What the Mets saw last year from Nolan McLean — strong work in Double- and Triple-A, a mid-August call-up, zero noticeable nerves, a seamless transition to major league life and finally general excellence for eight starts, which had positioned the righty for Game 1 of a playoff series that did not arrive — was extraordinary. 

There are young pitchers who, given the sharper book on them that experience affords, take a step or two back after initial success. There are some who, given the added workload of the 162-game season, begin to ache. There are others who lose a tick or two of velocity after a career season. And there are some who run with the early success and become standouts or superstars. 

What does McLean have in store for his encore? The Mets and baseball world will begin to find out Sunday, when McLean Day arrives for the first time this season. 

Is McLean — entering Year 2 (even if he is technically a rookie) after displaying filthy stuff in the World Baseball Classic — better than he was at the end of last season? 

“Absolutely,” McLean said before the Mets hosted the Pirates on Saturday. “Just because I’ve had even more time to work on it. I think getting more and more reps and figuring out myself a little bit better.” 

At all stages of his professional life, McLean has improved from year to year. The McLean who pitched in the Florida Complex League was different than the one called up to Low-A St. Lucie, who was different than the one who pitched with High-A Brooklyn.

He spent most of his 2024 campaign with Double-A Binghamton, where “Cowboy Ohtani” tried to hit, too, before ending the experiment, and he posted a 4.19 ERA in 18 starts. Last season he dominated (1.37 ERA) in five starts at the level before his rise truly began. 

He is still somewhat raw — a college reliever and outfielder, he has only been starting for a season and a half — and is adjusting a few pitches in a repertoire of spin. He believes there are larger steps to take. 

“I think just overall pitchability, I’ve improved a ton,” McLean said. “I’ve got confidence in a lot more pitches as well. And I’ve had a whole ’nother year to work on my body to just hopefully increase longevity.” 

Last season McLean pitched in 29 games between the minors and majors. This year, he said, a goal is around 35 — last year’s major league leader was Logan Webb with 34. 

The most tangible difference between this year’s McLean and last year’s McLean might be his heat. In the majors last season, his four-seamer averaged 95.8 mph. During the WBC, the same pitch registered 97.7 mph. 

Was the bump the product of the intense atmosphere? The result of unleashing more with a shorter pitch count, building up to 63 pitches in the championship game? Or a sign that he will be throwing harder this year? 

“I’ve never had [that velocity] before, so I guess we’ll see,” said McLean, who said a stronger body and “just learning how I move on the mound a little bit better” might help him reach back for more this year. “I expect it to go down a little bit. But if I can average one more mile an hour than I did last year, that’s a win for me.” 

Even if his fastball gains are real, he always will be known for his breaking stuff. His biggest projects this offseason were fine-tuning his cutter, which can help particularly against lefties, and improving upon a changeup that he rarely threw last season.

That offering — more technically a kick-change, which he began toying with in 2024 — became a focus of camp, leaning upon it to help its consistency and see if he could induce any more drop on the pitch. 

“Hopefully I got a little more reps under my belt” with the kick-change, he said. 

The true reps are about to begin. If Sunday will not quite reach the levels established by Harvey Day, there is potential for McLean Days to take on their own energy. 

“He’s equipped. He’s built for it,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’ve just got to enjoy it now and watch him do his thing.”

This one was dramatic. Dylan Cease looked excellent in his Blue Jays debut, which is great news. The offence took a while to get going but lead big rallies when they were needed. And the Bullpen collapsed early and then kept it interesting but ultimately did enough.

Cease cruised through the first two innings, giving up just a line drive single to Tyler Soderstrom in the first. He got into a minor jam in the third, walking Nick Kurtz with two outs and giving up a single to Shea Langeliers to put Kurtz on third, but he struck out Soderstrom to escape. He struck out the next six A’s, cruising into the sixth with a 1-0 lead. A lead off walk to Kurtz and a one out double from Soderstrom tied the game, though, and then Brent Rooker reaching on a fielder’s choice knocked him out of the game. The final line was one earned on three hits and two walks over 5.1 innings pitched, with a dozen Ks. He and Kevin Gausman became the first teammates since 1901 to punch out at least 11 in a team’s first two games of the season. Braydon Fisher cleaned up from there, getting a double play ball to preserve the tie.

Meanwhile, the offence struggled with Jeffrey Springs. Vladimir Guerrero jr. worked a two out walk in the first, but then got himself thrown out trying to stretch to third on Kazuma Okamoto’s ground ball single, wasting what would prove to be a rare scoring opportunity. A double play erased a Daulton Varsho single in the second. Their first run off Springs came in the third. Myles Straw and Andres Gimenez lead off with back to back singles, and George Springer crushed a double to left. It was one of those that might have scored two if it were hit more softly, but Soderstrom was able to field it on one hop off the wall and hold Gimenez at third. Two batters later, Okamoto worked a walk to load the bases, but Alejandro Kirk grounded out softly to end the inning. They went down in order in the fourth and fifth. Vlad walked to open the bottom of the sixth, and Springs got Okamoto to pop out before being lifted from the game. A Kirk ground out off reliever Mark Leiter jr. advanced Vlad to second, and a softly lined Varsho single cashed him in, putting the Jays in front 2-1.

The seventh went poorly. Mason Fluharty was hit by two comebackers from his first two batters, leaving the game with an injury at that point. Brendon Little took over and struck out his first batter, but then he forgot to check the runners, allowing a double steal to put men on second and third. Denzel Clarke dribbled one back to the mound and reached on the fielder’s choice, tieing the game at two with two on. Little walked Kurtz to load the based, and then gave up a grand slam to Jay killer Langeliers, putting Oakland out front 6-2. He did get the next batter swinging while John Schneider got another pitcher warmed up. Tommy Nance took over and struck out his man to end the inning there.

The Jays rallied a little in the bottom half. Jesus Sanchez, getting his first game action of the year pinch hitting for Straw, took a curveball off the toe. Andres Gimenez hit a single into right that knocked Leiter out of the game in favour of Elvis Alvarado. He got the first two Jays out, but Vlad grounded a single through the second base hole to bring Sanchez in, cutting the deficit to three. Okamoto battled but eventually struck out swinging to prevent them from getting more.

Nance returned and worked a 1-2-3 top of the eighth. Alvarado lost the plot in the home half, walking Kirk and Varsho to lead it off. Hogan Harris got the call to face Ernie Clement. He got him to fly out, but it was deep enough for Kirk to tag and move to third. Sanchez then reached well into the right hand batter’s box to poke one halfway up the third base line and Kirk beat the throw home, making it 6-4 and putting the tieing run on base. Gimenez ripped a one hopper up the middle to move it into scoring position and cut the gap to one. Springer popped out, but Barger worked a walk to load the bases for Vlad and knock Harris out. Vlad got jammed a little on a Michael Kelly slider in and lined it directly to second base for the third out.

Tyler Rogers got a soft grounder and a pair of Ks in the top of the ninth. Man he makes it look easy when he’s on. Kelly got Okamoto looking on a fastball several inches outside that Okamoto opted not to challenge, which might have cost them had Kirk not launched the second pitch he saw over the home bullpen to tie the game at 6. Varsho broke his bat on a soft line out to first. Ernie Clement slapped a single into right to put the go ahead run on, but Sanchez hit a hard grounder right to Kurtz at first to send it to extras.

Louis Varland pitched around Langeliers leading off the 10th, then erased him with a double play ball from Soderstrom. That advanced the Manfred man to third, though, and allowed him to score when Rooker slapped a grounder against the shift into right. He got Jacob Wilson swinging to get out of the inning only down one. Gimenez hit a soft liner off Scott Barlow leading off the bottom half that dropped in front of Soderstrom. Jesus Sanchez was caught in between before deciding to try to go to third. He just barely beat the throw, and then Gimenez stole second to put the tieing and go ahead runs in scoring position. One batter later, Addison Barger hit a towering fly right to the wall in right centre. It was caught, but was plenty deep for Sanchez to tag and score to tie it. The A’s opted to walk Vlad to pitch to Okamoto, who popped out to send it to the 11th.

Spencer Miles made his MLB debut in the 11th. In spite of only having appeared in 10 pro games in his career to date, he made a veteran play right away, fielding a come-backer and catching the automatic runner hung up between second and third for the first out. Then he punched out (the other) Max Muncy for his first career K, issued a walk, and got a can of corn to right to end the inning. About as solid a debut as you could ask for for a reliever. Luis Medina struck out Kirk and intentionally walked Varsho. That brought Clement to the plate. He worked the count full, although to my eye it sure looked like he went around on ball three. He got the call, though, and lined the next pitch into left for the walk off hit.

Jays of the Day: Andres Gimenez put up a 0.77 which, combined meaning more than a quarter of his career offensive WPA has come in the last two games. Stay hot, Andres. Spencer Miles (0.13) earns his first every Jay of the Day (and his first MLB Win, but that kind of pales in comparison, doesn’t it?). Fisher (0.18), Kirk (0.47), Varsho (0.24), and Clement (0.16).

Less so: Fluharty (-0.18) qualifies, but I’m not going to add insult to injury. So we’ll blame it all on Little (-0.46). Springer (-0.25), Vlad (-0.15), Okamoto (-0.31), and Varland (-0.3) also had the number

We’ll be back tomorrow to wrap up the series. Eric Lauer will take on Luis Morales. First pitch is set for 1:37pm ET.

If it was not already obvious, Paul Toboni is going to make a lot of moves this season. The latest one just happened, when he traded for Curtis Mead of the White Sox. Mead is an Australian infielder who split time between first base, second base and third base with the White Sox last year.

Interestingly, Mead was actually traded for Cristopher Sanchez back in 2019. For a while, it looked like the Rays had done it again, as Mead’s stock soared while Sanchez struggled. However, we now know that the Phillies fleeced the Rays.

The 25 year old Mead was a top prospect at one point, but has struggled to translate his offensive game to the MLB. He will get a chance to do that now with the Nats. It is unclear if he will go right to the big leagues, but I assume he will get a shot at one point.

While Mead is not a great defender, he gives the Nats a versatile piece. He played 31 games at first base, 29 at third base and 17 at second base. I am curious to see what the Nats do with all these utility infielders. It is clearly something they covet, but they have a bit of a log jam now. Jose Tena’s time in DC could be coming to an end soon. He is firmly a DFA candidate now.

Tena was not the man DFA’d though. That was Jake Eder, who the Nats just acquired at the deadline last year. I would not be surprised if Eder cleared waivers and stayed in the Nats organization.

Mead was actually a player who I thought would be a good fit with the Nats when he got DFA’d. Paul Toboni is clearly searching for upside, and Mead’s pedigree gives him that. He has mashed in the minors, with an .878 OPS in over 1,500 career MILB AB’s.

If at least some of that hitting ability can translate to the big leagues, the Nats could have a steal on their hands. However, with over 150 career MLB games, the chances of Mead recapturing that prospect magic he had are fading. 

In exchange for Mead, the Nats had to give up Boston Smith, who was a sixth round pick in the 2025 draft. Smith was a senior sign who put up massive numbers at Wright State University. He is a catcher, but his defense is fringy at best. 

Hopefully Mead can make an impact for the Nats and play all over the infield for them. We are going to see a ton of these kinds of moves. If guys like Mead and Vivas produce, they will stick around, but if they do not, the Nats are more than happy to replace them.

The Braves look for their first series win of the season, while the Royals look to score a run and get their first overall win. I kinda hope neither of the latter happens, for obvious reasons.

The best part about starting the season a day later than almost everyone else is that we don’t have to wait through an off-day to get the taste of a dud out of our mouths. Sure, the Royals had a pretty awful offensive game paired with a mediocre pitching effort in last night’s match, but tonight’s could (and probably will) go better!

The Royals will have Michael Wacha on the mound. While Michael does not have the upside of Ragans, he also comes with far less variability. Per a Royals press release, Wacha has allowed three runs or fewer in 23 of 29 road starts over his career with KC. That’s pretty good! You can refine that even further using the FanGraphs splits tool to discover that he’s allowed two or fewer in 16 of those 29 starts, so more than half the time. The last time he faced Atlanta was in 2023 with the Padres, but he went six shutout innings with ten strikeouts and only one walk. It’s easy to feel confident the Royals will get a competent outing from Wacha today.

Atlanta will counter with Reynaldo López. López missed most of last year with an injury, so it’s hard to know what he’ll do tonight. Like last night’s starter, Chris Sale, he spent a large chunk of his earlier career in Chicago with the White Sox so he’s faced the Royals many times. But the most recent outing was in 2024 when he pitched six innings of one-run ball against the Royals B-Squad following their post-season clinch party the night before. In Spring Training, he made five starts to the tune of a 4.15 ERA. But his fastball velocity was way down. In 2024, he averaged 95.5 MPH, but this spring, he was down to 91.3. It’s safe to wonder if he’d even be in the rotation at all had Atlanta not suffered a bevy of injuries this March. Whatever concerns we’re all feeling about Carlos Estévez, at least we aren’t currently considering him our second-best starter.

Lineups

This lineup seems a bit more like what we should expect for most of the season. Kyle Isbel will make his season debut; Jac Caglianone got in as a pinch-hitter but will get his first start; Carter Jensen is still the DH but will bat fifth instead of ninth. I wonder if we could have expected Michael Massey to get the start over Jonathan India if he were healthy, but he’s not. Hopefully, he gets better soon, and hopefully, this version of the lineup does a bit more damage than what we saw last night.

Don’t forget tonight’s game is the first of 13 scheduled national games for the Royals. This one will be broadcast on Fox. Fingers crossed that competing with the Yankees/Giants broadcast that’s taking up more of the United States attention means that we won’t be subjected to John Smoltz tonight.

After the always-odd scheduled Sunday off day, the Dodgers are back at on the homestand by hosting the Cleveland Guardians on Monday night at Dodger Stadium.

Roki Sasaki makes the start for the Dodgers after a terrible spring training in a still-unrealized search for command. The Dodgers have stood behind Sasaki during his struggles, and plan to give him considerable rope to figure things out on the mound. But they wouldn’t mind seeing some positive results as well.

“We’re going to run him out there. I don’t think that for me, to put my head in a space that there’s another alternative right now, that’s not helpful. I don’t think so,” Roberts said last Monday. “I think that we’re gonna support him as much as we can, and then give him some runway, and then, once the season starts, then you gotta it’s about production.”

Monday game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Guardians
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
• Time: 7:10 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

Detroit Tigers (2-0) at San Diego Padres (0-2), March 28, 2026, 5:40 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Petco Park – San Diego, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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GB community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!

The San Francisco Giants are about to close out their series with the New York Yankees, and we’re all hoping the finale goes better than the first two acts. So far, the Yankees have completely shut down the Giants, winning 7-0 on Wednesday and 3-0 on Friday. San Francisco has mustered just four hits all series long.

On the pitching front, righty Tyler Mahle will take the mound for the first inning and make his San Francisco debut. The 31-year old made 16 starts for the Texas Rangers last year, and went 6-4 with a 2.18 ERA, a 3.37 FIP, and 66 strikeouts against 29 walks in 86.2 innings.

For the Yankees, it’s right-hander Will Warren, a 26-year old. Warren had his first full season last year, and went 9-8 with a 4.44 ERA, a 4.07 FIP, and 171 strikeouts against 65 walks in 162.1 innings.

Enjoy the game, everyone! Go Giants!

Lineups

Giants

1. Jung Hoo Lee — RF
2. Matt Chapman — 3B
3. Luis Arráez — 2B
4. Rafael Devers — DH
5. Heliot Ramos — LF
6. Willy Adames — SS
7. Harrison Bader — CF
8. Patrick Bailey — C
9. Casey Schmitt — 1B

RHP. Tyler Mahle

Yankees

1. Trent Grisham — CF
2. Aaron Judge — RF
3. Cody Bellinger — LF
4. Ben Rice — 1B
5. Giancarlo Stanton — DH
6. Jazz Chisholm Jr. — 2B
7. José Caballero — SS
8. Ryan McMahon — 3B
9. Austin Wells — C

RHP. Will Warren

Game #3

Who: San Francisco Giants (0-2) vs. New York Yankees (2-0)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 4:15 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: n/a

National broadcast: FOX

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

One of the nice things about baseball is that even if you lose your season opener in a burst of record-setting ineptitude, you get to start Game 2 with the score 0-0.

Hoping to make it beyond the 1 2/3 innings Shane Smith lasted in the opener will be righty Sean Burke, who had a decent 2025 (4.22 ERA and 133 strikeouts in 134 1/3 innings) and performed about the same this spring (4.58 and 16 whiffs in 17 2/3).

On the mound for Milwaukee will be sophomore righty Chad Patrick, who had a solid 2025, with a 3.53 ERA and 127 K’s in 119 2/3 innings.Patrick’s cutter-heavy arsenal will be facing a White Sox lineup with Munetaka Murakami moved up to the cleanup spot after being one of the only bright spots on Opening Day, with a homer and two walks (and none of the team’s 20 Ks).

The White Sox are playing a whole lot of defensive musical chairs, even though defense wasn’t the problem in the opening debacle. Luisangel Acuña moves in from center to short, Colson Montgomery shifts over to third, Lenyn Sosa is in the DH slot, Andrew Benintendi goes from DH to left, Tristan Peters tries his hand in center, and newcomer (or at least new this time around) Reese McGuire is behind the plate.

Understandably, given the 14 runs they scored in the opener, the Brewers are going with pretty much the same lineup:

First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. Central, with temps in the low 40s, so the roof will be closed. Usual broadcast suspects.

After two consecutive shutout victories to start the season, the Yankees are on pace to go 162-0 with zero runs allowed. Will that happen? Probably not, but it is the first time in franchise history that they’ve blanked their opponents in the first 18 innings, and heading into the series finale tonight at Oracle Park, the Bombers are looking for a sweep on national television once again.

Will Warren will make his first start of the season after a very strong spring, where a new release point has allowed him to fly up the Stuff+ rankings. Now sporting No. 29 after wearing No. 98 to start his career, the 26-year-old is coming off a 9-8 season with a 4.44 ERA (91 ERA+) and 4.07 FIP in 162.1 innings, leading all rookies in starts, innings, and strikeouts. He had a 1.42 ERA in six spring starts across 25.1 innings and will look to avoid the fate of being the first Yankee to give up a run this season.

Tyler Mahle is on the bump for the home team and will make his Giants debut after signing a one-year, $10 million pact in the offseason. He was once a reliable starter for the Cincinnati Reds, who broke out in 2021 and built his value up enough to get traded at the 2022 deadline to the Twins for Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, which did not age well for Minnesota.

Mahle’s career since then has completely derailed. In the next 2.5 seasons with the Twins and Rangers, he made 12 combined starts and threw just 54.2 total innings as he battled shoulder and elbow injuries. In 2025, he still missed several months with shoulder fatigue, but was highly effective when healthy, pitching to a 2.18 ERA (168 ERA+) and 3.37 FIP across 86.2 innings, even with the lowest strikeout rate of his career.

His stuff is a far cry from what it was five years ago, but the 31-year-old managed to be effective at limiting hard contact with refined location. Mahle has leaned hard on a low-90s four-seamer, backed up by a splitter, cutter, and slider. The most damage is done off the heater, but he still doesn’t generate many whiffs on his secondaries, relying more on soft contact.

After a platoon-heavy lineup on Friday, the Yankees are back to basics today. In fact, it’s the exact same lineup as Opening Day, when they scored seven runs off Logan Webb. For the Giants, Jung Hoo Lee will lead off for the first time, and Luis Arraez moves down to third in front of Rafael Devers. It’s the same nine batters that they used in each of the first two games, just in a different order.

How to watch

Location: Oracle Park — San Francisco, CA

First pitch: 7:15 pm ET

TV broadcast: FOX

Radio broadcast: KNBR 680, 1510 AM – KSFN (SF), WFAN 660/101.9 FM, WADO 1280 (NYY)

Online stream: N/A

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he Houston Astros (0-2) continue their opening 4 game series against the Los Angeles Angels (2-0) tonight at Daikin Park.

RHP Cristian Javier will make his first start of the season for the Astros opposite RHP Reid Detmets and the Angels.

TONIGHT’S ASTROS STARTER: RHP Cristian Javier is returning to the rotation full time since the 2024 season. He had Tommy John surgery early in the season and did not return until August of 2025. He pitched in eight games to close out the season and finish 2-4 with a 4.52 ERA in 37.0 INN, He had 34 strikeouts and 15 walks in those innings.

Javier put up good numbers this Spring, making three starts and posting a 1.69 ERA (2ER/10.2 IP) while allowing a .219 opponent batting average with 10 strikeouts.

Reid Detmers: Detmers has been with the Angels since 2021. He has toggled between the rotation and the bullpen. His best season came in 2022 when he was 7-6 with a 3.77 ERA in 25 starts. Last season he was 5-3 with a 3,96 ERA pitching exclusively out of the pen.

This spring, Detmers was 0-1 with four starts. He had a 5.40 ERA in 11.2 INN. He had 11 strikeouts and eight walks.

VS. THE ANGELS: The Astros open this season with a divisional series against the Angels, who the Astros went 8-5 against in 13 games last season. The Astros are 138-84 all time against the Angels and have won the season series against them in every full season dating back to 2015.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Saturday, March 28, 6:15 p.m. CST

Location: Daikin Park, Houston, TX

TV: Space City Sports

Streaming: Space City Sports

Radio: KBME 790 AM; TUDN 102.9 FM HD2

LAMBERT RE-SIGNED: The Astros have re-signed RHP Peter Lambert to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple A Sugar Land…Lambert had a strong Spring Training as an Astros NRI, posting a 2.92 ERA (4ER/12.1IP) in five appearances before being granted his release on Tuesday.

TODAY’S MEDIA AVAILABILITY: The Astros clubhouse will be open to approved media at Daikin Park from 2-2:50 p.m. CT…Astros Manager Joe Espada will be made available in the Astros dugout at approx. 2:50 p.m.

Houston Astros Lineup

2B Jose Altuve

DH Yordan Alvarez

3B Isaac Parades

SS Carlos Correa

1B Christian Walker

RF Cam Smith

C Yainer Diaz

CF Jake Meyers

LF Brice Matthews

Los Angeles Angels Lineup

SS Zach Neto

CF Mike Trout

1B Nolan Schanuel

DH Jorge Soler

3B Yoan Moncada

RF Jo Adell

LF Josh Lowe

C Logan O’Hoppe

2B Oswald Peraza