Worldwide Sports News

It’s bad enough that the Red Sox are struggling out of the gate. But we are also constantly hearing complaints from fellow fans that the 2026 Red Sox are no fun to watch. It’s hard to blame them. They only managed to score four runs in three games over the weekend! They are nearly being out-homered by Yordan Alvarez alone! They were just brought to heel by the Yankees’ worst pitcher!

So, yes, the 2026 Red Sox are no fun so far. No argument from me. But what would it take for them to become the least enjoyable team of your lifetime?

For me, I’m not sure I’ll ever hate a team more than the 2001 Red Sox. That team, unlike this one, started great, sitting at 17-9 on May 1, after an offseason in which we spent dreaming about finally breaking the curse. But this was the year that we began to see cracks in Nomar’s armor (he didn’t even play his first game until the end of July after the aggravated his wrist in February). This was the year that the team was briefly led by the worst manager of my lifetime (yes, even worse than Bobby Valentine): Joe Kerrigan, who took over for a tired Jimy Williams and was clearly in way over his head. This was the year they lost 13 of 14 games at the end of August and start of September.

Use this space to talk about teams you’ve hated and whatever else you want and, as always, be good to one another.

By beating the Houston Astros, the Guardians are now 14-11 and hold a 1-game lead over the 12-11 Twins.

For a while, it looked like the Guardians were going to blow their chance to face Houston’s terrible pitching, but a 6-run 8th inning saved the day. Chase DeLauter came up with the bases loaded and tripled home all three runners. Deborah has your recap here.

Franco Aleman has yet to give up a hit or a run in Columbus. Just in case Chris Antonetti was thinking we might need some bullpen help.

Houston fell to 9-16, banging into the floor of the trash AL West division. The A’s are now in first at 13-11.

Around baseball

The Mets are trying to rebound from a losing streak like the 2025 Guardians once did. Theirs is at 12 after the Twins came back to beat them yesterday.

The Royals and White Sox won. The Tigers lost.

These five words will never cease to amuse me: Shohei Ohtani made history, again.

Although the Dodgers suffered their third defeat on this current road trip— dropping Tuesday’s contest to the San Francisco Giants 3-1— Shohei Ohtani was able to extend his on-base streak to 53 games, tying Shawn Green for the longest such streak in Los Angeles Dodgers history. Ohtani is still five games off from tying Duke Snider for the longest in franchise history.

Ohtani is slated to pitch against the Giants for Wednesday’s game, and the Dodgers intend to have Ohtani resume his two-way duties after opting to only pitch in his previous start, notes Sonja Chen of MLB.com.

“I think that it makes a lot of sense that if you’re … hitting while pitching, it takes a little bit of a toll,” Roberts said. “He certainly has managed it really well, but if it makes sense, I’ll have that conversation with him.”

Now that the Dodgers are in the midst of their first season with Shohei Ohtani performing his two-way prowess for a full season, Mike Petriello of MLB.com writes about Ohtani potentially unlocking a new gear that the baseball world has yet to see.

Links

The Dodgers had their new bona-fide star closer for all of three weeks before landing on the injured list.

Edwin Díaz will miss the next three months after being diagnosed with loose bodies in his right elbow, which now raises a question about which Dodger reliever will take over as the team’s de facto closer. As for what Dave Roberts forecasts, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, the initial candidate is Tanner Scott but the decision will vary day-to-day.

“If I had to guess … I would say probably Tanner,” Roberts said. “And that could change. I honestly don’t know. I mean, Tanner can pitch in the seventh tonight, and Blake can get the save. So honestly, it’s kind of day to day. It really is.”

The Dodgers will shoot down trade talks involving the red-hot Dalton Rushing unless the return haul lands them something huge in return, reported Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic during his latest appearance on the Foul Territory podcast.

“At the deadline, anything is possible, but I can’t see the Dodgers entertaining this unless it was a major deal— unless they were getting something huge in return— and I’m not sure what that would be at this point.”

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Did you know the Cubs are in the most interesting division in baseball? Of course, we always knew that, but it seems like the NL Central is getting a lot of attention this week. Other things on people’s minds? The Phillies, Mets, and Astros are the talk of the town, and it’s largely because of how bad they’ve been. Not bad? Astros’ slugger Yordan Alvarez. Likewise, Japanese star Munetaka Murakami might be striking out a lot, but he’s still exactly what the White Sox hoped for.

We’ve got all that and more—including goats—in today’s news brief, so let’s just jump right into it.

• Ben Clemens looks at how Munetaka Murakami has been exactly what the White Sox hoped he would be.
• Yordan Alvarez swings a hot bat, and it has been a real bright spot for the Astros this season. Story by Jay Jaffe.
• Here’s a first look at the All-Star Week schedule. (MLB)
• The Red Sox and Tigers had a super early game on Monday, but that didn’t stop one fan from drinking a beer out of his shoe. Story by Kyle Koster.
• Stephanie Apstein wonders what the sale of the Padres might mean for other small-market teams.
• Adley Rutschman is back from the injured list. (AP)
• Love it when ballplayers show up for kids like this. (Direct link to the BlueSky post for those reading on Apple News)

• Bad news for the Dodgers, Edwin Diaz is headed for surgery. Story by Jay Jaffe.
• Tim Capurso tries to determine how the Dodgers will handle that closer spot going forward.
• David Adler makes a case for why the NL Central is the best division in baseball right now.
• Kyle Koster looks at what’s going so wrong for the Phillies to start this season.
• How did Will Benson score twice in the same game without ever seeing a single pitch? Stephen Douglas brings us a fun baseball oddity.
• Cam Schlittler makes his return to Boston, where he says he received death threats during last year’s MLB postseason. Story by Madison Williams.
• The Blue Jays had to take an old-fashioned bus ride to get between cities after their plan was grounded. (AP)
• A new Mets curse? (Direct link to the BlueSky post for those reading on Apple News)

• Dan Szymborski wonders if the 2026 Mets can be saved.
• Brian Murphy tries to determine where Mason Miller’s scoreless streak ranks among all-time relievers.
• Daniel Kramer shares what might be one of the best catches I’ve seen all week.
• Tom Verducci looks at how “lab-grown” pitching is impacting baseball.
• On that same note, Jeff Passan looks at the rise of the 100mph fastball, which is becoming more and more common.
• Jayson Stark ponders if MLB will ever go full robot-umpire after testing ABS. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• I always knew those outfield lawns were good for something.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.

The Milwaukee Brewers’ offense is hanging on by a thread at the moment. Brice Turang and William Contreras are doing what they can, and Jake Bauers and Gary Sánchez have offered some early season boom-or-bust help. But without any of Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich, or Andrew Vaughn in the lineup, the lineup is struggling. Sal Frelick hasn’t hit well. Joey Ortiz is still, unfortunately, a zero. Milwaukee has gotten very little from any of Brandon Lockridge, Blake Perkins, Greg Jones, or David Hamilton. Luis Rengifo can be added to that group, too, even if he’s come around a bit in the past week.

But there is one other player who has been helping to keep the offense afloat during this tough stretch: Garrett Mitchell. He’s already had some big moments. An extremely concerning spring raised a lot of questions around whether Mitchell was any sort of answer at all in the outfield, much less a long-term one. Many of those questions still remain, but Mitchell has also quietly raked this season; as of the start of play Wednesday, he has a 148 OPS+, leads the Brewers (along with Brice Turang) with 18 RBIs, and—I’m not making this up—leads the National League with a .437 on-base percentage.

But what can we learn from Mitchell’s odd start to the season?

When it’s hit, it stays hit

Mitchell’s Statcast page currently lights up like a Christmas tree. He ranks 90^th percentile or better in average exit velocity, barrel percentage, hard-hit percentage, launch-angle sweet-spot percentage, bat speed, chase percentage, and walk rate. We should be extremely encouraged by all of this. Mitchell is being very selective, he is swinging hard, and he is crushing the ball when he makes contact. These are major harbingers of success.

But that Statcast page also lights up in a bad way. Mitchell is in the bottom-three percentile in squared-up percentage and is crucially in the very bottom percentile leaguewide in whiff percentage and strikeout percentage. As encouraging as the good stuff is, the bad stuff is perhaps even more worrisome. Mitchell swings and misses a ton. His strikeout percentage sits at 38.8%; last year, the worst K-rate among qualified hitters was Ryan McMahon at 32.3%. Mitchell is way beyond that, to a point that probably isn’t sustainable; the highest single-season K-rate in the last five years was when Joey Gallo struck out 34.6% of the time in 2021, and the all-time record for a hitter in a full season (that wasn’t 2020) was Chris Davis at 37.2% in 2017. At 38.8%, Mitchell is approaching Keston Hiura levels — Hiura struck out in 40.6% of his plate appearances during his last two seasons in Milwaukee.

Given that data, it’s fair to ask whether Mitchell is even a viable major leaguer if he continues to strike out that much. He is doing damage when he hits the ball, and the Statcast data in that regard is good. But Mitchell is also rocking a BABIP of .522 right now; the highest BABIP ever recorded (since the dawn of the American League in 1901), according to FanGraphs, was 99 points lower than that. It was in 1923, and the guy’s name was Babe Ruth. The highest BABIP in a full season in the last 50 years was Rod Carew at .408 in 1977. Just one of the greatest pure hitters of all time in a season in which he hit .388, had 9.7 WAR, and won the MVP.

Mitchell has always been a high-strikeout player; in the 141 games he’d played prior to 2026, he held a career 33.9% strikeout rate. Even that would be too high, but Mitchell has always managed to be relatively productive despite a large number of strikeouts. When you add his other skills to that, it helps too — Mitchell is very fast and he’s a very good fielder. As for decreasing the strikeouts, a glance at the “Zones” page on his Statcast profile tells you what you need to know: he can’t hit pitches up in the zone. Pitchers are spamming fastballs in the top third of the zone, and Mitchell is missing them. Until he fixes that, they’ll keep doing it. It’s not a mystery what needs to be done here, but that’s extremely easy for me to say.

An everyday option?

If Mitchell can work on the strikeout issue, though, he could offer the Brewers something that they need: an outfielder who can play every day, no matter who is pitching for the opposition.

The Brewers have protected Mitchell a bit versus left-handed pitching this season, and he’s only got 16 plate appearances, but he’s hitting .300 with five walks in those 16 plate appearances, good for a .533 OBP and .833 OPS. He’s doing damage against righties — all of his extra-base hits this year are against right-handed pitching — but Mitchell is using his patience as a strength against lefties.

This isn’t a one-year blip, either. Mitchell is certainly a better hitter against right-handed pitching in his career (.792 OPS in 422 PA), but he’s not bad against lefties. Mitchell has a higher batting average and a higher OBP in his career against lefties (.264 versus .253 and .349 versus .346). His career OPS versus lefties is lower (.697 in 88 plate appearances), but that split between lefties and righties isn’t nearly as dramatic as some other players on the Brewers, and that .697 OPS versus lefties is certainly playable.

If Mitchell can find a way to cut down his strikeouts and get some of the power he shows against right-handed pitchers into his profile against lefties, he could become a downright offensive weapon. Again, that’s easy for me to say, and of course we all know the dangers of putting too much faith in Mitchell and his health.

But there’s a good player here, one who is already helping to prop up a struggling Brewer offense. Remember, before the 2025 season there were those who were predicting an All-Star appearance for Mitchell. (Me, I was one of those.) There are some major issues with his game right now, and his career is sort of teetering in a place that could go either direction. But the goal is clear, and if Mitchell can put it all together, the Brewers could really have something.

Blazing out of the gate, rookie first baseman TJ Rumfield looked like the spark the Colorado Rockies needed in 2026.

After all, a strong campaign in spring training earned him the starting job at first base on Opening Day, and he’s been a staple in the lineup since. While the sample size is still small, it’s worthwhile to check in on the early returns on Rumfield to see what’s going well and what needs adjustment as he continues his development at the big-league level.

What’s Going Well

A glance at his stat line paints a quality picture for Rumfield. In 23 games entering Tuesday, he is slashing .253/.310/.405 with a double, a triple, three home runs, 11 RBI, and seven runs scored. Additionally, he has 15 strikeouts and seven walks in 87 plate appearances.

It’s the plate discipline that immediately stands out for Rumfield upon further inspection and is the proof of the pudding as to why Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes pulled the trigger on bringing him in. Sporting a 17.2% strikeout rate, Rumfield ranks with the second-lowest on the team, just behind Tyler Freeman (15.0%). On the flip side, he has slotted in at a league average 8.0% walk rate, which is a massive positive considering his seven walks rank third on the team behind Kyle Karros (14) and Edouard Julien (8).

The zone awareness has also been highlighted and helped Rumfield maintain some consistency at the plate. Per Baseball Savant, Rumfield’s 92.7% zone contact rate tops the Rockies, which correlates with his 22.3% whiff rate that ranks third-lowest on the team. Add in the fact that he doesn’t chase excessively and you’ve got a player with a veteran approach that can adjust to big league hitting.

Equally impressive is that Rumfield is showing a capability of handling the fastball, something that can’t always be said about young hitters, especially for the Rockies over the last few seasons. Rumfield is batting .294/.317/.559 against heaters with two home runs and just three strikeouts. Seeing a fastball 41.7% of the time, Rumfield has just a 6.7% whiff rate. Eliminating the fastball’s deadly tendencies, Rumfield is forcing pitchers to utilize other tools in their arsenal to attack him rather than binge on heaters.

Quality at-bats, due to awareness of the zone, have reminded me of the start of a former Rockies first baseman, you may recall, who is in the Hall of Fame.

Rumfield is nipping at the heels of Todd Helton’s first 35 career games, and still has a whole season ahead of him, something Helton didn’t have back in 1997. His approach at the plate is quite reminiscent of Helton’s, and his ability to handle his position defensively also echoes “The ToddFather.”

There is a lot to like about Rumfield so far, but like any player, there is always work to be done to take the next step.

What Needs Work

Perhaps the biggest thing that Rumfield will need to continue working on is adjusting to secondary pitches. Because of his ability to hit the fastball, pitchers have begun throwing more pitches low and out of the zone.

Breaking balls generally haven’t given him too many fits as he is slashing .265/.260/.353 while seeing breaking balls at a 39.3% clip. Still, he has a 35.9% whiff rate against breaking pitches, specifically sliders (48%). Rumfield has a 50% strikeout rate against the slider with a .231 AVG against it. Offspeed pitches have also been a bothersome pitch, although he doesn’t see them as often since the change in speed isn’t as effective against his contact abilities as a severe breaking pitch is.

Learning to adjust to and combat those secondary pitches will be Rumfield’s greatest challenge. He certainly can make that adjustment, and a greater sample size will give a clearer idea of what he can do over the next month of games.

Another of the great challenges facing Rumfield is something plaguing all left-handed batters: left-handed pitching. In just 14 plate appearances against southpaws, Rumfield is slashing .143/.143/.143 with two hits. Again, it’s a small sample size, but the fact that he puts the ball in play is something since he has just one strikeout against left-handed pitching.

The fact of the matter is that the things Rumfield needs to work on are getting into nitpicking territory, which is a good problem to have. The well-rounded nature of his bat gives him a good base that can translate to success and growth in multiple areas, and the chance to develop against big league pitching is what is best for him.

As time rolls on and the at-bats stack up, Rumfield will be put to the test. The early signs show a promising end result, and once he can string together a couple of multi-hit games consistently, it’s going to be hard to deny that Rumfield is a legitimate big-league bat that can help the Rockies in the climb back to relevance.

On the Farm

Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes @ Sacramento River Cats (POSTPONED)

The rain picked up in California, moving the series opener to Wednesday. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Saturday, April 25.

Double-A:Hartford Yard Goats 9, Portland Sea Dogs 7

The Hartford Yard Goats rebounded from an early deficit and held the lead, staving off a rally in the bottom of the ninth to win the series opener. Jake Brooks made the start, working four innings and allowing four runs on six hits. The middle relievers allowed just one run, while Sam Weatherly escaped the ninth with two runs allowed to secure the victory. The Yard Goats managed nine hits in the game, matching Portland. Bryant Betancourt had a three-hit night with a pair of doubles, while Jose Torres belted a solo shot in the second inning. Roc Riggio also drove in a pair of runs in the game.

High-A:Everett AquaSox 5, Spokane Indians 2

Runs were hard to come by in the game until the AquaSox broke the seal in the bottom of the sixth. Yujanyer Herrera tossed three scoreless innings to start the game for Spokane, followed by Bryson Hammer, who performed admirably, allowing just one run in four innings of work, but had to take the loss. Things got out of hand in the bottom of the eighth when Hunter Mann was tagged for four runs on three hits. The Indians managed two runs in the top of the ninth courtesy of a two-run home run from Jacob Humphrey. The offense managed just three hits in the game while striking out 14 times with two walks.

Low-A:Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 5, Fresno Grizzlies 4

After allowing five runs in the first two innings, the Fresno Grizzlies had to play catch-up and couldn’t overtake the Quakes. Marcos Herrera started on the mound and took the loss after giving up all five runs in 1.2 innings alongside four walks. The bullpen, led by Austin Emener’s 3.1 innings, performed well the rest of the way, allowing just two hits the rest of the way. Tanner Thach continued his hot stretch, contributing a pair of hits while Roldy Brito had a triple and drove in a pair of runs in the game.

Colorado Rockies claim Blas Castaño, DFA Luis Peralta | Purple Row

The Rockies made a waiver claim on Tuesday. Renee Dechert gives a quick overview of the new right-handed.

Paul DePodesta’s Rockies move: ‘Moneyball’ at a midlife crisis or Colorado’s best bet? ($)

Brittany Ghiroli wrote out a deep dive into Paul DePodesta’s time with the Cleveland Browns and his quest to bring the Rockies back to relevance.

Affected by Altitude Episode 207: Gone Fishin’ | Rocky Mountain Rooftop

This week, Evan Lang and I talk about the early struggles of Willi Castro before moving on to talk about the home and road splits for the club. Also, is there something fishy about the Rockies’ swinging aggression?

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants are back in action at Oracle Park this week. I’m actually going to be attending a game this weekend, too. And I will be taking one of my best friends to her very first game at Oracle Park. So that got me thinking about what the most important things to see and do at the ballpark are if you’ve never been there.

As someone who has been going to the ballpark regularly since it opened in April of 2000, I think I’ve started to take it for granted a little bit. Of course it’s a stunningly gorgeous ballpark with a ton of things to do and see. But I’ve seen and done most of the things more times than I can count. I’ve seen every inch of that ballpark, sat in nearly every section, visited the clubhouse, dugout, press booth, suites, eaten all of the must-eat foods.

So it’s kind of fun to view it in this light. What would a first-time park-goer absolutely need to see?

What are your favorite places to visit at the ballpark? What would you show a fan attending their first game? Sound off in the comments!

What time do the Giants play today?

The Giants continue their series against the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight at 6:45 p.m. PT.