May 2025

There were 2,285 posts published in May 2025 (this is page 36 of 229).

Ryan O’Hearn powers Orioles over Red Sox with wild 2-run Little League home run

The Baltimore Orioles might be one of the worst teams in MLB right now. But on Sunday, it was the Boston Red Sox who were doomed by a comedy of errors.

In the final game of a four-game series, the Orioles beat the Red Sox 5-1 in Boston on Sunday. Baltimore sealed the game with a wild two-run Little League home run from designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn in the eighth inning.

Things went about as bad as they could have for Boston on this play: O’Hearn’s hit went deep into right-center, where a miscommunication between Red Sox outfielders Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela led to an awkward attempt to get the ball into the infield.

Rafaela eventually tossed the ball toward infielder Marcelo Mayer — who just got called up to the majors on Saturday to replace the injured Alex Bregman. But Rafaela’s throw badly overshot Mayer’s glove and actually hit O’Hearn as he safely stood on second base.

From there, Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson ran in for a score while O’Hearn sprinted to third. Mayer did his best to follow, but his ball went way wide of third baseman Nick Sogard; as a result, O’Hearn slid into third and kept running to home plate for the score.

O’Hearn’s unconventional two-run homer brought the Orioles’ lead to 5-0. The Red Sox eventually scored in the bottom of the ninth, bringing the final score to 5-1. 

The loss sealed a 2-2 series split for Boston against the worst team in the AL East.

Sunday’s loss felt like the latest in a series of embarrassments for the Red Sox. Starting pitcher Walker Buehler returned to the mound Sunday, days after being ejected alongside Boston manager Alex Cora for yelling at an umpire. Buehler allowed four hits and two runs in five innings.

The call-up of Mayer has also had some mixed results. The young infielder scored Boston’s only run off an Abraham Toro RBI single, but he was also a key part of the disastrous eighth inning.

O’Hearn had a great game overall, hitting a solo homer in the sixth inning — to nearly the exact same spot in the outfield.

With the win Sunday and a 2-1 win over the Red Sox on Saturday, the Orioles move to 18-34 on the season — leaving plenty of room for improvement. But at least Baltimore has a great highlight clip.

Carlos Mendoza: Mets will see if Brandon Nimmo is available off bench for Sunday’s game against Dodgers

The Mets are in wait-and-see mode about outfielder Brandon Nimmo‘s status for Sunday’s 7:10 p.m. game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, manager Carlos Mendoza explained.

“Not yet,” Mendoza said whether he has an update on Nimmo. “I’m waiting. Hopefully — because he didn’t do any baseball activities (Saturday). So, hopefully, he does something (Sunday) and we’ll see if he’s available off the bench.”

Nimmo left Friday’s 7-5 loss to the Dodgers in 13 innings because of neck stiffness.

“This morning, my neck tightened up on me,” Nimmo, who is slashing .212/.274/.397 with eight home runs and 27 RBI through 49 games, said after Friday’s loss. “It’s from 2019 when I ran into the wall and we’ve been really good with the training staff and myself about keeping it under control and at bay.

“Sometimes with the travel and just everything, it pops its ugly head and it takes a few days to deal with it.”

The Mets start an outfield of Jeff McNeil (left), Tyrone Tracy (center) and Juan Soto (right) in Sunday’s rubber match with Los Angeles.

Skubal’s first complete game helps Tigers beat Guardians, avoid four-game sweep

DETROIT — Tarik Skubal gave up two hits and matched a career high with 13 strikeouts in his first professional complete game, Zach McKinstry had a two-run homer in a five-run fourth inning and the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians 5-0 Sunday to avoid a four-game sweep.

The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner was perfect through five innings and finished with a nearly flawless performance. He had a baserunner for the first time after Will Wilson doubled on the second pitch of the sixth.

Skubal (5-2) gave up only one more hit and hit one batter with a pitch in a masterful, 94-pitch outing that included just 22 balls. It was the eighth complete game in the major leagues this season and fifth individual shutout.

Logan Allen (2-3) allowed a season-high five runs — four earned — five hits and four walks over 3 2/3 innings.

Justyn-Henry Malloy hit a leadoff single and scored on McKinstry’s third homer. Javier Báez followed with a double and came home on Gleyber Torres’ double. Allen’s throwing error allowed Detroit to take a 5-0 lead.

Cleveland kept leadoff hitter Steven Kwan out of the lineup for the first time this season. First baseman Carlos Santana was scratched with tightness in his left leg.

Key moment

McKinstry provided a much-needed homer for a team that lost the first three games in the series against the defending AL Central champions who eliminated them in their AL Division Series.

Key stat

Skubal became the first in franchise history to have 10-plus strikeouts in four straight home games.

Up next

Detroit RHP Keider Montero (1-1, 5.28) and San Francisco RHP Hayden Birdsong (2-0, 1.91) are the probable pitchers in their series opener at Comerica Park on Monday afternoon before Cleveland starts a homestand with RHP Gavin Williams (4-2, 3.94) and RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (5-3, 1.86) scheduled to start.

Pirates’ Oneil Cruz launches 122.9 mph home run, hardest-hit ball in MLB’s Statcast era

The Pittsburgh Pirates are slogging through a difficult 2025 season, going into Sunday’s MLB slate with a 19-34 record. Only the Colorado Rockies (9-43) are worse among the 15 National League teams. 

Yet despite their ineptitude, the Pirates have two of the most dazzling talents in baseball, players who can achieve feats rarely seen in the sport. Pitcher Paul Skenes, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year, is one of them. The other is center fielder Oneil Cruz, who did something MLB hasn’t seen in at least 10 years during Sunday’s matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

In the third inning, Cruz crushed a high fastball from Logan Henderson deep to right field. The ball actually went over the stands and out of PNC Park. A rocket like that needed some major fuel and, sure enough, it was the hardest hit ball recorded since Statcast began tracking batted balls and player activity in 2015. Cruz’s home run was measured at 122.9 mph off his bat. 

Henderson’s fastball was clocked at 92.2 mph, so this wasn’t a case of Cruz’s bat colliding with a hard pitch and sending it the other way. He provided significant force to launch the home run out of the ballpark. 

This isn’t the first time Cruz has lit up Statcast. The Pirates star already had the hardest-hit ball recorded by MLB with a 122.4 mph single on Aug, 24, 2022, according to MLB.com. Prior to Sunday’s blast, the hardest-hit home run was a 121.7 mph shot from Giancarlo Stanton on Aug. 9, 2018. 

Cruz’s missile came on the same day Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal threw the hardest pitch ever recorded by a starting pitcher in the ninth inning during a 5-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians. 

With 11 home runs for the season, Cruz has nearly twice as many as the next closest Pirates hitter (Bryan Reynolds with six). He’s batting .236/.359/.491 with 18 stolen bases. He’s in his first full year of playing center field after playing shortstop during his first two full MLB seasons.

Pirates’ Oneil Cruz launches 122.9 mph home run, hardest-hit ball in MLB’s Statcast era

The Pittsburgh Pirates are slogging through a difficult 2025 season, going into Sunday’s MLB slate with a 19-34 record. Only the Colorado Rockies (9-43) are worse among the 15 National League teams. 

Yet despite their ineptitude, the Pirates have two of the most dazzling talents in baseball, players who can achieve feats rarely seen in the sport. Pitcher Paul Skenes, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year, is one of them. The other is center fielder Oneil Cruz, who did something MLB hasn’t seen in at least 10 years during Sunday’s matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

In the third inning, Cruz crushed a high fastball from Logan Henderson deep to right field. The ball actually went over the stands and out of PNC Park. A rocket like that needed some major fuel and, sure enough, it was the hardest hit ball recorded since Statcast began tracking batted balls and player activity in 2015. Cruz’s home run was measured at 122.9 mph off his bat. 

Henderson’s fastball was clocked at 92.2 mph, so this wasn’t a case of Cruz’s bat colliding with a hard pitch and sending it the other way. He provided significant force to launch the home run out of the ballpark. 

This isn’t the first time Cruz has lit up Statcast. The Pirates star already had the hardest-hit ball recorded by MLB with a 122.4 mph single on Aug, 24, 2022, according to MLB.com. Prior to Sunday’s blast, the hardest-hit home run was a 121.7 mph shot from Giancarlo Stanton on Aug. 9, 2018. 

Cruz’s missile came on the same day Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal threw the hardest pitch ever recorded by a starting pitcher in the ninth inning during a 5-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians. 

With 11 home runs for the season, Cruz has nearly twice as many as the next closest Pirates hitter (Bryan Reynolds with six). He’s batting .236/.359/.491 with 18 stolen bases. He’s in his first full year of playing center field after playing shortstop during his first two full MLB seasons.

Padres’ Michael King lands on 15-day injured list with inflammation in right shoulder

ATLANTA — San Diego right-hander Michael King, who was scratched from Saturday’s scheduled start, was placed on the 15-day injured list on Sunday with right shoulder inflammation.

The Padres said Saturday that King had stiffness after sleeping on the shoulder. The team announced the inflammation on Sunday and said the right-hander would be sidelined for at least two weeks.

The Padres recalled right-hander David Morgan from Triple-A El Paso before Sunday’s game at Atlanta.

The Padres did not say how King’s spot in the rotation would be filled. Morgan has worked only in relief at El Paso, posting a 6.91 ERA in 14 games.

On Saturday, the Padres used a bullpen game and lost to the Braves 7-1. Sean Reynolds got the start and allowed three runs in 2 2/3 innings. Wandy Peralta, Alek Jacobs and Yuki Matsui also pitched.

King is 4-2 with a 2.59 ERA in 10 starts. He was 13-9 with a 2.95 ERA in 2024 and finished seventh in the NL Cy Young Award voting.

The Padres have not announced their starters for a three-game series against the visiting Miami Marlins that begins on Monday night. Right-hander Dylan Cease was Sunday’s starter against the Braves.

Tigers’ Tarik Skubal shuts out Guardians with 13 Ks, 94 pitches in 5-0 win

Tarik Skubal fulfilled his role as the Detroit Tigers‘ ace on Sunday, salvaging a win in a four-game series with the Cleveland Guardians and ending a three-game losing streak. 

The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner threw a shutout against the Tigers’ AL Central rival, allowing only two hits over nine innings with 13 strikeouts and no walks in a 5-0 win over the Guardians. He now leads the AL in strikeouts with 92. 

Skubal (5-2, 2.49 ERA) needed 94 pitches to mow through Cleveland’s lineup, throwing 74 of them for strikes in the first complete game of his career. He finished his day in just two hours and 10 minutes.

The left-hander generated 26 swings and misses on Sunday, saving the best for last. Skubal hit 102.6 mph on his final pitch to Gabriel Arias, getting him to swing and miss to finish the game. That’s the fastest pitch thrown by a starting pitcher since pitches began being tracked in 2008.

Baseball diehards like to call a shutout with fewer than 100 pitches a “Maddux,” in honor of Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, who had 13 such performances during his career. Skubal’s 13 strikeouts are the most ever thrown in a “Maddux,” surpassing the 12 thrown by Carlos Carrasco in 2014, Cliff Lee (2011) and Sandy Koufax (1964).

Skubal faced the Guardians on Sunday for the first time since allowing five runs in six innings during Game 5 of last year’s ALDS, in which the Tigers were eliminated from the postseason. 

With Skubal dominating the lineup, the Tigers didn’t need much offense. But they scored enough runs to keep it comfortable for their No. 1 starter. Zach McKinstry opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the fourth inning, jumping on a sweeper from Logan Allen that hung right in the middle of the strike zone. 

Detroit added two more runs in the frame, getting an RBI double from Gleyber Torres and run-scoring single by Andy Ibáñez. Ibáñez came around to score when Allen fielded a chopper from Riley Greene and threw wide to first base, giving the Tigers a 5-0 lead. 

Allen lasted 3 2/3 innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits and four walks. And he threw more pitches than Skubal with 97. 

With the win, Detroit (34-20) builds its first-place lead in the AL Central to 3.5 games over the second-place Minnesota Twins (29-22), pending Sunday’s matchup with the Kansas City Royals. The Guardians (29-23) drop to third, a half-game behind the Twins. 

Could Mario Hezonja return to NBA? Multiple teams reportedly interested.

The last time we saw Mario Hezonja on an NBA court was in the bubble, when the former No. 5 pick was coming off the bench for the Trail Blazers. Since then, he has been in Europe playing in Greece and Russia before spending the past few seasons with Real Madrid. Just last summer he inked a five-year contract with the Spanish powerhouse, but the contract has an NBA out clause.

And there is interest from several NBA teams, reports Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com.

Hezonja, 30, spent five seasons in the NBA after being drafted by the Magic, but the 6’8″ forward’s game never rounded out as hoped. He didn’t space the floor well from 3, and his offense was more straight-line drives than anything else.

That growth in his game may have come in Europe. He shot 39.2% from 3 last season for Real Madrid, averaging 13.6 points and 4.9 assists a game this past season. Hezonja also averaged 30.3 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists and a couple of steals a game for Croatia in the 2025 EuroBasket qualifiers (Croatia did not make the cut).

It’s something to watch. Hezonja’s NBA buyout clause is for around $850,000, Urbonas reports, which is about the going rate for an NBA buyout in Europe.