Worldwide Sports News

A night game – and this one was actually scheduled this way, rather than being pushed back to the night to avoid the heat! Can’t say I blame anyone though. A high of 103 F today is just… wrong for mid-March, and it’s only a couple of degrees cooler than that now. Forecast high of 105 F tomorrow. Dear lord. I’m starting the countdown to the annual declaration by Mrs. SnakePit that she can’t take it any more, and we need to move. Don’t think we’ve ever previously had that discussion before Opening Day. Speaking of which, a week from now, things will be under way in games that matter…

Definitely an A-bullpen kinda day, with all the scheduled pitchers after Michael Soroka being ones with a non-zero chance of making the Opening Day roster. Specifically: RHP Kevin Ginkel, RHP Ryan Thompson, LHP Brandyn Garcia, RHP Jonathan Loaisiga and RHP Andrew Hoffmann. Garcia might be the one on thinnest ice, after a pair of spectacularly bad outings. Eleven batters faced, two outs – three hits, four walks and two hit batters. One more appearance like that and there’ll almost be no way back for him, considering there are only a handful of spring games left.

No broadcast apparently for this one, so you are on your own. Recappage should follow, but I’ll be on my phone, so it may be short and/or misspelled.

And, for the nightcap, here’s your major league spring training lineup for the Guardians:

Today the Texas Rangers have hopped the bus for a trip over to Phoenix, AZ to have a Cactus League quarrel against the Milwaukee Brewers.

LHP Jacob Latz will take the mound for Texas as the battle for the final spot in the rotation — of which Latz remains a competitor — nears a conclusion. Milwaukee will counter with RHP Brandon Woodruff.

You can listen to the game via 105.3 The Fan or follow along on Gameday. First pitch from American Family Fields of Phoenix is scheduled for 8:10 pm CT.

Go Rangers!

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Bryce Eldridge didn’t make the Giants’ Opening Day roster.

The club’s top prospect was optioned to Triple-A on Thursday along with two other cuts that left 42 players still in major-league camp with San Francisco.

Eldridge, 21, was considered a serious option for the Opening Day roster despite his age and lack of experience due to his advanced approach at the plate and raw power.

However, the 6-foot-7 slugger entered the spring with questions about his defensive abilities at first base, a position he only picked up after the Giants drafted him 16th overall in 2023.

Look no further than Eldridge’s playing time this spring for how seriously the Giants were considering breaking camp with him. Only two players logged more at-bats.

Eldridge made some of the hardest contact of anyone in the Cactus League but struck out in 19 of his 49 plate appearances (38.7%). He ended spring batting .225 (9 for 40) in 19 games with one homer, one triple and four doubles but admitted to not feeling comfortable in the box toward the end of camp.

“For him overall to look dangerous and comfortable at the same time is something that we’re all analyzing from over here probably even more so than the result,” manager Tony Vitello said Thursday afternoon before the decision had been made public. “I think he has found that at times. It’s a matter of it being consistent. Part of that just comes from reps.”

Eldridge wasn’t likely to get many defensive reps at the big-league level with Rafael Devers expected to handle first base. He will get an opportunity to get everyday reps in the field and at the plate to start the season with Triple-A Sacramento.

The Giants, meanwhile, will be able to time Eldridge’s call-up when he is feeling better at the plate. In the meantime, the roster move opens the door for players such as Luis Matos and Jerar Encarnacion, who have put together strong springs but are out of options.

Eldridge has played 84 games above Double-A, including 10 at the major-league level at the end of last season. He recorded three hits in 28 at-bats and is still seeking his first big-league home run.

In three minor-league seasons, Eldridge has 56 home runs, a .275 batting average and an .861 OPS. It didn’t take long for the hype train to leave the station after he began posting elite exit velocities in complex-league games shortly after being drafted as an 18-year-old high schooler. Eldridge emerged as one of the top prospects in all of baseball in 2024 as he climbed through four minor-league levels.

Now the consensus top prospect in the Giants‘ farm system, Eldridge was rated the No. 25 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline and No. 18 in Baseball America’s Top 100 entering this spring.

Move over, Tiger King. The newest Netflix star is the home run king.

Netflix announced Thursday that Barry Bonds would be a special guest studio analyst for their telecast of the season opener between the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees Wed., March 25. Bonds will join Albert Pujols and Anthony Rizzo as part of the pregame and postgame shows, a panel that combined for 1,768 home runs. Much like chicks, Netflix digs the long ball.

Bonds won’t be the only legendary Giants outfielder who will be part of the broadcast. Hunter Pence will be in the booth, alongside Matt Vasgersian and Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia, giving each of the teams an alumni voice in color commentary.

Netflix had teased the announcement of Bonds, originally only announcing that a “Special Guest” would join the broadcast. However, John Shea reported that the streaming giant would be filling McCovey Cove with 73 red kayaks bearing the Netflix logo in honor of the 25th anniversary of Bonds’ record-breaking 73-homer season in 2001. So there was a strong chance the secret unannounced studio guy would indeed be Bonds.

In fact, who were the other possibilities? Brandon Belt would have only agreed to join the crew if he could be the studio captain. Huey Lewis specializes in national anthems, not baseball analysis. Tim Lincecum is shy. Barry Zito would bring an acoustic guitar. Brandon Crawford would only get on board if the Cheese Steak Shop was a sponsor. Gavin Newsom would blow Netflix’s entire hair and makeup budget. Aubrey Huff might be banned from even having a Netflix account, much less appearing on a Netflix show.

If it goes well, we’d like to humbly suggest some more SF Giants Netflix programming”

“Lou Seal In Paris”

The cuddly seal with the amorphous body moves to Paris in order to school European mascots in American-style clownery and his signature “belly bump” move. Lou struggles with driving his golf cart on the correct side of the road, wins over a squad of soccer hooligans and finds love with his downstairs neighbor, a Cirque du Soleil acrobat who is also an otter.

“Jake Paul vs. Hunter Strickland”

Hunter Strickland loves starting fights. Jake Paul loves scheduling fights. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound former Giants closer has a size advantage over Paul, but Paul has more experience. As for punchable faces, they’re about even. However, Michael Morse and Jeff Samardzija are not allowed to intervene!

“The Blanco Lotus”

See what happens and who gets murdered at a luxury hotel in Venezuela run by former Giants outfielder Gregor Blanco, his twin brother Gregory Blanco, and his little brother, Gregson Blanco. Unlike that other Lotus show, these three brothers won’t have any inappropriate contact with each other.

“Bay Bridgerton”

Tony Vitello struggles to learn etiquette in the complicated society of major league baseball, all while dealing with malicious gossip published by “Lord Whistledown” (Joe Maddon).

“Squib Game”

Luis Arraez competes in an intense, life-or-death game show where players face a series of dangerous challenges that mainly require putting a baseball in play, no matter how softly. If his BABIP drops too low, the Giants offense dies.

“Danny Ozark”

Giants manager Danny Ozark has to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel, all while trying to keep the 1984 Giants out of last place in the National League West. Starring J.K. Simmons as Ozark and Pete Rose, Jr. as Pete Rose, Sr.

Congratulations to Mr. Bonds! Let’s hope Hall of Fame voters aren’t all watching Paramount Plus instead.

We got a night game folks! The Athletics are set to play host to their division rivals the Seattle Mariners tonight in one of the final games of spring, a sold-out crowd that is ready to see our A’s take the win. With about a week to go before Opening Day things are going to start getting really ramped up here over the next few games. A’s fans should be seeing plenty of the regulars getting their at-bats in, the pitchers getting their final tune-ups, and the bullpen arms making their final cases for a ticket to Toronto. Should be an intense week and one that’ll also feature the Athletics’ Breakout game on Sunday afternoon. Gear up and prepare for the last exhibition contests before games begin to count.

The A’s have veteran right-hander Aaron Civale taking the ball for the club in what’ll be just his third appearance this spring. The 30-year-old veteran of seven big league seasons likely didn’t need much time to ramp up and be ready for Opening Day though. His first outing saw him allow a pair of runs on 60 pitches. His most recent appearance didn’t yield great results (six runs on nine hits) but he did get all the way up to 75 pitches. That’s probably been his biggest goal since arriving to the A’s at the last possible moment but it seems he’s going to be stretched out enough to take his spot in the Opening Day rotation, which has all been assured to him by the team. We’ll be hoping to see him produce better results tonight but as long as he gets his pitches in everything should be smooth sailing for the righty until the regular season. From there however we’ll need to start seeing results.

Here’s the Athletics’ lineup for tonight’s contest:

No surprise that manager Mark Kotsay is trotting out most of the regulars tonight. In fact, dare I say that this looks like the probably Opening Day lineup? I don’t want to start an argument about Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers’ spots in the lineup. No matter how you feel about it, the Athletics are going to prioritize getting them the most at bats possible this coming year. We’ll see if it lasts for six months but this is how the A’s will likely stack up next week in Toronto against their right-handed ace Dylan Cease.

We have Lawrence Butler back in the lineup but not manning right. While he’s been behind the rest of his teammates during camp as he completes his rehab for a torn patellar tendon, Butler’s been getting in his at-bats in controlled settings and finally made it into a game earlier this week. He’s yet to fully get right field under his belt much during camp, which is the final step in his rehab. He’s DH’ing tonight so that’s a positive, but the hope is that we see him out on the outfield grass a few more times before games start to really count.

The Mariners kept their cards close to the chest all afternoon, only announcing their starter a couple hours before first pitch. Seattle will counter Civale with right-hander Randy Dobnak. The 31-year-old is with the M’s on a minor league deal after spending the previous five years with the Minnesota Twins. He’s unlikely to make their Opening Day roster but could be an option for them later in the season if Seattle’s vaunted rotation suffers any injuries. Shouldn’t be too hard of an assignment for the A’s starting nine tonight but you never know!

And here’s how the M’s lineup breaks down for tonight’s game:

While the A’s are sending out their expected regular starting lineup the Mariners have more replacements than everyday guys in today’s starting nine. Civale needs to be careful with first baseman Josh Naylor but other than him he should try to be aggressive against Mariners batters this evening.

The A’s are 12-14 during camp and with five games left there’s still time to finish at or above .500. I know, meaningless, but still would be nice to break camp with a winning record. Let’s go A’s!

We’re officially one week away from Opening Day. The roster is coming more into focus as the day gets closer, but there are a few games to still play this spring. Tonight, the Brewers host the Rangers.

Prior to today’s game, the Brewers announced a few (perhaps surprising) roster moves. Blake Perkins, Tyler Black, and Logan Henderson were optioned to Triple-A, and Cooper Pratt was reassigned to the minor league camp. Perkins appeared to be in line for a spot on the Opening Day roster, but he will start in Nashville instead. While Perkins has not had a bad spring, Brandon Lockridge’s spring has been strong enough that he may have played his way into a roster spot. This also means Garrett Mitchell is likely ready for the regular season, especially if the Brewers are making this move a week before the start of the season. With these roster moves, 34 players — 18 pitchers and 16 position players — remain in camp, with eight more cuts between now and next Thursday.

Both Lockridge and Mitchell are in tonight’s lineup for their game against the Rangers. Sal Frelick takes the other spot in the outfield and is batting leadoff. Joey Ortiz and Christian Yelich fill out the top of the lineup, and Andrew Vaughn bats fourth behind them. Gary Sánchez and Luis Rengifo bat sixth and seventh, and David Hamilton finishes out the lineup for tonight. Many of the projected Opening Day starters are in the lineup, but the full lineup won’t come together until the remaining Brewers return from the World Baseball Classic.

Brandon Woodruff gets the start tonight for the Brewers. This will be an important start for Woodruff to see if he will be ready for the start of the season. He has only appeared in one game this spring, a two-inning scoreless start against the Angels on March 13. He allowed two hits and a walk while striking out three. In today’s start, the plan is for him to pitch four innings. Also scheduled to pitch tonight are Grant Anderson, Trevor Megill, and Jared Koenig.

First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the Brewers Radio Network.

The Colorado Rockies are hosting the San Francisco Giants at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick this evening. The game was bumped into the evening because of blistering hot temperatures in Arizona.

Speaking of hot topics, who says we need to put the World Baseball Classic behind us? Venezuela may have ended the tournament victorious, but they had to get through the teams represented by both of today’s starting pitchers to do so.

On the mound for the Rockies—representing Samurai Japan—is the right-handed Tomoyuki Sugano. Sugano will be making his first appearance in a Rockies uniform this spring, as he had to depart for Japan’s training camp just shortly after signing in free agency. The 36-year-old decorated Japanese pitcher made one start during the World Baseball Classic, shutting out Australia for four innings. He pounded the strike zone without walking a batter and tallied two strikeouts.

Starting for the Giants—and representing Team USA—is right-handed ace Logan Webb. The Rockies are no stranger to Webb, who has dominated them throughout his career. Webb has posted a 2.97 ERA in 19 career appearances against the Rockies. During the World Baseball Classic, Webb was excellent for Team USA. He gave up just one run via a solo home run in 8 2/3 innings across his two starts. He struck out 11 batters and walked just one.

First Pitch: 7:10 PM MDT

TV: None

Radio: None

Lineups:

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Chicago White Sox at San Diego Padres, March 19, 2026, 6:10 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Peoria Sports Complex – Peoria, AZ

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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