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Sorry everybody, but stepdad David is in charge tonight. You will not be getting a detailed preview. What I can promise you is a screengrab of the Statcast Game Preview, ice cream before dinner and no bedtime. Don’t tell your mom.

Tonight it’s Anthony Kay on the mound for the White Sox, who hasn’t been the most steady of starters but has managed to justify his position thus far. A bigger challenge for the White Sox await in Kris Bubic, who has acquitted himself to a 3.50 ERA on this thus far massively disappointing Royals season.

As if Derek Hill isn’t already ruling the Vibes Chart on the White Sox, he gets the start in center tonight and has hit Bubic extremely well (in yes, an extremely small sample size).

First pitch is 6:40 P.M. CST. You can watch the game wherever you normally watch it. I’ll be watching on CHSN and then I’ll be back with you for the recap. Talk about the game below!

The Royals are back at it tonight on the South Side of Chicago versus the White Sox. Entering tonight’s contest, the Royals are 19-24 and tied for third in the American League Central. The Pale Hose, meanwhile, are 21-21 and in second place in the AL Central, just a game-and-a-half behind the inevitable Guardians.

Chicago’s won both games of this current series, taking the opener Tuesday night 6-5 before winning last night’s game, also 6-5. What are the odds of another 6-5 Chicago victory tonight? I don’t know the answer, that’s why I’m asking.

Last season, the Royals smoked the White Sox in their season series, going 10-3 while outscoring Chicago 61-37.

This season, that has not happened. Instead, through six games, the White Sox have the upper hand, going 4-2, including a four-game split at Kauffman in April, while outscoring the Royals by a single run, 20-19.

It sure would be nice for the Royals to win this evening. 20-24 isn’t great but it’s a lot easier on the eyes than 19-25.

And, yes, it’s somewhat personal: I have yet to write a winning recap for the Royals as they’ve lost every Thursday on which they’ve played in 2026. They are 0-5 on Thursdays. Was it something I said?

Let’s take a look at the lineups.

First, the Royals, who take on lefty Anthony Kay:

Ah, yes, with the lefty on the mound, must sit Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone while starting (and again batting third!) Lane Thomas.

Let’s check on Thomas’ 2026 splits. As we all know, he was signed to face lefthanders, so by Gawd, he’s going to face lefthanders. How’s he batting against them? .235/.409/.353 with a double, a homer, 10 walks, and seven strikeouts. Those are not the numbers of a) someone signed to hit lefthanders nor b) someone who should be batting third.

Lane Thomas, please make me regret those comments. I’d love to eat my words.

Now, the White Sox, who face fellow southpaw Kris Bubic:

Hey, Randal Grichuk gets the start! Thought about him the other day. When he started for the Cardinals, it looked like he and fellow young outfielder Stphen Piscotty would be stars for St. Louis for years to come. Unfortunately, as happens more often than not in baseball, that didn’t come to fruition for either player.

The White Sox are Grichuk’s seventh team since leaving the Cardinals, which includes, of course, a spell with the Royals last year. He has collected over 200 career home runs and more than 1,000 hits in his 13-year career. Overall, a solid career, despite not reaching stardom.

See you after the ballgame.

Had things gone according to plan, Friday would be Blake Snell’s 2026 debut with the Dodgers, who open a series against the Angels on Friday night at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. But instead this will be Snell’s second start of the season.

After back spasms sidelined Tyler Glasnow a week ago, the Dodgers approached Snell about throwing his planned five innings and 75 pitches in the majors instead of for Class-A Ontario, which he was obviously eager to do. But the rust was there in his first game back, needing 77 pitches to complete three innings, and he allowed five runs in a loss to the Atlanta Braves.

Jack Kochanowicz starts for the Angels, with his 3.97 ERA and 5.00 xERA through eight starts. He’s coming off his worst game of the season, with seven runs (six earned) allowed in four innings against the Blue Jays on Saturday in Toronto. Before that, the right-hander had a 2.17 ERA in his previous six starts.

Friday game info

• Teams: Dodgers at Angels
• Ballpark: Angel Stadium, Anaheim
• Time: 6:38 p.m.
• TV: SportsNet LA, KTTV channel 11 (Angels broadcast)
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

The Atlanta Braves have already clinched the series win against the Cubs in their second-consecutive high-profile series. Now they’re going for the really loud statement of pulling off a sweep against the Cubs. Ben Brown and the rest of the North Siders aren’t likely to just roll over, so this should be another closely-fought contest between the two. Hopefully we’ll be talking about a Braves win once the end of the night comes around. For now, settle in and and enjoy yourselves while the game is happening.

• Preview
• Lineups
• Walt Weiss honors the teachings of Bobby Cox

In a day when the Mariners lost their starting catcher with Cal Raleigh going on the IL, Mitch Garver stepped into the role and had his best game of the season – on both sides of the ball – in an 8-3 victory. With that win, the Mariners not only secured a series win over the Astros, but guaranteed a winning season record over their AL West rivals.

It wasn’t just Garver contributing to the offense, though. The Mariners batters had seven extra-base hits, setting a season high, and seven of their eight runs came with two outs. They had traffic in all but two innings, pounding out 11 hits, and struck out just six times while walking five times.

The Mariners offense staked Castillo to a nice three-run lead early, thanks to a leadoff Brendan Donovan double and then some two-out production: Randy Arozarena walked and Luke Raley got a fastball on the plate from Astros starter Mike Burrows that he did not miss:

I do not know why, in a 1-2 count, after Raley had swung and missed at a changeup previously and then fouled off another, Burrows then thought the next move was “fastball up in the zone to a man with arms that look like Douglas firs stapled to his shoulders” but I’m not upset about it.

For a moment, it looked like Luis Castillo was going to give all those runs right back. He got his first two outs before walking Yordan Álvarez, which, understandable, but then walked Isaac Paredes on five not particularly-close pitches. His command wasn’t much better to Christian Walker, although he was able to get Walker to fly out harmlessly to end the inning. But it came at the cost of his pitch count: 23 pitches in the first inning alone on a day when the Mariners bullpen was perilously short-handed.

The Astros had a little more life in the bottom of the second, but Castillo was bailed out by a baserunning error by Braden Shewmake, trying to make it from second to third on a Cam Smith infield hit right at J.P. Crawford (and then maybe bailed out again on a challenge that went the Mariners’ way). Castillo got out of that inning, and after that, seemed to lock in. He did give up a solo homer to Álvarez in the third, because Yordan gonna Yordan, but also struck out three in that inning, and then worked a clean fourth – again with some help from Garver, who made a clutch challenge to overturn ball three into an inning-ending strike three – and a clean fifth, this time with some help from a nifty snag by Cole Young.

Meanwhile, the Mariners hitters continued to stack offense for Castillo. With J.P. Crawford on board but two outs in the fourth, Burrows hung a slider to Garver in an 0-2 count—which again, feels like a bad idea when in his previous at-bat he’d hit a slider hard but straight to center, but hey, I’m not the professional here – and this time, Garver did everything the same (literally the exact same exit velo, 99.1, and actually ten feet shorter via Statcast – 369nice vs. 379) but yanked the pitch into the Crawford Boxes instead.

Rewatching that, I feel like 369 feels short as a measurement, but also, I delight in Mariners hitters making the homer-inflating Crawford Boxes work for them, so it’s a quandary. Perhaps as a certified Tall Person I should consult José Altuve on what it feels like to be short.

That homer gave the Mariners and Castillo some breathing room, but Cole Young decided to crack the window even further in the sixth after the two batters ahead of him had reached with two outs – Dominic Canzone on a single and Garver on a walk. Young fell behind 0-2 but laid off a changeup and a slider (good Cole!) until he got a sinker right on the plate he could smash into right field. A little adventurous fielding from Astros right fielder Cam Smith allowed seventh-percentile-sprint speed Garver to score all the way from first without a slide. (NB: If you’re watching this highlight at work or in front of delicate ears, mute it, because Burrows swears loudly and distinctly right after this pitch gets hit.)

That healthy lead let Dan Wilson roll with Castillo into the sixth, and it looked like it was going to be another inning of smooth sailing for The Rock despite a one-out Álvarez single. Again, Garver came up with a clutch challenge, flipping a count for Paredes from 2-0 to 1-1; Paredes would eventually strike out. But then Christian Walker refused to just strike out, instead working a nine-pitch walk. Trying to get one last out and maybe a quality start for Castillo, the Mariners opted to leave him in, and he left a fastball on the plate for Braden Shewmake to send to that tricky left field wall, scoring both runners. Nick Davila, making just his fifth big-league appearance, was called in to stop the bleeding and did, getting Brice Matthews to ground out.

Davila went on to deliver a scoreless seventh, working around a walk, and Domingo Gonzalez – now given a five-run lead after a J.P. Crawford RBI double in the eighth – worked around a leadoff double to, who else, Álvarez, and then capped things off in the ninth. Of his six outs, Gonzalez got two strikeouts and four ground-ball outs, which seems like a pretty useful reliever even if the Mariners’ infield defense is shaky on the left-hand side.

The Castillo-Garver battery isn’t the matchup most Mariner fans are most excited about this season, but today the supposed weak links of the roster gave what they had to this victory: Castillo, whose velocity was up a full tick on his fastball, hanging in there for 108 pitches; and Garver, calling a good game for Castillo (who doubled his changeup rate today, with some success – two of his six strikeouts were on the pitch), winning back strikes with savvy ABS challenges, showing patience at the plate, and punishing the mistake pitch he saw. Add in the bullpen performance from Davila and Gonzalez, two pitchers buried in the pile this spring training, and you have a solid win in a game that might have looked like a loss on paper. It’s especially weird because I thought this recap would be all about Brendan Donovan, who had three hits and fell a homer short of the cycle today, but the 2-4 hitters behind him today combined for just one hit and five strikeouts (Randy did walk twice, not trying to take anything away from ArOBParena). Huh, maybe RBI is an important stat.

Jorge Polanco hasn’t played a game for the Mets since April 14 against the Los Angeles Dodgers due to a wrist issue as well as a lingering Achilles injury.

Around that time, about a month ago now, Polanco received a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection in his Achilles to try to help aid the healing process, reports The Athletic’s Will Sammon.

While the shot has made the injury feel better for Polanco, he’s still not fully healthy and his timeline to re-join the team remains unknown. David Stearns said on Tuesday that Polanco needs to be “asymptomatic” before the Mets can even think about setting a possible return date for the veteran.

“We want to have more good days than the days I don’t feel so good,” Polanco told The Athletic. “That’s when I know I’ll be ready to go.”

The 32-year-old, who signed a two-year, $40 million deal in the offseason after a great year with the Seattle Mariners, has only appeared in 14 games for New York and is hitting .179 this season with one home run.

“It is tough to deal with, but at the same time, I can’t control that,” Polanco told the Athletic. “I wish I could because then I could be on the field every day… but what else can we do but try to stay positive, keep going and come back.”

In the middle of Thursday's game at Citi Field, the sun came out for the Mets -- literally and metaphorically.

Following a dreary morning and early afternoon where the tarp didn't come off the field until the first pitch was getting close -- and after Nolan McLean and the Mets found themselves in an immediate 3-0 hole -- New York erupted. 

They hit five home runs, including the first big league homer for 21-year-old rookieA.J. Ewing.

The red-hot Carson Benge was in the middle of things again, going 2-for-5 with a stolen base and a run scored.

And McLean, who got jumped for a three-run homer in the first inning, didn't allow any Tigers to cross the plate after that. On a day where there was constant traffic on the bases and his stuff (especially his two-seamer) wasn't really there, McLean showed moxie while getting through seven innings and emotion as he struck out the last two batters he faced. 

The result was a series sweep, with the Mets erasing deficits in all three wins.

On Tuesday, New York trailed 2-0 before pounding out 10 runs. In Ewing's debut, he provided an immediate spark, ripping a triple, drawing three walks, scoring two runs, and driving in two more. Meanwhile, Benge had two hits, an RBI, and a run scored.

On Wednesday, the Mets fell behind 2-0 again and didn't tie it until the seventh inning. From there, the bullpen locked things down until Benge delivered a walk-off hit in the 10th -- driving in Ewing. 

On Thursday, the Mets were down 3-0 before Ewing homered to cut it to 3-1 and Brett Baty went yard to tie things. From there, the offense exploded, with Mark Vientos,Juan Soto, and Marcus Semien also going deep. 

The Mets are still just 18-25. They have a long way to go.

But they are 8-4 over their last 12 games, and the baby Mets (plus McLean, Soto, the pitching staff, and others) are giving us a glimpse of what this team can still be in 2026 -- and beyond.

I wrote back on May 5 that the Mets had the kind of pitching staff necessary to climb out of their early hole, but that there was a big caveat.

That caveat was the offense, which was a league-worst unit as recently as a few days ago.

And despite their showings on Tuesday and Thursday, it's fair to believe the offense will have to grind things out for the foreseeable future since the team is still without Francisco Lindor, Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert Jr., and Francisco Alvarez.

The Mets got good news on Lindor before the game, the day after he had a follow-up MRI on his calf. Manager Carlos Mendoza said "it's getting better, showing signs of healing," but added that there is still no timetable for Lindor to resume baseball activities.

But without Lindor and three other key offensive cogs, the Mets' offense has come to life.

Speaking after the game, Mendoza did not mince words when admitting that it felt like "the game was over" earlier this season when the Mets fell behind by a couple of runs. That isn't the case anymore.

"Now, we're down three in the first inning, you still feel good," Mendoza explained. "You could just have that sense in the dugout. Sure enough, we get that homer. In general, the pitching is gonna keep us in games -- they've been doing that the whole year.

"And it's just good to see the guys fight back. They're resilient, and they're not gonna give up. They're not gonna put their heads down. They're gonna keep going. That's who we are."

Regarding Ewing and Benge, Mendoza said they have brought "contagious" energy. But it hasn't just been them. Baty has been better at the plate recently, Vientos has been providing power (and has his OPS for the season up to .720), and Semien had a big day on Thursday as he reached base three times.

More will be needed, especially from Bo Bichette.

But as the Mets wait for Bichette to come around and their injured players to return, they've shown that they have what it takes to hang in there.

So much of it will come down to the pitching, which has featured McLean, Clay Holmes, and Freddy Peralta performing like All-Stars and Christian Scott starting to re-establish himself. There's also a chance Jonah Tong, who has found his footing in Triple-A, could be up sooner rather than later and add another element to the rotation.

As far as the bullpen, Devin Williams, Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley, and Huascar Brazoban have all been lights out recently.

When the Mets fell to 10-21, it felt like their season was in danger of slipping away, but it also felt like anything that could've gone wrong had gone wrong.

Yes, the offense was struggling badly, but there were also extenuating things. That included the injuries (especially one that kept Soto out for three weeks), the absurd travel schedule (three trips to the West Coast), and the awful, often extremely cold conditions the Mets were playing in regularly.

With all of those things in the rearview, the season has stabilized, and there's an energy around the team that wasn't there a few weeks ago.

Things are still tenuous and the Mets will need to grind it out until they get healthy, but it feels like a corner has been turned.