Category: Sports News

The Houston Astros (2-2) host the Boston Red Sox (1-2) at Daikin Park in the second series of the season.

RHP Lance McCullers Jr. will make his first start of the season tonight for the Astros opposite LHP Ranger Suarez, who’s debuting for the Red Sox after signing with the club in the offseason.

ABOUT MCCULLERS: RHP Lance McCullers Jr. is making his season debut tonight in a start against the Red Sox, a team he has not faced since the 2018 season.

McCullers last pitched in an exhibition game on March 24 vs. the Astros Triple A affiliate, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, tossing 4.2 innings, allowing two runs, while striking out seven.

He made his return to the mound in 2025 after missing the entire 2023-24 seasons due to a right flexor tendon injury that required surgery. He worked around four IL stints in 2025 to go 2-5 with a 6.51 ERA (40ER/55.1IP) and 9.92 SO/9IP in 16 games (13 starts).

ASTROS VS. SUAREZ: The Astros are facing LHP Ranger Suarez, who they last faced on June 24, 2025.

That game was a memorable one, as Suarez dueled with LHP Framber Valdez through 7.0 innings. In a scoreless game in the 8th, LF Cooper Hummel took Suarez deep which eventually gave the Astros a 1-0 victory over the Phillies.

RIVALRY VS. THE RED SOX: The Astros and Red Sox have developed a nice rivalry over the last 10 years, as the two clubs have seen each other in three different postseason series since the 2017 season. The Astros won two of those three series, winning the 2017 ALDS and 2021 ALCS, while the Red Sox took the 2018 ALCS.

ROSTER MOVES: After last night’s game, the Astros optioned RHP Christian Roa to Triple A Sugar Land. In corresponding moves, the Astros selected RHP Cody Bolton (#67) to the Major League roster today and transferred RHP Hayden Wesneski to the 60-day IL.

CITY CONNECT MONDAY: The Astros will wear their City Connect uniforms tonight for the first time on the young season as they welcome in the Red Sox for the first game of a three-game series.

YORDAN’S UPCOMING MILESTONES:LF Yordan Alvarez (495 RBI) is five RBI shy of reaching 500 career RBI, a mark only 14 players in franchise history have reached. Alvarez also checks in with 171 career homers, which makes him just three homers shy of matching franchise icon OF George Springer (174HR) for seventh on the Astros all-time list.

OUT ON REHAB: RHP Enyel De Los Santos made his second rehab appearance for Triple A Sugar Land yesterday, tossing 1.1 scoreless innings on 19 pitches en route to recording the win. De Los Santos is recovering from a right knee strain, which landed him on the 15-day IL to open the season.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Monday, March 30, 7:10 p.m. CST

Location: Daikin Park, Houston, TX

TV: Space City Home Network

Streaming: SCHN+

Radio: KBME 790 AM & 94.5 FM HD2; TUDN 102.9 FM HD2 (Spanish)

After a very positive 2-1 start to the 2026 season, the St. Louis Cardinals first homestand of the season continues Monday night as they’ll host the New York Mets. According to MLB.com, Kyle Leahy will start for the Cardinals while Clay Holmes will take the mound for the Mets.

Bo Bichette was open and honest with the media on Sunday. 

The Mets’ new third baseman took complete ownership of his early-season struggles after putting together another hitless effort in a extra-inning loss to the Pirates to close out the series.

Bichette looked nothing like himself during the opening weekend set, picking up just one hit while striking out eight times and squandering numerous opportunity with men on-base across his first 14 at-bats. 

He admitted he found himself trying too much to have a moment early on for his new club and fanbase, but it ultimately led to receiving some boos from the hometown crowd. 

Bichette wasn’t surprised, if anything he thought it took too long.

“I get it,” he said. “I thought the at-bats were terrible, too.” 

Fair or not, Bichette handled things about as perfectly as he could’ve. 

Though they haven’t been together for too long, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza certainly wasn’t surprised to see how the 28-year-old went about things. 

“He’s a total pro,” the skipper said. “This is a guy that grew up in the game. He understands the meaning of every pitch, every at-bat, every game -- he understands the big stage. 

“When he signed here, he knew right away what he was signed up for and he was like I love it, I can’t wait. This was way back to the days of the press conference, and then watching him yesterday handle the whole situation, I wasn’t surprised — he’s just a total pro.”

Being that it’s just three games, Mendoza isn’t concerned about Bichette yet. 

The two-time All-Star slugger was a career .294 hitter during his seven years in Toronto, and he was particularly brought in to help provide a boost with runner in scoring position. 

Bichette will look to find his groove during the Mets’ seven-game roadtrip, which kicks off Monday night against Cardinals right-hander Kyle Leahy. 

Go Rays and also singles!

On a surprisingly newsy Monday for the Milwaukee Brewers, we have a baseball game to play as the Brewers look to keep their winning streak to begin the season going as they welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to town.

Making his first start for the Brewers will be left-hander Kyle Harrison. The Brewers acquired him from the Red Sox along with David Hamilton and Shane Drohan right before spring training started.

“What impresses me is that [Harrison]’s capable. He’s done it before. He’s very capable of getting right-handed hitters out as well as lefties, and his stuff is, at times, very good. He’s got to learn to mature and become a major league starter. This is the land of opportunity. You know, we give those young people the chance, we bet on those young people, we put them through the car wash, and usually after [Chris] Hooky and [Jim] Henderson get their hands on them, they come out better,” manager Pat Murphy said.

As far as the lineup goes for the Brewers, Joey Ortiz gets a day off today against Nick Martinez, and David Hamilton is in there at shortstop. That’s certainly conspicuous considering news broke today that the Brewers signed shortstop prospect Cooper Pratt to an eight-year extension. Still, Pratt is not here, and neither is Luis Matos, who was acquired earlier on Monday. Matos is expected to arrive in Milwaukee tomorrow.

Brice Turang, William Contreras, and Christian Yelich fill out the top of the order; that’s pretty standard. Luis Rengifo is batting cleanup tonight, which is interesting. Then it’s a trio of lefties with Jake Bauers, Sal Frelick, and Garrett Mitchell. Hamilton and Brandon Lockridge round out the bottom of the order.

First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. and, as usual, this one will be on Brewers TV and 620 WTMJ, along with the rest of the Brewers Radio Network.

The MiLB season got underway last week, the Yankees’ Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, kicking off their season in Buffalo. The rest of the team’s full-season affiliates will get started this week, and with the season about to start, the Yankees announced the rosters for the Double-A Somerset Patriots, the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades, and the Low-A Tampa Tarpons.

Here’s the full roster for Somerset:

The Patriots will be one of the most interesting Yankee affiliates to follow this year, at least at the beginning of the season. All eyes will be on the club’s consensus top prospect, shortstop George Lombard Jr., who starts the season in Somerset but surely with hopes of quickly climbing the ladder this summer. Lombard scorched High-A last year to the tune of a .329/.495/.488 slash line in 24 games, before hitting .215/.337/.358 in Double-A.

Lombard is the headliner, though there’s intrigue elsewhere on the roster, particularly on the pitching staff. Ben Hess, the Yankees’ first-round pick in 2024, is the highest-upside arm here, having posted a 3.22 ERA across two levels last year. Lefty Kyle Carr also merits a mention, his 2.64 ERA between Hudson Valley and Somerset among the best marks in the system in 2025. Chase Hampton, the team’s top pitching prospect two years ago before undergoing Tommy John surgery, will be worth watching here too as he tries to rebuild his stock post-injury.

Now on to Hudson Valley:

There’s probably more to watch on the position-player side here than on the pitching staff. Core Jackson and Kaeden Kent form a nice infield combo to keep an eye on, ranked back-to-back at #12 and #13, respectively, on MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Yankees prospects list. Outfielder Wilson Rodriguez, a 17th-round pick in 2023, is also a name to watch. Bryce Cunningham, the team’s 2024 second-rounder, isn’t listed here after getting a slow ramp-up in spring training, but likely will start his season with Hudson Valley and will look to move up from there.

And now a look at Tampa:

Henry Lalane is the biggest player listed here, literally and figuratively; if you’re looking for someone to take a Carlos Lagrange-esque jump in the Yankee system this year, you could do worse than the 6-foot-6 lefty. Otherwize, there isn’t too much to get super excited about here, at least not yet, with pitcher Allen Facundo the only other player ranked in MLB Pipeline’s Top 30. That said, 2025 top pick Dax Kilby, who announced himself with a stellar run in short-season ball last year, will likely head to Tampa once he gets over the hamstring issue that plagued him in spring training and forced him to miss the Spring Breakout.

I did NOT have that on my bingo card.

In the game preview for today’s home opener, I wrote that the unusually warm March weather, pushed-in fences, and fly-ball prone Twins pitcher could result in a little fun for the fans. I did not expect that fun to come from Kyle Isbel and Isaac Collins. (Maybe it was just the wind, it was a windy day, but … I don’t care).

The 2025 much-maligned outfield needs to improve this year, and if this keeps up, it’ll do just fine. After a Jonathan India single to lead off the bottom of the second, Isbel came to the plate with two outs. Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson gave him a hanging slider that stayed up just enough for Isbel to get it at the bottom of the zone. He knocked it into the right field bullpen for the first Royals homer of the year at the new K. He did not, however, need the new fences to hit that homer. At least according to the booth.

The Royals offense was pretty quiet until the seventh inning, when Collins came up to bat with one out and nobody on. He got a changeup inside and managed to turn on it and deposit it into the left field bullpen off the State Farm sign. Readers, he ALSO did not need the new fences for that ball to be gone. How about that for his first hit as a Royal?

These guys combined for 13 home runs last year. Isbel with four, Collins with nine. How cool would it be if they found a little power? I won’t hold my breath or anything but this is the time of the year to *dream*.

The starter, Kris Bubic, labored a bit through the early innings. He gave up a big homer to Twins bopper Matt Wallner, who also did not need the new fences for that ball to be gone. However, Bubic gave up only one other hit, which allowed him to limit the damage of the three walks he issued. He got *very* short innings in the fourth and fifth innings, throwing only 13 pitches combined. That allowed him to keep a low pitch count and finish out the sixth inning.

Bubic’s line – 6 IP, 2 hits, 1 run, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HR.

Daniel Lynch IV, Nick Mears, and John Schreiber combined for three relatively easy innings to close out the win. Mears managed to induce one of the easiest double plays I have ever seen on a weak liner up the middle that Bobby Witt Jr was perfectly positioned to field. He just stepped on second himself and threw to first for the double play. There was some debate over whether or not to have Schreiber, a righty, pitch to Wallner, a lefty. They decided to proceed, and Schreiber got an easy grounder to India to end the game.

Fun note – Maikel Garcia challenged using ABS and turned a 2-2 count into 3-1. He got a hittable pitch and smoked it for a double. Too bad Bobby Witt Jr lined out for a double play right after. The Royals seem to have a good sense of when to challenge using ABS. Something to keep an eye on.

The Royals move to 2-2 in this nascent season. They have an off day Tuesday and return to action on Wednesday against the Twins at 6:40pm US Central time.

The second series of the season.

We should be in Hakodate, Japan, when this goes up. It will be Cherry Blossom time when we are there, which, I’m told is a very busy tourist time. I remember a line in a book by Warren Cromartie who went over there to play ball after his playing days in Montreal were over and wrote a book about it. He said that the Japanese had tried their very best to pave every inch of the country (maybe he should have left the cities occasionally).

Cromartie played seven seasons for Yomiuri and showed a lot more power there than he had over here. I really enjoyed the book, but I gave it to someone and it never found it’s way back to me. I ought to download it before we go.

Go Jays Go.

[Tom M]: Here are the lineups:

After showing some good life in games two and three against the Orioles, the bats fell silent once again with left-handed Kris Bubic on the mound. For seemingly the 10th season in a row, the Twins simply can’t manage to string together any offense left-handed starting pitchers.

The Twins had some early traffic with a hit by Austin Martin who was then immediately picked off, continuing Martin’s trend of showing good flashes immediately by a boneheaded mistake that makes you question how long he’s been playing baseball. Luke Keaschall also walked in the inning but didn’t manage to score.

The Twins’ lone run came off the bat of Matt Wallner, who stroked his first dong of the season in the second inning. With the obvious small sample caveat, he’s looked much more in control against left-handers so far this year, with the homer today adding to his two walks he took against Trevor Rogers in the opener. 

From that point on, the Twins only managed two hits for the next seven innings, with the latter of those coming with two outs in the ninth. Needless to say, the offense did not do their part today.

Things were better on the pitching front. Simeon Woods Richardson gave up some hard contact but was able to limit the damage, as he typically does. His new splitter looked particularly strong, keeping the Royals sluggers off balance for most of the day. SWR’s only real “mistake” came on a 2-1 slider to nine-hole hitter Kyle Isbel, and even that was a pretty good pitch that Isbel just got the better of. 

Kody Funderburk allowed a solo homer himself to the Royals’ eighth hitter, Minnesota native Isaac Collins, but otherwise the entire pitching staff did enough to win this game. 

There’s still some positives here. Bubic was an All-Star last year and is one of the nastier pitchers in the game when healthy and the Twins still managed to get a lot of hard contact on him that found gloves. Brooks Lee and Ryan Jeffers in particular were seeing the ball well. Obviously you need the results to follow, but this was a much better showing that the Trevor Rogers game last week when the Twins simply withered away. 

The Twins are off tomorrow, but will be facing lefties again Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. They’re also lined up to face both two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal and two-time All-Star Framber Valdez next week. This lineup will need to figure out how to hit southpaws quickly or else they’ll be pretty far back in the standings less than two weeks into the season.

STUDS

• Austin Martin at the plate: 1-1, 2 BB
• Matt Wallner: lefty v lefty dong to briefly give me life

DUDS

• Austin Martin on the bases: caught stealing twice
• The entire lineup except for Martin and Wallner: 2-24, 1 BB

Mets lineup

1. Francisco Lindor – SS
2. Juan Soto – LF
3. Bo Bichette – 3B
4. Jorge Polanco – DH
5. Brett Baty – RF
6. Jared Young – 1B
7. Marcus Semien – 2B
8. Carson Benge – CF
9. Francisco Alvarez – C

SP: Clay Holmes – RHP

Cardinals lineup

1. JJ Wetherholt – 2B
2. Ivan Herrera – DH
3. Alec Burleson – 1B
4. Masyn Winn – SS
5. Nolan Gorman – 3B
6. Jordan Walker – RF
7. Nathan Church – LF
8. Pedro Pages – C
9. Victor Scott – CF

SP: Kyle Leahy – RHP

Broadcast info

First pitch: 7:45pm EDT
TV: SNY
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2