For the Yankees, avoiding infamy might have felt like a minor victory.

But there was no real victory. And for 12 innings stretching across two miserable days, there was not even a hit.

Out of nowhere, as if their bats were suddenly dealing with a termite infestation, the Yankees offense disappeared. Following a single from Amed Rosario in Wednesday’s fourth inning and into Thursday’s seventh inning, Yankees batters went 0-for-36 and made Jeffrey Springs — less ace and more crafty lefty — look like Gerrit Cole.

Ben Rice ensured the 40,392 chilly fans in The Bronx would not witness history, but that proved to be the most positive moment of the matinee in what became a 1-0 loss to the A’s, who handed the Yankees their first series defeat of the season.

“We got shut down today,” said manager Aaron Boone, an eternal optimist who found no offensive silver lining. “The previous games where we’ve struggled scoring, I feel like we’re getting the traffic, we’re having quality at-bats.

“Today was the day we got beat.”

The Yankees (8-4) had looked like a buzzsaw until pitching from West Sacramento created a malfunction. Against Luis Severino and the A’s bullpen Wednesday, the Yankees totaled one hit after the first inning — the Rosario knock, which was erased by a double play — and flirted with true disaster a day later, finishing with a single hit.

Springs took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and never threw a pitch that registered even 93 mph. The veteran lefty was efficient, in control and pitching to weak contact on an afternoon when hopeless Yankees at-bats lent some belief that the 33-year-old could etch his name into history books.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

But with one out in the bottom of the seventh, a walk cracked open the door. Giancarlo Stanton worked a strong at-bat and earned the Yankees’ second base on balls of the game, and first baseman Nick Kurtz — likely aware of Stanton’s sneak-attack steal a few days prior — held him on first base.

Rice took advantage of the hole and grounded a single through the right side, prompting cheers from the fans and exhales from the Yankees.

There was “a little bit” of a sigh of relief, Rice acknowledged, but even the breakthrough was mitigated.

“Kind of a seeing-eye ground ball,” Rice added. “But it feels good to see one get through.”

The hit did not lead to a run. With two on and one out, Randal Grichuk struck out and Austin Wells flied out to strand two. That would conclude the drama, the Yankees unable to find a second hit.

Wells went hitless in three at-bats and is batting .167 through 10 games. José Caballero, who is ensuring that Anthony Volpe’s job is safe, owns a .135 average. Ryan McMahon, who heard boos Wednesday and found himself back in the lineup even against a lefty a day later, is down to .069 in 12 games with a revamped batting stance that apparently takes some time to master. Add in the struggles of Jazz Chisholm Jr. (.186), who came off the bench and stole a base but flied out in his lone at-bat, and the bottom of the Yankees order is a wasteland.

“We’ll get this going,” said Boone, whose Yankees — for all their recent hitting struggles — have lost by a single run in each of their defeats. “We got a few guys struggling to get on track a little bit.”

Thursday was not a case of smashed line drives from the Yankees dying in gloves.

Against Springs — who struck out six in seven innings and maxed out at 92.6 mph — the Yankees struck one pitch that left a bat over 100 mph — a second-inning flyout from Rice. Otherwise, a lineup intended to mash a lefty — featuring Rosario as the leadoff hitter and Grichuk, righties who were brought in for these exact scenarios — looked like one that is not looking forward to seeing southpaw Steven Matz in Tampa on Friday.

“We didn’t generate much. We didn’t hit a lot of balls on the screws,” said Boone, whose club wasted excellence from Ryan Weathers (eight strong innings of one-run ball).

The Yankees cannot wait to get hot. At least they can do so literally beginning at Tropicana Field on Friday.

“Definitely looking forward to that [weather],” Rice said.

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Just when it feels like the home run market can’t get any tighter, MLB rolls out a six-game Thursday slate filled with tricky spots for targeting long balls and MLB player props.

That said, Kansas City stands out as the premier hitting environment on the board. With a high total, favorable wind conditions, and plus-money value on both sides, the matchup at Kauffman Stadium offers some of the best opportunities of the day. There are several +400 or longer home run prices worth targeting in this game, while the rest of the slate presents far fewer appealing options.

As a result, I’m locking in three bats from the Chicago White Sox vs. Kansas City Royals matchup for my favorite home run props and MLB picks on Thursday, April 9.

Best MLB home run props today

Player to hit a HR	Odds
Munetaka Murakami	+410
Bobby Witt Jr.	+470
Miguel Vargas	+590
💲Today's HR parlay	+14148

Munetaka Murakami (+410)

Kauffman Stadium has the best home run conditions on the board today, as Thursday features one of the thinnest slates of the year, with just a handful of games and cold weather across the East Coast.

Munetaka Murakami projects as the most likely player to go deep, with a 0.28 HR projection per Covers, powered by THE BAT. With a fair price around +320, the Chicago White Sox slugger offers solid expected value in a limited market.

Seth Lugo is prone to giving up power, allowing 27 home runs over 145 innings last year, ranking among the higher HR/9 rates. With double-digit winds blowing out to left field, the total has climbed as high as 9.5.

Murakami hasn’t piled up hits yet, but half of his knocks have gone over the fence. The matchup, environment, and price all line up well in this spot.

• Time: 7:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Chicago Sports Network App, ROYL

Bobby Witt Jr. (+470)

Although Bobby Witt Jr. has yet to go deep, he leads the Kansas City Royals with a .409 xwOBA, which ranks inside the Top 25 in baseball. He’s been unlucky, but positive regression should be coming soon.

The hitting conditions at home are among the best on the slate, and he gets a favorable matchup against Anthony Kay, who has allowed a home run in each of his two starts and profiles as a contact-heavy arm.

Kay is also giving up plenty of hard contact — 92.4 mph average exit velocity — and the Chicago bullpen is also without three key arms. 

As the weather improves, Witt’s HR price will likely drop below today’s number more consistently. This is a good spot to buy in on one of the top players in baseball in a strong matchup and favorable environment.

• Time: 7:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Chicago Sports Network App, ROYL

Miguel Vargas (+590)

Let’s keep attacking one of the best home run environments on the board and go back to the Chicago side with the No. 3 hitter, Miguel Vargas, who projects better than his current price. THE BAT has Vargas closer to +500, creating a solid edge.

Vargas draws a favorable matchup against Lugo, a pitcher who can be vulnerable to the long ball. The profile fits — we’re not looking for singles here, just power — and the conditions only help with double-digit winds blowing out.

On a thin slate, there’s value in double-dipping against a homer-prone arm in a strong weather spot.

• Time: 7:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: Chicago Sports Network App, ROYL

Today’s HR parlay

Munetaka Murakami	Bet Now +14148
Bobby Witt Jr.
Miguel Vargas

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.

The San Diego Padres are returning to Petco Park today after a wonderful stretch for the Friars on the road.

After starting off the season 2-4, they won both away series and are coming back to San Diego sitting at .500. The vibes are high after their 8-2 shellacking of the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday.

With a pitcher’s duel going through six-plus innings between starters Michael King and Mitch Keller, the Friars put up a four-run seventh inning. It was a lead they wouldn’t surrender, despite King and Kyle Hart allowing two runs in the bottom of the seventh to the Bucs.

The game reminded the Friar Faithful who the Padres are. Their pitching mostly dominated, the offense hammered mistakes and they were aggressive on the base paths.

With a four-game series against the division-rival Colorado Rockies starting today, San Diego will look to capitalize on their momentum.

Taking the mound

Jimmy Herget (COL) v. Randy Vásquez (SD)

With José Quintana scratched after landing on the injured list with a right hamstring strain, the Rockies didn’t announce their starting pitcher until today.

They’ll likely make it a bullpen game after ace Michael Lorenzen pitched 5 2/3 innings against the Houston Astros in Colorado’s 9-1 win yesterday. Jimmy Herget will lead off the group.

The Rockies’ bullpen has been quite good through the first two weeks of the season, posting a 2.91 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. It would be a surprise if San Diego can’t find a solution for their division rivals, with them going 10-3 against Colorado last season.

However, in the past the Friars have (for whatever reason) had difficulty beating the struggling Rox. They did a good job last year putting those woes to bed, hopefully they can tonight as well.

Vásquez has shown flashes of bonafide ace stuff in his first two starts for the club. In 12 innings pitched, he has a 0.75 ERA with only one run allowed thus far.

Vásquez was a back-end starter for the Padres going into this year, but he’s pitching like a front-end one. He’s managed to stymie a Detroit Tigers lineup that, two days earlier, tagged Nick Pivetta for six runs.

There’s nothing to suggest he can’t handle this Rockies lineup just like he did the Tigers and the Boston Red Sox already this year. But, if Vásquez does stumble, the bullpen is rested well enough to dominate.

Batter up!

With Manny Machado getting a rest day yesterday, he’ll be back at the hot corner tonight. But Miguel Andujar had a great day in his place, going 2-for-4 at the plate. This road trip has been great for Andujar, after ending the homestand with a .167 batting average, he’s since raised it to .310 in the last six games.

But Nick Castellanos was also great yesterday (1 H, 2 RBI, 1 BB). This is exactly what San Diego had in mind when they signed Castellanos and Andujar: make it difficult to not have them in the lineup:

1. Ramón Laureano, LF
2. Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
3. Jackson Merrill, CF
4. Manny Machado, 3B
5. Xander Bogaerts, SS
6. Miguel Andujar, DH
7. Nick Castellanos, 1B
8. Freddy Fermin, C
9. Jake Cronenworth, 2B

If the offense can keep it rolling after pounding out 24 hits against Pittsburgh, they’ll be able to solve the Rockies’ pitching staff easily.

Relief corps

King went six full innings yesterday and came back out for the seventh before giving up back-to-back hits. That forced manager Craig Stammen’s hand and he was lifted in favor of Kyle Hart. Hart looked a little shaky but managed to get out relatively unscathed (1 H, 1 BB).

Behind him was Jeremiah Estrada in the eighth inning and closer Mason Miller in the ninth. Estrada looked more like his usual dominant self despite his recent lackluster performances.

Miller’s strikeout streak came to an end at 11 with Jake Mangum’s game-ending groundout, but he has still yet to allow a run in 26 2/3 innings.

Today’s game will likely see Bradgley Rodriguez, Wandy Peralta, Ron Marinaccio, Adrian Morejon and David Morgan available out of the ‘pen.

Morejon has struggled lately, and that was highlighted by his inability to get more than one out in Tuesday’s 1-7 loss to the Pirates. If he can begin to rebound from his (thus far) dull performance, it will go a long way towards assuaging worries about his relief appearances.

Miller will likely be available as well to close even though he pitched yesterday. He was efficient, only throwing 10 pitches, and the Friars have shown a willingness to use him in consecutive games.

The Yankees fell to the Athletics by a score of 1-0 on Thursday afternoon, dropping the rubber match of the three-game series.

Here are the takeaways...

-- With lefty Jeffrey Springs on the mound, Aaron Boone changed things up with the lineup. Amed Rosario led off, playing second base, and Randal Grichuk got the start in left. Of note, Paul Goldschmidt did not get the start at first base against the lefty, with Ben Rice getting the nod. Boone said before the game that with the Yanks facing lefties in three of their next four games, Goldschmidt will see plenty of playing time.

But the Yankees had no answers for Springs. The former Ray held them hitless through the first five innings, allowing just one walk and striking out four during that span. 

Finally, after 6.1 innings of no-hit ball, Ben Rice came through with a single through the right side, which followed a Giancarlo Stanton walk to put a couple of runners on base. The A's got out of it, though, as Austin Wells flew out with a pair of runners in scoring position to end the threat.

Springs went 7.0 shutout innings, allowing just one hit while striking out six and walking a pair. He lowered his season ERA to 1.47.

--The A’s lineup suffered a blow early, as right fielder Brent Rooker appeared to tweak something in either his back or side when swinging at a pitch in the first inning. Rooker, the three-hole hitter, had to be removed from the game and replaced by Lawrence Butler.

--Ryan Weathers, who has gotten off to an inconsistent start to his Yankees career, looked sharp early. The lefty started the game with three scoreless innings, striking out three while allowing just two hits. 

Weathers and Springs traded zeros through the first six innings, but Weathers allowed a leadoff triple to Max Muncy to start the seventh. Tyler Soderstrom cashed in with an RBI single, putting the first run on the board for either team.

Weathers turned in what was easily his best start as a Yankee, going 8.0 innings while allowing just one earned run on seven hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.

-- The Yankees finished with just one hit, and have just two hits total since the first inning of Wednesday's game.

Highlights

They call it the hot corner for a reason 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/TdWddMPbSc

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 9, 2026

Aaron Judge catches Nick Kurtz sleeping for the inning-ending double play pic.twitter.com/VrxI1aNScF

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) April 9, 2026

A hit pic.twitter.com/r7QtZsSgHu

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) April 9, 2026

Upcoming Schedule

The Yankees head to Tampa for three games against the Rays, beginning on Friday at 7:10 p.m.

Luis Gil faces Steven Matz in the series-opener.

The Royals continued to shuffle their bullpen Thursday, adding relievers Eli Morgan and Mitch Spence from Triple-A Omaha, while sending Luinder Avila and Steven Cruz down. Avila and Cruz each pitched extensively in Wednesday’s loss to Cleveland. Morgan was up last Saturday as the 27th man for the doubleheader against Milwaukee, pitching three scoreless innings with five strikeouts.

Morgan has pitched parts of five seasons with the Guardians and Cubs before this season, posting a 4.15 ERA in 275.2 innings, mostly as a reliever. His best year came in 2024 when he posted a 1.93 ERA, although he pitched in just 32 games. He pitched in just seven games last year before he injured his elbow in April and missed the rest of the season. The Royals signed the 29-year-old as a minor league free agent this past winter.

Spence was acquired from the Athletics in a trade for minor league reliever A.J. Causey. He has pitched parts of the last two seasons with the Athletics, mostly as a starter, with a 4.77 ERA in 236 innings. Last year he made 24 relief appearances and 8 starts, with a 5.10 ERA in 84.2 innings. He gave up just one unearned run over five innings in his only start for Omaha this year.

Avila has given up 14 hits, 4 walks and six runs in six innings with the Royals. He is ranked as the #9 prospect in the farm system and the team considers him a future top-of-the-rotation starter. Cruz has given up eight runs in five innings for a 14.40 ERA, with four home runs allowed, tied for the most in the league.

If you’ve ever been to a game at Coors Field and wondered what that’s song, say, Willi Castro is walking up to, and the clip is too short to Shazam, Reader, I am here to answer your questions.

Below are (most of) the 2026 music selections of the Colorado Rockies.

Zach Agnos — Jacob Banks’ “Chainsmoking” (from the beginning)

Jordan Beck — A$AP Rocky’s “Everyday” (:16-:32)

Willi Castro— Crazy DesignRD’s “Porón Pompón” (:04)

Chase Dollander — Kai Uriah’s “Bound 2 Be” (from the beginning)

Brenton Doyle — Bad Wolves’ “Zombie Bad Wolves” (1:03)

Tyler Freeman — Cody Johnson’s “Dear Rodeo” (:52)

Hunter Goodman — Cody Johnson’s “Til You Can’t” (0:59)

Jimmy Herget — BigXThaPlug’s “Back on my BS” (from the beginning)

Jaden Hill — YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Bruce Wayne” (Best Clean Version from YouTube) (1:02)

Troy Johnston — Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5” (0:03)

Edouard Julien — GIMS and Le Mano 1.9’s “Parisienne” (0:30)

Kyle Karros — Toro & Moi’s “The Difference Flume” (0:36)

Michael Lorenzen — KB’s “10k” (from the beginning)

Jake McCarthy — Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” (6:40)

Juan Mejia — Juan Luis Guerra’s “Soldado” (from the beginning)

Mickey Moniak — Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue” (from the beginning)

José Quintana — La Moral’s “Criss 7 Ronny, lil Silvo” (from the beginning)

T.J. Rumfield — Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Fishin’ in the Dark” (0:41)

Tomoyuki Sugano — HUNTR/X’s “Golden” (0:55)

Brett Sullivan — Big X Tha Plug’s “Holy Ground” (0:26)

Ezequiel Tovar — Rawayana’s “Inglés en Miami” (0:37)

Victor Vodnik — 2Pac’s “Ambitionz AZ A Riddah” (from the beginning)

We’ll try to keep this list updated throughout the season.

Let us know your favorites (or musical suggestions!) in the comments.

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

What's really behind Phillies' recent offensive drought originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The four-run seventh inning of Monday’s game at Oracle Park feels like forever ago.

That’s because the Phillies have not scored a run since then — 20 consecutive scoreless innings without one.

“Has it been that long?” Bryce Harper asked reporters after yet another shutout loss in San Francisco, sounding genuinely thrown by the number.

When the Phillies embarked on this West Coast trip after last Thursday’s electrifying comeback win, capped by Justin Crawford’s walk-off hit against the Nationals, it felt like the offense had some life again.

When they got to Colorado, they wasted no time carrying that momentum with them. They hung a statement seven-run first inning on the Rockies. Eleven batters came to the plate. They saw 44 pitches. It was an offensive clinic.

And yet, from that point on, the lineup has looked like a different group.

The Phillies did win the series in Colorado, but after that first inning, they scored only six runs over the final 26 innings against one of baseball’s weakest pitching staffs. Then they went farther west and into San Francisco, where they fell behind 4-0 through four innings in the opener before clawing all the way back behind six unanswered runs.

That game, more than anything, now looks like the exception.

Since that first inning in Denver, the Phillies have scored just 12 runs in 53 innings. That is the fewest in baseball over that span. They are batting .199 with a .574 OPS in the stretch, the third-lowest OPS in the sport.

So where is the real problem?

Recently, it has not been the top of the order.

That group was the main topic through the first six games of the season, all played at home. Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper finished that first week slashing .164/.256/.315, a .571 OPS.

Over the last six games on the road, that same trio has slashed .302/.436/.508, a .944 OPS.

That is a massive swing, and it’s key, because the easiest storyline early on was that the stars at the top had not started hitting. Right now, that is not where the offense is breaking down. And it is hard to pin it on the bottom, either.

The Phillies have gotten quality at-bats from the last two spots in the order, mostly J.T. Realmuto and Crawford. Those lineup spots have combined for the second-highest on-base percentage in baseball at .362, trailing only the Dodgers.

That leaves the middle. More specifically, it leaves the fourth through seventh spots.

On the season, those spots are slashing .199/.256/.306, almost identical to what the offense has looked like during this recent dry spell. And when you split it apart further, the picture gets clearer.

Adolis García, who has spent time in that section of the lineup, has not been the issue. Neither has Brandon Marsh. García owns a .738 OPS. Marsh is at .727. Both have looked like contributors.

The bigger issue has been Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott, who have primarily occupied the cleanup and fifth spots. Bohm is hitting .186 with a .550 OPS. Stott is hitting .167 with a .405 OPS, the fourth-lowest mark among qualified National League hitters.

That is where the offense has bogged down. Oddly enough, though, there is a caveat.

One issue that has been there since day one is the Phillies’ inability to hit with runners in scoring position. The club is batting .200 in those spots, second-worst in the league.

But the team’s two best hitters in those situations so far, even in a small sample, are Bohm and Stott.

Bohm is hitting .333 with runners in scoring position. Stott is at .250.

So the criticism of that four-five pocket is fair, but it is not as simple as saying those two have been the reason the Phillies have not scored. In the spots that matter most, they have actually been among the better producers.

The issue is that the lineup has not clicked in order. Too often, when one section has gotten going, another has stalled. That is why Rob Thomson’s postgame comments Wednesday were worth paying attention to. He did not sound like someone ready to overreact. But he also did not sound like someone ruling out a tweak.

When asked if he might shake up the lineup after the off day, he said, “Yeah, a little bit. I might.”

That is important because the likely changes are not hard to see.

García can move into the cleanup spot. Marsh, against right-handed pitching, can slide into the fifth spot. Bohm and Stott can each move down a couple of slots.

And if García and Marsh keep getting on, that could put Bohm and Stott in the exact situations where they have actually had success so far — with traffic on the bases and less pressure to be the engines of the offense.

A major topic all offseason was how to give Harper more right-handed protection in the middle of the order. Dave Dombrowski’s answer was García on a one-year prove-it deal worth $10 million.

Thomson, though, has long preferred a contact-oriented run producer like Bohm in the four-hole. That is understandable. It is also why this part of the season is magnified. It is where roles start to sort themselves out.

García’s biggest problem over the last two seasons has not been bat speed or power. It has been patience and pitch selection. His average chase rate over that stretch was 34.7 percent. His swing rate sat at 52.1 percent. His in-zone contact rate was 78.5 percent.

This year, in a smaller sample, the changes are real. He is chasing at just a 29.8 percent clip, swinging 48.2 percent of the time and making contact on in-zone pitches at an 87.5 percent rate. Those improvements mirror the progress he made in spring training, when he walked eight times and struck out only five.

If García can maintain that, and if Marsh continues doing what he has always done against right-handers, the middle of the order could start to look a lot more functional.

But that is the point. “Could.”

The Phillies are 6-6. They are playing .500 baseball. They are only 1.5 games out of first in the NL East. This is not a crisis piece. It should not be one. They’re just 12 games in.

Harper, looking at the bigger picture, put it plainly after Wednesday’s shutout loss in San Francisco.

“We have to be that team,” he said. “Because if we’re not, then we’re not going to be where we want to be at the end.”

That is probably the right way to read this. And a slump like this did happen last year.

The last time the Phillies were shut out for more than 20 straight innings was last June, when they went 26 innings without scoring against the Mets and Astros. Their next game, they scored 13 runs in Atlanta.

The Phillies and Thomson could certainly use one of those nights when they get back to home and face the Diamondbacks on Friday night. And if the skipper does make a tweak, it will not be because the lineup is broken.

It will be because right now, it just is not clicking in the right order.