Toss out Wednesday night’s results. Michael Lorenzen believes he can pitch at Coors Field. His manager thinks so too.

The box score said otherwise: Over five innings, the Mets had 11 hits off the Rockies’ right-hander, leading to seven runs as the Mets cruised to a 10-5 win.

The announced crowd at Coors was 11,155 on a night when the ...Read more

PHOENIX — Paul Skenes was brilliant. The Pirates needed him to be.

Skenes allowed just two baserunners, both fifth-inning singles, in eight scoreless innings to lead the Pirates to a 1-0 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night at Chase Field. Brandon Lowe’s first-inning homer, two batters into the game, was the only run that...Read more

For someone who didn’t go on a rehab assignment before coming off the injured list, Sonny Gray had a pretty good first game back.

So did the Boston Red Sox, who pulled off a 4-0 win to complete their first series sweep of the season.

Wednesday marked Gray’s first start since April 20, when he exited the Marathon Monday morning game, also a...Read more

NEW YORK — With a 2.39 ERA and the seventh-highest strikeout rate in the majors, Will Warren had quietly been one of baseball’s better pitchers over his first seven starts of the season.

Wednesday’s outing left a different impression, though, as Warren surrendered six earned runs over four innings in the Yankees’ 6-1 loss to the Texas ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals were locked in another tight game Wednesday night against the Cleveland Guardians at Kauffman Stadium.

This time, the club fell a little short.

The Royals fell 3-1 to snap their five-game winning streak. And the loss stung in multiple ways.

Royals starter Cole Ragans left early due to left tricep ...Read more

MIAMI — The first inning of the Orioles’ game Wednesday was a wash.

Pete Alonso got things started with a three-run home run, extending his hitting streak to seven games with his seventh long ball of the season. The Miami Marlins answered right back with three runs off Orioles starter Brandon Young, all scored with two outs.

The teams ...Read more

Bailey Ober breezed through the first three innings in 35 pitches Wednesday night without allowing any baserunners during his first time navigating the Washington Nationals lineup.

Ober was nowhere near as effective the second or third time he faced each Nationals batter. He surrendered a season-high five runs in five innings, and no Twins ...Read more

DETROIT — Tigers starting pitcher Framber Valdez received a five-game suspension and an undisclosed fine from Major League Baseball on Wednesday for throwing at Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story on Tuesday night.

Valdez will miss a start with the suspension — it will begin Wednesday, unless Valdez decides to appeal — just as the Tigers' ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — The Padres found a way again.

Ty France found a way.

Sent to the plate as a pinch hitter with two outs in the seventh inning with one strike against him, France worked the count full and then lofted the seventh pitch he saw down the right-field line.

As the ball fell, right fielder Jesus Rodriguez dove to try to make what ...Read more

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels took another small step toward respectability on Wednesday.

After snapping their seven-game losing streak on Saturday night, they can now boast a two-game winning “streak.”

Right-hander Walbert Ureña pitched six innings and the recently quiet offense came to life as the Angels beat the Chicago ...Read more

SEATTLE — Can’t figure these Seattle Mariners out? You aren’t alone.

They went 5-1 on the previous road trip coming into this homestand, seemingly having righted many of the wrongs in the suboptimal start to their season.

Then they got swept by a middling-Kansas City Royals team in a three-game series over the weekend at a packed T-...Read more

CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs ran into another obstacle in their injury-plagued season Wednesday, placing Matthew Boyd on the 15-day injured list with a torn meniscus in his left knee.

Boyd will require surgery, and his timetable for a return is unknown. Manager Craig Counsell said Boyd suffered the injury while playing with his children, ...Read more

HOUSTON — Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow paused after a warmup pitch ahead of the bottom of the second inning and shouted in frustration. He motioned to the dugout.

Glasnow threw just one inning in the Dodgers’ 11-2 rout of the Houston Astros on Wednesday before exiting with what the Dodgers said was lower back pain.

Glasnow (2.72 ERA)...Read more

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — As Shane McClanahan has pitched increasingly better in his return from 2 1/2 missed seasons due to arm issues, he usually says he feels like he is getting closer to his pre-injury form.

He certainly looked that way Wednesday afternoon, working 5 2/3 shutout innings — in his third straight scoreless outing — while ...Read more

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis Cardinals offense that has found ways to grind out at-bats and keep its lineup moving to produce runs in timely moments could not find traction Wednesday against the Milwaukee Brewers, even after it looked like it might get rolling early to chip away at a four-run deficit.

Down 4-0 in the bottom of the first inning ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Chris Clarke had gone the traditional route, pitching for three years at USC after starring at Newbury Park High in Thousand Oaks, Calif., then toiling for six more seasons in the Chicago Cubs minor league system after being a fourth-round draft pick in 2019.

But his big league dream abruptly became a wake-up call last August ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO — The scuffling Padres came to the Bay Area this week to play the skidding Giants.

Their hosts had just returned from a road trip in which they lost all six games they played, and they made a bunch of roster moves on Monday to try to shake up their last-place club.

It worked for the Giants, who won the series opener.

Before ...Read more

A troubling trend returned for Andrés Muñoz in the ninth inning Tuesday night, and the closer’s struggles could not come at a worse time for the Mariners and their battered bullpen.

Atlanta’s Matt Olson, a longtime Mariners tormentor, crushed a 412-foot home run off Muñoz into the beer garden beyond the center-field fence to give the ...Read more