Worldwide Sports News

The Houston Astros will play the first of two exhibition games against their Triple-A team, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys today.

RHP Tatsuya Imai will get the start tonight for the Astros in his final tune-up before the season opposite LHP Colton Gordon and the Space Cowboys.

TONIGHT’S ASTROS STARTER: RHP Tatsuya Imai is back on the mound after last pitching in an intrasquad simulated game on March 17 at the Astros Spring Training complex in West Palm Beach, FL.

Imai has been stellar in his three official Spring Training appearances, working a combined 6.0 scoreless innings…in January, the Astros signed Imai to a three-year deal.

In 2025, he was an All Star for the Seibu Lions in the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB), where he went 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA (35ER/163.2IP) in 24 games.

TONIGHT’S SPACE COWBOYS STARTER: LHP Colton Gordon, who was optioned to minor league camp on March 5, is coming off a productive rookie season with the Astros, in which he recorded a 5.34 ERA (51ER/86IP) in 20 games, including 14 starts.

Gordon entered the 2025 season as one of the Astros top pitching prospects and finished the 2025 season with the third most starts in the Astros rotation.

Among AL rookies in 2025, he ranked first in walks per nine innings (1.99) and first in strikeoutto-walk ratio (3.79).

YESTERDAY’S ROSTER MOVES: Prior to yesterday’s game, the Astros informed four players that they would not make the Astros Opening Day roster in IF/OF Cavan Biggio, RHP Peter Lambert, C Carlos Pérez and OF Taylor Trammell.

ASTROS RADIO: Tonight’s game can be heard on the radio on KTRH 740 AM with Space Cowboys broadcasters Garrett Green and Gerald Sanchez joined on air with Astros pre- and postgame analyst Brian Bogusevic. The trio will also call tomorrow night’s game before giving way to the popular duo of Robert Ford (play-by-play) and Steve Sparks (color) on Opening Day.

ON THE TUBE: Tonight’s game will not be televised, but the Astros will be back on the air tomorrow night on Space City Home Network. SCHN will also televise the Astros Opening Day matchup vs. LAA.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Monday, March 23, 7:10 p.m. CST

Location: Daikin Park, Houston, TX.

TV: none.

Streaming: none.

Radio: KTRH 740AM

I-45 on the mound.

⚾️: 7:10pm
🏟️: OPEN ROOF
📺: none
🎙️: 740AM#ChaseTheFight x @PalmBeachesFLpic.twitter.com/IXF8bYx8iB

— Houston Astros (@astros) March 23, 2026

Here at dad's house 🤘

⚾️: 7:10 PM pic.twitter.com/a0zHYeqZoR

— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) March 23, 2026

The 2026 Major League Baseball season begins in about 48 hours and, for reasons still unbeknownst to me, the San Francisco Giants have drawn the opening assignment. A brand new season, full of brand new baseball, kicks off on Wednesday at Oracle Park, with the Giants hosting the New York Yankees, while the rest of the baseball world tunes in, eagerly awaiting their turn on Thursday (when the Giants get the alway-annoying Day 2 off day).

You know what to do. This isn’t your first rodeo, unless it is, in which case, hello and welcome, we hope you enjoy your first date with baseball.

But in case you’ve forgotten — last Opening Day was a year ago, according to my calendar — well, here’s a refresher. Here’s 10 things you need to do before yet another season of baseball begins.

1. Stock up on beer and snacks

The older I get, the more I find myself gravitating to baseball over other sports. I only recently realized one of the main reasons: what sport has such a strong relationship with food?

You can’t go to the ballpark and not get a large, cold, overpriced beer, unless you don’t like beer, in which case you can’t go to the ballpark and not get a large, cold, overpriced margarita, unless you don’t drink, in which case you can’t go to the ballpark and not get a large, cold, overpriced lemonade. Or a water, I guess.

Cracker Jack? Baseball food. Garlic fries? Baseball food. Hot dogs? Baseball food. Dippin’ Dots, peanuts, frozen lemonade, cotton candy, gloopy nachos, and sunflower seeds? Baseball foods.

Most of us don’t make it to the ballpark often, for which our tailbones are appreciative. But over the years, I’ve learned that the couch experience of baseball-watching is greatly amplified by ensuring that baseball foods are exactly that: baseball foods, not ballpark foods.

And if you don’t eat baseball foods on Opening Day, when will you?

So my fridge is full of beer and hot dogs, and my pantry’s got enough sunflower seeds to ensure that my sodium levels stay delightfully in the red. Please join me.

2. Read Alex Pavlovic’s book

There’s still time to get and read Alex Pavlovic’s book, at least if you live in the Bay Area. Most bookstores within 50 miles of the ballpark should carry The Franchise: San Francisco Giants: A Curated History of the Orange and Black, and it’s a quick read. You can go get it tonight, read it tomorrow, and be ready to go on Wednesday.

Don’t let the double-colon insisted by the publisher trick you into thinking Pavs wrote anything other than a stellar book. I’ll be honest: I’m normally not a fan of this popular style of sports book, where writers are tasked with distilling a team into 20-something medium-length chapters. But Pavlovic wrote the best one I’ve read yet. While most of the books in this ilk are overly-formulaic, and read like someone curated 25 of the author’s articles from over the years, that’s emphatically not the case with this one. Pavs put in the work with countless interviews, and the result is that the book is filled with information that isn’t available elsewhere, and stories that haven’t been told.

If you haven’t read it yet, read it. You’ll have a good time, you’ll remember some great times, and you’ll learn a whole lot.

3. Check your subscriptions

Yes, it’s true: the streaming era has fully reached baseball, with countless “exclusive” options branching from the sport like snakes from Medusa’s head. Opening Day, as you’ve surely heard, is on Netflix, making it easier than ever to watch Love is Blind during commercial breaks. Saturday’s game eschews the local broadcast as well, going straight to FOX. Sometime next month, you’ll have to subscribe to Apple TV to watch the Giants play the Baltimore Orioles … while you’re there, I suggest binging Severance, unless the state of the world is bringing you down, in which case I recommend Ted Lasso.

What you shouldn’t do, is what I have a knack for doing with my accounts: waiting until 30 seconds before game time to make sure you’re logged in, and missing the first inning as you try to use your phone to send a code to your computer to let you in on your TV.

Technology, baby. Life’s never been more convenient.

You don’t just need to log in to Netflix and whatever platform you use for NBC Sports Bay Area broadcasts. Now’s also the time to check your written subscriptions, so you can digest as much Giants baseball as you’d like. I’m begrudgingly reporting that Vox Media still won’t allow me to take your money, so McCovey Chronicles will remain free to you. But we only cover so much: if you want reports from behind the scenes and the locker room, you’ll need to subscribe to Susan Slusser and Shayna Rubin at the San Francisco Chronicle, or Andrew Baggarly and Grant Brisbee (who?) at The Athletic, or Justice delos Santos at the Mercury News, or Kerry Crowley at the SF Standard.

Want to follow the Minor Leagues closely? You’ll needRoger Munter’s newsletter, which is second-to-none in Giants prospecting … or Baseball America and/or Baseball Prospectus if you want to follow prospects beyond those in Sacramento, Richmond, Eugene, San Jose, Papago, and Boca Chica. And if you want in-depth analytics and breakdowns, you’ll surely run through your monthly dose of free articles at Fangraphs.

If you’ve got a lot of money to spend and want to ingest as much Giants content as possible, you could easily spend triple digits monthly on subscriptions. Each one is well worth it, though you’ll probably want to pick and choose.

Also, if you’ve got a lot of money to spend, shoot me an email. I just want to talk. Got some questions.

4. Catch up on old friends

Sure, the Giants are your team, but we always end up watching extra baseball. And the best baseball, other than Giants baseball, is old friends baseball. Which means now is the time to see where those old friends are, so you can follow them this year.

Kyle Harrison is starting the year in the Milwaukee Brewers’ rotation. Mike Yastrzemski had a first Spring Training with the Atlanta Braves that would make Barry Bonds drool (seriously: he hit .400/.526/.900). Mason Black pitched well for the Kansas City Royals, though he’s beginning the year in AAA. Marco Luciano has been knocked down to AA for the New York Yankees. Wilmer Flores is headed to Mexico.

There are many, many others. We all have the players we’ve grown attached to over the years, even though they ultimately left. So see how they’re doing and where they are, so you can follow them.

Speaking of which…

5. Pick a second team

Having a second team is a rite of passage in baseball. If you don’t have a second team, who are you going to watch at night when the Giants play during the day? Who are you going to watch on Thursday and Sunday, when the Giants inexplicably don’t play? How can you be expected to survive on 162 games instead of 324?

My second team is the Houston Astros, because love makes you do things you previously thought were inconceivable. But if I’m recommending a second team to you, might I suggest the Seattle Mariners? They’re a fellow west coast squad, making them easier to follow. They have one of the most joyful players in baseball in Julio Rodríguez. They have a brewing intrasquad feud from the World Baseball Classic. Their best player is an MVP candidate with a nickname formed entirely due to his fat ass. They’ll likely make three or more trades with the Giants over the next 12 months.

But we all must choose our own journey, so pick the second team that makes sense to you. There are no wrong answers.

Except the Los Angeles Dodgers. That is emphatically a wrong answer.

6. Make sure your hat fits

Look, this one is very simple. You might be watching Opening Day from your couch, but you still need your gear. Hats have a way of magically changing size. Sometimes your head does a bit of Bruce Bochy wizardry and gets bigger. Sometimes you cut your hair and your size shrinks.

You can’t watch the first game without your memorabilia. Make sure your hat fits. Make sure your shirt is at the front of your closet. Make sure your lucky underwear is clean. I shouldn’t have to explain this to you.

7. Catch up on your lingo

Baseball has become a great sport for math nerds and linguistic nerds alike. There are acronyms and initialisms and phrases galore. If the future follows the recent past, you’ll hear some, like OPS (on-base plus slugging) and WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), on the broadcast. You’ll hear a lot more, like FIP (fielding independent pitching), IVB (induced vertical break), and WAR (wins above replacement), on the radio and the podcasts. You’ll get deeper still, with things like wRC+ (weighted runs created plus), xwOBA (expected weighted on base average), and TOOTBLAN (thrown out on the bases like a nincompoop) in these articles, and with the ever-present FYMM (f*** you, Max Muncy) in the comment section. You’ll venture into territory I can’t even prepare you for if you geek out at Fangraphs.

No time like the present to get caught up on your lingo. Unless you don’t want to, in which case a well timed YOU SUCK when sitting in the bleachers still works wonders.

8. Familiarize yourself with the roster

Spring Training is a joyous time, but everyone utilizes it differently. Obsessing over the minutiae of the roster isn’t for everyone. There are plenty of you reading this who don’t have a great idea as to who will be on the Opening Day roster, and that’s completely fine. We all fan differently. Again: there’s no wrong way. Except rooting for the Dodgers.

Fangraphs has a great tool called RosterResource that you can look through to get a feel for the team’s depth chart, and familiarize yourself with the names you’ll see on Wednesday … and in April, May, and June. Get to know your guys: they’re about to break your heart, after all.

9. Make some bold predictions

Now is the time for bold predictions: we’re late enough into spring that they carry meaning, but early enough that they can easily be forgotten. Which means you can go wild. Making bold predictions in late March is like buying scratch-off tickets with someone else’s credit card: you get to enjoy the spoils of victory should things break your way, with no cost for the far-more-numerous defeats.

Head to the comment section, or to social media, or call your friends, and tell them your bold predictions for the season. If you predict that Patrick Bailey hits 20 home runs, the Giants win the World Series, and Casey Schmitt reinvents himself as an All-Star closer, you’ll look like a genius if PB somehow puts 20 balls over the fence, and no one will remember anything you said if the Giants win 70 games and Schmitt continues along as an infielder.

All glory, no accountability. Have at it.

10. Go toss a baseball around

This reads like the baseball equivalent of telling you to touch grass, but I really mean it. If you’ve got a ball, a mitt, and a friend, family member, or neighbor, go toss a ball around. Stand in the sun. Smell the grass. Take some Advil when your shoulder flares up after throwing 20 heaters at 45 mph. You’re not as young as you used to be. Don’t worry; I’m not either.

Baseball’s back. Enjoy it.

With the Yankees already heading out west for the opening series of the regular season against the Giants, they decided to make a little pit stop along the way. On Monday, the Yankees were in Arizona to end their spring season, stopping for a pair of games against the Cubs.

As for the opener of those two games, well, at least this one didn’t count (and wasn’t televised). Starting pitching prospect Carlos Lagrange and pretty much everyone else the Yankees threw on the mound had a less-than-stellar day, as Chicago piled on the runs. The final tally ended up being a 15-6 Yankees loss.

The game actually started on a decent note, as the Yankees scored first. In the top of the first inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a two-out single to score Paul Goldschmidt, who had led off the game with a walk. In the bottom of the first, Lagrange allowed two singles to the first two Cubs hitters, but then got Alex Bregman to ground into a double play. While he was on the verge of escaping, Lagrange then allowed a walk to Ian Happ and then another single to Carson Kelly to tie things up. That started a very long day for the Yankees’ pitching staff.

The Cubs really got to Lagrange a couple innings later. After Nico Hoerner led off the inning with a single, Michael Busch and Bregman hit back-to-back homers. Following another hit from Kelly, Lagrange was replaced by Will Brian. Before Brian eventually got out of the inning, he allowed a three-run shot of his own to Matt Shaw.

As it’s still essentially spring training and things are a bit looser, the Yankees did bring back Lagrange for the fourth inning, but Chicago picked up another couple runs, which ended up on his final statline.

Lagrange’s final line ended up being eight runs allowed on nine hits and two walks in 2.2 innings. He did strike out four batters, and his overall spring was impressive enough that we’ll write this off as a bad day against a good MLB lineup. There’s a reason why he’s not yet a finished product, for as tantalizing as his stuff can be at his best.

After giving up 10 unanswered runs, the Yankees finally go one back in the fifth. With Paul Goldschmidt on third after a double and an Aaron Judge single, Cody Bellinger got one in the air, allowing Goldschmidt to tag up and score.

This was just not a day for the Yankees pitchers in general. In the sixth, Cade Winquest and Yerry De los Santos combined to allow another five runs in the sixth. The Cubs didn’t even kick the extra point, they went for two and got to 15 runs on the day.

One good thing did happen before the end of the game, though. Spencer Jones hit his fifth and sixth home runs of the spring, coming off a pair of MLB relievers in Phil Maton and Jacob Webb. Jones did help lead a brief rally in the ninth, but that did come up way short.

Eventually, Kervin Castro and Osvaldo Bido came in and put in some good efforts, making the day not a complete waste on the pitching front. The good news about the pitching situation is that no one of importance right now — Lagrange is obviously somewhat important, just not to the MLB team yet — pitched in this won. The likes of Winquest and De los Santos could end up on the roster, but they’re not going to be relied on for big innings at the moment.

The Yankees will wrap up their 2026 spring slate tomorrow with another game against the Cubs in Arizona. Gerrit Cole is scheduled to get the start in that one, with first pitch coming at 3:05 pm ET.

Box Score

Real baseball is so close that it’s back in our home ballpark. The big league Brewers are back in Milwaukee, set to take part in the first of two final tune-ups against the Cincinnati Reds at American Family Field (the big one).

As far as newsy items today, the Brewers confirmed who will start in each of their first six games, giving us a clear picture of what the rotation will look like to begin the season. Before today, the question still remained whether Kyle Harrison, who has been dealing with a blister, or Brandon Woodruff, who is being treated cautiously after finishing last season with a lat injury, would be healthy enough to start the season with the team. Today, we got that answer: yes, Harrison and Woodruff are scheduled to start the fourth and fifth games of the season, respectively. They’ll follow Jacob Misiorowski, Chad Patrick, and Brandon Sproat, who will start the games in the White Sox series to open the year.

Also, yesterday’s announced optioning of Shane Drohan and Robert Gasser and the impending injured-list designations for Quinn Priester, Rob Zastryzny, Craig Yoho, and Akil Baddoo mean that the Brewers’ Opening Day roster is essentially finalized, barring an unexpected injury between now and Thursday afternoon. (It has happened before! Knock on the nearest wooden object.) A quick rundown, with more analysis later this week:

Catchers: William Contreras and Gary Sánchez

Infielders: Andrew Vaughn, Jake Bauers, Brice Turang, Joey Ortiz, Luis Rengifo, David Hamilton

Outfielders/DH: Sal Frelick, Jackson Chourio, Brandon Lockridge, Garrett Mitchell, Christian Yelich

Starters: Misiorowski, Patrick, Sproat, Harrison, Woodruff

Relievers: Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby, Jared Koenig, Ángel Zerpa, DL Hall, Grant Anderson, Easton McGee

As for tonight’s game, the Brewers are fielding a strong lineup — not unexpected, given that I assume most of the minor leaguers stayed behind or traveled elsewhere — a lefty-heavy group which could be a preview of the lineup they’ll use Thursday against Chicago’s Shane Smith. (If that’s the case, it looks like we might be in for more platooning between Ortiz and Hamilton than we may have expected.)

Defensively, though, there’s one curious note that I would not expect to see on Thursday, and that’s Christian Yelich in left field and Jackson Chourio as the designated hitter.

On the mound, it looks to be a big “final tune-up” day for a bunch of the guys in the Brewers’ bullpen: Aaron Ashby is scheduled to start, but all of McGee, Hall, Anderson, Koenig, Uribe, Zerpa, and Megill are listed as scheduled to pitch after Ashby. For those keeping track at home, that’s all eight of the roster’s projected relievers.

Brady Singer will start on the mound for Cincinnati. Speaking of odd DH decisions, Ke’Bryan Hayes — one of the league’s best defensive players and worst hitters — is the designated hitter for the Reds tonight. It might be in Milwaukee, but it’s still spring training.

First pitch at 6:40 p.m. No TV tonight, unfortunately; catch the game on the radio.

American Family Field 📍

📻: ESPN Milwaukee#ThisIsMyCrewpic.twitter.com/RhzlE8qbiK

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) March 23, 2026

Couple days of exhibition games in Milwaukee! pic.twitter.com/LmIvbnkFXw

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) March 23, 2026

The 2026 Dodgers are already setting records, even before the first official pitch of the season.

According to the ticket site TickPick, prices for the team’s Opening Day game on Thursday against the Arizona Diamondbacks are hitting record highs, with an average purchase price of $392 on the resale market.

That marks the highest price for an MLB home-opener on record, according to TickPick.

It is also the most expensive price ever for a regular-season game played at an MLB ballpark.

The only game in league history that featured a higher average ticket price was the “Field of Dreams” game in 2022 between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds, but that was played before a capacity of less than 8,000 fans at the iconic Iowa cornfield used in the movie of the same name.

Tickets for this year’s home-opener, in which the Dodgers will raise a banner for their 2025 World Series championship during a pregame ceremony, are also 55% more expensive than the team’s home-opener a season ago, when they celebrated their 2024 championship.

The “get-in” price for the game is currently $196, as well, far surpassing the next most expensive home-opener for this season ($119 for when the San Francisco Giants host the New York Yankees on Wednesday).

Thursday will kick off a weekend-long celebration of the Dodgers’ 2025 title.

On Friday, there will be another pregame ceremony in which members of last year’s team are awarded their World Series rings. 

The games will also feature the unveiling of the Dodgers’ new presenting field sponsor, Uniqlo. The team has a press conference scheduled for Wednesday to officially announce the partnership, which is expected to include the renaming of the stadium’s playing surface as “Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium.”

The Cubs met the Yankees in an Arizona spring game for the first time in 75 years and left the visitors wishing they hadn’t bothered.

In front of a full house at Sloan Park that included many Yankees fans, the Cubs exploded with three home runs in an 18-hit attack that defeated the visitors 15-6.

The Yankees scored first, off Shōta Imanaga in the first inning, though Imanaga struck out both Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger.

The Cubs matched that in the first. Nico Hoerner and Michael Busch led off with singles, but Alex Bregman hit into a double play with Hoerner taking third. But after that, Ian Happ walked and Carson Kelly singled in Nico.

The Cubs exploded with six runs in the third. Hoerner led off with a single and Busch followed with a home run, his first of the spring. Three pitches later, Bregman homered, his third. One out later, Carson Kelly doubled and went to third on a single by Michael Conforto. Dansby Swanson struck out, but Matt Shaw followed that with a three-run homer, giving the Cubs a 7-1 lead.

Three more Cubs runs crossed the plate in the fourth. Nico singled and went to second on a ground out by Busch. Bregman doubled in Nico to make it 8-1, then Happ walked. After Kelly struck out, Conforto tripled in a pair of runs and it was 10-1.

Most of this was off a Yankees pitcher named Carlos Lagrange, and I’m sure you can find some sort of movie script that has a guy like that as the anti-hero. (Though it’s pronounced “La-GRAN-hay” and not as it’s spelled.)

Imanaga allowed one more run to the Yankees in a good five-inning outing in which he threw 81 pitches (54 strikes). He struck out five, and here’s more on his outing [VIDEO].

Best of all, Imanaga did not allow a home run in this outing. He will likely start Saturday or Sunday against the Nationals.

As for the bullpen: Daniel Palencia threw a 1-2-3 sixth in what is likely his final tune-up before Opening Day. Phil Maton allowed a solo home run to Spencer Jones in his only inning, the seventh. Hunter Harvey threw a scoreless eighth. Jacob Webb served up two homers, one to Jones, his second of the game, and wound up being replaced with two out having thrown 20 pitches. Hopefully, Webb’s results beginning Thursday will be better. Minor leaguer Zac Leigh finished things up.

The Cubs put together another crooked-number inning, scoring five in the sixth. Conforto doubled in one of those runs.

Conforto had a big day as the DH, going 3-for-4 with a single, double and triple and had four RBI. Personally, I’d put Conforto in right field on Opening Day, not Matt Shaw. But that’s just me.

And ICYMI, Seiya Suzuki will in fact miss the opener:

Seiya Suzuki (knee) will open the season on the injured list, Cubs manager Craig Counsell confirmed. The club also informed pitcher Ben Brown that he will make the Opening Day roster. Javier Assad will be optioned to Triple A and start the season in the Iowa rotation.

— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) March 23, 2026

It’ll be interesting to see how Craig Counsell deploys Ben Brown in relief. I’ve always said I thought Brown was better suited to relief, with his somewhat limited repertoire and the ability to throw 98 miles per hour. He could do multi-inning relief, or possibly be a useful setup man.

The Cubs will wrap the spring schedule Tuesday with another game against the Yankees at Sloan Park. Don’t expect any of the Yankee regulars to play as they have likely departed for San Francisco for the MLB season opener on Wednesday. Cubs regulars, if they play, probably won’t play more than four innings or so. Edward Cabrera will start for the Cubs and Gerrit Cole will go for the Yankees, so that’ll be interesting. Game time is 2:05 p.m. CT. No TV Tuesday and the radio broadcast will be via the Yankees flagship WFAN 660.

The Yankees fell to the Chicago Cubs, 15-6, on Monday afternoon at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz. 

Here are the takeaways...

-- After an impressive spring, Carlos Lagrange had a tough Monday, allowing eight runs on nine hits across 2.2 IP. He struck out four and walked one on 66 pitches (38 strikes).

The 22-year-old let up two straight hits in the bottom of the first inning and nearly got out of the jam thanks to a double play. However, he surrendered a two-out knock to Carson Kelly that tied the game up at 1-1. Lagrange bounced back and struck out the side in the second inning, but couldn't maintain the momentum in the third. 

The righty let up back-to-back home runs -- a two-run homer to Michael Busch and a solo shot to Alex Bregman that put Chicago up 4-1. He struck out Ian Happ following a mound visit, but then allowed a double to Kelly. The results didn't change when he came back out to pitch the fourth inning, allowing a single, an RBI-double, and a walk before getting pulled again.

-- Will Brian came in for relief in the third inning and things didn't get better for the Yanks. Brian let up a single to Michael Conforto, and after a strikeout, gave up a three-run blast to Matt Shaw that made it a 7-1 game. Cade Winquest later entered for Lagrange in the fourth, allowing a two-run triple to Conforto before getting a flyout to end the frame.

-- New York took a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Shota Imanaga thanks to some two-out hitting as Giancarlo Stanton and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had back-to-back singles, with Chisholm driving in Paul Goldschmidt from second base. The Yanks had another scoring chance in the third inning after Goldschmidt was hit by a pitch and Aaron Judge singled, but the 3-5 hitters went down in order.

-- Goldschmidt and Judge continued to provide the offense, as the first baseman doubled and the reigning AL MVP singled in the top of the fifth inning. Cody Bellinger drove in Goldschmidt on a sac-fly to make it a 10-2 game.

-- Yerry De los Santos allowed three runs on five hits in the sixth inning as the Cubs scored five runs overall in the frame to push the lead to 15-2.

-- Spencer Jones hit a solo home run off veteran Phil Maton in the top of the seventh inning. The slugging prospect blasted another HR in the ninth, this time a two-run shot to give him six home runs this spring. Max Schuemann joined in on the fun and went back-to-back with Jones, hitting a solo homer to cut the Cubs' lead to 15-6.

What's next

The Yankees will stay in Mesa, Ariz. for their final spring training game against the Chicago Cubs at 3:05 p.m. on Tuesday.

After that, Max Fried will take on Logan Webb and the San Francisco Giants to open the 2026 regular season on Wednesday at 8:05 p.m. 

The Cincinnati Reds got bogus news early in spring camp when Hunter Greene needed elbow surgery to remove bone spurs, setting back their ace until the All Star break in July. Aside from that doozy, though, things had mostly been OK on the injury front (aside from Caleb Ferguson’s oblique issue).

As the heat ramped up down in the desert, though, a plague of blisters descended upon Goodyear. Yesterday we found out Nick Lodolo had one (that was bad enough to need popping), and that came on the heels of Brady Singer dealing with one, too – not the kind of news you want on the eve of Opening Day when things had already been seemingly set with the pitching staff.

As things stand, though, it appears Singer dodged any blistering that was bad enough to set him back, and he’ll get the ball tonight in Milwaukee as the Reds face off against the Brewers in a pre-season exhibition game at American Family Field.

(It’s Miller Park. It’ll always be Miller Park.)

Cincinnati has effectively set their Opening Day roster, so there aren’t really any position battles still ongoing in camp. That said, there are still a handful of non-roster players who made the trip with the big league club, as each of Michael Chavis, Garrett Hampson, Hector Rodriguez, Tejay Antone, and Michael Toglia are available off the bench tonight.

Doug Gray of Redleg Nation once again was kind enough to relay the travel roster on Bluesky, which features a conscious decision by manager Terry Francona to let Ke’Bryan Hayes DH for the night from the #2 spot in the lineup.

If you’d like a reminder of how old you are, I’ll point out that lefty Aaron Ashby is on the mound for the Brewers tonight, and the Reds have put together a lineup featuring TJ Friedl (in LF) and an entire fleet of right-handed hitters behind him to counter. Ashby, of course, is the nephew of longtime big league righty Andy Ashby, who last pitched two years after Joey Votto’s professional career begin in the Reds system.

Sal Stewart will start at 2B, Dane Myers gets CF for the night, and Eugenio Suarez will man the hot corner with a glove for a turn.

First pitch is slated for 7:40 PM ET, and to answer your question…no, you cannot watch it on television. 700 WLW will have the radio feed, however.