Category: Sports News

It all started so well, but the Nats dreams of winning the home opener collapsed quickly, as the Dodgers lineup showed why they are elite. The Nats were up 3-0 after two innings thanks to a CJ Abrams homer, but the Dodgers turned that into an 11-4 deficit in what felt like a blink of an eye. While the Nats have competed with the Cubs and Phillies, the Dodgers showed them levels today.

In this game, one thing stuck out like a sore thumb, and it was the performance of starting pitcher Miles Mikolas. He re-wrote Nationals history today, but not in a good way. The veteran right hander allowed 11 earned runs, the most in team history. Both of Mikolas’ starts with the Nats have been shaky at best, and he has not given the team a chance to win.

The craziest part is how fast things got out of control. Through the first two innings, Mikolas was cruising, getting the first six Dodgers hitters out. However, when you don’t have elite stuff, things can get ugly if you make mistakes. That is exactly what happened for Mikolas. 

Blake Butera was in awe of the Dodgers lineup, saying Mikolas “had to be almost perfect against these guys”. He was perfect in the first two innings, but when he stopped being perfect, disaster struck. From the third inning on, it felt like the Dodgers were taking batting practice. Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages all took Mikolas deep.

He was facing a tough lineup, but it just feels like Mikolas is a guy at the end of the line. The veteran will not be going anywhere, at least for now. Butera said they will watch the video, then Mikolas and the staff will work on how to make adjustments. It would feel a bit unfair to only give Mikolas two starts, but he is going to have to put together some competitive outings, and fast.

Between the third and fifth inning, the Dodgers scored 11 runs. This avalanche just drowned the Nats, even though their offense was solid today. Later in the game, Kyle Tucker hit the Dodgers fifth home run. It was his first one with the club, and it was the cherry on top for the defending champs.

While the Mikolas disaster will rightfully take up the headlines, the Nats offense looked promising once again. Everyone in the lineup actually got a hit. You do not see that often in a game you lose by 7. I guess that just shows the might of the Dodgers lineup. 

One guy I want to highlight is the man who got the party started and sent Nats fans into a frenzy in the first. That would be CJ Abrams, who hit his second home run in as many games. Both of his homers were quite similar. He has a unique ability to pull outside pitches for homers. That is what he did for both of his three run shots in the last couple games. 

Hot starts are nothing new for Abrams. He has had tremendous first half numbers each of the last two seasons before tailing off at the end. For his part, Blake Butera does not really think Abrams is off to a hot start. He said, “I am not really sure I would call this a hot start, this is just CJ”. 

He acknowledged that Abrams does need to put a full season together, but is confident that will happen. Butera talked about how if CJ can stick to his process, take things day to day and not get too wrapped up in small samples one way or the other, the consistency will come.

I am pretty bullish on Abrams keeping things up. With the new coaching staff and technology, he will have more tools to lean on when he inevitably goes through a rough stretch. The big thing for Abrams is preventing those rough weeks from turning into rough months.

Another hitter that has impressed me, really since Spring Training is Brady House. He looks like a completely different hitter this season. The confidence looks way higher and he is much more in control of his at bats. 

House taking two walks today felt really notable. He already has four walks in seven games. Last season, he only had 8 walks in 73 games. This is not a fluke, House just looks way more comfortable. 

House has a history of starting slow at a new level before solving it. We saw that in Triple-A, where he really struggled in 2024, before mashing his way to a big league call up in 2025. Now, it looks like he is figuring things out at the MLB level. Big league pitchers will adjust back, so he will have to be constantly evolving. However, House feels like he has found his footing in the box.

Obviously, today was a very discouraging home opener, but you could still find some silver linings. Jake Irvin will take the mound tomorrow, and hopefully his new look arsenal will play against the Dodgers. He was impressive in his first start of the season, but the homer prone righty is going up against an unforgiving Dodgers lineup.

Hopefully, the Dodgers got all the runs out of their system today and the Nats can bounce back these next two games. It was not the result anyone wanted, but it was nice to be back at Nationals Park and covering the home opener for the first time in the press booth.

UPDATE: Tonight’s game has been postponed due to expected inclement weather. The game will be made up tomorrow, when the Royals and Brewers will play a double header with games at 1:10 and 6:10. Good news for those without Apple TV access; both games tomorrow will be on Brewers TV.

The Milwaukee Brewers, coming off a 5-1 homestand to kick off the season, take their show on the road for the first time tonight when they take on the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. (Check out Harrison’s series preview here.) Chad Patrick is scheduled to pitch for the Brewers, while Luinder Avila will make his first career start after debuting with 13 (effective) relief outings down the stretch last seasonAv. There is weather in the area, though, so keep an eye out for delays.

Milwaukee swept the White Sox in their first series of the season and then took two of three from the Rays, and there was no shortage of dramatics along the way. Kansas City opened the season by losing two of three in Atlanta, but took two in a three-game series with the Twins to open their home schedule.

Patrick is coming off a start in which his final line wasn’t bad, but in which he didn’t seem to have his best stuff. He allowed just one run in 4 1/3 innings, but the White Sox made some hard, tough-luck contact toward the end of the outing. Still, he walked only one batter compared to four strikeouts, and his pitch count (74 in 4 1/3 innings) wasn’t disastrous.

Avila, a righty, counts as a rookie, though, as mentioned, he made 13 appearances and threw 14 effective innings (1.29 ERA, 2.14 FIP) last season, all but one in September. Avila isn’t a complete non-prospect (he ranked 19th on MLB Pipeline’s Royals list going into 2025 and 9th in 2026), but he’s never been a top 100 prospect. Avila does through pretty hard (he features a four-seam fastball and a sinker which sit at about 96 mph) but intriguingly he threw his curveball more than any other pitch last season, a whopping 43% of the time. We’ll see if that persists into this season, when he’ll presumably take a slightly different approach as a starter. He has struggled with control in the minors, and even when he was so good at the end of last season, he walked almost four batters per nine innings. Avila also made two scoreless appearances totaling four innings for the champions from Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic this spring, though he walked as many guys as he struck out and was perhaps fortunate to get through unscathed.

The Brewers’ lineup is, unsurprisingly, packed with lefties (their clearly stronger side, with Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn out) against the right-handed Avila. Of note, David Hamilton is getting the start at shortstop, while Luis Rengifo slides into the starting lineup at third base. Joey Ortiz will start the game on the bench tonight. One right-handed surprise, though, is Brandon Lockridge in left-field, who gets a start versus the right-hander over the switch-hitter, Blake Perkins.

An old friend is in the Kansas City lineup tonight; Isaac Collins, who has warmed up a bit after a tough start, is in left field for the Royals. The main attraction, of course, is superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., batting second, who might be almost as good as Brice Turang.

There’s also Brewers news that doesn’t directly involve the major-league team: Cooper Pratt’s extension has been finalized, and he’s been added to the 40-man roster (and optioned to Triple-A Nashville, where he played last weekend). Steward Berroa has been designated for assignment to open that roster spot.

Tonight’s game, scheduled for 6:45 (but again, watch the weather), is exclusively on Apple TV. If you’re not an Apple TV subscriber, the game will, as usual, be on the Brewers Radio Network.

Christian Scott’s first start of the season at Triple-A Syracuse did not go as planned, as the Mets’ right-hander was roughed up for seven runs in 3.1 innings.

The 26-year-old, who is coming off Tommy John surgery that cost him nearly two years of baseball, surrendered those seven runs (six earned) on nine hits and one hit batter before being pulled in the fourth after throwing 65 pitches. 

On the positive side of things, Scott tallied five strikeouts and was around the zone a lot, throwing 46 strikes. He posted a 37 percent called-strike plus whiff rate and his fastball velocity stayed rather consistent from inning to inning, averaging 95.7 mph, which is up 1.5 mph. 

However, he allowed a lot of really solid contact, with the visiting Toledo Mud Hens cracking five balls with an exit velocity over 102 mph. 

The first inning was the lone inning the righty didn’t allow a hard-hit ball, but he was stung for a run due to a bit of tough luck when Max Clark’s bloop down the left-field line just stayed fair and MJ Melendez’s errant throw to second base allowed Clark – who wasn’t even attempting to advance – to reach third on a two-base error. On the next pitch, Scott was called for a balk by the home plate umpire, apparently after not coming to a full set, plating the run. 

The righty rebounded with two strikeouts to end the frame, getting Trei Cruz looking at a 98 mph heater up in the zone and Jace Jung swinging through an up-and-away slider.

After Melendez atoned for his mistake with a solo shot in the home half of the first, Scott gave the runs right back, surrendering an opposite-field solo homer to right by Eduardo Valencia (103.5 mph off the bat) on a slider and Gage Workman pulling a shot to right-center (109.3 mph) on a down-and-in slider.

Scott then threw six-straight fastballs to get ex-Met Tomas Nido and Ben Malgeri swinging after the homers as he looked to settle back into things.

However, three straight singles started the third, scoring a fourth run off Scott. But that was all, as he got Jung swinging on an offspeed pitch and Valencia to line into a double-play to second on a sharply hit ball (102.7 mph) to end the frame.

After getting a flyout to start the fourth, the wheels came off. Nido got a measure of revenge, lacing a double (107.1 mph) to left on a first-pitch middle-middle fastball. Scott left another fastball middle-middle, and Malgeri got his revenge, rocketing it to the right-center gap for a double (109.1 mph).

After hitting a batter and a mound visit, Scott left another fastball in the middle of the plate, and Wenceel Perez drove it over Melendez's head for an RBI double, and that ended the right-hander’s afternoon.

On the day it was announced that Ozzie Guillén would be honored with a number retirement ceremony in August, the White Sox responded by grinding out a 5-4 win in 10 innings.

In the 10th, the White Sox lost the lead for the first time in the game after a careless error — then rallied in the bottom half by forcing Toronto in a careless error themselves. Newcomers Derek Hill and Tristan Peters (who both faced key setbacks earlier in the game) were the key to the win, perhaps truly signalling a real difference in the 2026 team.

The pilot of 2005’s famed “grinders” who went wire-to-wire as division leaders and ran off 11 wins in 12 games to capture the title would have been proud. Right after the live announcement after the top of the third inning, the White Sox rallied to take a 3-1 lead over Toronto, buoyed by a double-steal of second and third.

With one out, Miguel Vargas walked and Colson Montgomery singled softly to third base, before triggering the double steal, one that caught Jays third baseman Kazuma Okamoto on his heels for a pair of easy swipes. From there, Austin Hays turned a full-count inside fastball burning at 98 mph for the lead safety:

And just for extra measure, Chase Meidroth saw Okamoto laying back and dropped a deliciously perfect bunt single in the fourth.

But just like the 2005 White Sox, whose supposed grindiness belied immaculate pitching from 1-12, today’s story was the buff arms on the Chicago side. Reliever Grant Taylor got the start as opener, and threw nine pitches, all strikes. He worked a fast and fearsome first frame.

Taylor gave way to bulk pitcher Sean Burke, and aside from an initial hiccup in the second that saw back-to-back doubles tie the game, 1-1, the righthander carried on what Taylor began. Burke was sharp, aggressive, and efficient enough to take the game through the seventh. Those six innings of four-hit, one-run, seven-K ball represented the longest White Sox outing of the season.

In the other dugout, it was veteran and former White Sox Dylan Cease who seemed to be pitching through some nerves and fighting with his focus and command. His error covering first base on a grounder to Vlad Guerrero Jr. allowed Meidroth to scamper home with the first White Sox run. Always durable but not always efficient, Cease got the collar after 93 pitches with one out in the fourth, and was in line for the loss.

Why just in line for the loss? Well, as is its wont, the White Sox bullpen caved. Two batters after Burke left the game, Andrés Giménez clobbered a first-pitch fastball out to right, and just like that the score was knotted at three.

But let’s not drop this at Leasure’s spikes only; the White Sox shut down their offense just three innings once again, striking out eight times (12 total in the game) and stumbling on the basepaths (Peters was picked off of second base in the sixth inning, and the eighth ended on a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out of Hill).

With the game still tied heading into the bottom of the ninth, the White Sox hoped to improve on their mere three sayonara wins all year in 2025, but despite getting leadoff man Edgar Quero on with a single (four hard hits for Edgar on the day, two dropping for hits) and sacrificing pinch-runner Lenyn Sosa to second, they fell short.

In the 10th, Toronto took its first lead of the game after Vargas pulled Munetaka Murakami off of the bag for an error that allowed Manfred Man David Schneider to score.

A productive out pushed Manfred Man Vargas to third to start the White Sox 10th, and thus commenced a crazy sequence to finish the game. After Austin Hays caught a break on a third strike he did not check on but got a generous call from the first-base ump, catcher Alejandro Kirk then saved the lead with an incredible stop on a wild split-fingered pitch. On the very next toss, Hays fouled the ball off and sent Kirk from the game with an injured thumb.

Hays ended up striking out, but Hill stepped right out with a gutsy bunt, challenging new catcher Tyler Heineman and succeeding, as Heineman threw the ball past first base and allowing Vargas to tie the game.

Two pitches later, Peters stroked a single to right for the game-winner.

“There’s a ton of fight here,” Peters said postgame, after being doused by ice water in 50° weather. “We’re just going to move forward on every game.”

Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

The idiot that said, “Harper is coming” asks:What are your general thoughts about the team as currently constructed?Good enough as is? Need a big splash at the deadline? Few tweaks to get the job done? Not good enough?

We’ll give the obvious caveat that things are early, injuries can and will pop up at some point, and that can affect how the trade deadline looks for the Yankees down the line. However, out of the gate it looks like the Yankees are getting vindicated in their choice to run it back with largely the same roster as last year. Things aren’t perfect — I’m not expecting much from Ryan McMahon’s bat, for instance, but starting off ice cold isn’t going to do him any favors — and so minor tweaks looks like the soundest option of the bunch, but the pieces are there to make a charge at the best record in the AL again. The rotation firing on all cylinders right off the bat is a massively encouraging sign, as we all know the cavalry is coming to reinforce their ranks over the next month or so and if the likes of Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, and Clarke Schmidt start off close to form they’ll have one of the most dominant pitching staffs we’ve seen in a minute.

The question of how they actually improve the roster when it comes time to scan the market in the summer is a curious one, and might prove to be one of the more challenging midseason revamps Brian Cashman has had to navigate with this core. There’s a lot of money locked down to the contracts and starters that they have, so on top of getting any additions they’d have to weigh what they do with the players getting replaced. The cost of game-changing deadline acquisitions is always pricy, and the Yankees have rarely waded in those waters unless it was for a need rather than a want, but even dealing with more of the mid-tier pickups like they tend to browse through will still come at a cost if they’re shipping off contracts in exchange/in separate deals. For now, it’s just speculation, but I could see this being a quieter July much like the winter was unless something drastically changes.

OLDY MOLDY asks:Will MLB start seeing the tanking problems like the NBA?

The sport isn’t set up the same way to enable tanking, so no. There’s the rare uber prospect that jumps straight through the minor leagues and reaches the majors within a year or so, but you’re just as likely to see that happen from the 30th overall pick as you are the 3rd. Most prospects instead follow the similar pattern of needing multiple years of seasoning down on the farm before ever making an impact with their big league club, and crucially the success of a franchise is dependent on how well they hit across a draft class as a whole rather than who’s available with their first-round pick. Sure, the earlier picks have a clearer road to the majors overall, but more than any other sport baseball has rosters filled with players picked late in the draft — and that’s without even touching the separate system they have for international prospects that is unique to them. Add onto that the multiple roads to professional baseball allowing players to make the jump straight from high school ball or wait out almost all of their college years provides a stark difference in how classes can differ — one year can skew heavily towards prep players that showcase high ceilings but their floors have sunk into the basement, while others can provide consistency with a depth of college stars. Which way organizations lean can allow them to drastically outdraft their rivals regardless of where they sit on the draft boards, and the top teams in MLB are certainly not scared to sacrifice draft positioning to secure top-tier talent in free agency.

MSP Giant asks: It is a reasonable guess that Grisham is not the Yankees CF next year. IMHO he will find it hard to duplicate 2025 numbers again. I could be wrong, but… Riddle me this. That being the case, if Spencer has a good season, cuts down on his SOs and still hits well and Domínguez has a solid season. Does acceptably well from both sides of the plate and improves his D…. Who joins Judge in the starting OF next year?

In a world where both of these things align simultaneously, the Yankees would have a difficult choice on their hands, but I think they’d ultimately side with the younger player in Domínguez. Yes, the clock has already started on his service time, but a near-two year gap feels significant and Domínguez has already shown them something in the majors while Jones would still be an unknown at this level. However, if you asked which one of them feels more likely to find that adaptation, I’d lean towards Jones figuring out the hole in his swing faster than Domínguez manages to fix whatever has gone wrong with him in the outfield. Add onto that Domínguez’s secondary issue with his lefty-right splits (which, to his credit, looked better in spring than they did last year) and there’s less of an impediment for Jones to cross. Still, it won’t be as easy as hand-waving the strikeouts away — he swings and misses a lot, and that would be exposed just as much as Domínguez’s defense was in the majors.