June 2026 - Baseball Wiretap

One big inning was more than enough Sunday for the New York Yankees.

Fueled by a fiery pep talk from captain Aaron Judge, the Yankees scored 13 runs in the third and beat the Athletics 13-8, finishing one run shy of the highest-scoring inning in the storied history of the franchise.

"Remarkable," manager Aaron Boone said. "Glad we were able to make it stand up. Obviously, a lot of really good things offensively. ... I don't think the prettiest game on either side, necessarily. But we were able to make a really outstanding inning stand up."

Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz left Sunday's 6-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves with right hamstring tightness after reaching first base in the fifth inning and will undergo an MRI on Monday.

De La Cruz singled to right-center off Braves starter Spencer Strider with Cincinnati leading 3-2. The contact would typically have resulted in a double, but De La Cruz stopped at first after visibly grimacing. He walked off the field unassisted following a brief visit from training staff.

"When I was making the turn to get to first, I felt tightness in my hamstring and immediately decided to stop because I felt like if I keep going it could get worse," De La Cruz said through interpreter Tomas Vera.

The injury puts De La Cruz's active games streak in jeopardy. He has appeared in 276 consecutive games, the sixth-longest such run by a Reds player in the expansion era dating to 1961. The streak began July 30, 2024.

Reds manager Terry Francona said the club was cautiously optimistic but would wait for imaging results before drawing conclusions.

"He feels like he caught it before it did anything worse," Francona said. "Saying that, we're going to get him scanned at 9 in the morning and we'll know more."

De La Cruz was 2-for-2 with two runs scored and a walk before exiting. He is batting .280 with 12 home runs this season.

"He's the heart and soul of this team," said Reds left fielder JJ Bleday. "When everyone thinks Reds right now they're thinking Elly De La Cruz. Hopefully it's nothing serious."

De La Cruz expressed measured confidence about the severity of the injury.

"I don't believe it is something bad. I really don't," he said. "We'll see what the MRI says tomorrow. I don't feel that bad. I don't know if I'll be playing tomorrow. I don't like to be out of the game."

Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jesus Sanchez left Sunday's game against the Baltimore Orioles in the sixth inning after a ball thrown by a young fan from the right-field bleachers struck his right wrist, causing a bruise.

The Orioles won the game 9-5. X-rays on Sanchez's wrist came back negative and he expressed confidence the injury would not affect his availability.

The incident occurred during a stoppage in play. Sanchez glanced toward fans in the bleachers, and a youngster interpreted the look as an invitation to toss him the ball. Sanchez was wearing a bandage on his wrist after the game.

"I wasn't trying to play catch right there," Sanchez said through an interpreter. "I just looked at them, and they thought maybe that I want them to throw the ball. It was a complete misunderstanding."

Toronto manager John Schneider described the fan as approximately 12 years old and said the exchange had appeared friendly before the throw.

"He was kind of talking to a, I think it was a 12-year-old kid ... in a playful manner, like almost, 'Let's play catch,'" Schneider said. "I think the kid took it literally."

Schneider added, "I'm sure the kid feels bad. I'm assuming there's no ill intent there. I think it was just a misunderstanding and bad timing."

An Orioles spokesperson confirmed the club identified the fan and removed them from the ballpark pending a thorough investigation. Baltimore manager Craig Albernaz said the organization does not tolerate fans throwing objects onto the field.

Sanchez said the incident caught him completely off guard but indicated he was ready to move on.

"It hurts a little bit, but thank God it's nothing bad or a fracture," he said. "I'll be all right."

Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper says MLB's push for a salary cap in collective bargaining agreement talks threatens the sport's hard-won growth in attendance, ratings, and global reach, as owners and players exchange sharply opposed opening proposals.

The MLB Players Association has sought higher minimum salaries, elevated luxury-tax thresholds, and an expanded pre-arbitration bonus program. The league, representing its 30 clubs, countered with a strict cap-and-floor structure modeled after the NHL, along with a 50/50 revenue split.

Harper cited the Los Angeles Dodgers, two-time defending champions carrying a projected competitive-balance-tax payroll above $400 million, as central to baseball's recent growth. He argued a cap would undercut the type of organization driving the sport's popularity.

"Our game is in a great direction, in a great place, because of the Los Angeles Dodgers," Harper said. "Obviously they make a lot of money, they're able to get free agents, but the Dodgers don't just do that. They draft well. They do a very good job in the minors, developing guys. Other teams can't do that. You can spend all the money in the world, but you can have a terrible farm system and not have teams come up."

Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal, a back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner and member of the MLBPA's executive subcommittee, shared Harper's skepticism about the cap's stated rationale.

"I don't think it impacts what they think it impacts in terms of having an even playing field," Skubal told ESPN's Jesse Rogers on Friday. "I don't think that a salary cap does that by any means, so it didn't matter that the floor may have been higher than people thought, even though the ceiling is still kind of low. It doesn't matter what the numbers are, so to speak."

The league's opening cap figure stands at $245.3 million, with a floor of $171.2 million. Under those terms, 12 clubs would need to collectively add $617 million in payroll while eight teams would need to cut a combined $578 million. An escrow mechanism tied to the 50/50 revenue guarantee also drew concern. A comparable NBA system cost players nearly $500 million in a single year.

The last MLB salary cap push ended the 1994 season before a World Series was played. MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer raised that history in his formal response to ownership's proposal Thursday. Another work stoppage is widely expected within six months.

"It's just the first proposal," Harper said. "I don't want to miss games. I don't think anybody wants to miss games. I'm getting later in my career, I don't want to miss games. I would love to get this done, on a personal level, just because I don't want to do that, but we'll see."

Lee Mazzilli and Bobby Valentine, longtime friends, former roommates and New York Mets teammates who represent two different eras of the franchise, were still finishing each other's sentences when they were inducted into the team's Hall of Fame before Saturday's game against the Miami Marlins.

"When we were rooming together, we couldn't imagine us sitting in the room at nighttime and saying ..." Mazzilli said before Valentine interrupted him. 

"Because we never sat in the room at nighttime," Valentine said with a laugh.

Fernando Tatis Jr. finally connected for his first home run of the season -- and it was a blast.

Tatis slugged a 451-foot solo shot to left field in the fifth inning against Washington on Saturday, although the San Diego Padres went on to lose 9-4 to the Nationals. Tatis, who has five 20-homer seasons in his career and hit 42 in 2021, had not gone deep in 240 plate appearances before this game -- the longest drought in the major leagues.

He then singled in the first inning and struck out in the third before his fifth-inning drive off Foster Griffin gave San Diego a 3-1 lead.

"I just knew right away," Tatis said. "About f---ing time."

Chicago White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami is expected to miss four to six weeks with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain.

Manager Will Venable shared details on Murakami's injury and a revised timeline for the first baseman's absence from Chicago's lineup after the White Sox placed him on the 10-day injured list before Saturday's game with Detroit.

The last-place Mets are making a change to their pitching rotation, demoting David Peterson to the bullpen and replacing him with fellow left-hander Sean Manaea.

It's a promotion for Manaea, who has been used mainly in long relief and mop-up duty this season after signing a three-year, $75 million contract in December 2024.

The Dodgers have made a flurry of moves to remake their bench after injuries to starting outfielder Teoscar Hernández and utility man Kiké Hernández.

Teoscar Hernández went on the injured list with a left hamstring strain Friday. Earlier in the week, Kiké Hernández sustained a significant tear of his left oblique just two days into his season after he missed the first 53 games while rehabbing from left elbow surgery.

The Dodgers recalled infielder/outfielder Ryan Ward, signed infielder/outfielder Santiago Espinal and optioned infielder/outfielder Hyeseong Kim to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Chicago White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami exited Friday's game in the third inning due to right hamstring tightness. Murakami was legging out a possible double-play grounder hit to Detroit second baseman Zach McKinstry.

Murakami, signed out of Japan to a two-year deal over the offseason, began the day tied for the AL lead with 20 home runs and stands as a leading AL Rookie of the Year candidate.