Tommy Pham continues hot start to Boston Red Sox career with dramatic walk-off: ‘We don’t get paid for overtime,’ he says

As Tommy Pham stepped to the plate in the 10th inning against reliever Lou Trivino, his mindset was simple. He had enjoyed his first taste of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry but wanted the game to be over.

So Pham, who was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts before the 10th, laced a hard grounder down the third-base line, plating automatic runner Christian Arroyo and giving the Red Sox a 3-2 walk-off win over their first-place rivals. Mission accomplished.

“End it. We don’t get paid for overtime,” Pham told NESN’s Jahmai Webster when asked about his mindset in the 10th. “End it.”

Pham’s third career walk-off hit capped off a dramatic victory for the Red Sox, who trailed all game until Yankees closer Clay Holmes walked two batters ...

Forecasting The 2022-23 Qualifying Offers: Position Players - MLB Trade Rumors

I really hoped an agreement on the International Draft would happen and the qualifying offers system would end.

Jasson Domínguez updates

Aug. 13: Swipes two bases, drives in run
While he went hitless for High-A Hudson Valley, Jasson Domínguez still made a big impact in the Renegades’ win over Aberdeen. Domínguez swiped two bases, bringing him to 29 on the year, and drove in a run on a sac fly. His bid for three steals went awry, though, as he was thrown out trying to take third in the sixth inning. Gameday »

Aug. 12: Reaches three times
Jasson Domínguez was the lone bright spot for High-A Hudson Valley on Friday, which lost 10-0 to Aberdeen. Domínguez went 1-for-2 with a single and two walks. Domínguez is now hitting .279/.410/.441 for Hudson Valley. Gameday »

Aug. 11: Swipes two bags in loss
Jasson Domínguez continued his hot play on Thursday, swiping two bases ...

Twitter: Edwin Diaz entrance

I’m not a Mets fan but I just love this. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched the entrance videos.

Edwin Díaz's Entrance.

Black & White to Color. Love it! pic.twitter.com/irTFprnwt4

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 14, 2022

Jacob deGrom 6 scoreless innings 10 strikeouts in Mets win

Do they really want to push him before the playoffs?

Jacob deGrom doesn’t argue. He doesn’t attempt to negotiate. When pitching coach Jeremy Hefner delivers the news of how many pitches the Mets will allow deGrom to throw in a start, deGrom simply accepts it. He understands what it would look like if he successfully lobbied for more and then hurt himself again. So for now, deGrom keeps quiet.

On Saturday, that meant pitching only six innings in a 1-0 win over the Phillies at Citi Field, despite featuring near-unhittable stuff for the third time in three outings since returning from the injured list. It meant throwing only 76 pitches—the same amount he did six days earlier against the Braves—and then watching from afar as relievers ...

Hochman: Ozzie Smith, ‘82 Cardinals celebrate 40 years since World Series title | Benjamin Hochman | stltoday.com

That was definitely a fun team to watch.

“It was most of my most exciting and rewarding season,” said Kaat, 83, who was finally inducted into Cooperstown this summer. “I didn’t find this out until my career was over, but 17 years between World Series appearances is the longest period of time any player ever had to wait. And then, no player in any professional sport has had to play 24 years before getting a championship ring. Ray Bourque, the hockey player, was 22. But those aren’t records of accomplishment by me — they’re just an example of how honored I was to be a part of that team. And the fact that we were such an exciting team.”

Pittsburgh Pirates on Twitter: “Oh my, Oneil! ????  / Twitter

He’s a freak!

Oh my, Oneil! pic.twitter.com/QqICOpyr4c

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 13, 2022

More on Hall’s role, Santander’s hot stretch, Rutschman’s usage, numbers game and Means’ recovery - Blog

I’ve watched a few of his minor league starts online. His stuff was not at its best yesterday. Still, I’m not convinced he’ll end up being a long-term starter because of his poor command. He will definitely be a HUGE weapon out of the pen, though.

The elevation of DL Hall to the majors yesterday isn’t as interesting as his immediate demotion after the game.

Hall made a spot start for the Orioles in an 8-2 loss to the Rays. The exact definition of the term. But he didn’t plug a temporary hole in the rotation, which is the usual excuse.

The Orioles had that spot covered with veteran Jordan Lyles, who’s pushed back to today. Spenser Watkins would have started the series finale, but he worked in relief yesterday and is expected to be on ...

Fernando Tatis Jr. offers ridiculous lie as excuse for cheating

Where is Tatis’ agent?

Not so long ago the brightest star in baseball, Fernando Tatis Jr. has turned out to be a fool who thinks everyone else is just as big a fool. Tatis was busted by MLB on Friday for taking an anabolic steroid, and reacted by issuing a statement that would only fly if the country had 100 percent illiteracy or everyone’s internet were permanently down.

Tatis said he “inadvertently” took the performance enhancing drug Clostebol to treat ringworm, and apparently either he, his agent or his marketing guy thought the world would mistake Clostebol, the synthetic anabolic steroid he was caught with, for Clobetasol, a common drug used to treat skin ailments like eczema and psoriasis that also requires a prescription. ...

Twitter: Andres Gimenez makes a great, heads-up play

Andres Gimenez makes an incredible grab and throws out Raimel Tapia at home. pic.twitter.com/5ly1n8nz1j

— Baseball GIFs (@gifs_baseball) August 13, 2022

Julio Rodríguez plates two in Mariners’ win over Rangers

He’s back!

Fernando Tatis Jr. suspended, tests positive for banned substance

This is a real shocker. You can read his full statement by clicking the link.

“I have been informed by Major League Baseball that a test sample I submitted returned a positive result for Clostebol, a banned substance,” Tatis said in a statement. “It turns out that I inadvertently took a medication to treat ringworm that contained Clostebol. I should have used the resources available to me in order to ensure that no banned substances were in what I took. I failed to do so.

Mets Announce Old Timers’ Day Roster

The New York Mets today announced that 65 former players and managers will be in attendance for Old Timers’ Day Presented by Citi on August 27 prior to the 7:10 p.m. game vs. Colorado.

Eleven members of the Mets Hall of Fame (Ed Kranepool, Cleon Jones, Mookie Wilson, Keith Hernandez, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, John Franco, Mike Piazza, Jon Matlack, Ron Darling and Edgardo Alfonzo) and three members of the Baseball Hall of Fame (Piazza, Pedro Martínez and Joe Torre) will all be at Citi Field on August 27.

The introductions for the Old Timers’ Day Game Presented by Citi will begin at 4:30 p.m. followed by the game. Fans will be able to watch select Mets Alumni as they walk into the ballpark with a red-carpet entrance starting ...

How Government Devastated Minor League Baseball

The whole thing is a mess.

There is something both unseemly and unsurprising about a modern politician using legislation as a tool to punish the political behavior of a corporate entity. Nevertheless, the generally more serious Sen. Mike Lee (R–Utah), another co-sponsor of the bill, was on firmer footing when he asserted at the same press conference that MLB “has used its judicially fabricated antitrust immunity to suppress wages and divide up markets for decades—conduct that is plainly illegal, and sometimes criminal, in any other industry.”

Francisco Lindor is now underrated

May I be so underrated.

SI:Is Nationals Starter Patrick Corbin Having the Worst Pitching Season Ever?

Let’s start with the most obvious statistic—not the most illuminating, or the most informative, but the most straightforward. And it has good news for Corbin! He is not particularly likely to finish with the worst ERA ever in MLB. That dubious honor has long belonged to Les Sweetland and his 7.71 ERA for the 1930 Phillies…

Which is very bad for Corbin. Adjusted for his time and place, no one has been worse: His 56 ERA+ is tied for the lowest of all time. (He shares the title with Rube Bressler of the 1915 Philadelphia A’s, who later stopped pitching and enjoyed a career of more than a decade as a first baseman and left fielder.)

the conclusion seems to be, maybe not the worst, but it’s down there

OT Soccer Thread - European Leages Return

The new season kicks off in Europe without a peep from the BBTF cognoscenti. Are the fans turned off by the stratospheric player salaries? Dismayed at increasing stratification in domestic leagues? Bored with the prospect of more meaningless Champions League group games? Gearing up for a World Cup boycott? Or, you know, just kind of tired in general. Whatever the reason, we can’t go without a soccer thread, surely!

The Orioles’ advantage is hiding in plain sight

Last year, the Orioles only produced 122 homers of their own, scoring just 176 runs, at Camden Yards. Opponents plated 263 on their 155 blasts. That’s a minus-87 run differential.

This year? The Orioles outhomered the opposition 52-49 entering play Wednesday. Opponents have plated six more runs on their home runs than Baltimore, but that’s still an 81-run swing compared to 2021.

Last season, opposing teams hit .275 and slugged .495 at Camden. This year? .249 and .381.

Mancini noted that the park remains favorable to left-handed hitters. The club’s top four position prospects - Rutschman, Colton Cowser, Gunnar Henderson, and 2022 first-round pick Jackson Holliday - are all left-handed batters. The advantage might have staying power.

“I ...

2022 MLB Field of Dreams Game: Four things to know with Cubs, Reds set to meet in Iowa

How to watch the Field of Dreams Game
Where: Dyersville, Iowa | When: 7:15 p.m. ET on Thursday, Aug. 11
TV channel: Fox | Live stream: fuboTV (try for free)
Odds: TBD

Now for a few things to know about the 2022 edition….

2. Joey Votto and Ian Happ will be mic’d up
MLB has leaned into having mic’d-up conversations with players in the dugout and even on the field while the game is ongoing, and not surprisingly that’s going to be the case on Thursday night. The lucky/afflicted players for this game will be Reds first baseman Joey Votto and Cubs outfielder Ian Happ. They’ll be rocking the two-way mic at some point during the game. Given Votto’s engaging presence and sense of humor, he could be an ideal fit for this sort of thing.

...Read More...

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: August 11, 2022 at 10:13 AM | 16 comment(s)
  Beats: cubs, field of dreams, reds

Vaughn Grissom makes history with HR, steal in debut

Starting at second and batting ninth, Grissom went 2-for-4 with a strikeout and a stolen base in his debut, securing his first career hit and homer in one at-bat and helping to turn two double plays in the Braves’ 8-4 win over the Red Sox.

Grissom reached base in his first at-bat after grounding into a forceout in the third. His next time up, he struck out on four pitches to open the fifth. When he stepped up to the plate for his third at-bat, Grissom hammered a first-pitch fastball out of the ballpark.

“The competitive nature kicked in,” Grissom said. “I had a couple of at-bats, and I failed a couple of times. So it was just like, ‘All right, like you’re down.’ I’m not gonna say I expected it, but like, I need to do ...

As they take the Field of Dreams, where do the Chicago Cubs stand in their latest rebuild?

“The goal has been to add as much pitching as we possibly can,” Hoyer said. “I look back on when we built up the first time, we had position players lined up, but we never got to the point of having pitchers lined up at every level.”

ESPN prospect guru Kiley McDaniel has the Cubs 18th in his latest rankings of MLB farm systems, while Ricketts pointed out FanGraphs has them at No. 4. The team has young players in the low minors with upside, but they still lack a top-25 prospect to raise them any farther up the ranks (part of the reason behind the disparity between the two outlets).

Hoyer also knows that the lack of star power at the top is a problem.

“In 2014, we may have had three to four guys in the top 10,” Hoyer said when asked how ...

Chandler Redmond makes history with home run cycle for Springfield | MiLB.com

Solo HR ✔️
2-run HR ✔️
3-run HR ✔️
Grand slam ✔️@Cardinals prospect Chandler Redmond hit for the "home run cycle" with the @Sgf_Cardinals in a historic performance: https://t.co/Aj0oyX4iMF pic.twitter.com/UP993ggWIq

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 11, 2022

Trevor Bauer Faces Sexual Battery Allegations in New Countersuit

In the second incident, the woman says that Bauer choked her in the same manner, once again causing her to lose consciousness, and then began to punch her in the face with a closed fist, causing black eyes, before choking her for a second time. She awoke to “severe pain,” and Bauer repeatedly punched her in the vagina, groin area and the buttocks.

The woman says she was hospitalized after the May 16 incident. Bauer has publicly denied punching the woman or assaulting her “in any way,” stating that the two engaged in consensual “rough sex” with “established rules and boundaries.”

However, the lawsuit alleges details of a conversation between the woman and Bauer from a phone call, which was placed with members of the ...

Detroit Tigers fire general manager Al Avila after seven seasons

The Detroit Tigers have fired general manager Al Avila.

The team announced the decision Wednesday.

Until a new general manager is hired, assistant general manager Sam Menzin will work as the day-to-day point of contact for the team. Avila was the general manager for seven seasons, beginning in August 2015. He first joined the organization in 2002 as assistant general manager.

‘A League of Their Own’: There’s Still No Crying in Baseball — Just Room for Fixing Old Errors

Amazon’s new A League of Their Own TV series has many notes. It is, on the one hand, clearly adoring of the movie, frequently quoting various lines, images, and scenes from it 30 years later. And on the other hand, it is an attempt to cover many subjects — particularly regarding race and sexuality — that the movie didn’t, or in some cases couldn’t.

This new League(*) is interesting and fun in many ways, with a strong cast highlighted by D’Arcy Carden from The Good Place. But in attempting to improve on perfection — or, at least, to point out the imperfections of the mainstream movie studio comedy system of the early Nineties — the show reveals some large flaws of its own.

Created by Broad City star Abbi Jacobson and ...

Quite a Sho: Ohtani ties Ruth, passes Ichiro in same game

Another night, another milestone. Such is the life of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.

In Tuesday night’s 5-1 win over the A’s, Ohtani added not just one, but three feats to his already lengthy list of career accomplishments.

In short: Ohtani joined Babe Ruth in an exclusive club, moved up on the all-time home run list for Japanese-born players and set a single-season career high in strikeouts. Yes, all that in one night.

“I feel like every time we’re out there, he does something special,” interim manager Phil Nevin said. “Tonight, certainly another great milestone for him.”...

Ohtani tossed six scoreless innings to earn his 10th win of the season for the first time in his Major League career. He joins “The Babe” as the only two ...

Rodolfo Castro loses phone while diving into third in Pirates’ loss

Rodolfo Castro got the call-up and dropped a call in his return to the big leagues.

The Pittsburgh infielder lost his phone during a slide into third base and the Pirates lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4 on Tuesday night.

“I don’t think there’s any professional ballplayer that would ever go out there with any intentions of taking a cellphone,” Castro told Pittsburgh media members through an interpreter. “It’s horrible it happened to me. Obviously, it was very unintentional.”...

Castro might want to keep his phone close by on Wednesday in case MLB decides it wants to impose some penalty.

“My first day back, if I was to be the center of attention, I would want it to be helping the team win, but never in this form,” ...

Boston Red Sox sign Jeurys Familia to minor league deal; ex-Mets closer had 6.09 ERA with Phillies this year

The Red Sox have signed veteran reliever Jeurys Familia to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Worcester, as first reported by Joe McDonald of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.

Familia was designated for assignment and subsequently released by the Phillies last week after posting a 6.09 ERA in 38 games out of Philadelphia’s bullpen this season. The ex-Mets closer signed a one-year, $6 million contract with the Phillies in March but struggled for most of the season, including posting a 7.71 ERA since May 13. The 32-year-old posted a career-high WHIP of 1.853 and allowed plenty of hits (48 in 34 innings), including six homers. Statcast suggests that his poor numbers are not a fluke, either, as he ranks in the bottom ...

Yankees DH Matt Carpenter fractures left foot on foul ball

New York Yankees designated hitter Matt Carpenter broke his left foot Monday night when he fouled off a pitch against the Seattle Mariners and will be out indefinitely.

Carpenter, wearing a protective boot in the Yankees’ clubhouse after their 9-4 win, said he’s hopeful he might only miss a month. But a timeline won’t be determined until he sees a foot specialist.

“I don’t want to say a number because I just don’t know, but I’m holding out hope that it’ll be a situation where I could come back in the middle of September and can contribute towards a stretch run,” Carpenter said. “So we’ll see. I mean, that’s my mindset is that I’ll be back.”

Carpenter fouled a slider from starter Logan Gilbert off the foot in the ...

Minor League Baseball player Solomon Bates says he is gay, has been out to teammates since 2019

Solomon Bates, a Minor League Baseball player who was until this week in the San Francisco Giants system, came out publicly on Instagram while also announcing that he is no longer with his team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

Shortly after sharing his true self on Instagram, he told Outsports that he had come out to his teammates in 2019, but he’s now coming out publicly to be an example of a successful gay athlete, as well as an inspiration for others like him.

“I haven’t been out as my complete self because I’ve been hiding myself,” he said. “I’m a masculine man who loves the sport of baseball, and now I want to open up doors for gay athletes like me.”

Bates has dropped hints on social media over the last year, ...