The Houston Rockets, with a record of 49-29 and ranked second in the Southwest Division, visit the Phoenix Suns, who are also ranked second in the Pacific Division with a 43-35 record. Phoenix is favored by 1.5 points with a moneyline of -115, while Houston stands at -105. The over/under is set at 220.5 points.

The Suns will be locked into the play-in tournament with a loss and a Timberwolves win, who face the Pacers at 7 p.m. ET. The Rockets, meanwhile, are playing for seeding, with the Nos. 3-6 seeds still a possibility.

How to watch Houston Rockets vs. Phoenix Suns

• Date: Tuesday, April 7

• Time: 11 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. PT

• Where: Mortgage Matchup Center, Phoenix

• TV Channels: NBC, Peacock, Space City Home Network (Local affiliate)

• Live Stream:NBA League Pass | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Team records

• Houston Rockets: 49-29 (No. 2 in Southwest Division)

• Phoenix Suns: 43-35 (No. 2 in Pacific Division)

Rockets-Suns odds

• Spread: Phoenix Suns -1.5

• Moneyline: Phoenix Suns -115, Houston Rockets -105

• Over/Under: 220.5

Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras is sick of being hit by the Milwaukee Brewers. Contreras, who has been hit by the team 24 times in his major-league career, sent a message to the Brewers’ organization following yet another hit-by-pitch during Monday’s 8-6 win by Milwaukee.

After the contest, Contreras said the next time he’s hit by a Brewers pitcher, he’s going to “take one of them out.”

While the comment could get Contreras in trouble with the league, the stats do seem to back up his frustration. His 24 hit-by-pitches against Milwaukee are 10 more than Contreras has against any other MLB team, per ESPN. On top of that, the Brewers’ starter Monday, Brandon Woodruff, has hit Contreras six times.

Contreras — who previously played in the National League Central with both the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals — said he’ tired of hearing Brewers pitchers say, “I’m not trying to hit you.”

Brewers players, meanwhile, tried to put the blame on Contreras, with Christian Yelich saying they’ve “seen that skit for the last 10 years.” Woodruff echoed that sentiment, saying he’s been through this multiple times with Contreras, whom Woodruff believes is “trying to get his side fired up” with his reactions to being hit.

To make things slightly more awkward, Contreras’ brother, William, is the Brewers’ catcher. After Willson was hit by Woodruff, William walked down the first-base line with Willson, trying to calm him down and make sure he didn’t go after Woodruff.

William didn’t necessarily put the blame on his brother, but said, “He plays like that,” when asked about the situation after the game.

If the situation is going to escalate, it’s going to be in the next couple of days. The Red Sox and Brewers play again Tuesday and Wednesday and then don’t meet again in the regular season.

TORONTO — In some ways, it still feels like October here.

There’s a bite in the air, a chill in the wind, the same as there was five months ago for the most unforgettable ballgame anybody in attendance had ever witnessed. Torontonians stroll the streets with long coats, gloves, scarfs and Jays caps. A bar one block from the ballyard boasts a sign that reads “We Run October.” The sky is overcast, the Rogers Centre dome is closed, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in town.

And so, ahead of this relatively meaningless April matchup, it was impossible to not dwell on World Series 2025 Game 7 — what happened that night and what didn’t. Neither Miguel Rojas nor Yoshinobu Yamamoto started Monday, yet both were dominant topics of pregame conversation. The two skippers, Toronto’s John Schneider and L.A.’s Dave Roberts, tried to downplay the significance of this Fall Classic rematch, but the ghosts of November were too weighty, too lasting for Monday’s contest to mean nothing.

“A few short months ago, it was bedlam in here,” Schneider said beforehand. “So, looking forward to it.”

“I don’t feel as much anxiousness as I did the last time, understandably so,” Roberts remarked.

Unfortunately, the game itself — a resounding 14-2 Dodgers victory — was a lackluster dud devoid of anything resembling drama.

Asked about his anxiety level after the game, Roberts was unflustered. “It was probably a 10 in October, and it was probably a one tonight,” he said.

That’s because Toronto looked nothing like that unstoppable freight train of camaraderie we saw last autumn. Jays starter Max Scherzer lasted two innings, limited by forearm tendinitis. That allowed Los Angeles’ star-studded offense to jump all over a carousel of overmatched relievers. The Dodgers finished the night with 17 hits and five homers, including two from young backstop Dalton Rushing. Jays catcher Tyler Heineman, whose struggles earlier in the week literally brought him to tears, was brought in to lob lifeless lollipops in the ninth.

Toronto’s offense had a different experience. Before the ninth, the Jays managed just four hits, only three of which left the infield and only one of which was hit hard. They failed to capitalize on four free passes from Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski. It was an evening of grimaces, hung heads and slow trudges. Things got ugly enough for Roberts to pull his starters in the seventh. By the time Game 7 hero and veteran infielder Miguel Rojas was brought in to sponge up the ninth, the scattered Jays fans still in attendance hardly had the energy to boo.

In short, an evening that could have been a celebration turned into a circus. As unsightly as Monday’s game was, there was something familiar about the whole thing.

Scherzer, the future Hall of Famer, started for Toronto, as he did in Game 7. When Dodgers slugger Teoscar Hernández clobbered a Scherzer cement-mixer for a first-inning homer, the hoots and hollers echoing from the visiting dugout throughout a disappointed stadium elicited memories of Will Smith’s crowd-quieting blast last year. 

Ernie Clement, he of the record 30 hits in a single postseason, looped an RBI duck snort into center for Toronto’s first RBI. Andy Pages nearly bulldozed his left fielder on a running catch in the third. Shohei Ohtani sizzled one over the center-field wall in the sixth. After the final out, Los Angeles took the field to celebrate, albeit in a more subdued fashion. Louis Varland, who threw in 15 of 18 postseason games for Toronto, warmed up but did not pitch.

Still, for the Jays, Monday was a horrendous, emotionless, unbecoming showing, one that highlights the current disparity between Toronto and the team it came inches from toppling in October. Yes, there’s ample time for the reigning American League champions, currently 4-6, to get things sorted out. Last year’s club, for instance, was two games under .500 as late as May 27. It is far, far too early to panic.

However, it’s also difficult to envision Toronto’s past week having gone any worse. After a season-opening sweep of the A’s at home, the Jays dropped a series to a Colorado Rockies club coming off a historically bad 2025. Then they rolled into the South Side of Chicago and got swept by a rebuilding White Sox team. They followed all that with … whatever Monday was.

“It’s no secret — it’s not working right now,” Schneider said after the game. “[But] better now than in July or August. You know, we’re 10 games into the season, and if we sit here and dwell on it, that’s when s*** snowballs.”

The Jays spent the past winter spending money to establish themselves as an imposing force, an American League analog to the Dodgers. They gave hurler Dylan Cease a king’s ransom to lead the rotation, inked Japanese star Kazuma Okamota to a four-year deal and made a hard charge for Kyle Tucker, the top player on the market, only to lose him to L.A.

But early injuries have already sidetracked this operation to a staggering degree. Veteran arms Shane Bieber and José Berríos are hurt. So are free-agent addition Cody Ponce and 2025 breakout star Trey Yesavage. Catcher Alejandro Kirk, set to undergo surgery on a thumb fracture, could prove to be the biggest loss of all. The All-Star backstop, crucial to everything Toronto does on defense, likely won’t be back for at least a month. 

Los Angeles, meanwhile, is firing on all cylinders. The Dodgers have the best run differential in MLB and are tied for the best record. Ohtani, after a slow start, has three round-trippers. Pages looks like an All-Star. Mookie Betts is on the shelf due to an oblique issue, but the Dodgers probably have the depth to weather that storm.

They certainly did Monday, a night that will be remembered as an unworthy epilogue to an epic piece of baseball history.

CLEVELAND — In the grand scheme of the 2026 MLB season, an early April contest between the Guardians and Royals doesn’t register as especially significant. But for José Ramírez, this chilly Monday night at Progressive Field meant history. 

While a 4-2 defeat against a divisional foe wouldn’t have been the preferred script, the completed contest ensured a new reality: Ramírez is the all-time leader in games played for the Cleveland baseball franchise. Having played in his 1,620th game with the only major-league team he has ever known, the third baseman now stands alone in franchise lore, passing previous record-holder Terry Turner, who appeared in 1,619 games for Cleveland across 15 seasons from 1904 to 1918. The milestone also makes Ramírez the only active player to hold the title of games-played leader for a franchise.

Turner’s claim to fame was popularizing the head-first slide, a baserunning technique that, more than a century later, few players utilize more frequently than the man who just seized Turner’s longstanding record. For more than a decade, Ramírez has bounded around major-league basepaths with breathtaking confidence, turning singles into doubles and doubles into triples and swiping bags with a delightful blend of baseball IQ and bravado. 

Turner too racked up his fair share of steals during his lengthy tenure, but the similarities between the two end there. Turner stuck around forever on the basis of his speed and defense in an era when all-around dynamism was rare; his most notable statistical achievement is a staggering career total of 268 sacrifice bunts. Ramírez, meanwhile, is one of the most complete ballplayers of his generation, a full-blown star on both sides of the ball who continues to climb every other leaderboard the Cleveland franchise has to offer.

At the conclusion of the fifth inning Monday, with the game considered official, the Guardians held a brief ceremony to celebrate Ramírez. He took the field alone as the scoreboard proclaimed his achievement and then was awarded the third-base bag, an appropriate tribute to the area on the diamond where he has spent so much of his life. Of his 1,620 games played, 1,160 have been starts at third. He has also stolen the bag 45 times, a healthy portion of the 289 swipes he has tallied in his career, which rank second in franchise history behind only Kenny Lofton.

There to gift Ramírez the base was Guardians first-base coach Sandy Alomar Jr., another popular stalwart of Cleveland baseball who racked up 985 games played with the franchise. 

“He’s one of the coaches that has been here the longest,” Ramírez said postgame through interpreter Agustin Rivero. “So it’s very special that he was the one who was there.”

Across the field, even with a divisional game on the line in a 1-1 tie, the Royals’ dugout also paused to applaud Ramírez’s achievement. Standing on the top step was manager Matt Quatraro, wholly familiar with Ramírez not only as a primary opponent as the Kansas City skipper the past four years but also from his time as a hitting coach with Cleveland from 2014 to 2017, just as Ramírez’s ascent to stardom was beginning. 

“His confidence in himself,” Quatraro said pregame of what stood out about Ramírez early in his career, as well as the current version he’s now tasked with slowing down several times a year. “His belief that he can help his team win on any given night.”

Without the obvious standout physical tools that tend to equal high-end prospect pedigree, Ramírez generally flew under the radar on his climb to the majors. Even as he racked up hits in the minors, he was often projected as a utility type, something exemplified by the fact that his major-league debut in 2013 — game No. 1 of 1,620 and counting — came as a pinch-runner. It would take a few more seasons of bouncing around the Cleveland infield with minimal offensive production before Ramírez entrenched himself as a no-doubt superstar at the hot corner. Quatraro saw that glow-up up close and recalled the turning point well.

“I think the one thing that really stands out, in 2015, when he got sent down earlier in that season, he was swinging at just about everything,” Quatraro said. “When he came back up, I believe we were in Anaheim, and he, all of a sudden, was taking pitches, taking walks.”

Quatraro is not wrong. After debuting in 2013, Ramírez struggled to stick in the majors his first few seasons. He spent most of June and July 2015 with Triple-A Columbus. Called back up in early August, he drew two walks in each of his first three games, indeed in Anaheim against the Angels. Ramírez hasn’t played a minor-league game since. 

“And then as that confidence grew, as he started swinging at better pitches, he started driving balls more,” Quatraro continued. “And then the next year is when the power started to come.”

Ramírez hit just 13 homers in 335 career minor-league games, with his stocky, 5-foot-8 frame seemingly a limiting factor in his ability to drive the ball with authority. But once in the majors, he learned how to translate his special bat-to-ball skills into certified slugging prowess, even if he rarely produces tape-measure shots. Today, only Jim Thome (337) remains ahead of Ramírez (286) on the all-time Cleveland home run list — and likely not for much longer. 

“I remember him and [Francisco Lindor] both saying, like, ‘Why are we trying to hit so many balls to center when it’s 325 over here? Let’s start pulling balls.’ And then they started hitting a bunch of homers,” Quatraro said. “And you know, his game has obviously grown a lot since I was here, but he’s never missed a fastball, I know that — and that’s one of those things that all the good hitters possess.”

On Monday, the Royals held Ramírez hitless, but he drew a pair of walks, an unknowing hat tip to his old hitting coach’s memory. With the games-played record secured, Ramírez’s pursuit of Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie’s franchise record of 2,047 hits will have to continue Tuesday, with Ramírez’s total of 1,674 putting him several seasons away from that specific glory. But after he signed another contract extension with Cleveland this past winter that ensures he will remain a Guardian through 2032, Lajoie’s hits mark, like so many other franchise totals, will likely be Ramírez’s, too, eventually.

“What Hosey has accomplished and will accomplish tonight is something truly special that I know he’s excited about,” manager Stephen Vogt said pregame. “I’m just fortunate that I get to be here in attendance to see it. And I’ve been a small part of being able to watch him play during this run that he’s had, but it’s a special night for Cleveland and for the franchise.”

For one night, it was about Ramírez, without question. But the larger picture is the focus for the face of the franchise. He recognizes that snagging all these franchise records means he is on a promising track to one day be enshrined in Cooperstown.

Even more importantly, he knows that if he continues to play at an elite level, he can give his beloved franchise its best chance of returning to postseason glory. Having come agonizingly close to a drought-ending championship early in his career in 2016, Ramírez is still hoping to lead his team back to the Fall Classic. 

“It feels good. Obviously it’s something fun to accomplish,” Ramírez said of his games-played record. “But that’s not my ultimate goal with the team.”

“Those are the two main things that I’m focused on: Work to get to the Hall of Fame and also win a World Series. Those are the two things I really want to accomplish with this team.”

San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama exited Monday’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers early after suffering what the team termed a left rib contusion in the first half. Wembanyama is doubtful to play in Wednesday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers, but, according to a Tuesday report from ESPN’s Shams Charania, “there’s confidence” the standout center will see the court for at least one of the Spurs’ final three regular-season games.

French reporter Maxime Aubin noted Tuesday that Wembanyama underwent an X-ray after the Sixers game, and it revealed no issues.

Stephon Castle is also listed as doubtful for Wednesday’s game, as he’s dealing with right knee soreness.

As for Wembanyama, he left the floor to go back to the Spurs’ locker room early in the second quarter of the Spurs’ win on Monday after an open-court collision with 76ers forward Paul George just over a minute into the frame left him slow to get up and appearing to favor his left shoulder:

He’d return to the bench shortly thereafter, though, and check back into the game with 5:33 to go in the opening half, dueling with star Philadelphia center Joel Embiid over the next few minutes.

Even as he continued to make an impact on both ends of the floor, though, Wembanyama continued to grimace, looking somewhat uncomfortable and not quite like himself.

He checked out of the game with his left arm hanging down at his side and went back to the locker room with 44 seconds remaining in the first half.

When the Spurs returned after intermission, Wembanyama was not with them; reserve center Luke Kornet took his spot in the lineup to open the third quarter. Wembanyama finished with 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks and an assist in just under 16 minutes of work.

After the game, Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said he hadn’t yet received an update on his superstar big man’s status.

“I think it would be a positive that he felt like he could come back, and he played the last four or five minutes of the [first] half,” Johnson told reporters, according to Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “So it’s a positive from my perspective, but I have nothing [in the way of an update].”

Without its leading scorer, rebounder and shot-blocker, San Antonio didn’t miss a beat. Thanks to a triple-double from Castle (19 points, 11 rebounds, 13 assists), who led six Spurs in double figures, the Spurs were able to withstand a 34-point performance from Embiid and finish off a 115-102 victory to improve to 60-19. It’s the eighth 60-win campaign in Spurs franchise history, and their first since 2016-17 — the last season San Antonio won a playoff series. With the win, the Spurs stayed 2.5 games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.

The 22-year-old Wembanyama has been one of the literal and figurative biggest stories of the 2025-26 NBA season, establishing himself as one of the game’s most overwhelming and irrepressible forces and catapulting the Spurs back into the playoffs for the first time since 2019. The third-year big man entered Monday’s action averaging 24.9 points, 11.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and a league-leading 3.1 blocks in 29.4 minutes per game, shooting 50.9% from the field, 35% from 3-point range and 82.8% from the free-throw line.

Wembanyama’s combination of offensive output, defensive dominance and clear impact on team success for the Spurs have vaulted him into the thick of the year-end awards races, as one of the top candidates for Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, All-NBA and All-Defensive Team honors. In order to be eligible for those awards, though, he’ll have to meet the 65-game threshold under the player participation guidelines the NBA instituted before the 2023-24 season.

Monday’s game marked Wembanyama’s 63rd regular-season contest of the season. Technically, though, it was his 64th qualifying contest, since the NBA Cup Final — in which Wembanyama played 25 minutes as the Spurs lost to the Knicks in Las Vegas — counts toward the 65-game total. Monday was also the second time this season that Wembanyama has played fewer than 20 minutes, but more than 15; each player is allowed to count two such “near-miss” games toward the 65-game total.

What that means: Despite leaving early Monday, Wembanyama needs to play 20 or more minutes one more time over the Spurs’ final three games to qualify for year-end awards. San Antonio finishes out the regular season at home, with games against the Trail Blazers on Wednesday, Dallas Mavericks on Friday, and Denver Nuggets on Sunday.

The NBA tanking picture will come into clearer view each day between now and the end of the regular season on April 12. In the meantime, we will provide detailed daily updates on the landscape, lotto odds, remaining schedules and the stakes for every day’s slate of games. We also break down the league’s playoff races each day.

1. Washington Wizards

Record: 17-61 | Streak: L-6

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 14%

• Remaining schedule: CHI, CHI, MIA, @CLE

What’s at stake: Clinching one of the three-worst records in the NBA to ensure the highest odds at the No. 1 pick. If the Wizards’ pick falls out of the top-8, it will go to the New York Knicks.

2. Indiana Pacers

Record: 18-60 | Streak: L-2

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 14%

• Remaining schedule: MIN, @BKN, PHI, DET

What’s at stake: Clinching one of the three-worst records in the NBA to ensure the highest odds at the No. 1 pick. Due to the Ivica Zubac trade with the Clippers, if the Pacers’ pick lands between the 5-9 spots on lotto night, it will go to L.A.

3. Brooklyn Nets

Record: 19-59 | Streak: W-1

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 14%

• Remaining schedule: MIL, IND, @MIL, @TOR

What’s at stake: Clinching one of the three-worst records in the NBA to ensure the highest odds at the No. 1 pick.

T-4. Utah Jazz

Record: 21-58 | Streak: L-9

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 11.5%

• Remaining schedule: @NOP, MEM, @LAL

What’s at stake: Clinching one of the three-worst records in the NBA to ensure the highest odds at the No. 1 pick. If the Jazz’s pick falls outside of the top-8, it will go to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

T-4. Sacramento Kings

Record: 21-58 | Streak: L-1

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 11.5%

• Remaining schedule: @GSW, GSW, @POR

What’s at stake: Clinching one of the three-worst records in the NBA to ensure the highest odds at the No. 1 pick.

6. New Orleans Pelicans (Atlanta Hawks)

Record: 25-54 | Streak: L-8

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 9%

• Remaining schedule: UTH, @BOS, @MIN

What’s at stake: The Pelicans have no incentive to lose; they owe their unprotected first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks.

7. Memphis Grizzlies

Record: 25-53 | Streak: L-4

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 6.8%

• Remaining schedule: CHI, @DEN, @UTH, @HOU

What’s at stake: The Grizzlies can finish no higher than the sixth-best odds at the No. 1 pick.

8. Dallas Mavericks

Record: 25-53 | Streak: W-1

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 6.7%

• Remaining schedule: @LAC, @PHX, SAS, @CHI

What’s at stake: The Mavs can finish no higher than the sixth-best odds at the No. 1 pick. The Mavs don’t control their future first-rounders from 2027-2030.

9. Chicago Bulls

Record: 29-49 | Streak: L-7

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 4.5%

• Remaining schedule: @WAS, @WAS, ORL, @DAL

10. Milwaukee Bucks

Record: 31-47 | Streak: W-1

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 3%

• Remaining schedule: MEM, @BKN, @DET, BKN, @PHI

What’s at stake: Moving “above” the Pelicans for better lottery odds.

11. Golden State Warriors

Record: 36-42 | Streak: L-4

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 2%

• Remaining schedule: SAC, LAL, @SAC, @LAC

What’s at stake: The Warriors are locked into the play-in game.

12. Portland Trail Blazers

Record: 40-38 | Streak: W-3

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 1.5%

• Remaining schedule: @DEN, @SAS, LAC, SAC

What’s at stake: The Blazers are locked into the play-in tournament.

13. Miami Heat

Record: 41-37 | Streak: W-1

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 1%

• Remaining schedule: @TOR, @TOR, @WAS, ATL

What’s at stake: The Heat are currently in the play-in tournament.

14. Orlando Magic (Memphis Grizzlies)

Record: 42-36 | Streak: W-2

• Current odds for No. 1 pick: 0.5%

• Remaining schedule: DET, MIN, @CHI, @BOS

What’s at stake: The Magic are currently in the play-in tournament. The Grizzlies own the Magic’s unprotected first-round pick.