LOS ANGELES — Rob Pelinka, president of basketball operations and general manager for the Los Angeles Lakers, walked past his team’s locker room sad-faced.

The Lakers’ season had just ended after a 103-96 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. During the game, the TNT cameras caught Pelinka shaking his head in frustration.

A frustration that plagued the third-seeded Lakers in a series it lost to the sixth-seeded Timberwolves 4-1 and will linger into the offseason.

Rudy Gobert, Minnesota’s 7-foot-1 center, crushed the Lakers with 27 points and 24 rebounds while exposing a problem Pelinka and his front office could never solve. Trading Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic stripped the Lakers’ of their only effective rim protector.

The Timberwolves shot a ghastly 7-for-47 from 3-point range. But several times at Crypto. com Arena, Gobert corralled the shots and stuffed them through the hoop or laid it in.

He was 12-of-15 shooting for the floor, and the Lakers helped make it look effortless. The tallest player the Lakers had on the court was LeBron James, the Lakers’ 6-9 superstar.

But even James looked relatively helpless.

‘He seemed to get his hand on every rebound,’ Lakers guard Gabe Vincent said of Gobert. ‘That alone was his impact as well.

‘He finished things at the rim and he made some free throws (3-of-6). They had some guys step up and play big minutes and have a good game and he was one of them.’

One of them? He was the one.

Why did the Lakers not use their 7-footer, Jaxson Hayes? He made appearances in the first four games of the playoff series against the Timberwolves but scored only seven points.

‘You could say, ‘Oh play a center,’ ‘ Lakers coach JJ Redick said after the game. ‘We couldn’t score, so there’s a tradeoff to everything.’

Hayes riding the bench and Gobert dominating served as painful reminders the Lakers have failed to find a replacement for Davis, the 6-10 all-star.

That happened when the Lakers traded for Mark Williams, a 7-foot center with the Charlotte Hornets.

But the Lakers rejected the trade after the team said Williams failed his physical exam; but the deadline had passed. That left the Lakers to play a lot of centerless basketball, something that eventually caught up to them.

After their loss to the Timberwolves on Wednesday night, Williams posted on his account on X, formerly Twitter.

A simple smiley face emoji – a contrast to Pelinka’s sad face.

It was salt in the Lakers’ season-ending wounds.

Said Vincent, ‘We fell short.’

Literally and figuratively.

(This story has been updated to add new video).

NHL teams have plenty of coaching positions to fill this offseason, and it appears that one might be getting close.

ESPN reported Thursday that the New York Rangers are in advanced contract talks with Mike Sullivan, the two-time Stanley Cup winner who parted ways with the Pittsburgh Penguins this week.

The Rangers had fired Peter Laviolette after the season. The Seattle Kraken’s Dan Bylsma and Anaheim Ducks’ Greg Cronin also were fired. The Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and Chicago Blackhawks made coaching changes during the season and will have to decide on a permanent coach.

The Vancouver Canucks have to look for a coach after Rick Tocchet turned down the team’s contract offer this week and chose to pursue other opportunities. The Penguins also have an opening with Sullivan out.

That leaves eight openings before the Rangers make anything official. USA TODAY Sports ranks the destinations from most to least attractive:

1. New York Rangers

Reason for opening: Laviolette was fired in April after a 29-point drop in the standings and a missed playoff berth.

Recent history: They missed the playoffs this season, ending a three-year run.

Advantages: The Rangers had the league’s best record in 2023-24 and reached the Eastern Conference final. Igor Shesterkin is one of the league’s top goaltenders. J.T. Miller’s arrival in a trade provided a spark and there are plenty of top-end players. Chris Drury just signed a contract extension, so you know who your general manager will be.

Disadvantages: Drury’s last two coaches were fired after two seasons. He moved out several players from the 2023-24 team. Many players underachieved this season. The defensive play needs work. The Rangers allow too many high-danger chances and rely too much on Shesterkin for their success.

2. Anaheim Ducks

Reason for opening: Cronin was fired after two seasons.

Recent history: They haven’t made the playoffs for seven seasons.

Advantages: The team jumped 21 points in the standings so it’s on the rise. Forward Troy Terry and goalie Lukas Dostal are solid. The Ducks have promising younger players in Mason McTavish, Jackson LaCombe, Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson. GM Pat Verbeek said he will be aggressive in free agency.

Disadvantages: Even with the improvement, the Ducks finished 16 points off a playoff spot. The Western Conference is tough. The Ducks finished last in the league on the power play and in the bottom five in goals, penalty killing and 5-on-5 play. Trevor Zegras has problems staying healthy.

3. Pittsburgh Penguins

Reason for opening: The team and Sullivan agreed to part ways after a third consecutive season out of the playoffs.

Recent history: They have missed the playoffs the last three seasons.

Advantages: You get to coach Sidney Crosby, who continues to thrive and broke Wayne Gretzky’s record with a 20th season averaging at least a point per game. He’s signed for two more seasons. Fellow core member Evgeni Malkin has another year left on his contract and Kris Letang has three. Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust topped 30 goals this season.

Disadvantages: There’s not a lot of production from the bottom six forward group. Goaltender Tristan Jarry’s inconsistency led to time in the American Hockey League. The team ranked 29th in the league in five-on-five goal differential and had the fourth-worst goals-against average.

4. Boston Bruins

Reason for opening: Jim Montgomery was fired in November and Joe Sacco finished up the season as interim coach.

Recent history: The Bruins’ eight-year playoff streak ended this season.

Advantages: David Pastrnak is an elite scorer. Morgan Geekie had a breakout season. The team will be better when injured defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm return. GM Don Sweeney has cap room to make free agency moves.

Disadvantages: Core players were dealt at the deadline. As of now, the center depth needs improvement. Goalie Jeremy Swayman is coming off a down season. Sweeney, whose free agency moves for Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov didn’t pan out, has a year left on his contract.

5. Chicago Blackhawks

Reason for opening: Luke Richardson was fired in December. Anders Sorensen is the interim coach.

Recent history: They have one playoff appearance in the last eight seasons, none since 2020.

Advantages: Connor Bedard is a generational player and will keep getting better. Ryan Donato scored 31 goals this season. Trade deadline acquisition Spencer Knight is a potential franchise goalie. The team will draft high again in 2025.

Disadvantages: The Blackhawks traded away a lot of veterans before winning the 2023 Bedard draft lottery and lack depth. Even with promising young players, this is a long rebuild. Donato is a free agent.

6. Philadelphia Flyers

Reason for opening: John Tortorella was fired in March and Brad Shaw was named interim coach.

Recent history: They last made the playoffs in 2020.

Advantages: Young forward Matvei Michkov is an exciting, skilled player. Forward Travis Konecny and defenseman Travis Sanheim made Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Disadvantages: They finished last in the conference so there’s a long way to go. Their goaltending is inconsistent.

7. Vancouver Canucks

Reason for opening: Tocchet turned down a new contract offer.

Recent history: They missed the playoffs this season and have made it once in the past five years.

Advantage: They won the Pacific Division title in 2023-24. Defenseman Quinn Hughes won the Norris Trophy last year and is a finalist this season.

Disadvantage: This is far from the team that won the division title. Miller was traded to New York after a dispute with Elias Pettersson. Pettersson needs to find his game again. Goaltender Thatcher Demko has injury issues. Brock Boeser is expected to leave in free agency. And according to team president Jim Rutherford, Hughes wants to play with his brothers: New Jersey’s Jack and Luke. His contract runs out in 2026.

8. Seattle Kraken

Reason for opening: Bylsma was fired in April after one season.

Recent history: They have made the playoffs once in four seasons of existence.

Advantage: Brandon Montour and Vince Dunn bring offense from the blue line. The team can build around youngsters Matty Beniers and Shane Wright. Kaapo Kakko looked good after his arrival in a trade. Joey Daccord is solid in net.

Disadvantage: Unlike the Golden Knights, this recent expansion team has had little success, outside its second season. The Kraken’s team defense ranks in the bottom third of the league. Philipp Grubauer has struggled in net.

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So, what happens when the AL’s most formidable weapon gets off to the greatest start of his career?

We’re about to find out.

Judge is known for plenty of things, but scalding starts aren’t necessarily one of them. Until now: Judge just completed the most productive and dominant March and April of his career, a notion that becomes even scarier when seasoned observers believe he hasn’t totally rounded into his MVP form just yet.

“I say this and I’m not being cute or funny – but I don’t think he’s been that hot yet, honestly,” says Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who has managed Judge since the slugger’s second season in 2018. “He’s getting his hits and I think it’s a credit to how great he is.

“When he gets really going and starts hitting balls in the seats, buckle up.”

Opposing pitchers might already want to get off this ride.

After hitting a two-run home run, a pair of singles and reaching base four times Wednesday night against the Baltimore Orioles, Judge finished April batting .427, with an even more absurd .521 on-base percentage, 10 home runs and a 1.282 OPS, all of which lead the major leagues. While those video game numbers might be shrugged off as an early-season sample, consider this: Judge’s adjusted OPS is 270, meaning he’s 170% more productive than 2025’s league-average hitter.

‘I guess he’s kind of like a great three-point shooter at the plate right now. They shoot around 43% for an extended period,’ says Boone. ‘It’s remarkable, obviously.

‘I always say we’re running out of superlatives or things to say about it, but what he’s doing – he’s playing a different game.’

And it’s by far the hottest he’s come out of the gate.

April shower of home runs

Consider this: Judge won his second MVP last season, finishing with a .322 average, 1.159 OPS and 58 home runs, equaling the 10.8 WAR he produced in his 62-homer 2022 MVP campaign.

At the end of April 2024? He was batting just .207, with a pedestrian 116 adjusted OPS.

Judge referenced that rough stretch after the game, simply as a tool to quell any buzz surrounding his current hot streak. He was batting .174 through 23 games last year, and faced different sort of inquiries.

‘I try not to look at that stuff until the season’s over,’ says Judge after the Yankees, now 18-13, dropped the series finale 5-4 at Camden Yards. ‘You just gotta go up there with confidence. And I felt the same when I was hitting .170 and you guys were asking all the questions about when you were gonna turn things around.

‘I can’t focus on results; you gotta focus on the process and getting the job done. If you do that for 500 at-bats, good things are going to happen.’

Yet it’s never been this good for Judge this early. You have to go all the way back to 2017, Judge’s Rookie of the Year campaign, to find a March-April sequence that comes close. That year, he put up a .303/.411/.750 line, with 10 homers and a 1.161 OPS.

And 2017, along with 2019, famously was a juiced-ball season producing an overheated hitting environment. Judge’s adjusted OPS at the end of April was “merely” 214, still fantastic but well off this year’s 270 mark.

Judge finished that year with an AL-best 52 home runs, a .422 OBP and 1.049 OPS, finishing second to Jose Altuve in MVP voting, a result that stung two years later when that Houston Astros team was found to have engaged in an elaborate sign-stealing scandal.

Twisting the knife, the Astros eliminated the Yankees in a seven-game ALCS that autumn. Judge is still searching for his first championship, a drive that may play some small role in this spring’s white-hot start.

‘History right in front of us’

When we last saw Judge afield, he was muffing a fly ball in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series, the key breakdown in a disaster inning that saw the Yankees blow a 4-0 lead and get eliminated that evening.

Judge, who batted .184 (9 for 49) in the Yankees’ 14 playoff games, said that gaffe “will stay with me until I die.” At the least, it seems to have further locked him in in 2025.

“I wanted to come out, especially after how we ended the year last year not winning the World Series, and a lot of work (still) to be done,” Judge said Wednesday. “All you can do is look in the mirror and try to figure out ways to get better and improve.”

For two-time MVPs, those improvements can be granular. But they are significant.

Judge, who turned 33 earlier this week, isn’t hitting the ball quite as hard – an elite 95.5 mph – as past seasons, such as the 2023 campaign when he averaged 97.6 mph. But his swing decisions are improving.

Judge’s 20% strikeout rate would be the lowest of his career, and his 68.1% mark on swings in the strike zone would be the highest. His chase rate of 19% aligns with the 18.7 and 19.5% marks the past two years but is down significantly from 22.9% in his 62-homer 2022 season.

“That’s what makes him great: He never settles,” says James Rowson, the Yankees’ hitting coach and their minor league hitting coordinator as Judge worked his way through their system a decade ago. “It’s tough because he’s so good, and how do you improve?

“He does it with his brain. He does it by studying the game. He watches how guys attack him. He knows what he wants to do the next time. In baseball and hitting, it’s a neverending process of learning. Every time you go out there, the guy may do something different.

“He does a great job preparing himself for anything that can happen.”

Yet if baseball is an endless game of cat-and-mouse, it’s starting to look like Judge is the feline with his quarry cornered.

He’s working on his fourth consecutive season with an OPS north of 1.000 and an OBP of at least .406; this would mark the third time in four years he’s led the majors in those categories as well as slugging.

And if this season concludes with Judge claiming another MVP? He’d join a very inner ring of Yankees as three-time MVPs: Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle.

Certainly, there’s a long way – and 131 more games, specifically – to go. Judge might be working on a fourth consecutive MVP had he not suffered a grim toe injury making a catch at Dodger Stadium in a June 2023 game; the unforeseen is always lurking.

Yet there’s already a lot of hay in Judge’s barn. May, historically his most productive month, with 59 career homers and a 1.130 OPS, has arrived.

And every plate appearance only seems to add crucial data points in the mind of a slugger both prodigious and painstaking in his preparation.

“It’s hard to match what he’s doing up to anybody, ever, because he’s doing historical things,” says Rowson. “Every time he steps up to the plate, we’re watching history right in front of us.”

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Bob Baffert is not in hiding this week at Churchill Downs, but you could say he’s been a bit scarce. Usually game for a daily yuk-it-up with the media outside Barn 33, where Baffert for years reveled in his unofficial role as horse racing’s ambassador to the broader sports culture, there have been fewer question-and-answer scrums this time around. 

Somehow, even though Baffert’s return after a three-year suspension should be the biggest story of the 151st Kentucky Derby, it has felt a bit like a footnote. 

Part of the reason may be because Baffert’s two entries, Citizen Bull and Rodriguez, are not among the half-dozen or so horses soaking up the attention this year. But the more likely explanation is that there’s not much more left to ask or say about one of the most unfortunate chapters in Derby history. 

It feels like everyone, Baffert included, is just running out the clock until Saturday, when it’s all old news — unless, of course, he happens to win the race. 

“In racing, you have to accept when you get beat and you have to accept when things don’t go right,” Baffert told reporters last Friday, his first day on the grounds. “And it was one of those things where, well, I can’t change it. When I don’t have any control of it, I don’t worry about it.”

The idea that Baffert has been back in Southern California all this time just shrugging his shoulders is of course complete nonsense that ignores the lawsuits and intense PR effort that took place in hopes of clearing his name and restoring Medina Spirit’s 2021 Derby win that was stripped after a positive test for betamethasone. 

When a person in Baffert’s position talks about acceptance, what they really mean is they’d rather just move on than rehash the trauma and embarrassment every time someone sticks a microphone in their face. 

And you know what? 

I don’t blame him one bit. 

Whatever punishment you think Baffert deserved for Medina Spirit or any other drug violation on his record, the outcome of Churchill’s heavy-handedness is that an entire industry’s problems got dumped onto his reputation. 

And that wasn’t fair. 

Not when you have a trainer, Jason Servis, whose horse crossed the wire first in the 2019 Derby before being disqualified, currently serving a four-year prison sentence in Florida after a sting operation revealed his role in a widespread doping scheme. 

Not when the drug-testing system in horse racing was completely disorganized and outdated before the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) took over and modernized antidoping in 2023. 

Not when Churchill arbitrarily extended Baffert’s suspension from two to three years, with even Baffert’s competitors suspecting that it was because track officials didn’t want him sucking up the limelight last May during its celebration of the 150th Derby. 

“It’s all behind us now,’ said Baffert, who has not had a single issue pop up since HISA took over, which is notable since a large segment of the industry has done nothing but complain for the past two years that HISA’s testing standards are overly strict and trainers are being punished too harshly for minor medication issues. 

That’s not to absolve Baffert of anything. 

Even though Medina Spirit’s positive test could plausibly be explained by the use of an ointment to treat dermatitis — which almost certainly had no impact on his performance in the 2021 Derby — a mistake like that can’t happen at the biggest race in the world when the stakes are this high. 

And to the skeptic, it fit perfectly within the realm of other Baffert excuses for high-profile positive tests, like Jimson weed contaminating the feed or traces of lidocaine being accidentally transferred to the horse from a staff member wearing a therapeutic patch for back pain. 

As any athlete in a sport like track or tennis knows, whether those were just convenient excuses or honest mistakes doesn’t really matter. If you test positive, you better be able to prove without a doubt it wasn’t your fault or you’ll likely pay a hefty price.

Still, Baffert’s timing couldn’t have been worse. In 2021, public perception was that horse racing had an existential crisis on its hands with doping out of control and safety standards that were far too lax, leading to more equine deaths than anyone thought were acceptable. 

In retrospect, it does feel a little bit like Baffert was made into an example for being the sport’s most successful trainer who got on the wrong side of the rules at the one place — Churchill Downs — that cares about protecting its cash cow on the first Saturday in May above anything else. 

Churchill claimed that it added a third year to Baffert’s suspension because he wouldn’t accept responsibility for what happened. But he was simply exercising his legal rights, along with the horse’s owner, Amr Zedan, to challenge the disqualification of Medina Spirit as anyone would do if they believed they had a good case. Preventing Baffert from running last year felt like a vindictive, ham-handed attempt to make sure he wasn’t in the winner’s circle for the landmark 150th Derby. 

“I’m excited to have Bob back,’ said Mark Casse, the trainer of Derby contender Sandman. ‘Look, we all want to win. But we want to beat the best. You don’t really want to win with a little asterisk. I hope to beat him. But there’s no question that Bob Baffert is very popular and draws a lot of attention, and he deserves to be back.” 

This year, Baffert has taken the approach not to stoke any of those fires or get drawn into any of the back-and-forth about what happened or his reputation. His approach has instead been much more matter-of-fact, if not a bit evasive. When asked if it hurt to have to watch the race on TV, he immediately said no because he didn’t think he had a horse who could win anyway. 

“The Derby has always been my greatest memories and always will be, and it’s something that without the Derby, horse racing would have a totally different look,” Baffert said. “It’s getting bigger every year.” 

Because Baffert gets sent more high-priced 2-year-olds than anyone in the sport — the privilege of being a six-time Derby winner — it’s likely he will win the roses at least once more before his career is through. And at that point, maybe there will be another rehash of the three tumultuous years in his relationship with Churchill Downs. 

But now, thankfully, it seems like a moot point. He paid his price, and the world will move on. There’s not much more left to say except for the most important thing we’ll find out when the gate opens Saturday: Whether Citizen Bull or Rodriguez are good enough to send him to the winner’s circle. 

The biggest storyline of the 2025 NFL Draft was the surprising fall of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. The most accurate quarterback in college football last season was expected by many to be a first-round pick as one of the top prospects at the position.

Instead, he slipped all the way to the fifth round. The Cleveland Browns selected him at No. 144 overall and made him the sixth quarterback taken in the draft behind Cam Ward (No. 1 overall to the Titans), Jaxson Dart (No. 25 to the Giants), Tyler Shough (No. 40 to the Saints), Jalen Milroe (No. 92 to the Seahawks) and Dillon Gabriel (No. 94 to the Browns).

That surprised many, including New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers.

Nabers reacted to Sanders’ fall on an episode of the ‘7PM in Brooklyn’ podcast with 2025 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Carmelo Anthony.

‘You don’t do that to a person,’ Nabers said. ‘You don’t do that to somebody like that. You can’t knock his talent. … I heard a lot of things about, you know, he takes unnecessary sacks. I mean he had a bad (offensive) line. He threw with a (70% completion percentage) with a bad (offensive) line.

‘(Sanders) was the talk of the top two quarterbacks in his class. There’s no way in hell he (goes) in the fifth round.’

Nabers noted that Sanders and his family have been in the spotlight for years thanks to his father, Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders.

‘They’re doing everything right,’ Nabers said. ‘They’ve had a TV show since they were kids. So now everything is just starting to backfire on them for doing everything right. I have never heard about (Shedeur Sanders) being in trouble. Nothing. There’s nothing wrong. They’re playing football.’

Anthony agreed with Sanders’ fall in the draft being about off-field factors.

‘This is the part of the game that’s whack,’ he said. ‘It’s the dark side of sports. Where this is an attack on Prime in a sense. It’s an attack on a Black family and a Black man who raised his young men to be men.’

Nabers said Sanders reached out to him years ago when they both were high school players to see if he could transfer to play together in Texas. He’s followed Sanders’ journey in college ever since and the two were seen on video last December playing catch in the street in New York when Sanders was there for the Heisman Trophy award presentation.

‘He did what he did at Jackson State, brought a lot of people to Jackson State that never knew about Jackson State,’ Nabers said. ‘Then went to Colorado where nobody was even looking at Colorado like that. They have all these people look at him play and do what he did and then do him like that? Like, come on bro.’

(This story was updated to correct the age of Jordon Hudson. She is 24 years old.)

Count Charles Barkley among those worried about Bill Belichick, so much so that the North Carolina football coach could soon be hearing from him.

During an appearance on ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ Wednesday, Barkley said he has been friends with Belichick since Belichick coached with the Cleveland Browns more than 30 years ago. But the TNT NBA analyst expressed ‘concern’ for the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach in the aftermath of a ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ interview with Belichick that went awry due to an incident involving his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson.

‘From what I’m hearing, it’s starting to be a very slippery slope,’ Barkley said. ‘And I never talk about people’s personal relationships. That’s another rule I got. But I will admit I’m a little concerned with some of the stuff that’s going on, and I might actually reach out to him and make sure everything is good. But I am concerned from what I’m hearing because, yeah, it’s not a good look right now. I’ll admit that.’

Belichick’s relationship with Hudson has come under national scrutiny again in recent days after what happened during the CBS interview went viral and The Athletic reported she was ‘instrumental’ in HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ backing out of its planned involvement with North Carolina in March.

The eight-minute CBS segment that originally aired on April 27, included a tense moment in which Hudson shut down a question asked to Belichick by reporter Tony Dokoupil about how he and Hudson had met. Hudson also stopped Dokoupil’s line of questioning several other times, according to CBS. She later posted a screenshot of emails sent by Belichick following the interview (accompanied by Taylor Swift’s ‘Look what you made me do’) in which he criticized how CBS edited the segment and the direction being taken in the promotion of his new book.

‘After this occurred several times, Jordon, with whom I share both a personal and professional relationship, stepped in to reiterate that point to help refocus the discussion,’ Belichick said in his statement. ‘She was not deflecting any specific question or topic but simply doing her job to ensure the interview stayed on track. Some of the clips make it appear as though we were avoiding the question of how we met …

‘The final eight-minute segment does not reflect the productive 35-minute conversation we had, which covered a wide range of topics related to my career,’ Belichick continued. ‘Instead, it presents selectively edited clips and stills from just a few minutes of his interview to suggest a false narrative – that Jordon was attempting to control the conversation – which is simply not true.’

CBS pushed back in its own statement on Belichick’s claim that he agreed to the interview under the auspices that questions would be focused only on his book. ‘When we agreed to speak with Mr. Belichick, it was for a wide-ranging interview,’ a CBS News spokesperson said. ‘There were no preconditions or limitations to this conversation.’

Belichick is the oldest active coach in FBS college football at 73 years old entering his first season at North Carolina. The Tar Heels open their 2025 schedule on Monday, Sept. 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET at Kenan Stadium against the Big 12’s TCU.

Patrick noted his surprise to Barkley on Wednesday’s show at how a ‘control freak’ like Belichick had seemingly given up control to Hudson. Barkley, while not commenting specifically on the situation, said he doesn’t allow family members to speak publicly on his behalf and reiterated his uneasiness given his history with Belichick.

‘I’m a little concerned, I’ll admit that,’ Barkley said, ‘because he’s my friend through good, bad and whatever, and I just hope everything is alright.’

The Pittsburgh Pirates and the city itself remain in somewhat of a state of shock after a fan fell from the outfield seats onto the field at PNC Park during Wednesday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs.

The unidentified man was transported to Allegheny General Hospital after the incident, which delayed the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Pittsburgh Public Safety Department said Thursday morning the incident is being treated as an accident and the man remains hospitalized in criticial condition.

“We are all deeply saddened and truly heartbroken after the terrible accident that occurred last night,’ Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement. ‘It was one of the most difficult moments many of us have ever experienced. We are devastated. Pirates baseball is a community, and our fans are like family. In times like these, we must come together, support one another, and keep him and his loved ones in our prayers.’

A somber mood pervaded both clubhouses after the game.

‘Even though it’s 350 feet away or whatever it is, the fact of how it went down … laying motionless while the play is going on,’ visibly shaken Pirates manager Derek Shelton said in his postgame news conference.

He said the players and coaches in the dugout, along with the umpires, could all see what was going on at the time.

‘It’s extremely unfortunate. I mean, that’s an understatement.’

According to reporter Cassidy Wood of KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Shelton cut his press conference short after making the statement.

Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen also offered words of support on social media after the game.

‘Truly hate what happened tonight. Cant help but think about that guy, his family and friends. I pray tonight for him. Let us think about his loved ones and hug our families a little tighter tonight. I hope he pulls thru. May God Bless you all. Good night,’ McCutchen wrote on X, concluding with a praying hands emoji.

“All we could do was just pray for a good, strong recovery for him and his family,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said, according to Pittsburgh Baseball Now. “I have never been part of something like that before, and I hope I am never part of something like that again.’

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This story was updated to include new information.