The Astros optioned OF Zach Cole to Triple A Sugar Land following last night’s game. Taking his place on the active roster, the Astros reinstated OF Taylor Trammell from the 10-day IL today.

This move makes a lot of sense right now, as Cole (8×51, 3 HR 8 RBI 21K in 51 AB) has struggled with inconsistent playing time and will benefit from regular AB at Sugar Land.

Trammell is also a LH bat and excellent defender, and is more accustomed to a part-time role.

Trammell hit well in spring training, and was 10×29 (.345) with a double, triple, and 4 RBI before landing on the IL in April.

Texas Rangers lineup for May 26, 2026 against the Houston Astros: starting pitchers are Jack Leiter for the Rangers and Jason Alexander for the Astros.

Sigh. Its another game. The Rangers have tried their very best the last several games not to get hits, and accomplished that yesterday. Hopefully today will be different. Josh Jung is back, which I hope will help.

The lineup:

Pederson — DH

Osuna — LF

Nimmo — RF

Jung — 3B

Burger — 1B

Carter — CF

Duran — SS

Foscue — 2B

Higashioka — C

7:05 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are -132 favorites.

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The Seattle Mariners look to gain ground on the Athletics in the AL West when the two teams face off tonight.

Seattle took the series opener 9-2 on Monday, yet is listed as a +100 underdog ahead of tonight’s divisional showdown.

My Mariners vs. A’s predictions break down why there’s a good chance of another convincing Seattle win, with Emerson Hancock facing an unproven A’s rookie.

Read more in my MLB picks for Tuesday, May 26.

Who will win Mariners vs A's tonight: Mariners (+100)

While the Seattle Mariners were already looking at a favorable matchup against Luis Severino, the veteran right-hander has been pushed back to start in tomorrow's series finale.

However, a looming matchup against A’s rookie Gage Jump now presents itself as arguably even more advantageous for Seattle, who are rocking a 114 wRC+ on the road over the past month, a far cry from the 91 mark they’ve posted at home.

Jump hasn’t exactly been lights out in the minors this season, posting a 4.50 ERA through 38 innings in Triple-A, including a 4.74 BB/9 and a 16.7% HR/FB rate. This is a perfect spot to fade a young southpaw being thrust into a last-minute debut.

COVERS INTEL: Despite a 26-29 record, Seattle owns a +13 run differential, the fourth-best mark in the AL. That should equate to a 29-26 Pythagorean record that would have the Mariners 10th in baseball.

Mariners vs A's Over/Under pick: Under 9.5 (-110)

Emerson Hancock’s fastball sits in the 99th percentile in run value at Baseball Savant, and his wFB metric of 8.6 ranks fifth among all eligible pitchers this season.

Meanwhile, the Athletics are having issues generating consistent offense. Their 26.4% hard-hit rate is second-lowest in the majors the past week, driving a 1.28 GB/FB ratio and a .111 ISO.

Once Hancock gives way to the pen, I’m expecting the A’s to continue struggling to find runs. The Mariners rank sixth in BB% and ninth in K% over the past month, and both bullpens should perform well enough to limit late scoring.

Mariners vs A's odds

• Moneyline: Mariners +100 | A's -120
• Run line: Mariners +1.5 (-150) | A's -1.5 (+170)
• Over/Under: Over 9.5 (-110) | Under 9.5 (-110)

Mariners vs A's trend

The A's are 4-6 SU over their last 10 games. Find more MLB betting trends for Mariners vs. A's.

How to watch Mariners vs A's and game info

Mariners vs A's latest injuries

Mariners vs A's weather

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The sinking Mets made a flurry of roster moves before Tuesday afternoon’s middle game against the Reds at Citi Field. The Mets reinstated A.J. Minter and Jared Young from the Injured List, placed Tyrone Taylor on the 10-Day Injured List with a right hip flexor strain, optioned Nick Morabito and Jonathan Pintaro to Triple-A Syracuse, promoted infielder Eric Wagaman, and will make another corresponding 40-man roster move prior to first pitch at 7:10 p.m. ET.

Minter, who signed a 2-year, $22 million contract in January 2025, underwent season-ending lat surgery in early May after posting a sparkling 1.64 ERA in 13 appearances with the Mets. The left-hander had rehab stints this spring with Single-A St. Lucie, High-A Brooklyn, and most recently Triple-A Syracuse, where he worked a scoreless inning on Sunday. He joins Brooks Raley to form a reliable duo of southpaws at the back end of the Mets’ bullpen. 

Pintaro, who allowed just one baserunner and struck out three in 3.2 innings of work since joining the big league club on Saturday, was the odd man out as Minter makes his return.

Just as the Mets get one position player back from injury, they lose another. After appearing to tweak something while getting out of the box on a ground ball during Monday’s game, Taylor is officially headed to the IL. Carlos Mendoza wouldn’t put a strict timetable on Taylor’s recovery, but expressed hope that it would be two or three weeks.

Meanwhile, Jared Young, who had been sidelined since April 13 with a left meniscus tear, returns from his rehab assignment to a roster now occupied with other left-handed options including MJ Melendez and A.J. Ewing. Young and Melendez will both get the starting nod at first base and left field, respectively, on Tuesday night against Cincinnati starter Chase Burns. Prior to his injury, Young put up an .841 OPS in 23 plate appearances with the Mets.

After exactly one week in the majors, Nick Morabito is headed back to Triple-A in order to keep him playing every day, according to Mendoza. The 23-year-old — who ranked No. 15 on Amazin’ Avenue’s top prospect list entering the season — went hitless in 11 at-bats with the Mets, but flashed his good glove in the outfield.

Eric Wagaman, a late April waiver claim, will join the big league roster for the second time this season in search of his Mets debut. The 28-year-old infielder has a career .674 OPS and 0.0 bWAR in 158 games with the Angels and Marlins, but he was absolutely raking with Syracuse, holding a 1.043 OPS over 52 plate appearances and a .481 batting average over his past eight games.

Tuesday notes…

• NOT SOMETHING YOU HAD HOPED TO READ THIS YEAR: The Cubs are the 26th team since 1901 to have at least one double-digit winning streak and at least one losing streak of nine games in the same season. The Guardians were the previous team to do it. Last year, they won 10 and lost 10, to become the 19th team with double-digit streaks of both kinds. The three others with 10 or more wins and at least nine losses since 2000 were the Dodgers in 2017 (11 of each), Guardians in 2008 (10 of each) and Pirates in 2004 (10 and nine). The Cubs did it once before, in 1970 (10 and 12). The Guardians have had four seasons of at least 10 and nine; the Orioles and Senators/Twins, three; and the Phillies, Pirates, Red Sox and Reds, two. Teams besides the Cubs with one: Athletics, Braves, Brewers, Dodgers, Giants, Yankees and White Sox. That makes a total of 15 teams that have done it at least once. The 1976 White Sox and 1985 Twins both won 10 and lost nine and 10. The 1987 Orioles won 11 and lost nine and 10. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• CAN’T WIN IF YOU DON’T SCORE: Yesterday’s game was the 12th this season in which the Cubs gave up exactly two runs. They have lost three of them. They are 3-0 when yielding both no runs and one. They are 2-2 with three runs allowed, 6-4 with four, 3-3 with five — and 6-16 with five or more. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• LIKE NIGHT AND DAY: After Monday’s loss, the Cubs are only 13-15 in day games, while going 16-10 under the lights.
• TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: A two-run homer by Alfonso Soriano in the eighth ties the game against the Reds and a double by Welington Castillo in the ninth gives the team a 5-4 win in Cincinnati. The win ends a six-game losing streak. It happened 13 years ago today, Sunday, May 26, 2013.

Cubs lineup:

Pirates lineup:

Jordan Wicks, LHP vs. Braxton Ashcraft, RHP

So here we are, with another pitcher from Triple-A Iowa pressed into service because of a rotation injury.

Jordan Wicks was the Cubs’ No. 1 pick out of Kansas State in 2021 and there were great hopes for him to be a solid starter. He did reasonably well in seven starts in 2023 but the next two years were filled with bad pitching and injuries. This year, he suffered nerve irritation in his left forearm and had to start the year on the IL, then had a rehab assignment to Triple-A Iowa and then one start there after being optioned.

Potential hope: Over his last three starts at Iowa, Wicks has allowed only one run in 15 total innings. His walk rate is a bit high, though.

This, obviously, is his MLB season debut for 2026. Hopefully it goes well. The pitch chart below is from last year. It was obviously a very different Pirates team, but Wicks made his MLB debut at PNC Park Aug. 26, 2023 and threw five two-hit innings, striking out nine. Perhaps he can channel that tonight. To date, that’s Wicks’ only career appearance against the Pirates.

Braxton Ashcraft has done well as a full-time member of the Pirates rotation this year: 10 starts, 2.89 ERA, 1.027 WHIP. That includes five innings of one-run ball against the Cubs April 11 at Wrigley Field.

This month he has a 1.91 ERA and 0.882 WHIP in four starts, with 26 strikeouts and only four walks in 28.1 innings.

So tonight will not be an easy task for Cubs hitters.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around PNC Park.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.

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

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout. If you do go there to interact with Pirates 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.

Many factors have contributed to the strong start, but what have we actually learned that we didn’t already expect entering the season?

Pitching

The Rays entered the season with a much stronger pitching outlook than they had in 2025 thanks to the additions of Martinez and Matz, along with the return to the pitcher-friendly Trop. McClanahan’s return from injury has also gone about as well as the organization could have hoped – especially when considering he hasn’t pitched in a Major League game since 2023. Rasmussen continues to be as reliable as they come, and Jax’s much-anticipated transition to the rotation has gone well so far. Pepiot’s injury was surprising and disappointing, but the depth has held up and we haven’t really learned anything new about the rotation.

We also knew the bullpen had plenty depth, and that depth has already been tested with Uceta and Wilson on the 60-day IL to begin the season. IL stints from Cleavinger and now Sulser have further tested that depth. Despite those injury concerns, the bullpen has performed relatively well. They’re roughly league average in earned runs per batter faced — a useful bullpen metric because it accounts for workload — and middle of the pack in save-plus-hold conversion rate. Ben Williamson (a position player who has pitched 1 inning), Yoendrys Gomez, Chase Solesky, and Aaron Brooks have combined for a 7.48 ERA in 21.2 IP this season and are skewing the bullpen performance quite a bit.

One thing we’ve learned: the Rays have a closer, and his name is Bryan Baker. All offseason the idea was there would be a “closer by committee” approach, but that hasn’t happened, although Cash will use Baker to pitch the eighth inning if that’s when the heart of the opposing lineup is batting. There are still four relievers with multiple saves and I expect that to continue to some extent, but Baker has made the most of the opportunity given to him.

Position Players

We knew the catching group would be better on both sides of the ball compared to 2025. It has been a bit of a surprise to see Nick Fortes get so much playing time – he has appeared in 42 of the team’s 51 games so far while Feduccia has played in 29. The Rays currently have the 12th best wRC+ from their catching group and are 3rd in framing strike rate. The duo we have right now is looking good, and Dom Keegan could see some reps in the majors at some point later in the summer.

The infield (plus DH) is still the strongest group of players on this team. Aranda, Caminero, and Yandy lead the way while Williamson and Palacios have made solid contributions so far. Taylor Walls surprised everyone with a quick return from an early IL stint, and it was good timing too as the game appeared to be a little too quick for Carson Williams. The infield has converted ground balls into outs at roughly a league-average rate, but I expect that to improve a bit as Caminero continues to find his groove defensively and Williamson gets more comfortable with his transition to second base.

The outfield has been better, but that was expected. The improvement has been driven by a shift towards more plate discipline and contact profiles on the offensive side while year-over-year improvements from Cedric Mullins and Chandler Simpson have helped make this unit one of the better defensive groups in the league. The Rays convert fly balls and line drives into outs 61.8% of the time – the third highest rate in the league and well above the average of 57.7%. Unsurprisingly to some, Ryan Vilade has been impactful on both sides of the ball with his 140 wRC+ and three defensive runs saved in the outfield.

The main thing we’ve learned is that the new Rays offense works. The run environment is different than it was a few years ago, and the Rays have put together an offense that is built for it. I expected them to be a playoff team, but I didn’t expect a 108-win pace. This pace is unlikely to hold for any club over a full season, but this looks like a legitimate playoff team. It’ll be interesting to see how aggressively the Rays approach the deadline as they try to improve the roster while also managing the coming Rule 5 crunch.

This has been a rough year when it comes to notable names in Atlanta Braves history passing away. There was the double blow of losing both Ted Turner and Bobby Cox within the same week and now a former player has passed on. The Braves somberly shared the news that former star Bob Horner has passed away at the age of 68.

As the post shared, Horner left an indelible mark on the franchise while he donned the Atlanta uniform. He was picked first overall in 1978, he didn’t play a single game in the minors before making his big league debut and just to show that he belonged, he clubbed a homer in his first game as well and eventually earned the National League Rookie of the Year honors for that season.

Horner went on to spend nine seasons with the Braves where he earned an All-Star spot in 1982, hit four homers in a game in 1986 and he finished his Braves career with a slash line of .277/.340/.499 with an OPS of .839 and a OPS+ of 127. After becoming a free agent, he spent one season with the Yakult Swallows in Japan (which ended up being the best spot for him after it came out that the owners were colluding against free agents at the time) before joining the St. Louis Cardinals for the season after that. A shoulder injury derailed Horner’s time in St. Louis and he eventually called it a career once spring training rolled around the next season.

There wasn’t a ton for Braves fans to cheer about during the 1980s but if there was something to cheer about, there was a decent chance that it involved either Dale Murphy or Bob Horner. He remained a popular figure among Braves fans who had been fans during that time and he’s still a name that comes up whenever fans from that era reminisce about those days. He’ll be missed among fans across Braves Country. May he rest in peace.