Category: Sports News

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals, May 21, 2026, 1:15 p.m. ET

Location: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet-PIT

Pitching Matchup: Braxton Ashcraft (2-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. Dustin May (3-4, 4.81 ERA)

The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road today against the St. Louis Cardinals looking to grab a win.

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Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman doubled in each of his first two at-bats in Wednesday’s win over the San Diego Padres, finishing off a productive series at Petco Park. He now has 560 doubles in his career, tied for 30th all-time in MLB history.

He’s tied with Eddie Murray and Jeff Kent, both who like Freeman came to Los Angeles in the back half of their careers. Freeman and Murray were linked not only given their timing in joining the Dodgers, but by production as well. By similarity scores, Murray was the most similar player to Freeman for every age from 21 to 32. Murray and Kent are both in the Hall of Fame, and Freeman will join them one day in Cooperstown.

Freeman in his first four years with the Dodgers hit 180 doubles, the most in any four-year span in franchise history. He began the year tied for 34th all-time with Manny Ramirez, another former Dodger, and has since passed Alex Rodríguez and Freeman’s former Atlanta Braves teammate Chipper Jones.

Up next is Carlos Beltrán in 29th place with 565 doubles.

Freeman is nearing 200 doubles with the Dodgers (he’s seven away), something only 19 players have done in franchise history. He’s also at 967 extra-base hits, 33 shy of becoming the 40th player in history with 1,000 extra-base hits.

Freeman on Tuesday homered twice, giving him eight extra-base hits over his last 14 games. He’s the first Dodger with consecutive games of multiple extra-base hits since Mookie Betts last September 9-10.

We are through 50 games of this Dodgers season, and Freeman has 13 doubles, putting him on pace for 42 this year. Freeman has five seasons with at least 40 doubles in his career, plus 39 doubles last season.

Back in February, we asked how many doubles you think Freeman will hit this season. Now almost a third into the season, we’ll ask you to update your guesses: How many doubles will Freddie Freeman hit this season?

Welcome back to our Discussion series. With an off-day to sit and ponder, today’s question focuses on the people who live and die with every pitch: what are the best and worst traits of our fan base?

South Siders are a cocktail of loyalty, humor, pure stubbornness, and survival instinct. This bunch has survived more rebuilds, fake turnarounds, and bullpen implosions than anyone should have to. Still, we show up and convince ourselves that the next batch of prospects is the answer. Pride? Sure. Baggage? Lots of it.

Some say White Sox fans are some of the sharpest and most passionate in the game. Others say decades of letdowns have baked in an expectation of disaster before hope can even stretch its legs. Is that hard-earned wisdom, or just pessimism that has become deeply embedded in the fan experience?

No trophies for ‘best fans’ here, and no need to air out the laundry. We’re just curious about what actually makes Sox fans tick. Is it the stubborn loyalty, the pitch-black humor, the endless Twitter brawls? Or is there something uniquely South Side that outsiders simply don’t understand?

Step up and sound off because if there’s one thing Sox fans never run short on, it’s opinions.

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The New York Mets will try to salvage a series split as they take on the Washington Nationals this afternoon.

The Washington offense continues to roll night after night, and I like it to get a win and carry the Over in my Mets vs. Nationals predictions.

Read on for more analysis and to get my free MLB picks for Thursday, May 14.

Who will win Mets vs Nationals today: Nationals moneyline (+100)

New York Mets starter David Peterson has struggled to get back to the pitcher he was in early 2025. He’s 2-4 with a 5.40 ERA this season, and while he’s been better working behind an opener, his stuff still isn’t what it once was.

Peterson is allowing a hard-hit rate of 45.3%, and has seen his WHIP balloon to 1.57.

The Washington Nationals took advantage of this earlier this year, hitting Peterson for seven runs over 3 2/3 innings of work on April 29.

The Mets have been struggling to contain this Washington offense, and I like the Nats to win again tonight.

COVERS INTEL: The Nationals have a 46.2% pull rate against sinkers and sliders from lefty pitchers – the two most common pitches in Peterson’s arsenal.

Mets vs Nationals Over/Under pick: Over 7.5 (-122)

The Nationals have been the best offensive team in the majors so far this season, scoring 5.58 runs per game. That might be more sustainable than many suspect, as Washington has a .331 xwOBA on the year, sixth-best in the league.

But the Mets offense is waking up as well. New York has averaged 7.0 runs per game over its last nine, and both Juan Soto and Bo Bichette have hit three homers in this series so far. These teams are putting up tons of runs, and the Over is the play tonight.

Mets vs Nationals odds

• Moneyline: Mets +100 | Nationals -104
• Run line: Mets +1.5 (-213) | Nationals -1.5 (+203)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (-117) | Under 7.5 (+113)

Mets vs Nationals trend

The Over is 5-0-1 in six meetings between the Mets and Nationals this season. Find more MLB betting trends for Mets vs. Nationals.

How to watch Mets vs Nationals and game info

Mets vs Nationals latest injuries

Mets vs Nationals weather

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Stephen Vogt is a great manager, but we need to see some adjustment in how he uses David Fry.

Good news on David Fry! He appears to be a solid major league hitter. He has a 112 wRC+ this season and a 110 wRC+ for his career.

Bad news on Guardians’ catchers! The Guards have two amazing defensive catchers who cannot hit a lick – Hedges has a career 51 wRC+ and Bailey has a career 71 wRC+.

Good news! David Fry can play catcher, so he can be put in a catcher position to allow the team not to endure a Patrick Bailey or Austin Hedges at-bat with the game on the line.

Bad news! Stephen Vogt seems to have too much confidence in Bailey and Hedges as hitters (mistake!) and/or not enough confidence in David Fry as a catcher (he may be right!) to optimally employ this strategy. Notably, he can pinch-hit for Bailey or Hedges in the 7th or 8th and then get whichever defensive savant he wants in the game in the 9th to relieve Fry to reduce any defensive risks.

Last night, in the bottom of the fifth last night, Tuesday, May 20th, with right-hander Kyle Finnegan on the mound, Stephen Vogt pinch-hit Travis Bazzana for David Fry, who was in right-field at the time. I am really not sure why he did this, as Finnegan was clearly at the end of his appearance and Tigers’ manager AJ Hinch was likely to bring a lefty in to face a left-handed hitter, as he proceeded to do. Mostly, the issue with this move was the Fry was now unavailable to move to catcher if a pinch-hitter was needed for Patrick Bailey later in the game. This is not an isolated incident, nor is choosing to start David Fry at DH where moving him to catcher requires the team to lose the DH-spot.

Consequently, the worst possible outcome occurred later in the game. Needing one run to tie the game, Patrick Bailey took the most important at-bat of the game for the Guardians with only Petey Halpin and Austin Hedges available on the bench to bat for him. Bailey got the groundball to tie the game, but not without significant travail. Now, Bazzana did single ahead of Bailey’s at-bat to give the team the chance to tie the game, so maybe Vogt wins on this gambit. Yet, it doesn’t change the fact that Vogt and the team need to be clear on this strategem – if at all possible, Fry needs to be kept available to be used in the catcher spot so that Austin Hedges and Patrick Bailey do not have the fate of any game resting on their bats unless absolutely necessary.

Stop being confident in Bailey and Hedges to hit with the game on the line. There is AMPLE evidence that neither should be trusted to hit. Optimize David Fry’s presence on this roster by leveraging him into catcher at-bats late in close games. Please and thank you.

On May 21, 1880, a strange thing happened in upstate New York. While playing at Riverside Park in Albany, Lip Pike — playing for the National Association team in Albany in between stints at the professional/semi-professional level — hit a fly ball over the fence in right field and into the nearby river. Outfielder Lon Knight, playing for the visiting Worcester Ruby Legs, hopped in a boat to chase the ball — because, despite the fact that the ball went over the wall, it was still technically a live ball!

These days, when the ball goes over the fence, it is out of play, and depending on whether it gets there on the fly or on a bounce determines whether it’s a home run or a ground-rule double (yes, it’s officially called an automatic double, but, well, old habits die hard). However—like everything in baseball—this rule wasn’t written down on golden tablets handed to Abner Doubleday/Alexander Cartwright/whichever semi-mythological figure you consider to be the founder of baseball, but one that evolved throughout the history of the game. Unfortunately, the Baseball Almanac’s list of rules changes does not give us an exact moment that this rule was created, but we can surmise that it came into existence prior to the National League’s creation in 1876, as on May 2nd of that year, Chicago White Stockings second baseman Ross Barnes hit the first home run in what would become Major League history. But even then, its story was not so simple.

If you have followed my history-of-early-baseball posts over the past few years, you already know that 19th-century baseball was organized very differently than the baseball of today. Rather than a centralized league imposing a particular ruleset, the home team determined the particular rule set the game was played under, with convention dictating the most basic rules, up until the creation of the NL. Indeed, even after the Senior Circuit came into existence, the home teams still had quite a bit of say in how the game was played, as the NL office in its early years focused less on the product on the field and more on bullying other leagues out of existence to ensure a monopoly over the sport (but that’s a story for another day).

We see hints of this still today, where individual ballparks have rules to determine home run/ground rule double/foul ball when the ball hits a catwalk, or gets stuck in the ivy, or any other random thing occurs that is unique to that ballpark. But in the 1800s, even fundamental rules, such as what happened when a ball went over the fence, depended on where the game was played.

Did Lon Knight actually grab a boat and chase down a ball in the river in order to get the ball and try to make a play? In truth, it sounds a bit ridiculous. How slow must the batter have been where hopping the fence, heading into a boat, and setting sail on the river seemed a perfectly reasonable solution? It’s not for nothing that the SABR biography of Knight says “there is undoubtedly some fictitious element to the story.” Since the teams had a limited amount of balls back in those days, it seems more likely to me that Knight hopped in the river not to continue the play, but to continue the game, and that over time, the story grew in its telling. What this story does reinforce, though, is the fact that these rules depended by and large on the ballpark; if a ball over the fence was always a home run, after all, this story could not have come into existence in the version described.

Naturally, some teams took advantage of this. In the early 1880s, the Chicago White Stockings played on a field with short fences (some sources place them less than 200 feet from home plate), and according to convention at the time, batted balls hit over a fence that was less than 250 feet were treated as doubles, not home runs. According to SABR, however, in 1884, Chicago changed their own ground rule so that everything that went over the fence was considered a homer, not a double, resulting in a season in which Ned Williamson hit 27 home runs, a record that would stand until Babe Ruth’s 29-homer season in 1920.

In time, to stop shenanigans such as this, rules surrounding batted balls hit over the fence were ultimately standardized. Originally, in addition to all fly balls that went over the wall being considered home runs, all balls that bounced just once before going over fell into this category, neatly paralleling the fact that, up until 1864 for fair balls and 1883 for foul balls, batted balls caught on one bounce were considered an out; only in 1931 was this rule changed, and the modern-day ground-rule double brought into existence. As such, these days, shenanigans about long fly balls are limited to non-professional games, such as your local little leagues or bar softball games — or, apparently, the Saarikenttä in Finland.

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It’s a small MLB slate on Thursday, and things have been ice-cold lately—so it might be time for a little extra help to get these home runs and MLB player props back on track. I don’t usually go searching for it, but today feels like one of those days, and one matchup is drawing plenty of attention.

Along with a look at the Rockies-Diamondbacks game, I’m also eyeing slugging catcher Shea Langeliers to launch his 13th homer of the season when he faces José Soriano and a shaky Los Angeles Angels bullpen.

These are my favorite MLB home run predictions for Thursday, May 21. 

Best MLB home run props today

Player to hit a HR	Odds
Hunter Goodman	+447
Corbin Carroll	+445
Shea Langeliers	+350
💲Today's HR parlay	+10600

Home run pick: Hunter Goodman (+447)

Hunter Goodman is just 1-for-13 in his career against Arizona Diamondbacks lefty Eduardo Rodríguez, but at this price, there is still plenty of home-run upside today.

First, it’s a small slate, but Goodman just saw E-Rod in his last start and did rope a 101-mph single off him. The Colorado Rockies also put nine balls in play at 95+ mph against the lefty in that series. Goodman posted a .969 OPS during it as well, including a homer off Merrill Kelly. The right-handed bat also owns the fastest swing on the team over the last two weeks at 75 mph.

The familiarity factor usually isn’t priced in, which gives this HR prop more expected value with a fair price around +380. The lefty starter has also pitched above both his career fly-ball and HR/FB rates, so some long-ball regression could finally be on the way.

With colder weather rolling in and pitcher-friendly winds showing up around the league, a controlled hitting environment may be the best place to hunt dingers on a small-slate Thursday.

• Time: 9:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: DBACKS.TV, Rockies.TV

Home run pick: Corbin Carroll (+445)

The Diamondbacks have a great hitting matchup today as the Rockies are rolling with call-up Zach Agnos, who hasn’t started a game this year and will hand things off early to a Colorado bullpen that owns the second-worst ERA over the last two weeks and ranks 28th in HR/FB rate over that stretch.

Corbin Carroll got the day off yesterday, but before that, he had ripped triples in back-to-back games and, three games ago, launched a pair of home runs against the Rockies and this bullpen.

It’s also nice to get a Top-10 bat sitting right at +EV with a fair price around +360. Over the last two weeks, Carroll ranks eighth in BlastContact, third in slugging, and second in ISO. On this small slate, he projects as the third-most likely player to go deep behind only Aaron Judge and Mike Trout.

• Time: 9:40 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: DBACKS.TV, Rockies.TV

Home run pick: Shea Langeliers (+350)

Jose Soriano has fallen out of form, allowing 15 runs over his last 22 innings. The command is wavering, the double-digit strikeouts are no longer showing up, and Shea Langeliers has been a major problem for him.

The BlastContact darling has already taken Soriano deep twice in 11 at-bats while posting a 1.765 OPS in the matchup. He hasn’t had the best series so far, but getting plunked twice yesterday could provide some added motivation for a hitter sitting on 12 home runs and batting .322. Only four players have a higher slugging percentage than Langeliers this season.

The Los Angeles Angels bullpen is also capable of cashing this HR prop. It owns the second-worst ERA on the season, and that mark has been even uglier over the last two weeks (6.60). It’s extremely fly-ball heavy, and its HR/FB rate also sits in the Bottom 3 in baseball.

• Time: 9:38 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: NBC Sports California, ABTV

Today’s HR parlay

Hunter Goodman	Bet Now +10600
Corbin Carroll
Shea Langeliers

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

The case for Trace: Why Chad Tracy is ready to shed the interim tag originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

WORCESTER — About a month removed from one of the most tumultuous days in Boston Red Sox history, Chad Tracy is finding his footing as the club’s interim manager. Now, the question is, will he shed the interim tag?

On April 25, Tracy was named Alex Cora’s replacement after Boston fired the longtime skipper and several members of his coaching staff, including beloved ex-Red Sox captain Jason Varitek. The stunning news broke during Triple-A Worcester’s game vs. the Syracuse Mets. Tracy left the WooSox dugout upon hearing of his promotion and joined the Red Sox in Baltimore, taking the helm just 16 hours after Cora’s departure.

Iggy Suarez, Worcester’s third base coach at the time, took over Tracy’s managerial duties.

“It’s a shock, just how everything went down,” Suarez told NBC Sports Boston. “I’m not surprised that it’s Chad Tracy getting the opportunity. I’m happy for him. I’ve kind of been on his hip for the last year and a half, seeing how he goes about his process and what he does. It’s good to see how he works. There’s no better guy right now to be in that position.

“But when that all initially happened in that Saturday game, mid-game, it was a surprise, because you obviously never think something like that is gonna happen. It was a shock, and it took us a little bit to realize what was going down, but when the dust settled a little bit, we were happy for Trace. I’m glad he’s having the opportunity.”

Since then, Tracy’s Red Sox have posted a 12-10 record. They were 10-17 at the time of Cora’s firing, so they’ve taken a small step forward since their abysmal start.

As the season continues, there surely will be questions about who should assume the official Red Sox manager position. Tracy is expected to be a leading candidate, but there presumably will be several other interesting names — some with plenty of MLB managerial experience — considered for the role.

“The only way you gain experience is by someone giving you the opportunity to get it,” WooSox hitting instructor and former Red Sox catcher Rich Gedman told NBC Sports Boston. “I think if Chad just continues to be Chad and doesn’t change because it’s the big leagues, he’ll do just fine.

“He’s a solid baseball guy, he’s a solid man. He’s as good a guy as you’re gonna get. Hopefully, the players can play for him, and he reaps the benefits of the opportunity that he has.”

A ‘genuine’ approach

One player who has spent time with both Tracy and Cora is former top prospect Kristian Campbell. The 23-year-old made Boston’s 2025 Opening Day roster after soaring through the minor league ranks, but was sent back down to Triple-A — where he remains — after experiencing growing pains in the majors.

“They’re very similar. They’re both really good managers, in my opinion,” Campbell told NBC Sports Boston. “They both know how to manage the game, they both know how to relate to the players, and they’ve both played professional baseball, so they have a lot in common. From my point of view, I had a good time with both of them, and I think they did a really good job at their job.”

Tracy, the son of former manager Jim Tracy, played eight minor-league seasons but never reached the majors. He hit .265/.336/.453 with 127 homers over 857 games in the Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies, and Kansas City Royals organizations.

So, what makes Tracy good at his job? We’ve seen enough of his in-game management to know he looks the part, but his clubhouse presence is perhaps even more important. Leadership is in short supply in this Red Sox clubhouse, so what does Tracy bring in that department?

“He’s just a genuine person,” Suarez said. “Baseball guy, gets it, been through the grind. Kind of knows how it is to be a player through those ups and downs, and being able to communicate is for him. He’s very up front, very honest, but again, it’s genuine. It’s nothing where it’s harsh and in your face, it’s just very honest.

“I think especially at this level and at the big-league level, that’s important. Especially now, going into the situation he’s in. I think the genuineness of establishing a relationship is what makes him a great manager.

Patience paying off?

Asked to share one quality of Tracy’s that he tries to implement in his job as a manager, Suarez didn’t hesitate.

“His patience, for sure,” he answered. “I’ve managed for quite some time in A-ball, and having patience is something as a manager that you grow to learn. You never stop learning how to be patient. So, seeing him kind of handle situations in-game and still be cool, calm, and collected — to see his patience and how he’s able to kind of think through it very calmly, is something that I admire from afar.”

Campbell seconded Suarez’s assessment of Tracy’s ability to communicate effectively with players.

“He does a good job communicating every day of what he wants from us,” Campbell said. “Everybody’s different, especially when it comes to baseball. There’s different roles and different tasks that we all need to get better at, and from a development standpoint in Triple-A, there’s a lot of stuff for us to work on. I feel like he let us know what it was from the get-go.”

When Campbell was demoted to Triple-A last year, Tracy helped him get back into the right headspace.

“He was just there for me, there to back me up. Anything I needed, I could go to him and talk to him about it,” Campbell said. “But from a communication standpoint, he did a good job of telling me what he needed me to do and what he wanted me to work on and improve on when it came to offense and defense.”

Gedman, who had worked alongside Tracy since 2022, raved about his leadership ability.

“I think he’s a wonderful leader. He leads by example, he’s a straight shooter, there’s no BS with him,” the two-time All-Star said. “He’s baseball through and through, but there’s a great person in there. He’s a seasoned vet, if you will.

“He’s a hard worker, he’s a good dad. I mean, all those things when you talk about the character of a good person, I’m not sure I have enough adjectives to do the justice he deserves, but he’s a special person and if anybody has a chance to settle this down, I think he’s the type of guy.”

NBC Sports Boston

Relationship with the young core

When Tracy is evaluated for the managerial role alongside more experienced candidates, he’ll have one significant advantage. During his time in Worcester, he had already built relationships with several key Red Sox players on their roads to the majors, such as Campbell, Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Wilyer Abreu, among others. Players might prefer that familiarity over starting from scratch with a new hire.

“Just being in this organization a couple of years, having some familiarity with the players already during spring training, that’s one thing that kind of made the transition a little easier for him and gives him kind of a leg up on other candidates,” Suarez said. “There’s relationships already established. Then it’s almost like, ‘OK, let’s just play the game. Let’s do what we’ve done our whole lives.’

“Still, the big-league level is very difficult, but I think that’s the one thing he has a leg up on. The experience with the young players coming up that we’ve had here in Triple-A, and just being able to have that relationship. That’s one thing that’s gonna help him hopefully get into a situation where he’s able to get the spot up there.”

With this year’s club, Tracy has his hands full. The Red Sox offense has been among MLB’s worst, ranking 29th in runs scored (181), 29th in home runs (36), and 26th in OPS (.680). Pitching has been a strength, but that only gets you so far when you can’t score.

Optimism around the club has been hard to come by, but you can find it in Worcester. Gedman, who experienced his fair share of ups and downs during his playing career in Boston from 1980 to 1990, believes Tracy & Co. can still right the ship.

“We have not seen the best of the Boston Red Sox yet,” Gedman said. “That could happen if Alex is there or not there. But the nice part is we get to talk about Trace, who gets the opportunity. Hopefully, he can steer the ship in the right direction. You get enough guys rowing in the right direction with him, they could become who they think they’re capable of being.”

Fresh off a three-game series sweep of the Kansas City Royals, the Red Sox (22-27) will look to stay hot when they begin a three-game set against the Minnesota Twins on Friday at Fenway Park.

The New York Mets, ranked fifth in the NL East with a 21-28 record, face the Washington Nationals, who are third in the NL East with a 25-25 record. The game is essentially a pick'em, with the Mets at -115 and the Nationals at -105. Starting pitchers are David Peterson for the Mets, with a 5.40 ERA, and Cade Cavalli for the Nationals, with a 4.05 ERA.

How to watch New York Mets vs Washington Nationals

• Date: Thursday, May 21

• Time: 4:05 p.m. ET / 1:05 p.m. PT

• Where: Nationals Park, Washington, DC

• TV Channels: NATS, SNY

• Live Stream:ESPN+, MLB.TV | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Team records

• New York Mets: 21-28 (fifth in NL East)

• Washington Nationals: 25-25 (third in NL East)

Odds

• Spread: New York Mets -1.5

• Moneyline: Washington Nationals -105 (49.0%) / New York Mets -115 (51.0%)

• Over/Under: 8

Starting pitchers

New York Mets: David Peterson (2-4, ERA: 5.40, K: 46, WHIP: 1.57)

Washington Nationals: Cade Cavalli (2-2, ERA: 4.05, K: 52, WHIP: 1.54)

Weather: 64°F at first pitch