The Month That Was in Baseball: July 2026

Wednesday, July 1

It’s another gargantuan day for Dansby Swanson, less than two weeks after knocking in 11 runs during a doubleheader. In a 23-3 rout of the San Diego Padres at Chicago, the Cubs’ shortstop cranks out three home runs with eight RBIs. It’s the most runs scored by the Cubs since piling up 26 at Colorado in 1995; it’s tied for the second most they’ve ever racked up at 112-year-old Wrigley Field. Swanson’s first two homers come off of Padres starter Walker Buehler, who surrenders nine runs over his first four innings. In an attempt to preserve their bullpen in advance of an important series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Padres ask rookie catcher Rodolfo Duran to pitch the seventh and eighth innings; after getting through a scoreless first frame, Duran will give up eight runs in the eighth—four of them on Swanson’s third homer of the game, a grand slam. 

The eight RBIs by Swanson are the second most ever by a major leaguer batting ninth, behind Atlanta pitcher Tony Cloninger’s nine in a 1966 game in which he hit two grand slams; only Sammy Sosa, with nine RBIs in a 2002 contest, has driven in more for the Cubs. Additionally, Swanson has knocked in 26 runs over his last 10 games—nearly half of his season total (57). Only three other major leaguers knocked in more over a similar span: Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and Joe DiMaggio, each of whom collected 27. 

Is something wrong with Paul Skenes? Lack of offense can’t be blamed for his worst start yet, as the Pittsburgh ace is beat up by the Phillies with a career-worst eight runs (seven earned) allowed over four innings in a 10-6 loss at Philadelphia. More alarmingly, Skenes’ spin rate has gradually depreciated since Opening Day by roughly 20%—suggesting something may be amiss that requires rest or a reset. Zack Wheeler, pitching opposite Skenes, is only slightly better—and more upset. Struggling to get through the fifth inning and already over 100 pitches—but one out away from qualifying for the win with an 8-3 lead—Wheeler is removed by Phillies manager Don Mattingly. Afterward, a sulking Wheeler, who allows four runs on nine hits with 10 strikeouts over 4.2 innings, says few words about the situation but makes it clear that he’s not happy with being yanked early. “I feel like I’ve earned (that last out),” he tells reporters. 

Skenes is 0-6 over his last nine starts with a 5.36 ERA. The Pirates (43-44) have lost all nine of those games. 

Junior Caminero ties a Tampa Bay record by homering in his sixth straight game, while Shane McClanahan throws six shutout innings as the Rays take their seventh straight victory, 4-0 at Kansas City over the Royals. Caminero’s home run in the first breaks the ice; his nine homers over his last eight games are the most by a player 22 or younger in the post-1900 modern era. 

For the Royals, catcher Carter Jensen goes hitless in four at-bats to see the end of his 20-game hitting streak, which set a franchise rookie mark. 

Thursday, July 2

The Cincinnati Reds make Jacob Misiorowski a bit more mortal, but the Brewers ace is stung more by his own defense in a 7-2 loss at Milwaukee. Misiorowski serves up a first-inning home run to Reds rookie Sal Stewart in the first, but the real damage against the Miz takes place in the fourth when Cincinnati piles up four runs—all unearned, thanks to a dropped ball by first baseman Jake Bauers that results in an error. While Misiorowski fails to win his 10th game, Chase Burns does not. The Reds’ starting pitcher, who hasn’t lost in either of his last 14 starts dating back to April 10, keeps the Brewers in check with two runs allowed over six innings to improve his record to 10-1. 

If the first meeting of a four-game series featuring the AL Central’s top two teams are any indication, it’s going to be an exciting battle to the finish in September. At Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox lead the Guardians in the ninth, 5-4, and Grant Taylor is attempting to finish off a two-inning save; he walks leadoff batter Rhys Hoskins, then two batters later serves up a walkoff home run to Brayan Rocchio. The Guardians’ 6-5 victory puts Cleveland in a tie with the upstart White Sox at the top of the AL Central; there are nine more games to be played between the two teams this season. 

While the Guardians are keeping up with the White Sox, the same cannot be said for the Padres, who look beyond exhausted in Los Angeles against the archrival Dodgers. The Padres hammer three home runs and take an early 6-2 lead after two innings against an ineffective Rori Sasaki, but San Diego starter Randy Vasquez and three relievers can’t hold the fort down, as the Dodgers constantly threaten the rest of the way and emerge as 12-7 winners. It’s the sixth straight loss for the Padres, who drop to an even .500—13 games back of the Dodgers—and a second-place tie with Arizona; the team’s battered state of is reflected in the starting battery, as catcher Freddy Fermin exits with a possible concussion after taking a foul ball to the mask—while Vasquez, laced in the ankle by a first-inning comebacker, faints on his way to the X-ray room. He is sent to the hospital for observation and will not be back in action until July 19. 

Friday, July 3

In the course of earning his 17th save of the season for Boston in a 5-2 win over the Angels at Anaheim, Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman becomes the all-time major league leader in strikeouts by a reliever, with 1,346. At 38 and still throwing close to 100 MPH, Chapman strikes out Angels leadoff batter Denzel Guzman to set the mark, previously held by Hall of Famer knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm. 

A day after routing the Padres by 20 runs, the Cubs find themselves on the embarrassing side of another one-sided result as the St. Louis Cardinals come to Chicago and administer a 17-1 punishment. It’s the first time since 1894 that a team won by 15 or more runs one game, then lost the next by the same amount. Cubs starter David Peterson gives up a career-high 10 runs through the first four innings; Bryse Wilson relieves him and fares little better, conceding the Cardinals’ seven other tallies over 3.1 frames. 

Routs apparently are in vogue at Wrigley Field this season. There have been 11 games decided by 14 or more runs in 2026—and four of them have taken place at Wrigley. Only 40 other such games had taken place at the 122-year-old ballpark coming into the season. 

A week after signing 40-year-old Carlos Santana to a minor league contract, the Atlanta Braves bring Andrew McCutchen in on a similar deal. The 39-year-old McCutchen began the year with Texas, but was released at the end of May after hitting .192 with one homer over 37 games. If McCutchen gets called up to Atlanta, the Braves would become his seventh team. 

Saturday, July 4

The rosters for the upcoming All-Star Game in Philadelphia are released, with popularity winning out the vote over more deserving candidates. The Angels’ Mike Trout will make his 12th All-Star start despite a weak .234 batting average, while Toronto first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is selected despite what has been a very underwhelming campaign on his part (four homers, .699 OPS); Guerrero will quickly announce that he’s “very respectfully” declining to go. (The Athletics’ Nick Kurtz, having a far more productive year, is asked to take his place—but he’ll hurt his thumb five days later and miss the All-Star Game as well.) 

Smarter moves are made by voters in regards to Washington shortstop C.J. Abrams and Philadelphia outfielder Brandon Marsh, starting for the National League, while the AL will see starts for A’s catcher Sean Langeliers and Blue Jays second baseman Ernie Clement. Overall, four Dodgers—Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Andy Pages—will get starting nods for the NL, the largest representation for one team in either league. Among the starters, Pages, Clement, Langeliers, Marsh, and Atlanta catcher Drake Baldwin will all appear in their first All-Star Game. 

Tampa Bay sees see the end of its none-game win streak against a team that can do no wrong on the Fourth of July: The Astros. Leading 8-5 in the seventh inning at Houston, the Rays proceed to give up five unanswered runs—the last two of those coming in the bottom of the ninth on Yordan Alvarez’s second homer of the night, a tie-breaking, walkoff shot that gives the Astros a 10-8 victory. Alvarez knocks in six runs overall in the winning effort. 

It’s the ninth straight win for the Astros on July 4; only two other teams—the Chicago White Sox (14 straight, from 1934-41) and Cleveland (13, from 1916-23), both playing a lot of doubleheaders on the holiday—have longer streaks. Individually, Alvarez is the first major leaguer with two walkoff homers in games played on the Fourth. 

Weather-wise, Wrigley Field has seen it all—from snow to thunderstorms to heavy winds to searing heat. You can now add dense fog to that list. The game between the Cubs and Cardinals, already one hour behind schedule due to earlier severe rain and lightning, is briefly halted after heavy fog rolls in and renders conditions unplayable. It’s not just the outfielders who are having a hard time seeing what’s happening at the plate; even the infielders are complaining. The fog gets so thick, the ABS challenge system is unable to sort out a sixth-inning challenge from St. Louis catcher Pedro Pages, because the technology is can’t visualize the strike zone through the fog. The game is delayed 15 minutes before the fog starts to lift. In the end, the only thing left in the fog is the Cubs’ offense, which can only muster five singles in a 3-0 shutout loss to the Cardinals. 

Making his regular season debut after having bone chips removed from his elbow in March, Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene allows eight runs—the second highest total of his career—over 3.1 innings, occasionally hitting 100 MPH and striking out seven but also walking four as the opposing Orioles ride his bad start to an 8-5 victory. Samuel Basallo’s three-run homer in the first sets the tone for Baltimore. 

Sunday, July 5

Miami pitcher Eury Perez’s bid for a perfect game isn’t spoiled by an opposing hit, but by his manager, Clayton McCullough. After seven innings and 92 pitches—and with the Marlins comfortably ahead of the A’s in Sacramento, 8-0—McCullough pulls Perez, certainly concerned that the injury-prone Perez is making just his third start since missing the previous month. Even the fans of the opposing A’s aren’t happy with their chance to witness history denied, booing the appearance of his replacement to start the eighth, Lake Bachar—but they have a change of heart with the first six A’s batters facing Lachar reach safely, igniting a two-inning comeback bid that ends just a run short in a 9-8 loss. 

It’s the fourth time that a pitcher has thrown seven perfect innings before being replaced by a reliever. 

If getting ejected is what it takes to wake your team up, then congrats to San Diego skipper Craig Stammen—who’s given the thumb by umpires just three pitches into the Padres’ series finale at Los Angeles. The source of Stammen’s anger—and that of Padres coach Ryan Goins, who’s also ejected—is a check swing-turned-strike given to San Diego leadoff batter Fernando Tatis Jr. on the game’s second pitch. 

Once the smoke settles, the Padres go on to defeat the Dodgers, 5-2, ending an eight-game losing streak—their longest since 2013—on five innings of one-hit shutout ball from JP Sears and a three-run homer in the eighth from Manny Machado. 

The game serves as the major league debut for Dodgers catcher Eliezer Alfonzo Jr., whose joy of getting action with the parent club—going 0-for-2 before being pinch-hit for in the seventh—is tragically offset by the news he hears in the morning regarding the death of his sister and stepmom, confirmed after being listed as missing from the recent, devastating twin earthquakes that struck Alfonzo’s native Venezuela. 

It’s a rough start to the day for Minnesota All-Star outfielder Byron Buxton in the Bronx against the Yankees. After reaching safely on a leadoff infield single, Buxton attempts to steal second but is unsuccessful, ending a streak of 37 straight steals without getting caught—the longest stretch since Ichiro Suzuki in 2006-07. Worse, the injury-prone Buxton departs the game after the failed attempt with a bad hip, a reaggravation of an earlier injury. Without Buxton, the Twins ease to a 6-1 victory, handing the Yankees their 12th loss over their past 15 games—a span of games in which New York has hit just .179, the lowest ever over any 15-game stretch in franchise history. 

USA Today reports that seven umpires—including CB Bucknor and Laz Diaz, two arbiters fans love to hate—will retire at the end of this season, accepting a buyout offered to them by MLB. The other five umpires stepping down are Lance Barksdale, Andy Fletcher, Marvin Hudson, Brian O’Nora and Tony Randazzo. According to Umpire Scorecards, Bucknor and Diaz rank near the bottom of balls-and-strikes accuracy—with Bucknor dead last with a 91.33 success rate. They were both among the five worst last season as well. 

The vacancies left behind by the seven retiring umpires could mean the ascension of Jen Pawol, which would make her the majors’ first full-time female arbiter—though her balls-and-strikes accuracy has also scraped the bottom of the rankings. 

Monday, July 6

The Yankees continue their struggle in punching out base hits, but at least on this night they make them count—while an angry Cam Schlittler backs them up with a stellar start—in the first game of an important midseason series against the first-place Rays at St. Petersburg. All three of New York’s hits are home runs—with two coming off the bat of former Tampa Bay infielder Jose Caballero, accounting for four runs in the Yankees’ 5-1 win. Schlittler allows a run on four hits through eight innings, rebounding from a pair of bad starts in which he gave up 10 runs (six earned) over nine total innings. Afterward, he verbally tees off on social media pundits criticizing his recent bad form. “They want to say there’s f**king regression because I have one bad outing,” he rants, “it was personal to go out there and have a dominant start.” 

This is only the second time that the Yankees have had at least three hits, with all of the being home runs. The other occurrence took place in 2004, when they mashed five homers with no other hits. 

While Schlittler is back on track, Cristopher Sanchez goes completely off the rails at Kansas City. In what’s unarguably the worst start of his six-year career, the Phillies’ ace and NL Cy Young Award candidate allows nine runs on 12 hits over 3.1 innings with just one strikeout; after his departure, the Royals continue to bang away, scoring in each of their eight innings in a 15-1 rout. Tyler Tolbert, used almost as often as a pinch-runner rather than a position player, gets the start at shortstop and experiences the first five-hit game by a Royal since 2022, collecting three singles, a double and home run. 

There have been 20 other instances of a team scoring in every inning of a game, most recently by the White Sox in September 2016. It’s the second time the Royals have accomplished the feat, also doing so in 1998. 

The Brewers are back to an even .500 since joining the National League in 1998. At St. Louis, Milwaukee rallies for four runs in the seventh inning, holding on to edge the Cardinals, 4-3. With the win, the Brewers are 2,261-2,261 since switching leagues; they were last at the .500 mark in August of their first year in the Senior Circuit, before sliding below the mark for the rest of the season—in advance of six straight losing campaigns. 

Every MLB team has played at least three extra-inning games—seven of them have played at least 10—except for the Dodgers, who finally go overtime after blowing an early 6-0 lead to the visiting Colorado Rockies. Rookie center fielder Cole Carrigg’s two-run double in the ninth completes the Rockies’ catch-up with the Dodgers in regulation, but after the two sides exchange a run in the 10th, the Dodgers survive in the 11th, 8-7, on a walkoff single from catcher Dalton Rushing—who, once again, becomes the center of controversy as he engages into an on-field spat with Carrigg on the latter’s go-ahead score in the 10th. 

It’s the first extra-inning game for the Dodgers since Game Seven of last year’s World Series. 

Tuesday, July 7

Paul Skenes gets an overdue win, and finally some support—almost all of it from Ryan O’Hearn. The first-year Pirates slugger, an All-Star DH with Baltimore last season, sets a franchise record with 10 RBIs on three home runs—the first one a grand slam belted in the first inning against the visiting Braves. O’Hearn’s historic display gives the Bucs a 12-4 win—the first for Skenes (two runs allowed over six innings) after a stretch of nine winless starts. 

O’Hearn is the 15th Pirate to perform a hat trick of homers; the last three such players all did it within an 11-day stretch in June 2022. 

A day after punching out five hits, the Royals’ Tyler Tolbert does it again—becoming the first player ever to collect five each in back-to-back nine-inning games. Tolbert also ties the all-time mark of consecutive plate appearances (12) with a hit, matching Johnny Kling from 1902 and Walt Dropo in 1952; he’ll fly out in his final at-bat to end the streak. Thanks to Tolbert, the Royals will outlast the Mets at New York, 16-12, despite gifting the home team three runs on a short grounder-turned-Little League home run in the first inning by Carson Benge, assisted by three Kansas City errors. The Royals will fall further behind, 9-4 after the fourth, before scoring 12 unanswered runs to grab the advantage for the remainder of the game. 

The Mets had previously lost only one game (against the Giants in 2022) in which they scored at least a dozen runs.  

Say this about the struggling Yankees; they may not be hitting the ball well, but at least they’re trying. For the second straight night, they strike out 17 times against the Rays at St. Petersburg, dropping a 6-4 decision. Paul Goldschmidt (no hits in his last 30 at-bats) and Jose Caballero lead the whiff parade for the Yankees, striking out in each of their four at-bats. 

The Yankees are the second team to strike out at least 17 times in consecutive games going no more than nine innings; the other was the Colorado Rockies, who suffered 17 Ks in their final game of 2022—and their first of 2023. 

Shohei Ohtani becomes the second Dodger (after Mookie Betts) in less than two weeks to pound out his 300th career home run, leading off the first against the Rockies at Los Angeles. The milestone jolt is not enough for the Dodgers, whose bullpen and defense (two critical errors in a three-run eighth) blow a late lead after another fine start for Justin Wrobleski (one run allowed over seven innings), in a 4-3 defeat. 

Wednesday, July 8

For the third time this season, a pitcher takes a no-hit bid into the ninth inning—and can’t seal the deal. This time, it’s Toronto’s Dylan Cease, attempting to become the first Blue Jays pitcher since Dave Stieb in 1990 to finish a hitless gem at San Francisco. But Giants leadoff hitter Heliot Ramos becomes the fly in the ointment, lining a single up the middle on the third pitch of the ninth. Cease is immediately removed after 118 pitches—the most in his career, and the most by any MLB pitcher this season; former Giant Tyler Rogers takes over and snags the final three outs on just four pitches in a 10-0 victory. 

This would have been Cease’s second no-no; he completed his first for the Padres at Washington two years ago. 

The Pirates’ Jared Jones doesn’t get a chance to complete his no-hitter, removed from a scoreless game at Pittsburgh after retiring all 18 Atlanta batters he faces. Understandably, the Pirates don’t want to take any chances on Jones in his eighth start since returning from elbow surgery that cost him the entire 2025 campaign; he had only completed five innings once over his previous seven outings. Against the Braves, Jones throws 77 pitches and strikes out eight. The Pittsburgh bullpen will fare much less effectively after Jones’ departure, giving up three runs—the first two on an eighth-inning home run by former Pirates catcher Joey Bart—over the final three innings in a 3-0 shutout loss. 

Jones is the ninth pitcher this season to exit after six or more innings with a no-hitter or perfect game intact. 

Justin Verlander, struggling to get back to the mound with one bad start and two trips to the IL thus far in 2026, announces that he’ll retire after this season. Back in Detroit where he began his career with the Tigers, the three-time Cy Young winner and 2011 AL MVP has resembled the patient from the Operation game board this year, suffering through a myriad of injuries. Though he’s been selected by commissioner Rob Manfred to represent the AL in the upcoming All-Star Game as a “Legend Pick,” Verlander will likely watch from the dugout as he’s currently rehabbing in the minors. 

The Tampa Bay Rays release their first renderings of the new Tampa ballpark which they hope to open at the start of the 2029 season, even as the project has yet to be fully approved. The venue will seat 30,000 fans for baseball, with half of its roof transparent—giving the impression of outdoor baseball, but within a climate-controlled environment. (Hopefully the roof will withstand a powerful hurricane like the one that shredded Tropicana Field’s lid late in 2024.) Other visual eye candy included within the renderings are indoor palm trees located behind the bleachers, a retractable batter’s eye (what the point of that is, who knows), and a two-story aquarium tank featuring actual rays, borrowing from the Touch Tank at the Trop. 

If ever something is to be believed when seen, it’s a new ballpark for the Rays—who’ve gone through the process of building something, somewhere, anywhere in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area more times than can be counted on one hand. 

Phil Regan, a tough-as-nails reliever during the 1960s who leveraged his knowledge over three decades as a pitching coach for numerous teams from many different circuits, passes away at the age of 89. Given the nickname of the Vulture by Dodgers teammate/ace Sandy Koufax for his ability to “swoop” in and pick up a win or save, Regan twice led the NL in saves—most impressively in 1966 when he collected 21 saves and 14 wins (against just one loss) with a 1.62 ERA in helping Los Angeles to the pennant. He barely featured in the World Series to follow, throwing 1.2 hitless innings as the opposing Orioles swept the punchless Dodgers in four straight games. After his playing career ended in 1972, Regan took to coaching, starting in the colleges before moving on to MLB; he spent one year as a manager, with the 1995 Orioles. Regan also coached in the minors, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and for the 2000 U.S. Olympic team in Sydney, Australia. 

Thursday, July 9

For the first time in three weeks, the Yankees are hitting…like the Yankees. At St. Petersburg, Ben Rice pounds out two of New York’s three home runs and knocks in five runs in a 12-4 rout. It’s the first time in 20 games that the Yankees have scored more than five runs, their longest such streak since a 25-game drought in 1968. 

Friday, July 10

White Sox rookie center fielder Tristan Peters completes the seventh cycle in team history—and in the process becomes the first MLB rookie to do so batting ninth in the order—as Chicago hammers the visiting A’s, 14-1. Peters gets the final two legs of the cycle (home run and triple) in an eight-run seventh. The game also features the return of Munetaka Murakami after a six-week absence due to a hamstring injury, striking out in each of his first four at-bats before connecting on an RBI double in the eighth. Murakami is also named the eighth and final participant for next week’s Home Run Derby at Philadelphia. 

The All-Star Game loses a good bit of its luster as it’s announced that Shohei Ohtani will sit out the Midsummer Classic to rest up and recover from nagging knee issues. While Ohtani also misses his scheduled start against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks, he’s good enough to DH—and smacks a leadoff, first-inning home run. But the DBacks own the night, handing the Dodgers a 9-3 defeat. 

Yordan Alvarez reaches two milestones with one swing of the bat in the Astros’ 7-3 loss to the Rangers at Arlington. His solo homer in the sixth inning is the 200th of his career, joining five other Astros on the all-time list; it’s also his 30th of the season, something no other Houston player had previously done before the All-Star Break. 

Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson breaks Dale Murphy’s franchise mark of 740 consecutive games played, going 0-for-3 in the Braves’ rain-delayed 2-1 loss at St. Louis. Olson has played every game for the Braves since being traded from the A’s before the start of the 2022 season; with his overall streak of consecutive games played currently at 875 games, he’s 20 behind Stan Musial for eighth on the all-time list. 

St. Louis rookie JJ Wetherholt, who scores one of the runs to help lead the Cardinals to victory over Olson’s Braves, is given an eight-year, $112.5 million extension earlier in the day. The 23-year-old second baseman, batting .265 with 13 homers and nine steals (without yet getting caught), is the first Cardinals player confirmed to be contracted for the 2027 season; all other players on the current roster either have options or are due to become free agents this fall. 

Saturday, July 11

The first day of the 2026 MLB Amateur Draft, with 135 players chosen among the first four rounds, reveals few surprises at the top before unpredictability begins to reign. The White Sox start things off with their third-ever #1 pick, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky—the consensus #1 for most every team. Picking second, the Rays opt for another shortstop in high schooler Grady Emerson, who many believe is the most complete ballplayer within the draft. Next, the Twins pick Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey, who’s considered highly athletic and fleet on his feet for a backstop. With the #4 pick, San Francisco selects the draft’s top pitcher in UC Santa Barbara’s Jackson Flora, born in the Bay Area and a big fan of the Giants growing up. And at #5, the Pirates grab Louisiana State center fielder Derek Curiel, whose modest power and dashing speed reminds many of the Brewers’ Brice Turang. 

Among the other picks are Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson, winner of this past season’s Golden Spikes Award—college baseball’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy—selected #37 by the Rockies; outfielder-pitcher Jared Grindlinger, considered the draft’s top two-way player, taken #11 by the Angels; high school shortstop Landon Thome, son of Hall-of-Fame slugger Jim Thome, selected #34 by the White Sox; and Rutgers outfielder Peyton Bonds, nephew of Barry Bonds, grabbed by the Giants at #90. 

Is it premature to count the Red Sox out of the playoff picture? Struggling for the bulk of the season, the Sox win their eighth straight game—all on the road—with a 4-0 shutout victory over the Mets at New York. A pair of two-run homers, from Masataka Yoshida and Andruw Monasterio, power Boston at the plate, while rookie Eduardo Rivera (making his first major league start) and four relievers combine to shut down the Mets on three hits but also seven walks. (The Mets go 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.) 

Boston’s eight-game road win streak is the longest by any team so far this season. 

Sunday, July 12

For the second straight day, the Nationals’ James Wood leads off the bottom of the first with a home run against the Yankees—and for the second straight day, it’s not enough. For the third straight day, the Yankees erase a late deficit to triumph, 5-3, at Washington. Ben Rice’s two-run triple in the eighth puts New York out in front for keeps; it’s the first time since 1910—when the Yankees were named the Highlanders—that the franchise has swept a series with all three of their wins notched when trailing after seven innings. 

Wood finishes a highly productive first half of the season in style. His leadoff homer is his 10th this year, breaking a season record—while his 28 homers overall are the most by a Nationals/Expos player before the All-Star Break. Both marks were previously owned (or co-owned) by Alfonso Soriano. 

All of those 100-MPH pitches have apparently gotten to Jacob Misiorowski. Citing arm fatigue, the supersonic Milwaukee ace is scratched from a highly anticipated dream matchup between him and the Pirates’ Paul Skenes before a near-sellout crowd at Pittsburgh; Misiorowski will also skip both the All-Star Game and the Brewers’ first series after the break next weekend. The absence of the Miz is a shame for the Brewers, who could really use him; plugged into his spot, Robert Gasser is pummeled for seven runs over three innings before his removal. The two relievers to follow (Jared Koenig and Grant Anderson) combine to concede another seven runs in a 14-5 blowout loss. Skenes evens his record at 8-8 with two runs allowed on three hits over 5.1 innings for the Bucs. 

With one top pitcher after another bowing out of the All-Star Game to rest up and/or to heal, Zack Wheeler is making those building the National League roster regret snubbing him. At Detroit, the Phillies’ ace easily outduels the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal, throwing six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts and just two hits allowed in a 5-0 victory; with his third straight game striking out 10-plus—matching a career high—Wheeler ends the first half with a 10-1 record and 2.13 ERA in 15 starts. 

Because of the number of starting pitchers dropping out of the All-Star Game, Wheeler had been asked to be a last-minute replacement two days earlier; he declined, saying he felt “disrespected” and that he was “not gonna be the fifth option.” 

For the second time this season, the Rockies’ Jake McCarthy leads off the first inning with an inside-the-park home run, racing around the bases to open the game at San Francisco against the Giants. He’s the first player to do so twice from a leadoff position since Edd Roush in 1929. Alas for the Rockies, McCarthy’s inside job will end up being the only run on the day, as the Giants break a 1-1 tie with a pair of runs in the eighth to snag a 3-1 victory. 

Monday, July 13

Taking advantage of a better and well-paced format, St. Louis breakout slugger Jordan Walker becomes the first Cardinal to win the Home Run Derby, upsetting Phillies home favorite Kyle Schwarber in the final round at Philadelphia with home runs in each of his last six swings. Emerging from a field of eight players, Schwarber appears to have the trophy in the bag when he launches 11 homers over 15 swings in the final round, while Jordan, following him, is on the fringe of elimination with six homers after 12 swings. But a quirk in the new format allows bonus swings if a player connects on his last “regulation” swing—and Walker, after going deep with his last three, is able to extend his round by another three swings, homering each time to topple Schwarber. In reaching the final round, Schwarber first eliminates Phillies teammate Bryce Harper, then in the second round outslugs Boston’s Willson Contreras, who by virtue of facing the hometown guy—in Philadelphia, no less—gets cheered every time his drive fails to clear the wall. Adding insult to injury, Contreras receives a sarcastic cheer when his pitcher, Red Sox coach Jose David Flores, accidentally brushes him off the plate with one of his last deliveries. 

The farthest home run of the night comes off the bat of Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, who sends a first-round shot 491 feet; he’s ousted in the second round by Walker, 6-5. 

The Derby’s new format, which gives each batter a set number of swings (20 in the first round, 15 afterward) rather than a three-minute time limit, is praised for being less exhausting for the participants—and less dizzying for viewers who found themselves in multitasking mode, attempting to watch one swing while still trying to follow the flight of the ball from the previous swing. 

At the end of its 1975 season, the National Football League was facing a bit of embarrassment with the Pro Bowl, the league’s version of the All-Star Game. Quarterbacks named to the National Football Conference’s roster were all saying thanks but no thanks. Fran Tarkenton, Roger Staubach, Archie Manning and Steve Bartkowski all bowed out. That left the NFC to start Mike Boryla, who was a part-time back-up for the Philadelphia Eagles with six touchdowns and 12 interceptions through the year—not exactly All-Star material. 

Fast forward to this year’s MLB All-Star Game and the National League roster. Jacob Misiorowski, baseball’s best pitcher so far this season, declined his invite and a likely start, citing arm fatigue. Shohei Ohtani, having his own superb year on the mound, also waived off his invite due to a bothersome knee. His fellow Japanese teammate ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, was dissuaded by the Dodgers from participating. Same thing with the Giants and modern-era workhorse Logan Webb. Paul Skenes also will not be available, though in his case that’s because he pitched on the Sunday before the game, automatically making him ineligible. Zack Wheeler, initially snubbed but asked to sub in at the last minute, essentially told NL coaches to take their roster sheet and shove it—preferring not to be the “fifth option.”

Is Mike Boryla available? 

Like their football counterparts, major league ballplayers—pitchers, especially—are increasingly choosing to use the All-Star Break to, well, take a break. No cross-country travel, no involvement in the pageantry, no one inning of work. They would prefer to just hang at home, chill, and refuel. 

It pains to say this, but the All-Star Game has almost become secondary to the Home Run Derby that precedes it. The best part of the Midsummer Classic has become the opening introductions; everything after that seems anticlimactic, especially with the game having been reduced to a revolving door of replacements, so that every player that shows up gets a chance to play. At face value, that seems fair—but it saps the competitive nature of the game and renders the latter frames as almost meaningless. And no, a swing-off is not going to rescue the sagging vibe. 

So, what to do? If you want to make the game thrilling and mean something, let the starting players go the bulk of the game, like they used to. Not all nine innings, but certainly five, six, or seven. The starting pitcher should also go at least three innings—also like they used to. Cristopher Sanchez and Dylan Cease, two worthy starting pitchers who may not have been the vox populi choice to open the All-Star Game (Misiorowski and Cam Schlittler would have been preferred) shouldn’t be hard-pressed to work anything less. 

But perhaps, in honor of the blasé state of the All-Star Game, Mike Boryla can throw out the ceremonial first pitch. 

Tuesday, July 14

There had been much pre-All-Star Game chatter over how so many of baseball’s top pitchers were staying home from the event. But a look at the box score would lead one to think that the hitters were absentees as well. In one of the Midsummer Classic’s most dominant displays of pitching, the American League takes a 4-0 victory over the National League, shutting down NL hitters on three hits and 15 strikeouts. With 12 K’s registered by NL pitchers, the 27 total on the night at Philadelphia sets a nine-inning All-Star Game record. The only runs come with a three-run AL outburst in the first against NL starter Cristopher Sanchez—the only pitcher to bomb, in front of his home fans—and a solo homer in the eighth by the White Sox’ Miguel Vargas, who became an early replacement after Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero got hit on the hand and was forced to depart. (X-rays on Caminero’s hand will be negative, and he will not miss any games with the Rays.) 

Vargas’ homer, the only extra-base hit of the night, comes off of the Dodgers’ Justin Wrobleski, who otherwise strikes out five batters—the most by an All-Star since Pedro Martinez in 1999. Wrobleski is the only pitcher to go more than one inning on the night. 

MVP honors go the Yankees’ Cody Bellinger, who knocks in two runs as part of the first-inning rally. 

The AL holds the all-time lead in the All-Star Game with a 49-45-2 advantage; it has won 18 of the last 23 games against the NL. 

The traditional pre-All-Star Game pressers with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and union boss Bruce Meyer is seemingly devoted to one attacking the other on proposals and counter-proposals in the early stages of negotiations on a new Basic Agreement. Meyer is particularly incensed at what he’s calling a “perverse” advertising campaign by MLB that attempts to tell its side of the story on a proposed salary cap. “I have watched over the last two years [how] the owners, the commissioner’s office, try to convince fans, the consumers of their product, that the product is broken,” Meyer says. “Case in point is leading up to this All-Star Game, any of us who watch baseball…are seeing ads not so much for the All-Star Game, not promoting the game, not promoting the players, [but] promoting the league’s desire for a salary cap.” 

Manfred defends the campaign. “I think when you have a difficult public issue, particularly when the other side of the issue is being very public about what their views are on the negotiation, I think it’s incumbent on us to keep our fans informed of our view of the world. Particularly, given sometimes, the other side may not be completely accurate or fair in terms of their recitation of what’s going on.” 

One other issue that the union and its players are bound to get irate over is MLB’s proposal to ban players who refuse to participate in the 2028 Summer Olympics at Los Angeles for three weeks. MLB is looking at an extended All-Star Break that year lasting nearly two weeks, and would include the baseball portion of the Olympics. To ensure that the best players would play for their countries, the league is looking at a three-week ban—which would include the first 10 days after the extended break—if a player lacks a valid reason to skip the Olympics. 

Wednesday, July 15

The just-completed 2026 MLB Amateur Draft introduced some great talent, with surely some future All-Stars and perhaps some future Hall of Famers chosen among the 613 players taken over 20 rounds. But, as always, it gave us some great names. Among them: 

Maxx Yehl (pitcher, Kansas City, #91), who’s bound to incite fans into raising the decimal level at ballparks; 

Will Brick (catcher, Toronto, #131), a great description for his position; 

Henry Ford (third baseman, Seattle, #148), who if he blossoms into a superstar could rival the net value of the automotive magnate namesake of lore; 

Luc Rising (pitcher, Los Angeles Angels, #289), certainly the draft’s most optimistic name; 

Bayram Hot (shortstop, New York Yankees, #308), who would give new meaning to the term “hot corner” if he ever moves to third base; 

Drew Titsworth (pitcher, Philadelphia, #339), who will certainly ask for the same double-entendre number (00) that he wore in college; 

Zack Konstantinovsky (pitcher, Washington, #406), whose last name will give uniform stitchers headaches; 

And Ezekiel Zion (outfielder, San Diego, #605), a name which just oozes “cool.” 

Ron Hunt, best remembered for being hit an astonishing 50 times in one season, passes away at the age of 85. The second baseman began his big-league career with the 1963 Mets and finished runner-up in that season’s NL Rookie of the Year vote to Pete Rose; a year later, he became the first member of the Mets to start an All-Star Game, held at brand-new Shea Stadium. After a trade to the Dodgers in 1967 and a year later to the Giants, Hunt began to make better use of crowding the plate—and getting plunked for it. Each year from 1968-74, Hunt led the NL in HBPs—topping out with his 50 for the 1971 Montreal Expos. His 243 career plunkings set a modern-era career mark upon his retirement in 1974; he now ranks fourth on that list, behind Craig Biggio, Don Baylor and Jason Kendall. 

Thursday, July 16

The Reds are liking what they’re seeing in young pitcher Chase Burns, giving him a seven-year, $105 million extension—the largest sum ever given to a pre-arbitration pitcher. Overall, it’s the third largest contract in Reds history, after those given to Joey Votto and Ken Griffey Jr. The contract will overlap the first two years of Burns’ free agency; it will contain no options for either the player or the team. After a shaky yet noticeable first season last year in which he averaged 13.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 13 appearances (eight starts), Burns has locked into a far more effective groove in 2026—posting an 11-1 record, 2.54 ERA and opposing .206 batting average over 18 starts. 

All 30 MLB teams are scheduled to kick off the 2027 regular season on March 24, the earliest a major league season has ever started. Of course, the operative word of that first sentence is “scheduled,” as owners and players continue to head toward a collision of different views regarding the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, which, could lead to a lockout and a delay in action next year. 

No “international” games (Japan, England, Mexico, etc.) are scheduled for 2027 due to the current lack of agreement on the next CBA. 

Friday, July 17

The All-Star Break apparently has not slowed down the momentum of the Red Sox, who sweep a doubleheader at Boston over the first-place Rays by scores of 10-0 and 5-3 to extend their winning streak to 11—their longest in 10 years, and the longest by any MLB team so far this season. Rookie Jake Bennett allows one hit over six shutout innings in the first game (postponed from May 9), lowering his season ERA to 2.35 over nine starts. In the originally scheduled nightcap, Wilyer Abreu smacks two home runs, and a third is added by Willson Contreras—making his return to action after serving a five-game suspension for his run-in with the Nationals’ Cade Cavalli on June 30. 

While the Red Sox continue to go up-up-up, the Athletics are going down-down-down—and in spectacularly bad fashion. At Sacramento, the opposing Nationals hand the A’s their 10th straight defeat with a 23-4 battering; it’s the second-most runs ever scored by the Nats in franchise annals, while the -66 run differential for the A’s during their 10-game slide is tied for the third worst in their history. Leading the way for Washington is seldom-used first baseman Andres Chaparro, who in his 18th start of the year cranks out four hits including two home runs, adding eight RBIs—one more than he had collected over his 31 previous games this season. Chaparro does not figure in the Nationals’ five-run ninth, with all runs charged to A’s outfielder/batting practice pitcher Carlos Cortes—making his fifth emergency appearance on the mound this year and running his ERA up to 11.12. 

While Cortes is getting hammered, Atlanta reliever Victor Mederos brings a smile to his reversed role in the Braves’ 15-1 rout of the visiting Rangers. Besides pitching the final two innings of the game for an effective Chris Sale (seven shutout innings, two hits allowed), Mederos gets the rare opportunity to bat for himself—and connects on a two-run single in the eighth against Texas catcher/batting practice pitcher Kyle Higashioka. Mederos is only the second pitcher (not including Shohei Ohtani) to get a hit since the universal DH went into effect in 2022. 

Unhealthy air from Canadian wildfires, which seems to have become a seasonal thing, leads to the postponement of the game between the Pirates and Guardians at Cleveland. The air quality index, which was near a “hazardous” 500 the night before in Cleveland, is over 200 in the afternoon—a reading still deemed as “very unhealthy,” and thus unplayable by MLB. 

The New York Mets (41-57) are so bad, they apparently have been letting AI make managerial decisions in the dugout. In an order from MLB that has the Mets top of mind, teams will no longer be able to use a custom tab on their in-dugout iPads to seek AI guidance on in-game decisions. Though the Mets weren’t the only team deferring to baseball’s version of the HAL 9000 (by the way, how did that go for the astronauts from 2001: A Space Odyssey?), they were said to be the most aggressive in its use. 

Saturday, July 18

The Red Sox continue their winning ways, capping a four-run, seventh-inning rally on Wilyer Abreu’s second homer of the game to top the visiting Rays, 7-6. Abreu’s second straight multi-homer game gives the Red Sox their 12th straight win, tied for the third longest in franchise history. It’s no ordinary victory for the Red Sox, as it’s the first time they’ve triumphed this year when trailing at some point by three runs. 

Abreu is the first player ever to hit four homers over a two-game stretch—with all four giving his team the lead. 

What a difference a day makes for the Nationals and Athletics in Sacramento. After being stomped the previous night by Washington, 23-4, the A’s completely turn things around with a 15-1 rout. The 33-run swing is the fourth highest in major league history, second only in modern times to a 34-run differential experienced by the 2000 Yankees against two different teams (the Cubs and Red Sox). A’s starter J.T. Ginn keeps the Nats’ bats flat, taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning before Keibert Ruiz breaks it up with a one-out single. It’s the second time that Ginn has taken a no-no beyond six innings this year. 

Some pitchers simply can’t stay in one piece. Yes, we’re talking again about Milwaukee’s Brandon Woodruff, who departed with shoulder pain on July 4 and is now set to undergo yet another operation which will end his season—perhaps his last in Milwaukee, as he’s due to become a free agent. The 33-year-old right-hander has missed big chunks of the past four years, sitting out the 2024 campaign entirely; this season, he’s made nine starts, posting a 2-2 record and 2.98 ERA. Among all Milwaukee pitchers with 500 career innings, Woodruff has the lowest ERA (3.10) and highest win percentage (.647). 

Despite a somewhat shaky return to full-time action from Tommy John surgery with a 6-9 record and 3.61 ERA so far this year, Kyle Bradish is rewarded by the Orioles with a five-year, $90 million extension. The new deal will buy out the first three years of Bradish’s free agency (2029-31). In five years at Baltimore, Bradish has produced a 25-24 record and 3.50 ERA over 86 starts. 

Duane Ward, a dependable reliever/closer for Blue Jays during their period of early success that culminated with back-to-back world titles in 1992-93, passes away from natural causes at the age of 62. The right-hander was in Toronto to be part of a ceremony unveiling a statue of former teammate Joe Carter, but failed to show up. An old-school reliever, Ward racked up 100+ innings through five straight years (1988-92) while leading the majors in 1991 with 81 appearances. He transitioned into a pure ninth-inning closer in 1993 when his saves totals shot up to an AL-best 45; a biceps injury the next season effectively ended his career at age 31. 

Only Tom Henke has more career saves in a Toronto uniform that Ward, who collected 121. 

Sunday, July 19

For the second time in 22 days, Colorado’s Hunter Goodman goes deep three times to give him 30 homers on the year, with five RBIs—but it’s not enough for the Rockies, who bow to the visiting Reds, 9-6. Tyler Stephenson nearly matches Goodman for Cincinnati, blasting two homers of his own while adding a long double to center. 

Goodman is the first Rockies player with multiple hat tricks within one season. 

Young Yankee ace Cam Schlittler gets another shot to show off his stuff against a top MLB pitcher—but like his failed duel against the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal on June 30, he bombs at Yankee Stadium against the Dodgers and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who throws his first regular season complete game in Los Angeles’ 8-2 victory. Schlittler strikes out eight and walks none, but only lasts 4.1 innings, allowing three runs on 98 pitches. Yamamoto needs just four more pitches in going the distance, giving up two runs on four hits with seven K’s and no walks; he twice threw complete games in the 2025 postseason. 

Drake Baldwin has very obviously awakened after a dreadful June. In the Braves’ 8-5 home win over Texas, last year’s NL Rookie of the Year racks up the first five-hit game by a Braves catcher since 2004, with two homers among the damage. He’s the 14th player in the post-1900 modern era to play catcher and rack up five hits including two homers. 

Since going 3-for-48 in the month of June, Baldwin in July has 21 hits in 57 at-bats with four homers and 15 RBIs. 

In the Giants’ 6-3 loss at Seattle, Luis Arraez strikes out in each of his first two at-bats against Mariners starter Logan Gilbert, who accrues 10 K’s overall over six innings. It’s the first time in his last 311 games that Arraez has struck out twice in a single contest; that’s the longest such streak for a major leaguer since Ken Oberkfell (352 games) from 1988-92. 

Monday, July 20

Minnesota’s Joe Ryan ties a major league record shared by 11 other pitchers, giving up six home runs to the Guardians in a 13-4 loss at Cleveland. It also breaks the Senators/Twins franchise mark of five, previously done five times—twice by Ryan himself. Two of the six homers belted off Ryan come from the first major leaguer ever to go by the first name of Petey; they’re the first two of Petey Halpin’s career, after 79 previous plate appearances. 

Something’s got to give between the Orioles (seven straight wins) and Red Sox (13 straight) at Fenway Park, and it’s the host team that gets the honors. It doesn’t come easy for Boston, which falls behind twice in the late innings before taking the lead for good in the eighth on a solo home run from Caleb Durbin to win, 6-5. Not helping the Orioles’ cause are four errors, leading to two unearned runs. 

It’s a night of nice round figures for the Phillies and Trea Turner in a 10-7 win—the team’s 1,000th at Citizens Bank Park—against the visiting Dodgers. Turner will collect his 300th career double in the first inning, then in the sixth will belt his second homer of the game—giving him 200 as a major leaguer. Overall, Turner knocks in half (five) of the Phillies’ runs. 

Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez is not in ace mode, but is good enough to pick up his 12th win of the year. His three runs allowed over 5.1 innings breaks a streak of 25 straight games in which he allowed no more than two earned runs at his home park. It’s a streak that does include postseason games, but not the recently-played All-Star Game—in which Sanchez gave up three in the first inning alone. 

A fifth-inning double for Nolan Arenado is the 2,000th of his (likely) Hall-of-Fame career, joining five other active major leaguers at the threshold. The milestone hit does nothing to further the Diamondbacks in a 5-2 home loss to the Athletics; it’s the A’s first road win in 25 days. 

The Los Angeles Angels snap a long streak of 106 straight losses when trailing going into the ninth inning—easily the majors’ longest active streak—rallying for two runs to defeat the visiting Cardinals, 3-2. St. Louis closer Riley O’Brien, leading the NL with 25 saves, gives generously to the Angels’ comeback bid, plunking two batters—including Jo Adell with the bases loaded, forcing in the Angels’ winning run. 

Tuesday, July 21

The Miami Marlins pull off their second triple play in franchise history—and the first this year in the majors—but it’s not enough to avoid their eighth straight defeat, 5-3 to the Astros at Houston. Jose Altuve’s eighth-inning grounder to third base is fielded by Miami’s Leo Jimenez and turned into a round-the-horn triple play, quickly ending the Astros’ bid to add more insurance runs. Earlier in the first, Altuve grounded into a double play to limit a Houston rally to a single run. 

The other triple play in Miami history took place in 2002; the Marlins lost that game, too, 4-1 to the Expos at Montreal. 

In their 2-1 loss to the visiting Dodgers, the Phillies absolutely bungle an opportunity for a come-from-behind victory. With one out in the ninth and runners on second and third, the Phillies’ Brandon Marsh cues a slow grounder to third; Justin Crawford, signaled to run on contact from third, starts homeward but hesitates halfway there, initiating a rundown that leads to his being tagged out. Meanwhile, J.T. Realmuto, running from second, reaches third—but then inexplicably retreats back to second, where he’s easily thrown out in what becomes a game-ending double play. “Just a bad baserunning play,” Realmuto all too simply admits after the game. 

The Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. crushes the year’s longest home run to date, sending an eighth-inning fly ball 474 feet into the Atlanta night to cap an 8-3 win over the Braves. It’s the second longest drive in Tatis’ career, having previously connected on a 477-foot homer at Colorado in 2021. After not going deep in any of his first 55 games this year, Tatis has since collected eight—including three over his last four games. 

Eighteen-year-old pitcher Brody Bumila, the Rangers’ third-round draft pick who made news earlier this spring by striking out 20 high school opponents in a seven-inning no-hitter, will undergo Tommy John surgery. This is not a total shock for the Rangers; Bumila had internal-brace surgery on the elbow ligament last year, and had forewarned MLB teams that he might be vulnerable to more procedures. 

Don’t expect to see Bumila on a pitching mound until late next season—at the earliest. 

Wednesday, July 22

It’s a bittersweet day for the Red Sox, who in a weather-created doubleheader win their 15th straight game to tie a franchise record—before losing the second contest in their bid to break the mark. In the opener, Boston scores four runs in the first and eases from there to a 6-3 win, matching the AL-winning 1946 Red Sox for the team’s longest-ever winning streak. In the originally scheduled game to follow, the Sox start rookie Eduardo Rivera, making his fourth big-league appearance; he bombs, lasting only two-thirds of an inning and allowing four runs on three hits, two walks and a wild pitch. Rivera will prove not to be the only problem for the Red Sox in their 5-1 loss to end the streak, as the team has nine innings to overcome the early hole—but can only net one run. 

The 15-game win streak is the longest seen in the majors since the Cardinals ran off 17 in a row in September 2021. 

Forced to play two games as well after a rainout the previous night, the Yankees split with the Pirates on a day that sees the return of New York pitcher Max Fried after 10 weeks on the shelf. In the second game, Fried is terrific in a five-inning stint, allowing no runs on just a hit with seven strikeouts over an economical 57 pitches. But he doesn’t pick up the win, as the contest remains scoreless until the Yankees rally for the game’s only two runs in the seventh. 

For the Pirates, rookie Esmerlyn Valdez goes a combined 0-for-5 with four walks in the two games, ending a streak of eight straight games in which he had collected at least one extra-base hit and RBI each; that tied for the seventh-longest such run in major league history. In 34 games since joining the Pirates, Valdez has 12 home runs and 34 RBIs. 

The first game between the Yankees and Pirates features the introduction of a tweak to the pitch clock rule which will surely be named after the Yankees’ Jose Caballero. The 29-year-old Panamanian has been in the spotlight of late for standing in the batter’s box and looking down until the pitch clock hits eight seconds—a stalling tactic which is, or was, technically legal. But after Caballero’s time-wasting antics infuriated Pittsburgh pitcher Dennis Santana two days earlier, emptying out the dugouts, MLB issued a decree to umpires that once a player is set in the box, there is to be no further stalling—even if the clock hasn’t gone inside the eight-second mark when the batter must make eye contact with the pitcher. After doing his routine again in the fifth inning of the Yankees’ 5-3, 10-inning loss to the Pirates, Caballero is tagged with an automatic strike—despite looking at the pitcher with nine seconds left on the pitch clock. A tense argument ensues, with Caballero repeatedly barking at home plate umpire Quinn Walcott that he’s “picking on” him. Yankee manager Aaron Boone quickly joins the discussion, complaining that “we’re making up rules as we go.” Boone later claims that no one was notified in advance of the rule alteration, while Caballero wasn’t given any warning. 

Walcott says during the on-field spat that the league notified all umpires of the Caballero Tweak. Sounds like they didn’t communicate that to Boone, Caballero or any other hitters for whom Caballero claims do the same thing.  

Thursday, July 23

The Guardians’ Gavin Williams throws the fifth immaculate inning in franchise history—the other four having all occurred in the past 12 seasons—retiring the visiting Twins on nine pitches, nine strikes in the fourth inning. All nine pitches are swung at by the three players—Byron Buxton, Ryan Jeffers and Josh Bell—resulting in two foul balls and seven misses. It’s part of a terrific day on the mound for Williams, who overall strikes out 11 while allowing just two hits through seven shutout innings on 97 pitches. But reliever Hunter Gaddis will walk the first two batters he faces in the eighth after Williams’ departure, the Twins tie the game—and they’ll win it in 12 innings, 3-1. 

On a day off, the two-time defending world champion Dodgers are feted at the White House by President Donald Trump, who’s on his best behavior with no snide digs or embarrassing remarks that could become fodder for late night hosts. Receiving a Dodgers uniform with his name and #47 on the back, Trump extols the Dodgers as “one of the great brands anywhere in the world.” 

Two primary Dodgers players skip out on the event. Mookie Betts says he needed to rest and spend time with his family, while Kiké Hernandez—who’s been publicly critical of the Trump administration’s aggressive push to oust immigrants—said he’d be unavailable due to rehab from a recent injury. 

Friday, July 24

The Rangers and Mariners—the AL West’s top two teams, with a combined record one game below .500—begin a four-game series at Arlington, with the Rangers grabbing a 5-4 victory to nudge above water at 52-51, 1.5 games ahead of Seattle. Jake Burger’s two-run homer in the fourth breaks a 1-1 tie, and puts Texas in the lead for the rest of the night. 

It seems odd, in this day and age, to hear of someone breaking a Shohei Ohtani record, rather than vice versa. Kazuma Okamoto, quietly having a solid debut with the Blue Jays after bashing 248 home runs over 11 seasons in Japan, belts his 23rd of the year against the Red Sox at Boston—breaking Ohtani’s first-year mark by a Japanese-born player. Okamoto’s record-breaker comes in a 6-4 loss, as the Red Sox’ Anthony Seigler pounds out four hits including two doubles and a homer, while Aroldis Chapman collects his 391st save to surpass Dennis Eckersley for ninth on the all-time list. 

For the first time in five years, the Rockies will have a 10-game winner within their pitching staff. Tomoyuki Sugano clinches double digits by largely keeping the Brewers in check over 5.1 innings, helping Colorado to a 5-2 victory at Milwaukee. No Rockies pitcher had collected 10 wins since 2021, when German Marquez finished the season with a 12-11 record.

Saturday, July 25

Salvador Perez’s game-tying home run in the seventh inning at Detroit is the 318th of his career, putting him ahead of George Brett for #1 in Kansas City Royals history. Nick Loftin will break the tie Perez created with his own solo shot in the ninth, giving the Royals a 3-2 win over the Tigers. 

Perez is one of three players who currently is the career home run leader for his team. The other two are Mike Trout (Angels) and Manny Machado (Padres). Two other active players are #1 for a franchise they no longer play for: The Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton (Marlins) and the Orioles’ Pete Alonso (Mets). 

Just before the All-Star Break, the upstart Miami Marlins were baseball’s hottest team—having won 26 of 34 games to suddenly thrust them into the playoff conversation. Now, they’re baseball’s coldest—and in an historically bad way. With a 7-2 home loss to the Padres, the Marlins drop their 11th straight game, tying a franchise record previously set three times—twice during their freefall 1998 campaign, and most recently in 2011. During their skid, the Marlins have scored just 27 runs on an anemic .210 batting average. 

Cam Schlittler may be a favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award, but don’t count out Dylan Cease. The Blue Jays’ ace throws his fourth career complete game and shutout, blanking the Red Sox at Boston on one hit, three walks and 12 strikeouts in a 6-0 victory. The Red Sox’ only hit off of Cease occurs in the sixth when Andruw Monasterio knocks out a leadoff double. 

It takes Cease 120 pitches—topping the previous season high seen this year in MLB, by Cease himself (118) at San Francisco on July 8—to go the distance. 

As if the Mets don’t want any more bad news in what’s been a massive disappointment of a season, they get it anyway. Juan Soto, who departed the game the night before with a calf issue, undergoes an MRI and discovers it’s a Grade 2 calf strain. He’s expected to miss “significant” time according to Mets interim manager Andy Green, which at this point would constitute the majority—perhaps the entirety—of the regular season’s remaining games. Soto strained his calf back in April and missed three weeks; during his time away, the Mets lost 12 straight games. They are currently in last place in the NL East with a 43-62 record, despite the majors’ highest payroll. 

Sunday, July 26

With the trading deadline just over a week away, the first newsworthy deal takes place as the Red Sox deal promising young pitcher Connelly Early to Washington in exchange for under-the-radar infielder Curtis Mead. The 24-year-old Early has thrown well for the Red Sox since making his major league debut 11 months earlier; in 21 career starts, he holds an 8-7 record and 3.24 ERA, striking out just under 10 batters per nine innings. The Australian-born Mead, having a breakout fourth season with the Nationals, is batting .254 with 17 homers over 87 games.  

It’s a dirty dozen for the Marlins, who set a franchise mark with their 12th straight defeat, 5-3 against the visiting Padres. A 3-1 lead is blown in the eighth when Miami reliever Lake Buchar surrenders four runs on five hits. San Diego closer Mason Miller, rumored to be on the trading block yet again, picks up his NL-leading 27th save while lowering his season ERA to 0.82 by retiring the side in the ninth. 

In his second start after missing the All-Star Game to rest up his supersonic arm, Jacob Misiorowski sets a Milwaukee record by striking out the first seven Colorado batters he faces; after the Rockies’ Troy Johnston earns silver-lining status by making contact and flying out, the Miz will strike out the next five batters. Overall, Misiorowski will have 12 K’s in five innings of work, allowing just one hit—a Cole Carrigg home run in the fifth—in the Brewers’ 11-2 home rout. Of Misiorowski’s 83 pitches, 66 of them are clocked at over 100 MPH, resetting a record he’s set numerous times already this year. His average fastball: 102.8 MPH. 

Baseball’s Hall of Fame officially welcomes in Carlos Beltran, Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent, this year’s three inductees. Beltran speaks proudly of his Puerto Rican heritage; Jones gives his utmost credit to his father, his Braves manager (the late Bobby Cox) and that other Jones of his time who’s in the Hall, Chipper Jones; Kent tearfully recalls his 17-year career and bows to the history contained within the Hall, telling the Cooperstown audience, “Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe it.” Also honored is broadcaster Joe Buck, making him part of the only father/son duo (along with his father Jack Buck) to win the Ford C. Frick Award for baseball broadcasting excellence; and 92-year-old Bill White, the consistently solid first baseman for the Cardinals of the 1960s and last true NL president, as the seventh recipient of the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Monday, July 27

Two runs down, three outs away from extending their team-record losing streak to 13 games, and facing Phillies closer Jhoan Duran—who enters the game with a 1.29 ERA and one blown save all season—the Marlins overcome all odds and rally for three runs to win for the first time in nearly three weeks, 8-7 at Miami. The Marlins’ comeback is of the small-ball variety, combining for five singles—one within the infield—and a hit batter to triumph. Griffin Conine’s one-out poke to right field brings home the winning run. 

Before the game, Miami manager Clayton McCullough compares his experience of the Marlins’ 12-game, 19-day winless skid to Matt Damon’s character in The Odyssey. “I feel a bit like Odysseus, like I’m away from home for 10 years. At some point, I’m going to return home. I don’t know what baseball god I infuriated, but it’s where we’re at.” 

The news for the Yankees is great on the field, but lousy off it. At Chicago, the Bronx Bombers overcome an early 3-0 deficit and defeat the White Sox, 9-5; Brent Headrick (6-1, 1.35 ERA), the fifth of nine Yankee pitchers, picks up the win. The victory moves New York to within 2.5 games of idle, first-place Tampa Bay in the AL East. However, the Yankees’ quest for winning the division may get harder as it’s learned that outfielder Cody Bellinger will miss roughly the next month with a strained hamstring. Bellinger’s .259 batting average and 11 home runs to this point have been underwhelming by his standards, but he does carry a reputation that precedes him—and his absence may force the Yankees to look harder for a replacement as the trade deadline approaches. 

The Rangers take the fourth game and the series against Seattle at Arlington, 7-3, solidifying their lead in the AL West to two games over the idle Astros, while knocking the Mariners back to third, 2.5 games out. Four home runs, including a pair from Joc Pederson in the leadoff spot, power Texas. 

The utter mediocrity of the AL West is reflected in the fact that none of its five teams have been more than four games above the .500 mark all season. 

The Red Sox’ franchise record-tying 15-game winning streak may be a thing of the recent past, but they still have another streak active on the road. Ceddanne Rafaela’s grand slam in the sixth inning accounts for all of Boston’s runs in a 4-2 win at Sacramento over the Athletics, giving the Red Sox their 10th straight road win. Only two other such streaks in team annals have been longer; a 13-game run in 2001, and a 15-game streak in 1939. 

In just his second at-bat as a Red Sock after being traded from Washington, infielder Curtis Mead has his left wrist broken by a pitch from A’s starter Jack Perkins. He will miss at least a month. 

Tuesday, July 28

For only the second time within a calendar month since 1899, a major league team scores in every inning. And it’s not just that; in scoring in each frame, the Tigers become the second team, ever, to do so while shutting out their opponent in a 14-0 squashing of the visiting Orioles. Leading the way for Detroit is catcher Eduardo Valencia, who in just his fourth big-league start powers out two homers among four hits, knocking home four runs; on the mound, sophomore right-hander Troy Melton throws seven shutout innings, allowing three hits, to improve to 6-1 with a 1.75 ERA over 11 starts this year. 

The only other time a team scored in every inning while blanking its opponent occurred in 1935, when the Pirates defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers at Pittsburgh, 13-0. 

Shane Bieber experiences baseball’s equivalent to waking up on the wrong side of the bed. The veteran hurler, who’s struggled to find his way back to ace form since making a belated start to the year in late June, struggles just to find the strike zone at Washington—walking six batters in the first inning, leading to four runs and an early exit after recording just one out, in Toronto’s 8-6 loss to the Nationals. The defeat sends the defending AL champion Blue Jays 10 games below the .500 mark, matching a season low. 

It’s been 25 years since a pitcher (the Marlins’ Ryan Dempster) walked six batters in a single inning. 

In throwing seven shutout innings in a 1-0 victory over the visiting Phillies, Sandy Alcantara sets the Marlins’ franchise record with his 111th quality start. It also may be his last one for Miami, as the former Cy Young winner is heavily rumored to be on the trading block—especially in light of the Marlins’ recent 12-game losing streak. Alcantara removes Ricky Nolasco from the top spot on the quality start list. 

Wednesday, July 29

The Tigers’ conundrum on whether to love Tarik Skubal or list him on the trading market gets more complicated, as the two-time reigning Cy Young winner produces a third straight strong performance in what could be his final home game in a Detroit uniform. Skubal allows three runs over 6.2 innings, while collecting his 1,000th career strikeout against the visiting Orioles; two of those runs are charged to him after his departure, the start of a wretched performance by the Detroit bullpen as the Orioles, once trailing 7-0, surge back to take a 10-9, 12-inning victory. 

With a poor 51-58 record, five teams ahead of them for the AL’s third and final wild card spot, and the trading deadline fast approaching, most baseball insiders believe Skubal is more likely than not to be dealt—with ESPN’s Jeff Passan stating that it definitely will happen, “within the next day or two.” 

Closer to that final wild card spot, somewhat surprisingly, are the Houston Astros—who reach .500 for the first time since April 7. In his first start since undergoing Tommy John surgery over a year ago, Hayden Wesneski overcomes a shaky first inning (three runs allowed) and goes 4.2 more innings without allowing another run, while Yanier Diaz collects four hits to give Houston a 7-4 victory over the Angels at Anaheim. 

The Astros were 20-31 on May 20; since then, they’re 35-24. 

Thursday, July 30

No-hit into the seventh inning, scoreless down to their last strike in the ninth, the Twins deliver a shock victory as Kody Clemens launches a grand slam to defeat the visiting Royals, 4-3. It’s the 34th time that a team has walked off with a slam trailing by three runs—and only the third instance in which it happened after the first two batters were retired in the inning. The Royals’ Noah Cameron keeps the Twins pinned down thrown eight superb shutout innings, allowing just a hit and two walks. Replaced in the ninth after 97 pitches, Cameron looks on as Lucas Erceg retires the first two batters—but then loads the bases on a hit batter, single and walk. Matt Strahm replaces Erceg—and promptly surrenders the game-winning blast to Clemens. 

Having spent much of the year struggling to lift themselves over the .500 mark, the Twins are at 55-55 with their win—and are just a game behind Cleveland for the third and final AL wild card spot. A year ago, the Twins sent nearly half of their active roster away at the trading deadline; this year, they smell more of an opportunity to go for October, and thus make a deal to acquire reliever A.J. Minter from the down-and-out Mets for two minor leaguers. The 32-year-old Minter has a 2.35 ERA over 23 appearances in a season he didn’t begin until May 26 after a string of injuries. 

A one-of-one Shohei Ohtani Topps card, featuring his signatures in both English and Kanji as well as two gold MLB patches worn by the dual-threat superstar, is sold for a whopping $11 million—making it the second-highest price ever paid for a baseball card. Placed in a pack and sent out there, somewhere, the Ohtani card is “hit” (discovered) by an unnamed buyer at a card collectibles store in Boca Raton, Florida. Buying the card from the lucky recipient is Matthew Allen, a high-end collector of sports trading cards. Contacted via phone by the recipient, Allen later tells The Athletic that he is offered the card for as much as $15 million, but talks him down to $11 million after telling him that if he offers the card to anyone else, it’s going to “take away the luster that the card has…If somebody offered the card and they turn it down, it devalues the card because they could say, ‘I was offered that card but I passed.’” Allen then says the recipient thinks about it, in silence, for 45 seconds—then agrees to the deal. 

Friday, July 31

For the first time since the start of July, the Marlins will not finish a series ending in a sweep for either themselves or their opponent. A four-run rally in the fifth is the big inning for Miami in its 5-2 victory over the Mets at New York, evening the four-game series at a game apiece; it clinches the end of a streak of seven series involving the Marlins that ended in a sweep, unprecedented in modern (post-1900) times. The Mets’ loss is charged to Kodai Senga, the one-time “ghost fork” wonder who drops to 0-8 with an 8.66 ERA this season; he has not won any of his last 17 starts going back to last year. 

The Giants suspend the pay of injured outfielder Harrison Bader as they investigate whether he violated his contract in engaging in dangerous off-field activity. The 32-year-old Bader, who hasn’t played since injuring his foot at the end of May, reportedly had that same foot run over by a fire truck after crashing into the back of it on a scooter—this, after leaving a San Francisco bar in the early morning hours last weekend. Before his initial injury, Bader batted just .170 with five home runs in the first year of a two-year, $20.5 million contract with the Giants. 

This is not the first time that the Giants have had to deal with this sort of thing. Ace pitcher Madison Bumgarner missed three months when he suffered shoulder and rib injuries in a dirt bike accident early in the 2017 season, while recently-inducted Hall of Famer Jeff Kent broke his left wrist during at spring camp in 2002 while washing his pick-up truck—though eyewitnesses say a person fitting Kent’s description crashed his motorcycle while popping wheelies nearby. Neither had their pay revoked, or contracts voided, by the Giants. 

On the day they Twins reach above the .500 mark for the first time since April 21 with a 5-3 victory at Seattle, they continue to buy early before the trading deadline by bringing in Baltimore pitcher Dean Kremer for 18-year-old minor leaguer Jhomnardo Reyes. The 30-year-old Kremer gives the Twins extra starting depth but, based on his results thus far in 2026, not much else—posting a 1-4 record and 6.50 ERA over seven starts after dealing with quad issues.