Category: MLB

The Yankees pitching staff worked in and out of trouble against San Francisco's lineup, as New York defeated the Giants, 3-1, on Saturday night to complete the three-game sweep.

Ben Rice drove in two runs and Aaron Judge mashed a homer for the second straight game to provide the offense, while Yankees pitchers induced four double plays to keep the Giants hitters off the board. The Yankees outscored the Giants, 13-1, in the three-game sweep.

New York has now started 3-0 for the third straight season. 

Here are the takeaways...

-The Yankees had a chance early on in this one. Cody Bellinger hit a two-out triple, but was stranded whenRice grounded out to end the threat. Rice would get his chance again in the third, which was set up by ABS.

Trent Grisham challenged a called third strike and won, working a one-out walk two pitches later. Bellinger followed with a single to put runners on the corners for Rice. The first baseman lined a down down the right field line to score two runs. Giancarlo Stanton followed with a hard-hit single to left fielder Heliot Ramos, who gunned down Rice trying to score from second base. Stanton finished 2-for-4 and has had two hits in each of his first three games.

-Will Warren entered his first start of the season after an impressive spring. It looked to carry over early, with the young right-hander getting the first two batters rather quickly. However, back-to-back singles from Luis Arraez and Rafael Devers -- with an Arraez steal of third thrown in -- the Giants had runners on the corners with two outs, but Warren bounced back to strike out Ramos to end the threat.

After a ho-hum second for Warren, the Giants finally broke through in the third. Jung Hoo Lee led off with a double and Matt Chapman singled up the middle to score a run. It's the first run the Giants have scored this season after being shut out in the first two games. It snapped a streak of 20 scoreless innings to start the season, tying their longest such stretch to start the season (1909). Warren would get out of the inning, but he wouldn't last long because he wasn't efficient enough.

Under a strict pitch count, Warren could only get one out in the fifth before he walked Lee. At 83 pitches (54 strikes), Warren allowed one run on five hits, two walks, while striking out three batters. 

-Judge, after homering in his last game, would have an encore, blasting a shot in the fifth inning to put the Yankees up 3-1. The longball went 383 feet with an exit velocity of 102.1 mph. Judge finished 1-for-4 with a strikeout. He's now 2-for-13 with seven strikeouts. Both hits this season are home runs.

-In relief of Warren, the Yankees' bullpen faltered a bit. Brent Headrick was the first one out and got the final two outs of the fifth, but allowed a leadoff double to Devers in the sixth. Jake Bird was called on to limit the damage, but he allowed a single to Ramos to put runners on the corners with no outs. Bird bounced back by getting Willy Adames to strike out swinging and Harrison Bader to ground into a doubleplay, helped by the tandem of Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jose Caballero -- and an outstretched Rice -- to end the threat.

The rest of the Yankees bullpen did its job. The combination of Tim Hill -- who got Devers to ground into an inning-ending double play in the eighth -- and David Bednar got the final seven outs to complete the sweep. The ninth wasn't easy for Bednar, however. 

The closer walked Ramos -- helped by an overturned strike-three call -- and gave up a single to Adames. Bednar then got Bader to strike out and Patrick Bailey to ground into a doubleplay as the Yankees held on for the win.

Here's how the bullpen broke down on Saturday...

• Headrick: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 K
• Bird: 1.2 IP, 1 H. 2 K
• Hill: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 K
• Bednar: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K

Game MVP: Jake Bird

With the Yankees only up by two runs, Bird worked his way out of a tough situation to preserve the lead. Without that, the game is completely turned on its head.

Highlights

Ben Rice with a 2-RBI double to put the Yanks on the board first 🍚💪 pic.twitter.com/AHOu4rBtfY

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) March 29, 2026

ALL RISE!

Aaron Judge with the solo shot to extend the lead! 😤💪 pic.twitter.com/B0U3iYpujP

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) March 29, 2026

What's next

The Yankees have a day off Sunday before heading up to Seattle to start a three-game series with the Mariners on Monday.

Ryan Weathers makes his Yankees debut and will be opposed by Luis Castillo.

Dylan Cease is already dominating at his new home up north.

During his Blue Jays debut on Saturday, Cease fanned 12 batters across 5⅓ innings while giving up just one earned run in Toronto’s 8-7 walk-off home win over the Athletics.

Cease’s 12 strikeouts set a new record for most by a Blue Jays pitcher in their debut for the franchise, topping southpaw David Price’s 11 during his debut back in 2015.

The 30 year old also struck out seven straight batters in one stretch during Saturday’s game, sitting down Athletics catcher Tyler Soderstrom to end the third inning before striking out the side in the fourth and fifth.

“That was a blast,” Cease told reporters following the game, according to MLB.com. “The minute I walked out, there was cheering and they were being extremely supportive. That was really cool. It’s just an electric atmosphere. I think that really does make a difference.”

Blue Jays skipper John Schneider said he was impressed with Cease’s debut outing, adding that he bested teammate Kevin Gausman’s 11 strikeout Opening Day performance.

“He one-upped Kevin [Gausman] in terms of strikeouts,” Schneider said.

Gausman said he believes that this year’s Blue Jays staff is the most powerful since he arrived in Toronto in 2022.

“I really love our pitching staff this year,” Gausman said. “I think it’s the best, stuff-wise, since I’ve been here, and we’ve had great pitching staffs since I’ve been here.

“That’s what’s exciting for me. The swing-and-miss is probably more than we’ve ever had.”

Despite Cease’s performance, Toronto was trailing in the ninth inning before catcher Alejandro Kirk blasted a game-tying solo homer to send the game to extra innings.

Third baseman Ernie Clement was the hero for the Blue Jays with a game-winning single in the 11th inning, marking the team’s second straight walk-off to start the season.

“We’re battling. We’re fighting back. We’re picking guys up,” Clement said. “That’s what was special about last year’s team, and that’s what will be special about this team.

“We’re never out of it. We’re going to battle, and we’re going to get it done.”

By the end of last season, 0-70 had become as much of an indictment of the 2025 Mets as an ugly statistic. Steve Cohen even made a point of referencing it in his press session at spring training in February, as if still finding it hard to believe his ballclub had gone the entire year without winning a game in which they’d trailed after eight innings.

Such futility demanded some examination: was the absence of dramatic comebacks fluky or did it hint at some lack of esprit de corps on the '25 Mets?

David Stearns and Cohen clearly decided on the latter, overhauling the roster and, as Cohen noted on that day in February, bringing in proven clutch hitters in part so 0-70 didn’t happen again.

And so as the Mets pulled off the unlikeliest of comeback wins on Saturday night at Citi Field, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 on Luis Robert Jr.'s 11th-inning three-run home run, both the owner and president of baseball operations had to feel as warm and fuzzy, wherever they were watching, as the players were bitterly cold on the ballfield.

As it turned out, the win wouldn’t have changed the 0-70 stat last year, as the Mets were tied 0-0 after eight innings on this day.

But suffice it to say that coming back not once but twice in extra innings, on a day when they couldn’t get a big hit for nine innings, made for a memorable comeback and perhaps reason to believe this indeed will be a team with more grit, more toughness than whatever happened to last year’s ballclub.

Especially considering it seemed the Mets had blown their opportunity to win the game in the 10th, when their best hitters, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, and Bo Bichette all failed to get the winning run in from third base after Mark Vientos and Luis Torrens had delivered clutch singles to get the game tied.

All Lindor and Soto needed were fly balls to get the run in, but couldn’t deliver. And Bichette, who has been hailed as something of a clutch-hitting savant with the numbers to prove it, lifted a routine fly ball to right for the third out, three innings after striking out in the eighth with the go-ahead run on third.

But that’s baseball, of course. Everybody fails. It’s the good teams, or perhaps the best ones, that find ways to overcome it, find a way to win games late when the money is on the table, even on days when there’s not a hint of a win in the air.

That’s what Saturday felt like for the Mets. After all the praise heaped on them on Opening Day regarding their new-look, high-contact lineup, they couldn’t do much of anything at the plate, especially against Mitch Keller, who has been tough on them historically.

They had three hits through nine innings, all singles, and four walks. They were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Maybe it was just too freezing cold for anybody to hit. Yet when it counted most, Robert changed everything with his three-run home run, making him the early favorite for X-factor of the year and making for a feel-good Mets’ clubhouse as well.

David Peterson, who got big outs when needed to pitch out of trouble and deliver 5.1 scoreless innings, kept changing the subject from his own performance to the nature of the victory as he talked to reporters.

“Awesome win,” he said. “A total team win. We needed everybody to win this game and everybody played a role. Just awesome.”

Ok, ok, I can hear the skeptics, or even many reasoned fans out there saying this is making too much of one win, improbable or not, against the less-than-imposing Pirates in the second game of this new season.

And that’s fair.

Certainly, there is plenty we don’t know about this team, and probably won’t for weeks, even months.

But there was also plenty to like on this day, even with such an absence of offense.

Peterson’s start offered reason to believe, as the Mets do, that he simply hit a wall in September related to his career-high innings-pitched total last season, and will bounce back and be a solid starter, perhaps even the guy who made the NL All-Star Game in 2025.

In addition, Devin Williams made his debut as the guy taking over for Edwin Diaz, and put up a zero in the ninth. It wasn’t routine, as the go-ahead run got to third base, but he struck out Bryan Reynolds to end the inning, blowing a fastball by him after setting that up with his signature change-up, the ballyhooed air-bender. It felt significant.

For that matter, all of the high-leverage relievers were sharp, producing 3.2 scoreless innings before Luis Garcia and Richard Lovelady each allowed runs in the 10th and 11th innings, albeit partly because of the free runner at second base.

Also, Vientos’ pinch-hit single in the 10th, loading the bases and setting up Torrens’ game-tying hit, felt significant as well, as the Mets are hoping he recaptures his 2024 form and becomes a difference-maker again.

On the other hand, Bichette and Jorge Polanco are off to shaky starts in their transitions to new positions at first and third base. Bichette made a throwing error on a routine play and has been wide to the first base side with at least a few throws, going back to spring training.

He also fielded a grounded ball in unconventional fashion, positioning himself as he moved to his left so he could backhand the ball, which looked awkward but did put himself in a strong position to throw.

On the SNY telecast, Keith Hernandez called it “interesting.”

Meanwhile, Polanco has had a couple of balls bounce off him, and while his athleticism allowed him to recover to make the plays, he hasn’t looked comfortable getting in front of hard-hit balls, and couldn’t handle a bad hop that was ruled a hit in Saturday’s game.

It doesn’t mean the two ex-shortstops won’t make the transitions successfully. But it does look like they’re going to need some time.

So we’ll see. In the end, the win mattered most, of course, especially because of that dreaded 0-70 that came to define the disaster of 2025.

Last season, the Mets weren’t as good as their individual talent. On Saturday, the result was better than they actually played.

It felt like a good omen.

Here is today’s Cleveland lineup:

Here is Seattle’s lineup:

Let’s go, Guardians!

The Mariners and Guardians will go for history Saturday in just their third game of the season.

The Mariners do not have a single yet. They are the first team ever to not have a single in their first two games of a season. There have only been nine instances in history where a team has gone two consecutive games without a single; no team has ever gone three.

It’s worth keeping this reminder up for the opening series. Lookout Landing will feature a daily trio(+) of stories about each game: (1) a game preview with starting lineups and all the info you need to know pregame, which will also serve as a comment thread to discuss the game as it unfolds, (2) a chart highlighting the turning points of the game published immediately postgame, and (3) a recap of how the game went down. We’ll do this for all 162 games this season, and we’d love to have you along for the ride, so if you haven’t yet signed up, please consider doing so! Instructions for doing so are at the bottom of the page.

I’ll also repeat the summary of the work we’ve put up over the past couple days in preparation for Opening Day:

• The 2026 Opening Day Roster
• Our guide to T-Mobile Park
• An overview of the food options available at the park this season
• Season Projections and Predictions
• The Opening Series Preview
• Two opposing visions for the season: If It All Goes Wrong and If It All Goes Right

Lineups

Going for history will be a slightly different group from the first two nights. We get our first look at the Mariners’ “facing a lefty starter” lineup for 2026. Rob Refsnyder replaces Dom Canzone at designate hitter and hits leadoff. Victor Robles replaces Luke Raley in right field and hits seventh. Notably still in the lineup is lefty Cole Young at second base, suggesting he’s not automatically locked into a platoon with righty infielder Ryan Bliss; Young got the most reps against lefties in Spring Training of anyone on the team.

On the mound is Bryan Woo, making his first start of the season. The Seattle Times had an article Saturday morning on the team’s plan to keep Woo healthy all season — basically, setting him up to maximize rest between starts.

Attempting to deny the Mariners of history (or trying to lead them to it, I’m not sure) will be lefty Joey Cantillo. Here’s Jake Mailhot’s description from our Series Preview:

Joey Cantillo spent last year split between the bullpen and the rotation. Once he made the move to starting in July, things really took off for him; he posted a 2.96 ERA and a 3.21 FIP across 13 starts down the stretch. His calling card is a phenomenal changeup that produced a 49.4% whiff rate last year! His two breaking balls are okay too — his curveball is the better of the two but he was testing a new grip on his slider this spring to hopefully increase that pitch’s effectiveness. His command is his weakness, though his walk rate improved slightly after joining the rotation last year. With a role in the rotation secured to start this season, he’s well positioned to take a big step forward if he can get his errant command under control.

News

J.P. Crawford is back in Seattle as he rehabs his shoulder injury.

Game Information

First pitch: 6:40 PDT
TV: Mariners TV, with Aaron Goldsmith, Ryan Rowland-Smith, and Angie Mentink
Radio: 710 ESPN, with Rick Rizzs and Gary Hill Jr.

Somewhere in the multiverse, maybe it would’ve been Eduardo Rodríguez and not Tyler Glasnow who would’ve joined the Dodgers via trade a few years ago, but alas, that’s not the case here. Glasnow and Rodríguez go toe-to-toe as the Dodgers and Diamondbacks square off in Los Angeles.

FRIDAY GAME INFO

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks
• Stadium: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 6:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out-of-market)
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 (Spanish)

Earlier in the season, the Omaha World-Herald’s Evan Bland referred to it at the Evan Bland Experience.  Cornhusker fans got to experience the Experience once again today on a sunny, but chilly and very windy day at Haymarket Park.

In the first inning, with one out Jasa walked Hogan Denny on four-straight pitches and then followed with an impressive strikeout of Indiana’s best hitter Jake Hanley.  Clean-up batter Caleb Koskie singled to put two on base with two outs.  It looked like Jasa righted the ship as he got two quick strikes on Brayden Ricketts, but then threw four straight balls to walk him.  Bases loaded and he struck out Cooper Malamazian.  What a roller coaster inning.

That was pretty much the way it went for the righthander through his outing today.  He’d get ahead in counts or get a strikeout and then walk a batter or two.  But, through five innings he was able to get out of trouble and kept the Hoosiers off the scoreboard.  Meanwhile, the Big Red offense got off to another hot start, which they’ve done quite a bit this season.  And, they finished big as well.

To no one’s surprise, Mac Moyer started off the bottom of the first getting on base, this time with a single past a diving third baseman.  Jeter Worthley followed up and showed some masterful bat skills pushing a bunt toward the second baseman, beating it out and moving Moyer to second.  Perhaps a bit rattled, Hoosier starter Tony Neubeck hit Case Sanderson to load the bases with no outs.

Up came Dylan Carey who walked to score Moyer.  Designated hitter Cole Kitchens then hit a deep sacrifice fly to center to score Worthley.  A Jett Buck infield ground ball pushed Sanderson across the plate.  The good start put Nebraska up 3-0 after one.

Nebraska goa runner on base on the second and third innings but didn’t threaten until they loaded them up in the bottom of the fourth with one out due to Neubeck hitting Joshua Overbeek, giving up a single to Rhett Stokes and walking Mac Moyer.  

Jeter Worthley hit a chopper to Mateo Noto at third who fired it home to force Overbeek at the plate for the second out.  Sanderson then sliced a shot that Noto knocked down, but couldn’t pick up in time to throw out a runner.  Stokes scored and the bases were still load with Dylan Carey coming to the plate. He walked on a full-count pitch in the dirt to score Stokes.

Indiana brought in Ivan Mastalski to try and get the Hoosiers out of the inning with Kitchens in the box.  Mastalski got him to chase a 2-2 high fast ball to strike him out and end the threat.  After four innings, Nebraska held a 5-0 lead.

Indiana got to Jasa in the top of the sixth inning.  After getting a lead-off flyout to centerfield, Jasa walked Brayden Ricketts for the second time in the game.  He then struck out Cooper Malamazian and looked to get out of the inning.  However, Cole Decker rapped a single to put two runners on.  

Coach Childress came out for a conversation with the 6’7” Colorado native and to burn a little time for the bullpen to warm up a bit.  None the less, Owen ten Oever, a big fella from Brooklyn, NY tied into one and launched it over the right-centerfield ball.  All of a sudden, it was a 5-3 ball game and little lefty Chase Olson came in to get the last out, thanks to a brilliant diving catch by Drew Grego in rightfield.

Back came the Cornhuskers in the bottom of the sixth.  The top of the order loaded the bases with a Moyer single, followed by Worthley getting hit by a pitch and Sanderson drawing a walk.  That ended the day for Mastalski, who was replaced with Jackson Yarberry.  

With bases loaded and no outs, Yarberry struck out Carey looking.  Then struck out pinch-hitter Miken Miller swinging, and then got Jett Buck to pop-up to centerfield.  That was the second time this game that Nebraska left the bases loaded.

Indiana put up another run in the top of the seventh, and could have easily scored more.  Olson walked Will Moore to start the inning.  That was one of four walks he and his reliever, Ryan Harrahill gave up.  The only Hoosier to put a bat on the ball was a sacrifice bunt by Koskie.  Otherwise, Indiana did not hit the ball out of the infield and left the bases loaded when Cole Decker was out on a tapper back to Harrahill.

As fans worried about the bullpen and whether or not it would stop the bleeding, back came the Cornhusker offense in the bottom of the seventh.  Yarberry walked Grego and Stokes with an Overbeek sacrifice bunt in between.  He then struck out Moyer, and then . . . came the return of two-out hitting.

Worthley singled.  Sanderson singled.  Carey hit a three-run bomb to leftfield.  Miller singled. Buck was hit by a pitch.  Yarberry was replaced by Pete Haas. Grego singled, driving in two more and Overbeek grounded out back to the pitcher.  If you haven’t been counting on your fingers, Nebraska was now up 12-5.

That bullpen meltdown mentioned a moment ago, yeah, it happened in the top of the eighth.  At one point, two Nebraska pitchers threw 18 balls out of 19 pitchers, giving free bases to five straight Hoosiers and walking in two runs.

Jace Ziola came out for the eighth inning.  The big freshman from Skutt Catholic got a quick flyout from ten Oever, but then hit the nine-hole hitter and walked the two Hoosiers at the top of the order.  In came Braxton Stewart to face Hanley with bases loaded and one out.  He walked him and walked in a run.

In came Pryce Bender with bases loaded and one out.  He started with a strike and got Ricketts to flyout deep to center for the second out.  It was fitting that the inning ended on kind of a crazy play when Malamazian singled off Bender to right field and Hanley tried to score from second base.  Grego fielded the ball and fired it home way ahead of the runner.  Worthley tagged him eight feet down the line, standing up.  Indiana appealed the play for some reason, but the call was upheld.  Avoiding a major melt-down, Nebraska was still up Indiana 12-7.  

Proving that he could throw the ball over the plate, Bender was back on the mound for the ninth inning.  While he wasn’t perfect, giving up two hits and a couple of baserunners, he got the side out without giving up any additional runs.  Ball game!  Nebraska 12, Indiana 7.

Today’s game was eerily similar to yesterdays with Nebraska getting out to what should have been a comfortable lead only to have Indiana come back and make things interesting.  Today, the seven-run inning provided a cushion that the Hoosiers could not overcome.

Today there was no excuse for Indiana getting back into the game.  Young pitchers should be able to come into a game with a big lead and throw the ball over the plate.  When your team has a lead, you don’t have to be quite so perfect, yet at one point Nebraska pitchers threw thirteen or fourteen balls in a row.

Nebraska stays undefeated at home and has won every B1G series they have played at this point of the season.  Tomorrow they will look for the sweep against Indiana with the first pitch scheduled for 12:02.  Cooper Katskee will make his first weekend start and will go up against another Indiana lefty, Brayton Thomas.

Notes:

• Five Nebraska players had two hits in today’s game: Moyer, Worthley, Sanderson, Grego and Stokes.  All of them were singles and Grego had two RBI.  Dylan Carey was 1 for 3, but the one was a three-run homerun that was a huge boost for the team.  He had two more RBI when he was walked twice.
• The pitching staff gave up a reasonable seven hits and had twelve strikeouts, ten by Jasa.  They gave up 13 walks.
• Nebraska hasn’t seen many lefthanded starters this season and in an attempt to get as many righthanded batters in the lineup, regular second baseman Jett Buck started in left field.  He’s played a couple of innings out there this season, but with as much wind as there was today, he faced a big challenge.
• Despite the wind coming directly out of the south and the chilly temps, a good crowd of red-clad fans showed up to watch the 24^th ranked Cornhuskers.  At least some of those walked across the bridge having attended the Spring Game.

SAN FRANCISCO — It can be foolhardy to buy into spring training stats, good or bad, especially for veterans.

The same caveat goes for early season results, the sample size way too small to put too much stock into it either way.

But both in his look and his actual production, Giancarlo Stanton put together about as good a spring as the Yankees could have hoped for — most significantly, while staying healthy. And now he has carried that into the early days of the regular season, continuing to offer encouraging signs about what kind of impact he might provide the Yankees this season if he can continue to stay on the field.

“He’s locked in,” Cody Bellinger said before the Yankees wrapped up their series against the Giants on Saturday. “I feel like he’s been locked in all spring and carried it over into the regular season. Just the quality at-bat and hitting the ball hard.”

Following Saturday’s 3-1 victory at Oracle Park, Stanton is 6-for-12 with a home run in the first three games of the season. He also even made an impression with his legs — no small feat — scoring from second on José Caballero’s single to left field on Opening Day. Later in that game, he smoked a 114.4 mph RBI single off Giants ace Logan Webb.

Lighting up Statcast is nothing new for Stanton, but it is a continuation of how he looked toward the end of camp. In the final week of games, he was hitting just about everything with exit velocities in excess of 100 mph, prompting Aaron Boone to say, “If we can just bottle this up and move it north …”

So far, so good, and not just in the actual results.

“Really good [at-bats],” Boone said Friday after Stanton homered in a 3-0 win. “He’s disciplined and develops his plan and goes up there and is executing really well. Even first at-bat where he strikes out, I feel like, man, he’s got the right thought, he’s got the right plan, it didn’t line up. Then he hit a ball pretty good to right and then got the wrinkle in the zone that he stuck [for a home run]. He’s in a good place.”

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

This is the kind of impact Stanton delivered regularly last season — one of his best as a Yankee, besides the fact that it did not start until the middle of June as he waited for the excruciating pain from his tennis elbow in both arms to subside.

In 77 games, he hit .273 with a .944 OPS and 24 home runs, good for an 8.5 percent home run rate — the same mark he had in his NL MVP season in 2017.

The 36-year-old is still playing through pain and managing his elbows on a daily basis, but he has found a way to keep them in check while not affecting his ability to inflict pain on baseballs. And while no one is expecting Stanton to return to his MVP form at this stage of his career, the Yankees would certainly sign up for this version and keeping him on the field, which has been far from a given in recent years.

Because when Stanton has been healthy, he and Aaron Judge have formed one of the more fearsome duos in club history. They each homered in the sixth inning Friday, marking the 60th time they have gone deep in the same game — with the Yankees 53-7 in those games.

The 60 games in which they have homered together are the second most by a pair of teammates in Yankees history, trailing only Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth (75 times), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Zigs and Zags

The game had a ton of drama and resisted easy definitions. It wasn’t that the teams traded leads back and forth—the Sox never led, in fact—but every time I thought I had a handle on the direction of the game, a big moment occurred to completely erase that thought. For example, the Sox mishandling some plays, including logging their second error in as many games, had me thinking defensive deficits. That was until Marcelo Mayer came through in a big way with a great scoop and throw to first in the late innings. When the lack of offense seemed like the story of the game—despite scoring five runs, it felt like they were in a drought and they repeatedly came up short in big moments—Wilyer Abreu launched a two-out homer in the ninth inning.

This game will be remembered for its ABS adventures and umpiring miscues. The Sox ran out of ABS challenges with the first at-bat in the third. This was way too early, and a mistake by Roman Anthony with nothing on the line. Fully expect additional coaching on this point as players get used to incorporating it into game strategy. More ABS drama when Eugenio Suárez successfully challenged his strikeout, twice, on consecutive pitches.

Today ABS wasn’t popular in Red Sox Nation but it’s good to know that the game is a little fairer with it in the mix. So there’s that.

Even less popular was a big mistake by the home plate umpire, who egregiously called a check swing on Trevor Story to end a Sox rally as well as their eighth inning. It led to Story likely popping some blood vessels, and to Alex Cora’s ejection.

Personally, I sweated this game out and despite making it to extra innings, the Sox lost in eleven.

Studs

Ryan Watson

He walked the first batter faced in his MLB career, loading the bases in the process. In a dramatic sequence, he thought he got out of the jam, twice, while pitching to Eugenio Suárez. Suárez challenged—and won—the call both times. Credit to Watson for coming back and eventually getting the out. He did eventually get his first MLB K.

Carlos Narváez

His day: 2-3, 1R, 1 CS.

Duds

Pelvic Thrust Hit Celebration

I’m making a choice by putting this first in the list, but it’s important. Yuck. Jahmai Webster said he was told “it doesn’t mean what you think it means.” Hm. Dave O’Brien and Lou Merloni sounded a little skeptical, and so am I. To be clear, I don’t care about being “family friendly” at all but women find this gesture ugly and threatening. It’s unimaginative to boot.

Sonny Gray and Greg Weissert

They needed 35 and 27 pitches to get out of their respective first innings. Gray ran up several full counts and dropped the ball while trying to tag the runner at the plate. Whether or not the cold weather affected his spin, he couldn’t make the pitches he wanted. Weissert gave up a first-pitch HR, followed soon by a walk and a single.

Caleb Durbin

0-4 today, 0-7 so far as a Red Sox. The Sox need him to chip away and get on base in his typical small-ball ways. He killed a rally in the seventh after being called out on strikes.

Offense

Despite Abreu’s fireworks, the Sox had trouble getting themselves going in big moments and had 15 K’s on the day. Way too many.

Error #2 on the Season

It’s early but this also feels like too many.

Home Plate Umpire CB Bucknor

He rang up Story on a so-called check swing with the pitch in the dirt. What was egregious was not consulting another umpire.

Play of the Game

The glass-half-full part of me says it was Wilyer Abreu’s no-doubter with two outs in the ninth to tie the game. It was outstanding, but I think the reality is that the play of the game was Story’s at-bat that was unfairly cut short by mistaken umpiring.

The first shake-up of the season for the line-up, with Gabriel Moreno and Jordan Lawlar each sitting this one out, replaced by James McCann and Jorge Barrosa respectively. Maybe we can become the first NL West team apart from the Dodgers to win a game? The Rockies already lost their second game, joining us, the Padres and Giants, who all came into play at 0-2. The Giants have run their scoreless streak to open the season to 20 innings against the Yankees at time of writing, while the Padres are trying to avoid being swept by the Tigers. Hopefully, this is Detroit getting it all out of the way early, since they will be joining the D-backs in flying to Arizona tonight…

Tonight is Eduardo Rodriguez’s first start in 2025, and we’ll be hoping for an improved version of E-Rod for 2026. He comes in having made 39 starts for Arizona, with an ERA just over five (5.02). That’s an ERA+ of 85. Among those with more than twenty starts for the Diamondbacks, that puts him right in between Rodrigo Lopez and Barry Enright. It is also two points better than Brandon Pfaadt’s career figure, though the latter is not earning twenty-one million dollars this year. If Rodriguez can become the first Arizona starter to make it through five innings this year, that might be a good sign. Otherwise, we may be looking at a Joe Ross sighting.

Detroit Tigers vs. San Diego Padres

Time/Place: 8:40 p.m., Petco Park
SB Nation Site: Gaslamp Ball
Media: Detroit Sportsnet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Jack Flaherty (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Randy Vásquez (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

* Note: Stats in the table below are Fangraphs’ 2026 projections

The Iowa Cubs were broadsided by the Columbus Clippers (Guardians), 4-3.

Iowa scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning and then didn’t score again. First, left fielder Justin Dean walked to lead off the bottom of the inning. He then stole second, went to third on a bad throw and scored on a fielder’s choice by first baseman Jonathon Long.

Two batters later, right fielder Kevin Alcántara did this.

The two-run home run went 393 feet and came on a slider from a right-hander that drifted outside the zone.

The I-Cubs got a good 3.1 innings from starter Will Sanders. Sanders gave up one run on a solo home run by Petey Halpin but nothing else. The final line on Sanders was one run on five hits over 3.1 innings. He struck out six and walked just one.

Luke Little relieved Sanders. He did not allow a run or a hit over 1.1 innings. He did walk two while striking out one.

Meanwhile, Iowa only had three hits after the first inning. One of them was this double by center fielder Brett Bateman.

Columbus got one run in each of the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to lose the game. Ethan Roberts gave up a run in the seventh and Yacksel Rios allowed a run in the eighth and ninth to blow the save and take the loss. The final line on Rios was two runs on four hits and three walks over two innings. He struck out one.

Alcántara was 1 for 4 with the two-run home run. Bateman was 1 for 3 with a double and a steal.

There was ample action in Great American Ball Park on Saturday, and the end result was a 6-5 victory by the Cincinnati Reds over the Boston Red Sox.

Dane Myers swatted a single over the shortstop – a replacement shortstop, I should add – in the Bottom of the 11th inning for his first hit, RBI, and Gatorade bath as a member of the Reds, as that was good enough to plate TJ Friedl from 2B and end the game. For that he not only gets mentioned in his first recap here at Red Reporter, but also takes home Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game honors.

How this game got there, though, was a bit of a see-saw.

Cincinnati jumped on Boston early as former Red Sonny Gray struggled early, needing over 30 pitches just to make it out of the Bottom of the 1st. The top of the Cincinnati order got on, got over, and scored twice in the game’s initial frame, and the early damage was enough to limit Gray to just 4 IP before exiting having allowed 3 ER overall.

Cincinnati held an early 3-0 lead and later a 4-1 score, though Brady Singer ran into trouble in the Top of the 4th and allowe another pair of Boston runs before exiting himself after just 4.0 IP. Boston then began to chip away at Cincinnati’s bullpen as just about everyone they have down there got in on the action, including a Wilyer Abreu homer off Emilio Pagan in the Top of the 9th to tie the score at 5 each and send the game into extras.

Pagan, for the record, came on in the 8th to get out of a jam created by Tony Santillan, and his second inning of work wasn’t quite so effective.

Elly De La Cruz socked a solo homer, as did Sal Stewart for the Reds first round-trippers of the season. Matt McLain had himself a day with a trio of hits and a pair of walks, and the heart of the Cincinnati lineup is looking mighty tasty to begin the year.

Eugenio Suarez even picked up his first ’hit’ and ribbie of the season with a dribbler back to Gray early that scored McLain when the veteran righty couldn’t get the ball to the plate quick enough.

All told, it was an entertaining day at GABP as the Reds picked up their first win of the season.

Other Notes

• The ABS system got a workout with the erratic (at best) CB Bucknor behind the plate. The Reds had 6 (six!) correct challenges that overturned calls, Boston blew through theirs early, and shortstop Trevor Story (and manager Alex Cora) eventually got tossed by Bucknor at the end of the Top of the 8th after another one of his questionable calls. Story fanned 4 times on the day.
• Sal Stewart’s homer wasn’t all he did on the day, as he also added an RBI single and walked. The kid’s a machine in the making and the Reds should sign him to a 15 year contract yesterday.
• Boston is set to start lefty Connelly Early tomorrow, so I’d anticipate Myers getting his first start of the year in that one. Rhett Lowder will toe the rubber for the Reds in the rubber match, with first pitch set for 1:40 PM ET.

If the season opener were about the Mets lineup’s liveliness, the follow-up was about first survival, and then one swing.

Surviving all those Pirates base runners. Surviving an infield defense that looked as inexperienced as it is. Surviving first against Mitch Keller, who looks poised to take a leap, and later against a Pirates bullpen that bent but wouldn’t break. Surviving a squibber that would not go foul. Surviving the elements that come with playing baseball in New York in March.

On a frigid and windy Saturday that kept players and bats cold, the Mets gasped for nine quiet, scoreless innings. They found just enough life to keep the game going into 11 innings and then received the jolt of a swing they had long sought.

Luis Robert Jr. looked like the superstar he once was in clubbing a three-run walk-off home run to complete what the Mets so seldom completed last year: a legitimate, late-game comeback. The Mets, who trailed in the 10th and 11th, pulled out a 4-2 victory in front of 37,183 hooded and blanketed fans at Citi Field.

LA PANTERA ARRIVES IN QUEENS.

LUIS ROBERT JR. WITH A WALK-OFF HOME RUN!!!! pic.twitter.com/qJ2JbnRVL9

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

“It’s a different group,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of the Mets, who notably never won a game when trailing after eight innings last season.

The Mets had looked ready to retreat into the warmth of their clubhouse as losers in the 10th, when they first allowed a go-ahead RBI single to Nick Gonzales and then spoiled the good feelings from Luis Torrens’ own RBI single by failing to score with the bases loaded and no one out, groundouts from Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto costly.

The Mets had looked like hard-luck losers in the top of the 11th, when Richard Lovelady, who was on the cusp of stranding the automatic runner, watched Bryan Reynolds’ dribbler down the third-base line hug the grass and go for a go-ahead RBI single.

But in the first sign that this season might be as “different” as the roster itself, Robert provided the swing that swung the game.

The Cuban, surely not used to these temperatures, acknowledged that before stepping into the box, your hands get cold enough “that you can’t really feel them.” But then adrenaline takes over. He ignored a changeup out of the strike zone and found a slider that was low and away — a well-executed pitch that was nonetheless redirected, through the swirling winds and through air that hovered under 40 degrees, over the wall in left-center to ignite those freezing fans who remained.

“He’s talented. He’s gifted,” Mendoza said of Robert, whose tools are obvious. “With the way the wind was blowing, especially from left field, to just be able to leave the yard like that, in that situation, it goes to show you that this guy’s special.”

He was special in 2020, when he broke into the majors and finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting with the White Sox. He was special in 2023, when he was an All-Star and received MVP votes while smashing 38 home runs.

He was less special the past two seasons, when his numbers plunged amid White Sox misery and injuries. An early focus with the Mets has been zeroing in on which pitches to slug and which to ignore.

“I think the one thing that great players have is knowing how to select pitches to swing at,” Robert said through interpreter Alan Suriel. “I think for me to be able to go back to being the player that I was and that I know that I’m capable of being, I think that’s going to be a big part of my game.”

Nearly forgotten by the end was the offensive frustration, following up an 11-run outburst Thursday with three hits through nine innings.

Nearly forgotten was a defense — which had looked sharp in the opener — prompting far more questions in Game 2, when Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco looked like a new third baseman and first baseman, respectively.

And nearly forgotten was the excellent work from the pitching staff. David Peterson, Huascar Brazobán, Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley and Devin Williams combined for nine scoreless innings in which they stranded 12 on base. Luis García and Lovelady allowed just unearned runs in extra innings.

Big swings have a way of heating up cold bodies and pushing all other memories to the side.

“Real special, honestly,” Robert said of his brief Mets tenure so far. “These last two games have really been special.”

Let’s face it: Thursday’s Opening Day win was too easy. Too stress-free. The Mets aren’t really, truly back until they have a game that makes you question all the life choices that led to you deciding to spend three precious hours of your day watching them. Well, you best believe it: the Mets are officially BACK after today’s game in which the bats were held silent for three hours, followed by some extra innings nonsense. And yet, while this game was looking like it was going to be the first infuriating loss of the season, it instead proved to be the first thrilling come-from-behind victory of the season, with Luis Robert Jr. socking an 11th inning walk-off bomb to give the Mets win number two of 2026.

It was a cold and windy day at Citi Field today, and that perhaps played a role in both offenses being helpless for most of the afternoon. Starting pitchers David Peterson and Mitch Keller both put up zeroes in the first four innings while giving up just two hits and keeping their pitch counts low. The Pirates did load the bases with two outs in the top of the fifth against Peterson, but he induced a pop-up to first base from Marcell Ozuna to keep the game scoreless. He got in trouble again in the following inning by giving up two singles—one on a sharp grounder to first that Jorge Polanco couldn’t handle, and another on a bloop single to center—and Carlos Mendoza decided to pull his starter there after 5.1 innings of work in which he surrendered six hits and two walks while recording three strikeouts (a fairly quintessential statline for the longest-tenured Met). But Huascar Brazobán came out of the bullpen and got out of the jam to preserve Peterson’s 0.00 2026 ERA and keep the game scoreless.

Still, the Mets continued to be unable to get any rallies going against Keller. After Luke Weaver tossed a scoreless top of the seventh, the Pirates mercifully went to their bullpen after six scoreless innings from their starter, and it looked like the Amazins might finally break through after back-to-back leadoff walks against Justin Lawrence (who surrendered two homers in Thursday’s game). But he came back to strikeout Brett Baty and Marcus Semien, and the Pirates then brought in Gregory Soto to face Carson Benge, who also struck out to end the threat and prevent the first run of the game from crossing the plate.

After a 1-2-3 inning from Brooks Raley, the Mets tried again to score against Soto in the bottom of the eighth, and Francisco Alvarez started the frame with a leadoff walk and was subsequently pinch-ran for by Tyrone Taylor with the top of the order coming up. Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto were both retired, but Taylor wound up on third base (advancing to second on a wild pitch and to third on a fielder’s choice) to give Bo Bichette—the best hitter with runners in scoring position last year—a chance to give the Mets the lead. Alas, he instead struck out swinging, and the game headed to the ninth with goose eggs on both sides.

Devin Williams came on to make his Mets debut in the top of the ninth. Coming the day after Edwin Díaz made a successful debut for the Dodgers, we were gearing to have some major #discourse from the hysterical population of the Mets fanbase if the team’s new closer blew the game this early in the season. And much like the previous closer, Williams bent—allowing a double and walk in the inning—but did not break, striking out Bryan Reynolds with two outs to end the Pittsburgh threat and send the game into the bottom of the ninth. For the third straight inning—this time against new Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana—the Mets worked a leadoff walk to start the inning, and the winning run advanced to second on a fielder’s choice grounder to first by Luis Robert Jr. Alas, Baty then lined a ball to first base, and the runner at second was doubled off to send the game to extras.

Luis García—who surrendered two runs in his first outing of the season on Thursday—was called upon in the tenth, and the Pirates finally managed to bring home the first run of the ballgame against him on a one-out single to center off the bat of Nick Gonzales. He threatened to give up more after loading the bases on an infield single and a walk, but he retired Jake Mangum on a groundout to third base to keep the deficit at one, giving the Amazins the chance to at least tie the game with the ghost runner at second to start the bottom of the frame.

Well, the Mets finally did score a run in the bottom of the inning—and yet it somehow proved to be the most frustrating inning in a game full of them. Facing off against rookie lefty Hunter Barco with the bottom of the order due up, Semien started things off by getting hit by a pitch. Mendoza then called upon Mark Vientos to pinch-hit for Benge, and Swaggy V started his 2026 season by getting a single to left to load the bases with nobody out. That brought up Luis Torrens, who entered the game after Alvarez left for a pinch-runner earlier. The Mets might have preferred to have the latter up in this spot, but no matter—Torrens came through with another single to left to tie the game and keep the bases loaded. So with no outs and the top of the order coming up, surely the Amazins had this win in the bag, yes? Well… no. Lindor and Soto both had identical outcomes in their respective at-bats, hitting grounders that resulted in force-outs at home plate. Then with two outs, Bichette—who’d already failed with a runner in scoring position earlier—flew out to right field to end the inning. Thus, we were no longer scoreless, but still tied. Onto the eleventh!

With basically everyone else in the bullpen having been used by this point, Mendoza had to turn to Richard Lovelady to try to keep the Pirates off the board. He might be the last man in the bullpen pecking order, but he came pretty dang close to getting out of the inning unscathed after recording the first two outs, with the second out coming via a grounder to second that advanced the ghost runner to second. That unfortunately proved to be consequential, as Reynolds then hit a soft grounder down the third base line that stayed fair and allowed the second Pirates run of the day to score. And Lovelady almost subsequently surrendered even more after Marcell Ozuna lined a ball to right field and put runners on the corners, but he instead struck out Gonzales to end the threat and once again hold the Pirates to just one extra-inning run.

Still, just like last inning, one couldn’t help but feel as though we were setting up for a disappointing end to the game in which the Mets couldn’t bring home the ghost runner. But that very quickly proved to not be the case. Polanco walked to lead-off the inning against Barco, and Robert—lefty-masher that he is—had himself his first signature moment with his new team, as he socked a three-run homer over the left field wall to double the amount of runs scored in today’s game, and to give the Mets the come-from-behind victory.

In the end, it’s just win number two. We still have 160 games to go. But we certainly have seen plenty of these types of games go the other way for the Mets in years past—particularly last season—so to overcome the mostly frustrating affair and come out on the winning side is nevertheless a breath of fresh air. Now we will see the Amazins go for the sweep tomorrow with Nolan McLean taking the mound.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Luis Robert Jr. (duh), +50.4% WPA
Big Mets loser: Luis García and Richard Lovelady, -31.0% WPA
Mets pitchers: +4.8% WPA
Mets hitters: +45.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Luis Robert Jr. walk-off three-run homer in the 11th (duh again), +49.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Bryan Reynolds RBI single in the 11th, -34.0% WPA