Category: Sports News

Rangers 8, Orioles 5

• And the Rangers have now won two road series to start the season.
• Jacob deGrom made his belated season debut, and for the first four innings and change, things went smoothly. Seven Ks, no walks, three hits, the one run being a solo homer by Pete Alonso to lead off the fourth.
• I keep having to remind myself, oh yeah, Pete Alonso plays for Baltimore now.
• A blame deGrom’s undoing with two outs in the fifth on Mike Bascik. Bascik said that deGrom’s pitch count and success was such that he should be able to go six innings in this, his maiden start of the season. DeGrom then gave up a single to Blaze Alexander, an infield single to Taylor Ward, and then a hard hit double to the gap by Gunnar Henderson, which tied the game at three and chased deGrom from the game.
• So a bit of a letdown at the end, but still. 79 pitches, 14 whiffs, including 10 on the slider.
• I will note that deGrom, who had a below average hard hit rate in 2025, continued that trend in his 2026 debut. When the O’s made contact, they hit it hard — the lowest exit velocity deGrom allowed was on the Ward infield single in the fifth, at 90.4 mph, and his average exit velocity allowed was 97.8 mph.
• Cole Winn finished off the fifth with a strikeout, and ended up earning his first major league victory, going 1.1 shutout innings. Jakob Junis and Robert Garcia each threw a scoreless inning after Winn, before Chris Martin made the ninth inning a little scarier than it needed to be, allowing a pair of runs before retiring Henderson.
• Fortunately, the bats were clicking. Orioles starter Zach Eflin left the game with two outs in the fourth due to elbow issues, and he had allowed just a single run, on an Ezequiel Duran home run — Duran’s first since September of 2024 — but the bats had still generated a couple of rallies against Eflin aside from the Duran prior to Eflin’s departure, even if they came to naught.
• Once Eflin left the game, however, the bats went to town on the O’s relievers. Former Ranger farmhand Grant Wolfram, who inherited a two on, two out situation in the fifth but got out of it, got teed off on to start the fifth, with the Rangers putting up a pair on a Brandon Nimmo single, a Wyatt Langford triple, and a Corey Seager single.
• Langford had not gotten off to a great start, coming into the game with 2 singles and 0 walks in 19 plate appearances. So its good to see him with a two hit game on Tuesday.
• Langford also now is tied for the league lead in triples, with one.
• Nimmo gave the Rangers the lead in the sixth with a two out single, and Danny Jansen broke it open with a two out, two run homer in the top of the seventh, a tremendously momentum shifting play, of course.
• Corey Seager finished off the scoring with a homer off of Anthony Nunez to start the ninth, giving the Rangers a bit more of a cushion, and making Chris Martin’s sweaty ninth a little less stress-inducing than it might otherwise have been.
• Everybody got a hit except for Joc Pederson, though Joc did draw a walk, though he is 0 for 8 to start the season. Who gets a hit first, Joc or Josh Jung (who got the day off and is currently rocking an 0 for 17 streak), will be an exciting subplot to follow.
• The Rangers, as a team, have a .259/.319/.438 slash line on the year, good for a 121 OPS+ and 121 wRC+. The pitching staff has a 3.00 ERA, good for a 153 ERA+.
• This may be a controversial take, but I like it when the hitting is good and the pitching is also good.
• Jacob deGrom topped out at 99.2 mph with his fastball, averaging 97.6 mph. Cole Winn hit 94.0 mph with his fastball. Jakob Junis reached 93.6 mph with his fastball. Robert Garcia’s fastball topped out at 96.6 mph. Chris Martin’s fastball maxed out at 95.5 mph.
• Wyatt Langford had a 107.5 mph fielder’s choice, a 106.8 mph single, and a 106.5 mph triple. Corey Seager had a 107.5 mph single and a 101.7 mph home run. Danny Jansen had a 107.3 mph single and a 104.1 mph home run. Josh Smith had a 105.3 mph single and a 102.8 mph fly out. Ezequiel Duran had a 104.7 mph home run, a 101.0 mph fielder’s choice, and a 100.0 mph ground out. Evan Carter had a 104.5 mph double. Brandon Nimmo had a 103.6 mph fly out.
• Now let’s finish off the sweep.

It took two whole seasons for Shohei Ohtani to open the season in the starting rotation, and he showed on Tuesday that he is up for the challenge to post a fully healthy two-way season.

Ohtani only went 1-3 with a pair of walks at the plate against the Cleveland Guardians in the Dodgers 4-1 win, but he had the most efficient outing from a starting pitcher on the young season. Fighting the rain and a muddy mound, Ohtani tossed 87 pitches over six shutout innings while allowing just one hit and three walks and striking out six.

After securing his first win as a pitcher since his otherworldly performance in last year’s NLCS Game 4 against the Milwaukee Brewers, Ohtani spoke with Kirsten Watson of SportsNet LA about being back on the mound and battling against both Cleveland hitters and Mother Nature herself.

“I felt really good going into the game. The condition— today’s weather— wasn’t great, but it was a good thing to experience this early in the season, so I’m going to charge it to experience.”

Links

Now that the 2026 season is almost a week underway, we now have a better understanding as to not only how the ABS system works, but also how the Dodgers plan to navigate and implement it.

Will Smith, who has so far made the majority of challenges for the Dodgers, spoke with David Vassegh of AM 570 about the system and about how umpires have been more “locked in” after a full test trial in spring training.

“I think it’s good for the game. I think honestly, the best part about it is I think the umpires are more locked in just from the get-go. There were a lot less overturned calls because they were locked in. The most important thing is getting the call right, and they’re trying to do their best too.”

Tuesday was Yoshi bobblehead night, and the Dodgers had the perfect opportunity to create their own “Spiderman meme” of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the character Yoshi, and actor Donald Glover, who is set to play Yoshi in the upcoming film “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”

Dodgers players also were vying to get Yamamoto’s signature on their Yoshi bobblehead, as Sonja Chen of MLB.com writes about the high demand from players and fans alike for the bobblehead.

A number of Red Sox players were hot in the World Baseball Classic. A number did well in Spring Training. But it hasn’t really carried over into the first week of the season. The Boston Red Sox are 1-4 after a full turn of the rotation and are once again looking for Garrett Crochet to play the part of the stopper.

This is the same team that made upgrades over the winter — even if those upgrades didn’t come off the wish list of players we would have come up with. This is the rotation projected by analysts around the industry to be the best in baseball. But Garrett Crochet was good. Connelly Early looked really good for his sophomore season debut and only a handful of starts last season. Sonny Gray wasn’t impressive. Ranger Suárez looked like he was still trying to catch up after missing time pitching this spring due to WBC rotation issues. And Brayan Bello had good and bad innings.

Mathematically, the first five games count as much as the last five but the impact seems even larger because there are no other games on the season record to hide a run of four poor performances. Everything at the start of the season is magnified.

But let’s step back.

Willson Contreras is a veteran. He’s a career .257/.352/.458 hitter over his 11 years in MLB. How many times over a five-game span has he gone gotten two hits or fewer? 172. That’s obviously distributing them across the season but that’s the point. And there have been variations in his playing time over the samples. As many as 22 at bats and as few as 10. At the start of 2025 he was 0-19 over the first five games. In 2018 and 2022 he had 7 hits in 25 and 18 at bats, respectively.

He’s a year older, granted, but still likely to have his typical Willson Contreras season.

Trevor Story? He’s not piling up big starts in five games all the time either. In 2016 he had six home runs in the first five games of the season. But he also had totals of 2, 1, 1, and 1 with the other six seasons being zero home runs.

Roman Anthony doesn’t have a long career to draw on and he is putting up some bad numbers for his short career. On Tuesday he struck out three times on a total of nine pitches. That’s not great. He struck out four times in a game for the first time this season and first time since July 2025. As you may recall, he turned things on quite a bit for a while as July turned into August.

And while the hitters have looked bad there’s also some amount of the struggle that isn’t in their control. Maybe they’re facing really tough pitchers?

This is likely not the only reason. The bats have been slow to warm up even as spring is in the air in Boston, a month removed from seven-foot piles of snow occupying the city.

And while the Red Sox also have, at least on paper, a good pitching staff that could be dominating opposing lineups, sometimes these things happen. Remember Bello and Lucas Giolito heading into last June? Disaster. And then both of those guys started throwing well.

No one wants to wait until June — the Sox squandered a lot of April and May wins in 2025 that might have been nice to have come September — the calendar is only just turning to April. We’re not at the Marathon game yet. Opening Day at Fenway Park hasn’t even happened. For a moment, perhaps, let’s give these guys a chance to turn things around.

Toronto Blue Jays All-Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero, one of baseball’s most popular stars, is hoping to make an impact off the field too, becoming the first brand ambassador for a premier youth sports experiential company.

Guerrero, 27, who signed a two-year contract, will be the face of FlexWork Sports’ baseball programming across Canada, USA and other global markets. He will host 11 youth events the next two years for youth and family, with the first two being held in Hamilton, Ontario on July 30 and Aug. 24 in Toronto.

“I was born in Canada, play in Canada, and want to give back to the kids who grew up watching me across the country and around the world,” Guerrero Jr. said in a statement. “This partnership gives me the platform to show them what’s possible.

“After hosting an incredible event with FlexWork Sports in Toronto last year, I knew I wanted to build something bigger with lasting impact.”

Good morning.

• I feel like Oprah is about to show up and say “You get an extension and you get an extension!” In any case, the Brewers signed shortstop prospect Cooper Pratt to an eight-year extension. Pratt has yet to make his major league debut. Adam McCalvy reports.
• Brandan Gawlowski evaluates the Pratt deal, expected to be worth just over $50 million with some team options.
• But that deal is overshadowed by the eight years and $95 million the Mariners gave to shortstop prospect Colt Emerson, which is the largest contract ever given to a player who has yet to make his major league debut. There’s a club option for an ninth year and some escalator clauses that could bring the total deal to over $130 million. Daniel Kramer with the story.
• Michael Baumann evaluates the Orioles extension with right-hander Shane Baz. And yes, Baumann’s “Throwing good money after Baz” is an early candidate for pun of the year.
• Matt Kelly has nine players who signed extensions before making their major league debut.
• J.J. Cooper explains what the Pratt and Emerson deals say about how teams value prospects.
• Jake Mintz wonders who else could sign extensions this spring.
• Chad Jennings believes we are on the verge of a new golden age for MLB shortstops. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Tyler Kepner points out that rookies have made a huge positive impression so far this young season. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• David Schoenfield has some thoughts about the first weekend of the season.
• Mike Axisa has his takeaways from the first weekend.
• Jordan Schusterman wonders what some hot starts to the season can tell us.
• Jayson Stark has his weird and wild stat lines from Opening Weekend. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Gabe Lacques has the winners and losers from Opening Weekend.
• Speaking of weird starts to the season, Michael Baumann wonders how long could Nationals outfielder Joey Wiemer (or anyone else) have gone without making an out before we start to think something fishy was happening?
• Jeff Passan collects the everything you need to know about the Automatic Ball-Strike (ABS) challenges of the first weekend that it’s in use. Who did well? Who didn’t?
• Jake Mintz offers his thoughts on how ABS is working so far.
• Maitreyi Anantharaman points out how much entertainment value ABS adds to the game.
• Sam Blum looks at how ABS has shrunk more than half of MLB players. (The Athletic sub. req.) Many players who used to be listed as 6’1” or 6 even are now being revealed as actually around 5’10”. Blum also goes into detail as to how players get measured.
• Time to pay the butcher’s bill. Blue Jays starter Cody Ponce suffered a sprained ACL in his first start after returning to MLB. The Blue Jays just hope at this point the injury isn’t season-ending.
• Ryan Blake looks at Ponce and the start to the season of all the other players who made the jump from NPB and KBO to MLB this year. The sad part is that Ponce looked really good before he suffered the injury.
• Jay Jaffe looks at the ugly history the Giants made in their first series of the year.
• When the Giants did finally win, new manager Tony Vitello was celebrated by his team.
• However, there are some rumblings in Giantsland about the new manager. Retired Giant Mike LaCoss called up a radio station to criticize the Vitello hiring and slam longtime Giants executive Larry Baer.
• Justin Verlander’s first start back with the Tigers was ugly, but Bob Nightengale reports that the Tigers are confident the 43-year-old will be better soon.
• Cody Stavenhagen reports that Verlander’s Tigers teammates rave about his presence in the clubhouse. (The Athletic sub. req.) Also that he drinks a lot of coffee.
• Jake Mintz writes that the Dodgers were hopeful after Roki Sasaki’s first start of the year.
• The most polarizing teams in 2026.
• There was a trade already as the Brewers acquired outfielder Luis Matos from the Giants for cash.
• And another one! The Marlins picked up infielder Leo Jiménez in exchange for minor league infielder Dub Gleed. Gleed started playing baseball after his career as a bounty hunter went south after he failed to capture Han Solo and Chewbacca.
• He’s not officially retired, but J.D. Martinez has taken a job as a special assistant in the Mets front office.
• Mike Soroka had an immaculate inning and struck out ten in his Diamondbacks debut.
• Andrew McCutchen apologized to a Phillies fan after hitting his first home run for the Rangers. As Kennedi Landry reports, it was someone McCutchen knew from his time with Philadelphia.
• Kiri Oler has the 50 weirdest ballpark promotions coming in 2026.
• And finally, the Royals honored the late Terrance Gore before Monday’s home opener with Gore’s eldest son throwing out the first pitch. Anne Rogers reports.

Hens 5, Mets 1 (F/7)

The Mud Hens came out on top in the first of six against the Syracuse Mets on Tuesday afternoon. The Hens pounced on the Mets in the top of the first and cruised to victory as the game was called in the seventh due to rain.

Veteran Cubs’ closer Carl Edwards Jr. got the start in this one, and the Hens took advantage of some walks and poor defense. Wenceel Pérez led off with a walk, and second baseman Ji Hwan Bae botched a grounder off the bat of Max Clark, leaving both runners safe. A walk to Jace Jung loaded the bases with no outs.

Edwards Jr. froze Eduardo Valencia on a called strike three after winning a challenge, but a seeing eye ground ball from Trei Cruz found the outfield grass, plating two runs. A soft tapper from Max Anderson scored Jung as Edwards Jr. couldn’t make the play in time to get Anderson at first. Corey Julks pulled a grounder to third and the Mets got Anderson at second, but Bae threw wide of first, botching the possible double play and allowing Cruz to score. A double from Gage Workman brought Julks all the way around from first, and it was 5-0 when Ben Malgeri grounded out to end the inning.

Reliever Ricky Vanasco took the mound for the Hens and gave up a leadoff single to MJ Melendez, but set the Mets down 1-2-3 after that. He punched out Ryan Clifford on a changeup foul tipped into Valencia’s glove to send this to the second inning.

Pérez led off again in the top of the second, lacing a single, but he was erased trying to steal second. Max Clark lined out and Jung grounded out to end the inning. Vanasco spun a 1-2-3 frame, punching out Cristian Pache swinging over a changeup along the way.

An Anderson double play ball erased Trei Cruz after a walk in the third. Lefty Drew Sommers took over from Vanasco and promptly walked the leadoff hitter, but cleaned things up from there with a pair of swinging strikeouts, one on a high fastball and the other on a good, biting slider.

Sommers gave up a homer to Ronny Mauricio in the fourth, along with a second walk, but right-hander Burch Smith came on to clean up the inning without issue.

Having survived the first inning, Edwards Jr. had delivered three scoreless, and right-hander Jordan Geber took over in the top of the fifth. Max Clark singled with one out, but was picked off, and Geber punched out Jung with a high splitter fading away out of the zone to send this to the bottom half. Smith tossed a 1-2-3 frame, striking out Mets’ catcher Hayden Singer on a high fastball to send this to the sixth.

Geber set down the Hens in order, and the rains let loose, delaying the game for a half hour. When things calmed down, lefty Konnor Pilkington took over for the Hens in the bottom half. He gave up a bunt single to start the inning, but bounced back to strike out Mauricio and Clifford and got out of the inning without issue.

Geber got Julks on a flyout to open the seventh, but walked Gage Workman. Ben Malgeri smoked a ball to center that was caught, but Geber followed by walking Pérez after Workman stole second base. The Mets went back to their pen, but reliever Alex Carrillo walked Max Clark after Clark challenged a 2-0 fastball away correctly. However, Jung went down 0-2 in the count, and Carrillo dropped a slider on the bottom rail of the strike zone. Called a ball, catcher Senger challenged it and Jung was called out.

That was all she wrote for this one, as the rains really cut loose, and the game was officially called official.

Pérez: 1-2, R, 2 BB, CS

Cruz: 1-2, R, 2 RBI, BB, K

Clark: 1-3, R, BB

Vanasco: 2.0 IP, 0 R, H, 0 BB, 2 K

Sommers (W, 1-0): 1.1 IP, ER, H, 2 BB, 3 K

Smith: 1.2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Pilkington: 1.0 IP, 0 R, H, 0 BB, 2 K

Coming Up Next: The 1-3 Hens and the Mets will get going again on Wednesday at 1:05 p.m. ET.

They’ve talked about it for years now.

The Colorado Rockies would enter spring training with the prerogative of stealing more bases in the regular season, especially after the implementation of bigger bases in 2023. Players would run free during Cactus League action, particularly the speedsters, in the hopes that it would carry over into the regular season. Things appeared to be working as the Rockies placed in the top 10 in spring training stolen bases each of the last three seasons.

However, once the games actually started, the running game ceased to matter as much.

Over the last three seasons, the Rockies have ranked 28th in baseball with 248 total stolen bases. That’s 284 fewer than the Tampa Bay Rays, who swiped 532 bags. As for the Rockies themselves, only eight players had more than 10 stolen bases from 2023 to 2025, with Brenton Doyle as the only player with more than 30 bags, coming in with a hefty 70.

Cory Cohen explored some of the follies of the Rockies’ running in 2025. Despite having a fairly quick team, the Rockies ranked 23rd in stolen bases but were caught 39 times, resulting in a league-worst 68.5% success rate. Jumps were slow, and there was a hint of trepidation in the running of the bases.

It’s understandable why the running game would cease during the regular season. Being down big more often than not, the Rockies were hesitant to give away outs on the bases.

“The game has to sort of dictate what you do,” former manager Bud Black said in 2025. “You’ve got to be close in the score or have a lead. If you’re behind a few runs, running yourself into an out or running yourself out of an inning can be detrimental.”

It’s a sentiment that current manager Warren Schaeffer echoed this season.

“There were times last year where we were down early, so you shut the running game down — you can’t run them, and you have to take the risk down a notch,” Schaeffer said.

However, both managers alluded to the fact that keeping games close and staying ahead are the ideals to make sure the running game remains a factor. While that has much to do with how the pitching is doing, the offense has its role to play to keep things rolling.

The running game remained a factor this year in spring training more than in previous years. The Rockies finished third in all of baseball with 45 stolen bases, but they had more attempts than anyone with 68 total attempts. Twenty-three different players had at least one stolen base in camp.

Only five games into the 2026 season, and the Rockies are showing that running and being aggressive will play a factor. In 2025, the Rockies swiped eight bases through their first 12 games. This season, the team swiped eight bases through their first four games, a franchise first. The expected culprits of speedy players such as Jake McCarthy — who had three seasons of 20 or more bases in Arizona — Jordan Beck, and Brenton Doyle will get their bases. Still, there is also a noticeable difference in how the Rockies will approach base stealing.

No one is exempt from the steal signal.

Kyle Karros isn’t exactly a speedster. In his recorded baseball history on Baseball Reference, Karros’s career high in stolen bases is the 12 he swiped in 2024 in 17 attempts with the High-A Spokane Indians. In fact, you would probably have to go back to his high school days to see if he stole more than 10 bases in a season before that. And still, Karros has already swiped two bases this year, with more likely on the way.

Hunter Goodman is also a candidate to run in the right situation despite not being a speedster. On Monday night against Toronto, Goodman attempted a steal of a second, and while he got thrown out, he had a good jump and was just beaten by a good throw. But if the Rockies’ All-Star catcher is going to try swiping bags, nothing is off the table for the running game.

Being aggressive base runners, particularly in the steals department, is something the Rockies can finally make good on in 2026. As they try to develop their new brand of baseball, using speed and aggression to create havoc on the bases is going to go a long way in helping this team score more runs.

Willi Castro said it best in spring training: “The mentality is to score because that’s how you win ballgames.”

The archetype of how base stealing can make a difference was on full display in Miami by the Marlins as they swept the Rockies. The Milwaukee Brewers lead the league with double-digit steals already, and they had the best record in baseball last season. When trying to win in the margins, the “Running Rockies” have to keep the foot on the gas pedal and run without fear. Only then can the strategy manage to stick around as they hope.

On the Farm

Triple-A: Reno Aces 8, Albuquerque Isotopes 1

What began as a pitcher’s duel ended up being a blowout in the home opener for the Albuquerque Isotopes. Gabriel Hughes (No. 12 PuRP) made the start for the Isotopes and was excellent through five innings as he allowed two runs on three hits with two walks and eight strikeouts. He actually came out to start the sixth inning, but surrendered a leadoff triple to end his evening. Things got out of hand in the eighth inning for the Isotopes bullpen after Ryan Miller and Patrick Weigel surrendered a combined six runs on four hits. Zac Veen (No. 9 PuRP), making a rehab appearance, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, while Blaine Crim went 1-for-3 in his rehab. Cole Carrigg (No. 4 PuRP) had a good night, going 2-for-4 with a double, while veteran Vimael Machín had three hits, including a triple. The offense managed just one run on eight hits with 11 strikeouts and just two walks.

Affected by Altitude Episode 204: FacePalm Sunday | Rocky Mountain Rooftop

On this week’s episode, Evan Lang and I talked about the first series of 2026 against the Marlins and broke down the first weekend of play for minor league baseball.

Topes Notes: Prospect Cole Carrigg embracing versatility as Isotopes home opener arrives | Albuquerque Journal

There are plenty of interesting things to watch for with the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate, one of which is the versatility of Cole Carrigg. The Rockies are stretching Carrigg out to play multiple positions after he spent 2025 as a primary center fielder, and he is continuing that journey with the Albuquerque Isotopes.

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Good morning, baseball fans!

As we discussed yesterday, I am living in the past on these so I am going to take a second to give the San Francisco Giants a polite golf clap for getting their first win of the 2026 season on Monday night!

But today, I wanted to take a look at the latest in the Giants’ social media team’s YouTube series “Mic’d Up” this time featuring one of the newer members of the team and WBC Champion, Luis Arráez! The video follows along with Arráez as he goes through his day during the team’s Spring Training in Scottsdale, AZ!

What time do the Giants play today?

The Giants wrap up their series against the San Diego Padres this afternoon at 1:10 p.m. PT.