ATLANTA — Zack Wheeler waited 253 days.

What, then, were another 56 minutes?

So, Wheeler sat through a rain delay, during which the Boston Red Sox stunningly fired manager Alex Cora (back to that shortly). Then, he walked to the bullpen, warmed up, and came out firing 95- and 96-mph heat in his first start back from thoracic outlet syndrome....Read more

LOS ANGELES — The decisive blow in the Dodgers’ 12-4 win against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday at Dodger Stadium was the kind of unrelenting rally they hadn’t mustered since leaving Colorado on Monday.

The Dodgers were trailing by a run going into the bottom of the fourth inning. Then they put together a six-run rally.

They stacked up six...Read more

MILWAUKEE — The Pittsburgh Pirates finally got off the seesaw they’ve been riding for two weeks, though they needed some extra baseball to do so.

The Pirates beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-3, in 10 innings at American Family Field Saturday, winning on an RBI single from Henry Davis and a two-run knock from Nick Gonzales. With the win, the ...Read more

HOUSTON – Stuck in a slump dating back to Opening Day, Austin Wells came through in the clutch on Saturday.

With the Yankees and Astros tied at two in the seventh inning, the Bombers’ backstop pulled a solo home run to right off Houston reliever Kai-Wei Teng. For Wells, it was just his second home run of the season and only his third RBI.

...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At times in the first month of this season, the Los Angeles Angels have given hints with their pitching and hitting that maybe they could defy the experts and be competitive this season.

A game like Saturday night’s 12-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals provided more fodder for anyone who says these are the same Angels who ...Read more

CINCINNATI — Spencer Torkelson spent the first four weeks of the season answering questions about when he’s going to hit a home run.

He’s spent the last week being asked if he’s ever going to stop hitting them.

“Soon as you feel it once, I mean, the brain is crazy,” Torkelson said. “It likes to repeat it.”

Torkelson homered ...Read more

MEXICO CITY — The Padres are in the midst of a stretch in which they can hardly hit.

Anywhere.

Not even in the mountains.

But they are showing they know how to win.

The Padres’ seventh comeback victory — and fifth from a deficit of four or more runs — came Saturday against the Diamondbacks when they scored four runs in the seventh ...Read more

CHICAGO — Munetaka Murakami felt his swing was in a “pretty good” spot.

“It’s still early in the season, so I still have to keep adjusting to the pitchers,” the slugger said through an interpreter Wednesday afternoon at Chase Field in Phoenix. “Right now, I’m swinging really well.”

That might be an understatement.

Murakami ...Read more

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Shane McClanahan pounded his glove, looked up and pointed his fingers that way, then let out a scream as he headed into the home dugout at Tropicana Field after his fifth and final inning of work on Saturday.

The emotion has been part of McClanahan’s comeback story, as he returned this season from a two-plus-year ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — This game had a little bit everything from just about everyone, and the biggest contribution came from the one guy who needed it the most.

Leo Rivas, mired in a 5 for 44 funk, delivered a bases-loaded in the top of the ninth inning to drive in the winning runs in the Mariners’ wild 11-9 come-from-behind victory over the ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — Casey Schmitt slammed his right hand on the dirt near second base, cursing himself for his second baserunning mistake in less than 24 hours.

Schmitt began the second with a leadoff bloop double, but instead of kicking off a rally, Schmitt was thrown out at second when he overshot the bag. The Miami Marlins’ Otto Lopez threw ...Read more

Amid a disappointing start to the season, the Red Sox are cleaning house.

The Red Sox announced Saturday night that they have fired manager Alex Cora amid a series of sweeping changes to the club’s coaching staff.

In addition to Cora, the Red Sox have also parted ways with hitting coach Peter Fatse, third base coach Kyle Hudson, bench coach ...Read more

The Red Sox needed a win like this.

After a week when everything that could have gone wrong did and the noise surrounding the club threatened to swallow the team whole, the Red Sox finally broke their four-game slide in grand fashion and got to enjoy a nice, drama-free win.

The offense came up with timely hits early, Garrett Crochet was back ...Read more

NEW YORK — Crash Davis got the Durham Bulls a rainout, but Flushing Bay got the Mets one Saturday.

The weather postponed the second game of a three-game set against the Colorado Rockies. The game will be made up Sunday as part of a single-admission doubleheader, starting at 1:40 p.m., at Citi Field.

Having gone 3-12 over their last 15 games,...Read more

LOS ANGELES — When Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s scathing remarks about Los Angeles Dodgers fans took off this spring, he wasn’t worried about how fans might interpret them. His back-and-forth with the Dodgers fans dates back several years.

“I wanted to make sure that the people on the other side of the field who I ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The boos were already loud when Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman, a member of the scandal-embroiled 2017 Houston Astros, came up to bat in the eighth inning. They swelled when he launched a game-tying home run off Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen and rounded the bases.

Then in the ninth, Dodgers left-hander Tanner Scott surrendered...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — It was, plain and simple, a night to forget for Adrian Houser.

Houser matched his career-high in earned runs (eight) and hits (11) across four innings as the San Francisco Giants fell 9-4 to the Miami Marlins on Friday evening at Oracle Park.

The right-handed Houser, who signed a two-year, $22 million deal with a club option ...Read more

CINCINNATI — If you left this game during the one-hour, 49-minute rain delay Friday night, you missed one wild seesaw ride.

The rains, which were threatening most of the night at Great American Ball Park, finally came at the end of the sixth inning with the Tigers up 5-3 and the Reds charging.

Down 5-0 in the fourth inning, the Reds scored ...Read more

BALTIMORE — There were no more fireworks by the sixth inning.

Call it what it was Friday night at Camden Yards: An offensive barrage so loud that the video board announced that there would be no more pyrotechnics, thanks to the rockets flying off the Baltimore Orioles’ bats.

Baltimore launched six home runs, piled up 20 hits and rolled to ...Read more

To all of those New York Mets fans who thought their team would heal up vs. the lowly Colorado Rockies, “Fuhgeddaboudit!”

The resurgent Rockies held on to beat the Mets, 4-3, at Citi Field on Friday night behind a terrific start from Michael Lorenzen and some timely hits.

The Mets, who took two games from the Minnesota Twins after losing ...Read more