With just 11 games to go in 2026, the Royals will face off against Houston in the second game of their road series tonight. Daniel Lynch is running out of opportunities to prove he deserves to stay in the rotation next season, so he needs to be careful to avoid the Crawford Boxes tonight. Christian Javier will start for the Astros. He is having a tough year but is coming off back-to-back solid starts against the Phillies and Diamondbacks. It will be a pretty standard Royal lineup.
Boston Red Sox @ Texas Rangers
Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 7:05 PM CDT (105.3 The Fan / Rangers Sports Network)
The Shed
LHP Jake Bennett vs. LHP MacKenzie Gore
Go Rangers!
It’s not every day that an NBA star offers to pay a fine levied against a player who wears a helmet and spikes.
Yet, Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving did exactly that Wednesday, Sept. 16, when he offered to pay for Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair’s $11,492 fine for an unauthorized message written on his eye black.
During Houston’s 36-31 loss Sunday, Sept. 13, Al-Shaair had “Hind Rajab” written on his eye black, referring to a Palestinian girl who appeared to have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024, according to The Washington Post.
The NFL has strict rules against personal messages. Per the league’s rulebook, “players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages either in writing or illustration, unless such message has been approved in advance by the League office.”
In a social media post that was responding to the news of Al-Shaair’s discipline, Irving replied, “I’ll take care of his fine.”
I’ll take care of his fine https://t.co/RUo9jXkCFu
— Kyrie🤞🏾 (@KyrieIrving) September 16, 2026
Al-Shaair had previously been fined a similar amount during the 2025 playoffs for writing “STOP THE GENOCIDE” on his eye black, a pro-Palestinian message alluding to the death toll resulting from Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.
Irving has similarly shown solidarity with the pro-Palestinian movement.
In February, at the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, he wore a navy blue T-shirt that read “PRESS” in white letters, in support of Palestinian journalists who have died while covering the conflict.
In the past, Irving has also worn a chain with the Palestinian flag and, in a separate occasion during a post-game press conference, a keffiyeh, which is a headdress worn across the Arab world.
Israel has repeatedly rejected claims of genocide, including during a January 2024 hearing at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, citing “legitimate” self-defense following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kyrie Irving offers to to pay Azeez Al-Shaair's fine for unauthorized message on eye black
Probable pitchers: RHP Chris Bassitt (7-5, 4.88 ERA, 66 Ks) vs. Xzavion Curry (0-0, 3.44 ERA, 12 Ks)
Where to watch: ESPN
After last night’s dramatic win that included Pete Alonso’s 300th career home run, it might be natural to experience an emotional letdown in the next game. The Orioles don’t have that luxury. Tonight’s series finale is the most winnable game in the Orioles’ last 10 of the season, which makes it a must-win if the O’s want to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Taking the mound tonight in Queens for Baltimore is right-hander Chris Bassitt. The 38-year-old enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career with the Mets back in 2022. That season, Bassitt was especially stingy in Citi Field, pitching to a 2.95 ERA in 16 starts while limiting opponents to a .227 average. He’s been just as good in Queens since leaving the Mets, tossing 7.2 shutout innings with the Blue Jays in 2023 and another 6.2 shutout innings against New York in 2025.
Bassitt has been solid for the O’s since returning from the IL a month ago. In 34 innings across six starts, he’s posted a 4.24 ERA while giving up a .281 average. Perhaps more importantly, the Orioles are 4-2 during that stretch. Last time out in Toronto, he pitched to a line of 5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB and 5 Ks in a 7-4 Orioles win.
Opposing Bassitt is journeyman right-hander Xzavion Curry. This will be the 28-year-old’s first start since 2024 with the Guardians. However, the Mets did use him for five innings in relief in a game against the Marlins at the end of July. Curry has also pitched at least two innings in each of his last six major league appearances. He last faced the Orioles in 2024, when he allowed 6 hits and 4 runs over 3 innings in a 7-4 Orioles win.
Kawhi Leonard made his intentions clear.
“I’m not really championship chasing trying to find the best team I could win (with),” Leonard said on the Raptors’ Open Gym YouTube channel.
“I didn’t want to put on a thousand jerseys. The city took a liking to my family, I took a liking to the city. Really enjoyed it. My son was born here and he’s been asking me forever when he’s going to come back.”
The Clippers traded Leonard to the Raptors in June, but the deal was put on hold amid the NBA’s investigation into the Los Angeles organization’s circumvention of salary-cap rules. Now that the league has released its findings and penalties for the Clippers, the trade has been made official.
Leonard, who was fined $700,000 for his involvement in the Clippers’ scandal, is already in Toronto preparing for his second stint with the Raptors. In 2019, the star forward led the organization to an NBA championship and earned his second Finals MVP award.
This time around, Leonard isn’t looking to be Toronto’s clear-cut leader.
“I’m not here to take over anything,” he said. “I’m just here to win. If it’s Scottie’s team, it’s his team.”
The Raptors have already put Leonard’s locker next to that of Scottie Barnes, Toronto’s budding star. Since the NBA opened its investigation of the Clippers, Leonard has said little publicly.
Now that he has moved on to Toronto, Leonard has been quick to express his feelings about returning to the city he once led to an NBA championship.
Astros right-hander Mike Burrows will restart his rehab assignment and pitch three innings for Triple-A Sugar Land this weekend, manager Joe Espada said Wednesday.
On the IL since July 7 due to right elbow neuritis, Burrows was shut down after his third rehab start because of right shoulder inflammation. Espada said Burrows could rejoin the Astros’ pitching staff before the end of the regular season if all goes well.
In his first season with the Astros, Burrows went 4-9 with a 5.99 ERA before landing on the IL.
Left-hander Steven Okert, who has been on the IL since Sept. 1 with a right hamstring strain, has been playing catch. Espada said Okert has a doctor’s appointment Thursday that will determine his next steps.
Okert has a 2.13 ERA over 68 appearances and has been one of Espada’s most trusted bullpen arms.
On Thursday, the Philadelphia Flyers will kick off their on-ice portion of their 2026 training camp, and with a shorter overall camp and preseason this year, the roster battles and jostling for ice time will be as fierce as ever.
But, before anywhere, we have to establish the present to give context to the future. After all, the NHL roster is already looking considerably different than it did this time last year.
Rookies Porter Martone, Alex Bump, and Denver Barkey are all primed to stick out of the gate this year, while players like Noah Juulsen, Egor Zamula, Sam Ersson, Garnet Hathaway, Nick Deslauriers, Rodrigo Abols, and Bobby Brink are all out of the picture entirely.
Until we see how things stack up, it'll be nearly impossible to predict how the Flyers will line up and who will play with who, which is why an assessment of the overall depth chart will be our most useful tool in the meantime.
As a reminder, these aren't line combinations or predictions, but more of a representation of a given player's role and usage in the lineup.
Forwards
Tyson Foerster - Trevor Zegras - Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett - Christian Dvorak - Matvei Michkov
Denver Barkey - Noah Cates - Porter Martone
Nikita Grebenkin (inj.) - Sean Couturier - Noel Acciari
Alex Bump - Jett Luchanko - Carl Grundstrom
Zach Aston-Reese - Jacob Gaucher - Danila Klimovich
Nolan Foote - Jack Studnicka - Cole Knuble
Noah Powell - Riley Thompson - Devin Kaplan
Rationale
The placements of players like Matvei Michkov, Martone, Barkey, and Bump is going to depend largely on how head coach Rick Tocchet wants to deploy them.
If Michkov is really in much better shape than he was this time last year, he should be squarely ahead of the less experienced Martone.
Barkey and Nikita Grebenkin, who is currently dealing with a setback, have skills that lend themselves better to a bottom-six role than what Bump has, though I expect all three to make the NHL roster.
The Flyers only want Jett Luchanko in the lineup if he's going to play and one of the 12 best forwards on the team, but in the event of injury (particularly long-term), he should be the first man up for them.
Cole Knuble has been impressive throughout rookie camp, but some of the journeymen are going to be ahead of him in the pecking order for now having considerably more NHL and AHL experience.
With their penalty-killing skills, I expect Tyson Foerster and Travis Konecny to be the two wingers deployed the most, with Trevor Zegras reprising his role as the go-to guy for this Flyers team.
Defense
Travis Sanheim - Jamie Drysdale
Cam York - Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler - David Jiricek
Simon Benoit - Oliver Bonk
Ty Murchison - Helge Grans
Hunter McDonald - Cam Dineen
Jackson Edward - Spencer Gill
Rationale
When it comes down to it, defense should be the most polarizing group on the Flyers' roster. Although trade rumors persist and on an expiring contract, Rasmus Ristolainen remains with the Flyers, while Jamie Drysdale continues to trend towards becoming one of the better two-way defenders in the NHL.
Cam York is a fine second-pair guy, and everything after those four is a bit murky.
Veteran Nick Seeler regressed last year and turned 33 years old three months ago, while David Jiricek, still just 22 years old, must prove himself at the NHL level or risk being exposed to waivers for the first time in his young career.
Newcomer Simon Benoit is the likeliest to take up Juulsen's mantle as the meat-and-potatoes No. 7 guy, though Flyers GM Danny Briere left the door open to carrying eight defenders when doing his press conference on Tuesday.
That means opportunity for someone like Ty Murchison, who could very well grow into an option superior to Benoit or Seeler at a lower price, or Oliver Bonk, who has continued to impress after earning an NHL debut and Stanley Cup playoff debut late last season.
For now, Hunter McDonald and Helge Grans remain on the outside looking in, though they could jump up the depth chart quickly with tidy preseason performances. The numbers game just doesn't work in their favor, and especially not for Grans.
I could see McDonald and Murchison replacing Seeler and Benoit by season's end, particularly if the Flyers are sellers at the trade deadline.
You all know how much I like Spencer Gill, but with the considerable amount of time he's missed due to injury since being drafted in 2024, I think the Flyers are committed to letting him spend the full year in the AHL to gain experience and continue developing.
The NHL's most famous beard is gone.
Well, not gone but trimmed to respectability.
Brent Burns, the 41-year-old defenseman who's entering his 23rd season in the NHL, showed up at the Colorado Avalanche's training camp on Wednesday, Sept. 16, with a different look.
Gone is the long hair and long bushy beard. It's replaced by a trimmed look that makes him appear younger. His gap-toothed look is gone, too.
The facial hair had been legendary and Burns embraced it by wearing a Chewbacca mask at the 2016 NHL All-Star Game skills competition in Nashville.
Here is how Burns looks this week, plus how he looked last season:
Fresh look for Brent Burns heading into this season 👀 pic.twitter.com/Tkrp11ySvh
— Bailey Curtis (@baileyycurtis) September 16, 2026
Hey, things change.
Even Joe Thornton shaved the NHL's second-best beard once.
Burns is entering an important season after he signed a one-year deal to give him a second season with the Avalanche.
He's still seeking his first Stanley Cup and the Avalanche will be among the favorites again this season.
He has skated in 1,007 consecutive games and needs 58 games this season to top Phil Kessel's ironman record.
Burns, who hasn't missed a game since 2013-14, averaged nearly 19 minutes a game and scored 12 goals and 35 points last season.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brent Burns' famed beard has a different look this season
Andrew Abbott looks to get back on track before the season ends as the Cincinnati Reds play host to two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and the Los Angeles Dodgers once again.
First pitch is set for 6:40 PM ET. Here’s how both clubs will line up to start:
Tigers 1 Blue Jays 5
Nice to win one again.
We got a great start from Max Scherzer. Five innings, gave up a run in the first on a double (well, a pop-up that no one got under) and a single, but allowed only one more hit the rest of the way and added three more strikeouts to his all-time total (now 9543, 11 short of Jason Verlander). I don’t know if he can get that many before the season ends.
Offensively, we did nothing until the fourth inning: Kazuma Okamoto walked to start it. Josh Smith doubled (hard to believe we got him for Adam Macko, giving us runners on second and third. Ernie Clement hit a sac fly to tie the game. And Myles Straw lined a hard single to left for the game-winning run.
Myles was caught stealing after that, with two outs, not a bad idea. That gave Brett Bateman a fresh count to start the next inning. On the other hand, Bateman has been very hot, and the catcher is very good at throwing out stealers; maybe let him hit?
But we got one more in the fourth, so it all worked out. Bateman singled. Nathan Lukes moved him to second with a bunt and beat it out. Vlad ground out, giving us runners on the corners. And George Springer singled Bateman home.
And a mess of Tiger errors got us two more runs in the fifth. Three errors, including two consecutive errors by SS John Peck (two of them on one play: a booted ball and then a throwing error). Nathan Lukes got an RBI.
We had nine hits, but only one extra-base hit: a Smith double. Bateman (at the top of the order) and Straw (at the bottom) each had two hits.
The bullpen did the job too:
Valenzuela wasted a challenge in the first inning, on a 1-1 pitch, which caused trouble later when Springer wanted to challenge a pitch and quickly decided not to, in case he used our last challenge. After George struck out, he watched it on an iPad and was angry that he didn’t challenge.
I don’t know that it was a needed win for the Jays, but it was a needed win for me.
Jays of the Day: Scherzer (0.16 WPA), Straw (0.15, who didn’t look pleased that Vlad poured water in his cleats) and Smith (0.10). And let’s give an honourable mention to Varland.
Other Award: No one.
Tomorrow is an off-day. Yay. And then the Jays head to the Heart of Texas (stomp stomp) to play the Rangers for three games.
In a little over a month, the Lakers’ torch will officially be passed to Luka Doncic.
It’s impossibly heavy, bearing the weight of 17 championships.
It’s impossibly unforgiving, putting its holder under an unforgiving microscope.
It’s impossibly fickle, transforming whomever’s carrying it into a hero or a failure with every polarizing dribble or shot they take.
The good news?
He was raised by hostile crowds of nearly 20,000 screaming fans while playing for Real Madrid from the ripe ages of 13 to 19 years old.
He was tested by the Dallas Mavericks, with whom he was selected as the third overall pick in the 2018 draft and transformed into a top-four player in the league, leading the franchise to the 2024 NBA Finals.
He was sharpened by the shock, betrayal and humiliation of the Mavericks pulling the rug from under him, making the virtually unheard of decision to trade a superstar of his caliber in his mid-20s to the Lakers in February 2025.
He was vindicated by a revenge tour that included getting in arguably the best shape of his career last summer ahead of leading the league in points (33.5) and finishing third in assists (8.3) last season.
Now the stakes are even higher.
Even though the Lakers have technically been his team for the last season and a half, he always had a shield. It was in the form of LeBron James, who has been the face of the league for two decades and is arguably the greatest player of all-time.
Doncic was the brightest star. But James was a supernova.
When the Lakers struggled, fingers pointed at the 41-year-old, who has dominated news cycles long enough for fathers and sons to cycle through the league.
Doncic no longer has protection.
After eight seasons with the Lakers, James left in free agency for the Philadelphia 76ers. That means Doncic will be standing alone under one of the brightest and most unforgiving spotlights in sports.
He spent the summer readying himself for that responsibility.
He hand-selected his teammates.
Doncic wanted Austin Reaves to remain by his side. The Lakers signed him to a four-year, $180 million extension, the richest contract in NBA history for a player who went undrafted.
He wanted Walker Kessler to be his partner down low. The Lakers mortgaged their future to get him, emptying their cupboard by signing him to a four-year, $130 million deal, including giving the Utah Jazz unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 and first-round swaps in 2028 and 2030. (The Lakers don’t have a tradeable, unencumbered first-round pick until 2034.)
Doncic made it clear he’s all in, too.
For the first time in his career, he paid for the entire Lakers roster to come to Slovenia so he could host a mini camp to build team chemistry.
He’s foaming at the mouth to win his first championship. That was never more obvious than last March when he put up video game stats, averaging 37.5 points, eight rebounds and 7.4 assists, leaving the league blinking in disbelief as the Lakers tornadoed to a 15-2 record over that stretch.
He desperately wants to win his first MVP Award. That was never more obvious than when his face was streaked with pain while talking about how he fell in the NBA’s MVP rankings despite his superhuman performance last spring.
“The better I play, the more I go down in ratings,” Doncic said in March. “So I don’t know what more I can do.”
Well, make no mistake about it: That slight lit another fire under him. It’s dangerous, considering he has been smoldering since the trade.
Doncic is ready to explode.
And he has the perfect conditions to do it.
He’s playing for one of the most celebrated franchises in sports. He’s next in line behind a who’s who of household names, including Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and James.
He’s used to the pressure, having experienced it from raucous crowds since he was a teenager. He responded by becoming the youngest player to win the EuroLeague MVP Award at age 19, while also carrying his team to a championship.
Over the last two seasons, he has been insulted. He has been embarrassed. He has been overlooked.
Now he wants to make his detractors pay.
We watched Bryant thrive under those conditions, becoming a five-time champion with the Lakers. We also watched Bryant see something in Doncic when he playfully trash-talked him in Slovenian during a Lakers game in 2019.
That moment seems prophetic now.
Bryant was the last Laker who really excited a city inured to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the back-to-back world championship Dodgers and enough sunshine to keep people away from their televisions and arenas.
Unlike James, who had won three championships before joining the Lakers in free agency in 2018, Bryant became a champion in front of our eyes.
Doncic has the opportunity to do the same thing.
He can become LA’s next superhero.
Or he can fade into being an embarrassing footnote.
It’s up to him.
And he appears ready.
TV: NESN
First Pitch: 8:05 p.m. ET
The Red Sox have cut their magic number for a postseason spot to five despite losing the first of three games in Texas on Tuesday night. Boston looks to take another step closer to October. The ballclub will do so with Jake Bennett on the mound, who struggled with six earned runs last time out during the overall disappointing series against the Angels.
Here’s who the Red Sox will send to the plate behind him Wednesday evening at Globe Life Field.
The Rangers counter with lefty Mackenzie Gore, who has allowed nine earned runs in just seven innings over his last two starts.
Before yesterday’s game with the Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros manager Joe Espada told the media that 3B Carlos Correa would not be returning to the team this season.
This came as a bit of a surprise, considering the amount of information and conversation coming from the Astros and from Correa directly as he ramped up his rehab to make a return this season. Correa had been very transparent about wanting to return, and working hard to rejoin his teammates. The Astros had weekly updates on Correa’s progress and he recently was doing baseball activities in Florida to get ready for a rehab assignment this week with the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys.
Correa was set to meet with doctors earlier this week before going out for the Space Cowboys final week of the season. Apparently it didn’t even get that far.
Today, the Astros revealed why Correa’s attempts to rejoin the team were thwarted. From the Astros:
IF Carlos Correa (lt. ankle tendon injury) will not return to the active roster in 2026. Correa spent last week rehabbing at the Astros Florida complex and during the ramp-up process he experienced soreness in his surgically repaired ankle. He will return to Houston this week to be medically re-evaluated.
There is always a chance of setbacks during rehab, and unfortunately, Correa’s ankle just didn’t respond well enough to his ramping up baseball activity in preparation for a rehab assignment.
The San Jose Sharks are set to kick off their 2026 Training Camp on Thursday, and ahead of the annual event they announced which players have been invited to participate.
There are 28 forwards set to attend this fall's training camp. While the NHL regulars like Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, and Tyler Toffoli will be there, quite a few players expected to play for the San Jose Barracuda will also attend.
Forwards:
Alex Barre-Boulet
Filip Bystedt
Ethan Cardwell
Macklin Celebrini
Igor Chernyshov
Ty Dellandrea
Tye Felhaber
Andre Gasseau
Adam Gaudette
Patrick Giles
Barclay Goodrow
Collin Graf
Jake Gustafson
Donavan Houle
Jimmy Huntington
Brett Leason
Cam Lund
Mason Marchment
Michael Misa
Quentin Musty
Zack Ostapchuk
Kiefer Sherwood
Will Smith
Ivar Stenberg
Tyler Toffoli
Anthony Vincent
Alexander Wennberg
Carson Wetsch
There are also 15 defensemen and five goaltenders set to participate in this year's training camp.
Defensemen:
Nolan Allan
Luca Cagnoni
Sam Dickinson
Libor Hajek
Mattias Havelid
Alexander Karmanov
Michael Kesselring
Roland McKeown
Darnell Nurse
Mack Oliphant
Dmitry Orlov
Eric Pohlkamp
Leo Sahlin-Wallenius
Phillip Sinn
Jacob Trouba
Goaltenders:
Yaroslav Askarov
Eric Comrie
Matt Davis
Brady Knowling
Alex Nedeljkovic
Interestingly, recently signed netminder Ilya Samsonov will not be attending training camp.
Blake Snell faces Andrew Abbot as the Dodgers look to make it three consecutive wins against the Cincinnati Reds.
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