Category: Baseball

Long ball, short ball or ball four, the Mets’ new-look lineup aced the first of at least 162 tests it will face this season.

Whether it was Carson Benge and Francisco Alvarez going deep Thursday or Luis Robert Jr. milking a plate appearance into a walk or using his speed to earn an infield hit, the Mets had an Opening Day to remember, torturing Paul Skenes and the Pirates in an 11-7 victory in front of a Citi Field sellout of 41,449.

Skenes, the reigning National League Cy Young award winner, didn’t even complete the first inning. Two defensive miscues by center fielder Oneil Cruz helped the Mets score five runs in the frame and remove Skenes from the scene after 37 pitches.

“If you want to beat guys like this, you have to play perfect baseball, pretty much,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Not only putting together some really good at-bats, but running the bases, putting the ball in play and the whole way everything unfolded was pretty impressive.”

The Mets, who had lost their previous two openers, improved to 42-23 on Opening Day. The .646 winning percentage is the best among MLB teams in openers.

This was the perfect start for a rebuilt Mets lineup that shed Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil in the offseason.

In his Mets debut, Freddy Peralta lasted five innings, surrendering four earned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts. The right-hander was removed at 80 pitches.

“Amazing,” Peralta said of the atmosphere. “It was something that helped me to get better. I can’t wait to see them the rest of the season.”

Peralta’s first inning in a Mets uniform was one to forget: After Cruz singled leading off, Brandon Lowe hit a shot to right that nestled just over the fence for a two-run homer.

Skenes was removed after facing his ninth batter in the first inning: Alvarez, who got drilled by a pitch. The right-hander retired only two batters.

The rally began with Francisco Lindor’s leadoff walk and Juan Soto’s ensuing single. Bo Bichette hit a sacrifice fly and Jorge Polanco’s swinging bunt put runners on first and second. The key plate appearance of the inning followed as Robert saw 10 pitches and drew a walk to load the bases.

But the real damage wasn’t inflicted until Cruz misplayed Brett Baty’s fly to center into a bases-clearing triple that gave the Mets a 4-2 lead. Cruz started in on the ball and then watched it sail over his head.

“Worst-case scenario, I was hoping it was going to be a sacrifice fly,” Baty said. “Then I saw Cruz kind of come in on it, so then I was like, ‘Let’s keep running.’ ”

Cruz’s misery wasn’t finished. Marcus Semien hit a fly that Cruz lost in the sun, allowing Baty to score the Mets’ fifth run.

“They got on us early and then to turn around and respond in the bottom of the inning was huge,” Baty said.

Lowe’s second homer of the game pulled the Pirates within 5-3 in the third inning. Robert’s athleticism was on display later in the inning as his diving catch in right center robbed Marcell Ozuna of a hit to end the frame.

Robert extended the Mets’ lead to 6-3 with a two-out RBI single in the fourth after Lindor and Soto had walked successively to begin the inning.

The Pirates recovered the run in the fifth on Henry Davis’ RBI double past the diving Bichette. Nick Gonzales’ leadoff single began the rally.

Soto delivered an RBI single in the fifth before Polanco drew a bases-loaded walk to extend the Mets’ lead to 8-4. Robert’s infield squib brought in the inning’s third run for the Mets.

Ryan O’Hearn homered against Tobias Myers in the sixth to slice the Mets’ lead to 9-5. The blast was the third surrendered by the Mets.

Benge, in his MLB debut, delivered his first hit and homer in the bottom of the inning, giving the Mets a 10-5 lead. Benge jumped on a first-pitch sweeper from Justin Lawrence and cleared the fence in right center. The next batter, Alvarez, also homered.

“It’s just one game,” Mendoza said. “But there is a lot to like.”

Opening Day overreactions: Crochet's Cy Young campaign off to good start originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Red Sox passed their first test of the 2026 season as they shut out the Cincinnati Reds on Opening Day, 3-0.

Other than being kept off the scoreboard for the first six innings, the Red Sox looked sharp in every facet of the game. Garrett Crochet pitched a gem, the offense racked up 12 hits, and the bullpen kept Cincinnati scoreless for the final three innings.

As always, Opening Day left us with plenty to overreact to with 161 games left in the regular season. Here are five instant overreactions to Boston’s victory:

Garrett Crochet is ready for another Cy Young bid

The 2025 AL Cy Young runner-up looks poised for another run at the award this season. After a rough spring training, Crochet was in peak form in Cincinnati.

The left-handed ace allowed only three hits and two walks while striking out eight Reds hitters over six innings. His only hiccup in the outing was a sixth-inning bases-loaded jam, which he escaped with back-to-back Ks:

As long as he stays healthy, Crochet should join the likes of Tarik Skubal as a Cy Young finalist once again. His excellent outing is a great sign for a Red Sox rotation that is expected to be among baseball’s best in 2026.

Roman Anthony already looks like a veteran

Anthony wasted no time making his presence felt to start his first full MLB season. The 21-year-old smoked a single up the middle on the first pitch of the day:

Later, Anthony rocketed one at 110 mph right at Reds first baseman Sal Stewart to start the day 3-for-3. Stewart was hurt on the play, but he stayed in the game.

The future superstar’s biggest moment came in the ninth, when he turned a strikeout into a walk by winning an ABS challenge to keep the inning alive. The next batter, Trevor Story, singled to add an insurance run:

Moments like that are what separate Anthony, once the league’s No. 1 prospect, from other talented prospects. He already looks and acts like a 10-year veteran, and that’s part of the reason many have him pegged as an MVP candidate in Year 2.

Lineup against lefties is a problem

Yes, the Red Sox tallied 12 hits, but a handful of them were infield singles, and they failed to score until left-handed starter Andrew Abbott exited the game after the sixth inning. Boston’s top three hitters against southpaws last year — Rob Refsnyder, Romy Gonzalez, Alex Bregman — aren’t on the roster, and it showed for most of the day.

The Red Sox need several players to step up against lefties this year. Wilyer Abreu should get the chance after sitting often against left-handers last year. Jarren Duran has historically struggled against southpaws, and Marcelo Mayer didn’t get to start due to his issues against lefties throughout the minors and in his brief MLB stint last year.

Boston was rightfully criticized for not adding another big right-handed bat to the lineup in the offseason. That could come back to haunt the club down the stretch, and Opening Day may have been the first hint that their issues against lefties still exist.

Marcelo Mayer showed why he belongs

Isiah Kiner-Falefa got the start at second base over Mayer due to the Reds starting a left-hander on the mound. Mayer pinch-hit for IKF in the seventh inning and made the most of his opportunity, drilling a double to deep center field. Ceddanne Rafaela drove him in with an RBI single to break the scoreless tie:

Later, Mayer laced a single to go 2-for-2 on the day. He plated the club’s second run on a Trevor Story single.

Mayer still has plenty of work to do against southpaws, but he can still make a tremendous impact both at the plate and in the field. He’s still capable of living up to expectations as a No. 4 overall draft pick, and any talk of him potentially not making the team out of spring training was silly. He should play an important role on Boston’s quest for a deeper playoff run.

Bullpen could be elite again in 2026

The Red Sox bullpen ranked second in MLB in ERA last season, and even if Aroldis Chapman doesn’t put up video-game numbers this time around, the group could be outstanding again in 2026.

Justin Slaten, Garrett Whitlock, and Chapman combined for three scoreless innings to complete Boston’s shutout victory. Slaten struck out two and walked one in the seventh, Whitlock struck out two and allowed one hit in the eighth, and Chapman pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save of the year.

The middle relief arms still have some question marks, but the back end of the Red Sox bullpen looks like it’ll be one of the team’s biggest strengths again.

LOS ANGELES — Dodgers games will now be available to watch on FuboTV, thanks to a new carriage agreement with SportsNet LA that begins with the start of the 2026 season.

Opening day for the Dodgers is exclusively televised by NBC Sports, with the first SportsNet LA telecast coming Friday with the second game of the series against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. There are some exclusive national telecasts later in the season that haven’t yet been finalized, but SportsNet LA will televise over 140 games this season.

In 2025, SportsNet LA televised 145 games during the regular season, after 146 games in 2024 and 145 in 2023.

FuboTV says in a press release, “At launch, SportsNet LA will be available to subscribers of the FuboTV base plan in the SportsNet LA footprint.”

It appears that the cable pieces of the Braves television distribution are starting to fall into place.

The News always comes down in a navy blue image with white text on it, so this is definitely a big deal. The Atlanta Braves and Xfinity aka Comcast have reached a deal to carry BravesVision, the Braves’ owned and operated network. BravesVision will be available for the customers in Atlanta’s television footprint, which contains Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and western North Carolina. I’m not familiar enough with Xfinity to know if BravesVision will require an extended tier package. But I don’t think you have many free options on channel 1254, unless it’s an all-audio channel featuring the smooth sounds of the 70s and beyond. Reportedly, the Braves’ insistence on being on a base tier has been a sticking point in negotiations.

Yesterday it was announced that the Braves agreed to terms with Spectrum. There are around ten cable companies in Braves Country, but it appears they’ve agreed with the major ones. I would be surprised if the other cable companies didn’t find a deal this week. You’re covered with Gray TV on Friday, and FOX on Saturday. So Sunday is the first day you’ll need to be covered with BravesVision (or Braves.tv). We’ll keep you informed as the cable picture continues to clear.

Mike Tauchman underwent surgery Thursday morning to repair the meniscus tear in his left knee.

Everything went as planned according to Jon Heyman of the NY Post, and the veteran outfielder is now expected to miss six weeks before working his way back into game action. 

Tauchman was in the mix for a Mets roster spot before going down with the injury late in camp. 

He was putting together a strong showing, spending time in all three outfield positions and racking up a .371 OBP across 13 Grapefruit League games. 

New York will instead lean on Tyrone Taylor and Jared Young as their outfield depth behind Juan Soto, Luis Robert Jr, and Carson Benge for the time being.

They did also make an addition early in the day Thursday, bringing back Tommy Pham on a minor league deal. 

Whether due to injury, poor performance, or the quirks of a 162-game schedule, a team generally needs far more than five starters to make it through a season (11 different pitchers started games for the 2025 Yankees). Each month during the season, we take stock of the Yankees’ options to join the starting rotation through the Rotation Depth Inventory. With Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, and Clarke Schmidt all starting the season on the IL, the team’s depth could be tested early. Let’s take a look at the the team’s top options should they need someone to fill in.

Luis Gil

An argument could be made that Luis Gil is not depth at all. The Yankees will begin the season with a four-man rotation, taking advantage of some early off-days to carry an extra reliever until their 14th game, at which point they will presumably need to add a fifth starter. Gil carries the inside track due to his pedigree, but his role with the Yankees has become increasingly uncertain. After taking home AL Rookie of the Year honors with a breakout 2024 campaign, Gil missed most of 2025 with a lat strain. When he did return, the results were strong (4-1 with a 3.32 ERA in 11 starts) but the team grew concerned with his underlying metrics, as his fastball velo dipped and fastball shape got out of whack, dropping his strikeout rate a full 10 percent.

This spring was a similar story for Gil — decent enough results, unresolved concerns about his ability to miss bats. His last outing was his most encouraging for pitching coach Matt Blake. “We feel good about the adjustment he made going into the last outing,” Blake said. “He got the quality of the fastball back — the velo up, the miss. All of those things are important to see. Now it’s just a matter of what that looks like the first couple of weeks of the season.”

That last piece is key. Despite Gil’s strong positioning to assume the fifth starter role once it opens up, the Yankees will be monitoring how he looks in the interim. If he backslides, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the team could look elsewhere to fill in until Cole and Rodón return.

Elmer Rodríguez

While the fireballing Carlos Lagrange got the headlines this offseason, it’s Elmer Rodríguez who’s actually next up in the pecking order. After he was named by Baseball America as the Yankees’ 2025 Minor League Player of the Year, the team added him to its 40-man roster, protecting him from the Rule 5 Draft and giving him a key leg up in the depth charts. Since he won’t require an existing spot to be vacated, Rodríguez could be easily promoted for a spot start or two and sent back down afterwards.

Acquired from the Red Sox before last season for Carlos Narváez, the right-hander zoomed through the minors, rising from High-A all the way to Triple-A by the end of the year while striking out the second-most batters across the minors. Named the Yankees’ No. 3 prospect before the season by MLB Pipeline, Rodríguez features a fastball that tops out in the high 90s alongside three promising breaking pitches that would give him legitimate options to work with in a big-league rotation.

Rodríguez is slated to start the year with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and, with a hot start, could force his way into the conversation for New York, particularly if the team has to contend with more injuries.

Carlos Lagrange

As mentioned, Carlos Lagrange has quickly become a darling of the New York media, featuring a fastball that’s reached 103 and would make him a unique weapon in a big-league rotation. The eye test is backed up by the experts: MLB Pipeline named him their No. 2 Yankees prospect before the season. In addition to his all-world heater, the right-hander features a slider, a cutter, and a changeup that have promise.

After rising to Double-A last season, Lagrange could likely do with some more seasoning. He’ll start the year at Triple-A, where he’ll have the chance to do exactly that. While not likely to get promoted early, if the 21-year-0ld can back up his stuff with results at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre he should be in play for a role with the Yankees at some point this year, either in the rotation or the bullpen.

Ryan Yarbrough & Paul Blackburn

When it comes to a spot start, a nontraditional strategy is always in play as well. Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn have combined for 162 career starts and, while each is expected to begin the year in the bullpen, they’ve stretched out to pitch multiple innings during spring training and could serve as an opener or bulk reliever, working with other pitchers to piece together a bullpen game. It’s also plausible either could segue into a more traditional starting role if they make several outings in a row of increasing length, which is essentially what the Yankees did with Yarbrough last year.

With Luis Gil waiting in the wings, Carlos Rodón eyeing a return as early as April, and Gerrit Cole hoping to be healthy shortly thereafter, the Yankees will look to bridge the gap to their sidelined All-Stars without having to dip into their depth any further. If they do need to turn elsewhere, they have talented youngsters and experienced veterans who should be able to fill in capably for short stretches but might not be ready to shoulder a starter’s full workload.

It's outta here!

Mets rookie Carson Benge made quite the first impression on Thursday, blasting his first career home run in his MLB debut.

The 23-year-old took Pittsburgh Pirates RHP Justin Lawrence deep in the bottom of the sixth inning on Opening Day, launching a breaking ball over the right-center field wall to push New York's lead to 10-5.

Benge had gone 0-for-2 with a walk and two strikeouts before recording his first hit with the solo home run.

He became just the second Met to hit a home run in their MLB debut on Opening Day, joining Kaz Matsui in 2004. He also joins teammate Brett Baty as players to hit a HR as their first career hit (although, Baty did it in his first AB).

The Citi Field faithful rewarded the right fielder with a curtain call to celebrate the special moment.

Oh, and to add to the excitement, Francisco Alvarez kept Mets fans on their feet by crushing a home run of his own in the next at-bat.

First MLB hit ✅
First MLB home run ✅

CARSON BENGE HOMERS ON OPENING DAY! pic.twitter.com/yZOGuC3zWT

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 26, 2026

An Opening Day curtain call for Carson Benge! pic.twitter.com/FTUGetIO57

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 26, 2026

Carson Benge. HYPE. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GwfITonATk

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 26, 2026

All the feels for Carson Benge on his first MLB trip around the bases 🥲🥹 pic.twitter.com/9rsCz0ze1r

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) March 26, 2026

TIME TO PAY THE TROLL TOLL.

FRANCISCO ALVAREZ TO THE SECOND DECK! pic.twitter.com/sTBWnFvTJ8

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 26, 2026

For the first time this year: Go Rays!

It’s finally time to play some baseball games that count. The St. Louis Cardinals kick off the 2026 season at Busch Stadium as the Tampa Bay Rays come to town. According to MLB.com, Matthew Liberatore will start the game for the Cardinals while the Rays will send Drew Rasmussen to the mound. This will also be the major league debut for Cardinals phenom (or at least we hope) JJ Wetherholt.

Detroit Tigers vs. San Diego Padres

Time/Place: 4:10 p.m., Petco Park
SB Nation Site: Gaslamp Ball
Media: Detroit Sportsnet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: LHP Tarik Skubal (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Nick Pivetta (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

* Note: Stats in the table below are Fangraphs’ 2026 projections for both players

Welcome back to baseball that matters! It truly is the first day of spring when you can toss the red exhibition jerseys aside and play baseball for real. It’s Garrett Crochet ready to knit it up on the mound against an old friend in Tito and the Reds. Let’s play ball!

⚾️ First Pitch: 4:10pm ET — Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati, OH

📺 TV: NESN

📻 Radio: WEEI

Detroit Tigers at San Diego Padres, March 26, 2026, 1:10 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Petco Park – San Diego, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

Please remember our Game Day thread guidelines.

• Don’t troll in your comments; create conversation rather than destroying it
• Remember Gaslamp Ball is basically a non-profanity site
• Out of respect to broadcast partners who have paid to carry the game, no mentions of “alternative” (read: illegal) viewing methods are allowed in our threads

GB community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!

Earlier today, new manager Walt Weiss spoke with the media ahead of his debut as manager of the Atlanta Braves. We’ll have more to talk about later as far as quotes from him (and Chris Sale and Matt Olson as well) but for now, the biggest news of that presser is that we got a bit of an idea of what the lineup is going to look like tomorrow.

Weiss told the media that Drake Baldwin will be in the lineup as the DH for Opening Day against the Royals. Jonah Heim will be the starting catcher for Opening Day as well. This’ll be Heim’s first Opening Day start since 2024 when he was with the Texas Rangers and although he’s clearly being utilized in a bit of a depth situation while Sean Murphy continues to be on the mend, Heim should still be pretty excited about being the backstop for Opening Day.

This also means that Walt Weiss is going to try to get Baldwin’s bat in there as much as he possibly can as evidenced by the Designated Hitter appearance. This also means that he’s sticking to his guns when it comes to keeping Mike Yastrzemski from starting against lefties, as he would’ve been a prime candidate for the DH role heading into this season.

Walt Weiss also mentioned that Ronald Acuña Jr. would be batting leadoff and indicated that that’ll probably be where he stays. “First thing I said to him [in an office meeting] was ‘Do you want to hit first, second, or third?” So based on the fact that it now seems all-but-confirmed that Acuña will be leading off thanks to Weiss’s comments following that little question, it sure seems like Acuña will be at the top of the order as well and starting in right field.

So with just over 24 hours between now and the first game of the regular season, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of what Walt Weiss’ first official lineup card as manager of the Braves will look like. We know Acuña will be leading off and batting first, we know Drake Baldwin will be DH’ing and we know that Jonah Heim will be catching. What do you think the rest of the lineup will look like?