Category: Baseball

Here’s the Guardians lineup:

Here’s the Royals lineup:

Let’s go, Guardians!

Welcome to game 36 on this young season. Can you imagine? Thirty-six games? I feel like it just started yesterday.

In any case, the big news for today’s game is Noah Cameron’s start being skipped. The press crew talked to Cameron and Matt Quatraro before the game, and it doesn’t seem that big of a deal. Cameron said that it was only a “moderate” back spasm but that it was “too early to push through.” He said that if it was August or September, he’d probably take the mound. Q also reiterated that, too.

In Cameron’s place, we’ll get Stephen Kolek. This marks Kolek’s first game for the Royals; he was competing for a spot in the rotation in spring, but an oblique injury sidelined him. He’s been really good in Omaha, sporting a nifty 2.76 ERA over four starts.

Guardians lineup

Royals lineup

Oh, and one more thing – the press dinner menu today is distinctly lacking any tacos. It’s Cinco de Mayo and Taco Tuesday! Big miss, Aramark.

The Braves have been good so far, but they’re also keeping it interesting as they navigate injuries and the inexorable grind of the season. Tonight’s bit of intrigue: Michael Harris II is back, but… he’s in left field! I guess that gives his ailing quad muscle a bit of a break relative to center field, where Mauricio Dubon will continue to flag balls down, and Mike Yastrzemski shifts to right.

So, Drake Baldwin remains at leadoff, but Harris returns to the starting lineup and hits cleanup. Dominic Smith also makes his return at DH, as Sean Murphy sits a day after being activated from the Injured List. Someone asked earlier, and I looked it up — the Braves haven’t had someone listed at catcher hit leadoff since 1973.

I still think it’s kind of weird that the Braves deliberately going with three blocks of the same handedness rather than alternating them, but that may not have a huge effect. It’s just somewhat contrary to usual practice.

For the Mariners, Cal “Big Dumper” Raleigh returns to the lineup, though he’s ensconced at DH for now. That means no Dominic Canzone in this one.

Batter-versus-pitcher stuff is very limited. Everyone in the Braves’ lineup sans Baldwin has faced George Kirby before, but only Jorge Mateo has double-digit PAs. The collective line is a very sad .238 wOBA and .234 xwOBA in 49 PAs; the Braves probably can’t afford that level of performance if they want to extend their no-series-losses streak.

There’s even less exposure in terms of Bryce Elder versus the Mariners — no one has more than six PAs, and the last three in the lineup haven’t faced Elder at all. The total line comes in just 18 PAs and is a pretty scary .363 wOBA / .377 xwOBA. Not that that’s predictive, but it’s also not exciting.

It has been a disaster of an offseason for the Astros GM, now does he have what it takes to fix it?

Every season in MLB is essentially a new project, with additions and subtractions to the active roster, to the 40 man roster, to the minor league system. It is a new puzzle each year, one with an unknown shape, and the GM is tasked with acquiring enough pieces or the right pieces (or both) to fill a puzzle that he doesn’t yet know the layout of.

It’s a very difficult job trying to guess the puzzle ahead of time, which is why GMs make a whole lot of money. They hold the keys to the castle, building it and maintaining it is their foremost responsibility. The challenges of doing so are irrelevant, you are judged on wins and losses.

Right now the Astros are losing too much. The way in which they are losing is borderline incredulous.

In the Golden Era of Astros baseball, pitching and defense have been hallmarks of the organization. The Astros consistently won by pitching their tails off and taking advantage of their opponents’ mistakes and then punishing them for making them.

This year, the Astros are the team making the mistakes. They are also the team that cannot pitch.

That the Astros cannot pitch is a concept so far from the reality of the past 10 years, it would not be unreasonable for someone to assume I am pulling their leg, or at the very least am being highly sarcastic. Yet, here we are.

The Astros 5.78 ERA as a team is the worst in baseball. It is 0.71 runs per game WORSE than the 2nd worst team, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

How did the Astros get here? After all, when they were the most injured pitching staff in a generation, they still managed a respectable 3.86 ERA, good for 11th in MLB. What has gone wrong?

Everything.

After the team elected to allow staff ace Framber Valdez to leave via free agency, they chose to address their pitching needs in the bargain bin. While that isn’t necessarily a failing strategy, this year and to this point, it has been.

The Astros signed/acquired 5 starting pitchers and a group of relievers, that to this point have failed far more than they have succeeded.

Mike Burrows was acquired in a 3-way trade in the offseason that saw Houston send Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito to Tampa. in his rookie season a year ago in Pittsburgh, Burrows showed some promise. He went 3-4 with a 3.94 ERA over 96 innings, with a 1.24 WHIP and 97 strikeouts.

This season to date, he has not fared nearly as well, currently sitting at 1-4 with a 5.97 ERA and 1.65 WHIP over 37.2 innings. He has allowed the most hits in the AL with 49, and he has already allowed 8 home runs.

Burrows H/9 rate has exploded from 8.3 to 11.7. While he has been the subject of some tough luck, that doesn’t explain the 3.5 hits per nine increase, nor does it explain his HR/9 rate jumping so hard (from 1.2 last year to 1.9 this year). Poor command has been mostly to blame.

Tatsuya Imai has been perplexing. He was practically untouchable all spring, and then started strong in his first game until he lost the strike zone in the 3rd inning and couldn’t get out of it. Imai was terrific in his second start, going 5.2 innings scoreless with 9K for his first MLB win. His 3rd start was an abject disaster in which he allowed 3 runs on 4 walks and 1 hit, and only recorded one out. He went on the IL after that start with arm fatigue.

In his first rehab start, he again couldn’t find the strike zone, and threw only 31 of his 59 pitches for strikes. He will make another rehab start tonight in Sugar Land, and the Astros desperately need their biggest ticket free agent signing to right the ship and be the kind of frontline starter he was expected to be when he arrived.

Ryan Weiss has been a total failure. Coming over from the KBO where he dominated last season and led his team to their version of the World Series, he started well in his first 3 appearances and then completely fell apart. Weiss allowed just 1 run total in his first 3 appearances totaling 6 innings. He walked two and struck out 7. He looked like a terrific international signing.

However, over his last 6 outings, he has been simply awful. He’s allowed 21 ER over his last 20 innings, with 18 walks and a ridiculous 7 home runs. He hasn’t just set fire to games, he’s taken a flamethrower to them. He was optioned to Triple-A after his appearance last night as the Astros will try to figure out what happened to his command.

Nate Pearson was returning from surgery, and is also expected to make a rehab assignment today at Sugar Land. He has not yet made an appearance for Houston.

The two moves that can be argued in Brown’s favor for the pitching staff thus far are for Kai-Wei Teng and Peter Lambert.

Teng was acquired in a trade with the Giants for Jancel Villaroel. Teng has been one of their best pitchers, able to give them length, spot start, and handle leverage so far in a bullpen that has been significantly overworked and has not been able to get players into established roles. While Teng has not been used primarily as a starter this season, he has been a starter in the past, and Dana Brown did say they were interested in stretching Teng out as a starter.

Teng is 1-2 with a 2.35 ERA and 0.96 WHIP. He has allowed just 15 hits (albeit 3 HR) with 7 walks and 22 strikeouts. His versatility and effectiveness have been one of the few bright spots in the bullpen.

Lambert, who pitched the last 2 years in Japan, was originally signed by the Astros to a MiLB deal in November 2025. The Astros then released him March 24 after he did not make the Opening Day roster and Lambert triggered an opt-out clause in his contract. He re-signed a minor league deal with Houston 3 days later.

Lambert began the season at Triple A, posting a 1.84 ERA in 3 appearances (2 starts) for Sugar Land. He allowed 3 ER in 14.2 IP with 3 BB and 12K. Since being called up by the Astros, Lambert has been solid, going 1-2 with a 3.52 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, having been the unfortunate recipient of poor relief in his first start. Lambert has generated a lot of swings and misses in his first 2 starts as well, and has been a solid lifeline for a rotation in distress.

This rotation retooling thus far has not succeeded, and has been further hampered by injuries to staff ace Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier, neither of whom is expected back until June at the earliest.

Now, Burrows could still get things turned around and he has been better in his past two starts. Imai could return to his proper and expected form and have a strong 4 months. Both of those things would go a long way to getting the Astros right and making Brown’s offseason look better.

Brown’s offseason literally hangs in the balance of the resurgence of Burrows and Imai. Those aren’t bad bets, but they leave no room for error.

What does Brown do if those two guys don’t pan out? It isn’t realistic to expect guys like Jason Alexander and Colton Gordon to be starters the entire season and be effective. Whether or not Weiss can right the ship is anyone’s guess but definitely should not be counted on.

The biggest question is what can Dana Brown do if the offseason is indeed a failure? The Astros don’t have the depth or the minor league top talent to acquire big time pitching at the trade deadline, if the team is even good enough to warrant such moves then. Those moves may need to be made much sooner.

Does Brown have the ability to swing those deals? Being in the final year of his contract, does he even have the authority to swing those deals?

We don’t know what handcuffs Brown has had to deal with, other than the payroll restrictions obviously put on him by owner Jim Crane, who is very reticent to pay the luxury tax for a third straight season unless he thinks there is a big move to make at the deadline to make them serious contenders. Right now, they are at best a Wild Card hopeful more than a Divisional contender, let alone a title contender.

We have seen this team overcome bad starts and bad stretches before (see 12-24 start in 2024). We have seen other teams do the same in recent seasons (see Atlanta 2021 and Cleveland 2025). It is possible.

What Brown can do for the Astros here is paramount to his job security. If the moves he’s already made don’t pan out, he is likely gone. Whether or not he has the ammunition or authority to make more moves is very much in question, and we are likely to find out what the answers to those questions are soon.

Brown needs a new plan to get this team in the right direction. Does he have one? Is he allowed to execute it?

Right now, he appears to be the person most culpable for a struggling team’s roster that has an overburdened and underperforming pitching staff, and Jim Crane doesn’t like to lose.

As the San Francisco Giants are looking to string together a run of victories, they have been ranked near the bottom of nearly every MLB power ranking to start the 2026 season.

With a 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday, May 4, the Giants won their third in the previous 10 games to improve to 14-21 on the season.

It's hasn't been an ideal start for the Giants' first-year skipper Tony Vitello. Vitello made MLB history when he was hired as manager by San Francisco with no prior coaching experience in the majors. He had been a standout, national championship-winning collegiate baseball coach at Tennessee.

However, through 35 games, the Giants have not looked like a team that could sneak into the wild card. It's too early to count them out, but after a month of baseball it's evident that something has got to give.

After a month of games, USA TODAY Sports gave the Giants a generous D+ grade for their performance. ESPN, meanwhile, gave San Francisco a D-. There's been times when you see the vision, but too many times when they can't get hits, can't get runs and can't close games. Here's where the Giants rank in experts' MLB power rankings:

Didn’t we just do this? There’s a big feeling of deja vu in the air in The Bronx tonight, as the Yankees take on the Rangers for the second time in the last week after taking two out of three at Globe Life Field in Arlington last week.

That will give rookie starter Elmer Rodríguez a chance at redemption after taking the loss in his major league debut on April 29 against the Rangers, allowing two runs in four innings. There are clear areas he’ll be looking to improve in his debut in pinstripes today, especially in the walk department. For a guy who was generally billed as having solid command in the minor leagues, Rodríguez struggled to throw strikes amidst the nerves of his big league debut and will look to give himself a better chance of succeeding today by doing so. With Carlos Rodón on the cusp of returning, this might be his last shot to prove himself for a while.

But while he faced a good pitcher in Nathan Eovaldi last time, it’s nothing compared to the wizardry opposing him tonight in two-time Cy Young Jacob deGrom. Through six starts, the former Met has a 2.01 ERA (185 ERA+) and 2.92 FIP in 31.1 innings with 40 strikeouts. His last start? Also against the Yankees, where he allowed one run in six innings but was outdueled by Cam Schlittler.

Ben Rice is still out of the lineup with the hand injury he suffered on Sunday, so Paul Goldschmidt gets another start at first base. Trent Grisham leads off, followed by Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Jasson Domínguez. After JC Escarra caught Rodríguez in his first start, he’ll work with Austin Wells today.

Evan Carter’s the new leadoff hitter for Texas as they balance a lineup that now has both Wyatt Lnagford and Josh Smith on the injured list. Corey Seager and Josh Jung follow, with Joc Pederson at DH and cleaning up. Ezequiel Duran, Jake Burger, Alejandro Osuna, Danny Jansen, and veteran outfielder Andrew McCutchen round out the lineup.

How to watch

Location: Yankee Stadium — The Bronx, NY

First pitch: 7:05 pm ET

TV broadcast: YES, Rangers Sports Network

Radio broadcast: WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY), 105.3 The Fan, KLFC 1270 (TEX)

Online stream: MLB.tv (out-of-market only)

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Detroit Tigers (18-18) vs. Boston Red Sox (14-21)

Time/Place: 6:40 p.m., Comerica Park
SB Nation Site: Over the Monster
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: LHP Framber Valdez (2-1, 3.35 ERA) vs. RHP Brayan Bello (1-4, 9.12 ERA)

The San Francisco Giants are swapping right-handed pitchers ahead of Tuesday’s home game against the San Diego Padres. A few hours before the game, the team announced that right-handed starter Trevor McDonald had been optioned to AAA Sacramento, while right-handed reliever Joel Peguero had been activated off the 15-Day Injured List.

It might seem like a surprising sequence of moves after Monday’s game, when McDonald had one of the best pitching performances of the season for the Giants, holding the Padres to two hits and one run in seven innings, while striking out eight and walking none. But the Giants had six starters and just seven relievers, as the 25-year old McDonald had been brought up to settle the rotation following Thursday’s doubleheader. And since McDonald and Landen Roupp — the ace of the staff so far — are the only starters with options, this move always seemed most likely.

But McDonald impressed his teammates, coaching staff, and front office on Monday, and he’ll certainly be back soon, be it in the rotation or in the bullpen. After his performance in the series opener, you can bet that the Giants will feel comfortable turning to him whenever.

As for Peguero, his 30-day rehab window had expired, so he needed to either be activated or optioned to AAA, and the Giants chose the former. And what a fun time to be activated, as today is his 29th birthday! Presumably the move was decided before Monday’s game, as Alex Pavlovic reported that Peguero was with the team yesterday.

The flamethrower is still a rookie, after making his MLB debut late last year. He gives the Giants some added heat, as he makes triple digits look easy. Peguero only had a 4.82 ERA in 10 rehab appearances, but struck out 11 batters while walking just three in 9.1 innings.

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The San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres continue their three-game set tonight with two offenses still searching for consistency, which puts even more weight on the starting pitching matchup.

That’s good news for San Francisco.

With Logan Webb taking the ball against a Padres lineup that’s struggled to generate offense lately, my Giants vs. Padres predictions and MLB picks are backing the home side to take advantage in a low-scoring battle on Tuesday, May 5. 

Who will win Padres vs Giants today: Giants ML (-127)

Logan Webb is the biggest reason to trust San Francisco here. The veteran right-hander has consistently handled the San Diego Padres well, including a win in his last outing against them, and this version of San Diego’s lineup looks far less threatening than in years past.

The Padres have struggled to string together quality at-bats lately, scoring just four runs in five May contests, especially against pitchers who can limit hard contact and work deep into games — two things Webb does extremely well.

With both offenses trending toward low-scoring performances, this game likely comes down to which starter gives his team the cleaner innings. Right now, that edge belongs to Webb and the Giants at a reasonable price.

COVERS INTEL: Logan Webb struck out five Padres in his first start this season, picking up the win after six solid innings of work. 

Padres vs Giants Over/Under pick: Under 7.5 (-115)

This matchup checks almost every box for a low-scoring game. San Diego enters averaging just 3.1 runs per game, dead last in home runs, while San Francisco’s offense hasn’t exactly inspired confidence either. Both teams sit near the bottom of the league in OPS and slugging percentage, making sustained rallies difficult to trust.

On the mound, Logan Webb gives the Giants a reliable edge in a game that already projects to be tight. Even Walker Buehler’s underlying matchup is manageable against a San Francisco lineup lacking consistent power production.

Unless defensive mistakes or bullpen implosions take over late, this feels more like a 3-2 or 4-2 type of game.

Padres vs Giants odds

• Moneyline: Padres +110 | Giants -130
• Run line: Padres +1.5 (-190) | Giants (-1.5 (+160)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 | Under 7.5

Padres vs Giants trend

The Giants have played to the Under in six of their last seven games. Find more MLB betting trends for Padres vs. Giants.

How to watch Padres vs Giants and game info

Padres vs Giants latest injuries

Padres vs Giants weather

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Go Rays!

Some runs would be nice. Please note the term runs is plural. .

There is a little bit of news, Jose Berrios is feeling soreness, which, since he has a stress fracture, isn’t a huge surprise.

Shane Bieber is close to being ready to face live batters. It is like he’s at the start of spring training, so it will be a month before he’s back (all going well).

Tonight’s lineup with no Vlad, for the first time this year. I suppose he can have a game off every 36. But Springer is back and hitting at the top of the lineup.

Go Jays Go.

The Nats have a bad home record at 4-12. However, part of that is due to the teams they have played. They have already faced the Dodgers, Braves and Brewers at Nats Park. Now, they will get a lighter touch against the Twins. They need to take advantage of this and boost their home record.

With Luis Garcia Jr. nursing a wrist injury, Curtis Mead will be at first base against a righty. Daylen Lile will hit second, with Blake Butera looking to get his left fielder going. Jorbit Vivas will get the nod at third base over Brady House. Keibert Ruiz will be behind the plate after showing some signs of life with the bat in the Brewers series. Cade Cavalli has struck out 10 in back to back starts, and he gets the ball tonight.

The Twins lineup is headlined by their leadoff hitter Byron Buxton. We will also get to see fan favorite Josh Bell back at Nationals Park. I am sure he will get a nice little ovation. Catcher Ryan Jeffers has been one of the Twins hottest hitters lately and he will hit third. Taj Bradley is finally translating his excellent stuff into results this year, and will be a tough pitcher for this Nats lineup to crack.

Game Info:

Stadium: Nationals Park

Time: 6:45 PM EST

TV: Nationals.TV

Radio: 106.7 The Fan

This series is an opportunity for the Nats to build momentum, but it is also a potential land mine. The Twins are going to view this as a get right series as well. This is a matchup of two evenly matched teams and I am excited to see it. Follow along in the comments down below and let’s go Nats.

First, the good news. The Red Sox got a slew of cautiously optimistic injury updates this afternoon from Comerica Park in Detroit. First up, Roman Anthony:

He won’t be available these last couple of games in Detroit, but in the grand scheme of things, this is far from the worst update we could have gotten today.

Next up, Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez:

If we fill in the rest of the blanks here and get Ranger Suarez to start Saturday and then Payton Tolle on Sunday before the off day on Monday, the Red Sox may finally be tracking towards a scenario where they can get Brayan Bello out of the rotation. (Fingers crossed!)

Unfortunately though, they won’t be able to keep him off the mound tonight. Now as you’ll probably notice in the lineups below, the Red Sox are actually not starting Brayan Bello tonight — instead going with Jovani Moran. Bello however will likely appear as the bulk guy somewhere in the game as the Red Sox play lefty / righty matchups and try to minimize the bullpen damage as much as possible. It’s a last ditch effort to try and make a Bello game competitive (good luck with that!).

In fact, the effects of his ineffectiveness are reaching all the way down to Worcester as we got this tweet from Tommy Cassell today.

In other words, even the team is preparing for another Bello bludgeoning.

If all that wasn’t bad enough, take a look at tonight’s lineup. There’s no Roman Anthony as we discussed above, but there’s also no Masataka Yoshida and Marcelo Mayer because there’s a lefty on the mound. It gets even worse when you consider that lefty is Framber Valdez and that his 3.35 ERA this year is being inflated by one bad start in Minnesota where he gave up eight runs. In the other six combined outings, he’s only given up seven earned runs in 35.1 innings.

Oh, and in addition to all of this, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman have both pitched in back to back games, so Chad Tracy is probably going to want to stay away from them tonight if possible.

In other words, the only reason to expect a win from the Red Sox in this game is because baseball is baseball and at times it likes to be the dumbest sport ever and produce stunningly unexplainable results. Short of that happening though, the Red Sox have already kind of won in the big picture today with those injury updates, so we’ll just have to suffer through tonight.

⚾️ First Pitch: 6:40pm — Comerica Park, Detroit, MI

📺 TV: NESN

📻 Radio: WEEI