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Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal is toeing the rubber against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field today, and the back-to-back AL Cy Young winner will look to make it back-to-back wins to open the season.

My top Tigers vs. Diamondbacks predictions and MLB picks are calling for just that, with Arizona countering with veteran Zac Gallen this afternoon.

Who will win Tigers vs Diamondbacks today: Tigers -1.5 (48 cents)

With Arizona Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen’sERA and xFIP climbing in each of the past three seasons before allowing four runs on five hits and a pair of walks through four frames in his first 2026 start, I’m anticipating a long season ahead for the veteran righty.

It’s just the opposite for Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, with the star southpaw ranking second among qualified starters in ERA and xFIP since the beginning of the 2024 campaign.

Additionally, the Arizona offense is off to a ho-hum start with a 23rd-ranked xwOBA.

COVERS INTEL: Arizona righty Zac Gallen surrendered the 10th-highest barrel percentage among qualified starters in 2025, and he allowed three through just four innings in his 2026 debut.

Tigers vs Diamondbacks Over/Under pick: Under 8.5 (58 cents)

I’m anticipating Skubal doing the heavy lifting to keep this total Under the number, as he’s allowed three earned runs or fewer in 26 of 32 starts since the beginning of last year. 

Additionally, even with Gallen in a clear decline, the Tigers enter with a 25th-ranked wOBA alongside a middling 15th-ranked xwOBA through five 2026 games.

Tigers vs Diamondbacks odds

• Moneyline: Detroit 61c | Arizona 40c
• Run line: Detroit -1.5 (48c) | Arizona +1.5 (53c)
• Over/Under: Over 8.5 (45c) | Under 8.5 (61c)

Tigers vs Diamondbacks trend

The Tigers have cashed the Under in 28 of their last 43 road games for +10.15 units and a 20% ROI. Find more MLB betting trends for Tigers vs. Diamondbacks.

How to watch Tigers vs Diamondbacks and game info

Tigers vs Diamondbacks latest injuries

Tigers vs Diamondbacks weather

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

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.”

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.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

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.

MLB.com’s Anne Rogers has the latest on the Kansas City Royals stadium situation from CEO/chairman John Sherman.

Sherman confirmed again that the Royals are discussing site options in downtown Kansas City (Jackson County), North Kansas City (Clay County) and on the Kansas side of the state line, where the Kansas City Chiefs, whose Arrowhead Stadium is in the same lot as Kauffman Stadium, are set to move for the start of the 2031 NFL season.

Sherman said the Royals would want to have the site control and public financing in place before announcing where their new home would be. He also maintained that they are looking for a public-private partnership, which hasn’t changed since the team first launched its search efforts years ago.

“At the end of the day, the team will put a substantial amount of capital into the stadium and the development around it, but there will be a meaningful portion from – expected to be a meaningful portion – the public as well,” Sherman said.

The Royals want to build a new ballpark and a surrounding ballpark district, not unlike The Battery in Atlanta, where the Royals just opened the ‘26 season. Sherman and several business operations officials were there over the weekend and witnessed what it’s like to have approximately 40,000 people in and around the stadium with retail and restaurants booming with business.

Kansas City Star’s Rashad Alexander experienced their first Opening Day at The K, and had plenty of positive points.

I’m still loyal to my take that Wrigley Field is the best MLB stadium, but I feel like Kauffman can definitely be up there as well. Considering how pretty the ballpark is, its accessibility, and its activities to keep the fans engaged, I can see why people rave about this stadium and why there’s debate on what to do with it. Part of the aura of Kauffman did come from the fans, however, as the sold-out crowd created a great Opening Day energy for the team. We’ll see how well this crowd lasts from now until October. But for a crowd to show out like that for a team that missed the postseason last year, Kauffman Stadium will definitely see me again this summer.

David Lesky talks about Kansas City kicking off their home slate with a win.

To me, the story of the game was how the Royals won it. If you’re new to Inside the Crown this year, and maybe even well before that, oddities were sort of the thing I wanted to focus on. Back when I wrote for Baseball Prospectus, I wrote a weekly article where I’d pick out one thing from one game and expand on it in a way that I would be surprised if anyone else did. So here’s the oddity from this one. The Royals got home runs from Isaac Collins and Kyle Isbel, their eighth and ninth hitters.

They didn’t have a game at all in 2025 when both of those lineup spots homered. They didn’t have a game in 2024 when it happened. The last time it happened was May 4, 2023 when Freddy Fermin and Isbel homered. Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for a list of the 22 times the Royals had both their eight and nine hitters homer. It’s a long looking list because 22 times seems like a lot, but for a team in their 58th season, I’d say it’s a pretty rare list. What makes it even more interesting is it’s the first time that all the runs were accounted for in a game by the home runs from the bottom of the order.

How hot are the Royals in the World Series picture, according to ESPN?

Franchise temperature: 57 degrees. This feels like a good temperature for the Royals, who went into a period of rapid cooling after their contending rosters from the mid-2010s broke up. To the credit of J.J. Picollo and his staff, the Royals have curbed that decline and managed to settle in tepid waters. With a contention-worthy 26-man roster heading into 2026, they hope to wade a little closer to the warm sands of the shoreline ahead.

ESPN says fantasy owners should not give up on Carlos Estevez this season.

Regardless, it isn’t even April yet and Estevez, fifth among relief pitchers in fantasy points last season and a mid-round pick in most leagues, is already down to 51% rostered in ESPN. For shallow ESPN daily leagues, in which there are only seven active pitchers (and where holds figure into the scoring), sure, there may be little reason to wait for Estevez because free agency is littered with so many relief options. However, in standard industry formats, particularly roto/category-based ones in which saves are the key — and especially in AL-only formats — aim to be patient.

Royals Keep has some takeaways from the Royals home opener, including a closer look at starter Kris Bubic.

His whiff rate was excellent at 35.3%, and his chase rate and xwOBACON were above-average at 30.8% and .339, respectively. His zone rate was a little below average at 48%, but that likely was due to his lackluster control on the changeup and slider, which had zone rates of 25% and 20%, respectively. Despite those paltry zone rates, he still did generate a 66.7% whiff rate on the changeup and a 100% whiff rate on the slider.

It wasn’t the prettiest start, but it was the kind of grind-it-out affair that Bubic was known for in 2025, when he made the AL All-Star team. I also wonder if there were some nerves for Bubic, especially with him starting in his first career home opener. He talked about how different it was for him, especially when comparing it to his first career start at Kauffman during the 2020 COVID season when fans weren’t allowed.

What cameras make ABS possible? That and more in a closer look at the new wrinkle in MLB.

Twelve Hawk-Eye technology cameras installed throughout the ballpark track player and ball movement, feeding data into Statcast.

Seven cameras track player movement, while five are dedicated solely to the baseball’s movements. Those ball-tracking cameras capture up to 300 frames per second, allowing the system to precisely locate each pitch within the strike zone and reconstruct its path.

The Royals’ pitching wives were out in force on Monday.

Memo to the Royals: You’re missing a great opportunity if you haven’t signed Doona as a team sponsor. Doona makes trendy, high-end baby strollers and car seats and appears to be the $650 stroller of choice among Royals moms. As players’ wives reunited at The K Monday for the 2026 home opener, they shared photos of the kiddos they brought along for the big day. One picture in particular reflected how young this team is: a gaggle of black baby strollers parked outside the private UMB Diamond Club.

Town Village of Leawood made a lively scene for its residents, hosting an Opening Day even for more than 200 participants. Some fans recount their memories of the Royals’ first home in the city.

Kniepfel remembers her first Royals game when the team still played at Municipal Stadium near East 22nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue.

“It was so much fun, the atmosphere was something else,” Kniepfel said. “Finding a place to park was something else. You had to find a place sometimes in someone’s driveway.”

Years later, Kniepfel would step onto the field at Kauffman Stadium.

“Presidents and all kinds of famous people, and here I, little old me, got to throw the first pitch,” Kniepfel said. “I threw that ball, and it landed straight in the secretary’s glove. We just lived in that excitement for hours, maybe the next day, too. I still think about that.”

The latest episode of SportsBeat KC from the Kansas City Star.

What current and former Royals hail from the Kansas City area? Rogers has the list.

Vinnie Pasquantino needs to keep pulling the ball, namely over right field fences.

Sports Illustrated has the swings and misses from the first four starts of the Royals season.

Just how important is the bullpen for an October run?

The human element becomes entertainment thanks to ABS.

ESPN names the most polarizing teams right now in MLB.

The Seattle Mariners reportedly ink a historic extension with yet-to-debut prospect Colt Emerson.

Lance Brozdowski has his latest profile on four high-profile MLB starters.

Jos Posnanski has his take on ABS so far.

Toronto Blue Jays starter Cody Ponce will be sidelined after a knee ligament sprain.

Shane Baz’s five-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles has majoe escalators for Cy Young wins.

Los Angeles Dodgers Roki Sasaki steadied himself after a shaky spring a rookie season.

Robin DeLorenzo, one of the three first women to officiate an NFL game, sued the NFL for the “cited gender-based scrutiny, humiliation and open hostility” she faced from 2022 to 2025.

The Super Bowl is returning to Las Vegas in 2029.

Award-winning author John Green is making his first foray in adult fiction in his first book in nearly a decade.

How can Super Mario Galaxy live up to its record-setting predecessor?

From bathwater to Steph Curry to Tabasco-flavored vodka, there are plenty of out-there Webby Award nominees.

Today’s song of the day is World Apart by Bike Routes.