Luke Weaver wasn’t the pitcher the Mets needed to pause their misery Thursday, but he could be the right amateur therapist to help teammates get through the hard times.

Weaver served up the two-run, eighth-inning home run that turned a one-run lead into a 5-4 loss to the Nationals at Citi Field.

He had not allowed a run in four straight appearances, so his hanging changeup to CJ Abrams was particularly ill-timed as the Mets fell for the 17th time in their past 20 games.

“This pursuit of perfection is just an ultimate pressurized failure mindset,” said Weaver, the main target of matinee booing. “I just think it becomes everybody wants to be the hero because we care and we want to win really, really bad. And I just don’t think success lives in that realm. The freedom of which we play day to day is kind of being suffocated a little bit.”

All blown saves are not created equally. Weaver admitted the disappointment is “severely” worse when the Mets (an MLB-worst 10-21) are in such a slide.

“Of course, I sit there and feel the weight of the world and feel like I let the team down,” Weaver said, “but, at the end of the day, I do feel like I’m in a good spot. We sit there and tell you guys, ‘It’ll come, this is the game, this is the law of averages’ and all these things. But those words just don’t hold the same weight when you continue to go day after day.”

Mark Vientos’ go-ahead RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning put the Mets in the ideal position of having their top three relievers available to close out a series win.

Brooks Raley did the job in the seventh inning and Devin Williams pitched a high-wire scoreless ninth.

“Typically you don’t see an entire collective group at the same time not playing their best brand of baseball,” Weaver said. “It just feels like there is a little bit of a culture that has adapted to it unintentionally. That’s just how winning and losing goes.”

Yikes.

“Sleep is lost, the mind wanders and you just kind of get into a fixation that you don’t really need to be in,” Weaver added. “The answer is just kind of in those words — it’s simplifying the process, maybe it’s doing less reps, maybe it’s more about just enjoying why you do this for a living and trying to find your inner kid and the joy of why you play the game.”

It is nice to have Springer back in the lineup.

GO JAYS GO.

You could hardly get a better representation of the 2026 Orioles season than the doubleheader that they played against the Astros on Thursday. In one game, they swung the bats well and got some pretty good pitching and they blew out the Astros. Check out Paul Folkemer’s recap of the first game. That one was much more fun than this second game, in which the Orioles combined pretty bad pitching, pretty bad defense, and hitting that, while fine, was not enough to overcome these other things. They lost, 11-5, to split the doubleheader and close out their month of April at 15-16.

There is a meme that goes around that begins with, “Inside you there are two wolves.” A legend of no fixed origin, this is a tale told by an elder to a young person about inner conflict, how our best selves are battling against our worst selves. Which one wins? Whichever one you feed. These 2026 Orioles feed their good wolves some days and their bad wolves other days. Then there’s this doubleheader, where they fed both. They are the same team that looks very different at different times. Only over a longer stretch of the season will we know which wolf will win.

The bad wolves appeared from the beginning of the game. To be sure, the Orioles were helped along by luck going the Astros way, such as when Houston got its first baserunner with one out on an infield single hit by Yordan Alvarez, of all people. Usually, getting Alvarez to hit a ball only 57mph is going to be a good thing. However, starting pitcher Brandon Young could not hold the Astros there, allowing another single.

With two men on base, Houston’s Dustin Harris floated a line drive out to right field in the direction of Tyler O’Neill. The Orioles right fielder gave just about the most ungraceful pursuit of the ball this side of Heston Kjerstad, then as it bounced up, he bobbled the bounce. Runners scored from second and third base on this two-out single. Harris scored when Yainer Diaz hit a ball back up the middle that Jeremiah Jackson was unable to field cleanly. If I had the power, I would have put this one in the error column.

So, at this point there are two runs in, two outs, and two men on base. The runs allowed by Young were not entirely his fault. He had the opportunity to limit the damage and get out of it. And he… gave up a home run to Cam Smith. Who is Cam Smith? Exactly. He came into the game with a .670 OPS for the season. Don’t give up a home run to that guy! On the other hand, who is Brandon Young? Exactly. He had a 6.24 ERA in the majors last season and after today’s clunker has a 6.75 ERA for 2026.

This was a classic of what I call the Jake Arrieta Memorial Inning – the Orioles version of Arrieta, that is. He was always getting into trouble that was not entirely his fault and then, presented with the chance to get out of it, he frequently failed. Bad luck, bad defense, and bad pitching put the Orioles down by five runs before they ever got to bat. Young allowed one more run for good measure because he gave up a homer to Alvarez. I can’t get too mad about that one.

That was only the first two innings worth of stuff happening to Young! Before he was done with, he was charged for ten runs, of which seven were earned. Four runs crossed in the fourth inning, many of which stemmed from an error in which Jeremiah Jackson, who delighted everyone with a grand slam in the first game, missed a catch at second base on a fielder’s choice. Again, the defense let him down but Young could not help himself.

One might have hoped to see a bit more from the Orioles hitters against Houston starter Lance McCullers. Whenever I write his name, I want to say Carson McCullers, but that’s an author, not the baseball player. Carson McCullers wrote a book called The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, maybe the most depressing book that I’ve ever read in my life. More depressing than this Orioles game, which is saying something.

Anyway, the baseball player McCullers brought a 6.75 ERA for 2026 into today. Did the Orioles make him look like it? Eh. They scored three runs in his six innings, so it could have been worse, but only getting two hits when batters have been OPSing .835 against McCullers this season is kind of a bummer. Also, it didn’t matter that much, since the Orioles gave up eleven runs. It’s tough to win when you give up eleven runs.

Now 31 games into this season, the Orioles are both the team that blew out a last place Astros team, 10-3, and the team that was blown out by a last place Astros team, 11-5. They are a team that hit two grand slams in one game and a team that keeps bungling stuff that shouldn’t be bungled, to say nothing of its challenges with guys in positions that require range only they don’t seem to possess the range or instincts to make up for a lack of range. Either one could win out as the season moves along. Or they will remain in tension and remain near .500. That’s still a lot better than last April and May.

Things get tougher for the Orioles starting tomorrow, when they begin a four-game set against the Yankees, the team that has, by far, the best record in the American League. The O’s will see the Yankees seven times in their next 16 games, with another three games against the first place Braves. It’s going to get harder. If the Orioles are actually bad, we’ll find that out in the next month.

As of this writing, there is no scheduled Orioles starting pitcher for the 7:05 Friday series opener. I’m guessing Cade Povich gets recalled from Norfolk. The O’s will be facing righty Will Warren, who has a 2.59 ERA up to this point in the season.

Despite leading twice in this afternoon’s ballgame, the Royals fell behind in the bottom of the second and never again challenged the Athletics.

The Royals led off the scoring in the bottom of the first on a two-out RBI single by Starling Marte, the first of his three singles of the afternoon. Maikel Garcia, who doubled on the first pitch of the game, scored. Unfortunately, with the bases still loaded, Carter Jensen struck to end the frame. Jensen’s day at the plate would not improve.

In the bottom of the first, Garcia stayed in the spotlight, this time missing a grounder he normally snags, which turned into a double for A’s DH Shea Langeliers (Stephen King’s favorite Athletic) and men on second and third with none out. With one out, the A’s had the bases loaded, but Royals starting pitcher Noah Cameron minimized the damage by giving up only one run.

Garcia homered in his second at-bat of the afternoon, this time in the top of the second, to put the Royals up 2-1. Garcia had an injury scare in the bottom of the first when the Athletics tied things, but he stayed in the game, later adding another double. He finished the day 3-for-5 with two doubles, a homer, two runs, a stolen base, and one RBI.

But the A’s took control in the bottom of the inning and never ceded it. Langeliers doubled in Lawrence Butler to tie the game before Nick Kurtz doubled in both Langeliers and Jacob Wilson. Kurtz would then score on a little dribbler hit to Loftin who made an off-line throw to Salvador Perez, today’s first baseman, who failed to handle it.

5-2, Athletics.

The game settled down after that. The A’s starting pitcher, Jeffrey Springs, threw a lot of pitches in a short period of time before leaving due to the injury. The A’s bullpen took over, tossing six innings of five-hit, two-run ball. In the bottom of the seventh, the A’s scored another run before Elias Diaz homered in the top of the eighth to cut the lead to 6-3.

That was pretty much it. Jac Caglianone reached base in the top of the ninth, and with the Royals down to their last out, Vinnie Pasquantino pinch-hit. Like a lot of Royals today, he hit the ball hard, but right at an Athletic.

Game, set, match. Oakland takes the day, 6-3, and the series, 2-1.

Now the Royals are off to Seattle to take on the Mariners in a weekend series.

In the biggest return to St. Louis Cardinals since Albert Pujols, Katie Woo made time in her Hollywood schedule to come onto Cardinals on My Time to talk the upcoming series! I know you all miss her, but she has been enjoying her well-deserved promotion to cover the most talked about team in baseball.

Don’t worry! Katie misses us too, but not as much as she misses the “best pretzels in the world” from Busch Stadium. We had an awesome time getting to talk to one of our all-time favorites and break down the differences between the two organizations, from the fanbase to ownership. We had a blast and hope you do too!

In this episode, we discuss:

The “Hollywood” Life: Katie addresses her transition to LA, her aggressive new driving habits, and why she still misses those Busch Stadium press box pretzels.

Shohei Ohtani & The Dodgers: What it’s actually like to cover the “Beatles of Baseball” and why there’s no ego in the star-studded LA clubhouse.

The Chaim Bloom Era: Katie’s perspective on the Cardinals’ front office shift and why she believes the “Runway” (we mean, rebuild) is heading in the right direction.

Young Core vs. Veteran Stars: Analysis of Jordan Walker’s growth and the pressure (or lack thereof) on the Cardinals’ young roster.

Series Preview: Which pitching matchups to watch and why Katie is leaning “Dodger Stadium” for the views, but “Busch Stadium” for the vibes.

We ended it with a little LA vs. St. Louis “This or That” and she made some tough decisions, but it was a fun way to head into the tough three-game series this weekend!

Thanks as always!

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The Athletics and Kansas City Royals battled in the rubber game of their three-game series Thursday afternoon in West Sacramento. After exchanging early blows, the Athletics took the lead and never gave it back, fending off several Royals comeback attempts to win 6-3.

The Royals scored first against A’s starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs. The first batter of the game, third baseman Maikel Garcia doubled. With two outs and the bases loaded, outfielder Starling Marte singled to right, giving his team an early 1-0 lead. Springs proceeded to limit the damage by striking out Carter Jensen, the lone lefty in his team’s lineup, to end the inning and get out of the bases-loaded jam.

The A’s immediately answered back against Kansas City’s starting pitcher Noah Cameron. Shortstop Jacob Wilson singled to right and then designated hitter Shea Langeliers doubled down the left field line past Garcia at third. With one out, right fielder Colby Thomas walked to load the bases. That set the stage for third baseman Darell Hernáiz, whose hard-hit infield single off of Garcia’s hand scored Wilson to tie the game at one. Like his counterpart, Cameron got out of a bases loaded jam by retiring the next two A’s hitters.

Garcia showed his wrist was ok, hitting a two-out solo home run in the second inning that just eluded leaping left fielder Carlos Cortes to put his team back in front.

Once again, the A’s answered. Lawrence Butler walked, Wilson singled and Langeliers lined his second double in as many innings to score Butler and tie the game. The team’s potent offense was not done yet. First baseman Nick Kurtz, who struck out in an RBI opportunity in the first inning, crushed a two-RBI double to give the Athletics their first lead of the game.

With two outs, Kurtz scored from second when Royals second baseman Nick Loftin threw errantly to first after ranging to field the grounder off Hernáiz’s bat.

With the A’s holding a 5-2 advantage heading into the third inning, it was the Royals turn to rally. However, Springs finally turned in a shutdown inning, striking out Jensen for a second-straight at-bat as the Royals stranded two runners on base.

Following three laborious innings, right-handed reliever Luis Medina replaced Springs, who went to the clubhouse with the team’s trainer. According to the team’s MLB.com reporter Martin Gallegos, Springs exited the game with right hip soreness.

As a result, the team had to turn to their bullpen earlier than they would have liked. Medina got the first two hitters he faced out before the Royals loaded the bases via a double, walk and a hit by pitch. The A’s reliever averted disaster by getting first baseman Salvador Perez to harmlessly fly out to Butler in center field.

In the middle innings of this game, the Athletics offense went quiet, although Cortes did single in the fifth, extending his hitting streak to ten games. Cameron settled down after his early struggles. He allowed just two more hits and worked into the sixth inning before being removed with one on and one out.

Medina ended up getting the win. He threw 51 pitches over 2 2/3 scoreless innings. The Royals squared up several pitches against the A’s long reliever, but failed to bring a run home. Scott Barlow replaced Medina with two Royals on base and two outs in the sixth. He got Kansas City’s outfielder Lane Thomas to ground out as the Royals continued their struggles with runners in scoring position.

Seeking insurance runs, Langeliers led off the bottom of the seventh with his third double of the afternoon. Today was the first time he had ever hit three doubles in one game. With first base open, the Royals intentionally walked Kurtz, extending his record-breaking walk streak to 19 consecutive games. Hernáiz made the visitors rue that decision as his third infield single of the game scored Langeliers to pad the A’s lead.

In the top of the eighth, the Royals got one back. Facing left-hander Brady Basso, catcher Elias Díaz hit his first home run of the season over the right-field fence to trim the deficit to three. That was the closest they would come. Right-hander Jack Perkins only gave up one hit in a scoreless ninth, securing his third save and more importantly the series victory.

Tomorrow, the first-place A’s begins a weekend series against fan-favorite Stephen Vogt’s Cleveland Guardians. Right-hander J.T Ginn is scheduled to start for the A’s. He is good to go despite exiting his last start early with arm soreness. Ginn will be opposed by Guardians’ left-hander Joey Cantillo, who is 1-1 with a 2.97 ERA through his first six starts of the season.

First Pitch (CT):6:40 PM
TV: Twins.TV
Radio: TIBN/830 WCCO/102.9 The Wolf /Audacy App
Know Yo’ Foe: Bluebird Banter

Bad news: The Twins keep losing extremely winnable games either due to offensive ineptitude, a bullpen built like it’s 2003, or a combination of the two.

Good news: every other team in the AL is also bad.

As I write this, there are only 3 teams in the entire American League with a record over .500, and none of them are in the AL Central. Despite this losing streak and sitting at 13-18 overall, the Twins sit just 2.5 games back of both the division and a Wild Card berth on the final day of April. The record isn’t ideal, but if you told me that going into the season, I would be absolutely thrilled.

Bailey Ober will do his best to keep the bullpen from factoring into the game, but he’ll have to do it facing Jays starter Kevin Gausman, who looks to have regained his All-Star form in his age 35 season. Ober has reinvented himself despite the lack of velocity, relying on movement and deception to induce weak contact rather than the strikeouts he used to generate. He’s walked way too many batters this season, especially compared to his historic numbers, but especially now that he doesn’t have the strikeout stuff he used to.

Toronto’s lineup has been ravaged with injuries early this year, but that is beginning to turn already with All-Star George Springer making his return after fracturing his toe in the last series between these two clubs. They’re still missing All-Star catcher Alejandro Kirk, starting outfielders Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes and Anthony Santander, and an entire starting rotation that several teams would consider an upgrade.

Meanwhile, Austin Martin gets the start in right field as Matt Wallner continues to struggle. Gausman’s signature pitch is his filthy splitter, something that works much better against lefties than righties, so that also likely played into Derek Shelton’s decision to give Martin some run. His .476 OBP helps too, of course.

Lineups

Somehow, the White Sox have managed to meet the wildest of expectations in the first month of the 2026 season. Get embarrassingly swept? Check. Sweep the defending AL pennant-winner? Check. Lose several players for the season? Again, check. Be somehow one of the best but also worst teams in several hitting and pitching categories? You guessed it, check.

In the first article of a monthly series examining the health of the franchise from minors to majors, I’m diving into what has and hasn’t worked for Chicago in April, and realistic improvements the Sox need to make.

The gap between quality andquantity prospects still exists
The Sox still haven’t figured out how to put “calculated” and “call-ups” in the same sentence. Only two of the 14 guys promoted from Triple-A seem to be panning out. Sam Antonacci assumed his role as the spark plug in the lineup and has repeatedly shown that sometimes you have to play the cards you’re dealt and walk your way to home plate. He has demonstrated that he can stay true to the player he was in the minors by avoiding strikeouts — only three in the month — and inducing walks, resulting in a .347 OBP that has helped keep offensive pressure and momentum going throughout the game.

Noah Schultz’s seven runs and 18 strikeouts/no walks in his first three games have led many to believe he’ll be a complementary lefty arm alongside Anthony Kay in the rotation. Every other call-up arm has gone through the cycle of being optioned back to Charlotte or outright DFA’d. 

Braden Montgomery is the next top prospect awaiting a debut, and his arrival will make or break the next two years of the White Sox farm system. If he can stay afloat and contribute at least a 1.2 WAR or better, which would signal adequate contributions from a rookie, the South Siders will be able to wipe the carousel of failed prospects from their minds and feel confident that they can at least identify and maintain a semblance of a talent pipeline. If Montgomery, reasonably and humanly, struggles, there will be much more finger-pointing at the minor league brain trust.

Balance is the key to sustained success
April has seen a turn away from extremes toward a more gradual balance. Chicago’s -3 run differential and 13-13 record mark the emergence of sustained, watchable baseball. For the first time since June 2023, the team’s monthly record was at .500 or better. These baby steps may seem rudimentary, but they are a big leap for the franchise. 

Beyond the watch test, several key stats back this up. Only 33% of the lineup has a negative WAR, and no one has a WAR worse than -0.6 (cough, cough, Andrew Benintendi). And only one pitcher currently on the 26-man roster has a negative WAR — Jordan Leasure. Finally, the only category the Sox rank last in between team hitting and pitching metrics is doubles, which doesn’t say much about their ability to hit or get on base. Even after their 20 strikeouts against the Brewers on Opening Day, the Sox have surprisingly laid off pitches outside the zone to place 12th-best in chase percentage (28.7%). 

Given where they were a year ago, this team has some good stuff going for them. It’s hard to nitpick when they’re playing how they are, especially after winning three of their last four series. Though Munetaka Murakami is by far the best player on the team, the rest of the pack isn’t that far behind. As the headline says, things could be much worse. 

Summary Metrics

Prospect Confidence (Percentage of prospects that are contributing meaningfully?): 15%

Average Innings Watched (Average number of innings fans have patience for): 6 1/3

Rebuild Index (1 is full rebuild, 5 is sustaining current pace, 10 is aggressively pursuing the World Series): 4

Barry Bonds has come company in the record books:

A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz.

The Giants’ legendary slugger set numerous marks that still stand on his way to becoming the sports’ all-time home run king. One of them fell Thursday, in a Triple-A ballpark, no less.

Kurtz, 23, surpassed Bonds’ modern-day record when Royals reliever John Schreiber intentionally put him on base in his last plate appearance of the A’s 6-3 win Thursday at their temporary home in Sacramento.

It was his 19th consecutive game with a base on balls. Few other hitters had come close since Bonds ended the 2002 season with walks in all of his final 18 games.

Bonds, in addition to the single-season and all-time home run records, holds the top-three single-season walk totals in MLB history. He ended the 2002 campaign with 198, second only to the astounding 234 free passes opposing pitchers issued him in 2004.

Kurtz, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2024 draft, has earned his own reputation as a fearsome lefty in short time. He was the American League Rookie of the Year and the AL Silver Slugger winner at first base last year, batting .290 with 36 homers and a 1.002 OPS in his first big-league season.

But nobody is Bonds.

Over the course of his 18-game streak, Bonds drew 34 total bases on balls — 14 intentional passes. He struck out only seven times and batted .409 with a 1.389 OPS.

Kurtz, to his credit, has five homers in his 19 games to Bonds’ four during his streak. He has produced a respectable .963 OPS. But he has also struck out 25 times — more than his number of walks (24). Only four have come intentionally, fewer than Shohei Ohtani or the Nationals’ James Woods in that span.

Bonds extended his streak by walking in the first two games of the 2003 season, including a pair of intentional passes on Opening Day. The only player in MLB history with more consecutive games with a walk is the Tigers’ Roy Cullenbine, who went 22 in a row during the 1947 season.

That puts Kurtz in a tie for second on the all-time leaderboard for the single-season record with Ted Williams, who also walked in 19 consecutive games in 1941.

Just six others have drawn a walk in 15 straight games since Cullenbine in 1947: Yankees first baseman Nick Johnson (2003), Braves third baseman Chipper Jones (1999), Rangers infielder Toby Harrah (1985), Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra (1980) and Braves infielder Darrell Evans (1976).