LOS ANGELES — The business of sports often is cloaked in secrecy. You can find out the salary of your favorite player, but how much money his team makes and how much money he makes off the field are the stuff of estimates, not public discourse.

Not on Thursday, though. Is Shohei Ohtani really making more than $100 million this year in ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Just when the Angels’ hitters were starting show some signs of life, Tomoyuki Sugano showed up and shut them down.

After scoring 18 runs in the previous three games and providing some hope that their three three-week offensive malaise was over, the Angels managed just four hits in a 4-1 loss to Sugano and the Baltimore ...Read more

PHOENIX — The roof was open. The air was hot. And in a stadium already known as a hitter’s paradise, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks teed off on each other in a Chase Field classic.

There were lead changes and sudden momentum shifts. Line-drive rockets and towering no-doubt blasts. The ejection of Dodgers pitching coach ...Read more

Jasson Domínguez made New York Yankees history.

In Friday night’s 10-2 win over the A’s in West Sacramento, Domínguez became the youngest player in franchise history to hit three home runs in a game, according to MLB stat guru Sarah Langs.

Domínguez is 22 years and 91 days old.

The switch-hitting Domínguez struck a solo home run off ...Read more

SEATTLE — There were fewer neighbors from north of the 49th parallel inside T-Mobile Park on Friday night.

They were still the ones left cheering the most at the end.

While it wasn’t a full-on takeover of the ballpark as it’s been in the past, the Canadian visitors in town to see their team were rewarded as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the...Read more

It took until the top of the 11th inning, but the Red Sox were finally able to scratch across the game’s first run.

Yet as has become so often the case recently, the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.

Garrett Whitlock blew his third save in his last four appearances, allowing Kansas City to tie the game in the bottom of the 11th before the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — In his first look as a visitor in the ballpark he called home for the first six years of his big league career, Erick Fedde did what he never had as a Washington National.

And he did not stop there.

Fedde authored the first complete game and shutout of his career with nine sterling innings in the Cardinals’ 10-0 victory ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — The plan was for the Rays to be opportunistic on offense this season.

Not sure if this was exactly what they had in mind, but no one was complaining in the Tampa Bay clubhouse.

The Rays went 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position, but scored a go-ahead run in the sixth inning on an interference call and then — after the ...Read more

CLEVELAND — Bryce Harper and Trea Turner stood there, 127 feet apart, helmets in their hands, on opposite ends of a double play.

It was the fifth inning Friday night, and Turner thought he would try to make something happen. Why not? The Phillies have used their speed a lot lately to force the action. Trailing by one run, this felt like a ...Read more

Jameson Taillon hadn’t given up a home run to a left-handed hitter all season until he came to Citi Field on Friday night and proceeded to give one up to the first hitter he faced.

The Mets hit four home runs in a 7-2 series-opening win over the Chicago Cubs. Switch-hitting Francisco Lindor (3 for 5, RBI) hit one from the left side, and three...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Chris Paddack watched Christian Koss line a single into center field with two outs in the sixth inning Friday, and he grabbed the bill of his cap.

In a way, it was a salute to himself. Paddack was perfect through his first 17 batters, pitching with remarkable efficiency while overpowering batters.

Paddack completed 7 1/3 ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Baseball introduced interleague play in 1997, and it took until 2003 for the Twins to take on the San Francisco Giants. The series was played at the start of June in what was then named Pac Bell Park, the gem of a ballyard that had opened in 2000.

The Twins won two out of three in the 2003 series between two teams that would win...Read more

CHICAGO — While enjoying a pregame beverage at Cork & Kerry at the Park before Friday night’s White Sox game, Laronna Woolf checked out her favorite Pope Leo XIV memes on her phone.

Woolf, a Sox fan from St. John’s, Ind., who grew up in Calumet City, was particularly fond of a video on X from @BennnyHeis that spliced Chicago Bulls’ ...Read more

DETROIT — He’s been dominant all season. He’s been especially dominant at Comerica Park since the start of last season.

But on Friday, in the Tigers’ 2-1 win over the Texas Rangers in the first of three, Tarik Skubal might’ve been as dominant as he’s ever been.

He was perfect for five innings and when he walked off to a standing ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The first game of the Don Kelly era had three unlikely heroes. It ended with a 3-2 win.

The Pirates, a day after firing manager Derek Shelton, beat the Braves on Friday night at PNC Park behind solo homers from Alexander Canario and Jared Triolo and six shutout innings from left-hander Bailey Falter. The win snaps a seven-game ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — You know what I kept thinking about Thursday? The Bucco Bricks.

We all know the story. We all saw the images. These were commemorative bricks thousands of Pirates fans bought and inscribed to loved ones a quarter-century ago as a fundraiser for the Roberto Clemente Foundation, only to see them years later wind up discarded and ...Read more

PHOENIX — It’s much too early to call it 2021 yet.

But, just like the last time the Los Angeles Dodgers tried to defend a World Series title, the National League West isn’t presenting the easiest of paths.

Entering Thursday night, the division was home to the best team in baseball, the 25-win Dodgers. But, based on overall league ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — It took longer than most expected, but the Pirates might’ve actually figured out how to screw up a one-car funeral.

Or at least the firing of one man — in this case, Derek Shelton.

How did we arrive at this point? It’s a question worth asking because it sure isn’t accurate or fair to pin everything on Shelton. At the ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — For seven innings on Thursday, it seemed as if the Phillies’ red-hot offense ran out of steam.

They had just two hits and trailed the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1, with the possibility of a sweep shrinking more and more with each groundout.

And yet they didn’t lie down. By the end of what was ultimately a 7-6 comeback win, the ...Read more