Athletics baseball is back in California this weekend for their home-opener series against an an AL West division rival. The Athletics face Houston Astros for a three-game set, beginning Friday, April 3 at 6:40 p.m. PT (9:40 p.m. ET).

After a rough start on the road, where the A's went 1-5 combined against the Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves, the A's are looking to string along some wins in front of their temporary home crowd at Sutter Health Park, a minor league ballpark that seats 14,000 in West Sacramento, California.

It's one of the rare times that fans can watch the team in person in Yolo County in the early part of the season as their series against Houston is the team's only three home games over their first 15 games.

The A's are currently tied with the Red Sox and White Sox for the lowest winning percentage in the majors, marking the second time in the last three years the A's have started the season 1-5. The last time they started 1-5 was the 2024 season, when they finished with a 69-93 record.

However, the A's have had good fortune against Houston. They went 8-5 against the Astros in 2025, winning the season series for the first time since 2020. The A's went 4-3 in West Sacramento and 4-2 in Houston against the Astros last year.

Here's what to look out for in their home-series against the Astros as the A's look to get things on track.

The Blue Jays are bringing in some much-needed pitching depth. 

Toronto signed veteran Patrick Corbin to a $1 million deal, according to The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon.

Corbin, 36, posted a 4.40 ERA across 31 appearances (30 starts) for the Rangers in 2025. 

He will report to the Blue Jays’ Single-A affiliate, although it appears he could be on the big league roster soon. 

Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reported that Corbin has been “working out extensively” and is already tossing 80 pitches during bullpen sessions. 

“Possible he needs just a couple minor-league starts,” he wrote. 

The Corbin addition comes as Toronto deals with a handful of injuries to its starting rotation during the early going of the 2026 season. 

Earlier this week, starter Cody Ponce went down with an ACL injury, which is expected to sideline him for a significant amount of time. 

The team had already been dealing with injured list stints for Shane Bieber, José Berríos and Trey Yesavage.

The Blue Jays will hope they can get something closer to the Corbin of old. 

After making two All-Star teams and receiving Cy Young votes in two different times through the first seven seasons, Corbin’s big league career took a turn for the worse. 

Since 2020, Corbin has a 5.41 ERA, which is the highest among pitchers with at least 600 innings on the mound over that stretch.

He’s remained a workhorse, though, tossing at least 150 innings in each of the past five seasons. 

Despite the injuries, the Blue Jays are 4-3 through the first week of the season.

MLB's top prospect, Konnor Griffin, made his professional debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 5-4 win against the Baltimore Orioles on April 3.

The 19-year-old shortstop was extremely solid in first outing in the big leagues. He was the ninth overall pick of the 2024 MLB Draft, selected by the Pirates.

Griffin got the call up to the majors for "baseball reasons" and because he's the Pirates' "best option," according to baseball insider Jason Mackey.

In his first at-bat, which came in the second inning of the game, Griffin hit an RBI double into the pocket of center field as Ryan O'Hearn scored to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

Griffin told reporters before the game that he felt ready for the moment.

"It's been unbelievable. You know, the drive from Columbus to here, just two hours of just kind of reflecting on the whole journey so far. I was sitting here about a year and a half ago, two years after I got drafted, and was talking about how cool it would be to play on this field and how now I get to do it, so I'm super excited," Griffin said. "(Triple-A coach) Eric Patterson, he called me to his hotel room about 8:30 in the morning and said, 'hey, we're gonna send you out to Pittsburgh go, kill it. I know you're ready. Just go. Keep being you.' So it was a special moment."

His hit was the momentum swing the Pirates were looking for as they ran off three more runs to extend the lead to 4-0 in the second inning. Jared Triolo singled to right, allowing Griffin to make it home for his first run.

The Pirates stacked the bases and got more runs. Henry Davis hit a double that went out to left field, giving Triolo the chance to score. Up next, Oneil Cruz. He singled to left and Davis scored.

As for the rest of the rookie's game, Griffin's next at-bat didn't come until the fourth inning; he walked.

Griffin finished the game batting 1-for-3 with a run and RBI. He struck out swinging in the fifth inning and ground out in the eighth inning.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Konnor Griffin stats from MLB debut, highlights

Through seven games, the Yankees lead the American League with 11 steals and only trail the Brewers (15) in the big leagues. 

Yes, the Yankees are running it back.

But the team they are running back — the post-trade-deadline version — is one that clearly can run. 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked in the second inning and quickly stole second and third, and José Caballero then stole second base behind him, both coming around to score and setting an aggressive tone in what became an 8-2, home-opening victory over the Marlins on Friday. 

“We’re a really athletic team,” said Cody Bellinger, who was brought back in part because of his athleticism, which he demonstrated again with a remarkable catch in the ninth inning. “We believe that we’re one of the best teams out there … and we want to be showcasing that.” 

Against Miami catcher Liam Hicks, who has a poor defensive reputation, the Yankees took advantage and went 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts, two apiece from Chisholm and Caballero, while Aaron Judge swiped second in the eighth inning. 

But the Yankees’ aggressiveness and desire to force the Marlins’ defense to make plays — some of which worked, some of which did not — shined through in other ways, too. 

With two outs and a runner on third in the third inning, Caballero pushed a bunt down the first-base line, an attempt at a hit that backfired. 

With two on base in the sixth inning, Ryan McMahon lofted a fly out to left on which Austin Wells, in a big surprise, tagged up from second base. The throw from Griffin Conine beat Wells, but the catcher proved nimble with a slide that avoided the tag. Wells then scored on a wild pitch. 

In the eighth inning, Trent Grisham attempted to go from first to third on a Judge single to left and was thrown out because he lost contact with the base. 

It is early, but these Yankees do not look like a team that simply waits for a home run. 

“We have a handful of guys that can really push it in the running game,” manager Aaron Boone said. “So far, I think the guys are doing a good job of taking extra bases, too. 

“I thought Grish going there, and he beats the throw — he just came off [the base] obviously on the slide — but really good job by them today of being smartly aggressive.” 

Anthony Volpe (left shoulder surgery recovery), who began facing live pitching Wednesday, is set to head north “in the middle of the month,” Boone said, to begin a rehab assignment. 

That could position the shortstop for a season debut in late April or early May. 

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

Team USA hockey heroes Jack Hughes and Aerin Frankel threw out the ceremonial first pitches, after which “U-S-A” chants rang out from the crowd.

WASHINGTON D.C. –– There was neither relief nor elation as Kyle Tucker recounted his first home run as a Dodger on Friday.

Instead, just a self-depracating quip from the team’s understated new slugger.

“It was nice,” he said. “First actual ball I’ve hit in the air well.”

The question now: Whether it will kick-start his 2026 season?

While just about every superstar in the Dodgers’ loaded lineup struggled during last week’s lackluster season-opening homestand, Tucker’s Dodgers debut had gotten off to a particularly slow start.

In his first six games, he was just 4-for-23 with two RBIs and one extra-base hit.

His nine strikeouts in that span were also uncharacteristic, running counter to his reputation as an on-base machine.

Things changed on Friday, when Tucker went 3-for-6 with two RBIs and his first long ball of the year. And though he wasn’t the only one who suddenly found his swing in a 13-6 rout of the Washington Nationals, his resurgence might have been the day’s biggest development.

The Dodgers, after all, aren’t just making a financial gamble in Tucker, whom they wooed with a blockbuster $240 million contract this winter.

They are also betting on him in one of the most important spots of their lineup: Batting second as the primary line of protection for superstar leadoff man Shohei Ohtani.

Already, Ohtani has been seeing few hittable pitches this season. If Tucker doesn’t hit, the easier it will be for teams to keep pitching around him.

“He likes to hit, and doesn’t like to walk,” Roberts said of Ohtani, who has drawn seven walks to this point but has also looked “anxious” to do more damage.

“(Tucker) getting on base and being a threat,” Roberts added, “changes how a team is going to approach Shohei.”

Tucker hadn’t been much of a threat before Friday. During the season’s opening week, he felt he was missing too many mistakes in the zone.

“I’ve been kind of fouling off pitches over the plate more than I normally do and striking out more than I normally do,” he said. “Probably because I fouled off some pitches and got into worse counts, (it went) just downhill from there.”

Thus, the four-time All-Star focused Friday on “trying to swing myself out of it,” getting more aggressive early in counts hoping that something would click.

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In the third inning, it led to a pivotal first-pitch single –– sandwiched between Ohtani’s game-tying three-run homer the at-bat prior, and Mookie Betts’ go-ahead two-run blast the next.

In the fifth, Tucker singled again after swinging at all three pitches he saw in the strike zone, fouling off the first two before smoking a grounder through the infield to drive in a run.

Tucker’s best swing came in the seventh, when he ambushed another first-pitch breaking ball from left-handed reliever Ken Waldichuk and hammered the center-cut mistake 404 feet to right.

The blast was superfluous insurance at that point. But the fact it came off a lefty was important for a different reason: Both Ohtani and Tucker hit from the left side of the plate, meaning they’ll see plenty of southpaws when teams begin matching up out of the bullpen.

“I have a good idea that he does OK versus a left-hander,” Roberts said of Tucker, who has more neutral career splits than even Ohtani but was hitless in left-on-left matchups previously this year. “Hasn’t looked great early. But I think more for him, that he can get some hits and still hit a homer, that was still good.”

Tucker refuted any notion he was pressing in his first week as a Dodger, or that the Ohtani dynamic has added any extra pressure at the plate.

In his matter-of-fact way, he said he is simply “trying to feel comfortable in the box and trying to put a swing on good pitches.”

On Friday, it resulted in his first signature performance with his new team.

The Dodgers are hoping that, moving forward, they will see plenty more like it.

The Orioles’ first road game of the year looked a lot like the six games they played at home to begin the season. Their starter scuffled on the mound, particularly in one inning, and their lineup failed to make the most of their opportunities. On Friday evening in Pittsburgh, that added up to a 5-4 loss for the Orioles.

Kyle Bradish’s second outing of the year was an up-and-down affair. He threw just 81 pitches over four innings. In those innings he gave up four runs on six hits, three walks, and six strikeouts. All four of those runs came in during a nightmarish second inning.

That second inning began with a walk to old friend Ryan O’Hearn. A double to debutant Konner Griffin gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead with one out. Jared Triolo followed with a single to score Griffin and make it 2-0. Henry Davis then doubled in Triolo, and Oneil Cruz wrapped up the onslaught with a base hit to score Davis.

Bradish escaped the jam with some help from Cruz, who was thrown out trying to steal second base. That felt like a poor decision given the way in which Bradish was getting lit up, and since he’s not a pitcher known for allowing steals. After a walk to Brandon Lowe, Bradish got Bryan Reynolds to fly out, and was finally out of the inning.

Outside of that inning, Bradish gave up two hits, one walk, and struck out five over the other three frames. His fastball and sinker velocity was back at 93.5 mph, right where it sat in his first start of the year. That does represent a slight dip from his average at the tail end of 2025, but it could just be early-season rust. The bigger concern is Bradish’s control. He issued three walks and was often catching far too much of the strike zone. The Pirates made him pay for it.

The Orioles offense took a while to get things going. Pirates starter Mitch Keller held them scoreless through the first frames, though they did have traffic on the bases. A pair of double plays in those early innings extinguished potential rallies before they even got going.

In the fifth inning, the Orioles got on the board with a pair of runs. Blaze Alexander led off with a single. He would be doubled home by Gunnar Henderson. Later, a two-bagger for Adley Rutschman scored Henderson to cut the deficit to 4-2.

Bradish was lifted in favor of Dietrich Enns to begin the fifth inning. The lefty was wild and failed to put together a lockdown inning. He walked two of the first three hitters that he faced, and then uncorked a wild pitch. That allowed O’Hearn to drive in the Pirates’ fifth run of the day with a sac fly to center field.

From there, the Orioles bullpen was very good. Tyler Wells tossed two shutout innings, an important step for him following an uneven opening week. Then Rico Garcia was called on for the eighth. He induced a trio of groundouts to maintain his pristine ERA.

The Orioles had a real chance to come back all the way in the seventh inning. Alexander opened the inning with a single, and then scooted all the way from fist base to score on a Taylor Ward double in the left-center gap. Pete Alonso worked a one-out walk to put two runners on for the middle of the lineup. But neither Rutschman nor Samuel Basallo could cash in, both being retired to end the threat.

Henderson did bring the Orioles within one run in the bottom of the ninth, homering off of old friend Gregory Soto with two outs. But he was the only one that had success as the three other hitters in the inning, including Alonso to end the game, went down on strikes.

The Orioles did not make the most of their chances. They worked five walks and collected nine hits. That should have been enough to score more than four runs, but instead they went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base. Alonso, in particular, had a tough day, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Henderson was the standout, collecting seven total bases and driving in two runs. Ward reached base three times (double, two walks). Alexander and Dylan Beavers had two hits apiece.

Alexander also made the highlight reel with an impressive diving stop in the sixth inning. Playing third base, he snagged a hard-hit grounder from Henry Davis, stood up and fired over to Alonso at first. The call on the field was “safe,” but it was overturned after an Orioles challenge. His versatile glove and current .800 OPS are two things that Craig Albernaz needs in his lineup everyday for the time being, whether it be at second or third base.

Bradish needs to get himself right. Nothing feels easy for him at the moment, which is a new phenomenon for the former Cy Young contender. We are so used to seeing him go out and dominate each start. But right now he has to battle and fight for outs. There is plenty of time for that, and the Orioles will give him all the time he needs to figure it out. But he is part of a rotation that, as a whole, has disappointed in in their first week.

These two teams are back at it again on Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh. First pitch is set for 4:05 in a battle between Shane Baz (0-0, 6.75 ERA), a former Pirates prospect, and righty Carmen Mlodzinski (0-0,4.15 ERA).

Colorado Rockies fans assuredly did not have high expectations for the 2026 season. The team lost 119 games in 2025, and they didn’t seem to significantly upgrade the roster in the offseason. So, when the fans sat down to watch their home opener against the Phillies on Friday afternoon, it’s not like most of them had dreams of watching a pennant winner.

But they probably hoped for a little more than this. By the time they got situated in their seats, the Phillies had already jumped out to a 7-0 lead. In what may serve as a harbinger of things to come at Coors Field this season, the visiting team cruised to a 10-1 victory.

Quite a few Phillies batters were off to slow starts to the season, but there was nothing slow about their start on Friday. Facing former teammate Michael Lorenzen, Trea Turner led off the game with a double, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper followed with walks, and Alec Bohm got two of those runners home with a single.

A Bryson Stott double scored another run before Brandon Marsh buried a ball deep into the stands to make it 6-0.

The Phillies still weren’t done. J.T Realmuto hit a double, although it was really a pop up that former Phillie Mickey Moniak lost in the sun. When reading up on the Rockies, I saw someone describe Moniak as the worst defensive outfielder in the game. (Nick Castellanos, hold my beer!) Moniak had a .824 OPS in 2025, but was still worth negative wins above replacement, which is really tough to do. (At least some team wasn’t dumb enough to choose him with the top overall pick in the draft, right?)

Turner’s second hit of the inning drove home Realmuto to make it 7-0.

In the second inning, Harper put another ball into the seats, marking his second straight game with a home run, and quieting some of the worry about his slow start to the season.

They tacked on another run in the third when an Alec Bohm infield single (those are words you don’t see very often) allowed Turner to come home after his third hit of the game.

The Phillies concluded their scoring in the fifth when Schwarber managed to outdo Marsh by hitting a ball 460 feet.

Friday also served as a “get right” game for Aaron Nola. Nola and Lorenzen were teammates on the Italian team in the World Baseball Classic, and unlike Lorenzen, Nola had a terrific outing. His curveball looked sharp, and he kept the ball in the yard. He allowed one run in 6.1 innings to go along with nine strikeouts.

On the other hand, Lorenzen was the one to make history.

The Phillies now find themselves on a three-game winning streak, and most of their players should be feeling much better about themselves. They’ll be back in action on Saturday afternoon with Taijuan Walker on the mound. Like Nola, Walker is hoping for a rebound after a poor season debut. While it would be great if that happens, it would also be great if the Phillies could have their bats stay hot.

Major League Baseball’s opening night coverage has been the subject of polarizing opinions.

And this is something Netflix is no stranger to.

Netflix had major streaming issues during its airing of boxing in late 2024, during Jake Paul’s fight with Mike Tyson, which also featured Amanda Serrano’s bout with Katie Taylor, showing a consistent lag. This even led Netflix to be the target of a $50 million lawsuit over the quality of the streaming.

The company is not quite in the same position now following their airing of Yankees-Giants as part of MLB Opening Day, but the online chirping is loud, which Elle Duncan — who joined Netflix as a host following a lengthy tenure on ESPN — responded to on a recent episode of “Pablo Torre Finds Out” this week.

Critics have pointed to non-baseball personalities being used and a new-look scorebug as some of the primary issues.

“Whenever there’s criticism that I saw like, ‘It was just so Netflix. It was not for baseball purists,” Duncan acknowledged, adding, “This was not for baseball purists. You’ll watch it anywhere. This was for the baseball-curious.”

Duncan noted that the broadcast is intended for a broader audience beyond traditional baseball fans.

“A lot of what Netflix is doing in the sports world is, yes, for the people that are always going to watch those sports, but also the people that maybe tuned into to watch “Love is Blind,” saw the button for ‘Opening Day on Netflix,’ and thought, ‘All right, I’ll check it out,’” Duncan said.

Duncan disagrees with the criticisms — which include missing the first-ever Automatic Ball Strike challenge due to a mid-inning dugout interview — and mentioned that baseball fans ultimately expected something they weren’t going to fully get.

“This is like going to a Mexican restaurant and bitching that they don’t have barbecue,” said Duncan. “They advertise as a Mexican restaurant. It’s your fault that you somehow thought they were somehow gonna serve barbecue.”

She later added: “Netflix has made no qualms about who they are. We’re going to eventicize these things, we’re gonna pull people from the Netflix universe. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Netflix will broadcast the Home Run Derby on July 13 and the “Field of Dreams” game between the Phillies and Twins one month later.

The Seattle Seahawks have the rare distinction of hosting the NFL’s opening night game on a Wednesday, which will impact the schedules of other Seattle sports teams.

Sept. 9 was supposed to be an evening game for the Mariners against the Texas Rangers at T-Mobile Park, with the Sounders hosting Sporting Kansas City in Major League Soccer play at Lumen Field. The Sounders didn’t waste much time moving their match to Thursday, Oct. 1 at 6:30 pm PT, but the Mariners have now made their schedule change. Anyone up for a day-night Mariners-Seahawks doubleheader?

The Seahawks are slated to begin the 2026 NFL season at 5:20 pm PT, so unless the Mariners and Rangers have an extra innings marathon there should be some time between the end of the M’s and the start of the Seahawks.

Seattle’s Week 1 opponent will likely not be revealed until closer to the schedule release in mid-May, but it’s a certainty that the Seahawks will be unveiling their second Super Bowl banner regardless of who they’re facing.

We have achieved one week of Royals baseball, and the Royals, despite an anemic offense outside of one game, have managed not to lose more than they’ve won. Now comes one of the bigger tests for the team in the early-going as Atlanta was without many of their preferred starters, and the Twins simply don’t look very good. The Brewers may not get any respect from the pre-season projections, but they made it all the way to the NLCS last season and seem to be one of those teams that keep finding ways to be good.

In the series opener, the Royals are going to be relying on a rookie making his first MLB start, but not his first MLB appearance. Michael Wacha is having his start pushed back while dealing with an illness, so Luinder Avila will get the call. Avila made a few appearances out of the bullpen last September and impressed many while he was at it, pitching to a 1.49 ERA in 13 relief appearances. During Spring Training, manager Matt Quatraro indicated that he saw Avila as having front-line starter potential, but most outsiders agreed that if Avila was going to contribute this year, it was going to be out of the bullpen. Craig Brown over at Into the Fountains, though, told me he thought that Avila would be the first starter up. So kudos to him for getting that right. Bailey Falter was added to the IL in a corresponding move after a near-disastrous ninth-inning appearance on Wednesday.

Chad Patrick will get the ball for the Brewers, making his second start of the season. His first start saw him go only 4.1 innings against the White Sox, striking out 4, walking 1, and giving up a run in a no-decision that would become a Brewers win. Patrick is a 27-year-old sophomore who pitched to a 3.53 ERA in his rookie campaign last year. He faced the Royals in his second big league appearance and first start, pitching 4.2 scoreless innings in a game the Brewers won 5-0.

Last year, Patrick threw six pitches, but three are variations of fastballs – a four-seamer, a cutter, and a sinker – which he combined to throw 86.5% of the time. He also mixes in a slider, a slurve, and a changeup, but every kind of fastball gets thrown more than those three pitches combined. In his first start this year, he threw 74 pitches. Six were slurves, two were changeups, and he didn’t throw a single slider. His cutter is a very good pitch, though, getting lots of chases and whiffs despite the lack of variety and the fact that it’s kind of slow for a cutter. Patrick can struggle with the strike zone at times, so the new, (hopefully) patient Royals might have an advantage over him that the free-swingers of last year didn’t.

Lineups

Carter Jensen continues to ride the pine after oversleeping yesterday. Starling Marte gets his first game action in exactly one week since his last, on Opening Day. Without Carter in the lineup, Jac Caglianone remains bumped up to the fifth spot in the lineup; hopefully, he’ll get some more hits there tonight than he did yesterday afternoon. Nick Loftin gets the start over Jonathan India. Despite Wednesday’s grand slam, India is having a poor start to the season, including popping up fully one-third of the balls he’s put in play. I know it worked against Royce Lewis in the rain, but that’s no way to get a hit.

You know sometimes when things in baseball appear to be true, but you dig a little deeper and they’re really not? There has always been a feeling when Aaron Nola is on the mound that the Phillies just don’t score runs for him. That’s something I’ve always thought was true, so it required a quick trip to Baseball Reference to confirm it.

Turns out: not really true! In 2024, his last really healthy year, the Phillies scored 5.5 runs per inning he was on the mound, which was 19th best in all of baseball. The team scores for him, he just struggled to keep the score in the Phillies’ favor. Today, the offense did quite well getting him support, batting around in the first and never looking back.

For the Rockies, the first inning was truly ugly. Michael Lorenzen, the guy who willingly wanted to sign for them to try his hand at pitching in Colorado, got his first chance at seeing why the mile high air chews up pitchers who lack quality stuff and spits them out. The first inning rolled like this:

• double by Trea Turner
• walk to Kyle Schwarber
• walk to Bryce Harper
• two-run single by Alec Bohm (2-0, Phillies)
• RBI double by Bryson Stott (3-0)
• strikeout by Adolis Garcia
• three-run home run by Brandon Marsh (6-0)

• double by J.T. Realmuto that was lost in the sun by Mickey Moniak
• groundout by Justin Crawford
• RBI single by Turner (7-0)
• groundout by Schwarber

That’s what the experts call a “bad outing”.

While we thank Lorenzen for his no-hitter he threw here in Philadelphia, the Phillies really needed this game to get their offense going. The fun didn’t end there. In the second inning, Harper unloaded on a pitch from Lorenzen for his second home run of the game.

In the third, Bohm singled in another run for the Phillies, making the score 9-0 and ending Lorenzen’s day.

Meanwhile, Nola just cruised. Tasked with keeping a bad Rockies lineup off the board, he just threw strikes and kept the scoreboard empty. His curveball was crisp, his fastball was spotted and he scattered by a few hits to maintain the lead and shut down the opposition.

Of course, no blowout win is complete without Kyle Schwarber hitting a missile, so he did that.

Curiously, the team was then in turn held in check by Valente Bellozo yet again. He relieved for the Rockies and ended up finishing the game for them, the Schwarber blast the lone blemish on his record. His weird hex he has on the Phillies is something to be studied.

It’s the proper way to begin a trip to Colorado, particularly after struggling at home at the plate. They’ll look to keep it up tomorrow night.