The Orioles off day stayed busy with the team agreeing on a contract extension with Shane Baz, who’s yet to pitch for the team and isn’t pitching today either. Apparently the whole 26-man roster turned out for the press conference. That’s fun. That kind of stuff creates good vibes. The good vibes will be heavily quashed if the team is not able to follow up on all of that by picking up a win here tonight.

Orioles lineup

1. Taylor Ward – LF
2. Gunnar Henderson – SS
3. Pete Alonso – 1B
4. Adley Rutschman – C
5. Samuel Basallo – DH
6. Dylan Beavers – RF
7. Coby Mayo – 3B
8. Colton Cowser – CF
9. Jeremiah Jackson – 2B

Tyler O’Neill and Blaze Alexander are on the bench after their Opening Day starts, with Beavers and Jackson getting action in this game instead. Kyle Bradish is the starting pitcher for game #2.

Twins lineup

1. Kody Clemens – 1B
2. Byron Buxton – CF
3. Luke Keaschall – 2B
4. Matt Wallner – RF
5. Josh Bell – DH
6. Ryan Jeffers – C
7. Trevor Larnach – LF
8. Royce Lewis – 3B
9. Brooks Lee – SS

Taj Bradley is the Twins starting pitcher. He wasn’t very good last year, so it would really be nice to see the Orioles offense wake up for the season.

**

What are you expecting from the team tonight? Is there anything you’d like to see?

After a 6-0 thumping of the Royals in the season opener, the Braves will deploy their perhaps more-standard, righty-pitcher-facing lineup in Game Two. This means Mike Yastrzemski takes over in left field and the five spot, while Dominic Smith slots in at DH, hitting eighth.

The cast of characters for the Royals is pretty similar to what you saw yesterday, except that Kyle Isbel and Jac Caglianone are now patrolling the outfield in lieu of Starling Marte and Lane Thomas, who drew Opening Day starts due to the Braves starting a southpaw in Chris Sale.

So, both teams are basically swapping two spots, but otherwise doing battle with the same pawns (or rooks or queens or what have you, as the case may be).

As far as matchups go, let’s get to it.

Though Michael Wacha’s been around forever, this Braves lineup only has 44 collective PAs across six batters against him, and only Ozzie Albies and Yastrzemski have double digits on that front, with 11 and 10, respectively. Austin Riley, Matt Olson, and Mauricio Dubon have all hit Wacha well in a tiny sample, while Albies and his buddy Ronald Acuña Jr. have not (also in a tiny sample).

The Royals lineup has a similar-ish level of familiarity with Reynaldo Lopez (42 PAs), with more than half of those courtesy of Salvador Perez, who spent a long time facing off against Lopez in the AL Central. Perez has a .380 xwOBA off the right-hander, but just a .290 wOBA. No one else really has enough PAs to be worth mentioning:

First pitch is at 7:15 pm EDT.

Sonny Gray returns to Great American Ball Park to face his former team as the Cincinnati Reds play host to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday afternoon.

Lineups are listed below. Go Reds!

After a disappointing 2-1 loss on Opening Day, the Colorado Rockies will look to even the series against the Miami Marlins. However, one bright note was first baseman TJ Rumfield. Rumfield made his MLB Debut last night, and is the only member of the Opening Day roster with true rookie status. He also became the 10th Rockie to make their MLB debut on Opening Day and the fifth to start the game — the last to do so was shortstop Trevor Story in 2016. Rumfield also hit a broken-bat single in the ninth inning, becoming the 60th Rockie to record a hit in the first MLB game (last: Kyle Karros on Aug. 8, 2025).

Michael Lorenzen will make his Rockies debut after joining the team on a one-year, $8 million contract in the offseason. The right-hander boasted about his desire to join the Rockies and work towards solving the problem of pitching at altitude. Spring training saw Lorenzen make four starts where he went 0-1 with a 10.97 ERA. However, he also pitched for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. Most notably, Lorenzen had a stellar outing against Team USA in the last game of Pool Play where the Italians won 8-6 after going up early but allowing the US to claw its way back. Lorenzen has faced the Marlins 17 times (six starts) and owns a 4-2 record with a 2.33 ERA. In loanDepot Park, he is 2-2 with a 2.76 ERA.

Lorenzen will face Marlins’ right-hander Eury Pérez. Pérez was signed by the Marlins out of the Dominican Republic in 2019 and made his MLB debut in 2023. However, he missed all of 2024 due to elbow inflammation that eventually led to Tommy John surgery. He returned in June 2025 and ended up pitching 20 games for the Fish, going 7-6 with a 4.25 ERA over 95.1 innings. Pérez has faced the Rockies twice in his young career, both times at Coors Field, going 1-1 with a 2.89 ERA.

First Pitch: 2:10pm MDT

TV: Rockies.tv

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

Lineups:

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. New York Mets, March 28, 2026, 4:10 p.m. ET

Location: Citi Field, Flushing, NY

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet-PIT

The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road today against the New York Mets at Citi Field looking to grab a win and raise the Jolly Roger.

Please remember our Game Day thread guidelines.

• Don’t troll in your comments; create conversation rather than destroying it
• Remember Bucs Dugout is basically a non-profanity site
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BD community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!

Mets lineup

Francisco Lindor – SS
Juan Soto – LF
Bo Bichette – 3B
Jorge Polanco – 1B
Luis Robert – CF
Brett Baty – DH
Marcus Semien – 2B
Carson Benge – RF
Francisco Alvarez – C

David Peterson – LHP

Pirates lineup

Jared Triolo – SS
Ryan O’Hearn – 1B
Bryan Reynolds – LF
Marcell Ozuna – DH
Nick Gonzales – 3B
Brandon Lowe – 2B
Nick Yorke – RF
Joey Bart – C
Jake Mangum – CF

Mitch Keller – RHP

Broadcast info

First pitch: 4:10 EDT
TV: SNY
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2

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The Los Angeles Dodgers aim for a season-opening three-game sweep of their NL West counterpart, the Arizona Diamondbacks, in the series finale on Saturday night. 

Eduardo Rodriguez is slated to start for the visitors, and my Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers predictions and MLB picks foresee him doing his part in avoiding the sweep on Saturday, March 28.

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers predictions

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers best bet: Eduardo Rodriguez Over 3.5 strikeouts (+124)

After dropping the first two games of the series, the Arizona Diamondbacks could use a strong outing from Eduardo Rodriguez on Saturday. 

The veteran southpaw isn’t known for his punchout prowess, but he’s had strikeout success against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Across a sample size of 131 at-bats vs. L.A.’s projected hitters, he’s racked up a respectable 26% K-rate.

Rodriguez tossed 4+ strikeouts in 20 of his 29 starts last year, and was in fine form during the World Baseball Classic, throwing four scoreless against Team USA. Expect a successful start to the season for him.

COVERS INTEL: Arizona didn’t get much length from either Zac Gallen or Ryne Nelson, so Rodriguez may have a slightly longer leash than normal.

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers same-game parlay (SGP)

How about a pitcher’s delight? 

Tyler Glasnow may be primed for a career year — if he can finally stay healthy — and looked dominant in his last outing, striking out 11 Angels in an exhibition start. 

The towering righty has maintained a K rate above 29% each of the last eight seasons and gets a favorable matchup against an Arizona lineup that has failed to launch, posting a 77 wRC+ and 29.4% K rate in games one and two.

L.A. has its best bullpen in years, which will lead to more low-scoring games in 2026 now that it provides an adequate pairing with the strong rotation.

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers SGP

• Eduardo Rodriguez Over 3.5 strikeouts
• Tyler Glasnow Over 6.5 strikeouts
• Dodgers moneyline

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers home run pick: Teoscar Hernandez (+400)

Teoscar Hernandez has been quiet to start the year. That could change in game three, given that he’s had success against Rodriguez in the past, batting 10-for-26 with three home runs and a 1.293 OPS.

The outfielder is posting strong underlying numbers early (.348 xBA and a 74th percentile bat speed). He’s mashed lefties in his career (136 wRC+), which will play against Rodriguez, who surrendered 1.57 HR/9 to right-handed bats in 2025.

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers odds

• Moneyline: Arizona +200 | Los Angeles -240
• Run line: Arizona +1.5 | Los Angeles -1.5
• Over/Under: Over 9 | Under 9

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers trend

Eduardo Rodriguez has gone Over 3.5 strikeouts in 23 of his last 33 outings. Find more MLB betting trends for Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers.

How to watch Diamondbacks vs Dodgers and game info

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers latest injuries

Diamondbacks vs Dodgers weather

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Texas Rangers @ Philadelphia Phillies

Saturday, March 28, 2026, 3:05 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / RSN, Victory+)

Citizens Bank Park

LHP Jacob Latz vs. RHP Aaron Nola

Go Rangers!

San Diego Padres fans had the wool pulled over their eyes last night by the Detroit Tigers as the Friars lost their thin 2-1 lead late into the night.

The Friar Faithful believed they were close to the first win of the season and tasted victory before an eighth-inning Tigers rally snatched it away.

Michael King looked vintage, pitching five scoreless innings of one-hit ball (in large part to Jackson Merrill’s miraculous home run robbery).

Beyond that, the Padres got to Detroit starter Framber Valdez just enough to give a cushion typically good enough for the bullpen to keep. But Jeremiah Estrada’s eighth-inning meltdown forfeited San Diego’s chances.

Today, the Padres hope to hold off the Tigers from sweeping them this Opening Week. The Friars need to get their first win out of the way. Until they do, it’ll be hard to feel good about any minor success the club has without the wins to back it up.

Taking the mound

Jack Flaherty (DET) v. Randy Vásquez (SD)

With Flaherty hoping to rebound from a rough 2025 before he goes into free agency at the end of this year, the onus will be on him against Vásquez.

After having a career-year in ‘25, Vásquez is looking to build on his resumé for San Diego. He will get a chance to do that today after having a rough outing the last time he faced Detroit (six runs over two-plus innings).

San Diego got a fantastic start from King yesterday but somehow managed to lose the game late. The Padres won’t need an incredible start from Vásquez given the Friars’ previous success against Flaherty.

Batter up!

With the Padres’ first game against a right-handed pitcher, the starters will look more like last year’s.

The lineup will likely look similar to yesterday’s, with only a few minor tweaks:

1. Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
2. Xander Bogaerts, SS
3. Jackson Merrill, CF
4. Manny Machado, 3B
5. Ramón Laureano, LF
6. Nick Castellanos, DH
7. Gavin Sheets, 1B
8. Freddy Fermin, C
9. Jake Cronenworth, 2B

Even though Tatis has been the leadoff hitter for the first two games, it’s possible manager Craig Stammen returns to his lineup from earlier this spring, with Bogaerts in the leadoff spot and Tatis batting cleanup. Though that’s unlikely to be the case against right-handed pitchers even though Bogaerts has been wrecking Tigers pitching thus far.

The assumption would be that Castellanos will be benched in favor of ‘25 breakout Gavin Sheets. But Castellanos owns a career .375 batting average and a 1.069 OPS against Flaherty (16 at-bats) so he’ll likely slide to DH over Miguel Andujar, with Sheets starting at the cold corner.

Relief corps

With Adrian Morejon going two full innings yesterday, it’s safe to say he’s out for tonight’s finale against the Tigers. Estrada is in a similar position after blowing the game wide open for Detroit with back-to-back-to-back walks to load the bases.

David Morgan has pitched two innings in as many games, so he’ll probably be kept in the bullpen. Alongside him is Wandy Peralta who has gone one and a third in the same time frame.

With that in mind, Kyle Hart, Ron Marinaccio, and Bradgley Rodriguez are all available to pitch. Closer Mason Miller has yet to be used after the Padres have failed to attain a lead in the ninth. Hopefully tonight will mark his 2026 debut in San Diego.

First Pitch: 3:05 pm CDT
TV: Twins.TV / FS1
Radio: TIBN / WCCO 830 / The Wolf 102.9 FM / Audacy

KNOW THINE ENEMY: Camden Chat

Each of the last few seasons, that pesky day off right after the season opener has felt particularly sting-worthy. In 2023 and 2025, it delayed Minnesota’s early-season chances to prove that the bad breaks of last season were a thing of the past — that this iteration of the Twins was ready to get back on the horse, and that a late-season collapse did not define the fresh new version of the team. In 2024, it put a temporary pause on the momentum of 2023, and left room for another day of morbid speculation as to what effect “right-sizing” was going to have on the season ahead.

But in 2026, an early day off feels less like a tease and more like a delay of the inevitable. In their opening salvo, the Twins stamped all the squares on their 2026 bingo card: a great start from Joe Ryan, a loss credited to leaky relief and bad defense, an outright failure to hit with runners in scoring position, and a run-scoring opportunity created single-handedly by Byron Buxton, maybe the only good player in the lineup. It was a loss so emblematic of the gloomy forecast, Dan Hayes’ recap was mostly about how Joe Ryan is probably going to be gone soon.

Now that we’ve had about 48 hours to feel sorry for the state of things, it’s time to get back to the grind. After all, as predictable as the Opening Day loss felt, there’s 161 games left this season, and a whole weekend worth of series left for Minnesota to try and win. In their attempt to do so, they’ll send out this year’s #2 starter, Mr. Taj Bradley.

Along with Abel, the 25-year-old Bradley is one of two key cogs in the starting rotation delivered by last season’s trade deadline from beyond the grave. Shipped by the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Griffin Jax, straight-up, Bradley got six games under his belt as a Twin in 2025, walking a few too many hitters and giving up a few too many runs (6.61 ERA in 31.1 IP, with six homers allowed.)

Armed with a couple different fastball looks, a splitter/curve mix, and an occasional sinker, Bradley is hoping to live up to his stock as a fifth-round draft pick after putting up two and a half relatively uninspiring seasons in Florida. With the exception of a 2024 in which he managed a 97 ERA+ and a career-low 3.1 BB/9, Bradley’s other big-league stints have been marked by ballooning earned run averages and dwindling ERA+ marks. (Some even say that those go hand-in-hand.)

What Bradley has going for him is his age, a change of scenery, and a former top-50 prospect ranking. There has always been potential with Bradley, and there may yet be a well to be tapped, but any player within the Rays organization who fails to see their potential extracted — and particularly a pitcher — there remains cause for concern that another team can do the same. The counterargument would be that the Twins did just that with Joe Ryan, another Tampa Bay prospect, although the optics of trading a minor-league Ryan for Nelson Cruz are admittedly shinier when compared to the optics of TB’s front office giving up on Bradley after over 350 big-league innings.

Both Bradley and Abel, who we’ll see again next week, will presumably get long leashes throughout a major figure-it-out year for the entire roster. If both can perform, the perception of the team is somewhat transformed. If either struggle, it may take us back to the Chris Archer/Dylan Bundy days of rotational depth.

On that lovely, optimistic note, enjoy the game!!

On holiday in Japan. I wonder if my MLB TV subscription will work when I’m there. Scheduling these so Tom_M has one less thing to worry about.

All going well, we are in Tokyo today. It will be 4:00 am Tokyo time when this one starts so I’m not going to be watching.

Of course, since I’m doing this a couple of weeks ahead of time, I don’t have the lineups. If someone would like to post them in the thread that would be great.

I don’t think I’ve ever been away at the start of the season before.

Go Jays Go.

Most people don’t want to be reminded of one of their worst moments in life.

But for Alex Vesia, that moment is also close to his heart.

Vesia and his wife, Kayla, tragically lost their newborn daughter last October, which caused him to miss the Dodgers World Series run last season.

So when Opening Day came this year, the Vesia family knew emotions would be heightened after picturing life differently.

Kayla  attended Los Angeles’ season opener against the Diamondbacks, and in an Instagram post, she called her evening at the ballpark “very bitter sweet.”

“What I would give to have my Sterling girl here,” Kayla wrote, “carrying her in my heart always.”

Alex and Kayla announced on Nov. 7 that Sterling Vesia, their newborn, died on Oct. 26. They wrote at the time there were “no words to describe the pain we’re going through.”

Now every time Alex takes the mound, he’ll be reminded of Kayla and Sterling.

Alex made his season debut Saturday night in Los Angeles’ 5-4 victory over the Diamondbacks, throwing one inning of scoreless ball while surrendering one hit.

While his stat line was impressive, it was what he was wearing that caught everyone’s attention.

Alex was seen sporting a custom glove with Sterling Sol stitched onto it.

Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia is wearing a custom glove with the name of his late newborn daughter Sterling Sol Vesia on it, along with her birthday and the letter K on the ring finger for his wife Kayla

His newborn daughter passed away two days after the start of the World Series… pic.twitter.com/SxlrQMUMKq

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 28, 2026

Alex first spoke about his and Kayla’s loss during spring training when he read a prepared statement to the media.

“The lessons we’ve learned from this is that life can change in an instant,” Alex said. “Ten minutes is all it took. Sterling Sol was the most beautiful girl in the world. We got to hold her, change her diaper, read to her and love her. Our time together was far too short. Kay and I will keep those precious moments and memories to ourselves. I hope that anyone listening can empathize and respect our wishes for privacy as we continue to heal, and as we navigate the ups and downs of a baseball season.”

The Dodgers return to action Sunday when they wrap up their three-game series with the Diamondbacks. First pitch is set for 6:10 p.m.

This afternoon, the Athletics will look to rebound from yesterday’s back-breaking loss and nab their first win of the 2026 season in game two of the team’s inaugural series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Shea Langeliers’ two home runs and starting pitcher Luis Severino’s five solid innings pitched was not enough to prevent the team from losing its opening game. After Langeliers’ second home run of the game, a game-tying blast in the top of the ninth inning off of Toronto’s closer Jeff Hoffman, the Blue Jays instantly responded. The hosts recorded three straight two-out hits in the bottom of the ninth off A’s reliever Justin Sterner for the walk-off victory, sending their fans home happy.

Left-hander Jeffrey Springs will take the mound today for the A’s. Springs turned in a decent season last year, his first with the A’s following four years with the Tampa Bay Rays. Over 32 games, 30 of those starts, Springs went 11-11 with a 4.11 ERA, striking out 138 hitters in 171 innings pitched. The veteran lefty struggled the first month of his A’s tenure before posting a 3.72 ERA from May till the end of the season, a number that the A’s would be more than happy to see replicated this year. One cause for alarm is that Springs struggled this spring, pitching to a 6.28 ERA in the Cactus League. As a result, his first start today will be worth watching to see if that was just an aberration due to preseason games meaning nothing. To contend this season, the A’s need Springs and Severino to pitch well and give the team a chance to win every time they are on the mound.

Springs will go up against 30-year-old right hander Dylan Cease, who will be making his much-anticipated Blue Jays debut. Having signed a seven-year, $210 million contract with the team in free agency, Toronto is counting on Cease pitching like the top-of-the rotation arm he can be as the team aims for a return to the World Series. Last year, with the San Diego Padres, Cease went 8-12 with a 4.55 ERA, striking out 215 batters in 168 innings pitched.

Cease will face this A’s lineup this afternoon at the Rogers Centre:

The A’s lineup is nearly the same as yesterday, with Nick Kurtz once again in the leadoff spot. The only change is Carlos Cortes getting the start in right field instead of Lawrence Butler, a switch likely to give Butler rest following his recent return from knee surgery. Langeliers was the only A’s batter to record a hit yesterday. Hopefully more of his teammates can join him in the hit column today!

Springs will go up against this Blue Jays lineup today:

A’s pitchers did a good job neutralizing Blue Jays superstars George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. last night. Kazuma Okamoto was one of the Blue Jays who stepped up instead, recording two hits and scoring the game-winning run in the Japanese third baseman’s MLB debut.

Follow the Game

Watch

Athletics – NBCSCA

Listen

Athletics – Talk 650 KSTE, A’s Cast

Searching the whole of the National League, one will not find a team utilizing a starting pitcher at or near the caliber of Tyler Glasnow this Saturday. Scheduling and other outside factors led to some rotations—including the Dodgers—not necessarily starting the season in descending order of skill set, but the point is valid all the same. It won’t get much easier for opposing offenses against the Dodgers, at least not while this rotation can stay—knock on wood—moderately healthy.

As much as we could focus on Glasnow and his outlook heading into a third season with the Dodgers, for a third game of the season, this will be as big an endurance test to the bullpen early on as one could ask for. For starters, Glasnow isn’t the type of pitcher to go that deep into a game, even when he’s rolling, a byproduct of all those strikeouts. Secondly and most importantly, the Dodgers’ bullpen has excelled in a sizeable share of work these past two days. Dodger relievers have covered nearly a full game’s worth of baseball, responsible for 8.2 scoreless frames in a pair of two wins against the Diamondbacks.

It speaks to the depth of this unit that the Dodgers were able to cover all of these innings with Tanner Scott being the only pitcher who appeared in both games. And even Scott had a minimal workload in both games, not even cracking double-digit pitches.

Kyle Tucker’s go-ahead RBI takes the headlines, but the Dodgers don’t win that game if Jack Dreyer and Ben Casparius falter early on, both asked to throw 20+ pitches in a game the Dodgers only got 10 outs from their starter.

Saturday’s game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
• Start time: 6:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish), 98.7 FM’s Arizona Sports Station, KNAI 101.9 FM / 860 AM

Given that Reynaldo Lopez missed nearly all of the 2025 season, I’m sure no one was really looking forward to a reality where he was the Braves’ de facto number two starter. Nonetheless, that reality is here: Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep went down with substantial injuries earlier, and then Spencer Strider hit the shelf with an oblique issue. So, here we are: behind Chris Sale, it’s Lopez today, and then Grant Holmes in the series finale.

Lopez’ health and effectiveness is a pretty swing-y part of the Braves’ eventual 2026 success, or lack thereof. He dazzled in his return to starting in 2024, with a collective 48/74/85 line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-) where he at least hinted at the ability to outperform his peripherals by amping up his pitches in key situations. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to see whether he could repeat the misaligned pitching line, because he made all of one start in 2025 and then went down with shoulder woes for the rest of the year.

Coming into this season, Lopez’ production is a wild card. On the one hand, he avoided explicit injury in Spring Training. On the other hand, when getting his tune-ups in, he exhibited diminished velocity, and set off the unpleasant clanging of alarm bells when, in his most recent outing, he not only looked disastrous mechanically, but was lobbing in sub-90 mph fastballs for the whole outing. That resulted in an uncanny (and not in a good way) bit of damage control by the Braves — who first answered that the lower velocity (and presumably other issues) were the result of a mechanical misadjustment, and then had Alex Anthopoulos confirm such (and indicate that he now felt much better about the situation) on an Opening Day radio appearance.

How much you believe all of that is entirely up to you. Maybe it’ll be fine, maybe Lopez’ shoulder has just congealed into one of those weird reheatable ham blocks I heard advertised on the radio this morning and is no longer suitable for big league pitching. The proof is going to be in the pudding… or… ham… block… thing. (Seriously, I wish I didn’t know how ham was made. Don’t look it up.) If Lopez falters, the Braves do have a bunch of bullpen arms capable of throwing a bunch of innings to salvage this game, so hopefully, if there are issues, we see something fairly proactive in terms of pitching management.

The Royals, meanwhile, will be looking for their first W of 2026 behind Michael Wacha. The now-34-year-old signed a chunky deal with Kansas City ahead of the 2024 season ($51 million, three years), and delivered with a career-high 3.6 fWAR across 31 starts (also a career high) and 172 2/3 innings. That performance topped the first year of his deal, where he had 3.3 fWAR and an 81/89/101 line. Basically, the Royals feel really good about this deal, in all likelihood. His 2025 performance benefited from some stuff beyond his pitching, as his line was 91/88/109. A lot of his success was driven by a very low HR/FB rate, and the Braves will have to hope and/or force the issue, as their path to success still probably runs through hitting a bunch of homers, as they showed yesterday. (For his career, Wacha is at 96/97/100, so this gap-against-xFIP is pretty recent development and likely related to whatever adjustments he’s made to keep pitching into his mid-30s.)

Kind of amazingly given his career, Wacha hasn’t faced the Braves since 2023, where he had a dominant outing against them. Before then, the Braves had knocked him around in four straight prior starts going back to 2017. He’s been around for over a decade now, and has evolved a fair bit, so history is probably just a curiosity here. The same goes for Lopez, who has 27 career appearances against the Royals and terrible numbers against them, but most of those issues came during his uneven White Sox tenure. He dominated them in a start in late 2024, but again, that’s probably not too relevant for these proceedings.

Anyway, the Braves are on a quest to go 2-0 and keep exorcising last year’s demons. We’ll see if they can manage it.

Game Info

Kansas City Royals at Atlanta Braves

Saturday, March 28, 7:15 pm EDT

Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

TV/Video: Fox (national, should not be blacked out on MLB.tv)

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan