Category: MLB

As it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Aaron Judge and Mike Trout may never meet in October, this April battle might have to do.

The two American League MVPs went back and forth in the Yankees’ 11-10 win over the Angels on Monday in The Bronx, each homering twice, with Judge getting the last laugh.

“That part certainly delivered,” manager Aaron Boone said of the head-to-head between the two sluggers.

Judge got it started with a two-run shot off lefty Yusei Kikuchi in the bottom of the first, a 456-foot shot into the bleachers in left-center.

Trout answered with a game-tying three-run shot in the sixth off Jake Bird, while Judge came back with a go-ahead solo shot in the bottom of the inning.

Trout, not to be outdone, homered again in the eighth, this time off Camilo Doval to tie the game again before the Yankees won it on a wild pitch by Jordan Romano with Ryan McMahon on the plate — and Judge on deck.

“He’s the greatest of all time,” Judge said of Trout. “Coming up at such a young age, he’s special. He’s had to battle injuries, but he’s in a better spot now.”

For Trout, it was a somewhat rare moment in the spotlight, as he typically toils in anonymity for the also-ran Angels.

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“It was definitely one of the better games,” Trout said. “It was fun to be a part of, [but] the loss is disappointing. … To throw blows like that, both teams, pretty cool.”

As usual, Judge came out on top — and made more history in the process, as the Yankees snapped a five-game losing streak.

It was his sixth homer of the young season, but it also put Judge in the franchise record books again.

The multihomer game was Judge’s 47th of his career, passing Mickey Mantle and leaving him behind only Babe Ruth, who had 68 with the Yankees, as well as the most in MLB history with 72.

“That’s special,’’ Judge said of passing Mantle. “I’m glad it came in a win. Hopefully, we can keep going.”

He’s had more multihomer games than any player with his amount of time in the majors — 1,161 games. Ralph Kiner is next with 39.

And of his six homers on the season, four have given the Yankees the lead.

The night was another encouraging game for Judge, who homered in his last at-bat against the Rays in Sunday’s loss.

On Monday, the Yankees needed every bit of offense they could get.

Boone called Judge’s game “huge.”

The manager added, “Hopefully, we start to see him lock in here as we get rolling. I don’t have to tell you what he means to the offense.”

Certainly not this year, as the Yankees seemingly can’t afford any drop-off from Judge with worries in the bullpen and all over the infield, where Jazz Chisholm Jr., McMahon and José Caballero have all disappointed in multiple facets of the game.

And the pen nearly robbed the Yankees of a much-needed win, with Bird optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after the game.

The Mets fell to the Dodgers 4-0 as a lineup that seems more hapless by the day was held scoreless for a second straight day and for the third time in four games.

After the Mets set the appropriate tone by going down 1-2-3 in the top of the first, it appeared as if this game was going to be effectively over rather quickly as David Peterson—coming off two straight rough outings—got into trouble immediately in the bottom of the first. After getting ahead of Shohei Ohtani—a hitter Peterson has historically dominated in his career, interestingly enough—0-2, Peterson hit him square in the back with a pitch. Peterson then walked Kyle Tucker and allowed an RBI single to Will Smith to put the Dodgers on the board early. He then issued yet another walk to Teoscar Hernández to load the bases still with no one out and just as the Dodgers seemed poised for a crooked number that would send many Mets fans on the East Coast off to bed, Peterson struck out the next three batters in a row to somehow limit the damage to just a single run.

But these days a single run is all the opposition needs and today turned out to be no different. The Mets hit into a couple of hard outs in the early innings against Justin Wrobleski but the bats were otherwise completely inept again. Even the characteristic working deep counts was absent tonight; the Mets went down quickly and easily, frame after frame.

Peterson bounced back to pitch a 1-2-3 second inning, but the Dodgers more or less put the game away in the bottom of the third. Peterson walked Tucker again to lead off the inning and after retiring the next batter he faced, Peterson induced a potential double play grounder off the bat of Freddie Freeman on which Francisco Lindor made a nifty flip to Marcus Semien at second base, but Semien could not get the ball out of his glove to turn two, so a potentially inning-ending play turned into first and third and two outs. Of course, the Dodgers capitalized, as good teams do. The very next batter Andy Pages took Peterson deep for a three-run homer to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead, which feels awfully insurmountable for the Mets right now. Peterson did ultimately last five innings and struck out seven batters (including Max Muncy thrice), but walked four and was charged with four runs, falling to 0-3 on the season.

Meanwhile, Wrobleski was perfect through 4 1/3 innings before Jorge Polanco laced a one-out single in the fifth for the Mets’ first hit (and first base runner). But Francisco Alvarez promptly grounded into a double play, ensuring that Wrobleski still faced the minimum through five innings. In fact, Wrobleski—who hadn’t gone more than five innings in any of his previous starts—pitched eight scoreless innings. He only struck out two batters, but he allowed just two hits, as the Mets seemed eager to ground out as efficiently as possible.

What else is there even to say about this embarrassing stinker of a game in Los Angeles? The bullpen pitched well. Craig Kimbrel contributed a scoreless sixth inning and Joey Gerber threw two scoreless innings in his Mets debut, leg kicking his way to an impressive five strikeouts along the way. Tommy Pham also made his 2026 Mets debut tonight, but his was less successful than Gerber’s. Like pretty much everyone else in the lineup, Pham took an 0-fer.

You know what they say, though. Every day you have a chance to see something in a baseball game you’ve never seen before and that did happen tonight. During the bottom of the sixth, Francisco Alvarez called time for a mound visit and was granted it by the home plate umpire, but Craig Kimbrel—apparently in his own world—did not realize time had been granted and almost threw a pitch with Alvarez already halfway out to the mound, resulting in an amusing mid-trot squat by Alvarez and a hastily aborted delivery by Kimbrel to narrowly avoid something weird and potentially dangerous transpiring.

But that was just about the only interesting thing that happened in an otherwise uneventful loss that marked the Mets’ sixth defeat in a row, dropping them to 7-10 on the season. The Mets have better pitchers going the next two days, but the Dodgers do too, so we shall see if the offense is able to find some sort of spark and salvage the series.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Craig Kimbrel and Joey Gerber, +1% WPA
Big Mets loser: David Peterson, -20% WPA
Mets pitchers: -18% WPA
Mets hitters: -32% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jorge Polanco’s single in the fifth, +1.9% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Andy Pages’ three-run homer in the third inning, -21.3% WPA

Jake Bird’s tumultuous time with the Yankees hit another bump Monday night, as the right-hander gave up a three-run homer to Mike Trout and was then optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre following an 11-10 win over the Angels in The Bronx.

Bird, who struggled after being acquired from Colorado prior to last year’s trade deadline, got off to a promising start this season, with four straight scoreless appearances.

But he gave up three runs in a loss to Miami on April 5 and then allowed the first homer by a Yankees reliever this season when Trout took him deep to tie the game in the sixth.

Boone said the Yankees were “a little short” in the bullpen Monday, as they planned on staying away from Brent Headrick and Ryan Yarbrough.

“It was a tough night for him, but I thought he made a lot of really good pitches,” Boone said. “A couple of mistakes they really put charges into to get back in the game. He had a hard time finishing off a couple of at-bats.”

Camilo Doval also allowed a homer to Trout, as the Yankees look to get him to be a consistent setup man for David Bednar.

Anthony Volpe was cleared to begin a rehab assignment Tuesday.

Boone said Volpe likely would play four games this week for Double-A Somerset. In his first couple of games, Volpe would play just three to five innings as the Yankees build him up “kind of like spring training,” Boone said.

After the week, the Yankees would reassess Volpe, who is recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.

Cade Winquest, the Rule 5 draft pick who did not appear in a game before he was designated for assignment, was officially returned to the Cardinals. … Facing a lefty in Yusei Kikuchi, Boone opted to start Paul Goldschmidt at first and sit Ben Rice, who is trying to prove he can hit southpaws but began this year with a .522 OPS against lefties and 1.431 against righties.

Boone also stuck with Randal Grichuk in left field. A lefty killer in recent years, Grichuk began this season 0-for-12 with six strikeouts.

“Erratic playing time,” Boone said. “What’s he got nine at-bats, 10 at-bats? He’s swung through some pitches. He’s also smoked a ball up the middle that they made a great play on. He’s hit a ball to the wall in center.

“He’s a good hitter.”

LOS ANGELES — From feeble to just plain awful, a downward spiral continued for the Mets lineup Monday night.

Somehow, they avoided getting no-hit, but it wasn’t easy. Dodgers left-hander Justin Wrobleski had that kind of mastery over this sputtering bunch.

The Mets collected three measly singles and called it a night in their 4-0 loss before a sellout crowd of 52,838 at Dodger Stadium, extending their losing streak to six games. Shut out for a second straight game, the Mets have played 20 straight innings without scoring.

Wrobleski allowed only singles to Jorge Polanco and Francisco Alvarez over eight innings before Marcus Semien singled against Tanner Scott in the ninth. The Mets didn’t even place a runner in scoring position.

“These types of stretches are going to happen,” Semien said. “It’s tough when it happens early in the season. It’s tough when we’re not winning ballgames and the microscope is going to be right there on the offense.”

Only adding to the Mets’ angst: ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, last year’s World Series hero, is the Dodgers’ scheduled starting pitcher on Tuesday.

This latest no-show by the lineup followed a homestand that finished with five straight losses, a stretch in which the Mets averaged 1.8 runs against the Diamondbacks and Athletics.

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Among the distressing numbers entering play was the team’s .658 OPS, which ranked 23rd in MLB. The Mets were 23rd with a .305 on-base percentage and their .353 slugging percentage ranked No. 24.

Simply, that is not good enough for a lineup that was overhauled by president of baseball operations David Stearns this winter with an eye toward becoming more athletic and less dependent on home runs.

Juan Soto’s absence from the lineup has been felt, as he sits on the injured list with a strained right calf. It appeared this might not be the case a week ago: The Mets were returning from a successful weekend in San Francisco that included three straight victories (with excellent offensive production) with Soto sidelined.

“We’re trying to control the strike zone and swings at the right ones, but that is only half the battle,” Semien said. “Quality of contact is something we are all striving for, [too].”

In a third straight lackluster start, David Peterson allowed four earned runs on five hits and four walks with seven strikeouts over five innings. The left-hander has pitched to a 6.41 ERA in his four starts this season and has pitched into the sixth inning only once.

“This is probably the best we have seen him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He got some swings and misses, but the walks … I thought the [velocity] was better. But even when he got ahead there were three-ball counts and then he got behind, but the stuff itself was better.”

Peterson nearly buried himself in the first inning when he allowed an RBI single to Will Smith and walked Teoscar Hernández to load the bases with nobody out. But following a visit from pitching coach Justin Willard, the left-hander struck out Freddie Freeman, Andy Pages and Max Muncy in succession. Peterson’s trouble began when he drilled Shohei Ohtani and walked Kyle Tucker.

After a perfect second inning, Peterson returned to trouble in the third and this time didn’t escape: Pages launched a three-run homer that gave the Dodgers a 4-0 lead. Tucker and Hernández each walked in the inning before Peterson hung a 2-0 curveball in the middle of the plate that Pages blasted over the left-field fence.

“I left the one curveball up, but I felt a lot better about my stuff,” Peterson said. “Obviously I would have liked to not give up the three-run homer and some of the free passes, but overall a step in the right direction.”

Polanco bounced a single through the first-base hole with one out in the fifth to give the Mets their first base runner against Wrobleski. But that breakthrough was negated when the ensuing batter, Alvarez, grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Peterson escaped fifth-inning trouble by striking out Muncy after Hernández doubled in the inning and Freeman singled him to third.

Craig Kimbrel allowed a single to Miguel Rojas in the sixth, but Rojas was thrown out by Alvarez attempting to steal second. Kimbrel finished with a scoreless inning.

Joey Gerber, in his Mets debut, escaped trouble in the seventh by striking out Pages after walking Smith and surrendering a two-out double to Freeman.

Polanco bounced a single through the first-base hole with one out in the fifth to give the Mets their first base runner against Wrobleski. But that breakthrough was negated when the ensuing batter, Alvarez, grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Peterson escaped fifth-inning trouble by striking out Muncy after Hernández doubled in the inning and Freeman singled him to third.

Craig Kimbrel allowed a single to Miguel Rojas in the sixth, but Rojas was thrown out by Alvarez attempting to steal second. Kimbrel finished with a scoreless inning.

Joey Gerber, in his Mets debut, escaped trouble in the seventh by striking out Pages after walking Smith and surrendering a two-out double to Freeman.

As two starting pitchers delivered starts on the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to efficiency, Justin Wrobleski and the Dodgers got the better of David Peterson and the Mets in a 4-0 win. On one side, Wrobleski delivered the standout performance of his career, generating quick outs at a staggering rate; on the other, Peterson had to labor immensely to complete every inning.

While it’d be harsh to put a label on Justin Wrobleski quite so early in his career, the stark difference in his numbers as a starting pitcher and reliever is quite evident. Still, for one game here, he silenced any doubts about his capabilities as a full-time starter. Facing a New York Mets lineup missing Juan Soto and coming off a shutout loss in their last performance, the Dodger starter was phenomenal in tossing eight innings of scoreless baseball.

The key to this magnificent outing from Wrobleski wasn’t particularly tricky—the left-hander simply peppered the zone with four-seam fastballs, far more often than what is the norm for him, both in the number of pitches and the frequency of those inside the zone. Wrobleski’s heater isn’t imposing enough that it should generate this kind of result; in fact, Met hitters only whiffed once on 29 swings on the pitch—they just did absolutely nothing when they put the ball in play, and a lot of pitches in the zone normally induce quick at-bats, hence such a deep outing. Wrobleski’s pitch count was so low for the vast majority of this game that there was even a chance he’d go the distance. Unfortunately, a base runner in the eighth put a wrinkle in those plans, and the lefty settled for eight scoreless on 90 pitches. Dave Roberts turned to Tanner Scott in the ninth in a non-save situation, and he shut the door on the Mets.

Wrobleski was also supported by a Dodger offense that gave him the lead right at the start of the game, adding to it early on. After allowing all four of the first Dodger hitters to reach base safely to open the game, David Peterson set the stage for what looked like could be a blowup outing. With one run across after a Will Smith single, and the bases loaded, Peterson defied the odds and got out of the inning by striking out the side. Peterson didn’t exactly settle in after that opening frame, and an Andy Pages three-run shot in the third really put a dent in his final line.

The Mets starter kept managing to put out his own fires—Peterson left the game after five, having allowed only those four runs in an outing in which 11 Dodgers reached safely. Reverting back to his normal struggles against left-handed pitching, Muncy was one of the primary hitters responsible for the Dodgers not punishing Peterson further, striking out all three times, and stranding a total of five runners.

It wasn’t just Peterson, though, as all three of the Mets relievers who entered the game allowed at least one base runner—the Dodger offense couldn’t tack on to those four runs, which turned out to be more than enough to win the game comfortably.

Monday particulars

Home runs: Andy Pages (5)

WP — Justin Wrobleski (2-0): 8 IP, 2 hits, 2 strikeouts

LP — David Peterson (0-3): 5 IP, 5 hits, 4 runs, 4 walks, 7 strikeouts

Up next

Same start time on Tuesday, with the Dodgers getting their first look at one of the prized jewels of this Mets’ staff, the youngster Nolan McLean, who burst onto the scene last season. For the reigning back-to-back champs, it’ll be Yoshinobu Yamamoto looking to carry on his outstanding early-season form.

Fresh off a three-game sweep of the inter-league rival New York Mets, the A’s returned home to Sutter Health Park today to begin a division series matchup with the Texas Rangers. Luis Severino returned to the Sutter Health Park mound for the first time in 2026. He faced off against 36-year-old righty Nathan Eovaldi for the Rangers.

The Rangers jumped out early on Severino with a three-run homer by Jake Burger. Texas sent eight batters to the plate in the first and the A’s were lucky to escape with only three runs on the board. Burger led off the third with his second homer of the night to increase the Rangers lead to 4-0. Max Muncy got the A’s first hit in the bottom of the third but was erased by a double play ball. At the end of three Eovaldi had faced the minimum A’s batters.

In the top of the fifth, Lawrence Butler showed off his best Denzel Clarke, reaching above the wall to steal a homer from Corey Seager.

Jack Perkins replaced Severino in the top of the seventh. Seve’s final line was: six innings, four earned runs on six hits and three walks. He struck out seven and would have kept the Rangers off the board had it not been for the two long balls. Perkins set the Rangers down in order in the seventh with two strikeouts following a soft ground out.

Perkins ran into some trouble in the eighth. Corey Seager doubled. Joc Pederson grounded a ball that hit the umpire for a single. Then Perkins walked Kyle Higashioka. Josh Smith singled softly to left field, scoring two runs. Josh Jung doubled into the left-centerfield gap to clear the bases. After Perkins got Brandon Nimmo out on strikes, his fourth of the night, He was replaced by Luis Medina. He got Carter to ground out, but not before the Rangers doubled their run output to eight.

Lawrence Butler got the A’s on the board finally in the eighth with a homer to right field. At the end of eight, the A’s still trailed 8-1. Unfortunately, that was all the A’s could muster and dropped the series opener to the Texas Rangers 8-1. The two teams will be back tomorrow for game two.

The Mets dropped their sixth straight, as they were defeated by the Dodgers 4-0 in Los Angeles on Monday night. 

Here are some takeaways...

- David Peterson's struggles continued from the get-go, as he allowed the first four Dodgers to reach on two walks, a HBP, and an RBI single. He was able to rebound nicely after a mound visit, though, striking out the next three batters on 11 pitches to somehow limit the damage to just one run against. 

Peterson picked up two more strikeouts in a perfect second, but the Dodgers got to him again in the third. The lefty almost danced around two more walks, until Andy Pages crushed a 2-0 hanging slider for his fifth homer of the season. He worked around a one-out double in the fourth, then ended his night by stranding runners on the corners in the fifth.

Peterson's ERA is now up to 6.41 after allowing four runs on five hits and four walks with seven strikeouts.  

- Unfortunately for the Mets, when it rains, it pours, as their offense continued to struggle, as well. Lefty Justin Wrobleski came into the game with a 4.74 ERA through his first nine career outings, but he was in complete control all night, facing the minimum through 7.2 innings. 

Wrobleski struck out just two, but he allowed as many hits in eight terrific innings.  

- Craig Kimbrel and Joey Gerber showed positives in relief of Peterson. Kimbrel was helped by Francisco Alvarez's first caught stealing of the season as he worked his way through a scoreless bottom of the sixth. Gerber then struck out five batters around allowing two hits and a walk in the final two innings.

- Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien, and Alvarez accounted for the Mets' three hits, all singles, two of which were erased on double plays.

- Tommy Pham went hitless across three at-bats in his first game back with the Mets -- striking out on three pitches, then grounding out to shortstop each of his next two times up.

- New York has now gone 20 straight innings without scoring a run, dating back to Saturday. 

Game MVP: Andy Pages

Pages had the big blow against Peterson, crushing his three-run shot in the third. 

Highlights

After allowing a run and loading the bases, David Peterson strikes out three straight Dodgers to avoid further damage in the first pic.twitter.com/p7v8EROHQO

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 14, 2026

David Peterson strikes out Miguel Rojas and Shohei Ohtani in a 1-2-3 2nd inning 💪 pic.twitter.com/iC8BPOBp89

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 14, 2026

Francisco Alvarez calls time and Craig Kimbrel stops his pitching motion just before throwing the ball pic.twitter.com/v7GuyJcg1B

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 14, 2026

What's next

Nolan McLean faces off with Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a star-studded pitching matchup on Tuesday at 10:10 p.m.

Aaron Judge is back — and the Yankees have to hope their offense is too.

After homering in his last at-bat against the Rays in Sunday’s loss, Judge went deep twice in an 11-10 win over the Angels in The Bronx on Monday.

And it was just enough, as the Yankees bullpen repeatedly blew leads.

The back-and-forth victory snapped a five-game losing streak, as the Yankees took advantage of five home runs and won it on a Jordan Romano wild pitch that scored José Caballero with Ryan McMahon at the plate — and Judge on deck.

In his first at-bat versus the Angels Yusei Kikuchi, Judge took a 2-0 changeup and blasted a two-run, 456-foot shot halfway up the bleachers in left-center for an early lead in the bottom of the first.

With the Yankees involved in a battle with the Angels — thanks to a bad night by just about every pitcher Aaron Boone went to, starting with Will Warren — the Yankees needed Judge again in the bottom of the sixth.

He gave them the lead again with a solo shot to left.

It was his sixth homer of the young season, but it also put Judge in the franchise record books.

The multihomer game was Judge’s 47th of his career, passing Mickey Mantle and leaving him behind only Babe Ruth, who had 68 with the Yankees, as well as the most in MLB history with 72.

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Still, the Yankees don’t want to completely rely on Judge, but a combination of poor performance from half the lineup for much of the season- and an ugly one from the bullpen on Monday, forced that to be the case again.

And that’s why the Yankees can’t seem to afford any drop-off from Judge and weren’t able to during the five-game losing streak entering Monday’s game.

The encouraging start to the season has been replaced by worries in the bullpen and all over the infield, where Jazz Chisholm Jr., McMahon and Caballero have all disappointed in multiple facets of the game.

And the pen has been inconsistent at best.

With Warren knocked out in the fourth inning — despite bringing a no-hitter into the frame — Boone had to turn to Fernando Cruz, who walked a pair of batters and forced in a run.

Lefty Tim Hill allowed three hits and a run in 1 ²/₃ innings, but the Yankees have generally been able to rely on both Cruz and Hill.

That has not been the case with Jake Bird, a disaster after coming over from the Rockies at last year’s trade deadline.

The right-hander gave up a three-run homer to Mike Trout, and two innings later, Doval allowed a two-run shot to Trout, who entered the game with just a pair of homers on the season.

But with the threat of Judge in the on-deck circle, Romano threw a 3-2 pitch in the dirt to give the Yankees the win.

The Texas Rangers scored eight runs while the Northern California Athletics scored one run.

Maybe the most surprising thing about tonight’s game, especially as it was unfolding early, was that A’s starter Luis Severino ended up pitching six innings. Or maybe it was that the A’s eventually scored at all.

In the game’s first frame, following an out, Severino walked the next two Texas hitters and then Jake Burger blasted a three-run bomb that looked destined to bounce off the team bus for a big early. Severino appeared to slip on the mound at one point and had the trainers check on him in the inning before allowing a couple more hits that the Rangers stranded.

In the top of the 3rd, Burger took Severino deep once again, a solo shot for his second of the game and fourth of the year. And that was all the scoring for a couple of hours until the Rangers broke through again for four more runs in the top of the 8th on RBI hits from the Joshes Smith and Jung.

As for the A’s? Well, they weren’t ever especially close to touching home for most of the game as they ran into vintage Nathan Eovaldi. The A’s lone run scored on a solo Lawrence Butler home run off Luis Curvelo an inning after Eovaldi had exited an 8-0 game.

Eovaldi, who had a couple of uncharacteristically poor outings to begin the year, looked solid in a win over Seattle in his last outing but he stepped it up to 2025 levels of good tonight against an A’s team that came into the evening sharing a lead with Texas in the American League West.

With Burger doing damage early, and the bats adding on late to combo with Eovaldi’s mastery, the Rangers are back alone atop the AL West as they evened their record on the current West Coast road trip.

Player of the Game: Joc Pederson had three hits so you know it was a good night. And while Burger deserves praise for providing the bulk of the scoring and carrying the bats when the game was still in question, the work put in by Eovaldi was sensational and I simply refuse to let an opportunity pass to appreciate Nasty Nate.

Overall, Eovaldi went seven shutout innings and allowed just three hits and a couple of walks while striking out seven on 84 pitches.

I imagine the Rangers might have tried to squeeze another inning out of Eovaldi but with a long top of the 8th, they decided to turn to a ’pen that was surely grateful that the veteran starter had gone deep in the game.

Up Next: The Rangers and Athletics will play the second game of this four game set with LHP MacKenzie Gore ready to go for Texas opposite former Rangers left-handed hurler Jeffrey Springs for the Sactown squad.

The Tuesday evening first pitch from Sutter Health Park is scheduled for 8:40 pm CDT once again and you can catch it on the Rangers Sports Network.

The Guardians had an excellent win to open their series against the Cardinals last night and look to follow it up with a second tonight.

Here’s your recap from yesterday. The Guardians swapped George Valera onto the roster for CJ Kayfus who was barely playing. I wonder how they will work Valera into the lineup with Angel Martinez absolutely balling out. I suspect he’ll get plenty of DH reps.

The Guardians also swapped Hunter Gaddis for Kolby Allard, whom they had to DFA to move off the roster. Gaddis averaged 95.1 mph with his fastball, so he looks back to his old self (94.7 mph average last year).

TJ Stats released an updated prospects’ ranking, with DeLauter now at #11.

AROUND MLB:

There were eight multi-homer performances yesterday, and everyone was scoring a ton. The Twins destroyed the hapless Red Sox, 13-6. Is Garrett Crochet suddenly bad??

The Yankees walked off the Angels 11-10. Really shows what kind of day it was.

Craig Albernaz was struck in the face by a foul ball while standing in the Orioles dugout during Baltimore’s 9-7 win over the Diamondbacks on Monday.

The scary moment occurred in the fifth inning when O’s second baseman Jeremiah Jackson sent a screaming foul ball into his team’s dugout and struck the Orioles’ manager on the side of the face with the ball as he was standing at the top of the tunnel to the clubhouse at Camden Yards. 

Albernaz was taken down into the clubhouse and evaluated by the medical staff. 

Bench coach Donnie Ecker took over as manager. 

Ecker told reporters after the game that Albernaz was doing “good.” 

Craig Albernaz took a scary shot from a foul boul into the dugout pic.twitter.com/5oPiN0DtYd

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 14, 2026

“Just as a precaution right now, he is going to get scanned, and we’ll have more information tomorrow,” Ecker said. 

“We sit there every game and we’re all kind of vulnerable to it,” he added. “When it happens, everyone feels for him.” 

Albernaz did eventually return to the dugout in the sixth inning, the MASN broadcast showed. 

A red mark was clearly visible on his face when he was shown on the broadcast and he eventually left the dugout again and did not return. 

“The fact he didn’t go to the ground shows how tough of an SOB he is. And the fact he wanted to come back to the dugout, he’s got a big set of balls on him,” Orioles pitcher Trevor Rogers said, per the Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka. 

The Orioles had been trailing 4-1 at the time that Albernaz was hit with the foul ball. 

Baltimore was down 7-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth, when the Orioles battled back with five runs in the sixth. 

Jackson capped it off with a grand slam to cut the O’s deficit to just one, with the blast coming just in time for Albernaz to see when he briefly returned to the dugout. 

Pete Alonso’s two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh gave the Orioles an 8-7 lead and Jackson hit a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth to extend the advantage. 

The Yankees announced they have optioned right-handed reliever Jake Bird to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The move came after New York snapped its five-game losing streak with an 11-10 walk-off win over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday in The Bronx, but in a game that saw the Yankees use five arms out of the bullpen amid a stretch of 13 games in 13 days.

A corresponding move was not immediately announced, but the club has several relievers on the 40-man roster who still have options, including Kervin Castro, Yerry De los Santos,and Angel Chivilli.

Against the Angels, Bird entered with a runner on first base and two gone in the top of the sixth inning. But after allowing a bloop single to center, he left a 3-2 sweeper out and over the plate to Mike Trout, and the future Hall of Famer jumped all over it for a 421-foot, game-tying three-run home run.

Bird got out of the frame and started the seventh with a strikeout, but he allowed a hard-hit single and a hard-hit double, setting a game-tying sac fly to the final batter he faced, erasing the lead Aaron Judge briefly provided with his second home run of the night.

Bird has really struggled since coming over to the Yanks in a trade last season with the Colorado Rockies. He made just three appearances after the trade, surrendering seven runs (six earned) on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts in 2.0 innings before he was optioned to Triple-A.

Through eight appearances this season, he's allowed six runs on nine hits with one walk and nine strikeouts in 7.0 innings and has once again been sent to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The Red Sox lost to the Twins 11-6 on Monday, a Crochet Day. They were down 11-0 before the second inning was over and got some runs after that, but it was plenty over by then. It was bad. It was very bad. It was abysmal. The end.

All sorts of problems were on display for the Yankees: infield defense that has been under the microscope again underwhelmed; a couple of misplays extended an inning that would not end; Will Warren could not overcome the problems behind him and could not put batters away; a bullpen that had been spotty was far worse than that and coughed up lead after lead.

But these issues become minimized when the Yankees offense hums and Aaron Judge destroys baseballs.

In an entertaining Monday matchup that pitted the past two Team USA World Baseball Classic captains against each other, Judge and Mike Trout put on a show for eight innings before Judge’s co-stars stole the spotlight in the ninth.

Trent Grisham — who did not even start yet launched his first two home runs of the season — stepped into a two-run home run to tie the game in the ninth before the Yankees manufactured the game-winner, José Caballero doubling, stealing third and scoring on a walk-off wild pitch to claim an entertaining and back-and-forth 11-10 victory over the Angels in front of 35,789 in The Bronx.

“Maybe it was good to have a game like that where it was a little messy,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees (9-7) snapped a five-game skid. “The offense was able to really pick up what’s been excellent pitching for us so far.”

The Yankees outhit their other issues, their offense awakening in the New York heat and against Angels pitching. It took five innings for the Yankees to score seven runs — or more runs than they had scored in each of their previous seven games.

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Because of their other problems and because of Trout, they needed to keep adding on.

It was Trout — whose bid for a grand slam died a few feet short earlier in the game — who answered a three-run shot from Grisham in the fifth by smoking his own three-run home run to tie it 7-7 in the sixth.

A few minutes later, Judge crushed his second home run of the game to left, a bullet that might have dented the pole if angled a few feet to the left, giving the Yankees another lead that they would not hold.

They already had blown a 4-0 lead after three innings — because the Angels scored four unearned runs against Warren, done in by an inability to finish off hitters and an error from Caballero plus a play Paul Goldschmidt normally makes — and a 7-4 edge after five innings because of Trout’s first homer.

What was one more lead to blow, this one 8-7 after the sixth?

The Angels seized control in the seventh and eighth — in the former, two hits and a sacrifice fly off Jake Bird tied the game, before Trout victimized Camilo Doval by demolishing his second homer of the night, a two-run, 445-foot dagger that banked into the visiting bullpen — which made the Yankees reach for their remaining ammunition in the ninth.

“A bunch of big homers could really get you down as a team,” said Grisham, who sat against opposing lefty Yusei Kikuchi, entered in the fifth and authored his best game of the season. “Staying in there and fight and staying in it the whole time was good to see.”

What might have been the most backbreaking loss of the season became arguably the most inspired. Against closer Jordan Romano, who entered with a 0.00 ERA, Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled before Grisham — who entered the game hitting .133 but undeterred because of the strength of his at-bats — saw a 3-1 slider and punished it to right to flip the game.

“To go out there and get some results and put the ball in the seats in some big spots obviously was huge,” Boone said of Grisham, who then watched Caballero — the reigning American League steals leader — create havoc, aided by a nine-pitch at-bat from Ryan McMahon in which eight fastballs were followed by one slider, which slid all the way to the backstop and prompted a subdued Yankees celebration around the plate.

The defensive misplays, lack of length from Warren and, most notably, the 5 ¹/₃ innings of six-run ball from the Yankees bullpen could be forgotten for the time being.

So could that five-game losing streak.

“Every good team goes through at least two big losing streaks,” Judge said. “Hopefully we can get this one out of the way and hopefully try to avoid the other one. But it’s going to come, and you can’t ride the roller coaster.”