Tim Tebow is starting at designated hitter and batting eighth for the St. Lucie Mets in his Florida State League debut. He struck out looking on three pitches against Palm Beach's Connor Jones in his first plate appearance.
Newcomer Miguel Andujar is DHing tonight for the Yankees against White Sox lefty Carlos Rondon. Yankees manager Joe Girardi has Aaron Judge batting second and Gary Sanchez third.
Nats closer Koda Glover, who hit the DL on June 11 with back issues, said he's now dealing with severe rotator cuff inflammation and isn't close to being able to resume throwing. Glover thinks that trying to pitch threw his back problems may have led to the shoulder trouble.
Sad news about former Mets, Cubs and Astros pitcher Anthony Young passing away at 51. He's remembered for losing a record 27 consecutive decisions -- let's see that get broken -- but was a better pitcher than his W-L record indicates. His career adjusted ERA was 100 -- exactly league average.
Dusty Baker, whose Nats ran wild on the Cubs last night, hadn't heard that Chicago catcher Miguel Montero was let go today after publicly throwing pitcher Jake Arrieta under the bus. Baker's reaction: "Wow."
The Mariners have used 13 starting pitchers and now comes the news that Drew Smyly, who hasn't pitched all season, will have Tommy John surgery -- meaning he could miss most or all of next season as well. Fans may blame that WBC game when Smyly dominated while throwing harder than normal, but he's had injury issues in the past, so was a risky acquisition in the first place. Look for the Mariners to look for a starter at the trade deadline.
The Yankees have placed Matt Holliday on the 10-day DL and have called up Miguel Andujar from Triple-A. The teams says Holliday has a viral infection. Chris Carter, who still owed $3.5M by the Yankees, has accepted an assignment to go to Triple-A Scranton.
Last season, Miguel Montero ranked third in getting extra strikes for pitchers. This season: 44th out of 66 catchers. According to Statcast, Montero averaged a 2.12-second "pop time" on throws to second base this season, tied for the slowest among 52 catchers to make at least five throws. The major league average is 2.00 seconds, and the Cubs' Willson Contreras is averaging 1.93 seconds (eight-best).
The Cubs will designate Miguel Montero for assignment and call up Triple-A catcher Victor Caratini, according to a source familiar with the situation. Montero publicly called out starter Jake Arrieta after Tuesday's game for allowing the Nationals to steal 7 bases, claiming he was slow to the plate. Montero is 0 for 31 throwing out would be base stealers this season.
Was looking at overall numbers since last season's All-Star break while considering my ASG picks for this season. One thing I had not expected to find: Since July 15, 2016, Atlanta's Ender Inciarte leads all big-leaguers with 200 hits.
Drew Pomeranz on coming back after the rain: "We kind of said if it's more than an hour or if it's past 10 o'clock it would be kind of iffy. Of course, it's a 10 o'clock start time. I'm like, 'Well, s---, it's a hard decision to make, putting it right on the time when we said we wouldn't go over.' But I felt pretty good." Said he threw, rode bike, ran sprints in batting cage during 76-minute delay.
Red Sox 9, Twins 2: Don't look now, but Drew Pomeranz has been Boston's second-best starting pitcher lately. Pomeranz waited out a 76-minute rain delay in second inning Tuesday night and stayed in the game to deliver five solid innings and save the bullpen. In his last seven starts, Pomeranz is 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA, 44 strikeouts and 9 walks in 40 innings. Christian Vázquez and Chris Young homered for Red Sox, who reclaimed sole possession of first place in AL East.
The Yankees' bullpen utterly self-destructed in a 4-3 loss to the White Sox. In the eighth, two Yankees relievers, including Tyler Clippard, issued four walks to allow the White Sox to get within one. In the ninth, Dellin Betances walked two and hit a batter before allowing a Jose Abreu game-winning two-run single.
In a high intensity eighth inning, Yankee relievers walked four batters, gifting the White Sox a run, but they didn't relinquish the lead. Tyler Clippard, who has recently become the most despised player by Yankee fans, got out of a bases loaded jam with a 3-2 strikeout of Matt Davidson. They head to the ninth with the Yankees up, 3-2, over the White Sox.
Watch Miguel Montero discuss a bad night behind the plate as the Nationals stole 7 bases against him and Jake Arrieta.
Watch Cubs catch Miguel Montero discuss the 7 stolen bases on him in the team's 6-1 loss to the Nationals. He claims his pitcher didn't help matters.
The Yankees Luis Severino had a career-high 12 Ks in his seven innings of one-run ball. He stands to be the winner if the Yankees' 3-1 lead holds up over the White Sox.
This is what MVPs do. With the Yankees down a run in the eighth, Aaron Judge just tied the game with an RBI single up the middle to make 1-1 with the White Sox.
"It's another piece of the legend that is Adrián Beltré" -Rangers manager Jeff Banister on Beltré hitting a 2-out game winning HR in the 9th inning in Cleveland. It was Beltré's 450th career home run, taking sole possession of 39th place in MLB's all-time list, breaking a tie with Vladimir Guerrero and Jeff Bagwell. Beltré now has 2,969 career hits.
The Cubs lost 6-1 to the Nationals behind 7 stolen bases by the home team. Trea Turner stole 4 himself as the Nats run game had a big impact in the outcome. Jake Arrieta never got in a groove, failing to pitch five innings for the fifth time this season. He walked 6 batters and gave up 6 hits in 4 innings. Miguel Montero was behind the plate for all 7 steals while he also committed a throwing error allowing a run to score. So did Tommy La Stella. If the Cubs played a clean game they may have been in it until the end but they gave the game away early. Kris Bryant's first inning triple drove in the lone run for the Cubs.
The Nationals stole a team-record seven bases (including four by Trea Turner), and ace Max Scherzer tossed six innings of two-hit ball as Washington beat the Cubs 6-1 to even up their four-game series at 1-1.
The Nationals have 7 stolen bases tonight off of Miguel Montero meaning Montero is now 1 for 32 (3 percent) this season throwing out would be base stealers. He's on pace for the lowest caught stealing percentage (min 25 attempts) for a Cubs catcher since at least 1969. In the last 30 years only one catcher on any team has been worse over a full season: Hank Conger was 1 for 43 in 2015.
It's running bases here in DC, where the Nats have set a team record by stealing seven bases. And it's only the fourth inning. In case you're wondering, the modern-day record for steals in a game is 15, set by the 1911 Yankees.
Through Memorial Day, Nats speedster Trea Turner had 11 steals, which was 16 fewer than Billy Hamilton. With a franchise record four steals already tonight, Turner now has 32 to overtake Hamilton for the MLB lead.
The Yankees still can't figure out what is exactly wrong with DH Matt Holliday. Holliday had a series of test and couldn't not find what is making him feel like all his energy has been zapped. Tonight will be the third game he has missed. Yankees manager Joe Girardi said the team will soon have to consider a DL stint if Holliday doesn't improve soon.
