Pirates Fan Falls from Right Field Bleachers at PNC Park, Transported to Hospital
Scott Polacek
Apr 30, 2025
The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Chicago Cubs 4-3 in Wednesday's game, but attention was on far more than the final score after a fan fell from the right-field bleachers during the contest.
The Pirates released a statement revealing the fan was taken to the hospital.
"Tonight, during the seventh inning of the game at PNC Park, an adult male fell from the right field bleachers onto the field of play," the statement said.
"Pittsburgh EMS, as well as the Pirates and Cubs athletic training teams and other PNC Park personnel reacted and responded immediately and administered care. He was transported to Allegheny General Hospital. No further information is available at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family."
Ad Placeholder
The right-field wall in Pittsburgh is 21 feet high and known as the Clemente Wall in honor of Pirates legend Roberto Clemente, who wore No. 21 during his playing career.
According to the Associated Press, players started waving for medical personnel as soon as it happened with the man lying on the warning track.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton and Cubs manager Craig Counsell alerted the umpire crew to what was happening.
Ad Placeholder
"Even though it’s 350 feet away or whatever it is, I mean the fact of how it went down and then laying motionless while the play is going on, I mean Craig saw it, I saw it. We both got out there," Shelton said, per the Associated Press. "I think the umpires saw it because of the way it kicked. It's extremely unfortunate. That’s an understatement."
Wednesday was the second game of a three-game series between the National League Central rivals.
They finish their series Thursday at 12:35 p.m. ET.
Angels' Mike Trout Says He's Feeling Better After Exiting Game with Knee Injury
Scott Polacek
Apr 30, 2025
It seems like Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout avoided a serious injury despite leaving Wednesday's 9-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners early with a knee injury.
Trout told reporters after the game he was already feeling better after undergoing tests and plans on playing in Thursday's contest.
Manager Ron Washington told reporters the team took Trout out as a precaution because he felt some soreness in his left knee.
Trout appeared to suffer the injury when running to first base in the top of the third inning. He took the field for the bottom half of the frame but was replaced by Jo Adell when his spot came up in the order again in the top of the fourth.
Ad Placeholder
Los Angeles returns home to face the Detroit Tigers on Thursday when he hopes to be back in the lineup.
Any injury to the three-time MVP is going to cause some concern seeing how he has reached the 100-game mark just once since the 2019 campaign. He appeared in 29 games last season, 82 games in 2023 and 36 games in 2021 as various ailments have forced him to miss time.
Ad Placeholder
Trout is also off to a difficult start in 2025 with a .173/.261/.462 slash line, although he has shown plenty of power with nine home runs in his first 28 games. His track record suggests he will improve the batting average and other statistics as the season progresses, especially if he is able to stay healthy.
The future Hall of Famer is one of the best players of his generation with a resume that includes three American League MVPs, an AL Rookie of the Year, 11 All-Star selections and nine Silver Sluggers.
The only thing missing from his list of accomplishments is significant playoff success, and the Angels will have to turn things around if that is going to change in 2025.
Los Angeles is in last place in the AL West at 12-17 and has lost five straight games after Wednesday's defeat.
Marlins Unveil New 'Retrowave' City Connect Uniforms, '305' Hats in Video, Photos
Adam Wells
Apr 30, 2025
The Miami Marlins are the latest MLB team to unveil their new City Connect uniforms for the 2025 season.
In a video unveiling the uniforms, the Marlins tout their new look as a blend of the franchise's past, present and future, as well as honoring the diverse cultures within the city of Miami.
Past, present, and future–the love for beísbol and the mix of cultures create a rhythm that's loud and proud. pic.twitter.com/Ll1ejaKuqE
This marks the second City Connect uniform for the Marlins. The first one, which debuted in 2021, paid tribute to the Cuban Sugar Kings, a Triple-A affiliate for the Cincinnati Reds from 1954 to '60.
Ad Placeholder
Miami's new City Connects are described as a "Retrowave" that honors the organization's history in the city, while also looking ahead to the future.
"Our new Retrowave uniform combines the Marlins’ rich history with an innovative, forward-thinking approach that mirrors our organization’s trajectory," Marlins president of business operations Caroline O’Connor said. "We aimed to celebrate our club’s storied past and special moments made in the teal, while looking forward to a bright future, all woven in a style that embodies the spirit of South Florida."
Ad Placeholder
The Marlins are the sixth team that has debuted an updated City Connect uniform so far this season. They join a group that includes the Houston Astros, Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox.
Teams are allowed to cycle in new City Connect jerseys every three years as part of MLB's agreement with Nike. The Marlins are one of seven teams that will have released two versions, with the Los Angeles Dodgers being the first one to do so last season.
Ad Placeholder
The only teams that do not have a City Connect uniform are the New York Yankees and Athletics. The Yankees only recently allowed players to have facial hair, so it's probably going to be a long time before they agree to make any changes to their uniforms.
The A's don't really have a city right now, making it difficult to have a City Connect uniform. They are playing home games in Sacramento for at least the next three seasons with the goal of moving to Las Vegas for the 2028 season.
Miami will wear its new City Connect uniforms for every Saturday home game the rest of this season starting this week.
Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani Talks Hitting 1st MLB HR Since Birth of Daughter vs. Pirates
Adam Wells
Apr 30, 2025
Tuesday marked a milestone moment for Shohei Ohtani, who hit his first home run since becoming a father in the Los Angeles Dodgers' 15-2 victory over the Miami Marlins.
Ohtani told reporters about the feeling of hitting that homer since his wife, Mamiko, gave birth to the couple's first child on April 19.
"It was a good home run to get back on the board for this game," Ohtani said through an interpreter. ""I haven't hit one since being a father, so it's a really nice one to be able to do that."
The home run was a laser off Sandy Alcántara to leadoff the bottom of the first inning on the first pitch he saw.
Ohtani announced the birth of his daughter in a post on Instagram, writing that he is "grateful to my loving wife" and "to my daughter, thank you for making us very nervous yet super anxious parents."
During his postgame press conference on Tuesday, Ohtani said his routine has had to change since the birth of his daughter but things have been okay so far because the Dodgers are in the midst of a six-game homestand.
Ad Placeholder
"A little change in the routine in terms of, for example today I went to the hospital and came straight to the field. Just being here at home is nice to be able to spend time, but on the road, it's going to be a little bit of a challenge since I won't be here. But I'm just grateful for the safe delivery. I'm glad that even though I couldn't sleep as much as I wanted to, it's a good kind of not-getting-enough-sleep situation."
Ohtani missed three games on the paternity list from April 17-19 before returning to the lineup on April 20 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had a brief slump upon returning, hitting .125/.222/.125 in just 18 plate appearances in his first four games back.
Things have been back to normal since April 26. Ohtani is hitting .467/.600/1.000 with five extra-base hits in 20 plate appearances. The Dodgers have won four straight games, moving back into first place in the NL West with a 20-10 record.
After Wednesday's series finale against the Marlins, Los Angeles will begin a 10-game road trip starting on Friday in Atlanta. It's the longest road trip of the season for the defending World Series champs.
MLB's Growing Crisis with Shutdown Closers
Zachary D. Rymer
Apr 30, 2025
Devin Williams
If not even Emmanuel Clase and Devin Williams can do it, then how the heck is anyone supposed to hold down a job as a closer in MLB?
This is a deliberately provocative question, but it's fair to ask it right now. At least one of those two is out of a job, after all, as the New York Yankees officially relieved Williams of his closing duties over the weekend.
It may only be temporary, but it's deserved after the erstwhile National League Rookie of the Year and All-Star posted an ugly 11.25 ERA through his first 10 appearances.
Ad Placeholder
Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the Guardians are ostensibly sticking with Clase as their closer despite his own ugly ERA (6.57) through 13 appearances. Yet it seems that his training wheels have been reattached, as he had a recent outing that saw him pitch the eighth inning in lieu of the ninth.
In the meantime, that Clase and Williams have fallen from grace is not in dispute. And as elite closers go, they're merely the latest casualties.
2025 Is Turning into a Graveyard for Closers
Before we proceed, let's take a minute to appreciate Josh Hader and Kenley Jansen.
Ad Placeholder
Hader's effectiveness has remained relatively consistent since his debut in 2017. He's pitched under his career ERA of 2.67 in six of his nine seasons, including with a 1.80 ERA for the Houston Astros so far in 2025. He got his 200th save on Opening Day.
As for Jansen, he's the active career leader with 453 saves and he's still going strong at 37 years old. He has six saves through eight scoreless appearances for the Los Angeles Angels.
Apart from them, though, this season has been a veritable bloodbath for closers.
Ad Placeholder
Even Williams and Clase weren't embarrassed quite like two-time All-Star David Bednar, who got demoted to the minors by the Pittsburgh Pirates a couple of days into the season. The NL Central is also home to two other struggling closers in Ryan Helsley and Alexis Díaz, though, to call Díaz a closer is a kindness. The job isn't exactly his right now.
His older brother, Edwin Díaz, still doesn't resemble the guy who earned a nine-figure deal with the New York Mets in 2022. He has a modest 3.70 ERA in 66 appearances since last year's return from knee surgery, with more home runs (nine) than he allowed between 2020 and 2022 (eight).
Otherwise, Craig Kimbrel is slumming it in the Atlanta Braves' minor league system, where he can look up and see Raisel Iglesias with a 5.73 ERA and more homers than he allowed in all of 2024. Also in the NL East, Jordan Romano's comeback attempt has been hindered by a 12.19 ERA for the Philadelphia Phillies.
The individual stories of failure here contain many issues.
On Clase and Williams, the former's cutter has lost velocity and the latter's changeup is suffering from overexposure at a 54.1 percent usage clip. It's a lesson that, despite what we learned from Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, one great pitch does not necessarily guarantee lasting success as a closer.
The broader implication of all this, though, is that it's getting harder to be a closer. And there is some truth to that.
Closers Have Always Been Volatile. It's Getting Worse
Even if one assumes that any pitcher can close games, being an effective closer on a year-to-year basis has always been exceedingly difficult.
Here's how many pitchers have ever had one 20-save season compared to how many have had two or more:
One 20-Save Season: 370
Two 20-Save Seasons: 214
Three 20-Save Seasons: 147
Four 20-Save Seasons: 86
Five-plus 20-Save Seasons: 61
Ten-Plus 20-Save Seasons: 14
The obvious caveat is that the saves are a bit of a bogus stat, but they still offer the most direct path to prominence for relief pitchers. There are indeed better ways to evaluate relievers, but nothing allows guys to stick in people's memories quite like being the one who gets the last out.
In any case, diminishing returns like those make it no wonder that only nine relievers are in the Hall of Fame. One also wonders how much, if at all, those ranks will grow going forward.
Jansen may have a shot, but the rate at which individual closers have been racking up saves is falling. Major League Baseball reached its peak when 29 different pitchers recorded 20 or more saves in 2010. There have been no more than 23 such pitchers annually since 2016, and as few as 18 in 2022.
Ad Placeholder
You'd think injuries were taking a toll, and you'd be right. Using data pulled from FanGraphs, relief pitchers spent a total of 16,481 days on the injured list in 2024. That was the most of any position.
If that is one reason for churn at the closer position, it is notable that Trevor Megill saved 21 games for the Milwaukee Brewers, while Williams spent the first half of 2024 on the IL. Another factor is that teams have fewer excuses to be patient with a struggling closer.
When closers had that all-time season in 2010, 22 qualified relievers averaged 95-plus mph on the fastball. In 2024, 88 did. More broadly, the swing-and-miss rate for relievers is up two percentage points since then.
Ad Placeholder
It isn't much of an exaggeration to say that every modern reliever has closer-caliber stuff. In practice, this gives teams greater flexibility to consider alternative closing options when necessary.
In the case of the Yankees and Guardians, why stick with Williams and Clase when Luke Weaver and Cade Smith, respectively, are right there?
Enjoy the Best Closers in MLB While You Can
Even if closers are becoming more interchangeable, there remains one constant among the turnover: At any given time, some closers are simply better than the rest.
Though the list surely would have looked much different as recently as a couple weeks ago, here's how we'd rank the top five closers in MLB right now:
Mason Miller, Athletics
Robert Suarez, San Diego Padres
Andrés Muñoz, Seattle Mariners
Josh Hader, Houston Astros
Tanner Scott, Los Angeles Dodgers
Miller is an easy call for the top spot, and not solely because we're suckers for 104 mph fastballs. He had the best expected statistics of any pitcher in 2024, and his 2025 work consists of 22 strikeouts against six hits and two walks in 11 innings.
Suarez and Muñoz are each a perfect 11-for-11 in save opportunities in 2025, combining to allow one earned run in 28 innings. The former's fastball is one of the best pitches in MLB, and the latter can say the same of his slider.
For his part, Scott is something of a proto-Hader as a lefty who leans heavily on a deceptive, high-velocity fastball with a tight slider. He's allowed just 112 hits since the start of 2023, and this year he has yet to walk anyone through 15 innings.
Of course, given all we've talked about to this point, even bothering to make a list like this is either an act of courage or an act of stupidity. It is going to change. Probably drastically, and likely sooner rather than later.
Such is life with a job that many want and so few can actually keep.
Steve Cohen 'Not Worried' About Juan Soto's Slow Start After $765M Mets Contract
Andrew Peters
Apr 29, 2025
Juan Soto agreed to a record 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets this offseason, but the star hasn't exactly lived up to the lofty expectations that came with the deal so far.
Despite a slow start to the year, Mets owner Steve Cohen said he's not concerned with Soto's production.
"I'm not worried about Juan," Cohen said, per SNY's Danny Abriano. "He's singularly focused on baseball. He's a pure hitter. Let's have this discussion at the end of the year."
Through 29 games, Soto has hit just three home runs, 12 RBI and has a .257 batting average and .787 OPS. Those numbers follow a career year for Soto in which he hit 41 homers, 109 RBI and had a .288 average and .989 OPS with the New York Yankees.
While his numbers aren't quite cause for concern just yet, Soto will need to start finding more production soon to remind fans why the Mets gave him a historic deal.
He's shown some signs of life recently, picking up two hits and a double on Sunday before doing the same on Monday in a 19-5 win over the Washington Nationals. He'll look to use those two performances as momentum heading into a series against the Arizona Diamondbacks this week.
Paul Skenes Downplays Injury Risks, Says 'Nobody in the Big Leagues Has My Stuff'
Adam Wells
Apr 29, 2025
Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes understands the injury risks that come with pitching, but it's not something he spends much time thinking about.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci, Skenes said "nobody in the big leagues has my stuff" and explained his approach to staying healthy is to study what the most durable pitchers from this generation have done and hope that future generations can look at him as an example.
"Yeah, that’s the goal," Skenes said. "Nobody in the big leagues has my stuff. We’re writing our own book. Because I’ve tried it the other way. It doesn’t work. It’s my game out there. There is no model for me."
Ad Placeholder
Pitcher injuries are one of the biggest concerns facing all 30 MLB teams. A 2024 study conducted by MLB in which over 200 experts from all levels of baseball were interviewed found that the primary driving force of injuries is chasing max velocity and "stuff" quality.
The study found that both injured list placements and days missed on the injured list for pitchers have more than doubled from 2005 to '24. One interesting element was that most of the injuries spike in March during spring training.
Ad Placeholder
Skenes told Verducci he didn't read the MLB study, in part because he's more interested in learning what the non-injured players were doing. He did cite Gerrit Cole as one example of reliability, though Verducci noted that comment came three days before the New York Yankees right-hander got Tommy John surgery.
Ad Placeholder
"I’m trying to know more than anybody else," Skenes added. "There is an element of chance to it. There’s also an element to do everything you can and know your body. And I think that a lot of people they just don’t know what they don’t know. I’m trying to be the first guy to do these things, right?"
It's extremely rare now to find any pitcher, let alone a top one, who hasn't had Tommy John surgery. Justin Verlander made it 17 years in the big leagues before having it in 2021, which seems like a miracle in hindsight.
Ad Placeholder
Cole played 12 full seasons before his elbow blew out in spring training. Shohei Ohtani, Sandy Alcántara, Jacob deGrom, Tyler Glasnow, Shane Bieber, Spencer Strider, Chris Sale and Luis Severino are among the pitchers who have had Tommy John surgery within the last five years.
Skenes isn't throwing his fastball as hard as he did last year with an average velocity of 98.0 mph (down from 98.8 mph in 2024). His sinker is up nearly three miles per hour compared to last season (96.9 to 94.0).
Given how out of the blue these significant injuries to pitcher elbow's seem to be, there's no way to predict if it might happen. You just hope that they are doing everything possible to prepare their arm for the strain of throwing at max effort and things work out okay.
Things have been just fine for Skenes so far with a 2.39 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 37.2 innings in six starts for the Pirates this season.
