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The Mariners stunk it up real bad at home against the Royals and now have to face one of baseball’s hottest teams in the Atlanta Braves. Should be fine, right? 

Both of these teams are banged up pretty badly so we might as well do an injury roundup for both teams:

The Mariners will remain without Brendan Donovan for the series, although he’s set to begin a rehab assignment this week and will hopefully join the team this weekend in Chicago. Victor Robles is also nearing a return, but likely not for this series as he’s just started rehabbing in Tacoma. Cal Raleigh remains day-to-day with side tightness. The Mariners will also be missing setup man Matt Brash for a while longer as he deals with lat inflammation.

For Atlanta, they recently put Ronald Acuña Jr. on the 10-day IL with a hamstring strain. As obliques and lats stalk the Mariners, leg injuries seem to the the Braves’ běte noir; Michael Harris Jr. also has a balky quad and will likely be limited to DH duties during this series. However, that creates a logjam with catcher Sean Murphy, who will return this series after off-season hip labrum surgery and will also need to be limited to DH duties. Ha-Seong Kim has just begun a rehab assignment and won’t make the trip to Seattle. Spencer Strider returned from the IL to make his first start of the year on Sunday, but was battered in Coors Field, leading to a heavy bullpen day on Sunday. Atlanta is also currently without their closer Raisel Iglesias, albeit a less bitter pill thanks to their signing of former Padres bullpen ace Robert Suarez this winter — though it sounds like Iglesias will be activated off the IL on Tuesday as soon as he’s eligible. That’s all compounded by Atlanta missing four of its potential rotation arms due to major surgery this spring or last fall, with AJ Smith-Shawver, Hurston Waldrep, Joey Wentz, and Spencer Schwellenbach all sidelined still for months to come.

All those absences and a few more from their bullpen depth have left Atlanta with a pathway to victory forged in prodigious offense outlays. The Team of the South spent several years as the most viable peer on paper to the Los Angeles Dodgers, boasting a blend of stellar players from their internal development and savvy external acquisitions, with extensions signed on their core players well below market rate allowing them to pay far less than the performance they’ve received would suggest. This year, their glovework in particular has helped them buoy a beleaguered rotation, with Gold Glovers at shortstop, first base, and even on the mound in Chris Sale, alongside strong defenders around the outfield.

Perplexing at the time and blessed in hindsight, Houston traded away Mauricio Dubón to Atlanta for light-hitting infielder Nick Allen this winter. The cost-saving move also saved the Astros from the indignity of paying a good player, allowing Dubón to slot into a roster so well I had to double-check he’d not been a Brave before. With Acuña out, Seattle gets a reprieve in the slightest degree, but he’s been a more modest engine for the Atlanta offense. Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies are longtime stalwarts, albeit Albies having a scalding hot opening to the year. Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II look like their Rookie of the Year (or RoY-caliber) selves. Harris has been nursing a quad injury, so he’ll cede defensive ground to the speedy-but-thumpless White. Hotlanta is slightly more vulnerable as such, but it’s a bit like saying fighting a leopard in the daylight is easy compared to doing so at night.

Probable Pitchers 

Updated Stuff+ Explainer 

• Stuff+ scores for Mariners starters

Due to all the injuries the Braves have suffered in their starting rotation, JR Ritchie made his major league debut a little ahead of schedule. A 2022 first round pick out of Bainbridge High School, he quickly bounced back from a serious arm injury in ‘23 and jumped through Atlanta’s farm system. None of his skills truly stand out, but the sum of the whole package is an above average pitcher. His command is good enough, his fastballs have decent enough shape, and he has a deep enough repertoire to work through a lineup a couple of times. He won’t be dominant, but he’s good enough to hold down a spot towards the back of a rotation.

Bryce Elder has been a surprising stabilizing force in the Braves rotation. An All-Star back in 2023, he’s really struggled over the last two years, putting up a combined 5.59 ERA and a 4.55 FIP in ‘24 and ‘25. He’s made some subtle tweaks to his pitch arsenal and has looked solid across his first seven starts of this season. He added a cutter to his mix, and even though the pitch doesn’t really stand out, it has allowed him to cut back on the usage of his sinker. He’s now throwing his slider, his best pitch, as his primary pitch and increased the usage of his four-seamer as well. The results have been fantastic even if the underlying peripherals aren’t as impressed with his skills. Still, it’s vastly improved over his ugly performance from the last two years; that’s all the Braves needed at this point in the season.

Grant Holmes made the leap into the big leagues back in 2024 after a long and winding minor league career. The key to his late-career breakout was a revamped slider that helped him boost his strikeout rates up into the 24–25% range. An elbow injury affected his command last year and his results slid a little and he’s continued to struggle to start this season. He’s got a deep repertoire to work with, though the rest of his pitches are merely average at best. The slider is devastating, however, returning a whiff rate approaching 50% this year. 

The Big Picture:

Seattle’s embarrassing sweep – The Big P-Unit – at the hands of the Royals was another masterclass in what’s ailed these M’s. One-run and close losses with meat left on the bone. And yet, it lost them a whopping single game of positioning against the Athletics and Rangers. They saw their faces rubbed in the mud by the joint division leaders of the AL Central, the Guardians and Tigers respectively. The Lastros are no more, having sludged their way out of the sewer, taking two out of three from the similarly moribund Red Sox. Anaheim is in free-fall, dropping two of three to the Mets and having lost 12 of their last 14 games since their 11-10 start.

Happy Monday.

So there is a little bit of good news, Louis Varland was named AL reliever of the month. He pitched a bunch, 16 innings, 0.56 ERA, 1.0 WAR, 4 saves. Batters hit .200/.277/.254 against him.

We are pretty lucky to have him, I don’t know who would be closing games for us without him. Maybe they continue this way all season, Hoffman in a setup role, which seems to be going fine and Varland in the closer role. Or they could mix and match depending on who they want to have different guys face.

Tyler Rogers, Braydon Fisher, Spencer Miles and Joe Mantiply are all pitching well.

And Hoffman has a 3.38 ERA in his 6 games, giving up a run in each of two games, with 1 walk and 8 strikeouts in in the 5.1 innings. It’s a start.

The stuff between John Schneider and Tyler Heineman, in yesterday’s game, was weird. If John had such a problem with the way Heineman was playing, why didn’t he pinch hit for him in that spot. I get the feeling that John was mad at himself for not pinch hitting. Which is fair, I was kind of mad at him for not pinch hitting.

I don’t like managers being that public with their dislike of what a player is doing. I think things like that should be private. And, beyond that, Schneider knows what Heineman is. I mean, Schneider was the same sort of player, good glove/bad bat. If he doesn’t like Heineman’s play, why put him in the lineup. Why not talk to the front office about finding a better option.

Despite last years play, or at least the play from the first half of last year, Heineman is not a hitter. Expecting him to be one is not going to end well.

And, if John is going to start taking guys out of the lineup for a bad at bat, we are going to be forfeiting a lot of games.

John Sterling passed away at 87.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t a fan. One year, when we were on holiday, I ended up listening to him call some Yankees/Blue Jays games and I hated that he mispronounced some player’s names, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion others. And, it bothered me. I mean Bautista was one of the top players in the league. You should be able to get that one right, if your job is to be a radio announcer.

But, he had the job a long time. Called 5420 regular season games, 5,060 consecutive games. Yankees’ fans liked him. He was enthusiastic. He was different. Different is a good thing, he wasn’t boring.

Maybe I’d have liked him better if he didn’t work for the godless Yankees.

Addison Barger hit a home run in his first rehab start, and took a walk, with a ground out as well. I think the plan is for him to play three rehab games.

Addison didn’t have a great start to the season, with 1 hit in 23 PA. So, expecting him to be great as soon as he comes back might be a little hopeful, but it will be good to have him back.

Tonight’s game is a 6:30 start. Nick Martinez starts for the Rays. Eric Lauer will…..pitch at some point. He wasn’t happy with the opener thing last time against. But then, you want change, pitch better. Lauer has a 6.00 ERA in 27 innings this year. Pitch well, and he’ll likely get to be the starter next time around. Pitch crappy, and this if the best you can hope for.

As has been speculated since his acquisition, and propitiated by the season ending hip surgery required by Ryan Pepiot, the Rays have formally started the transition of Griffin Jax to a starting role, and in doing so Jax has reintroduced his cutter. It’s already helping him handle left-handed hitters more effectively, and should help the transition to starting as well.

Jax entered the 2026 season projected toward the top of the Rays bullpen depth chart, particularly given his success in a relief role after being converted by the Twins, but when the season began it was a struggle for Jax to fend off lefties.

Prior to his appearance on 4/26/2026, across the first 25 left-handed batters faced, Jax issued four walks, struck out five, allowed six hits, and gave up two home runs – good for a 10.80 ERA and 8.73 FIP. The sample is small, but the underlying indicators weren’t encouraging either: below-average strike rates, elevated hard contact, and a lack of swing-and-miss.

Since reintroducing the cutter as he has transitions to a starting role, the results have began to trend in a more positive direction against lefties. Jax has gone from not using his cutter at all against lefties to using it 16.7% of the time across his last two outings.

Jax’s cutter, like most cutters, serves as a useful weapon against opposite-handed hitters. Its movement allows it to get in on the hands of lefties, often inducing weaker contact. As a “bridge” pitch, it sits between fastballs and breaking balls in both velocity and movement. That typically limits its swing-and-miss upside, but it plays an important role in sequencing while giving him a pitch that he can land for strikes.

In Jax’s case, the cutter helps support his best pitch: the sweeper.

League-wide trends suggest hitters have become more comfortable against sweepers, particularly from right-handed pitchers. Since Jax entered the league in 2021, performance against sweepers has gradually improved:

While 2026 is still a small sample, the broader trend is clear: hitters are handling sweepers better than they did a few years ago. Increased exposure and tools like Trajekt machines have likely contributed to that adjustment.

For a pitcher like Jax, whose profile is heavily built around a once-outlier breaking ball, adaptation becomes necessary.

That’s where the cutter comes in.

Against right-handed hitters, Jax can still lean heavily on his fastball-sweeper combination. But against lefties, he needed a more effective plan.

The cutter helps create that plan by pairing with his changeup. Both pitches operate in the lower-90s velocity band, but with different movement profiles. There are roughly 17 inches of horizontal separation between the cutter and changeup – less than the gap between his changeup and sweeper, which exceeds 27 inches.

While it might seem like a smaller difference in movement and velocity might hinder his effectiveness, it actually works in Jax’s favor by improving how well the pitches tunnel out of the same window.

Cutter

Changeup

The result is a more cohesive approach against left-handed hitters: two pitches that look similar early, diverge late, and disrupt timing in different ways. https://twitter.com/raysmetrics/status/2048791611367133613?s=46

Jax can still mix in his sweeper to lefties as a third look, particularly deeper into outings, but it no longer needs to carry the load against them.

There’s an inherent tradeoff here. Jax is increasing usage of a lesser pitch at the expense of his best one, and most pitch models won’t love that. But pitching isn’t just about maximizing individual pitch quality; it’s about disrupting timing and forcing uncomfortable decisions. The league is better equipped to handle sweepers from right-handed pitchers than it was a few years ago, so adjusting to that reality is part of staying effective.

Jax appears to be making that adjustment, and the early returns are encouraging.

If this approach holds, we could see Jax settle into something like a three-pitch mix against lefties: four-seamer, changeup, and cutter. Each of these could be used at relatively similar rates with occasional breaking balls mixed in. Against righties, a more traditional fastball-sweeper approach should remain intact while he occasional dips into his arsenal for a different look.

It’s still early, but this is the kind of in-season adjustment that can meaningfully change a pitcher’s trajectory. Jax’s ability to adapt like this will be key to sustaining the success he’s shown in the past regardless of whether he continues to get stretched out to start or moves back into high leverage in the bullpen.

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The San Diego Padres visit the San Francisco Giants for a three-game NL West showdown at Oracle Park beginning Monday, May 4.

My top Padres vs. Giants predictions and MLB picks are calling for San Fran to lose a seventh consecutive game tonight.

Who will win Padres vs Giants today: Padres moneyline (-130)

The San Francisco Giants are last in baseball in wOBA against right-handed pitchers and are turning to Trevor McDonald for his first start of the season Monday.

McDonald sports a worrisome 5.40 ERA and 6.24 xFIP across 15 minor-league innings with Triple A Sacramento, while the San Diego Padres have sneaky righty Randy Vasquez on the bump.

While Vasquez has had some hiccups, it’s hard to argue with his 2.94 ERA and 3.76 xFIP while holding opponents to a .665 OPS through six starts.

COVERS INTEL: A large part of San Diego Padres starter Randy Vasquez’s early success is his 12.4 swinging-strike percentage checking in miles above his 6.7% mark from 2025.

Padres vs Giants Over/Under pick: Under 8.5 (-132)

The Giants aren’t the only team struggling against righties, with the Friars ranking 22nd in wOBA and also playing to the Under in 29 of their past 50 road games (+7.35 Units / 13% ROI).

Additionally, San Fran has only scored 2.5 runs per game while losing eight of its past 10, and San Diego has scored just 2.6 per during its active 4-1 slump.

Padres vs Giants odds

• Moneyline: Padres -135 | Giants +115
• Run line: Padres -1.5 (+120) | Giants +1.5 (-140)
• Over/Under: Over 8 (-110) | Under 8 (-110)

Padres vs Giants trend

The Padres have won 31 of their last 50 games (+8.85 Units / 13% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Padres vs. Giants.

How to watch Padres vs Giants and game info

Padres vs Giants latest injuries

Padres vs Giants 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.

TUESDAY

Bo Bichette became the first Met to homer on the first pitch the Mets saw since Brandon Nimmo off Adam Wainwright on June 17, 2023

Craig Kimbrel struck out three batters swinging in an outing for the 63rd time in his career, but only the fifth time since the start of 2022. One of those came against the Mets in the second-to-last game of the 2023 season, when he fanned Tim Locastro, DJ Stewart, and Tuesday’s catcher Francisco Alvarez swinging.

The Mets had a shutout victory while scoring eight runs or more at Citi Field. They’ve done that five times in the past five seasons, and four of those five have come against the Nationals; a 10-1 win on May 31, 2022, an 8-0 win October 4, 2022, a 10-0 win on September 18, 2024, and Tuesday. Speaking of that second one…

WEDNESDAY 

The homer Curtis Mead hit off Carl Edwards Jr. was the third homer Edwards has allowed at Citi Field. The first was hit by someone of the same first name as Mead – Curtis Granderson, on  June 14, 2017. The second was hit by the man behind the plate for Mead’s homer – Francisco Alvarez, who hit his first big league homer off Edwards on October 4, 2022.

The Mets tallied 15 K’s but lost by 12 runs. It’s only the third time in the modern era that a team has recorded that many strikeouts while losing by that great a margin. The Twins did it in a 15-2 loss against the Orioles on July 9, 2023, and the Padres did it in a 13-1 loss in Washington on July 25, 2009.

The Mets lost by 12 runs for the first time since July 5, 2024, when they lost by an identical score of 14-2 in Pittsburgh.

THURSDAY

Freddy Peralta’s 1-0, 98-mph fastball to Jorbit Vivas in the top of the sixth inning was the fastest pitch he’s thrown as a Met, and the fastest he’s thrown since a 98.5-mph fastball to Nico Hoerner on August 18, 2025.

CJ Abrams hit only the second go-ahead home run against the Mets in the eighth inning or later at Citi Field since the arrival of Grimace in June 2024. The other also came off the bat of a Nat, when Daylen Lile hit a two-run, inside-the-park homer in the top of the 11th on September 20, 2025.

FRIDAY

Since debuting in 2023, Ronny Mauricio has now had 6 extra-base hits with an exit velocity of 110 mph or higher out of 19 total XBH (31.6%). It’s a small sample size, but of players with at least 10 XBH since 2023, that percent ranks ninth behind Munetaka Murakami, Giancarlo Stanton, Oneil Cruz, Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Carter Jensen, James Wood, and Ronald Acuña Jr.

SATURDAY

Nolan McLean’s four-inning start snapped a streak of 14 straight outings with five or more innings pitched to begin his career. The last MLB pitcher to do that was Matt Harvey, who began his career with 44 straight outings of five or more innings pitched until only lasting four on May 23, 2015 in Pittsburgh.

The Angels handed the Mets their third walk-off loss of the season, with New York having also lost in walk-off fashion to the Cardinals on April 1 and the Cubs on April 19. The only team that has endured more walk-off losses this season is the Angels themselves.

The Mets lost in walk-off fashion to the Angels for the second time in franchise history, with the other coming on a hit-by-pitch on April 11, 2014. Though the two games were 12 years apart, Mike Trout had exactly two hits, one walk, and two strikeouts in both contests.

SUNDAY

Mark Vientos’ 427-foot homer off the rocks at Angel Stadium was the farthest ball hit by a Met since…Mark Vientos’ 434-foot homer at Wrigley Field on April 18.

Vientos notched his sixth career multi-homer game. At 26 years and 143 days old, Vientos is one of only six Mets with six multi-homer games by his age, joining: Darryl Strawberry (17), David Wright (12), Pete Alonso (7), Ike Davis (6), and teammate Francisco Alvarez (6).

Clay Holmes turned in his seventh consecutive outing of at least five innings pitched and no more than two earned runs allowed to begin the season. That’s now tied for the third-longest streak to open a season in Mets history, behind only a pair of Jacob deGrom streaks (10 straight in 2021 and 9 straight in 2020).

Holmes now has three starts this season where he’s recorded an out in the seventh inning. That’s already more than any Mets right-hander had last season (the only 2025 Met with more such starts was David Peterson, who had seven).

Miscellaneous Mets stat of the week:
Howard Johnson is the Mets’ all-time leader with 30 homers in the ninth inning or later. During Johnson’s Mets tenure (1985-1993), those 30 homers were the most in baseball in the ninth inning or later.

There’s almost all positive news about the Cubs this week, as they took five of six from the Padres and Diamondbacks, the last five all in a row. Winning 15 of their last 18 games, the Cubs enter this week’s series against the second-place Reds two games in the lead of the NL Central.

Here’s who was hot and not for the Cubs over the past week.

Three up

Ian Happ continues his solid, consistent season

Happ batted .316/.519/.684 (6-for-19) over the week with two doubles, a triple, a home run and seven walks. That .519 OBP is very impressive and Happ is now riding a career-high 24-game on-base streak. For the season, Happ leads the Cubs with eight home runs, 24 walks and 25 runs scored.

Here’s his home run, hit on Saturday [VIDEO].

Shōta Imanaga is also having an excellent year

Imanaga pitched just once this past week, but it was another excellent outing. He held the Diamondbacks scoreless for seven innings Saturday, allowing four hits with just one walk, and striking out five. Best of all this year, Imanaga has allowed just three home runs in 41.1 innings, and not more than one in any of his seven starts. His 0.847 WHIP ranks second in the National League (Tyler Glasnow, 0.824).

Here are the five K’s he registered on Saturday [VIDEO].

Ben Brown appears to have finally found his role

Brown is being used by Craig Counsell in high-leverage multi-inning relief and he has taken to it very, very well. Over this past week: 5.2 innings, 19 batters faced, one unearned run. Only three of the 19 batters he faced reached base, and on Wednesday in San Diego, he recorded five outs on just 11 pitches, including this key double-play ball [VIDEO].

H/T to Carson Kelly, who is quietly putting together a fine season.

Here’s the weird pop fly RBI single he had on Friday. That turned out to be a very important run [VIDEO].

Also a H/T to Michael Busch, who has shown signs of coming out of his early-season slump.

Three down

What is up with Alex Bregman?

Bregman did have a two-hit game last week — a game he didn’t start, he went 2-for-2 after entering in the seventh inning.

But overall, he batted just .190/.320/.238 (4-for-21) over the week, and hasn’t shown much power this year (four doubles, a triple, three home runs in 136 at-bats). He’s drawn 18 walks so his .333 OBP is decent.

Then he had a brain fart on a bunt on Friday that wound up going for a double.

The Cubs are winning without production from Bregman, so if he ever does get going, that’ll be a nice bonus.

Ryan Rolison and Corbin Martin have struggled

These guys are the back end of the bullpen and both have had good games this year — but not this past week. Martin walked the bases loaded Wednesday in San Diego and got bailed out by Brown. Then he had a two-run inning in garbage time Sunday. Rolison had been pretty good early on, then got hit hard by the D-backs Friday.

Both of these guys will probably not be on the roster once the Cubs’ injured relievers begin to return. It’s possible Ethan Roberts might replace Martin within the next couple of days.

Moisés Ballesteros had a rough week — until Sunday

Ballesteros went 1-for-20 in the first five games against the Padres and D-backs, though the one hit was a home run in San Diego. There were some thoughts that maybe the league was adjusting to him.

Then Moisés homered and singled on Sunday and in a key play, beat a throw to second base that wound up being very, very important [VIDEO].

Here’s why Ballesteros was able to beat that throw:

Cubs designated hitter Moisés Ballesteros, who is in the bottom four percent of sprint speed, per Statcast, took a big secondary lead on the play and beat out Arenado’s throw to second, giving the Cubs an extra out.

“It doesn’t matter how fast a runner you are; you can still take a great secondary and get there as fast as you can,” Counsell said. “I think we’ve stressed that to (Ballesteros). I think that’s important to (Ballesteros), and (he’s) had some pretty good examples of it and that’s another one.”

This is what good management and coaching can do. Good stuff.

The biggest series of the season so far is on the horizon and it’s not just big for both the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Although it won’t be nationally televised, you can bet that the rest of the baseball world will be keeping an eye on this series to see if the Braves can send a serious message of intent with another series win this season in a stadium that has historically been a house of horrors — and one that is the home of the two-time defending World Series Champions, mind you.

Before we can get to the Showdown at Dodger Stadium, the Braves will have to continue their Western road trip with a visit to Seattle to take on the Mariners. Seattle has been a little better at home than on the road and their poor road form has been the difference between them being at .500 and being where they’re currently at. I’m saying that to say that the Braves can’t find themselves looking forward to the massive series in Los Angeles without taking care of business in Seattle first. That’s what’s on the horizon for what could be a really big week ahead for the Atlanta Braves.

May 4-6: Seattle Mariners

Current Record: 16-19 Projected Record (via FanGraphs): 85-77

Seattle’s rotation has been pretty solid so far and the Braves will have to deal with three of the better hurlers for Seattle so far. It’ll all get started against Logan Gilbert on Monday. While Gilbert hasn’t been super imposing so far, he’s done a good job of avoiding walks and generating whiffs and chases so the plate discipline for Atlanta will have to be on point if they want to be effective against him.

George Kirby will get the ball on Tuesday and that’ll likely be tough sledding for the Braves since his underlying metrics suggest that he’s been a lot better than his ERA (4.03 with an ERA- of 102) and FIP (3.33 with a FIP- of 82) suggest. He’s been even better than Gilbert when it comes to inducing chase and just as good in every other category (if not a bit better) as well. Bryan Woo will start on Thursday and that does seem like Atlanta’s best chance to pick up a win (and hopefully a series win if the first two games go well). Woo has also done a good job of limiting walks but he hasn’t been great doing much else, so there’s that.

Meanwhile, Bryce Elder, Grant Holmes and JR Ritchie will have to contend with a Mariners lineup that has hit their way into a Top-10 offense according to wRC+. Heading into Sunday’s action, they had produced a team wRC+ of 103 with a team slash line of .232/.320/.382 with a .317 wOBA. The good news is that the Braves clear the Mariners in every offensive category so far (aside from walk rate) so the Braves could do well enough to out-slug yet another opponent.

Still, Randy Arozarena figures to be a problem and guys like Cole Young, Dominic Canzone and Luke Raley have to be taken seriously as well. Plus, there’s the looming specter of either Julio Rodríguez taking a game over or Cal Raleigh waking up from his current slumber at any given moment as well. On top of that, Brendan Donovan could be activated from the IL in time for this series as well, so there’s certainly a lot to keep an eye on when it comes to threats coming from the Mariners.

Monday, May 4 at 9:40 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Tuesday, May 5 at 9:40 p.m. ET (BravesVision, Gray TV)
Wednesday, May 6 at 4:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)

May 8-10: Los Angeles Dodgers

Current Record: 21-13 Projected Record: 98-64

Assuming the Braves don’t get swept and end up limping into Dodger Stadium, the Braves will enter this series with fewer losses than their hosts in Los Angeles. Heading into this season, you probably would’ve figured that that meant either one or both teams had been disappointing to start out, but nope! The Dodgers are in first place and as of right now they’re either at or near the top of the leaderboards in any given statistic that you can think of. This is the type of start you’d expect for a team that is this loaded with talent and experience so that’s really another indicator of just how good of a start that the Braves are on, themselves.

The “good” news is that the Braves won’t have to deal with Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher, at least. He’s currently scheduled to start on Tuesday against the Astros and he’s usually gone up to a week in between starts so they won’t have to figure out a way to wrangle him. Still, it’s likely that they’ll have to deal with 2026 World Series hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto and an impressive 25-year-old hurler in the form of Justin Wrobleski. If we’re going on form then Emmet Sheehan should get the ball for Los Angeles in this series. If not then it’s also possible that Roki Sasaki could get a start, though I’m sure that the Dodgers would much rather see Sheehan take a crack at keeping Atlanta’s lineup quiet.

When it comes to this Dodgers lineup, well, it’s the same ol’ stuff. They’re nine-deep and the easy outs will be few and far in between with this crew. With that being said, they did suffer through a bit of a power drought as the team’s ability to hit the long ball escaped them for a bit. Hopefully, that trend continues through this week once the Braves get a hold of them. They also had to recently suffer through the ignominy of a four-game losing streak. In typical Dodgers fashion, though, even the losing streak seemed to go LA’s way because everybody else in the division had just as long of a losing streak or an even longer one so the streak didn’t even hurt them in the NL West. That’s just how it seems to go for this team!

With that being said, you know this team isn’t going to stay down for long. Ohtani is just too good at the plate and he’s surrounded by guys like Max Muncy, Andy Pages, Hyeseong Kim, Miguel Rojas and Freddie Freeman. Then they’ve got guys like Dalton Rushing, Alex Call, Teoscar Hernández and Will Smith who can deliver when called upon as well. The fact that the offense is still clicking this well without Mookie Betts is a testament to how deep and talented this crew is.

The Braves are going to have their work cut out for them and it’ll truly be an auspicious occasion if Atlanta’s streak of not losing a series is still on the line once they get to Dodger Stadium. I’m personally very excited to see how this series goes and hopefully the Braves will have taken care of business in Seattle beforehand in order to give this early-season showdown the level of hype that it deserves. Let’s see what happens!

Friday, May 8 at 10:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Saturday, May 9 at 9:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision)
Sunday, May 10 at 4:10 p.m. ET (BravesVision, Gray TV)

Tacoma Rainiers

The Rainiers dropped the series 4-2 this week, unfortunately unable to land the knockout punch in several close games this series. They stand at 16-17 on the season, good for fourth in their division.

The Colt report this week is a tough one, unfortunately. Three walks, three hits, ten punchouts. He did hit a homer and a triple, but there’s not nearly enough production outside of that to spin this week positively. Hopefully a quick bounce back is inbound.

With the major league bullpen in rough shape right now, there’s a few names in Tacoma that might end up becoming pertinent in the coming weeks. Robinson Ortiz, a lefty, has decent stuff, but walks a lot of people. Domingo Gonzalez is kind of the opposite, with lesser raw stuff but much better command. Yosver Zulueta, probably the best of the three, has major velocity on his sinker and big league experience in the past. All three are already on the 40 man roster and could be options should the big leagues come calling.

Arkansas Travelers

The Travs are hot right now! Securing a 5-1 series win over Wichita, the Travs have dug themselves out of the basement and now find themselves with a 15-12 record, a mark good for 3rd in their division. The offense has really picked things up as of late, and the stars they’ve needed desperately all season are beginning to look like their usual selves. It’s been a treat to watch.

Kade Anderson continues to dazzle, working another 5.2 innings of shutout ball in a Wichita stadium that’s one of the least pitcher-friendly in the Texas League. Allowing just four hits and no walks, Anderson struck out eight batters in Friday night’s contest, pushing his season total to 38 across just 24.1 innings. Whether the M’s see merit in sending him to Triple-A or not seems like the final frontier in his development track; it’s not something they typically do with their premium starting pitching prospects, but Double-A is posing little challenge to Anderson at present and may ultimately force the M’s to make him an exception. Still just 21 years old, here’s where he stands amongst other Texas League arms thus far:

ERA: 0.37 (1st)

K: 38 (1st)

BB: 4 (2nd)

WHIP: 0.70 (2nd)

BAA: .157 (2nd)

Not too bad for your first taste of professional baseball.

I encourage you to check out the article we put out about Lazaro Montes this past weekend. Since then, he managed yet another homer and raised his season OPS to .928. He’s hotter than the sun right now.

Laz wasn’t the only hitter seeing the ball well this week; Caleb Cali lit up Wichita pitching all week and is thrilled to get out of the cavernous confines of Dickey-Stephens Park. With roughly a 50/50 split between home and away thus far, Cali lays claim to a paltry OPS of .405 inside of DSP. The half that came on the road? An OPS north of 1.000. Cali has one of the starkest discrepancies of Home/Away splits I can remember seeing and should be someone to monitor; there’s a chance he gets a call up to Tacoma and is finally able to unleash the major pop he’s got with some consistency.

Everett AquaSox

The Frogs lost this week’s slate 4-2, squandering some late leads and missing plenty of opportunities to take a convincing series win. The bullpen, usually a strong suit, was shaky this week, and the uptick in offense wasn’t enough to offset the lack of pitching.

¡El Fénix está en fuego! Felnin Celesten continues to light it up at the plate and looks like the player we saw dominate the Complex League just a few years ago, spraying the ball with authority all over the ballpark. The young shortstop is slashing .457/.556/.600 over the past two weeks and has upped his stolen base count to six on the young season. Celesten has all the talent in the world and could easily be one of the best prospects in this system if he’s playing to his fullest potential. The whiffs are down, the walks are up, and he’s hitting the ball hard with consistency. It’s been a fantastic few weeks of watching him play.

Brock Moore continues to overpower Hi-A hitters. He logged three more innings this week, punching out four and walking one. He currently sits at 24 K’s through 11.1 IP this season and has just two walks, a truly unfathomable mark if you were to look at his walk totals from just a season ago. Get this man to Arkansas ASAP.

Shoutout to Brandon Eike. He was having a brutal go of things at the plate to start the season, but he’s started to really heat up as of late. He’s pushed his OPS just north of .900 and has launched five homers in his past seven contests. The K% is still untenable and will need to come down before a trip to Arkansas is on the table, but the progress has been great to see nonetheless.

Inland Empire 66ers

IE lost yet another series this week, dropping to 10-16 on the year. The pitching has had a tough time keeping games close, and though the offense is starting to pick up a bit, it hasn’t been enough to secure many wins. This team is going to benefit greatly from the draft’s injection of talent.

The Mason Peters agenda continues forward. Similarly to Anderson in Double-A, Peters has arguably been the best pitcher in the California League to start the season:

ERA: 2.25 (2nd)

K: 31 (1st)

BB: 5 (5th)

WHIP: 0.85 (2nd)

BAA: .176 (2nd)

Spinning a gem of a game on Friday night, the southpaw starter logged four innings of shutout ball, surrendering just one hit on the night and punching out six. He’s obviously been off to an incredible start thus far, but with as much room as there is to add strength to his frame, a future velocity spike that elevates his arsenal a tick or two seems more than possible, making him that much more exciting as a prospect to follow over the coming years.

Cesar Quintas is a far less heralded prospect than most names featured on our prospect roundups, but after the week he just had, it’s impossible to keep him off. A 2024 minor league Rule 5 draftee from the Giants system, Quintas played last season with the Nuts and had a good, if unremarkable season at the plate. This year, however, has been a different story. His 15 hits this week brought his season OPS up to .957, comfortably giving him the team lead and breathing new life into a player that lacked pedigree. It’s his third go of A ball, but should he maintain this level of production throughout the year, he’ll have transformed his future and firmly made himself a name to know.

The ACL Mariners have logged just one game so far, but they managed 24 runs on an astounding 21 walks. Nick Becker, Yorger Bautista, and Leandro Romero, arguably the three biggest name prospects on the roster, all were strong contributors in the win and will look to power this potent lineup all season.

Suzyn Waldman spent decades sitting next to John Sterling in broadcast booths around the world and she offered a very simple explanation of why a whole sport is mourning the Yankees broadcaster who died Monday at age 87.  

“That kind of love for a team and that kind of love for his fan base, there will never be another person like that,” Waldman said on WFAN hours after Sterling’s death was announced.  

Waldman said her favorite Sterling moment was not one of his historic “It is high! It is far! It is gone!” and unique home run calls like “Bern, baby, Bern” for Bernie Williams. It is a simple call of a big moment that she cherishes: Derek Jeter’s 3,000^th hit on July 9, 2011, when Jeter homered off David Price to reach that milestone.  

“He had tears coming down his face. He was crying. I was crying,” Waldman said. “When you see someone’s whole career – we met Derek Jeter when he was just 18 years old. That call was absolutely perfect. And he did it perfectly while he was really emotional.” 

Waldman said Sterling never wrote down any of his iconic calls. What came out of him, she said, came from his heart.  

She pointed to his call of the final out of the 1996 World Series. Charlie Hayes caught a popup in foul territory for the Yankees’ first championship in 18 years.