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Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, Wednesday, June 10, 6:40 p.m. ET

The Pirates have their work cut out for them on the second matchup of a three-game series against the Dodgers at PNC Park. They will face off against one of the best pitchers in the game in Shohei Ohtani, who is 6-2 with a 0.74 ERA so far this season.

Ohtani has not allowed more than two earned runs in a single game. That came on May 5 against the Houston Astros, which is also the last game he lost. Since then, he has beaten the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, and Arizona Diamondbacks in consecutive starts.

The Dodgers are 6-4 when Ohtani pitches, but have won their last four games and have only given up one whole run in all of those starts.

On the flip side, Jared Jones is making his third start of the season for the Bucks. In his 2026 debut on May 29, Jones pitched 4.1 innings and gave up five runs, but the Pirates were able to score six in a 6-5 victory at home. In his last start on June 4 against the Astros, Jones pitched five scoreless innings, giving up four hits, in a 5-1 victory. Now, he will look to remain perfect with the defending champs in town.

Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet

Pitching Matchup: Shohei Ohtani (6-2, 0.74 ERA) vs. Jared Jones (1-0, 4.82 ERA)

BD community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

For the Blue Jays:

Let’s talk about it.

The Seattle Mariners were expected to make some moves following Tuesday’s unlikely extra innings victory. They have not disappointed Wednesday afternoon, but the results are in part quite distressing. RHP Matt Brash has been placed on the 15-day injured list for pitchers with a right lat strain, retroactive to June 9th, while INF Ryan Bliss has been optioned to Triple-A Tacoma. In their places are RHP Domingo González and UTIL Miles Mastrobuoni, recalled from Triple-A Tacoma and activated from the 60-day IL respectively. To make room on the 40-man roster for Mastrobuoni’s activation, RHP Yosver Zulueta has been designated for assignment.

While it seemed likely the M’s would make a move in the bullpen, Brash returning to the injured list with the same muscle area that sidelined him at the start of May seems suboptimal. A strain is more severe than the “inflammation” he was waylaid with in May, and typically costs pitchers at least a month or two. Given this appears to be an escalation in Brash’s troubles, the M’s may err on the side of caution with their quixotic Canadian fireman.

Mastrobuoni had been out since Spring Training with an oblique injury that caused him to miss most of his time in Arizona and his chance to play significantly for the quarterfinalist Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. He’ll replace Bliss despite Seattle’s handedness trend, and take on a pinch-running role as well situationally.

González returns to the bigs after a stretch similar to last night’s hero Nick Davila, having worked 5.2 scoreless frames over four games in mid-May but being returned to the Rainiers due to a lack of space and some askance peripherals. Inarguably, he’s been nails in Tacoma, albeit less of the strikeout-heavy monster he showed at times in previous organizations. Zulueta drew the short stick, but has struggled to separate himself in the Pacific Coast League. The groundball specialist has always been able to get away with some wildness thanks to his penchant for eliciting double play balls, but walking 16% of hitters you face while punching out just 21% is a recipe for the waiver wire.

The Mariners 40-man roster remains full at 40.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza provided several updates on his club ahead of Wednesday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field.

Luis Robert Jr., Ronny Mauricio progressing

Outfielder Luis Robert Jr. was seen throwing the ball in the outfield at Citi Field.

Robert, who has been on the injured list since April 30 (retroactive to April 27) due to lumbar spine disc herniation, was transferred to the 60-day IL in late May.

Meanwhile, Ronny Mauricio has progressed to the baseball activities portion of his rehab, the manager said.

“He’s throwing, he’s hitting,” Mendoza said. “So he’s now at the phase where he’s doing a lot of the baseball stuff.”

Mauricio, who was seen doing some running in the outfield near Robert, landed on the IL with a right thumb fracture in early May and was expected to miss six to eight weeks.

Rotation pushback

Mendoza confirmed pushing back Nolan McLean to Friday and having Christian Scott on Thursday was just about getting the arms an extra day amid a long stretch without a day off.

“This was something that we discussed over the weekend,” the skipper said, adding it was always part of the plan. “[The pitchers] knew the plan, the Cardinals knew the plan that we were going bullpen game today, Scotty tomorrow, and then Nolan.

“Just kinda giving those guys an extra day this early in the stretch we’re about to go here.”

The stretch, which began with Tuesday night's game, sees the Mets play 22 times over 23 days, with only Friday, June 19, without a fixture during that run.

David Peterson ‘ready to go’

Peterson could see action in Wednesday’s game as the left-hander has not appeared since tossing four scoreless frames on May 31 after his move to the bullpen.

Mendoza said the time out of action had been influenced by how the schedule fell, especially with the Padres sporting a very right-handed-heavy lineup during the series in San Diego.

“There’s a good chance he pitches tonight, so, he’s ready to go,” he said, adding that Peterson had been “touching the mound and throwing aggressive side [sessions]” and they don’t see the time off as an issue.

“This is a guy that we’re gonna use because he’s important for this team,” Mendoza said.

Odds and ends

The manager had nothing new to report on Kodai Senga other than the right-hander “felt good” on Tuesday after playing catch. The starter was scheduled to play catch again on Wednesday and Mendoza said he “wouldn’t be surprised if he was pitching in a game tomorrow or the next day.” 

Senga was scratched from a rehab assignment with ulnar nerve irritation earlier this week.

Francisco Alvarez is back in the lineup as the DH on Wednesday, the day after making his return from the IL. Mendoza said there were “no issues” physically for the catcher after his first game back.

Tobias Myers is still working to get stretched out at Triple-A Syracuse, and is likely scheduled to throw around 35 to 40 pitches on Wednesday after throwing 1.1 innings on Sunday.

“After that, he’s probably gonna get three days [rest], and then revisit,” Mendoza said, adding the righty is “throwing the ball well, doing everything we’re asking him to do.”

Texas Rangers lineup for June 10, 2026 against the Kansas City Royals: starting pitchers are MacKenzie Gore for the Rangers and Seth Lugo for the Royals.

We have game two of the three game series in Kansas City. After the Rangers put just three runs up on the board yesterday, Skip Schumaker has decided to put offensive catalyst Nicky Lopez back in the starting lineup. Jake Burger is getting the day off.

The lineup:

Pederson — DH

Seager — SS

Jung — 3B

Nimmo — RF

Langford — LF

Duran — 1B

Carter — CF

Higashioka — C

Lopez — 2B

6:40 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are -119 favorites.

What started as a regular Little League practice in Pittsburgh turned into a memory Bryce Blewitt will likely carry for the rest of his life when Pirates ace Paul Skenes made a surprise stop at Vestal Field, home of Ingomar Franklin Park Little League.

The unplanned visit came when Skenes spotted kids practicing under the lights on his drive home and decided to pull over, join them on the field, play catch, sign autographs and spend time with players and families.

For Bryce, the night quickly became even more memorable because of one hilarious choice that made him a viral sensation.

“It’s kind of crazy that, like, I just blew up,” Bryce said in the transcript, explaining that after a friend joked earlier in the day about his forehead, he figured, “Why not get that big space signed.”

More: Heading to PNC Park hungry? Where to eat before a Pirates game

More: From Clemente Bridge to first pitch, Pirates fans soak in tradition

The video of the Pirates star autographing Bryce’s forehead spread widely online, helping turn a neighborhood baseball moment into a Pittsburgh feel-good story. Bryce also used the moment to ask baseball questions only a young pitcher would think to ask.

“If he had any advice for the young pitchers,” Bryce said, adding that he also asked how to recover after hitting a batter. Skenes’ answer stuck with him and was in simple Skenes delivery: “Just throw hard,” and “Just don’t hit the next batter.”

Bryce’s father, Brent, a coach of the Little League team, said what stood out most was not just that Skenes showed up, but how he treated every child there.

 “To see a guy like that just step up, and I mean take his time out of his day to make a special moment for these kids,” Brent said.

 “Honestly, like, I wish there were more people like Paul in the world.”

The next night at PNC Park, Skenes went back to being the ace on the hill, holding the powerful Dodgers lineup to two runs over more than six innings before the bullpen let a 12–3 game get away; a reminder that even on nights when the final score tilts the wrong direction, his arm is already one of the most feared in baseball.

For Bryce and his Ingomar Franklin Park teammates, though, the box score will never matter as much as the night before, when that same arm was just a few feet away, signing a forehead, answering questions about hitting batters and turning a regular Little League practice into a story they will tell for the rest of their lives.

This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paul Skenes’ surprise visit to Ingomar Franklin Park little leaguers

The sun rises in the east, the sun sets in the west and the Arizona Cardinals rookie defensive lineman will miss a large swath of offseason, training camp and preseason.

The Arizona Cardinals new head coach Mike LaFleur is far more forthcoming than Jonathan Gannon was about injuries as he reported fourth round pick Kaleb Proctor has a meniscus issue and could miss a lot of time.

This is another blow to a team who did almost nothing to improve one of the worst defenses in the NFL, and a team that is desperate for healthy reinforcements.

The other concern with a meniscus is that there are not a lot of guys who had meniscus issues, and at Proctor’s size and the way he wins, with explosive movements and quickness, could this be something that hinders him?

More than the Cardinals, although somewhat for the Cardinals, I hope Proctor can be healthy and play at his full potential, because you want to see a player not have setbacks with injuries derail their career.

Let’s hope for the best for Proctor.