SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Before Monday’s game at Sutter Health Park, Pirates manager Don Kelly was asked about the game plan for Jared Jones and Carmen Mlodzinski moving forward.

“We have to see how today goes,” Kelly said in part.

This game couldn’t have gone much worse.

Jones struggled, allowing five runs in four innings. The Pirates ...Read more

PHOENIX — Mike Trout looked everything like an All-Star that early voting returns project.

Walbert Ureña probably deserved better.

But a tainted run, an unearned run and a home run that clanked off the right field foul pole negated their best efforts in a 4-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the opener of a three-game series on Monday ...Read more

Eleven years and one day after Byron Buxton made his major league debut in Arlington, Texas, a highly anticipated arrival for one sport’s best athletes, he’s a hitter at the peak of his powers.

Buxton is the reigning American League player of the week, the second time this season he has earned the award, and he belted a solo homer to left ...Read more

HOUSTON – The Detroit Tigers won a baseball game Monday night, beating the Houston Astros 9-3 in the first of three at Daikin Park.

But, stop us if you’ve heard this before, they might’ve also lost two more players to injury.

Will it ever end?

It started before the game. Right-hander Troy Melton, who was supposed to make the start, was ...Read more

CHICAGO — Two days ago, Pete Crow-Armstrong was a triple away from the cycle at Oracle Park.

The Chicago Cubs’ center fielder was well aware of how close he was to the feat and had it on his mind during the final five innings. He fell short, though, striking out in his final two at-bats.

Crow-Armstrong avoided the same fate Monday night at...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Gabriel Rincones Jr. let the bat flip off his fingertips as he started towards first base.

Miami right fielder Owen Cassie made a futile jog towards the wall, but the ball kept carrying and carrying until it landed just inside the foul pole, Rincones’ first major league hit and home run all at once.

The rookie outfielder ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Kansas City Royals granted right-hander Mitch Spence a spot start Monday night against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.

And it turned out to be a good decision … for about four innings.

Spence had pitched well up to that point. He allowed two earned runs and avoided trouble while navigating the Washington ...Read more

The search for starting pitching continues for the New York Mets, but so too does the search for hits with runners in scoring position.

The Mets recalled right-hander Tobias Myers from Triple-A Syracuse on Monday afternoon to pitch as the opener in an opening game against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark. His return to the big ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — The San Diego Padres left Baltimore on Sunday having won a second consecutive game for the first time in three weeks and a second consecutive series for the first time in nearly two months.

On Monday, they ran into the truth coined by one of Baltimore’s greatest sports figures.

It was the late Orioles manager Earl Weaver who ...Read more

BOSTON — As Sunday night’s first pitch approached, the Tartan Army descended upon Fenway Park.

Fresh off their country’s 1-0 World Cup victory over Haiti down the road in Foxborough, Mass., thousands of Scottish fans marched to the historic ballpark and packed it to the gills. From the moment the gates opened until the final out of Sunday...Read more

BALTIMORE — The San Diego Padres routed the Baltimore Orioles by hitting five home runs on Saturday, the latest effort by a resurgent offense that has helped them inch back toward being the team they expected to be.

On Sunday, they hit a big home run as well. But it was a bunch of other things they did well that helped the Padres win a second...Read more

CHICAGO — Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Jack Dreyer rubbed a new baseball between his hands as he walked back to the mound, a sold-out Rate Field coming alive around him.

Fireworks crackled over the center-field scoreboard. Digital pinwheels spun. Dreyer had just surrendered his second home run of the inning, transforming a low-scoring ...Read more

Junior Caminero had been doing some other things to help the Tampa Bay Rays as they struggled over the last three weeks, but not what he does best and enjoys most — hitting home runs.

After posting just one, and driving in only three runs, during the rough 18-game span in which the Rays lost 12 times and fell out of first place in the ...Read more

The Colorado Rockies hit the jackpot on a scorching Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.

With temperatures reaching 105 degrees, the wind blowing out, and a high desert sky making every fly ball an adventure, the Rockies walloped the Athletics 23-9 at Las Vegas Ballpark.

The 23 runs scored set a franchise record, surpassing the previous high of 20, ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time in a while, the Kansas City Royals made things look easy on Sunday.

In the process, the Royals both ended a four-game losing streak and avoided a sweep vs. the Houston Astros.

The Royals (29-43) beat the Astros 4-0 on Sunday afternoon at Kaufman Stadium.

“We’ve lost these games recently, and it’s ...Read more

TORONTO — With the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays tied at three and Ryan McMahon on second in the ninth inning, Toronto’s Braydon Fisher made the mistake of throwing a flat, 3-2 slider to Ben Rice on Sunday.

Rice responded with a ferocious uppercut, pulling a 381-foot, go-ahead homer to right. With the slugger’s 19th home run of ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — Tony Vitello hopped out of the home dugout with two outs in the top of the eighth inning and was met with a smattering of boos.

Logan Webb’s pitch count had already crossed the century mark. He’d just allowed his first run of the game, albeit one that was unearned, and the Chicago Cubs were threatening for more. Still, ...Read more