Phillies’ Don Mattingly accomplishes impressive feat after Red Sox win, showing he was the man for the job originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Philadelphia Phillies‘ struggles to start the season were a bit surprising, even if people thought Dave Dombrowski and the rest of the front office shouldn’t have run this same team back.

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For whatever reason, the Phillies went in that direction, and they seemingly paid the price for that in the early stages of the campaign. Fast forward about a month, and the Phillies have been one of the better teams in baseball over that stretch, now sitting at 20-22 after what was one of the most disappointing starts we’ve ever seen in baseball.

Winners of seven of their last 10 games, the Phillies feel really good, and we have to give a ton of credit to Don Mattingly for what he was able to do for this team to turn things around.

After moving on from skipper Rob Thomson, there were some questions about what would come next. Instead of that being a bigger problem than it had to be, Mattingly has done an excellent job and shows why he should probably be viewed as the potential full-time skipper for this roster in the future.

Even better, he made some history for himself on Tuesday night, something he’s probably always wanted to do.

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“Don Mattingly wins his 900th career game as manager, and is now 11-3 since taking over as manager of the Phillies,” USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote.

Winning 900 games as a big-league manager is no small feat and reflects the career Mattingly has had as a player and skipper.

The fact that he was able to have such a successful career and also be a great coach, good enough to win 900 games as a manager, shows that we’re looking at a baseball legend here.

While the personal accolades are nice, and I hope he gets many more of them, the bigger story here is that he really helped the Phillies turn this thing around, and he should get a lot of credit for that.

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Phillies’ Alec Bohm gets expected trade update after years of rumors originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Outside of the first half of the 2024 season, Alec Bohm couldn’t even follow up that All-Star campaign with a decent second half.

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It’s tough to evaluate him as a long-term piece of this Phillies roster because of how poorly he’s playing, which has led most to suggest he’ll be traded.

Bohm has been a bit better over the past few days, but outside of his game against the Colorado Rockies in which he hit two home runs, he’s still been very average.

On the year, he’s hitting just .184 with three home runs, with two of them coming in the same game, and has 22 strikeouts compared to 11 walks in 136 at-bats. The Phillies are in that spot where they could look to buy and sell some, and Bohm is still being viewed as a change-of-scenery guy.

“If they sell, Alec Bohm feels like a change-of-scenery candidate,” Robert Murray reported.

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“But if they buy, it’s clear they need another big hitter in the lineup. Who that could be remains to be seen — buyers and sellers still have months to establish themselves — but Dave Dombrowski loves to swing big. So who might he try to target?”

It’s entirely possible that the former Wichita State standout plays for a new team in a city with far less pressure than Philadelphia and finds success.

It isn’t like Bohm is the worst player of all time, but he just might not have what it takes to play in Philadelphia any longer. At 29 years old, there’s still some upside there, so I’d be surprised if teams don’t at least take a chance on him.

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Lionel Messi more than doubled his salary to $25m (£18.5m) in his new contract with Inter Miami and earns more more than twice as much as the second-highest-paid player in Major League Soccer, Los Angeles FC‘s Son Heung Min.

Messi’s new contract includes $25m in base salary and more than $28m in guaranteed compensation, the MLS Players’ Association said in its first release of 2026 salaries. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner earns more than the payrolls of 28 of the other 29 MLS teams.

Miami’s $54.6m (£40.4m) is more than $20m (£14.8m) higher than LAFC, which is second at $32.7m (£24.2m), and nearly five times as much as Philadelphia’s league-low $11.7m (£8.65m). Miami’s payroll is up from $46.8m (£34.6m) at the start of last season.

Total league compensation was $631m (£467m) and the average guaranteed compensation of $688,816 on 16 April was up nearly nine percent from the start of October.

Messi signed a new three-year contract through the 2028 season in October before leading Inter Miami to its first MLS title.

The Argentina captain has 59 goals in 64 regular-season games with Miami, including nine in 11 matches this season. He topped the MLS scoring charts with 29 goals last season and won his second straight MVP award.

His salary figures are for his MLS contract and include any marketing bonus and agents fees but do not account for any additional agreements with the team or its affiliates, or for any performance bonuses.

Son is second at $10,368,750 (£7.7m) in base salary and $11.2m (£8.3m) in total compensation, the same as his figures last season. The 33-year-old winger joined LA from Tottenham last August.

Among the other highest earners in the league after former Newcastle creator Miguel Almiron ($7.9m; £5.84m) and Vancouver Whitecaps’ Thomas Muller, who earned $5.15m (£3.81m) after leaving Bayern Munich last summer.

Cincinnati centre-back Miles Robinson ($3.95m; £2.92m) was the top earner among likely inclusions in Mauricio Pochettino’s United States squad for the 2026 World Cup.

Coco Gauff recently gave her fans an off-court moment as she reacted to her childhood friend Jamilah Nicole (Snells) creating a buzz on social media donning an orange bikini.

On Wednesday, Jamilah shared some snippets of her pool day in Florida, where she was soaking up the sun in an orange two-piece. She also took the moment to show off her nail extensions that captured the breezy tropical vibe in bright colours. Snells further accented her look by accessorizing her fingers with blingy golden rings that grabbed the World No. 4’s attention.

“Summer nails 🌞✨🌊🐬🪷By:Me” – Jamilah Snells captioned her IG post.

“so aesthetic 😍” – Coco Gauff reacted to the post.

Coco Gauff and Snells have been friends since they were kids. The two met in a tennis academy in Florida and have been best buddies ever since. Despite having a busy tennis schedule, the 2x Grand Slam winner always takes time out to spend time with Jamilah.

Jamilah is currently a sophomore at the University of Louisville. She is a professional tennis player from the USA and competes on both ITF and WTA circuits. She currently holds a WTA ranking of 515 in women’s doubles.

Coco Gauff eyes becoming second American after Serena Williams to reach multiple finals in Rome

Gauff has now reached the semi-finals of the Italian Open for the fourth time after a magnificent 6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Mirra Andreeva on Tuesday. After dropping the first set, Gauff secured a 5-1 lead in the final set. Andreeva had five chances to outmatch Gauff before the American bagged the win in the fifth match point. In a candid post-game interview, the 2025 US Open champ spoke about her comeback win over the World No. 7.

“I know when I play her (Mirra Andreeva) she can play great tennis at any moment… I was just trying to appreciate just being here even if those match points weren’t going my way” – Coco Gauff opened up after a comeback QF win.

“I was trying to find the balance of being aggressive and just not missing” – Gauff added.

The 2x Grand Slam champion bids to be the second woman of this century to reach multiple finals at the Italian Open after the 4x Olympic gold medalist Serena Williams. The 22-year-old will next face World No. 27 Sorana Cirstea at the semi-finals on Thursday.