Mike McCann's Field of Fotos

Is Miguel Andujar finally claiming a place in the Yankees outfield? Battling Clint Frazier for a regular job, his bat sparkled again Tuesday night, with three hits, including a homer and a sharp double to left field in an 11-5 win over the Angels. While his defense can kindly be called "a work in progress," the former 3rd baseman hits the ball as hard as anyone not named Judge, Stanton and Sanchez. Strike at the knees. Here's Luis Guillorme of the Mets taking a called K from Aaron Nola. It was part of the Phillies ace's record-tying streak of 10 consecutive strikeouts. Mets reliever Miguel Castro keeping Travis Jankowski close to 1st base. A wide shot of Citi Field taken from just behind the 300-level seats. Dilson Herrera is almost the poster child for Four-A players. A really good minor league hitter who has never shown enough in the majors, I first saw him in 2014 when he was with the Mets Double-A Binghamton club. Seven years later, he's trying to make it bac...

Friday night, Aaron Nola went on an historic roll in the first game of the Phillies doubleheader with the Mets. After putting the first two batters on in the bottom of the 1st inning, Nola began getting out of trouble by striking out Michael Conforto. He then got Pete Alonso and Dom Smith out, to snuff out the threat and end the inning. Nola's mastery continued, as he struck the side in the 2nd and 3rd innings. Leading off the bottom of the 4th, he put up his 10th consecutive "K," tying the record set in April 1970 at Shea Stadium by Mets legend Tom Seaver. Ten consecutive strikouts. But the story then began to change. Alonso snapped Nola's streak by doubling to right field. Nola, not being economical, left with one out in the 6th after reaching 99 pitches. Then in the 7th, the Phillies' inept bullpen let the lead -- and Nola's credit for the victory -- get away. An inning later, things got worse. Dominic Smith singled home Alonso for a Mets walk-off victory....

"Pssst... Hey buddy, can I have a look?" As Aaron Nola gets leaves the field after a half-inning ends, the umpire calls to him and asks to inspect his gear. IN FULL VIEW OF THE CROWD AND THE TV CAMERAS.    I know MLB officials are cracking down on pitchers using unauthorized substances on balls. But is this the best way for the game to be enforcing this already-controversial policy? As Mets President Sandy Alderson likes to say, "Bad optics." Why embarrass the player in the process? If baseball officials believe the gear need to be immediately checked, why not have someone waiting in the tunnel connected to the dugout, who can take the glove or cap or belt into a secure area? Thus, the process becomes more intrusive, less disruptive. This application of the policy is childish and potentially humiliating. Will it make the fans more confident that the game is being played by the rules? Not sure. It will likely lead to more emotional outbursts such as Sergio Romo dr...

June 25th, 2014: For the second time in two seasons, Giants righthander Tim Lincecum throws a no-hitter against the NL West rival San Diego Padres. He struck out six in his 113-pitch masterpiece at AT&T Park. Buster Posey, playing first base, has four hits and drives in two as the Giants win 4-0. June 25th, 2001: Professional baseball returns to Brooklyn for the first time in 44 years . The Mets new Class A minor league club The Brooklyn Cyclones beats the Mahoning Valley (Ohio) Scrappers 3-2 in 10 innings at Keyspan Park just outside Coney Island. June 25th, 1999: Cardinals rookie Jose Jimenez becomes the first rookie pitcher since Wilson Alvarez of the 1991 White Sox to toss a no-hitter; and the first Cardinal rookie to do so since Paul 'Daffy' Dean in 1934. Thomas Howard's RBI single in the top of the 9th produces the game's only run as the Cards blank the Diamondbacks 1-0 at BancOne Ballpark in Phoenix. The 25-year-old native of the Dominican Republic outpitches...

  ...you share it with  Phil Hughes , a top Yankees prospect of the '00s, whose career was dogged by injuries. After winning 18 in 2010, and 16 two years later he looked like a rotation mainstay -- albeit one who gave up plenty of home runs. He posted an 88-79 record over a dozen big league seasons that including time with the Twins and  Padres. Tim Lopes spent seven years in the minors before breaking in with the 2019 Mariners. He appeared in a handful of games earlier this month with the Brewers before being sent back to their Triple A club in Nashville. Mike Bruhert is the only Met born June 24th. The righthanded pitcher, who grew up just minutes from Shea Stadium in Jamaica, Queens, started 22 games for the '78 Mets, going 4-11. He spent the next few seasons in the Rangers and Yankees farm systems. Bruhert returned home, where in the '80s and '90s as the pitching coach at Fordham University in the Bronx -- where one of his players was the future Met, Pete Harni...

Gerrit Cole must have felt like an airline passenger without TSA pre-check. It wasn't right seeing the way he and other pitchers were frisked and searched as the new phase of MLB's crackdown on foreign substances began. Tensions flare in several ballparks: Max Scherzer ripped open his belt after being checked for the third time in just four innings; A's reliever Sergio Romo topped that by pulling down his pants to mock the official intrusion to pitchers bodies and gear. Isn't there a more subtle way to check that rules are being followed?   Can't we even get through one day without a top level pitcher leaving with an injury? Tuesday night, it was Marcus Stroman of the Mets, who lasted just the 1st inning before an apparent hip injury forced him out. Working to a sub 2.5 ERA, and striking out more than three times as many batters as he walks, the Long Island product has been a steady number-two in manager Luis Rojas' rotation all season. The injury wave isn...

One of my WFAN colleagues ought to craft a song parody based on Chubby Checker's 1960s classic " Limbo Rock ." You know that cute dance tune with the chant, "How low can you go?" While the line originally described people contorting themselves while wiggling under a horizontal bar in a novelty dance game, the words certainly resonate with Mets ace Jacob deGrom. Those five one-hit, shutout innings in the opener of Monday night's doubleheader against the Braves dropped his ERA to 0.50. They also extended his scoreless streak to 30 consecutive innings -- which could put him more than halfway to Orel Hershiser's 1988 record of 59. The two-time Cy Young Award winner also moved past Bob Gibson with his 12th consecutive start allowing one or no earned runs, the longest such single-season streak ever by a starting pitcher. No hanky panky was needed -- with the Mets playing a twi-night doubleheader and no daytime games on Monday's schedule, deGrom made more h...

Kyle Schwarber 's specialty is lefthanded power hitting. Ever since he arrived with the 2015 Cubs, he's been an intimidating presence. But after hitting just .188 in the 60-game season, the club decided he wasn't worth holding on to. What was already a productive first season in Washington turned into something more special over the weekend: Schwarber belted a pair of home runs in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader against the Mets, and followed that by launching three more on Sunday. That's 18 homers with the Nats' season not yet at the 70-game mark. Look carefully at this image -- that's Schwarber watching his three-run homer leave Citi Field in a 2018 game against the Mets. It's a pose Washington fans have come to enjoy.  

Tony Kemp connected off Wandy Peralta in the top of the 6th for a three run homer that pushed the A's past the Yankees 5-3. All Aaron Judge could do was watch the line drive land behind him in the right field seats. Kemp, one of Oakland's hottest hitters of late, gets an elbow bump from teammate Matt Chapman, just after crossing home plate. After Lou Trivino nails down the final out, the victory line heads toward the Oakland dugout.  

June 18th, 2014: Clayton Kershaw's no hitter is a 15-strikeout gem at Dodger Stadium, kept from perfection only by Hanley Ramirez' throwing error on Corey Dickinson's grounder leading off the 7th inning. LA routs the Colorado Rockies 8 - 0. Coming three weeks after Josh Beckett' s no-hitter in Philadelphia, it marks just the second time in franchise history the Dodgers have two no-hitters in the same season. The other was 1956, when Carl Erskine and Sal Maglie did the trick for Brooklyn. June 18th, 2005: Derek Jeter's first career grand slam -- in his 11th big league season -- comes off Joe Borowski and breaks open the Yankees 8-1 win over the Cubs at Yankee Stadium. Jeter later adds icing to the cake with a solo shot in the 8th inning. June 18th, 1986: Don Sutton reaches 300 wins, firing a complete game as the Angels beat the Rangers 5-1. Ruppert Jones and Brian Downing homer to power the California attack. June 18th, 1979: With the Yankees struggling at 34-31 (and...

  ...you share it with  Matt Barnes . The Danbury, Connecticut native is now in his seventh season in the Red Sox bullpen (this photo is from his May 8th, 2018 appearance against the Yankees). He's been a key part of Boston's 2021 baseball renaissance, with an ERA around 3 and 15 saves by mid-June. June 17th is not a stellar day for talent: no Hall of Fame inductees and only one player with some argument for Cooperstown. That would be  Dave Concepcion , the defensive glue of the Reds great 1970s teams. A nine-time all star and five-time Gold Glove winner, he's the kind of player who should get more respect from the Veterans Committee, especially with teammates such as Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez already enshrined. The Venezuelan native had a terrific 10-year peak, batting .282, and averaging 37 extra base hits and 22 stolen bases a season. A few other names caught our attention, if only briefly: Joe Charboneau  was the 1980 American League Rookie of the Y...

Credit  Clint Frazier  for the Yankees biggest hit Tuesday night as they took their series opener from the Blue Jays. With the score tied in the top of the 8th, Miguel Andujar singled; Tyler Wade ran for him, and stole 2nd. Then it was the Georgia native's turn -- smoking a hard single down the left field line to put the Yanks ahead to stay in a 6-5 win at Buffalo's Sahlen Field. After struggling this season against division rivals Tampa Bay and Toronto, this was as badly needed as any Yankee victory this season. A shoutout for Chris Gittens , who joined the select circle of Yankees (that spans Yogi Berra to Aaron Judge) whose first hit for the franchise was a home run. His solo blast in the top of the 4th not only left the Buffalo ballpark, but landed on an approach road beyond Sahlen Field. This image is from 2019, when I first saw Gittens playing for the Yanks then-Double A farm club in Trenton. With Luke Voit just days away from returning from his latest injury, the 2...

It was hardly a surprise to see Luke Voit in the on-deck area swinging a bat fitted with a donut. The device, invented and promoted by the late and beloved Yankee Elston Howard, has become standard issue in baseball since the 1970s, replacing the previous tradition of players loosening up by swinging several bats.  Then, when Luke got back in the field, I noticed that instead of his usual number 59, he was wearing 32, which the Yankees retired to honor Elston Howard after his death from a heart infection in 1980.  No Yankee will ever again wear 32. But Sunday, Voit was playing for Triple A Scranton-Wilkes Barre, so no rule was broken. Instead, it was a very nice coincidence -- matching the other legacy of the Yankees first Black player, and 1963 American League MVP -- and, as we learned during his years in coaching, one of the most inventive.  

My first minor league game of the year was at a familiar spot in a new role. Trenton's Arm and Hammer Park is the temporary home of the Blue Jays Triple A club, while Buffalo's Sahlen Field hosts the major leaguers. With the Yankee farm hands -- and injury rehabbers -- visiting, I got a good look at Luke Voit, starting his path back to the majors and Estevan Florial, the organization's top center field prospect. Florial, who played one game in the Bronx last month, has struggled so far in Triple A, but looked comfortable hitting against Toronto prospect Anthony Kay on Sunday. He scorched this single to right field, one of three hits on the day. And an even better image of Florial from a later at-bat. Channeling the long-ago TV show Can You Top This , Ryan LaMarre, who filled in for the Yanks earlier this year before a hamstring injury, had a four-hit day. Bottom line: a successful day for the Yankees minor leaguers, an 8-0 shutout over the Bisons-as-Thunder. After a 30 year...