ARIES (March 21-April 19). A stubborn problem seems to resist your efforts to solve it. Consider setting this one aside for a while. Let time do some of the work. Circumstances will shift and with them, the light. New illumination will make the solution obvious.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You know your schedule fits your life when an interruption doesn’t ruin the whole day. Real life has surprises, messes, opportunities and spontaneous fun too good to pass up. Part of being a real person is leaving room for real life.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Words can be imperfect containers for thoughts. Before assuming someone understands you, consider what they actually heard. Curiosity, patience and a well-placed question can bridge the language gap.
CANCER (June 22-July 22). It’s a fine day to, as Ralph Waldo Emerson suggested, “Chant the beauty of the good.” Noticing good is one thing; chanting it implies a magical or spiritual level of focus on the matter. You’ve definitely got it in you.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). The buffet looks better today. Funny thing: It’s mostly the same spread that’s been there all along. You’re simply hungrier, which has a way of widening the range of your pallet and making it all more delicious.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Success is the ultimate revenge. You’re certain to get to where you want to be. In the meantime, you are owed some justice. What would that look like? You move in the spirit of fairness today.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Life often unfolds to cast people in roles they didn’t aim for and jobs they didn’t apply for. Don’t assume people like where they are at. If you knew you were dealing with someone making the best of something unpreferred, how would you proceed?
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You don’t have to figure everything out alone. Today, other people will be your mirror, and flattering ones, at that. Their reactions, encouragement, questions and enthusiasm show you what you can’t easily see by yourself.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You already have courage, and you’d also like to have some assurance that whatever you get into, there will be a way out. Indeed. Either back out slowly or run through swiftly.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Two people can walk through the same disappointment and tell completely different stories about it. Notice the story you’re telling yourself. A small shift in interpretation could make the whole experience a blessing, a breakthrough or a boon.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You love to learn, which is something completely different from cramming for a test to retain information long enough to pass. You’ll do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). It’s a good thing you are working for the cause, not the credit, because the accolades will be delayed. You may even receive skepticism or criticism before they arrive. But in the meantime, your cause will be well-served.
TODAY’SBIRTHDAY (Aug. 13). It’s your Year of the Silk Road. Once an ancient trade route linking distant worlds, it carried spices, stories, fortunes and remarkable friendships. Your own world expands in much the same way as you follow a distant calling. More highlights: with international connections, a passion project that pays, and a collection of supporters, admirers and unforgettable nights. Leo and Pisces adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 14, 30, 7, 19 and 2.
PEREIRA, Colombia — Tons of aid from regional partners began to roll into Colombia on Wednesday, as the search for survivors in the rubble of powerful earthquake grew more desperate after the temblor razed buildings, buckled roads, and crushed cars.
The devastation has tested Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, and his government as it scrambles to respond to the disaster and civil society as it pushes to provide aid to the most affected communities.
Colombian forensics authorities said Wednesday that more than 227 people died in the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the country’s west on Monday. The government has been slow to provide updated tolls, and the true number is likely higher.
De la Espriella said Tuesday that at least 181 people died and 2,595 more were injured. Local and federal authorities have reported hundreds missing, while civilian-run databases put that number at more than 4,100.
Teams continued to pick through the rubble in the hardest-hit cities of Cali, Pereira, Manizales, and Quibdo, as time ticked away for victims to be found — and rescued — alive. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours crucial for retrieving survivors, though that threshold can be extended if those trapped have access to food and water.
On Wednesday afternoon, Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, told reporters that rescue teams continue to find signs of people alive under the rubble and are racing to save them.
“The next 20 hours are the most critical to find and rescue people alive,” he said. “Every minute is vital.”
Survival takes many forms in hard-hit areas
In Pereira, rescuers pulled Daniela Largo alive from the rubble late Tuesday, capping a complex 12-hour rescue in which crews carved a small opening in the debris to free her pinned arm and a doctor administered IV fluids to stabilize her. Wrapped in a blue blanket, the young woman was carried to an ambulance as firefighters embraced and onlookers cheered.
Another moment was marked by mourning, as a man was pulled from a building in the same city, lifeless and covered in a white blanket.
Across the coffee-growing region, among the areas worst affected by the quake, authorities have converted sports arenas, schools, and other public buildings into shelters for thousands of displaced Colombians.
Ebert Jonathan Morales, a Cali resident, said his family lost everything in the earthquake.
“My house was completely destroyed. We can’t live there,” Morales said. “It collapsed. The floor collapsed, the walls cracked. The roof came down.”
In Pereira and Cali, families have been sleeping in parks — some fearing aftershocks or the collapse of their damaged homes, others without homes to return to.
Colombia’s geological service has documented 130 aftershocks since the quake.
“We have the most important things: a roof over our heads, food, water and, in my case, medical care,” said Edith Penagos, 48, who was staying with her teenage son in one of the white tents set up in a Pereira park.
Rodrigo León Loya, a seismologist and geosciences professor at the University of the Andes, said the probability of an earthquake of a similar magnitude occurring in the same area is low but he would not rule out more seismic activity.
“Let’s remember that Colombia is full of active fault lines,” he said. “The question isn’t whether it can happen again. The question is rather when an earthquake of similar magnitude will occur at another of Colombia’s seismic sources.”
Aid groups provide humanitarian relief
In many areas, including the epicenter of the quake Choco, the official response to the disaster has been complicated by the ongoing crises of deep poverty and civil warfare that has created waves of forced displacement for decades. The true impact of the earthquake in the jungled northwest remained largely unknown because cell service has been lost and many of the likely affected communities are remote, accessible only by river.
“This earthquake compounds an already severe humanitarian situation, and there is a need for increased support for the humanitarian response,” said Giovanni Rizzo, Colombia director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Many aid organizations were already on the ground in Choco supporting a 2016 peace accord between the government and leftist rebels, and responding to violence in the region involving other armed groups that has persisted since then.
Those humanitarian workers were able to quickly pivot to disaster relief, said María José Torres, the U.N. resident coordinator in Colombia.
“We have a presence on the ground. Therefore, our ability to be there, present with the people, I think, has increased exponentially,” Torres said in a statement Tuesday.
Regional partners promise to help
At the same time, aid from other countries and nonprofits abroad continued to roll in.
The State Department posted on its website that disaster response teams started to arrive in Colombia on Monday. The U.S. has also offered over $15 million in aid.
Mexico meanwhile said it had sent two military aircraft carrying 19.5 tons of nonperishable food and 19 members of Mexican security forces to Pereira, and it plans to send another 39 tons of aid in the coming days. A further 255 military specialists and 20 dogs are on standby to be sent to Colombia if needed.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele offered to send two planes loaded with 100 tons of aid.
On Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV thanked those contributing to recovery efforts, and said he is praying for those killed, injured, or otherwise affected by the earthquake.
“I want to express my solidarity with my Colombian sisters and brothers who have suffered the effects of the recent earthquake,” he said.
The chief content officer at Forbes magazine was fired from his top editorial position after the company learned he had received around $6 million as an undisclosed payment from a man that does business with the publication, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
Randall Lane was fired last month, the Times reported.
In an unrelated connection to Philadelphia, Lane was the cowriter of a musical, The Sound of America, that debuted this summer at FringeArts.
The Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that Lane was paid by RJ Shook, the founder of Shook Research, which has partnered with the magazine for about a decade to publish rankings of wealth advisers.
Shook made the payment after he sold a majority stake in Shook Research to a private equity firm last August, the Times reported.
To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, newsrooms often prohibit payments from sources or other people who have a financial incentive to curry favor with a journalist.
The Times said it was unclear why Shook paid Lane, though at least one unnamed source said Lane considered the money as a gift for advice he had provided to Shook over the years.
The 58-year-old Lane, in a statement to the Times, said: “I made a mistake, and I take responsibility for it.”
He added: “I should have disclosed the gift, and failing to was a serious error in judgment. I deeply regret that and I lost the job and team I love because of it. None of this changes how I feel about Forbes and the amazing people there.”
A Forbes spokesperson confirmed to the Times that Lane was no longer with the magazine, but declined to talk about the payment. The Times reported that Shook did not respond to requests for comment.
When local caddie Conor McGinley first heard the U.S. Amateur Championship was coming to Merion Golf Club, he didn’t want anything to do with it.
“I’m just going to go out to the Hamptons and I don’t need to deal with this stuff,” he said.
But then he saw Stuart Grehan, an Irish golfer, win the 131st British Amateur Championship on June 20, and thought, “Hold on a minute.”
McGinley, who has been a caddie for 24 years and is a golf fanatic, knew only four people in the history of golf had ever won the British Amateur and U.S. Amateur in the same year, and one of them was Bobby Jones in 1930 at Merion Golf Club.
McGinley was put in contact with Grehan by a mutual friend on Facebook, got on a phone call with him, and made his case for why he should be Grehan’s caddie.
“I’ve caddied for every level, so I’m more than capable of caddying for you,” he recalled saying to Grehan. “But this is all up to you now. Instead of bringing your father-in-law or your brother or whoever, come and go with a proper local caddie because that is huge, especially at Merion.”
Forty-four local Merion caddies were on the bag for the world’s best amateur this week, with 11 advancing to match play. For many of those caddies, they believe it is a major advantage.
Dawson Lew, of Canada, with Merion caddie Austin McConnell on Wednesday.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
“You can see it right away because you’re walking with guys who aren’t Merion caddies and you can see them taking lines and you can see them missing putts and you can see them even misreading all types of greens,” said LaRue Temple, who has caddied at Merion for 29 years and for athletes ranging from Eli Manning to Rachel Kuehn, a member of Team USA who won the 2022 Curtis Cup at Merion. “You can see them doing things that a local caddie would be like, ‘That is not a good idea.’”
The major edge for golfers using local caddies is their understanding of the grain in the greens and the layout of each hole. The caddies at Merion know where to miss each shot and what targets and line to take off each tee. They have seen almost every hole location during their rounds at Merion, Temple said, so they are able to tell players the right part of the green to aim at.
Many of the local caddies grew up in the area or have been working at Merion for almost 30 years.
Sean McConnell wearing his 1989 U.S. Amateur hat from when he watched Chris Patton won at Merion.Sean McConnell
Sean McConnell, who started caddying at Merion in 2021, graduated from Haverford High School in 1992 and watched the 1989 U.S. Amateur when Chris Patton won at Merion.
“I grew up around here and was like, ‘Maybe I’ll get to play Merion one day,’ and now I walk it every day,” he said. “I don’t take it for granted.”
His son, Austin McConnell, got him the job. Austin, who is a sophomore at Penn State and an Evans Scholar, started caddying at Merion in April 2021 and knew his dad had some knowledge of the sport since he played at Methodist University and graduated in 1997.
Both Sean and Austin caddied in the championship, with Austin advancing to match play, caddying for 17-year-old Dawson Lew from Canada.
When most golfers come to Merion, they aren’t aware that the greens have grain that impacts the way the ball breaks and rolls, caddie Kevin Shindler said.
“It definitely helps with the reading of the greens,” he said. “A lot of people don’t realize that this course has a lot of grain. They associate that with just Bermuda grass down in Florida. It’s not as strong as it is down there, but it’s very real and people don’t always realize that. Having a caddie who has been here a while knows you can’t really see the grain, but just [knowing] what it’s doing on each hole is helpful.”
Shindler caddied for Tianyi Xiong, who advanced to the Round of 64, but lost his match on Wednesday.
Dawson Lew chats with Austin McConnell at the 12th hole on Wednesday.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
For McGinley, being a caddie in major amateur championships is more than being a “bag carrier.” It’s also about building a relationship with the golfers to help them succeed in match play.
“You’re saving at least a couple strokes by having a local caddie that actually knows the course, but it’s not just knowing the course, it’s knowing how to manage people and deal with their emotions,” he said.
Many of the Merion caddies whose golfers didn’t advance to match play were out supporting the ones who did on Wednesday.
“I don’t care who it is, I just want to see one of our guys in the final match and maybe prove that point of having a local caddie is beneficial,” McGinley said. “But at the end of the day this is golf, and golf doesn’t care.”
The offseason heading into LeBron James’ 24th season has already been full of fireworks, and his latest social media post added to the anticipation for his 76ers debut later this fall.
James, who has enjoyed a long partnership with Nike throughout his career, teased the release of his 24th signature shoe Wednesday on Instagram, which he called “the lightest LeBron’s ever.”
Wearing his new signature shoes during what appears to be a morning workout, the low top LeBron XXIVs include an aqua blue base color with a black lining tracing the midsole, sockline, and lace panel, and gold accents with his signature crown logo on the shoe’s tongue. The material on the shoe, which looks like a mesh fishing net, is reportedly called “KingKnit,” according to Nick DePaula, and the outsole has an outline of a crown.
In the last slide of his post, James appeared to give a sneak preview of some other colorways for the shoe. Among them are a two-toned pink colorway, a white and red pair, a charcoal gray and dark red colorway, and a two-toned yellow pair.
James will join teammate Tyrese Maxey in releasing new shoes to the public this fall. Maxey announced earlier this week that his signature shoe, the New Balance Maxey v1, will drop on Oct. 2 in three colorways: In a black base made of suede and mesh material, with light blueish gray accents that swoop into the design, a white and cream base with light blueish gray accents, and a black base with orangish red accents.
Several sneaker outlets are reporting that the LeBron XXIV shoe is expected on Nov. 17 at a retail price of $200.
Philadelphia police now believe at least two women were killed inside the decrepit Olney home at the center of a sprawling missing persons investigation, officials said Wednesday — a stunning breakthrough in a probe that began nearly two months ago after a chance encounter near Independence Mall.
Inspector Raymond Evers said homicide detectives had recovered photos and videos on hard drives inside the home that appeared to show the deaths of two women who had been reported missing — neither of whom had been previously linked to the case.
Evers identified the women as Maribel Fresses, who was 27 when she was reported missing in February 2018, and Gabrielle Amarando, who went missing in September 2012 at the age of 22.
The announcement at a Wednesday news conference was the latest and most striking development in a case that has drawn national attention since police launched an investigation in June into the disappearances of two other women last seen at the home of Eugene Albert Horsch, 44, and his late father, Raymond “R.C.” Horsch.
Eugene Albert Horsch, 44, of Philadelphia.Courtesy of Philadelphia police
Evers said the two-month search of the home, on the 400 block of West Chew Avenue, involved over 95 search warrants and surfaced an “astonishing” array of evidence: five urns of cremated remains, more than 20 containers full of unknown chemicals and oily substances, and 50 hard drives and other electronic devices holding more than 600,000 images, 70,000 videos, and 10,000 pages of writings and drawings.
Inside one of those hard drives, Evers said, detectives found images and videos that appeared to show Fresses and Amarando alive inside the house — followed by “graphic and dark” depictions of what appeared to be their dead bodies.
But the investigation is complicated, he said, because police have not recovered any human remains inside the home. And forensic tests of the substances in the basement, and of what initially appeared to be blood inside the house, did not test positive for human blood or DNA, law enforcement sources have said.
Without the bodies, he said, the Philadelphia Office of the Medical Examiner cannot officially declare the women dead. He said the case would likely have to go through Orphans’ Court.
Philadelphia Police Inspector Raymond Evers gives an update on the investigation into the house on Chew Avenue.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Still, he said, the medical examiner’s office said that “if the images and the video are real and not altered in any way,” the women are dead.
Police are still working to determine when the women died.
Eugene Horsch has not been charged with any crimes connected to the women’s deaths or disappearances. Evers declined to say whether investigators believed he — or his father, a creator of erotic and pornographic art — may have been involved.
“Eugene lived there. He lived there for a long time. His dad lived there for a long time,” Evers said when asked about their possible connection to the deaths.
He said investigators had reviewed only about 5% of the digital materials so far and had hundreds of thousands more to go through.
A lawyer for Eugene Horsch did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The missing women
Police said they notified the families of Fresses and Amarando on Wednesday morning.
Ricardo Fresses, 61, said that, in his gut, he had known his daughter, Maribel, or “Bella,” was dead.
“She called me every day. Absolutely every day she called me, and one day she stopped calling me,” he said. “And as the years went by I knew she was gone.“
His daughter grew up in Holland, Bucks County, he said, and started using drugs in high school.
“She was a beautiful girl, a loving girl, always daddy’s girl,” he said, even as she slipped into opioid addiction.
He last saw her on June 19, 2018. They met for a slice of pizza in Kensington, and he gave her $50. He never heard from her again. He reported her missing shortly after.
“It’s a horrible situation that my family has to go through,” he said about what police found inside the hard drive.
Amarando’s family said the news followed 14 years of hope that she might finally turn up.
”I’m just so devastated. This brings some closure, but it still hurts,” said Lora Timmons, Amarando’s stepmother. “She was a sweet little girl. She was always just such fun to be with. She and her father were best friends.”
Timmons said Amarando, who grew up in Doylestown, had been interested in modeling from a young age but “always found the wrong crowd.” She had struggled with addiction since she was a teen, her stepmother said.
Amarando would often come to visit Timmons, who lives in North Carolina, and her sisters, but they lost contact in September 2012.
”She just went away,“ she said. “We searched here and there but we never found her. … We always thought she was just off doing her drug thing, living her life.”
Timmons had not heard of the Horsches until Wednesday.
”I always hoped I’d see her again,” she said. “I didn’t want to think the worst.”
Police declined to say how the women might have known Raymond or Eugene Horsch.
For decades before his death, Raymond Horsch offered drugs, cash, and shelter to women struggling with addiction, in exchange for nude photo and video shoots. Horsch’s visual works featured graphic violence — and sometimes death scenes. He also penned semi-autobiographical novels featuring serial killers who preyed on women in addiction.
Raymond “R.C.” Horsch in character for a film role, 2014.S. E. Stokowski / Wikimedia
How the case began
Wednesday’s developments came nearly two months after police began combing through the Horsch home in connection with at least two other missing women, following a chance encounter near Independence Mall.
On June 19, a U.S. park ranger saw Eugene Horsch and a woman acting suspiciously inside his parked BMW. After searching the car, the officer found drugs, guns, and various other weapons, along with a counterfeit U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration badge.
The woman with Horsch was also found with a fake ID in the name of Blair Tonzelli, a woman who was reported missing in 2023 and last seen at Horsch’s Olney home.
That also renewed suspicions about Horsch’s father, who died in May 2025. Raymond Horsch’s ex-wife, Amy McHale, was reported missing in 2016 and last heard from at the Chew Avenue house.
A witness later told police that Tonzelli was a home healthcare aide who had worked for Horsch’s father, and that she believed Tonzelli and Eugene Horsch had a disagreement over money, according to law enforcement sources.
Investigators interviewed people who knew Horsch and were told that, in the past, he had bragged about killing people and melting their bodies with chemicals in his basement, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Horsch, they said, said he could make a body so small it “could be flushed down a toilet.”
Workers and police investigators remove pipes and debris at the entrance to the home of Eugene Albert Horsch on West Chew Avenue in the Olney section of Philadelphia as investigators search for possible evidence on July 22.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Since the June arrest, Horsch has remained in federal custody on charges related to illegal gun possession. Police continued to search the Olney home in hopes of learning the whereabouts of Tonzelli and McHale.
They went so far as to excavate the home’s yard and remove a pipe to test for DNA.
FBI agents, meanwhile, continued examining hundreds of pages of text messages, handwritten and typed documents, CDs, and videos — including many of Raymond Horsch’s artistic works.
It was in there, police said, that there was evidence of Fresses’ and Amarando’s deaths.
Fresses’ father said the discovery confirmed his worst fears. For months, years even, he said, he would wake up in the middle of the night and drive through Kensington. He would look into the faces of the women on the streets, hoping he would see his Bella.
“But I was just hurting myself because I knew she was gone,” he said. “I knew in my heart that my daughter was not around anymore.“
While many 8-year-olds are preparing for the beginning of second or third grade, a handful are preparing for the Cal Ripken 8U World Series next week in Marlton, Burlington County.
Eleven U.S. teams from across the country will compete against teams from Mexico, Curaçao, Bonaire, and Latin America.
“This is more than a baseball tournament,” Scott Hillman, host president of the 2026 Cal Ripken 8U World Series, said in a news release. “It’s an opportunity for our community to welcome families from around the world, create lifelong memories for these young athletes, and showcase everything that makes Marlton such a special place.”
All games will be played at the Diamonds at Arrowhead Park in Marlton. Games begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday and culminate with the championship game at 2 p.m. Aug. 22.
Opening day matchups include Mexico vs. Denville, Curaçao vs. Lowell Youth and Bonaire vs. Marlton Orange at 9 a.m.; Latin America vs. Tri-Village at 11:30 a.m.; and Mexico vs. Marlton White at 2 p.m.
“Hosting the 2026 Cal Ripken 8U World Series is about much more than six days of baseball,” Marlton Baseball said in a post on social media. “It’s an opportunity to welcome teams from across the country and around the world while investing in the future of Marlton Baseball … Together, we’re building something that will benefit Marlton Baseball long after the final out is recorded.”
The Phillies might feel right at home Thursday when they are scheduled to play the Minnesota Twins in the “Field of Dreams” game in Dyersville, Iowa.
The weather out there is expected to have more than a dash of Philadelphia-style August flavor, with mugginess and rains during the day that could linger into game time, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Philly time.
“We’re tracing a potential band of storms that will set up near the ‘Field of Dreams’ Thursday evening,” said Connor DeLaune, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Davenport, Iowa.
“There probably will be a few isolated lightning strikes,” he added.
But this caveat might sound familiar: The timing and location of any storms remain uncertain, a forecast problem as challenging in northeastern Iowa as it is in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
John Feerick, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. and a die-hard Phillies fan, said it is possible the rains will back off during the evening.
“There may be enough of a break where they could get the game in,” he said.
That said, the teams may be better off waiting until Friday, which “looks a lot better.”
While no steady rain is expected Friday, Feerick added that he could not rule out that Philly special — a pop-up thunderstorm.
ST. LOUIS — The first two Cardinals hitters were fooled on curveballs in the dirt, and the third was late on a fastball upstairs.
Early Wednesday afternoon, Zack Wheeler looked back to form.
The Phillies right-hander was coming off a stretch of uncharacteristic starts marred by inconsistent command. He gave up five runs in Miami and four runs against Toronto, with a rain-shortened two-inning outing in Baltimore in between. Striking out the side to start the game in St. Louis looked like a positive sign.
But by the fifth inning, Wheeler’s command started to look spotty again. Four consecutive two-out hits snowballed into four runs in Phillies’ 7-1 loss to the Cardinals, Wheeler’s second loss in as many starts. His ERA since the All-Star break is 6.04.
“It looks like he might be fighting his mechanics a little bit,” said catcher J.T. Realmuto. “Just his command. You can tell, usually when he’s feeling right, his fastball command is pretty spot on, and he’s able to work in and out, up, down, and not miss a lot of locations. I feel like recently, it’s just been a little more erratic at times, just some bigger misses than you are used to seeing from him.”
Wheeler’s velocity was down from his average this season across all his pitches, but he wasn’t concerned about that. He said physically his body feels fine, but overall he is just not quite himself.
“Just a little out of whack right now, so just got to get that figured out,” Wheeler said. “Dig in, and see what’s going on, get that figured out. Just come back being better, more sharp.”
Luis Arraez gets the Phillies on the board with an RBI double in the fourth inning on Wednesday in St. Louis. It turned out to be their only run. Scott Kane
Wheeler was unable to pinpoint whether it is an issue with his mechanics, his stuff, or something else. From Realmuto’s perspective behind the plate, though, he thinks Wheeler’s stuff is as good as ever.
His defense didn’t do him many favors, either.
The Cardinals scored an unearned run in the second inning following an error from Alec Bohm. A ground ball hit right at the first baseman deflected away, and he wasn’t able to recover in time to make the out on Jordan Walker. The Cardinals outfielder stole second base and then scored after Wheeler allowed a double to Nathan Church.
But Wheeler limited the damage there until the fifth. The parade of two-out hits started with a single from JJ Wetherholt that got past Bohm. He was holding a runner at first and wasn’t able to close the gap in time on the hard-hit chopper.
Another single and consecutive doubles broke the game open for the Cardinals, and Wheeler didn’t return for the sixth after just 84 pitches. But 35 of those had come in the fifth, and interim manager Don Mattingly was trying to be cautious with the right-hander after he threw 115 pitches in his previous start.
“I think they’re just helping me out just because the high pitch count last game,” Wheeler said. “I mean, I was a little frustrated, wanted to go back out, but [Mattingly’s] just looking out for me, so it’s probably the best thing.”
The Phillies’ bullpen was much closer to full strength Wednesday than it was to start the series. Two more runs scored in the seventh charged to José Alvarado. His command was erratic again as he walked three.
The Phillies hit into two double plays on Wednesday after grounding into four the night prior. They also racked up eight strikeouts, burning both their automated ball-strike challenges by the third inning after Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber incorrectly challenged strike calls.
It went on to hurt the team later in the game. Realmuto said there were about three instances where he would have challenged if the Phillies had any remaining. He had already overturned two ball calls on Wheeler in the first and second inning, helping both at-bats turn into strikeouts.
Alec Bohm hit a single during the fifth inning on Wednesday.Scott Kane
“We didn’t get a lot going today,” Mattingly said. “I mean, we didn’t do enough to win the game today. You get one run, it’s hard to say you deserve to win the game.”
That lone run came in the fourth inning on back-to-back doubles from Harper and Luis Arraez. The second baseman connected on a curveball over the middle of the plate, hooking it just inside the right field line. It bounced into the stands for a ground-rule double, giving Arraez his first hit in his last 17 plate appearances.
While it spoiled the shutout, it didn’t exactly break Arraez out of his slump. He grounded into a double play in his next plate appearance and then flew out in the ninth inning.
Harper looked to be in some discomfort in his final at-bat in the ninth, which ended in a walk. He has been dealing with by knee soreness that primarily bothers him when he decelerates while running, but he said postgame that wasn’t what was affecting him in that moment.
“I was fine. I was just trying to take a minute,” Harper said. “Took two really bad swings, so yeah, needed to keep my composure a little bit. I was good.”
Since the All-Star break, the Phillies have dropped six of eight series. Their two losses to the Cardinals sting all the more considering the fact they had their two aces — Cristopher Sánchez and Wheeler — on the mound for them.
The front end of the rotation is supposed to be the Phillies’ trump card. But it can’t be when the offense scores just one run over the last 19 innings.
“We’re not going to get any of those eight series back, so there’s no way to look at it other than go forward,” Mattingly said. “Kind of simple as that.”
The Phillies will head to Iowa on Thursday morning to take on the Twins in MLB’s Field of Dreams game. But what is supposed to be a celebration of the game of baseball and the iconic 1989 film will have a shadow over it as the Phillies seek to right the ship.
“Nobody in here is happy about the brand of baseball we’re playing right now,” Realmuto said.
To some, the Eagles are priceless. But according to Sportico’s latest NFL franchise valuations, the team is worth about $10.31 billion.
Sportico’s report placed the Eagles at No. 6 in the league for the second year in a row. Globally, they rank seventh overall — only the Golden State Warriors moved ahead of them.
Despite a 22% increase in value over last year, the Birds came in below the leaguewide average of a 31% year-over-year increase. Last year, the Birds saw a 25% increase in value year over year, with Sportico valuing them at $8.43 billion. That came after Jeffrey Lurie sold minority stakes in the team in December 2024 that valued it at $8.3 million. He bought the team for $185 million in 1994.
The leaguewide increase contributed to the NFL’s most valuable season yet, with the league’s 32 teams collectively worth $299 billion for the 2025 season. This marks the biggest single-year value gain for the NFL since Sportico began its valuations in 2020. According to the report, the average team’s value has increased 141% over the past five years.
Sportico’s calculations factor in everything from revenue and merchandise sales to real estate owned by the franchises. The NFL also showed off its financial prowess compared with other sports leagues, with each of the 32 teams ranking among the top 38 most valuable sports franchises in the world — even the Cincinnati Bengals, who were ranked No. 32 for the seventh straight year, only saw six non-NFL teams above them.
At the top of the list once again are the Dallas Cowboys at $15.5 billion. The Los Angeles Rams ($12.7 billion), New York Giants ($12 billion), New England Patriots ($10.4 billion) and New York Jets ($10.35 billion) round out the top five. The Jets, who climbed three spots, were the only NFL team to leapfrog the Eagles, but the Birds remained at No. 6 with the San Francisco 49ers falling three spots.
