Worldwide Sports News

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

New series starts tonight#RingTheBellpic.twitter.com/ItXlve4wV4

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 5, 2026

For the Athletics:

Sevy start day 👊 pic.twitter.com/SlcvKmP4gy

— Athletics (@Athletics) May 5, 2026

Let’s talk about it.

WASHINGTON – Joe Ryan got a second lease on the 2026 season. And now the Minnesota Twins hope that applies to them, too.

Ryan threw a scare into the entire organization on Sunday, May 3 when he exited his start against the Toronto Blue Jays after just two batters and nine pitches. Elbow soreness was the report, a nebulous diagnosis that had Twins fans spiraling for two days.

Ryan immediately left Target Field for an MRI and an already depleted organization braced for the worst, just two months after ace Pablo Lopez succumbed to Tommy John surgery in spring training.

But the MRI was clean and Tuesday, Ryan played catch without incident. He will throw a bullpen on Wednesday and, if all goes well, make his next scheduled start Saturday at Cleveland.

All normal stuff – and that’s a huge relief for Ryan given his state of mind after he motioned for manager Derek Shelton and left Sunday’s game under a cloud of uncertainty.

“Any time you dodge a bullet, you’re grateful for every day you get to come in and put the jersey on,” Ryan said Tuesday at Nationals Park, three hours before the Twins opened a three-game series at Washington. “That’s part of being in the big leagues – understanding that. I try to embrace that and not take anything for granted.

“Every day you get to do that, it’s a blessing. I think a little bit extra when you have a little bit of a scare like that.”

Especially when this burgeoning ace avoided major injury at such a key time in his career.

Ryan, who turns 30 in June, was a 2025 All-Star on his way to a career-best season: 194 strikeouts and a 1.04 WHIP in 171 innings over 30 starts. That seemed to increase the likelihood the rebuilding Twins would trade him in the offseason, but he stayed.

He’s posted a 3.72 ERA through his first eight starts this season, his second-to-last before becoming eligible for free agency. Naturally, the Twins would not be able to trade a potential ace rehabbing an elbow injury.

Yet it’s early enough this season that the 15-20 club can appreciate that its ace is structurally sound as it loiters within 2½ games of first in an AL Central where no team is above .500.

“It’s relief,” says Shelton, the Twins' first-year manager. "I think the eternal pessimist in me is like, ‘I’m gonna wait until we get through tomorrow.’

“But today was a really good sign, because he threw well, was able to throw his breaking ball.”

Ryan said he felt the pain Sunday facing the second batter, Kazuma Okamoto. He threw a couple more pitches and it persisted. Not excruciating, he said, though he’s felt lesser pain and it’s turned out to be a more calamitous injury.

“You never know,” says Ryan, who will earn $6.2 million this season, “until imaging comes back.”

Yet Shelton appreciated that Ryan removed himself from the game. Arms, especially elbows, are not to be messed with.

“The one really great thing about Joe is he’s probably as in tune with his body as much as any player I’ve been around,” says Shelton. “He can articulate really well what he’s feeling.”

Now the Twins hope to develop some consistency. They won 11 of their first 19 games, then lost 12 of their next 15, salvaging the final game against Toronto after Ryan departed.

“We’ve played really well, we’ve played not well, and we’ve played well and not won games,” says Shelton. “I think the thing I’m most pleased with is our effort and our ability to play a full 27 outs.

“This is a younger group. There’s going to be times we have ebbs and flows. We just have to keep going.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joe Ryan injury update, what we know about elbow

Tuesday notes…

• STREAKING, PART 1: The Cubs have won 12 straight games at home. It is their 19th double-digit home winning streak of the Modern Era, which began in 1901, and their 15th at Wrigley Field, their home since 1916. This is their first such streak since they won 14 in a row, May 18-June 22, 2008. A 13-game streak in 2001 and a 10-game streak in 1998 are their only others of the kind since 1970. Their record is 18 straight, Sept. 4-22, 1935, during a surge that lifted them to the pennant. The 2008 streak was one of five of 14 games. The 2001 streak was the only one of 13. They also had a lone streak of 12, in 1927, for a total now of 10 streaks of at least 12 in a row. The 1927 streak was the only one that ended after 12 games, and did so with a thud: a 12-2 loss at home to the Phillies. The Cubs extended the 2001 streak to 13 by beating the Twins, 5-4. Ricky Gutierrez hit a two-run homer and Sammy Sosa added a solo shot. The 13th win in 2012 was by 3-1 over the Dodgers. Derrek Lee homered with one in the first and Aramis Ramirez homered in the eighth. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• STREAKING, PART 2: The Cubs are 16-3 in their last 19 games, their best 19-game record since they also were 16-3 from July 31-Aug. 20, 2016. They were 16-3 in four overlapping spans that season, in two in 2015, in three in 2001, in one in 1977 and two in 1967. They had an even 100 in 1903-45. The Cubs were 19-0 in three overlapping spans in 1935 and 18-1 in 20 spans, many overlapping, in 1906 and 1935. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• FACING THE REDS: This is the Cubs’ 83rd series vs. the Reds at Wrigley Field since 1994, first season of the Central Division. From 1969 through 1993, the Cubs were in the NL East and the Reds, for reasons that defy logic, were in the NL West. It is only the 17th of the 83 series at Wrigley that was scheduled to be more than three games. The Cubs swept four games in 2018. That is the only time they won even the first two games. They went 3-1 in four series, including the most recent before the current one, in 2023. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• SAVING THE DAY:The Cubs have had six different pitchers record saves already this year. In alphabetical order: Ben Brown, Corbin Martin, Hoby Milner, Daniel Palencia, Caleb Thielbar and Jacob Webb. Thielbar leads the team with two. Twelve different pitchers recorded saves for last year’s Cubs. Only five of those pitchers (Brown, Palencia, Rea, Thielbar and Jordan Wicks) are still in the Cubs organization.

Cubs lineup:

See you tonight!

Tune in live on @WatchMarquee. pic.twitter.com/B0YmBUcoHn

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 5, 2026

Reds lineup:

Game two of four in Chicago.

Powered by @PNCBankpic.twitter.com/GxqsPxbY1e

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) May 5, 2026

Jameson Taillon, RHP vs. Andrew Abbott, LHP

Jameson Taillon has had some good starts this year, some bad, some middling. The last one, last Wednesday in San Diego, was really good — seven innings, three runs, six strikeouts.

Last year against the Reds, he made two starts, throwing 13.1 innings and allowing three runs, with only one home run allowed. More of that would be good. Current Reds are batting .264 (28-for-106) against Jamo with seven home runs, two each by Elly De La Cruz and TJ Friedl. Keep the ball in the yard tonight, please, Jamo.

Andrew Abbott has had three good years for the Reds and has been tough on the Cubs: Seven starts, 2.56 ERA in 38.2 innings.

But this year, Abbott is off to a rough start. He’s allowed four or more runs in three of his seven starts, though the last one, April 30 vs. the Rockies, was pretty good (two runs in six innings).

Current Cubs are batting just .183 (17-for-93) against Abbott, but Seiya Suzuki has homered off him, and Dansby Swanson has taken him deep twice.

Despite a season OPS of .830 vs. LHP this year, the Cubs are just 5-5 vs. LH starters. Hopefully that changes tonight.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Wrigley Field.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Reds site Red Reporter. If you do go there to interact with Reds fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Former Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo returned to New York as a visiting player for the first time on Tuesday, and even though he was in the Bronx to face the Yankees, he fielded many questions about his Mets tenure and the current state of the team.

“I want them to do well,” Nimmo said. “I’ve played here before when things aren’t going well, and it’s not fun. I wish the best for them, but also I’m trying to take care of things here and make sure we’re trying to play good baseball here.”

Nimmo, of course, was traded to the Rangers this past offseason in the deal that brought Marcus Semien to the Mets. The trade came just three years into Nimmo’s eight-year, $162 million contract, and he had to waive his no-trade clause to complete the deal. 

Nimmo said that he reached out to a lot of people before making his decision, including Pete Alonso, who told him the Mets hadn’t reached out to him at that point.

“When Pete said they hadn’t even reached out to him, there was definitely a lot of uncertainty as to which direction they were going. But ultimately, I had to make other phone calls and talk to other people and deliberate over it for many more days. So, it wasn’t just his conversation that went into it. I talked to dozens of people. It was just a piece of the puzzle that helped in the decision-making process.”

“I obviously would have loved to have seen Pete retire in a Mets uniform,” he later added. “He’s the Mets’ home run king and has all these titles that go along with it. I think that would have been awesome, but it wasn’t in the cards for what they felt like were the best baseball decisions.”

When president of baseball operations David Stearns traded Nimmo and let Alonso and Edwin Diaz depart in free agency, rumors swirled that there was an alleged rift in the Mets’ clubhouse, particularly between Nimmo and Francisco Lindor. 

Both players have since said there was no truth to those rumors, and Nimmo said again Tuesday that he thought his trade was purely a baseball move.

“I believe it was probably just a baseball decision. Like I said last year and even in these interviews in the spring, I really didn’t see anything wrong with the chemistry between the guys,” Nimmo said. “And if it was happening, I didn’t know about it, so they were keeping it hush-hush, which is kind of tough to do in a clubhouse where you spend most of the day with each other. But from my standpoint, I think it was a baseball decision, and I think it was something that David felt would better the New York Mets and (general manager Chris Young) felt would better the Texas Rangers.”

The Texas Rangers have placed infielder Josh Smith on the injured list with a right glute strain, the team announced today. To take his place on the active roster, the Rangers have recalled infielder Justin Foscue.

Smith, who took over at second base this season for Marcus Semien, has gotten off to a difficult start to the 2026 season, putting up a .217/.324/.239 slash line while also having issues out in the field. In his previous two games he went 4 for 7 with a walk, with those four hits representing 20% of his hit total for the season, but he will now be sidelined for the time being.

Foscue, the Rangers’ first round pick in 2020, is in his fourth season at AAA Round Rock. He has slashed .287/.407/.426, with as many walks as strikeouts. He has split his time between first base, second base and DH this season. He will look to improve on his career major league slash line of .059/.094/.098 while he is up.

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

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Ben Rice's progress

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

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

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

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

Carlos Rodon's next start 

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

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

 

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

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 5, 2026

Latest on Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Game Info

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

Location: T-Mobile Park, Seattle, WA

TV: BravesVision, Gray TV

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

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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