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The Detroit Tigers took the field on a lovely night in San Diego, looking to complete a road sweep of the Padres to open the season. It didn’t work out that way, though they continued to keep the Padres offense in check. The Tigers hitters were a little too jumpy against Padres’ pitching, with only a handful of hard hit balls, most of them from Colt Keith, to show for it as they fall to 2-1 on the year.

The Tigers were facing a young-ish starter in right-hander Randy Vasquez. Undistinguished in his short career to date, Vasquez earned a starting role via improved velocity and command in spring camp. He gave the Tigers trouble all night by keeping everything around the zone even when he missed, and the Tigers kept chasing a bit too much.

Kerry Carpenter chased a pair of breaking balls to open the game with a strikeout. Gleyber Torres drew a walk, and Colt Keith roped a double down the right field line. Unfortunately, being slow, Torres couldn’t score on the play, and so it was second and third with one out. Riley Greene grounded one to second and Jake Cronenworth fired home to cut down Torres. Spencer Torkelson put together a patient at-bat, but took a called third on a fastball away that was just off the plate. He failed to challenge despite the reasonably high leverage scenario, and that was that.

Jack Flaherty opened his season with a strong 1-2-3 frame. Cronenworth grounded out to McGonigle, playing shortstop in this one, and Flaherty dialed up 95-96 mph to freeze both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado on called third strikes.

Kevin McGonigle opened the second inning by also taking a called strike three that was just out of the strike zone. He too decided not to challenge. USE THE CHALLENGES, GUYS! Anyway, Matt Vierling lifted a routine high fly to right, and Gavin Sheets made a nice diving stop to rob Zach McKinstry of a single to send it to the bottom half.

Flaherty popped up Jackson Merrill to open the bottom of the second. Xander Bogearts lined out to Torkelson at first, though there was a missed strike call there that Jake Rogers was probably kicking himself for not challenging. Flaherty showed off several 88-89 mph changeups, continuing a spring trend. He eventually got a soft tapper from Sheets back to him and recorded the out, sending us to the third.

The Tigers went quickly in order, with Jake Rogers and Gleyber Torres striking out swinging on either side of a Carpenter ground out.

Ramon Laureano greeted Flaherty with a drive to the wall in right field. McKinstry, getting a start in right field, went back and made a nice jumping catch on the warning track for the first out of the inning. Flaherty got ahead of Castellanos and got him to ground out to McGonigle for the second out of the third. Freddy Fermin came up with the Padres first hit, lining a single to left, and Cronenworth followed suit, spraying a two-strike fastball that got too much plate for a single to left as well. That brought Tatis Jr. back to the dish, and you don’t love that with two on. A 1-1 slider off the plate was called a strike and then Jack came back with a 1-2 heater that buzzed Tatis Jr.‘s tower to run the count full. Utimately, Tatis anticipated that after coming inside twice, they’d go away, and he got a slider away and lined an RBI single to right field for a 1-0 lead.

Chris Fetter came out for a chat, and Flaherty got ahead in the county, but Tatis broke for second and Gleyber Torres just whiffed on a pretty good throw from Rogers. The ball went into center field, Cronenworth scored, and then Flaherty walked Machado. Merrill lined out to right to end the inning, but it was 2-0 Padres and Flaherty had that bad vibe he gets when he has to pitch out of the stretch a few times and loses his rhythm. He was uncomfortable and his command showed it the rest of his outing.

Colt Keith set the Tigers back to work in the fourth with a leadoff walk. More of this patience, please. Riley Greene took a close strike three call at the top of the zone for the first out. Vasquez was sitting 95-96 mph with sinkers and fourseamers, mixing in his other stuff well. Torkelson got a good pitch to hit and roasted a fastball to the fence in left but not quite high enough. Laureano jumped and hauled it in, and Keith had to retreat to first. McGonigle got a 2-1 breaking ball that hung in the sweep spot down and in, but he jumped it and pulled it foul before grounding out to first on a changeup down to end the top half.

Flaherty’s 60th pitch was a strike to open the bottom of the fourth, and Bogearts grounded the next pitch to Keith at the third. Keith threw a one-hopper but Tork scooped it for the first out. Sheets lined one pretty deep to left, but Riley Greene did Riley Greene things, getting a great jump and laying out in slightly awkward fashion to send Sheets back to the dugout. Laureano got a 1-2 knuckle curve below the zone and flared a single off the bat, but Castellanos lifted a deep fly to left that died at the wall like Torkelson’s for the third out.

The Tigers went in order in the fifth, as Vierling and McKinstry both whiffed at high fastballs and each saw only one strike in the at-bat, and then Rogers flew out to left. Vasquez certainly looked upgraded from his previous seasons, but after some good at-bats early, the Tigers definitely helped him out by failing to take more pitches.

Flaherty by this point wasn’t doing any better a job controlling the zone than his teammates. He went 3-0 to his first two hitters, getting Fermin to pop out to McGonigle, but walking Cronenworth on four pitches. He was over 80 pitches and the hook was brewing as Tatis got to 3-0, and Flaherty yanked another one to walk him. Jake Rogers came out for a mound meeting, but A.J. Hinch didn’t go to the bullpen with Machado up and lefty Brant Hurter ready to enter the game. Machado worked into a 3-2 count and just missed a meatball of a slider right down the middle. Flaherty wasn’t close with another 3-2 slider, issuing his third straight walk, and that was it as Hurter entered for his first appearance of the season with the bases loaded and one out.

Hurter got a quick groundout from Merrill to second base, but it was well placed to avoid the double play and Torres hesitated as Machado hit the brakes right in from of him. He could’ve tagged Machado and maybe gotten the out at first two, but Merrill is quick, and so Torres thought better of it and tossed to second for the out as the run scored. 3-0 Padres. Bogearts smacked a one-hopper to Torres to end the inning. Nice work from Hurter there.

There are three types of Flaherty outing. The ones where he dominates. The ones where he gives up a couple of homers and gets knocked out early, and today’s model, where he’s mostly good but gets rattled out of sync and leaks oil as the lineup turns over the third time.

Vasquez got Carpenter on a deep flyout to center, and then Torres grounded out to open the sixth. Colt Keith lined a single for his second hit of the night, and that left it up to Riley Greene in the sixth. Vasquez looked like he was running out of gas, walking Greene on five pitches to bring up Torkelson with McGonigle looming in the on deck circle. Kid’s already looming, guys. The Padres had a little meet-up at the mound to try and settle their pitcher down for one more hitter. Tork got a good pitch and smoked a one-hopper, but he hit it to Manny Machado for the final out of the inning. Eight strikeouts from Vasquez vs. three walks and two Keith hits allowed, and they really helped him out with most of the punchouts by expanding out of the zone against him.

Hurter tied Sheets into knots with a sinker for a whiff to start the bottom half. Laureano jumped a first pitch sinker for a solid single to right field and Castellanos followed suit. With Fermin coming up Hinch had seen enough of Hurter facing a long stretch of right-handed hitters. Not sure why Drew Anderson or Seabold weren’t up a little earlier in this one anyway against a heavily right-handed hitting team, but it was Seabold entering in a tight spot to make his Tigers debut in the sixth.

Seabold dusted Fermin with a 96 mph heater on the outer edge to start his outing. He then got ahead of Cronenworth 0-2 before fishing a bit to even the count. Cronenworth spoiled a pair of good fastballs, and Seabold tried a cutter and then a changeup that were both fouled off. Seabold nailed the bottom rail with a beaut of a fastball for a called strike three…but Cronenworth wisely challenged and he was correct. So, everyone dug back in with a 3-2 count. Another high fourseamer was fouled off, and Cronenworth was putting together a really good AB. Laureano broke and stole third with Seabold not paying attention, but he managed not to step off for a pitch clock violation and fired a fastball that Cronenworth lined one to McGonigle to end the inning and turn away the threat. Not great, but not a bad first appearance for Mr. Seabold.

So it was 3-0 Padres heading into the seventh, and with Mason Miller lurking in the Padres pen, it was time to get cooking on a comeback.

Lefty Kyle Hart took over in the top of the seventh. McGonigle took a first pitch slider for a strike, but again it was actually just out of the zone. The Tigers know they can’t save up challenges to cash in for prizes later, yes? Either way, Kevin worked his way back into a 3-2 count but then took a slider up and away, just nicking the corner. Finally, the Tigers challenged, and so of course this time they were wrong.

Hart carved up Vierling with some nasty splitters, and so it was up to Jahmai Jones, pinch-hitting against the lefty for Zach McKinstry. He put together a solid AB, but lined out to a sliding Tatis Jr. in right to end the Tigers’ half of the inning.

Seabold punched out Tatis to open the bottom half, with a failed Tatis challenge ended the at-bat. Seabold got ahead of Machado and he grounded out to Torres for the second out. The broadcast discussed Seabold’s higher arm slot with the Blue Jays this spring. His velocity is up a tick, he has a quick arm with a bit of deception perhaps, and he is getting a little more carry on the fourseamer. His changeup is solid. The new slider better but erratic on this night. But, he threw strikes for the most part and the left-handed Merrill flew out to Greene in left to end the inning. We don’t Sea-gold just yet, but a solid effort from the Tigers’ newest reliever.

Hart was still in the game, and he quickly popped out Rogers. Hinch pinch-hit Dillon Dingler for Carpenter, which is interesting, but he flew out to Tatis. Torres waited out Hart into a 3-2 count but whiffed at a cutter, and the Tigers were down to their final three outs.

Seabold stayed out there with his pitch count over 30 pitches in the bottom of the eighth. Bogearts flew out to Vierling. Sheets took a slider up and away for a called strike three, and didn’t challenge it. He would’ve won. Seabold quickly worked ahead of Laureano as well with a pair of well located heaters, but the outfielder battled back and eventually lined a two-out single to right field. That was all for Seabold, but it was a good debut as he collected seven outs in a row with three punchouts before the single ended his night.

Hinch turned to Will Vest to shut this inning down and keep the game close enough for a ninth inning rally with the heart of the lineup due up. Bryce Johnson pinch-ran for Laureano. Castellanos dug into the box, saying hello to old friend Jake Rogers, and then grounded out to Keith, who again got a bad grip and bounced it over to first. Torkelson made another nice scoop, and we were on to the ninth.

It would be a tall task for the Tigers against the flamethrowing Mason Miller. Keith saw a steady diet of sliders and Miller dropped one just on the outer edge for strike three after a worthy challenge from Keith. Greene lifted a slider to left for the second out. Torkelson worked to 2-0, fouled off a high triple digit heater, and then took one away to get to 3-1. Tork fouled off two fastballs and then Miller missed up to walk him. That brought McGonigle to the dish. Miller dropped a pair of sliders in for strikes, and the rookie chased one down to end it.

The Tigers are 2-1 on the year, and they’ll begin their journey back east with a three-game stop in Phoenix to battle the Diamondbacks on Monday through Wednesday.

After the Mets came from behind twice to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night, manager Carlos Mendoza and starterDavid Petersondiscussed the win...

David Peterson's "good first one"

While New York's bats struggled until extra innings, the left-hander did all he could to give the team a chance by keeping the Pirates off the scoreboard.

Peterson tossed 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing just six hits while striking out three and walking two. After the game, he talked about how things went during his first outing of the 2026 season.

"Felt good,” Peterson said. “Felt like our plan was working and Alvy [catcher Francisco Alvarez] and I were on the same page. Things were running pretty smooth. Nice to be able to get ahead of hitters and have the count in our advantage most of the day. Some really good defense behind us. Good first one.”

In addition to battling the Pirates revamped lineup, Peterson and the Mets dealt with cold, windy weather at Citi Field. Luckily, the lefty didn't let the conditions get to him, simply focusing on each pitch throughout the game.

"It didn’t change anything for me," Peterson said. "We had our plan and I was just trying to execute every single pitch, and whatever happened happened. I didn’t take too much into account. Like I said, I was just trying to focus on executing one pitch at a time and going as deep as I could and giving our team a chance to win.”

Manager Carlos Mendoza noted that Peterson is "at his best" when he's forcing opponents to hit ground balls and not letting runners on base rattle him. Peterson forced nine groundouts in the win and, like Mendoza noted, forced a clutch pop-out against Marcell Ozuna with the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning to keep the game tied at 0-0.

“I thought he was very good," Mendoza said. "When Peterson is getting ground balls, when he’s keeping the ball in the ground, that’s when he’s at his best. He did that today. He was pitch efficient. I thought he mixed well. He attacked, got strike one, got swing and misses. Kept hitters off-balance.

“And then when they created traffic, that’s what makes Petey who he is. When there’s runners on base, his ability to slow the game down, his ability to make pitches when he needs to. Bases loaded there with Ozuna with two outs. Like I said, he’s got that ability to continue to trust himself and continue to execute pitches, and he was able to do that today.”

Bullpen doing their job

After Peterson's day was done against the Pirates, Mendoza turned to six different relief pitchers in the 11-inning win.

Huascar Brazobán, Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley, and Devin Williams all kept the score 0-0 through the ninth inning to force extras. Luis García allowed one unearned run in the 10th and Richard Lovelady allowed another unearned run in the 11th inning, giving the Mets offense the chance they needed in the bottom of the inning, down 2-1.

“Can you name everyone that pitched today?” Peterson said with a laugh. “I mean we used everybody. The bullpen did an incredible job, every guy was ready for the task. Came in and did their job. Just an overall amazing performance on both sides of the ball.

"Really proud of those guys in the bullpen, just one after another coming in and getting their outs, keeping us in the game, and giving us a chance to win."

More defensive reps for Jorge Polanco, Bo Bichette

It's been talked about all winter and spring training that having two players with little-to-no experience at their position will be a risk for the Mets. Those defensive concerns were on display Saturday night, as both first baseman Jorge Polanco and third baseman Bo Bichette had some struggles at their new positions.

Bichette had a couple of throws run wide on Polanco at first, including one that was ruled an error in the top of the fourth inning. Polanco also dealt with a few tough fielding plays that luckily didn't cost New York.

“Just reps, they got to continue to work,” Mendoza said. “The Polanco ones, especially that error, I think they gave him an error, hard ground ball that came up on him, there’s so much there that you can do. With Bo, we just got to continue to work with him on those routines throws.”

Mendoza was also asked about a play in the top of the 11th inning, when Bryan Reynolds reached first safely on a dribbler down the third base line that somehow stayed fair and allowed the runner from third to score, and if Bichette or Lovelady should've fielded the ball.

“I couldn’t believe that it stayed fair. I don’t think anybody makes that play," Mendoza said. "Off the bat, I thought it was a foul ball. So no, none of them had a chance there."

While none of the miscues cost the Mets the game, they could have easily, and both players will need to continue to work on the little things throughout the year.

Home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor didn’t have his best showing in a game that saw the Cincinnati Reds defeat the Boston Red Sox 6-5 after 11 innings on Saturday, March 28.

Bucknor, 63, has served as an umpire in the major leagues since 1996. He is one of the two longest-tenured active umpires, along with Phil Cuzzi, who has been active since 1991.

Despite Bucknor’s years of experience, he had six calls overturned as a result of MLB’s new Automated Ball-Strike challenge system.

Umpire CB Bucknor hates to see MLB’s new Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) coming.

During the Red Sox’s 6-5, 11-inning loss to the Reds on Saturday in Cincinnati, Bucknor — who has been a member of a major-league umping crew since 1999 — had eight calls challenged, with six of them being overturned.

Two of the overturned calls came on back-to-back pitches, with Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez successfully challenging consecutive strike-three calls in the sixth inning with Boston rookie Ryan Watson on the mound.

CB Bucknor, a member of a major-league umpiring crew since 1999, had eight calls challenged and a whopping six overturned — including this sequence.

@CBoxSportspic.twitter.com/vgmjHAvXde

— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) March 28, 2026

The first pitch was an inside sinker at the knees, and the second being a low and away fastball barely off the plate.

“It was like ‘Oh man, that’s two in a row,’” Watson told reporters following the game, according to The Athletic. “But yeah, just tried to take a deep breath and get back in the zone.”

In Bucknor’s defense, both pitches were close, but the ABS technology ultimately deemed both of them balls.

The Reds’ home crowd at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio, exploded at the two overturned calls.

“That’s probably the loudest I’ve heard a stadium while pitching,” Watson added. “So it was intense, for sure.”

Bucknor reached the spotlight again in the eighth inning after he called out Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story on a check swing, but the team was unable to ask for a review.

With the Red Sox down one and having a chance to break open the game, Story raged at Bucknor for the controversial call, having to be held back by Boston skipper Alex Cora and third base coach Jose Flores.

Bucknor wound up ejecting Cora after the two got into a shouting match.

“He has one job to do, it’s (to) call balls and strikes,” Cora said after Boston’s loss. “It wasn’t his best day. That’s what the system does. It’s out there, everybody sees it, and he’ll be the first one to accept it. I saw him putting his head down after one of the challenges.

“And we’re all human. It’s not easy, what we do and what he does.”

The Red Sox would tie the game in the ninth inning with a solo homer from Wilyer Abreu, but ultimately lost on a walk-off single by Reds center fielder Dane Myers in the 11th.

Saturday evening was a time of repetition for Mizzou baseball in the sense that the game began by them digging their own hole. This time, the Tigers just weren’t nearly as close to getting out of it in their 13-4 loss against Texas A&M at Taylor Stadium. 

In Friday’s 11-9 defeat at the hands of the No. 25 ranked Aggies, Jackson’s squad went down by double digits after a Josh McDevitt outing went haywire in the top half of the fourth, as Texas A&M put up a seven slot in the top half of the fourth.

This contest was no different for Missouri (17-11, 1-6 SEC) and it brought some of the similar problems that has plagued Jackson’s squad as of late. Slow starts, runners left on base, 

A&M’s (20-5, 3-4 SEC) bats came out blitzering once again and the pitching arm on the receiving end of the damage tonight was Brady Kehlenbrink. In total, nine earned runs, four walks and a home run were allowed by the starter and it was a rocky outing from the jump.

After Gravin Grahovac walked Jake Duer yanked a ball down the left‑field line for an RBI single, with Chris Hacopian hustling to third. A couple pitches later, Nico Partida chopped one to third and Hacopian scored on the fielder’s choice, so Missouri was down two before it even got to the plate.

Mizzou’s bats answered in the second, albeit in the fashion of a small ball. A single by Blaize Ward, was followed by a bunt attempt by Donovan Jordan which got him on base. Mateo Serna then laid down a sacrifice bunt, advancing Ward to third and Keegan Knutson’s infield single that scored Ward.

The turning point came fast. Missouri trailed just 2–1 entering the third, but the inning unraveled almost immediately. Jake Duer doubled home a run, two bases‑loaded walks followed, and a sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 6–1. Then came the swing that broke the game open: Gavin Grahovac turned on an 0–2 pitch and launched it 405 feet to center for a three‑run homer. Suddenly it was 9–1, and Missouri was staring at another long night.

Head coach Kerrick Jackson didn’t hide from the reality afterward. Both starters, Josh McDevitt and Brady Kehlenbrink were pitching on short rest after heavy workloads the previous week, a situation created by an injury to starter Javyn Pimental, added on by two midweek games against Illinois and Lindenwood.

“They just weren’t able to bounce back,” Jackson said. “Both of them had high double‑digit pitch counts in the first inning. That makes everything harder.”

Missouri did what it could to respond after  Keegan Knutson singled in a run in the second and added a sacrifice fly in the fourth. Kam Durnin followed with a two‑run double to left‑center, trimming the deficit to 11–4 in the bottom half of the fourth to give Tigers a brief spark. 

Throughout, every time Missouri made a push, A&M answered with another punch. Nico Partida homered on a two-run shot in the fourth, Grahovac hit his own two-run shot, his second, again in the fifth, and Partida added his second homer in the eighth.

The Tigers offense found spots of action throughout, one hitter in particular Donovan Jordan turned in the best performance of his season, going 3‑for‑3 with a solo homer in the eighth, the first of his Tigers career.

Kam Durnin drove in three runs, including his RBI double. The Tigers finished with 11 hits and created the run scoring opportunities throughout the night, stranding nine runners on base creates the margins that are tougher to overcome in the high level that is SEC baseball. 

“Our guys get sped up,” Jackson said. “They want so badly to get it done that they get out of themselves. The situation shouldn’t change who you are. Just do your job. Learning how to win is different and our guys are learning.”

The sweep is what the Tigers will be looking to avoid on Sunday and the starting pitcher is still to be determined, as JD Dohrmann is currently a game time decision and his availability is something that the Tigers are still looking at ahead of the series finale. 

“I’ve got to talk to Kyle (Holland) and see how JD is feeling,” Jackson said. “If he’s not able to go, then we’ll go to plan B.” 

The Tigers after this one were left with a similar lesson after Auburn, the SEC doesn’t and won’t forgive the long winded innings, the 11 walks, the four hit by pitches. What’s given is what’s taken and that’s a lesson that comes with time, not overnight in this league. 

We have a game coverage guide here. It kindly suggests that recaps be started in the sixth or seventh, to make sure they go up in a timely fashion. I never pre-write, due to a very specific game in 2018 against the Orioles (if you know, you know). The tenor of this recap would’ve been very different (and incoherent, a la Spiderman 3) had I pre-written anything. Because, for the first eight innings, I was livid that the Braves were basically the same ol’ lackadaisical, our talent will win out Braves. Well, guess what, Ivan, you dummy, you absolute numbskull? The Braves not only won out in this game after looking not just dead in the water, but “we threw ourselves with our legs encased in cinder blocks into the water,” courtesy of a ginormous ninth-inning rally capped off by, what else? A walk-off grand slam by Dominic Smith, making his Braves debut. So, I’ll save all the mental and physical mistakes the Braves made in this game for a meaningless coda at the end, and instead, well — let’s revel in the ninth inning first, because it’s the only thing that mattered.

After floundering and floundering, the Braves got to work against closer Carlos Estevez from the jump. Drake Baldwin laid off a bunch of elevated fastballs and drew a leadoff walk, and Matt Olson made up for an earlier miscue by roping a single into right to put the tying run on base. Austin Riley popped out, but then Mike Yastrzemski, who I felt should’ve probably been yoinked out of the game earlier (Ivan, you dummy, you absolute numbskull), came through with a hard-hit single up the middle to give the Braves their first run and put pinch-runner Jorge Mateo on third as the tying run.

Estevez then totally fell apart, walking Ozzie Albies on four nowhere-near pitches. Michael Harris II then lashed a comebacker into Estevez’ feet — a real turnabout of an early-season debacle last year where the Braves lost on a similar batted ball hit by a Padre — pushing the tying run across. That brought up Dominic Smith, who was in the midst of a rather feeble Braves debut, and, well, kablamo. There’s no real other way to describe it. Estevez threw a challenge fastball on 3-2, Smith accepted the challenge, and pulled off the ultimate result, creaming a grand slam, an absurd outcome to cap an absurd victory. Ah, that’s the stuff.

Okay, let’s cover the rest of the game. Did you know it was started by Reynaldo Lopez, who was in the midst of a shoulder-laffy-taffy-or-not saga prompted by him missing nearly the entire season last year, and a mysterious velocity drop in his final Spring Training outing that was mysteriously ascribed to “mechanical issues, now fixed” before the season got underway? Well, Lopez quieted some concerns, in that his velocity largely returned to the 94-96 mph band. Yay for that. On the flip side, his mechanics weren’t always perfect, and he mostly skated along. A lot of his outing was outs in the air, which worked out pretty well for the Braves. He got into hot water in the third, with two on, two out, and Bobby Witt Jr. at the dish, but escaped because Witt lined an amped-up, 97 mph down-the-pipe fastball right to Ronald Acuña Jr. in right field. The defense behind him played well, and Drake Baldwin helped out by throwing out a runner at one point.

Things looked like they were gonna get dicey for Lopez when he started the third time through in the sixth, but they didn’t. Mauricio Dubon helped out with a spectacular scoop-jump-and-gun play in the hole to retire Maikel Garcia, Lopez blew Witt away with a fastball, and Acuña flagged down a liner in the gap. Those defensive efforts were well-needed because…

…the Braves were absolutely eviscerated by Michael Wacha. The veteran right-hander struck out three of the first four Braves he faced, went nine up, nine down, and faced the minimum (thanks to a Baldwin double play ball) through 4 1/3, until Yastrzemski broke it up with a bunt single, of all things. The Braves turned that bunt into a real threat when Harris doubled to left (it was called a single for whatever reason, but yeah, it was basically a double). But, Wacha escaped fairly easily when Smith chased a curve in the dirt for strike three. Baldwin then hit into another double play to erase Acuña a second time, so Wacha’s final line was a seven strikeout, one walk affair in six innings of work.

The Braves tried to push Lopez through another frame, but errrnnnnt. His very first pitch of the seventh was a flagging 92 mph fastball that ended up at the bottom of the zone, and Salvador Perez, his longtime AL Central rival, didn’t miss it, creaming it over the wall in left to put the first run on the board. The Braves then immediately yanked Lopez for Dylan Lee, who gave up a two-out double but otherwise had no issues in a two-strikeout frame.

Atlanta couldn’t cash in a one-out Riley single in the seventh, even with a wild pitch that pushed the tying run into scoring position. Matt Strahm was the new Royals reliever, and the Braves didn’t pinch-hit for Yastrzemski, who hit into a forceout against the southpaw before the wild pitch. In any case, Albies flew out to keep it a 1-0 game.

For whatever reason, the Braves asked Joel Payamps to pitch a one-run game, and it went not-so-great. Payamps walked Garcia with one out, and Witt had a broken-bat bloop into center that put runners on the corners. With a lefty batter due up, the Braves swapped Payamps for Aaron Bummer. Though Witt’s easy steal of second took the double play away, Bummer got the groundball the Braves wanted… but Olson made a very uncharacteristic boot that let Garcia score easily from third. A couple of flyouts ended the frame, but the Braves were now down 2-0.

Harris greeted new reliever Lucas Erceg with a leadoff single in the eighth, but then promptly got picked off. That was absolutely brutal, because the safety meant Acuña was going to come up as at least the tying run, and also because Dubon walked later in the frame. Acuña ended up grounding out weakly, anyway.

Osvaldo Bido made his Braves debut in the ninth, which was also pretty strange, but what in this game wasn’t, at this point? To his credit, Bido absolutely showed out slash shoved, eviscerating all three Royals he faced with strikeouts. He made Tyler Tolbert look awful on a slider way out of the zone, and then froze Isaac Collins on a basically down-the-middle fastball on 1-2.

And now we’ve come full circle to the ninth, where the Braves were finally awesome and plated six runs against Carlos Estevez, with a grand slam capper from Smith to end the game. Wow. Wow wow wow.

And now, my useless list of complaints, which you could probably already predict ahead of time, but here they are for posterity:

• Reynaldo Lopez facing the order a third time despite a 2/2 K/BB ratio through 18 batters. This blowing up in the Braves’ face was a really predictable outcome because we’ve seen this sort of thing happen for years. But, hey, what way to make it not matter.
• Not pinch-hitting for Mike Yastrzemski when Matt Strahm came up. Look, Yastrzemski is an obvious platoon bat, Strahm throws with his left hand, and, more notably: Yastrzemski wasn’t in the Opening Day lineup even though if you’re gonna find a recent lefty with reverse splits, Ragans might be your guy. (Strahm is not.) So, the idea of having Yastrzemski sit against Ragans with leverage unknown, but bat against Strahm in a key situation was incongruous. It paid off when Yastrzemski was still in the game to take a meaningful hack against Estevez, but that’s an extreme level of trust in your team to ascribe to the decision-making process here.
• I’m not going to belabor the point, but Yastrzemski bunting against Wacha was pretty weird considering the scoreless tie and his spot in the lineup, but I guess to the extent he’s doing it to free up the defensive arrangement against him in later days, that works.
• Matt Olson’s defensive gaffe was, well, a gaffe. He knows what he did. On the flip side, the bullpen flowchart, such as it is, is strange. Tyler Kinley can work a six-run game, but Payamps and Bido in a closer game? We used to talk about lead-clutching, and this was some very clutchy clutching.
• Talking about baserunning is all well and good, but it seems like “do no harm to your win expectancy” might need to be an orienting principle here. Harris visibly getting a bunch of instruction from first base coach Antoan Richardson, only to immediately get blatantly picked off… I’m going to hope that’s a learning experience. And hey, it didn’t cost the team this time!
• Oh, and the challenges. Good news: they didn’t need no stinkin’ challenges. But, the Braves burned both of their ABS challenges within a few minutes of the game starting. The one Baldwin challenged while catching was at least close; Acuña challenged one while batting that was just blatantly a strike. Maybe the guys need some leverage heuristics or something. We’ll see. Or they could just hit massive bombs and we never need to worry about challenges. On that same note, the Braves dugout missed an obvious non-ABS challenge situation when Garcia attempted to complete a double play by throwing the ball well before he stepped on the second-base bag. Acuña pointed it out, but the Braves apparently took too long to challenge, and wasted an out (and Acuña in scoring position) in the process. Oops.

But, the point is — you can make all sorts of mistakes when you lock in, pull it together, and oh yeah — hit a huge dong. That’s what happened tonight, and it was glorious… in the end, anyway.

See you tomorrow afternoon as the Braves go for the sweep behind Grant Holmes. They may not have made a full-on exorcism effort today, but it worked out similarly to one anyway… and was a lot more exciting, to boot.

It should not have been easy to homer on a slider traveling well below the strike zone at Citi Field, not with wind chills in the 30s. But new Mets outfielder Luis Robert Jr. did so anyway.

Through nine innings, hitters on both teams failed to get the ball out of the infield enough to score a run, let alone threaten the fences. Heck, a few minutes before his 11th-inning blast, Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Bo Bichette all came to bat with the bases loaded. None of them could square up a ball well enough to score a run.

But Robert Jr. found a way, turning what would have been a frustrating loss into a light-hearted win with a physics-defying swing that not all players can provide.

“It was unbelievable,” Mets starting pitcher David Peterson said. “I was facing him a lot in spring, and I was getting real tired of facing him.”

Robert Jr. made it look easy on those warm February afternoons at Clover Park, when Mets starting pitcher after Mets starting pitcher would have peaceful live batting practice sessions interrupted by loud cracks of Robert Jr.'s bat.

He hit so many line drives that it became almost comical, and he hit them to all fields. But he hit them on the back fields and really, who knows what to make of a .699 OPS in spring training? After all, he has shown promise before. For two games at least, he is showing it again.

“With the conditions today, with the way the wind was blowing -- especially from left field -- to be able to leave the yard like that in that situation,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It goes to show you that this guy is special.”

Robert Jr. admitted there were times during Saturday’s frigid 11-inning saga when he could not feel his hands. Most of that, he joked later, was the fault of the man hitting in front of him: Jorge Polanco saw seven pitches when he walked in the seventh, six more when he walked in the ninth, and a half dozen more when he walked to bring Robert Jr. to the plate in the bottom of the 11th – so many that his hands started to freeze while he waited in the on-deck circle, out of range of dugout heaters.

“I asked [Polanco], ‘how many walks are you going to take this season?’” Robert Jr. said through Mets interpreter Alan Suriel. “But it gives me an advantage because I’m able to see all the pitchers that that pitcher has. I’m able to see how he’s pitching him. And I also know that pitcher is really working hard to get him out, so he’s starting to exert a little more energy.”

The presence of Polanco and three perennial Most Valuable Player candidates ahead of him in the lineup is one of the many reasons to believe Robert Jr. could make mid-career improvements as a Met.

Thursday, he highlighted one of those reasons when he worked a 10-pitch walk heard around the world, one that set up a go-ahead triple from Brett Baty and matched the longest plate appearance he has had in the last three seasons, according to Sports Info Solutions.

Mendoza said the Mets have been pushing Robert Jr. on his pitch selection, work that has yielded multiple late-count takes in the first two games of the season – including a few tempting breaking balls that Robert Jr. has almost visibly willed himself to leave alone.

“We’ve been working on that a lot,” Robert Jr. said Saturday. “I think the one thing great players have is knowing how to select the proper pitches to swing at. And I think for me to go back to being the player that I was and that I know I am capable of being, that’s going to be a big part of my game.”

Robert Jr.'s locker also sits a few feet away from an ideal role model, his fellow outfielder Juan Soto, with whom Robert Jr. trained at Scott Boras’ facility this offseason. Players like Soto are another reason Robert Jr. could look different this year: During his time in Chicago, he was not often in the presence of the kind of accomplished veteran players who would, consciously or subconsciously, prod him to push for more.

But Soto and fellow superstar Lindor have combined to miss just 30 games over the last four seasons. Marcus Semien is two years removed from setting the record for most plate appearances taken in a single baseball year. If Robert Jr. needed tips on preserving himself for the rigors of a long season, he has never had better mentors than now.

He will also have a medical staff with a fresh approach to preventing the hip and hamstring injuries that prevented him from playing more than 110 games in only one of his first five seasons. Mets trainers decided to hold out of spring training games until he built strength in his legs and had time to ease into game-shape.

“We’re working on strengthening the parts of my body that were the cause of my injuries before,” Robert Jr. said then. “Up until this point, my legs feel very strong. And hopefully when I get out there, they will keep responding and feel the way they feel right now.”

Mendoza has said multiple times that the Mets will have to be careful with Robert Jr., though he has also been clear that they did not acquire him to be a part-time player. They are hoping they will be the ones to transform him into a full-time star.

SAN FRANCISCO — The shutout streak is over, but the winning streak remains alive and well.

At long last, the Yankees finally allowed a run after starting the season with 20 straight scoreless innings from their pitching staff, but they got enough from their offense and another strong effort from their bullpen to finish the sweep.

For the third straight season, the Yankees are 3-0 after fending off the Giants for a tense 3-1 win Saturday at Oracle Park, capping a well-rounded opening series in which their bullpen was especially clutch.

“That’s what you want to do,” said Aaron Judge, who homered for the second straight game. “That was one thing the past couple years we’ve struggled at, is finishing off series and sweeping series. So we just tried to make it a point pregame today, we talked about it, ‘We got to close out the series.’

“That’s what’s going to make the difference between winning the division or ending up tied and losing it. So every game matters and we’ll just take it on to Seattle.”

After Max Fried and Cam Schlittler turned in terrific starts in the first two games, combining for 11 ²/₃ scoreless innings — and relievers accounting for 6 ¹/₃ more — Will Warren held the Giants to one run across 4 ¹/₃ innings Saturday.

The game was then left in the hands of the bullpen, which used a handoff from Brent Headrick to Jake Bird to Tim Hill to David Bednar to secure the win heading into a rare Sunday off day in Seattle.

“This was awesome,” said Ben Rice, who gave the Yankees a lead with a two-run double in the third inning. “Some tight games, great plays on defense, clutch pitching, clutch hitting. It was a great way to start the year.”

While there is still a long way to go for this bullpen to answer some of the questions it faced entering the season — looking like the Yankees’ potential weak spot — it has started the year with 11 scoreless innings.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

Bednar played with fire in the ninth when the first two runners reached, but he struck out Harrison Bader and then got Patrick Bailey to ground into a double play to end it — the fourth double play the Yankees turned Saturday, three of them coming in the final four innings.

Bird was particularly impressive in a five-out appearance. He entered with a runner on second and no outs in the sixth inning and gave up a single through the left side to Heliot Ramos, putting runners on the corners. Bird then locked it down by striking out Willy Adames and then getting Bader to ground into another double play that was smoothly turned by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and José Caballero.

Hill also used a double-play ball to end the eighth inning, getting former Red Sox player (and Yankees nemesis) Rafael Devers to ground into the twin killing.

Austin Wells, who caught all 27 innings this series and guided the pitching staff that allowed just one run, helped change the game with a pair of automated ball-strike system challenges from behind the plate that helped Bird and Hill get through their innings.

Trent Grisham also used the ABS in the third inning to avoid a strikeout and eventually draw a walk that soon gave way to Rice’s two-out, two-run double off the high brick wall in right field for the 2-0 lead.

Warren, who left runners on the corners in the first inning, gave up the only run the Giants scored all weekend in the bottom of the third. But he responded by retiring the next three batters, two on strikeouts, to curb any Giants momentum.

“Look, wins are always hard to come by,” manager Aaron Boone said after his 700th career win. “You take them when you can get them. I love that we played well. But it’s March.”

Before I talk about the actual game, give me a moment to jump on my soap box. In the second inning of the contest, the Fox broadcast booth – featuring Adam Amin, Adam Wainwright, and A.J. Pierzynski in one of the most fun and informative national broadcast booths you’re likely to see – was doing an in-game interview with Atlanta pitcher Chris Sale. During the interview there was a blown call at second base, Maikel Garcia fielded a ground ball attempted to step on second and throw to first for the double play. Ordinarily, we could just be talking about how bizarre a shift the Royals were running to allow for that to happen but Garcia didn’t actually step on second before he threw to first. The runner, Ronald Acuña Jr., should have been safe. The booth saw the replay and immediately started telling Chris Sale that Atlanta should challenge the play. Ultimately, Atlanta was not allowed to challenge – probably because they took too long, but it was never made clear by the umpire – and no harm was done.

To be clear, I don’t think the broadcast booth was attempting to help Atlanta cheat. I think they just didn’t fully consider their actions. But that’s just as big a problem for these in-game interviews – which are a poor way to watch a game and a poor way to interview someone – that something like that could happen unintentionally. MLB absolutely cannot allow these to continue now that we’ve seen this happen. They were always a bad idea, but now they’re a bad idea that can call into question the integrity of the game. If Atlanta had challenged and won, it would have absolutely appeared like they had cheated to do so even if the call would have been right and even if Chris Sale hadn’t relayed what the broadcast booth was telling him.

OK, now I guess I have to talk about the game.

Michael Wacha was terrific for six innings in this one. He struck out seven while giving up one walk and allowing three hits – all singles – in six innings. The Royals needed him to be good because the offense was still a bit sluggish. Matt Strahm and Lucas Erceg got the seventh and eighth innings and did their jobs, too. It was odd to see Erceg pitching the eighth against the bottom of the Atlanta order because he’s so often been used against the tougher parts of the lineup, but I guess Q figured he could go by innings instead of difficulty with three proven backend relievers in his bullpen.

Salvador Perez got the Royals their first run of the year with a leadoff shot in the seventh inning.

That one was a wall-scraper, but hit at 105.8 MPH off the bat of the captain to left with an estimated distance of 390 feet. I guess Truist park has a really deep left field.

The Royals scored a second run in the eighth. Maikel Garcia took a one-out walk, went to third on a Bobby Witt Jr. broken bat single, and scored on a Vinnie Pasquantino groundball to first, ruled as an error by Matt Olson. Many people were complaining about the contact play last year, but it was crucial to scoring the run this time. If Maikel isn’t running, he can’t score there because Olson didn’t kick the ball far enough away. Honestly, the thought of Garcia going home might have caused Olson to rush the play and led to the error in the first place. So whenever you see the contact play again this year, remember, sometimes it works!

And now the bad, bad news.

We talked before the game about how Reynaldo López’s velocity had been down all spring, and it had to be a huge concern for Atlanta. You wouldn’t have known it watching him pitch tonight, as he was back into the 95-96 MPH range with his fastball for most of the game. That gave me some hope that perhaps Carlos Estévez would turn his velocity back on in the ninth inning now that it was the regular season. That hope was short-lived as the first pitch he threw was a fastball that missed armside and only got to 90 MPH. The result was predictable from there.

Estévez walked Drake Baldwin, then gave up a single to Matt Olson. Miraculously, he got Austin Riley to pop out to second, and you began to hope he could finesse his way out of it. That hope was also short-lived. Mike Yastrzemski singled to center to drive in the first run and return the bases to first and third. Estévez then lost all of his control and walked Ozzie Albies on four pitches. My best guess is he realized his lack of velocity was going to prevent him from getting the job done, and he started overthrowing.

You’ll note in that image that all of his pitches missed armside and/or high. The first pitch isn’t even visible; it’s that far outside.

He fired a 92 MPH fastball right down the middle to Michael Harris II, and was incredibly lucky it was hit on the ground right back up the middle. Estévez was unlucky because it hit him instead of carrying through to Witt for a game-ending double play. It became an infield single that left the bases loaded and tied the game.

Next up was Dominic Smith. Smith has been a big leaguer off and on since 2017. He has never put up a starter-quality season outside of 2020. Estévez threw him two pitches in the dirt, then caught the corner with a fastball. He threw another fastball that was called a ball, but Salvy challenged it because the Royals still had both their challenges, and why not? It turned out to be barely a strike. So Carlos tossed another ball in the dirt. Knowing a fourth ball would walk home the winning run, he threw a fastball right down the middle. Dominic Smith blasted it to right; game over.

Carlos Estévez now has a 162.02 ERA and a 60.00 FIP. He allowed four hits and two walks in a third of an inning. They weren’t cheap hits, either; all four were considered hard hit. Three were over 100 MPH exit velocity. You don’t want to overreact to one game, but this is one game that looks exactly like everything we saw during Spring Training. I’m not ready to write Estévez off as an effective reliever, but he cannot be the closer until his velocity and control come back.

Every single mark on his pitching summary that means anything is very, very blue. He might not be washed, but he’s completely unpitchable right now. He either needs to be brought in for blowouts only or he needs to be diagnosed with an injury. The latter would be the better solution, because I don’t think you can even have him in low leverage with metrics like those, and if there’s any hope of him finding his mojo, it’s almost certainly in pitching semi-regularly for a bit.

I am not going to be furious with Matt Quatraro for sticking with his guy once. Estévez has been telling him that everything is fine, and Quatraro chose to believe him and hope it would all come together for the regular season. It didn’t, and it was so tremendously bad that Quatraro can’t ignore it. Estévez can’t have a second chance any time soon. I don’t know if Q should go with Lucas Erceg, Matt Strahm, or some kind of closer by committee. Whatever the answer is, it can’t include Estévez. Not right now.

Just to end things on a brighter note, the Royals have lost their opening series each of the last two years, but finished with more wins than losses by the end of it. They’re 0-2 now, but that doesn’t have to mean anything by the time the season ends.

Tomorrow will be the Royals’ first day game as they look to avoid the sweep in Atlanta. Seth Lugo will pitch for KC; Grant Holmes will go for Atlanta. The game will start at 12:35 Royals time and be broadcast on Royals.TV.