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Here is the Guardians’ lineup:

Here is the Dodgers’ lineup:

Let’s go, Guardians!

LOS ANGELES — Wednesday was a busy day for the Dodgers adding pitching depth to the 40-man roster. First came trading for left-hander Jake Eder, then in the afternoon the team claimed right-hander Grant Holman off waivers from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Holman pitched parts of the last two seasons in the majors with the Athletics, totaling a 4.66 ERA and 4.42 xERA in 40 games, with 33 strikeouts and 18 walks in 38 2/3 innings. He missed the final three and a half months of last season with rotator cuff tendinitis in his right shoulder.

The former sixth-round pick from 2021 in February was claimed off waivers from the A’s by the Diamondbacks in February. Arizona designated Holman for assignment last Wednesday in finalizing their opening day roster.

Holman, who turns 26 on May 31, has one year, 31 days of major league service time. He has two minor league option years remaining, having used an option year in 2025.

To make room on the 40-man roster for Holman, pitcher Gavin Stone was transferred to the 60-day injured list. It doesn’t change much regarding the timeline for Stone, who is pain-free in his right shoulder and just resumed throwing at Camelback Ranch in Arizona this week after getting shut down in spring training.

“I would say he’s pre-spring training, or right at the beginning,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Stone on Monday, meaning Stone still has to go through the usual spring progression and eventual building up of innings en route back to the majors, after missing all of 2025 after shoulder surgery.

Adding Stone to the 60-day injured list means he cannot return to the Dodgers before May 21.

Mental lapses during a game can happen in the early season, but it's rare when it happens to a veteran whose known for his sound play.

That's what happened to Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor on Wednesday. In an afternoon bereft of offense and timely hitting, Lindor's mental lapses stood out. 

In the first, Lindor handled a groundball that was perfect to turn an inning-ending double play. However, Lindor calmly jogged to second base for the out and turned to the dugout. Lindor forgot how many outs there were, pushing starter Freddy Peralta to throw five more pitches.

"The groundball is the one that’s no excuses," manager Carlos Mendoza said of the mistake. "He’ll be the first one that tells you that."

And Lindor did, telling the media after the 2-1 extra-innings loss that he simply forgot how many outs there were.

"I made a mistake that probably cost Peralta to go an extra inning because he had to throw more pitches after that," Lindor said. "Inexcusable. He probably could have gone six, maybe seven. I just forgot the outs."

The mistake didn't cost the Mets any runs. Peralta finished the inning, striking out the next batter en route to throwing 92 pitches across 5.1 innings. The ace of the Mets staff allowed just one run, but it wasn't enough as the Mets offense pushed across just one run, but it potentially could have been more.

In the sixth, and the game scoreless, Lindor reached on an error with one out. With Juan Soto at the plate, Lindor was picked off without even a slide from the Mets shortstop. 

Soto would homer three pitches later to give the Mets the lead. Unfortunately, it would not hold up as the Cardinals tied it in the bottom half of the inning and eventually won in the 11th.

"The pickoff, they got us there. [Lindor] was going to go, we thought we had a tip there and they got us with a quick, step-off move there," Mendoza said. "I wouldn’t consider that one as a mental mistake. He was trying to get some momentum there and be aggressive."

"I should have been better," Lindor said of the play. "That’s all I got."

If the Mets win on Wednesday, the mistakes are glossed over, but the loss puts a magnifying glass over a team that has struggled offensively. After scoring 11 runs in their Opening Day win against the Pirates, the Mets have pushed across just 12 runs over their next five games. On Wednesday, the Mets were 0-for-11 with RISP and left 11 runners on base.

Lindor is not too concerned with the offense's early-season struggles. The Mets (3-3) still have 156 games to go in the season.

"Our pitchers have done a tremendous job. We gotta score runs for them," Lindor said. "It’s one of those that you hope to put it together as many times as you can during the year. We have put it together, just not every day. Gotta go out there, continue to believe in each other, pass the baton. I trust the guy behind me more than I trust myself. It’s that type of mentality. We’re going to be on top more times than not."

The Mets will hope to turn their struggles around when they open a four-game series against the Giants in San Francisco starting Thursday. 

HOUSTON, TX – Once upon a time, he was the de facto leader of Crush City. Today, Captain Crush was back.

Carlos Correa, who has been open about his excitement of being back in Houston for a whole season and the high expectations he has for this team, hit a 3-run homer in the fifth to put the Astros ahead for good as Houston completed a 3-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox today at Daikin Park.

Correa demolished a 1-2 slider from Red Sox All-Star starter Garrett Crochet (L, 1-1) 402 feet and into the Crawfish Boxes to give the Astros a 5-2 lead.

Correa’s shot left like a laser at 106.7 MPH. Correa is hitting .296 through 7 games with an .811 OPS. The HR gave the Astros a lead they would never relinquish on the way to a 6-4 victory.

Correa spoke with SCHN’s Julia Morales postgame:

Correa’s bomb made a winner of starter Mike Burrows, whose second start was notably better than his first. Burrows threw 5 innings of 2 run ball, allowing 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 6. Burrows improved to 1-1 on the season.

The Astros also got run producing contributions from Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker, as well as a solo HR from catcher Christian Vazquez:

Relievers A.J. Blubaugh and Bryan King each pitched clean innings for the Astros in the 6th and 7th innings. Blubaugh registered a strikeout and King had a pair of Ks.

Bryan Abreu came on for the 9th in a save situation at 6-3. He surrendered a solo home run to the Red Sox’ leadoff man in the 9th, Roman Anthony, but then settled down and struck out the next 3 batters for his first save of the season.

More importantly, Abreu was back throwing his fastball in his more customary 96-97 MPH range.

With the victory, the Astros improved to 5-2 on the season, and lead the AL West by a half-game over the Texas Rangers.

They will have an off day Thursday and then open a 3-game series Friday in Sacramento against the Athletics. Cristian Javier will get the start Friday against Jeffrey Springs.

Attention, operator: There seems to be a connection problem.

Something wasn’t working between first and third base Wednesday afternoon at Petco Park, as the typically surehanded Matt Chapman and Casey Schmitt teamed up to cost the Giants the first two runs they allowed in 7-1 drubbing to the Padres.

Schmitt was charged with an error for failing to reel in a wide throw from Chapman in the first inning that ricocheted into the outfield, allowing Jackson Merrill to race home from first and open a 1-0 lead.

Chapman took the blame for a throw that sailed over Schmitt’s mitt and into foul territory on a play that should have ended the fifth inning. Instead, Gavin Sheets scored from second to make it 2-0.

Adrian Houser pitched better than the defense behind him in the season debut for the Giants’ No. 5 starter but ran into trouble when San Diego turned its lineup over for a third time. Just one of the three runs on Houser’s line was earned, but three of the Padres’ seven hits against him came in consecutive at-bats after he recorded the first out of the sixth, bringing manager Tony Vitello out with the hook.

The Padres’ ace, Nick Pivetta, rebounded from his stinker to open the season and put San Francisco’s bats back in hibernation. After more than doubling their season totals with nine runs on 16 hits to clinch a series win Tuesday, the Giants mustered just four hits while striking out a season-high 14 times.

What it means

Despite the getaway day defeat, Vitello’s first games in the road grays have to be considered a success. The first-year manager won’t be celebrating a sweep on the short charter flight back to San Francisco, but his team rebounded nicely from an 0-3 opening series by taking two of three in San Diego.

Who’s hot

Willy Adames had been on a tear since moving into the leadoff spot, but the Giants shortstop was held hitless to snap a brief three-game hitting streak. The 0-for-4 effort came in SF’s first loss in four games with Adames batting leadoff, dating back to Game 162 of last season.

Luis Arraez was responsible for three of the Giants’ four hits, including their only one in five innings off Pivetta. Arraez gave them a second with a double off Adrian Morejon to begin the seventh, and Harrison Bader got them on the board with a two-out line drive into left field for their third hit of the afternoon.

The multi-hit effort from Arraez against his former team left him batting .304 after six games, the best mark among the Giants’ starting lineup that has featured the same nine players in all of their first six games.

Who’s not

The description could fit anybody in a starting lineup that doesn’t feature one player with an OPS that starts with a seven or higher. For the fourth time in their first six games, the Giants were held to one run or less and three or fewer hits. Even with their nine-run outburst on Tuesday, the Giants are averaging just 2.3 per game, the fewest in the majors, with a .559 team OPS — better only than the A’s.

Besides the bats, Jose Butto hasn’t looked like the same pitcher who tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings for Venezuela during the World Baseball Classic. Butto is suddenly the biggest question mark in the Giants’ bullpen after retiring only one of the seven batters he faced in his second shaky outing in three games.

Butto issued four walks, allowed three hits and found the strike zone on only eight of his 28 pitches, forcing Vitello to burn another arm, lefty Ryan Borucki, with seven more games in the next seven days.

The Padres extended their lead from 3-1 to the eventual final margin after Butto entered the game.

Up next

Robbie Ray makes his second start of the season Thursday as the Giants return to Oracle Park to begin a seven-game home stand against the Mets and Phillies. Tyler Mahle gets the ball Friday, followed by Landen Roupp and Logan Webb to finish off a four-game weekend set with New York.

SEATTLE — It is not always going to be like this.

A Yankees starter is going to give up multiple runs — maybe even three — someday.

But not now, not yet — and most of the time, not even one.

Cam Schlittler was masterful once again, throwing 6 ¹/₃ shutout innings on the way to a 5-3 win over the Mariners to claim the series at T-Mobile Park while continuing the Yankees run of pitching dominance to begin the season.

Schlittler, who retired the final 15 batters he faced and would have gone even deeper had he not been on a pitch count, recorded the fourth scoreless start by a Yankee in the team’s first six games — two by him and two by Max Fried.

Yankees starters have still only given up just two runs over their first six games — spanning 33 ²/₃ innings — marking the fewest by any team’s starting rotation through their first six games of a season since 1900.

“I think the staff’s dominant and the bullpen’s been great as well,” said Schlittler, who struck out seven and scattered just two hits. “The team as a whole, just feeding off each other and taking it each game, each start and keep rolling with it.”


The bullpen, which has mostly been strong in its own right early, threatened to light the game on fire late after the Yankees led 4-0, fueled by Paul Goldschmidt’s three-run shot.

Camilo Doval loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth inning before Cal Raleigh roped a two-run single off David Bednar to make it 4-2.

After Bednar struck out Julio Rodríguez to end the threat, Ben Rice got a run back in the top of the ninth on his first home run of the season, which provided a bit more breathing room for when the Mariners fought back again in the bottom of the ninth, pushing across another run. But Bednar finally nailed down the final out on his 40th pitch, sending the Yankees flying home high following a 5-1 West Coast trip ahead of Friday’s home opener.

“Really good baseball,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously pitching at a really high level. The defense was excellent on the trip overall. Some timely hitting, a couple big homers along the way. Just really good baseball and a good way to open the season and head back home into an off day and hopefully start off a nice homestand.”


Across 79 pitches Wednesday — still building up after back inflammation had slowed him briefly in camp — Schlittler continued to pound the zone and attack with his three fastballs. He has still not walked a batter this season, only letting three runners on base at all across 11 ²/₃ scoreless innings.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

The 25-year-old became the first pitcher in Yankees history to begin a season with back-to-back starts of five-plus scoreless innings and seven-plus strikeouts.

“He’s not afraid to throw his best stuff and come at you in the zone,” said Rice, who capped off a strong series by going 2-for-3 with a walk, RBI double and the 427-foot homer. “Clearly he is very difficult to hit.”

It is still early, but this kind of start has allowed the Yankees to dream on the high-end potential of their rotation over the full season, especially with Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole expected to join it before long.

“What a week of pitching,” Boone said. “Credit to those guys for, along with [Austin Wells] and J.C. [Escarra] and the pitching group, coming up with a really good game plan and those starting pitchers going out there and executing at a really high level.”

Goldschmidt, who was only in the lineup because the Yankees wanted to give the red-hot Giancarlo Stanton a proactive day off to keep him healthy over the long haul, delivered the biggest swing in the sixth inning. The veteran first baseman crushed a three-run shot off right-hander George Kirby to put the Yankees ahead 4-0 — set up by Trent Grisham and Rice each drawing a walk — creating some cushion for Schlittler and Co.

“Being efficient, limiting the walks, limiting the hits and getting the strikeouts,” Schlittler said, “is a good way to put the team in a position to win.”

Last week, the WNBA established a historic seven-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that will run through 2032, paving the way for astronomical league growth. In what will be marked as one of the biggest breakthroughs in women’s professional sports, the WNBA has proven that league growth, competitive parity and expansion are not mutually exclusive.

MLB, on the other hand, is at a pivotal intersection of balancing competitive parity and league growth. The league is staring down an almost guaranteed lose-lose scenario with the current CBA expiring at the end of this year, and salary floors and potential ceilings are nowhere near agreed upon. If the league and team owners want to preserve as much of the 2027 season as possible, they may want to borrow one distinct element from the WNBA’s CBA: scaled player compensation.

In their recently-ratified CBA, the WNBA raised its salary floors and caps to acknowledge the league’s massive boom in the last five years.

Maximum player salaries may grow to up to $2.4 million, based on financial projections. WNBA players are also guaranteed at least 20% of the league’s gross revenue, replacing the previous revenue-sharing model that required league revenue to exceed a specific threshold before players saw any returns.

The increased player compensation corrects previous underpayments and sets a scalable economic system for future growth and league establishment, tying player salaries directly to league performance. 

MLB’s economic structure differs greatly, as revenue doesn’t automatically scale with league engagement.

For starters, player salaries aren’t tied directly to revenue. Salaries increase through free market competition, with team revenue growth and superstars serving as the main drivers for market rates in free agency and arbitration. MLB players have traditionally made as much as teams wanted to pay them. Mechanisms for limiting salary during a player’s initial six years of team control also cut into potential player profits. Long story short, front offices have a heavy hand in balancing salaries with revenue. 

In turn, revenue sharing isn’t guaranteed for MLB players. Profits from revenue sharing from local markets are distributed to teams, not players. Players are at the mercy of owners to reap what they sow. Adjustments to the revenue-sharing model would likely require players to concede to a salary cap.

The dramatic contrasts between a league intentionally designed to scale with anticipated growth and a league having to backtrack and update its structures to preserve its fan base result in severe economic disparity. Using ESPN’s table of WNBA salaries by CBA year and Spotrac’s minimum and highest AAV MLB salaries by CBA year, I recorded salary changes in each league from 2015 to 2026. The results were astonishing.

The lowest-paid WNBA players will make at least 20% of the salary earned by the highest-paid players, while the lowest-paid MLB players make less than 2% of the salary earned by the highest-paid ballplayers. The millions, that’s right, millions of dollars of pay gap is the crux of the problem. Since international market growth, historic media deals, shifts toward direct-to-consumer streaming, and increases in fan attendance have made MLB an $11.1 billion industry, grave salary disparities among MLB players are unjustifiable. 

If MLB decides to directly tie salaries to league revenue in the next CBA, it could transform the game for the future. Tightening the pay gap between rookies and stars would incentivize winning and stellar performance. Rewarding players for their contributions on the field through direct revenue sharing or salary scaling would introduce invisible pay structures that preserve the traditional free market economic system without letting the rich get richer at the expense of the prospects and young talent that serve as the foundation for baseball’s development.

The story of the Yankees’ 2026 season so far has been all about the pitching. They opened the season with two shutouts, courtesy of Max Fried and Cam Schlittler. The second time through the rotation began on Tuesday night, and Fried continued his good work, once again not allowing a run.

That set the stage for Schlittler’s second start of the season. Much like Fried did, Schlittler followed a similar scrips to his first start of the season. In 6.1 innings, Schlittler allowed no runs on just two hits and no walks, while striking out seven. His rise since his callup last season remains remarkable.

On the offensive side of things, Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt led the way, each homering and driving home all five runs between them. As it turned out, the bullpen made it so that all the runs were needed, as Seattle threatened in the eighth and ninth innings. However, the efforts of Schlittler, Rice, and Goldschmidt proved to be enough as the Yankees took the series in Seattle with a 5-3 win over the Mariners.

The Yankees used a two-out rally to take an early lead in the first. While Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge went down in order, Cody Bellinger managed to keep the inning alive by working a walk. Then, he continued the Yankees’ aggressiveness on the basepaths early on this season, stealing second. That allowed him to score as Rice got one past Josh Naylor and into the right field corner for a RBI double.

George Kirby settled down for Seattle after that, but Schlittler was also dominating in the meantime. Him holding things down allowed the Yankees to eventually build on their lead, thanks to an unexpected source.

While Grisham led off the sixth inning with a walk, Kirby then got the next two outs. Once again though, the Yankees came through with two down. Rice kept the inning alive with a walk of his own, bringing Goldschmidt to the plate. Despite it being 2026 and Kirby being a right-handed pitcher, Goldschmidt managed to do the damage, hitting a three-run shot to increase the lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, Schlittler retired Julio Rodríguez for a third time and was sitting on 79 pitches. At that point, Aaron Boone came out of the dugout and went to the bullpen, going with Fernando Cruz, who ended the inning without issue.

Camilo Doval entered for the eighth inning and got two outs, but also gave up a couple hits. He then walked Brendan Donovan on four pitches, which set up Cal Raleigh as the potential game-tying run. At that point, Boone decided to call on closer David Bednar. Bednar couldn’t fully escape the inning, as Raleigh got him for a two-run single, but he did strike out Rodríguez to keep the lead intact.

Right after that, the Yankees got some helpful insurance. Rice struck again, absolutely obliterating a home run to lead off the top of the ninth.

Bednar remained in for the bottom of the ninth, and did allow another run after giving up hits to Randy Arozarena and Dominic Canzone. Representing the game-tying run, Cole Young then made Bednar work, and eventually took an offering to deep right field. However, it stayed in play and eventually ended up in Judge’s glove for the final out of the game. The victory gave the Yankees a 5-1 record on their west coast swing and two series victories to start the new year.

With that, the Yankees have finally wrapped up their season-opening road trip. After getting tomorrow off, they’ll head to the Bronx for Friday’s home opener against the Marlins. Will Warren will get the start opposite Eury Pérez in that one.

Box score

Project Hail Mary and The Martian by Andy Weir: Brendan Donovan (+.07 WPA)

Artemis by Andy Weir: Julio Rodriguez (-.16 WPA)

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