PITTSBURGH — Just promote him and end the speculation.

Otherwise, what the Pirates are doing with Bubba Chandler looks foolish, money-focused and almost like they regret how they handled Paul Skenes, promoting him on May 8 and giving the dominant right-hander enough runway to become the National League's Rookie of the Year.

There's a ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — One inning – and really one pitch – ruined the night for Angels pitcher Jack Kochanowicz.

The right-hander gave up four runs in the fourth inning of a 5-1 loss to the New York Yankees on Monday night.

Kochanowicz retired 17 of the 19 hitters he faced in the other six innings when he took the mound.

Even if he had ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The Padres are still not hitting a whole lot.

But they are hitting just enough since Friday to have won three times in four games, which is three more times than they had won in their previous six games.

And in the end Monday, they didn’t have to hit.

Tyler Wade scored on a wild pitch by Cade Gibson with one out in the 11th ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Kyle Hart will be recalled to start Wednesday’s series finale against the Miami Marlins, allowing the Padres to give Nick Pivetta two extra days of rest ahead of starting again on Friday, the start of 13 straight games.

The Padres do not yet know if Yu Darvish will be available to bolster the rotation during that long stretch of...Read more

PHOENIX — Veteran left-hander Andrew Heaney has been solid overall this season. His effort Monday evening was a different story. Matched up against an opponent hungry to get back into the win column, Heaney had little answers against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which paired with another quiet day at the plate, led to a 5-0 loss for the Pirates ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The late broadcaster Harry Caray used to say, “You can’t beat fun at the old ballpark.”

That adage was put to the test for much of Monday’s game at Kauffman Stadium, where the Kansas City Royals lost 7-4 to the Cincinnati Reds.

The Royals (29-26) fell behind 6-0 as starter Michael Lorenzen labored through five ...Read more

CLEVELAND — It had been a while since the Los Angeles Dodgers’ last stress-free win.

Over their previous nine games entering Monday, the team had won just three times — and needed extra-innings after blown ninth-inning saves in two of them, and a late-game go-ahead home run from Teoscar Hernández in the other.

Such theatrics ...Read more

In Monday’s meeting of mediocre May teams, the Brewers pulled out a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox in Milwaukee.

Both clubs entered their series opener 10-13 on the month, with some of the worst pitching in the league. In May, the Brewers rank 10th in ERA and 13th in home runs, while the Red Sox arrived at American Family Field 15th in ERA ...Read more

NEW YORK — The Mets appeared poised for a letdown.

After finishing the weekend with back-to-back wins over the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the Mets struggled for seven innings Monday to get anything going against the cellar-dwelling Chicago White Sox.

Ex-Mets starter Adrian Houser shut them out for six-plus innings.

The Mets ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs met the newest “worst team in baseball history” Monday at Wrigley Field, and not surprisingly, it turned out to be a good day to play the Colorado Rockies.

Despite managing only four hits, the Cubs beat the Rockies 3-1 before a Memorial Day crowd of 40,171, riding the arm of starter Jameson Taillon and the ...Read more

The San Francisco Giants’ bats slept in Monday in their earliest start of the season, leading to a 3-1 loss that opened their three-game series in Detroit.

A 10:10 a.m. PT first pitch can’t be to blame, however, for the Giants’ offensive woes, not when they failed to score more than four runs in any of their previous eight games.

The ...Read more

CHICAGO — The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is coming to Wrigley Field.

Yeah, probably.

It’s going to make the city a ton of money, promote tourism and give the world a true picture of our town.

Um, hopefully.

And the real winners will be the Chicago baseball fans who will get MLB’s crown-jewel midsummer event — the Home Run ...Read more

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani provided the Los Angeles Dodgers some temporary reprieve on Sunday.

Before the game, he faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John revision surgery in 2023, drawing a large crowd in the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field as he touched 97 mph with his fastball and struck out two batters in five at-bats...Read more

Up 4-2 in the fifth inning, the New York Yankees and Colorado Rockies paused for a rain delay at Coors Field that lasted one hour and 46 minutes. When play resumed, the Rockies got a run back and the Yankees were suddenly on the verge of losing the lead, and potentially the series to the lowly Colorado club.

J.C. Escarra came through for the ...Read more

CINCINNATI — Reese McGuire was not supposed to be in the Chicago Cubs’ lineup Sunday at Great American Ball Park.

McGuire made the short commute Saturday night from Columbus, where Triple-A Iowa played over the weekend, to join the Cubs with Miguel Amaya going on the injured list because of a left oblique strain. The 30-year-old catcher got...Read more

DETROIT — Dillon Dingler missed the handshake that wasn’t midway through the eighth inning Sunday afternoon.

So the Detroit Tigers' young catcher wasn’t completely sure if Tarik Skubal would get a chance to finish what he started Sunday afternoon in another dominant outing at Comerica Park.

“But when I looked out to the bullpen and saw...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — The Rays rode strong pitching and a big offensive day that included a seven-run fifth inning to a 13-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays Sunday, extending their winning streak to a season-high matching five games.

In doing so, they completed their second sweep of the season and, at 26-26, got back to .500 for the first time since ...Read more