Category: Baseball

It was an ugly weekend in Milwaukee for the Yankees, as they suffered their second series sweep of the season at the hands of a stout Brewers team that overwhelmed them with some sensational pitching and out-executed them late in games. Let’s chalk it up to revenge from Torpedo-gate.

A new series begins today in Baltimore, as the Yankees look to keep beating on the subpar teams that populate the American League, as they did to the Orioles in a historic four-game sweep last week in the Bronx.

Ryan Weathers makes his return to the mound for the Yankees after being scratched from his last start against the Texas Rangers due to an illness. In his first seven starts as a Yankee, he’s 2-2 with a 3.03 ERA (140 ERA+) and 3.58 FIP with 45 strikeouts in 38.2 innings. Weathers will get another crack at an Orioles lineup that he dominated for five innings in his last start before unraveling with a five-run lead in the sixth (although two runs were unearned due to an error). He’s already thrown more innings than he did last year!

The merry-go-round of the Orioles’ rotation continues with Brandon Young making his fifth start of the season tonight at Camden Yards. He’s improved considerably from his disastrous 12 starts in 2025, pitching to a 4.35 ERA and 4.81 FIP in 20.2 innings with just 14 strikeouts to eight walks. Three of his four starts have been perfectly adequate for the O’s, but he does have a late April blowup against the Astros on his ledger.

Young’s peripherals are mostly below average, particularly his strikeout and whiff rates. He does a good job getting hitters to chase and is solid at limiting barrels, but he gives up too much hard contact for him to be an effective starter. Against lefties, the 27-year-old is a pretty even two-pitch pitcher with fastballs and splitters, but he mixes in considerably more sliders and sinkers against righties with the occasional curveball. The splitter has gotten absolutely hammered in the early going, which doesn’t serve him well against a lefty-heavy lineup.

Trent Grisham leads off for the Yankees in front of Ben Rice, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger. Ryan McMahon has been swinging a hot bat lately and slides up to sixth, as Spencer Jones DHs and bats seventh. Max Schuemann is in for José Caballero, who suffered a finger injury and is due to be evaluated tomorrow.

Taylor Ward leads off for Baltimore, followed by the slumping Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, and the warming Pete Alonso. They’d love to get Tyler O’Neill going in the five-hole, while continuing to get production from Samuel Basallo and Leody Taveras behind him. Weston Wilson and Blaze Alexander round out the lineup.

How to watch

Location: Oriole Park at Camden Yards — Baltimore, MD

First pitch: 6:35 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES, MASN

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY), 98 Rock 97.9 FM, WBAL 1090 AM (BA. L) n

Online stream: MLB.tv (out-of-market only), Gotham Sports App

For updates, follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

BALTIMORE - New York Yankees shortstop José Caballero will be sent back to New York for tests on his right middle finger after he injured it diving back into a base, manager Aaron Boone said Monday, May 11.

Caballero, who seized the starting shortstop job from Anthony Volpe with his early season play this year, hurt his finger diving into first base on a pickoff attempt in the ninth inning of the Yankees' loss at Milwaukee Sunday. He will need an MRI to determine the extent of the damage, but said he doesn't believe the finger was broken.

"There’s definitely some concern. He’s as tough as they come," says Boone. "So, just had a little hard time when he went to throw today. His hitting was good.

"He’s going to get some tests tomorrow morning. We’ll see what we have the next day or two."

Texas Rangers lineup for May 11, 2026 against the Arizona Diamondbacks: starting pitchers are Jakob Junis for the Rangers and Michael Soroka for the D-Backs.

The Rangers, who haven’t allowed a run since the seventh inning of Friday’s game, find their scoreless streak in greater jeopardy now that Nathan Eovaldi has been scratched. Texas is going with a bullpen game fronted by Jakob Junis. Cal Quantrill, the long man — and also the last Ranger pitcher to give up a run — threw 70 pitches on Friday, so he’s likely unavailable.

The lineup:

Nimmo — RF

Duran — 2B

Seager — SS

Jung — 3B

Carter — CF

Pederson — DH

Osuna — 1B

Higashioka — C

7:05 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are -126 favorites.

René Cárdenas, the first radio announcer to broadcast major league baseball games in Spanish to a domestic audience while with the Dodgers and who helped start Spanish-language broadcasts for two other teams, died Sunday in Houston. He was 96.

The Dodgers announced his death Sunday night, noting his 21 years — over two stints — with the team starting in 1958. The broadcasting pioneer also served as the Houston Astros' first Spanish-language announcer starting in 1962.

Cárdenas called games for 38 seasons with the Dodgers, Astros and Texas Rangers and paved the way for Jaime Jarrín, who joined the broadcast team in 1959 and served as the Dodgers' broadcaster for 64 seasons.

"He was indisputably one of the pioneers of Spanish-language baseball radio broadcasting, and he opened the door for other broadcasters to reach the major leagues," Jarrín told The Times in Spanish on Monday morning. "He was a total professional, truly."

Read more:Dodgers muster only two hits, drop series to MLB-leading Braves: 'We're struggling'

Cárdenas was born on Feb. 6, 1930, in Managua, Nicaragua. His grandfather, Adan Cárdenas, was president of the country from 1883 to1887 and is recognized for introducing baseball to Nicaragua in the late 19th century while his uncle, Adolfo, played on the first national team.

But Cárdenas became more adept at describing the action and before he left high school, he was not only writing for La Prensa, Nicaragua’s leading newspaper, but also broadcasting games for Radio Mundial, the capital city’s top-ranked station.

“He had a very original style,” Edgard Tijerino, a Nicaraguan sports journalist, told The Times' Kevin Baxter in 1995. “It was a way of broadcasting that nobody here in Nicaragua had. The people of my generation remember him with fondness and still value the work he did.”

When the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn ahead of the 1958 season, they partnered with KWKW-AM (1330), the only Spanish-language radio station in L.A. at the time, to broadcast the games in Spanish. Cárdenas was hired as the lead play-by-play announcer while Jarrín shadowed him that first season before settling in as the No. 2 announcer. During that time, Cárdenas was part of the first Spanish broadcast of the World Series in 1959 and the All-Star Game in 1961.

Before the 1962 season, Cárdenas moved on to serve as the lead play-by-play announcer for Houston's new team, then known as the Colt .45s. He chronicled the team's first 14 seasons, during which the team moved into the Astrodome and were renamed the Astros in 1965.

Cárdenas returned to Nicaragua in the late 1970s to live in semi-retirement, but political unrest in the country, in the form of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, forced him to flee and eventually return to the United States. The rebels’ final push to victory would take them right past the front door of Cardenas’ three-quarter-acre hacienda.

“They were fighting around my house every night. We used to go under the bed every single night for months,” Cárdenas told The Times in 1995. “We were in a war without being soldiers.”

Cárdenas, who became a U.S. citizen in 1963, had his house, life savings and many priceless mementos from his broadcasting career seized.

After working with Texas Rangers, Cárdenas returned to the Dodgers for the 1982 season. By this point, Jarrín was firmly in place as the team's lead Spanish-language play-by-play announcer — particularly in the wake of Fernandomania the season before, when Jarrín's profile was raised as Fernando Valenzuela's interpreter during his media interviews.

"It was explained to him by our producer, 'You can't come back as the No. 1 announcer because Jaime is established, he has many years as the lead announcer and he is beloved by the community,'" Jarrín said Monday. "René said, 'I don't care, I'll come back as the No. 2 with Jaime. I just want to come back to the game of baseball.' He was determined to return to the Dodgers.

"It was during that time that we established a close-knit friendship and we were well-received by the community as a broadcast duo."

Cárdenas worked with the Dodgers through the 1998 season and moved back to Houston, where he wrote for multiple outlets and then broadcast Astros games on the radio in 2007 and on TV in 2008, setting another first at the time: the only MLB team with a standalone Spanish-language broadcast featuring dedicated cameras and Spanish-language graphics separate from the English-language broadcast.

Read more:Dodgers star Fernando Valenzuela, who changed MLB by sparking Fernandomania, dies at 63

Fifty years after his first broadcast with the Dodgers, Cárdenas remained a pioneer.

He was nominated several times for the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award, including last year, but did not receive enough votes for induction. He is in the Nicaragua Baseball Hall of Fame, the Broadcasters Wing of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame and in the Astros' team hall of fame.

"I think what hindered him was that he didn't fully establish himself with the Dodgers," Jarrín, one of three Latino broadcasters in the Baseball Hall of Fame, said of Cárdenas' chances of enshrinement. "He was away for many years. So that lack of continuity may have hindered him, possibly. Because professionally, he is deserving of being in the Hall. I would love it if he got inducted posthumously because he was a broadcasting pioneer and a true professional."

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Season Record: 19-21

Week Record: 3-3

Series Record: 5-7, 1 split

GAME 35: 4-7 LOSS @ NEW YORK YANKEES
GAME 36: 6-1 WIN @ NEW YORK YANKEES
GAME 37: 2-9LOSS @ NEW YORK YANKEES

GAME 38: 1-7 LOSS vs CHICAGO CUBS
GAME 39: 6-0 WIN vs CHICAGO CUBS
GAME 40: 3-0 WIN vs CHICAGO CUBS

So the Rangers pitched 20 innings (and counting) of shoutout innings this weekend. And managed to get some hits with runners in scoring position. All good things that hopefully continue and get the Rangers on a roll.

However, something that has been proven over the last few seasons, something both myself and the Rangers broadcast has pointed out, once Corey Seager gets out of his funk, the rest of the lineup will follow. And his funk is bad.

I believe he had a similar start last year, he turned it around in May and then stayed hot but right now he’s looking lost in most plate appearances.

In the seventh inning of Sunday’s game, the At Bat app popped up a surprising stat for Seager, his wiff rate last season was 27.9% and this year its up to 35.9%. League average is 25.3%. So if you feel like he’s swinging and missing a lot more, you are not wrong. Its especially frustrating and prevalent considering Texas has the lowest chase rate in Spring Training.

Offensive upside? Both Josh Jung and Ezequiel Duran have both figured it out at the plate and have been the most reliable and consistent bats in the lineup.

And maybe playing the Arizona Diamondbacks will trigger some of that magic from the World Series and the team can start turning it around? Here’s hoping at least!

This morning, our head Tom reported that Yariel Rodriguez was coming up and speculated that Eric Lauer might be the roster casualty. He was right, as Lauer caught a DFA this morning and his roster spot has gone to Rodriguez.

It’s been a rough season for Lauer. As Tom noted, his velocity is down. for a while that could be attributed to the stomch flu he suffered in early April, but that was a month ago and in his most recent outing he was still a mile per hour off his average from last year. For a guy who didn’t have great stuff at his best, losing a little edge is a problem. It’s been confounded by some location issues. If he makes it through waivers, hopefully he’s able to work in Buffalo and rediscover his form from last season, but I suspect we’ve seen the last of him in a Blue Jays uniform.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, was DFA’d back in the winter. He’s been effective as a 1-2 inning reliever for the Bisons, with a few more walks than you’d like but an excellent strikeout rate. He’s de-emphasized his fastballs and leaned harder on his splitter, throwing either that or the slider 70% of the time. Hopefully that translates to the majors, as Rodrigez has been a pretty disappointing singing after a lot of hope when he came over from Japan.

In other news, Addison Barger is officially on the IL. That’s hardly a surprise after it was announced this morning that he was getting an MRI on his elbow. No actual new information on the injury has been reported. Coming up in his place is Yohendrick Piñango. The Venezuelan rookie made an impression in his first call up this season, striking out just three times in 27 PA and posting excellent contact numbers and strong exit velocities. The latter haven’t translated into MLB power yet as he struggles to get the ball in the air with authority, but all the tools are there to hope that he can replace most of what Barger would offer offensively even if he can’t match his defense.

Yankees shortstopJose Caballero is out of Monday night’s lineup against the Baltimore Orioles due to a right middle finger injury. 

Caballero told reporters in Baltimore that he hurt the finger diving back into first base in Sunday’s loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. While Caballero will undergo an MRI, he does not believe the finger is fractured and doesn’t believe he’ll need to go on the IL. 

Manager Aaron Boone later said that Caballero will return to New York after Monday's game to meet with team doctors, saying that that while Caballero has hit, he has not yet thrown a ball.

Max Scheumann will start at shortstop for the Yankees on Monday, hitting eighth in the order. 

The 29-year-old Caballero is slashing .259/.320/.400 this season with four home runs and 13 RBI. 

While it doesn’t sound like Caballero will need to hit the IL, that scenario would certainly make things interesting with fellow shortstop Anthony Volpe, who was optioned to Triple-A at the end of his rehab assignment for offseason shoulder surgery.

Before I left for St. Louis and Houston, Eric Stephen posed a question that we as a staff had previously asked at the beginning of the season: How many games will the Dodgers win this season?

At the conclusion of play on April 28th, the day of the follow-up question, the Dodgers dropped to 20-10 over their first 30 games, representing a 108-win pace that exceeded the most optimistic projections from the entire staff.

However, in our staff prediction article, I said 92 wins, which was by far the most conservative prediction.

Truthfully, my final answer was a bit different from what I was originally thinking. When mapping out the year, I was originally thinking 90 wins and potentially finishing second in the division, but didn’t think that amount would be good enough for the 2-seed, hence the slight bump.

At no point did I consider a “I’m going to eat duck mea culpa,” because I saw this team at the conclusion of last year, what it had done during the offseason, and what it was doing to start the year. Long offseasons to old clubs eventually write a check that eventually comes due.

Let’s revisit what I said:

This team could go 116-46 and romp to 11-0 in the postseason as the top seed. But that outcome would require both everything going right and the naysayers being right about the competitive balance of the sport. When this team coasted last year, it was rough to watch – until October. Assuming good health, I expect more of the same. The Dodgers will romp in October beating the Seattle Mariners in five largely uncompetitive games to the enraged howls of the league. (Emphasis added.)

Therefore, I figured there would be a correction in the overall record at some point. At the conclusion of play on May 10, the Dodgers are now 24-16 and are now on a 97.2-win pace. Ouch.

After all, losing two of three to the lowly San Francisco Giants, who are now slinking back to town for the last games until September 18th, was as giant (ha!) a red flag as one would wave this season. The Rockies and Cardinals have pluck. The Giants are turning into a soap opera, which would be funny under different circumstances.

In 2025, I thought there was virtually no reason apart from being lost on a three-hour tour or everyone ending up in a hospital after an ill-fated caper that the Dodgers would win fewer than 100 games in the regular season. And lo and behold, they did with aplomb. It ultimately worked out in the end, by the skin of everyone’s teeth, a bunch of overmanaging by the Blue Jays (Game 3), and a bunch of baserunning blunders by the Blue Jays (Games 3, 6, 7), but a win is a win. But fool me twice? Never.

Pigs to slaughter?

In my view, the Dodgers needed to get younger, hungrier…and they signed the most expensive reliever and hitter available. Never mind that said reliever is now on the 60-day injured list. As for said hitter…well, here is what the Dodgers were saying around the time of the signing:

“Anytime you can add a guy to your lineup that is arguably better against same-side pitching — there’s really no holes in what he does offensively. Really balanced splits, versus right, versus left, incredible decision making, really good bat-to-ball skills,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Wednesday. “Just the way that will kind of complement and help further round out our offense, something we thought that would be significant in terms of the odds increasing on our championship quest.”

I keep waiting for the person described to show up, because I am getting the oddest and most ironic sense of deja vu so far in 2026. Eric Stephen added that “[s]ince the start of 2021, Tucker is one of only four major league hitters with an isolated power — slugging percentage minus batting average — .200 or above combined with a strikeout rate of 16 percent or lower, along with fellow star players Mookie Betts, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and José Ramírez.“

Tucker has not come close to his statistical pedigree in his first 40 games with the team. In fact, Tucker was essentially signed to replace Michael Conforto, who has since signed as a fourth outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. Those with weak constitutions should look away from the following comparison:

• Tucker (39 games) .6 WAR, 36 for 145, 4 HR, 20 RBI, 3 SB, .248/.343/.393
• Michael Conforto (23 games) .6 WAR, 16 for 55, 2 HR, 8 RBI, .364/.473/.659

Yes, the Dodgers were pigs, but the team seemed to forget that pigs are usually the first things slaughtered when winter comes. Ask the Phillies and the Mets about what happens when one does not plan for winter. But it’s not time to panic yet.

We don’t have a time machine (and if we did, unlimited rice pudding, among other things, would be the order of the day), so one can just look over the archives for the source of the Dodgers’ current woes.

“Play like the back of your baseball card.”

At times, the current Dodgers look less like a team and more like a collection of geriatric mercenaries, riding high on their own success. I remember the dark days of September 2025, and I am seeing some awful similarities. I am unsure how a team can look this gassed in May, but age catches up with everyone, and this topic will likely be revisited in the coming months.

Perhaps I’m being too subtle. So let’s rip the bandage off using one of my favorite films of the past fifteen years: 2013’s Rush with Daniel Brühl as the late racing legend Niki Lauda. Replace the word “Ferrari” with “Dodgers offense,” and I think you get 99% of the way there.

The Dodgers’ 2026 offense was sold as an offensive juggernaut. The rotation has been dynamite so far in 2026, but like the 2024 NLDS San Diego Padres, if you don’t score, you cannot win.

Unlike the Mets, who seem hellbent on proving that money does not buy victory, and the Phillies, who somehow ran it back after trying not to, failing to the point their most recent manager was fired, only for Don Mattingly to somehow be put in charge, and time is a flat circle, I can understand why everyone was hyping the Dodgers to romp in 2026 based on the names assembled.

Admittedly, some days, yes, the offense lives up to the hype. However, lately, the offense has been more fickle than an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifogli — spends more time in the shop than on the road. But the time for roster construction is long past.

To paraphrase Dodgers’ color man Orel Hershiser, a majority of the Dodgers are not hitting like the back of their baseball cards either due to injury or ineffectiveness, using stats as current as of the start of play on May 10th to demonstrate the point:

• Shohei Ohtani: .8 WAR, 37 games, 34 for 141, 25 R, 7 2B, 6 HR, 16 RBI, 5 SB, 27 BB, 41 K, .241/.374/.418, 127 OPS+
• Freddie Freeman: .5 WAR, 38 games, 40 for 150, 14 R, 10 2B, 3B, 4 HR, 20 RBI, 14 BB, 21 K, .267/.333/.427, 116 OPS+
• Will Smith: .3 WAR, 33 games, 29 for 111, 12 R, 3 2B, 3 HR, 3 2B, 16 RBI, 12 BB, 21 K, .261/.331/.369, 100 OPS+
• Teoscar Hernandez: 0.0 WAR, 35 games, 30 for 126, 18 R, 4 2B, 4 HR, 17 RBI, SB, 14 BB, 42 K, .238/.317/.365, 95 OPS+
• Kyle Tucker: .6 WAR, 39 games, 36 for 145, 27 R, 9 2B, 4 HR, 20 RBI, 3 SB, 22 BB, 34 K, .248/.343/.393, 110 OPS+
• Andy Pages: 2.8 WAR, 40 games, 49 for 147, 23 R, 8 2B, 9 HR, 35 RBI, 6 SB, 10 BB, 33 K, .333/.375/.571, 167 OPS+
• Max Muncy: 2.1 WAR, 38 games, 35 for 128, 26 R, 5 2B, 10 HR, 15 RBI, 20 BB, 36 K, .273/.372/.547, 159 OPS+
• Alex Freeland: .6 WAR, 33 games, 23 for 98, 11 R, 4 2B, 2 HR, 8 RBI, 5 SB, 11 BB, 32 K, .235/.309/.337, 85 OPS+
• Hyeseong Kim: .7 WAR, 29 games, 22 for 76, 10 R, 3 2B, 3B, HR, 8 RBI, 5 SB, 8 BB, 18 K, .289/.353/.395, 114 OPS+
• Dalton Rushing: 1.1 WAR, 21 games, 19 for 63, 14 R, 2 2B, 7 HR, 17 RBI, 4 BB, 18 K, .302/.371/.667, 190 OPS+
• Miguel Rojas: .2 WAR, 24 games, 15 for 58, 5 R, 3 2B, HR, 5 RBI, 4 BB, 8 K, .259/.302/.362, 89 OPS+
• Alex Call: .7 WAR, 18 games, 12 for 39, 8 R, 4 2B, 4 RBI, 8 BB, 6 K, .308/.438/.410, 145 OPS+
• Santiago Espinal: -.3 WAR, 20 games, 3 R, 6 for 32, 2 2B, 2 RBI, 5 K, .188/.188/.250, 24 OPS+

So far, Ohtani (181 OPS+ in 2025), Freeman (143 OPS+), Smith (153 OPS+), Tucker (144 OPS+), Rojas (101 OPS+), and T. Hernandez (104 OPS+) have not matched their production from last year. Expecting the superhuman from Ohtani and Freeman may be unfair, but remember that 100 OPS+ is average, and the 2026 Dodgers were not built to be average.

To play Devil’s Advocate for a moment, Mookie Betts has only played in eight games so far in 2026. Also, Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernández have yet to play in 2026. Maybe the time has come to find more at-bats for Alex Call and Dalton Rushing and maybe give Ohtani more rest, which is a subject for another day. Now that Freeland has been optioned, Kim will need to continue to produce.

When your offensive attack is being led by Andy Pages and a soon-to-be-36-year-old Max Muncy, either the pair is playing out of their minds (admittedly, Pages is), some of the usual suspects need to step it up, or maybe the orthodoxy of the lineup needs to be tossed aside in lieu of the available personnel.

Twin killings

Eric Stephen pointed out around the time of the Tucker signing that the Dodgers in 2025 had a 21.9 percent strikeout rate as a team, the 12th-lowest in the majors. So far, in 2026, the team’s strikeout rate has improved, currently sitting at 20.9% on May 11, which is good enough for eighth-best in baseball.

If the team is not striking out as much, why is the offense misfiring as much as it is? In part, too many double plays.

Watching the Dodgers in St. Louis gave me a sobering thought: how is a team that is trying to hit the ball into the air hitting so many weak ground balls? In the two games I was present for, the Dodgers hit into eight mind-numbing double plays over 18 innings. While it might not be time to call for the culling of the hitting coaches, it does beg the question of what is going on.

The Dodgers hit into only 108 double plays in 2025 (slightly worse than the league average of 104), slightly up from the 99 double plays they hit into in 2024 (slightly better than the league average of 108).

So far, the Dodgers’ offense in 2026 might as well be sponsored by Doublemint Gum, because they are hitting into twin killings at an alarming rate. Only the Anaheim Angels, Texas Rangers, and Pittsburgh Pirates have hit into more double plays than the Dodgers in 2026.

In 40 games so far, the Dodgers have hit into 34 double plays, in 40 games with Freeman (6) and Teoscar (5) leading the way. If trends hold, the 2026 Dodgers are on pace to hit into 138 double plays (rounded up from 137.7), which would easily be the worst mark of the championship run.

The Dodgers now face a floundering opponent, without their best starter, at home, while in another stretch of consecutive games without a day off until a week from Thursday. In theory, the Dodgers should romp, but theory only gets you so far.

Over the weekend in Chicago, Ryan Divish reported that Domingo González was present in the visiting clubhouse in case José A. Ferrer’s wife went into delivery. Ferrer stuck around, working out of a bases loaded jam on Sunday unscathed, but he did not end up making the trip to Houston with the rest of the squad.

Should González appear in a game the next few days, he will be making his Major League debut, and would be the third Mariner to do so after fellow righties Alex Hoppe and Nick Davila. The 26-year-old was claimed off waivers from Atlanta last August, and survived the offseason roster churn before being optioned to Triple-A Tacoma. He’s been off to a strong start in his first Pacific Coast League action, tossing 15 innings of 1.80/2.60 ERA/FIP ball, and has issued just two walks alongside a tidy 50% ground ball rate. Seattle is González’s third org, having played in affiliated ball since 2018 when he was signed by the Pirates out of the Dominican Republic, and as you may have heard, we love a debut at Lookout Landing.

As for Ferrer, the M’s will have their workhorse reliever sidelined for most, if not all of the upcoming series. Acquired in December for catcher Harry Ford in a much-discoursed-about trade, he’s led the Mariners’ bullpen corps in appearances and innings pitched at 21 and 20, respectively. Despite falling victim to some tough BABIP luck early on, his 1.80/2.42 FIP have proven to be quite dependable. He’s also worn quite a few hats in the first six weeks of the season – especially with Andrés Muñoz scuffling and Matt Brash and Gabe Speier down – whether that’s filling in at closer, getting that third out against a tough lefty hitter, or covering multiple innings. We at LL congratulate Ferrer and his family on the arrival of their child.

The San Francisco Giants took two out of three from their longtime rivals just about three weeks ago and it was one of those things where the team, having embarrassed itself across multiple games and a couple weeks, walked away from the wins as a sign that they’d turned a corner. We’ve all been so desperate to believe that the team isn’t as bad as it has been through 40 games this season that any positive is turning point and every negative is “small sample size.” Well, the Dodgers didn’t have Mookie Betts in San Francisco for that series loss and here in LA this week, they’ll have Mookie Betts back for all four games. Does that mean the Giants are doomed?

I certainly thought this season series and rivalry was fait accompli and we were destined to watch the Dodgers perform every Mortal Kombat finisher on our favorite team for the rest of our lives and when that didn’t happen I thought, “Hey, maybe the Giants aren’t as bad as they’ve looked.“ And maybe, given the Dodgers performance in and since that series, the Giants had wounded them in a meaningful way. LA was 16-6 before the series, averaging 6 runs per game. They’re 8-10 since and averaging around 4. So, does the baseball world owe the Giants thanks for disrupting the team everybody hates?

Nah. Unfortunately, that credit should go to the Rockies — and the injury bug that infected Mookie Betts with a strained oblique. Just before venturing to San Francisco, the Dodgers split 4 games in Coors Field. The Dodgers are built to beat anybody anywhere, and when they couldn’t best one last place team, it’s interesting to see them struggle with another in the series immediately after. Small sample size shenanigans here, too? Yeah, probably.

The Dodgers are 10th in offense since April 17th (the start of the Rockies series) with a team wRC+ of 103. If you adjust for just after the Giants’ series, they’re 16th (98 wRC+). I won’t disgust you with the Giants standings in either split. Their pitching has been better than that in every split.

Now, Mookie Betts had the worst offensive season of his career in 2025 and is unlikely to bounce back much more than around league average, given his age (33). Still, dropping into a lineup with all the familiar names and faces doesn’t make the Dodgers worse and getting him back just in time for a rivalry series is meaningful.

We thought the last Giants-Dodgers meeting was a beatdown in waiting or a temperature check of either franchise, but all it really did was serve as a speed bump to the Dodgers running away with the best record in the sport. Shohei Ohtanit’s 89 wRC+ over the past few weeks is maybe a bit of a story, but it’s drowned out by the emergence of Alex Freeland, the reliability of Max Muncy, and Kyle Tucker getting hot. Meanwhile, the Giants are really only making the kind of headlines that an ailing franchise generates. Trading a Gold Glover, demoting former veterans they had planned all offseason long to count on throughout the year, their manager not being clear about pitching changes… it’s a team covered in flop sweat — and it’s only May 11th!

That means this series has the chance to be a staggering embarrassment yet again for… the Dodgers! That’s right. If a global superpower can’t win a series against Buster Posey’s Baseball Mogul 2014 sim, then it deserves all the derision that can be mustered. Dave Roberts was on a Hall of Fame trajectory as manager, but dude lost a series to the 2026 San Francisco Giants, trending to be one of the worst teams in franchise history. I’m sorry, but he simply oughtn’t be taken seriously anymore. Embarrassing! Disgraceful! But also, laugh out loud, especially if the Giants are actually competitive in this series after ditching Patrick Bailey and putting Logan Webb on the IL.

Series overview

Who: San Francisco Giants (16-24) at Los Angeles Dodgers (24-16)
Where: Dodger Stadium | Los Angeles, California
When: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 7:10pm PT
National broadcasts: MLB Network simulcast (Thursday)

Projected starters
Monday: Trevor McDonald (RHP 1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Roki Sasaki (RHP 1-3, 5.97 ERA)
Tuesday: Adrian Houser (RHP 0-4, 6.19 ERA) vs. Yoshinobu Yamamato (RHP 3-2, 3.09 ERA)
Wednesday: Robbie Ray (LHP 3-4, 2.76 ERA) vs. Shohei Ohtani (RHP 2-2, 0.97 ERA)
Thursday: Landen Roupp (RHP 5-3, 3,09 ERA) vs. Emmet Sheehan (RHP 2-1, 4.79 ERA)

Players to watch

Dodgers

Mookie Betts: He’s consistently able to draw walks and hit doubles against the Giants, and even though his injury has held him back from doing any of that this year, it’ll be worth watching to see if he can come back and do it to the Giants at will.

Max Muncy: No ocean for him to hit dingers into, but he went homerless against the Giants in that series loss and so I’d expect him to not have zero homers in these next four games.

The Dodgers’ bullpen:Four game series really do allow teams to take the full tour of their opponent, and while the Dodgers’ lineup is impressive and scary and their rotation is very good on paper, it’s their bullpen that usually offers more growl than bite. That feels especially true with Edwin Diaz hitting the IL with loose bodies in his pitching elbow. That means the Dodgers have been injury bitten to the point that last year’s big free agent closer acquisition, Tanner Scott, is back in that role.

Giants

Willy Adames: In the last series preview I wrote,

This series will be the definitive test to determine whether or not Willy Adames passed away at some point this season and what we’re seeing haunt the Giants lineup right now is, in fact, a g-g-g-ghost.

He went 5-for-14 against Pittsburgh so, we must consider the possibility that he is not a ghost and is still alive to the point of finally starting to look like a major leaguer again. Great timing?

Bryce Eldridge / Rafael Devers: Great to see Eldridge get his first homer and see Devers sock two last week, but the Giants will need both to put up big performances if they’re going to compete in the next four games. Devers is 10-for-30 with 4 doubles and a pair of homers here in the month of May.

Tony Vitello watch

Did Buster Posey visit Tony Vitello’s house during the hiring process? If so, I wonder what that was like. If not, why not?

Prediction time

The Dodgers will not sweep.

While the Cubs dropped two of three to the Rangers, it’s hard to be too terribly upset with their performance recently. After all, they are 20-5 over their last 25 games, including two 10-game winning streaks and an active 15-game winning streak at Wrigley Field. All of these streaks are historic. The last time the Cubs had multiple ten-game winning streaks in a season or a home winning streak longer than 15 was 1935, a season where they went 100-54 before losing the World Series 4-2 to the Detroit Tigers.

Starting a new winning streak won’t be easy, however. The Cubs will take their 27-14 record into Truist Park in Atlanta for a three-game set that begins on Tuesday where they’ll take on the only team in the National League with a better record. The Braves have opened the 2026 season with a 28-13 record.

A quick look at the team hitting leaderboards at Fangraphs shows that the Cubs and Braves have both gotten off to hot starts offensively this season:

I sorted this table by fWAR which shows the Cubs leading all of MLB heading into this week’s series with the Braves. However, if you sort by different categories the Cubs generally rank between first and fifth with the Braves right in the same mix. For example, by wRC+ the top three teams are the Dodgers, Braves and Cubs. By OBP the top teams are the Cubs, Dodgers, Pirates and Braves. This should be a great matchup.

While season-long numbers are preferable for larger sample sizes and and stability, who’s hot at a given moment could impact a specific series outcome more. To that end, I’ve run tables for each teams batters over the last two weeks. I’ve limited it to players with at least 20 plate appearances during that time. First up, the Cubs:

A few things jump out immediately. First of all, Michael Conforto is on quite the hot streak, and I imagine Craig Counsell will try to ride that hot streak as long as he can, especially given the struggles of his other designated hitter against righties, Moisés Ballesteros. However, looking more closely at Ballesteros’ numbers, he really looks like he’s gotten unlucky during this two-week stretch. He’s still striking out less than 18 percent of the time and walking at a decent clip. An .032 BABIP might be the worst BABIP I’ve ever seen in a stretch of 45 plate appearances. Combine it with the fact that he’s had a 33.3 percent hard hit rate during that stretch with a healthy 15.2 percent barrel rate, and that seems like a slump Ballesteros should break out of any moment.

Additionally, both Seiya Suzuki and Michael Busch seem to have broken out of their early season slumps and have been on a a bit of a tear. Busch is slashing .295/.448/.500 with a wRC+ of 172 and a home run over his last 58 plate appearances. Seiya is slashing .275/.388/.550 with a wRC+ of 154 with three home runs over his last 49 plate appearances. The good news is that aside from a .400 BABIP and .500 ISO from Conforto and a slightly overheated .387 BABIP from Busch, the only thing that looks unsustainable in this table is the bad luck some hitters have been experiencing.

Turning to the Braves offense:

A big note at the top, the Braves’ best player, outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. is currently on the injured list with a strained hamstring, so the Cubs won’t have to deal with Acuña at the top of the lineup. They will have to deal with a red-hot Matt Olson and Cubs killer extraordinaire Ozzie Albies, however. Olson has six home runs in his last 52 plate appearances and is slashing .295/.385/.773 during that stretch. Albies has three home runs and a .283/.358/.543 slashline over the last two weeks. Finally, keep an eye on last year’s Rookie of the Year, Drake Baldwin. He’s also got three home runs to go with a .261/.370/.478 slashline in his last 54 plate appearances.

At the bottom of this chart, Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Riley and Michael Harris II are having the opposite experience of Ballesteros, riding relatively hot BABIPs for each of them to lackluster production. Yastrzemski is on the strong side of a platoon and unlikely to play when Shōta Imanaga takes the mound on Wednesday, however, Riley and Harris II are regulars who should be in the lineup for all three games against the Cubs.

This battle of offensive titans in the National League will be one to keep an eye on early this week. Here’s hoping the Cubs bats can stay hot in Atlanta

After today’s day off, the Rockies have a busy May with 16 games in a row and 19 in the next 20 days to close out the month.

Here are five things to look out for as Colorado heads into the stretch.

More NL West games

After only 11 games against NL West teams (just the Dodgers and Padres), the Rockies will play 13 of their next 19 games against the Diamonbacks (7), Dodgers (3) and Giants (3). Considering the Padres and Dodgers are the best teams in the division — currently battling for first place — the Rockies have a chance to improve on their 3-8 record in the division.

More interleague play

Colorado is off to an impressive 6-3 record against the American League this season. With a series sweep over the Astros and a series win against the Blue Jays, interleague play has treated the Rockies well. The Rockies will host the Texas Rangers (May 18-20) and try to continue their winning ways against the AL.

Another Skenes showdown

The Rockies will conclude their six-game Pennsylvania road trip with a three-game series beginning Tuesday in Pittsburgh. The series will start with the Rockies facing Paul Skenes for the third time in his career. In two appearances, both in 2025, he’s 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in 12 innings with 15 strikeouts and two walks.

In their only faceoff at PNC Park, Skenes threw seven scoreless innings in a 4-0 win over Colorado. At Coors Field, Jordan Beck hit a three-run homer in a sixth-run sixth inning that chased Skenes from the game after giving up four runs on five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.

The Rockies won that one 8-5.

McCarthy heats up with reunion coming

When the Rockies traded for Jake McCarthy on Jan. 10, it looked like they added speed and depth to their outfield roster. When the season started, McCarthy struggled with a .184 batting average and .279 on-base percentage through his first 14 games in purple. Then came April 19. McCarthy has been on a tear since, including hitting Colorado’s only grand slam of the season. You can see the remarkable difference in his play.

It will not only be interesting to see if McCarthy can sustain these numbers and force the Rockies to put him in the lineup, but also how he performs when he faces the Diamondbacks. The reunion vs. his former team will start in Denver with a three-game set this weekend before McCarthy returns to his former home for a four-game series at Chase Field next weekend.

Bark at the Park

Get ready to hoist your dogs for the Simba Cam; Bark at the Park is taking over Coors Field on May 18-19 against Texas. While dog owners and their canines usually sit in the Rockpile, it’s fun to visit dogs walking on the left field concourse if you go to either game. Both ticket packages for bringing dogs to the game have sold out.

The other noteworthy promotion the Rockies have on tap is Military Appreciation Day on May 16 against Arizona. Festivities include a pregame parade around the warning track for all active duty or military veterans and their immediate families, a pregame salute from multiple military branches, a large flag on-field presentation, a Hunter Goodman T-shirt giveaway for the first 15,000 fans and more.

Conclusion

After going 13-14 in April, the Rockies haven’t fared as well in May. Through the first nine games, Colorado is 2-7. How the rest of the month goes could really determine if the Rockies can get back on track and seize some momentum.

What are you most excited about or worried about as the Rockies tackle the remainder of the May schedule?

Are you going to Bark at the Park or Military Appreciation Day?

Share in the comments.

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For all the consternation about Caleb Durbin’s bat, at least his glove appears to working just fine. “Not hitting stinks when you feel like you’re a good hitter and you feel like you should be helping the team and producing on that side of the ball, but I know I can impact the game outside of just hitting home runs,” Durbin said. “The defense, I take a lot of pride in that. I’ve seen how important that is throughout the course of the season, so for me, that’s the standard.” (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)

Unfortunately, the man playing immediately to Durbin’s left has not been so reliable in the field this year. And after a costly error is yesterday’s game, it’s time for the Sox to rethink Trevor Story at shortstop. (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)

But at least Story isn’t ducking responsibility. “It shows that it’s tough to win in this league making mistakes like that. Can’t happen. You’ve seen the way we can play when we are playing good defense. It’s a strong suit of ours this year. That one’s on me and I have to clean that one up.” (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)

Story is right that defense has been a strong suit of the Red Sox, and the pitching hasn’t been bad, either. And the pitching staff will get a boost when Ranger Suarez returns from his minor hamstring injury this Thursday, when he’ll face his former team, the Philadelphia Phillies. Before he takes the ball, Brayan Bello will once again follow an opener tomorrow night before Sonny Gray pitches on Sunday. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)

Speaking of returning from (hopefully) minor injuries, Roman Anthony hopes to return when he’s eligible to come off the IL on May 15. “There’s so much that goes on in the hand, and I’ve never dealt with a hand issue before,” said Anthony. “So, I think just getting the news back, understanding that it’s nothing very serious, is the best news we could have gotten. The treatment is pretty simple, trying to get a lot of blood flow circulating around the wrist and the arm. Nothing too crazy. Just a little sprain. The ligament near the ring finger. Nothing that will take too long. So, I think that’s the best part.” (Rob Bradford, WEEI)

But the Red Sox don’t need Anthony to merely return to health, they need him to return to being the hitter he was in his first taste of the big leagues last year, because right now the Red Sox offense is embarassingly sub-par at Fenway Park in particular. (Rob Bradford, WEEI)

Perhaps Anthony will be aided by Chad Tracy, who appears to have brought “calm to the chaos” that was the Red Sox in the immediate wake of the Alex Cora firing. (Steve Buckley, The Athletic)

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Despite a bumpy start, the Texas Rangers are right in the mix in the wide-open AL West, and they’ll look to build on a strong weekend as they take on the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight.

Texas enters this matchup on the heels of back-to-back shutout victories over the free-scoring Chicago Cubs, and my Diamondbacks vs. Rangers predictions expect Nathan Eovaldi to keep a faltering Arizona offense at bay here.

Read on for my free MLB picks for this May 11 battle.

Who will win Diamondbacks vs Rangers today: Rangers moneyline

-125 at Polymarket

It’s about time the Texas Rangers’ offense woke up, and there were encouraging signs in the Cubs series, including Josh Jung’s six-hit weekend.

Tonight, they hand the ball to ace Nathan Eovaldi, who’s back on track with a 2.45 ERA in his past five starts. Texas has picked up victories in Eovaldi’s last two outings, so I’m riding with the hosts, who’ve also won three of their last four outings at Globe Life Field.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Diamondbacks have lost four in a row on the road, and they’re 3-7 in their last 10 games. Plus, Arizona is sweating on the health of 1B Carlos Santana, too.

COVERS INTEL: Only three teams have gathered fewer hits than the D-Backs (304) this season, and the visitors have scored two runs or fewer in four of their last five games.

Diamondbacks vs Rangers Over/Under pick: Under 7.5

-110 at Polymarket

Both starters are capable of putting the clamps on hitters, and I’m not ready to trust two of the shakier lineups in the majors this year. That makes the Under an appealing play, and it’s been a winning ticket in the D-Backs’ past five games.

Eovaldi only allowed one run through eight innings last Wednesday against the New York Yankees, while Arizona starter Michael Soroka had a similarly steady outing that same night.

Though the visitors have trended towards the Over this season (20-17), the Under is 23-15 in Texas’ 38 games — and that feels more realistic tonight.

Diamondbacks vs Rangers odds

• Moneyline: Diamondbacks +113 | Rangers -117
• Run line: Diamondbacks +1.5 | Rangers -1.5
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 | Under 7.5

Diamondbacks vs Rangers trend

The Under is 7-3 in the Rangers’ last 10 contests. Find more MLB betting trends for Diamondbacks vs. Rangers.

How to watch Diamondbacks vs Rangers and game info

Diamondbacks vs Rangers latest injuries

Diamondbacks vs Rangers weather

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Professional baseball has been around for a century and a half, with a rich tradition of players. One of the things I love about the game is that although there are different eras – some with more offense, some with less, some with more home runs, some with more steals – the game is essentially the same. But the different eras provide an opportunity for different skillsets to excel. You have precise hitters like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams in the “golden era”. You have dominant, intimidating pitchers in the 60s like Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson. You have blinding speedsters in the 70s and 80s like Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson. You have big boppers in the home run era like Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr.

But some of these players came before our time, before YouTube, when we can only listen to or read the stories of those that saw them in their prime. An off day seems like the perfect time to ask a simple baseball fan question: if you could travel back in time and watch one player at the absolute peak of his powers, who would it be?

By many accounts, Leroy “Satchel” Paige was among the greatest to ever pitch. His feats are legendary. There was the story of time the he intentionally walked the bases loaded to face Josh Gibson, then struck him out on three fastballs. There are accounts of him telling his fielders to sit down, for they weren’t needed, or Paige telling the hitter what was coming, knowing his pitches couldn’t be touched. He made his MLB debut at age 42 (or thereabouts, no one knew his true age), and was a very solid pitcher well into his 40s, even throwing three scoreless innings at age 58.

So I would love to see Paige in his prime. Did he live up to the legends? What was fact and what was fiction? How much fun was it to see him engage in his showmanship?

Who played before your time that you wish you could get a chance to see?