The Houston Astros remain the class of the AL West and will provide tough test for both Mets, Yankees  —  The naysayers can no longer complain about the Yankees beating up on a soft schedule.  —  As the team blitzed everything in sight on their way to a historic start …

Boston Red Sox's Jarren Duran says he's unvaccinated, meaning he'll miss next week's series in Toronto  —  BOSTON — Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran said Wednesday that he remains unvaccinated against COVID-19, meaning he'll be ineligible to play next week's three-game series against the Blue Jays in Toronto.

Aaron Judge in Queens?  Boston? 7 teams that could challenge Yankees for MLB's biggest likely free agent  —  The long-standing refrain about baseball free agents is that it takes just one aggressive owner to change everything.  Arte Moreno swooped in to sign Albert Pujols for the Angels.

With the Chicago White Sox rotation finally whole, it's time for the starters to pick up the slack  —  ExpandAutoplay  —  1 of 17  —  White Sox second baseman Josh Harrison, center, celebrates with teammates after driving in the winning run with a single in the 12th inning on June 21, 2022, at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Shohei Ohtani's 2-homer, 8-RBI night not enough as Angels lose to Royals in 11 innings  —  Ohtani's three-run blasts - including one to tie the score in the ninth - help the Angels rally from deficits of 5-0, 6-1 and 10-7, before losing, 12-11  —  ANAHEIM ― As Shohei Ohtani rounded the bases …

Ravens outside linebacker Jaylon Ferguson dies at age 26  —  Ravens outside linebacker Jaylon Ferguson has died, the team announced Wednesday.  He was 26.  —  “We are profoundly saddened by the tragic passing of Jaylon Ferguson,” the Ravens said in a statement, which did not list a cause of death.

Dodgers set to promote Stefen Romero to majors for first time since 2016  —  The 33-year-old outfielder played in Japan from 2017-21 before signing a minor league contract with the Dodgers in February  —  A long and winding road is bringing Stefen Romero back to the big leagues.

Max Scherzer completes first rehab start; Jacob deGrom throws first live batting practice since shoulder injury  —  HOUSTON - The Mets aces are taking significant steps toward their upcoming returns to the rotation.  —  Max Scherzer (left oblique strain) allowed two earned runs on two hits …

Memo: MLB to require all teams to ‘muddy’ ball using exact same technique  —  Major League Baseball is now requiring teams to “muddy” baseballs before games using the exact same technique, according to a league memo sent to all 30 teams on Tuesday and obtained by ESPN.

All-Star Ballot standings as of June 21, 2022  —  Below are the complete standings for Phase 1 of fan voting for the 2022 MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard as of the first ballot update.