Hooting, hollering, things of that nature. These activities have found fertile ground at T-Mobile Park this spring, whether the tarps have been off, on, or unnecessary thanks to Seattle’s most beloved roof. If it’s seemed particularly packed at the park so far, you’d be correct.

The Seattle Mariners have drawn 1,158,012 fans to the stadium thus far through a league-leading 35 home games. That’s nearly half 2025’s total of 2,538,053 attendees with 46 games here to go. But contrasting those numbers undersells things a bit.

As Seattle heads out for an extended East Coast road trip, they leave home averaging 33,086 fans per game at home. It’s expected for a team that just had a deep playoff run and a competitive offseason, to see a bump in attendance the coming season, and that sum exceeds 2025’s overall numbers, when the eventual AL West champions drew 31,334 fans per game. It’s a jump of 1,752 tickets sold per game that’d already be one of the top 10 growths in MLB this year.

But that undersells the waves of Salish Sea Supporters who’ve flooded T-Mobile Park. Seattle is up a massive 6,163 fans per game against this point last year, when, helpfully, they’d also hosted 35 home games. That’s over 200,000 more butts in seats so far, the second-largest gain by any club in MLB this year trailing only the Toronto Blue Jays. Understandably, the top three clubs are Toronto and Seattle, whose best seasons in a generation have spurred excitement and trust, along with the Tampa Bay Rays who are both playing brilliantly and, more importantly, back in Tropicana Field where they are physically capable of filling more than 10-12,000 seats.

And it’s still June 4th. That 1,752 per game number over 2025’s final attendance total would still represent growth, but it’s likely to be outpaced even faster. Most local public schools conclude in mid-to-late June, representing one of several milestones that conspire with summer weather to swell attendance nationwide as the season progresses. At this stage, uncompetitive clubs see lesser bumps, or even full degradation. But Seattle, even if they maintain their flirtation with mediocrity for a longer period, is likely to remain a first place team or right amidst the race. The Jerry Dipoto era has been all-but-exclusively a variation on #StillInIt in September. For the first time this early, they are in the driver’s seat by roster quality AND playoff odds, in addition to the actual divisional standings at press time.

Add that with the hotter than usual spring and it’s a recipe for the highest attended Mariners season in more than 20 years. Every season’s attendance from 1997-2004 except 1998 (2,651,511) exceeded 2,900,000, and three eclipsed three million. My preseason bold prediction was Seattle would set their attendance record, the 3,542,938 welcomed for the 2002 season. That’s not likely to occur, but they are drawing like a team who might actually reach the three million mark for the fifth time in franchise history.

To get there, they’d need to be bringing in 37,037 fans a night. A year ago, Seattle saw their per game attendance improve from June 3rd to the season’s end by 4,411 folks. It’s hardly plug and play to expect identical results in 2026, but if Seattle saw that same increase in attendees from now through summertime and the stretch run, they’d be at 37,497 each game. That’s 3,037,257 for the year, which would’ve been 6th-most in MLB a season ago.

The factors involved go beyond just wins and losses, although they are typically most impactful. Seattle had Randy Johnson’s number retirement this May, which drove up attendance for the usually-chillier early games. The weather has been a boon thus far, but the El Niño conditions are likely to bring a heat wave and likely the return of smoke season, which has innumerable more important impacts but would also likely hurt Mariners attendance. The club could completely nosedive, rendering this and much more moot. But as it stands, Seattle is packing out T-Mobile Park, and looks poised to continue doing so all season long.

There will be no rubber match this time for the Braves, with the series already in hand entering Thursday’s home finale against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Instead, Atlanta is going for its first sweep since early May. And it’ll be doing it with its ace on the mound.

Chris Sale (8-3, 2.01 ERA) gets the start for the Braves as they turn the page from Toronto to the Pittsburgh Pirates this weekend.

Just past a third of the way through the season, Sale isn’t really in the conversation at the moment to win his second Cy Young in three seasons with the Braves.

However, that has much more to do with what other pitchers (Jacob Misiorowski, Cristopher Sanchez, Shohei Ohtani) are doing than what he isn’t. His ERA and hits/nine are lower than they were in 2024 — although his FIP is higher (2.91 to 2.09) — and he continues to be a stabilizing force on the mound for Atlanta.

He’s allowed two or fewer earned runs in eight straight starts, finishing May with a 1.69 ERA and 0.97 WHIP.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone what his Statcast profile looks like:

While Toronto hasn’t formally announced its starter, multiple reporters have said that Mason Fluharty (3-0, 3.97) will serve as an opener for the Blue Jays.

The left-hander threw two-thirds of an inning of scoreless relief in Tuesday’s series opener. He’s tied for the major league lead with 32 appearances this season and has allowed one total run over 11 2/3 innings and 16 appearances since the start of May.

After that, things seem to be trending towards a prospect making his major league debut as the bulk pitcher behind Fluharty. Chad Dallas was in Atlanta on the Toronto taxi squad Wednesday and is reportedly a target to debut Thursday.

A former fourth-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, the right-hander has an 0-3 record and 4.50 ERA in 10 games (eight starts) this season at Triple-A Buffalo. He has 38 strikeouts to 13 walks in 36 innings, allowing just two home runs.

We’ll find out soon enough how the Blue Jays approach their pitching as they look to salvage a game and if the Braves can deny that opportunity.

Game Info

Game Time: Thursday, June 4th, 7:15 pm EDT

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

Watch: BravesVision

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

Kyle McCann did not choose catching.

Catching chose him, the way it tends to do in youth baseball, suddenly, out of necessity, because someone else didn’t show up.

He was 12 years old, on a travel team somewhere in Georgia, and the regular catcher was sick. When the coach and the players who would step in, McCann raised his hand.

“Ever since then, I fell in love with it,” he said. “I wanted to catch every day after that.”

What he loved, he said, was the involvement. Other positions offered bursts of action — a ground ball to the shortstop, a fly ball to center — with long stretches of waiting in between. Behind the plate, there was no waiting. Every pitch was his.

“I was in every pitch of the game,” McCann said. “I wasn’t in the infield or outfield, just hoping a ball would get hit to me. I was calling pitches. I was in every play.”

That instinct — to be in the middle of everything, all the time — has followed McCann through a career that has required a great deal of patience.

Getting to The Show

McCann grew up in Suwanee, Georgia, attended Lambert High School, and went to Georgia Tech, where he spent his first two seasons largely at first base while Joey Bart — the second-overall pick in the 2018 draft — handled the catching duties.

When Bart departed, McCann stepped in and made the most of it, hitting .299 with 23 home runs and 70 RBI in his junior season and earning All-American recognition. The Oakland Athletics took him in the fourth round of the 2019 draft — 134th overall — and signed him for $500,000.

Five years in the Oakland system followed. He hit 17 home runs at Triple-A Las Vegas in 2023, posted an .825 OPS, and earned his way on Oakland’s Opening Day roster in 2024, making his major league debut on March 30 of that year.

He appeared in 54 games, hit .236 with five home runs, and then — as the Athletics began their transition to Sacramento — was released the day before the following season.

“I got released from Oakland the day before the season, didn’t get picked up,” he said.

Finding a way forward

“So I chose to go to Mexico to keep playing,” McCann said.

The league was the Liga Mexicana de Béisbol. His team was the Piratas de Campeche. His first game was in Mexico City, in a stadium holding 30,000 fans, with air horns blaring and an atmosphere unlike anything he had experienced in affiliated ball.

“Everyone’s screaming, air horns — the environment was very, very cool to see,” he said.

He enjoyed it. He learned things about elevation that would prove useful later — that at 7,000 feet above sea level, the ball behaves differently; that hydration matters more than you think; that running hard to first base in thin air will leave you more gassed than expected. Denver sits at roughly 5,280 feet. Mexico City had prepared him for what was coming.

Finding the Rockies — and another injury

It almost didn’t come at all. About a month and a half into the Mexican season, McCann was involved in a collision at first base — a season-ending injury that sent him home to rehab. He spent the rest of 2025 recovering. In early January 2026, his agent reached out to the Colorado Rockies. A minor-league contract was signed by early February. Spring training arrived.

Then, in one of the cruelest twists the sport offers, a cutter came in hard and up, McCann put a check swing on it, and the ball hit his wrist. He walked down to first base, thinking it hurt a little but when he tried to go out and catch, he knew it was more than that.

He didn’t fight Warren Schaeffer when the manager came to remove him from the game.

“Yep,” he told him. “We’re going to go see what this is about.”

An X-ray confirmed a fracture of the ulnar styloid. Six weeks of healing. Two weeks of progression. A week and a half of games. And now, finally, here — with the Albuquerque Isotopes, behind the plate again, doing exactly what he loves.

Enjoying Albuquerque

McCann is 28 years old and has been around long enough to have a philosophy about how he approaches the job. Ask him about working with pitchers, and he talks about reading people — figuring out which ones need encouragement and which ones need a more direct conversation.

“Some pitchers need a little more loving than others,” he said. “Some guys, you kind of got to get in their grill and say, ‘Come on now, lock in right here. We need to do this pitch in this situation.’ It’s really just learning what each guy likes.”

Regarding the ABS challenge system, he has mixed feelings, which he articulates with precision. As a hitter, he loves it — the ability to challenge a called strike and get it overturned is a real advantage. As a catcher, it cuts the other way. Framing has always been part of the craft, a skill catchers develop over the years, and the ABS system limits how much that skill can influence outcomes.

“It kind of hurts us a little bit,” he said, “because now we can’t steal many pitches.”

He doesn’t think it changes the game as dramatically as some have suggested, but he acknowledges the shift.

He also discussed Albuquerque’s pitch-suggestion system — where the dugout calls pitches for the first four batters of opposing lineups, with the catcher and pitcher able to shake off the suggestion. McCann has embraced it.

“They give us a sheet at the beginning of the game — here’s how we’re going to pitch each guy — so we kind of already have an idea of what we’re going to do,” he said. “I trust what they have in the dugout, what they have on hitters. I don’t mind at all.”

Giving a shoutout to Chuck Nazty

There is one more Georgia Tech connection worth mentioning. Charlie Blackmon — the longtime Rockies outfielder, a Tech alum himself — used to come back to the Georgia Tech facility in the offseason to hit and work out. McCann and his teammates would seek him out.

“We’d always go up to him and ask questions, trying to pick his brain, because obviously he had a great career,” McCann said.

It’s a fitting footnote for a player who has spent his entire career collecting lessons wherever he can find them — from Blackmon at Georgia Tech, from the veterans in the Oakland system, from 30,000 fans and 7,000 feet of altitude in Mexico. All of it is in the bank now.

The wrist is healed. He’s back behind the plate, for every pitch, right where he belongs.

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The Twins were big-time sellers at last year’s trade deadline, making many feel they were going for a rebuild. But they retained big stars like Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan, and have been a fairly middling team this year hovering near .500 most of the year. They have lost six of their last eight games, and they lost their earlier series against the Royals in Kansas City at the start of the season.

Kansas City Royals (24-38) vs. Minnesota Twins (29-34) at Target Field, Minneapolis, MN

Royals: 3.84 runs scored/game (29th in MLB), 4.65 runs allowed/game (21st)

Twins: 4.60 runs scored/game (10th), 4.98 runs allowed/game (24th)

Byron Buxton is sixth among all American League outfielders with a 132 wRC+, and is tied for the third-most home runs in all of baseball with 17. Luke Keaschall is hitting .302/.396/.395 in his last 26 games. Trevor Larnach is hitting .284/.442/.418 at home. Austin Martin is hitting .306/.457/.435 against lefties.

Brooks Lee has been one of the worst defenders in baseball in Outs Above Average at -7. The Twins have just a 71 percent success rate on stolen bases, one of the lowest in baseball. The Twins have allowed more stolen bases than any team in baseball, and have only thrown out 17 percent of attempts.

Rookie Andrew Morris will get the start Thursday after spending most of this season in the bullpen. He likely won’t be stretched out to go deep in the game – his longest outing this year is 3.2 innings. The 24-year old had a 4.09 ERA in 94.2 innings as a starter in Triple-A last year. Seth Lugo has a career 7.29 ERA in 21 innings at Target Field.

The Friday game will air exclusively on Apple TV. Zebby Matthews has made 29 career MLB starts and has a 5.71 ERA. He allowed just two runs in 13 innings at home this year. Byron Buxton is 0-for-10 in his career matchups against Michael Wacha.

Joe Ryan has been the sixth-most valuable pitcher in baseball, according to Fangraphs WAR. He has the 12th-highest strikeout rate and the sixth-lowest walk rate. He is 8-2 with a 2.58 ERA in 12 career starts against the Royals.

Rookie Connor Prielipp was ranked as the #5 prospect in the Twins organization by MLB Pipeline before the season. He has given up 16 runs in 14.1 innings over his last three starts. He throws a 95 mph fastball and relies heavily on a slider that opponents are hitting just .157 against with a 30 percent whiff rate.

The Twins have a 4.75 ERA out of their bullpen, eighth-worst in baseball, with the second-lowest strikeout rate, and sixth-highest walk rate. The team acquired Yoendrys Gómez from the Rays, and he has allowed just one earned run in 12.2 innings since the trade, picking up three saves. Lefties are hitting .186/.314/.279 against Anthony Banda.

The Royals are facing a team with a few elite talents, but with a roster largely filled with castoffs and underperformers. The Twins should be a team the Royals can beat, but with a league-worst 9-21 record on the road, every opponent away from Kansas City will be a challenge.

Wednesday night, Cubs left fielder Ian Happ recorded his 1,000th career hit, a double leading off the bottom of the fourth.

Here’s the hit and the crowd reaction [VIDEO].

As noted by BCB’s JohnW53 in the game recap, Happ is the 37th Cub to produce 1,000 hits in the blue pinstripes. He likely moves up five or six spots on that list before the end of the season. The two doubles gave him 12 for the year and 229 for his career. That ranks 22nd on the Cubs’ all-time list (next up: Bill Buckner with 235). And, it seems likely he’ll hit his 200th career home run later this year. He’s already got 13 for the season and 186 for his career. Only nine players have hit 200 or more home runs in a Cubs uniform, so Happ could become the 10th.

Add to that his defense in left field — four Gold Gloves and likely a fifth this year — and for me personally, Happ has been a rock-solid Cub for his 10 seasons in a Cubs uniform. He turns 32 in August and becomes a free agent at the end of this season.

Here’s a catch he made on Tuesday [VIDEO].

It seems as if he makes plays like that all the time. He makes them look easy. Trust me, those are absolutely NOT easy plays.

And yet, Happ seems to be the most polarizing Cub in recent years. Many don’t like him. Why is that?

I’m honestly not sure and perhaps if you’re not a fan of Ian Happ, you can tell us why in the comments. My perception — and I could be wrong — is that the Happ dislike is focused on his low batting average.

Happ is batting .232. That’s… low. It’s below his career average of .246, which is also a below-average BA. My response to that is: So what? BA is a poor way of analyzing a hitter. Happ draws lots of walks. He’s walked 37 times this year, on pace for 100. He walked 87 times last year, 80 in 2024 and 99 in 2023. His OBP is .350, which, okay, could be higher, but it still ranks just outside the top third of qualified hitters in MLB this year (56th of 162 qualified hitters). His .473 slugging percentage leads all Cubs qualified hitters and ranks in the top 25 percent of qualified hitters (39th of 162). Lastly, his .823 OPS is just outside the top 25 percent (45th of 162).

Happ has posted 2.0 bWAR in a bit more than a third of this season. He’s generally around a 4 WAR player and should be about there again in 2026.

Is Ian Happ a superstar? No, he is not. What he is, is a remarkably consistent year-to-year player who is prone to long cold spells and long hot streaks. But when things average out, he’s likely to hit 25 home runs, walk 90 or more times, score around 90 runs and have an OPS around .800, while playing Gold Glove defense.

What team wouldn’t want a player like that?

Even though he’ll be going into his age-32 season in 2027, I would not be opposed to signing Happ to a two-year extension with a third-year vesting option. I think he can continue to be this productive for at least that long. And he’s meant quite a bit to this franchise and, at the very least, to left-field bleacher fans, who have a long-standing love relationship with the Cubs left fielder.

Just thought I’d give some praise to a baseball player who deserves it.

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It's a quiet slate across the big leagues today, but I've still found immense value in my MLB player props home run analysis. 

Ronald Acuna Jr. will get things started, followed by Jarren Duran and Bryan Reynolds.

Read more in my MLB picks for Thursday, June 4. 

Best MLB home run props today

Player to hit a HR	Odds
Ronald Acuna Jr.	+467
Jarren Duran	+610
Bryan Reynolds	+710
💲Today's HR parlay	+32508

Home run pick: Ronald Acuna Jr. (+467)

Ronald Acuña Jr. is in the middle of one of the hottest stretches of his season. Over the last week, the Atlanta Braves superstar owns a barrel rate north of 35% and a hard-hit rate above 60%, indicating he's consistently generating elite contact quality. Acuna has already hit five home runs in his last five games.

The Toronto Blue Jays will use Mason Fluharty as an opener before turning things over to the bullpen. Fluharty has allowed a 45.5% hard-hit rate across his last five appearances, while Toronto's relievers own a 12.5% HR/FB rate over the last week.

That could be problematic against a hitter like Acuna, who has put 54.5% of his contact in the air during that span. With the Braves outfielder consistently elevating and barreling baseballs, this matchup offers another opportunity for his power surge to continue.

I'd play this pick up to +400.

• Time: 7:15 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: BravesVision, Sportsnet One

Home run pick: Jarren Duran (+610)

Jarren Duran is swinging the bat well lately, collecting four doubles and two home runs across his last six games. The Boston Red Sox outfielder has also turned his fly balls into damage, posting a 40% HR/FB rate during that stretch.

The matchup is what stands out most, however. Trevor Rogers has been extremely vulnerable to power lately, allowing 2.53 home runs per nine innings alongside a 6.66 FIP across his last two starts. Opponents have also generated a 47.2% hard-hit rate, 11.1% barrel rate, and 22.7 average launch angle against him.

Those indicators suggest hitters are consistently making dangerous contact against Rogers, creating an appealing opportunity for a hot bat like Duran.

I'd play this pick up to +550.

• Time: 1:35 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: NESN, MASN

Home run pick: Bryan Reynolds (+710)

Bryan Reynolds is tearing the cover off the baseball lately, posting a 20% barrel rate, 94 mph average exit velocity, and 53.3% hard-hit rate across his last 29 plate appearances. The Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder continues to generate loud contact and draws an intriguing matchup against Houston Astros right-hander Kai-Wei Teng.

While Teng has pitched reasonably well overall this season, the long ball has become a concern lately. Over his last 11 innings, he's allowed 1.64 home runs per nine innings and owns a 20% HR/FB rate, indicating opponents have capitalized when they've elevated the baseball.

That could be problematic against a hitter like Reynolds, who has put just under 35% of his contact in the air over his last six games while consistently producing hard contact.

I'd play this pick up to +650.

• Time: 8:10 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: SportsNet Pittsburgh, Space City Home Network

Today’s HR parlay

Ronald Acuna Jr	Bet Now +32508
Jarren Duran
Bryan Reynolds

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.

Astros pitcher of the Month Spencer Arrighetti may have struggled, but the team picked up their pitcher to do what they haven’t been able to do all year: Come from behind with a large deficit. Here are my 3 takeaways from this outstanding comeback performance!

1. Cam Smith’s Spectacular At-Bats.

His at bat in the Bottom of the 5th inning knocked out Paul Skenes which was huge for the Astros. Although Paul Skenes was on the mound he has shown times where he can fall to a decent or bad start. The Astros were good enough to get him out of the game. Their plan was to get him out of the game with a no decision. Cam Smith and company was a big part of that.

This Tweet says it all, and shows that Cam seems to be really putting something together at the plate and the patience of the Astros seems to be paying off at the moment. When you look at what he’s done lately, it seems Cam Smith is more productive, a sign of life this club desperately needs in 2026. As you can see from his MLB.com profile he sits between .290 and .262 with 3 home runs in his last 15 games, with a slug around .500.

2. Spencer Arrighetti: Learning from Mistakes.

Is it possible to improve, even when you fail to complete a task. Absolutely, ask anyone who owns a small business. Many times, if not every time, success comes after failure. As I listened to Spencer Arrighetti address the media after the game I was encouraged how much he has grown up in his young career. After the game he said,

“ I should have known that throwing 5 straight fastballs to a major league hitter was a mistake. Henry Davis is a big leaguer for a reason.” “I was confident in my approach at the time, I just know now not to repeat that.”

The fact that he is aware of this tells me he is going to deal next several outings. It does seem many times a pitcher or hitter who gets one of these awards tails off a little in success. Maybe its a coincidence, then again maybe the athlete whoever it is just presses. No matter the reason Spencer Arrighetti is better after last nights game. There are two different types of athletes: Good athletes and GREAT athletes, the Great athletes are the good athletes that were able to get over their mistakes and failures and not let those setbacks define them.

3. Josh Hader’s Return – The Fireman is About to Burn the League Down!

The Astros bullpen has missed Josh Hader, and this statement alone does capture the frustating performances Astros fans have come accustomed to in 2026. The Bullpen has had to deal with Bryan Abreu in the closer role, and he has not done well. All season his failures have been at the demise of the Astros, even in comback efforts. While you do have semi-reliable arms like Aj Blubaugh, Brian King, Seven Okert and Enyel De Los Santos, these guys do suffer and stand to be exposed if the starting pitching isn’t going the distance. This is why your leader, your stabilizer in Josh Hader is so important.

Having him as the anchor, doesn’t just help, it solidifies your bullpen with the assurance of knowing you know what you’re going to get with Josh Hader. Josh Hader is one of the Best at what he does with a career WHIP of 0.94, 228 career saves and 830 strikeouts, you feel much more confident if you are an arm going out there between a starter and the 9th inning.

These three players can help the Astros move one step at a time closer to .500. This is the goal, the question is can they come out of June with a winning record. I believe with their remaining opponents this month: The Athletics (I know, I know…), Angels, Royals, Tigers, Guardians (who are terrible at home), Blue Jays, Tigers again, and Minnesota. This team with Josh Hader now back, Hunter Brown returning soon, and getting back Jose Altuve and Joey Loperfido will help this team. So you tell me what do you think their record will be in the month of June?