Category: Sports News

Game Summary

After a one hour plus rain delay, the Mets and Cardinals matched up in a pitcher’s duel, with Liberatore carrying a no-no into the fifth inning. The taut pitcher’s duel was interrupted by a Juan Soto solo HR in the 6th, but matched up by a key two-out, two-strike RBI single by Nolan Gorman to knot the score up. The 1-1 tie carried into the 11th inning, when a bloop single by Masyn Winn brought home the extra runner (JJ Wetherholt) for a Cardinal walk-off victory.

Mathew Liberatore pitched six strong innings giving up 3 hits, 1 R, 1 BB, 2 K. The Cardinals bullpen held serve for 5 more innings, pitching very sharp with the exception of Roycroft’s struggles in the tenth. Graceffo pulled a magic act escaping a bases-loaded, one-out situation and is rewarded with the walk-off win.

The Cardinals take the series, 2-1 and end the homestand 4-2. Well done by the home team. On to Detroit after an off-day tomorrow.

Line-up (and roster) machinations

• Saggese gets a start in LF, Church moves to RF, Walker gets an off-day.
• Otherwise, normal alignment with L-R-L … arranging the batting order
• If you missed it yesterday, Graceffo joined the team, with Pushard to the IL-15.
• Liberatore on the mound for the home team. Peralta for the Metropolitans.
• Soto is the only straight-up LH hitter in their line-up.

The Game Details

A view from the box score, for those who want a deeper sense of the game.

T1 – Libby starts out inducing weak contact. P6. 5-3. F9.

B1 – Wetherholt K’s. Can already see teams are peppering him high and away. The last two strikes were out of the zone, following a take on a borderline strike. Herrera singles. Burly GIDP, except Lindor forgot there was only one out and didn’t throw to first. Oops. Fielder’s indifference? Winn K’s to end the inning.

T2 – Another smooth inning for Libby. L4. 5-3. 5-3.

B2 – Gorman lines out. Sags K’s. Church with a deep fly. It must be a get-away day after a rain delay with the fast pace of the game <checks notes>.

T3 – 6-3. 1-3. 4-3. Nine up, nine down. 34 pitches first time threw the line-up. Very sharp.

B3 – Pages grounds out. Scott II K’s. Wetherholt gets a second look at Peralta. An ABS challenge goes his way (on an away pitch, of course). JJW K’s. Peralta is matching Libby with zeros and teaching an absolute master level class on how to live on the edge and then just off it with 2 strikes. He, too, is very, very sharp.

T4 – F7. K. L7.

B4 – Herrera grounds out. Burleson grounds out. Masyn Winn lines out. And the beat goes on.

T5 – L7. Sags has handled himself well today defensively. 6-3 on a nice play by Winn. Robert’s AB included a successful ABS challenge by Pages. Vientos breaks up Libby’s no-no with a 2-out double. Semien follows with a walk, following an unsuccessful ABS challenge by Pages. Libby pitching out of the stretch, just missing. Libby closes it out with a K. Still tied, 0-0.

B5 – Gorman walks. Saggese advances him with a single. Church grounds into force play after two unsuccessful bunt attempts. Church advances to 2nd on a weird wild pitch. Alvarez blocked a pitch, and then seemed to forget about Church, who then took second. Pages K’s. Scott II grounds out, stranding two.

T6 – P9. Followed by E-5, but then Lindor gets picked off while drifting off first base. Libby was paying attention, Lindor was not. Soto hits solo HR. Bichette singles. Polanco F9. Mets now up 1-0.

B6 – Wetherholt singles. Herrera walks. Burly K. Winn pops out. Gorman picks everyone up with key two-out RBI single. Brozoban in for Peralta, who pitched extremely well. Sags K’s. Now 1-1.

T7 – Stanek replaces Liberatore, who was really, really good. Lead-off single. F9. K. An E-2 (catcher’s interference) ended Stanek’s outing. Romero relieves and gets a key strikeout. Still 1-1.

B7 – Raley in for Brazoban. Walker backwards K. Pages K. Scott bunts out 1-3.

T8 – 6-3. F9. 6-3. Romero very sharp.

B8 – Weaver in for Raley. F9. K. L9.

T9 – O’Brien in for Romero. Double. K. 6-3. K. Dominance.

B9 – Williams replaced Weaver. Winn walks. Gorman lines out to right. Winn steals second to put winning run in scoring position, but F9 and another Walker K quelled the rally. Extra innings ahead, 1-1.

T10 – Bruihl in for O’Brien. Semien is the runner at second. A skipper back to Bruihl catches Semien off, but poor execution on the run down results in the batter getting to second. P6. Walk. P4 gets a big out on Soto. Nice job by Bruihl to keep the extra runner stranded. 1-1.

B10– Myers in for Williams. Pages K (his third). Scott 4-3. Wetherholt 3-1. Nothing doing here.

T11 – Roycroft in for Bruihl. Soto the extra runner. Bichette bangs one off Roycroft that became 6-3 with Soto to third. A pair of subsequent walks ended Roycroft’s outing. The wheels came off for him. The poise he was showing in spring has evaporated. Graceffo in. 4-2 force at home holds the tie. F9 allows Graceffo to wiggle out of the inning. Great job! Good moment for him. Still 1-1.

B11 – Wetherholt is the extra runner. Herrera IBB. Burleson GIDP takes the wind out of the sails, but a bloop by Winn that drops brings home some walk-off magic, 2-1 Cardinals.

Post-Game Notes

• Liberatore’s change (88 mph) is almost as hard as McGreevy’s FB. I didn’t realize his “cambio” was that firm.
• Mathews started today for Memphis. 5 K’s, 4 BB’s in 3 IP, no ER. Crook has started his season on fire, with his third HR today.
• Mets made 3 critical mental errors in this game, plus gave away challenges they’d need later. They have some clean-up work to do. Maybe Mets stands for “Mental Excursions Today”.

West Coast game times, we won’t miss you! The initial two series of the Tigers season have been rough for anyone with a strict bedtime, and the results have been more mixed than fans would have liked, but the Tigers took to the field on Wednesday hoping to keep the Diamondbacks from completing the series sweep. They’d have Tarik Skubal on the mound, always a good place to start when you want to win a game. The DBacks, meanwhile, were counting on Zac Gallen, who was hoping to have a better game today than his first outing of the season.

Gallen collected two quick outs to start the first inning, but Gleyber Torres kept things alive for the Tigers with a sharply hit single to left. Unfortunately the Tigers weren’t able to keep the momentum up and a fly out ended the inning. Unfortunately, things started to go badly for the Tigers almost immediately in the bottom of the inning as Corbin Carroll hit a one-out solo home run. Skubal got the next two outs, but the DBacks were first on the board.

It was another quick 1-2-3 for the Tigers in the top of the second. Ildemaro Vargas kicked off the home half with a single, but he was soon eliminated in a double play off the bat of Nolan Arenado.

In the third, Colt Keith got a two-out double, but it wasn’t enough to get something going for the Tigers. In the home half, Tim Tawa started things off with a leadoff double, but Skubal was able to steer the ship back in the right direction, following up that gaffe with three consecutive outs.

The Tigers went down in order in the fourth, but the DBacks did much the same in the bottom of the inning, keeping things nice and even.

The game motored right along into the fifth, and with one out in the inning. Matt Vierling sucessfully challenged a strike call to stay alive, then used it to his advantage to work his way to a single. The Tigers didn’t manage to take advantage of the baserunner, and the score stayed at 0-1 heading into the bottom of the inning. Arenado got a leadoff single, but was eliminated by a double play off the bat of Jose Fernandez. Tim Tawa reached in a throwing error by Javier Baez, who overthrew a toss to first that pulled Colt Keith off the bag. Jordan Lawler singled, but the DBacks were also struggling to convert baserunners and Skubal got out of the jam.

In the top of the sixth Kevin McGonigle legged out his first career triple with one out in the inning. It’s too bad that Torres managed to groud into an ill-place double play. Corbin Carroll singled to start the home half. A double play and a groundout followed in quick succession, however, to end the inning and show that Skubal remains a force to be reckoned with.

Gallen’s day was done after six, making way for Taylor Clarke. Clarke gave up a one-out single to Dillon Dingler, but two outs followed to leave him stranded. Skubal plowed through the order in the bottom of the inning, getting the DBacks out 1-2-3. That was likely it for Skubal, whose line for the game was 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HR on 87 pitches. Not his best outing to be sure and the strikeout numbers were low, but aside from the first inning slip-up with Carroll, it was a good outing from Skubal.

Juan Morillo was next out of the DBacks bullpen, and he got the Tigers out in order as the Detroit bats fell silent. Kyle Finnegan was the first out of the Tigers’ pen after Skubal’s start. A comebacker to start the inning had him checking his reflexes. With two outs, he walked Ketel Marte. He then walked Carroll, which is better than giving up a home run, but not by much. After Dingler came out to help set Finnegan right, they turned around to get the final out of the inning.

It was the Tigers’ last opportunity to try and make something happen. They’d be up against Jonathan Loaisiga. McGonigle wasn’t going to go down without a fight, squaring off against Loaisiga and getting a perfectly-placed single into center. Torres once again hit a ball to precisely the wrong place, hitting into another double play and likely ending the Tigers’ opportunity to come back. Riley Greene doubled into center, following the old adage to hit ‘em where they ain’t. The effort was there, but it didn’t pay off. A Dingler groundout ended the inning and the game. The Tigers suffered their first sweep of the season, and this time they were shut out as well.

Final: Diamondbacks 1, Tigers 0

ST. LOUIS — The Mets haven’t hit much since Opening Day, wasting strong pitching in the process.

Wednesday, it was Freddy Peralta’s fine work, with solid relief behind him, that got forgotten as Masyn Winn’s bloop single in the 11th inning sent the Mets to a 2-1 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

The Mets, who lost for the third time in four games, went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position, getting their only run on a Juan Soto homer. In the three-game series, they went 1-for-29 with runners in scoring position.

A night earlier, the Mets wasted Kodai Senga’s solid work over six innings in a 3-0 loss.

“I still believe in what we have,” Francisco Lindor said. “[David] Stearns and the front office did a good job of putting a good team together, and we have got a good team. … It’s hard to win if you don’t score runs. Overall, I think we are just a couple of pitches away.”

The Mets wasted a bases-loaded opportunity in the 11th inning, with Brett Baty hitting a grounder that resulted in a force out at the plate before Marcus Semien was retired to end the inning. The Mets also left two runners on base in the 10th inning, when Soto was retired for the final out.

“We have just got to get back to what we do well, which is controlling the strike zone, getting good pitches to hit and doing damage,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Good hitters that right now, a couple of games, they’re not getting it done.”

The Mets scored only five runs in the three games. They have already played three extra-inning games, including two they split against the Pirates last weekend.

Tobias Myers, in his second inning of relief, induced a double-play grounder from Alec Burleson after intentionally walking Iván Herrera to begin the 11th, with the automatic runner at second. Winn won it with his bloop to right that fell in front of a diving Carson Benge.

“Our pitchers have done a tremendous job,” Lindor said. “We have got to score runs for them.”

Peralta showed improvement from his Opening Day start by allowing one earned run on three hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over 5 ¹/₃ innings in a no-decision. The ace right-hander allowed four earned runs over five innings against the Pirates in his Mets debut last week.

Peralta retired 11 straight following Herrera’s single in the first inning. Nolan Gorman snapped the string by drawing a walk to begin the bottom of the fifth.

The Mets didn’t get their first base runner against Matthew Liberatore until Mark Vientos stroked a two-out double in the fifth. Semien followed with a walk before Francisco Alvarez struck out to end the inning.

What is Francisco Lindor doing?

Very next pitch was a home run by Juan Soto

If the Mets lose by a run, this is why pic.twitter.com/HXkSzfzjYe

— Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland) April 1, 2026

Peralta escaped a jam in the fifth by retiring Victor Scott II for the final out after walking Gorman and allowing a single to Thomas Saggese, who had reached second on a wild pitch with one out. Gorman remained at third.

Soto’s first homer of the season produced the game’s initial run. Soto lofted a fly to right that landed just inside the foul pole. Lindor led off the sixth by reaching on Gorman’s fielding error, but was picked off first base. Soto homered three pitches later.

Gorman delivered a two-out RBI single in the sixth to tie it 1-1. The run was charged to Peralta, who departed with runners on first and second with one out. Huascar Brazobán retired Winn before surrendering the game-tying single to Gorman.

Luis Robert Jr. singled leading off the seventh and with two outs Alvarez reached on a catcher’s interference. But pinch hitter Benge struck out against lefty JoJo Romero to leave the go-ahead run at second base.

Jorge Polanco doubled leading off the ninth, but the Mets never pushed across pinch runner Jared Young as Robert, Baty and Semien were retired in succession.

“We have got to make some adjustments, but they are good hitters,” Mendoza said. “And right now, for the last couple of games, they haven’t gotten the job done.”

Six games in, and it’s safe to say that—outside of the offensive outburst on opening day—the bats have gotten off to a slow start for the Mets. They haven’t scored more than four runs in a game since that first one, and numerous games have gone into extra innings because the Mets couldn’t bring enough runs home to win in regulation despite the pitching staff holding the opposing offense at bay.

Well, we got another one of those games today—and this was perhaps the most frustrating of them all, as the Mets failed twice to score in extra innings and fell to the Cardinals 2-1 to lose the series.

Today’s game started an hour late due to rain, but the Mets’ bats did not seem to get the memo about the new start time. Indeed, after failing to score at all in last night’s game, the offense once again looked helpless against Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore, who retired the first fourteen batters of the game before Mark Vientos broke up the perfect game with a two-out double in the fifth. Alas, through five innings the Mets were held scoreless, making it seventeen straight innings without a run dating back to Monday night. Thankfully, the Amazins had their top starter on the mound, as Freddy Peralta suited up for his second start of the season and matched Liberatore in putting up zeroes. The biggest threat against him came in the bottom of the fifth when the Cardinals got runners on second and third with just one out, but a strikeout and groundout kept the game scoreless.

Francisco Lindor got on base in the top of the sixth thanks to a one-out error, but was immediately picked off (which counted as the second mental error of the day for Lindor, who also forgot how many outs there were and gave up a potential double play earlier). That proved to be consequential, as Juan Soto then came up and hit a high fly ball to right that just barely stayed fair and went over the fence for what should have been a two-run homer. Still, the scoreless streak was finally over thanks to the Soto’s first bomb of the season, and the Mets had themselves their first lead of the day. But alas, they would not hold it for long. Peralta quickly got into trouble in the bottom of the frame, allowing a single and walk to put runners on first and second with nobody out and then falling behind 3-1 to Alec Burleson. He managed to fight back and strike Burleson out, at which point Carlos Mendoza turned to the bullpen. Huascar Brazobán came on and induced an infield pop-up for the second out, but Nolan Gorman then lined a single into center to tie the game at 1-1. A strikeout then ended the inning and finalized Peralta’s line on the day (5.1 innings, 3 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts, 1 run).

The Cardinals pulled Liberatore after six innings of one-run ball, and old friend Ryne Stanek was the first pitcher out of the St. Louis bullpen. The Mets got two runners on against him—on a Luis Robert Jr. single and a two-out catcher’s interference against Francisco Alvarez—and Mendoza then called upon Carson Benge to pinch-hit for Tyrone Taylor. The Cardinals responded by bringing in lefty reliever JoJo Romero, who struck out the rookie to end the threat. We then got a string of 1-2-3 innings from both bullpens (first from Brooks Raley, then a full frame from Romero, then from Luke Weaver) to bring us to the ninth with the score still tied.

Jorge Polanco led off the inning with a double against Riley O’Brien. But as they have done over and over and over and over again in this first week of the season, the Mets failed to capitalize on the threat, and three straight outs—culminating in a strikeout by Marcus Semien, who has not gotten a hit since opening day—sent the game into the bottom of the ninth. Seeking to get the game to extra innings, Mendoza turned to his closer, and Devin Williams was able to work around a leadoff walk to hold the Cardinals scoreless and give the Mets their third extra inning game in this young season.

The Mets and their futile offense then committed the cardinal (no pun intended) sin of playing extra innings on the road and failed to score even the ghost runner in the top of the tenth against new pitcher Justin Bruihl. In do or die mode, Mendoza turned to Tobias Myers (who had just pitched multiple innings on Monday) to attempt the unenviable task of trying to hold the Cardinals scoreless and send the game to the 11th. And remarkably, Myers was able to get the job done, as he struck out the leadoff batter after a failed attempt at bunting the ghost runner over to third, and then two harmless groundouts ended the frame with the game still tied at 1-1.

Given new life, surely the Mets’ bats wouldn’t fail to score yet again, right? Surely they aren’t THAT pathetic, right? Well, after a Bo Bichette groundout off new pitcher Chris Roycroft sent the ghost runner to third, back-to-back walks loaded the bases with one out. The Cardinals brought in a new pitcher—right-hander Gordon Graceffo—to try to get out of the jam. And get out of the jam he did, as Brett Baty then hit a soft grounder to second that result in a forceout at home and Semien (who, again, has not gotten a hit since opening day) flew out to end the inning with the Mets being held scoreless yet again.

So Myers was forced to go out for a second inning and try to pull a rabbit out of his hat yet again. And for a moment it looked like he might, as he induced a groundball double play (following an intentional walk to start the inning) to give the Mets two out with a runner at third base. Alas, Masyn Wynn—who had not had a hit all series leading up to this at-bat—blooped a ball into right field that was just past the reach of a diving Benge, bringing the winning run home to end the game.

It’s been six games. Far too soon to be drawing any meaningfully conclusions. But boy howdy this offense has been dreadful to watch one week in, and for the sake of all of our sanity they should try really hard to be better moving forward—particularly in this part of the season before they start facing off against some more intimidating competition later in the year. Onto San Francisco.

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
Viva El Birdos

Box scores

MLB.com
ESPN

Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Freddy Peralta, +20.8% WPA
Big Mets loser: Marcus Semien, -34.9% WPA
Mets pitchers: +25.4% WPA
Mets hitters: -75.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Soto solo homer in the sixth, +18.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Masyn Wynn walk-off single in the 11th, -37.5% WPA

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Cincinnati Reds, April 1, 2026, 6:40 p.m. ET

Location: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, OH

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, SportsNet Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road today against the Cincinnati Reds looking to grab a win at Great American Ball Park.

Please remember our Game Day thread guidelines.

• Don’t troll in your comments; create conversation rather than destroying it
• Remember Bucs Dugout 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
• The commenting system was updated during the summer. They’re still working on optimizing it for Game Day Threads like ours. If you don’t like clicking “Load More Comments”, remember that the “Z” key can be your friend. It loads up the latest comments automatically.

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

The Red Sox cannot wipe away this road trip fast enough. Fenway Park, here they come.

Another loss to the Houston Astros, a 6-4 final on Wednesday, spelled more of the same. Too many strikeouts. Too many errors. Not good enough in any phase. Not even Crochet Day could put the Red Sox back in the win column. Wilyer Abreu and Roman Anthony tried to save the day with late home runs, but Boston heads east with just their Opening Day win in Cincinnati to show. 

Here are three takeaways from Boston’s series finale in Houston. 

Shaky, not sharp for Crochet

The Astros certainly do not fear the 2025 American League Cy Young Award runner-up. In fact, they attacked him unlike any other offense since he donned the Red Sox uniform.

Houston tagged Crochet for five runs in just four innings of work last August. Wednesday at Daikin Park marked more of the same for the lefty. Crochet finished five innings, the only Red Sox pitcher of the series to do so. The Astros took flight in that span with six hits and five runs (four earned) in another offensive burst.

The southpaw struck out seven, though Carlos Correa delivered the backbreaking swing of the start. The veteran infielder walloped a 1-2 sweeper into the Crawford boxes. The Astros took the lead, knocked Crochet out following the inning and delivered another gut punch to the visitors.

Connor Wong: XBH machine?

Boston’s backup catcher was an offensive liability last season. He didn’t log his first extra-base hit until July 25. 

Well, aided by Carlos Narvaez’s mysterious scratch, Wong is as hot as any Red Sox hitter thus far. He roped his third double of the season Wednesday afternoon. Sustainable? Doubtful, but we’ll see. In any measure, a serviceable Wong would be a welcomed Red Sox surprise. 

So long, Mr. Alvarez

The good news? The Red Sox are done pitching to Yordan Alvarez (for now). 

The bad news? They’ll see him again in exactly a month. 

Alvarez is as much of a Red Sox killer as any slugger to ever face Boston. The stat ran through multiple broadcasts during the series: No qualified hitter (100 at-bats) has a higher OPS (1.280) in history against Boston than Alvarez — next in line in that stat is some guy named Babe Ruth. The 2021 ALCS MVP continued his reign with another monstrous series to the tune of a .545 average with two homers and a 1.888 OPS. He added two more hits and a pair of runs scored Wednesday, along with a staredown of Crochet after Boston’s starter plunked the Houston slugger.

Alvarez comes to Fenway Park with the Astros the first weekend of May. Beware. 

The Mets dropped Wednesday's rubber match with the St. Louis Cardinals, falling 2-1 in 11 innings.

Here are the key takeaways…

-- With the game tied at 1-1, this one went to extra innings, the Mets' third such game in their first six contests. In the top of the 11th, the Mets loaded the bases with one out, but Brett Baty grounded into a force-out at the plate, and Marcus Semien flew out to end the threat. In the bottom half, with two outs and a runner on third, Masyn Winn blooped a single to right just in front of a diving attempt from Carson Benge, giving the Cardinals the win.

-- It was a pitchers’ duel through the early innings, as both Freddy Peralta and Matthew Liberatore were on point early. Peralta allowed just one hit the first time through the order, striking out five. Liberatore, meanwhile, started by retiring the Mets nine-up, nine-down, inducing six ground balls. 

Mark Vientos finally notched the Mets’ first hit of the afternoon with a line drive double down the third base line with two outs in the fifth. Dating back to Tuesday night’s loss, the Mets had gone 0-for-22 before Vientos’ hit. He’d be left stranded there, though, as Francisco Alvarez went down swinging to end the inning. 

-- Just when the Mets looked like they caught a break in the sixth inning, as Francisco Lindor reached on an error by Nolan Gorman, Lindor was immediately caught sleeping and picked off at first base. It was the second mental error of the game for Lindor, who also forgot how many outs there were defensively earlier in the game. 

But Juan Soto picked Lindor up, blasting a high, towering solo home run to right, which hung in the air forever before glancing off the foul pole. Soto’s first home run of the season put the Mets up 1-0, and snapped a 17-inning scoreless streak.

-- Peralta ran into some trouble in the fifth, starting the inning by allowing a walk and a single. But he got out of a second-and-third, one-out jam without allowing a run.

Peralta pitched into the sixth inning, when he was pulled with a couple runners on base. Unfortunately for the Mets, Huascar Brazoban allowed one of the inherited runners to score on a Gorman RBI single, tying the game.

Peralta went 5.1 innings, allowing one earned run on three hits. He struck out seven and walked two.

-- As a team, the Mets went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.

GAME MVP

Liberatore, who allowed just one earned run in 6.0 innings.

Highlights

Five strikeouts over three scoreless innings so far for Freddy Peralta pic.twitter.com/6f0u6Qf6NA

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 1, 2026

Freddy Peralta works through a jam to keep the Cardinals scoreless through 5 pic.twitter.com/q5X1bTKD1E

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 1, 2026

A TOWERING SHOT!

Juan Soto hits his first home run of the year! pic.twitter.com/nqZJStvwgG

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 1, 2026

The Mets head to extra innings for the third time this season pic.twitter.com/u0H6kRb8Uo

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 1, 2026

Upcoming Schedule

The Mets head out to San Francisco for a four-game series with the Giants, starting on Thursday night at 9:45 p.m. on SNY. 

David Peterson will face Robbie Ray in a battle of lefties.

Rockies 1 at Blue Jays 2 (10)

It was one of those games where the starting pitcher was going to have to be almost flawless for his team to win. Kevin Gausman was up to the task and did his damnedest in holding the Rockies at bay for six innings, a but bullpen wobbles and a lack of hitting, first timely and then outright, undermined the effort as the Blue Jays fell in 10 innings.

Gausman was especially dominant over the first four innings, almost perfect really as he set the first 12 batters in order. The fastball was popping and well located, the splitter diving off the plate as he struck out six of those and a liner to third the only time the Rockies got close to touching him. Hunter Goodman had a particularly rough time, befuddled as Gausman dispatched him.

He was more human the last couple ininngs, as Ezequiel Tovar battled him for a long at-bat and lined a single up the middle to start the 5th. Hesitation on a roller allowed Tovar to beat the throw the second and create a real jam, though Gausman extricated himself with a couple strikeouts. After another hard hit in the 6th, he got another pair of strikeouts to end the inning in double digits for the second time, finishing 6 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts.

The bats were able to create opportunities early against Kyle Freeland, but couldn’t land decisive blows and largely squandered the chance to build a substantial lead:

• A lead off single in the 2nd from Okamotot was erased by a Kirk GIDP sanchwiched around another single
• Myles Straw blooped a single leading off the 3rd, scoring on a one-out Davis Schneider single after a Springer walk. Vladdy was (barely) hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out and really set up a big inning, but Okamoto struck out and Kirk flared out.
• Another Straw single in the 4th put two one after a HBP, but advanced no further.

From that moment in fact, the bats were essentially shut down, managing just two singles over the last 6.2 innings, after eight of the first 17 batters reached over the first 3.1 innings.

So Gausman exited clinging to a slim 1-0 lead. Tyler Rogers was first out and uncharacteristically fallible, allowing a pair of hard singles. In fact, only Addison Barger’s arm (or the threat thereof) kept a run off the board as TJ Rumfield held up at first after smashing a ball to the wall and would likely have scored from second with two out on the latter single.

The highwire act could onyl last so long however. Tommy Nance was next for the 8th, and it wasn’t his day either . Nine hitter Kyle Karros walked leading off, yielding to Jake McCarthy who stole scored in quick order on a single. Another walk, wild pitch, and stolen base created a real mess but John Schneider inflicted a little dose of the Flu(harty), whose two strikeouts prevented the Rockies from taking the lead.

Jeff Hoffman was equally as on point in the 9th, sharp sliders dispatching the Rockies to strikeout the side in order. With Braydon Fisher and Louis Varland down from previous heavy use, that left Brendon Little, and well….

Honestly, he wasn’t even terrible, but a sharp ground ball up the middle plated the do ahead run. For their part, Springer popped out on the second pitch in the bottom of the 10th before Nathan Lukes battled Jimmy Herget to 12 pitches before ultimately rolling one over. Vladdy cracked a ball, but to dead CF where it was easily caught and so it goes.

Jays of the Day: Gausman (+.36 WPA), Fluharty (+0.25), Hoffman (+0.14), Davis Schneider (+0.12)

Boo Jays: Nance (-0.40) , Vlad (-0.22), Kirk (-0.14), Jimenez (-0.13). Lukes (-0.13) had the number but not giving him one for that 10th inning AB.

Tomorrow, the Jays are now off, with the White Sox home opener now scheduled for 2:10 EDT with Dylan Cease taking the hill against his former team.

The Washington Nationals suffered their first truly heartbreaking loss of the season. They had a 5-1 lead in the 7th inning, but could not finish off the Phillies. The veteran laden Phillies took advantage of the young Nats issuing walks and making mistakes in the field. Blake Butera’s bunch fought, but they could not finish.

It was a bit of a pitchers duel in the first five innings. The Nats made Cristopher Sanchez work, but did not take advantage of most of their opportunities. You could say the same thing for the Phillies offense. Cade Cavalli was not at his best the first four innings, but he survived and only allowed one run.

However, Cavalli turned up the heat in his last two frames, retiring the last six hitters he faced. It was a successful outing for Cavalli, and if we were deeper in the season, he probably would have gone out for the seventh. In hindsight, Blake Butera probably should have stuck with his righty instead of going to Andre Granillo.

After manufacturing two runs in the first six innings, the Nats had a big seventh against Brad Keller. It actually started with two quick outs. However, after Daylen Lile got a hustle base hit, the rally was on. The red hot Joey Wiemer got yet another hit and then CJ Abrams delivered with a massive 3 run homer. 

At that point, the game seemed out of reach for the Phillies and the home crowd was shocked. However, the wily vets chipped away. It started with a JT Realmuto homer in the 7th. The Nats got out of that inning with just one run though. They still felt in command of the game.

That control began to slip away in the 8th. Bryce Harper homered and then Luis Garcia Jr. was unable to pick the ball on back to back plays at first base. Between Andres Chaparro and Luis Garcia Jr., first base defense has been a big problem for the Nats. Paul Toboni has done a lot of great things, but not picking up a veteran first baseman is a questionable move.

The Nats ended up surviving that inning while keeping things a 3-2 game. However, they used Clayton Beeter to get out of the inning. Beeter came out for the 9th, but he only faced two batters. He allowed a ground out and a single. The Nats ended up pulling him for PJ Poulin.

Blake Butera has pushed most of the right buttons this season, but I think he overmanaged here. I understand the platoon matchup, but Beeter is just a better, more powerful arm than Poulin. The top guys in the Phillies lineup had also seen Poulin yesterday.

Poulin could not stop the bleeding, getting one out, but issuing two walks. That led to another pitching change, with Cole Henry coming in to face Edmundo Sosa. Henry executed very well on his first two pitches, but hung a sweeper on an 0-2 count. Sosa took advantage and drove it into left to tie the game.

After the Nats were unable to score a run in the top of the 10th, the game just felt over. Blake Butera seemed to think so too, as he just kept Henry in the game rather than burning another reliever. The Phillies eventually put the Nats out of their misery with a walkoff single from Justin Crawford.

The Nats fought their tails off this series, but their immaturity and flaws showed. I still come away from this series happy with the effort and the overall performance. However, you can see the flaws in this team. With James Wood just not being the same player since last July, the Nats don’t have a consistent home run threat to either get back in games or put them away.

They also do not have a singular lock down closer like the Phillies do with Jhoan Duran. The Nats have some solid bullpen arms, but none of them are dominant. In many ways the Nats outplayed the Phillies this series. However, the Phillies showed why they have made the playoffs in recent years and the Nats showed why they are a rebuilding team.

The weather may have been warm in Miami, but Chicago’s bats? Ice cold. The pitching? Somewhere south of that. The White Sox dropped to 1-5 on the young season after getting thoroughly flattened, 10-0, by the Miami Marlins in a game that somehow felt over before most people had finished their first bite of lunch.

If you were hoping for a clean slate after a rough Opening Day for Shane Smith, well, that hope didn’t last long. The righthander put together a first inning that can only be described as a full-blown tire fire. Four runs crossed the plate before he could even record a second out, thanks to four hits, a walk, and a throwing error that gifted Miami an extra run. Three earned, one unearned, all ugly. And no, it didn’t get better.

Smith came back out for the second and promptly made things worse. A single set the table for a two-run blast by Liam Hicks, pushing the score to 6-0 and effectively turning this one into a glorified bullpen game before the Sox even had much of a chance to battle back.

Manager Will Venable let Smith wear it into the third, where the Marlins tacked on two more runs via the usual suspects — a walk, a double, a single. By the time it was over, the damage was done, the game was out of reach, and the Sox were left staring at yet another early-game crater.

However, in a contest devoid of many positives, the bullpen at least avoided making things exponentially worse. Lucas Sims, freshly called up, tossed two solid innings with just one hit allowed. Chris Murphy added two frames of his own, though he did surrender the ninth run. And Jordan Leasure, well, he did Jordan Leasure things, giving up the final run in the eighth on a solo shot by Otto Lopez.

Can you call it progress? Technically.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Sandy Alcántara was everything the White Sox were not: dominant, efficient, and completely in control. The Marlins’ ace carved through the lineup with a complete game shutout, allowing just three singles from Chase Meidroth, Tristan Peters, and Luisangel Acuña. Seven strikeouts, zero walks, and not a hint of trouble. Whether that says more about Alcántara’s brilliance or the Sox’s current state is … not a particularly fun debate.

Due to the weather, the Sox will have to wait a bit longer for their Home Opener, now scheduled for Friday at 1:10 p.m. CST. Sean Burke will take the ball for the South Siders, while old friend Dylan Cease will be on the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays, because of course he is.

Strap it in, Sox fans. It’s April, the team is already 1-5, and if this one was any indication, it’s shaping up to be another long, grinding ride on the South Side.