Category: Sports News

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza hit on a few topics ahead of Saturday afternoon's game against the Athletics at Citi Field after talking about the call-up of Craig Kimbrel.

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Lineup change

The Mets moved Bo Bichette down from the two-hole to the cleanup spot for Saturday’s start against A’s left-hander Jacob Lopez. And, with Jorge Polanco back in at the three spot, they moved Luis Robert Jr. up to bat behind leadoff man FranciscoLindor.

“Just wanted to shake some things up here,” Mendoza said about the lineup change.

 “We’ve still got pretty good hitters at the top, but just kinda wanted to give him a different look here,” he continued. “Putting Luis in the two hole, getting Polanco back in the lineup, helps with some of the righty-lefty, then you can get creative. Just wanted to give it a different look today.”

Bichette has started to swing a better bat after a rough start to the year. After going 2-for-22 in the first five games of the year, he is 12-for-39 (.308) with two doubles and three RBI over his last nine games. (Bichette is 2-for-7, both doubles, with 2 RBI in his career against Lopez.)

The move hopefully won't cool off Robert, who is 14-for-43 (.326) to start the season with two home runs and seven RBI, good for a .928 OPS. He also has 11 walks through 13 games, after only drawing 40 walks in 110 games in 2025.

Clay Holmes stays in line

More good news on the Holmes front after the starter exited Friday’s game at the top of the sixth inning with left hamstring tightness.

“Feeling better,” Mendoza said of the right-hander. “Normal soreness after an outing. Went through a series of tests, strength-wise, in the training room and checked all of the boxes.

“So, as of right now, I think the next step is making sure he throws his bullpen couple days from now before we make the final call. But, as of right now, he’s in line to make the next start.”

Mendoza said the Mets haven’t had any discussions on possibly pushing Holmes’ next start back a few days, “But, if we feel like we gotta go there, then I’m pretty sure we will have that conversation.”

The starter said after the game he was "optimistic" about not missing time. 

"Feel like I’ll be able to make my next start," Holmes said. "But until I wake up tomorrow, we don’t really know. Can’t rule anything out, but feel pretty good about it right now. I can still keep throwing. I didn’t feel it tighten up on a throw….I think we’ll be good, but we’ll have to see."

Holmes was off to a second consecutive solid outing before leaving with the injury, allowing just one run on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts. 

Through three starts, he has a 1.50 ERA and 1.111 WHIP over 18 innings.

Baseball’s best pure hitter no longer calls San Diego home. Three-time batting champion Luis Arraez joined the San Francisco Giants on a one-year, $12 million deal this offseason. He wanted to return to being an everyday second baseman.

The San Diego Padres hoped for a reunion, but could not guarantee playing time at second. Arraez left the organization for a better opportunity, but that is life in baseball’s transient lifestyle.

Now, the Padres are trying to find new ways to score runs with a revamped top of the batting order. So far, they have managed to stay afloat despite their struggles to score runs at Petco Park.

The home schedule at Petco Park has been challenging

The home schedule has been a challenge for the Friars. They opened the 2026 campaign against the talented Detroit Tigers starting rotation, followed by a series with the San Francisco Giants. For their effort, the Padres averaged 2.4 runs per game on their first homestand.

This weekend, the Friars get a brief respite against the inexperienced Colorado Rockies before facing the American League West-contending Seattle Mariners. It is hard to kickstart your offense against such quality pitching. 

Offense found its groove on the road

After a disappointing opening home stand, the Padres’ offense showed some life on their last road trip. The lineup averaged close to five runs per game away from Petco Park.

The move of Ramon Laureano to the leadoff spot has allowed the remainder of the order to wear down opposing pitching staffs with a quick strike power-hitting approach. Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill, Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Gavin Sheets, Nick Castellanos and Jake Cronenworth would never be considered an easy out. All are ready to pounce on a mistake. 

It can be exhausting for a starting pitcher who has to navigate a hot lineup multiple times in a start. The goal is to force them to overthink on the mound. It is hard to be perfect with every pitch thrown. The Friars must continue to take advantage of bad pitches. 

The loss of Arraez has not limited the Padres’ offense at the start of the season. Instead, the lineup is feeding off one another, as every hitter is doing their part to extend innings and score runs.

The Friar Faithful’s optimism is running high, especially after back-to-back walkoff wins. The recent outburst has demonstrated that the lineup can lift the team out of a less-than-ideal pitching matchup.

The production can only get better in the coming months.

You’ve read this on this site before: The Mets have designated left-handed relief pitcher Richard Lovelady for assignment. This time, he’s being replaced by veteran right-handed reliever Craig Kimbrel.

The Mets first acquired Lovelady in June last year, and they’ve now designated him for assignment five times in less than a year. Despite having DFA’d him three times during the 2025 season, the Mets signed Lovelady to a major league deal in late October. And they DFA’d him again in January to clear a 40-man roster spot when they acquired infielder Vidal Bruján.

When you look at all of that, you can’t help but feel for the player, even if there’s a sense of relief that the Mets might be moving on. Lovelady was booed at Citi Field in the Mets’ first season of the series during an extra-inning loss to the Pirates, but those boos were likely intended as much for the Mets’ front office and manager putting him in that spot as they were for the performance of Lovelady himself.

In 7.1 innings with the Mets since Opening Day this year, Lovelady has a 3.68 ERA and a 4.92 FIP. In 10.0 innings with the Mets last year, he had a 6.30 ERA and a 6.74 FIP.

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Chicago Cubs, April 11, 2026, 2:20 p.m. ET

Location: Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet Pittsburgh

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The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road today against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field looking to grab a win.

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The suddenly slumping New York Yankees lost again on Friday night at Tropicana Field. The offense continues to come up short, and they just can’t buy a hit. We’re putting the bats to the side for a moment though to discuss Luis Gil and his first start of the season at the MLB level after struggling on Sunday in Triple-A. Skipped in his first time around because the Yankees only needed four starters through the first couple weeks, Gil’s in an important season, as the luster really faded from him last year after an AL Rookie of the Year win in 2024.

It’s safe to say things could have gone better on Friday. Four rocky innings of work and 88 pitches were the final tally, and to be completely honest, this was—for large stretches of his outing—2025 Gil all over again, struggling to throw strikes and to consistently generate swings and misses.

Gil allowed three runs on three hits and three walks in the four frames, striking out two. He also threw a wild pitch and hit a batter in the disappointing outing.

After struggling with velocity for much of the spring, Gil averaged 95.1 mph on his four-seamer on Friday against the Rays, down from the 95.3 mph of 2025 and a more impactful 96.6 the year before. This pitch was his bread and butter in 2024, when he won Rookie of the Year, but it just earned one swing-and-miss on 13 swings for a meager eight-percent whiff rate. For reference, the fastball earned an 18.8-percent whiff rate in 2025 and a 28.5-percent whiff rate in 2024.

For the night, Gil got just five empty swings: three on his slider, which he struggled to fully command, one on his changeup, and one on his four-seamer.

Gil threw 38 balls and 50 strikes on the night, but he was all over the place with all his pitches:

Gil opened the game trying to establish the four-seamer and complementing it mainly with sliders. He got two quick outs in the first inning before running into trouble, walking Jonathan Aranda and hanging this slider to Yandy Díaz, who gladly deposited it in the right field stands for a game-tying two-run dinger:

What looked like a quick and painless opening frame for Gil turned into a 32-pitch inning that set the tone for the rest of his outing and immediately capped his upside to go relatively deep into the game.

The second time through the lineup, Gil started to introduce more sinkers and changeups. The former actually helped him get five called strikes and led to a 57.9-mph average exit velocity in three batted-ball events, with just one of them going for a hit. One could argue that, with better command, the pitch could potentially be useful. It doesn’t look like a huge difference-making offering, though.

It’s hard to envision a successful Gil without better control, command, and velocity. Take away those three things, and his ceiling is severely capped.

It’s also important for him to maintain his velo deep into his outings. The pitch averaged 95.8 mph in the opening frame, and then slipped to 94.4 mph in the second, 93.8 mph in the third, and 94.4 mph again in the fourth. His sinker did average 96.6 mph in the third, though, but Gil just won’t be successful if he’s sitting in the 93-94 mph range.

Gil did make a nice defensive play on a squeeze play attempt by the Rays in the fourth, preventing another run from scoring. So at least his glove helped him out a little bit.

It’s still early. Heck, it’s Gil’s first start of the season. We are willing to grant him a pass, as we shouldn’t be judging a pitcher using just one outing. However, one thing needs to be said: given that this more of the same frustrating Gil, he will need to pick it up soon if he doesn’t want to be at serious risk of losing his rotation spot whenever Gerrit Cole or Carlos Rodón return. Unlike in the ALDS, he is fully behind Will Warren on the depth chart.

Detroit Tigers (5-9) vs. Miami Marlins (8-6)

Time/Place: 1:10 p.m., Comerica Park
Opponent Site: Fish On First
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Casey Mize (0-1, 5.23 ERA) vs. RHP Janson Junk (0-1, 3.09 ERA)

Player	G	IP	K%	BB%	GB%	FIP	fWAR
Mize	2	10.1	28.3	10.9	35.7	4.63	0.1
Junk	2	11.2	17.0	4.3	42.9	3.44	0.2