PHILADELPHIA — Six weeks into the season, ESPN brought its national baseball showcase to Philadelphia, and well, what did you expect?

Sunday Night Bryceball, naturally.

Bryce Harper is off to an uneven start, by his standards. But teammates don’t call him “The Showman” for no reason. On cue, he smashed a three-run homer against Giants ...Read more

For just the second time this season, Paul Skenes allowed an earned run. In fact, the Pirates top prospect allowed two, one coming from a solo homer, the first he has allowed in seven starts this year.

While he wasn’t as dominant as usual, Skenes was fine overall, allowing the two runs, both earned, off three hits and a pair of walks in 4 �...Read more

It has been fairly straightforward for the Padres.

Pitch well at the start, generally they win. Get behind because a starting pitcher struggles, they lose.

Sunday afternoon, after four consecutive victories in which the team's starting pitchers were sensational, Matt Waldron was knuckled under.

"Yeah, I think from the start, that wasn't where...Read more

CHICAGO — As the temperatures start to heat up, the question around the Chicago Cubs is: when will the bats heat up as well?

In a 5-0 shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, the Cubs didn’t register their first hit until the third inning when left fielder Ian Happ singled on a line drive to center. Starting Cubs pitcher Javier Assad ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts seemed a little conflicted before Sunday's series finale against the Atlanta Braves in Dodger Stadium.

The manager didn't want to put too much emphasis on an early-May series against a potential playoff opponent, saying, "I just want to win as many games as we can," but as he sized up a "great" trip in which the ...Read more

CINCINNATI — Dean Kremer took a perfect game into the fifth and allowed only one hit across six scoreless innings Sunday.

It might not have even been the best start the Orioles received this weekend at Great American Ball Park.

Like John Means and Cole Irvin before him, Kremer was superb Sunday to lead the Orioles to an 11-1 win and a sweep ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — Garrett Crochet took Lars Nootbaar’s liner with a 91 mph exit velocity off his left ankle in the third inning Sunday at Busch Stadium.

“It felt pretty brutal,” the Chicago White Sox starter said.

After a visit from the training staff, Crochet threw a few warmup pitches.

“In my mind when I was doing the warmup pitches I ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS – The last time the Red Sox faced Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan in Minnesota, he tossed a complete-game shutout.

As such, the laws of cosmic balance in the universe dictated a much-needed big day for the Boston bats. After a three-game losing streak in which they scored no more than two runs in any contest and a six-game stretch...Read more

PITTSBURGH — After five more quiet innings, Derek Shelton’s club had finally had enough. Once again, it had little to offer against the opposing starting pitcher, tallying just a lone run that came from a weak, well placed ground ball.

But with another series loss on the horizon, the Pirates bats finally woke up.

A four run outburst in the...Read more

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Jonny DeLuca has only been a Ray, officially, for three games, but he has made an impact.

The outfielder hit a sacrifice fly past a diving Mets centerfielder to drive in two runs and walk off a 7-6 win over New York in front of 19,310 at Tropicana Field on Sunday afternoon.

The Rays (17-18) swept the series, their ...Read more

HOUSTON — Cal Raleigh to the rescue.

The Mariners slugging catcher hit a missile out to the short-porch Crawford Boxes off Astros closer Josh Hader in the top of the ninth inning, and the Mariners stiff-armed the mystic of Minute Maid Park one more time in an anxious 5-4 victory Sunday afternoon.

Andres Muñoz closed out the ninth, and the ...Read more

NEW YORK — In his first at-bat since Saturday’s ejection, Aaron Judge left the ballpark.

Figuratively, that is.

Judge’s first-inning solo home run against red-hot Tigers ace Tarik Skubal gave the Yankees an early lead in their rain-shortened 5-2 win Sunday in the Bronx, helping to finish off a three-game sweep of upstart Detroit.

But ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As much as it pained Kyle Snyder to see Tyler Glasnow traded from Tampa Bay to the Los Angeles Dodgers last December, the Rays pitching coach predicted the move would benefit the 6-foot-8 right-hander from Santa Clarita.

“I genuinely think his best days are in front of him,” Snyder said in February. “He’s healthy. The ...Read more

PHOENIX — Luis Arraez arrived at Chase Field about 90 minutes before he took his first swing in a game and got his first hit for the Padres.

He led off and was their designated hitter and went about being the personification of A.J. Preller’s dream in a 13-1 victory over the Diamondbacks on Saturday.

Arraez went 4 for 6 and scored the ...Read more

HOUSTON — As he walked off the mound after the eighth inning and approached the visitors’ dugout, Mariners starter Logan Gilbert knew the answer before he even made the request.

“One more,” Gilbert asked Scott Servais, hoping for a chance to pitch the ninth.

The Mariners manager, waiting at the top step of the dugout entrance, shook ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was “Star Wars” night at Kauffman Stadium, as fans arrived dressed as their favorite characters of the movie franchise.

The Royals, who have operated at lightspeed with this season’s rebuild efforts, looked to keep their winning ways going against the Texas Rangers. But the 2023 World Series champs struck back with...Read more

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Rookie Austin Shenton worked a 10-pitch, two-out, bases-loaded walk — the first of two in the bottom of the eighth inning — to break a logjam, and the Rays scraped together enough offense to pull off a 3-1 win over the Mets at Tropicana Field on Saturday night.

The win was the 755th of Kevin Cash’s managerial ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — It was a strange night. Saturday’s Phillies-Giants game started over an hour late due to rain. Players had trouble fielding the ball and pitchers had trouble gripping it. The grounds crew came out to work on the infield dirt in between innings.

But that didn’t stop the Phillies from getting their 23rd win of the season. In ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals stranded the bases loaded in the 10th inning after rain paused the game for 3 hours and 3 minutes in the middle of what ended up being the final at-bat of the game.

Heavy rain accompanied by lightning forced the game to stop with two outs, men on every base and Nolan Gorman at the plate against former Cardinals ...Read more

CINCINNATI — A little more than two weeks ago, John Means couldn’t even make it out of the first inning in Triple-A.

The veteran left-hander allowed five runs on five hits — two of which were homers — in a minor league rehabilitation game against a team nicknamed the Jumbo Shrimp. The outing raised alarms about whether Means would be ...Read more