MLB

Joe Girardi is out in Philadelphia ... the Phillies just canned the manager after the team's disappointing 22-29 start.

The team announced the move Friday morning, revealing bench coach Rob Thomson will replace the 57-year-old.

"It has been a frustrating season for us up until this point, as we feel that our club has not played up to its capabilities," president of baseball operations David Dombrowski said in a statement.

"While all of us share the responsibility for the shortcomings, I felt that a change was needed and that a new voice in the clubhouse would give us the best chance to turn things around."

The move is very early -- there's still more than 100 games left in the season -- but the Phillies are already 12 games behind the first-place Mets in the National League East division.

The Phils were a favorite to win the division this year ... after they shelled out huge contracts to Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber this offseason.

"I believe we have a talented group that can get back on track," Dombrowski said, "and I am confident that Rob, with his experience and familiarity with our club, is the right man to lead us going forward."

Girardi was hired by the Phillies in 2019 and never made the playoffs with him as headman.

Take notes, 50 Cent, Dr. Fauci and Steve Aoki ... Miles Teller showed exactly how a first pitch should be done on Wednesday -- throwing a perfect strike before the Phillies game!

The "Top Gun: Maverick" star was at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for the Phils' "Top Gun" night ... and the team allowed him to toe the rubber for the game's ceremonial first pitch.

And, Teller didn't disappoint while on the mound -- ripping a fastball right down the middle to Phillies legend Ryan Howard!!!

Of course, the throw shouldn't surprise many ... 35-year-old Teller is a huge baseball guy -- and has previously said he might have picked a pro career on the diamond over an acting one if given the choice back in high school.

Teller told local media after the throw that he used some advice from Phillies star Nick Castellanos to complete the toss -- explaining the outfielder told him, "let it eat."

Trevor Bauer just sounded off on Amber Heard following the verdict in the defamation lawsuit with Johnny Depp ... saying the actress deserves to pay every single penny of the MILLIONS she was ordered to give her ex-husband.

"It took four years of torching Johnny Depp's reputation over false allegations of abuse to get to today, but he has finally been vindicated," 31-year-old Bauer tweeted Wednesday.

"Thank you to the jurors in this case for rightfully holding Amber Heard accountable for defamation."

Bauer is clearly sending a message here -- the Cy Young winner faced allegations of going too far with three women on multiple occasions, which he contended was consensual rough sex. He recently filed a defamation lawsuit of his own.

While Bauer was never charged criminally, Major League Baseball handed him a 2-year ban after a lengthy investigation ... one of the longest suspensions in modern sports history.

Bauer has maintained his innocence throughout ... saying the only bad decision he made was associating with the wrong people.

As for Depp and Heard, the jury awarded $10.35 million total in compensatory and punitive damages against Heard ... but his ex-wife will only have to shell out $8,350,000.

Tommy Pham says his fantasy football beef with Joc Pederson is really partially Mike Trout's fault ... explaining on Tuesday that the Angels MVP was actually the commissioner of the MLB stars' league!!

The Cincinnati Reds outfielder went in-depth Tuesday about the Joc drama with reporters before his team's game against the Red Sox ... revealing some key details about what led to him slapping Pederson in the head last week.

Pham explained the fantasy league was a $10,000 buy-in, where the last-place finisher had to pony up an additional 10 Gs. The 33-year-old also said MLB stars like Mike Moustakas, Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer were members.

Pham confirmed he was pissed at Joc over a bunch of things -- including roster moves and "disrespectful" text message trash-talk -- and he added that he believed Trout could have stepped in and stopped it all at one point.

"Trout did a terrible job, man," Pham said. "Trout's the worst commissioner in fantasy sports. Because he allowed a lot of s*** to go on and he could've solved it all."

Pham, though, did appear to have at least some sympathy for Trout ... adding, "Nobody wanted to be commissioner."

"I didn't want to be the f***ing commissioner. I've got other s*** to do. He didn't want to do it. We put it on him. It was kind of our fault too, because we made him commissioner."

Pham revealed he walked away from the league in the middle of the season -- but said he was in 2nd place at the time.

An MLB fan terrifyingly leaned over some railing with his baby in his arm to try to catch a home run ball on Tuesday -- but, thankfully, he avoided disaster, made the grab and kept everyone safe!

The wild moment went down in the first inning of the Washington Nationals game against the Mets in New York -- when Starling Marte crushed a home run to deep center field.

The ball landed in an area with no seats, took a huge hop -- and that's when a dad in the stands made a play that we're sure Mom wasn't too pleased to see.

Broadcast video from the game shows as the ball was coming back down from its initial carom, the man held his baby with one hand and made the barehanded catch.

"Did he catch that?!" the game's announcers asked. "Baby's fine! All good!"

The fan actually spoke to the Associated Press about the play following the game ... and revealed he was a former baseball player -- so the catch was no sweat.

"In Dominican Republic, we don't all get to have gloves, so we do play baseball barehanded, so I figured I could do it," the fan said. "I did it many times when I was a kid, so why not?"

The kid, meanwhile, was totally fine.

Braves fans will be able to spot their star outfielder whenever he's rolling around ATL -- Ronald Acuna Jr. just copped a brand new luxury whip for $175k ... with his very own logo etched all over it!!

TMZ Sports has learned ... the 2-time All-Star is the proud new owner of a BMW X6 M Competition with a bright yellow paint job.

If you look closely, the car has a personal touch -- featuring Acuna's name and custom logo all over the exterior, which was his business partner Nick Drbal's idea alongside Xample.

"Ronald and I wanted to brand his logo in a unique and personal way," Drbal tells us. "The best way we envisioned this was for his own city to be able to identify who was inside, based on what was outside on the car."

We're told Acuna will only have the whip in ATL for a short time before it gets shipped back to his home country of Venezuela.

The RA13 logo is also featured on the inside ... with the emblem getting put on the headrests for a special touch.

The Beamer X6 M Competition usually comes with a starting price tag of around $130k ... but we're told with all the bells and whistles and the custom job, it ended up being around a $175k purchase.

The slugger definitely seems pleased with the end result -- posing next to the car for a quick photo.

Cincinnati Reds outfielder Tommy Pham has been suspended 3 games for SLAPPING San Francisco Giants slugger Joc Pederson over an alleged fantasy football beef.

Pham, who admitted to reporters in an interview on Saturday he purposely went after Pederson, received the three-game ban for "inappropriate conduct" and was hit with an undisclosed fine.

The incident went down on Friday as the Reds and Giants were preparing to start their series -- Pham approached and slapped Pederson over a dispute stemming from a fantasy football league.

In the video of the alleged incident circulating on social media, Pham appears to walk up to Joc and slap him in the face.

The Giants outfielder spoke candidly about the encounter with Pham after the Reds' 5-1 victory over his club ... saying the whole thing stemmed from Pham accusing him of cheating in the fantasy league they're in together (you can't make this stuff up).

Pederson said the dustup was the first time Pham ran into him ... and claims there was no argument between the two before the slap occurred.

Giants skipper Gabe Kapler -- who announced Friday his decision to skip the national anthem moving forward due to the current state of the country -- refused to comment on the situation between Pham and Pederson.

San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler is very upset about the direction of our country after the latest mass shooting ... and now he's protesting the national anthem.

Gabe says he's breaking from baseball tradition and plans to no longer join players and coaches on the field before games for the playing of the national anthem.

The Giants manager told reporters Friday in Cincinnati before his club played the Reds, "I don’t plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country."

In a post on his personal blog earlier Friday, Gabe reflected on the Uvalde school shooting and the response across the sporting world.

Gabe wrote ... "The day 19 children and 2 teachers were murdered, we held a moment of silence at sporting events around the country, then we played the national anthem, and we went on with our lives."

The all-too-familiar response is not sitting well with GK, who adds ... "We didn’t stop to reflect on whether we are actually free and brave after this horrific event, we just stood at attention."

Gabe says his father taught him a lesson early on in life, and he's applying it to his anthem protest.

"When I was the same age as the children in Uvalde, my father taught me to stand for the pledge of allegiance when I believed my country was representing its people well or to protest and stay seated when it wasn't," Kapler writes. "I don't believe it is representing us well right now."

Gabe says he tried to protest the anthem earlier this week, but it didn't materialize.

"My brain said drop to a knee; my body didn’t listen," he wrote. "I wanted to walk back inside; instead I froze. I felt like a coward. I didn’t want to call attention to myself. I didn’t want to take away from the victims or their families. There was a baseball game, a rock band, the lights, the pageantry. I knew that thousands of people were using this game to escape the horrors of the world for just a little bit. I knew that thousands more wouldn’t understand the gesture and would take it as an offense to the military, to veterans, to themselves."

Gabe says after a few days of reflection, he decided on his anthem protest.

Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson is issuing yet another mea culpa ... this time, apologizing to Jackie Robinson's family for any issues he may have caused them following his controversy with Tim Anderson.

As we previously reported, Donaldson was suspended 1 game by the MLB for calling Anderson "Jackie" multiple times during a Yanks' tilt with the White Sox this past weekend.

Donaldson said he intended the remark to be in jest -- saying he thought it was an inside joke he had with Anderson stemming from comments that the Chicago shortstop made in a 2019 interview.

Anderson, though, said he found it very offensive, and Donaldson later said he was sorry for it all.

On Thursday, the New York slugger issued another apology, this time to Robinson's wife and family.

"I would also like to apologize to Mrs. Rachel Robinson and the Jackie Robinson family for any distress this incident may have caused," Donaldson said in a statement. "Jackie was a true American hero and I hold his name in the highest regard."

In his statement, the 36-year-old reiterated he meant no disrespect to Anderson by the comments.

"I stated over the weekend that I apologized for offending Tim and it was a misunderstanding based on multiple exchanges between us over the years," he said.

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Brooks Raley says the shooting in Texas on Tuesday hit very close to home for him ... revealing Wednesday he actually attended Robb Elementary School as a kid growing up in Uvalde.

"I walked those halls," the 33-year-old reliever told media members at his locker. "I can't imagine what they experienced yesterday."

Raley said he learned that a gunman had killed 19 students and two teachers at the school from family and friends who still live in the city ... and called it all an absolute tragedy.

"Obviously growing up there, going to that school, it kind of hits home," said Raley, whose parents and brother still live in Uvalde. "Having young children myself, you just feel for those families."

"And you pray for them, and your thoughts are with them."

Raley -- who moved out of Uvalde as a teenager to go to college at Texas A&M -- called the community surrounding Robb Elementary "small" and "close-knit" ... and added that he's really feeling for them.

Josh Donaldson was hit with a 1-game ban on Monday ... after the Yankees star made a Jackie Robinson reference toward Tim Anderson during a game.

The incident happened during New York's matchup with the White Sox on Saturday ... when JD said, "what's up, Jackie?" to Anderson, who is Black.

Sox manager Tony La Russa called the jab "racist," but Donaldson later claimed he was referring to a 2019 Sports Illustrated article, in which Anderson said he felt like "today's Jackie Robinson" ... and claimed he's joked with Anderson about it in the past.

Anderson was clearly pissed over JD's comment ... saying it was uncalled for and he'd "never sleep this off."

As a result of Donaldson's words, he's now been suspended one game ... which he'll appeal.

MLB's senior VP for on-field operations Michael Hill released a statement on the decision ... saying, "MLB has completed the process of speaking to the individuals involved in this incident. There is no dispute over what was said on the field."

"Regardless of Mr. Donaldson's intent, the comment he directed toward Mr. Anderson was disrespectful and in poor judgment, particularly when viewed in the context of their prior interactions."

A Texas Rangers farmhand completely befuddled a Houston Astros prospect with a perfectly executed hidden ball trick on Thursday ... and the epic play was all captured on video!

The trickery happened in the third inning of the Corpus Christi Hooks game against the Frisco RoughRiders -- after 'Stros prospect Justin Dirden knocked a base hit into right field.

As Dirden was celebrating the feat with his first base coach, Trey Hair devised a plan. The Rangers prospect hid the ball in the back of his glove and slowly made his way to Dirden.

In footage of the play, you can see Hair made a swipe at the bag, which caused Dirden to leave it -- and then he casually tagged the runner out.

Dirden was left perplexed, and questioned the umpire about the call. But, it turns out the ump said everything was legal -- and Dirden was ruled out!

Major League Baseball reporter Kelsey Wingert was drilled in the face by a line drive earlier this week ... and in a new photo she posted on Wednesday, you can see the ball did some serious damage to her forehead.

The incident happened during the ninth inning of the Colorado Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants game in Denver on Monday ... when Austin Slater belted a foul ball into the Rockies' dugout area.

The 95 MPH shot made a beeline right at Wingert, a Rockies reporter, and, unfortunately, she wasn't able to move out of the way.

The aftermath of the strike was caught on video -- and you can hear in the clip, one TV broadcaster was very concerned and asked, "Kelsey, you okay?"

Wingert was able to walk out of the dugout and did give a thumbs up ... but in an update on Wednesday, she revealed the strike caused a gnarly injury.

The 29-year-old said she had to spend five hours at a local hospital and needed several stitches to close the wound. She added that she required a CT scan as well.

Thankfully, Wingert said the testing went well and she's now doing OK -- and thanked the Rockies and her colleagues for all of the support in the wake of the incident.

"I've never experienced support like this," she said. "Thank you for the prayers."

A tight MLB game on Wednesday got a whole lot more interesting in the later innings ... when a fan ran onto the field, and, for a while, evaded security guards like an NFL running back.

The moment just happened in the Braves vs. Brewers game in Milwaukee.

Video shot by spectators inside the stadium shows a fan made it down to the field, and then began dancing in center field.

The guy shook his booty for quite a while before security eventually realized he was there -- and then, he evaded the guards who were trying to take him down for several seconds.

The man then sprinted from the outfield to the mound, before eventually making it to home plate ... all while juking stadium officials in the process.

Toward the end of his jaunt, the guy tried to get a high-five from a Milwaukee batter, but after the Brewer left the man hanging, security finally corralled the fan and got him off the diamond.

Former MLB star Matt Harvey -- who just recently signed a minor league deal with the Baltimore Orioles -- has been suspended by the league following his bombshell admissions while on the stand in the Tyler Skaggs trial.

Harvey has been banned 60 games, dating back to April 29 -- the MLB just announced.

The league says the 33-year-old right-hander participated "in the distribution of a prohibited Drug of Abuse" -- which violated the league's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

The suspension comes three months after Harvey admitted in a courtroom that he did give Skaggs Percocets while the two were teammates together with the Los Angeles Angels.

During his testimony -- which was part of the trial related to the 2019 death of Skaggs -- Harvey also admitted to taking painkillers while in the clubhouse. He also said he had previously been a user of cocaine.

Super sweet moment at Camden Yards on Monday ... a young Baltimore Orioles fan was able to get his souvenir home run ball back after he threw it onto the field.

The adorable scene happened in the eighth inning of New York's game against the O's ... when a youngster received a ball that had been smacked into the seats by Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton.

The kid was pumped to get the baseball -- but not knowing its true value ... he ended up hurling it onto the field just seconds after he was given it!!

The kid's dad was in disbelief at what happened ... shaking his head and laughing.

Good news, though -- after Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks spotted the ball and threw it back into the crowd ... the fans returned it to the toddler!

The kid -- who was wearing an Orioles jersey -- was all smiles, and so was his father, who actually lifted up his son with the baseball in hand -- much to the delight of the fans in attendance.