Category: Sports News

Nine is divine! It sure wasn’t pretty. But in the end, that doesn’t really matter. The Cubs won their ninth consecutive game. It’s April, and so the two teams the Cubs faced in those nine games understandably have two of the worst records in baseball. For kicks, I pulled up MLB.com’s preseason baseball predictions for 2026. Their pick for the NL East? The Mets. In other choices? The Phillies were listed first. Baseball America? The Mets first followed by the Phillies with both making their playoff prediction. Two of their 10 writers had the Mets in the World Series (at this point, kudos to their one who had the Braves there).

My point is that we don’t know that both teams are bad, though certainly both are in disarray. There’s a lot of baseball to be played. This stretch of wins isn’t nothing. And it also doesn’t guarantee anything for anyone. I do suspect there is some residual value to sweeping a seven-game homestand. That can create some swagger and intimidation for teams coming in later. Is that worth a lot? No. But I also don’t think it’s nothing. I do think a team draws on the things they’ve done before. This team will remember ultimately prevailing even after the Phillies came off of the mat and fought back.

Obviously, it isn’t great that Caleb Thielbar appears to have been injured. It does appear that all four of the anticipated leverage relievers from opening day are now all hurt. Add to that the loss of Cade Horton, arguably the team’s best starter, and it is a scary development. At least in terms of all of those relievers, we expect them all back at some point.

The Cubs have been winning largely on the back of a very productive offense and a very strong defense. You won’t be able to find one stretch of games for any team in the league than the Cubs did. It was so striking that the few times the defense did let down, it was very striking. The seventh inning of this game was almost that way. The bullpen hasn’t had to do much. But today, they didn’t answer the bell when the Cubs needed them. I’m going to imagine that continues to be something they struggle with as they head west for the first time.

The offense, though, was terrific throughout the series. They added 18 more hits on Friday. The Phillies and their fans are likely to wake in a cold sweat remembering just a sea of Cub runners seemingly in every single inning of the series. What’s that old phrase? Who leaves a lot of runners on base? Teams that get a lot of runners on base. By OPS, the Cubs are up to third in the league. By on-base percentage, they now rank first. This series was a lot of that.

The team is getting contributions from so many different players. The crazy thing is that the team shows at No. 1 for OBP. But Nico leads the team with the 25th best OBP. It doesn’t feel congruent. Until you look under the hood. Carson Kelly (.440), Seiya Suzuki (.449), Moisés Ballesteros (.439), and Michael Conforto (.452). None of them would qualify for a batting title. They are 7th, 10th, 9th and 12th in at bats for this team. This coaching staff is doing a good job of putting guys into a position where they can succeed. Right now, when this team spins the wheels on the slot machine, they keep winning.

It’s a lot of fun while it lasts. How about number 10 for good old Ron Santo? Leon Durham was my first love with that number, but in the hearts and minds of Cubs fans, that number is emblematic of the nine time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove and long time partner of Pat Hughes. I’m not old enough to have seen him play, but I do have a favorite piece of Ron Santo trivial knowledge. Ron’s best season by bWAR was in 1967. In a seven year stretch from 1963-1969, that was the only one in which he wasn’t an All-Star. It was also his best finish in MVP voting (fourth).

Three Positives:

• Seiya Suzuki was an absolute beast in this game. Three hits, two walks, a homer, and two runs scored.
• Michael Busch had only two hits, but he made the most of it with four runs driven in, including a crazy three-run homer off Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez.
• This game was really two different games. In the first six innings, the star was Edward Cabrera, who looked like he might go the distance. Your mileage may vary, but I’m going to tip the cap to his excellent six innings of work and not the weird seventh inning.

Hat top to Carson Kelly with two singles, a double and a hit by pitch as well as Moisés Ballesteros with two doubles in two chances. The offense was an abundance of riches.

Game 25, April 23: Cubs 8, Phillies 7 (16-9)

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Michael Busch (.335). 2-6, HR, 4 RBI
• Hero: Seiya Suzuki (.326). 3-4, HR, 2 BB, RBI, 2 R
• Sidekick: Carson Kelly (.229). 3-5, 2B, HBP, 2 R

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Caleb Thielbar (-.429). 0 IP, 2 BF, H, BB, ER
• Goat: Nico Hoerner (-.199). 0-5, BB
• Kid: Jacob Webb (-.170). 0.1 IP, H, BB

WPA Play of the Game: Adolis Garcia homered off of Thielbar leading off the ninth inning to tie the game. (.341)

*Cubs Play of the Game: Seiya Suzuki’s homer leading off the bottom of the eighth inning. (.266)

Cubs Player of the Game:

Game 24 Winner: Alex Bregman got 80 of 170 votes.

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 3/Bottom 3)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Nico Hoerner +8.5
• Carson Kelly +8
• Michael Conforto/Shōta Imanaga +7
• Matt Shaw -7
• Jacob Webb -10
• Pete Crow-Armstrong -13

Up Next: If I’m going to do a bit, I’ll keep running it until it runs out of steam. The Cubs are on a 103.7 win pace. If they play one over for the remainder of the season, they win 85 games. Not too shabby. But it gets tougher here. The two-time defending champion Dodgers are 17-8. Only the Braves have been better at 18-8.

Jameson Taillon (1-1, 3.97, 22.2 IP) makes his fifth start of the year. It’s been a mixed bag, but he’s coming off of a terrific start against the Mets (6 IP, 1 ER). We are firmly in the part of the season where the Dodgers start guys I’ve never heard of. 26-year-old Emmet Sheehan (2-0, 5.85, 20 IP) makes his fifth start. He’s also coming off of a pretty good start (2 ER, 5 IP in Colorado). The sixth-round pick of the Dodgers in 2021 (192nd overall) is 12-4 in his career with a 4.04 ERA in 153.2 IP (27 starts, five relief appearances). I’m not yet losing my mind, he’s never faced the Cubs.

Friendly reminder to all that the Dodgers just lost two to the Rockies, so not all is lost yet

Diamondbacks News

(AZ Central via Yahoo!) Diamondbacks’ Sewald folds in 9th as Benintendi blast lifts White Sox

Maybe once or twice a year, Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald said, he will have the sort of outing in which he isn’t sure where the ball is going — and where he has to resort to hoping opposing hitters hit line drives at someone.

“Today,” Sewald said on Thursday, April 23, “was one of those days.”

(Arizona Sports) Diamondbacks snap series winning streak to White Sox

The Arizona Diamondbacks lost their first series since the opening weekend of the season, dropping the finale to the Chicago White Sox 4-1 at Chase Field on Thursday.

The game was tied 1-1 entering the ninth inning, but Paul Sewald surrendered two walks before Chicago’s Andrew Benintendi crushed a middle-middle fastball deep to right field.

After scoring 11 runs in a win on Wednesday, Arizona failed to score multiple runs for the first time since April 3.

(SI.com) What D-backs’ Brutal Series Loss to White Sox Told Us — And What it Didn’t

Utility infielder Ildemaro Vargas has been on quite the hot streak to open the season, and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Though no one can expect an OPS of 1.000-plus to continue for the duration of the season, Vargas’ efforts in this series certainly inspire confidence that he is capable of providing an offensive spark at the right moments.

He homered in his final at-bat of game one, then followed that up with back-to-back homers in game three, powering the D-backs to their lone win of the series.

(KJZZ) Ads for allegedly fake frozen yogurt company causing headaches for Diamondbacks, other MLB teams

There are ads throughout Chase Field, as there are throughout most MLB stadiums and arenas that house other sports.

But one ad, from one particular company, is causing headaches for the Arizona Diamondbacks and a few other sports franchises. And it happened to have a prominent spot at Chase Field during a memorable time in recent D-backs history.

Sam Blum is a staff writer at the Athletic covering Major League Baseball; he’s investigated this and joined The Show to talk more about it.

(AZ Family) Arizona Diamondbacks unveil redesigned specialty license plate

For those looking to jazz up their ride a bit.

MLB News

(MLB.com) With brain ‘on autopilot,’ Brazobán causes bullpen confusion in ninth

With his brain “on autopilot,” Brazobán forgot his instructions and reentered the playing field. Once he crossed the foul line, umpires ruled that Brazobán must face at least one batter, banishing Williams back to the bullpen. After taking a moment to refocus, Brazobán retired Austin Martin before giving way to Williams for the final two outs.

“I felt bad,” Brazobán said. “I was also a little bit embarrassed that I didn’t fully pay attention to what was going on. Sometimes when that happens, something bad can happen. But luckily I was able to go out there, get that out, and everything kind of went the way that it should have been by the end of it.”

(Sporting News) Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani batting struggles when pitching may force difficult Dave Roberts decision

On Wednesday night, Ohtani took the mound against the San Francisco Giants. This time, he was also in the lineup as a hitter. While he once again dominated as a pitcher, he struggled at the plate. His numbers when both pitching and hitting since his return suggest Roberts may need to make a difficult decision about using him as a designated hitter on those days.

“Shohei Ohtani’s on-base streak is in danger tonight. He is 0 for 3 with two weak ground outs and a K. Since resuming pitching last season, he has hit .203 (13 for 64) on days when he pitches,” Dodgers beat writer Bill Plunkett posted.

(CBC) Vancouver will actively pursue a Major League Baseball expansion team

Vancouver City Council has approved a motion to explore a bid for a Major League Baseball expansion team. But some sports experts say getting — and keeping — an MLB team would not be easy for a city with limited funds and space. (VIDEO)

The Yankees captured a good win on Thursday against the Red Sox. Cam Schlittler looked great once again, pitching eight innings, and a rally in the seventh on the backs of Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge propelled them to victory. Although the schedule was light around the American League, there were still a couple of games to keep tabs on, so let’s see how it played out.

Detroit Tigers (14-12) 5, Milwaukee Brewers (13-11) 4

In a back-and-forth affair, the Tigers took home a dramatic win on Thursday. In their second consecutive win over the Brewers, Detroit coasted on a solid Tarik Skubal effort in the beginning, before timely hitting late in the game sealed things.

They jumped out to an early lead too, as in the first inning Riley Greene belted a two-run shot to put his guys ahead with just his second long ball of the season.

From there, outside of an RBI double for Gary Sánchez, it was mostly smooth sailing for Skubal and the Tigers. Through the lefty’s first six innings of work, he had allowed just one earned run. In the seventh, however, the two-time Cy Young winner began to run into some trouble. After a pair of singles opened that inning for Milwaukee, a Blake Perkins double tied things up at three, just before David Hamilton’s knock suddenly put them up 4-3.

After spending nearly the entire game in the driver’s seat, the Tigers were now in need of a comeback. Of all people, it was pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones that came through in the clutch to tie things up once again.

With the game knotted up at four, these Central teams headed into the ninth with plenty of potential for drama. Trouble lurked as the Brewers had a couple of runners on with one out, but Detroit’s Brant Hurter (more like rally-hurter, huh?) induced a clutch inning-ending double play to silence the threat.

With a chance to win it the easy way in the ninth, the Tigers cashed in early, as with one out, Spencer Torkelson sent the Motor City fans home happy with a line-drive walk-off homer into the left field seats.

Texas Rangers (13-12) 6, Pittsburgh Pirates (14-11) 1

The Rangers coasted to an easy win on Thursday, riding on some early offense and a vintage Jacob deGrom effort on the mound.

The veteran righty and two-time Cy Young Award winner looked sharp for Texas in his fifth start of the season. Across 5.2 innings of work against the Pirates, deGrom allowed just one run on five hits and a walk, racking up an impressive 10 strikeouts along the way.

After a pair of scoreless innings on both sides, the Rangers broke through in the third inning in rather interesting fashion. With Josh Jung on base after a single, Evan Carter circled the bases the old-fashioned way, benefitting from a funky kick in the outfield for an instide-the-park home run.

The exhilarating lap around the bags had them up 2-0, and a Joc Pederson RBI made it three in the next inning. Later in the fourth, Corey Seager broke this one wide open with a towering three-run blast down the right field line to put his Rangers ahead 6-0.

With a sizeable lead in tow, it was smooth-sailing for the Rangers. Oneil Cruz pitched in with a solo homer to get the Pirates on the board, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough. The win puts Texas back above .500 at 13-12.

Morning everyone!

Ready for a new series? After taking two of three in Seattle the A’s had an off day to travel to Texas where they’re set to take on the Rangers for three games this weekend. Texas and the Athletics are tied atop the division at 13-12 each. These two squads just saw each other last week when they split a four-game series. One of these two teams will be leading the division by the end of the weekend.

Tonight’s starter for the A’s will be veteran Luis Severino. The Athletics’ Opening Night starter has been up and down over the first month of the season, and more down than up in recent outings. The A’s need more from their expensive staff leader as his 6.20 ERA is way below the expectations this team has for him. Texas will counter Severino with their own veteran right-hander in Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi was pitching like an ace last season before injuries sapped most of his campaign, and it seems that he hasn’t quite gotten back to where he was at that point. Entering tonight’s contest the 36-year-old will carry a 5.06 ERA. It’s fair to expect a lot of runs in the first game of the series.

Saturday evening’s contest features left-hander Jeffrey Springs going up against another lefty in MacKenzie Gore. Springs has been the unquestioned best pitcher for the Athletics over the first month of the season, though he’s coming off a disastrous outing that saw him allow seven earned runs. That was almost double what he’d allowed all year up to that point, and it shot his ERA up from 1.46 to the 3.34 mark he’ll bring into Saturday’s contest. Gore meanwhile is coming into Saturday’s game on a similar trajectory as Springs: a solid start, and most recently had his worst start of the young season. Expect a righty-heavy lineup for this game.

And finally, the series wraps up on Sunday afternoon with a matchup between young right-handers J.T. Ginn and Kumar Rocker. Ginn has been solid in each of his first three starts so far, pitching into the sixth inning in his previous two outings. The team would love to see more of that and Ginn would certainly like to further solidify his spot in the starting rotation. Rocker meanwhile is quietly off to a solid start to his season for the Rangers, pitching to a 3.48 in the early going. This could end up being the rubber match and it’ll feature two of these organizations’ better pitching prospects. The future is here guys.

First pitch tonight is at 5:05 Pacific. Have a great weekend everyone!

A’s Coverage:

• Kurtz ‘starting to get back to himself’ — and that’s a scary prospect
• Denzel Clarke placed on IL with bone bruise in foot; OF Thomas recalled
• Athletics take down Mariners 5-2
• It Might Be Time For Some Crosby Love
• Lawrence Butler’s Rough Start Comes With a Big Asterisk
• Lawrence Butler Says He Wants Mariners Fans to “Go Home Sad”
• A’s roster moves: Basso recalled, Barnett optioned
• Do-Overs For (Almost) Everyone In The AL West
• Today Is A Day Of Special Meaning — For More Than One Reason
• A’s Top Pitching Prospects Are Dominating to Start 2026
• A’s top prospect Leo De Vries pops his first two homers of the season at Double-A
• Armchair 101: The Challenge Of Judging Decisions In Real Time
• AN Exclusive: Blogfather Observes The Wild Denzelope In Its Natural Habitat
• AN Exclusive: Blogfather Toes The Rubber With Pitching Coach Scott Emerson
• AN Exclusive: Blogfather Catches Up With Starting Pitcher Jacob Lopez

MLB News and Interest:

• Mets finally get back in win column, but Lindor injury tempers celebration
• Early MLB 2026 trade deadline preview for all 30 teams
• Former Ohio substitute teacher makes first appearance in front of hometown crowd
• Taiwanese fans go out of their way to thank Fairchild for epic Classic
• 2026 MLB draft rankings: Top 85 prospects, mini-mock draft
• MLB 2026: Inside the rise of 100 mph pitching velocity
• Small market MLB teams are outperforming big payrolls
• Giants place red-hot rookie Susac on IL with elbow injury
• Ohtani extends on-base streak to 53, tying for longest in LA history
• Cubs’ Craig Counsell Calls Out ‘Bizarre’ MLB Rule That Helps Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers
• Phillies’ Zack Wheeler set to return Saturday vs. Braves
• To the moon! Murakami homers in 4th straight game in historic start
• Aaron Boone: Cole needs more rehab outings
• Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier Projected To Return In 5-7 Weeks
• Guardians’ Austin Hedges gets engaged on field following game
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

ICYMI:

Thoughts?

Update on the new ballpark:

Series Preview

#20 Nebraska Cornhuskers (31-10, 15-3 B1G) at Illinois Fighting Illini (20-19, 8-10 B1G)

Location: Illinois Field, Champaign, IL

Dates: April 24-26th

Times (all CDT): Friday @ 6pm , Saturday @ 3pm, Sunday @ 1pm

Coaches: Will Bolt (7th season, 201-136-1) & Dan Hartleb (21st season, 617-462-1)

TV/Stream: All games on B1G+

Radio: All Nebraska games on Huskers Radio Network, Huskers.com, Huskers App

“You broke their hearts, now go and take their souls!” That was the final phase of the Huskers’ team meeting Friday night after a big comeback win, exclaimed by pitching coach Rob Childress. And that really epitomized the approach the team took the remainder of the biggest weekend in at least 11 years at Hawks Field. That propelled the Huskers up the RPI ladder, where they now sit at 13. That puts them right in the thick of the battle to host a regional, one of the major goals for Will Bolt each year. Taking care of business with nothing like the 2021 Rutgers sweeping them at home, should mean we see June baseball in Lincoln.

Coach Dan Hartleb (somehow in his 21st season) and Illinois are stuck in the middle of the slog of the Big Ten. They sit at 8th with an 8-10 record, with 6 teams either tied in wins or within a game of them in the standings. They’ve basically won the series against the teams they should have (Minnesota, Rutgers, and Penn State) and have lost to the teams you’d expect them to (USC, Purdue, and Oregon).

The major thing the Illini have going for them is that they are finishing up a 3 week home stand, and Nebraska has been living on a bus since the USC series ended. But they are only 5-4 in the home stand against some “meh” teams, other than Oregon. They are going to be striving to not drop close to the 12 spot and be in danger of missing the Big Ten Tournament field.

Pitching Preview

Game 1: RHP Cooper Katskee (5-0, 4.02 ERA) vs. LHP Regan Hall (5-4, 5.37 ERA)

Game 2: RHP Carson Jasa (7-1, 3.93 ERA) vs. RHP Mitch Dye (1-0, 5.35 ERA)

Game 3: RHP Gavin Blachowicz (3-1, 3.02 ERA) vs. TBD

It’s safe to say Cooper Katskee’s first Friday night start didn’t go as planned. 5 earned runs on 6 hits and 5 walks in 3 innings against an average USC offense put Nebraska in a hole against the best pitcher in the conference. Katskee admitted he may have been a little too excited to start his first Friday night game in scarlet and cream, and may have overdone his preparation, which was also on a shorter week with the move from Sundays. Let’s see how a normal week lets him rebound.

From the first inning, Carson Jasa was in control against USC. He was hitting 97 mph on his fastball with ease, and had his big 12-6 curve working maybe the best it has all season to mix with his slider and cutter. He struck out 7 and didn’t give up a run until the 7th and final inning. He gave up both of his runs and 3 of his 5 hits on the day in that inning. He’d obviously run out of gas, but with some big arms doing lots of work Friday night, powering through for a complete game was a huge help to the bullpen.

In his return to the Sunday slot, Gavin Blachowicz also had a rough start, walking the bases loaded, tossing a wild pitch, and giving up back to back home runs in the 2nd inning. With the bullpen fully rested, the coaches wasted no time in going to new long reliever Ty Horn to steady the ship. Sweeping a ranked team despite 2 starters only tossing a couple innings each is beyond difficult and just shows the resolve of this team.

Regan Hall has been the Friday night ace for the Illini all season and has pulled off some big victories, including against Coastal Carolina. However, his last outing against Oregon makes Katskee and Blachowicz USC lines look like they were Roger Clemons and Pedro Martinez. Hall gave up eleven (ELEVEN!!!) runs on 11 hits with 2 doubles, a triple and 3 home runs by the Ducks in only 3.2 innings. His ERA jumped from 3.83 to 5.37. Woof. Hall has struck out 49 and only walked 11 in 55 innings. So he is coming right at you.

After being a lights out reliever for the first month and a half of the season, Mitch Dye was inserted into the starting rotation. He had gone 4 straight appearances without allowing a run, and in his first start against Minnesota, only gave up a single run in 4.3 innings. Since then his ERA has gone from 2.31 to 5.35. But injuries and ineffectiveness of other starters force him to remain in the weekend starting role. The Sunday slot is not yet declared, as the team weighs going with

Scouting Report

The Illini offense is nothing like it was in 2024 when they won the Big Ten regular season crown by just mashing the ball all over, and out of, the yard. They are in the bottom half of nearly every offensive statistic. One thing they do is take a ton of pitches, trying to both draw walks and get a team to its bullpen. They are only 13th in the B1G in batting average at .269, but tied for 3rd in walks. You have to attack them.

The player that has been the most steady performer on offense has been a freshman first baseman, AJ Putty. Putty has worked himself into being the team’s cleanup batter, leading the team with a .338 batting average. He also leads the team in extra base hits with 20 (11 doubles, a triple and 8 home runs), and RBIs with 43. He really looks to be the guy they can build around in years to come, if they can hang on to him. He is an home grown Illinois kid, so its not out of the question.

Leadoff batter and outfielder Nick Groves is one of the harder outs to get on the team. He is batting .320, but adds a team leading 30 walks to push his OBP to .451. The Senior outfielder loves to show off his speed. He is a team best 11 for 15 on stolen bases and also leads the team with 3 triples on the year. He currently has an on-base streak of 42, good for 4th in Illinois history. The team’s Director of Player Development Cam McDonald is the program record holder at 63.

The best power bat in the Illinois lineup is outfielder Collin Jennings. At 6’5” 215 lbs, he is an imposing centerfielder. He led the team in home runs and slugging last year, and is leading in home runs again this year. He currently has 10 home runs, and is second on the team with 31 RBIs.

The Illinois bullpen is fairly average. They have decent numbers that that are around the middle of the Big Ten teams, except for their walks. The staff as a whole only averages 3.5 walks per 9 innings, which is 3rd in the Big Ten behind UCLA and Michigan State at 3.2 and 3.4.

Reed Gannon is the top option in the bullpen. He leads the team with 16 appearances, and 3 saves. He can go multiple innings, having gone 5 innings against Penn State earlier in the season. He has 25 strikeouts and 6 walks in 32.1 innings of work on the year. Expect him to get a lot of work if one of the games still seems in the mix.

Sam Reed is another oft used left handed reliever. His ERA is only 3.27, but his other numbers suggest that should be higher. He only has 13 strikeouts to go with 8 walks in 22 innings of work. Batters are hitting .253 against him, which is very high for someone with that ERA. He makes up for that with only having allowed 6 extra base hits. He is quite the enigma with all of his numbers.

The young arm that seems to have the most upside is sophomore Sam Mommer. He is a transfer from Wisconsin-Parkside a D-II school where he won the conference freshman of the year last year before transferring to Illinois for this year. He has made 12 appearances, including 3 starts, with a bullpen best 2.45 ERA. He has 23 strikeouts and 11 walks in 25.2 innings on the year.

Illinois has a very good defense, fielding the ball at 97.8%.

Series History

Illinois owns a 16-15 all time record against Nebraska (Illinois claims it is 18-15). Nebraska won the last series in 2023. The last time the teams met in Champaign, you might remember the 5 hours worth of weather delays during the series finale. Nebraska was making a late season push to try and make the Big Ten Tournament, so was willing to stay as late as possible to try for a win, but gave up a run in the bottom of the 9th to lose 5-4. Then they would get tarp-ed the next week by Purdue. #NeverForget

On Deck

• Drew Grego, current Big Ten co-Player of the Week and Freshman of the week, has 33 RBIs on the season. Thats 6th most by a freshman this century. He is 1 behind Brice Matthews (2021), and 4 behind Pat Kelly (2012).
• Dylan Carey and Mac Moyer are tied for 2nd in the Big Ten with 65 hits, and Nebraska is the only team in the country with 2 players over 65 hits.
• The 36 runs Nebraska scored in the USC series, is its second highest total in a Big Ten series. Against the team that led the conference in ERA.
• Carson Jasa has 77 strikeouts on the year, 5th most in Nebraska’s Big Ten era, and 3 behind Emmett Olson (2023).

If you haven’t been a watcher of the cinematic recaps that the athletic department puts out, check out one of the best ones, the recap of the USC series.

Columbus Clippers 5, Buffalo Bisons 6 (F/10)

Clippers fall to 12-12

Columbus should have pulled this game off. The Clippers rallied for four runs in the top of the ninth inning to take a 5-4 lead, but Cody Heuer picked a terrible time to surrender his first run of the season in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings.

Then in the 10th inning, after Columbus failed to score, Franco Aleman, who also had not allowed an earned run all season, kept his streak alive — although the ghost runner scored to lose the game.

Kahlil Watson had the lone multi-hit game, going 2-for-5 with a stolen base. Milen Tolentino walked twice and stole a base and Petey Halpin tripled and walked.

Travis Bazzana’s hot streak continued as well, as he went 1-for-4 with a home run, a walk and a stolen base. He continues to look like he’s right on the verge of a call-up should Juan Brito continue to struggle on defense.

Akron RubberDucks 2, Bowie Baysox 5

RubberDucks fall to 11-7

Akron had no business losing this game.

The RubbereDucks collected nine hits and walked eight times, but managed just two runs because they went a putrid 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

Angel Genao led the way, going 2-for-3 with two walks. Jacob Cozart also had a great game, going 2-for-4 with a two-run home run and a walk, accounting for all of Akron’s scoring on the day.

Christian Knapczyk went 2-for-5 with a double while Alex Mooney went 1-for-2 with two walks and Guy Lipscomb walked twice.

Starting pitcher Cam Favors was decent, allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits with six strikeouts and a walk in 6.0 innings.

Carter Rustad added 2.0 innings, allowing an unearned run with three strikeouts.

Lake County Captains 7, West Michigan Whitecaps 1

Captains improve to 9-9

Braylon Doughty was the story of this game as his spectacular start to the 2026 season continues. Doughty was flat out impressive, allowing one run on five hits in 5.0 innings with eight strikeouts and zero walks.

The bullpen didn’t give up a run over the remaining four innings.

Offensively, Maick Collado had himself a game, going 2-for-5 with a home run and a double. Ryan Cesarini also went 2-for-5 with a home run.

Other standouts included Jaison Chourio, who went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk and Dean Curley, who went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk. Catching prospect Bennett Thompson went 1-for-2 with a double and three walks.

Hill City Howlers 4, Hickory Crawdads 6

Howlers improve to 10-8

Joey Oakie was good, not great, but he pitched well enough to give the Howlers a chance to win before a late bullpen blowup cost Hill City.

Oakie allowed one run on two hits in 4.0 innings, but he walked five batters while striking out two.

Jervis Alfaro also pitched 4.0 innings. His first three innings were great, but then he got lit up in the eighth inning for five runs.

Robert Arias remains scorching at the plate. The 19-year-old blasted his third home run of the season, also his third in the last five games, while going 2-for-4 with a stolen base. If he keeps this up, he skyrockets up my prospect rankings into not just the top 10, but possibly the top five.

No one else had a multi-hit game, although Anthony Martinez went 1-for-3 with a home run and a walk and Dauri Fernandez doubled.

Okay, I don’t have a great title for this one, but this is probably less a question post than a thoughts post, just masquerading as a daily question post.

With the best record in baseball, the Braves are surprising to probably everyone, except maybe themselves. I thought they’d be good, but not best-team-in-baseball good. Sure, a good team can play like the best team for a month (a bad team can play like the best team for a month), but it’s still surprising when it happens. Component-wise, coming into the season, the most common complaining refrain was about the rotation. I thought the rotation would be fine — maybe not great, but above-average. Through the Braves’ first 26 games, the rotation is instead, “funny” moreso than anything else: 78/106/99, ranking 23rd in FIP-, 16th in xFIP-, but third in ERA- thanks to the defense behind the arms. I’m not sure who, if anyone, was right about the rotation at this point, and it’ll work itself out in one way or another in the coming months, anyway.

My bigger concern was the middle infield. Ha-Seong Kim needed a bounceback, even before he (re-)injured himself in the offseason. Mauricio Dubon was a great get as a utility fill-in that could play a realistically good shortstop, but would be stretched as a quality regular. And then, we come to Ozzie Albies, whose career had been petering out. I won’t rehash the whole thing here (see his player review for 2025 if you want more), but Albies finished 2025 with a career-low 87 wRC+, a sub-.300 xwOBA (.299), below-average defense at second base for the third time in three years, and just 1.3 fWAR despite getting 667 PAs. Oh, and on top of that, he fractured his hamate bone late in the season, an injury that’s known to sap power for a long duration even after the player returns to the lineup.

Well, Kim is still injured, and we’ll get to Dubon another time. But Albies? At a surface level, joke’s on me: his career looks resuscitated. He has a 126 wRC+, the lowest strikeout rate of his career, and 0.7 fWAR, i.e., paced at 3.8 fWAR per 600 PAs (or 4.4 for 162 games). Albies is back, right? Maybe he’ll even get another extension to hang around and produce for the team in his 30s, which would be more aesthetically pleasing than tearing apart the Ronald Acuña Jr.-Albies BFFship, right?

Well… not so fast, maybe. Despite Albies’ fantastic plate results so far, he’s rocking a .296 xwOBA. His average exit velocity is down over two mph from last year, which was already about a mph off from 2023-2024. He’s posting a career-low barrel rate, and his xwOBACON is below .300, which is something I haven’t seen from anyone over three-four weeks, maybe ever. While he’s historically really only hit fastballs, his performance against non-fastballs is even worse now than ever before. On top of this, he’s making less contact while not generating any power. Inputs-wise, essentially, he does look like a logical progression from a poor 2025 while coming off a hamate bone injury. Which is sad, because we all want Albies to stick around and succeed, but…

If there’s one positive, it’s that Albies seems to have improved defensively, reversing the trend of him being a minus at the keystone. It’s a tiny sample, and his arm strength is still getting worse, now to the point where it’s essentially the worst throwing arm for an fielder that has to make throws in baseball. But, in the 2023-2025 stretch, he only had five positive defensive months at second, and 2026 has started off with one so far, as part of a teamwide defensive showcase. So, it’s not all bad.

Bottom line, Albies remains in an awkward position. The only thing that’s not awkward is that the vibes (and outputs) are approaching immaculate. So long as the team keeps winning, there won’t be many complaints; so long as he’s massively outhitting his xwOBA (a top ten overperformance), nothing’s gonna happen. But, we know these things don’t last, not even for habitual xwOBA overperformers like Albies, so… I dunno. Is Ozzie Albies on the rebound? I’ll still hope so, but it isn’t looking that way right now.

(I didn’t fit it in here, but Albies stopped hitting lefties well last year, and he’s continuing to have an issue there this year, with a sub-.250 xwOBA against them that he’s also massively outhitting.)

Happy Friday, everyone! Extra happy that the Tigers do not need to play the Brewers today. Their exceptionally short trip back to Detroit is over and they’re on their way to Cincinnati to play the Reds this weekend. We’ve got some fun news bites to keep you occupied until tonight’s game. We’ll break down the numbers on Kevin McGonigle’s contract, see the broadcast crew do their best lip sync routine, and in one of the best things the Tigers have released on social media recently, we figure out what kind of fish each Tigers player is.

Let’s just jump right into it.

Detroit Tigers News

• This is so fun, I hope they do more of these.

• An overview of the Kevin McGonigle extension.

• A quick reminder of one of the more baffling moments in last night’s game where a home run suddenly became two balls.

• Daniella Bruce getting the guys to let loose.

• If Skenes starts today, it’s going to be a rare treat for the Brewers after their game against Skubal last night.

AL Central News

• The Royals are teaming up with Hallmark, and it’s not for a seasonal sports-themed Christmas movie, but rather for a new stadium.

MLB News

• How playing the piano kept Max Scherzer from quitting baseball.
• How many fastballs does Cam Schlittler have? Too many.
• Brice Turang keeps getting better every year. How is he making it possible?
• Shohei Ohtani’s ERA is a mere 0.38 so far this season.
• Jesus Luzardo has been good, so why don’t his numbers show it?
• Just how bad are the poor season starts by the Mets and Phillies? Let’s check the standings.
• Will Klein’s glove is sure to make any Pokémon fan jealous.
• Garrett Crochet’s rough season is only the start of Boston’s problems.
• The Mets finally ended their 12-game losing skid, but an injured Francisco Lindor means the hits just keep coming.
• Nolan McLean might be the one true bright spot in the Mets’ miserable season.
• That’s one way to get a run I suppose.

• Do you want to feel especially smart today?

• In baseball, you see something new every day.