Raleigh hits 37th and 38th homers, Mariners end Skubal's 3-month unbeaten streak with 12-3 romp
Raleigh — in the lineup as designated hitter — made it 5-3 on a solo shot in the eighth inning, then hit a grand slam in a seven-run ninth.
Skubal (10-3) was 10-0 with a 1.62 ERA in 16 starts since losing 3-2 to the Mariners in Seattle on April 2. He allowed four runs on four hits and two walks in five innings, striking out five.
Luis Castillo (6-5) got the win, giving up three runs in five innings.
Seattle took a 1-0 lead in the third when center fielder Parker Meadows dove for Donovan Solano's sinking liner and missed. It rolled to the wall for an RBI triple. ach McKinstry tied it with a fourth-inning single.
J.P. Crawford's two-out RBI single made it 2-1 in the fifth, and Rodríguez followed with a two-run homer over the Seattle bullpen in left-center field.
Riley Greene's RBI triple got the major league-leading Tigers to 4-2 in the sixth, and Spencer Torkelson followed with a sacrifice fly.
Key moment
Nine of Seattle's first 10 batters reached base in the ninth inning, leading manager A.J. Hinch to insert catcher Jake Rogers for his third career pitching appearance. He retired two of the three batters he faced to escape the inning.
Key stat
Skubal started on four days rest in order to get an extra day off before the All-Star Game. In his career, he's 14-15 with a 3.98 ERA on four days of rest, but 37-16 with a 2.68 ERA on five or more. The biggest difference comes in walks (2.6 per nine as opposed to 1.6) and homers (1.4 per nine as opposed to 0.8).
Up next
Tigers All-Star RHP Casey Mize (9-2, 2.63) was set to face RHP George Kirby (3-4, 4.22) on Saturday.
___ AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
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New York Times
3 minutes ago
- New York Times
He ‘found his place in the world' through football. Then came 15 years of suffering
The University of Utah had eight sacks in its 31-17 win over Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. The fifth one that night in New Orleans did not make most fan-made highlight reels on YouTube. But it was the most compelling. For three seconds, No. 56 took on three SEC offensive linemen on his own before making a last-ditch, right-handed arm tackle of the quarterback. Advertisement It was both the final official tackle of Greg Newman's football career, and everything he represented every time he pressed his fingers into the turf. The Utes went on to cap a historic 13-0 season, helping elevate the program and university to a power conference just 18 months later. Greg, a former walk-on who was taller and much less hefty than prototypical defensive tackles, was essential to that season's perfection, coaches and former teammates said. Earlier in the season, he snagged an interception in a win against Wyoming even after his helmet was dislodged. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said Greg's success was due to his 'sheer hard work and determination.' Many of Greg's teammates on defense went on to make tens of millions of dollars in the NFL. A couple won Super Bowls. For most fans, the Sugar Bowl was the last time they heard about Greg — who, like the estimated 98 percent of all college football players who don't go pro, would have to learn to live a life beyond game days. The game that gave him everything he wanted early on would play a significant role in keeping him from fulfilling his other goals: to have a family of his own. To work on Wall Street. To dig his snowboard into the powdery mountains above Park City. To live what he would often describe as a normal life. Football, where family members said Greg 'found his place in the world,' was also the stage on which he suffered irreversible damage. Greg became one of the several hundred former football players diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive head trauma, for which football players are at a substantially higher risk. Fifteen years after Greg left football, on the evening of May 21, 2024, The Ventura County Star published a news roundup identifying a local man who, four days earlier, had been found dead near the Highway 101 South onramp near Thousand Oaks, Calif., about 45 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Advertisement The 38-year-old, described in the article as homeless, was Greg. There were no signs of foul play, authorities reported. He was found face down with a sizable bruise on his forehead, believed to be a result of a fall. The summary of the end of Greg's life in the local newspaper totaled 139 words. An autopsy would eventually reveal the cause of death was multiple organ failure, caused by kratom, a stimulant supplement he believed would help him get his life back on track. Greg's only sibling, Laura Dyer, a nurse who works in home health and hospice, had long suspected that his football career was the primary reason for his decline into an eventual state of mania. CTE symptoms range from mood changes and aggression to memory loss and confusion. He may also have had, she would eventually learn, a genetic predisposition for psychotic breaks. 'He just started changing,' Greg's mother, Yvonne, said, 'and we couldn't figure out what was wrong.' The family would turn to the stacks of journals Greg left behind, which detailed his tortuous decline but left much unanswered. Laura needed to know if she was right. Less than 48 hours after Greg's body was discovered, in search of understanding, she made a call. Always oversized for his age, Greg played with older age groups in youth football. But the big guy with a goatee was 'a gentle giant' off the field, as Yvonne put it. He volunteered as Prince Charming, using his 6-foot-4, 250-pound frame at a fundraiser, where he danced with children who used wheelchairs. Another time he dressed up as Batman. 'Greg was always intense,' Yvonne said. 'But on the football field, he compartmentalized everything. Off the field, he loved to make you laugh. He'd do anything for you.' In the early 2000s, Greg starred as a linebacker for football powerhouse Westlake High School, often featured in the local paper that would inform the public of his death years later. 'I love contact,' he said in a December 2003 profile. Greg spent one season at Colorado before transferring to Utah in 2005. He was soon asked to move from linebacker to the defensive line, where he eventually thrived. Two years after his arrival, he was placed on scholarship. Advertisement Greg's senior year was his best. He had 50 total tackles and 9.5 tackles for loss. On a Utah defense that had seven starters drafted, it was Greg who was voted the team's most inspirational player by his peers after an undefeated season. 'It didn't matter what it was,' former Utah defensive coordinator Gary Andersen said, 'he was going to keep fighting and clawing until he won his matchups. That's what carried him through football.' It's what also nudged along a dream to fight and claw as a potential late-round draft pick or undrafted free agent ahead of the 2009 NFL Draft. But while training in the weeks leading up to that year's combine, Greg tore muscles in his hamstring, essentially ending his playing career. 'In some ways, it was painful for him to see friends go on and be successful,' said Laura's husband, Geoff, the insight coming from Greg's journals, which he filled for years. Greg played his final football game less than a month before he turned 23. By his 24th birthday, he began exhibiting worrisome behavior. 'That's when the voices started,' Laura said. Friends and roommates told his family that Greg's irritability would spike in an instant. He had mental lapses, when he would just stare for minutes on end. He spoke to walls. In 2011, Greg told Laura that angels in his mind told him to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the religion in which they were raised. He served in Florida, but was sent home after four months due to erratic behavior; the same thing happened when he was reassigned in Utah less than a year later. Several therapists and attempts at prescription treatments came and went. Some thought he was suffering from bipolar disorder, some thought he was schizoaffective. Nothing was ever definitive. But Greg's decline ebbed and flowed. From 2014 to 2019, he had good spells that lasted as long as six months at a time. He worked for two international banks with branches in Salt Lake City. He had a girlfriend. He stayed in great physical shape. But he would not watch football. He told Yvonne that, if he could do it over again, he would've played soccer. Advertisement He moved to New York City in 2018. He was hired as an associate portfolio manager by Northern Trust and passed the first two stages of the Chartered Financial Analyst exam. Greg posted Instagram highlights of life in the city: 5K races, ramen restaurants, concerts and breathtaking views. The COVID-19 pandemic was a pivot point. Greg went an estimated 50 straight days in isolation in his studio apartment, a few blocks from Madison Square Garden, during the spring of 2020, which exacerbated his symptoms. On May 9, 2020, he posted a smiling selfie with the caption, 'Getting outside, my mom said it would be good for me.' The smile would soon be harder to find. Greg's episodes caused him to be fired from two jobs while in New York. 'In his altered state of mind, he couldn't understand why nothing was working out for him,' Laura said. 'No matter what he did, it all just kept falling apart.' By August, Greg was back in Southern California, working as a chief financial officer for a friend's family trucking business. But the final unraveling, family members said, had begun. 'His imaginary world was more real to him than this,' Yvonne said. 'There wasn't a light side to him anymore.' Greg's journal entries from that time showed only faint glimpses of his former self. He wrote about a lot of things. Some real, most not. Finding a book so rare it would change his life, references to 'coronation day intel,' and 'The Stick of Ramses.' Ancient Egypt became an obsession. Crystals, too. Football, meanwhile, was still drifting about in his mind. He wrote about a rally to win a game with a 2-point conversion, just as Utah did against Oregon State during the 2008 season. 'He was suffering to a degree that was just unbelievable,' Yvonne said. The last few years of his life featured stints in voluntary transitional hospitals, long-term treatment centers and sober-living housing. Therapists who worked with Greg said he was no longer mentally fit to hold a part-time job. Experts again oscillated between diagnoses of Bipolar Type II and schizoaffective disorder. No health care professional, Yvonne said, ever raised the topic of CTE. Advertisement The prescription drug Greg always felt like he needed was Adderall, a stimulant used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He also used Vyvanse, a similar prescription for ADHD. Those drugs, he believed, would help him focus. While in the treatment center, Yvonne took Greg to take the third level of the CFA exam. He came out feeling like he did well. But he ended up failing. Antipsychotic drugs like Abilify were administered to combat his episodes with limited effectiveness. He complained of feeling like a zombie, his father, Terry, remembered. 'It wasn't Gregory,' Terry said. Greg bounced between staying with family and living in his Toyota Prius. He began self-medicating on the street, where Greg lived the last year of his life. In December 2023, when Greg was living out of a tent, his parents brought Greg a meal on Christmas Day. While he was often right in front of them, he was simultaneously nowhere to be found. And family members increasingly believed that CTE was the root cause of his decline. 'In a brutal business like football,' Terry said, 'it seemed like an obvious possibility.' Growing up, Greg was known around the playground as 'The Bully Protector,' his lifelong friend Carlos Gonzalez remembered. If he saw kids pushed around by others, Greg always stepped in, even if he was younger. It was brutal, Carlos said, that no one could help Greg. He'd seen Greg speak in tongues. Greg would randomly call Carlos and cuss him out — or send a text saying how much he respected him. Greg spent most of his final year wandering around local strip malls. At the library, where the librarians knew him by name, he researched the healing protective power of crystals. He tried to sell rocks, which he believed to be rare gems, in a Whole Foods parking lot. He stenciled poorly drawn pictures of dragons and inaccurate hieroglyphics and tried to sell them as cars passed. 'I bought one or two drawings from him just to help him and motivate him,' Carlos said. Around that same time in January 2024, he attempted suicide in an apartment complex parking lot. Laura said a passerby saw the attempt in the front seat of his Prius and called 911. Soon after, he threw a brick through the window of the Goebel Adult Community Center in Thousand Oaks, in an attempt to get help because he thought someone was chasing him with a hammer, he said. Advertisement He was charged with a felony, but the judge told the family it could be reduced to a misdemeanor so long as the damages were paid for and Greg stayed out of trouble. In the meantime, he started excessively using kratom, an herbal substance that can be purchased without a prescription and is sold at most local cannabis stores, saying it helped him focus. The drug is not FDA approved, and if used excessively provides an opioid-like calming effect. Greg's self-medicating, family members said, didn't begin until the last year of his life. In his final days, Greg was living out of the Motel 6 in Thousand Oaks, located just off Highway 101. A room goes for around $90 a night. When Greg came back to his room on the afternoon of May 16, 2024, the door was locked. Laura said management told Greg he hadn't paid for the night's room. He wanted to go in and get his stuff; the police were called. Greg's family believes that he panicked, knowing he couldn't afford another strike. So he took off running. The Ventura County Medical Examiner informed Yvonne last summer that he had so much kratom in his system that it caused his liver and kidneys to cease functioning. Greg wasn't seen again until a driver of a car entering the South 101 onramp the following day noticed his body. Authorities believed he had been dead for roughly 24 hours. Greg's family, though not surprised, experienced a collective state of shock and grief. 'We knew where it was headed for a while,' Geoff said. There was a potential path toward closure, they all agreed. So Laura told her parents she was making the call. The same day the Ventura County Star published news of Greg's body being found, Geoff launched a GoFundMe that raised over $4,000 to fund further research at the Boston University CTE Center. The target goal remains $5,656 — Greg's jersey number, repeated. Advertisement Seated in her backyard in Utah, Laura dialed the BU CTE Center and told them about her younger brother. His brain, eyes and spinal cord would need to be procured and sent to the CTE Center. A definitive diagnosis of whether a person suffered from CTE while they were alive can only be provided posthumously. The center takes a year to dissect portions of the brain and conducts extensive interviews with family members to decipher when bouts of aggression, paranoia and delusion began and how long they persisted. Leading the study of Greg's brain was Dr. Ann McKee, the director of the CTE Center, who, along with her colleagues, has been at the forefront of this medical research field. The scientific breakthrough study of CTE in the early 2000s, and its tie to football, astonished many fans. Former NFL star linebacker Junior Seau, who took his own life in 2012, was diagnosed with CTE less than a year after his death. Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who at 27 hanged himself in prison after being convicted of murder, had what Dr. McKee would describe in 2017 as one of the most severe cases of the disease she's seen in someone so young. In 2023, the BU Center announced that CTE was diagnosed in 345 out of 376 donated brains, all former NFL players. In 2024, a third of former NFL players surveyed believed they had CTE, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Most of the brains donated to BU have been from former athletes who showed clear signs of CTE. But former NFL players like Jerome Bettis, Matt Hasselbeck and others have publicly pledged to donate theirs to help further the studies in the field. While there is a clear link between CTE and football, researchers continue to search for reasons why some players develop symptoms and others don't. Optimism remains that in the coming years, a blood test or brain scans could be used to reveal potential CTE symptoms. A December 2023 study found that among 319 donors with college football experience, 70 percent had CTE. Greg is now one of an estimated 1,600 whose brains have been examined at BU. Advertisement 'Football is far more than a sport,' Dr. McKee said. 'It's a culture, it's a way of life, it's a national identity. It's a lot of things. But nobody wants to hear that it's a problem.' Greg is buried in a small cemetery in the shadow of Mount Olympus, the most striking peak of the Wasatch Range above Salt Lake City. His funeral was small and not publicized, but when the family arrived, his head coach, Kyle Whittingham, was there in a suit, standing near the last row of chairs. 'We were stunned,' Laura said. Greg's celebration of life memorial was held June 29, 2024, six weeks after his death, in Farmington, Utah, where Laura and Geoff live. More than 13 million people once tuned in to see Greg register his sack in the Sugar Bowl, but fewer than 50 gathered in a room that could hold over 200. A few former teammates were in attendance. 'It seemed like he might've been forgotten in some ways,' said former Utah linebacker Mike Wright. 'I was a little disappointed in some of my teammates for not showing up for him on that day. But for a lot of us, from afar, it was like the Greg we knew passed away long before.' Former Utah tight end Colt Sampson offered an opening prayer and chuckled when reminiscing about his friend, the 'ultimate get-it-done' personality. Greg's No. 56 framed jersey was displayed in the hallway of the church. A massive bouquet of crimson and white flowers sat near the pulpit. One attendee wore a Utah Utes tie. Gary Andersen, Greg's defensive coordinator, greeted friends and family near the photos commemorating Greg. Laura and Geoff tried to summarize the heights of Greg's life — most tied to football — as well as his agonizing final 15 years. Greg opted for hard rock or heavy metal CDs on their early morning drives to Westlake High together, much to Laura's dismay. His most cherished Bible story growing up was David and Goliath. Advertisement Greg's true love was the game that permanently damaged his brain. On Wednesday, June 4, 2025, more than a year after his death, his family learned he had Stage 2 CTE. 'To hear that was a huge sigh of relief,' Laura said, 'to hear that wasn't really him.' Yvonne said she'll shoulder regret for the rest of her life. She wished she'd made him fall in love with golf instead. 'The amount of suffering he went through?' she said. 'I don't think I'll ever watch another football game.' Dr. McKee, who was permitted by the family to speak to The Athletic about Greg's pathology report, said numerous lesions showed that Greg's brain was in a state of degeneration for more than a decade. While it's indisputable that Greg was dealing with CTE, Dr. McKee said Greg's history of psychotic episodes was more extreme than the majority of those they've studied. The most common early-stage symptoms of the disease include inability to control one's own thoughts, behaviors or impulsivity, all of which Greg dealt with as the years wore on. But Greg might have had a genetic predisposition to psychotic breaks in addition to CTE. 'It's difficult to fully account for those symptoms with CTE,' Dr. McKee said. 'We've certainly seen people with a predisposition (have) more severe behavioral and personality changes than those who don't. It was just more than we usually see.' In April this year, just before Greg's family received the diagnosis, members of the 2008 team gathered for a reunion inside Utah's football facility. A poster of Greg in the Sugar Bowl commemorated his life. The team signed a ball and handed it to a tearful Yvonne. A video tribute included a segment for Greg. The Newmans were also able to catch a glimpse of Utah's spring practice. Terry noticed how many players wore spongy Guardian Caps, designed to lessen the impact of repetitive hits to the head. Greg's helmet from the Sugar Bowl still bears the scars of that epic evening. The family came upon it soon after Greg's death while sifting through storage, a coat of dust on the clear visor. The white, metal bars of the face mask are chipped. Deep, elongated gouges remain scattered across the red paint. The helmet could one day be on display in a living room, a symbol of Greg's life. But not quite yet. (Top illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; photo courtesy of Ty Cobb)
Forbes
3 minutes ago
- Forbes
New Apple TV MLS Numbers Are Vague, But Better Than Nothing
MLS Commissioner Don Garber signs autographs for fans prior to the 2025 MLS All-Star Game at Q2 ... More Stadium on Wednesday in Austin, Texas. While most of the attention surrounding the 2025 MLS All-Star Game centered on the glaring omission of Lionel Messi from the festivities, one unexpected nugget that emerged was a piece of viewership data given by MLS Commissioner Don Garber. During a wide-ranging press conference on Wednesday, Garber revealed that games on Apple TV's MLS Season Pass platform are averaging 120,000 unique viewers, an increase of 50% from the previous season, which he suggested owed in part through increased methods of distribution that now includes being able to buy the service directly through some TV providers. In the very basic sense, 50% growth is always good, even if coming from a low starting point. And if nothing else, it's validation for the strategy of expanding ways to purchase the service. If you try to extract any more from those numbers, here's some advice: Don't. The reality is that streaming data is just fundamentally different from how broadcast and cable TV ratings are measured, and the streaming industry is still so novel that there's really no standard, agreed-upon metric. Additionally, any comparisons to MLS numbers from its previous deal with Fox, ESPN and Univision that ran from 2015 to 2022 are going to be seriously flawed, because the fundamental shape of the package is so very different. Variables Lurking Everywhere For starters, while MLS Season Pass is a globally available service, the majority of its telecasts are replacing broadcasts that were previously dissemenated via regional sports networks for local consumption. Only about 100 regular season games were available anually across the previous three broadcast partners. There's also the matter of international viewers, which Apple's numbers would presumably include since MLS Season Pass is a globally available service, bur old Nielsen Ratings data, which only covers the United States, would omit. Then there's uncertainty of what the 'unique viewer' metric even means. It could be Garber was referring to an average audience size across the the entirety of broadcasts, which would make it a similar metric to the TV ratings figure most commonly referenced for network and cable telecasts. It could be that Garber was referring to the gross total of viewers, which would make the data far less comparable and impressive. Maybe most to the point, in streaming package where there are sometimes as many as 15 games played on a single night, the mean unique viewer data is probably less relevant than the median figure would be, since rare standalone games and games involving Messi's Inter Miami could draw much larger audiences that skew the average uipward. It would also be helpful to have standalone data from the league's Sunday Night Soccer package, which is probably the best equivalent to 2015-22 national cable broadcasts. This isn't to suggest anything nefarious, though MLS does have some history of sharing statistics in a comically flattering way. It's just a reminder that there probably won't be a lot more insightful public data coming in the near future because of the challenges streaming presents. And quite honestly, an alternative where the public is privy to all sorts of granular viewership trends could become an ethical concern in terms of customers' rights to data privacy when signing up for streaming services. International Opportunity? There is still a lot of room for the MLS Season Pass service to grow, and no certainty that those aspirations will be realized. But one of the most intriguing aspects of the new model could be MLS' ability to reach foreign audiences far more efficiently than in previous relationships with foreign cable networks. That may be one reason there for an increase in daytime kickoffs outside of the hot summer months this season, and also one reason MLS potentially feels more bullish about eventually adopting a fall-to-spring schedule similar to most European leagues. If MLS can make up for still niche interest domestically with continued growing interest abroad, it can reach a point where it shares in the revenues from subscription fees . Messi and the rest of Miami's star-studded roster aside, the average MLS roster still doesn't have the kind of clout that could draw larger audiences from Europe and/or Latin America just yet. But that could change when the league and the players union's collective bargaining agreement expires following the 2027 season, with five years left on the 10-year, $2.5 billion Apple TV pact.
New York Times
3 minutes ago
- New York Times
How to watch Aces at Fever: Caitlin Clark shelved, A'ja Wilson surging for ‘Stranger Things' game
Caitlin Clark's injury-spoiled season has her Indiana Fever in a narrowing, pressurized spot for the rest of 2025. A'ja Wilson's MVP reign has been uncharacteristically rocky, as her Las Vegas Aces are scrapping to stay above .500. Thursday's game is a big one for both teams, with Indiana taking its floor as slight home underdogs. Advertisement National audiences will see this game on Prime Video, but the Fever will rock threads inspired by Netflix's tentpole sci-fi show. Indiana's 'Stranger Things' alternate uniforms are officially debuted Thursday. It's a fitting collaboration — that series is set around rural Hoosier State woods, and the Fever themselves have been playing 'upside down' without their superstar initiator. from the shadows and into the spotlight 🔦 behind the scenes of our Stranger Things shoot 👀 — Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) July 23, 2025 Stranger, indeed. What a confusing year for these Fever, from Clark's three different soft tissue injuries to DeWanna Bonner's troubled stint to … dominating the Commissioner's Cup final, against the Minnesota Lynx no less? For a bonus hit, Sophie Cunningham just got fined for a TikTok video cracking jokes about league officiating. Indiana harbored deep playoff hopes at the start of the season; by the midway mark, it's pushing for whatever postseason action it can get. Indy enters Thursday's matchup at 12-12 after enduring consecutive double-digit losses to the New York Liberty. The team is still third in points per game and offensive rating, but the system is obviously compromised without Clark pushing pace and spreading the floor. There's still a lot of skill on this roster, though. All-Star paint presence Aliyah Boston posted a 15-12-6 line against the Liberty's talented bigs Tuesday. Fellow All-Star Kelsey Mitchell has the highest scoring average of her eight-year pro tenure, on solid 46.8/36.4/75.8 percent shooting splits. The defense has been inconsistent, if not outright flat on some nights, but the Fever are still winning turnover and rebounding margins at large. Las Vegas (12-11) has underwhelmed in its own right. The Aces are No. 9 of the 13 teams in offensive rating and defensive rating. Wilson is still balling out, but she's giving away possessions at a career-worst mark. Six-time All-Star and two-time WNBA champ Jewell Loyd comes in at an unsightly 37.7 percent from the floor, and she's struggled to acclimate to her new digs after a decorated decade up in Seattle. Advertisement At least the Aces are on the upswing, having won three straight games (Golden State, then Dallas, then Atlanta on Tuesday). Wilson dropped 24 points on the Dream's Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones in that last outing. Her former all-league teammates Loyd, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young combined to go just 9-for-28, though. Betting/odds, ticketing and streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Photo of Caitlin Clark and A'ja Wilson: Trevor Ruszkowski / Imagn Images)
