CHICAGO — Minutes before Mark Buehrle’s statue dedication ceremony Friday in the right field concourse at White Sox Park, a ballpark employee with a cart containing four kegs of beer tried to make his way through the gridlocked crowd awaiting the unveiling.

He stopped when he reached an area reserved for members of the 2005 team, failing to...Read more

NEW YORK — Shota Imanaga never seems fazed by road environments.

Yankee Stadium became the latest site of the Chicago Cubs lefty’s dominance.

On the heels of Matthew Boyd’s eight shutout innings in Saturday’s win, Imanaga delivered another stellar performance from a Cubs starter by holding the New York Yankees to one run and two hits ...Read more

ATLANTA — Eight years after its opening, the Braves get to show off Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta to the baseball world.

Hosting Tuesday’s All-Star Game “puts us in a position of great pride and joy, because we now get to welcome the entire baseball world to town to see what we’ve built and what we’ve accomplished and let them ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins made Byron Buxton the second pick in the 2012 amateur draft, right after the Houston Astros selected Carlos Correa. Thirteen years later, Buxton is performing like the everyday superstar the Twins hoped he would be.

Because the big-league Twins were inept and Buxton was their primary reason for hope, starting...Read more

ST. LOUIS — On a soggy Sunday in downtown St. Louis that forced two rain delays and kept a sparse crowd of fans late enough at Busch Stadium to cheer on the Cardinals’ first-round selection in this year’s MLB draft, the Cardinals swung their way to a win before heading into the All-Star break.

A fifth-inning swing from Willson Contreras ...Read more

CHICAGO — Several first-half themes played out on Sunday for the Chicago White Sox.

There were mistakes, like pitcher Aaron Civale failing to cover first base on a potential ending-inning double play. That kept the sixth inning alive for the Cleveland Guardians, and Kyle Manzardo followed with a go-ahead three-run home run.

The Sox showed ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — For the first two games of the series, the Phillies could not figure out the Padres bullpen.

The six runs they’d scored across Friday and Saturday’s losses had all come against San Diego’s starters. But after Sunday starter Nick Pivetta walked off the mound with two outs in the seventh, the score tied at 1, the Phillies ...Read more

They’ve underperformed relative to preseason expectations, but worked around serious roster limitations.

They’ve wowed with an undefeated start, a high-scoring offense and a comfortable division lead. And yet, they’ve left so much to also be desired, both on the mound from their injury-plagued pitching staff and at the plate amid ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The New York Mets fell into a similar pattern over the weekend against the Kansas City Royals, failing to produce offense in the early or middle innings, falling behind before coming back late.

The comeback kids scored twice on closer Carlos Estevez in the ninth inning Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, tying the game going into ...Read more

NEW YORK — The Yankees failed to finish the first half with a bang.

In their final game before the All-Star break, the Yankees managed only two hits and three baserunners in a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday afternoon in the Bronx.

The Yankees (53-43) had few answers for crafty Cubs ace Shota Imanaga, who held them to one run over ...Read more

The Colorado Rockies limped into the All-Star break in an altogether fitting fashion.

Poor defense and a failure to deliver key hits, two characteristics that have plagued the club throughout its historically bad first half, again cost Colorado on Sunday in a 4-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.

The Reds, hanging on to ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — At long last, one of the worst road trips in Pittsburgh Pirates history is over. It ended with a win.

The Pirates lost the first eight games of their nine-game road trip, then beat the Minnesota Twins 2-1 in the finale Sunday afternoon at Target Field. The Pirates loaded the bases in the ninth off Twins closer Jhoan Duran, then ...Read more

DETROIT — Julio Rodríguez got it started. Jorge Polanco and Cole Young provided the final blows with a whole bunch of Randy Arozarena and one big swing from Mitch Garver in between.

The Seattle Mariners could not have asked for a better way to head into the All-Star break.

The Mariners clubbed five solo homers on their way to an 8-4 win ...Read more

BOSTON — The good times keep rolling for Ceddanne Rafaela and the Red Sox, who officially go into the All-Star break as the hottest team in baseball.

Rafaela delivered the exclamation mark again in Sunday’s 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, following his go-ahead knock on Thursday and his walk-off home run on Friday with a two-run shot in ...Read more

Almost immediately, Justin Turner could sense the bubbling frustration from Cal Raleigh.

A veteran slugger with a World Series ring and an NL Championship Series MVP on his résumé, Turner arrived in Seattle just before the trade deadline in July 2024 and quickly began to form a connection with the Mariners catcher.

They talked next to the ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The first half of the season concludes Sunday, and the Padres now have evidence for their professed faith that Jackson Merrill will return to being a significant contributor in the second half

With a game that was reminiscent of how he finished last season and began this one, Merrill blasted his way out of a slump with a pair of ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — While Cristopher Sánchez will not officially be a 2025 All-Star, he’s an All-Star in the eyes of the Phillies organization.

The team activated the bonus clause in his contract for an All-Star selection even though he was not named to the roster, Sánchez said Saturday. According to a report by the Athletic, he now earns an ...Read more

BOSTON — As rough as things have been going for the Tampa Bay Rays over the last couple of weeks, they have little margin for error.

Saturday, two plays didn’t work out for them for the slimmest of reasons. And that made a big difference in yet another loss —the 11th in their last 15 games — 1-0 to the red-hot Boston Red Sox.

The Rays,...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — For the second consecutive year, second-year starter Paul Skenes will start the MLB All-Star Game.

Skenes, 23, will start for the National League team on Tuesday in Atlanta. The decision was announced on Fox on Saturday evening.

Skenes was one of the two favorites to start the game, then became the overwhelming favorite when ...Read more

CHICAGO — From the No. 45 on the back of the mound to the number appearing on the sleeves of the Chicago White Sox uniforms, there have been several reminders of Bobby Jenks’ legacy at Rate Field.

The two-time All-Star pitcher died on July 4 in Sintra, Portugal, where he had been battling adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer. He was 44....Read more