This was not a typical Memorial Day weekend. Chilly and rainy weather across much of the USA made it seem more like late fall than the unofficial kickoff of summer.  The oddities extended to the baseball diamond on Sunday … with some interesting occurrences that you don't see every day.  Chicago White Sox outfielder Billy Hamilton is not known as a power hitter […]

MLB is expected to investigate the arrest of Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna on domestic violence charges, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported. Ozuna was arrested Saturday in Sandy Springs, Ga., an Atlanta suburb. He was booked into Fulton County Jail and charged with aggravated assault by strangulation and battery, according to jail records and a press release by the Sandy Springs Police Department. The aggravated […]

After saying pitcher Mike Soroka would be out for the season, Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker backtracked later Friday on his prognosis for the right-hander, who still has yet to return from a torn right Achilles tendon. “I messed up earlier. I was wrong,” Snitker told reporters after he told MLB Network earlier in the day that Soroka was “down […]

Baseball fans know how important Shohei Ohtani is to the game right now, pitching and hitting at a level that hasn't been seen since Babe Ruth.  So when he was scratched from his scheduled start on the mound Thursday night against the Oakland A's, alarm bells started going off. It shouldn't come as a surprise, considering how much concern there […]

Denver Post sports writer Patrick Saunders with the latest installment of his Rockies Mailbag. Pose a Rockies — or MLB — related question for the Rockies Mailbag. Hi, Patrick. I know the Rockies will be sellers at the trade deadline but do you think there is any way that they will look to acquire relievers with multiple years of control? It’s […]

They call him El Mago, but this wasn't magic from Javy Báez as much as it was comically bad fielding by the Pittsburgh Pirates.  In Thursday afternoon's Cubs-Pirates game, Báez, Chicago's shortstop fooled Pittsburgh first baseman Will Craig into delaying a tag on a fielder's choice that would've ended the third inning.  It started when Báez launched a grounder to Pirates third baseman Erik […]

CHICAGO — Giovanny Gallegos got into a sticky situation with the St. Louis Cardinals clinging to a one-run lead and two on in the seventh inning. It quickly became a heated one. Umpire Joe West ordered Gallegos to switch caps because apparently there was sunscreen on the bill. Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, thinking his player was unfairly singled out, got […]

NEW YORK — Yankees right-hander Corey Kluber is expected to miss at least two months with a right shoulder injury and first baseman Luke Voit is also headed to the injured list with a right oblique strain. New York manager Aaron Boone announced the diagnoses Wednesday shortly after the Yankees’ scheduled game against the Toronto Blue Jays was postponed due […]

Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com. CHICAGO — Joe West broke the record for most games umpired in the history of Major League Baseball as soon as the Chicago White Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals game was official after five innings on Tuesday night. West, 68, umpired his 5,376th regular-season game, one more than […]

CHICAGO – Ah, nothing like the life of an umpire. Here is Joe West, on the greatest and emotional night of his career, breaking the all-time record with his 5,376th game as an umpire Tuesday, and the moment he steps onto the field before the St. Louis Cardinals-Chicago White Sox game, he’s lustily booed. “Well, what did you expect?’’ says […]