something like this for the other standouts, I don't forecast any of them still leading their respective category by season's end. We've already seen Brown lose his grasp on the ERA lead after one blow-up outing, and I don't expect Paul Skenes to surrender that advantage. Crochet is already getting close to his career high in innings, and Zack Wheeler and Tarik Skubal are at his heels. Raleigh's lead might be the hardest to maintain as he gets chased by Judge and Shohei Ohtani. Considering Judge doesn't have to catch every day, I expect him to take back the MLB home run lead by season's end. Thosar: I'll go with Garrett Crochet as most likely to keep his strikeout lead at the end of the season, even though Zack Wheeler and Tarik Skubal are right on his heels. Wheeler should be lauded for once again being one of the most dominant pitchers in the National League, given how much more competitive the NL is compared to the weaker offenses in the American League. But that's part of why I think Crochet and Skubal will have an easier time racking up strikeouts in the AL the rest of the way. Skubal got his Triple Crown moment last year. It's Crochet's time to shine this season. As far as who will slip, Mariners fans won't like to hear it, but Cal Raleigh is due for some major regression in the second half after his scorching-hot start. The tax on his body will start to catch up to him and his slugging numbers will likely dip because of it. I think Aaron Judge will surpass Raleigh coming out of the All-Star break, and then hold onto that lead. History is on Judge's side. Which team has surprised you the most in the first half of the season, whether positively or negatively? And do you think we'll see more of the same in the second half? Kavner: The two biggest surprises are both negative ones, and it's the Braves and the Orioles. If I had to pick one, it's Atlanta. With the Orioles, there were at least questions about their rotation and their curious offseason decisions entering the year. With the Braves, a team most expected to again contend for an NL East crown, no one could've predicted this kind of disaster. We're beyond the halfway mark, and they trail the Marlins. That is astonishing. Now, I don't expect them to finish behind Miami by season's end, but I also don't project them to be a playoff team. They have no answer for the pitching injuries afflicting the group, and their offense right now is a bottom-10 unit in baseball. The latter, to me, is the most surprising part of their disastrous season. I expected a bounceback year from Michael Harris II. Instead, Harris and Ozzie Albies have been among the worst hitters in the sport at their respective feels like a lost year in Atlanta. Thosar: The Braves. They're 40-51, 13 games behind the first-place Phillies, and 9.5 games back of a wild-card spot. Put another way, Atlanta has fewer wins than the Marlins (42) and just two more than the Pirates (38). That's seriously shocking and terribly disappointing for Braves fans, who expected the club to, at the very least, make it a three-way dogfight with the Phillies and Mets for the division title. But they just continued spiraling after their 0-7 start to the season. The offense is underperforming. Their record-setting performance, when they recorded the highest team slugging percentage in baseball history, was just two years ago, and their core hasn't changed. The rotation is in shambles after Chris Sale fractured his rib, so he's out until late August, and Spencer Schwellenbach fractured his elbow, so he won't return before September. Spencer Strider hasn't reached his pre-injury dominance. Reynaldo Lopez went down after his first start of the season. At this point, it's tough to envision the Braves climbing out of the hole they've dug themselves into, and it's particularly bad timing as All-Star Game festivities take over Atlanta this weekend. The Braves look like they're on the precipice of missing the playoffs for the first time in eight years. Now, which player has surprised you the most in the first half? And will their season keep going the way it has the rest of the way? Kavner: The Javier Báez resurgence is near the top of my list, but it has to be Cal Raleigh. For a switch-hitting catcher to lead MLB in home runs more than halfway through the season is remarkable. This didn't exactly come out of nowhere — Raleigh did, after all, lead all catchers in homers each of the last three years — but what we're seeing this year is something entirely different. He looks like a completely different force from the right side of the box, and we're watching what will likely be the best season from a catcher in MLB history. Can't say I saw that coming, even from the reigning American League Platinum Glove Award just passed Ken Griffey Jr. for the most home runs by a Mariners player before the All-Star break with his career-high 36th home run of the year and is only three away from tying Barry Bonds' record for home runs before the break. Now, I can't expect Raleigh to continue at this same pace all year, but he has demonstrated a special ability throughout his career to handle the rigors of his position without falling off in the second half. So, I do expect him to obliterate Salvador Perez's record for the most home runs by a primary catcher in a single season. Raleigh is already just 12 home runs away from tying Perez's mark. Thosar: Speaking of Cal Raleigh ... it's truly amazing how he's inserted himself into the AL MVP conversation as a strong contender. He matched his home run total from last season on July 4. His 36 home runs have passed Ken Griffey Jr. for the most in franchise history before the All-Star break. Only Barry Bonds (39), Chris Davis, Mark McGwire, Reggie Jackson and Luis Gonzalez (37 each) have hit more home runs before baseball's unofficial halfway point of the season, and Raleigh still has a few games remaining to add to his total. He's been an elite hitting catcher these past couple of seasons, but his career OPS is .789. No one could've expected that OPS to rise to 1.017 this season, let alone leading Judge in the home run race. As previously mentioned, it will be tough (but not impossible) for Raleigh to keep this pace up in the second half. A regression is expected, but he's already shattered expectations this deep into the season, so there's no reason to count him out just yet. Now that he's back on the mound, we're finally getting to see glimpses of the Shohei Ohtani the Dodgers signed to a then-record contract before 2024. What do you see from him in the rest of 2025, now that he's a two-way player again? Kavner: More of the same. He has demonstrated he still has triple-digit heat and filthy stuff on the mound coming off his second elbow reconstruction, but the Dodgers are going to be methodical and slow with Ohtani's build-up as a pitcher. The most important thing for them, after all, is that he remains a healthy force in the box. They need his bat, especially with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman struggling and with Max Muncy on the shelf. Ohtani was hitting .297 with a 1.034 OPS before he made his first appearance on the mound as a Dodger on June 16. Since then, he's hitting .213 with an .851 OPS. Is the offensive drop-off correlated? It's too early to say, but if it continues, I could see the Dodgers being even more careful about his pitching workload. I don't expect him to be very active on the basepaths anymore — he has just one stolen base since he started pitching again — but another 50-homer season could be in the cards, and I expect him to win his fourth MVP trophy. After getting to finally watch him on the postseason stage for the first time last season, I'm looking forward to seeing him in his full form this October, even if his pitching outings remain somewhat abbreviated. Thosar: I'm expecting the Dodgers to continue slowly ramping up Shohei Ohtani, with an emphasis on slowly, on the mound in the second half. They need him to be a two-way threat for a deep playoff push, so there's little reason to push him before then. Coming back as a two-way player after his second major elbow surgery is all uncharted territory for Ohtani and the Dodgers, so they'll continue to heavily rely on him to be up front about how he's feeling both at the plate and on the mound. Still, that he has combined to allow just two hits, one earned run, and one walk across six innings (four starts) is pretty impressive, already. Fans are itching to see him go deeper into his outings, but the way that the Dodgers are handling it is for the greater good. Meanwhile from the dish, Ohtani is leading the NL with 31 home runs, which is the most in Dodgers franchise history before the All-Star break, and he entered Thursday with a .993 OPS that's the third-best in the majors behind Judge and Raleigh. I'm expecting more of the same in the second half from the unicorn, who has barely slowed down since pitching again. What has been your favorite moment of the 2025 season to this point Kavner: This grab, from Denzel Clarke. I mean, just look at everyone's face afterward. No one can comprehend what they saw. It's one of the greatest catches in MLB history, and that's not hyperbole. I'm still partial to the Gary Matthews Jr. catch, considering his back was to the ball when he made the ridiculous play, but the Clarke robbery is up there. From Pete Crow-Armstrong to Julio Rodriguez to Ceddanne Rafaela, there are some spectacular defensive center fielders in the game right now, but there's no one more captivating to watch in the field than Clarke. He's a walking highlight reel. Thosar: As far as a moment I watched in person, has to be J.T. Realmuto and and Nick Castellanos sliding into home together against the Mets last month. I've never seen anything like it, when Realmuto was right on Castellanos' heels as they rounded third, practically sliding home at the same exact moment. Almost topping the double slide was the home-plate umpire's emphatic safe calls, one right after the other, followed by the standing ovation from Phillies fans at the sold-out Citizens Bank Park. Other than that, Judge and Ohtani trading home runs in the first inning of the highly-anticipated World Series rematch in Los Angeles back in May definitely stands out. Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner . Deesha Thosar is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar . recommended Item 1 of 3 Get more from the Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
MLB Draft: Landon Hodge of Crespi goes to the White Sox in the fourth round
Catcher Landon Hodge from Crespi, an LSU commit, was the first pick of the White Sox in the fourth round. (Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times) Landon Hodge, the Mission League player of the year from Crespi, was selected with the first pick of the fourth round by the Chicago White Sox in Monday's MLB amateur draft. The catcher is an LSU commit. Day 2 involved rounds four through 20. Pitcher Riley Kelly from Tustin High and UC Irvine went to the Rockies with the 107th pick. Shortstop Colin Yeaman from Saugus and UC Irvine was a fourth-round pick (No. 124) of the Orioles. Pitcher Sean Youngerman, who attended Chaminade, Westmont College and Oklahoma State, went to the Phillies at No. 131. Outfielder Josiah Hartshorn from Orange Lutheran went to the Cubs in the sixth round (No. 181). USC pitcher Caden Hunter was a sixth-round pick (No. 184) by the Orioles. Advertisement In the eighth round (No. 237), Tampa Bay took former Burroughs and Fresno State pitcher Aidan Cremarosa. Outfielder Nick Dumesnil from Huntington Beach and Cal Baptist went to the Tigers are No. 249. In the ninth round (No. 279), the Tigers selected pitcher Trevor Heishman, who helped St. John Bosco win the Southern Section Division 1 title. Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Fox News
7 minutes ago
- Fox News
What Do Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Have To Do To Win Races?
NEWTON, Iowa — Josef Newgarden led a combined 304 laps at Iowa Speedway over the weekend. He doesn't have too much to show for it. Yes, he finished second in Saturday's race. But when a driver leads 232 of 275 laps, that driver believes that a trophy should accompany the effort. On Sunday, he still had arguably the best car but circumstances resulted in him leading 72 laps and finishing 10th. Those results show what everyone has seen all year: Penske cars do have speed but execution and other bad luck have soured their season. After a 2-3-4 finish Saturday with Newgarden, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin, they finished 10-24-26 in the second race of the weekend doubleheader. That was after Power had an engine issue for the second consecutive week and McLaughlin crashed when Devlin DeFrancesco got loose underneath him. "We just have to keep doing what you are doing," Newgarden said. "Team Penske is working incredibly hard. [Saturday] was a good day for everybody. You could see the spirits lift. "They don't need to change what they are doing. They are doing a great job. They brought a fast car here again today." It could be argued that no matter what's occurring, doing the same thing would produce the same results. Power is eighth in the standings, McLaughlin is 12th and Newgarden sits in 14th. "I have zero doubt in our process and what we do," Newgarden said earlier in the weekend after winning the pole for the Saturday race. "I've been here a long time. I've worked with the best of the best. "We have really good people. Still do. And I think the worst thing to do would be to change what our process is. To overreact would be the wrong decision. That's definitely not what we should be doing." Newgarden called this a "unique" stretch. For a proud organization like Team Penske, it certainly isn't easy. Newgarden had a slow pit stop that cost him track position Saturday and then, with another dominant car on Sunday, he had the misfortune of the yellow coming out when he was pitting. On a short track (0.894-mile) such as Iowa Speedway, he lost a lap in the sequence and then, when he got his lap back, he had to rally from the rear of the field. He regained the lead but another somewhat slow pit stop quickly followed by a caution cost him track position late in the race. Newgarden has 31 career victories and hates to lose. So even the second-place finish Saturday was not one that thrilled him. "With this [aero] package I was flat out," Newgarden said about trying to pass Pato O'Ward at the end of the race Saturday. "I couldn't do anything different. He got position, and that was that." As Newgarden was answering questions politely but not with long answers, Power needled him. "Josef loves to answer questions at the moment," Power said. "He's seething. Seething. He didn't win. He was close, man." For Power and McLaughlin, they could feel more of the same this year with good days and bad days. McLaughlin wrecked in qualifying on Saturday, meaning he had to start at the rear for both races. He worked his way from 27th to fourth in the first race, an incredible run. But his race on Sunday ended on the first lap when Devlin DeFrancesco got loose underneath him and they both wiped out. "It's the story of our year," McLaughlin said. McLaughlin could blame himself, as the crash Saturday put him in that position. Power had an engine issue that Chevrolet will look into. "These things come at such inconvenient times, but everyone goes through it," Power said. "It's just one of those things." It obviously hasn't been a smooth year for Penske, which released its three top INDYCAR executives after a technical issue during Indy 500 qualifying was the second significant violation since the start of the 2024 season. Earlier this month, the organization announced that Jonathan Diuguid had been promoted to President of the INDYCAR and sports car programs while Travis Law was named Competition Director for the programs. Both Diuguid and Law had experience in INDYCAR but had been focusing on sports car roles in recent years. The NASCAR leadership did not change. McLaughlin said Friday at Iowa that things do seem settled with the leadership in place. "I wouldn't want to be with another team in terms of when we're down in this right now," McLaughlin said. "With the resources, the people, I really think we're going to be just fine. "It's going to take some time, but I feel like this is meant to happen and we'll get going." The one thing that is important to realize, McLaughlin said, is that all three drivers, when they haven't had the speed they wanted, are fighting similar issues. So where the team is focusing on getting better is across the board of the three teams. "We've had a very good run," McLaughlin said. "It's just matter of maybe it was meant to happen, maybe this was meant to just put us through the hardest point to realize how good it is when we are going well. "That's how I'm looking at it. I'm full of positivity. ... [Other teams] are doing great jobs. We're working hard." Now they need to see the work turn into wins. "We had plenty of potential to win a race all year," Power said. "It is just a strange year." Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
