What's on Tap: Previewing Tuesday's action - MLB

After weeks of rumors, the 9-28 Braves finally fired Fredi Gonzalez. The club’s poor performance isn’t Gonzalez’s fault, of course, but managers almost always fall on the sword in these situations. The Braves, who move into a new ballpark next year, are rebuilding and looking towards the future, so in reality, being the worst team in baseball isn’t exactly bad news since they’ll get the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft and accrue some extra bonus slot and international spending pool money.

Triple-A manager Brian Snitker has been promoted to fill Gonzalez’s shoes in the interim. Snitker served as the Braves’ third base coach from 2006-13, their bullpen coach in 1985 and 1988-90, and accrued managing experience with just about every team in the Braves’ minor league system, including Triple-A Gwinnett since the start of the 2014 season.

In his first major league rodeo, Snitker has already chosen to change things up. His lineup has Ender Inciarte leading off, followed by Nick Markakis, Freddie Freeman, A.J. Pierzynski, Gordon Beckham, Kelly Johnson, Daniel Castro, starter Aaron Blair, and Mallex Smith. Gonzalez hit the pitcher eighth a handful of times, but his most common lineup had Markakis leading off. Will the lineup change spark a change in the Braves’ fortunes? Probably not. That the Braves have hit 11 home runs and averaged 3.08 runs per game as a team, far below the respective league averages of 39 and 4.40, is a talent problem, not a lineup configuration problem.

Blair will be opposed by Pirates starter Juan Nicasio in a 7:05 PM EDT game at PNC Park tonight.

The rest of Tuesday’s action…

Cincinnati Reds (Alfredo Simon) @ Cleveland Indians (Danny Salazar), 6:10 PM EDT

Miami Marlins (Wei-Yin Chen) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Vince Velasquez), 7:05 PM EDT

Seattle Mariners (Wade Miley) @ Baltimore Orioles (Ubaldo Jimenez), 7:05 PM EDT

Tampa Bay Rays (Chris Archer) @ Toronto Blue Jays (Marcus Stroman), 7:07 PM EDT

Minnesota Twins (Phil Hughes) @ Detroit Tigers (Mike Pelfrey), 7:10 PM EDT

Washington Nationals (Max Scherzer) @ New York Mets (Noah Syndergaard), 7:10 PM EDT

Chicago Cubs (Kyle Hendricks) @ Milwaukee Brewers (Chase Anderson), 8:10 PM EDT

Houston Astros (Dallas Keuchel) @ Chicago White Sox (Carlos Rodon), 8:10 PM EDT

Boston Red Sox (Rick Porcello) @ Kansas City Royals (Yordano Ventura), 8:15 PM EDT

Colorado Rockies (Chad Bettis) @ St. Louis Cardinals (Jaime Garcia), 8:15 PM EDT

New York Yankees (Michael Pineda) @ Arizona Diamodnbacks (Zack Greinke), 9:40 PM EDT

Texas Rangers (Cole Hamels) @ Oakland Athletics (Jesse Hahn), 10:05 PM EDT

Los Angeles Angels (Jered Weaver) @ Los Angeles Dodgers (Clayton Kershaw), 10:10 PM EDT

San Francisco Giants (Madison Bumgarner) @ San Diego Padres (Colin Rea), 10:10 PM EDT

Follow @Baer_Bill

SEATTLE (AP) Aaron Judge homered for the third time in two games, Anthony Volpe and Greg Allen also went deep and the New York Yankees stretched their winning streak to four with a 10-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night.

Judge hit a towering fly ball on the first pitch of the seventh inning from reliever Darren McCaughan that carried just enough to clear the fence in left-center field, even if it would not have been a homer at Yankee Stadium.

It was the 18th of the season for Judge, who hit a pair of homers in the series opener on Monday night.

While Judge hitting another homer will get the headlines, it was Volpe’s long ball that broke open the game. With two outs in the third inning, Seattle starter Logan Gilbert caught too much of the plate with a 1-2 slider and Volpe drove the pitch 413 feet for a three-run shot and a 6-0 lead. It was Volpe’s eighth homer of the season and snapped a 2-for-22 slide for the rookie.

Allen, filling in for injured center fielder Harrison Bader, hit his first of the season leading off the fourth inning. Isiah Kiner-Falefa also had a key two-run single in the first inning as the Yankees took advantage of an error to give starter Nestor Cortes a 3-0 advantage before he took the mound.

Kiner-Falefa had another two-run single in the ninth. New York has scored at least 10 runs in three straight games for the first time since Sept. 15-17, 2020.

Cortes (5-2) mostly cruised through five innings, allowing two runs and five hits with six strikeouts. Ty France and Teoscar Hernández had RBI doubles in the fifth inning. Judge nearly stole another hit from Hernández after robbing him of a homer on Monday, but his diving attempt at Hernández’s liner fell for a double.

Gilbert (3-3) lasted just four innings for the second time this season. The five earned runs allowed were a season-high and the four strikeouts matched a season-low.

SEE YA LATER

Seattle catcher Tom Murphy and manager Scott Servais were both ejected by plate umpire Brian Walsh in the sixth inning. Murphy was ejected after yelling toward first base umpire C.B. Bucknor following a check-swing that was called a strike. Servais argued the decision to eject Murphy and was quickly tossed by Walsh. It was the second ejection this season for Servais.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Yankees: Bader (hamstring) was placed on the 10-day IL after leaving Monday’s game in the third inning injuring his right hamstring running out an infield single. OF Franchy Cordero was recalled.

Mariners: McCaughan was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma to add a long reliever to the bullpen. RHP Juan Then was optioned to Tacoma. It was Seattle’s first roster move in 24 days.

UP NEXT

Yankees: RHP Clarke Schmidt (2-5, 5.58) took the loss despite allowing only one earned run over five innings in his last start against Baltimore. Schmidt has gone at least five inning in five of his last seven starts.

Mariners: RHP George Kirby (5-4, 3.43) was knocked around for seven earned runs and four home runs allowed in his last start against Pittsburgh. Both matched career highs.

—

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports

What’s on Tap: Previewing Tuesday’s action

Aaron Judge hits 18th homer of season, Yankees beat Mariners 10-2