PITTSBURGH — It's a cloudy, humid Tuesday afternoon on the North Shore. In a few hours, the Pirates will take on the St. Louis Cardinals. No fans have made their way through the gates at PNC Park. Neither team has started taking batting practice. And Paul Skenes, scheduled to start that evening, is bored.

With time to kill, the Pirates' 23-...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Before Jerry Hairston Jr. became a voice of the Dodgers, that buoyant broadcaster on Spectrum Sports Net LA putting a blue-tinged spin on pregame and postgame analysis, he was a Major League ballplayer for 16 seasons.

The name Hairston is synonymous with baseball, Jerry and his brother Scott the third generation of men whose ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Vinnie Pasquantino, aka “The Pasquatch,” stands 6-foot-3, weighs around 250 pounds and heading into the weekend led the Royals in home runs (15) and runs batted in (56). A year ago, he had 97 RBIs before he suffered a broken thumb at the end of August and missed the rest of the regular season.

So maybe it seems like he ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — The Dodgers finally looked like the Dodgers again on Friday night.

Too bad it didn’t happen until they were already down six runs.

For the first time in a week, the highest-scoring offense in baseball finally rediscovered its high-flying form, handing San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb his worst start all season while ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — It’s been nearly a week since Jackson Merrill logged a hit.

He’s still finding ways to help win games.

Three days ago, that meant robbing a home run in center field. In a 4-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night, that meant a sacrifice bunt that stoked the San Diego Padres’ only rally off Phillies left-hander ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals were six outs away from slamming the door on the New York Mets in Friday’s series opener at Kauffman Stadium.

Instead, Royals reliever Steven Cruz left the door ajar. And the Mets made the KC bullpen pay in an 8-3 win.

In the eighth inning, Cruz didn’t have his usual command. He issued a single ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Kody Clemens, an infielder whose family tree suggests he knows something about intimidating pitchers, downplayed the intimidation factor before the Twins faced Pirates All-Star Paul Skenes on Friday.

“Baseball’s hard, you know,” said Clemens, the son of a seven-time Cy Young winner. “He might leave some over the middle ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals spent the entirety of Friday’s muggy ballgame playing catch-up, only to give Atlanta a good chase before falling short by going silent for six innings.

The Cardinals scored in a pair of bursts at Busch Stadium to cut into Atlanta’s early lead, and despite maintaining some offensive pressure throughout the game ...Read more

NEW YORK — It’s no secret that Aaron Judge is more than just a hitter at this stage of his career, yet he reminded the Cubs of his defensive prowess in the Yankees’ 11-0 win over the Cubs on Friday.

Judge dazzled with a pair of plays in the fourth frame, first robbing Pete Crow-Armstrong of a home run for the second out of the inning. ...Read more

NEW YORK — Ahead of Friday night’s series opener against the Chicago Cubs, Yankees manager Aaron Boone listed the many ways Cody Bellinger impacts his club before settling on an all-encompassing descriptor.

“Winning player.”

It was fitting, then, that Bellinger was the driving force in the Yankees’ 11-0 victory over the Cubs in the ...Read more

BOSTON — The Red Sox looked lost at the plate for nearly three hours on Friday night, grounding out 11 times and leaving six men on base.

It was shaping up to be the kind of game they hadn’t played in a while, a one-run loss in which they squandered valuable opportunities and were done in by error and misplay.

And then it wasn’t.

With ...Read more

DETROIT — The best pitcher in baseball was on the mound pitching at home for the team with the best record in the American League and taking on an emotionally drained group of Mariners that rolled into town at close to 3 a.m. local time after getting excruciatingly swept out of Yankee Stadium.

Of course this is the game these Mariners end up ...Read more

Victor Vodnik beat his chest, mouthed some choice words, and received a celebratory hug from catcher Hunter Goodman.

Why not? Vodnik had just closed out the Rockies’ grittiest victory of the season.

After giving up a leadoff double, Vodnik struck out TJ Friedl, Matt McLain, intentionally walked the dangerous Elly De La Cruz, and then fanned ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In Sacramento, the Athletics are mired in last place, struggling to fill the minor league ballpark they call home. That does not mean our state capitol is lacking for some serious hardball.

California legislators, meet our old friend, Frank McCourt.

McCourt, the former Dodgers owner, first pitched a gondola from Union Station ...Read more

NEW YORK — Jazz Chisholm Jr. isn’t going into the Home Run Derby with any grand expectations or bold predictions.

While the Yankees second baseman says he’s “really excited” to be competing in MLB’s annual power exhibition, Chisholm plans to maintain the measured approach at the plate that helped him become an All-Star in the first ...Read more

CHICAGO — Mark Buehrle achieved perfection, tossing the 18th perfect game in Major League Baseball history on July 23, 2009, against the Tampa Bay Rays.

He played a crucial role during the 2005 postseason, recording a complete-game victory in Game 2 of the ALCS against the Los Angeles Angels and earning the save in Game 3 of the World Series ...Read more

NEW YORK — The Yankees had a bead on Seattle Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz.

That’s according to M’s catcher Cal Raleigh, who believes Muñoz was tipping pitches during the ninth inning of the Yankees’ come-from-behind 6-5 win on Thursday night.

“He was tipping it every time at second base,” Raleigh said afterward. “Obviously, ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas ballpark work forges ahead on the 9-acre site a few weeks after the Athletics held a groundbreaking for the $1.75 billion project.

Crews have been continuing excavation work to get the site down to field level.

The first seven cranes have arrived on site and crews are continuing early foundation work, which kicked off ...Read more

CHICAGO — Luis Robert Jr. launched a two-run home run to left field in the second inning during Game 1 of Friday’s split doubleheader at Rate Field.

The Chicago White Sox had just one more hit, a Chase Meidroth single leading off the ninth, in a 4-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in front of 12,869 for the makeup game.

“Great job by (...Read more