Ramón Urías was a bit discouraged on Sunday night. After he hit another home run in the Baltimore Orioles loss to the Houston Astros, the third baseman was asked the last time he felt good at the plate during his five-year career. “I can’t remember,” Urías said. “Honestly, this is probably the best that I’ve been feeling in the big leagues so far.” On Tuesday again, Urías delivered a big HR at Dodger Stadium. He hit a go-ahead two-run homer off Los Angeles starter Jack Flaherty in the fifth inning, leading the Orioles to a 3-2 win. By defeating the MLB-best Dodgers (78-54), Baltimore (77-56) were one game behind the Yankees (78-55) for the American League East lead. Urías, who is hitting .300 (15-for-50) since August 9th became the ninth Orioles player with 10-plus home runs this campaign. He has driven in five of Baltimore’s six runs over their past two matches.  “He’s been our offense the last couple weeks. Really good at-bats,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “We’re not swinging the bat great right now, and he’s carrying us a little bit offensively in some of these wins. And he’s playing with a lot of energy right now. He’s playing great.” Urías’ home signified the most important hit of the game. After Jackson Holliday hit a one-out single off Flaherty in the fifth, Urías followed suit with a 385-foot blast to left field. It was his 10th homer of the campaign, hitting five since August 10th.  Maybe Urías’ familiarity with Flaherty, who is a former teammate, helped him to come up with a good strategy. He waited to pounce on a 1-2 slider that caught too much of the bottom of the zone. “I was just trying to see the ball close to me,” Urías said. “I know that he likes to throw up and in, and his slider works when he’s down and away. Just trying to keep it close to me. Got a good pitch right there that didn’t break a lot and I could put a good swing on it.” Urías does not feel any pressure about stepping up for slumping teammates. He just wants to win. “I feel amazing. I feel good for helping the team,” Urías said. “I think we all go through ups and downs during the season, because it’s so long. Just happy to have the win tonight.”

Aaron Judge already made his mark as the player with more homers than anyone else in the baseball. But him robbing home runs is certainly taking things to the next level. Judge stayed at 51 homers throughout Monday’s series opener at Washington, but that did not stop him from making a huge impact at the center-field wall. This one followed his glove, as Judge lurched to steal what would have been a game-tying home run by Andrés Chaparro in the fourth inning of New York’s 5-2 victory over the Nationals. “I was pretty pumped up about that one,” Judge said. Aaron Judge also secured career No.1,000, Gleyber Torres, Austin Wells and Jazz Chisholm Jr. all scored home runs. Nestor Cortes delivered 6 ⅔ innings of one-run ball as the Yankees maintained the AL’s top record by delivering another win in Juan Soto’s former ballpark. That victory extended New York’s lead at the American League East, two matches ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, their biggest since June 26.  Judge drew a walk too before connecting for his 1,000th career hit, a single to the opposite field in the ninth. Aaron is the 42nd player in Yankees history to achieve this milestone, and the first since Brett Gardner did it in 2017. 

The San Jose Sharks traded Yaroslav Askarov to the Nashville Predators on Friday and signed a two-year, $4 million contract ($2 million average annual value). The contract starts with the 2025-26 season.  “It’s a really big day for our franchise, I believe,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said of acquiring the goalie. “… To have an opportunity to add him to our group is really exciting, and I think it kind of breathes some more positive energy into the group.” Nashville bought prospect David Edstrom, goalie prospect Magnus Chrona and a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft (formerly acquired by San Jose from the Vegas Golden Knights). If that pick is in the top 10, San Jose will have to either transfer their first-round pick in the 2025 draft or the Golden Knights selection.  San Jose also bought minor-league forward Nolan Burke and a third-round pick in the 2025 draft.  Askarov could have been a restricted free agent after this season.  “He’s in the fold, he’s all in, he’s excited to be here,” Grier said. Nashville chose Askarov with the No. 11 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. He is 1-1-0 with a 2.58 goals against average and .914 save percentage in three matches over two seasons with the Predators.  He was the top-rated European goalie in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings for the 2020 draft and became the third Russia-born goalie in NHL history to be selected first at the position. He joins Ilya Samsonov (Washington Capitals, No. 22, 2015 NHL Draft) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning, No. 19, 2012 NHL Draft). “We’ve talked about him kind of off and on over the whole year, probably,” Grier said. “… He’s obviously a super-talented goalie, and there’s not too many opportunities where you have the chance to go after a young goalie like this and add him to your group.” Grier said San Jose are confident Askarov can become a No. 1 goalie in the NHL because of his size (6-foot-3, 178 pounds) and athleticism, plus the way he handles the puck and read the game. “When you’re that size and you have the ability to anticipate and read plays and the athletic ability he has, I think it’s all about him just putting it all together,” Grier said. NHL Network’s Kevin Weekes reported that Askarov requested a trade. Nashville then released a statement on Monday from Barry Trotz saying the expectation was for him to report to training camp in September and compete for the position.  Trotz while speaking to The Tennessean on Friday said that the Predators discussed privately with Askarov in recent weeks about trading him. Once that trade request became public it hastened the team’s timeline for doing that.  “We talked about exploring some things, working together to see where this process would go through training camp,” Trotz told the newspaper. “But once it became public, it pushed to a different place in terms of the decision time.” The Predators have three other goaltenders on their roster: No. 1 goalie Juuse Saros, Matt Murray and Scott Wedgewood.