Category: Baseball

Go Rays!

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to wrap up their 3-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday afternoon at Busch Stadium after game 2 was postponed due to weather. The Cardinals will send Andre Pallante to the mound while the Brewers starter looks to be Brandon Sproat who was scheduled to be the starter Tuesday night before the weather postponement. First pitch is scheduled for 12:15pm at Busch Stadium and the game will be broadcast on Cardinals.tv.

Last of three in Tampa. If they light a match on the way out, I will not shed a tear.

I hate afternoon weekday games, it messes up the day.

There are some updates:

• Addison will be addisoned to the roster Friday. They haven’t said who is going to leave the roster. I’m think Sosa but I don’t know.
• The team got a new MRI on José Berríos and are ‘still thinking things through’.
• Max Scherzer’s forearm ‘isn’t responding the way he hoped’. That’s age Max, nothing responds the way you hope.
• Kirk is ‘on schedule’.

Today’s lineup:

Go Jays Go. I could really use a win today.

The Texas Rangers (16-19) face the New York Yankees (25-11). The Yankees won the series’ first game 7-4 on Tuesday. Scheduled starting pitchers are Nathan Eovaldi for Texas, with a 4.76 ERA, and Will Warren for New York, with a 2.39 ERA.

How to watch Texas Rangers vs. New York Yankees

• Date: Wednesday, May 6

• Time: 7:05 p.m. ET / 4:05 p.m. PT

• Where: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY

• TV Channels: MLB Network, Amazon Prime Video, Rangers Sports Network

• Live Stream:ESPN+, MLB.TV | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Team records

• Texas Rangers: 16-19 (No. 3 in AL West)

• New York Yankees: 25-11 (No. 1 in AL East)

Odds

• Spread: New York Yankees -1.5

• Moneyline: New York Yankees -203 (64.2%) / Texas Rangers +168 (35.8%)

• Over/Under: 8.5

Starting pitchers

Texas Rangers: Nathan Eovaldi (3-4, ERA: 4.76, K: 39, WHIP: 1.34)
New York Yankees: Will Warren (4-0, ERA: 2.39, K: 46, WHIP: 1.06)

Weather: 63°F at first pitch

Ballpark: Capacity: 47,309 | Roof: Open | Surface: Grass

Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa is expected to miss the rest of the 2026 season after injuring his ankle taking swings in the batting cage.

Correa told reporters Wednesday, May 6 that he "felt a pop" before Tuesday's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers and went down in pain. He'll need season-ending surgery to repair a torn tendon in his left ankle. Recovery time is expected to be between six and eight months, he said.

A three-time All-Star, Correa, 31, was hitting .279/.369/.418 with three home runs and 16 RBI for the Astros this season.

Carlos Correa said he will need a 6-to-8-month recovery following upcoming tendon surgery on his left ankle. pic.twitter.com/st1dmKa3E5

— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) May 6, 2026

Correa, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 draft by the Astros, returned to the club last season in a trade with the Minnesota Twins after spending the first seven seasons of his MLB career in Houston.

He becomes the fourth member of the Astros' opening day lineup to hit the injured list – joining catcher Yainer Diaz (oblique strain) and outfielders Joey Loperfido (quad strain) and Jake Meyers (oblique). In addition, starting shortstop Jeremy Peña hasn't played since April 11 due to a hamstring injury he suffered in spring training.

Houston Astros infielder Carlos Correa has a torn tendon in his left ankle that will require season-ending surgery, per reports. The injury was suffered during pregame batting practice on Tuesday.

When Correa hit the free agent market after the 2021 season, he had agreements on $300 million contracts with both the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants, only for both agreements to be scuttled due to concerns about his right ankle. Correa ended up signing with the Minnesota Twins for 2022, then entered into a 6 year, $200 million deal with the Twins for the 2023-28 seasons. The Twins traded Correa back to Houston at the 2025 deadline.

The Astros have a 15-22 record currently, which has them in fourth place in the American League West. Their record is the second-worst in the A.L., ahead of only the Anaheim Angels. The Astros currently have 13 players on the major league injured list, and Correa, once he goes on the i.l., will make it 14.

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The Atlanta Braves and Seattle Mariners clash this afternoon at T-Mobile Park, with first pitch scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET.

My Braves vs. Mariners predictions are eyeing Atlanta’s elite offense to hit around Bryan Woo in the rubber match.

Read more for my MLB picks for Wednesday, May 6.

Who will win Braves vs Mariners today: Braves moneyline (+120)

The Atlanta Braves have been one of the best teams in the big leagues early on, ranking towards the top of the Majors in nearly every offensive category and also in ERA.

Martin Perez takes the hill today, and the veteran has dominated. He sports a 2-1 record and 2.22 ERA in four starts. He’s held the Seattle Mariners lineup to a .227 average across 75 at-bats, and Perez hasn’t allowed more than four earned runs in a start this season.

As for the M’s, they send the struggling Bryan Woo to the mound, who is far from his dominant self. He owns a 4.61 ERA, surrendering 13 earned runs across his previous two outings.

He’s barely faced the core of this Braves lineup, but the team is hitting .280 against him in 25 at-bats. Plus, the last two teams that lit him up were the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals, and neither has swung the bats as consistently as Atlanta.

They should jump on him early in the finale.

COVERS INTEL:Opponents have a 48% hard hit rate against Woo, which is the worst mark of his career at the moment. He throws a lot of strikes, and a lot of them are getting punished.

Braves vs Mariners Over/Under pick: Under 8 (-104)

Game 2 of this series on Tuesday was a low-scoring affair, ending 3-2 in favor of Atlanta. With Perez on the hill, I do expect the Braves to give up minimal runs, with most of the offensive damage here coming from the visitors.

Five of the last eight meetings between these two teams have cashed the Under, and the series opener was also relatively low-scoring, ending 5-4. Atlanta’s bullpen is absolutely lights out, compiling a 3.21 ERA. Seattle’s is even better, posting a 3.15 ERA.

Even if Woo does give up his fair share of runs, the Mariners pen has the ability to at least limit the damage when he departs.

Braves vs Mariners odds

• Moneyline: Atlanta +119 | Seattle -131
• Run line: Atlanta +1.5 (-175) | Seattle -1.5 (-158)
• Over/Under: Over 8.5 (+109) | Under 8.5 (-121)

Braves vs Mariners trend

The Atlanta Braves have hit the Moneyline in 23 of their last 30 away games (+15.35 Units / 40% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Braves vs. Mariners.

How to watch Braves vs Mariners and game info

Braves vs Mariners latest injuries

Braves vs Mariners weather

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The Okomoto Train got us on the board yesterday for a good one, and Wednesday's slate has a plethora of +EV home run picks and other great MLB player props.

After double-dipping with the Dodgers in the early afternoon, I'm grabbing Miami Marlins infielder Otto Lopez in a cushy matchup against Baltimore Orioles starter Brandon Young and the suspect bullpen behind him.

These are my favorite home run predictions for Wednesday, May 6.

Best MLB home run props today

Player to hit a HR	Odds
Kyle Tucker	+542
Otto Lopez	+800
Shohei Ohtani	+280
💲Today's HR parlay	+14180

Home run pick: Kyle Tucker (+542)

This one checks a lot of boxes, starting with the price. A fair number for a Kyle Tucker HR today is around +440/+450, so there’s plenty of meat on the bone.

Next is the matchup. Lance McCullers Jr. is one of the pitchers to fade today. His BlastContact% and HR/FB rates are among the worst in baseball, and he’s coming off a season-high 99 pitches. For a pitcher who has struggled to stay on the field, that kind of workload could show today.

Additionally, the Houston Astros' bullpen is always one to target and may need to cover innings. Houston relievers are also allowing the second-most HR/9 in baseball.

Finally, there’s a former-team revenge angle in an afternoon game, and Tucker has already taken him deep in just three at-bats.

• Time: 2:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Space City Home Network, SportsNet LA

Home run pick: Otto Lopez (+800)

I need a piece of the bats vs. the Baltimore pitching today, and I'm landing at Otto Lopez at a giant +800 price. 

Brandon Young is my lowest-rated starting pitcher on the slate. He gives up squared-up contact at a high rate, and hitters generate some of their fastest swings against him. Only two other starters have a worse BlastContact% than the Baltimore arm, and his xFIP suggests the damage is sustainable.

Young also won’t go deep, handing things off to a bullpen that gives up home runs and owns the second-worst ERA in baseball over the last two weeks. The Baltimore pen could also be down three or four key arms.

It’s a controlled setting indoors, and Lopez is already 1-for-2 off Young with a home run.

• Time: 6:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Marlins.TV, MASN

Home run pick: Shohei Ohtani (+280)

Let’s double up in Houston vs. McCullers and a struggling bullpen that will be without its closer, Bryan King, who threw 37 pitches yesterday.

Ohtani gets one of the best BlastContact% matchups on the board today and has seen McCullers 23 times. He hasn’t crushed him, but there’s still a lot of information he’s taking into this matchup.

The fair price on this HR is around +250, and it’s tough to pass up the expected value on arguably the best left-handed power hitter in baseball.

McCullers has allowed three home runs over his last 10 innings at home. Historically, he’s been tougher on left-handed hitters, but LHHs are getting the better of him this year, and multiple seasons of injury may be catching up to the right-hander.

• Time: 2:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Space City Home Network, SportsNet LA

Today’s HR parlay

Kyle Tucker	Bet Now +14180
Otto Lopez
Shohei Ohtani

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Framber Valdez was having a rough night, but the Detroit Tigers pitcher insists he didn't take his frustrations out on Boston Red Sox batter Trevor Story.

Valdez had given up 10 runs, including back-to-back solo home runs in the previous two at bats, when Story took the plate in the top of the fourth inning on Tuesday at Comerica Park.

What happened next wasn't intentional — at least that's what Valdez said after the Tigers' 10-3 loss.

Read more:A star pitcher at USC, he was cut after six years in the minors. Then Banana Ball came calling

Not everybody believes him.

With his first pitch of the at-bat, Valdez hit Story with a 94-mph fastball in the numbers on the back of the Red Sox shortstop's jersey. Story wasn't happy as plate umpire Adam Beck stepped between him and the mound.

The benches cleared and the bullpens emptied, but no punches were thrown and order was quickly restored. Valdez was ejected from the game but later said the situation wasn't as it may have appeared.

Benches clear in the 4th inning of the Red Sox-Tigers game in Detroit. pic.twitter.com/8CigiKH63L

— MLB (@MLB) May 5, 2026

“It was not intentional,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “It might look like it, but it wasn’t. I was trying to throw strikes after the two consecutive home runs. I was trying to go back in the zone and that pitch came out of my hand.”

Story wasn't buying it, telling reporters "it's pretty undisputable” that Valdez had meant to hit him.

“I was in there ready to hit and it showed up way behind me and off the numbers,” Story said. “We all know what’s what.”

Interim Red Sox manager Chad Tracy agreed that the hit-by-pitch seemed intentional.

"I thought it was weak, and I thought everybody saw it," Tracy said. "Their side, our side, I think everybody saw it. And yeah, it was weak."

Read more:Shohei Ohtani pitches well, but Dodgers offense goes back to sleep in loss to Astros

While Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said he couldn't judge his pitcher's intent, he called the incident "a low moment of a frustrating night."

"We play a really good brand of baseball here. That didn't feel like it," Hinch said. "It's not judging intent; I have no idea. But I know when you go out on the field and you end up sort of in those confrontations, you usually feel like you're in your right. And it didn't feel good being out there."

Valdez now faces a possible suspension from MLB, with the Tigers already missing several starting pitchers because of injury.

A two-time All Star, Valdez spent his first eight MLB seasons with the Houston Astros. In his first year with Detroit, Valdez is 2-2 with a 4.57 ERA in eight starts.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Dodgers haven’t had a good road trip since the first week of April. But after their malaise through St. Louis and Houston, the Dodgers will return home to Los Angeles with a tall task at hand — facing the Atlanta Braves, owners of the best record in baseball, at 26-11 through Tuesday.

Emmet Sheehan starts on the mound for the Dodgers on Friday night, coming off a loss last Friday in St. Louis, when he struck out eight and walked none, but also allowed four runs on two home runs.

Chris Sale starts Friday for Atlanta, taking a personal four-game win streak into his outing. The veteran left-hander has a 2.14 ERA and 2.84 xERA in seven starts this season, with 49 strikeouts (29.9-percent rate) and 12 wlaks in 42 innings.

Friday game info

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

Coming into the season, I didn’t have very high expectations for Kansas City Royals reliever Daniel Lynch IV. Last year, he posted a perfectly acceptable 3.06 ERA over 67.1 innings, but the underlying statistics (4.53 xERA, 4.76 FIP) suggested that he had good fortune and was due for a rude awakening this year. The southpaw always impressed talent evaluators with his stuff and potential, but he had yet to produce results commensurate with his talent. In 363 innings before this year, Lynch logged a 4.56 ERA (5.00 xERA, 4.74 FIP) over five seasons. Lynch has one more minor league option remaining, and I figured he was more likely to be on the I-29 Shuttle to Omaha than helping the Royals in the bullpen.

It’s still early, but Lynch has been the most effective reliever in Matt Quatraro’s bullpen. The lefty tossed a scoreless eighth inning in the Royals’ 5-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night, lowering his ERA to 1.84 this season. His 0.61 WHIP, 2.22 xERA, and 2.34 FIP are all major improvements over his previous numbers, suggesting that he has earned his sparkling ERA with quality pitching. It’s been a truly impressive start for Lynch and one that the Royals really needed. Carlos Estévez had a disaster outing to start the year and is now out with injury, while Lucas Erceg and Matt Strahm have both had shaky moments to start the season. Lynch has provided much-needed stability and has started receiving higher leverage assignments as a result.

What changes have led to his new success? I looked through Lynch’s Baseball Savant and Fangraphs pages to try to see what is different this season. While we are still in the land of small sample sizes (Lynch has pitched 14.2 innings this year), there are three changes that stand out this year.

More sinker, less fastball

Lynch has changed his pitch mix up each of the last two seasons. In 2025, Lynch threw more sliders than four-seam fastballs for the first time in his career (29% slider, 23% four-seam fastball). He increased his sinker usage (19%) in 2025, but he still threw his four-seamer second-most out of any pitch in his arsenal.

This season, Lynch is still throwing 29% sliders, which is his most-used pitch so far, but has increased his sinker usage to 28%. Against lefties in particular, Lynch has essentially become a two-pitch pitcher; 93% of his pitches against lefties have been either the sinker or the slider. Royals fans know how effective a good sinker and slider combination can be; Brady Singer was an effective major-league starter, particularly against same-handed hitters, with mastery of just those two pitches. Lynch has been death against lefties this year, striking out 9 of the 24 batters he has faced, with an opponent’s average of just .087.

Even against right-handed hitters Lynch is still throwing his sinker more often. His four-seam fastball is down to just 15% of his offerings, which is less often than he throws a changeup and is below his 2025 sinker numbers. I assume the thinking is that the slider is Lynch’s best pitch, and his sinker pairs better with the slider than the four-seam fastball does, therefore more slider and less four-seam will help Lynch get better results. So far, so good.

Higher arm slot, less extension

Lynch has not settled on a consistent arm slot during his career, which presumably has not helped him find consistent results. Last year, the southpaw had the lowest average arm slot of his career at 36 degrees. This season, he has raised his arm slot to 42 degrees.

He also has a lower extension this year than he has had in previous years, which means he is releasing the ball farther away from the plate. The 6’6” pitcher has generally had an above-average extension; last season he was in the 70th percentile for extension. This season, Lynch has released the ball a few inches earlier and farther away from the plate than he has in previous seasons, which places him in the 48th percentile among pitchers.

Generally, pitchers like to get more extension on the ball. The closer you release the ball to the mound, the higher the perceived velocity by the hitters is, because they have less time to react. Bailey Falter essentially has a career because he has such elite extension. Extension is particularly important when you are throwing four-seam fastballs, but can be counter-productive when throwing sinkers. Sometimes heavy sinker pitchers want less extension because they want the ball to have more time to break.

This could be small-sample noise, but if Lynch has made an intentional change with his arm slot and his extension to accentuate the horizontal movement of his pitches, particularly his sinker, then it makes you feel better about his ability to replicate the results he has had so far this season. His sinker has had great horizontal movement both in 2025 and 2026, and his changeup and slider have more average horizontal movement so far in 2026 than they did last year. My suspicion is that Lynch, Brian Sweeney and the rest of the Royals pitching staff (along with any private team that Lynch uses) tinkered with his mechanics in the offseason to emphasize horizontal movement of his pitches. So far everyone should be pleased with the results

Increased sharpness

If I’m right and Lynch tweaked his pitching mechanics in the offseason to help him get the most out of his slider/sinker combination, it has increased his overall effectiveness and sharpness. So far, Lynch has thrown better pitches while retaining the ability to locate the ball. Lynch has struck out 18 batters in 14.2 innings. He’s in the 89th percentile in chase percentage, 98th percentile in whiff percentage while remaining in the 86th percentile in walk percentage. If you can strike guys out and not walk guys as a major-league pitcher, then you are going to find a lot of success.

Stuff+ is a metric developed by Eno Sarris at Fangraphs that looks at the physical characteristics of a pitch (release point, velocity, vertical and horizontal movement, spin rate, etc.) to determine how effective of a pitch it is regardless of results. Lynch has had a below average Stuff+ (92, 100 is average) for his entire career until this season. All of his pitches grade better this season, and his overall Stuff+ number has jumped to 107 this year.

The southpaw has generally been above-average when it comes to locating the ball coming into this season. Even throwing nastier stuff in 2026, he still has above-average command of his pitches, according to Location+. If your pitches get nastier while you keep your ability to locate pitches, which is what Lynch has done this year in a small sample, then you are set up for success as a pitcher.

Relievers are fickle and things can change quickly, but studying the information we have on Lynch makes me think that he has made multiple intentional changes to his repertoire and mechanics, which are leading better results this year. Hopefully, these changes stick throughout the year and give Quatraro another high-leverage option.

It was once the simplest – or, as the robber barons of today say, “frictionless” – broadcast experience: Turn on TBS. Watch the Atlanta Braves.

For baseball fans in the Atlanta area, it was even more basic: Flip the dial to Channel 17. Watch baseball. Become a fan.

Or, eventually, a superfan, thanks to a superstation.

The sports and broadcast world Ted Turner left when he died Wednesday, May 6 at 87 was nothing like the universe he had a large part in constructing as owner of Atlanta’s Braves and Hawks. In the days before his passing, scores of NBA fans were enraged that playoff games – the only ones that really count of the thousands contested a year – were snatched from their standard carriers and placed behind Jeff Bezos’s Prime Video wall.

Wanna watch the Braves nowadays?

That will require a subscription to their broadcast and streaming arm, yet you may need Apple TV on occasion, and oh, perhaps Peacock, and with any luck they won’t be plucked for a Netflix game and yes, old-school basic cable might be mandatory should they land on an FS1 national broadcast.

Old man yells at cloud warning: Back in my day, we never needed any of that to see Zane Smith or Rick Mahler get their teeth kicked in by the Mets or Cardinals.

As we gaze upon this atomized and extremely stratified media and entertainment landscape, it is stunning to think that the Braves – the Atlanta Braves! – became a reliable segment of the sports monoculture.

It’s hard to remember in the wake of the 14 consecutive division titles that would come in the 1990s and 2000s, the lone World Series championship in that run landing in 1995, but the Braves were an awful, awful team for a long while.

Between 1975 and 1990, they had just three winning seasons and one playoff berth, losing 89 to 106 games between 1985 and 1990. In that span, Turner went from media rightsholder to owner of the team.

Not that it was easy. The low point likely came in Turner’s second season as owner, when he made an ill-fated attempt to manage the team whle it was mired in a 16-game losing streak. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn put a kibosh on that after one day, claiming individuals with ownership stakes in the club couldn’t manage it.

“They must have put that rule in yesterday,” Turner, then 38, groused.

Eventually, they got it right, even if in real time, the construction job laid out by Bobby Cox and John Schuerholz, and eventually overseen from the dugout by Cox, seemed like a miracle.

Yeah, the Braves got so good you became sick of them. That’s success.

But before then, they were the epitome of baseball comfort food. Nothing on TV in the afternoon? Flip it to TBS and somehow, you’d stick around, even as Skip Caray might have said, “And so that brings on Paul Assenmacher, Atlanta trailing 11-1.”

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Kazuma Okamoto is red-hot at the plate, and with another fastball pitcher on the mound, I expect him to continue that trend at the Trop today. 

Read on to see why with my Blue Jays vs. Rays predictions and MLB picks for Wednesday, May 6. 

Blue Jays vs Rays predictions

Blue Jays vs Rays best bet: Kazuma Okamoto Over 1.5 total bases (+140)

Kazuma Okamoto has been the hottest hitter in the Toronto Blue Jays lineup. 

He’s recorded a hit in five straight games, going Over his posted base total four times. Over this stretch, he’s posted a 1.554 OPS, averaging 2.8 bases per game. 

It’s a good matchup for Okamoto, too, with Shane McClanahan on the hill. 

McClanahan has been solid this season, but his bread-and-butter pitch is his fastball, which Okamoto has been pounding this year. 

The Jays slugger owns a .327 batting average and .654 SLG against the pitch. 

COVERS INTEL: Okamoto owns a 53% hard-hit rate this season.

Blue Jays vs Rays same-game parlay (SGP)

Myles Straw has been very consistent this year, hitting .291 on the season, grabbing hits in each of his last three starts. He’s also 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI against McClanahan in his career. 
 
For the final leg of the SGP, I’ll take George Springer to record a hit. He’s gone Over this number in three of his last four starts and owns a .278 average against McClanahan with three homers throughout his career.

Blue Jays vs Rays SGP

• Kazuma Okamoto Over 1.5 total bases
• George Springer Over 0.5 hits
• Myles Straw Over 0.5 hits

Blue Jays vs Rays home run pick: Kazuma Okamoto (+450)

I’m only betting a half unit on this one, as McClanahan has only given up one home run this season. 

However, Okamoto can’t stop hitting dingers, and I can’t stop backing him. 

He has homered in four of his last five games with five total long balls in that stretch. 

Okamoto has six home runs against the fastball, which is McClanahan's most utilized pitch. 

Blue Jays vs Rays odds

• Moneyline: Blue Jays +118 | Rays -138 
• Run line: Blue Jays +1.5 | Rays -1.5
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 | Under 7.5

Blue Jays vs Rays trend

The Blue Jays have hit the F5 team total Under in 24 of their last 35 games (+12.65 Units / 30% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Blue Jays vs. Rays.

How to watch Blue Jays vs Rays and game info

Blue Jays vs Rays latest injuries

Blue Jays vs Rays weather

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