Brent Rooker and Zack Gelof each homered and drove in three runs and J.T. Ginn tossed eight stellar innings on Thursday night as the visiting Athletics posted a 12-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ginn (1-1) allowed just one run on four hits, striking out eight and walking one for the A’s, who salvaged the series finale after dropping the first two games. Shea Langeliers and Jacob Wilson also went deep in the win.

Andrew Painter (1-4) surrendered eight runs on seven hits across 3 2/3 frames, walking three and striking out a pair for the Phillies, whose four-game winning streak ended. Kyle Schwarber went 2-for-4 with a homer for Philadelphia, which has won eight of 10 games since the firing of manager Rob Thomson.

After Nick Kurtz began the game with a walk, Langeliers belted his 11th homer of the season to give the Athletics an early 2-0 lead. Painter then walked Tyler Soderstrom before Rooker’s fourth home run of the year put the visitors ahead by four runs before an out was recorded.

Soderstrom began the third with a walk, advanced on a flyout and scored on Carlos Cortes’ single. Wilson followed with a two-run blast, pushing the lead to 7-0.

Following Langeliers’ two-out single in the fourth, Tanner Banks replaced Painter. From there, Soderstrom’s single and Rooker’s RBI single gave the A’s an 8-0 edge.

Philadelphia cracked the scoring column in the bottom of the fourth. Schwarber belted a solo homer, his 12th long ball of the year, pulling the Phillies within seven.

Lawrence Butler’s one-out walk in the fifth was followed by Gelof’s run-scoring triple to extend the Athletics’ lead to 9-1. Two batters later, Kurtz delivered an RBI single.

Against Philadelphia reliever Chase Shugart in the seventh, Gelof connected on his third home run of the season, a two-run shot.

–Field Level Media

Joe Mack doubled with two outs and scored the winning run on a walk-off throwing error as the Miami Marlins claimed a 4-3 victory against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night, dodging a series sweep.

Mack’s hit brought Javier Sanoja to the plate, and his grounder was fielded by third baseman Coby Mayo but bounced in front of first base and ricocheted off Pete Alonso’s glove to allow Mack to score. It was the only error of the game.

Liam Hicks hit a two-run home run in the first inning for the Marlins, his ninth of the season which more than doubles any of his teammates.

Calvin Faucher (3-2), the fourth Miami reliever of the game, allowed one hit and struck out one in a scoreless ninth inning.

Mayo and Dylan Beavers each provided two hits for Baltimore, but the Orioles had a two-game win streak halted and have lost six of their last eight games. Andrew Kittredge (0-1) struck out one and allowed one unearned run in two-thirds of an inning.

Miami starter Max Meyer worked five innings, holding the Orioles to two runs on six hits and two walks. He recorded five strikeouts. Andrew Nardi and Michael Petersen both worked a shutout inning before Josh Ekness yielded the tying run in the eighth.

Orioles starter Cade Povich was done after three innings, exiting with left forearm discomfort. He allowed three runs on three hits and two walks.

Gunnar Henderson’s single in the third inning put the Orioles on the board with a single run, but they left the bases loaded.

Miami had three hits through seven innings, two of them singles in the third. Connor Norby extended the lead for the Marlins with an RBI single which scored Sanoja after his leadoff walk.

Tyler O’Neill’s run-scoring single in the fourth pulled the Orioles to within 3-2. Baltimore tied the score on Pete Alonso’s single before an out was recorded in the eighth. However, they again squandered a chance for a big inning and finished the game 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

The Marlins put their first two batters in the bottom of the eighth on base but Orioles left-hander Keegan Akin worked out of the jam.

–Field Level Media

The NHL’s salary cap will reach a record of $104 million per team in 2026-27, the league and the NHL Players Association announced Thursday.

That figure is an increase of $8.5 million (8.9%) from the 2025-26 cap.

The salary cap floor will be $76.9 million, making the midpoint $90.4 million. To demonstrate the rapid growth of the league, the minimum is higher than the ceiling was in 2018.

Per PuckPedia, seven teams exceeded the cap in 2025-26, led by the Vegas Golden Knights, who spent $107.49 million. Teams may use players’ salaries that have been placed on long-term injured reserve and exceed the cap without penalty.

The youthful Chicago Blackhawks spent $82.35 million, which was still comfortably over the salary cap floor.

Moreover, television and streaming deals with ESPN and TNT Sports will help the league exceed $7 billion in mixed currency revenue this season. The NHL just enjoyed record viewership milestones for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“It’s a really good time, and we don’t even have the biggest markets (involved in the playoffs),” league commissioner Gary Bettman said recently in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. “This is about how good the hockey is.”

The individual player maximum will also increase to $20.8 million for 2026-27.

Current projections indicate an even larger increase in 2027-28, with a $9.5 million jump to $113.5 million.

–Field Level Media