Latest news with #AllStar
Wall Street Journal
5 hours ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
He's the Most Important Player in the NBA Finals—and He Doesn't Play for Either Team
It's hard for a great NBA player to have a worse season than Paul George had this year. The Philadelphia 76ers' forward, a nine-time All-Star, saw his scoring average plummet and sat out the last month of the season through injuries. The Sixers sank to the lower reaches of the conference standings.
New York Times
5 hours ago
- Health
- New York Times
Tigers' Riley Greene has become the hitter he was drafted to be. Can his growth continue?
DETROIT — From Riley Greene's earliest days in the organization, he developed a saying with Detroit Tigers legend Alan Trammell. It started at minor-league parks and the instructional league. It's persisted to this day. Greene would walk into the building. Trammell would see him and smile. 'You showed up,' Trammell might say. 'You show up, you got a chance.' Advertisement There are different road maps to success. All of them involve forward momentum. You can arrive at the park and hope to crush a six-run homer. You can try to swing away all the bad days with one violent bat-to-ball connection. Or you can simply keep showing up, paying the daily price this game demands. More than the momentous home runs, the energetic walk-offs and the champagne celebrations, Major League Baseball is about the survival of the daily grind. Doing one thing well, over and over again. Failing from time to time but punching the clock again anyway. That's been the real recipe behind Riley Greene's success, the fuel behind his development from top prospect to All-Star outfielder. This game demands patience. Rewards those who can handle the struggle. 4️⃣2️⃣9️⃣ Longest HR of the season for Riley Greene 💣 — Detroit Tigers (@tigers) May 31, 2025 'Experience is everything in this game,' Greene said at his locker last week. 'I don't have that much experience, but from what I do have, I've learned so much. I know what it takes.' Talk all you want about attack angles and groundball rates. Those have been central in Greene's ascendence. He has the steepest swing in the game. He's cut his groundball rate by more than 10 percentage points since his rookie season. He's also a player who thrives in the rhythms of the game, who enjoys showing up at the park, who watches every pitch from the wooden perch alongside his hitting coaches, slapping the dugout padding and cheering along with his childlike energy. Greene's personality in front of the cameras is more subdued. In a short time, he has mastered the cliches needed to endure any interview. Off the field, he's stayed true to himself. He will sit at his locker and talk about boats, fishing and country music. Advertisement 'He's never a guy that's gonna stray too far from his roots, as he shows me picture after picture of these fishes that he catches over the winter,' manager A.J. Hinch joked this spring. 'He's as authentic as they come.' None of that means Greene hasn't endured periods of doubt. He felt that in the minor leagues, where he slept with his bat during one slump. He felt it in his rookie year, nights when he would go home and wonder if he would ever hit again. Teammates who knew Greene and his talent simply laughed. 'He thinks he's terrible after one rough night,' infielder Ryan Kreidler once said. Greene felt it even this season, switching his walk-up song from Morgan Wallen to Rihanna, and finally back to Wallen, as he emerged from his latest slump. Part of his steady improvements in the major leagues have been a result of routine. More detailed game planning. More patience at the plate. 'I think what he's learning is that more is not always better,' Hinch said. 'But the right type of preparation is leading him to better results in the game consistently. I think the other thing, him growing up in this era of baseball, he gets a lot more feedback than most. He gets a lot of attention from fans, gets a lot of attention from the media, gets a lot of attention from opponents. He burst onto the national stage last year at the All-Star Game. He's learning how to compartmentalize all that and just be ready to play every day.' Early in his career, Greene was more prone to fear and fret. He was hitting .224 through his first 55 MLB games. So what would he tell a rookie version of himself? 'That's a good question,' Greene said, leaning back in a gray chair. He cocked his head and mulled over the thought. 'That it's gonna be OK, no matter what happens,' he finally said. 'It's a hard game, and we all go through ups and downs. … It's gonna be OK, and we're gonna figure it out.' This past April, the current version of Greene was not content with his results. He endured a 1-for-32 stretch with 19 strikeouts. His swing decisions were puzzling. He pulled his head and whiffed on hittable pitches — chase and swing-and-miss are still vulnerabilities. After the worst games, the stress was visible in the set of his shoulders. But in the back of his mind, there was a greater trust, a deeper confidence that all this would turn. Advertisement 'I knew I was gonna be fine,' Greene said. 'It was just a matter of time.' Sure enough, a brutal slump morphed into a scorching hot streak. And here in the middle of the order for a first-place team, Greene continues to look like exactly the player he was drafted to be when the Tigers selected him with the fifth pick in 2019. He finished May with 24 RBIs, the most he's ever had in a single month. He had an .894 OPS in 27 games. He now has a 131 wRC+ for the season. He's hit 13 home runs, tied for sixth-most in the American League. He is still only 24 years old. 'When he gets a good pitch to hit, gets a good swing off, it's must-see TV,' Hinch said. These days, the Tigers face another challenge. How do they keep Greene healthy? In his young career, he has already lost time to a fractured foot, a stress reaction in his back and a UCL tear he sustained while diving in the outfield. Last season, Greene grew fatigued in the summer and had a short stint on the injured list with a hamstring strain. This season, Greene's average sprint speed has declined. Advanced metrics show he has lost some burst in the outfield. Part of Greene's maturation has been learning to care for his body. He cut out his beloved Chick-fil-A this winter. He goes through a diligent daily routine to take care of his hamstrings. He monitors his sleep scores and takes supplements to aid his rest and recovery. 'I'm terrible at math, but I try to do the math in my head at night,' Greene said. 'If I go to bed at 11 and wake up at 11, 'OK, we're good.'' Still, there are concerns. Last week, Hinch gave Greene and Zach McKinstry, both left-handed hitters, a day off against a right-handed starter. Greene, in particular, was running on fumes. He played the next day and started at DH the game after that. 'Riley, it always feels like he's right on that edge of dealing with something,' Hinch said. 'We're just trying to be smart with what we're doing and where we're at.' Advertisement So far, Greene has held up in the face of a heavy workload. He has started 49 games in the outfield, including 13 games in center. He has started at DH seven times and made an appearance in all but two of Detroit's 60 games this season. The aches and pains are a part of the story. But despite the lingering concerns about Greene's health, he is a daily presence in this lineup because he is the centerpiece of the team's order. Even when times have been tough, he has kept showing up. Kept trusting the work. Stayed true in this slow-and-steady journey to becoming one of the game's best young hitters.
Reuters
14 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Benched Rangers OF Adolis Garcia working on mechanics
June 2 - Slumping Texas Rangers slugger Adolis Garcia was out of the starting lineup for the third straight day Sunday when the Rangers closed a series against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals. Garcia has been struggling all season and went 5-for-41 (.122) with 18 strikeouts over his past 10 appearances. He posted one homer and three RBIs during the stretch. The Rangers have requested that Garcia work on his mechanics in hopes he can rediscover his 2023 form, when he established career highs of 39 homers and 107 RBIs. Garcia was an All-Star for the second time that season and also smacked eight homers in the postseason as Texas won the World Series. "We need him to kind of commit to some of these changes that we think will get him back to the '23 version of himself and help him be the player that we know he can be," Texas general manager Chris Young said before the Sunday contest against St. Louis. Garcia is batting just .208 and slugging .371 with seven homers and 27 RBIs in 56 games this season. Garcia acknowledged that the break could be beneficial. "It's about the mental reset and coming back with more energy," García said. "I'm working on some stuff without the pressure of having to do something up there." Garcia, 32, has been a staple in the Texas lineup since the start of the 2021 season. He has 129 homers, 410 RBIs and a .237 average in 687 games with the Rangers. Texas also placed right-hander Nathan Eovaldi on the 15-day injured list. The move is retroactive to Thursday. Eovaldi, 35, exited Tuesday's start against the Toronto Blue Jays after two innings due to right triceps soreness. "With the flexibility in the rotation, we felt like this is the appropriate thing to make sure that we get him right," Young said. "Structurally, everything looks really good. We took a picture. Everything looks really good. We just gotta get this triceps thing calmed down. We anticipate that he'll be ready at the end of the 15-day mark." The loss of Eovaldi rates as a big blow. He entered Sunday's play ranked second in the majors with a 1.56 ERA and is 4-3 with 73 strikeouts in 69 1/3 innings over 12 starts. Texas recalled right-hander reliever Codi Heuer from Triple-A Round Rock to fill Eovaldi's spot on the active roster. To make room for Heuer on their 40-man roster, the Rangers designated catcher Tucker Barnhart for assignment. Barnhart, 34, was 3-for-13 (.231) in eight appearances for Texas. The 28-year-old Heuer is 2-1 with a 3.27 ERA in 19 appearances at Round Rock. --Field Level Media
New York Times
17 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Chicago Cubs cautiously optimistic that Kyle Tucker avoided a season-changing injury
CHICAGO — Anything that happens to Kyle Tucker is magnified, given his status as the No. 1 free agent on the board next winter, and the high price the Chicago Cubs paid to acquire the All-Star outfielder. At the moment, the club is cautiously optimistic that Tucker just avoided the type of major injury that could have altered this season's trajectory. Advertisement The alarm bells went off when Vidal Bruján replaced Tucker in the fifth inning of Sunday afternoon's 7-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field. Tucker had jammed his right ring finger on a headfirst slide in the first inning, forcing the Cubs to make a decision on the Gold Glove right fielder, whose presence has helped elevate the team into a serious playoff contender. 'Not too concerned,' Cubs manager Craig Counsell said afterward. 'I'm optimistic this is going to be, at most, a day or two, as soon as some of the swelling goes down. It's just a sprained finger. He took the second at-bat and it just was a little uncomfortable. So with the lead, we just got him out of there.' The Cubs have demonstrated resilience and determination throughout the first two-plus months of the season, overcoming injuries to All-Star pitchers Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga while restoring the big-game energy at the Friendly Confines. Tucker's all-around production and easy confidence are major reasons why the Cubs finished the first day of June in first place, already 15 games above .500. The club is expected to reassess Tucker's condition on Tuesday, before the start of a three-game road series against the Washington Nationals. 'I feel all right,' Tucker said. 'The hand's a little jammed, or a little swollen, but obviously we got our off day tomorrow, so hopefully it feels a little bit better once we get to Washington.' Wearing a Cubs travel sweatsuit, Tucker also had some kind of bandage on his right ring finger as well as a cut across the bridge of his nose. On that headfirst slide, his helmet popped off and flipped over as his face scraped against the dirt. 'My hand hit the ground kind of weird and got caught under me,' Tucker said. 'I was just hoping that it went away, and tried to grind through the at-bats. But it was kind of hurting. We took a precautionary route of just coming out of the game. We went and did X-rays and everything — they were fine — so hopefully the rest of today and the off day tomorrow will help.' Advertisement On that play, Tucker was caught stealing for the first time as a Cub. He's now 16-for-17 in those situations, to go with 12 homers, 39 RBIs, 44 runs scored and a .918 OPS. He's played in all 59 games this season, showing why the Cubs gave up Cam Smith, Isaac Paredes and Hayden Wesneski in a blockbuster trade with the Houston Astros. 'You don't really go through the whole season feeling 100 percent,' Tucker said. 'You probably feel 100 percent, maybe, in spring training or at the beginning of the season. For me, as long as I'm able to go out there and play, I'm going to go out there and play. Do what I can, to the best I can. I don't like getting taken out of games or missing games.'
CTV News
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Former MLB star closer records first IBL save against Baycats
Dominican-American professional baseball player Fernando Rodney delivers a pitch for the Hamilton Cardinals during an exhibition game against the London Majors. Fernando Rodney closed things out for the Hamilton Cardinals as they defeated the Barrie Baycats 2-1 at Athletic Kulture Stadium Saturday evening. Rodney, 48, is a three-time MLB All-Star and won a World Series as a member of the Washington Nationals in 2019, his final appearance in the majors. On Saturday, Rodney pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning with two strikeouts and shot his signature arrow celebration on his way to picking up his first IBL save. He previously recorded 327 saves during his lengthy MLB career, ranking him 19th all-time. The Cardinals swept the Friday-Saturday series against the Baycats in Barrie, winning both by one run and dropping the Baycats to a 1-5 record.
