Category: Sports News

Yankees manager Aaron Boone provided updates on a few injured players ahead of Tuesday's series opener against the Rangers...

Ben Rice's progress

The young Yankees slugger is out of the starting lineup for the second consecutive game after getting hit awkwardly with a Max Fried pickoff attempt in Sunday's matchup with the Orioles.

The Yankees skipper was asked what Rice would need to do to be used off the bench, and Boone said the next few hours will determine the first baseman's availability. 

"He hasn’t really started hitting yet," Boone said. "If he starts doing some light hitting and then can ramp it up even more, and do the things he needs to do to get a swing off, then we’ll have a conversation. We’ll see how the next few hours are here."

Rice has been the Yankees' most consistent hitter and their most dangerous bat alongside Aaron Judge. In 33 games, Rice is hitting .342 with an OPS of 1.214 to go along with his 12 home runs and 27 RBI. 

Carlos Rodon's next start 

Rodon is set to make his latest rehab start with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday night. Boone was asked if everything went well in this start, whether the southpaw's next step will be to return to the Yankees, and the manager confirmed that.

Tuesday will be Rodon's third rehab start since offseason elbow surgery. His first start was with High-A Hudson Valley, where he allowed one hit and one walk over 4.1 innings. His second start saw him dominate Double-A with Somerset. Rodon struck out eight batters and allowed one run on five hits across 5.1 innings on April 30.

Aaron Boone says if all goes well with Carlos Rodón's next rehab start, he's expected to make his next start for the Yankees: pic.twitter.com/EBHmKU9cT7

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 5, 2026

Latest on Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole

Boone was also asked about both Stanton and Cole, and where they both were in their separate recoveries.

On Stanton, Boone revealed that the slugger has started to hit in the cage but is still not running as he recovers from a calf strain. Boone did say the calf injury is lingering a "little bit" but they are taking their time with it.  

"It still feels minor, but not ready to push it yet," Boone said.

As for Cole, Boone was asked if the former Cy Young winner was going to make a couple of more starts before returning to the team. The Yankees skipper tempered expectations, saying Cole is "still a little ways away." 

Cole is set to take the mound for High-A Hudson Valley on Tuesday night. The right-hander has made three previous rehab starts between Hudson Valley and Somerset. In those starts, he's allowed a combined seven earned runs across 14.1 innings (4.40 ERA), allowing 11 hits, one walk and striking out 10 batters. 

So, it’s come down to this. With the 2026 Braves’ haven’t-lost-a-series-yet streak on the line, it’s up to Bryce Elder and his teammates to win tonight, and then hopefully win tomorrow as well to keep it rolling.

Elder started off the season in exciting fashion, with three stellar starts and one hiccup. Since then, there hasn’t been much to write home about unless you really enjoy penning missives about his low HR/FB rate. He had a 6/2 K/BB ratio with a dinger given up against the Nationals, then a 2/1 K/BB ratio in seven innings (somehow) against the Phillies, and then a really weird start last time out where he had a 5/3 K/BB ratio and the lowest groundball rate of his career against the Tigers. The Braves lost each of those last two outings.

On the season, Elder has a 46/78/97 line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-). Over those last three starts, it’s 78/88/111. For his career, his line is now 102/104/100. For all the changes he’s made, he’s definitely looked, in aggregate, like the same ol’ Bryce Elder… just with all the benefits that come with a much lower HR/FB rate.

Elder’s mound opponent will be George Kirby, who has had a much better career to date, but has a similar-if-you-squint 2026. Kirby was a bit homer-prone (three dingers) but highly effective in his first four outings (83/92/80), but has been more meh and reliant on not giving up homers in three starts since (66/87/107). Even so, the Mariners have won all three of those outings, and four of his starts in a row overall. This game could very well come down to which hurler the HR/FB gods decide to smile on with greater frequency.

Overall, Kirby is a very good 93/82/84 guy for his career, with over 4 fWAR per 200 innings pitched accumulated so far. He had a couple of 4+ fWAR seasons in 2023 and 2024, and could’ve gotten somewhere around there in 2025 had he not gotten a late start due to some inflammation in his throwing shoulder. He’s probably something like a top 20 arm in MLB, though his strikeout rate is seriously diminished this year, which appears to be related to some issues he’s having getting his four-seamer to carry the way it did previously.

Elder has one career start against the Mariners, which came in Atlanta back when he was Good Start of 2023 Elder: a 6/1 K/BB ratio in six innings. Kirby has two career starts against the Braves: one where he dominated them in 2022 in Seattle, and another where he lasted seven innings but took a loss despite a 6/1 K/BB ratio thanks to a dinger and some other well-struck balls back in 2023.

With Raisel Iglesias back in the fold and everyone in the bullpen theoretically available sans Tyler Kinley, who gave up the game-winning homer last night, the Braves could have an opportunity to shorten the game — provided that Elder, HR/FB, and the bats-versus-Kirby cooperate.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Tuesday, May 5, 9:40 p.m. EDT

Location: T-Mobile Park, Seattle, WA

TV: BravesVision, Gray TV

Streaming: MLB.tv (and Braves.tv if you’re in-market, etc.)

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

Dodgers minor league right-hander Patrick Copen had a strong 2025 season, and started his 2026 season on a heater. On Tuesday, Copen was named Texas League pitcher of the month for April after a strong start for Double-A Tulsa.

Copen had a 0.96 ERA, 2.72 FIP, and 3.69 xFIP in five starts for the Drillers, allowing six runs (three earned) on 14 hits and 14 walks in his 28 innings, with 37 strikeouts during April. He had two different starts allowing no runs on one hit in 6 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts — April 10 at the Springfield Cardinals (not allowing the hit until the seventh inning), and April 23 at the Frisco RoughRiders. He won Texas League pitcher of the week for the latter start, one of two Tulsa pitchers to earn weekly honors in April along with left-hander Luke Fox.

Last season, Copen made 10 starts for High-A Great Lakes before getting promoted to Tulsa to make 17 more starts in Double-A. In all he posted a 3.59 ERA in 27 starts and led all Dodgers minor league pitchers with 152 strikeouts. Copen only allowed two home runs all last season, one in Double-A, and has yet to allow a home run in 2026.

Copen’s numbers have improved in repeating Double-A so far this season:

• 2025 with Tulsa: 17 starts, 4.52 ERA, 3.98 FIP, 23.1-percent K rate, 16-percent BB rate
• 2026 with Tulsa: 5 starts, 0.96 ERA, 2.72 FIP, 33.6-percent K rate, 12.7-percent BB rate

Copen is scheduled to start next on Wednesday afternoon for the Drillers, on the road to face the Arkansas Travelers, a Seattle Mariners affiliate.

The NHL Draft lottery is set to take place tonight, as all eyes will be on the New York Rangers to see if the ping pong balls will be on their side. 

To close out the 2025-26 season, the Rangers finished 30th in the NHL league standings with a 34-39-9 record and 77 points, which means the Blueshirts have the third-best odds to land the first overall pick. 

At the May 5 draft lottery, the Rangers will have a 11.5% chance to get the first pick, 11.2% chance to get the second pick, 7.8% chance to get the third pick, 39.7% chance to get the fourth pick, and 29.8% chance to get the fifth pick. 

“It's exciting because we can potentially add a high-quality player that could potentially be a New York Ranger for a long time,” Mike Sullivan said. “And so from that standpoint, it's really exciting.”

The last time the Rangers drafted in the top five was in 2020 when they selected Alexis Lafrenière with the first overall pick, and in 2019, the Blueshirts selected Kaapo Kakko with the second overall pick. 

“We’re excited it’s in the top five,” Chris Drury said of the Rangers’ 2026 first-round pick. “Will see on May 5 to where it is.”

The Yankees offense is flying in the first three games against Orioles. They scored 27 runs across that trio of contests, tallying 37 hits include eight home runs. The standout performer in the third game was Jasson Domínguez — getting a chance to carve out a spot on the big league roster with Giancarlo Stanton out injured — and he delivered with a home run, a pair of doubles, and three RBI. It is the first of his hits — the double to lead off the sixth — that I want to look at for At-bat of the Week.

We join Jasson leading off the bottom of the sixth. The score is tied at three apiece, home runs by Ben Rice and Aaron Judge cancelled out by some small ball by the Birds in the third and fourth. To this point in the game, Jasson had grounded out twice from the left hand side against righty starter Trey Gibson. However, with the lefty reliever Grant Wolfram entering the game in the fifth, Jasson gets turned around to bat from the right hand side in this situation.

Five out of the six pitches Jasson saw from Gibson were fastballs. This, combined with the scouting report noting his propensity to chase breaking balls below the zone explains why Wolfram starts this AB with a first pitch curveball.

This pitch catches a lot of the zone. However, Jasson is way out in front swinging as if it’s a fastball. He’s just able to catch a piece of the top of the ball to tap it foul for strike one.

After seeing how early Jasson was with that swing, the obvious choice is to throw another curveball just a little lower than the last one.

Wolfram does exactly that, executing this curveball to a spot about six or seven inches below the one he just threw. Jasson is overmatched, baited into chasing this breaker that looks a lot like the one that immediately preceded it. The swing is early again and the result is a whiff and a very quick 0-2 count.

There is really no reason for Wolfram to deviate his course. Jasson has yet to show that he can recognize curveball out of the hand nor the ability to adjust his swing timing to something that isn’t a fastball. If Wolfram can command a third curve to the same spot as the previous one if not a little lower, he should get the chase and swinging strikeout.

Jasson finally catches on to what Wolfram is trying to do, plus this pitch is probably a little too low to induce a chase in the dirt. All the same, you can see that Jasson is initially tempted to offer before deciding otherwise. The process is sound from Wolfram — keep throwing the breaker a little lower than the previous one — Jasson is just able to adjust his sights in time not to chase.

Now that the hitter has finally shown that he isn’t going to chase a breaking ball below the zone, Wolfram has the situation teed up to climb the ladder with the four-seamer. Jasson’s eye level is firmly fixated on catching out the low breaking ball, so there is no way he should be anticipating the elevated heater.

Of course, you have to execute your pitches to get them to work, this four-seamer sailing at almost eye level for an easy take from Jasson. Once again, the process by the pitcher is sound — throw a four-seamer down a similar tunnel as the initial aiming point as the curveball and maybe you can get the hitter to swing through it late.

After failing to execute that four-seamer by quite a margin, Wolfram instantly returns to the pitch that worked for him in this AB — the curveball. He just needs to land one a little closer to the zone than the one he wasted for ball one and he should get the outcome he desires.

This is such smart hitting by Domínguez. He realizes the purpose of the waste four-seamer — to reset his eye level so he can throw another curveball — and therefore ends up hunting the curve in this count. He is right on time with his swing, roping a liner down the left field line for a double that proves quite timely as Ryan McMahon drives him home with a single as the go-ahead run two batters later.

Here’s the full AB:

With Stanton on the IL with a left calf strain — and the latest report revealing that he is hitting in the cage but hasn’t started running yet — this is an important moment for Domínguez. The Yankees reaffirmed their faith in him by designating Randal Grichuk for assignment and Jasson needs to make the most of this opportunity. Not including his suspect glovework, the question for Domínguez has always been whether he can hit from the right hand side, the switch-hitter a 120 wRC+ hitter vs. righties while only at a 64 wRC+ vs. lefties — an added issue considering southpaws are the pitchers who Stanton typically obliterates.

It sounds like he has been putting in the work to address this platoon gap to allow himself to stick in the majors even after Stanton returns. According to Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News, Domínguez made a minor adjustment to reduce the size of his leg kick when batting from the right hand side. Hopefully this can help with his timing and pitch recognition with fewer moving parts. Not mentioned in the article was the finish to Domínguez’s right-handed swing — a helicopter finish very familiar to Yankees fans from Miguel Andújar’s 2018 season. Domínguez has varied between this finish and a high one-handed finish to his right-handed swing. I’m not certain what advantage either can confer but it’s worth keeping an eye on while tracking his production from the right side.

The Nats are coming off a quiet offensive series against the Milwaukee Brewers, scoring just 4 runs in 3 games. After 2 straight losses, a strong pitching performance from Zack Littell held down the fort for a gritty 3-2 victory in the finale. Washington has kept themself in striking range of .500, and has another chance to even up their record against Minnesota.

The Twins find themself in the same boat regarding their most recent 3-game set, dropping the first 2 games to the Toronto Blue Jays and grinding out a 4-3 win to salvage the series. Their bullpen was taxed with short outings from their starters and an injury scare from Joe Ryan, putting some added pressure on their rotation to hold down a streaky Nationals’ lineup.

Game One – Tuesday 6:45 PM EST

WSH: RHP Cade Cavalli (1-1, 3.82 ERA)

MIN: RHP Taj Bradley (3-1, 2.85 ERA)

Amid the staff-wide pitching struggles the Nats have dealt with, Cavalli has emerged as the main story and star through 7 starts. He’s strung together 3 consecutive solid outings, and his stuff has ticked up in a major way. The 27-year-old looks to be putting it all together after a long road to get to big league success, and has the chance to continue his push to enter the same echelon of the top starters in the National League.

Speaking of putting it all together, Bradley has been a massive win for the Minnesota pitching lab. After a shaky end to his first half-season with the Twins, he’s been nearly untouchable in 2026. With an ERA under 3.00, his fastball and splitter have given hitters plenty of issues. However, if the Nats’ hitters can continue the trend of hitting balls hard off of him, they could get things going early.

Game Two – Wednesday 6:45 PM EST

WSH: RHP Miles Mikolas (0-3, 8.23 ERA)

MIN: RHP Bailey Ober (3-1, 3.55 ERA)

Why Mikolas remains in the rotation at this point in the season is anyone’s guess. He’s been a severe anchor on the back end of the Washington rotation, with any remnants of what once made him effective nowhere to be found. As has been the trend with many of his recent starts, the Nats’ coaching staff has to be hoping for an offensive explosion to offset his struggles.

It’s been smooth sailing for Ober through his first month in 2026, giving up more than 3 runs in just 1 outing. He hasn’t been lights-out, but he’s been a beacon of stability for Minnesota, giving them 6.0+ innings in each of his last 4 starts. He doesn’t strike out many, but the soft contact he induces will be a challenge for the Nats to overcome.

Game Three – Thursday 1:05 PM EST

WSH: Jake Irvin (1-4, 4.93 ERA)

MIN: Simeon Woods Richardson (0-5, 6.49 ERA)

Irvin has had his ups and downs, but over the last 5 starts, he’s looked the part of an adequate back-of-the-rotation starter. A weaker Minnesota lineup bodes well for the veteran, who has, despite some issues, proven he can get outs by both whiffs and easy contact.

Nothing has been going well for Woods Richardson this year, averaging less than 4.5 K/9, and all of his pitches look far below average. Baseball Savant shows that positive regression isn’t a likely outcome at the moment, and the Nats need to strike. Depending on how the first 2 games of the series go, this could be either a great chance to salvage the series or a prime opportunity to win it definitively.