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Forbes
3 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Pitching Helps New York Yankees Complete One-Third Of Season In Good Shape
New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried (54) in the sixth inning of a baseball game Saturday, ... More May 24, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Record-wise the New York Yankees were statistically better through 54 games in 2024 and through the one-third mark of the schedule in 2022. Last season with Juan Soto hitting over .300 in what became his only season with the Yankees, they were 37-17. Two years earlier as Judge eventually hit an AL-record 62 homers, the Yankees were 39-15. Even with those lofty records one third of the way through a 94-win season in 2024 and a 99-win campaign in 2022, there was a perception the Yankees might not have been well-rounded. While these Yankees are not perfect because no team is, their 34-20 mark through the first unofficial milepost of the six-month marathon is something you would have a difficult time finding anyone to be displeased with. Sure there are occasional bad losses like a late-inning collapse in the rain on May 5 against the San Diego Padres or last Friday's 3-2 loss to the woeful Colorado Rockies, but for the most part the good outweighs the bad. The obvious cause of the Yankees holding the biggest divisional lead in baseball and the biggest in May since 1998 is the offense and how newcomers Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger are performing. Goldschmidt has been the Yankees' second-best hitter average-wise beyond Judge while Bellinger has heated up recently, highlighted by a recent 15-game hitting streak. Perhaps an underrated aspect of the strong start is the pitching, which appeared to be a big question in the final two-plus weeks of spring training after Gerrit Cole was lost for the season due to the dreaded Tommy John surgery on his elbow. At one point, the Yankees boasted the worst ERA from their starting pitchers but had enough offense to mask the wart. Now the starting pitching boasts the third-best ERA of 3.32, trailing only fellow division leaders the Philadelphia Phillies and Detroit Tigers. And in winning their past two division titles, the Yankees boasted starting pitching ERAs of 3.85 in 2024 and 3.51 in 2022 when they had Cole for a full season. The starting pitching is not just top heavy with an ace doing the heavy lifting. Max Fried has been as advertised, holding hitters to a .158 average on his four-seam fastball -- down from .263 last season – and getting ground balls at about a 53 percent clip. New York Yankees' Carlos Rodón pitches during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Texas ... More Rangers, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) Beyond Fried is Carlos Rodon, who rebounded from an injury-plagued and ineffective 2023 to win 16 games last season. Rodon's performance proved he could pitch well in New York but also entered this year with everyone wanting to see a strong follow up. Rodon is delivering a strong follow up as evidenced by his six straight wins and continued with 10 strikeouts in seven innings. He also is continuing his evolution from primarily a fastball and slider pitcher in 2023 to a diverse pitch mix. The four-seamer and slider remain his primary pitches and Rodon is holding hitters averages of .218 and .102 respectively. He also is mixing in a changeup and is on pace to exceed the amount of times he threw it last season and then there is the sinker which he threw once last season and is gradually increasing his usage along with an evolving curveball. Rodon seemingly figured out how to be more than a two-pitch pitcher and the ugly extremes are limited in the third year of his six-year, $161 million deal. And beyond Rodon are Clarke Schmidt, who is showing progress almost every time out along with Will Warren. Both are players any team strives for with in homegrown pitching out of the draft and the righties are starting to become more consistent with their stuff of late. The fifth spot is often a rotating door or a spot filled by a veteran who has bounced around and this year Ryan Yarbrough is meeting the challenge exceedingly well in four starts, highlighted by 15 strikeouts in 11 innings over his past two starts. The Yankees reached the one-third point without an inning from Cole, Luis Gil, a change in closer from Devin Williams to Luke Weaver. They are supplementing Judge with Goldschmidt, Bellinger along with a young core they hope keeps improving. They are not perfect but winning 34 of 54 games is hardly an imperfect getaway towards some bigger goals like potentially winning a division, avoiding the wild-card round and getting homefield advantage through the postseason.
Associated Press
4 hours ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Arizona Diamondbacks ace Gallen labors in latest start of up-and-down season
PHOENIX (AP) — Zac Gallen has been one of baseball's best pitchers the past three seasons, the player the Arizona Diamondbacks could rely on when things weren't go so well. The Diamondbacks are in a rut and not even their ace has been able to pull them out of it. Gallen labored for the fourth straight start, allowing six runs in less than six innings of a 10-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday. 'I don't want to be overly critical of Zac because he's so good and can be an elite, dominant major league pitcher for his next start to the rest of the season, but at this point I know how frustrated he is — I can see it,' Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. 'The inconsistencies of results have been there, so it's an indication that he's grinding for sure.' Gallen has been grinding more this season perhaps more than any other time since he arrived in the desert in 2019. The right-hander won at least 12 games the previous three seasons — a high of 17 in 2023 — has annually been in the mix for the NL Cy Young Award, finishing third two seasons ago. Gallen has been dominant at times this season, labored others. The 29-year-old opened the season by allowing four runs in four innings against the Chicago Cubs, then tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings at Yankee Stadium his next start. The up and down continued from there. Gallen had consecutive games of allowing one run in wins over the New York Mets, but also has allowed at least four runs seven times — one more than the entire 2024 season. He has allowed 19 earned runs over 22 innings his last four starts and his 5.54 ERA is on pace to be the highest of his career by more than a run. The biggest issue: walks. Gallen has been a pitcher who's around the plate most of his career, yet has struggled at times to find the zone this season. He's walked 32 already this season at a rate of 4.2 per nine innings — well over his career average of 2.9. Gallen walked three against the Pirates, all to lead off innings. All three scored. 'Obviously, it's really frustrating because for me, I'm not really trying to walk anybody,' said Gallen, who allowed five earned runs on five hits in five-plus innings. 'There pitches I missed by an entire plate, trying to go in and throwing it in the other batter's box. It just feels very uncharacteristic, in a way, that walks been an issue.' Gallen had been the Arizona's rock, the player they could count on after a difficult loss or stretch of games. He couldn't come through against the Pirates, extending a stretch where nothing seems to be going right for the Diamondbacks. The loss to the Pirates came a night after Arizona gave up seven runs in the eighth inning of a 9-6 loss to the Pirates. Above .500 since the second game of the season, the Diamondbacks are now 27-28 after their seventh loss in eight games. 'In this game, when you're down it'll get you, that's for sure,' Gallen said. 'Obviously, you can't say keep doing what we're doing, but just keep plugging away, just kind of keep hitting that rock and one day it will break.' Based on Gallen's past performances, it's just a matter of time. ___ AP MLB:
Associated Press
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Soto falls deeper into slump with another hitless game in Mets' loss
NEW YORK (AP) — Juan Soto's numbers are getting ugly. The slumping New York Mets slugger went hitless again Wednesday and failed to get the ball out of the infield in a 9-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox. After signing a record $765 million contract in December as a free agent, Soto is batting a measly .224 with eight homers and 25 RBIs in 55 games during a turbulent first season with the Mets. The four-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger winner was 0 for 4 with a walk and a strikeout Wednesday in a dreary performance that matched the weather. He was booed by a sparse crowd at Citi Field, where only a few thousand fans were on hand for a hastily rescheduled game. With rain in the forecast Wednesday night, the first pitch was moved up six hours Tuesday to 1:10 p.m. Soto is 0 for 16 since lacing a two-run double off the right-center fence Saturday in a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. And nothing seems to be going his way: He lost a hit on a chaotic play Tuesday night when he was called out for passing teammate Brandon Nimmo on the basepaths. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza expressed faith in Soto both before and after Wednesday's loss. 'Today was one of those days where he didn't hit the ball hard, but I thought his foundation — his lower half — was in a better position,' Mendoza said. Soto's batting average has dipped 61 points below his career mark entering the season. He hasn't homered since May 9, a span of 75 plate appearances, and he has just seven hits in his last 59 at-bats (.119). With runners in scoring position this year, he's batting .130 (6 for 46) with a homer and 16 RBIs. That after racking up 41 home runs, 109 RBIs and a .989 OPS with the crosstown New York Yankees last season, when he helped them reach the World Series and finished third in AL MVP voting. Soto has been particularly cold since May 16, when he got booed incessantly in his return to Yankee Stadium with the Mets. He seemed to take the harsh reception in stride by doffing his helmet to the crowd prior to his first at-bat, but Soto is hitting only .114 (5 for 44) with one extra-base hit since. Most advanced metrics suggest Soto is hitting into hard luck. He ranks among the 90th percentile in several categories at Baseball Savant, though his bat speed ranks in the 73rd percentile, down from the 94th percentile last season. Soto made three outs on balls hit at least 99 mph in Tuesday night's 6-4 win over the White Sox. 'Yesterday was a perfect example of his season so far: 0 for 4 with three balls (almost) 100 mph,' Mendoza said with a chuckle Wednesday morning. 'Hard to explain. But it's baseball. 'Too good of a hitter. Too good of a player. He'll be Juan Soto here.' ___ AP MLB:
New York Times
4 hours ago
- General
- New York Times
Twins takeaways: Hard-hit luck, Royce Lewis' slump, Carson McCusker's moment, injury updates
TAMPA, Fla. — For a team that scored 22 runs over its past eight games including Wednesday's shutout loss, the Minnesota Twins sound anything but defeated. No, they're not happy with the results. Yes, they understand they must do more to win games. But as they took stock of a 5-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the Twins recognized they deserved better after suffering their first series defeat since a month ago in Cleveland. Advertisement Although they've experienced plenty of good fortune in several recent victories over a 17-5 hot stretch, Lady Luck wasn't on the Twins' side Wednesday, which was only the fourth time they've been shut out this season and the first since April 24. Despite metrics showing the balls they hit carried a .308 expected batting average, the Twins finished with six base hits. The team's 15 hard-hit balls, 11 of which found gloves accounting for 12 outs, tied for its fifth-best output of the season. 'We had a tough time getting it going,' Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. 'I will say, the first three or four innings, we hit line drives all over the field. The name of the game is obviously scoring runs, but the way you score runs is by getting base runners and hitting line drives. We hit a ton of line drives, and they amounted to zilch. That's life in this game and it's going to happen sometimes. We had some days we didn't blast the ball all around the park, get a few base runners, make it happen and score a bunch of runs. (Wednesday) was the opposite.' Line drives were plentiful against Tampa Bay starter Drew Rasmussen. So were balls hit right at defenders. The Twins produced two hard-hit balls in each of the game's first four innings, but only one went for a hit: Trevor Larnach's leadoff single in the first. They had another hard-hit ball in the fifth, Royce Lewis' ground-ball double play, and none in the sixth. Rasmussen exited with one hit and one walk allowed and five strikeouts across six scoreless innings. The hard-hit misfortune continued against the Tampa Bay bullpen as the Twins singled twice to start the seventh and eighth innings, but had two more balls hit 95 mph or harder that found gloves, which killed each rally. Of the 25 balls put in play by the Twins, 15 were hard-hit. 'I thought we stayed through the middle of the field very well as a team,' Lewis said. 'The at-bats are competitive. We're always one swing away or we're putting up good at-bats. We've just got to get a little more runners in scoring position and we'll do that eventually.' The Twins might be far more concerned about their current stretch if not for several factors. During the eight-game run, the Twins went 4-4. Their pitchers yielded 30 runs during the span, about 3.8 per game. The poor output has come against Kansas City and Tampa Bay, two teams whose staff ERAs are better than the league average. The other, Cleveland, always plays tightly contested games against the Twins. Advertisement The Twins hope Matt Wallner and Byron Buxton can return to the lineup soon from injury. Adding one or both should provide a boost. 'There will be better days than we just experienced,' Baldelli said. 'If we have the same offensive game the next time we step on the field, we're going to score a few runs. There is no way we're going to hit line drives and not score runs.' Here are several more Twins takeaways after a hot, outdoor series in Tampa. • Lewis is taking his current 0-for-24 slump hard. He used a more open stance on Wednesday simply to try to have fun. In that sense, Lewis acknowledged an 0-for-4 effort in which he had a 106.3 mph lineout, a 103.4 mph double play, a 97.2 mph flyout and a 99.7 mph flyout made the hitless day a little easier to accept. Lewis was blunt as he explained a frustrating stretch that has him hitting .138/.200/.215 on the season. 'I'm at a point where the hope is gone,' Lewis said. 'I just do my job as best as I can. If I keep hitting the ball hard, they say it's going to find a hole, but I haven't seen it yet. … Feels like a Wiffle Ball game right now truly because you know how the Wiffle Ball stays up? That's what my ball feels like. I'm hitting it. It feels good and it's just staying up a little bit. Hopefully, I can produce for the team soon.' • After he played nine innings in right field Tuesday at Triple-A St. Paul, Wallner is scheduled to play nine innings as the Saints' designated hitter Wednesday and nine more in right field Thursday. If he completes the run without a setback, Wallner, who has been out since April 16 with a left hamstring strain, could join the Twins when they open a three-game series in Seattle on Friday. Through Tuesday, Wallner was 6-for-16 with a double, three homers and seven RBIs during his rehab assignment. Advertisement • Out with a concussion, Buxton took batting practice on the field with his teammates Wednesday. Even though he hasn't played since May 15 in Baltimore, the Twins' center fielder is unlikely to require a rehab assignment, as long as he returns to the lineup soon. The Twins are optimistic Buxton is on the verge of returning from the concussion list. • Known for his raw power and prodigious homers, even Carson McCusker found it funny his first major-league hit was a bloop single. After an 0-for-5 stretch with four strikeouts to start his career, McCusker hit a 66.7 mph blooper to right for a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning. Congratulations to Carson McCusker on his first Major League hit!!! 👏 — Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 28, 2025 McCusker has made only two starts since his May 18 promotion. He said learning how to prepare for a pinch-hit appearance is a work in progress. 'It's definitely a learning curve for sure, at first not really knowing,' McCusker said. 'I hadn't really done it in my career before. Just trying to figure it out, knowing when to go get ready in the cage, how to do it and kind of keep the body hot. Over the past week or so, I've learned how to do it a little better.' McCusker eventually plans to give his first hit ball, which sat in a Ziploc bag on Baldelli's desk after Wednesday's game, to his father. (Top photo of Carlos Correa: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)
New York Times
4 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Giants takeaways: They are a lot like the Tigers, except for one big thing
You're not going to want to hear this, but the Tigers didn't sweep the Giants out of Detroit because they're an empirically better baseball team. They're a good team, possibly a better team overall, and certainly a better team right now, but there are more similarities than differences between the two rosters. Advertisement There's one difference that can explain an awful lot, though. We'll get to that difference, but let's get the gory details out of the way first. The Giants allowed 10 runs in a three-game series (good) but scored five (bad), and they saved their three-run offensive explosion for the only game of the series in which the Tigers scored more than three runs. Wednesday's 4-3 loss was the 11th game in a row in which the Giants scored fewer than four runs, which is tied for the 11th-longest stretch in San Francisco era history. To find the last time they did it, you'll have to go all the way back to May 2024. Most of the players in those games last season were in the Giants' starting lineup for the Tigers series. The state of the Giants' offense is 'emergency,' and there aren't any easy answers. With that out of the way, let's move to the original assertion, which is that the Giants and Tigers are more similar than different. Start with the architects of large chunks of both teams. Farhan Zaidi is still responsible for a large portion of the current Giants roster, and Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris is responsible for the bulk of the Tigers roster. Then there's a little Venn diagram where Harris is at least partially responsible for some of the Giants' moves, back from his days as their GM. It's not much of a stretch to think that there's some Giants DNA in some of the Tigers' moves, too, with Harris almost certainly learning some of the transactional dark arts from his mentor. That's notable, but it's far from the end of the similarities. The Tigers are led by one of the few traditional aces left in baseball, Tarik Skubal, who is a steady, durable strike thrower of the highest order. The Giants are one of the only teams in baseball with a pitcher of the same genre (Logan Webb). They're both the tips of their respective teams' run-prevention spear, and both teams have pitching staffs that can help their teams win, even when their lineups aren't scoring much. Advertisement Neither team is built to out-slug their opponents. The Tigers have 65 home runs on the season, whereas the Giants have 55. Both are respectable numbers, especially given their respective ballparks, but they're unambiguously pitching-first teams when everything is working right. They're not going to run wild on their opponents, either. The Tigers are one of only three teams in baseball with fewer stolen bases than the Giants. Both teams have been good at finding pitchers in the later rounds of the draft, including their aces, and both teams have been good at finding diamonds in the rough, to the degree that Zach McKinstry even looks like it could be an anagram of 'Mike Yastrzemski.' There are other minor similarities, but the point isn't to list them all to the point of being tedious. The point is to explain the most glaring difference between them. It's why one team has the best record in baseball, and the other team couldn't hold on to the best record in baseball. It's like the old Clinton-era catchphrase about the economy, but repurposed for baseball teams: It's the first-round picks, stupid. Heliot Ramos had three of the Giants' 10 hits on Wednesday, including a two-run home run. His offensive resurgence over the last month has been a huge reason why the Giants are merely scuffling to string wins together, rather than suffering through a stretch that's bad enough to undo everything from the first three weeks of the season. They might pull off that last part eventually — don't count them out! — but for now, Ramos has been one of their most important players. He was a first-round pick, and he's hitting like one. Ramos was also drafted in 2017, which was quite a while ago. That's the year that Apple released the iPhone 8, Nintendo released the Switch and Ty Blach led the Giants in starts, with 34. Ramos has been the Giants' most productive first-round pick since Joe Panik in 2011, an island in a sea of unknown futures and disappointing careers. The other Giants' first-rounder to succeed with the team was Patrick Bailey, but you can use the verb 'succeed' to be in the past tense, if you're cynical. In the eighth inning of Wednesday's game, with runners on second and third with nobody out, Bailey popped out on the first pitch, dropping his OPS to .489. Still, if you're using Bailey as an example of the Giants' first-round failures, you're doing the exercise wrong. He's still established himself as an everyday player with clear major-league skills, even if his bat is light years behind his Gold Glove right now. He's one of the examples of a first-round pick that's gone right for the Giants. You can decide for yourself if Joey Bart belongs in that category (he's essentially tied with Bailey in WAR this season, if you were thinking about picking that fight again). Advertisement The Tigers, on the other hand, are in first place because of the contributions of Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene, two top-five picks in recent drafts. It wasn't long ago that Torkelson was considered a cautionary tale, but youth was on his side, and he's finally developing into the player he was expected to be. Greene didn't have the same developmental hiccups, moving from a No. 5 pick in 2019 out of high school to a superstar in short order. It was a remarkably deep draft that year, with several regulars and award contenders already established in the majors. Only one player taken in the top 10 of that draft hasn't appeared in the majors yet. You get one guess as to which team drafted him. The Giants would have less of a need for the Tigers' other first-round picks who are helping them out, right-handed starters Jackson Jobe and Casey Mize, but it's still worth noting the disparity in value they're getting out of their first-rounders. Mize would have been in the Giants' rotation right now, if not for a Pablo Sandoval walk-off home run, which is another entry for the 'If it wasn't for my horse …' files. The Giants have Ramos thriving and Bailey trying to get his swing back, but that's it for their own first-round picks. They're still a remarkably homegrown team — with the fourth-most homegrown players on their active roster, tied with the … Tigers, of course. But a lot of their homegrown players are development successes from the middle to lower rounds of the draft. Their burgeoning young rotation is built on impressive later-round picks like Webb, Kyle Harrison, Hayden Birdsong and Landen Roupp. Their bullpen has two of their only international amateur free agent successes since Juan Marichal, with once and future closer Camilo Doval and Randy Rodríguez. That extra push, that extra oomph, that could get the Giants to that next level is the one that teams typically find with their first-round picks. Every era of Giants baseball can be defined by their first-round successes and failures, from the 'You Gotta Like These Kids!' teams that turned Will Clark and Matt Williams into a pennant, to the Barry Bonds teams that were seemingly just one player away from getting a championship out of the best hitter of all-time. Every team in the championship era had several first-round picks leading the way, and the first one in 2010 had three of them in the rotation and one behind the plate. Even the Dodgers aren't anything without their first-round picks. Without Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager and Will Smith, they don't turn into the same kind of juggernaut that can tempt Shohei Ohtani. One of the biggest reasons they're not out to a 10-game lead in the NL West this season is because they've hit a similar dry patch since drafting Smith in 2016. There's still hope. Maybe not necessarily for this season, but beyond. Bryce Eldridge is still a marvel, and James Tibbs III is having a monster May. Bailey has hit in the majors before, so it's not entirely outlandish to hope he can do it again. Right now, though, the Giants are missing that special oomph that comes from an unambiguously talented top prospect giving his team way more value than his signing bonus cost them. It's the difference between a team that's somewhere between average and good (the 2025 Giants) and a team that's somewhere between good and great (the 2025 Giants). It's one of the reasons the Giants just got swept, and considering the glacial nature of the development of most prospects, it's unlikely to get fixed soon. (Top photo of Greene: Duane Burleson / Getty Images)
