WASHINGTON — Major league home runs leader Kyle Schwarber was scratched with lower back tightness before the Philadelphia Phillies’ game against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.

The Phillies won the game, 14-9.

The announcement that the team’s designated hitter would be out came about five minutes before the game began. Edmundo Sosa replaced him in the Phillies’ lineup. Schwarber leads the majors this season with 29 home runs and is coming off a weekend in which he hit three against the Mets on Saturday and another one on Sunday.

Schwarber went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a 4-1 loss to the Nationals on Monday night.

Abrams scratched

WASHINGTON — Washington Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams was a late scratch for Tuesday night’s game against Philadelphia due to left side tightness.

Abrams was scratched about 20 minutes before the scheduled first pitch.

The Nationals lost the game, 14-9.

The 25-year-old Abrams played in the Nationals’ 4-1 win over the Phillies on Monday night, going 1 for 4 and extending his hitting streak to six games.

Abrams is batting .286 with 17 home runs and 57 RBIs for the highest-scoring team in the majors this season.

Devers sorry

SAN FRANCISCO — Giants first baseman Rafael Devers apologized to manager Tony Vitello on the team’s flight from Miami to San Francisco on Sunday.

Devers was batting cleanup for the Giants in their game against the visiting Athletics on Tuesday night.

Devers drew a walk leading off the ninth inning of the Giants’ 2-1 loss to the Marlins on Sunday. When Vitello sent Jonah Cox on the field to pinch-run, Devers demonstrably waved off Cox, then stormed into the dugout. Devers said through interpreter Erwin Higueros on Tuesday that it was a misunderstanding.

The Giants acquired Devers from Boston last June. He entered Tuesday batting .238 with 11 home runs and 36 RBIs. He had struck out 97 times in 298 at-bats.

Unhappy camper

NEW YORK — After his team got rained out two days in a row, Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell sounded a little miffed about the second one.

Chicago’s series opener Monday night against the Mets in New York was postponed because of poor weather and rescheduled as part of a day-night doubleheader Wednesday at Citi Field.

Counsell, however, says it was dry enough to play and the game “did not need to be rained out.”

The Cubs also got washed out back home at Wrigley Field on Sunday, when they were supposed to wrap up a series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

That game will be made up Aug. 6.

Young Yankee

NEW YORK — The New York Yankees signed 18-year-old Taiwanese right-handed pitcher Chien-Fan Lai on Tuesday as a non-drafted free agent.

He represented Taiwan at the U-18 Baseball World Cup in 2025, helping his country win the bronze medal. Lai made three relief appearances, striking out 14 batters over seven innings.

Lai joins pitcher Chien-Ming Wang in 2000 and infielder Fu-Lin Kuo in 2009 as the only players from Taiwan to sign non-drafted deals with the Yankees.

Lai next will report to the organization’s Dominican Summer League Academy in the Dominican Republic.

Early exit

NEW YORK — Mets slugger Juan Soto was removed from Tuesday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs because of back tightness.

Soto appeared to grimace when he flied out in the first inning. He flied out again in the third and was replaced in left field in the top of the fifth with New York trailing 7-2.

Jared Young moved from first base to left field, and Mark Vientos entered at first in Soto’s third spot in the batting order.

In the bottom of the sixth, the last-place Mets announced Soto left with tightness on the left side of his back.

Soto, a four-time All-Star and six-time Silver Slugger award winner, began the night batting .301 with 17 homers, 38 RBIs and a .974 OPS. He spent time on the injured list in April with a calf strain.