Worldwide Sports News

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

For the Braves:

Let’s talk about it.

The Milwaukee Brewers return home to American Family Field to begin a six game homestand against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks. The first matchup of this homestand is a doozy.

It’s a battle of the aces on the mound tonight with the wily veteran Brandon Woodruff pitching for the Crew while the Pirates will have the reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes. This is the back end of a back-to-back stretch against reigning Cy Young winners after facing Tarik Skubal on Thursday afternoon. It’s just the second time in MLB history a team will go through that.

Woodruff is 2-0 on the year with a 3.42 ERA while Skenes is 3-1 with a 3.27 ERA.

The Brewers made some roster moves ahead of Friday’s game. Tyler Black and Shane Drohan have been called up to the big league club.

“(Black)’s healthy and right now he’s one of our best 13 position players. Had a great spring, borderline made the club almost (out of spring).” Pat Murphy said “So it’s a no-brainer.”

Black will primarily play DH and first base for the Crew. Meanwhile Drohan is slated to be in bulk relief and is not currently scheduled to make any starts.

To make room, the Brewers optioned Carlos Rodriguez back to Nashville and designated Luis Matos for assignment. Matos hit just .200 (4-for-20) with a .438 OPS in nine games with the Crew. Rodriguez allowed one run in 4 IP across two outings during this stint with the Brewers.

As for the lineup tonight, Pat Murphy is stacking the lineup with left-handers against Skenes. William Contreras and Brandon Lockridge are the only true righties in the order. Brice Turang, Contreras, and Jake Bauers are atop the order. Tyler Black, just called up to make his season debut, is batting cleanup. Luis Rengifo gets the start at third with David Hamilton at short. Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick, and Lockridge make up the outfield.

The Pirates have some lefties atop their order in Oneil Cruz and Brandon Lowe, followed by the switch hitting Bryan Reynolds. Konnor Griffin, the top prospect in baseball, is batting eighth.

The Brewers will be wearing their Wisco City Connect jerseys, still searching for their first win in the uniform after going 0-3 in that first weekend in them. They’ll have to do it against the best pitcher in the National League.

After placing star Francisco Lindor on the 10-day injured list with a left calf strain on Thursday, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza and president of baseball operations David Stearns gave some more insight into the timeline for the shortstop.

Mendoza had said Thursday that Lindor will be "down for a while," but did not share any other information as the team was still reviewing his MRI results. He said Friday ahead of the team's game against the Colorado Rockies that Lindor will wear a walking boot for the next week and be reevaluated in three weeks.

"He's going to be in a boot for the next week," Mendoza said. "So trying to take the pressure off it. And then the other timeline we got is in three weeks we'll do reimaging. So that's the latest that we got here, he's going to be down for a while."

When asked about the best-case scenario for when Lindor could return, Stearns said they will need the full three weeks to determine that. He did note that the progression could be "relatively quick" if the next three weeks go as planned. 

"I can't even answer that right now," Stearns said. "I think we are not going to be able to provide really more substantive information for three weeks, I think we got to see where this is in three weeks. See how the healing goes and then we'll be able to provide hopefully some more clarity.

"From my understanding there, if all goes well, we can see a relatively quick progression there. But we'll see where we are in three weeks."

Mendoza also mentioned that the team did not get a medical grade on his calf injury as they're still determining the location of the strain in the calf. He said Lindor's calf injury is different from Juan Soto's, which was labeled a "minor strain," and caused him to miss 14 games.

"No. We still got a lot of people looking at this, because the location, where it's at, we want to make sure we're not missing anything," Mendoza said. "I asked that question too. They're not saying anything as far as the grades go. It's just the location and just want to be smart, making sure we're not missing anything there."

He added: "It's the tricky part. We knew like with Soto, we knew right away, the trainers, the location of it, we're going to be in a good place here. With Lindor, we're going to have to be careful."

Lindor suffered the injury while rounding third base before sliding into home during Wednesday's game. He said Thursday that he's hopeful on returning to the field "sooner rather than later" and wants to be back before the All-Star break. 

With Soto and Lindor's injuries occurring one after the other, the two superstars have barely played together this season. Stearns acknowledged that injuries happen to all teams, and New York will have to adapt once again with one of it's leaders sidelined for the near future.

"Injuries are part of this. Injuries to good players are part of this. We're certainly not the only team in baseball that deals with this and we just got to get though it."

After snapping a 12-game losing streak, the Mets will look to extend it's two-game winning streak without Lindor on Friday night when they kick off a three-game series against the Rockies.

Texas Rangers lineup for April 24, 2026 against the A’s: starting pitchers are Nathan Eovaldi for the Rangers and Luis Severino for the A’s.

We begin an exciting and no doubt action-packed series against the maybe, eventually Las Vegas A’s tonight. Alejandro Osuna is playing again. I know y’all like him and so I figured you’d be happy.

The lineup:

Nimmo — RF

Pederson — DH

Seager — SS

Burger — 1B

Jung — 3B

Carter — CF

Higashioka — C

Smith — 2B

Osuna — LF

7:05 p.m. Central start time. The Rangers are -140 favorites.

So, we ended up getting some interesting nuggets of news from the pregame press conference that Walt Weiss has before every home game. There’s one bit of concerning news, one bit of hopeful news and then something that seems obvious but it’s good to hear confirmed.

Let’s start with the concerning news, shall we:

Michael Harris II won’t start on Friday after all

There was a bit of an injury scare for Michael Harris II after he had to exit Thursday’s win over the Nationals during the seventh inning as a precautionary move. At first, it seemed like the “All Clear” was here after Harris said that he “expected” to play on Friday and then he was listed in today’s lineup as well.

Unfortunately, they’ve scratched him from today’s lineup and are now listing him as being “day-to-day” with the left quad tightness. You don’t want to expect the worst but when you consider the injury luck that this team has had to deal with in recent years, I think we’re all hoping to the baseball gods above that Money Mike’s quad doesn’t act up on him any further.

Raisel Iglesias could be back ASAP

Now granted, this doesn’t mean that Iglesias’ IL stint is going to be shorter than 14 days but apparently Weiss and the Braves training staff are encouraged with how he’s feeling so far. Weiss did state that Iglesias hasn’t started throwing yet but they aren’t expecting this to be a lengthy IL stint. Again, just like Harris, we’re all hoping that this is strictly just a two-week rest period for Iglesias and that there aren’t any setbacks between now and his anticipated return from the IL. For now, things are looking up in that department and the bullpen won’t have to hold down the fort for any longer than expected during Iglesias’ absence.

JR Ritchie will stick around for a bit

Didier Fuentes received the call-up but went right back down after his short outing on Wednesday night. JR Ritchie was called up instead and ended up delivering a very creditable debut performance in helping the Braves pick up the series win. Clearly the Braves’ brass liked what they saw, since Weiss told the media that Ritchie will be sticking around with the big league ballclub and he now has an opportunity to pitch his way into staying in the rotation.

Obviously, it’d be a pretty huge development if Ritchie ended up being ready for The Show already. It would also bring up some questions about where he’d fit in with the rotation once guys like Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach make their eventual returns from injury. It’s a good problem to have though, as you can never have too much pitching and having a talented young arm like Ritchie’s around would certainly be a positive for the Braves going forward.

Maybe the Giants won’t have such a bad season? That’s certainly on the table. Not just because they humiliated the Los Angeles Dodgers this week, but because they really have been playing slightly better over the past couple of weeks (8-6 since April 7th). And, yes, that’s because some of the key contributors have started to contribute and some surprises have emerged, but there are two key players who will be critical throughout the summer.

Jung Hoo Lee has temporarily hit his way out of the “bust” conversation concerning his free agency by hitting .320/.340/.440 over his last 14 games and 53 PA. It looks even better in a smaller sample, but the point is that for two seasons now he’s basically been an afterthought and the organization never had a contingency for that outcome. They dropped a massive deal on him because they hoped after a year or two of adjusting to the big leagues that he’d blossom into, well, basically a Luis Arraez type — high contact guy who could create traffic on the basepaths.

Lee started off last season on fire, with 43 hits in his first 36 games (151 PA). That triple slash of .312/.364/.507 (.871 OPS) was All-Star reserve-worthy, but the .251/.315/.374 (.690 OPS) he hit the rest of the way (114 games, 466 PA) should’ve had him looking for a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training in the offseason. His current full season line is basically equivalent to those final 466 and so it’s probably safer to assume that this is who Jung Hoo Lee is. But, if the Giants are going anywhere this season, they’ll need him to hit beyond that and closer to what he’s doing now.

Is there any hope of that beyond fanatical wishcasting? Yes!

Crack into that 466 plate appearances block of Jung Hoo Lee’s 2025 and you get something much more relief-inducing: one massive cold streak. There was a 46-game stretch (193 PA) where Lee was among the worst in the sport: .182/.269/.300. There were 6 doubles, 4 triples, a couple of homers, a trio of stolen bases, and 18 walks against just 17 strikeouts in there, but overall, pretty gnarly and, of course, substantial. But from July 2nd until the end of the season (68 games, 273 PA), he was a much more respectable .298/.348/.425 (.773 OPS). If you split it again and just look at his second half, that OPS does drop to about .758, which is now bordering on “not what you paid for,” though still, compared to the rest of the Giants’ typical lineup, not terrible.

So, there is reason to believe that Jung Hoo Lee has the tools to compete in the major leagues. In theory, one thing that JHL does that Arraez can’t do is hit for more power. That plus his ability to at least appear average in the outfield creates a balance in the lineup that otherwise doesn’t exist in his absence. The Giants don’t have anyone of his profile they could plug into right field, as much as we all wish it was Grant McCray. Hopefully, the flashes we have seen and are seeing right now are the things he can build on for the next time the league adjusts to him rather than the brief burp of momentary readjustment on his behalf.

Another strong point in his favor is that against 95+ mph fastballs, he’s hitting .286. He’s right there with the team leaders in that category:

Christian Koss (lol): 1-for-1 (1.000), 6/18 = 95+ (33%)
Daniel Susac: 3-for-4 (.750), 15/85 = 95+ (17.6%)
Jared Oliva: 1-for-2 (.500), 4/27 = 95+ (14.8%)
Jerar Encarnacion: 2-for-5 (.400), 29/119 = 95+ (24.4%)
Luis Arraez: 7-for-18 (.389), 101/391 = 95+ (25.8%)
Heliot Ramos: 9-for-24 (.375), 120/390 = 95+ (30.8%)
Drew Gilbert: 2-for-7 (.286), 28/106 = 95+ (26.4%)
Jung Hoo Lee: 6-for-21 (.286), 72/368 = 95+ (19.6%)
Below .200: Willy Adames (.182), Harrison Bader & Rafael Devers (.154), Casey Schmitt (.125), Patrick Bailey (.111), Matt Chapman (.071), Will Brenan (.000).

So, obviously, the Giants will need Adames, Devers, Chapman, and Heliot Ramos to hit, too, but the point is that having Arraez and Lee also in there does lengthen the lineup and make it more dynamic. The problem is that Lee has been bad enough for long enough that there’s certainly some doubt. And then there’s his injury track record, which is the big thing hanging around the other key player the Giants will need to be perform if the team is going to be good this season.

Landen Roupp is just like Jung Hoo Lee in terms of what he brings to the starting rotation. He lengthens it and makes it more dynamic. After he handled the Dodgers, I wondered if his combination of red ass and pitch repertoire made him the team’s new Ryan Vogelsong — a comparison I felt was apt given Vogelsong’s role as the organization’s roving pitching instructor. But then people pointed out that he doesn’t give up home runs, so, maybe he’s more like Matt Cain? Well, hmm. Maybe there is no 1:1 comparison out there just yet, at least in terms of Giants history.

Today, Roupp’s curveball leads the National League in Run Value (+4), tied with the Angels’ Jose Soriano and Pittsburgh’s Braxton Ashcraft. It’s got a 33% Whiff rate on it and just a 4.8% Hard Hit rate. From a Pitching+ perspective (104), he’s right there with Tyler Glasnow (105) and Tyler Mahle (104). Reminder of Pitching+ (emphasis mine — also, remember that 100 is league average):

Pitching+ is one of three models that, along with Stuff+ and Location+, attempts to look at the process underlying a pitcher’s performance in order to remove some of the noise that can be present when looking at on-field results. […]

Stuff+ looks only at the physical characteristics of a pitch. Important features include, but are not limited to, release point, velocity, vertical and horizontal movement, and spin rate. A pitcher’s secondary pitches are defined based on their primary fastball — with “primary” defined by usage in an outing — and so are judged by velocity and movement differentials along with raw velocity and movement numbers. 

Location+ is a count- and pitch type-adjusted judge of a pitcher’s ability to put pitches in the right place. No velocity, movement, or any other physical characteristics are included in the statistic. A breaking ball should go to different parts of the strike zone in 2-0 and 1-2 counts, and Location+ captures that phenomenon. Stringer-based command statistics that attempt to judge what a pitcher was intending to do with each pitch do not add predictive value to those models, so Location+ only looks at actual locations and implicitly assumes the intent is generally the same across the league in certain counts with certain pitches.

He is a big league pitcher and an above average one by every measure. He is also a late bloomer, having turned 27 last September. There are only 30 right-handed pitchers since 1975 to make 26 or more major league starts and throw 160 or fewer innings before their age-27 season and Roupp is #5 on that list at 157 IP in 26 starts prior to 2026. I think it’s instructive insofar as our hopes and dreams here. Is there a historical comparison to be had?

Trent Thornton leads the list with 160 innings, and that’s in large part from 154 IP and 29 starts made for the Blue Jays in 2019, his age-25 season. He had a 4.84 ERA and 4.59 FIP and would make just 6 starts combined in 2020 and 2021. He made one start in 2023 and that was that: he was a reliever the rest of his career. Adbert Alzolay started 27 games before 27 and most of those came in 2021, his age-26 season (21 starts). After 2021, he never started again. Glen Otto made 33 starts for the Rangers in 2021 and 2022 combined and hasn’t pitched since 2023, when he was used as a reliever in 10.2 major league innings. Jharel Cotton started 29 games between his age-24 & 25 seasons but that was it for him as a starting pitcher despite pitching two more major league seasons (2021 and 2022). More recent examples are Hayden Birdsong (ahem), the Athletics’ Joey Estes, and the White Sox’s Shane Smith. Roupp is basically better than this field, so there’s not really a good comp to be had.

I think we all know why, too: injury! He’s missed time from injury in every year of his pro career with two concerning ones cropping up last year (right elbow inflammation in July and knee inflammation in August). It’s a lot to ask of this #3 starter to get to 180 innings and maybe even 160 innings, but that’s the sort of contribution the team will need from him if 2026 is going to be memorable. Taking his above average performance as a given (which is risky, I admit), the more innings from the starting staff means less work for the bullpen. The Giants’ 837 innings from their rotation last year was just 17th in MLB. The top 10 teams all had winning records, and so figure it’ll take somewhere in the 860s to crack that list.

Every fan has their pet player who they think will be the key to the team’s success in a given season, and that’s fine — sorry to those who thought Bryce Eldridge might be a central figure in this post — but here are two players who the Giants simply can’t play well without. They might be able to get buy with some 0-for-4s from Jung Hoo Lee (who, to be clear, has had a lot of them), but his mere presence in the lineup can sometimes be enough to setup the other guys. Roupp, on the other hand, might be able to have a bad turn through the rotation if the other arms have done well, but otherwise, the Giants need Roupp to be as consistent as a peak Matt Cain or Ryan Vogelsong and simply shove when put in front of an opponent.

And yes, obviously, these two straws can only stir a drink that’s been made. If Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Willy Adames, Luis Arraez, and (long sigh) Rafael Devers don’t approximate their career norms and with the extraordinary caveat of general good health on the roster, then there’s no lineup for Jung Hoo Lee to lengthen or dynamize and no pitching staff for Landen Roupp to prop up.

But without either of these players, the Giants won’t be going far.