Thursday's afternoon game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs can be described with two words: missed opportunities. Runners in scoring position not realized would be a problem for both the Cardianls and Cubs. Andre Pallante kept the Cubs relatively quiet, but would he get enough offensive support for a win? So many questions.
The St. Louis Cardinals were the first to score Thursday in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Lars Nootbaar and Masyn Winn drew one-out walks. That brought up Bryan Torres who singled to left scoring Nootbaar and giving the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead. That run would unfortunately be all St. Louis could manage in the bottom of the 2nd as Blaze Jordan and Nathan Church left runners in scoring position.
The Chicago Cubs tied the game in the top of the 4th inning when Alex Bregman slammed a one-out double. He would score when Lars Nootbaar forgot there was only one out when Ian Happ flew out to right allowing Bregman to score. File this under mistakes the St. Louis Cardinals cannot afford to make, but stuff happens and that tied the game at 1-1.
Both the Cardinals and Cubs would have opportunities to score in the middle innings, but no results until the top of the 7th inning when Dansby Swanson drew a one-out walk. That would end Andre Pallante's day. By the way, if you didn't see Masyn Winn's play in the top of the 7th inning on a ball to deep short, it might be his best play of the year so far.
George Soriano would enter the game and be greeted by Swanson stealing second base. After Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out (a moment all of Cardinals Nation enjoys), Suzuki walked followed by a two-out single by Michael Busch scoring Swanson and giving the Cubs a brief 2-1 lead. Very brief.

#inning #Chicago

It's another week here at BCB After Dark: the hippest hangout for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abraod. Come on in out of the heat. There's no cover charge. We promise not to trade you. We still have a few tables available. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last week I asked you which Angels' starter you'd rather the Cubs trade for: José Soriano or Reid Detmers? The vote was reasonably close, but a clear majority of 56 percent of you said you'd rather the Cubs acquire Soriano.
Here's the part where we listen to jazz and talk movies. You're free to skip ahead if you want. Or you're free to read whatever parts you want. It's your call.
Tonight I'm just not going to play around. Here's some classic John Coltrane playing "Impressions" with his quartet: McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums.

#soriano

During my tenure at Pinstripe Alley—hell, during my entire time as a baseball fan—I've never been shy about delving into the team's history and exploring the lives of its long roll call of players, both incredible and regrettable. We provide plenty of other coverage on the current-day activities of the teams, so I like having one spot per day on the schedule to open the ol' books and tell a story.
Whether it's remembering championship teams, Top 100 players, or notable free agent signings, there's always something out there to explore. For the past three years, we've celebrated the 25th anniversary of the 1998-2000 Yankees dynasty by doing a diary on all their regular season and playoff activity. The final pages were written this past October, so it's time for a new daily project.
With that in mind, we'll ring in the new year by beginning the Yankees Birthdays series. Every day in 2026, we'll have a new Yankees figure to discuss whose birthday happened to fall on that day. Some days will feature far more famous stars than others! But that just adds to the challenge and our interest in the exercise. As a spoiler for today, that's exactly what you'll see soon for January 1st.
Happy new year and happy 365 days of Yankees birthdays!
January 1: Charlie Devens
January 2: David Cone
January 3: Luis Sojo
January 4: George Selkirk
January 5: Art Fletcher
January 6: Don Gullett
January 7: Alfonso Soriano
January 8: Jason Giambi
January 9: Ralph Terry
January 10: Del Pratt
January 11: Loren Babe
January 12: Iván Nova
January 13: Darrell Rasner
January 14: Chet Brewer
January 15: Matt Holliday
January 16: Jack McDowell
January 17: Chili Davis
January 18: Michael Pineda
January 19: Fernando Seguignol
January 20: Kevin Maas
January 21: Andy Hawkins
January 22: Brian Dayett
January 23: Johnny Sturm
January 24: Neil Allen
January 25: Les Nunamaker
January 26: Brian Doyle
January 27: Fred Heimach
January 28: Lyn Lary
January 29: John Habyan
January 30: Hipólito Peña
January 31: Duke Maas

#brian #happy #time #teams

The Philadelphia Phillies have the 11th-best starting pitcher ERA in baseball this year, but that is being carried by the top of their rotation.
The team has a 7.33 ERA from its fifth rotation spot and is 5-20 in games not started by Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler, Jesús Luzardo or Aaron Nola. If they want to win the National League, they need another arm, and according to NBC Sports Philadelphia's Jim Salisbury, they know that.
"The Phillies are actively looking to trade for a back-end starting pitcher," wrote Salisbury on Monday. "If they can't pull off a deal before Saturday, they could bring up 32-year-old right-hander Brian Keller from Triple A. Keller has pitched in the Red Sox and Yankees organizations. He spent time in ****** an, had Tommy John surgery, and signed a minor-league deal with the Phillies in May. He has allowed just two runs in his last four starts while going six innings in three of them."
Luckily for the Phillies, there is no shortage of starting pitching available this summer. Freddy Peralta, Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano could all be on the move. However, if the Phillies are looking for a back-end starter, they may not be looking to overpay. They could target a team like the Seattle Mariners or Milwaukee Brewers, who may be willing to deal from their depth.
Looking for the perfect gift for a baseball player in your life? Check out our brand new baseball lifestyle brand!

#looking

Nationals' James Wood leading off with record-breaking power originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The MLB's All-Star break could end up inconveniencing James Wood. The streaking Washington Nationals' right fielder may be in line to experience Philadelphia's pomp and circumstance Monday and Tuesday, but it likely was tough halting the regular-season grind.
After establishing a franchise record with his 10th leadoff home run Sunday at Nationals Park, Wood continues to discover his power niche. All 28 of his franchise-best first-half homers have come while batting leadoff.
His homer off New York Yankees starter Will Warren snapped a franchise tie with Alfonso Soriano, who slammed 27 homers before the 2006 midseason break. Wood also broke the leadoff homer record that Soriano and Brad Wilkerson (2004) shared. Wood accomplished the feat after 97 starts.
Wood's 10 leadoff homers also matched the pre-All-Star Game mark established by Bobby Bonds (1973) and Mookie Betts (2023).

BALTIMORE — Pete Crow-Armstrong isn't showing any signs of cooling off at the plate.
Crow-Armstrong became the first hitter with at least 20 home runs and 20 steals in MLB this season when he went deep in the third inning to give the Chicago Cubs an early lead against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night at Camden Yards.
The 24-year-old center fielder took Orioles starter Dean Kremer out of the ballpark again in the fifth for his second mutlihomer game of the season. Seiya Suzuki added a three-run shot in a five-run seventh, and the Cubs held on for a 9-7 victory, their third straight and eighth in 10 games.
Crow-Armstrong is the first Cub with back-to-back 20-20 seasons since Sammy Sosa did it in three straight (1993-95) and the third with multiple such seasons (Sosa and Ryne Sandberg).
He accomplished the feat before the All-Star break for a second consecutive season. It again puts Crow-Armstrong in rare company as one of four players in MLB history to go 20-20 before their team's 95th game in a season after reaching the mark in 73 games last year and in the Cubs' 92nd game Wednesday. He joins Alfonso Soriano (2002-03, '06), Jose Canseco (1988, '98) and Bobby Bonds (1969, '73, '77).

Anaheim Angels @ Texas Rangers
Tuesday, July 07, 2026, 7:05 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / Rangers Sports Network)
The Shed
RHP Jose Soriano vs. RHP Jacob deGrom
ANGELS

Texas Rangers lineup for July 7, 2026 against the Anaheim Angels: starting pitchers are Jacob deGrom for the Rangers and Jose Soriano for the Angels.
Texas looks to rebound after losing the home series against the Tigers. Hopefully they are more Dennis Rodman than Doug Smith. Josh Jung, dealing with a sore knee, is sitting again.
The lineup:
Pederson — DH
Smith — 2B

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Yet again, the Los Angeles Angels boast one of the greatest baseball talents of the generation, Mike Trout. Once again, that same Mike Trout finds himself limited due to injuries, even as he puts together his best season since 2022. Once again, the Angels failed to put together a team capable of winning significant games around Trout, and without him, they are downright terrible. And once again, despite finding themselves far out of playoff contention, their owner Arte Moreno seems disinclined to permit his front office to be true sellers, declaring Reid Detmers, José Soriano, and Jo Adell off-limits.
The only one thing different this year? The team fired general manager Perry Minasian last week, hiring John Mozeliak as the interim for the remainder of the season.
Should the Angels decide to do the smart thing and begin tearing everything down, they do have some pieces that may be of interest to teams throughout the league, including the Yankees. The pitching staff in particular is filled with quality names. A pair of young starters in Detmers and Soriano should be able to bring back sizeable prospect hauls if the front office was able to convince ownership to shop them around, as they are under team control for another two seasons. While Soriano gathered attention with his otherworldly start to the season, posting a 0.84 ERA through his first seven starts, it is Detmers who would be the more highly sought pitcher. His 2.9 fWAR ranks fourth among starters this season, and his metrics suggest that he is underperforming his 3.88 ERA. Soriano, meanwhile, has come down to earth after his meteoric rise, with a 5.34 ERA across his last 11 starts.
With the Angels’ interim general manager inexplicably believing that the team doesn’t need a rebuild, merely a small retool (perhaps influenced by ownership?), it’s much more likely that the team will be more inclined to trade from their bullpen depth. They may not exactly have an elite bullpen — they began the year with Jordan Romano as their closer, after all — there are some arms that may interest the Yankees. Veteran reliever Kirby Yates has rebounded nicely from a disastrous 2025 with the Dodgers, even if he hasn’t recaptured the magic of his 2024 season as the Rangers’ closer. With a 34.2 strikeout percentage that ranks 11th among relievers with at least 10 innings of work (he has pitched 17 innings this season), he would provide some swing-and-miss that the Yankees’ bullpen desperately needs.
On the offensive side, Los Angeles does not really match up with the Yankees. Zach Neto would give the team an offensive boost at the shortstop position, as he has a 114 wRC+ this season; defensively, though, he has taken a step back — instead of Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average disagreeing on his performance (he had 13 DRS and -8 OAA last year), both stats are very low on him this year (-2 DRS, -8 OAA). Jo Adell gives the Yankees something they do

The all-time winningest UFC welterweight has his next opportunity to run up the score.
At UFC 330, Neil Magny returns once again, as he battles Ramiz Brahimaj in a three-round welterweight bout. The fight takes place at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. Heavy first reported the news Wednesday, with the UFC confirming shortly thereafter.
Also added to the card was a lightweight bout between Jalin Turner and Kaue Fernandes.
Magny (31-14 MMA, 24-13 UFC) had a two-fight winning streak snapped in his most recent appearance when he was quickly submitted by Yaroslav Amosov. The 38-year-old still can compete, though, with as many wins as losses since the start of 2022.
Brahimaj (13-6 MMA, 5-4 UFC) also looks to bounce back after a win-streak-ending loss. He defeated Mickey Gall, Billy Ray Goff, and Austin Vanderford before a unanimous decision loss to Puna Soriano in February.

Like a rollercoaster built by a particularly unimaginative person, tonight’s Mariners game was slow and boring for the first two-thirds, then suddenly rocketed into being fun late. By the time it was over the score was 8-3 and the Mariners offense had somehow not only blown past their former three-run-per-game cap (Rest in Pieces, hopefully never to be seen again), but managed to score all those runs without a homer for the first time in four years. For a team that’s built on on-base and slug, tonight was a lot of death by papercuts inflicted on the Angels bullpen, appropriately ending what’s been a weird June in a weird way – and yet also not, because with this win the Mariners end June at 13-14 for the month, the exact same way they ended June of 2025. Could this boring back-loaded rollercoaster metaphor bear out over the whole season? Reader, we shall see.
Bryan Woo turned in another solid start in what’s been a fairly uneven season for him so far, bobbing and weaving through some bad-luck BABIP hits and fielding miscues behind him; he didn’t have to deal with more than one baserunner until the fifth, when perpetual thorn in Mariners side Jo Adell reached on a throwing error from Colt Emerson and then Woo , maybe shaken, walked his next hitter, Josh Lowe, who is currently running a robust 4% walk rate. Woo rebounded to get out of trouble, getting three straight weakly-hit outs, and then roared through the sixth with a quick 1-2-3 inning against the top of the Angels lineup.
But the Mariners offense limped through those first five innings, tonight missing both Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone, both getting in an extra day of rest before tomorrow’s off-day. The Mariners couldn’t get anything going off Jose Soriano, putting him in a time machine and transporting him back to his early dominant days of the 2026 season despite some wandering command. Soriano struck out nine Mariners over five innings, as they chased after both cutters up and curveballs down, scattering just three hits across the first five frames.
The Mariners finally broke the deadlock in the sixth, finally stringing together some hits against Soriano, and we’re saying finally twice (thrice!) because that’s how finally it felt. Julio Rodríguez, leading off the inning, jumped on the first pitch he saw, a slider, for a single. Josh Naylor then worked a slightly longer at-bat before getting a fastball he could dump up the middle for a single of his own. The Mariners got their first run of the day – and the first run of the game – on a third consecutive single from Randy Arozarena, who took Soriano’s splitter and scorched it into left field, bringing in Julio from second easily.
That * explosion of offense * caused Angels manager Kurt Suzuki (curséd sentence) to call upon Chase Silseth, who sounds like if a Star Wars character went to a fancy boarding school, to face Cal Raleigh. It’s been a struggle for the Big Dumper, and while we would have loved to see a refreshing rainmaking Dum

SEATTLE (AP) — Julio Rodriguez had three hits and scored twice, Bryan Woo took a shutout into the seventh inning and the Seattle Mariners put together a five-run sixth on Tuesday night to beat the Los Angeles Angels 8-3.
Rodriguez and Colt Emerson both had three of Seattle’s 13 hits. Randy Arozarena and Cole Young scored two runs apiece.
Woo (7-6) allowed just four hits and struck out five in 6 1/3 innings. The Angels’ first two runs in their three-run seventh were charged to him after he gave way to reliever Eduard Bazardo. That ended Woo’s streak of home shutout innings at 32 1/3, which stretched over a span of five games dating to May 6 against Atlanta.
Michael Rucker pitched a scoreless eighth for the Mariners, and Andres Munoz set L.A. down in order in the ninth.
The Mariners batted around in the sixth, with their first five hitters reaching base on four hits and one walk. Rodriguez and Josh Naylor both singled, then Arozarena singled to score Rodriguez with the first run and chase Los Angeles starter Jose Soriano (8-5).

Kodai Sengadelivered another dud,Juan Soto left the game early because of back tightness and the Mets lost again, falling to the Cubs, 9-6, in front of 35,668 fans Tuesday night at Citi Field.
The Mets, who have lost three straight and allowed 30 runs over that span, are now 10 games below the .500 mark at 34-44. The Cubs are 41-37.
-The Mets' rotation woes continued as the Cubs scored five times in the second inning against Senga. The night had started very well for the beleaguered Mets' righty – he blazed through the first inning, retiring the side in order with two strikeouts and hitting as high as 98.9 miles per hour on the radar gun. It quickly unraveled, however. Senga walked the first hitter in the second inning, Seiya Suzuki, gave up a single toIan Happ and hit Matt Shaw with a pitch, loading the bases. One out later, Carson Kelly worked a walk in an eight-pitch at-bat, forcing in a run. After Dansby Swanson cracked a sac fly, Crow-Armstrong mashed his three-run homer for a 5-0 Cubs lead. Senga heard plenty of boos as he trudged off the mound when the inning was finally over.
-Walks have helped sap Senga's effectiveness all season – he entered the game having walked 6.4 per nine innings this season. Peep this to get an idea of how bad that is: José Soriano of the Angels has the worst walk rate among qualified pitchers (4.5), but it's nearly two walks fewer than Senga. Senga was not a good matchup for the Cubs, whose hitters owned MLB's highest walk rate entering the game, and he finished his brief outing with five walks and a hit batter.
-Senga threw 31 pitches in the second inning alone, which meant he was never going to pitch too deep into the game. He didn't, getting just 11 outs and leaving to more boos with two out and one on in the fourth inning and the Mets trailing, 7-2. In all, Senga allowed three hits and seven runs, including a two-run homer by Swanson, in 3.2 innings. He struck out six and threw 98 pitches (58 strikes). His season ERA ballooned to 10.08. In the two starts since he returned to the Met rotation, he's allowed 11 runs in 7.2 innings, a 12.91 ERA.

The A's came away with the first W in the first game of the series last night, riding a fantastic outing from their rookie starting pitcher to their 37th win of the season. They'll have a chance to **** p that number up a digit and get back to the .500 mark tonight. First they'll have to take care of business against their division rival, the Los Angeles Angels.
The team will turn to lefty Jeffrey Springs this evening, hoping the veteran can turn things around. It's been a rough June so far for Springs as he's allowed 15 runs over his past three starts.
Here's how the team will line up tonight:
Why make major changes after yesterday? It's the same batting order as last night, though with one change. Lawrence Butler returns to the starting nine, playing right field. That'll send Carlos Cortes to the DH spot and send Jonah Heim to the bench. Other than that, same lineup as yesterday. Let's hope for the same early result.
Los Angeles will counter with their ace in Jose Soriano. The right-hander, now in his fourth season, has dominated this year and will bring a 2.79 ERA into this contest. He's already successfully faced the A's once this year so they'll be hoping for some revenge tonight.

Cubs and Cardinals could battle off-field in trade for expected All-Star originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Entering the year, there was an expectation that the Chicago Cubs were going to be among the top teams not just in the National League Central, but all of baseball.
The Cubs, however, sit at 39-36, and are even 2.5 games behind the second-place St. Louis Cardinals. The Cubs are 7.5 games out in the Central behind the Brewers and five games out of a Wild Card spot.
Interestingly enough, there's a scenario where both teams could be in the mix for the same players, even if some would be surprised that the Cardinals are buyers.
According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, the Cubs and Cardinals could both be interested in Jose Soriano, the Los Angeles Angels right-hander who started the year as one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Entering the season, I would guess that Paul Toboni fully anticipated being sellers at the trade deadline. However, year one under this new regime has exceeded all expectations. The Nats are currently 39-36 and tied for the third wild card spot. This could create a conundrum for the Nats new President of Baseball Operations at the August 3rd trade deadline.
Yesterday, Jeff Passan released an article ranking trade candidates and also listed some potential suitors. There were 100 names on the list, but he only gave a suitor list for the first 25. The Nats were listed as a potential fit for Joe Ryan, Reid Detmers, Jose Soriano, Luis Arraez and Matt Chapman. With that news out there, this could turn out to be a very entertaining deadline.
The last time the Nats were buyers was all the way back in 2019, when Mike Rizzo patched up a leaky bullpen. Since then, the Nats have still been very active at trade deadlines, but they have been selling pieces off instead of buying.
We still have a long way to go before August 3rd, but the fact the Nats are listed as potential buyers is exciting. Unsurprisingly, almost all of the names listed as fits for the Nats have team control beyond 2026. The only rental listed is Luis Arraez, who seems like an unlikely target to me.
In my opinion, the cleanest fits for the Nats are either of the two Angels pitchers. Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano would both slide into the top of the Nats rotation alongside Cade Cavalli. Both have premium stuff and are under control for two years after this one. If the Nats want to maximize CJ Abrams, who is on the same timeline, these would be fun fits.

During my tenure at Pinstripe Alley—hell, during my entire time as a baseball fan—I’ve never been shy about delving into the team’s history and exploring the lives of its long roll call of players, both incredible and regrettable. We provide plenty of other coverage on the current-day activities of the teams, so I like having one spot per day on the schedule to open the ol’ books and tell a story.
Whether it’s remembering championship teams, Top 100 players, or notable free agent signings, there’s always something out there to explore. For the past three years, we’ve celebrated the 25th anniversary of the 1998-2000 Yankees dynasty by doing a diary on all their regular season and playoff activity. The final pages were written this past October, so it’s time for a new daily project.
With that in mind, we’ll ring in the new year by beginning the Yankees Birthdays series. Every day in 2026, we’ll have a new Yankees figure to discuss whose birthday happened to fall on that day. Some days will feature far more famous stars than others! But that just adds to the challenge and our interest in the exercise. As a spoiler for today, that’s exactly what you’ll see soon for January 1st.
Happy new year and happy 365 days of Yankees birthdays!
January 1: Charlie Devens
January 2: David Cone
January 3: Luis Sojo
January 4: George Selkirk
January 5: Art Fletcher
January 6: Don Gullett
January 7: Alfonso Soriano
January 8: Jason Giambi
January 9: Ralph Terry
January 10: Del Pratt
January 11: Loren Babe
January 12: Iván Nova
January 13: Darrell Rasner
January 14: Chet Brewer
January 15: Matt Holliday
January 16: Jack McDowell
January 17: Chili Davis
January 18: Michael Pineda
January 19: Fernando Seguignol
January 20: Kevin Maas
January 21: Andy Hawkins
January 22: Brian Dayett
January 23: Johnny Sturm
January 24: Neil Allen
January 25: Les Nunamaker
January 26: Brian Doyle
January 27: Fred Heimach
January 28: Lyn Lary
January 29: John Habyan
January 30: Hipólito Peña
January 31: Duke Maas

Angels' Jose Soriano trade rumor sets up sad news that fits the brand originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Los Angeles Angels clearly can't have nice things.
This season, they've proven to have one of the "nicest" starting pitchers in all of baseball: Jose Soriano. And they might consider trading him away.
MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger made the case as part of a new article on Sunday that Soriano might be the Angels' top trade candidate this summer.
Really? After he's been so good?

Dodgers on Deck: Saturday, February 21 at Angels

The first game of the spring for the Dodgers is finally here on Saturday afternoon, with a bus ride to Tempe to face the Angels at Diablo Stadium.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gets the start for the Cactus League lid-lifter (hat tip to Bill Plunkett), making what will be his only start before leaving next week to join ******* an for the World Baseball Classic. Shohei Ohtani will start at designated hitter in his earliest game action in spring since joining the Dodgers.
José Soriano will start on the mound for the Angels, who according to Jeff Fletche

Fewest games to 100+ home runs and 100+ SB, players to debut since 1900:

Eric Davis: 459
Ronald Acuña Jr.: 460
Mike Trout: 503
Darryl Strawberry: 516
Alfonso Soriano: 525
Alex Rodriguez: 532
Fernando Tatis Jr.: 547

h/t
EliasSports