So much of the charm and success of The Masters is based around the consistency and familiarity of the tournament.

You turn on the television and you see those familiar vibrant green shades, the shimmering water on 12, the pinks and the creams of the blooming foliage. The course is the same every year, the traditions are the same every year, and you can throw tariffs, trade wars and the Strait of Hormuz at Augusta but sandwich prices will still be the same every year.

But as far as continuity goes, having last year’s winner, Rory McIlroy, tied for the lead after the first round of this year’s tournament at -5 might be a little bit much.

Perhaps time is simply a flat circle and we’re stuck in a seamless loop of Masters championships, unable to see where one ends and the next begins.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, he remains one of the best golfers on Earth, now experienced enough in tickling a ball around this verdant corner of northern Georgia to know the course well – and to be able to profit from those historic heartbreaks and failures.

At this stage it’s probably important to note that Sam Burns is right there too, the young American carding a strikingly consistent 67 in only his fifth participation here, with the best approach play of anyone at Augusta on Thursday.

But Burns is one of golf’s band of pre-superstars. He joins the likes of Ludvig Aberg, Tom Kim and Akshay Bhatia as those tipped to eventually win a major and this could yet be Burns’s week, the biggest of his life in that case.

Just ask Rory, though. The Masters is about proving it. Any idea of McIlroy being zen and at peace with the world now that he’s completed the career slam is far from the truth. By his own admission, once he had climbed to the top of the mountain it showed him “how many more peaks there were to conquer”.

Still, as he stuck his tee into the ground on the first hole today, the sun beating down, he noticed the familiar tremble. As he struggled to keep the ball on top of it, he knew. Those nerves were still there. It’s likely they will never go.

“That’s a good thing. That’s why we want to be here,” he said afterwards of that momentary tremor. “We want to be able to try to play our best golf when we’re feeling like that.”

It wasn’t a vintage start from McIlroy and it did require him to grit his teeth and push through it. He thought he played a round that was good enough for a two-under and instead he co-leads the tournament at five-under. The data supports that he wasn’t at his best, barely in the top 100 for fairway accuracy,

“But again, I used my head… I got up-and-down when I needed to,” he explained. “I didn’t compound mistakes. Again, that’s just a learning curve that you have to go through around here, and I did it well today.”

In his own words, McIlroy simply “kept swinging”. Still level to par through seven holes, he picked up five shots on the last 11 holes to join Burns as clubhouse leader while Justin Rose, who he beat in last year’s playoff, looked set to join him until his scorecard was blemished by a pair of late bogeys – ultimately joining a group on -2, three strokes back, that also includes fellow major champions Scottie Scheffler, Shane Lowry and Xander Schauffele.

All those players have put themselves in a good position to be where they want to be on Sunday night but you simply can’t look past the advantage of having done it all before.

“I do think winning a Masters makes it easier to win your second one. I do,” added McIlroy.

“It’s hard to say because there’s still shots out there that you feel a little bit tight with, and you just have to stand up and commit to making a good swing and not worry about really where it goes.

“But I think it’s easier for me to make those swings and not worry about where it goes when I know that I can go back to the Champions Locker Room afterwards and put my green jacket on.”

Major League Baseball’s average salary increased to $5.34 million for the 2026 season, according to a study by the Associated Press. That salary represents at 3.4% increase from the $5.16 million that MLB players averaged last year.

Despite the uproar over the Los Angeles Dodgers’ spending during the offseason, the New York Mets actually have baseball’s highest payroll this year at $352 million. (That’s actually less than the $355.4 million that the team spent on player salaries in 2023. But the Mets’ 2026 figure is up from last year’s $322.6 million payroll.)

The Dodgers rank second with a $316.6 million payroll after winning back-to-back World Series champions. (But that figure is actually less than last year’s $319.5 million.) However, if not for deferred salaries, the Dodgers’ payroll would be $395.2 million, according to the AP. The Mets would be at $360 million without taking deferred salaries into consideration.

Coming in at third among MLB team payrolls is the New York Yankees at $297.2 million, followed by the Philadelphia Phillies at $282 million and Toronto Blue Jays with $269 million.

In addition to carrying the highest team payroll, the Mets also have the player with MLB’s highest average salary this season with Juan Soto earning $61.9 million. (He has baseball’s top average salary for the second consecutive year.) The Yankees’ Cody Bellinger is next at $42.5 million.

Filling out the top five among highest average individual salaries are Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler and Mets third baseman Bo Bichette at $42 million, followed by Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. earning $40.2 million. (Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge just missed the top five with his $40 million salary for 2026.)

Which teams boosted their payrolls most? The Detroit Tigers went from $64.2 million last season to $206.7 million this season, led by the $32 million that AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal won in arbitration. The Atlanta Braves increased their player budget by $44.1 million and the Chicago Cubs joined the Mets and Blue Jays by spending just under $30 million more.

The Minnesota Twins led MLB teams with the largest reduction in payroll, slashing their $96.5 million figure from last season to $46.3 million. (The team shed significant salaries at last season’s trade deadline.)

Other clubs with the biggest payroll decreases include the St. Louis Cardinals, who cut their player budget from $141.5 million to $100.4 million. The Cleveland Guardians reduced their payroll by $40 million, while the Texas Rangers cut payroll by $37.3 million and the Washington Nationals are paying $23.3 million less in salaries this year.

The median salary in MLB is $1.4 million this season, up by $50,000, according to the AP’s study. A $1 million salary is drawn by 519 players, while 19 players are earning $30 million or more, 74 have a $20 million salary and 168 will earn $10 million. MLB’s $780,000 minimum is being paid to 31 players.

Major League Baseball’s average salary increased to $5.34 million for the 2026 season, according to a study by the Associated Press. That salary represents at 3.4% increase from the $5.16 million that MLB players averaged last year.

Despite the uproar over the Los Angeles Dodgers’ spending during the offseason, the New York Mets actually have baseball’s highest payroll this year at $352 million. (That’s actually less than the $355.4 million that the team spent on player salaries in 2023. But the Mets’ 2026 figure is up from last year’s $322.6 million payroll.)

The Dodgers rank second with a $316.6 million payroll after winning back-to-back World Series champions. (But that figure is actually less than last year’s $319.5 million.) However, if not for deferred salaries, the Dodgers’ payroll would be $395.2 million, according to the AP. The Mets would be at $360 million without taking deferred salaries into consideration.

Coming in at third among MLB team payrolls is the New York Yankees at $297.2 million, followed by the Philadelphia Phillies at $282 million and Toronto Blue Jays with $269 million.

In addition to carrying the highest team payroll, the Mets also have the player with MLB’s highest average salary this season with Juan Soto earning $61.9 million. (He has baseball’s top average salary for the second consecutive year.) The Yankees’ Cody Bellinger is next at $42.5 million.

Filling out the top five among highest average individual salaries are Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler and Mets third baseman Bo Bichette at $42 million, followed by Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. earning $40.2 million. (Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge just missed the top five with his $40 million salary for 2026.)

Which teams boosted their payrolls most? The Detroit Tigers went from $64.2 million last season to $206.7 million this season, led by the $32 million that AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal won in arbitration. The Atlanta Braves increased their player budget by $44.1 million and the Chicago Cubs joined the Mets and Blue Jays by spending just under $30 million more.

The Minnesota Twins led MLB teams with the largest reduction in payroll, slashing their $96.5 million figure from last season to $46.3 million. (The team shed significant salaries at last season’s trade deadline.)

Other clubs with the biggest payroll decreases include the St. Louis Cardinals, who cut their player budget from $141.5 million to $100.4 million. The Cleveland Guardians reduced their payroll by $40 million, while the Texas Rangers cut payroll by $37.3 million and the Washington Nationals are paying $23.3 million less in salaries this year.

The median salary in MLB is $1.4 million this season, up by $50,000, according to the AP’s study. A $1 million salary is drawn by 519 players, while 19 players are earning $30 million or more, 74 have a $20 million salary and 168 will earn $10 million. MLB’s $780,000 minimum is being paid to 31 players.

Colorado Rockies (6-6) at San Diego Padres (6-6), April 9, 2026, 6:40 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Petco Park – San Diego, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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The Colorado Rockies left Coors Field on Wednesday night on top of the world. At 6-6, the Rockies are at .500 at the latest point in the season since 2022, they’re riding a league-high four-game active win streak, and their offense came alive against the Houston Astros.

Now comes the test: can the offense stay alive as they travel down to the Marine Layer to take on the San Diego Padres? The Padres, also at 6-6, are tied for second place in the National League West with the Rockies.

The Rockies will be going with an opener tonight, and the man for the job is one Jimmy Herget. The “Human Glitch” has been excellent to start the season. In five appearances over six innings of work, he’s allowed just one earned run on four hits, struck out six batters, and has yet to issue a single walk.

Herget is expected to give way to right-handed pitcher Chase Dollander for bulk innings. Dollander has now pitched in a bulk role twice this season. His last time out against the Philadelphia Phillies he worked 4.1 innings and gave up just one earned run on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts.

On the mound for the swingin’ Friars is the right-handed Randy Vásquez. Vásquez is off to a good start this season with just one earned run given up over twelve innings in his first two starts with 11 strikeouts. Against the Rockies, Vásquez has had mixed results against the Rockies. He holds a 4.30 ERA over six starts and has given up five home runs over 29.1 innings of work.

Vásquez has a hefty seven-pitch arsenal to work with. His primary pitch is a low-to-mid 90s four-seam fastball and he supplements it with a bevvy of breaking pitches. His go-to secondary for the young season is a cutter, and he also throws a sinker, a changeup, a curveball, a sweeper, and a slider.

First Pitch: 7:40pm MDT

TV: Rockies.tv

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

Lineups:

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Detroit Tigers center fielder Parker Meadows was carted off the field Thursday after colliding with left fielder Riley Greene while trying to track down a Josh Bell fly ball in the eighth inning of a 3-1 defeat to the Minnesota Twins.

Meadows was sent to a hospital, where he will be kept for overnight observation, according to The Associated Press.

While Greene made the catch, it came at a cost. Bell’s flyout shot toward left-center field. Meadows came soaring in for the putout, but Greene was already in position to make the catch in the alley.

Meadows bumped heads with Greene. Both of their caps went flying as they hit the ground. Greene braced the fall with his right knee and got right back up, whereas Meadows dropped like a rag doll. He laid on his back with his arms up and blood on his face.

Eventually, Meadows returned to his feet, albeit with assistance from the Tigers’ athletic training staff and the medical personnel at Target Field in Minnesota, per The Athletic. Then he got on a cart that took him off the diamond.

After the game, according to The Athletic, Meadows was taken on a stretcher to a local hospital. He was reportedly fully conscious and had his left arm in a sling.

“It’s a terrible feeling. I still feel terrible,” Greene said postgame, per the AP. “He hit my head. I don’t know where I hit him, to be honest, but I just really hope he’s OK.”

Greene and Meadows overlapped in the Tigers’ farm system while on their respective journeys to the bigs and are close. Meadows, 26, is in his fourth MLB season after making his major-league debut in 2023.

He has started 11 of Detroit’s 13 games this season in center field. He’s hit a pair of extra-base hits and tallied two RBI while batting .250.

“That was an ugly, scary one, and there’s a lot of concern for him,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said of the collision, per MLB.com. “When we got out there, it looked like he had bit his lip or inside his mouth, so there was some blood, and he was pretty out of it. …

“Those are scary collisions. You don’t know what you’re going to get when you get there. Obviously we’re going to get him checked out for everything, but this one worries me.”

Now just 4-9 after a 2-0 start, Detroit has lost nine of its last 11 games. The Tigers are stomaching a four-game sweep at the hands of a 7-6 Twins squad.

And they’re dealing with a worrisome injury to their center fielder.

Detroit Tigers center fielder Parker Meadows was carted off the field Thursday after colliding with left fielder Riley Greene while trying to track down a Josh Bell fly ball in the eighth inning of a 3-1 defeat to the Minnesota Twins.

Meadows was sent to a hospital, where he will be kept for overnight observation, according to The Associated Press.

While Greene made the catch, it came at a cost. Bell’s flyout shot toward left-center field. Meadows came soaring in for the putout, but Greene was already in position to make the catch in the alley.

Meadows bumped heads with Greene. Both of their caps went flying as they hit the ground. Greene braced the fall with his right knee and got right back up, whereas Meadows dropped like a rag doll. He laid on his back with his arms up and blood on his face.

Eventually, Meadows returned to his feet, albeit with assistance from the Tigers’ athletic training staff and the medical personnel at Target Field in Minnesota, per The Athletic. Then he got on a cart that took him off the diamond.

After the game, according to The Athletic, Meadows was taken on a stretcher to a local hospital. He was reportedly fully conscious and had his left arm in a sling.

“It’s a terrible feeling. I still feel terrible,” Greene said postgame, per the AP. “He hit my head. I don’t know where I hit him, to be honest, but I just really hope he’s OK.”

Greene and Meadows overlapped in the Tigers’ farm system while on their respective journeys to the bigs and are close. Meadows, 26, is in his fourth MLB season after making his major-league debut in 2023.

He has started 11 of Detroit’s 13 games this season in center field. He’s hit a pair of extra-base hits and tallied two RBI while batting .250.

“That was an ugly, scary one, and there’s a lot of concern for him,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said of the collision, per MLB.com. “When we got out there, it looked like he had bit his lip or inside his mouth, so there was some blood, and he was pretty out of it. …

“Those are scary collisions. You don’t know what you’re going to get when you get there. Obviously we’re going to get him checked out for everything, but this one worries me.”

Now just 4-9 after a 2-0 start, Detroit has lost nine of its last 11 games. The Tigers are stomaching a four-game sweep at the hands of a 7-6 Twins squad.

And they’re dealing with a worrisome injury to their center fielder.

Looking to salvage one game of their best of four in Minnesota, the Tigers got a good start from Jack Flaherty and they wasted it. In the process, an outfield collision late in the game sent Parker Meadows to the hospital, though early signs are that he’ll be okay though likely to miss some time, and the Tigers slumped to 4-9 on the young season.

Well, if you had the Tigers, Mariners, Blue Jays, and Red Sox on your bingo card as the American League bottom feeders, you did better than most. The Tigers will finally come home for an extended stay at Comerica Park this weekend and through most of next week, with a chance to get right against the Miami Marlins and Kansas City Royals.

While the offense has drawn most of the criticism early on, it’s really been the pitching that the Tigers expect to lean on that has been the problem. That wasn’t so on Thursday. Colt Keith led off the game with a walk against young Twins starter Mick Abel, and Gleyber Torres lined a single to right field to set the table for the middle of the order. Riley Greene whiffed on a first pitch fastball and then took two called strikes, the final one earned on a Victor Caratini challenge. Kerry Carpenter followed him down on strikes, and Spencer Torkelson hammered a ball to left that James Outman ran down to turn the Tigers away.

Jack Flaherty got into trouble in the bottom half with a one-out walk to Trevor Larnach and a Josh Bell single, but Javier Báez made a great snag on a Matt Wallner hotshot up the middle, stepped on second, and while his throw was errant, Torkelson picked him up by tagging out Wallner to end the inning.

Once again, the Tigers got themselves into good scoring position as Zack McKinstry walked and Javier Báez dumped a single into center field. Parker Meadows and Jake Rogers struck out, and Colt Keith grounded out to end the inning and send steam coming out of most of our ears.

It’s not your fault though, Colt.

Flaherty worked through the second with the help of a strikeout of Royce Lewis and Jake Rogers cutting down Kody Clemens trying to steal second.

The Tigers got another runner on base in the third on a one-out double from Riley Greene. You know what comes next. Carpenter lifted a fly ball out to left, and Torkelson hit another ball hard, this time to Buxton in center field.

It just went on like this for a while. Báez doubled to center with one out in the fourth, and they stranded him too. Flaherty gave up a solo shot to Josh Bell to open the bottom of the fourth, but he rallied from there to put together a nice 5.2 inning outing with just one run allowed. He just didn’t get much help other than some early defensive work as noted. He departed in the sixth after allowing singles to Bell and Wallner, and then getting Caratini to fly out. Tyler Holton took over and Kody Clemens drilled a ball to center that Meadows hauled in to turn the Twins away.

Garrett Acton took over from Abel in the top of the seventh. He clipped Rogers with a pitch with one out, and Keith singled back through the box as Rogers hooved it to third. A Torres sacrifice fly got the run in to tie the game 1-1, but the big hit did not arrive as Greene sliced a drive down the left field line, where Outman made a nice sliding catch heading into the close wall in the corner.

Holton got into a little trouble in the seventh and you could feel this thing teetering, but he punched out Larnach to preserve the tie. Rather than taking some momentum from that, the Tigers were set down in order by Acton.

Then, in the bottom of the eighth, Will Vest took over. Bell greeted him with a drive up the left center field gap. Greene hauled it in but he and Meadows had a communication breakdown and Meadows kept coming, ultimately looking like they banged heads as they passed. Greene had it all the way and made the catch, coming through unscathed. Meadows was shaken up pretty badly and visibly bleeding a little from his mouth. The real damage came when he hit his head on the turf tumbling to the ground after contact by the look of it. He remained motionless though responsive for a long time before they finally got him up and on the cart to come off the field. It was pretty scary and the Tigers players were shook.

Báez took over in center field, while Kevin McGonigle, who had his first full off day to this point, took over at shortstop. We’ll have to wait for word on a potential concussion, but it certainly looked likely that Meadows will need a little time on the injured list.

Vest walked Wallner and Caratini singled to left. Vest settled down and punched out Clemens, but Vest was also sitting 93-94 mph with his fastball, which didn’t feel great. Lewis pulled a slow chopper to third for an infield hit, and Brooks Lee followed with a two-run single through the right side. 3-1 Twins. Lawd. Brant Hurter took over to get the final out.

Báez and McGonigle flew out to Buxton in center and Dillon Dingler struck out to end it.

Time to come home and re-group, Tigers. It’s been a bizarre start to the year so far. Only three teams in the American League have scored more runs as of this writing, and obviously the season just got underway, but the pitching has been wildly inconsistent, and they haven’t gotten it done at all in big moments in games so far.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan appreciates the endorsement from team president and CEO Michael Reinsdorf.

Just don’t read too much into it, Donovan suggested before Chicago’s game against the Washington Wizards on Thursday night.

“I think Michael was making the point of how he felt about me,” Donovan said after Reinsdorf made it clear Tuesday he wants him to remain in the job. “But I also understand that, like I said, everybody’s got to look out for what is best for the Bulls at that point in time.”

The Bulls made sweeping changes to their front office on Monday, firing executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley after a six-year run produced just one playoff appearance.

Donovan has yet to decide on his future, however. The 60-year-old plans to meet with Reinsdorf after the season.

“I love it here,” Donovan said. “I’ve loved the relationship piece. Not only Jerry and Michael, but the people in the building, the staff. It’s been an awesome working environment, and I enjoy it. But we’re at this place because we really haven’t won a lot.”

Donovan is finishing his 11th season in the NBA and sixth with Chicago, after he appeared in the playoffs in each of his five seasons in Oklahoma City.

His teams have advanced beyond the first round only once, when Oklahoma City reached the 2015-16 Western Conference finals in his first season.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA