Friday nights between Michigan and Nebraska always seem to turn into pitchers duels. It started off very precariously for both teams on the mound for different reasons, but after they settled down, the offenses went dormant.

Nebraska started the scoring in the first. Mac Moyer led off the game with a hit as he seemingly does every game. This one however was pulled into right field, which is very unlike Moyer. He cruised into second with a double. Catcher Jeter Worthley followed up with a sharp single. Case Sanderson then lifted a ball to left. The Michigan left fielder seemed to fight the sun and dropped the ball, allowing Moyer to score. The Huskers couldn’t do any more damage, ending the half inning up 1-0. Usually a bad omen if you can’t get a big inning on a starter despite being gifted an out.

Husker hurler Ty Horn really had a hard time in the bottom of the inning. He had issues controlling his off speed pitches. Combine that with the size of the zone shrinking to about a 6 inch square and it was a huge relief to get out of there with no runs allowed.

Michigan wouldn’t be denied in the next inning. Senior outfielder Greg Pace Jr hit s hard grounder right back up the middle. He stole second base, and then came home as a ball just barely sneaked between short stop Dylan Carey and second baseman Jett Buck, tying the game at 1-1.

Horn continued to struggle in the 3rd, not locating his breaking pitches and his fastball having a seemingly different zone for the umpire. Three Michigan singles scored second baseman Carson Luna to go up 2-1.

Michigan’s starting pitcher Kurt Barr had his slider working to perfection from the start. Other than the error in the first inning, Nebraska rarely even threatened through 6 innings. Multiple times with a runner on base, he would come back and strike out the final batter to end the inning.

In the 4th Ty Horn found his off speed pitches and went on a run. He struck out the side, part of six straight strikeouts before walking Michigan’s best hitter, Colby Turner with 2 outs in the 5th. He would have to retire at 102 pitches at that point, having thrown way too many pitches in the first couple innings. His line on the day was 4.2 innings, 2 runs on 6 hits with 8 strikeouts and 2 walks. A good battle despite not having anything but a fastball early and an adventurous zone.

Barr made it through 7, getting just an absolute gift of a strikeout call on Rhett Stokes to lead off the inning. The ball ended up about 6 inches off the ground on the chalk line making up the left handed batters box. Moyer then singled to right. He appeared to swipe second baseman despite being beaten to the base by the ball. He was called out on the field and the umpires seemingly couldn’t see an angle where the glove touched his shin after he slid into the back of the base. Barr struck out Worthley for his 10th and final strikeout, to go with no walks.

Caleb Clark threw 2 innings of no hit ball in relief of Horn. He struck out 1 and walked 1. Tucker Timmerman came in to take his spot with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th. He pitched perfect against 3 batters, striking out 2. Grant Clevenger came in and struck out the last batter in the 8th.

The Huskers threatened in the 9th, Miken Miller led off, his first at bat since Florida State due to injury. He hit a chopper to 2nd that was too tough to get him out at first. Preston Freeman came in to pinch run for the catcher, representing the tying run. He didn’t last long, as Drew Grego hit a ball sharply right at the short stop for an easy double play. Devin Nunez gave the Huskers another chance as he took a ball to the hand on a checked swing. Rhett Stokes poked a ball through the right side, bringing up the top of the lineup. Moyer worked a full count, but rolled over a ground ball to the first baseman to end the game. 2-1 Wolverines.

The Husker offense had come in red hot, excelling at getting lead-off runners on. Today that only happened in the 1st and 9th innings. It’s no surprise those are the innings that included their single run and next biggest threat of the game.

Nebraska’s 4-6 hitters of Buck/Carey/Overbeek were a combined 0 for 9 with 4 strikeouts (3 by Carey) and a ground into double play. A Buck walk and Overbeek hit by pitch were the only ways they reached base. Those guys have to be big time contributors for this team to reach their goals.

The two teams are right back at it tomorrow, with first pitch in Ann Arbor at 1pm CDT.

Two evening games in a row? What is this, the regular season?

We got another nightcap for you guys as the Athletics play host yet again, this time to the Chicago Cubs. Both teams are just days away from the beginning of their regular season campaigns and are fine tuning their rosters and alignments. The Cubs tonight are actually split up, with half coming to Mesa to take on the A’s and the other half playing host to the Reds on the other side of town. These games still technically don’t matter, but they’re starting to have more weight to them the closer Opening Day comes, for both of these squads.

For the Athletics on the mound tonight they’ll be going with the newly-named Opening Night starter in Luis Severino. The right-hander is set to make his final exhibition appearance, which includes both spring with the A’s and his time playing in the World Baseball Classic with Team Dominican Republic. Sevy is looking to put the finishing touches on his ramp up for the regular season and we’ll be hoping to see some zeros on the scoreboard tonight.

Here’s your A’s lineup for Friday night’s contest:

The A’s are mixing up the lineup a little bit but not too much. We have a new leadoff man tonight in Lawrence Butler, who will be playing right field tonight. That’s a huge update as the final step in Butler’s rehab from patellar tendon surgery is manning the outfield grass. The club is also apparently anxious to get him as many plate appearances as possible after his abbreviated camp.

The rest of the top half of the lineup looks like how you’d expect, with Kurtz and Langeliers again batting back-to-back near the top of the order. The interesting part of tonight’s lineup is near the bottom half of the lineup card though. We’ll be getting to see Jeff McNeil log some time on the grass himself as he slides from second base to center field, displacing Denzel Clarke from the starting nine. And taking McNeil’s spot at the keystone is Andy Ibanez, who is likely to break camp with the club. Could this be an alignment that the A’s actually go to if Clarke’s bat isn’t up to snuff?

The Cubbies will send right-handed veteran Jameson Taillon to the mound themselves for what’ll be his own final spring tune up. The righty has had a tough camp so far but spring stats don’t matter. Still, it’d be nice to rough him up and get another win for our guys in Green & Gold.

The Chicago lineup tonight shakes out like this:

We’ll be seeing a mix of the Cubs’ regulars as well as backups. Shouldn’t be too difficult of an assignment for Severino but these guys are getting ready for the season themselves. Everyone wants to hit the ground running and that starts in these games over the final week.

Predictions? A win? A loss? A Nick Kurtz home run? Doens’t matter just yet but let’s still have fun with it on a great Friday night. Let’s go A’s!

Join us as the Detroit Tigers farm system matches up against Konnor Griffin and the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system in the annual Spring Breakout game. The Tigers will have Max Clark in center field and 2025 first rounder Jordan Yost at shortstop in the starting lineup, with Bryce Rainer in the DH slot and hard-throwing relief prospect Marco Jimenez starting things off on the mound. We should see Michael Oliveto at some point as well. Griffin, baseball’s consensus number one ranked prospect, will handle shortstop for the Bucs, with a good pitching prospect on the mound as the starter in RHP Seth Hernandez.

Manager Alan Trammell has managed the last two breakout games for the Tigers, winning them both.

First pitch is set for 7:35 p.m. ET on Peacock, MLB.tv, and ao MLB Network.

SB Nation Site: Bucs Dugout

TAMPA — Jasson Domínguez came to camp with an uncertain role and put together one of the best springs of any Yankee. 

It still was not enough to win a spot on the Opening Day roster. 

The Yankees optioned Domínguez to Triple-A on Friday, two days before breaking camp with a full outfield that did not have room for the 23-year-old outfielder who had 429 plate appearances in the big leagues last season. 

“[He took it] like a pro,” manager Aaron Boone said after a 3-1 win over the Orioles. “We had a good talk. Difficult conversation to have. One of the things that I told him is I’m proud of him, because he walked into this camp with all kinds of conversation around him and, ‘the option may be coming,’ if everything played out a certain way. It didn’t affect anything in the way he carried himself day in and day out, the way he worked. I think he continued to get better while he was here in this camp and he performed in this camp.” 

The writing was on the wall for this to happen since the opening days of camp, when GM Brian Cashman acknowledged that it would be in Domínguez’s best interest to be getting everyday at-bats, which was not going to happen in The Bronx (barring injury) with a starting outfield of Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger. 

Domínguez’s chances became even slimmer when the Yankees brought veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk to camp on a minor league deal, with the right-handed hitter fitting the Yankees bench better than the switch-hitting (but better from the left side) Domínguez. 

Still, Domínguez did everything in his control to leave a strong impression this spring, batting .342 with a 1.013 OPS, three home runs and three steals in 13 games. 

“Just because it’s not here to start doesn’t mean he can’t continue to get better each and every day there,” Boone said. “As talented a player he is right now, there’s still so much more for him to get to. It’s a crazy game and he could be back before you know it. The one thing I do think is he’ll impact our club in a way this year.” 

It certainly sounds as if Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest will claim one of the final bullpen spots, with Boone offering a strong vote of confidence for the reliever. 

“We feel like he’s going to be a good pitcher,” Boone said. “I think he’s shown enough to keep himself in that mix for us and to warrant us taking him. We’ll see in the end which way we go. But he’s taken to some of the minor adjustments we’ve had for him, the pitching group has had for him. That’s always a work in progress, but I think he’s got a chance to be good.” 

That, along with Kervin Castro being optioned to Triple-A on Friday, would appear to leave the final bullpen spot down to Brent Headrick or Jake Bird. 

Giancarlo Stanton got his first outfield game action of the spring on Friday, starting in right field and playing five innings, which was the latest positive indication of how he is feeling physically. 

“If we get into the season and we get into a spot where I have to use the DH from time to time for someone else and maybe he can go out there and spell us, I feel like right now, he’s in a position to do that,” Boone said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a lot necessarily, but want to be prepared for it without jeopardizing him physically.” 

Spencer Jones and Elmer Rodríguez were named the winners of the 2025 Kevin Lawn Awards, given annually to the Yankees’ minor league position player and pitcher of the year. … The Yankees optioned reliever Yerry De los Santos to Triple-A and reassigned catchers Ali Sánchez and Payton Henry and outfielder Kenedy Corona to minor league camp.

MESA, Arizona — Today’s roster moves:

Friday notes…

• FORMER CUBS IN REDS CAMP: Pierce Johnson, P.J. Higgins.
• FORMER CUBS IN A’S CAMP: Aaron Civale, Mark Leiter Jr., Brooks Kriske.
• SPLIT SQUAD: This is the only Cubs split squad game scheduled this spring. The home game begins at 8:05 p.m. CT and the away game at 8:10 p.m. CT.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineups at Sloan Park and Hohokam Stadium:

Reds lineup:

A’s lineup:

Matthew Boyd will start for the Cubs at Sloan Park. Other Cubs pitchers scheduled for the home game: Hunter Harvey, Phil Maton, Caleb Thielbar and Hoby Milner.

Brandon Williamson will start for the Reds. Other Reds pitchers scheduled tonight: Tony Santillan, Emilio Pagán, Zach Maxwell and Brock Burke.

Jameson Taillon will start for the Cubs at Hohokam Stadium. Other Cubs pitchers for the away game: Javier Assad.

Luis Severino will start for the A’s. Other A’s pitchers scheduled tonight: Mark Leiter Jr., Michael Kelly and Joel Kuhnel.

No TV for the home game. The away game will be on Marquee Sports Network and NBC Sports California. There will be a radio broadcast of the home game on the Reds flagship station, WLW 700. The away game will be with the A’s broadcasters on ATH Audio.

MLB.com Gameday for Cubs vs. Reds

MLB.com Gameday for Cubs vs. A’s

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

Please visit our SB Nation Reds site Red Reporter and A’s site Athletics Nation. If you do go there to interact with Reds or A’s 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.

As we have done in the past, we’ll have a first pitch thread at five minutes to game time and one overflow thread, 90 minutes after game time. For today, that will be 8 p.m. CT and 9:35 p.m. CT.

These threads will not post individually onto the front page; instead, you can find links to them in the box marked ”Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page. There will also be a StoryStream on the front page with all the game thread links, as well as the recap after the game is over. The pitcher photos and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

It was honestly only a matter of time.

Late Friday afternoon, the Yankees optioned former super-prospect Jasson Domínguez to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, among a flurry of roster moves. Once the Yankees signed Randal Grichuk as their fourth outfielder this move seemed inevitable. Even before that, it seemed unlikely El Marciano would start the season in the majors, given the Yanks’ need for a right-handed hitting outfielder and Jasson’s struggles from that side of the plate.

He’s not the only player being moved out as Opening Day nears. Kenedy Corona, who had himself a nice camp with a couple home runs and a keen eye at the plate, is headed to minor league camp, along with a couple other folks, and a couple others join Domínguez heading to Triple-A.

But the story here is obviously The Martian. To his credit, this is no indictment of his spring. He’s been a monster at the plate and, given the lack of Discourse About His Defense on social media, my impression is he hasn’t been a disaster in left field.

This comes down to a roster crunch and, honestly, the move to Triple-A might be best for Jasson. The Yanks needed a fourth outfielder who could hit right-handed pitching, which he’s been unable to do. And even if he made the team to start the season, it doesn’t do a single thing for his development to play sporadically for the Yankees.

This is still only his age-23 season and he’s lost basically two full seasons of development and reps. First, COVID-19 wiped out the 2020 minor league season, then he missed most of 2024 after undergoing Tommy John surgery with an internal bracing on his right elbow in September 2023.

Factoring all that in, Domínguez, despite seemingly having been around forever, has a grand total of 759 plate appearances above Double-A. Sitting on the Yankee bench seems highly unlikely to help him And, given the way injuries always rear their ugly heads, it’s still very probable we’ll see Jasson in the Bronx at some point in 2026.