Category: Sports News

We have a split squad double header this afternoon as the Athletics will once again break the team up 50/50 to go take on two different squads. First one half will stay back to play host of the San Diego Padres, while the other half is set to hit the road across town and visit the Milwaukee Brewers. Who doesn’t love two-for-one days during spring?

A’s vs. Padres

First dealing with the Padres, the Athletics have veteran right-hander Aaron Civale set to get the ball for what will be just his second appearance of camp. The last-minute signee was all but guaranteed a rotation job by the team when he joined up and nothing has dispelled that notion of yet. He looked alright in his first action last time out, reaching 60 pitches across 3 2/3 frames while allowing just a pair of runs. The A’s are hoping for the 30-year-old to be a veteran innings-eater for a young squad. Expect for him to reach or surpass that 60-pitch mark he hit in his first start this spring.

Here’s how the A’s lineup versus the Padres looks this afternoon:

First baseman Nick Kurtz is back atop the lineup and A’s fans are seemingly going to have to make their own inner peace with Mark Kotsay’s decision to have him lead off. We’ll likely be seeing lots of balls fly out of the park this coming season from the lefty slugger’s bat, but there will likely be lots of solo shots instead of two and three-run bombs.

The coaches heavily favored the Padres matchup for their starters, with all but the final two spots in the batting order full of regulars. Behind Kurtz is another slugger in Shea Langeliers, followed by two more in Tyler Soderstrom and Brent Rooker. The on-base guys, Jeff McNeil and Jacob Wilson, will meanwhile be in the middle of today’s lineup. Are the A’s somehow ahead of the curve when they switch their typical middle-of-the-lineup hitters with their on-base machines?

This lineup will be going against Padres righty Michael King, one of their best pitchers. He’s already pitched three times this spring as he ramps up for a possible Opening Day assignment for San Diego.

Here’s how the Padres stack up:

While the A’s have most of their starters going the Pads are going the opposite way. Shouldn’t be too difficult a matchup for Civale and the Athletics this afternoon.

A’s at Brewers

Meanwhile the other half travels to the Brewers’ complex hoping to do their job on this two-win opportunity kind of afternoon. Taking the ball for the Athletics will be lefty prospect Gage Jump. There’s a bit of chatter going around that Jump could be an earlier-than-expected option for the A’s this year, and he’s done nothing to dispel that notion with a great spring so far. Another big outing for the 22-year-old could further his goal of getting to the big leagues sooner than later, with an outside shot at Opening Day.

Here’s the A’s batting order for the second game today:

Of course, with most of the starters in the other game there won’t be any facing off against the Brewers Crew today. We will get a Zack Gelof sighting as he handles DH duties today. Colby Thomas and Andy Ibanez seem like safe-ish bets to break camp with the club but have both struggles this spring, so a big game today would go a long ways for both of them.

Then we’ll also see a pair of top prospects as we’ll see Leo De Vries and Tommy White bat back-to-back in the middle of the order. A sneak peak of a possible future, perhaps?

And here’s Milwaukee’s starting nine for this afternoon:

An interesting opponent on the mound this afternoon as lefty Kyle Harrison gets the ball for the Brewers. He’s yet to reach his potential that was expected of him coming up through the Giants system a few years ago and he’s now trying to establish himself in Milwaukee after a failed stint in Boston. He’s looked solid during camp and with the Brewers battling some injuries, there’s a chance Harrison breaks camp with them in some capacity. He’s going to be going into today’s start with something to lose, which doesn’t bode well for the Athletics’ B-Lineup.

Two weeks to Opening Day. A chance for two wins today! Let’s go A’s!

The Atlanta Braves took on the New York Yankees faced off in Northport for a spring training in which Didier Fuentes took the mound in hopes of proving he is ready for a rotation spot.

The game started off with a bang for the Braves. Didier Fuentes looked like seasoned veteran with a 1-2-3 inning while picking two strikeouts, one of which was to former MVP Cody Bellinger. Then, Mauricio Dubón seems to be getting hot with a HR. Mark Bowman said it best:

The Braves continued to roll in the first, scoring four total runs thanks to Ozzie hitting a double, Austin Riley getting a single, a Mike Yastrzemski HBP, Jonah Heim single, and Kyle Farmer single. Of note, Albies may end up hitting second this season against lefties. Before last season he had one of the best splits in MLB against LHP with a wRC+ of 136 or higher in six different seasons to include two seasons above 174. However he struggled by his standards last season with only a 91. All in all, the Braves were able to put up seven runs on fourteen hits.

Didier Fuentes was on fire this game. Through his first eight hitters, he struck out five of them and was perfect through three innings. He consistently hit 97 MPH and reached 98.6 MPH on his fastball, and his sweeper looked absolutely filthy. Unfortunately, we only got to see his 3.0 innings because he was replaced by Dylan Dodd after only pitching forty-two pitches.

Pitcher List gave us an in-depth look of his outing, showing that he may have been a bit lucky based on his location and stuff, but he did get seven whiffs.

The Braves late inning guys came in the game and looked solid. Raisel Iglesias, Robert Suarez, and Aaron Bummer all combined for 3..1 perfect innings before Bummer was replaced by Frey who gave up a single in the eighth with two outs. Between Fuentes and the three aforementioned pitchers, they combined for 7.1 innings of perfect ball. The only real blemish for Braves pitching was Dylan Dodd giving up a double and single in an inning where he too looked decent with two strikeouts.

The story of this game was that this may have been the best overall output in terms of an entire game from Braves pitching from players who that have a shot of potentially making the MLB roster at some point this season. They had thirteen strikeouts while only allowing two hits and zero walks in 7.1 innings. This includes the numbers from Fuentes because he does have a shot of appearing at some point.

The scoreboard does not show the true dominance because Ian Mejia, who came in to pitch the ninth, gave up five earned runs without retiring a single batter.

In the game thread post, it was mentioned that Kyle Farmer was a player to keep an eye on because he may make the Opening Day roster to start games against LHP. Farmer went 3-3 today, boosting his spring average to .481 and OPS to 1.130. José Azocar continued to fight hard for a spot as well, picking up two hits and raising his average to .393 and his OPS to .950.

The Braves will face the Red Sox at North Port where Bryce Elder is scheduled to start, looking to cement a spot in the rotation. It will be hard for him to top what Fuentes did today.

Ryan Weathers allowed four runs in the first inning and the Yankees' offense produced next to nothing until the ninth inning 7-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Friday in North Port, Fla.

Here are the takeaways... 

- Weathers, whom the Yanks acquired in January for five players, is looking to crack the rotation, but didn’t get the start he wanted as his second pitch was smoked for a 393-foot home run to left field off Mauricio Doubón's bat. The lefty's 97 mph heater went right into the inside corner, and Doubon turned on it easily.

Weathers then allowed a double down the right-field line when a 1-2 changeup up in the zone got poked the other way by Ozzie Albies. He came around to score on Austin Riley’s one-out single up the middle against a drawn-in infield. After plunking lefty-hitting Mike Yastrzemski in the back, Weathers allowed back-to-back RBI singles, the first to left by Jonah Heim and the second to right by Kyle Farmer. A couple of loud outs kept it to just a four-run inning with the Braves sending nine men to the plate.

The 26-year-old bounced back with a 1-2-3 second with a pair of strikeouts and a double-play in the third, but then the first two men reached on singles in the fourth. Weathers then got back-to-back strikeouts to close his day.

His final line: 3.2 innings, seven hits, four runs, four strikeouts, and one HBP on 67 pitches (48 strikes).

- Atlanta starter Didier Fuentes, the hard-throwing No. 3 prospect in the Braves’ system, had no such issues navigating his 42-pitch start. He tallied five strikeouts without allowing a base runner over his three innings, getting Trent Grisham at a sweeper below the zone, Cody Bellinger swinging through a 99 mph heater off the plate, Ryan McMahon swinging at a sweeper off the plate, Oswaldo Cabrera whiffing on a sweeper down-and-in, and Ernesto Martinez Jr. looking at a fastball at the knees.

- Yovanny Cruz, a 26-year-old minor leaguer, showed off some good stuff in the 1-2-3 fifth, getting two strikeouts as he pumped in nine pitches of 100 mph or faster out of 15 total.

- Max Schuemann got the Yanks' first hit with one out in the fourth with a double on a bloop into no-man's land down the right field line. He finished 1-for-3 with a run scored.

- Bellinger ripped an RBI single up the middle off lefty Dylan Dodd in his second at-bat. He finished 1-for-3 with two strikeouts swinging, the second on an up-and-in 90 mph sinker.

- Grisham went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts swinging, the second flailing at a changeup off the plate.

- Randal Grichuk went 0-for-3 with a mile-high pop-out in foul territory to third, a terrible-looking swing on a strikeout on a ball in the dirt, and a groundout to short.

- McMahon went 0-for-3 with a pair of swinging strikeouts, but did put a charge on a ball (106.7 mph off the bat) in his final at-bat to lineout to left. 

- The Yanks scored five runs in the top of the ninth, capped by Jonathan Ornelas rocketing a monster, three-run home run: 460 feet and 113.1 mph off the bat. 

Highlight

An RBI single for Cody Bellinger 💪 pic.twitter.com/rkFUSmlwuI

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) March 13, 2026

What's next

The Yankees host the Philadelphia Phillies in Tampa on Saturday, with Opening Day starter Max Fried climbing the hill for the 1:05 p.m. first pitch.

If the Cubs are going to snap their losing streak against the White Sox, they’re going to have to do it on the road — and on a Friday the 13th on top of that.

It’s a battle of Martins today, go figure:

Advantage to our Davis, in every way including 2026 Cactus League performance.

For the White Sox, it’s a mix of established lineup and late-spring tryouts. In the latter category sits Everson Pereira at DH, Jarred Kelenic in center, back from WBC Curtis Mead at third base and Dustin Harris getting his first taste of first base. None of them have options left, and not all will make the cut north with the White Sox, so we’ll have some DFAs from this group within two weeks.

As for the Cubs, who cares? They’re traditionally a lousy organization, with insidious ownership. Let’s get another rout, packed with homers, against them.

It’s a dual broadcast, on both CHSN and WMVP, at 3:05 p.m. CT.

Giants reliever Erik Miller on track for Opening Day after making spring debut originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SCOTTSDALE — Giants reliever Erik Miller would prefer not to know when he’s going to pitch. He used to get “starter’s anxiety” the night before his spot in the rotation came up, and one thing he has loved about life in the bullpen is the fact that he can be tapped on the shoulder at just about any time late in a game and asked to go throw 97 mph fastballs to a tough lefty.

But spring training innings are mapped out well in advance, and for Miller, that’s particularly important right now. 

The left-hander had missed all of camp with lower back tightness, but he returned to game action on Friday and looked like, well, himself. Miller gave up a leadoff single but then struck out three straight Cincinnati Reds in the fourth inning.

Miller will get back out there Monday, and the Giants will try to keep him on a regular schedule in order to have him ready for the New York Yankees — Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm and others — on March 25. After Friday’s spring debut, manager Tony Vitello said he sees no reason why Miller can’t be ready for the opener. 

“In my opinion, he does (have time),” Vitello said. “I don’t think there was anything drastic going on. I’m a karma guy, I don’t want to say too much (but) he was in a position where he was able to keep (playing catch) so I think he’s in a good spot and I think he feels that way.”

While there are checkmarks for every reliever to hit in the spring, Miller on Friday looked like someone who is ready for regular-season games. His fastball was up to 97 mph and averaged 96.5, and he got two strikeouts on his slider. 

“That’s about as good as I can ask for,” Miller said. “I threw strikes — that’s the main thing. Strikeouts are a benefit but for the most part I was throwing stuff where I wanted to. Yeah, it was good. Obviously, it’s been a long time since I’ve thrown in a big league game.”

Miller’s last appearance against big leaguers was July 2 of last season. He dealt with elbow discomfort throughout the second half and spent all of August and September rehabbing, but the elbow hasn’t been an issue this spring. 

Miller said he usually has back problems a couple of times a year, but this spring, the discomfort returned after he thought he had turned a corner. That led to him being delayed until eight days before the Giants fly home, and they can’t afford any setbacks at this point with their top left-handed arm, and a pitcher who could end up throwing in the eighth and ninth quite often. 

Miller figures he’ll need at least four or five appearances to get ready, but the early schedule could help. The Giants are off on two of the first five days of the season, giving Miller a bit more time to get fully up to speed. 

More Moves

A day after making their first round of spring cuts, the Giants sent relievers Juan Sanchez and Wilkin Ramos to minor league camp. The 25-year-olds are both likely to begin the season with Triple-A Sacramento. 

Sanchez briefly seemed to be in the mix for the Opening Day roster before Miller returned and Joey Lucchesi signed. The lefty had a good spring, allowing just two hits in six scoreless appearances. He walked five and struck out seven, and Vitello was impressed.

“I just think he’s got all the things you want out of a guy intangible-wise,” he said last week. “He just needs to be as good as he can be physically, because when he’s at his best it’s pretty good. The deception piece is there and the stuff is good enough.”

Noteworthy

The misters were on at Scottsdale Stadium for most of Friday’s game and it’s only going to get hotter in the coming days. It’s supposed to be over 100 degrees for the final four days of camp, so some teams in the Cactus League are considering moving some 1 p.m. games to the evening next week.

The Giants entered the day with a .296 average as a team this spring, but Rafael Devers is still trying to find his timing after missing time with hamstring tightness. Devers was 0-for-3 on Friday and is hitless in 18 at-bats this spring. Willy Adames is just 4-for-31. 

While there are zero concerns with those stars, Jerar Encarnacion looked like he was slumping his way off the roster about a week ago. He has found his swing, though. Encarnacion tied Thursday night’s game with a sac fly in the ninth and went 2-for-4 on Friday with a scorched RBI double. 

The Giants could use his right-handed pop off the bench, and there’s a chance he starts the season as the DH if he makes the initial roster and Bryce Eldridge does not. Vitello was especially pleased with Encarnacion’s defense and baserunning lately, noting how hard he is going.

“Jerar is an inspiration right now with the way he’s playing,” Vitello said.

Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

This week, we asked you, fourth months in advance, whether you would draft UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky No. 1 overall in July.

Your answer was yes, overwhelmingly.

“A lot” can change over the course of spring baseball, both at the college and high school levels. But Roch sure seems to be a lock about right now.

There were national questions for you to answer as well, centering on PEDs:

Yes, PEDs are back in the news after Jurickson Profar (older brother of White Sox infield prospect Jurdrick, South Side Sox’s No. 1oo prospect for 2026) was suspended for a full season after his second positive test for banned substances. Overall, most agree the system is working as intended.

Did you miss out on this round of questions? No worry, sign up here to participate in our weekly emailed surveys, and have your White Sox voice be heard!

This week’s Reacts is brought to you by FanDuel.

San Diego Padres at Athletics, March 13, 2026, 1:05 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV/MLB Network

Location: Hohokam Stadium – Mesa, AZ

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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