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The Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs are slated to go toe to toe for the first time in 2026 on Monday night in Wrigley Field, and as is so often the case during spring games there is inclement weather in the forecast.

As a result, the originally scheduled start time has been bumped up by half an hour. The game was originally scheduled to have first pitch chucked at 6:40 PM CT (7:40 PM ET), and now that’s set for 6:10 PM CT (7:10 PM ET). MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon helped relay the news.

Bleed Cubbie Blue pointed out that if you have tickets in the MLB Ballpark app, the start time has been automatically updated.

Though the Reds have yet to announce the official roster move, Chase Petty is listed as tonight’s starter at Reds.com opposite Edward Cabrera of the Cubs. It will be Petty’s 2026 MLB debut when he is officially recalled, with hopes that the struggles he went through as just a 22 year old at the big league level last season have been put in the rearview mirror.

No surprise here, as the Detroit Tigers’ rookie phenom was a candidate for league MVP in March and April. He is second place to Aaron Judge in the American League in Baseball Reference’s rWAR with 2.1 wins above replacement and currently tracking toward a potential 9 WAR season in his major league debut. He’s made it look so easy that we’re already acclimated to quiet games where he goes 1 for 3 with an RBI and a walk as just his baseline day at the park. The Reds’ Sal Stewart is a heck of a young hitter as well, and he took home the award in the National League.

McGonigle is currently hitting .315/.407/.477 for a 149 wRC+ and unlike just about all the names above him on various offensive leaderboards, he’s playing a sound shortstop day in and day out rather than bat first positions like corner outfield or first base. He holds a 12.7 percent strikeout rate and a 12.7 percent walk rate. Only Yordan Alvarez and Chase DeLauter have lower strikout rates as well as a higher walk rate in the whole league.

There are also signs that McGonigle has been a little unlucky as we near the season’s quarter pole. He holds a stellar .394 weight on-base average (wOBA), but Statcast says he should be at .401 based on his batted ball data. He’s slugging a heathy .477 but expected slugging says he should be slugging .535 and we have seen quite a bit of chilly, wet weather to start the year. Once it’s hot and low humidity, there’s a good likelihood that McGonigle has plenty more in the tank than we’ve seen already. On the other end, his expected batting average is .297 instead of the .315 he’s currently rocking, but we’ll happily trade a few singles for a few more home runs when he’s ready.

The best part of this, or at least the part that I was less sure about coming into the season, is that McGonigle is both playing a solid shortstop, and showing even a bit better speed than he did last year.

Perhaps the early season ankle injury in 2025 lingered a bit, or at least kept him less willing to push it for part of last year. His sprint speed is holding well above average, and we’ve seen him post some elite home to first times when he’s really needed to beat feet.

Defensively he’s a plus 2 in defensive runs saved at both shortstop and third base, and a minus 2 by Statcast’s Outs Above Average (OAA). Defensive metrics are still pretty variable this time a year, but we can at least confidently say that McGonigle is playing an average shortstop, confounding a lot of scouts who were pretty down on his ability to handle the position last year.

Most of this goes without saying if you’re watching the Detroit Tigers every night. There’s nothing flukey going on at all. Kevin McGonigle is already one of the best pure hitters in baseball, and he’s got a lot more home run power than he’s shown early on. All signs suggest that this is just a starting point for the 21-year-old as he leads the AL Rookie of the Year race, but is also making a convincing case as a possible MVP candidate. All this as a 21-year-old who will finally graduate from prospect status with his next at-bat tonight against the Boston Red Sox. He will have good competition the rest of the way from Guardians rookies Chase DeLauter and Parker Messick, as well as White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami.

At some point perhaps we’ll see a little slump, but his approach, swing, and elite hand-eye coordination says that even those little slumps will just be blips on the radar as Kevin McGonigle holds at cruising altitude as an elite hitter, and looks to continue higher in the power department.

Congratulations to him on being named Rookie of the Month in the American League. Only five more months to go for a clean sweep.

There is a forecast of rain and storms sometime late this evening in Chicago.

As a result, the start time for the Cubs vs. Reds game scheduled for 6:40 p.m. CT has been moved up 30 minutes and will instead begin at 6:10 p.m. CT.

If you have tickets to tonight’s game, they should have already been automatically updated in the MLB Ballpark app (mine were). Gates at Wrigley Field will open 90 minutes to first pitch, or 4:40 p.m. CT.

Today’s BCB game preview will post at 4 p.m. CT.

Good move by the Cubs in trying to stay ahead of tonight’s incoming weather. Hopefully the 30 minutes will allow the game to be completed before storms hit.

The Twins managed to finish the week with a win, splitting a four-game series with the reigning AL Pennant winner, the Toronto Blue Jays. Unfortunately, both Joe Ryan, Cole Sands, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and Walker Jenkins were the new additions to the injury report this week. There had been encouraging signs from the oft-injured Jenkins, as he was healthy from Opening Day in St. Paul, slashing .256/.396/.389 in 25 games. However, he ran into a wall this past weekend and looks to be out for the time being. With regards to Ryan, he was pulled from his start yesterday with elbow soreness after pitching to two batters. He underwent an MRI, but no further news yet. The Twins have fallen to the worst team in the AL Central after a good week from the Kansas City Royals, but this is shaping up to be exactly the season Twins fans were expecting.

The Past Week on Twinkie Town:

• Check out The Feed, where you can add your discussions about the Twins!
• We’re starting a new segment called Daily Questions! Provide your opinion on the Twins and debate with the community!
• Game threads and recaps are back! Commiserate with your fellow fans as we experience the season together.
• Zach Koenig bangs the “it can always be worse” drum as he looks back at the 2016 Twins team.

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

• Dan Hayes at The Athletic checks in on Tom Pohlad one month into his first season as the Twins’ controlling owner.
• Neal Justin at the Star Tribune reviews the new musical about Joe Mauer at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
• Lou Hennessy at Zone Coverage offers a few more bargain bin options for the Twins’ bullpen.
• There were signs of life from the bullpen yesterday, with Andrew Morris and Taylor Rogers leading the way.

In the World of Baseball:

• Nothing has really changed at the top of the American League, with the Yankees, Rays, and A’s leading the way, but the bottom has shuffled quite a bit, with the Angels and Twins joining the bottom five teams.
• Atlanta has a nice 2.5-game cushion at the top of the National League, and the Mets and Phillies have strung together a few wins after dealing with their double-digit losing streaks.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates have been a nice revelation this season, and on Saturday, they shellacked the Reds and managed to make history by having every hitter in the lineup hit an RBI.
• Rob Thomson was fired by the Phillies after a 9-19 start. ESPN reported that Phillies POBO Dave Dombrowski had offered the opening to the recently-fired Alex Cora prior to letting go of Thomson, but ultimately Cora declined, and the Phillies appointed Don Mattingly as interim manager.
• Jay Jaffe at Fangraphs looks at how offense has changed with the new ABS challenge system.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Probable Pitchers 

Updated Stuff+ Explainer 

• Stuff+ scores for Mariners starters

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

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

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

The Big Picture:

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

Happy Monday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John Sterling passed away at 87.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s where the cutter comes in.

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

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

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

Cutter

Changeup

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Padres vs Giants odds

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

Padres vs Giants trend

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

How to watch Padres vs Giants and game info

Padres vs Giants latest injuries

Padres vs Giants weather

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