BALTIMORE, MD - MARCH 26: Craig Albernaz #55 of the Baltimore Orioles looks on during during batting practice before the game between the Minnesota Twins and the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Thursday, March 26, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Good morning Birdland,
You remember all of that starting pitching depth that Mike Elias was excited about? It’s probably going to be put to the test right away. That’s because Zach Eflin made it through just 3.2 innings of his season debut on Tuesday night before he had to leave with an apparent injury. We learned after the game that he was experiencing “elbow discomfort.” Not good!
Elbow discomfort is often the first step down the road towards Tommy John surgery. That would, of course, shelf Eflin for the year and likely mean the end of his time with the Orioles, although he and the team do have a mutual option for 2027.
It should be said, we do not know what the exact injury is at this moment. Everyone outside of the Orioles organization would simply be speculating. But, we have all seen this movie before. An injury to the UCL is most likely, and that usually requires surgery. However, that isn’t always the case. Back in 2014, Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka partially tore his UCL. He received PRP injections, rested for six weeks, and then returned to the team. He never needed surgery on the injury at all. But that is a unique case, and not what any of us should expect.
Fortunately, the Orioles did plan on absorbing at least one injury like this. Dean Kremer is standing by in Triple-A Norfolk. The 30-year-old was surprisingly demoted to begin the year, more as a roster maneuver than a reflection on his performance. He would be the obvious next man up to join the rotation if Eflin’s injury is serious.
Kremer is as dependable as they come. Over the last three seasons his ERA has hovered between 4.10 and 4.19. He has eclipsed 170 innings in two of the last three seasons. And the 3.97 FIP he posted in 2025 was his best mark since 2022 (3.80). He is what you would get if you built a number five starter in a lab, and that is a valuable player to have on your roster. For now, it seems the team will add Albert Suárez to beef up the bullpen (which is having its own issues), but Kremer still looks like the favorite to take Eflin’s spot in the rotation longer term.
The odds of a starting pitcher going down at some point this year were always going to be high. To have it happen in the first week of the season, though, is absolutely brutal. You have to imagine the Orioles were hoping to buy a little more time so that the likes of Trey Gibson, Cade Povich, and Brandon Young could get into their seasons a bit more, refine their approaches, and be in a better position to contribute. That trio won’t be called on yet, but each could just be one injury away from a trip to Baltimore.
Links
Eflin to undergo imaging after departing ’26 debut; IL stint likely | MLB.com This is the first time that Eflin has had an elbow issue during his career. Most of his other IL stints have come because of his back, which he had surgically repaired last summer. The way manager Craig Albernaz was talking after the game, it certainly doesn’t sound like Eflin will be coming off of the IL anytime soon.
Orioles To Select Albert Suárez | MLB Trade Rumors It is nice to have someone like Suárez to call on from Triple-A. When the Orioles have needed him in each of the last two seasons he has been quite good. Injuries limited him to just five big league appearances in 2025, and he did not have the best spring. But ultimately you have to trust the 36-year-old to figure it out. If he pitches well enough the Orioles might just hang onto him and demote one of the optionable bullpen arms when it comes time to call up Kremer.
Keegan Akin turns 31 today. Since fully transitioning to a reliever a few years ago, the lefty has been a rather reliable piece of the Orioles bullpen. He is currently on the IL, but is expected to slot right back into the middle innings once healthy.
Rich Amaral is 64. He was a backup outfielder for the O’s during the 1999 and 2000 seasons, known more for his glove than his bat.
Mike Kinnunen turns 68. A southpaw, he tossed 27 total innings for the Orioles between 1986 and ‘87.
This day in O’s history
2010 – The Orioles acquire infielder Julio Lugo from the Cardinals. He would become a utility option for them, spending most of his time at second base as Brian Roberts battles a herniated disc in his lower back.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MARCH 31: Andrew Painter #24 of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches in the first inning of his MLB debut against the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park on March 31, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Now THAT is how you debut.
It’s a rather nice feeling that both of the players that the Phillies are entrusting with important roles this year – Justin Crawford and Andrew Painter – got off to good starts in their first game rather than the duds that could have happened. We’d have all been fine expecting both to fall flat on their face in their first ever MLB games, but both came out and performed.
Mar 26, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Cleveland Guardians right fielder Chase DeLauter (24) runs the bases after hitting a home run against the Seattle Mariners during the ninth inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
The Guardians offense remains completely invisible, and in the first inning last night, they lost 100% of their home run output.
Chase DeLauter fouled a ball off his foot and could not run to first base later in the AB. CJ Kayfus replaced him in the lineup and was an easy out for the 8 innings that followed.
Tanner Bibee was able to make his start as scheduled, but went just 4 innings because the team was rightly cautious in the steady light rain.
Shohei Ohtani was Bibee’s opponent, and did nothing special, but looking merely decent is enough when your’e facing Cleveland’s “offense.”
In addition to being bad at hitting, the Guardian position players are really bad at challenging balls and strikes. 0-for-2 yet again.
It’s a shame this organization is never going to figure hitting out. It would seemingly be impossible to always be this bad. Really depressing to watch. They just refuse to find a competent hitting coach. Every year we think “Well, they have to be better THIS year because it would be impossible to be worse”—and then they find a way to be worse. By xBA, 9 of the 10 batted balls most likely to be a hit were batted by Dodgers.
The Guards scored a meaningless run in the 9th. Dodgers 4, Guardians 1.
Around baseball
• The Tigers had a 5-0 lead after 3 and a 5-1 lead after 7. They gave up 6 runs in the 8th. This division looks terrible yet again.
• Aaron Civale picked up a win for the Sacramento A’s—their first W of the season.
• The Mariners, possibly getting ahead of a new CBA, locked up prospect Colt Emerson for 95M.
• FG hyped DeLauter earlier in the day before his injury.
Tampa, Florida: New York Yankees' George Lombard Jr. fielding a hit by the Minnesota Twins' Anthony Prato in the top of the 5th inning at George M Steinbrenner Field in Tampa FL on February 26, 2024. (Photo by J. Conrad Williams Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images) | Newsday via Getty Images
Long-term deals for top prospects are all the rage. Yesterday morning, news broke of the Mariners and minor-league infielder Colt Emerson agreeing on an eight-year deal worth a minimum of $95 million, a record for player who has yet to make his MLB debut. This, just hours after reports emerged that the Brewers were nearing an eight-year, $50-million deal with infielder Cooper Pratt, who only made his Triple-A debut in the last week.
Of course, this pair of deals represents a longer trend toward extensions for players who either had yet to debut or only had a smattering of MLB service time. The Brewers themselves pulled the trick just two years ago with Jackson Chourio, while a multitude of other players, such as Corbin Carroll and Jacob Wilson, put pen to paper very early in their careers, if not quite as early as Emerson and Pratt. It forces one to wonder: should the Yankees be doing the same?
Extensions of any kind have been pretty rare under the Brian Cashman regime. Luis Severino’s four-year extension, signed in 2019, is one of the few cases of the Yankees extending a young player, and even that came well into Severino’s career and after a pair of campaigns that saw the right-hander earn Cy Young votes. The last major extension of any kind New York handed out was to Aaron Hicks, and, well, we all know how that one turned out (Aroldis Chapman’s 2019 contract technically counts too, though that was more a case of the Yankees tacking on an extra year to prevent the closer from opting out).
Zigging while everyone else is also zigging could be in the Yankees’ best interests. While the team has never been shy about signing free agents to long-term deals, opportunities to sign stars in free agency are slowly dwindling precisely because other teams are locking up their best young talent early. It stands to reason the Yankees could do the same, committing to their own young talent as a way to spend money that is becoming increasingly more difficult to spend on top players in free agency.
If the Yankees were to take this tack, who would you like to see them sign long term? A few years ago, Anthony Volpe seemed like a prime candidate, which serves as a good reminder that these early extensions, while largely pretty team-friendly, are not always a slam dunk for the organizations signing them. Still, there are a number of options on the farm.
When George Lombard Jr. starts to near the majors, perhaps the club should gauge his interest in signing long-term. Any numbers of pithing prospects, from Carlos Lagrange and Elmer Rodriguez, to Ben Hess and Bryce Cunningham, could be candidates as their call-ups grow closer. And, while he’s not a perfect example for this discussion given he’s exhausted his rookie eligibility, Cam Schlittler’s elite performance certainly entices one to sign him up for as long as reasonably possible.
What do you think? Should the Yankees be using this strategy, and who should they consider if they did?
Today on the site, Sam remembers Phil Niekro on what would have been his 87th birthday, and Josh discusses how MLB has run a few gimmicks into the ground. Later, John takes inspiration from the NBA’s controversial 65-game minimum rule to examine how many games MLB players typically need to play in order to be considered for major awards, and Maximo compares the discontent of the Yankees and Phillies fan bases.
Oct 1, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees starting pitcher Carlos Rodon (55) looks on after leaving the game during the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox during game two of the Wildcard round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images
SNY | Phillip Martínez: The Yankees hoped to have left-hander Carlos Rodon back at some point in April, but those plans might have hit a snag. On Tuesday, manager Aaron Boone revealed that the southpaw, who had a 3.09 ERA and struck out 203 batters last year before encountering some elbow issues in the postseason that resulted in surgery, reported hamstring tightness in his most recent throwing session.
The team is unsure about the severity of the ailment, and making guesses about how long he will be sidelined would be premature. What we do know is that an April return is now unlikely.
New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: The ‘reverse framing’ strategy, believe it or not, might become a thing as we go deeper into the ABS era. The term basically means that catchers can make strikes look like balls as they try to lure opposing teams into wasting a challenge. The Yankees, as an organization, are excellent framers behind the plate, but Tanner Swanson, the team’s director of catching, doesn’t seem so open about trying psychological games just yet.
Swanson did say that he has “thought about these things, and we’ve had discussions around them,” but he isn’t quite ready for the risk that the strategy carries with it.
“A large majority of borderline calls still go unchallenged,” Swanson said. “To take a strike and try to turn it into a ball, you’re banking on either forcing the hitter to challenge it, or having to challenge it yourself.”
New York Yankees Stats on X: Giancarlo Stanton drove in a run in the first inning of Tuesday’s game in Seattle in the ugliest way you can think of: with a blooper near the right field line. It counts anyway, and it was the slugger’s 500th RBI in pinstripes. He became the seventh-fastest Yankee, in terms of games played, to reach the mark: it took him 745 games.
Foul Territory on X: Former MLB general manager Jim Bowden, now an analyst and writer, weighed in on the alleged trade proposal the Yankees made to the Pittsburgh Pirates last year involving Paul Skenes. He said that if the Bombers indeed put names such as Cam Schlittler, George Lombard Jr., Carlos Lagrange, and Spencer Jones on the table, the Bucs should have taken the deal.
“If I’m Pittsburgh and I got offered those four guys that I could control for six years and not have to pay any of them for three years, I have a better chance of winning with those four guys, and I have a better chance of winning longer with those four guys,” Bowden said.
PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Jose Fernandez strode to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning during his first big league game in a pressure-packed spot against four-time All-Star closer Kenley Jansen.
The three-run homer that followed capped one of the most powerful MLB regular-season debuts in modern history.
The Venezuelan became just the seventh player since 1900 to hit two homers in his debut, and the second was a go-ahead shot that led the Diamondbacks over the Detroit Tigers 7-5 on Tuesday night.
“I returned to my days as a kid — just a dream come true,” a smiling Fernandez said through an interpreter.
In a strange twist, two of the seven two-homer debuts have occurred over the past six days. Cleveland phenom Chase DeLauter went deep twice in his first career regular-season game last Thursday after making his MLB debut in the playoffs last season.
The 22-year-old Fernandez wasn’t on the D-backs’ opening-day roster, joining the team on Monday after Pavin Smith went on the 10-day injured list with left elbow soreness. He made the most of his first opportunity, finishing with three hits and four RBIs.
Not bad for a guy ranked as the No. 27 prospect in the organization, according to MLB.com
“He deserves all this credit,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “We’re so proud of him. He’s a player who came through our system, through our academy, and it’s a great story, a great baseball story. We’ve known about Jose for a long time. We knew he was coming.”
Fernandez hit an infield single in his first big league at-bat and added a solo homer his next time up. The three-run drive that followed put him in elite company, joining DeLauter, Trevor Story (2016), J.P. Arencibia (2010), Mark Quinn (1999), Bert Campaneris (1964) and Bob Nieman (1951) as players with two-homer debuts.
“Stay calm, keep the emotions in check, I knew something like that could happen,” Fernandez said. “Just look for a pitch.”
PHOENIX — One day, he’s waking up in Reno, Nevada, and is told he’s going to the big leagues.
The next, Jose Fernandez is celebrating the greatest day of his 22-year-old life, with his teammates dousing him with beer and everything else they could find for their overnight hero, who Tuesday night produced the finest major-league debut in Arizona Diamondbacks history.
Fernandez, ranked as only the 27th-best prospect in the Diamondbacks organization, became the eighth player in major-league history to hit two home runs in his debut, with the last one a game-winning, three-run homer in the eighth inning off future Hall of Famer Kenley Jansen in the Diamondbacks’ dramatic comeback 7-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
“Grateful, grateful to God,’’ Fernandez said. “More than I could have expected. ... Just a dream come true.’’
This is a kid who was signed as an international player out of Venezuela at the age of 17, spent the past four years in the lower minor leagues, never advancing past Class AA until spending one day at Triple-A this year. He had a strong enough minor league season last year, slashing .272/.321/454 with 17 homers to be placed on the 40-man roster, and opened eyes this spring hitting .280 with an .840 OPS, and three doubles, a triple and three home runs in 25 at-bats.
“He was impressive this spring,’’ Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfadt said, “so we figured we’d see him at some point.’’
Just not in the first week of the season, playing in place of Nolan Arenado, and putting on one of the greatest hitting exhibitions in a debut in baseball history. He stepped to the plate in the second inning and reached base on an infield single off Tigers starter Casey Mize. He took Mize deep in the fourth inning on a 408-foot homer. And in the eighth, with two outs and two runners on with the D-backs trailing 5-4, he started to walk to the plate. He stopped when Tigers manager A.J. Hinch went to the mound and summoned Jansen, who has 477 career saves, just one shy of Lee Smith for third-place on the all-time saves list.
“I thought it was a unique look against a very young hitter,’’ Hinch said, “who I know was going to be in swing mode would be a tough matchup for him.’’
Fernandez walked back to the dugout and was summoned by D-backs veterans Carlos Santanta and James McCann. They told him to watch out for Jansen’s funky delivery.
“I just tried to talk to him about what kind of movement on the ball Kenley would be throwing,’’ Santanta said. “He’s tough. I just told him to be calm. He can do it.’’
Said D-backs manager Torey Lovullo: “They prepared him the best way they could. And the thing about Jose is that he wasn’t panicking. He wanted to see a pitch, see what they were talking about, and then zeroed in on it. That’s a very mature approach.’’
Fernandez watched Jansen throw a first-pitch cutter over the plate for strike 1. He watched the second pitch for ball 1, another cutter below his knees. Jansen threw another cutter, this one up in the strike zone, and Fernandez sent it 409 feet over the left-field fence for a three-run homer.
“Not the location I wanted,’’ Jansen said, “but sometimes you come in with no room for error, it’s tough. Give credit to him. He put the ball in play and the ball went out."
The Chase Field crowd erupted, and Pfaadt was back in the clubhouse screaming with the players and clubhouse attendants.
“Everybody in here was jumping up and down,’’ Pfaadt said. “Special day for the whole team, especially him and his family. We all cheered for him when he came in. It was really cool.’’
The celebration was so emotional and lasted so long that D-backs manager Torey Lovullo had to tear himself away just to attend the press conference. They were down 5-1 entering the eighth inning, and then a guy who was called up only because first baseman Pavin Smith went on the injured list with elbow inflammation, fulfills a childhood dream.
“What a day for him,’’ Mize said. “It’ll be a part of his story for his whole life, which is unfortunate for me.’’
But one that could be remembered for an awful long time in D-backs folklore.
“What a good moment for this team, this organization,’’ Lovullo said, “for all the people that have been around Jose pushing him, teaching him, and then ultimately it falls on Jose to go out there and let it all shine.
“We’re so proud of him. He’s a player that came through or system, through our academy, and it’s a great story.
“It’s a great baseball story.’’
One that Fernandez can’t wait to share with his family back home in Venezuela, knowing that for a country who took great pride in winning the World Baseball Classic, they now have another reason to celebrate.
“Thankful for the opportunity," Fernandez said. “It's a dream I've had ever since I was five years old, and just thankful for the opportunity that was given to me.’’
He was hoping that he could have shared the joy of being on that WBC championship team, but he wasn’t invited. Instead, he spent the spring opening a whole lot of eyes, paving the way for the most glorious night of his young baseball career.
“Not yet,’’ Fernandez said, “hopefully ..."
Yet, before he could even finish his answer, Diamondbacks teammate Eduardo Rodriguez, and the starting pitcher in Venezuela’s 3-2 championship victory over Team USA, jumped in and provided the answer.
“Oh, he’ll be at the next one all right,’’ Rodriguez said.
Hey, with nights like these, Fernandez just might find himself playing third base for Venezuela in the 2028 Olympics, too.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 31: Willy Adames #2 and Luis Arraez #1 of the San Francisco Giants embrace during the eighth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on March 31, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
If you’re new to these parts — “these parts” being the generic internet space surrounding the San Francisco Giants — then you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the lingo. Namely, one phrase: a “Webbing.”
A Webbing is the tragic sequel to a Caining, wherein a star Giants pitcher — first Matt Cain, now Logan Webb — pitches excellently, suppresses runs, and loses thanks to an inept offense. Last year, for instance, Webb allowed two or fewer runs a staggering 21 times, yet the Giants managed to lose seven of those games … and he was even tagged with the losing decision on three occasions.
That did not happen on opening day. San Francisco’s anemic offense was spared the embarrassment of a Webbing due to Webb’s uncharacteristic struggles against the New York Yankees. So Webb’s second start of the year, on Tuesday against the San Diego Padres, offered an opportunity for redemption and equilibrium. It seemed we were destined for our first Webbing of the year.
Instead, we were treated to something much rarer, and so much more delightful: the Reverse Webbing.
A Reverse Webbing, if you couldn’t deduce it, is when Webb doesn’t pitch to his brilliant standards, but it doesn’t matter because the offense displays so much vim and vitality* that the Giants cruise to victory nonetheless.
*I just wanted to see if my CMS would allow me to follow “vim and” with a noun other than “vigor.” WordPress wouldn’t let me pick a non-V word, but once I got the V in there it let me pick a new noun to pair with vim. Just workshopping. Like and subscribe for more experimental word pairings. And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
San Francisco’s offense, which was non-existent in their first two games, lifeless in their third game, and just barely functional enough to survive in their fourth game, finally broke out properly. And they wasted positively no time doing so.
On just the second pitch of the game, Willy Adames — mired in another early-season slump — put the Giants on the board. Old friend — and I really do mean “friend,” given his bloated ERA when facing San Francisco — Germán Márquez dropped a meek curveball right into the zone where hitters salivate, and Adames made him pay, with the first home run of the year for the reigning 30-homer streak buster (working title).
But the Giants were not done. On Monday, they had their first multi-run inning of the year, and the taste was fresh in their mouth. Armed with the knowledge that such an activity was legal, the Giants set about rallying. With one out, Heliot Ramos drew a walk. With two outs, Matt Chapman hit a single.
And then came Jung Hoo Lee who, like Adames, has been stuck in a painful slump to start the year, and who, like Adames, broke out with a superstar game. It started with a dose of two-out magic, on a virtually identical pitch to the one Adames had punished. It wasn’t an identical result, as Lee’s fly ball to right field stopped a foot or seven shy of clearing the wall, but it did clear the bases, and left the lefty standing on second with a two-run double.
The Giants had scored three runs in a single inning, after entering the game with just four runs in as many games.
But it became clear in the bottom half of the inning that three runs — unlike on Monday — probably wouldn’t be enough. It was clear that Webb didn’t quite have full control of his pitches. He kept runs off the board in the first inning — no small thing, given that opening frames are his Achilles heel — but it wasn’t particularly pretty, as he worked around a Fernando Tatis Jr. double and a Jackson Merrill walk, while missing the strike zone on 10 of his 21 pitches.
To make matters worse, the Giants spent the next half-inning trying to convince you that their first-inning showing was merely a ruse. Casey Schmitt, Adames, and Rafael Devers strung together back-to-back-to-back one-out singles to load the bases, putting a runner 90 feet away from home with less than two outs. The Giants were staring at a glistening opportunity to prove to you that they were not back on their 2025 BS, and instead had metamorphosed into a team capable of basic situational hitting competency.
Instead, Ramos popped out and Luis Arráez flew out, and the Giants went home empty handed. Webb, meanwhile, returned to the mound for a fairly similar second inning: no runs, but 22 pitches thrown, 10 of which were balls (well, technically, all 22 thrown pitches were balls, but only 12 of those balls were strikes).
The third inning tore us in both directions. It started the way the first did: with a leadoff home run from a scuffling star. This time it was Chapman, who worked the count in his favor before Márquez crossed the plate with a fastball right in Chappy’s happy zone, and it was launched deep into the Southern California air.
With that, the Giants had matched their season’s run total in just the opening third of the game, and gifted their ace a 4-0 lead. But it was in that same inning that Webb’s lack of sharpness finally caught up to him.
After retiring Jake Cronenworth to open the inning, Webb issued back-to-back five-pitch walks to Tatis and Manny Machado, as life returned to Petco Park. Merrill, who possesses the type of ownage against Webb that makes you question everything you know about baseball, blistered a single into right field, scoring a run and getting San Diego on the board.
What followed was the rare baseball play where you can see, in real time, an exact moment where a manager helps his team in a quantifiable way. After Xander Bogaerts worked the count full, first-year manager Craig Stammen had Merrill take off for second. Bogaerts rolled the ball directly to his counterpart Adames, but with Merrill on the move, the only play was at first. Rather than an inning-ending double play, it was an RBI fielder’s choice, and one that kept the line moving so that Miguel Andujar could cap a three-run inning with an RBI single.
The Padres had pulled within a run, and it was another long, ball-filled inning for Webb, who missed the zone on 12 of his 25 pitches. He just didn’t quite have it, and it would be up to his offense to star.
His offense starred. They didn’t stop with those four runs, and instead added four more in the sixth inning. First they flirted with another frustrating inning, after Harrison Bader led off with a double and Patrick Bailey drew a walk, but Casey Schmitt failed to get down a bunt before ultimately striking out.
But Adames would not let it be. The shortstop was deep in his bag, as the basketball writers say (not that I know anything about them), and singled home a run as part of a 4-5 day that finished a triple short of the cycle.
The insurance run was in, but the Giants weren’t done. In a comical but mesmerizing scene, Devers absolutely tore down the first base line to leg out an infield single, which brought up a situation that can either be tragic or deeply satisfying: the revenge at-bat.
Yes, for the second time in the game, Ramos stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and just one out. There would be no soft pop-out this time. Instead, Ramos jumped on a Bradgley Rodriguez sinker that found the heart of the plate, skillfully taking it the other way and through the hole, plating a pair of runs with a single.
The route was on, but not over. Thanks to Devers making it to third on Ramos’ single, Arráez could — and would — knock in the fourth run of the inning with a sacrifice fly, and then start a final rally in the ninth inning, when he bopped a leadoff single, and was pinch-run for by Jared Oliva. Doing exactly what he’s on the roster to do, Oliva easily stole second base, prompting a throw into center field that allowed him to take third. With two outs, Lee missed his third double of the day by about two feet … then settled right back in and blooped an RBI single.
San Francisco’s offense had done what it set out to do, and it had taken all the pressure off of Webb, giving him nine runs — something they achieved in just three of his 34 starts a year ago. And yet, while the offense justifiably was the star of the show, Webb quietly went about reversing his own fortunes as well.
After those three stressful innings in which he gave up three runs, struggled to find the strike zone, and saw his bullpen get loose in the third inning, Webb settled back into the ace that we all know and love. He set down the side in order in the fourth inning, needing just 13 pitches. He showed off his newfound strikeout stuff (Est. 2025) with a thoroughly dominant fifth inning, in which he struck out Tatis on four pitches, struck out Machado on four pitches, and then struck out Merrill on three pitches, finishing just two balls shy of an immaculate inning.
And in the sixth — an inning it once seemed impossible that he’d make it to — he got back to his old tricks, forcing three ground balls and giddily watching as the left side of his infield casually and artfully ate them all up.
It was a remarkable display of turning things around, as Webb, despite giving up three hits and four walks, retired the final 10 batters he faced. Webb said after the game that he made mechanical tweaks late in the start, while Tony Vitello summed it up nicely, stating, “That’ll be one of my favorite outings of the year even though you could take a step back and say it was one of the uglier ones too.”
In the end, the 9-3 victory was the best-case scenario. The offense broke out, and showed Webb that they can carry him. He doesn’t need to do all the heavy lifting. And yet, along the way, he rediscovered his ability to do so.
Cold weather? Rainy conditions? And a lineup that provided little run support until late?
For Shohei Ohtani, none of it was a problem Tuesday.
In his official return to full-time two-way duties, the four-time MVP didn’t disappoint.
Ever since his signing in Los Angeles, Ohtani and the Dodgers have been waiting for this moment –– when, now more than two years removed from a second-career Tommy John surgery, he will finally be available to pitch and hit over the course of a full season.
And in a 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians, he kicked the campaign off in dominantly promising fashion, spinning six scoreless, one-hit innings on the mound while also reaching base three times as a hitter.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that,” teammate Max Muncy said. “It’s pretty special. It’s really hard to put into words when you see it in person.”
Last year, the Dodgers (4-1) didn’t get to see this version of Ohtani, even after he returned to pitching midway through the season.
He was still building up slowly. His arsenal was often restricted to two or three pitches. And while he was superb in his 47 total innings, striking out 62 batters with a 2.87 ERA, he didn’t complete six frames in a game until his final outing of the regular season.
This year, he did it right out of the gate, striking out six batters in an 87-pitch gem.
Ohtani kept the Guardians guessing by mixing six different pitches. APThe four-time MVP pitched six scoreless, one-hit innings. AP
Despite making only two pitching starts this spring while being away from camp for the World Baseball Classic, Ohtani came out firing, retiring his first seven in a row and allowing no hits until the fourth.
He kept the Guardians (3-3) guessing by mixing six different pitches, collecting two strikeouts each with his sweeper, splitter and curveball.
It didn’t matter that most of the game was played amid a continuous drizzle, or that he raced between a wet mound and damp batter’s box as the team’s leadoff hitter.
One start in, he was already stoking Cy Young expectations that had been building during spring training.
“I expect nothing short of almost a Cy Young out of him,” Muncy declared.
“He’s just unflappable,” manager Dave Roberts added. “Not a whole lot kind of affects his mind.”
Kyle Tucker after hitting a single during the first inning. Getty Images
What it means
That every time Ohtani takes the mound, the Dodgers will be tough to beat.
How often that happens remains somewhat unclear. While Ohtani will make regular turns through the starting rotation, the Dodgers will also look to bank him extra days off between some outings. Anything more than 25 starts or 140-150 innings is likely to be unrealistic.
The Dodgers could ride Ohtani’s arm harder, of course. They could maximize his Cy Young chances by giving him a more traditional starter’s workload.
However, they will be playing the long game with the 31-year-old this year, remaining mindful of his workload and prioritizing his late-season availability.
“First and foremost, he’s shown that he’s team-driven,” Roberts said pregame. “But also there’s some individual things that he certainly wants to achieve, which is a good thing.”
Who’s hot
Many of the Dodgers’ biggest bats have yet to get going. Muncy, however, has been an exception.
The veteran slugger is getting on base like usual, drawing what was already his fourth walk of the season in his first at-bat Tuesday. Then, he went deep for the first time this year with a key solo homer in the sixth, winning a lefty-lefty matchup against Guardians reliever Kolby Allard to double what was only a 1-0 lead.
“He was facing a lefty and just trying to put a good swing on it, and homered,” Roberts said. “So “That’s a good sign.”
Muncy was involved again in the eighth, lining a single as part of a two-run rally that put the game away.
With that, the third baseman is now batting .364 (4-for-11) and has reached safely in eight of his 15 trips to the plate.
“I feel really comfortable up there,” Muncy said. “Some of the stuff we worked on is sticking really well right now, and just got to keep progressing into the season.”
Mookie Betts makes a leaping grab in the the third inning. AP
Who’s not
On Tuesday? Quite literally, the newly-named Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium, which was drenched by a steady drizzle of rain from the fourth inning on.
The showers were expected, with the ballpark’s grounds crew towing a rarely-used tarp out of storage in the afternoon in preparation for the rain fall.
And while the cover wasn’t ultimately needed, the playing surface clearly suffered. At the end of Ohtani’s outing in the sixth inning, Roberts walked out of the dugout following a four-pitch walk to request new dirt be applied to the bump.
In the ninth, closer Edwin Díaz also struggled with the conditions. He hit his first batter, walked the next and eventually gave up a run, before settling down to finish the game without further drama.
Up next
The Dodgers will get their first rubber-match contest of the season on Wednesday, trying to take two of three from the Guardians in what will be an early 5:10 p.m. start. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will get the start against right-hander Gavin Williams.
Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - MARCH 31: Max Fried #54 of the New York Yankees reacts during the first inning against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on March 31, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Yankees got exactly the response they needed Tuesday night, bouncing back from their first loss of the season with a 5-0 win over the Mariners in Seattle. After Monday’s frustrating walk-off defeat, New York handed the ball to Max Fried on normal rest thanks to Sunday’s rare offday, and the ace delivered exactly the kind of outing you hope for coming off a defeat.
The Yankees wasted no time jumping on M’s Opening Day starter Logan Gilbert. With two outs in the top of the first, Cody Bellinger singled up the middle and came all the way around from first when Ben Rice ripped a double down the right-field line and off the wall.
Giancarlo Stanton kept the rally alive by dropping a lazy fly ball into no man’s land around where Rice’s ball ended up, plating Rice from second (pun fully intended) and giving New York a quick 2-0 lead, already topping their Monday output. The early traffic immediately put Gilbert under pressure, forcing the Mariners’ right-hander to throw 28 pitches in the opening frame.
The Yankees put the leadoff man on in both the third and fourth innings and had chances to create separation, but Aaron Judge and Stanton each grounded into inning-killing double plays that allowed Seattle’s starter to keep the deficit manageable.
That changed in the sixth.
Trent Grisham sparked the inning by bouncing an automatic double over the wall in right. After Gilbert got Judge to chase for a strikeout, Cody Bellinger punched a single up the middle to put runners at the corners and keep the pressure on.
The Yankees then forced the issue. Bellinger broke for second, and a rare throwing error by Platinum Glove defender Cal Raleigh allowed Grisham to score, stretching the lead to 3-0.
A walk to Rice brought Stanton back to the plate, and the Yankees’ designated hitter ripped a double into left field, scoring Bellinger and moving Rice to third. The hit chased Gilbert from the game after 5.2 innings. Stanton has now registered multi-hit games in each of the Yankees’ first five contests of the year — a rarity in franchise history. Fittingly, he ended the night hitting .500 across 20 PA in the season’s first road trip.
The Seattle pitching change did little to slow the Yankees’ momentum.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. immediately greeted Cole Wilcox with a line drive single to right, bringing Rice home to make it 5-0. Jazz then swiped second, giving New York its second stolen base of the inning and putting even more pressure on Seattle before Wilcox finally escaped the jam.
While the offense gave him plenty of support, Fried did not need any more than what the offense gifted him to start the game. He was in complete control from the jump, carving through the Mariners lineup for seven shutout innings. Through six, Seattle managed just one hit while Fried piled up six strikeouts and consistently stayed ahead in counts, even calling for an ABS challenge himself to get a ball-one call overturned in the fourth.
Fried’s biggest challenge came in the seventh. Julio Rodríguez opened the inning with a single, but Fried immediately erased the threat by getting Josh Naylor to bounce into a crisp 6-3 double play. A hit batter and Brendan Donovan single suddenly gave Seattle its best chance of the night, putting two aboard with two outs.
Fried calmly reset, tapped the PitchCom on his belt, and worked Victor Robles into a routine fly ball to Aaron Judge in right to end the inning and slam the door on Seattle’s last real threat. His final line was everything the Yankees could have asked for: seven innings, three hits, no runs, one walk, six strikeouts, and 90 pitches, 60 for strikes.
Through Fried’s first 13.1 innings this season, he has now allowed just five hits, two walks, and zero runs while striking out 10, looking every bit like the ace southpaw the Yankee front office dreamt he would be when he signed.
And maybe the only pitcher capable of slowing down Aaron Judge right now is his own ace. Judge is now 0-for-9 with six strikeouts in Fried’s first two starts, a funny little side note to what has otherwise been total Yankees dominance. New York has now outscored opponents 12-0 in Fried’s two outings.
Brent Headrick followed Fried with a relatively clean eighth inning, allowing a single to Cole Young before blowing a fastball past the Monday night hero Raleigh for a strikeout to end the frame. Tim Hill then took care of the ninth, working a clean inning to officially lock down the Yankees’ 5-0 bounce-back win.
The Yankees now hand Wednesday’s getaway-day finale to Cam Schlittler, who will face George Kirby in another premium pitching matchup. Schlittler was electric to open the year, with eight strikeouts in 5.1 innings. Kirby impressed in his first start striking out six in six innings of one-run ball. Will the Yankees bats get to Kirby and let Cam take the series tomorrow? First pitch is at 4:10pm ET.
Many in baseball knew the Yankees pitching staff was good, but you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who would have predicted the historic start to the 2026 season they are putting up.
Tuesday's 5-0 win over the Mariners capped off a five-game stretch where Yankees pitching was the most dominant in baseball. And it even made history.
Across the first five games of the season, Yankees pitching has allowed just three earned runs. According to Katie Sharp, that's tied with the 1943 Cardinals for the fewest in MLB history since 1900.
Digging a little deeper, Yankees starters have allowed just one run across those first five games, and the team as a whole has already thrown three shutouts. When asked if he anticipated his staff pitching this well, manager Aaron Boone admitted he didn't.
"We definitely like our pitching. I don't know if you draw up this many shutouts and all that early on, I don't care how good your pitching is. It doesn't usually work that seamlessly," he said. "It's a great start for those guys in there. They're pitching with a lot of confidence. They're executing. Austin [Wells] and JC [Escarra] are doing a great job back there with them. And then playing well behind them with our defense, and add it all up, and there's been a lot of zeros."
“We have a lot of really talented guys that are really motivated, and we've been waiting for this opportunity to have the season start and go and compete," Max Fried said. "We want to go in, and we're leaving everything out there, so we got a lot of, like I said, really good arms, and we’re throwing the ball really well right now. So we're just trying to keep it rolling.”
Fried is a big part of the early success. After grinding through 6.1 scoreless innings on Opening Day in San Francisco, the southpaw looked more like his dominant self from a season ago, tossing seven scoreless against the high-powered Mariners lineup.
The 32-year-old said his success on Tuesday was due to being able to throw his various pitches for strikes and working well with Escarra to keep changing speeds.
"There were times where I was just fighting to throw strikes [in my last start]," Fried explained. "I felt like I was actually able to locate today, which made things a lot easier. But you got to go out there and really execute against a team like that. That's a really good club up there."
"He was terrific tonight," Boone said. "He was on point from the start, just in total control of the game. Had everything kind of going for him, different ways to get you out. I thought he changed speeds really, really well, had good life to his fastball just back and forth. Used all his secondary. Until a couple guys got on there in that final inning in the seventh there, felt like he was cruising."
Fried has pitched at least six scoreless innings in both of his outings to start the season, which has earned the southpaw a spot in Yankees history. He's now tied with five others with two such starts. The record holder is three by Ray Caldwell in 1914. Fried will get his chance to match that franchise record next week.
As for the team as a whole, the Yankees have now started the season 4-1 heading into their rubber game against the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon. Cam Schlittler, who pitched 5.1 scoreless innings in his first start, will look to continue this string of dominance for Yankees pitching.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 17: A "Welcome to Dodger Stadium" sign is displayed before the game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on September 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Here are the results and details of every Los Angeles Dodgers game for 2026, from the beginning of the regular season through however long they last in the postseason.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 31: Jose Ramirez #11 of the Cleveland Guardians reacts after catching a pop out by Kyle Tucker #23 (not pictured) of the Los Angeles Dodgers during the fifth inning of a baseball game at Dodger Stadium on March 31, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Sirius Sun/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Game 2 of the Dodgers v. Guardians series was another late night affair for those of us on the east coast.
Tanner Bibee, after leaving the season opener with right shoulder discomfort, was back and tasked with facing the Dodgers offense while the Guardians offense was tasked with facing Shohei Ohtani.
The top of the first was eventful, but not in a fun way. Kwan and José both had long flyouts, but Chase DeLauter fouled a ball off his back foot. He finished the at bat, resulting in a ground out, but immediately left the field and headed down the tunnel with the trainer. The team updated in the fourth inning that the x-ray was negative.
In the top of the third, Gabriel Arias drew a one-out walk. Angel Martínez broke his bat on what looked like a well placed single, but Mookie Betts made a great play to get the out. Rhys Hoskins recorded the first hit of the game for the Guards in the top of the fourth with a two-out double to left. In the top of the fifth, Angel Martínez was hit by pitch, on his back knee, and stayed down for a fair amount of time. Thankfully Angel was able to take his base and continue playing the game.
Through the third, Bibee kept the Dodgers to two hits and a walk, keeping things scoreless. But as a light rain started to fall in LA, the bottom of the fourth had the Dodgers strike first. A one-out single and two, two-out singles scored Will Smith. Bibee finished the night having only pitched 4.0 innings. He allowed 4 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, and struck out 4 batters on 74 pitches. It was likely that Bibee would be limited due to the aforementioned shoulder discomfort. Kolby Allard came on in relief in the fifth inning to face the top of the Dodgers’ line up.
Allard walked Ohtani, but handled the next three batters. In the bottom of the sixth, Max Muncy got to Allard with a solo homer to right.
The Dodgers brought out relief lefty Alex Vesia in the top of the seventh. Bo Naylor hit into another broken bat out, with Mookie Betts making the play again for the first out.
Allard stayed in for the start of the seventh, giving up a single to Ohtani and striking out two. Matt Festa replaced Allard for Mookie Betts. Festa struck out Betts to retire the side. Angel Martínez was the first up to bat for the Guardians, facing lefty Jack Dreyer. Angel hit a swinging bunt and was standing on first when the umpires decided that it was foul. No one signaled that it was foul, the ball was not foul, Angel grounded out instead. Steven Kwan drew a walk, but David Fry (pinch hitting for Kayfus) and José weren’t able to make anything happen.
Matt Festa remained in for the bottom of the 8th. Four singles burnt Festa, scoring two before the side was retired. The rain was coming down harder, making for tough playing conditions. The weather looked like it was playing into the Guardians favor. Edwin Díaz came in to close for LA. Kyle Manzardo was hit by pitch and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Rhys Hoskins drew a walk. Bo’s flyout put runners on the corner for Brayan Rocchio. Rocchio hit a single to right, scoring Manzo and advancing Rhys. Díaz struck out Schneemann and Angel to end the game. The loss goes to Tanner Bibee.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 31: Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers walks back to the dugout during the first inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians at Dodger Stadium on March 31, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ryan Sirius Sun/Getty Images) | Getty Images
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hasn’t hit much yet this season, but Tuesday night was a reminder that the four-time MVP is also an excellent pitcher. The Dodgers needed his arm to beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-1 in the middle game of their interleague series at a damp Dodger Stadium that was much closer than the final score indicates.
On the eve of the eighth anniversary of his Major League Baseball pitching debut, Ohtani in his 101st career start allowed only one hit, a two-out double by Rhys Hoskins in the fourth inning that provided one of only two at-bats with runners in scoring position off the Dodgers right-hander. Ohtani worked around three walks and a hit batter to finish six scoreless innings, with six strikeouts.
Last season saw a gradual build-up on the mound for Ohtani, who was returning from September 2023 Tommy John surgery, the second of his career. He didn’t top three innings until August, then the reins were slowly loosened into September and October. Manager Dave Roberts noticed Ohtani’s improvements this spring compared to last season.
“The feel for the breaking ball is much better. I think last year he was trying to introduce a slider with maybe a little bit more depth, and just trying to get a handle on that,” Roberts said earlier Tuesday. “But now, the ability to strike it, shorten it, to make it get a little bit bigger, all the while still having 97-98 in the tank when he needs it.”
Ohtani finished off two of his strikeouts with the curveball, two with the splitter, and two with the sweeper on Tuesday.
He also completed six innings for the fifth consecutive time on regular rest, dating back to last September. The only caveat in between was his 2 1/3 innings in Game 7 of the World Series, which was on three days rest.
Ohtani wasn’t all pitching on Tuesday. He walked twice while still pitching and later added a single. He has just three singles in 14 at-bats so far this season (.214), but also has six walks and was hit by a pitch, for a tidy .476 on-base percentage.
Ohtani wants to be a full-time two-way player again, and a start like Tuesday is one of several reasons the Dodgers are willing to indulge the effort.
“I think he’s already proven that he’s the best player to ever play the game, the best baseball player in totality,” Roberts said. “But I think he sees himself as a baseball player yes, but when he’s pitching he sees himself solely as a pitcher, and he wants to be the best pitcher.”
Early offense has been a problem for the Dodgers in the infancy of the schedule, such that when Andy Pages singled home Will Smith with two outs in the fourth inning it marked the first time Los Angeles has scored first in a game this season.
It was also the only Dodgers run scored in the fourth inning so far this season, and through five games they’ve been held scoreless in all the first and second innings in 2026. Despite only the one run, they did make Tanner Bibee work to the tune of 74 pitches such that the Cleveland starter was done after four innings, possibly as a precaution after he left his opening day start with shoulder inflammation five days prior.
Max Muncy’s solo home run in the sixth inning provided insurance. His first of the season was the 210th home run with the Dodgers for Muncy, one shy of Steve Garvey of sixth in franchise history. Muncy had the middle of four singles in the eighth inning as the Dodgers added even more insurance to pull away. Pages drove in the final run in the eighth, giving him bookend RBI on the night.
The Dodgers this season have scored 11 total runs through the first six innings of games (30 total innings), and 11 runs in the final three innings (11 total innings).
Tuesday night’s 4-1 victory put the Dodgers record at 4-1. It’s the first time their game score matched their record after that game since April 6, 2023, when a 5-2 win in Arizona gave Los Angeles a 5-2 record.
One more game on the homestand for the Dodgers, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound Wednesday night (5:20 p.m.; SportsNet LA, MLB Network) against Gavin Williams and the Guardians.
Mar 31, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (13) steals second as Seattle Mariners shortstop Leo Rivas looks on (76) during the sixth inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: John Froschauer-Imagn Images | John Froschauer-Imagn Images
This was the matchup in the series the Mariners had the lowest percentage of winning (even while still being favored, apparently no one told the oddsmakers at FanGraphs the Mariners are suffering a bit of a limp offensively), but it was still pretty rough to watch. Max Fried outdueled Logan Gilbert, holding the Mariners scoreless over seven innings, while Gilbert was fine—collecting 14 whiffs—but not particularly sharp: he missed a bunch of stuff armside, the splitter didn’t have its usual bite, he hung some sliders, and he over-relied on his cutter, throwing it about 15% of the time.
But the biggest problem for Gilbert, again, was inefficiency; it took him nearly 30 pitches to clear the first inning, and his pitch count would have been even more inflated if not for a few well-timed double plays. He got ahead of leadoff hitter Trent Grisham, only to need seen pitches before putting him away on a flyout on a four-seamer. Two hitters later, he again got ahead of Cody Bellinger 0-2 with two outs, but instead of putting Bellinger away, Gilbert tried a pair of splitters and a fastball, none of which he could land, missing armside each time and running the count full before throwing Bellinger a cutter on the plate which Bellinger bopped into right field for a single. Gilbert then fell behind Ben Rice 2-0, resulting in a pretty terrible hung slider that luckily was only a double down the right field line, fielded…not particularly well by Victor Robles, allowing Bellinger to score. Giancarlo Stanton then ambushed the first pitch he saw for a parachute single that dropped in front of Robles, scoring Rice, who was in motion with two outs and giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
Unfortunately, that would be all the Yankees needed, even if they went on to add more later, as the Mariners bats were quiet once again. Max Fried carved through the Mariners lineup, no-hitting them the first time through the order with four strikeouts, a lone walk to Julio Rodríguez the only thing between him and a perfect game until Josh Naylor collected his first hit of the season, a line-drive single into center.
Gilbert’s pitch mix tonight was…curious. He led with the fastball and splitter, getting three of his six strikeouts on the splitter, but threw his cutter the third-most of any of his pitches (15%), a pitch he said during spring training Scott Servais once told him was best at about an 8% usage. He got one strikeout on the pitch, getting Ryan McMahon chasing after one up to end the second.
“Cutter feels great. I really like where it’s at,” said Gilbert postgame.
He also dug out his changeup, a pitch he hasn’t thrown significantly since 2022. He got one strikeout on the pitch, a called strike the Yankees challenged and lost. Gilbert threw his changeup intermittently this spring, toying with working it back into his arsenal; apparently, this time both the cutter and the changeup survived the trip north.
“The good [changeups] were good. Bad ones were bad. It’s just kind of the nature of it,” said Gilbert postgame.
Gilbert did get some help defensively in the third, despite some shaky defensive play in the first: Leo Rivas turned a slick double play after a leadoff base hit to Grisham, making a quick turn to get Judge at first, and Cal Raleigh wiped away a two-out walk (no Logan! Bad Logan!) with an absolute seed to pick off Bellinger trying to steal:
There was also this really nifty play by Cole Young in the fifth:
Thanks to some defensive help and some make-it-work pitching, Gilbert was able to keep the Yankees quiet until the sixth, when Trent Grisham realized the cutter isn’t actually a good pitch and ambushed the first pitch he saw for a ground-rule double. Gilbert was able to strike out Judge on a splitter, but Bellinger tattooed a fastball at the top of the zone for a single; Grisham didn’t score then, but did score when Bellinger, who seemed committed to being a pest on the bases that night, stole second and Cal overthrew the base. Things unraveled after that for Gilbert, as he walked Rice, putting runners at the corners with one out for Stanton, who shot a double into the gap on a splitter that did not split to make it 4-0.
Cole Wilcox was charged with cleaning up the damage but couldn’t get Jazz Chisholm Jr. despite having him in a 1-2 count, leaving a slider too much on the plate for an RBI single; Chisholm then stole second, wiping out the double play opportunity. Wilcox did button things down after that, but the damage was done.
The only good part of this game is Wilcox got a second inning to try to make his case to stick around once Carlos Vargas is healthy, and he pitched a dominant seventh, striking out McMahon looking on a sweeper and striking out Grisham swinging after a slider, and then got by Aaron Judge with a little help from his friend, who conveniently is also named Cole:
This hot potato came off the bat at 107 directly at Cole W’s dome and, no. No, thank you. I would simply climb under the mound and pull it around myself like a weighted blanket and refuse to leave. But Cole Y was right there to help his buddy out. Hooray for teamwork.
Wilcox came back for the eighth and got his first out but then surrendered a single to Rice, who kind of stuck his bat out at a sweeper and sliced it oppo, so Casey Legumina got a chance to argue why he should get the final bullpen rose and retired his two hitters, and then worked a clean ninth inning. Ever since Casey told the story about his Opening Day suit I have been unfortunately very attached to him so this was a particularly nice little reward at the end of a tough game.
Fried finally came out of the game in the eighth, but by that point, the damage was done, and the Mariners hitters didn’t do anything against the low-leverage Yankees relievers who came in to replace him (although Cole Young did have a single, because again, even though this game was un-fun, the disappointment was offset by lots of little Kate Treats). The Mariners will try to win their first series tomorrow, with George Kirby on the mound against Cam Schlittler, whose name I have looked up three times and am still not sure I spelled correctly.
