Category: Sports News

After opening day Thursday, there’s still pomp and circumstance to be had at Dodger Stadium, including before their Friday tilt against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the middle game of a three-game series.

The Dodgers before the game will have their championship ring ceremony, which is expected to begin at 6:20 p.m., narrated by Anthony Anderson, and will be televised by SportsNet LA. Brad Paisley will perform the national anthem.

Once game action begins, Emmet Sheehan gets the start, looking to build on his strong finish to last season after returning from Tommy John surgery. He has never previously faced the Diamondbacks.

Right-hander Ryne Nelson starts on the mound for the Diamondbacks. In three games against the Dodgers last season, including two starts, Nelson had a 2.77 ERA in 13 innings, with 12 strikeouts against only one walk.

Friday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 7:10 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out of market)
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

The Cincinnati Reds got a rock solid start by Andrew Abbott in his first career start on Opening Day. The left-handed All Star fired 6.0 IP of scoreless ball, but the problem was that the Boston Red Sox similarly had an All Star lefty on the mound in Garrett Crochet.

Crochet kept Cincinnati just as scoreless as did Abbott, with Boston’s ace firing 6.0 IP of 3 hit, 2 BB ball to go along with 8 strikeouts, and Boston’s bullpen managed to keep the Reds just as scoreless as did their starter. Cincinnati, though, yielded a run when Pierce Johnson allowed a leadoff double to Marcelo Mayer the moment he took over for Abbott, and Mayer later came around to score the game’s first run in the Top of the 7th.

Connor Phillips then ran into trouble in the Top of the 8th as Boston used an ABS challenge to undo what would’ve been an inning-ending strikeout and turned that into an RBI-single by Trevor Story that put this game in cement, and Brock Burke later allowed another inherited runner to score to make the 3-0 score a final.

While the disappointment of the loss will sting, there were still several positives to take away from the team’s first game of 2026. Abbott, for one, was infinitely better than he’d been all spring, and he danced around 7 hits and a walk while striking out 4 in his 83 pitch day. The hits he did allow were mostly kept on the ground, and two in particular were of the infield hit variety.

One of those was a 110.2 mph rocket off the bat of Boston star Roman Anthony, though, that took a wicked hop and smashed Sal Stewart on the left wrist in a scary moment. Sal stayed in the game, thankfully, and didn’t look any worse for the wear. In fact, he later added a double after he’d already had a double and single in the game, in the process becoming the first Reds rookie ever to have 3 hits on Opening Day.

For that, Sal takes home the first Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game of 2026.

161-1 is still on the table.

Other Notes

• Eugenio Suarez got huge ovations early, but his first game back with the Reds was a rough one. He struck out a trio of times, including once with the bases loaded in their best chance against Crochet in the 6th.
• In total, Reds hitters struck out 12 times on the day.
• Ke’Bryan Hayes’ defense did not score a run today.
• Graham Ashcraft touched 101.5 mph with a heater today, which is a damn encouraging thing.
• Noelvi Marte, who struggled terribly against LHP last year (as did most Reds), went 0 for 2 against Crochet. The moment a righty was on the mound and his spot in the lineup came up, Will Benson was used as a pinch hitter (and struck out).
• Per usual, the Reds have the day off on Friday and will resume their series against Boston in GABP on Saturday afternoon with another 4:10 PM ET start. Announcers will talk about shadows all game, and Brady Singer will start opposite old friend Sonny Gray.

The Dodgers will begin the 2026 season trying to join the 1972-1974 Athletics and 1998-2000 Yankees as the only franchises in MLB’s expansion era (since 1961) to win three consecutive championships.

What’s terrifying for the rest of baseball is that this iteration of the team might be the most talented squad assembled during their historic run of three titles in six seasons.

Shohei Ohtani is the best player in baseball, and it’s not particularly close. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the reigning World Series MVP, is gunning for a Cy Young Award and takes the ball on Opening Day. Kyle Tucker, a four-time All-Star, and Edwin Diaz, arguably the best closer in baseball, joined the “evil empire” this offseason. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts are primed for big seasons, Max Muncy and Will Smith are still the rocks of the organization, and Dave Roberts is still calling the shots.

The lineup is deep, the bullpen is nasty and the starting pitching, if healthy, might be the best in baseball.

Follow below for live updates.

This news just broke, so here it is, without details:

I think everyone here is thrilled with this news. Nico Hoerner has become the heart and soul of this Cubs team, a terrific player offensively and defensively and a great human being as well. Presuming this deal begins after this year — as PCA’s extension does — that would make 14 seasons in a Cubs uniform for Nico, one of the longest Cubs careers for anyone in franchise history.

This article will be updated when there’s more information about the terms of this contract, but I wanted to get the news out to you right now. The team has not officially announced this extension yet.

A recap of the Cubs’ Opening Day loss to the Nationals will follow shortly.

UPDATE: We now have a dollar figure on the Hoerner contract from Jeff Passan.

So that’s an average of $23.5 million a year for the next six seasons. We don’t know about any possible incentives or deferred money, but from Passan’s report, it doesn’t sound like there are any. But if there are, we’ll update.

SECOND UPDATE: There are deferrals. And the contract does start next season, so Hoerner is locked up for the next seven years, including this one.

When Cole Young came to big-league camp last year, the expectation was that he’d get reps with the big-league roster before returning to Tacoma to continue his development. Instead, Young was pressed into service after Ryan Bliss went down with a torn bicep muscle in April and the Mariners were unwilling to test Jorge Polanco’s surgically repaired knee in the field every day. Still battling some arm soreness that had bothered him in spring training, and facing new demands of a 162-game season, Young was forced into a position of treading water, occasionally delivering a big hit but ultimately turning in an uneven rookie campaign that saw him tail off sharply at the back end of the season and be left off the playoff roster.

Now, having just wrapped up his second big-league camp and winning the second base job outright, Young has the failures and successes of his rookie season to build on, and he came into camp ready to address those shortcomings immediately. He built an off-season conditioning and nutrition program and implemented it immediately, preparing his body for the rigors of the season from the jump, and used that as a base for his improvements both at the plate and in the field.

“From day one,” said Jerry Dipoto, “Cole showed up ready to work.”

“As soon as the season ended, it was back to work,” said Young. “Started working out right away. I knew I had to put in some work to be in a good spot for this year, so that was kind of my mindset: just put up the work and it will show up when spring comes.”

In addition to the excellent plate discipline that’s always been a hallmark of his game, Young showed last year he was capable of producing some loud contact in the batter’s box, but he wasn’t able to consistently tap into that power. This off-season, working with a Trajekt machine, he worked extensively on his timing, specifically on being on time for the fastball, and it paid dividends this spring: despite a slower start, he ended as the Mariners’ home run leader this spring, with six, and also notched four doubles while producing some of the loudest exit velocities in camp. And he didn’t leave that power in Peoria: in yesterday’s pre-Opening Day workout, he put on an impressive round of BP, lacing balls with ease deep into right field and even banging one off the glass of the Hit It Here Café.

“I think early on it was frustrating for him, just because he wasn’t seeing it pay off right away,” said manager Dan Wilson earlier this spring. “But now you’re really seeing some strong at-bats, stringing them together, and when your body’s able to handle that and you can take your best self up to the plate every time, your confidence is rolling, and that’s what we’re seeing from Cole right now.”

But the most significant change Young has made is in his fielding. Always surehanded in the minors, Young’s defense took a step back at the big-league level. Part of the culprit was the arm injury that nagged him into the regular season, but in dissecting his rookie campaign, Young realized the bigger fault lay with his footwork. Big-league infields play faster, and Young’s footwork wasn’t setting him up for success. He said he especially focused on double play feeds and turns.

“I came from shortstop, so it’s similar footwork when you’re starting the ball to first, but it changes a lot when you’re turning a double play and have to rotate the other way. The arm angle is a little different, too, so learning that, getting good at that, turning my body and making those turns, that’s what I worked on.”

The prevailing logic is that second base is a step down the defensive spectrum from shortstop; the throws are longer from shortstop, where the majority of balls are hit, and shortstops are charged with starting the double play. But shortstops also have the benefit of almost always having the play in front of them, according to Perry Hill, with an easy throwing lane to first or second base; second basemen more often have to twist their bodies to complete a double play, an adjustment that can take time. For Young, the problem was never his speed nor instincts; you can see that in this play from this spring, where he reads a bunt cover situation perfectly, reacts quickly, and puts on some afterburner speed to get to first base in time—making a barehanded snag to top it off. This is Cole Young, the shortstop, but on the right side of the infield:

And the problem wasn’t actually his arm, even though it was likely impacted by the early-season injury in at least some way. Here is a poor throw from Young that’s actually caused by bad footwork and just general lack of muscle memory for the second base position:

Granted, this ball was a rocket off Soderstrom’s bat (107.6 mph EV, with a .530 xBA). But slowing this down, you can see that Young’s footwork as he fields the ball is off: it takes him four shuffle steps to slow his momentum, and one more shuffle step to get his body turned, leading to some bizarre weight transfers and this as a throwing position:

You do not have to be an infield guru on the level of Perry Hill to know that if you are trying to throw the opposite direction of where your feet are pointed, you are not going to get great results. This position also forces Young into a wonky weight distribution where his weight is primarily on his plant leg and his back side, forcing his arm to come over top for the throw as his plant foot pivots towards first to try to deliver the ball on-target. It is not surprising when the ball instead sails towards the first base dugout.

Some of the body positioning issues might be due to Young coming up as a shortstop and having to reorient himself at second base, especially on double play chances, where he’s essentially moving in the opposite direction he would have as a shortstop, having to turn his body rather than move fluidly through the base. “On the second base side, you know, about 20% of what you do is against where you actually want to go,” points out Hill.

In Young’s 40 in 40, Ryan pointed out that Young especially struggled on plays to his right when he had to throw across his body. This tracks with Young struggling to transfer his skills from one side of second base to the other. Again, though, the footwork makes Young’s arm look weaker than it actually is as he fails to start the double play.

Again, Young takes some extra shuffle steps to funnel in the ball and then doesn’t have a strong base to throw from. As he goes to throw, he has to awkwardly transfer his weight from his front leg, which he’s used to pivot from, to his back leg, his plant leg, to try to get off the throw.

The resulting throw is flat-footed, requiring Young to heave the ball with his upper body to try to get anything on it rather than relying on his lower half for power. That’s something he might have been able to get away with in the minors, where fields are of spotty quality and runners are slower; it’s not something that will play in the big leagues.

But again, Young looks to have improved in that area. Here’s a play from this spring where he has to range extensively to his right on a grounder that came off the bat at 100 mph. Young scampers to the ball, makes a tricky snag on the bounding ball, then makes a good-faith effort at following Perry Hill’s “6 Fs”, funneling the ball in and attempting to set his feet before throwing, resulting in a mostly on-target throw to the first baseman.

“He’s under control now,” noted Dan Wilson this spring of the improvements in his second baseman. “‘Bone’ has put in so much work with him, and I think Cole has done the work and understands why, and has really put it to use out there.”

“He did a good job,” said Perry Hill of his pupil. “He came and he was so much more prepared. He worked hard this winter, and you can see the difference.”

“I learned a ton from ‘Bone’ [Hill’s nickname] last year,” said Young. “I just took everything I could from him and kept working on it extra. He does a really good job of helping me understand how important the fundamentals are. It’s not about how flashy you are, it’s about fielding the ground ball and making the play every time. I’ve always bought into that since I got drafted here, and I love it. I love the 6Fs, I’m all in on those.”

It’s worth noting, too, that growing confidence in the field can transfer into results in the box and vice-versa. This is a solid, instinctual play from a game on March 4 against the Giants – which is also the game where he said he got his fastball timing back, knocking in a clutch RBI.

A year ago, Young was restricted to a half-DH role due to his injury, unable to develop rhythm in the box or on the field, only to be pressed into a big-league regular role by late April for a team fighting for a playoff spot – something Young admitted got him out of his process at times when he was trying to show he was able to play at the big-league level. This spring, with many of his teammates missing due to injury or the WBC, Young was not only the regular second baseman, but oftentimes the anchor of the infield: a challenge he rose to thanks to the hard work he put in during this off-season.

“I think going into last year, I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Young, reflecting on his two disparate springs. “And once I got caught up, I didn’t know how hard the game actually is. So it’s nice to come into the spring and, after failing a lot last year, work on those failures this off-season and come back this year…It’s nice to be able to take those lessons and keep building on top of that.”

ZiPS projects Young as just over a two-win player, with a perfectly average wRC+ of 100; Baseball Prospectus is lower on him, projecting a .7 WARP and a DRC+ of 91. That feels like a fairly low floor for Young, and if his improvements from the spring hold, it’s not hard to see him blasting past those projections. The uptick in offense this spring was encouraging, but it’s the improved defense that will make Young a valuable everyday player for the Mariners. After nearly a decade of intermittent or subpar output at the position, the Mariners might finally have found their long-term answer at the keystone.

The Orioles’ 2026 campaign got off to a winning start on Thursday afternoon at Camden Yards. Trevor Rogers twirled yet another gem, shutting out the Twins for seven innings, before Ryan Helsley closed out the 2-1 victory in Game 1 of the year.

Rogers picked up right where he left off last season. His velocity was up to 95 mph early in the game, though it eventually settled closer to 92-93. No matter how hard the southpaw was throwing, the Twins struggled to do much with it. He delivered seven shutout frames in which he allowed three hits, walked four, and struck out five.

It was not the sort of “dominant” performance you typically associate with seven scoreless innings. Double plays in the third, fourth, and seventh innings were key to preserving Rogers’ impressive season debut. He also loaded the bases in the second inning, but wriggled out of it unscathed. And the four walks are not something that Rogers will want to make a habit.

But all of that is secondary to the fact that Rogers did, in fact, put together seven shutout frames on Opening Day. He looked a lot like the guy that came out of absolutely nowhere to become one of the league’s best pitchers a season ago. Maybe that negative regression that felt like a certainty coming into the season is gonna take a little while longer to show up.

The Orioles offense was slow out of the gate, and it was looking like Rogers might have to settle for a hard luck no decision. They were stifled by Twins’ ace Joe Ryan for the first 5.1 innings, managing just one hit, walking twice, and striking out seven times.

Finally, in the seventh inning, the bats broke through with a pair of runs off of the Minnesota bullpen. Samuel Basallo led off with a single against Kody Funderburk. Tyler O’Neill followed with a base knock of his own off of Justin Topa. Basallo, not exactly known for his speed, was able to go from first to third on the hit. That set up Colton Cowser for a sac fly to left field, driving in Basallo for the Orioles’ first run of the season. O’Neill advanced to second as well, which positioned him to trot home on a Blaze Alexander single a few batters later and make it 2-0 to the home team.

The Twins only run came against Tyler Wells in the eighth inning. Byron Buxton smacked a rare triple to left field with one out. It was a line drive that Taylor Ward probably could have been a bit more aggressive on corralling in the corner. Instead, Buxton took advantage and scampered around to third. Luke Keaschall made it a 2-1 game with a sac fly of his own to Ward out in left before Wells wrapped up the inning with a strikeout.

The ninth inning brought the Orioles debut for Ryan Helsley, and boy was he good. The new closer did give up a single and uncorked a wild pitch, but he also struck out the side, threw six pitches at 100 mph or faster, and secured the Orioles’ first win of the season.

This game was a classic pitchers duel. Ryan probably had the better stuff between the starters, but Rogers was better prepared to go deep into the game. The Orioles bullpen was just a touch sharper, which proved to be the margin of victory.

The Orioles were fortunate that questionable outfield defense didn’t come back to bite them too badly. There was the aforementioned Ward play in left. It wasn’t an error, but it also didn’t feel like he did everything possible to hold Buxton at second base. In the sixth inning, O’Neill dropped a pop up in shallow right field as he was charging in. At the time, it felt like a potential game changer. But even though it was the lead-off hitter of the inning, Rogers was thankfully able to strand him.

It was a bad day for the top of the Orioles lineup. Ward, Gunnar Henderson, and Pete Alonso combined to go 0-for-11 with four strikeouts and a walk. Meanwhile, hitters 4-6 (Adley Rutschman, Basallo, and O’Neill) went 4-for-10 with a double, a walk, and two runs scored. Coby Mayo, batting eighth, walked and stole a base.

There will be better offensive showings for this Orioles lineup, but that may have been the peak for certain members of the pitching staff. Rogers was stellar, and Helsley looked like everything they could have hoped for. I will sign up for 162 games of that, please.

These two teams will be off on Friday before continuing the series on Saturday. Game 2 of the season gets underway at 4:05 p.m. Kyle Bradish will face off with Taj Bradley. See ya at the Yard!

Most Birdland Player

Due to some changes behind the scenes, polls don’t work on the site like they used to. So instead we will be asking for you to comment (or rec a comment you agree with) on who should be the Most Birdland Player for every victory this season.

Your nominees for Opening Day, 2026 are:

• Trevor Rogers (win, seven shutout innings, four walks, five strikeouts)
• Ryan Helsley (first save as an Oriole, three strikeouts, threw really, really hard)
• Samuel Basallo (1-for-4, going first to third, scoring first run of season)
• Blaze Alexander (1-for-3, drove in the winning run)

Let us know who you think should win it down in the comments!

No one could have predicted the way the first inning of the Mets' Opening Day win against the Pirates unfolded.

A five-spot for the home team, as the Mets chased reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes before he can complete the first frame. But it could have gone very, very differently for both teams if the outfield defense was shored up.

Pirates outfielder Oneil Cruz made two crucial misplays in center field. The first came with one out and the bases loaded. Brett Baty lined an 0-1 changeup over the heart of the plate from Skenes to deep center field. However, Cruz misread the ball, coming in off the sound of the bat, and by the time he gathered himself, it was too late. Baty's hit went over his head all the way to the Citi Field wall for a bases-clearing triple, which put the Mets up 4-1. 

"Just the sun was right in front of my face," Cruz said of his misplays after the game, via the team interpreter. "You don’t want those things to happen, but it was really uncomfortable today to have the sun right in front of my face. I tried my best, but it was kinda tough."

"Worst-case scenario, I was hoping it was going to be a sac fly," Baty said of the play. "Then I saw Cruz come in on it, so I was like, just keep running."

BRETT BATY CLEARS THE BASES!

METS LEAD! pic.twitter.com/xDbBIjHIoo

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 26, 2026

The very next batter, Marcus Semien, hit a fly ball to left center. What should have been an easy second out, turned disastrous as Cruz clearly lost the ball in the sun and let it fall for an RBI double. The Mets held a commanding 5-2 lead after that, a lead they would not relinquish.

"Not really the first one. The second one for sure. The first one was one of those low line drives and it takes a little more time for me to read it," Cruz explained when asked if the sun affected both plays. "It was a tough ball to read because you don’t know if you got to come in or go back. It got the sun a little bit at the end, but it’s something I have to get better at. I’ll get better at it for sure."

Cruz is not known for his defense. The gifted slugger made 24 errors as the team's shortstop in 2024 before they converted him to the outfield. Last season, playing exclusively at center, he made 11 errors in 120 starts. He was also a zero in outs above average a season ago, according to Statcast.

Despite the costly miscues, Cruz is motivated to improve his defense and help the Pirates this season.

"Last year had nothing to do with this year," Cruz said of his recent defensive struggles. "For sure, I don’t want to start the season the way I did. I’m just going to focus on my work and get better, that’s it.

"You learn a lot," he added. "There’s good days and bad days. No one wants to make mistakes, just gotta learn a lot and continue to work hard. That’s it."

The Mets and Pirates continue their first series of the season on Saturday before wrapping up on Sunday.

Oneil Cruz says the sun was in his eyes during his misplays in center field:

"It was really uncomfortable today to have the sun right in front of my face - I was trying my best, but it was tough" pic.twitter.com/dfsevQoRKO

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) March 26, 2026