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The Seattle Mariners have dropped two in a row to begin this weekend series with the San Diego Padres, but my Padres vs. Mariners predictions believe Seattle's significant pitching advantage will enable them to salvage a game from this interleague affair tonight.

Read on for my free MLB picks for May 17, and don't miss JD Yonke's Padres vs. Mariners props for Sunday Night Baseball.

Who will win Padres vs Mariners tonight: Mariners moneyline (-157)

George Kirby gives the Seattle Mariners a tremendous advantage on the mound, and that will allow them to coast to victory.

Kirby doesn't rack up Ks (38th percentile), but he gets batters to chase (92nd percentile), and doesn't issue many free passes (17th in BB/9 innings among qualified starters). 

The San Diego Padres lineup has been absolutely awful in May, ranking dead-last in OPS (.593).

Countering Kirby is Lucas Giolito, who makes his season debut. His minor-league rehab starts do not inspire confidence, as he recorded a 4.76 ERA across 17 innings. He also had a 5.01 xERA in 2025.

COVERS INTEL: The Padres are seventh-worst in the majors in chase rate (32.9%).

Padres vs Mariners Over/Under pick: Under 7.5 (-110)

I'm expecting a heavy dose of the Padres bullpen in this one with Giolito making his first start of 2026, and this unit is fifth by ERA in May (2.24). The Mariners offense is solid but not scary, ranking 16th in OPS.

Seattle is also swing-happy, ranking third-worst in whiff rate (27.7%). That plays directly into the hands of San Diego's relievers, who rank second in K/9 innings (10.91) this month.

The Mariners' bullpen shouldn't be taxed too heavily behind Kirby, but this a strong relief corps. Seattle relievers are eighth by ERA in May (2.38).

Padres vs Mariners odds

• Moneyline: Padres +130 | Mariners -150
• Run line: Padres +1.5 | Mariners -1.5
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 | Under 7.5

Padres vs Mariners trend

The Mariners are 5-1 across Kirby's last six starts. Find more MLB betting trends for Padres vs. Mariners.

How to watch Padres vs Mariners and game info

Padres vs Mariners latest injuries

Padres vs Mariners 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.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was once again asked about 1B/DH Jorge Polanco on Sunday ahead of the team’s rubber match with the Yankees. 

And while there is no updated timeline for Polanco, who hasn’t played since April 14 due to wrist and Achilles injuries, Mendoza indicated that the Achilles bursitis is something that likely will not heal 100 percent this season, and that it comes down to how well the veteran can tolerate and play through it.

If Polanco doesn’t reach that point, it doesn’t sound like he’ll be playing any time soon. 

“I think it’s getting to a point where—he’s going to feel it, right? But just keeping it to a point of ‘I can tolerate this’ because if not he’s going to get shut down for a long period of time,” Mendoza said. “So, I think we just continue to go through baseball activities, continue to push it running-wise, and see how he reacts to that. 

"Hopefully, he can continue to get treatment and hopefully it goes away, but it's something that he's probably gonna have to manage."

Polanco, who signed a two-year deal with the Mets this offseason with the idea of him being the everyday first baseman, has played in just 14 games this season, hitting .179 with one home run. 

“We want to have more good days than the days I don’t feel so good,” Polanco, who recently received a PRP injection, told The Athletic earlier this week. “That’s when I know I’ll be ready to go.”

Sunday notes…

• SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE: This is the 21st of the Cubs’ 59-regular season series against the White Sox in which the teams have split the first two games. The Cubs won a third game six times and lost it seven times. There was no third game seven times. The Cubs are 1-5 in third games after winning, then losing, including 1-4 on the road. The win was in the last such game, in 2020. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• DAY GAMES ON THE ROAD: The Cubs lost their first day game of the year on the road, by 4-1 at Cleveland on April 3. Two days later, in Game 1 of a doubleheader, they beat the Guardians, 1-0. Beginning with a 4-1 loss in Game 2, they have dropped five of six day games as the visiting team. The win was by 5-4 at San Diego on April 29. Their only such game since then was last Sunday, when they lost, 3-0, at Texas. They are 1-3 in all day games on the road on Sundays. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE BUSCH LEAGUE: Michael Busch extended his on-base streak to a career-high tying 17 games in which he is batting .286/.453/.464 (16-for-56) with five doubles, a triple, a home run, 17 walks and 13 RBI.
• TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Sean Marshall and three relievers combine on a one-hit shutout of the Nationals at Wrigley Field. The only Nats hit is a leadoff single by Alfonso Soriano in the sixth. The Cubs win the game 5-0. It happened 20 years ago today, Wednesday, May 17, 2006.

Cubs lineup:

White Sox lineup:

Colin Rea, RHP vs. Erick Fedde, RHP

Colin Rea was going along pretty well and then the Braves torched him pretty good last Tuesday in Atlanta.

But, I’d say Rea does well enough for a fifth starter type. Eats innings, and most of the time gives you a decent outing.

Against the Sox almost exactly a year ago, May 18, 2025 at Wrigley Field, Rea held the Sox to one run in 5.1 innings. We’ll take another one like that today, please.

Erick Fedde… what year is this, 2024?

Fedde pitched for the Sox that year, then was shipped away to the Cardinals in a three-way deal that brought Miguel Vargas to the South Side. Since then he’s also pitched for the Braves and Brewers before he came back to the Sox as a free agent this past offseason.

He has pitched well enough for the Sox (3.77 ERA, 1.163 WHIP) in eight games (six starts) that, well, they could flip him again if they fall out of contention.

The Cubs hit him hard twice last year when he was with St. Louis — 10 earned runs in five innings. Dansby Swanson is 10-for-27 (.370) against Fedde with a double.

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

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. It’s also on Chicago Sports Network and WCIU-Ch. 26 with the Sox announcers.

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

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation White Sox site South Side Sox. If you do go there to interact with Sox 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.

Texas Rangers lineup for May 17, 2026 against the Houston Astros: starting pitchers are Nathan Eovaldi for the Rangers and Peter Lambert for the Astros.

Texas will attempt to avoid a sweep. They will also attempt to get their average runs scored per game in this series to at least 1. Corey Seager is out again.

The lineup:

Carter — CF

Nimmo — RF

Jung — 3B

Pederson — DH

Duran — SS

Osuna — LF

Burger — 1B

Foscue — 2B

Higashioka — C

1:10 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are -125 favorites.

Unfortunately for the Mets, injuries have been the major storyline from their first quarter-plus of the 2026 regular season. From Juan Soto, to Francisco Lindor, to Francisco Alavrez, to Luis Robert Jr., to Jorge Polanco, the list goes on and on.

The club’s latest stroke of bad injury luck came on Friday night, when starting pitcher Clay Holmes fractured his fibula on a comebacker to the mound. 

Holmes, who stayed in the game on Friday a bit longer after the injury occurred, said he initially thought he could pitch through it, but by the end of the outing he was not surprised by the diagnosis.

“When it first hit me, I knew I could still put pressure on it, so I thought I still had a chance to pitch,” he said. “I’ve done this before, back in 2020, and it kind of immediately gave away on me then, so I was kind of hoping this was different. 

“I kind of knew walking off that it was probably broken, so I was kind of expecting it and wasn’t surprised with the X-rays. But it caught me good. Had some hope there for a little bit, but the more I was throwing on it, it kind of continued to feel worse. Like I said, I have some history with it, so I knew that it probably wasn’t great.”

Back in spring training of March 2020, Holmes suffered a similar fracture in his right foot after a Nelson Cruz comebacker caromed off of him. But Holmes said it’s hard to compare the two injuries because the last time he recovered happened during the COVID shutdown and he was back for the start of the shortened season in July.

The good news, it seems, is that Holmes believes he can avoid surgery. While adding a plate or a screw to stabilize the bone hasn’t been entirely ruled out, Holmes said that having surgery “doesn’t seem to be the case,” though the medical staff is still gathering information. 

“Comes down to how well the bone heals,” Holmes said.

Injuries are never welcomed with open arms, but Holmes’ fracture comes at an especially rough time for both the player and team. Individually, Holmes has been one of the Mets’ most consistent starters this season, pitching to a 2.39 ERA. The Mets, meanwhile, have gotten off to a rough start as a team, but are a game over .500 in their last 10 games.

According to Holmes, the toughest part is not being out on the field with his teammates as they try to climb out of this early hole.

“It’s tough. Just from a personal standpoint, I feel like I was in a good spot, the body and the arm,” Holmes said. “It’s kind of hard to stay healthy in this game as is, and I’ve had some freak accident things that are out of your control that are tough. More than anything, not being able to compete with the guys here, the team.

“We haven’t gotten off, I think, to the start that we wanted or everybody wanted, but just to see how guys were battling through it and seeing how things were starting to come together, you just want to be in the fight with everyone.”

Nobody who watched the first week of Rece Hinds’ MLB career will ever forget it. Most everybody who watched it will use it as a measuring stick for the debut of any other player, so rife was it with gargantuan homers and pinpoint precision with his powerful swing.

If only things had managed to keep even a sliver of that pace.

The Cincinnati Reds designated Hinds for assignment on Sunday morning as part of a larger series of short-term focused roster moves. They needed a 40-man roster spot for a catcher since they needed to place Jose Trevino back on the 10-day IL, and it was Hinds’ spot that, for whatever reason, was up.

Cincinnati also shuttled Luis Mey back to AAA after his rough outing last night, recalling a fresher Jose Franco to help add to the bullpen depth for the time being.

The story here, though, is with Hinds. Even as recently as spring training, manager Terry Francona spoke about how Hinds had done everything he needed to do to make the team only to lose out on a numbers game. Then, when Noelvi Marte ran into a serious slump to begin the 2026 season at the big league level, it was Hinds – not JJ Bleday – who was turned to, and he got a multi-week run in the outfield almost every day to show whether or not he’d made significant enough improvement at the AAA level to warrant a full-time role in the big leagues.

He went 4 for 33 with a lone walk and 18 strikeouts, with nary a homer to his name.

There is huge swing and miss with Hinds, that’s undeniable. The former 2nd round pick is still just 25 years old, though, and the rest of the tools in his arsenal are pretty dang impressive, and there will undoubtedly be another team out there willing to take a flier on him to see if they, unlike the Reds, can unlock the rest that’s there.

If anything, this also rings as an endorsement of who else the Reds have in their current outfield mix. Bleday has obviously hit the ground running, and the presence of Blake Dunn, Hector Rodriguez, and Marte has obviously given the Reds the impression that they’ve got a baked-in hierarchy at the position that no longer needs Hinds, should he be claimed on waivers.

Yeah, this is the way this season is going.

Tommy Nance has been put on the IL with forearm discomfort. Well, they said ‘right forearm discomfort’….but I figured you guys knew which arm it would be. Nance has pitched in 19 games, 20 innings, 16 hits, 1 home run, 8 walks, 24 strikeouts with a 4.05 ERA. He pitched three of four games from May 9 for May 12, but hasn’t pitched since then.

Adam Macko has been called up from Buffalo. He relieved in 13 games, 18 innings, allowing 13 hits, 3 home run, 8 walks and 19 strikeouts with a 4.50 ERA. He also pitched for Team Canada in the WBC.

Macko was #7 on our prospect list this year. Tom M wrote:

Every year there’s a guy I don’t think I’m going to have all that high in my rankings who, once I sit down and put together the probabilities that we use to underpin the expected value scores, just has to be up there. This year it’s Macko. He didn’t perform great in Buffalo’s rotation last season, but he held batters to a 73% contact rate overall and just under 82% inside the zone, both of which are solidly above average and represent steps forward over his superficially more impressive 2024.

Macko grew up in Slovakia, a noted baseball hotbed, and learned to pitch from watching YouTube. He moved to Canada and was drafted by the Mariners in the 7th round of the 2019 draft out of the noted baseball hotbed (but mostly not sarcastic this time) of Vauxhall High School in Alberta. He worked his way up to A+ in the Seattle organization before coming to Toronto in the Teoscar Hernandez deal. From there he’s gone one level at a time, establishing himself in Buffalo in 2025. He’s been maddeningly inconsistent, dealing with both actual injuries and fluctuations in his stuff and command. On the right day, he’ll spot 94-96 with a crisp slider and promising change, while on the wrong day he’ll be missing the zone entirely and sitting 91 with shaky secondaries. Things seemed to click a bit in the second half last year after a demotion to a long relief role. He sat closer to the top of his velocity range in three inning appearances and allowed just a 64% contact rate, generating 29 Ks and 61 swinging strikes in 26.0 innings while keeping his walks (6) under control.

I think that’s Macko’s most likely role going forward: a high quality multi-inning reliever who can make the occasional 5 and dive spot start. If that brings out the good version of him, the one with three 55 grade pitches that he can locate, more often, he could be an actual weapon on a good team. There’s still some hope that he finds a way to harness that quality in the rotation, in which case there could be a #3 starter in there, but that would take achieving a consistency that we haven’t yet seen from him.

When he makes it into a game, it will be his first major league appearance.

Congratulations Adam. Heal up quick Tommy (I have a friend that calls me Tommy, and I’m never sure how to react really, cause I don’t think that’s my name. But, we named my middle boy Thomas (my father, and his father, and his father were all Toms) and he decided, very young, that he was Tommy and he’s continued that way into adulthood and it suits him).

Today’s lineup. There are some changes. Pinango leads off, with Vlad second (DHing) and no Springer.

Team News

Gurriel steals a run — literally — to get D-backs on board
https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/news/lourdes-gurriel-jr-steals-home

Diamondbacks’ Latest Loss to Rockies is Extremely Concerninghttps://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/onsi/diamondbacks-latest-loss-rockies-extremely-concerning

Diamondbacks’ bats go quiet, Eduardo Rodriguez suffers 1st loss of season vs. Rockieshttps://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/diamondbacks-loss

How Rare Was Merrill Kelly’s Complete Game, Really?https://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/onsi/how-rare-merrill-kelly-complete-game-diamondbacks

Former D-backs Fan-Favorite Slugger Finds New Home in Mexican Leaguehttps://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/onsi/former-d-backs-fan-favorite-slugger-mexican-league-melendez

How do you celebrate a teammate’s outing? Ask for his autograph
https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/news/kevin-ginkel-autographs-ball-for-ryan-thompson

Other Baseball

Gerrit Cole, nearing return, reaches 99.6 mph in 6th rehab starthttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/48791182/cole-nearing-return-reaches-996-mph-sixth-rehab-start

Jose Altuve set for MRI after exiting Astros’ win earlyhttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/48792543/jose-altuve-set-mri-exiting-astros-win-early

Banner day for Sánchez: Shutout, 13 K’s and MLB’s longest active scoreless streakhttps://www.mlb.com/news/cristopher-sanchez-throws-shutout-with-13-strikeouts

After 11 years in Minors, Durán makes 1st hit a HR, then has No. 2 ROBBEDhttps://www.mlb.com/padres/news/rodolfo-duran-homers-for-first-major-league-hit-with-padres

58 runs over 3 games?! Cubs’ High-A affiliate delivers historic feat
https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/cubs-high-a-affiliate-south-bend-historic-run-scoring-feat?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

O’s add veteran OF Pham on Minor League deal
https://www.mlb.com/orioles/news/tommy-pham-minors-deal-with-orioles

Anything Goes

This day in history:

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/may-17

This day in baseball:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/May_17

Germans eat twice as much chocolate as Americans.

At 11.3 kg of chocolate consumed each year, Germans eat twice the amount of chocolate that Americans do.

Croissants are not French.

You might associate croissants with French lifestyle, but the croissant is actually from Vienna. In the 13th century, it was known as a kipferl, a denser bread made in the distinct crescent shape.

Silent Hill is based on a real place.

If you’re looking for nightmare fuel: The eerie psychological horror game is actually based on a real place. If you’re a brave soul, you might want to visit the abandoned town of Centralia, Pennsylvania. Travelers who have visited confirmed the Silent Hill-esque unsettling feel.

Triple-A: Syracuse Mets (23-20)

SYRACUSE 6, SCRANTON/WILKES-BARRE 2 / 10 (BOX)

·  CF Nick Morabito: 1-5, R, RBI, K

·  2B Ji Hwan Bae: 1-3, R, RBI, 2 BB, SB

·  LF Ryan Clifford: 0-4, R, BB, 2 K

·  DH Christian Arroyo: 2-5, R, 2B, 2 RBI, SB

·  1B Eric Wagaman: 2-4, 2B, BB, K

·  3B Yonny Hernández: 2-5, RBI

·  RF Cristian Pache: 1-5, 2 K

·  SS Jackson Cluff: 1-4, R, K

·  C Kevin Parada: 1-4, 3 K

·  PR Matt Rudick: 0-0, R

·  C Ben Rortvedt: 0-0

·  RHP Xzavion Curry: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

·  RHP Jonathan Pintaro: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

·  LHP Nate Lavender: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

·  RHP Dylan Ross: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Double-A: Binghamton Rumble Ponies (12-26)

SOMERSET 12, BINGHAMTON 3 (BOX)

·  C Chris Suero: 2-3, R, 2 BB, K

·  1B-3B Jacob Reimer: 0-4, BB, E

·  CF Jose Ramos: 2-3, 2B, RBI, BB

·  3B-2B Nick Lorusso: 2-5, R, HR, 2 RBI, K

·  LF JT Schwartz: 0-3, BB, 2 K

·  RF TT Bowens: 0-4, 2 K

·  SS-P Wyatt Young: 0-4

·  DH-1B Vincent Perozo: 0-4

·  2B-SS Diego Mosquera: 0-3, R, BB, K

·  RHP Jordan Geber: 1.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

·  LHP Felipe De La Cruz: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

·  RHP Brian Metoyer: 1.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

·  LHP Jefry Yan: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

·  RHP Wyatt Young: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

High-A: Brooklyn Cyclones (10-27)

ROME 1, BROOKLYN 0 (BOX)

·  SS Mitch Voit: 1-4, 2B, K

·  2B Yonatan Henriquez: 0-4, 3 K

·  DH Ronald Hernandez: 0-4, 2 K

·  1B Corey Collins: 0-3, 2 K

·  C Daiverson Gutierrez: 0-3, K, E

·  LF John Bay: 1-3, K

·  CF Sam Biller: 1-3, 2B, K

·  3B Nick Roselli: 0-3, K

·  RF Yohairo Cuevas: 0-3, K

·  RHP Irving Cota: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

·  RHP Parker Carlson: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K

·  RHP Cristofer Gomez: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

·  RHP Garrett Stratton: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Single-A: St. Lucie Mets (15-23)

ST. LUCIE 7, JUPITER 6 (BOX)

·  SS Elian Peña: 1-4, R, BB, K, E

·  CF JT Benson: 1-3, R, 2 BB, 2 K

·  1B Randy Guzman: 1-4, R, HR, 3 RBI

·  DH Julio Zayas: 1-2, 2 R, 2 BB

·  LF AJ Salgado: 2-4, R, K

·  3B Sam Robertson: 1-4, R, RBI, SB

·  C Chase Meggers: 2-4, 3 RBI, K

·  RF Simon Juan: 0-4, K

·  2B Jamari Baylor: 1-4, 2 K

·  RHP Jose Chirinos: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

·  RHP Ryan Dollar: 0.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

·  RHP Justin Armbruester: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

·  REHAB ALERT RHP Adbert Alzolay: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

·  RHP Christian Rodriguez: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Rookie: FCL Mets (4-6)

FCL METS 5, FCL MARLINS 3 (BOX)

·  2B Vladi Gomez: 1-2, 2 R, BB, 2 SB

·  REHAB ALERT DH Jeremy Rodriguez: 2-3, 2 RBI, SB

·  C Yovanny Rodriguez: 1-3, R, K

·  1B Josmir Reyes: 1-3, K

·  RF Heriberto Rincon: 0-2, RBI

·  CF Bohan Adderley: 1-2, 2 R, HR, RBI, BB, K, SB

·  SS Diover De Aza: 0-3, 2 K

·  3B Yeider Mindiola: 0-2, RBI, K

·  LF Adolfo Miranda: 0-2

·  RHP Camden Lohman: 3.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

·  RHP John Valle: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

·  RHP Eris Albino: 3.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

STAR OF THE NIGHT

Christian Arroyo

GOAT OF THE NIGHT

Brian Metoyer