Category: Sports News

San Diego Padres (67-58) at New York Mets (56-69), August 17, 2026, 4:10 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Citi Field – Flushing, NY

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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Mets lineup

A.J. Ewing – LF
Francisco Lindor – SS
Bo Bichette – 3B
Carson Benge – RF
Luis Robert – CF
Jared Young – 1B
Marcus Semien – 2B
Jorge Polanco – DH
Francisco Alvarez – C

SP: Nolan McLean – RHP

Padres lineup

Fernando Tatis – RF
Jake Cronenworth – 2B
Manny Machado – 3B
Ty France – 1B
Jackson Merrill – CF
Luis Campusano – C
Gavin Sheets – DH
Xander Bogaerts – SS
Luis Rengifo – LF

SP: Walker Buehler – RHP

Broadcast info

First pitch: 7:10 PM ET
TV: SNY
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2

Shohei Ohtani may have a clear path to the National League MVP award, according to the reporting of USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale.

The Dodgers anticipate Shohei Ohtani will be pitching again in September barring any setbacks, according to Nightengale, who writes that the two-way star “should also clinch his fifth MVP award as he returns to being a two-way player.’’

Chicago Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is the other leading candidate for NL MVP.

Ohtani, 32, has not pitched since July 3 because of inflammation in his left knee. He is 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 85 2/3 innings.

On Friday, Aug.14, he threw 35 pitches during a bullpen session.

"He used his entire mix (of pitches)," Dodgers manager Roberts told the media. "He felt encouraged."

The knee issue has not kept Ohtani out of the lineup as a designated hitter. He leads the Dodgers with 27 home runs, 77 runs scored, an on-base percentage of .388 and a slugging percentage of .540.

As a hitter and a pitcher, Ohtani has a combined WAR of 6.3.

Ohtani won the AL MVP with the Angels in 2021 and 2023 and won the NL MVP with the Dodgers in 2024 and 2025.

Crow-Armstrong leads the Cubs’ regulars with 28 home runs, 75 RBIs, an on-base percentage of .374 and a slugging percentage of .533.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Shohei Ohtani's return to mound could seal another NL MVP award

Detroit Tigers vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, August 17, 2026, 7:05 p.m. ET

The Pittsburgh Pirates are continuing their home stand at PNC Park as they host the Detroit Tigers for a three-game set. The first matchup of the series is getting the national TV treatment in ESPN’s edition of Monday Night Baseball.

Taking the mound for the Pirates is Carmen Mlodzinski, who is making his third start since returning to the rotation earlier this month in replacement of Mitch Keller, who is out for the rest of the season. Mlodzinski is slowly working his way back towards pitching like a starter, but he has struggled in his first two starts, failing to make it into the fourth inning in either appearance. In his last start against the Miami Marlins on August 12, he pitched 2.1 innings, giving up five hits and four earned runs in an 8-2 loss.

The Pirates will face off against Tigers’ left-hander Framber Valdez, who is in his first season with the Tigers after spending eight seasons with the Houston Astros, becoming a two-time All-Star and a World Series champion.

Valdez has not pitched his best since arriving in Detroit, going 7-8 with a 4.26 ERA, the first time since the 2019 season that he’s had an ERA above 4. He’s coming off a loss in his last start against the Cleveland Guardians on August 12, pitching 5.2 innings, giving up six hits and four earned runs, and losing 6-4.

Location: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, ESPN

Pitching Matchup: Framber Valdez (7-8, 4.26 ERA) vs. Carmen Mlodzinski (6-5, 3.79 ERA)

BD community, chime off in the comments section below.

Cristopher Sanchez beats Miami, takes over MLB lead with his 16th win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

After a road trip that took them from hazy, hot and humid St. Louis to the cornfields of Iowa and finally to a weekend in the city where Mary Tyler Moore once tossed her hat in the air, the Phillies returned to Citizens Bank Park to begin an important six-game homestand Monday night.

They had the guy they wanted on the mound.

Lefty Cristopher Sanchez entered the series opener against the Miami Marlins tied for the major-league lead with 15 wins, 10 of which had come at home.

Those numbers got better after Sanchez helped the Phillies beat the Marlins, 6-5.

Sanchez pitched six innings of one-run ball and took over the major-league lead with his 16^th win, one more than Boston’s Sonny Gray.

For the season, Sanchez is 16-4 with a 2.51 ERA in 26 starts.

He is 11-1 with a 1.42 ERA in 15 starts at home.

For his career, he is 29-9 with a 2.43 ERA in 73 games (64 starts) at Citizens Bank Park.

If the Phils stay on their regular rotation, Sanchez should make seven more starts as he tries to win 20 games. There were no 20-game winners in the majors the last two seasons. Roy Halladay was the last Phillie to reach the plateau when he won 21 in 2010.

“It would be an honor to be in position to get 20 wins, but my first thought and my first goal is to throw as many quality innings as I can for the team and always leave the team in a good position to win games when I’m on the mound,” Sanchez said. “After that, if that mark happens, I’ll take it, of course, and it would be an honor.”

Sanchez has had sharper outings. He allowed 11 base runners on eight hits (seven of which were singles) and three walks, but he got outs when he needed them most. Three times he registered the third out of an inning with two runners on base. Two of those came on a strikeout.

“They’re a contact-oriented team,” Sanchez said. “I just tried to get as many zeroes on the board as I could. That was the main goal tonight.”

Manager Don Mattingly said, “I thought Sanchie was good. That’s kind of what he does. He gets some traffic but hangs in there and gets the ball on the ground. He almost gets a triple play there in (the fifth) inning.”

Sanchez left with a 4-1 lead, but the Marlins scored a pair of two-out runs against Jonathan Bowlan in the seventh. It could have been worse. Javier Sanoja’s bases-loaded, two-run double was initially ruled foul. It was overturned by replay officials in New York, who called for runners to be placed at second and third. Had the play initially been called correctly, three runs would have scored and the game would have been tied at 4-4. Marlins’ manager Clayton McCullough didn’t care for the call and was ejected.

The Phillies put a run on the board in the bottom of the seventh to extend their lead to two runs, but ended up leaving the bases loaded. The Marlins again made it a one-run game when Brian Navarretto homered against reliever Brooks Raley in the eighth. Orion Kerkering came on and got out of the inning, preserving a one-run lead, and Alec Bohm once again extended it to two runs with a base hit in the bottom of the inning. Bohm’s hit scored Bryce Harper, who reached base four times on three hits and a walk.

Derek Hill came off the bench and had two RBIs late in the game on a base hit and a bases-loaded walk.

“They kept coming,” Mattingly said of the Marlins. “It seemed like every time they scored, we were able to answer back, which was huge.”

The day after throwing a season-high 33 pitches in Minneapolis, Jhoan Duran pitched the ninth. He allowed a run but ended up with his 27^th save.

The victory was the Phillies’ fourth in a row as they moved into sole possession of the second NL wild card spot, a game up on San Diego. The Padres hold the third and final spot by a game over Arizona. Miami and St. Louis are both three games behind the Padres.

The Phillies have two more games remaining against the Marlins before hosting St. Louis in a weekend series. With 36 games remaining, it would behoove the Phils to have a good homestand and keep the Marlins and Cardinals from creeping upward.

“We’re on a day-to-day basis now,” Mattingly said. “It’s not like win a series. It’s more like win every day no matter who we play. That’s just where we’re at.”

Today’s roster moves: Here

Monday notes…

• NOT GOING FIRST: The Cubs have not scored a run in the first inning of their last six games. They haven’t even made a hit, going out in order in five games and earning a pair of walks in the other. They made a sacrifice fly and a forceout to end the first inning of the game before the streak started, so they have been hitless in 22 consecutive first-inning PA. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• GOING FIRST: The Cubs have won their last five games when facing an opponent for the first time, including the one-game make-up vs. the Blue Jays. They have won seven of eight, raising their record for the season in first games to 21-20. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• AGAINST WINNING TEAMS: The Cubs are 32-25 in games in which their opponents began with a winning record. They had won four in a row before losing yesterday. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Kyle Hendricks throws six strong innings and Ian Happ’s sixth-inning homer is the difference in a 2-1 Cubs win over the Reds that breaks a 12-game losing streak that followed the big selloff in 2021. It happened five years ago today, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021.

The Cubs lineup was not available at posting time. Please check BCB social media for the Cubs lineup.

White Sox lineup:

Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Luis Castillo, RHP

Shōta Imanaga had a rough outing his last time out against the Nationals but still has a 2.49 ERA and 1.125 WHIP over his last 11 starts covering 61.1 innings.

He has not faced the White Sox this year. Here’s the start he made against them last year, July 25, 2025 at Rate Field. Please don’t click on that boxscore link. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Hi there, Luis Castillo! The new White Sox starter is quite familiar to us after all those years with the Reds. He has made 18 career starts against the Cubs, though the last was more than two years ago, April 14, 2024 at Wrigley Field while with the Mariners.

Currently active Cubs are batting .273 (24-for-88) against Castillo with four home runs. Nico Hoerner is 6-for-11 (.545) against him and Alex Bregman, Michael Conforto, Michael Busch and Ian Happ account for the four homers.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Wrigley Field.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. It’s also on CHSN and WCIU-Ch. 26 with the Sox announcers.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox. If you do go there to interact with Sox fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

After the disappointment of last night and dropping yet another contest on Peacock in front of a nationwide viewing audience, I decided to call the one man in Houston who could bolster all of collective spirits.    That man is Geoff Blum, the 3-time Emmy Award Winner from Space City Home Network.   Geoff joins us exclusively at The Crawfish Boxes.   

Q:  125 games are in the books.    What’s your overall assessment of things?

A: The Astros are in good position.   They’re sitting atop the A.L. West.    One thing I’ve learned about watching this team and this organization and being around the guys in the clubhouse, is they do not panic.  It’s easy on the outside to point to a series or a specific game but when you are playing 162 games, you put things into a greater context.    There’s still plenty of time to either secure the top spot or lose it, but I’ve learned over the years not to panic with these guys.

Q: With Hunter, there was that stretch where we issued a series of walks.    Do you sense that something is going on with his mechanics, or is it focus?   

A: I do think it’s a little bit of the mechanics.    When guys come back from injury, the body just isn’t the same which is true of anybody, it can be a position player or a pitcher.    Your body reacts and there’s a recovery process.   Hunter Brown is hyper competitive, and he’ll go out there and find a way to do it.    

Q: So, you’re not concerned at all with Hunter Brown down the stretch?

A: The velocity is there.    Some of his pitches last night were amazing.    It’s just a matter of him dialing it in consistently.

Q:  Where would the Astros be without Peter Lambert?

A: Without Peter Lambert, the Astros are not sitting in first place.    He’s become the anchor of the rotation.    He’s become consistent even with his quiet and humble demeanor.    I appreciate his workmanship, his consistency and all that he’s done this season.  

Go Rays!

The Orioles will play the fourth and final game of the series tonight in Tampa Bay. Wrap-around weekend series are rare these days. So are four-game sweeps of first place teams. Baltimore can’t control its schedule, but it can dictate the results on the field tonight.

The O’s won a pair of one-run games before thumping the Rays 10-2 on Sunday. They’ll look to finish the job this evening against Shane McClanahan (9-6, 3.09 ERA).

Tyler O’Neill will play right field and bat leadoff against the lefty. He’ll be followed by designated hitter Pete Alonso and second baseman Jackson Holliday. Coby Mayo will bat cleanup and play first base.

Gunnar Henderson will look to ride a recent hot streak from the five hole. Christian Encarnacion-Strand will handle the hot corner, and Jeremiah Jackson will play left field. Christian Franklin will play center field and bat ninth. Carlos Narváez will hit eighth and catch Brandon Young.

Young (9-3, 3.33 ERA) is looking for his 10th win of the season. The majority of Baltimore’s high-leverage relievers should be available following yesterday’s blowout win.

Orioles lineup

1. T O’Neill (R) RF
2. P Alonso (R) DH
3. J Holliday (L) 2B
4. C Mayo (R) 1B
5. G Henderson (L) SS
6. C Encarnacion-Strand (R) 3B
7. J Jackson (R) LF
8. C Narváez (R) C
9. C Franklin (R) CF

Starter: RHP Brandon Young (9-3, 3.33 ERA)

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

For the Marlins:

Let’s talk about it.