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NEW YORK — An overturned call at the plate in the eighth inning led to the latest loss in what has become the New York Yankees‘ worst season in decades.

The Yankees extended a losing streak to eight for the first time in 28 years, allowing Justin Turner‘s ninth-inning go-ahead double in a 6-5 defeat to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.

“We got to be unbelievable the rest of the way,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees dropped to 60-64 and fell nine games behind Seattle for the AL’s last wild card spot.

“We’re really scuffling.”

New York appeared to break a 5-5 tie in the eighth when Isiah Kiner-Falefa scored from first on rookie Anthony Volpe‘s single. Plate umpire Junior Valentine signaled safe, ruling Kiner-Falefa’s left foot got in ahead of Connor Wong‘s tag, but the call was reversed in a video review, which also upheld the catcher did not block the plate in violation of rules.

“I got the go sign, went in there,” Kiner-Falefa said. “I didn’t feel like I had a lane. I think the rule is if you’re catcher and you’ve over the foul line it’s considered blocking the bag right there. The ball did beat me but I didn’t feel like they had enough to overturn it.”

Kiner-Falefa took off from first right before Volpe made contact. He raced home after left fielder Rob Refsnyder slipped before making the throw to shortstop Trevor Story.

“From the get-go I thought he was out,” said Boston manager Alex Cora, who had been ejected two inning earlier for arguing a called third strike and watched the key play from the clubhouse. “I was wondering why Junior was waiting. He waited, waited to call him safe and I was like what is he doing.”

Swept in consecutive series by Atlanta and Boston, the Yankees have lost eight straight for the first time since Aug. 19-26, 1995, when Buck Showalter’s final team fell to 53-58 before finishing 26-7 to landing a wild-card spot. A year later, the Yankees won the World Series.

But those days seem long ago in The Bronx, especially after the season’s second sweep at the hand of the rival Red Sox.

“You always have a chance, but we’re in a big hole now,” Boone said. “But you can’t even get big-picture about it. You’ve just got tackle the next day. That’s what we’re in right now.”

New York, in danger of ending its streak of 30 consecutive winning seasons, is 24-39 since June 4 — the day after slugger Aaron Judge tore a ligament in his right big toe at Dodger Stadium.

“Every loss at this point is tough,” Volpe said.

Turner had four RBIs for Boston, which is 8-1 against the Yankees this year and has won seven in a row against New York.

“They just got the better of us,” Kiner-Falefa said. “I feel like they’re swinging the bats well. They have a good game plan pitching. They’re just better than us right now.”

With the score 5-5, Pablo Reyes singled off Clay Holmes (4-4) leading off the ninth and stole second, and Alex Verdugo walked. Turner doubled to the right-field warning track on a sinker.

“He’s a good hitter,” Cora said. “He’s a great a leader and I’m glad he’s playing for us.”

It was Turner’s first hit this season that gave the Red Sox a lead in the ninth or later and the 16th of his career. Turner is hitting .372 with runners in scoring position in his first year with Boston following a decade with the Dodgers and is batting .395 against the Yankees.

“That head a real playoff feel, especially in those last three innings the back and forth and the fans were into it,” Turner said. “It was good to get that win.”

The Red Sox swept a series in The Bronx for the second time in three seasons. Boston won for the eighth time in 11 games and remained three games behind Seattle.

Chris Martin (4-1) allowed two hits in a scoreless eighth, and Kenley Jansen got his 29th save in 32 chances. Greg Allen doubled leading off the ninth and DJ LeMahieu was hit by a pitch, but Jansen struck out Judge and Torres, then retired Ben Rortvedt on a flyout.

“For a decade long, I’ve seen Mr. Clutch do his thing,” said Jansen, Turner’s longtime Dodger teammate.

Rafael Devers homered in the first off Clarke Schmidt and scored on Volpe’s throwing error, but Kyle Higashioka and Gleyber Torres hit tying homers in the third and sixth off Nick Pivetta.

New York has been outscored 17-0 in the first two innings over its past five games.

“We’ve got to get a win,” Boone said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Stanton won’t blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

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Stanton won't blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.

Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.

“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”

Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”

He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.

“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”

While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.

Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells were among the Yankees who used torpedo bats during their season-opening sweep of the Brewers.

Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.

Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.

“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”

Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.

“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.

“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”

As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.

“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”

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Rangers’ Eovaldi gets season’s 1st complete game

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Rangers' Eovaldi gets season's 1st complete game

CINCINNATI — Nathan Eovaldi pitched a four-hitter for the majors’ first complete game of the season, and the Texas Rangers blanked the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 on Tuesday night.

Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.

It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.

“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”

In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.

“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”

The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.

“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”

Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.

“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”

Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.

The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: USC flips Ducks’ Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

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Source: USC flips Ducks' Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.

Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.

Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).

The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.

Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.

Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.

Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.

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