Category: Sports News

Here we are!

After starting with 20 teams earlier this month, we’re down to just two squads vying for the World Baseball Classic title in tonight’s championship game.

Team USA took down the Dominican Republic on Sunday in a closely fought 2-1 game, while Venezuela beat previously undefeated Italy 4-2 on Monday night.

Tonight’s game features a few of the Brewers’ top players, including second baseman Brice Turang for the USA (batting eighth) and catcher William Contreras (not in the lineup), outfielder Jackson Chourio (batting ninth), and lefty reliever Ángel Zerpa for Venezuela.

Mets’ pitcher Nolan McLean gets the start for the USA, while the Diamondbacks’ Eduardo Rodriguez starts for Venezuela. Team USA is the home team in this one, though based on how loud the Venezuelan fans were in last night’s win, it may feel more like a road game despite being played on home turf in Miami.

First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. CT on Fox, and the full lineups are included below.

MESA, Arizona — Tuesday notes…

• ICYMI:

• WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: For those interested, there will be a separate game thread posting at 6:15 p.m. CT for the WBC championship game between the USA and Venezuela that begins at 7 p.m. CT.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Angels lineup:

Shōta Imanaga will start for the Cubs. The only other Cubs pitcher scheduled today is Javier Assad, now back from the WBC. Looks like the Cubs might be doing a piggyback two-pitcher game as they did last night against the Guardians.

Mitch Farris will start for the Angels. Other Angels pitchers scheduled today: zzzz

No TV today. There will be radio broadcasts on WSCR The Score and the Angels flagship station, KLAA 830.

MLB.com Gameday

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

Please visit the Angels site Crashing The Pearly Gates. If you do go there to interact with Angels 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.

Venezuela lineup

1. Ronald Acuña Jr., RF
2. Maikel Garcia, 3B
3. Luis Arraez, 1B
4. Eugenio Suarez, DH
5. Gleyber Torres, 2B
6. Ezequiel Tovar, SS
7. Wilyer Abreu, LF
8. Salvador Perez, C
9. Jackson Chourio, CF

SP: Eduardo Rodriguez

United States lineup

1. Bobby Witt Jr. – SS
2. Bryce Harper – 1B
3. Aaron Judge – RF
4. Kyle Schwarber – DH
5. Alex Bregman – 3B
6. Roman Anthony – LF
7. Will Smith – C
8. Brice Turang – 2B
9. Byron Buxton – CF

SP: Nolan McLean

Broadcast info

Time: 8:00 PM EDT
TV: FOX

Venue: loanDepot Park — Miami, Florida, USA

And it all comes down to this.

Tonight the home United States team will welcome Team Venezuela to the championship game of the World Baseball Classic.

If the US wins, it will be their first WBC championship since 2017. This will be Team Venezuela’s first appearance in the WBC title game.

And now to the lineups.

Venezuela will start LHP Eduardo Rodriguez who has had one previous outing in the 2026 WBC. When facing the Dominican Republic, he went 2 2/3 innings and surrendered home runs to Juan Soto and Ketel Marte.

The rest of the lineup looks like this:

1. Ronald Acuña Jr., RFF
2. Maikel Garcia, 3B
3. Luis Arraez, 1B
4. Eugenio Suárez, DH
5. Gleyber Torres, 2B
6. Ezequiel Tovar, SS
7. Wilyer Abreu, LF
8. Salvador Perez, C
9. Jackson Chourio, CF

In addition to Ezequiel Tovar, don’t forget that RHP Antonio Senzatela is on Team Venezuela.

For the United States, RHP Nolan McLean will toe the rubber. In his most recent appearance against Team Italy, he allowed three earned runs in three innings.

And here’s the rest of Team USA’s lineup:

1. Bobby Witt Jr., SS
2. Bryce Harper, 1B
3. Aaron Judge, RF
4. Kyle Schwarber, DH
5. Alex Bregman, 3B
6. Roman Anthony, LF
7. Will Smith, C
8. Brice Turang, 2B
9. Byron Buxton, CF

And now to the details:

First Pitch: 6:00 PM MDT

TV: Fox

Radio: MLB Audio; Sirius XM

It should be quite a game.

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

With just more than one week before opening day, the Athletics faced off against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona this afternoon. Luis Morales took the mound for the A’s against Anthony Kay for the Sox.

Kay kept the A’s off balance, allowing two base hits but no runners advancing to second throughout the first three innings. With one out and a 3-2 count in the bottom of the third, Chase Meidroth homered off Morales to deep right center field. He then walked the next two batters and gave up an RBI double to Austin Hayes. That ended the day for Morales*, having given up two runs and being responsible for the runners on second and third with two outs. James Gonzalez replaced him and promptly gave up a three-run blast to Andrew Benintendi, bringing the score to 5-0 and finalizing Luis Morales line at 2.2 innings, four earned runs, on three hits and two walks.

Morales returned to pitch the bottom of the fourth inning. He tossed a hitless, scoreless inning. Andy Ibáñez homered against Kay to get the A’s on the board in the top of the fifth inning. Jedixson Paez replaced Anthony Kay. Zack Gelof walked and Nick Kurtz doubled, scoring Gelof. Morales continued to pitch the bottom of the fifth, giving up a homer to Munetaka Murakami. That brought the score to 6-2 in favor of the Pale Hose.

Luis Medina entered the game to pitch the sixth for the A’s. He tossed a scoreless inning, as did Joel Kuhnel in the seventh inning. Zack Gelof walked off former A’s hurler Sean Newcomb to lead off the eighth. He was replaced by pinch runner Euribiel Angeles.

Lawrence Butler made his 2026 debut, DH’ing for the A’s today. He went 0-3 with two strikeouts and was removed for a pinch hitter in the eighth. Shane McGuire, hitting for Butler homered, driving in Euribiel Angeles.

That ended the scoring and the A’s dropped this one 6-4 to the White Sox. They have a rare spring day off tomorrow and will hit the field again on Thursday against the Mariners at 6:05 PM PDT.

*Morales final line was 4.1 innings, giving up five earned runs on four hits and three walks. He struck out five Sox today.

Team USA will have its flame-throwing right-hander available if necessary on Tuesday night.

The Americans will have reliever Mason Miller available at their disposal if they see fit to use him in the World Baseball Classic championship game against Venezuela, manager Mark DeRosa told reporters.

The Padres pitcher has already thrown in four games in the tournament, saving two in as many chances. He has an eye-popping 10 strikeouts in four innings — thanks in large part to his triple-digit fastball — and has yet to allow a run.

“I’d like to avoid him, but the score will dictate it,” DeRosa said. “Yes, he’s available.”

Miller closed out Sunday’s 2-1 semifinal thriller over the Dominican Republic, as he struck at two, including the game’s final batter in controversial fashion.

The righty deployed a slider on a payoff pitch to Dominican infielder Geraldo Perdomo, who appeared to deftly lay off a pitch well below the strike zone.

However, home plate umpire Cory Blaser punched out Perdomo to end the game. In the WBC, unlike spring training and the upcoming major and minor league seasons, there is no usage of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System that would have potentially allowed Perdomo to have turned the strikeout into a walk.

Before Miller even gets the chance to maybe get the ball, Mets starter Nolan McLean is slated to get the ball for the Americans as they look for their second WBC title.

McLean pitched earlier in the tournament, allowing two home runs in the United States’ 8-6 loss to Italy in pool play.

Though he didn’t pitch as well as he would have liked, McLean is coming off an impressive stint with the Mets down the stretch in 2025 where he showed off his stuff, which includes elite spin rate.

DeRosa is confident in the Oklahoma State product’s abilities to lead the Americans.

“He’s just built for this — his mindset, his skill, his want, all of that,” DeRosa said earlier this week.

If you try hard to remember, you’ll actually recall that the Cincinnati Reds spent a good chunk of the 2025 regular season carrying six starting pitchers – at minimum – on their active roster. Such was the luxury of having Nick Martinez around all year, his versatility the linchpin in making sure the rest of the rotation was always as rested as could be.

Once they acquired Zack Littell and promoted Chase Burns, they almost always had more options than a typical 5-man rotation at any given point down the stretch. It’s simply necessary in the modern game, what with max effort velocities and the inevitable injuries that come with them.

It appears the Reds are more than just comfortable with that concept. So comfortable that manager Terry Francona revealed to C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic on Tuesday afternoon that they’ll carry six starters come Opening Day 2026.

Rhett Lowder and Brandon Williamson will make the team after both missing all (or 97%, in Lowder’s case) of the 2025 regular season with injuries. Chase Burns, meanwhile, will make the team despite having run into some mid-spring load management after not recovering well enough from an extended start. Those three will join Brady Singer, Nick Lodolo, and Andrew Abbott on the team’s roster as starting options, something the club will get to juggle early on.

It’s not the end of the world, aside from the fact that it’s Hunter Greene’s months-long absence that even opened this opportunity. The reality is that none of Lowder, Williamson, or Burns was going to approach anything akin to 170+ IP after shortened 2025 campaigns – don’t forget that Burns was shut down for a while with forearm pain and eventually migrated to a fireman role in the bullpen.

So, effectively spreading out their innings now is what’s going to begin the process lest the Reds run into a scenario where they simply have to shut a guy down in, say, an August stretch run that has them chasing a playoff spot. Former Enquirer beat writer Charlie Goldsmith added more context from Francona which more or less echoes this.

Goldsmith also casually dropped that both Connor Phillips and Will Benson have been told they’ve made the team, with Benson’s addition meaning, in all likelihood, that only one of Nate Lowe or JJ Bleday will make the club, too.

Quite the interesting series of developments ahead of tonight’s matchup against their Goodyear brethren the Cleveland Guardians!