Latest news with #losingstreak
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
AJ Hinch not worried about Tigers' 6-game losing streak
The post AJ Hinch not worried about Tigers' 6-game losing streak appeared first on ClutchPoints. The Detroit Tigers entered the All-Star Break on a three-game losing streak, but kept the best record in the American League. They started the second half with two more losses to the Texas Rangers, extending the streak to six. Still, they are 59-40, the best team in the AL heading into Sunday Night Baseball. Tigers manager AJ Hinch told Dave Sessions of that he is not concerned about the slide. 'I don't really think our guys think about streaks either way,' Hinch said after Friday's loss pushed the streak to five. They went on to lose on Saturday for a sixth loss in a row. 'We will bounce back, and we're going to be fine. We've got to play a little bit better and make the right pitches and make the plays and put up a little bit of offense, and what we've done for 90-plus games.' Pitching has been an issue for the Tigers during their slide. Tarik Skubal allowed four runs for just the fourth time this season in a 12-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners. That was the first of three losses to Seattle that sent them into the break. Coming out of the break, they have dropped a series to the Rangers. Skubal heads back to the mound for Sunday night's series finale. The Tigers are 10.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central heading into Sunday's game. That is the largest division lead in baseball, giving them some cushion to go through a slide. Detroit has done that just in time to fix its flaws at the MLB trade deadline. The Tigers should be pushing for a starting pitcher and an infielder at the deadline. They have the top-ranked prospect pipeline in the entire league, according to making them big candidates to buy. Related: Tigers ace Tarik Skubal gets 'nasty' MLB shoutout in stunning night vs. Rangers Related: Tigers' Tarik Skubal delivers passionate message after return to win column
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
💥 Tension mounts at Boca as Russo drops three players
Marcos Rojo, Marcelo Saracchi, and Cristian Lema have been removed from the professional squad by the decision of Xeneize's coach. There is a very tense atmosphere at Boca Juniors. Amid a tough losing streak and some off-field scandals, there are some players who will no longer be part of the professional squad: Cristian Lema, Marcos Rojo, and Marcelo Saracchi have been ousted. Miguel Ángel Russo decided in the last few hours to permanently separate these three footballers from the locker room for various acts of indiscipline, a measure that has shaken Boca Predio. Upon arriving at the club's sports complex, Lema, Rojo, and Saracchi found out that they had to change away from the rest of their teammates. Chiquito Romero, who is also not in Russo's plans, will remain part of the group for the time being. As reported by Federico Cristofanelli in Infobae, each of the removed players has a particular situation. Cristian Lema had missed two training sessions without prior notice. Marcos Rojo, on the other hand, had a disagreement with Russo in the United States that drastically changed his situation. And Marcelo Saracchi caused displeasure with his insistence on leaving the club. Boca Juniors is currently immersed in the worst negative record of matches without victories (11) in its history. Juan Román Riquelme's management is in jeopardy and drastic measures have begun to be taken to stay afloat. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here. 📸 Joaquín Camiletti - 2025 Getty Images
New York Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
After a fifth consecutive loss, Astros' Framber Valdez questions defensive positioning
HOUSTON — A makeshift lineup has manufactured a five-game losing streak while forcing perfection from the Astros' pitchers. On Monday night, they became the fifth staff since 1901 to strike out 19 batters in a nine-inning game and lose, an impossible outcome that fueled frustration from starter Framber Valdez. Advertisement Valdez, Houston's ace who struck out his 1,000th career batter, took issue with the team's defensive positioning during a candid postgame interview in which he claimed through an interpreter that 'baseball is a game of common sense.' Common sense, in Valdez's words, is that left-handed hitters do not hit fly balls against him. No batters do. Valdez is one of three qualified major-league starters with a groundball rate higher than 60 percent. Yet, in the sixth inning of Monday's 2-1 loss, the Astros positioned their outfielders in preparation for a fly ball from the left-handed hitting Nathaniel Lowe. The tying run stood on first base and, ostensibly, the Astros were in a 'no doubles' defense to prevent any fly ball from getting over their defenders' heads. Instead, Lowe bounced a full-count breaking ball through the four-hole and into an unoccupied part of right field. 'When he hit the grounder, I thought it was going to be an out,' Valdez said through an interpreter. 'When I saw it went through, I said 'Oh, it's going to be a hit.' But then I saw the right fielder playing center field and, you know, we have a center fielder for that. I feel like the right fielder should have been playing right field. I was uncomfortable with that.' The baseball reached the warning track before right fielder Taylor Trammell could secure it. Lumbering designated hitter Josh Bell, he of a sprint speed in the fifth percentile, scored the game-tying run from first base. Bell averages just 24.9 feet per second when he sprints. League average is 26.2. 'You have to do everything you can to score, and he did,' Lowe told reporters after the game. 'Really grateful for that, even though he's not a burner, but he touched the plate at the right time and we're happy scoring more than them.' Valdez voiced his concerns without being asked directly about the play, but about the frustrations of pitching with such a small margin for error. The Astros have scored 21 runs in their past eight games while reeling from the loss of leadoff man Isaac Paredes. Five of the nine members of Houston's Opening Day lineup are on the injured list, including Paredes, slugger Yordan Alvarez and All-Star shortstop Jeremy Peña. Advertisement 'It was a little bit uncomfortable to be honest,' Valdez said. 'It doesn't make sense that was a double. It doesn't make sense that the right fielder was playing in center field with a lefty that was hitting. 'It doesn't make sense that the right fielder was playing all the way in center field. That should have been a single. That shouldn't have been a double. The runner should have been at third and not at home. I felt a little bit uncomfortable about that.' Manager Joe Espada did not get asked about the play after the loss, but he held his news conference before Valdez conducted his postgame interview in the clubhouse. Quality assurance coach Jason Bell and first-base coach Dave Clark are Houston's two outfield instructors and are responsible for positioning during games. Valdez said he did not approach the coaching staff with his concerns. 'I don't have to ask the coaches about that. I feel like baseball is a game of common sense,' Valdez said. 'With me as a lefty pitcher, they don't hit a lot of fly balls against me. If they do hit a fly ball, it's going to either be a home run or in front.' Spray charts do show that, of the 26 fly balls Lowe has hit against left-handed pitchers this season, a large cluster have gone to either center field or right center field where Trammell was positioned. Prior to Monday, left-handed hitters had hit just 12 fly balls off of Valdez all season, according to FanGraphs spray charts. Just two of them had been pulled at all into right field. For his career, though, the rare fly ball from a left-handed hitter did land in right center field. 'I feel the positioning, that wasn't the positioning it was supposed to be when it was a lefty hitter against a lefty pitcher,' Valdez said. Valdez's candor came after he struck out 12 Nationals across seven otherwise superb innings, lowering his ERA to 2.62. Washington whiffed 22 times on the 45 swings it took against him. Seventeen of the Nationals' swings and misses came against Valdez's curveball, which finished all 12 of his punchouts. Advertisement In three months, Valdez is scheduled to be the top starter available on the free-agent market. Nothing in the Astros' past suggests they will make a serious effort at retaining the 31-year-old homegrown southpaw and one of the team's most successful player development stories.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Baltimore Orioles bury the Blue Jays in a barrage of hits and homers
The Blue Jays entered baseball's all-star break on a two-game losing streak. And now for the first time since the break, the Jays have lost two in a row. All is not lost for a team that has won far more often than it has suffered setbacks, but on nights when pitching falters the Jays founder. The latest example was provided Monday night when the host Baltimore Orioles broke open a 3-3 game by using the longball to shred Toronto's pitching en route to an 11-4 win. The O's are in sell mode as they play out the string to a very disappointing season, while the Jays must add if they want to be considered serious contenders when games really matter. They haven't played clean baseball in two straight games, two games in which the Jays have been blown out, beginning with Sunday's 10-4 loss in Detroit when Toronto scored four meaningless runs in the ninth inning. The following are three takeaways on a night when everyone in attendance held its breath after George Springer was hit on the left side of his face with a one-out fastball in the ninth inning that unnerved pitcher Kade Strowd, a night when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 13th home run of the season. 1. Bassitt doesn't have it This was one of those outings where veteran Chris Bassitt was out of sync. Bad starts are one thing, but a bad start becomes problematic knowing four games will be played in such a tight time frame. In other words, it puts undue stress on the bullpen. The best Bassitt, who has been good, could provide the Jays were seven outs. Ouch! When Bassitt was given the hook with one on and one out in the home half of the third inning, the Jays were trailing 6-3. His 2.1-inning outing was Bassitt's second-shortest of the season. On June 26 at Fenway Park, the veteran right-hander walked four, gave up eight hits and eight earned runs in 2.0 innings in what turned out to be a thorough beatdown in Beantown. Bassitt's 69-pitch outing in Baltimore was marred by two homers surrendered, while seven hits and six earned runs would be yielded. In the four starts since his Fenway folly, Bassitt pitched into the sixth inning. He even gave the Jays one inning of relief to take the strain off the pen in Sacramento just prior to the all-star break. 2. Bo makes history Bo Bichette went 5-for-5 in Sunday's loss in Detroit, the fifth plate appearance courtesy of some pitiful pitching by a Tigers bullpen in the ninth inning. The way Bichette is seeing the ball, no pitcher is capable of retiring him. His elite hand-eye co-ordination was on full display in his first two at-bats Monday night, each resulting in singles as Bichette went 7-for-7 in his past seven at-bats. A fifth-inning bloop single that went off the end of the bat gave Bichette eight for eight to tie a franchise record. In the seventh inning, his first pitch in the at-bat was ruled a hit, giving Bichette his ninth consecutive base knock to set a club record. His streak ended in the ninth inning when he hit into a double play to end the game. His 5-for-5 day in Detroit came in a loss as did Bichette's 4-for-5 game in Baltimore. 3. Making moves As of press time, no deal was engineered by the Blue Jays, who are in the market to add, ideally, at least two arms to the bullpen, a potential starter and a right-handed bat. A double dip awaits Tuesday followed by an afternoon game Wednesday in as hectic a stretch the Jays will experience. It will all lead up to Thursday's 6 p.m. trade deadline. Daulton Varsho has a few more games scheduled in triple-A as he makes his way back from a hamstring injury. If a deal makes the Jays better and Varsho must be sacrificed, so be it. Nathan Lukes and Myles Straw have almost made Varsho an afterthought. Lukes hit leadoff in the series opener and went yard in the third inning for his eighth homer of the season and his third in the past five games. He was denied a multi-homer game when Cedric Mullins soared over the wall in straight-away centre to rob Lukes and prevent the Jays from tying the game in the fourth inning. Opportunities such as the one the Jays have been presented and created this season don't come around often and no one, save for Vlad Jr., should be exempt from any trade discussion, including Varsho. Pitchers Lazaro Estrada, Easton Lucas and Paxton Schultz were in Baltimore as the club prepares for the doubleheader. None was active for the series opener. As of Monday, Eric Lauer was scheduled to start in the night cap. Up next The frenetic slate at stifling hot Oriole Park at Camden Yards continues with Tuesday's 12:35 p.m. first pitch followed by first pitch at 6:35 p.m. to complete the day's double dip; a DH day for Vlad Jr. is a certainty for one of the two games; teams are allowed to add a player to the 26-man roster for doubleheaders. Blue Jays' Alejandro Kirk placed on seven-day concussion IL Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg dies after cancer battle
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Offense explodes as Tigers stop skid with 10-4 victory over Blue Jays
The Detroit Tigers stopped their second consecutive 6-game losing streak. Starting just before the All-Star break, the team had lost 12 of 13 games. They topped the AL best Blue Jays by a score of 10-4 Sunday afternoon.
