Worldwide Sports News

With just more than one week before opening day, the Athletics faced off against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona this afternoon. Luis Morales took the mound for the A’s against Anthony Kay for the Sox.

Kay kept the A’s off balance, allowing two base hits but no runners advancing to second throughout the first three innings. With one out and a 3-2 count in the bottom of the third, Chase Meidroth homered off Morales to deep right center field. He then walked the next two batters and gave up an RBI double to Austin Hayes. That ended the day for Morales*, having given up two runs and being responsible for the runners on second and third with two outs. James Gonzalez replaced him and promptly gave up a three-run blast to Andrew Benintendi, bringing the score to 5-0 and finalizing Luis Morales line at 2.2 innings, four earned runs, on three hits and two walks.

Morales returned to pitch the bottom of the fourth inning. He tossed a hitless, scoreless inning. Andy Ibáñez homered against Kay to get the A’s on the board in the top of the fifth inning. Jedixson Paez replaced Anthony Kay. Zack Gelof walked and Nick Kurtz doubled, scoring Gelof. Morales continued to pitch the bottom of the fifth, giving up a homer to Munetaka Murakami. That brought the score to 6-2 in favor of the Pale Hose.

Luis Medina entered the game to pitch the sixth for the A’s. He tossed a scoreless inning, as did Joel Kuhnel in the seventh inning. Zack Gelof walked off former A’s hurler Sean Newcomb to lead off the eighth. He was replaced by pinch runner Euribiel Angeles.

Lawrence Butler made his 2026 debut, DH’ing for the A’s today. He went 0-3 with two strikeouts and was removed for a pinch hitter in the eighth. Shane McGuire, hitting for Butler homered, driving in Euribiel Angeles.

That ended the scoring and the A’s dropped this one 6-4 to the White Sox. They have a rare spring day off tomorrow and will hit the field again on Thursday against the Mariners at 6:05 PM PDT.

*Morales final line was 4.1 innings, giving up five earned runs on four hits and three walks. He struck out five Sox today.

Team USA will have its flame-throwing right-hander available if necessary on Tuesday night.

The Americans will have reliever Mason Miller available at their disposal if they see fit to use him in the World Baseball Classic championship game against Venezuela, manager Mark DeRosa told reporters.

The Padres pitcher has already thrown in four games in the tournament, saving two in as many chances. He has an eye-popping 10 strikeouts in four innings — thanks in large part to his triple-digit fastball — and has yet to allow a run.

“I’d like to avoid him, but the score will dictate it,” DeRosa said. “Yes, he’s available.”

Miller closed out Sunday’s 2-1 semifinal thriller over the Dominican Republic, as he struck at two, including the game’s final batter in controversial fashion.

The righty deployed a slider on a payoff pitch to Dominican infielder Geraldo Perdomo, who appeared to deftly lay off a pitch well below the strike zone.

However, home plate umpire Cory Blaser punched out Perdomo to end the game. In the WBC, unlike spring training and the upcoming major and minor league seasons, there is no usage of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System that would have potentially allowed Perdomo to have turned the strikeout into a walk.

Before Miller even gets the chance to maybe get the ball, Mets starter Nolan McLean is slated to get the ball for the Americans as they look for their second WBC title.

McLean pitched earlier in the tournament, allowing two home runs in the United States’ 8-6 loss to Italy in pool play.

Though he didn’t pitch as well as he would have liked, McLean is coming off an impressive stint with the Mets down the stretch in 2025 where he showed off his stuff, which includes elite spin rate.

DeRosa is confident in the Oklahoma State product’s abilities to lead the Americans.

“He’s just built for this — his mindset, his skill, his want, all of that,” DeRosa said earlier this week.

If you try hard to remember, you’ll actually recall that the Cincinnati Reds spent a good chunk of the 2025 regular season carrying six starting pitchers – at minimum – on their active roster. Such was the luxury of having Nick Martinez around all year, his versatility the linchpin in making sure the rest of the rotation was always as rested as could be.

Once they acquired Zack Littell and promoted Chase Burns, they almost always had more options than a typical 5-man rotation at any given point down the stretch. It’s simply necessary in the modern game, what with max effort velocities and the inevitable injuries that come with them.

It appears the Reds are more than just comfortable with that concept. So comfortable that manager Terry Francona revealed to C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic on Tuesday afternoon that they’ll carry six starters come Opening Day 2026.

Rhett Lowder and Brandon Williamson will make the team after both missing all (or 97%, in Lowder’s case) of the 2025 regular season with injuries. Chase Burns, meanwhile, will make the team despite having run into some mid-spring load management after not recovering well enough from an extended start. Those three will join Brady Singer, Nick Lodolo, and Andrew Abbott on the team’s roster as starting options, something the club will get to juggle early on.

It’s not the end of the world, aside from the fact that it’s Hunter Greene’s months-long absence that even opened this opportunity. The reality is that none of Lowder, Williamson, or Burns was going to approach anything akin to 170+ IP after shortened 2025 campaigns – don’t forget that Burns was shut down for a while with forearm pain and eventually migrated to a fireman role in the bullpen.

So, effectively spreading out their innings now is what’s going to begin the process lest the Reds run into a scenario where they simply have to shut a guy down in, say, an August stretch run that has them chasing a playoff spot. Former Enquirer beat writer Charlie Goldsmith added more context from Francona which more or less echoes this.

Goldsmith also casually dropped that both Connor Phillips and Will Benson have been told they’ve made the team, with Benson’s addition meaning, in all likelihood, that only one of Nate Lowe or JJ Bleday will make the club, too.

Quite the interesting series of developments ahead of tonight’s matchup against their Goodyear brethren the Cleveland Guardians!

If you enjoy seeing the Atlanta Braves uniforms being adorned with a bright-yellow bag of concrete on the left-hand sleeve then I have some news that is relative to your interests. If you’re a fan who was hoping for another company’s logo to grace the sleeves (or if you’re a purist who doesn’t want to see any of that anywhere on the uniform) then you might want to be sitting down with this one.

Earlier today, the Braves announced via press release that the concrete bags aren’t going anywhere any time soon. The Braves and QUIKRETE are now locked into a partnership through the 2036 season. Here’s a quote from the press release:

QUIKRETE and the Braves have been partners for nine seasons dating back to 2017, spanning the club’s tenure at Truist Park and The Battery Atlanta. Over that time, the partnership has grown to include some of the most recognizable branding in Major League Baseball and a strong connection with fans throughout Braves Country.

The leading construction materials company will continue as the Official Jersey Patch Partner of the Atlanta Braves, remaining the first and only jersey patch partner in team history. The QUIKRETE logo patch appears on home and away Braves uniforms throughout the regular season and postseason, providing prominent national broadcast visibility as the team competes on baseball’s biggest stages.

I’d imagine that this also means that the QUIKRETE logo will remain in yellow on the outfield fences as well. In case you didn’t notice it (and really, why would most of y’all since I’m sure this isn’t exactly the outfield fence enthusiast group), the QUIKRETE logo is the only logo on the outfield walls that is in yellow instead of white, so there’s that. It’s clear that this is a partnership that both corporate entities value and now they’re set to be locked in together for the foreseeable future.

What do y’all think? Are you a fan of the yellow bag on the sleeves? Would you prefer a different sponsor? Would you prefer none at all?