Brett Phillips played his unexpected pitching appearance Friday night to the hilt. The Rays backup outfielder was tapped to work the bottom of the eighth inning after the Blue Jays had put up double-digit runs on Tampa Bay’s real pitchers. Phillips, he of the infectious smile and laugh (just Google “Brett Phillips laugh”), made sure to have maximum fun with […]

Baseball history in 2021 comes in the form of a big, fat, zero. That’s because, through this point in the MLB season, there have been seven no-hitters thrown, which has baseball poised to shatter the record most thrown in a season. While plenty of teams and pitchers are happy to etch their names into history books, Cleveland, the Mariners and […]

It didn't take long for Major League Baseball's crackdown on pitchers using illegal substances to go from orderly to exasperating. At least in the eyes of Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer. After enduring a starting pitcher's two mandatory between-innings checks of his hat, glove and belt, the three-time Cy Young award winner reacted angrily when the umpiring crew stopped play in […]

Major League Baseball announced Wednesday that former New York Mets general manager Jared Porter has been placed on the ineligible list through at least the end of the 2022 season. “My office has completed its investigation into alleged inappropriate conduct by Jared Porter. Having reviewed all of the available evidence, I have concluded that Mr. Porter violated MLB’s policies, and […]

Senior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com Analyst/reporter ESPN television Author of “The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty” Baseball’s rule against the use of foreign substances has been buried for decades underneath a gentlemen’s agreement that held among managers, who almost uniformly refused to ask umpires to check opposing pitchers because they knew that their own pitchers would not be checked. But […]

Covers MLB for ESPN.com Former deputy editor of Page 2 Been with ESPN.com since 1995 Shohei Ohtani, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr. are heading to their first All-Star Game — as starters. The three headline stars of 2021 dominated the second phase of fan voting at their respective positions to earn starting spots for the 91st All-Star Game […]

Joined ESPN in 2016 to cover the Los Angeles Rams Previously covered the Angels for MLB.com Trevor Bauer, embroiled in controversy in the wake of a sexual assault allegation, is still on track to make his next scheduled start on Sunday, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. That start will come in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, on the […]

ARLINGTON, Texas — The search is on by major league umpires for sticky stuff that pitchers might use to doctor baseballs. What has long been against the rules but rarely enforced is being overlooked no more. The crackdown began Monday when major and minor league umpires started regular checks of all pitchers for tacky substances used to get a better […]

Not even the best pitcher in MLB is immune from the league’s new rule mandating umpires check for illegal sticky substances on pitchers’ persons. And, it appears, the umpires are very thorough in checking for said substances. Case in point: This video of Mets ace Jacob deGrom unbuckling his belt ahead of the Braves doubleheader — you know, on the […]

Baseball changed in June. Just how much it has changed will play itself out in the coming weeks and months, but the enforcement of the game’s foreign-substance rule already has had a massive effect on the on-field product, and the reverberations aren’t likely to go away any time soon. To understand why, it’s important to focus on the numbers across […]