NEW YORK — New York Yankees starting pitcher Will Warren’s phone buzzed. It was late at night on Aug. 2, and he was in his seat on the team’s charter flight from Chicago to New York City.

The text message was from his wife. When he opened it, he saw a screenshot of a report — later debunked — that claimed he was part of a trade the San Diego Padres had rejected from the Yankees leading up to the deadline, which was the next night.

The supposed deal? It was Warren heading to San Diego for lefty reliever Adrian Morejon. The report quickly went viral.

Lending it possible legitimacy: The Yankees seemed to need a late-inning arm such as Morejon (2.89 ERA, 54 games), who as an impending free agent might have been someone San Diego would trade.

But Warren was glad the Padres had apparently said no.

“Phew,” Warren texted back to his wife. “Close call.”

Warren did not want to leave the Yankees, who drafted him in 2021 and helped him develop into a league-average (and still improving) starting pitcher. In 22 starts this season, he has a 4.18 ERA and an 8-6 record.

But something tugged at Warren at the time.

“Definitely,” he told The Athletic on Sunday, “when you read it, I was like, no way. They didn’t think I was good enough? That’s how I took it at first.”

Less than 12 hours later, however, The Athletic reported, citing a team source, that the trade proposal had never happened. The source spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations.

Then general manager Brian Cashman said the purported Warren-for-Morejon proposal “wasn’t true” during a post-deadline conference call with reporters last Monday night.

“There was a lot of noise on whatever that was,” Cashman said.

Warren remembered the reactions of some of his teammates, who were glad he stayed. He said he walked up to fellow starter Cam Schlittler and jokingly said, “Whoa, I was almost gone there.”

Warren said the whole ordeal didn’t bother him.

“Since my first season,” he said, “I think I’ve been tossed in these trade rumors like every single season. At this point, it’s like, I can’t do anything about it. If it happens, it happens.”

Warren said he did not reach out to any team officials after the dust settled.

“I wasn’t worried about it,” he said.

He added that, prior to this year’s deadline, he had doubted he would be traded.

“It was more like,” he said, “What are we going to do? Who are we getting? Who’s going away?”

The 27-year-old had been through something similar before — and with the Padres.

During the 2023 Winter Meetings, there were rumors the Padres wanted Warren as part of a trade package for star outfielder Juan Soto. It actually got to the point, Warren said, that his agent told him he was “probably” going to be in the deal.

But, instead, Warren was left out of the blockbuster trade. The Yankees ended up landing Soto and center fielder Trent Grisham for pitchers Michael King, Jhony Brito, Randy Vásquez, Drew Thorpe and catcher Kyle Higashioka.

Warren wants to stay with the Yankees as long as he can.

“This is the only thing I know,” he said. “It’s really, really special because, like, (Austin) Wells, Cam. Clarke (Schmidt). George (Lombard Jr.). Ben (Rice). Spencer (Jones). We all came up with the Yankees. Even if we didn’t play multiple years with each other, we were in the farm system together. So we’re close. And the team we have is super tight-knit. We jell together. I think we all have extra belief in one another.”

So, naturally …

“I was super pumped when I wasn’t leaving,” Warren said.

Nobbs says “too many draws” held Newcastle back last season but they are not hiding their ambitions this time around after a busy transfer window.

Under boss Tanya Oxtoby, who previously managed Northern Ireland and worked with Emma Hayes at Chelsea, Nobbs believes they are improving.

“I know we said it last season but I’ve always said things don’t happen overnight. We had a lot of changes,” added Nobbs.

“But [promotion] is our goal and you have to say that out loud. A lot of stuff we did last season, we don’t want to go too far away from.”

Nobbs is also embracing her responsibilities off the pitch and says her team-mates joke that she is considered a “legend” in women’s football.

“I try to still be myself but obviously give as much experience as I can off the pitch. I’ve played a lot of games now so you do want to listen to that,” said Nobbs.

“The girls straight away made jokes about me being a legend so they kind of made it a nice feeling rather than a pressure thing.

“It just allowed me to step into that type of role. There’s a balance of not being too over the top because I’ve still got to perform.”

Newcastle’s season kicks off at home to Wolves on 6 September (14:00 BST).

PHILADELPHIA — There was no music in the victorious clubhouse after the Phillies finished their 10th game in 10 days. They went almost three months without playing an extra-inning game, then endured three of them in five days. There are four more games, including a day trip to Iowa, before a day of rest. If it felt like the Phillies had lost Sunday after a 7-6 win to salvage something against the Toronto Blue Jays, that is because the entire team is gassed.

Interim manager Don Mattingly glanced at a water bottle he carried with him afterward.

“It feels like this should have tequila in it,” Mattingly said.

He should save the liquor for his relievers, who have reached a breaking point. The first casualty: Caleb Kilian, the team’s biggest bullpen addition at the trade deadline, suffered an injury to his right side that could sideline him for a significant amount of time. He was pitching for the fourth time in six days.

These Phillies, time and time again, have made it harder than it needs to be. This is how their last nine losses have gone:

• A blown two-run lead before losing in extra innings
• A one-run defeat that ended with them stranding the bases loaded
• A six-run 11th inning
• A blown two-run lead in the seventh inning
• A blown six-run lead
• A 1-0 loss
• A walk-off loss in which their star closer allowed runs for the first time in 48 days
• A two-run loss after the game was tied until the sixth inning
• A 1-0 loss

Kyle Schwarber connects on his second homer of the day. He leads the National League with 35. (Hunter Martin / Getty Images)

It wasn’t all dour afterward. One of Kyle Schwarber’s teammates had printed copies of Schwarber’s high school football headshot and plastered them around the clubhouse after he snapped a 17-game homerless streak with two dingers.

That drought was a grind for Schwarber. It’s a grind for everyone right now.

“I feel like it’s going to be really helpful for us as we keep moving through this and get to where we want to go,” Schwarber said. “Just try to find a way to win a game at the end of the day. That’s all it is.”

A smattering of other things I think I think after 10 hours and 43 minutes of Phillies baseball over the weekend …

1. I think the Phillies have no choice but to eat it Monday by using only Andrew Painter and Alan Rangel to pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals. If they don’t, they are further risking their unstable bullpen.

Orion Kerkering, pitching Sunday for the sixth time in eight days, saw a sharp decrease in his velocity. He recorded the first two outs, then allowed three bloop singles and a double. Toronto scored three runs to tie the game in the eighth inning.

Jonathan Bowlan, the usual eighth-inning man, was unavailable because he had pitched three times in four days. José Alvarado, who has struggled to throw strikes of late, was unavailable because he had pitched three times in four days.

Closer Jhoan Duran, who has only one save since the All-Star break, pitched for the fifth time in seven days and somehow escaped a jam without surrendering a run. Tim Mayza, pitching for the third time in five days, prevented the automatic runner from scoring in the 10th inning. So did Brooks Raley in the 11th; he, too, was pitching for the third time in five days.

Mattingly has managed his bullpen with a heavy hand. It’s a confluence of factors; the Phillies have played a ton of close games.

“Part of this, I don’t want to make excuses, but we’ve been leaning on these guys,” Mattingly said. “They’re pitching on short rest, not truly full tanks out there. It’s where we’re at. It’s what you do. We have to get over it. … But it comes from all areas. We’ve had a little stretch where we haven’t gotten as deep into games as we’re kind of accustomed to with our starters. When that happens, within a short period of time, the bullpen gets taxed. The bullpen gets tired. Overuse. Then you see things like this.”

The Phillies recalled Rangel on Sunday because Chase Shugart had been used a lot in recent games. Rangel can soak up innings. It’s probably wise for Mattingly to stay away from his best relievers Monday. They need a break.

Then again, Mattingly outlined his philosophy before Friday’s game.

“I’m trying to win every night, honestly,” he said. “If we have a chance to win a game and those guys are available …”

So maybe someone has to step in.

2. I think it makes too much sense to tab Alex McFarlane as the bullpen replacement for Kilian, who did not travel with the team to St. Louis. Maybe the hard-throwing McFarlane won’t throw enough strikes to be a high-leverage reliever in the majors, but the Phillies do not know that for certain. And, right now, they are desperate.

Maybe they catch a wave with McFarlane, who has eight strikeouts and two walks in 4 1/3 innings since being promoted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

3. I think Bryson Stott might be the most underappreciated player on the team. Here’s a sequence from Sunday’s sixth inning: Stott drew a one-out walk, his 14th walk in the last 11 games. (He has not struck out in those 11 games.) As Brandon Marsh struck out, Stott stole second base for his 22nd steal in 22 tries this season. That allowed him to score on a two-out Alec Bohm single up the middle.

Stott has a .755 OPS, the highest it’s been since the third day of the season. He lashed a game-tying single in the 12th inning before Derek Hill walked it off.

Bryson Stott is 22-for-22 on stolen-base attempts this season. (Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)

His best Luis Arraez impression might be even better than Arraez. Stott is the first player with at least 14 walks and no strikeouts over an 11-game span since Barry Bonds in September 2002. And Bonds’ streak included a bunch of intentional walks. The only other player with an 11-game stretch like this in the last 30 years was the Detroit Tigers’ Bobby Higginson in 2001.

Oh, and Stott has sharpened his approach at the plate all while changing positions in the middle of the season. He’s played a fine third base in the first six games of that experiment.

4. I think Bryce Harper likes Arraez hitting behind him. Harper has hit .263/.517/.474 in 29 plate appearances since Arraez joined the Phillies. He has walked 10 times in those six games. He’s displayed better patience in this arrangement.

The Phillies, as a team, have raised their on-base percentage to .308. That is the highest it has been since April 17.

5. I think it’s hard to overstate the impact of Aidan Miller’s season-long back injury, which has cast doubt on everything about the former top prospect’s future. The Phillies have yet to concede that Miller will not play this season, but it’s obvious he won’t; Miller has not swung a bat in more than six months. There is about a month remaining in the minor-league schedule.

Miller has participated in some light baseball activities in recent weeks at the team’s Florida complex. Little has changed regarding his status.

Miller’s absence has dictated so much. Had he been anything close to competent in the minors, he would have forced his way to the big leagues in 2026. The Phillies might have been more decisive in how they handled Bohm this season. They might have been more willing to part with other prospects at the trade deadline if they had known Miller would be a contributor for the foreseeable future.

That loss felt especially acute last week when George Lombard Jr. debuted at shortstop for the New York Yankees. The 21-year-old prospect provided an immediate jolt. Lombard was selected with the 26th pick in the 2023 MLB Draft. Miller went 27th. The Phillies had considered Lombard with their pick before New York drafted him.

Nothing was guaranteed for Miller before the injury, but the Phillies thought he could infuse some newness at some point in 2026. Now, no one knows. The Miller injury has long-term implications. It will affect how the organization approaches the offseason; the Phillies can’t assume Miller will contribute in 2027.

It is an unfortunate situation for everyone.

6. I think it’s odd the Phillies and Minnesota Twins will play a game this week without the same rules as everyone else. The two teams will not be able to challenge ball-and-strike calls because the league’s Automated Ball-Strike technology is not installed for the Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa.

The two clubs were made aware of the situation well in advance, said two league sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The same protocol was in place earlier this season when the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres played two games in Mexico without ABS.

It’s not ideal for two teams fighting to make the postseason; the Phillies’ and Twins’ fates could come down to one game.

This is a Minnesota home game. The Phillies will fly from St. Louis to Dubuque, Iowa, on the morning of the game. (It’s a 40-minute drive from Dubuque to Dyersville.) They will not spend the night in Iowa; the team has a postgame charter flight to Minneapolis.

The Phillies and Twins are each permitted an extra player for the game, but it cannot be a pitcher. As collectively bargained between the league and players’ union, every player on the active roster for the Iowa game receives a $20,000 payment.

7. I think no ABS for a night in Iowa might not matter, because the Phillies have refused to use the system like other teams. They entered Sunday with the fewest challenges from their catchers (96) in the majors. And they have the second-best overturn rate on challenges by their catchers.

J.T. Realmuto has caught the second-most innings of any player in MLB. He entered Sunday with the 32nd-most challenges among catchers.

It’s a conservative approach that has cost the Phillies pitches. That, by August, has a cumulative effect. The Phillies have encouraged Realmuto to be more aggressive with his challenges. It hasn’t happened.