Before the second game of the series against the San Francisco Giants, the Padres made a series of roster changes. Second baseman Jake Cronenworth went to the seven-day injured list with concussion symptoms and infielder Sung-Mun Song was recalled from Triple-A El Paso.
Cronenworth was hit on the jaw by a pitch in the series against the Angels on April 18, but has not sustained any other head blows, so it is unclear when this injury occurred. Song has been in El Paso since the start of the season after sustaining an oblique injury at his home in Korea before Spring Training began. He aggravated the injury during the spring and was optioned to El Paso when his rehab window expired.
Song has hit well in El Paso with a .293/.364/.354 line but has struggled to slug and has a zero-barrel rate in his at-bats. He just hit his first home run on Sunday with an exit velocity of 94.6 mph. He has three doubles and 15 RBI as well. He was briefly on the roster as the 27th man during the Padres’ trip to Mexico City and debuted as a pinch-runner in that series.
Song worked as a shortstop, second baseman, and third baseman during his time with the Chihuahuas.
The Padres also activated lefty reliever Yuki Matsui from the injured list and optioned lefty reliever Kyle Hart to Triple-A El Paso. Matsui has reached the end of his rehab window after going down with a left groin strain in Spring Training.
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 29: Bubba Chandler #36 of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches in the first inning during the game against the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park on April 29, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Pirates continue their road trip, traveling out west to face the Diamondbacks in a three-game series at Chase Field in Phoenix.
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Roles are changing within the Vancouver Canucks organization. With Vancouver on the hunt for a new General Manager, and the search seeming to near its end, President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford announced that he will be taking a step back from the organization's "day-to-day" activities once the 2026 NHL Draft concludes.
"I'm going to get away from the day-to-day operations. I'm going to stay with the team as an advisor and an alternate governor," he said in a media availability after the Canucks lost the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery. "As far as the day-to-day operations, we're going to put together a really good staff here going forward. This is something I've thought about anyways for a couple of years, but it's time for me to do that."
This doesn't mean that Rutherford will be stepping away from the organization full-time. In his advisor and alternate governor role, the 77-year-old noted that he will still help advise the main front-office staff.
"I'll help with the transition and with with the new person and new people in different positions and things like that, and but I'll still be part of the organization, and when somebody wants to bounce something off me, I'm happy to do it."
Whether the Canucks opt to hire a new President of Hockey Operations or not is still up in the air. The structure of Vancouver's new management group, according to Rutherford, will be clearer once a new General Manager has been selected.
"We're still working on that with the people that we have an idea that would be good at it, how, exactly, how that structure is, we'll be able to announce that when the when the GM is announced."
Rutherford has been the Canucks' President of Hockey Operations since the 2021-22 season.
May 28, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford addresses reporters during media day before the start of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final at PPG PAINTS Arena. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
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The Winnipeg Jets have fallen to the eighth overall selection at the upcoming 2026 NHL Draft thanks to the results of Tuesday night's NHL Draft Lottery.
The stars didn't quite align for the Jets on Tuesday - or more accurately, the ping pong balls didn't exactly bounce the right way.
Photo by James Carey Lauder
In a process dictated by lawyers, mathematicians, NHL executives, general managers, and both the NHL commissioner and deputy commissioner, Tuesday's pre-draft festivities provided an outcome only a true storyteller could write.
With the Jets finishing the 2025-26 season with the seventh-best odds to land the No. 1 overall selection in this June's draft, it was the rival Toronto Maple Leafs who moved up from the fifth-best odds to land the rights to select the presumed No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna first overall in less than two months' time.
Following the Leafs' jump up the order from fifth, the San Jose Sharks ended up earning the right to select second overall - coming all the way from outside the Top-5, meaning those below pick No. 2 all moved down in the order - including Winnipeg.
The Jets will now have the luxury of selecting eighth overall - the highest ranked selection since the team took Patrik Laine at the No. 2 spot back in 2016. Both Nikolaj Ehlers and Jacob Trouba were selected at No. 9 overall, while current Jets forward Cole Perfetti was selected 10th overall.
The 2026 NHL Draft will go from Buffalo on June 26th and 27th.
HOUSTON, TEXAS - MAY 04: Kyle Tucker #23 of the Los Angeles Dodgers hits a RBI single in the first inning against theHouston Astros at Daikin Park on May 04, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Dodgers conclude their road trip with a daytime start against the Houston Astros on Wednesday at Daikin Park.
This will be the third consecutive daytime getaway day start for Tyler Glasnow, who led the Dodgers in strikeouts (47) and innings (38 2/3) through the end of April. He has a 1.83 ERA and 37-percent strikeout rate in 19 2/3 innings in his three daytime starts this season.
Lance McCullers Jr. starts for Houston. The veteran right-hander has a 6.32 ERA and 4.38 xERA in six starts this season.
The Dodgers are 7-4 in the final game of series this season, including 4-1 in such games on the road.
Triple-A Oklahoma City has been a busy place for Dodgers on the mend for the past few weeks, with rehab assignments piling up over the last few days. Utility man Kiké Hernández is the latest to work his way back with the Comets, starting a rehab assignment on Tuesday night.
Hernández on Tuesday started and played five innings at third base and batted second against the Salt Lake Bees, an Angels affiliate. He doubled and scored among his three at-bats.
Mookie Betts could be on a rehab assignment soon, as he works his way back from an oblique strain.
“Mookie is working on his bat speed. He feels good. I would say he’s going to get out on a rehab soon. Whether it’s this week — he’s supposed to a simulated game, like a live BP on Thursday,” Roberts said Monday, as shown on SportsNet LA. “If he does his live BP on Thursday and comes out okay, then you can sort of figure out where he goes next.”
Betts was injured on April 4 in Washington D.C., and last week on the homestand said doctors initially told him he’d miss six weeks. This Saturday is the five-week mark for Betts, who said he was ahead of schedule but also cautioned that the nature of oblique injuries requires patience.
“It’s just time. There’s no magic formula to this. You can do as much rehab as you want. Obliques just take time, it’s always four to six weeks, no matter however you want to twist it,” Betts said on April 29 at Dodger Stadium. “We’re kind of approaching the four-week mark. Once I get to that point is when we’ll really turn the corner. We’re close, and after that it’s going to get a lot better.”
It was one of the biggest questions ahead of the series.
Who on the Knicks would get the responsibility of guarding the explosive and dynamic Tyrese Maxey?
Josh Hart spent the end of the first round guarding the Hawks’ most dangerous guard, CJ McCollum. OG Anunoby often guards the opponent’s best scorer, regardless of their position. But Maxey’s quickness isn’t a great fit for Hart or Anunoby.
So Mikal Bridges, back as the Knicks point-of-attack defender, got the assignment. When he came out of the game, it was Miles McBride who matched up with Maxey.
Mikal Bridges played a key role in the Knicks’ Game 1 blowout win over the 76ers on May 4, 2026 at the Garden. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
And they both aced the test.
“That was huge,” Josh Hart said after practice Tuesday. “Both of those guys obviously are blessed enough athletically to be able to keep up with them, use their physicality, use their length to their advantage. Maxey obviously is an offense unto himself, being able to break out in transition. He’s tough to guard off those handoffs and ball screens so they did an amazing job on him and just have to continue it.”
Maxey finished with just 13 points on rough 3-for-9 shooting from the field while missing all three 3-pointers he took. None of those three field goals came against Bridges or McBride. He committed four turnovers.
It was his lowest point total since Jan. 26. In the first round against the Celtics, he averaged 26.9 points on 46.4 percent shooting from the field and 41.8 percent shooting from 3-point range.
“I feel like the whole team was just locked in, honestly,” McBride said Tuesday. “Mikal started off on him really well and then I came in, but there were times where other guys were matched up with him, and all of our antennas are up just guarding him as a team.”
It was clear the Knicks placed an emphasis on slowing down Maxey, often having a second defender ready to help Bridges or McBride. They were physical with him — particularly when the 76ers tried to get him going in the pick-and-roll. The only concern was that he was able to get to the free-throw line more than the Knicks would have wanted — he took seven free throws, making all of them.
His usage was also a bit perplexing — there were long stretches where he was not assertive. He didn’t make a field goal until midway through the second quarter. His nine shots were by far the fewest he took so far in the postseason — and fewest in any game since Feb. 3.
Tyrese Maxey and Miles McBride (right) chase a loose ball in the first quarter of the Knicks’ Game 1 win over the 76ers. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
The Knicks expect that to change.
“We know Maxey is going to be more aggressive,” coach Mike Brown said Tuesday. “So we have to be more alert than we were in our last game.”
They also acknowledge they perhaps benefited from a bit of luck.
“He missed some shots, too,” Brown said. “We know his aggression is gonna be at a higher level in Game 2. Like we told all our guys, it’s five guys guarding the basketball, but at the point of attack, we have to be pretty good. The biggest thing with guarding Maxey at the point of attack is, he just moves so well and he can score at all three levels. His quickness, his athleticism for his size is second to none, because he’s able to score from all three levels. So you have to give a multiple effort on every single possession because when he gives it up, you can best bet that he’s gonna get it back at some point on that possession, if not right away.”
The 76ers will certainly have countermoves they try in Game 2 to get Maxey going. Because if he’s as poor as he was in Game 1, they have little chance.
But in Bridges and McBride, the Knicks might have the answers.
Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon continued their rehab assignments on Tuesday night, and neither had their best stuff.
The Yankees hurlers pitched for High-A Hudson Valley and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, respectively, and allowed 10 earned runs combined. Cole had it the toughest as he was taken deep by the second batter he faced. A double and a single later, and Cole found himself down 2-0. The Yankees ace settled down a bit, pitching back-to-back scoreless innings, but the longball would get Cole again in the fourth.
Kyle Lodise led off the inning with a long fly and in the fifth, Cole hit a batter and allowed an RBI double. Cole was pulled after the double, and the reliever gave up a two-run shot, allowing Cole's runner to score.
Cole tossed 69 pitches (49 strikes) across 4.1 innings. He allowed five runs on seven hits (two home runs) while striking out four. Including Tuesday's start, Cole has now allowed 12 runs in 18.2 innings pitched.
Earlier in the day, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Cole was still "a little ways away" from rejoining the team. With how well the rotation is pitching, the Yankees will take their time with Cole.
The opposite is the case with Rodon. As long as the southpaw comes away from Tuesday's start healthy, his next start will be with the Yankees. However, his presumed final rehab start was also tough.
Rodon threw 83 pitches (49 strikes), allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits -- two home runs -- and two walks, and also struck out four batters in Tuesday's start in Triple-A.
Rodon entered the start, pitching well for both High-A and Double-A. In his previous two rehab starts, he allowed one run across 9.2 innings on six hits and one walk while striking out 12 batters.
On Tuesday night, the National Hockey League held its annual Draft Lottery inside the NHL Network studios in Secaucus, New Jersey.
The Florida Panthers entered the event holding the eighth-best chance at winning the lottery and moving up to either the first or second overall selection at next month’s NHL Draft.
While the Panthers did not win either of the draws, two other teams did, meaning two teams were lucky enough to move up in the draft order.
Those teams were the Toronto Maple Leafs, who moved from fifth to first, and the San Jose Sharks, who jumped from ninth to second.
With the Sharks moving up from behind Florida, that bumped the Panthers back one spot, from eighth to ninth.
In their history, the Panthers have only selected ninth overall once. That was in 2002, when Florida selected Czech forward Petr Taticek with the ninth selection.
The pick turned out to be a bust for the Panthers, as Taticek didn’t make his NHL debut until January of 2006 and only played a total of three games for the Panthers before taking his talents overseas the following season.
Now we’ll have to wait and see what Panthers General Manager Bill Zito chooses to do with the pick ahead of the NHL Draft, which is set for June 26 and 27 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.
Next season the Panthers are expected to re-join the top teams in the league competing for the Stanley Cup, and Zito may want to explore flipping the top-10 pick for a player or players who can help the team win now, as opposed to a young prospect still two or three years away from reaching the NHL.
We’ll see how things play out in the coming weeks.
Photo caption: Jun 28, 2023; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; The draft board after round one of the 2023 NHL Draft at Bridgestone Arena. (Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images)
The 2026 NHL Draft Lottery was held on Tuesday evening, an annual event that had become a source of frustration for Detroit Red Wings fans given the staggering number of spots they've fallen back in recent years.
In 2017, they dropped back two spots. That was followed by slipping one spot in 2018 and two more in 2019. But the most egregious and jaw-dropping example came in 2020, when they fell three spots, from first to fourth, despite finishing with the NHL’s worst record by a wide margin before the COVID-19 pandemic paused the season.
Last season, the Red Wings fell back one spot from 12th to 13th.
However, Detroit traded their first-round selection in this year's NHL Draft to the St. Louis Blues along with prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov, a 2026 third-round pick, and defenseman Justin Holl in return for defenseman Justin Faulk.
The pick, which was widely projected to be in the middle of the pack, turned out to be just that. The Blues learned their position they'll be selecting with the pick they received from the Red Wings, and it will be 15th overall.
The Blues, who missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs, also picked up the 11th overall selection based on their finish in the standings this season.
Not only that, but they also hold a third first-round pick—one that originally belonged to the Colorado Avalanche and was acquired in the trade that sent captain Brayden Schenn to the New York Islanders at the trade deadline.
Meanwhile, one of Detroit's top divisional rivals landed the first overall pick - the Toronto Maple Leafs, a club that had made the playoffs nine straight years but finished in 28th place with 78 points this season.
The first 16 selections in the 2026 NHL Draft are as follows:
Toronto Maple Leafs
San Jose Sharks
Vancouver Canucks
Chicago Blackhawks
New York Rangers
Calgary Flames
Seattle Kraken
Winnipeg Jets
Florida Panthers
Nashville Predators
St. Louis Blues
New Jersey Devils
New York Islanders
Columbus Blue Jackets
St. Louis Blues (from Detroit)
Washington Capitals
Following his acquisition by the Red Wings, Faulk skated in 17 games, scoring five goals while adding three assists. He's under contract for one more season with a $6.5 million salary cap hit.
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Atlanta Braves rookie starting pitcher JR Ritchie came up from Triple-A Gwinnett in the International League back in April, and the hope for him was that he had left that league behind for good. Today the IL came for him – but in a positive way, as Ritchie was named the league’s Pitcher of the Month for April.
Ritchie made five starts in Gwinnett, pitching to a 0.99 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and 28 strikeouts over 27.1 innings – though that includes one March start. In April he managed a 0.38 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, and 25 strikeouts in 23.2 innings, which got him the award.
Ritchie has continued to make three starts with the Braves, pitching to a 3.63 ERA and 1.50 WHIP with 13 strikeouts over 17.1 innings to start his big league career. Ritchie has mixed some flashes of brilliance along with some struggles against left-handed hitters, but the Braves first round pick in 2022 has shown why he has earned some rankings on Top 100 Prospect lists.
According to the press release:
“Gwinnett Stripers (Braves) right-hander JR Ritchie went 3-0 with a 0.38 ERA in four starts as he allowed one earned run on 10 hits and 10 walks over 23.2 innings. He led the league in ERA (0.38), average against (.135) and WHIP (0.85). Ritchie was promoted to Atlanta on April 23 and recorded his first Major League win that night in Washington, D.C. Ritchie, 22, was selected by Atlanta in the Competitive Balance Round A (35th overall) of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Bainbridge High School in Bainbridge Island, Washington.”
HOUSTON, TEXAS - MAY 04: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Los Angeles Dodgers hits a two-run single in the third inning against the Houston Astros at Daikin Park on May 04, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Dodgers followed a three-game win streak with a four-game losing streak, and have now won their last two. Will the streakiness continue tonight?
The NHL held its draft lottery on Tuesday night in New Jersey, and the Blues will remain in their two lottery picks when the process started, No. 11 with their pick and No. 15 as a result of getting the Detroit Red Wings' pick from the March 6 trade that sent Justin Faulk to Motown.
The chances were slim, and as process was unveiled for the top overall pick, which went to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were fifth in the process, the Blues moved up from three percent to 6.1 percent but ultimately fell out of the running.
The best the Blues could do with the pick from the Red Wings was move up to No. 5.
The 2026 NHL Draft will be held June 26-27 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.
Coming out of the Olympic break, the Blues had the second-worst record in the NHL, which meant they had the second-best odds at winning the lottery selection, but even the Vancouver Canucks, who finished with the worst record in the league this season and had the best overall odds, slipped down to No. 3, behind the Maple Leafs and San Jose Sharks, who took Macklin Celebrini with the No. 1 pick in 2024.
The Blues also hold the pick of the Colorado Avalanche and that will be determined when the Avalanche are done in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and at this time, looks like it will be at the back end of the first round. That pick came in a trade with the New York Islanders on March 6 for Brayden Schenn.
Blues general manager Doug Armstrong was asked about finishing 17-5-3 in the final 25 games and went from second-worst in the league standings to 11th, where they will currently pick.
"Once the season’s over, you wish you had the high pick," Armstrong said on April 18. "It’s the pain of going through that to get it. I did talk to the players after the trade deadline and I told them, our mandate (was) we’re going to bring up younger players and we’re going to put them in positions that reflect what we want to see them. Theo [Lindstein] came up, he never played an NHL game and he was a top four defenseman. It’s not like we hid him as a seven. [Dalibor] Dvorsky against the other teams’ top players a lot of nights with Robert [Thomas]. [Otto] Stenberg came up, [Logan] Mailloux, what was his ice time pre- and post-Olympics? I said to the players, ‘We have a plan. Your job is to disrupt the plan. You’re professionals. This is how you make your living. I expect you to disrupt our plan, and they did and I give them full marks. Could we have picked (No.) 2 or 3 this year? It would have ... I think there would be less belief in our group. In the players that you have asked about, that you have talked about, there would be a lot less belief in that if we just had rolled over and just got door-matted for the last seven weeks of the season."
What will the Blues do now? They know they have options, including trade their picks in order to try and move up, use them in a NHL trade or simply keep one, two or all and select players they feel can benefit them in the future. Or they could accumulate more picks and move down if there's a benefit to do that. So lots of options.
"We’ll get our list together and the way that I’ve done it in the past is OK, give me lines, blocks of players. Where’s a block? So if there’s a block of four guys and we want to get into that block, then yeah," Armstrong said. "Yes we would, I guess that’s the long answer. We would move up if we can. We’ll also move back if we don’t like what we see. We can use the picks, we can use prospects, we can use players, but every team is the same in that fashion. If there’s somebody there that we believe is in a block outside of our pick and we can acquire him, we’ll give it our best chance. You also have to have someone that wants to move out of that pick too."
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ALBANY, NEW YORK - MARCH 27: Gavin McKenna #72 of the Penn State Nittany Lions skates against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in the first period during the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Regional Championship Semifinal at the MVP Arena on March 27, 2026 in Albany, New York. (Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Stanley Cup Playoffs roll on, but on Tuesday night the league conducted the 2026 NHL Draft lottery with the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the No. 1 pick, and the right to draft either Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg in a class with more parity at the top than originally expected.
McKenna was viewed as the grand prize for much of the 2025-26 season. The rangy left wing already has good height, great playmaking, and a knack for driving the pace from the wing — making him a low-risk top overall pick. At times he’s been compared to Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, though personally, I don’t think he has quite the same ceiling as either phenom. Still, he’s a franchise cornerstone player, and it will be interesting to see whether a team chooses to keep him at his natural LW, or tries to convert him into a center.
The choice at No. 1 will be between McKenna and Sweden’s Ivar Stenberg, who has been racing up the boards as scouts take a deeper look into his run in the SHL. It’s unusual for a true 18-year-old to have any modicum of success in a pro league, but Stenberg more than held his own with his hockey IQ, and a shot volume that routinely made him one of the biggest threats on the ice for Frölunda HC. That pro-readiness is appealing for a team looking for an immediate impact, and his polish could cause him to be the top overall pick.
We’ll take a deeper dive into this year’s class as the draft approaches, but for now here’s a rapid-fire mock draft involving the teams in the lottery for the 2026 NHL Draft.
Pick
Team
Player
Position
Current Team
League
1
Toronto Maple Leafs
Gavin McKenna
LW
Penn State
NCAA
2
San Jose Sharks
Ivar Stenberg
LW/RW
Frölunda HC
SHL
3
Vancouver Canucks
Keaton Verhoeff
D
North Dakota
NCAA
4
Chicago Blackhawks
Chase Reid
D
Soo Greyhounds
OHL
5
New York Rangers
Tynan Lawrence
C
Boston University
NCAA
6
Calgary Flames
Caleb Malhotra
C
Brantford Bulldogs
OHL
7
Seattle Kraken
Viggo Björck
C/RW
Djurgårdens IF
SHL
8
Winnipeg Jets
Ethan Belchetz
LW
Windsor Spitfires
OHL
9
Florida Panthers
Carson Carels
D
Prince George Cougars
WHL
10
Nashville Predators
Daxon Rudolph
D
Prince Albert Raiders
WHL
11
St. Louis Blues
Adam Novotny
LW/RW
Petersborough Petes
OHL
12
New Jersey Devils
Ryan Lin
D
Vancouver Giants
WHL
13
New York Islanders
Mathis Preston
C
Spokane Chiefs
WHL
14
Columbus Blue Jackets
Oliver Suvanto
C
Tappara
Liiga
15
St. Louis Blues (from Detroit)
Albert Smits
D
Jukurit
Liiga
16
Washington Capitals
Xavier Villeneuve
D
Blainville-Boisbriand Armada
QMHL
As a reminder, these were the lottery odds for winning the first draw entering Tuesday night.
Vancouver Canucks — 18.5% Chicago Blackhawks — 13.5% New York Rangers — 11.5% Calgary Flames — 9.5% Toronto Maple Leafs (Top 5 protected to Bruins) — 8.5% Seattle Kraken — 7.5% Winnipeg Jets — 6.5% Florida Panthers — 6.0% San Jose Sharks — 5.0% Nashville Predators — 3.5% St. Louis Blues — 3.0% New Jersey Devils — 2.5% New York Islanders — 2.0% Columbus Blue Jackets — 1.5% St. Louis Blues (from Red Wings) — 0.5% Washington Capitals — 0.5%
Montreal Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov has officially been named a finalist for the 2025-26 Calder Memorial Trophy.
New York Islanders defenseman Matther Schaefer and Anaheim Ducks forward Beckett Sennecke are also finalists for this year's Calder.
When noting that Demidov had a very good rookie season for the Canadiens this campaign, it is easy to understand why he is a finalist for the Calder. The 20-year-old rookie has immediately cemented himself as a legitimate top-six NHL forward and a huge part of the Canadiens' roster because of it.
In 82 games this campaign with the Canadiens, Demidov scored 19 goals and led all NHL rookies with 43 assists and 62 points. With numbers like these, the young forward thrived this campaign for the Habs and should only get better as he continues to gain more experience.