Category: Baseball

Project Hail Mary and The Martian by Andy Weir: Brendan Donovan (+.07 WPA)

Artemis by Andy Weir: Julio Rodriguez (-.16 WPA)

Game Thread Comment of the Day:

The Mets went out and made some drastic changes to their roster over the offseason after a hugely disappointing season, which ended without a playoff berth. A lot of those changes were to their lineup, breaking up a core that had been together for some time in order to give the team a new look and a fresh start.

One of the most glaring issues for New York's offense last year was its inability to capitalize on chances with runners in scoring position. In fact, not only did the Mets overhaul their lineup, but they also retooled their hitting department by bringing in new hitting coaches in hopes that they could correct the RISP problem that plagued them so often last year.

But just six games into the season, that problem is rearing its ugly head. 

One day after being shut out and held to three hits, New York went 0-for-11 with RISP and left 11 men on base in a 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The worst of it came in the top of the 11th inning when the Mets loaded the bases with one out, a golden opportunity to push across at least one run, but came up empty.

Before that, New York was unable to drive in the free runner in the 10th inning and couldn't get pinch-runner Jared Young home in the ninth after Jorge Polanco's leadoff double. 

Even in their series-opening win on Monday, the Mets finished 1-for-14 with RISP. In Sunday's loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, they went 2-for-10 with RISP and on Saturday, a win, 3-for-14. Aside from Opening Day's 11-run outburst, New York is averaging 2.4 runs per game.

"I feel like with runners in scoring position, there’s a few things there," said manager Carlos Mendoza. "Ultra aggressive at times, expanding [the strike zone] at times, as well, with some of the guys. We just gotta get back to what we do well, which is controlling the strike zone, getting good pitches to hit and doing damage. Good hitters that right now for a couple of games they’re not getting it done."

Following a season filled with this familiar phenomenon and the upheaval that took place to try and rectify it, seeing it happening again so soon (and after the offense teased its potential on Opening Day) is certainly disheartening.

Still, the season isn't even a week old yet and Mendoza believes things will change and doesn't see a through line between last year's offense and this year's offense, saying it's "completely different guys, different lineups."

"It’s two games," the skipper said. "Yes, we gotta make some adjustments, but they’re good hitters and right now for the last couple of games we haven’t gotten the job done."

While it's still early and a relatively small sample size, things need to change soon so that a fan base who went through it last season and might still hold some emotional scars doesn't completely come down on the team.

Cam Schlittler continued a string of dominance for Yankees starters and Paul Goldschmidt's homer provided enough offense as New York defeated the Mariners, 5-3, on Wednesday afternoon in Seattle to pick up the series win.

The Yankees (5-1) have now won both series to start the season. Yankees starters have also allowed just one run in the team's first six games. 

Here are the takeaways...

-Yankees starters entered Wednesday's game allowing just one run through the first five games, but the Mariners lineup threatened Schlittler in the first. Brendan Donovan hit a leadoff double, but the young right-hander struck out Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez before getting Josh Naylor to fly out to end the threat. 

After allowing a one-out hit in the second, Schlittler retired 11 straight batters and was through five innings, throwing just 55 pitches. He'd extend that streak to 14 batters through six innings. The only thing that could get to Schlittler was his pitch count, which was limited considering he is still being built up.

Schlittler tossed 6.1 scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, no walks and striking out seven batters. He threw 79 pitches (58 strikes). 

In his first two starts, Schlittler has thrown 11.2 scoreless innings with 15 strikeouts, and has allowed only three baserunners (all hits). 

-With a varied lineup, the Yankees got to George Kirby early. Cody Bellinger worked a two-out walk and stole second, and Ben Rice -- starting as the DH -- lined a double down the right field line to give the Yankees an early 1-0 lead. 

Goldschmidt, starting at first base, broke the game open in the sixth with a two-out, three-run bomb off of Kirby. 

-In relief of Schlittler, the Yankees bullpen did its job. Fernando Cruz got the two outs to finish the seventh for Schlittler before Camilo Doval -- who has dominated early on -- pitched into trouble. He allowed back-to-back one-out singles to put runners on the corners. Doval struck out Leo Rivas but walked Donovan to load the bases for Raleigh. 

Manager Aaron Boone pulled Doval for David Bednar, but the Yankees closer couldn't get the MVP runner-up, as the Mariners backstop dumped a two-run single to cut their lead to 4-2. Bednar would get Rodriguez to strike out on a 2-2 splitter to preserve the lead. It was a seven-pitch AB for Rodriguez that Bednar won.

Bednar would allow a run in the ninth on two hits, but eventually locked down his third save of the season after tossing 40 pitches (27 strikes).

-Rice would get one of those runs back in the ninth with a leadoff solo shot, his first of the season. 

Game MVP: Cam Schlittler

It took a bit for the Yankees offense to get going, but Schlittler held down the Mariners long enough for that Goldschmidt bomb. 

Highlights

Ben Rice opens the scoring as Cody Bellinger scores! pic.twitter.com/W9qkalcB99

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 1, 2026

A 3-run homer for Paul Goldschmidt! pic.twitter.com/b2k6KezRJc

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 1, 2026

Cam Schlittler is DEALING pic.twitter.com/6tgDriRhWP

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 1, 2026

What's next

The Yankees are off Thursday before heading back to the Bronx for their home opener. They'll take on the upstart Miami Marlins for a three-game series starting Friday at 1:35 p.m.

Will Warren will take the mound for his second start this season and will be up against Eury Perez. 

After the day off following the home opening win, the Royals are hopefully not going to get rained out for their second game in the Twins series. A win tonight would mean that Kansas City would win their first in division series of 2026 with a potential sweep set up for tomorrow.

Standing in the way of a Royals victory tonight will be their nemesis, Joe Ryan. In 11 career starts against the Royals, Ryan has a 2.02 ERA, though the Royals did finally get to him last September putting up 5 runs in just 2 innings. Opposing Ryan will be Noah Cameron for the first start of his sophomore season. He was great as a rookie and will hopefully continue that success this year.

With the Royals sitting at 2-2, this is a chance for their first foray into winning record territory. The teams will do battle with these lineups:

Nothing unusual from the Royals lineup for tonight.

See you all at 6:40 for first pitch!

Something’s up with Carlos Narváez. 

The Red Sox catcher was benched on Wednesday for undisclosed reasons, and his manager’s answer as to why was cagey to say the least. 

“I just made a change,” Alex Cora told reporters. “I talked to Carlos a little bit and we move on from there. So, it’s one of those that I felt like we needed to make the change in the lineup. And I think it’s for the best.”

Cora wouldn’t say for sure when asked if it was for disciplinary reasons.

“Let’s keep it between me and Carlos,” Cora said. “And he understands. This is something that happens on every club. It just happens to be early in the season, and I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Narváez, 27, is in his second season in Boston, having hit .241/.306/.419 with 15 home runs and 50 RBIs across 118 games last season. 

He played in three of the Red Sox’ six games heading into Wednesday, getting four hits in nine at-bats. 

The Venezuela native spent nine years in the Yankees organization after signing with the franchise in 2015, playing 497 minor league games from 2016-24.

He debuted in July 2024 after starting backstop Jose Trevino went down with an injury, going 3-for-13 during his brief six-game stint in pinstripes. 

Narváez was then dealt to Boston before that deadline for righty prospect Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz and international bonus pool space.

He became a bit of a Yankee-killer in 2025, having hit a go-ahead three-run homer during the Red Sox’ June 8 win over their bitter rivals.

Six days later, Narváez hit a walk-off single after throwing out Anthony Volpe on the bases earlier in the frame.

On an extremely cold and windy afternoon at Wrigley Field that really wasn’t suitable for baseball, Matthew Boyd looked like the Boyd of 2025 in getting to the sixth inning and striking out 10 Angels hitters.

That, some solid relief and timely hitting by the Cubs led to a 6-2 victory and a series win over the visitors from Anaheim.

The first hitter of the game, Zach Neto, singled off Boyd.

Then Boyd did something he did so well last year — picked him off [VIDEO].

Boyd then retired the next eight Angels in a row — until Neto walked leading off the fourth. Then Boyd set down six more Angels consecutively.

While all this was going on, the Cubs put together a nice rally in the fifth with only one extra-base hit. Miguel Amaya, serving as DH in this one, led off with a walk. That XBH, a double by Nico Hoerner, followed, with Amaya scoring on a close play [VIDEO].

Oddly, no review was asked for, and it appeared Angels manager Kurt Suzuki waited too long to ask for one, because he then had a rather animated discussion with the umpires. Anyway, Alex Bregman was next and singled in Nico [VIDEO].

Ian Happ hit into a force play, but Neto threw the ball into the dugout, so Happ took second. Carson Kelly followed with a walk and a single by Michael Busch loaded the bases.

Dansby Swanson’s sac fly made it 3-0 [VIDEO].

Matt Shaw followed that with this RBI single [VIDEO].

Another RBI single by Pete Crow-Armstrong made it 5-0 [VIDEO].

That’s a really good long-sequence offense, each hitter adding something down the line. No one was going to hit the ball out of Wrigley Field in this one, not with a 21 mile per hour wind blowing in. So the Cubs hitters adjusted their offense to fit the conditions. Well done.

Boyd allowed another single to Neto in the sixth — after he struck out the first two hitters — and when Mike Trout then walked, Boyd was removed to applause from the maybe 10,000 (of 25,125 paid) who showed up in the miserable conditions. Both runners scored, unfortunately. Hunter Harvey’s first pitch to Jo Adell was hit for a single up the middle and then a ball hit by Jorge Soler went under Bregman’s glove for an error, making one of the two runs unearned.

This was an outstanding outing from Boyd [VIDEO].

Here are Boyd’s 10 strikeouts [VIDEO].

More on Boyd’s 10-K outing from BCB’s JohnW53:

Matthew Boyd is the 24th different Cub to strike out at least seven batters in each of his first two starts of a season. The previous five had been Travis Wood, in 2014; Jon Lackey, Jon Lester and Jose Quintana,  all in 2017; and Tyler Chatwood, in 2020.

All of their streaks ended in their third start. The last to go beyond two games was Rich Harden, who went four games in 2009. He had set the team record of five games in 2008. He, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood all did it in two seasons.

Only one Cub notched double-digit strikeouts last season: Colin Rea, who had 11 in 7.0 innings of a 1-0 loss at Cincinnati on Sept. 18. He was the first in more than a year, since Shota Imanaga had 11 in 6.0 at home vs. the Athletics on Sept. 16, 2024. That was the Cubs’ sixth such game of 2024: three by Imanaga and one each by Ben Brown, Justin Steele and Jameson Taillon.

Harvey continued in relief in the seventh, retiring the side in order. The Cubs scored a sixth run in the seventh. Kelly led off with a routine fly ball to center that was dropped by Trout. That was really odd; it didn’t look like Trout had trouble with the wind, he just dropped the ball. Kelly wound up on second. He went to third on a single by Busch, and one out later scored on this Shaw single [VIDEO].

Caleb Thielbar threw a 1-2-3 eighth with two strikeouts and Daniel Palencia finished things up in the ninth in a non-save situation. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].

Cubs pitchers struck out 16 in this game. More on that from John:

That was the Cubs’ most strikeouts since they fanned 6 in a 14-1 rout of the Pirates at home on Sept. 19, 2023. They walked two. Their last game was at least 16 strikeouts and no more than two walks was 16 and two in a 3-2 win over the Rockies at home on July 29, 2015.

One more note before I wrap this up. The Angels challenged two calls of strike three and were wrong on both.

On Oswald Peraza in the seventh [VIDEO].

And on Neto in the eighth [VIDEO].

The K zone you see on broadcasts now is the exact ABS box, so as you can see on both of those, the pitch was within the zone. It wasn’t a bad strategic choice by the Angels, late in the game with the possibility of extending the at-bat, but they guessed wrong both times.

About the weather: It was as bad as you heard during the broadcast. The wind was strong and the temp at 39 didn’t really rise much, if at all, throughout the game. I am going to have more to say about this weather and scheduling tomorrow, presuming I thaw out by then. Per baseball-reference.com, for games on which they have reported game-time temperatures, this was just the 10th game ever at Wrigley Field with a game-time temperature of 39 or lower and a wind speed of 21 miles per hour or higher.

In the meantime, the Cubs won the series. A 3-3 homestand isn’t what we wanted, but as was pointed out to me before the game, this win means the Cubs are one win ahead of where they were after six games last year. Yes, the opponents last year were better teams but… this start to the season should be nothing to worry about, especially after seeing Boyd’s outing today (and Jameson Taillon’s Tuesday, and Edward Cabrera’s on Monday). This team will be just fine.

The Cubs will enjoy their off day Thursday and then head to Cleveland to begin a three-game series against the Guardians Friday. The Friday game is Cleveland’s home opener. Cade Horton will start for the Cubs. At this writing the Guardians do not have a starter listed, though if they stay on rotation it should be left-hander Joey Cantillo. Game time Friday is 3:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.

Game Summary

After a one hour plus rain delay, the Mets and Cardinals matched up in a pitcher’s duel, with Liberatore carrying a no-no into the fifth inning. The taut pitcher’s duel was interrupted by a Juan Soto solo HR in the 6th, but matched up by a key two-out, two-strike RBI single by Nolan Gorman to knot the score up. The 1-1 tie carried into the 11th inning, when a bloop single by Masyn Winn brought home the extra runner (JJ Wetherholt) for a Cardinal walk-off victory.

Mathew Liberatore pitched six strong innings giving up 3 hits, 1 R, 1 BB, 2 K. The Cardinals bullpen held serve for 5 more innings, pitching very sharp with the exception of Roycroft’s struggles in the tenth. Graceffo pulled a magic act escaping a bases-loaded, one-out situation and is rewarded with the walk-off win.

The Cardinals take the series, 2-1 and end the homestand 4-2. Well done by the home team. On to Detroit after an off-day tomorrow.

Line-up (and roster) machinations

• Saggese gets a start in LF, Church moves to RF, Walker gets an off-day.
• Otherwise, normal alignment with L-R-L … arranging the batting order
• If you missed it yesterday, Graceffo joined the team, with Pushard to the IL-15.
• Liberatore on the mound for the home team. Peralta for the Metropolitans.
• Soto is the only straight-up LH hitter in their line-up.

The Game Details

A view from the box score, for those who want a deeper sense of the game.

T1 – Libby starts out inducing weak contact. P6. 5-3. F9.

B1 – Wetherholt K’s. Can already see teams are peppering him high and away. The last two strikes were out of the zone, following a take on a borderline strike. Herrera singles. Burly GIDP, except Lindor forgot there was only one out and didn’t throw to first. Oops. Fielder’s indifference? Winn K’s to end the inning.

T2 – Another smooth inning for Libby. L4. 5-3. 5-3.

B2 – Gorman lines out. Sags K’s. Church with a deep fly. It must be a get-away day after a rain delay with the fast pace of the game <checks notes>.

T3 – 6-3. 1-3. 4-3. Nine up, nine down. 34 pitches first time threw the line-up. Very sharp.

B3 – Pages grounds out. Scott II K’s. Wetherholt gets a second look at Peralta. An ABS challenge goes his way (on an away pitch, of course). JJW K’s. Peralta is matching Libby with zeros and teaching an absolute master level class on how to live on the edge and then just off it with 2 strikes. He, too, is very, very sharp.

T4 – F7. K. L7.

B4 – Herrera grounds out. Burleson grounds out. Masyn Winn lines out. And the beat goes on.

T5 – L7. Sags has handled himself well today defensively. 6-3 on a nice play by Winn. Robert’s AB included a successful ABS challenge by Pages. Vientos breaks up Libby’s no-no with a 2-out double. Semien follows with a walk, following an unsuccessful ABS challenge by Pages. Libby pitching out of the stretch, just missing. Libby closes it out with a K. Still tied, 0-0.

B5 – Gorman walks. Saggese advances him with a single. Church grounds into force play after two unsuccessful bunt attempts. Church advances to 2nd on a weird wild pitch. Alvarez blocked a pitch, and then seemed to forget about Church, who then took second. Pages K’s. Scott II grounds out, stranding two.

T6 – P9. Followed by E-5, but then Lindor gets picked off while drifting off first base. Libby was paying attention, Lindor was not. Soto hits solo HR. Bichette singles. Polanco F9. Mets now up 1-0.

B6 – Wetherholt singles. Herrera walks. Burly K. Winn pops out. Gorman picks everyone up with key two-out RBI single. Brozoban in for Peralta, who pitched extremely well. Sags K’s. Now 1-1.

T7 – Stanek replaces Liberatore, who was really, really good. Lead-off single. F9. K. An E-2 (catcher’s interference) ended Stanek’s outing. Romero relieves and gets a key strikeout. Still 1-1.

B7 – Raley in for Brazoban. Walker backwards K. Pages K. Scott bunts out 1-3.

T8 – 6-3. F9. 6-3. Romero very sharp.

B8 – Weaver in for Raley. F9. K. L9.

T9 – O’Brien in for Romero. Double. K. 6-3. K. Dominance.

B9 – Williams replaced Weaver. Winn walks. Gorman lines out to right. Winn steals second to put winning run in scoring position, but F9 and another Walker K quelled the rally. Extra innings ahead, 1-1.

T10 – Bruihl in for O’Brien. Semien is the runner at second. A skipper back to Bruihl catches Semien off, but poor execution on the run down results in the batter getting to second. P6. Walk. P4 gets a big out on Soto. Nice job by Bruihl to keep the extra runner stranded. 1-1.

B10– Myers in for Williams. Pages K (his third). Scott 4-3. Wetherholt 3-1. Nothing doing here.

T11 – Roycroft in for Bruihl. Soto the extra runner. Bichette bangs one off Roycroft that became 6-3 with Soto to third. A pair of subsequent walks ended Roycroft’s outing. The wheels came off for him. The poise he was showing in spring has evaporated. Graceffo in. 4-2 force at home holds the tie. F9 allows Graceffo to wiggle out of the inning. Great job! Good moment for him. Still 1-1.

B11 – Wetherholt is the extra runner. Herrera IBB. Burleson GIDP takes the wind out of the sails, but a bloop by Winn that drops brings home some walk-off magic, 2-1 Cardinals.

Post-Game Notes

• Liberatore’s change (88 mph) is almost as hard as McGreevy’s FB. I didn’t realize his “cambio” was that firm.
• Mathews started today for Memphis. 5 K’s, 4 BB’s in 3 IP, no ER. Crook has started his season on fire, with his third HR today.
• Mets made 3 critical mental errors in this game, plus gave away challenges they’d need later. They have some clean-up work to do. Maybe Mets stands for “Mental Excursions Today”.

West Coast game times, we won’t miss you! The initial two series of the Tigers season have been rough for anyone with a strict bedtime, and the results have been more mixed than fans would have liked, but the Tigers took to the field on Wednesday hoping to keep the Diamondbacks from completing the series sweep. They’d have Tarik Skubal on the mound, always a good place to start when you want to win a game. The DBacks, meanwhile, were counting on Zac Gallen, who was hoping to have a better game today than his first outing of the season.

Gallen collected two quick outs to start the first inning, but Gleyber Torres kept things alive for the Tigers with a sharply hit single to left. Unfortunately the Tigers weren’t able to keep the momentum up and a fly out ended the inning. Unfortunately, things started to go badly for the Tigers almost immediately in the bottom of the inning as Corbin Carroll hit a one-out solo home run. Skubal got the next two outs, but the DBacks were first on the board.

It was another quick 1-2-3 for the Tigers in the top of the second. Ildemaro Vargas kicked off the home half with a single, but he was soon eliminated in a double play off the bat of Nolan Arenado.

In the third, Colt Keith got a two-out double, but it wasn’t enough to get something going for the Tigers. In the home half, Tim Tawa started things off with a leadoff double, but Skubal was able to steer the ship back in the right direction, following up that gaffe with three consecutive outs.

The Tigers went down in order in the fourth, but the DBacks did much the same in the bottom of the inning, keeping things nice and even.

The game motored right along into the fifth, and with one out in the inning. Matt Vierling sucessfully challenged a strike call to stay alive, then used it to his advantage to work his way to a single. The Tigers didn’t manage to take advantage of the baserunner, and the score stayed at 0-1 heading into the bottom of the inning. Arenado got a leadoff single, but was eliminated by a double play off the bat of Jose Fernandez. Tim Tawa reached in a throwing error by Javier Baez, who overthrew a toss to first that pulled Colt Keith off the bag. Jordan Lawler singled, but the DBacks were also struggling to convert baserunners and Skubal got out of the jam.

In the top of the sixth Kevin McGonigle legged out his first career triple with one out in the inning. It’s too bad that Torres managed to groud into an ill-place double play. Corbin Carroll singled to start the home half. A double play and a groundout followed in quick succession, however, to end the inning and show that Skubal remains a force to be reckoned with.

Gallen’s day was done after six, making way for Taylor Clarke. Clarke gave up a one-out single to Dillon Dingler, but two outs followed to leave him stranded. Skubal plowed through the order in the bottom of the inning, getting the DBacks out 1-2-3. That was likely it for Skubal, whose line for the game was 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HR on 87 pitches. Not his best outing to be sure and the strikeout numbers were low, but aside from the first inning slip-up with Carroll, it was a good outing from Skubal.

Juan Morillo was next out of the DBacks bullpen, and he got the Tigers out in order as the Detroit bats fell silent. Kyle Finnegan was the first out of the Tigers’ pen after Skubal’s start. A comebacker to start the inning had him checking his reflexes. With two outs, he walked Ketel Marte. He then walked Carroll, which is better than giving up a home run, but not by much. After Dingler came out to help set Finnegan right, they turned around to get the final out of the inning.

It was the Tigers’ last opportunity to try and make something happen. They’d be up against Jonathan Loaisiga. McGonigle wasn’t going to go down without a fight, squaring off against Loaisiga and getting a perfectly-placed single into center. Torres once again hit a ball to precisely the wrong place, hitting into another double play and likely ending the Tigers’ opportunity to come back. Riley Greene doubled into center, following the old adage to hit ‘em where they ain’t. The effort was there, but it didn’t pay off. A Dingler groundout ended the inning and the game. The Tigers suffered their first sweep of the season, and this time they were shut out as well.

Final: Diamondbacks 1, Tigers 0

ST. LOUIS — The Mets haven’t hit much since Opening Day, wasting strong pitching in the process.

Wednesday, it was Freddy Peralta’s fine work, with solid relief behind him, that got forgotten as Masyn Winn’s bloop single in the 11th inning sent the Mets to a 2-1 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

The Mets, who lost for the third time in four games, went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position, getting their only run on a Juan Soto homer. In the three-game series, they went 1-for-29 with runners in scoring position.

A night earlier, the Mets wasted Kodai Senga’s solid work over six innings in a 3-0 loss.

“I still believe in what we have,” Francisco Lindor said. “[David] Stearns and the front office did a good job of putting a good team together, and we have got a good team. … It’s hard to win if you don’t score runs. Overall, I think we are just a couple of pitches away.”

The Mets wasted a bases-loaded opportunity in the 11th inning, with Brett Baty hitting a grounder that resulted in a force out at the plate before Marcus Semien was retired to end the inning. The Mets also left two runners on base in the 10th inning, when Soto was retired for the final out.

“We have just got to get back to what we do well, which is controlling the strike zone, getting good pitches to hit and doing damage,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Good hitters that right now, a couple of games, they’re not getting it done.”

The Mets scored only five runs in the three games. They have already played three extra-inning games, including two they split against the Pirates last weekend.

Tobias Myers, in his second inning of relief, induced a double-play grounder from Alec Burleson after intentionally walking Iván Herrera to begin the 11th, with the automatic runner at second. Winn won it with his bloop to right that fell in front of a diving Carson Benge.

“Our pitchers have done a tremendous job,” Lindor said. “We have got to score runs for them.”

Peralta showed improvement from his Opening Day start by allowing one earned run on three hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over 5 ¹/₃ innings in a no-decision. The ace right-hander allowed four earned runs over five innings against the Pirates in his Mets debut last week.

Peralta retired 11 straight following Herrera’s single in the first inning. Nolan Gorman snapped the string by drawing a walk to begin the bottom of the fifth.

The Mets didn’t get their first base runner against Matthew Liberatore until Mark Vientos stroked a two-out double in the fifth. Semien followed with a walk before Francisco Alvarez struck out to end the inning.

What is Francisco Lindor doing?

Very next pitch was a home run by Juan Soto

If the Mets lose by a run, this is why pic.twitter.com/HXkSzfzjYe

— Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland) April 1, 2026

Peralta escaped a jam in the fifth by retiring Victor Scott II for the final out after walking Gorman and allowing a single to Thomas Saggese, who had reached second on a wild pitch with one out. Gorman remained at third.

Soto’s first homer of the season produced the game’s initial run. Soto lofted a fly to right that landed just inside the foul pole. Lindor led off the sixth by reaching on Gorman’s fielding error, but was picked off first base. Soto homered three pitches later.

Gorman delivered a two-out RBI single in the sixth to tie it 1-1. The run was charged to Peralta, who departed with runners on first and second with one out. Huascar Brazobán retired Winn before surrendering the game-tying single to Gorman.

Luis Robert Jr. singled leading off the seventh and with two outs Alvarez reached on a catcher’s interference. But pinch hitter Benge struck out against lefty JoJo Romero to leave the go-ahead run at second base.

Jorge Polanco doubled leading off the ninth, but the Mets never pushed across pinch runner Jared Young as Robert, Baty and Semien were retired in succession.

“We have got to make some adjustments, but they are good hitters,” Mendoza said. “And right now, for the last couple of games, they haven’t gotten the job done.”

Six games in, and it’s safe to say that—outside of the offensive outburst on opening day—the bats have gotten off to a slow start for the Mets. They haven’t scored more than four runs in a game since that first one, and numerous games have gone into extra innings because the Mets couldn’t bring enough runs home to win in regulation despite the pitching staff holding the opposing offense at bay.

Well, we got another one of those games today—and this was perhaps the most frustrating of them all, as the Mets failed twice to score in extra innings and fell to the Cardinals 2-1 to lose the series.

Today’s game started an hour late due to rain, but the Mets’ bats did not seem to get the memo about the new start time. Indeed, after failing to score at all in last night’s game, the offense once again looked helpless against Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore, who retired the first fourteen batters of the game before Mark Vientos broke up the perfect game with a two-out double in the fifth. Alas, through five innings the Mets were held scoreless, making it seventeen straight innings without a run dating back to Monday night. Thankfully, the Amazins had their top starter on the mound, as Freddy Peralta suited up for his second start of the season and matched Liberatore in putting up zeroes. The biggest threat against him came in the bottom of the fifth when the Cardinals got runners on second and third with just one out, but a strikeout and groundout kept the game scoreless.

Francisco Lindor got on base in the top of the sixth thanks to a one-out error, but was immediately picked off (which counted as the second mental error of the day for Lindor, who also forgot how many outs there were and gave up a potential double play earlier). That proved to be consequential, as Juan Soto then came up and hit a high fly ball to right that just barely stayed fair and went over the fence for what should have been a two-run homer. Still, the scoreless streak was finally over thanks to the Soto’s first bomb of the season, and the Mets had themselves their first lead of the day. But alas, they would not hold it for long. Peralta quickly got into trouble in the bottom of the frame, allowing a single and walk to put runners on first and second with nobody out and then falling behind 3-1 to Alec Burleson. He managed to fight back and strike Burleson out, at which point Carlos Mendoza turned to the bullpen. Huascar Brazobán came on and induced an infield pop-up for the second out, but Nolan Gorman then lined a single into center to tie the game at 1-1. A strikeout then ended the inning and finalized Peralta’s line on the day (5.1 innings, 3 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts, 1 run).

The Cardinals pulled Liberatore after six innings of one-run ball, and old friend Ryne Stanek was the first pitcher out of the St. Louis bullpen. The Mets got two runners on against him—on a Luis Robert Jr. single and a two-out catcher’s interference against Francisco Alvarez—and Mendoza then called upon Carson Benge to pinch-hit for Tyrone Taylor. The Cardinals responded by bringing in lefty reliever JoJo Romero, who struck out the rookie to end the threat. We then got a string of 1-2-3 innings from both bullpens (first from Brooks Raley, then a full frame from Romero, then from Luke Weaver) to bring us to the ninth with the score still tied.

Jorge Polanco led off the inning with a double against Riley O’Brien. But as they have done over and over and over and over again in this first week of the season, the Mets failed to capitalize on the threat, and three straight outs—culminating in a strikeout by Marcus Semien, who has not gotten a hit since opening day—sent the game into the bottom of the ninth. Seeking to get the game to extra innings, Mendoza turned to his closer, and Devin Williams was able to work around a leadoff walk to hold the Cardinals scoreless and give the Mets their third extra inning game in this young season.

The Mets and their futile offense then committed the cardinal (no pun intended) sin of playing extra innings on the road and failed to score even the ghost runner in the top of the tenth against new pitcher Justin Bruihl. In do or die mode, Mendoza turned to Tobias Myers (who had just pitched multiple innings on Monday) to attempt the unenviable task of trying to hold the Cardinals scoreless and send the game to the 11th. And remarkably, Myers was able to get the job done, as he struck out the leadoff batter after a failed attempt at bunting the ghost runner over to third, and then two harmless groundouts ended the frame with the game still tied at 1-1.

Given new life, surely the Mets’ bats wouldn’t fail to score yet again, right? Surely they aren’t THAT pathetic, right? Well, after a Bo Bichette groundout off new pitcher Chris Roycroft sent the ghost runner to third, back-to-back walks loaded the bases with one out. The Cardinals brought in a new pitcher—right-hander Gordon Graceffo—to try to get out of the jam. And get out of the jam he did, as Brett Baty then hit a soft grounder to second that result in a forceout at home and Semien (who, again, has not gotten a hit since opening day) flew out to end the inning with the Mets being held scoreless yet again.

So Myers was forced to go out for a second inning and try to pull a rabbit out of his hat yet again. And for a moment it looked like he might, as he induced a groundball double play (following an intentional walk to start the inning) to give the Mets two out with a runner at third base. Alas, Masyn Wynn—who had not had a hit all series leading up to this at-bat—blooped a ball into right field that was just past the reach of a diving Benge, bringing the winning run home to end the game.

It’s been six games. Far too soon to be drawing any meaningfully conclusions. But boy howdy this offense has been dreadful to watch one week in, and for the sake of all of our sanity they should try really hard to be better moving forward—particularly in this part of the season before they start facing off against some more intimidating competition later in the year. Onto San Francisco.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Freddy Peralta, +20.8% WPA
Big Mets loser: Marcus Semien, -34.9% WPA
Mets pitchers: +25.4% WPA
Mets hitters: -75.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Soto solo homer in the sixth, +18.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Masyn Wynn walk-off single in the 11th, -37.5% WPA

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Cincinnati Reds, April 1, 2026, 6:40 p.m. ET

Location: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, SportsNet Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road today against the Cincinnati Reds looking to grab a win at Great American Ball Park.

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

The Red Sox cannot wipe away this road trip fast enough. Fenway Park, here they come.

Another loss to the Houston Astros, a 6-4 final on Wednesday, spelled more of the same. Too many strikeouts. Too many errors. Not good enough in any phase. Not even Crochet Day could put the Red Sox back in the win column. Wilyer Abreu and Roman Anthony tried to save the day with late home runs, but Boston heads east with just their Opening Day win in Cincinnati to show. 

Here are three takeaways from Boston’s series finale in Houston. 

Shaky, not sharp for Crochet

The Astros certainly do not fear the 2025 American League Cy Young Award runner-up. In fact, they attacked him unlike any other offense since he donned the Red Sox uniform.

Houston tagged Crochet for five runs in just four innings of work last August. Wednesday at Daikin Park marked more of the same for the lefty. Crochet finished five innings, the only Red Sox pitcher of the series to do so. The Astros took flight in that span with six hits and five runs (four earned) in another offensive burst.

The southpaw struck out seven, though Carlos Correa delivered the backbreaking swing of the start. The veteran infielder walloped a 1-2 sweeper into the Crawford boxes. The Astros took the lead, knocked Crochet out following the inning and delivered another gut punch to the visitors.

Connor Wong: XBH machine?

Boston’s backup catcher was an offensive liability last season. He didn’t log his first extra-base hit until July 25. 

Well, aided by Carlos Narvaez’s mysterious scratch, Wong is as hot as any Red Sox hitter thus far. He roped his third double of the season Wednesday afternoon. Sustainable? Doubtful, but we’ll see. In any measure, a serviceable Wong would be a welcomed Red Sox surprise. 

So long, Mr. Alvarez

The good news? The Red Sox are done pitching to Yordan Alvarez (for now). 

The bad news? They’ll see him again in exactly a month. 

Alvarez is as much of a Red Sox killer as any slugger to ever face Boston. The stat ran through multiple broadcasts during the series: No qualified hitter (100 at-bats) has a higher OPS (1.280) in history against Boston than Alvarez — next in line in that stat is some guy named Babe Ruth. The 2021 ALCS MVP continued his reign with another monstrous series to the tune of a .545 average with two homers and a 1.888 OPS. He added two more hits and a pair of runs scored Wednesday, along with a staredown of Crochet after Boston’s starter plunked the Houston slugger.

Alvarez comes to Fenway Park with the Astros the first weekend of May. Beware. 

The Mets dropped Wednesday's rubber match with the St. Louis Cardinals, falling 2-1 in 11 innings.

Here are the key takeaways…

-- With the game tied at 1-1, this one went to extra innings, the Mets' third such game in their first six contests. In the top of the 11th, the Mets loaded the bases with one out, but Brett Baty grounded into a force-out at the plate, and Marcus Semien flew out to end the threat. In the bottom half, with two outs and a runner on third, Masyn Winn blooped a single to right just in front of a diving attempt from Carson Benge, giving the Cardinals the win.

-- It was a pitchers’ duel through the early innings, as both Freddy Peralta and Matthew Liberatore were on point early. Peralta allowed just one hit the first time through the order, striking out five. Liberatore, meanwhile, started by retiring the Mets nine-up, nine-down, inducing six ground balls. 

Mark Vientos finally notched the Mets’ first hit of the afternoon with a line drive double down the third base line with two outs in the fifth. Dating back to Tuesday night’s loss, the Mets had gone 0-for-22 before Vientos’ hit. He’d be left stranded there, though, as Francisco Alvarez went down swinging to end the inning. 

-- Just when the Mets looked like they caught a break in the sixth inning, as Francisco Lindor reached on an error by Nolan Gorman, Lindor was immediately caught sleeping and picked off at first base. It was the second mental error of the game for Lindor, who also forgot how many outs there were defensively earlier in the game. 

But Juan Soto picked Lindor up, blasting a high, towering solo home run to right, which hung in the air forever before glancing off the foul pole. Soto’s first home run of the season put the Mets up 1-0, and snapped a 17-inning scoreless streak.

-- Peralta ran into some trouble in the fifth, starting the inning by allowing a walk and a single. But he got out of a second-and-third, one-out jam without allowing a run.

Peralta pitched into the sixth inning, when he was pulled with a couple runners on base. Unfortunately for the Mets, Huascar Brazoban allowed one of the inherited runners to score on a Gorman RBI single, tying the game.

Peralta went 5.1 innings, allowing one earned run on three hits. He struck out seven and walked two.

-- As a team, the Mets went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.

GAME MVP

Liberatore, who allowed just one earned run in 6.0 innings.

Highlights

Five strikeouts over three scoreless innings so far for Freddy Peralta pic.twitter.com/6f0u6Qf6NA

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 1, 2026

Freddy Peralta works through a jam to keep the Cardinals scoreless through 5 pic.twitter.com/q5X1bTKD1E

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 1, 2026

A TOWERING SHOT!

Juan Soto hits his first home run of the year! pic.twitter.com/nqZJStvwgG

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 1, 2026

The Mets head to extra innings for the third time this season pic.twitter.com/u0H6kRb8Uo

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 1, 2026

Upcoming Schedule

The Mets head out to San Francisco for a four-game series with the Giants, starting on Thursday night at 9:45 p.m. on SNY. 

David Peterson will face Robbie Ray in a battle of lefties.

Rockies 1 at Blue Jays 2 (10)

It was one of those games where the starting pitcher was going to have to be almost flawless for his team to win. Kevin Gausman was up to the task and did his damnedest in holding the Rockies at bay for six innings, a but bullpen wobbles and a lack of hitting, first timely and then outright, undermined the effort as the Blue Jays fell in 10 innings.

Gausman was especially dominant over the first four innings, almost perfect really as he set the first 12 batters in order. The fastball was popping and well located, the splitter diving off the plate as he struck out six of those and a liner to third the only time the Rockies got close to touching him. Hunter Goodman had a particularly rough time, befuddled as Gausman dispatched him.

He was more human the last couple ininngs, as Ezequiel Tovar battled him for a long at-bat and lined a single up the middle to start the 5th. Hesitation on a roller allowed Tovar to beat the throw the second and create a real jam, though Gausman extricated himself with a couple strikeouts. After another hard hit in the 6th, he got another pair of strikeouts to end the inning in double digits for the second time, finishing 6 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts.

The bats were able to create opportunities early against Kyle Freeland, but couldn’t land decisive blows and largely squandered the chance to build a substantial lead:

• A lead off single in the 2nd from Okamotot was erased by a Kirk GIDP sanchwiched around another single
• Myles Straw blooped a single leading off the 3rd, scoring on a one-out Davis Schneider single after a Springer walk. Vladdy was (barely) hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out and really set up a big inning, but Okamoto struck out and Kirk flared out.
• Another Straw single in the 4th put two one after a HBP, but advanced no further.

From that moment in fact, the bats were essentially shut down, managing just two singles over the last 6.2 innings, after eight of the first 17 batters reached over the first 3.1 innings.

So Gausman exited clinging to a slim 1-0 lead. Tyler Rogers was first out and uncharacteristically fallible, allowing a pair of hard singles. In fact, only Addison Barger’s arm (or the threat thereof) kept a run off the board as TJ Rumfield held up at first after smashing a ball to the wall and would likely have scored from second with two out on the latter single.

The highwire act could onyl last so long however. Tommy Nance was next for the 8th, and it wasn’t his day either . Nine hitter Kyle Karros walked leading off, yielding to Jake McCarthy who stole scored in quick order on a single. Another walk, wild pitch, and stolen base created a real mess but John Schneider inflicted a little dose of the Flu(harty), whose two strikeouts prevented the Rockies from taking the lead.

Jeff Hoffman was equally as on point in the 9th, sharp sliders dispatching the Rockies to strikeout the side in order. With Braydon Fisher and Louis Varland down from previous heavy use, that left Brendon Little, and well….

Honestly, he wasn’t even terrible, but a sharp ground ball up the middle plated the do ahead run. For their part, Springer popped out on the second pitch in the bottom of the 10th before Nathan Lukes battled Jimmy Herget to 12 pitches before ultimately rolling one over. Vladdy cracked a ball, but to dead CF where it was easily caught and so it goes.

Jays of the Day: Gausman (+.36 WPA), Fluharty (+0.25), Hoffman (+0.14), Davis Schneider (+0.12)

Boo Jays: Nance (-0.40) , Vlad (-0.22), Kirk (-0.14), Jimenez (-0.13). Lukes (-0.13) had the number but not giving him one for that 10th inning AB.

Tomorrow, the Jays are now off, with the White Sox home opener now scheduled for 2:10 EDT with Dylan Cease taking the hill against his former team.

The Washington Nationals suffered their first truly heartbreaking loss of the season. They had a 5-1 lead in the 7th inning, but could not finish off the Phillies. The veteran laden Phillies took advantage of the young Nats issuing walks and making mistakes in the field. Blake Butera’s bunch fought, but they could not finish.

It was a bit of a pitchers duel in the first five innings. The Nats made Cristopher Sanchez work, but did not take advantage of most of their opportunities. You could say the same thing for the Phillies offense. Cade Cavalli was not at his best the first four innings, but he survived and only allowed one run.

However, Cavalli turned up the heat in his last two frames, retiring the last six hitters he faced. It was a successful outing for Cavalli, and if we were deeper in the season, he probably would have gone out for the seventh. In hindsight, Blake Butera probably should have stuck with his righty instead of going to Andre Granillo.

After manufacturing two runs in the first six innings, the Nats had a big seventh against Brad Keller. It actually started with two quick outs. However, after Daylen Lile got a hustle base hit, the rally was on. The red hot Joey Wiemer got yet another hit and then CJ Abrams delivered with a massive 3 run homer. 

At that point, the game seemed out of reach for the Phillies and the home crowd was shocked. However, the wily vets chipped away. It started with a JT Realmuto homer in the 7th. The Nats got out of that inning with just one run though. They still felt in command of the game.

That control began to slip away in the 8th. Bryce Harper homered and then Luis Garcia Jr. was unable to pick the ball on back to back plays at first base. Between Andres Chaparro and Luis Garcia Jr., first base defense has been a big problem for the Nats. Paul Toboni has done a lot of great things, but not picking up a veteran first baseman is a questionable move.

The Nats ended up surviving that inning while keeping things a 3-2 game. However, they used Clayton Beeter to get out of the inning. Beeter came out for the 9th, but he only faced two batters. He allowed a ground out and a single. The Nats ended up pulling him for PJ Poulin.

Blake Butera has pushed most of the right buttons this season, but I think he overmanaged here. I understand the platoon matchup, but Beeter is just a better, more powerful arm than Poulin. The top guys in the Phillies lineup had also seen Poulin yesterday.

Poulin could not stop the bleeding, getting one out, but issuing two walks. That led to another pitching change, with Cole Henry coming in to face Edmundo Sosa. Henry executed very well on his first two pitches, but hung a sweeper on an 0-2 count. Sosa took advantage and drove it into left to tie the game.

After the Nats were unable to score a run in the top of the 10th, the game just felt over. Blake Butera seemed to think so too, as he just kept Henry in the game rather than burning another reliever. The Phillies eventually put the Nats out of their misery with a walkoff single from Justin Crawford.

The Nats fought their tails off this series, but their immaturity and flaws showed. I still come away from this series happy with the effort and the overall performance. However, you can see the flaws in this team. With James Wood just not being the same player since last July, the Nats don’t have a consistent home run threat to either get back in games or put them away.

They also do not have a singular lock down closer like the Phillies do with Jhoan Duran. The Nats have some solid bullpen arms, but none of them are dominant. In many ways the Nats outplayed the Phillies this series. However, the Phillies showed why they have made the playoffs in recent years and the Nats showed why they are a rebuilding team.