The seven-game suspension Los Angeles Angels outfielder and designated hitter Jorge Soler was appealing in the wake of his April 7 fight with Atlanta Braves pitcher Reynaldo López has been reduced to four games, according tomultiplereports Wednesday.
Soler will reportedly start serving that suspension Wednesday night, when the Angels will play the third game of their four-game road series against the New York Yankees.
Soler piled up three home runs and eight RBI over six games while appealing his initial suspension.
A day after the fracas in Anaheim, where benches and bullpens cleared to break things up, an appealing López reportedly reached an agreement with MLB to reduce his initial seven-game suspension to five games.
Mike Trout’s sustained excellence has often been hidden behind the mediocrity of the team he’s starred for over the past decade and a half. But there are times when he’s afforded the spotlight his talent deserves. A trip to New York to play the Yankees this week paved the way for more of those opportunities, and Trout has made the most of them, reminding the world of his Hall of Fame trajectory.
In the top of the first inning Tuesday, the three-time AL MVP and 11-time All-Star hit his third home run in two days, and his fifth of the young season. The 34-year-old took a 94-mph four-seam fastball from Ryan Weathers on a 432-foot ride well over the center-field wall in Yankee Stadium.
He accounted for the first of three straight Angels homers that jumpstarted their 7-1 victory.
Trout has now taken part in a back-to-back-to-back home-run sequence six times in his 16-season career, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, who cited Elias Sports and noted that Trout is tied with Adrián Beltré and J.D. Drew for the most such instances by a player during at least the expansion era (1961).
Tonight was the sixth time Mike Trout was involved in a back-to-back-to-back HR sequence
That ties Adrian Beltre and JD Drew for the most such instances by a player during at least the Expansion Era (1961)
Trout’s power transferred to outfielder Jo Adell, who launched a 445-foot blast on Weathers’ next pitch, and then to designated hitter Jorge Soler, who lifted a 399-foot long ball in the subsequent at-bat.
All three taters tattooed Weathers’ four-seam fastball.
Weathers remained in the game and actually went five innings, piling up 10 strikeouts along the way. That didn’t necessarily soften the blow of the five total runs he allowed, though. Oswald Peraza also homered off him in the top of the fourth.
While Tuesday’s contest was lopsided, the Angels (9-9) and Yankees (9-8) started the week off with a bang. Monday’s series opener doubled as the second game since 1900 to feature MLB’s top-four active home-run leaders. The other arrived in 1956, when Gil Hodges and Duke Snider of the then-Brooklyn Dodgers faced off against Stan Musial and Hank Sauer of the St. Louis Cardinals on June 12 of that year.
The Dodgers won that game in St. Louis 6-4, with Snider fittingly hit a two-run dinger in the top of the first inning.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the game’s current leaders in that department — Trout, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Paul Goldschmidt — shared the diamond.
Trout and Judge put on a show, each homering twice. Yankees outfield Trent Grisham deposited a pair of big flies as well, including one that tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, setting the stage for a walk-off, 11-10 win soon after.
On Tuesday, Trout headlined the power-charged series.
While Ferentz previously took ownership of the misstep, and Iowa agreed on the violations in the case — the program contacted McNamara and his father in 2022, while McNamara was at Michigan and before he entered the transfer portal — the tampering case was ultimately resolved through an infractions hearing because Iowa didn't agree with the vacation of records penalty.
In its release Tuesday, the NCAA outlined the full list of prescribed penalties as such:
One year of probation
A fine of $25,000 (self-imposed by the school)
A two-week ban on all football recruiting communication during the 2026 calendar year (self-imposed by the school)
A 24-day reduction in recruiting person days, including two weeks during which Ferentz was prohibited from off-campus recruiting activity in 2025, as well as four days during which Budmayr was prohibited from recruiting during the 2025 spring evaluation period (self-imposed by the school)
A vacation of all records in which the student-athlete competed while ineligible
A one-game suspension for Ferentz and Budmayr during the 2024 football season (self-imposed by the school)
Cade McNamara appeared in 13 games at Iowa over the 2023-24 seasons after spending the first three seasons of his collegiate career at Michigan. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
Budmayr, then an offensive analyst and now entering his third season as Iowa’s wide receivers coach, set up a phone call between McNamara and Ferentz, who, according to the NCAA’s findings, assured McNamara he’d have a home at Iowa.
When a student-athlete transfers to a school that tampered, that student-athlete becomes ineligible until they’re reinstated, per current NCAA rules. In this case, according to the NCAA’s findings, McNamara participated in the 2023 season before being reinstated.
Deacon Hill replaced McNamara as Iowa’s QB1, and defense and special teams carried the program to its eighth 10-plus-win season in Ferentz’s soon-to-be 28-season tenure.
But, due to Tuesday’s decision, Ferentz technically now has only seven of those campaigns to his name.
Ferentz was dismayed by the ruling.
"I am disappointed by the NCAA's decision today," Ferentz said in a statement, via ESPN. "Throughout the process, our program has been open and honest about my mistake — contacting a potential player in the hours before it was permissible by NCAA rules.
"I felt it was important to make amends for the issue, which is why I voluntarily served a one-game suspension to start the 2023 season. I believe today's decision by the NCAA vacating four wins in our 2023 season is overly harsh and inconsistent with the violation.
"As I tell our team and staff, it is how you respond and move forward that defines you. Our focus is on the 2026 season and that is how we are moving forward."
Ferentz has the support of his higher-ups, as both university president Barb Wilson and athletic director Beth Goetz communicated similar feelings in a joint statement.
"We are very disappointed in today's ruling by the Committee on Infractions," the statement said, per ESPN. "Throughout this nearly two-and-a-half-year process, the University has fully cooperated with the NCAA enforcement staff. More importantly, when the facts revealed that violations had taken place, the institution and the head coach publicly accepted full responsibility and self-imposed several significant sanctions, something few others have done.
“We believe the decision of adding the penalty of the forfeiture of wins is unwarranted. The matter is now closed, and we have moved forward."