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Through four rehab games with the Yankees' Double-A Somerset Patriots, shortstop Anthony Volpe has his first multihit performance.

In Sunday's 7-6 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies' Reading Fightin Phils, Volpe's 2-for-4 afternoon started with a first-inning single.

Volpe followed third baseman and top prospect Greg Lombard Jr.'s leadoff home run against Zack Wheeler by sending a 1-0 offering back up the middle.

Anthony Volpe looking comfortable with this smooth single against Zack Wheeler 👀

Volpe now has hits in each of his last three rehab starts. pic.twitter.com/cQjvGIzFpO

— Somerset Patriots (@SOMPatriots) April 19, 2026

After an inning-ending flyout to left field in the third and a one-out lineout to shortstop two frames later, Volpe led off the seventh with a single through the middle against Luke Russo.

Following Volpe's second knock, which had an exit velocity of 104.2 mph, he stole second base.

Through 11 at-bats with Somerset since last Tuesday, Volpe (left shoulder surgery recovery) has four hits -- all singles -- and three strikeouts. He has two stolen bases and one walk.

That's 104.2 mph off the bat for Anthony Volpe! 🔥

He rocks a base hit up the middle for his first multi-hit game of his MLB rehab assignment. pic.twitter.com/Qj2IdYpN6V

— Somerset Patriots (@SOMPatriots) April 19, 2026

The Cleveland Guardians and Baltimore Orioles faced off for the final game of the four game series. With the Guardians up 2-1 on the series, the worst case was a series split. A welcomed change of pace after dropping back-to-back series.

Joey Cantillo took the mound for the Guards and had a rocky start. In the first 9 pitches, he only threw 2 strikes and had two runners on via a single and walk. Austin Hedges visited the mound and Joey locked in for the next 3 innings. Through the fourth inning he drastically improved his strike/pitch rate and kept Baltimore to two base runners.

The defense behind Cantillo looked to start the game in prime form with David Fry making a stellar catch in right field to end the third.

It took the Guardians a few innings to get the offense rolling. In the bottom of the third inning, Austin Hedges reached on a fielding error then went first to third on Brayan Rocchio’s single. Steven Kwan’s sac fly scored Hedgey, putting Cleveland on the board first.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Guards pulled further ahead of the Orioles, building on their lead. José Ramírez hit a first pitch, lead off home run. He punished the 89.8 mph four-seamer, launching it 408ft to the bleachers.

It didn’t stop there, either. David Fry got on base with a single to left. Daniel Schneemann worked a full count and drew a walk after facing eight pitches. Juan Brito doubled, scoring two. Schneemann had a great jump on Brito’s double. The misread by Oriole’s outfielder Blaze Alexander gave Schnee the timing he needed to score.

The final run of the inning came with two outs. Brayan Rocchio slapped a single to left that scored Brito from second base.

Things fell apart for Cantillo and the defense in the top of the fifth. Joey struggled pitching again, giving up a walk and a single before recording the first out. Taylor Ward hit a home run off of Cantillo, bringing the Orioles within two runs of tying. With two outs, Pete Alonso singled and Jonathan Rodríguez walked, putting Cantillo in the same situation for the second time in the inning resulting in his early pull from the game. Vogt turned to Matt Festa to finish out the inning. Matt Festa did his job, getting a hit directly to the second baseman Juan Brito sure to end the inning. Except, Brito committed a throwing error, loading the bases instead. The Baltimore pinch hitter hit up the middle in what should have been the third out, again. And, again, Juan Brito couldn’t flip the ball to Brayan Rocchio in time for the out, resulting in a fielder’s choice that brought Baltimore within one and loaded the bases. Thankfully Steven Kwan was able to nab a fly out to center to finally retire the side. Cantillo finished the day having gone 4.2IP, 5H, 4R/3ER, 6K.

José Ramírez came up to bat in the bottom of the fifth with one out and promptly reminded us fans that he is capable of single handedly changing the flow of a game. José saw a ball, took a strike, and then launched a low changeup to the porch in left field.

His second home run of the game aptly put him in sole possession of second most home runs at home in franchise history.

Peyton Pallette came out in the top of the sixth to pitch for Cleveland. He made two quick outs and was assisted by a great play in left by Angel Martínez to retire the side.

Peyton stayed in, going 1-2-3 in the seventh. Erik Sabrowski came on in the eighth giving up a walk, but then striking out the next three batters. In the bottom of the eighth Rhys Hoskins drew a lead off walk, and with David Fry’s single up the middle and a walk from Daniel Schneemann, they loaded the bases with no outs. Brayan Rocchio delivered with a two-out, two-run single on a liner to center.

Shawn Armstrong closed the game out in a non-save situation. Armstrong and Angel retired the Orioles 1-2-3, with Angel making another great catch in center. The Guardians win the game and win the series. The Houston Astros are coming to town for a three game series starting tomorrow night, in Cleveland.

The Orioles dropped the finale of their four-game series to the Guardians, 8-4, as their offense underachieved again, their defense continued to stink, and their erstwhile ace coughed up six runs and suffered a noticeable velocity dip in his second straight ugly outing.

Other than that, though, it was a great afternoon of baseball.

The first four innings of this game featured the classic combination of terrible 2026 Orioles baseball — offensive futility and defensive shenanigans — along with the unfortunate new wrinkle of a horrendous Trevor Rogers performance. Normally, Trevor Rogers Day is one of celebration, in which fans can take comfort that they’ll at least get a quality outing from the Orioles ace. Today, though, he was sucked into the abyss of ineptitude that’s swallowed up so many of his teammates.

Things started out innocently enough, with Rogers mowing down the first seven batters he faced. But then came the defensive shenanigans I referred to earlier, and Rogers has nobody to blame but himself. On an Austin Hedges grounder to first base, Rogers raced to the bag to receive the feed from Pete Alonso, and then just…ran right past the base. He couldn’t get back before Hedges reached safely, and Cleveland had a gift baserunner on the Rogers error.

The Guardians, of course, took full advantage, because every Orioles defensive misplay is required to lead to at least one run. It’s in the MLB rulebook, look it up. Brayan Rocchio advanced Hedges to third on a single, and Steven Kwan scored him on a sac fly. An inning later, the Guardians made it 2-0 when José Ramírez blasted Rogers for a home run to left, the 290th of his Hall of Fame career. Well, there’s no shame in giving up a dinger to a guy like that, and at least things hadn’t spiraled out of control for Rogers.

…Oh. I spoke too soon. After the home run, Rogers suddenly couldn’t get anyone out. A single and a walk brought up Juan Brito, who lofted a shot to deep center field. It wasn’t an easily catchable ball, but a natural center fielder might’ve had a play on it. Unfortunately, the Orioles’ center fielder on this day was infielder Blaze Alexander, who got himself turned around and had no chance to reach the warning track as the ball fell in safely. Two runs scored on the double. If I could make a humble suggestion to the Orioles: maybe stop playing infielders in the outfield?

Two batters later, Brito scored on a Rocchio RBI single, extending the Cleveland lead to 5-0. It marked the second straight outing in which Rogers allowed four or more runs, something he hadn’t done since May 2024 with the Marlins (somehow he didn’t even do it in his disastrous four-start debut with the Orioles in September 2024). Not only that, but Rogers’ fastball velocity was notably down nearly 3 mph from his average. It’s fine. This is fine. Everything is fine. Rogers gutted through five innings, but coughed up a second Ramírez homer before he left.

As for the Orioles’ offense, well, the majority of the game was the same, sad story we’ve seen this whole series and most of the season. Birds hitters looked completely inept against a cavalcade of Cleveland pitchers, making weak contact — when they made contact at all — and coming up empty in most RBI situations. The O’s put up goose eggs in eight of their nine offensive innings.

The only exception was the top of the fifth, when it briefly looked like the O’s might stage a multi-run comeback like they did in Friday’s win. Starting the inning with a 5-0 deficit, the Orioles put two runners on base for Taylor “Two Bags” Ward, who added an extra two bags in this case, cranking a three-run homer to left field to whittle the deficit to 5-3. At long last, Ward — who homered 36 times for the Angels last year — picked up his first dinger as an Oriole in his 22nd game. He’s been one of the Birds’ best hitters all season, so I wasn’t going to rag on the guy for not homering, but it’s nice to get that first one into the ledger.

The rally continued, thanks to some bad Guardians defense. With two outs, Pete Alonso singled and Johnathan Rodríguez walked, chasing starter Joey Cantillo from the game. Against reliever Matt Festa, Jeremiah Jackson shuffled a grounder to the hole on the right side. The second baseman Brito fielded it cleanly but yanked a wild throw to first, allowing Jackson to reach. The next batter, pinch-hitter Dylan Beavers, rolled a grounder near the second base bag. Again Brito fielded cleanly but again muffed the throw, lobbing too late to the shortstop Rocchio as Jackson slid in safely to second. Beavers had a gift RBI and suddenly it was just a one-run game, 5-4, with the bases loaded and the chance for more damage.

Sadly, Coby Mayo flied out harmlessly, and the Orioles essentially never threatened again. Despite the Birds’ success against the Cleveland bullpen earlier in the series, they had no answer for the Guardians’ relief crew on this day. Rule 5 righty Peyton Pallette painted the strike zone for two perfect innings, followed by a scoreless inning apiece from Erik Sabrowski and ex-Oriole Shawn Armstrong. The Guardians added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth on Rocchio’s two-run single off Cameron Foster.

Before that, at least, Tyler Wells had his best outing of 2026 with two perfect innings, including five strikeouts. It’d be nice if Wells could do that in high-leverage situations, but kudos to him in any case. Tyler’s performance was one of the few highlights in another all-around ugly, lackluster showing by what’s becoming an increasingly uncompetitive Orioles team.

After getting absolutely annihilated in his previous start on Monday in Minnesota to the tune of 11 runs in just 1.2 innings, Garrett Crochet is set to retake the mound today and convince us all that everything will be fine as far as he and his health are concerned.

Unfortunately, he won’t just be battling the Tigers. Mother Nature is once again destined to play a roll in today’s match up, and here’s how the radar looks inside of an hour from first pitch:

The good news is the initial batch of heavier precipitation has moved out and east of Boston, but more unsettled weather still lurks to the west ahead of a slow moving front. That mess will push through eastern Massachusetts over the next several hours, filling in the current dry slot. While this incoming precipitation won’t be as heavy as what fell at times earlier today, it will come attached with colder and windier conditions, so a miserable weather game lies ahead (if they even try and play through it at all — The Yankees did not and waited around for three hours before starting their game against the Royals at 4:20pm). The other option will be to just wait until after sunset when it will be dryer, but still very cold and windy.

When they do get started, today’s lineup includes Roman Anthony leading off in leftfield, Andruw Monasterio at first base, and Jarren Duran, Masataka Yoshida, and Marcelo Mayer all starting on the bench with an opposing left-handed starter on the mound in Framber Valdez for Detroit.

OTM’s own pitching guru Jacob Roy will be around later to handle the postgame wrap and tell us if we should should be freaking out or breathing a sigh a relief when it comes to Crochet.

A sweep on Sunday Night Baseball sounds pretty sweet to me.

The Atlanta Braves will run with their standard lineup opposing RHPs to face Phillies rookie Andrew Painter. Michael Harris II, who came into last night’s game in the seventh once lefty Cristopher Sanchez departed, is back in his usual spot in the nine hole and in center field. Dominic Smith (of the big moments) is penciled in to bat seventh. Does his .362 / 1.040 OPS tear make him one of the best hitters ever designated? Some are saying… but discuss amongst yourselves.

The Phillies are looking to salvage the series.

Catcher JT Realmuto is absent for the finale, dealing with the lower back tightness that caused him to leave the game in the top of the seventh last night.

Instead, we’ll see Brandon Marsh patrol left field and batting fifth, Bryson Stott at second base and batting seventh, backup catcher Rafael Marchán batting eighth, and Justin Crawford batting ninth.

A four game set awaits in the nation’s capitol. But first, the only team to not lose a series yet this season will try for their first sweep against their division rivals in Philly starting at 7:20 pm ET on Peacock. (And thankfully, C.J. Nitkowskiwill be in the booth tonight!)

ICYMI

Preview

Mariners pitcher Bryce Miller made his first start in a competitive game since February 26th yesterday in Tacoma, beginning a rehab assignment that will last through at least the end of May. Miller was on a pitch count/innings limit of around 35 pitches and two innings, and wound up pitching 1.2 innings and throwing 33 pitches, 21 of them for strikes. He gave up three runs on four hits, with a walk and a pair of strikeouts (although one of them came on a batter pitch timer violation).

The most exciting thing about Miller’s outing was the velocity on his fastballs. The first pitch he threw was a 98.1 four-seamer that just nicked the outer edge. He went on to hit 98.7 with the first pitch to his second hitter, missing low, but beating his hardest career pitch—which was 98.3 to George Springer in the ALCS, and which he then followed up with two more fastballs (97.8, 97.9) that were harder than any he’s thrown since 2023.

The positive upward trend continued for Miller’s lone spring training outing, where his velocity was again up, touching 98.4, and it’s a positive sign that he’s been able to carry that through his bullpens during his rehab process and into his first rehab start, where his four-seam averaged 97.1 mph and his sinker average was up to 96.7 on average.

What Miller needs to work on next is making sure he’s still able to hit his spots with that increased velocity; his fastball had a ton of downward action in his outing in Tacoma, but he missed at the bottom of the zone a few times, including a particularly violent spike at 97.8 mph that resulted in a walk.

Beyond his four-seamer, Miller’s most favored pitch in his outing was his slider, which he threw with the new grip he’s learned from Bryan Abreu in Houston. (Don’t be fooled by his slider velocity average on Gameday, which incorrectly labels a 92 mph cutter as a slider.) He missed with it outside some, but also had success when he was able to get it to be “depthy,” something he said he was working on in Arizona.

The bigger breakers – the curve and the splitter – were harder for Miller to corral, and he hung a few, but was still able to get a couple of whiffs on the splitter, and he got a groundout on the curve. Miller threw a handful of cutters, generating weak contact; touted Giants prospect Bryce Eldridge got on top of the pitch and rolled over it for an easy groundout.

When Miller was commanding the bottom of the zone, the River Cats batters were pounding his stuff into the dirt; he gave up one line drive base hit, on a poorly located fastball that was hit hard, but everything else was on the ground, with a couple of hits sneaking through.

For Miller, what he was concerned about in his outing was re-adjusting to the pitch clock after such a long layoff, a challenge made more stringent in working with a less-familiar catcher with his rich pitch mix. Physically, though, he said he felt fine and is looking forward to his next start. Miller’s next rehab start will be Friday in Everett, where he’ll be caught by Mariners prospect Luke Stevenson, marking an exciting challenge for the youngster to catch a big-league arm. For this outing, he’ll try to stretch to three innings, with a pitch cap of 45.