Category: Baseball

Happy Opening Day, Braves Country! During Thursday’s presser, Atlanta Braves manager Walt Weiss informed the media that Drake Baldwin would be in the Opening Day lineup, but not behind the dish. Instead, Baldwin will be in the DH role while Jonah Heim is behind the plate. 

It’s a pretty interesting way to roll things out. The Braves still get Baldwin’s bat but don’t have to throw him straight into catching duties on day one. At the same time, Heim gives them a nice presence behind the plate, which should help the pitching staff settle in early. It feels like a simple way to get the best of both worlds from the jump.

Weiss gave a few other hints at how the lineup would shape up, like Ronald Acuña Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski’s roles. The Braves kick off the 2026 campaign Friday evening with a matchup against the Kansas City Royals.

More Braves News:

The Braves reached a deal with Xfinity that will broadcast BravesVision, beginning today, March 27.

MLB News:

New York Mets non-roster outfielder Mike Tauchman will miss six weeks after undergoing meniscus surgery. 

Nico Hoerner and the Chicago Cubs agreed to a six-year extension. The financials of the contract have not been announced. 

The New York Mets and outfielder Tommy Pham agreed to a minor league deal. Should he be selected to the majors, he will earn a prorated salary of $2.25M.

The Milwaukee Brewers placed outfielder Jackson Chourio on the 10-day injured list due to a fracture in his left hand. He is expected to return in two to four weeks. 

There were fireworks, there was a flyover, there was Will Ferrell screaming and Keith Williams Jr. crooning and four months of cheers unleashed by fans wearing championship belts and howling grins.

But the real stars of Thursday’s Dodger opening day show never made a sound.

They arrived silently at the end of the pregame ceremony, carefully held by two of the men who helped win them, lifted high for all those who so passionately longed for them.

They were the last two Commissioner’s Trophies, the back-to-back World Series championship trophies, the two symbols of the Dodgers domination held side by side in the afternoon sun.

Man, it was beautiful. Goodness, how they sparkled. Incredible, how they glowed.

Read more:Miguel Rojas cherishes final opening day as 'Uncle Miggy' in Dodgers' win over Arizona

It was almost as if they were powered by some electrical force, some sort of championship current running between them, lighting them up with a blinding power curated by the battered fingers of the two veterans who touched them.

Freddie Freeman, whose grand slam doomed the New York Yankees, held the 2024 trophy. Miguel Rojas, whose home run stunned the Toronto Blue Jays, held the 2025 trophy.

Together they brought the trophies to the dugout from center field while riding in the back of a blue convertible driven by Ferrell as part of an elaborate video skit.

It was the first time many had seen the hardware side by side, and, amid audible gasps, their power was unmistakable. The greatness of the Dodgers accomplishment came to life on a day when their new task became equally clear.

“Three-peat!” screamed one of the pregame musicians.

Welcome, Dodgers, to 2026.

While manager Dave Roberts downplayed the three-peat talk before the opening 8-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, you know it’s here, it’s there, it’s everywhere.

“At this moment, very minimal,” said Roberts when asked about the pressure. “...So yeah, hopefully we can keep that to a minimum throughout the season. But yeah, there’s obviously going to be a lot of talk about it.”

Thursday did nothing to dampen that talk. It was as if last season’s Game 7 against the Toronto Blue Jays was still being played. The Dodgers behaved like the exact same team with some of the same heroes.

The winning pitcher? Once again, it was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw six solid innings with six strikeouts and no walks.

The game-changing play? Once again, it was Andy Pages, whose three-run home run in the fifth inning gave the Dodgers a lead they never lost.

The final big blow? Yep, Will Smith, whose two-run homer in the seventh inning clinched it.

There was even a World Series star coming out of the bullpen, new cult hero Will Klein entering the game to the night’s loudest ovation and throwing a scoreless inning.

It’s as if the Dodgers have been on the same roll for four months…with no signs of slowing. This could be crazy. This already is crazy.

Other than the cool trophies and the Diamondbacks trampling, the most notable show Thursday was unwittingly staged by Dodger Stadium itself.

Your dutiful correspondent’s first impression of his favorite place on earth upon returning here for his 37th home opener wasn’t about the deep green or brilliant blue or enduring mountainscape.

It was, when did this place become Las Vegas?

Illuminated by the new grotesquely red Uniqlo Field billboard hanging high above center field, the stadium appears to have been transformed into something straight from NASCAR, advertisements filling every nook and cranny of the pavilion and beyond. There are giant billboards above the bullpens. There are scribbled ads on the bullpen walls. There are screaming displays for beer, soda and healthcare, the latter of which you will need if you heed too many of these ads.

The incessant sales pitches are buffeted by the usual deafening pounding music, which makes Vin Scully Avenue seem like Las Vegas Boulevard.

Was it always like this? It doesn’t seem like it. The Dodgers have always been relentless billboard salesmen, but since the arrival of Shohei Ohtani, they’ve become a global attraction with seemingly every major company on earth willing to pay for a piece of their success.

Fans will probably notice that the biggest difference this year is the $125-million sponsorship deal with Uniqlo, a Japanese apparel company that bought center field. Chavez Ravine is now officially known as Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium and, yeah, on Thursday it was awful hearing public address announcer Todd Leitz introduce it like that.

Not to worry, nobody in their right mind is ever going to call it that. Nonetheless, the whole atmosphere was weird and unsettling.

Still, it’s hard to blame the Dodgers. They’ve spent gobs of money building a two-time defending champion, and those bucks have got to come from somewhere.

You want Kyle Tucker? Live with the beer ad. You want a $1 billion rotation? Deal with the bank ad.

Unlike many other teams that have made baseball a haven for cheapskates, the Dodgers invest much of their revenue back into the roster.

It’s not always pretty. It can be loud and distracting and obnoxious. But it works.

As night fell on a blessed blue Thursday, the Dodgers had won their eighth straight home opener. They did it with pitching, hitting, depth, and two of the prettiest pieces of jewelry you’ve ever seen.

It was a day to celebrate the completion of the most incredible two-year journey in franchise history.

It was also a day to realize that the journey has just begun.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Apologies for the late thread, I went out to say hi to staffers John and Isabelle who are in attendance at the game tonight. Luke Raley hit that game-tying nuke just as I got up so maybe now that I’m sitting down again we can have another, this time a go-ahead one.

I want to start this recap by saying how grateful I am to be back for another season of Arizona Diamondbacks baseball with all of you. Today brought back all those familiar feelings from my childhood. Opening Day is always the best day of the year—a fresh wave of hope and optimism, the first sign of the dog days of summer ahead, and a welcome reunion with the friends we share this team with.

For D-backs fans, though, this nationally televised Opening Day felt more like a Dodgers home broadcast. Through the first three innings, we witnessed a classic pitchers’ duel between Zac Gallen and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The two matched each other inning for inning, with Gallen actually holding a slight edge in pitch count and efficiency.

The highlight for Arizona came in the top of the fourth, when last season’s team MVP Geraldo Perdomo launched a two-run homer to put the D-backs up 2-0. Sadly, the national announcers were so focused on the Dodgers that they sounded almost surprised by the blast—and the broadcast barely captured it, with just one replay and a poor camera angle.

The momentum shifted in the bottom of the fifth. With a lead in hand, Gallen hung a knuckle curve to the Dodgers’ eighth-hole hitter, Andy Pages, who crushed a three-run homer to give Los Angeles a 3-2 advantage. It was an all-too-familiar scene for Gallen on Opening Day. As Jesse Friedman of Snakes Territory pointed out, Gallen posted the exact same line last year: four innings pitched and four earned runs allowed.

That one pitch aside, Gallen actually looked quite sharp, showing excellent command of his four-seamer and generating good downward movement on his hard cutter/slider. It was a frustrating end to what had been a solid start.

Once the Dodgers took the lead, the game quickly became all LA. Torey Lovullo turned to much of his high-leverage bullpen early, but the Dodgers kept piling on runs. One of the D-backs’ key bullpen additions this offseason, Taylor Clark, had a rough introduction in the seventh, surrendering four earned runs while recording just one out. It was far from the debut the front office or Clark had hoped for, and it raised early questions about the 2026 bullpen.

After the Dodgers blew the game open, Arizona’s offense went completely quiet. Dodgers relievers retired 18 of the final 19 D-backs batters—a stark tale of two very different bullpens.

On the bright side, Jordan Lawlar had an encouraging debut to the 2026 season. He ripped a big double in his first at-bat and later made a spectacular highlight-reel catch in left field, crashing into the wall in the seventh inning. After a slow start to his 2025 campaign, this was exactly the kind of confident beginning the young infielder—and the team—needed.

It was also nice to see newcomer Nolan Arenado pick up his first hit in a D-backs uniform in the seventh. Here’s hoping it’s the start of a strong offensive rebound for the veteran. He also made a couple of great plays at the hot corner highlighting his defensive value early on in the season.

At the end of the day, it’s simply great to have meaningful baseball back. Opening Day remains a highlight of the year for so many of us. Unfortunately, today carried some echoes of last season: the D-backs looked competitive against one of the game’s top teams for about half the game, only for the bullpen to let things slip away and the contest to get out of reach.

What did you guys think of the start to the season?

It took the Dodgers four innings to knock the rust off.

Then, the two-time defending World Series champions finally started looking like themselves.

In an 8-2 Opening Day win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday, the Dodgers began their season exactly as advertised –– riding a relentlessly deep lineup and dominant starting pitching performance to a season-opening rout in front of 53,712 at Dodger Stadium.

The pursuit of a third-straight title couldn’t have started any better.

Even after falling behind early on Geraldo Perdomo’s two-run homer in the fourth, then entering the bottom of the fifth without a hit since Shohei Ohtani’s single to lead off the game, the Dodgers couldn’t be stopped once their offense got into gear.

The team exploded for four runs in the fifth, highlighted by Andy Pages’ go-ahead three-run home run off Arizona starter Zac Gallen.

They managed another four-spot in the seventh, when Kyle Tucker hit an RBI double in the gap for his first Dodgers hit, Mookie Betts drove him home with an RBI single up the middle, and Will Smith delivered the knockout blow with a two-run blast to left-center. 

That was more than enough on a night Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched six strong innings, striking out six batters and retiring the final nine he faced after Perdomo’s home run.

It also gave some instant validation to the team’s belief that this could be the best roster they’ve ever assembled.

“As far as the talent, the complete buy-in, this team is,” manager Dave Roberts said before first pitch. “But like I’ve said every single year, we’ve still got to go out there and play.”

One game in, they’re already playing well.

What it means

The way these Dodgers are constructed, with a lineup that includes six combined MVP awards and 33 All-Star appearances, there’s no one superstar that needs to shoulder the load.

Thursday was a quick reminder why.

After all, it was the bottom of the lineup that provided the biggest turning point, with Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernández leading off the fifth with back-to-back singles before Pages’ blast. 

Ohtani didn’t have another hit after his leadoff single, yet scored a key insurance run on Tucker’s double after getting hit by a pitch.

And by the end of the night, the club had racked up more walks (five) than strikeouts (four), applying constant pressure on an Arizona pitching staff that –– like most the Dodgers are likely to face this year –– eventually cracked under the strain.

Who’s hot

Pages was Roberts’ so-called “pick to click” coming into the season, with the manager believing more in the young slugger’s 27-homer regular season last year than his .078 batting average in the playoffs.

On Thursday, Pages made a strong first impression with a 2-for-4, three-RBI display.

Not only did he hit the key home run, getting to a two-strike curveball from Gallen that was launched to left-field pavilion, but he also made two impressive catches in center field: The first, on a deep fly ball to the left-center field gap; then, a diving effort on a shallow flare in right-center that helped Blake Treinen –– pitching the only high-leverage relief inning of the game with a two-run lead in the seventh –– get throught a scoreless frame.

Who’s not

Right now? Nobody. Freddie Freeman was the only Dodgers player without a hit on Thursday. But even he drew a key walk that helped set up an RBI single from Smith following Pages’ homer in the fifth. He also saved a run defensively, getting Yamamoto out of a jam in the third by snagging a high line drive at first base and turning an inning-ending double-play.

Up next

The Dodgers and Dbacks will be back at it on Friday night. Emmet Sheehan will start for the Dodgers, while Ryne Nelson will go for Arizona.

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Francisco Alvarez took hitting ninth in the lineup in stride. He credited the depth of the Mets’ order rather than questioning his place in it. 

“I was just thinking [upon seeing the one through nine] that we have a good lineup. We have a team that has nine good hitters,” Alvarez said through interpreter Alan Suriel after making a case — solely with his bat — that he does not belong at the bottom of the order for much longer. 

The young Mets catcher smashed three pitches and wound up with two hits — one a demolished home run that visited the second deck in left field — in addition to saving the club a run defensively in an all-around excellent performance in Thursday’s 11-7 Opening Day victory over the Pirates at Citi Field. 

Coming up through the system, Alvarez was the best prospect in baseball largely because of a powerful bat that has only shown glimpses of its excellence in 304 major league games over parts of four seasons. He was demoted midseason last year, scrapped a new batting stance and returned in late July, after which he was among the better hitters in baseball despite tearing the UCL in his thumb late in the year. 

And he picked up where he left off in reaching base three times in five plate appearances, crushing a single into right and smoking the homer to left in the sixth inning, going back-to-back with Carson Benge. 

On a promising day from nearly the entirety of the Mets lineup — which fought through long at-bats, forced Pittsburgh pitching to expend 192 pitches in eight frames and scored 11 runs — the 24-year-old was among the standouts. 

“I feel good. I feel really good,” Alvarez said about his swing. “I’ve been able to do my job in the cage, work on it and work on what I want and really maintain the mechanics of just staying strong and consistent.” 

For all the good in Alvarez’s bat, it is possible his brain provided his greatest impact on the game. 

In the top of a third inning of a contest the Mets were leading 5-2, Freddy Peralta appeared to lose Oneil Cruz to a one-out walk on a full-count fastball. The pitch, Alvarez acknowledges, was a difficult one for home-plate umpire Adrian Johnson to judge. 

“I called for a fastball away, and Freddy missed up and in,” said Alvarez, who had to jerk his glove from the outside of the zone to the inside. “So it’s hard for the umpire to be able to see that.” 

It was less hard for Alvarez to judge the pitch. He touched his catcher’s mask and signaled for the Mets’ first Automated Ball-Strike challenge. 

“I felt pretty confident about it,” said Alvarez, who watched as replay showed the pitch buzzed the inside of the plate and thus Cruz had struck out rather than walked. 

The decision to challenge effectively saved the Mets a run, as two pitches later Peralta served up a solo shot — and not a two-run shot — to Brandon Lowe.

Aaron Blank had an inkling he might catch a home run at Dodger Stadium on Thursday.

After all, the guy specifically moved his season tickets to center field this offseason to chase prized souvenirs.

And, sure enough, in the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ season opener against the Diamondbacks, an Andy Pages blast found its way right into his mitt.

Andy Pages gives the @Dodgers the lead with a 3-run shot! pic.twitter.com/E2litXlFw1

— MLB (@MLB) March 27, 2026

Blank snared the go-ahead, three-run shot — the first home run of the Dodgers’ 2026 season — and told The California Post minutes later that the moment was specifically why he wanted to sit in that part of the ballpark this year.

“We sat by the foul pole in home run territory last year, the whole season,” Blank said. “And we moved. This is our first game sitting here. We moved our seats here because we wanted to catch home run balls.”

“It’s amazing,” he added.

Blank said he’s only caught one other homer in his life, and that came some three years ago while he was in the crowd for the MLB’s Home Run Derby in Seattle.

His latest memento clearly felt a little sweeter for the man who was clad in a Dodgers jersey and LA hat.

“It is the first home run ball of the year for the champions,” he said. “So, you never know. It could be valuable.”

That said, Blank told The Post if Pages or the Dodgers’ want it back, he’s open to talks.

“If the Dodgers approach me,” he said, “I’m game.”

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LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers offense proved too much to handle, putting up a pair of four-run innings to overwhelm the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-2 on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers have won 16 times in their last 19 opening days, including the last five in a row.

Arizona starter Zac Gallen was cruising along nicely enough, allowing just a single and walk through four innings, and no Dodger reached scoring position. But the first five batters of the fifth inning reached against him, ending Gallen’s night.

In last year’s home opener, the Dodgers trailed by two runs in the fifth inning when Teoscar Hernández gave them the lead with a three-run home run. This year, Hernández reached on an infield single and was one of two who got a free ride home thanks to another outfielder — Andy Pages’ three-run shot brought home the Dodgers’ first three runs of the season, and gave them their first lead.

Will Smith reached on a cue shot just behind first base, just out of the reach of Carlos Santana, to extend the fifth and bring home a fourth run charged to Gallen’s ledger.

Smith also hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning, another four-run frame that also saw Kyle Tucker’s first hit as a Dodger, a ringing double that brought home Shohei Ohtani.

First time through the batting order, the Dodgers only had a single and a walk. The rest of the way, 14 of 31 batters reached base, including three extra-base hits. On the night, eight of nine Dodgers batters had a hit and scored a run. Only Freddie Freeman, who walked and was 0-for-4, was left wanting.

“When you face a lineup like ours, it certainly has to be taxing when you’re facing our guys, when you feel like you have to keep executing and executing,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s tough mentally, and as long as we can stay tough mentally like we were tonight, we should have opportunities to put up big numbers.”

On the mound

For the third Dodgers game in a row Yoshinobu Yamamoto earned the win, this time with another quality start. His only runs allowed came in the fourth inning when Geraldo Perdomo blasted an 0-2 middle-middle fastball into the right field pavilion for a two-run home run to open the scoring.

Yamamoto settled down after that, retiring his next nine batters, including four by strikeout, to finish six innings, just as he did in 22 of his 35 starts last season.

On the night, Yamamoto struck out six and walked none. He threw his splitter the most often, and got eight swinging strikes on the pitch, of his 16 total whiffs in the game.

Yamamoto left with a 4-2 lead, and Blake Treinen worked around a single to pitch a scoreless seventh inning in what was still a close game. Will Klein, after making his first opening day roster, pitched a perfect eighth before Tanner Scott got the ninth to finish off the win.

Opening day particulars

Home runs: Andy Pages (1), Will Smith (1); Geraldo Perdomo (1)

WP — Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-0): 6 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 6 strikeouts

LP — Zac Gallen (0-1): 4+ IP, 5 hits, 4 runs, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts

Up next

Another day, another pregame ceremony for the Dodgers, who get their 2025 championship rings on Friday night before the middle game against the Diamondbacks (7:10 p.m.; SportsNet LA, MLB Network). Emmet Sheehan starts on the mound, with Ryne Nelson pitching for Arizona. The ring ceremony begins at 6:20 p.m. and will be televised by SportsNet LA.

Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez was punished for hitting this ball too hard.

During the first inning of Houston’s 3-0 loss to the Angels on Thursday, Alvarez smoked a ball to right field that surely appeared to be a home run off the bat.

Since the ball was hit so high, however, it struck the scaffolding below the roof at Daikin Park before ricocheting and falling into the stands to the right of the foul pole.

The Daikin Park roof took a potential home run away from Yordan Alvarez pic.twitter.com/9ECK49DFK1

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 26, 2026

Home plate umpire Chris Conroy initially ruled it a foul ball, with the call standing after it was sent for review.

“The roof here closed is covered by universal ground rules, which are when the ball strikes the roof over fair territory, it remains live,” Conroy later explained, according to the Houston Chronicle. “And then it’s basically wherever it strikes the ground after that is what the call is going to be.

“So the ball initially struck the roof over fair territory, so it was live. But then it caromed into the stands prior to the foul pole. So that made it a foul ball.” 

Similar ground rules have been put in place for domed and retractable roof stadiums, but rarely are balls like Alvarez’s — which had an exit velocity of 108.9 miles per hour, according to Baseball Savant — ever caught up in the exposed scaffolding.

“That’s probably the second ball I’ve ever seen hit that part of the roof,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He crushed that ball. That ball would have landed upper deck.” 

Espada added that the umpires did make the right call, but insisted that, if not for the roof, it would have been a home run.

“Definitely that ball would have been a homer,” he added. “But they did get the call right.”

Alvarez said that he was certain his hit would have been out of the ballpark, but wanted to clarify with the umpire if it was a foul ball.

“Yes, 100 percent,” the three-time All-Star told reporters through an interpreter when asked if the ball would have been a home run. “I was just checking to see that it wasn’t a foul ball.

“But later on, we saw that it was foul. So things happened how they meant to happen.” 

SAN DIEGO — Opening Day here is supposed to feel like hope and possibility. 

Beneath a beautiful Southern California sun reflecting off the brick Western Metal Supply Co. building at Petco Park, there was plenty of promise for the Padres. The first of 162 games, a chance to hit the reset button after back-to-back early playoff exits. 

But that’s not what happened. Instead, what showed up in brown and yellow on Thursday wasn’t a World Series contender shaking off October scars, it was a team that looked eerily similar to the one that walked off Wrigley Field last fall.

Padres ace Nick Pivetta lost the opener of that NL wild-card series against the Cubs as well, and his Opening Day start this season went even worse. 

Pivetta, the supposed anchor of this rotation after a breakout season, unraveled almost immediately. Three walks in the first inning. Four runs before the Padres could even exhale. When he was pulled in the third without recording an out, the game — and maybe the tone of the early season — had already been decided.

“I was disconnected and out of rhythm,” Pivetta said. “I didn’t make pitches when I needed to, and it snowballed on me.”

Snowballed is a polite way to put it.

This was an avalanche, and it came from the Captain and the Kid. A veteran pitcher with two Cy Young Awards to his name, and a 21-year-old rookie making his MLB debut. 

Tarik Skubal and Kevin McGonigle.

And if baseball handed out captain’s patches the way hockey does, Skubal wouldn’t just wear the “C” —he’d define it.

That’s what this was. A masterclass in control paired with a coming-of-age moment that felt almost unfair to witness from the opposing dugout.

Skubal didn’t just pitch. He carved up the Padres like a surgeon on the operating table.

Six innings. Three hits. No walks. Six strikeouts. One unearned run that barely registers as a blemish. He moved through the Padres’ lineup like a man flipping through pages he’s already memorized. Every pitch had intention. Every sequence had consequence. There was no panic, no wasted motion, no doubt about what the eventual outcome would be.

This is what dominance looks like when it’s fully realized.

“He’s the best in the game, and he’s coming aggressive,” said Ramon Laureano, who hit a solo home run. “They have a really good team with good pitching. It’s not going to be easy.”

That might be the most honest sentence spoken inside that clubhouse all day.

Because on the other side of the Captain was the Kid, something far more chaotic yet somehow just as dangerous.

McGonigle is 21 years old. Barely old enough to legally toast his own debut. And yet, on the first pitch of his MLB career, he didn’t blink. He didn’t ease in. He didn’t “get his feet wet.”

He detonated.

A two-run double down the right field line off Pivetta. It cracked the game open before most fans had settled into their seats. It wasn’t just a hit — it was a declaration.

Welcome to the show? No.

This was a takeover.

McGonigle finished 4 for 5 with two RBI and two runs, looking less like a kid and more like a problem that’s about to linger in the American League for a long time. There’s a certain audacity to greatness when it arrives early, when it skips the awkward phase entirely and walks straight into relevance. He played like he’d already been here for years.

And the Padres? They looked like they hadn’t.

Because while Detroit arrived with clarity — an ace who knows exactly who he is and a rookie fearless enough to swing like it — the Padres arrived with more questions than answers. The same ones that haunted them through back-to-back postseason disappointments. The same ones that lingered after falling to the Dodgers in 2024 and getting bounced by the Cubs in 2025.

Because the Padres didn’t just lose 8-2. They were exposed.

Exposed as a team still searching for its edge. Exposed as a lineup that can be carved up by elite pitching. Exposed as a roster that, despite its talent, still hasn’t figured out how to respond when the moment tightens instead of loosens.

Opening Day is supposed to be about hope. About rewriting the narrative from the year prior.

Instead, San Diego got a reminder that narratives don’t change just because the calendar does.

They change when you force them to change.

And on Thursday, it wasn’t the Padres doing the forcing. It was Skubal, calmly dictating terms like a veteran captain steering through open water. It was McGonigle, swinging like the future doesn’t wait its turn.

The Captain and the Kid didn’t just spoil Opening Day.

They revealed exactly how far the Padres still have to go.

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Good job, everyone. We technically got to 615 comments on the first thread before the first pitch was thrown in inning number two. Take that, Pinstripe Alley.

Now on with more Opening Day!

Paul Skenes gave a rather analytical breakdown of his abysmal Opening Day start against the Mets on Thursday.

When asked by reporters about his outing in the Pirates’ 11-7 loss to the Amazin’s, Skenes said that despite not giving up much hard contact, his batting average on balls in play was high, causing his start to go awry quickly, as he only recorded two outs before being yanked.

“You got to look at it through, for what it is,” Skenes said. “There wasn’t a ton of hard contact. Leadoff walk is not great. But yeah … the Polanco ground ball, stuff like that. The batting average on balls in play thing was super high today. That’ll go down as the season goes on.”

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Skenes left Thursday’s game after just two-thirds innings in which he gave up five earned runs — matching his career high — off four hits, along with a walk and two strikeouts.

“I’m not as upset about this for me, personally, as people would probably think,” Skenes said, according to The Associated Press. “Because they did a really good job. It was an abnormal outing.”

Skenes’ batting average on balls in play (BABIP) sits at .800 following his short-lived start.

Pirates skipper Don Kelly pulled Skenes after just 37 pitches, saying that he did not want the righty to push it this early into the season.

“He wants to stay out there and pitch,” Kelly said. “It’s a really tough thing going to get him in the first inning right there. The bottom of it is Paul’s health. You’re getting close to 40 pitches, yeah 37 pitches and Lindor had a seven-pitch at-bat that first at-bat.

“If he runs another 7-10, you’re into dangerous territory with the starting pitcher in one inning, so we had to make the move.”

Not all of the Pirates’ first-inning meltdown was strictly on Skenes, though, with center fielder Oneil Cruz misplaying two fly balls that extended the early rally for the Mets.

“That ball straight at him, he came in, got a bad read,” Kelly said. “He’s been working hard out there. He just needs to continue to get better. Then the one in the sun. He just lost it in the sun.”

The Dodgers broke out the gold caps. Rolled out the blue carpet. And enlisted an actual movie star.

The team might have been kicking off its new 2026 season Thursday night, hosting the Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium for Opening Day.

But everything before first pitch focused on last year –– when the team won its second straight World Series championship and cemented a dynasty that was worthy of a Hollywood pregame celebration five months later.

“It’s like the same thing that happened with the parade,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said earlier in the afternoon. “The first time, you don’t know what to expect, and it goes by fast. But this year, you know what to expect. You know how you’re gonna be feeling. You’re gonna have a better understanding of, ‘OK, I want to be present. I don’t want to miss much of it.’”

Rojas didn’t.

Instead, in a 30-minute on-field presentation that included every outside-the-box idea the club could seemingly think of –– from pyrotechnic player introductions, to fighter jet flyovers, to a ceremonial first pitch delivered from Magic Johnson to Shohei Ohtani, and of course the unveiling of the franchise’s ninth championship banner and outfield plaque –– it was Rojas and fellow World Series hero Freddie Freeman who were the leading stars of the show.

First, the pair were featured in a video skit with actor Will Ferrell that was played on the Dodger Stadium scoreboards –– in which Ferrell sneaks around the Dodgers’ clubhouse with the team’s two most recent World Series trophies before being discovered by the players.

Then, from out of the center field fence, Rojas and Freeman appeared on the back of a Dodger blue Cadillac driven by Ferrell, holding up the two Commissioner’s Trophies as the car paced around the warning track.

A special introduction for the Champs. pic.twitter.com/j5BnLjnC4S

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 27, 2026

It was overwrought, completely cheesy, yet devoured all the same by an adoring and raucous sell-out crowd. 

In recent years, the Dodgers have become known for their ambitious in-game presentation almost as much as their on-field dominance. And on Thursday, they took their chance to combine both.

Eventually, attention turned to the actual game action, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto kicking off the team’s bid for a World Series three-peat with a 5:30 p.m. first pitch.

Still, celebratory remembrances of the team’s 2025 title aren’t over yet.

On Friday, there will be another pregame ceremony in which the members of last year’s roster will receive their World Series rings.

And from there, three-peat pressure will follow the Dodgers throughout the season, as they try to become only the third team in MLB’s expansion era (since 1961) to win a title in three straight seasons.

“Yeah, it’s out there, but you’ve got to kind of block it out and focus on playing,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But understandably so, we put ourselves in a good spot that people want to talk about it. That’s a good thing.”

For the Dodgers, so, too, was the elongated pregame ceremony celebrating it all.

It looked like Rays fans were set for a joyous Opening Day, with the reshaped lineup scoring seven runs on a whopping 17 hits. Jonathan Aranda homered, multiple players had three-hit days, Junior Caminero reached base four times while every Cardinals pitcher tried to pitch around him.

This game could have been a statement of intent from a group hungry to get back to the postseason in a highly-competitive AL East.

But the story of Thursday’s opener is how the Rays lost in spite of their offensive output.

Fans spent most of Thursday trying to find out who was broadcasting the game, only to flip to the correct channel as the Cardinals were batting around.

Rasmussen went five strong innings to start, allowing just one run on a solo homer from JJ Wetherholt. After the Rays big inning in the top of the sixth to give them a 7-1 lead, Kevin Cash rightfully felt comfortable going to his bullpen to pitch the final four innings.

He turned to Ian Seymour, who was effective in his rookie season a year ago in a mixed role. Seymour’s 2026 campaign couldn’t have started any worse. He gave up five consecutive hits, including doubles to Masyn Winn and Jordan Walker. All five of the runners that reached base came around to score, as did three more.

After Seymour quickly let the Cardinals back in the game, Cash then turned to two of his high-leverage arms, Garrett Cleavinger and Griffin Jax. Cleavinger let the hit parade continue, allowing singles to Pedro Pages and Victor Scott II. A sac fly from Wetherholt made it 7-6, and then it was time for Jax. While there are no announced roles for any Rays reliever, it was fair to assume that Jax would be the top reliever to start the season with Edwin Uceta sidelined.

The first batter he faced was DH Ivan Herrera, who was able to tie the game with another sac fly to right field. In stepped Alec Burleson, the Cardinals’ most-dangerous hitter against right-handed pitching. Jax got him into a two-strike count, making good use of his sweeper, but when he grooved a fastball Burleson was sitting on it, and launched it into the right field stands to give St. Louis a two-run lead and cap off an eight-run inning.

It’s game one. I’m not here to tell you the season is over, but after last year when Rays fans were frustrated that the bullpen could never hold a one- or two-run lead, it was even more soul-crushing to watch them completely capitulate against a rebuilding squad in the Cardinals.

Now, we must sit in our misery on Friday’s off-day, before the series resumes on Saturday. And instead of ace Drew Rasmussen in the mound, we’ll have to prepare to watch Joe Boyle’s electric stuff and erratic command. Boyle is not known for working deep into games, so we’re likely to see another four or more innings from this group.

Let’s get positive for a minute. On the position player side, Kevin Cash seems to have a bench he trusts, and a roster that he can tinker with to get the most out of role players like Ben Williamson, Nick Fortes, and Richie Palacios. He can rely on his three regulars, and mix-and-match the rest. And on Thursday, the Rays’ offensive approach was clear: see ball, hit ball. They swung early and often, and made lots of contact.

Even if the bullpen does not take giant strides in 2026, I’d wager that the Rays will win most of their games moving forward if they get anywhere near 17 hits.

Tomorrow is Opening Day for the Rockies, which means we can officially close the door on spring training 2026. However, it’s still worth reflecting on in hopes of predicting what they might do in the regular season.

On Tuesday, we asked you to grade the Rockies’ spring training. More than half of you gave them a solid B, but 95% of you had them passing the test (C or better). Zero people gave them a failing grade, which I think is a good indicator of fans’ views of the team compared to a year ago.

However, the games start counting today and we will finally get to see how much the Rockies are able to improve after their new and improved spring training regimen and front office refresh.

Are you surprised by the results? Do you still agree with how you voted? Let us know in the comments!

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