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Apologies for the late thread, I went out to say hi to staffers John and Isabelle who are in attendance at the game tonight. Luke Raley hit that game-tying nuke just as I got up so maybe now that I’m sitting down again we can have another, this time a go-ahead one.
I want to start this recap by saying how grateful I am to be back for another season of Arizona Diamondbacks baseball with all of you. Today brought back all those familiar feelings from my childhood. Opening Day is always the best day of the year—a fresh wave of hope and optimism, the first sign of the dog days of summer ahead, and a welcome reunion with the friends we share this team with.
For D-backs fans, though, this nationally televised Opening Day felt more like a Dodgers home broadcast. Through the first three innings, we witnessed a classic pitchers’ duel between Zac Gallen and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The two matched each other inning for inning, with Gallen actually holding a slight edge in pitch count and efficiency.
The highlight for Arizona came in the top of the fourth, when last season’s team MVP Geraldo Perdomo launched a two-run homer to put the D-backs up 2-0. Sadly, the national announcers were so focused on the Dodgers that they sounded almost surprised by the blast—and the broadcast barely captured it, with just one replay and a poor camera angle.
The momentum shifted in the bottom of the fifth. With a lead in hand, Gallen hung a knuckle curve to the Dodgers’ eighth-hole hitter, Andy Pages, who crushed a three-run homer to give Los Angeles a 3-2 advantage. It was an all-too-familiar scene for Gallen on Opening Day. As Jesse Friedman of Snakes Territory pointed out, Gallen posted the exact same line last year: four innings pitched and four earned runs allowed.
That one pitch aside, Gallen actually looked quite sharp, showing excellent command of his four-seamer and generating good downward movement on his hard cutter/slider. It was a frustrating end to what had been a solid start.
Once the Dodgers took the lead, the game quickly became all LA. Torey Lovullo turned to much of his high-leverage bullpen early, but the Dodgers kept piling on runs. One of the D-backs’ key bullpen additions this offseason, Taylor Clark, had a rough introduction in the seventh, surrendering four earned runs while recording just one out. It was far from the debut the front office or Clark had hoped for, and it raised early questions about the 2026 bullpen.
After the Dodgers blew the game open, Arizona’s offense went completely quiet. Dodgers relievers retired 18 of the final 19 D-backs batters—a stark tale of two very different bullpens.
On the bright side, Jordan Lawlar had an encouraging debut to the 2026 season. He ripped a big double in his first at-bat and later made a spectacular highlight-reel catch in left field, crashing into the wall in the seventh inning. After a slow start to his 2025 campaign, this was exactly the kind of confident beginning the young infielder—and the team—needed.
It was also nice to see newcomer Nolan Arenado pick up his first hit in a D-backs uniform in the seventh. Here’s hoping it’s the start of a strong offensive rebound for the veteran. He also made a couple of great plays at the hot corner highlighting his defensive value early on in the season.
At the end of the day, it’s simply great to have meaningful baseball back. Opening Day remains a highlight of the year for so many of us. Unfortunately, today carried some echoes of last season: the D-backs looked competitive against one of the game’s top teams for about half the game, only for the bullpen to let things slip away and the contest to get out of reach.
What did you guys think of the start to the season?
It took the Dodgers four innings to knock the rust off.
Then, the two-time defending World Series champions finally started looking like themselves.
In an 8-2 Opening Day win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday, the Dodgers began their season exactly as advertised –– riding a relentlessly deep lineup and dominant starting pitching performance to a season-opening rout in front of 53,712 at Dodger Stadium.
The pursuit of a third-straight title couldn’t have started any better.
Even after falling behind early on Geraldo Perdomo’s two-run homer in the fourth, then entering the bottom of the fifth without a hit since Shohei Ohtani’s single to lead off the game, the Dodgers couldn’t be stopped once their offense got into gear.
The team exploded for four runs in the fifth, highlighted by Andy Pages’ go-ahead three-run home run off Arizona starter Zac Gallen.
They managed another four-spot in the seventh, when Kyle Tucker hit an RBI double in the gap for his first Dodgers hit, Mookie Betts drove him home with an RBI single up the middle, and Will Smith delivered the knockout blow with a two-run blast to left-center.
That was more than enough on a night Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched six strong innings, striking out six batters and retiring the final nine he faced after Perdomo’s home run.
It also gave some instant validation to the team’s belief that this could be the best roster they’ve ever assembled.
“As far as the talent, the complete buy-in, this team is,” manager Dave Roberts said before first pitch. “But like I’ve said every single year, we’ve still got to go out there and play.”
One game in, they’re already playing well.
What it means
The way these Dodgers are constructed, with a lineup that includes six combined MVP awards and 33 All-Star appearances, there’s no one superstar that needs to shoulder the load.
Thursday was a quick reminder why.
After all, it was the bottom of the lineup that provided the biggest turning point, with Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernández leading off the fifth with back-to-back singles before Pages’ blast.
Ohtani didn’t have another hit after his leadoff single, yet scored a key insurance run on Tucker’s double after getting hit by a pitch.
And by the end of the night, the club had racked up more walks (five) than strikeouts (four), applying constant pressure on an Arizona pitching staff that –– like most the Dodgers are likely to face this year –– eventually cracked under the strain.
Who’s hot
Pages was Roberts’ so-called “pick to click” coming into the season, with the manager believing more in the young slugger’s 27-homer regular season last year than his .078 batting average in the playoffs.
On Thursday, Pages made a strong first impression with a 2-for-4, three-RBI display.
Not only did he hit the key home run, getting to a two-strike curveball from Gallen that was launched to left-field pavilion, but he also made two impressive catches in center field: The first, on a deep fly ball to the left-center field gap; then, a diving effort on a shallow flare in right-center that helped Blake Treinen –– pitching the only high-leverage relief inning of the game with a two-run lead in the seventh –– get throught a scoreless frame.
Who’s not
Right now? Nobody. Freddie Freeman was the only Dodgers player without a hit on Thursday. But even he drew a key walk that helped set up an RBI single from Smith following Pages’ homer in the fifth. He also saved a run defensively, getting Yamamoto out of a jam in the third by snagging a high line drive at first base and turning an inning-ending double-play.
Up next
The Dodgers and Dbacks will be back at it on Friday night. Emmet Sheehan will start for the Dodgers, while Ryne Nelson will go for Arizona.
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WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon scored his 47th and 48th goals of the season to propel the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.
Jack Drury scored his career-high ninth goal of the season for the NHL-leading Avalanche, who ended a four-game road trip with a 4-0-0 record. Artturi Lehkonen added an assist in his return after missing 11 games with an upper-body injury.
Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 22 shots for Colorado.
Mark Scheifele scored twice and leads the Jets with 34 goals.
Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves.
Scheifele set a career-high in points when his pair of goals gave him 88 points.
Colorado entered the game ranked 27th on the power play, but made good on a big opportunity. Six seconds after a 38-second two-man advantage expired, MacKinnon scored 13 seconds into the third to break the 1-1 tie with the power-play tally. He added his second goal at 3:55.
The Jets challenged MacKinnon’s second goal for goaltender interference, but it stood and gave Colorado a 3-1 lead early in the third.
The Jets begin a four-game road trip with a rematch in Colorado on Saturday.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
A pair of calls on the Nashville Predators down the stretch proved costly in a 4-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday at Bridgestone Arena.
Halfway through the third period, Fedor Svechkov was called for tripping on Jack Hughes, seeing Svechkov partially make contact with Hughes on a poke check.
While that was killed, Matthew Wood was later called for tripping on Evgenii Dadonov, another call that was heavily disputed by the Predators.
Western Conference Wild Card Standings
Nico Hischier tipped in a shot from Jack Hughes on the power play to give the Devils the go-ahead goal. Timo Meier added an empty net goal in the final minute to ensure the win.
"It's frustrating and it pisses me off a little bit the way that the game ended on that power play goal," Steven Stamkos said. "It's tough. The refs call what they see, no matter how much we yell and scream, then they're not changing the call once it's made."
Stamkos did add that it was known in advance that the Devils wouldn't give the Predators much to work with on penalties. New Jersey is the least-penalized team in the NHL, with 506 total minutes, and ranks 13th in the league on the power play.
Nashville got one power play out of the Devils on a Jonas Siegenthaler tripping call; however, it was unable to convert on the man advantage.
"Jersey doesn't take a lot of penalties. We knew that before the game," Stamko said. "We are not gonna get a three, four, five power place. We couldn't afford to take three or four ourselves. We took two, they took one. It just sucks to miss out on at least a point in those situations."
The Predators fell into a 2-0 hole early, with Jesper Bratt and Hischier scoring.
Reid Schaefer found the back of the net on a breakaway in the second period to get the Predators on the board. It was his sixth goal of the season.
Stamkos tied the game later in the frame, getting the puck from Luke Evangelista off a steal and scoring on the backhand to tie the game.
On the empty net goal by the Devils, Evangelista made the save of the primary shot, but couldn't find the puck as it had dropped inbetween his legs. Eventually, Meier got to the loose puck and poked it in.
Nashville was outshot 30-18 and lost 65% of total face-offs. Late penalties by Stamkos and Evangelista saw the Predators officially commit 26 PIM to New Jersey's two.
"They (the officials) call what they see, and we deal with it. Unfortunately, it probably affected the outcome of the game," Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said. "We left it up to chance, and when you leave it up to chance, there's gonna be nights like this."
Francisco Alvarez took hitting ninth in the lineup in stride. He credited the depth of the Mets’ order rather than questioning his place in it.
“I was just thinking [upon seeing the one through nine] that we have a good lineup. We have a team that has nine good hitters,” Alvarez said through interpreter Alan Suriel after making a case — solely with his bat — that he does not belong at the bottom of the order for much longer.
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Try it freeThe young Mets catcher smashed three pitches and wound up with two hits — one a demolished home run that visited the second deck in left field — in addition to saving the club a run defensively in an all-around excellent performance in Thursday’s 11-7 Opening Day victory over the Pirates at Citi Field.
Coming up through the system, Alvarez was the best prospect in baseball largely because of a powerful bat that has only shown glimpses of its excellence in 304 major league games over parts of four seasons. He was demoted midseason last year, scrapped a new batting stance and returned in late July, after which he was among the better hitters in baseball despite tearing the UCL in his thumb late in the year.
And he picked up where he left off in reaching base three times in five plate appearances, crushing a single into right and smoking the homer to left in the sixth inning, going back-to-back with Carson Benge.
On a promising day from nearly the entirety of the Mets lineup — which fought through long at-bats, forced Pittsburgh pitching to expend 192 pitches in eight frames and scored 11 runs — the 24-year-old was among the standouts.
“I feel good. I feel really good,” Alvarez said about his swing. “I’ve been able to do my job in the cage, work on it and work on what I want and really maintain the mechanics of just staying strong and consistent.”
For all the good in Alvarez’s bat, it is possible his brain provided his greatest impact on the game.
In the top of a third inning of a contest the Mets were leading 5-2, Freddy Peralta appeared to lose Oneil Cruz to a one-out walk on a full-count fastball. The pitch, Alvarez acknowledges, was a difficult one for home-plate umpire Adrian Johnson to judge.
“I called for a fastball away, and Freddy missed up and in,” said Alvarez, who had to jerk his glove from the outside of the zone to the inside. “So it’s hard for the umpire to be able to see that.”
It was less hard for Alvarez to judge the pitch. He touched his catcher’s mask and signaled for the Mets’ first Automated Ball-Strike challenge.
“I felt pretty confident about it,” said Alvarez, who watched as replay showed the pitch buzzed the inside of the plate and thus Cruz had struck out rather than walked.
The decision to challenge effectively saved the Mets a run, as two pitches later Peralta served up a solo shot — and not a two-run shot — to Brandon Lowe.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Dylan Holloway scored with 3 seconds left in overtime to lift the St. Louis Blues to a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.
Dalibor Dvorsky also scored for the Blues, who won their third straight. Joel Hofer made 24 saves.
Alexander Wennberg had the lone goal for the Sharks, who have dropped six in a row (0-5-1). Yaroslav Askarov made 11 saves before leaving with an injury and was replaced by Alex Nedeljkovic.
With the game tied at 1, the Sharks tried to win it when Macklin Celebrini passed to Dmitry Orlov, whose wrist shot went wide. Phillip Broberg got the rebound and sent a long pass down the left side to a streaking Holloway, who caught up with the puck, skated in front of the net and put a backhander past Nedeljkovic for the win.
Dvorsky gave the Blues a 1-0 lead in the second period off assists from Holloway and Jimmy Snuggerud.
Wennberg tied it for the Sharks with a wrister 5:04 into the third.
Sharks: Play at Columbus on Saturday night.
Blues: Host Toronto on Saturday night.
—
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Aaron Blank had an inkling he might catch a home run at Dodger Stadium on Thursday.
After all, the guy specifically moved his season tickets to center field this offseason to chase prized souvenirs.
And, sure enough, in the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ season opener against the Diamondbacks, an Andy Pages blast found its way right into his mitt.
Andy Pages gives the @Dodgers the lead with a 3-run shot! pic.twitter.com/E2litXlFw1
— MLB (@MLB) March 27, 2026
Blank snared the go-ahead, three-run shot — the first home run of the Dodgers’ 2026 season — and told The California Post minutes later that the moment was specifically why he wanted to sit in that part of the ballpark this year.
“We sat by the foul pole in home run territory last year, the whole season,” Blank said. “And we moved. This is our first game sitting here. We moved our seats here because we wanted to catch home run balls.”
“It’s amazing,” he added.
Blank said he’s only caught one other homer in his life, and that came some three years ago while he was in the crowd for the MLB’s Home Run Derby in Seattle.
His latest memento clearly felt a little sweeter for the man who was clad in a Dodgers jersey and LA hat.
“It is the first home run ball of the year for the champions,” he said. “So, you never know. It could be valuable.”
That said, Blank told The Post if Pages or the Dodgers’ want it back, he’s open to talks.
“If the Dodgers approach me,” he said, “I’m game.”
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LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers offense proved too much to handle, putting up a pair of four-run innings to overwhelm the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-2 on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers have won 16 times in their last 19 opening days, including the last five in a row.
Arizona starter Zac Gallen was cruising along nicely enough, allowing just a single and walk through four innings, and no Dodger reached scoring position. But the first five batters of the fifth inning reached against him, ending Gallen’s night.
In last year’s home opener, the Dodgers trailed by two runs in the fifth inning when Teoscar Hernández gave them the lead with a three-run home run. This year, Hernández reached on an infield single and was one of two who got a free ride home thanks to another outfielder — Andy Pages’ three-run shot brought home the Dodgers’ first three runs of the season, and gave them their first lead.
Will Smith reached on a cue shot just behind first base, just out of the reach of Carlos Santana, to extend the fifth and bring home a fourth run charged to Gallen’s ledger.
Smith also hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning, another four-run frame that also saw Kyle Tucker’s first hit as a Dodger, a ringing double that brought home Shohei Ohtani.
First time through the batting order, the Dodgers only had a single and a walk. The rest of the way, 14 of 31 batters reached base, including three extra-base hits. On the night, eight of nine Dodgers batters had a hit and scored a run. Only Freddie Freeman, who walked and was 0-for-4, was left wanting.
“When you face a lineup like ours, it certainly has to be taxing when you’re facing our guys, when you feel like you have to keep executing and executing,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s tough mentally, and as long as we can stay tough mentally like we were tonight, we should have opportunities to put up big numbers.”
For the third Dodgers game in a row Yoshinobu Yamamoto earned the win, this time with another quality start. His only runs allowed came in the fourth inning when Geraldo Perdomo blasted an 0-2 middle-middle fastball into the right field pavilion for a two-run home run to open the scoring.
Yamamoto settled down after that, retiring his next nine batters, including four by strikeout, to finish six innings, just as he did in 22 of his 35 starts last season.
On the night, Yamamoto struck out six and walked none. He threw his splitter the most often, and got eight swinging strikes on the pitch, of his 16 total whiffs in the game.
Yamamoto left with a 4-2 lead, and Blake Treinen worked around a single to pitch a scoreless seventh inning in what was still a close game. Will Klein, after making his first opening day roster, pitched a perfect eighth before Tanner Scott got the ninth to finish off the win.
Home runs: Andy Pages (1), Will Smith (1); Geraldo Perdomo (1)
WP — Yoshinobu Yamamoto (1-0): 6 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 6 strikeouts
LP — Zac Gallen (0-1): 4+ IP, 5 hits, 4 runs, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts
Another day, another pregame ceremony for the Dodgers, who get their 2025 championship rings on Friday night before the middle game against the Diamondbacks (7:10 p.m.; SportsNet LA, MLB Network). Emmet Sheehan starts on the mound, with Ryne Nelson pitching for Arizona. The ring ceremony begins at 6:20 p.m. and will be televised by SportsNet LA.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nico Hischier scored two goals to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 4-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night.
Jesper Bratt scored a goal and added two assists, Timo Meier scored an empty-net goal, and Jacob Markstrom made 16 saves for the Devils, winners of five of six. Jack Hughes and Jonas Siegenthaler had two assists apiece.
Reid Schaefer and Steven Stamkos scored and Justus Annunen made 26 saves for the Predators, who had their five-game winning streak snapped.
Nashville entered Thursday three points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for the Western Conference’s second wild card berth.
With time winding down in the third and the Devils on a power play, Hughes’ shot from the left side tipped off Hischier and past Annunen at 14:07.
Bratt scored the game’s first goal with 1:58 remaining in the opening period.
Siegenthaler faked a shot from the high slot and slid a pass to Jack Hughes in the right circle, where his one-timer deflected off Bratt.
Hughes has a seven-game point-scoring streak.
Bratt has scored in a career-high five straight and has 19 goals on the season.
Hischier made it 2-0 at 9:13 of the second when Bratt’s wrist shot from the left side tipped off Hischier and snuck past Annunen on the near post.
Schaefer halved New Jersey’s lead less than two minutes later on a breakaway, slipping a wrist shot between Markstrom’s pads.
Stamkos made it 2-2 with 7 remaining in the second on a backhand from just outside the crease, his 36th goals of the season.
Nashville’s Matthew Wood hit the left post with 1:45 left in a bid to tie the game.
Devils visit the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.
Predators host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
Cinderella wears a 9-seed’s uniform. Specifically, it’s a black jersey trimmed in gold.
Iowa, the slipper is yours. You wear it well.
You say a Big Ten team can’t be Cinderella, I say we might need to broaden our horizons a smidge when Iowa advances into the Elite Eight for the first time in 39 years.
By beating No. 4 Nebraska, the Hawkeyes became just the ninth 9-seed ever to reach the Elite Eight.
“Cinderella, whatever they want to call us,” Iowa coach Ben McCollum said. “We’re in the Elite Eight — that’s what they need to call us.”
And, so, Iowa becomes the highest seed left standing.
This isn’t akin to Saint Peter’s slaying giants or Kent State to the Elite Eight or George Mason’s Final Four run, but inside this chalky tournament, Iowa swiftly became the tournament’s top underdog tale, thanks to two guys who were tucked away at Division II Northwest Missouri State as of two years ago.
Luther Vandross will be singing about Bennett Stirtz and McCollum in two weeks.
“That’s my guy,” Stirtz said.
He was talking about McCollum, not Vandross.
Stirtz is McCollum's guy, too. Stirtz followed his coach from Northwest Missouri State to Drake to Iowa to the Elite Eight.
Stirtz swiftly became Iowa’s guy, its heartbeat, its big-bucket maker, and he went for 20 points and four assists in this 77-71 takedown of Nebraska.
Stirtz and McCollum are masters of March. A year ago while both were at Drake, they introduced themselves to the national stage with a first-round upset of Missouri. After Drake exited the tournament, McCollum hit the coaches’ transfer portal, and Stirtz was at his heels — off to Iowa.
Too bad for Indiana. The blue-blooded Hoosiers needed to snap up McCollum when IU was hiring last year. Instead, Iowa got him. A lifelong Midwesterner born in Iowa City, McCollum perfectly suits the Hawkeyes.
Fran McCaffery, go ahead and enjoy the. Ivy league. McCollum and Stirtz got this covered.
The Hawkeyes never led in this game until Stirtz drilled a 3-pointer with just more two minutes remaining. The next time down the court, teammate Tate Sage drilled a triple.
Nebraska extinguished.
Like the Cinderellas that came before them, the Hawkeyes made their hay from a land where the buckets are worth three points, not two.
Thirteen 3s, Iowa drilled, against one of the nation’s best defensive teams.
Out in Lincoln, you can bet your cornstalk they had the pyrotechnics ready, too. Earlier in this tournament, Huskers fans blasted fireworks in celebration of a program that hadn’t had much to celebrate in its entire history, before a slick-shooting barrage carried Nebraska into the Sweet 16.
The Huskers got hot against Troy, stayed hot against Vanderbilt, and kept cooking in the first half against Iowa.
And what did Nebraska do when its first five attempts from 3-point range after halftime missed the mark? It fired two more. Pryce Sandfort, then Braden Frager, bang, bang. Huskers back in front, for a spell.
Nebraska made 36 3-pointers in three tournament games, and Vandross will sing of Sandfort, too, and his “One Shining Moment,” right after he’s through with Stirtz.
Three years ago, Sandfort was Mr. Basketball in Iowa. He previously played for the Hawkeyes. Then, Sandfort transferred and became Mr. Husker. He scored 25 points against Iowa. Sandfort just needed more help from his teammates, just as Stirtz got 38 points from Iowa’s bench.
If you think the Hawkeyes are done here, well, ask Florida for a second opinion. Iowa sent the defending national champions packing just last week, part of an improbable uprising from a Hawkeyes squad that had stalled for a month heading into this tournament. Evidently, McCollum and Stirtz were saving their heroics.
Together, they gave an upset-starved tournament its first hint of a Cinderella story.
Or, as McCollum put it, maybe the committee “should have seeded us better.”
Oh, my! A cheeky one.
“Nah, I'm just kidding,” McCollum said. “They seeded us right where we should."
Indeed, the committee did. An underdog’s seed suited Iowa.
Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ben McCollum, Bennett Stirtz make Iowa a March Madness underdog tale
Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez was punished for hitting this ball too hard.
During the first inning of Houston’s 3-0 loss to the Angels on Thursday, Alvarez smoked a ball to right field that surely appeared to be a home run off the bat.
Since the ball was hit so high, however, it struck the scaffolding below the roof at Daikin Park before ricocheting and falling into the stands to the right of the foul pole.
The Daikin Park roof took a potential home run away from Yordan Alvarez pic.twitter.com/9ECK49DFK1
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 26, 2026
Home plate umpire Chris Conroy initially ruled it a foul ball, with the call standing after it was sent for review.
“The roof here closed is covered by universal ground rules, which are when the ball strikes the roof over fair territory, it remains live,” Conroy later explained, according to the Houston Chronicle. “And then it’s basically wherever it strikes the ground after that is what the call is going to be.
“So the ball initially struck the roof over fair territory, so it was live. But then it caromed into the stands prior to the foul pole. So that made it a foul ball.”
Similar ground rules have been put in place for domed and retractable roof stadiums, but rarely are balls like Alvarez’s — which had an exit velocity of 108.9 miles per hour, according to Baseball Savant — ever caught up in the exposed scaffolding.
“That’s probably the second ball I’ve ever seen hit that part of the roof,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He crushed that ball. That ball would have landed upper deck.”
Espada added that the umpires did make the right call, but insisted that, if not for the roof, it would have been a home run.
“Definitely that ball would have been a homer,” he added. “But they did get the call right.”
Alvarez said that he was certain his hit would have been out of the ballpark, but wanted to clarify with the umpire if it was a foul ball.
“Yes, 100 percent,” the three-time All-Star told reporters through an interpreter when asked if the ball would have been a home run. “I was just checking to see that it wasn’t a foul ball.
“But later on, we saw that it was foul. So things happened how they meant to happen.”
SAN JOSE, CA — The past four years of Trey Kaufman-Renn’s all led to Thursday, March 26.
Since he arrived on Purdue’s campus in 2022, coach Matt Painter has tried to tell his forward sometimes, it’s not the first shot that’s the most important, it’s the second.
He found out it’s indeed true in the Sweet 16.
Renn came up clutch for No. 2 seed Purdue, getting the game-winning tip-in shot against No. 11 seed Texas to get the Boilermakers in the Elite Eight.
It was the heroics Purdue needed to avoid another March Madness loss to a double-digit seed, and for a moment, it seemed possible. Texas’ Dailyn Swain got a bucket and the foul to tie the score with 11 seconds to go, setting up Purdue for the final shot.
After a timeout, guard Braden Smith brought the ball down and drove to his right for a floater. The play was fully designed for him, meant for him to drive down and get the shot. The only thing was to make sure he didn’t get blocked.
The moment the ball left his hand, he thought that would seal it.
“Honestly, it left the hand, I thought it was in,” Smith said. “I was hopping kind of excitedly.”
But the ball bounced off the rim, suddenly changing his thoughts.
“It took a weird bounce, and it was off,” he added.
TREY KAUFMAN-RENN GAME-WINNER 🚨
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 27, 2026
PURDUE ADVANCES TO THE ELITE 8 🤯 pic.twitter.com/CYj7ltsGXT
It completely altered the mindset of Renn too. The forward thought it was the look his teammate wanted, and figured that would be it. Once he saw the shot go off the rim, then it was time to prepare for the lesson his coach had been trying to tell him.
“I just tried to get myself in position to get a rebound or a post if his defender cut him off,” Renn said.
The ball bounced perfectly for him to get the putback, and at that point, all he thought was he just needed to get his hand on it.
“It's not like it's a shot you practice every single day, although I do practice some crazy shots every day,” he said. “I just tried to get a hand on the ball and give us another chance.”
The last chance Purdue needed. The second-chance bucket sent the Boilermakers crowd of the SAP Center in the arena into a frenzy, elated to see the team advance to the Elite Eight for the second time in three seasons.
Pretty much everyone in black and gold was excited, except for Renn – yet.
“I was kind of nervous,” Renn said. “I was like ‘Man, I got to go back on defense now.’”
Fortunately, Texas’ Jordan Pope was unable to hit the long heave for the miracle win, and as the shot clanked off the timebox, the Boilermakers hounded the game’s savior. It was only at that moment Renn finally felt excited, understanding the lesson his coach had been preaching came to life.
“It's kind of cool to actually experience that,” Renn said.
Purdue’s game-winner highlighted something that helped Purdue stave off Texas in the second chance opportunities, outsourcing the Longhorns 22-12 in the category.
“We're always, like if that clock is low, don't get back on defense. Make sure everybody gets to the glass,” said Painter.
It was going to be a battle on the boards, as both teams entered the night top 20 in the country in rebound margin.
The final result? Texas 31 rebounds, Purdue 32 – with the last one being the difference in surviving and advancing.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inside Purdue's game-winning play to advance to Elite 8
Los Angeles (47-26) is back home, where they will play their next three games, starting with the Brooklyn Nets (17-55) on Friday.
The Lakers looks to win their second straight game and sweep the season series against Brooklyn.
Who: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Brooklyn Nets
When: 7:30 p.m. PT, Mar 27
Where: Crypto.com Arena
Watch: Spectrum Sportsnet
The Lakers just concluded their best road trip of the season, given the stakes involved. Not only did they win five out of six games, but they defeated the Rockets — who were lurking below them in the Western Conference standings — twice, and their only loss came down to one possession against the Pistons.
The purple and gold’s performance has been commendable, and that’s why they’re sitting nicely as the third seed in the Western Conference. Now, they’re home with the opportunity to build another winning streak.
It’ll also help that the Lakers have two days of rest after Friday’s matchup against the Nets.
And speaking of the Nets, they come into Crypto.com Arena as losers of their last nine games. They’re statistically the second-worst team in the league, and only the Pacers, who the Lakers just defeated, are worse than them.
Brooklyn has shut down its best player, Michael Porter Jr., so they’re pretty much in tank mode right now. That’s why there’s really no excuse for the Lakers to lose this one.
The Lakers can win their second straight game if they simply keep up what they’ve been doing. It’ll obviously be nice to see Luka Dončić play, but he is currently listed as questionable.
The last time the Lakers played against the Nets, they dominated on the road. That was one of those rare games where none of the big three played more than 30 minutes.
Despite Brooklyn struggling, Los Angeles should still take note of Ziaire Williams, Nic Claxton and Jalen Wilson, who are leading the offense now. The Lakers should capitalize on the Nets’ lack of firepower and their inability to score.
As long as the Lakers approach this one the right way and play their usual game, then it should be a win for them.
You can follow Nicole on Twitter at @nicoleganglani.
SAN DIEGO — Opening Day here is supposed to feel like hope and possibility.
Beneath a beautiful Southern California sun reflecting off the brick Western Metal Supply Co. building at Petco Park, there was plenty of promise for the Padres. The first of 162 games, a chance to hit the reset button after back-to-back early playoff exits.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, what showed up in brown and yellow on Thursday wasn’t a World Series contender shaking off October scars, it was a team that looked eerily similar to the one that walked off Wrigley Field last fall.
Padres ace Nick Pivetta lost the opener of that NL wild-card series against the Cubs as well, and his Opening Day start this season went even worse.
Pivetta, the supposed anchor of this rotation after a breakout season, unraveled almost immediately. Three walks in the first inning. Four runs before the Padres could even exhale. When he was pulled in the third without recording an out, the game — and maybe the tone of the early season — had already been decided.
“I was disconnected and out of rhythm,” Pivetta said. “I didn’t make pitches when I needed to, and it snowballed on me.”
Snowballed is a polite way to put it.
This was an avalanche, and it came from the Captain and the Kid. A veteran pitcher with two Cy Young Awards to his name, and a 21-year-old rookie making his MLB debut.
Tarik Skubal and Kevin McGonigle.
And if baseball handed out captain’s patches the way hockey does, Skubal wouldn’t just wear the “C” —he’d define it.
That’s what this was. A masterclass in control paired with a coming-of-age moment that felt almost unfair to witness from the opposing dugout.
Skubal didn’t just pitch. He carved up the Padres like a surgeon on the operating table.
Six innings. Three hits. No walks. Six strikeouts. One unearned run that barely registers as a blemish. He moved through the Padres’ lineup like a man flipping through pages he’s already memorized. Every pitch had intention. Every sequence had consequence. There was no panic, no wasted motion, no doubt about what the eventual outcome would be.
This is what dominance looks like when it’s fully realized.
“He’s the best in the game, and he’s coming aggressive,” said Ramon Laureano, who hit a solo home run. “They have a really good team with good pitching. It’s not going to be easy.”
That might be the most honest sentence spoken inside that clubhouse all day.
Because on the other side of the Captain was the Kid, something far more chaotic yet somehow just as dangerous.
McGonigle is 21 years old. Barely old enough to legally toast his own debut. And yet, on the first pitch of his MLB career, he didn’t blink. He didn’t ease in. He didn’t “get his feet wet.”
He detonated.
A two-run double down the right field line off Pivetta. It cracked the game open before most fans had settled into their seats. It wasn’t just a hit — it was a declaration.
Welcome to the show? No.
This was a takeover.
McGonigle finished 4 for 5 with two RBI and two runs, looking less like a kid and more like a problem that’s about to linger in the American League for a long time. There’s a certain audacity to greatness when it arrives early, when it skips the awkward phase entirely and walks straight into relevance. He played like he’d already been here for years.
And the Padres? They looked like they hadn’t.
Because while Detroit arrived with clarity — an ace who knows exactly who he is and a rookie fearless enough to swing like it — the Padres arrived with more questions than answers. The same ones that haunted them through back-to-back postseason disappointments. The same ones that lingered after falling to the Dodgers in 2024 and getting bounced by the Cubs in 2025.
Because the Padres didn’t just lose 8-2. They were exposed.
Exposed as a team still searching for its edge. Exposed as a lineup that can be carved up by elite pitching. Exposed as a roster that, despite its talent, still hasn’t figured out how to respond when the moment tightens instead of loosens.
Opening Day is supposed to be about hope. About rewriting the narrative from the year prior.
Instead, San Diego got a reminder that narratives don’t change just because the calendar does.
They change when you force them to change.
And on Thursday, it wasn’t the Padres doing the forcing. It was Skubal, calmly dictating terms like a veteran captain steering through open water. It was McGonigle, swinging like the future doesn’t wait its turn.
The Captain and the Kid didn’t just spoil Opening Day.
They revealed exactly how far the Padres still have to go.
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