Category: Baseball

Mets lineup

Francisco Lindor – SS
Juan Soto – DH
Bo Bichette – 3B
Carson Benge – RF
Jared Young – 1B
Marcus Semien – 2B
A.J. Ewing – CF
Brett Baty – LF
Luis Torrens – C

SP: Justin Hagenman – RHP

Rays lineup

Yandy Diaz – DH
Jonathan Aranda – 1B
Junior Caminero – 3B
Liam Hicks – C
Chandler Simpson – LF
Victor Mesa – RF
Cedric Mullins – CF
Richie Palacios – 2B
Taylor Walls – SS

SP: Griffin Jax – RHP

Broadcast info

First pitch: 6:40 PM ET
TV: SNY
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2

San Francisco Giants vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, September 2, 2026, 6:40 p.m. ET

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in the middle of a three-game set inside PNC Park against the San Francisco Giants.

On the mound for the Giants is Landen Roupp (8-13, 4.25 ERA), who is making his 27th start of the season. Roupp last pitched against the Arizona Diamondbacks at home on August 27, going five innings and giving up four hits and one earned run in a 6-1 victory. With the win, he snapped a six-game losing streak. Roupp pitched against the Pirates earlier in the season, giving up three hits and one earned run in a 13-3 loss back in May.

Jared Jones is getting the ball for the Pirates, where he hopes to bounce back after a tough losing streak of his own. In his last start against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 28, he went 4.2 innings, giving up seven hits and three earned runs in a 4-1 loss. The Pirates last won a game in which Jones pitched on July 18 against the Cleveland Guardians. Since then, they have dropped seven in a row when he takes the mound.

Perhaps September will bring some hope for Jones, but they will have to earn it against the Giants.

Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet Pittsburgh

Pitching Matchup: Landen Roupp (8-13, 4.25 ERA) vs. Jared Jones (2-6, 4.83 ERA)

BD community, this is your game thread against the San Francisco Giants. Chime off in the comments section below.

Wednesday notes…

• YOU PROBABLY KNOW WHY THIS HAPPENED: During the Cubs’ 6-10 slide, their starting pitchers have allowed no more than three runs in 11 games. The Cubs won only five of them. They lost once when a starter permitted up no runs, twice each when he yielded one and two, and last night, when Matthew Boyd gave up three. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• CUBS vs. BREWERS: With last night’s loss, the Cubs are 120-114 in games at home against the Brewers. In games of home series that began in the last week of August or later, they are 32-27, but in the last 10 such series, just 13-19, and in the last six, 6-13. They are 8-9 in all third games of the late-season series but 2-8 in the last 10 and 1-5 in the last six, with the win coming in the most recent third game, in 2023. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• HOME RUN NOTE: One day after hitting a team-record nine home runs, the Cubs did not hit any. On July 1, they hit eight; in their next game, two days later, none. Last year, they hit eight for the first time on July 4, then two the next day. The Cubs lost all three of the next-day games. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Ryne Sandberg’s grand slam highlights a six-run eighth inning, bringing the Cubs back from a 5-4 deficit to an eventual 10-8 win over the Padres in San Diego. It happened 35 years ago today, Monday, Sept. 2, 1991.

Cubs lineup:

Brewers lineup:

David Peterson, LHP vs. Jacob Misiorowski, RHP

In eight starts and one relief appearance since that debacle against the Cardinals July 3, David Peterson has been outstanding: 2.35 ERA, 1.261 WHIP, although he struggled a bit in his last start, Friday against the Reds.

Peterson’s first start as a Cub was against the Brewers, June 27 in Milwaukee, and he turned in a creditable 5.2 inning outing with two runs allowed and no walks.

That’d work pretty well tonight.

So, Jacob Misiorowski. You all know what he’s accomplished and how hard he throws.

The Cubs have had some success against him, largely when they can work counts and foul off a lot of pitches. That’s about the only thing I can suggest for success this evening.

He has been slightly less fantastic since his ERA dropped to 1.34 on June 12. Since then: 2.25 ERA in 11 starts, with nine home runs allowed in 64 innings. That’s really good but not as otherworldly as before, with that 1.34 ERA in his first 14 starts and only four HR in 87 innings.

Good luck tonight, Cubs hitters.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Brewers market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Brewers site Brew Crew Ball. If you do go there to interact with Brewers fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Prior to Wednesday night's rubber game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Mets interim skipper Andy Green talked about the team's starting pitching rotation moving forward and the health status of key players. 

Is a Jonah Tong call-up just around the corner?

With the MLB rosters having just expanded by two additional players, 23-year-old righty Jonah Tong is a strong candidate for a September call-up from Triple-A Syracuse.

In his last outing in the minors on Aug. 29th, Tong allowed just one hit through seven full innings, striking out eight batters and walking two.

Green told the media that Tong's potential addition to the team's pitching staff is "under discussion right now" and called the prospect of an extended starting rotation "definitely a possibility".

"We have been paying attention to Jonah's outings, we've seen where he's at, and we think positively about what he's done," he continued.

"When Jonah is in the strike zone, on the attack, letting his best stuff play, he usually has a lot of success," Green concluded.

However, it seems that Tong's potential first appearance with the big league club since June of this year might have to wait until after New York's three-game road set against the San Francisco Giants, as Green named Nolan McLean, Zac Thornton, and Christian Scott as the team's starters for that series.

Status of injured RHP Devin Williams

The Mets said they "hope and anticipate" that closer Devin Williams will return from his shoulder strain this season.

Accordingly, Green provided a brief update on the right-hander in his news conference.

"He's playing catch. I don't have a timetable yet, but he is throwing," he stated.

In Williams' place, Kodai Senga has been converted into an effective makeshift reliever. In August, Senga recorded five saves and 12 strikeouts across 10.1 innings, sporting a 1.74 ERA in the process.

Juan Soto's potential return to the outfield

The last time Juan Soto started a game in the Mets' outfield was Jul. 24 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the same game in which the star slugger exited early with a calf injury.

Since returning from that injury on Aug. 29, Soto has served as the team's designated hitter rather than taking his usual spot in left field.

However, Green had some positive news about Soto's potential return to the outfield.

"He'll definitely get back out there," Green shared. "We'll let how he feels daily dictate how often he's out there, since we'd obviously like him in the lineup every single day, so we'll do our best."

"There will be DH days, but how many depends on a number of factors," Green revealed.

The A’s managed to steal a win in Texas and avoid another sweep, beating the Rangers 9-2 to wrap up the series and snap the losing streak. Win #54 locked up.

More to come…

36 Years Ago Today

Blue Jays starter Dave Stieb had carried no-hitters into the ninth inning three times before. So, when Stieb took the mound in Cleveland on September 2, 1990, he must have wondered what would happen this time. Here’s what happened those previous three times:

• On September 24, 1988, in Cleveland, Julio Franco broke up the no-hitter with a ground ball that took an unexpectedly high hop, sailing over second baseman Manny Lee’s head.
• In Stieb’s very next start, this time in Toronto against the Orioles, Jim Traber ended the bid with a soft two-out fly ball that dropped between the infielders and outfielders.
• Then, on August 4, 1989, during the inaugural season at SkyDome, Roberto Kelly spoiled a potential perfect game with a two-out double into the gap in the ninth inning.

But the fourth time, everything finally fell into place.

In the ninth, Stieb:

• Got pinch-hitter Chris James to fly out (a pretty deep flyout).
• Struck out pinch-hitter Candy Maldonado.
• Walked Alex Cole (Stieb walked 4, unusual for him).
• And he induced Jerry Browne to fly/line out to right fielder Junior Felix.

Here is the final out:

Cleveland didn’t exactly have a powerhouse lineup in 1990. Their cleanup hitter, Ken Phelps (perhaps best known for a Seinfeld reference rather than his baseball stats), was batting just .155/.288/.198 at the time. In fact, five of their starters had an OPS below .700.

Stieb didn’t feel he was at his best that day. From the Toronto Star game story:

I didn’t have great control. I couldn’t find my release point in the early innings. I hung pitches but got away with them. They helped me out a few times by swinging at bad pitches. They hit balls right at people.

The win was Stieb’s 17th of the season against 5 losses. He finished the game with a 2.91 ERA. He would finish the season 18-6 with a 2.93 ERA, his most wins in a season, setting a new team-high.

I was a huge fan of Stieb—he was fiercely competitive. He would have been a good match for Jose Bautista, but unlike Jose, Stieb wasn’t afraid to stare down teammates who made mistakes. Unfortunately, the team wasn’t at its best when he was in his prime. I’m not sure if he was a bad teammate in other respects, but that kind of behavior probably didn’t make him popular in the clubhouse.

But I wasn’t on the team—I just saw him as the best player on my team and, at the time, the best pitcher in baseball. I admired his drive to win. For much of his career, there weren’t many other Jays worth cheering for.

It is still the only no-hitter in Blue Jays history.

The Atlanta Braves faced off against the Washington Nationals badly needing a win after dropping two in a row in games they should have won on paper with the Phillies trailing close behind.

Today, Grant Holmes made the start looking to cross the 130.0 innings pitched threshold. His opponent was Brad Lord, who has only made four starts. However, Lord has been an opener in all four.

The game did not start well for the Braves. Lord was able to retire the side picking up strikeouts of both Baldwin and Olson. Grant Holmes struck back in the bottom of the first. He was able to get newly returned James Wood to ground out, followed by two more to Ortiz and Crews.

Lord continued his dominance of the Braves by striking out the side in the second. At this point he struck out five of six batters he faced. To not be outdone, Holmes retired the side as well picking up a strikeout. The top of the third finally saw a baserunner when Yastrzemski singled. Riley almost moved him over, but Crews made a sliding catch for the out. Kim grounded out, followed by a Baldwin deep fly that he just missed. Holmes retired his ninth straight hitter in the third.

The top of the fourth is where things got crazy. Acuña singled followed by an Olson strikeout, but then Keibert Ruiz had to be replaced at catcher due to injury. Albies then walked and Harris reached on an error to load the bases for Sean Murphy. With the bases loaded and the second hottest hitter on the Braves the last two weeks up to bat, there was a weather delay.

After about an hour, Riley Cornelio came in to pitch for the Nationals. Murphy smoked the ball, but it was right at Abrams. Yastrzemski just missed a grand slam with a deep fly ball to RF, but the top of the inning ended with the bases loaded.

Dylan Dodd is who came in to replace Holmes in the fourth. He struck out Wood and got Ortiz to ground out. He walked Crews but got Abrams to fly out on a hard hit ball. The fifth started well for the Braves with a Riley singled, but then Kim popped up, Baldwin lined out, and then Riley was caught stealing.

Newly promoted Elieser Hernández came in to pitch the bottom of the fifth. He retired the side to include a strikeout. To start the sixth Acuña singled and stole second, but Olson struck out on a full count. It was his third strikeout of the day. Albies then followed up with a strikeout of his own. In an interesting move, Michael Harris was intentionally walked. Sean Murphy then made up for his bases loaded out and smacked a three-run HR over the left field wall to give the Braves a three run lead. Yastrzemski then struck out, but massive damage had been done.

Hernández stayed in to pitch, and it was clearly the right decision. He gave up a single to Wood, but that was the only baserunner he surrendered. Max Kranick came in to pitch for the Nationals and the Braves took full advantage. Riley popped up, but then Kim doubled. Drake Baldwin walked and then superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. made history as the fastest player in MLB history to have 200 career HRs and 200 career steals to make the score 6-0.

Olson struck out for the fourth time today, and Albies grounded out, but the game was blown open. Hernández continued to prove the front office right by pitching his third inning in the seventh. He surrendered a walk, but that was the only baserunner. Hernández finished his return with 3.0 innings of zero earned runs, one hit, one strikeout, and one walk.

The Braves continued to pile it on in the eighth. Harris lined out, but Murphy walked. Yastrzemski then double to put two on. Austin Riley then came in clutch with a two run single to ice the game.

The Braves almost got more too. Riley moved over on a wild pitch and Kim walked. This led to a pitching change where Matt Waldron came in. Waldren then retired the next two hitters. Didier Fuentes then came in to pitch the eighth. He gave up a singled, but then followed that up with back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout.

José Tena came in to pitch for the Nationals in the ninth. Olson finally did not strike out, but he did line out. Ozzie Albies walked, and then Brewer Hicklen came in to hit for Harris and walked. Sean Murphy then came in clutch yet again with a single that scored Albies. The scoring ended when Yastrzemski hit into a double play.

Victor Mederos then came in to pitch the ninth and retired the side.

The story today was how Grant Holmes looked fantastic and even though he was cut short due to rain, newly promoted Elieser Hernández took over and got the job done. The pitching as a unit only gave up two hits against one of the top scoring offenses this season.

The offense finally broke out of their shell as well, led by by Sean Murphy who had a HR and four RBI and Ronald Acuña had three hits to include a history making HR to make him the fastest player to record 200 career HRs and 200 steals.

The Braves are off tomorrow before their much looked forward to series against the Phillies on Friday.

It’s been a long time coming but Ronald Acuña Jr. finally got off the hump here on September 2 against the Washington Nationals. For the first time since August 15, Acuña put one over the fence and this time, it allowed him to hit a pretty unique milestone. For starters, Acuña now has 200 home runs over the course of his career — a very nice round number to reach.

He also had a stolen base earlier on — his 20th of the season and the 225th of his career. The dinger put Acuña into rarefied air when it comes to the career 200-200 Club. Sarah Slangs of MLB.com shared the stat that Acuña pulled off the feat in just 904 games, which is now the fewest amount of games that anybody has done it in.

It’s certainly been a long time coming but there’s definitely a sense of relief that Acuña was finally able to get the milestone dinger and judging by the reaction from the dugout, everybody down there was pretty thrilled to see Acuña hit that particular mark. As far as the season goes, it’s certainly encouraging to see the Braves start putting some big numbers on the board for a road game — especially with a huge series in Philadelphia looming large this weekend.

The Braves are currently up 6-0 on the Washington Nationals and will be hoping to hold onto that lead so that they can go into Philly with a winning record. For the immediate moment, though, it’s time to congratulate Acuña for reaching the 200-200 club in record time as far as games go. Here’s to 200 more of each! Well, maybe not stolen bases and it’ll certainly be a tall feat to hit 400 dingers as well, but who knows what the future holds for Ronald Acuña Jr. and the Braves?

The Mets have reinstated 29-year-old right-handed pitcher Justin Hagenman from the 60-day injured list, and they’ve optioned 26-year-old right-handed reliever Dylan Ross back to Triple-A Syracuse to clear a spot on the active roster.

Hagenman last pitched in a major league game last September, and after hitting the injured list with a rib fracture back in mid-March, he didn’t get into a minor league game until he appeared with the Single-A St. Lucie Mets on August 18. In 9.1 innings over the course of that appearance and one each with Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse, he had a 2.89 ERA. He’ll start for the Mets tonight as they play the rubber game of their three-games series against the Rays.

Ross finally made his major league debut in the Mets’ loss last night. While he was called up to the big leagues for the first time last September, he didn’t get into a game. And while his 6.25 ERA and 5.61 FIP in the minors this year might not have been the most encouraging stats, his debut went well, as he threw a scoreless inning.

Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees’ top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the final month of the season just ahead, we’re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who’s surprising? Who’s underwhelming? Who’s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.

Note: All records and stats are for games played as of Tuesday morning.

First Place: Los Angeles Dodgers (82-55)

Top Position Player: Andy Pages (4.0 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (4.1 fWAR)

The rich got richer at the trade deadline, adding two-time American League Cy Young Tarik Skubal in a deal with the Detroit Tigers, giving the Dodgers arguably the deepest starting rotation in baseball — when healthy, that is, which has been basically never. And yet, despite that, Los Angeles has been merely treading water for the past two months: they followed up a 13-11 July with a 13-14 August that included a stretch in which they lost eight out of nine, including seven straight. They’ve dealt with quite a few injuries: Shohei Ohtani has not yet returned to the mound, Andy Pages has been on the shelf since August 22nd with a left hand fracture, Roki Sasaki, Blake Treinen, and Edwin Díaz aren’t expected back until the middle of the month, and catchers Will Smith and Dalton Rushing were just activated from the injured list last night.

None of this matters, though. The Dodgers have a commanding lead in the division, a quartet of healthy aces in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Skubal, Tyler Glaswow, and Blake Snell, a small army of arms on the mend, and a lineup that, even with down years from Mookie Betts, Kyle Tucker, and Teoscar Hernández, still ranks second in the league in OPS+ (110) and fourth in runs/game (4.89). Until anyone says otherwise, they are the team to beat, not just in the National League West, but in all of baseball.

Second Place: San Diego Padres (73-65)

Top Position Player: Fernando Tatís Jr. (3.8 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Mason Miller (3.1 fWAR)

In the days leading up to the trade deadline, speculation ran rampant that the Padres were going to be sellers, with the Yankees trying to pry one of Adrian Morejon or Mason Miller from them in order to bolster the team’s bullpen. That, ultimately, did not come to pass, as the Padres decided to push all their chips into the middle of the table and add at the deadline instead, bringing in Robbie Ray and Casey Mize to reinforce the rotation and Luis Renfigo to lengthen the lineup. Those moves turned out to be the right move, as the Padres went 17-11 in August to put them squarely in contention for the third Wild Card spot.

How did the Padres manufacture that strong month to bring them right back into the thick of the playoff hunt? Although the lineup has, on the whole, been underachieving this season — Father Time is coming on fast for Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts in particular — Tatís Jr., Jackson Merrill, and Ty France have been dominant of late, posting wRC+ of 146, 136, and 138 in the month of August, respectively. Their pitching staff, meanwhile, has been strong of late, with Randy Vásquez (2.57 ERA in August), Walker Buehler (3.16 ERA), Michael King (2.21 ERA), and Ray (3.42 ERA) doing just enough to hand leads to one of the most dominant bullpens in baseball — a recipe which has given them the best ERA in baseball in August, 3.04. In truth, they probably have been overachieving a bit, but at least they’re doing so at the right time.

Unfortunately for them, however, Renfigo’s season is done after tearing his ACL and MCL in Tampa Bay.

Third Place: Arizona Diamondbacks (73-66)

Top Position Player: Corbin Carroll (4.4 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Eduardo Rodriguez (2.9 fWAR)

After a middling August in which they went 15-14, the D-Backs have lost a tiny bit of ground to the Padres, and have fallen back into the third place in the division and out of the third Wild Card spot (albeit just barely). That being said, if there’s any team in a position to make a run down the stretch, it’s Arizona. Six starters, including trade deadline acquisition Lars Nootbar, have an OPS+ above 100, and three players — Corbin Carroll, Gabriel Moreno, and Geraldo Perdomo — are in line to finish the season with at least 4 fWAR. Their pitching staff, meanwhile, looks to get Corbin Burnes, Michael Soroka, and Zac Gallen back from the injured list, even if Gallen has not been his All-Star self since he was a Cy Young finalist in 2023, he’s at least a starting pitcher… and the D-Backs are currently low on those.

Of course, none of these are the real story in Arizona right now. At the moment, everybody is focused on long time second baseman Ketel Marte, who recently returned to the team after going AWOL for the fourth consecutive season. While Arizona is definitively a much better team with him than without him (even though his 108 OPS+ is a far cry from his career baseline), this is a story that will cast a shadow over the team for the rest of the season — and, given the fans’ and team’s response, until he gets traded this winter.

Fourth Place: San Francisco Giants (57-81)

Top Position Player: Luis Arráez (3.8 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Logan Webb (2.9 fWAR)

There is perhaps no better indication of just how bad the season has gone for the San Francisco Giants than the fact that the player who accrued by far the most fWAR for them was batting cleanup for the Philadelphia Phillies last night (Rafael Devers comes in at a distance second with 2.5). Not surprisingly, their offense has been absolutely atrocious since sending Luis Arráez to Philadelphia and Heliot Ramos to the Bronx, with their 88 wRC+ in August fifth-worst in baseball. Between the trades and the injuries to Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Harrison Bader, they have exactly two hitters who can truly be feared, Devers and the rookie Bryce Eldridge, while Drew Gilbert and Jung Hoo Lee have been simply average too just-above-average.

The pitching staff has been better, but only slightly. Due to a flood of injuries and deadline departures, out of the six starters and five relievers that Baseball-Reference lists as the team’s “main” pitchers for the year, only two, Logan Webb and Landen Roupp (the latter of whom leads the league in losses) are currently on the active roster. Somehow, their 4.23 ERA and 2.8 fWAR in August only ranks in the bottom third. Still, it’s not enough to salvage what has been a disastrous campaign for the Giants, who are somehow making the pre-John Harbough New York Giants look like geniuses in comparison after refusing to move on from much-maligned first-year manager Tony Vitello.

Last Place: Colorado Rockies (52-86)

Top Position Player: Hunter Goodman (2.6 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Kyle Freeland (1.1 fWAR)

And somehow, the Giants aren’t the worst team in their own division. That distinction belongs to the Colorado Rockies, who are barely holding off the Athletics and Angels in the race to the bottom of the Major League Baseball standings. And yet, their disaster season represents a major step up from their 2025 campaign, and not just because they have already guaranteed that their final record will be significantly better than last year’s 119-loss season: between Hunter Goodman, Kyle Karros, and T.J. Rumfield, they have at least three players who look like they can be part of the solution, and not further parts of the problem. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

Outside of that, the season has pretty much been a disaster. Tomoyuki Sugano and his 5.23 ERA has been their best starter, while Jordan Romano — he who blew two saves against the Yankees earlier this season — has been their most consistent reliever. Now in his fourth full season, 24-year-old shortstop Ezequiel Tovar has taken a major step back for the second consecutive season, and his 47 wRC+ is by far the worst among qualified hitters. Mickey Moniak has been good as the designated hitter, but he is a free agent at the end of the season.

The Mariners will look to keep their perfect September alive and steal a series in Boston.

After a five-game losing streak to wrap up one of the worst months in franchise history, the Mariner rocked the Sox off Boston last night in Lazaro Montes’ debut. They’re back at it this afternoon with a chance to take the series and improve to 2-0 in the final month of the season. It’ll take something close to perfection to claw back into the race at nine games under .500 with 23 left to play.

Bryce Miller is on the bump in his first start since being moved to the bullpen. He never actually made a relief appearance, as Emerson Hancock went down with an injury shortly after. This will be Miller’s first time on the mound in 10 days. Perhaps the time off will have him back to where he was in his first few outings of 2026, when his velocity was electric and he looked like a tip-top pitcher. We haven’t seen that version of Miller in months. The Mariners lost his last two starts by a combined score of 41-2, partially because he couldn’t make it through five innings.

Miller will face Patrick Sandoval, who’s exactly the type of not-very-good-but-crafty lefty that’s given the Mariners fits all season. That’s largely because the versus-lefty lineup tends to include players like Weston Wilson and Jhonny Pereda, as is the case this afternoon. Montes is not in the lineup a day after his spectacular debut.

Lineups

Game Info:

First Pitch: 1:10 p.m.

TV: Mariners.TV

Radio: Ol’ Reliable

The Dodgers offense showed up finally on Tuesday night, but eight runs were not enough to overcome the terrible pitching performances by Eric Lauer and those that followed him. If the Dodgers muster even half of that on Wednesday, they should be in pretty good position as Yoshinobu Yamamoto takes the mound.

In his last outing, Yamamoto went 6 1/3 innings, allowing only a leadoff homer to Braves catcher Drake Baldwin, and then nothing else as he went toe-to-toe with Chris Sale. Sale of course completely shut down the Dodgers going for the complete game shutout, as the Dodgers couldn’t muster anything against him.

It was indicative of what has happened to Yamamoto throughout most of his career and especially this August, as he had a 1.95 ERA and only a 1-2 record to show for it. L.A. has scored three or more runs behind him only twice in his past six starts, and five of those games were decided by one run, giving him little margin for error while he’s on the mound.

This time the Dodgers will be facing the Cardinals bullpen. Ryan Fernandez went 1.2 innings in Tuesday night’s game, but every other arm in the ‘pen hasn’t seen much usage in the last few days and should be fresh and ready to go.

Yamamoto has faced the Cardinals twice before, and has yet to allow a run in 11 innings pitched.

Wednesday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Cardinals
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Start time: 7:10 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

The line-up above shows Cabrera as the “starter”: it’s quite possible he will end up throwing most innings today, but the actual first pitcher to take the mound today will be Taylor Clarke, in what looks likely to be a vaguely bullpen game for Arizona. There haven’t actually been too many of those this year for Arizona, compared to previous seasons. It’s hard to get an exact count, but simply looking at games where the “starter” has lasted two or fewer innings, seems to be the first bullpen game of 2026. The only <= 2 IP starts were Michael Soroka’s injury-curtailed one, and Ryne Nelson’s 0.1 IP, 8 ER outing.

There were two bullpen games last year, both with Jalen Beeks as the opener. But 2024 had six of them, starting as early as April 30 with Brandon Hughes. And if you’re thinking “who?” there, you’re probably not alone. Admittedly, there was a fairly good excuse. That was the famous “bee delay” game, which ended up icing Jordan Montgomery. But there was a genuine opener used by Arizona on May 20, when Joe Mantiply started in Dodger Stadium, and pitched a scoreless inning. It feels like it was something which was very much in vogue around the 2023-24 seasons, but has since fallen out of vogue.

There had been whispers in some circles that we might see Corbin Burnes come off the IL for this outing. But the team decided he was still not quite ready for prime-time. He would only have been able to throw about 45 pitches, and the team wants more. Torey Lovullo said, “We’re going to continue to allow Corbin to increase that overall pitch count in a setting we can control… He’s going to go out there and compete. We want to put him in the best situation possible for when he does re-enter our rotation, that he can pitch a little bit deeper into the game and not leave a little bit of a blank spot.” Should see him next week.

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It’s the fourth inning of a scoreless game and the Atlanta Braves are knocking on the door with the bases loaded and one out in the top half of this frame. We’ll have to wait and see if the Braves can cash in on the opportunity since some inclement weather that had been knocking on the door at Natioanls Park finally came through and made it too bad to play in.

So on that cliffhanger, we wait. Stay tuned right here as we’ll have updates for you as they come in. In the meantime, why don’t you give the new SB Nation App a whirl? We’ve got more information for you right here in case you’d like to try it out!

UPDATE [2:52 p.m. ET]: If you’re watching the TV broadcast, this won’t be a surprise. The grounds crew in Washington appears to be removing the tarp and play could be resuming in the near future. For what it’s worth, CJ Nitkowski guessed that it might be sometime after three, which it would have to be considering we’re knocking on the door of 3 o’clock.

UPDATE [3:00 p.m. ET]: Alright, we got a start time. 3:20 p.m. ET, folks. Lock in, everybody.