Austin Hedges had been waiting for the right moment. So, after he helped the Cleveland Guardians to an 8-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday afternoon, he went for it. 

Hedges, who scored the first run of the game for the Guardians on Sunday at Progressive Field, proposed to girlfriend Lexi Dickinson on the field after the contest. She quickly said yes.

“I’ve had the ring since early spring training, but was just trying to figure out when the right time was,” Hedges said, via The Associated Press. “I was going to do it regardless, but I really wanted to win that game to make it extra special.”

Hedges and Dickinson first started dating in November 2024. 

“I had a lot of nerves today,” he said. “I’m always nervous for baseball games, but just trying to stay present, knowing there were some activities after made it harder. It was a special day. A special day to be able to soak it all in.”

Hedges is in his third season back with the Guardians. The catcher signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the franchise this past offseason. Hedges, who got his MLB start with the San Diego Padres in 2015, also spent time with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers, where he won a World Series title in 2023.

Hedges holds a .250 batting average with two RBI in nine games this season. He scored in the third inning Sunday after Steven Kwan hit a sacrifice fly to put Cleveland on the board first. 

The win pushed Cleveland to 13-10 this season. The Guardians are 8-0 when Hedges has started behind the plate.

Austin Hedges had been waiting for the right moment. So, after he helped the Cleveland Guardians to an 8-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday afternoon, he went for it. 

Hedges, who scored the first run of the game for the Guardians on Sunday at Progressive Field, proposed to girlfriend Lexi Dickinson on the field after the contest. She quickly said yes.

“I’ve had the ring since early spring training, but was just trying to figure out when the right time was,” Hedges said, via The Associated Press. “I was going to do it regardless, but I really wanted to win that game to make it extra special.”

Hedges and Dickinson first started dating in November 2024. 

“I had a lot of nerves today,” he said. “I’m always nervous for baseball games, but just trying to stay present, knowing there were some activities after made it harder. It was a special day. A special day to be able to soak it all in.”

Hedges is in his third season back with the Guardians. The catcher signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the franchise this past offseason. Hedges, who got his MLB start with the San Diego Padres in 2015, also spent time with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers, where he won a World Series title in 2023.

Hedges holds a .250 batting average with two RBI in nine games this season. He scored in the third inning Sunday after Steven Kwan hit a sacrifice fly to put Cleveland on the board first. 

The win pushed Cleveland to 13-10 this season. The Guardians are 8-0 when Hedges has started behind the plate.

Bryan Woo came to the ballpark seemingly on a mission today: to make the Rangers’ day miserable. So far this season, despite some solid performances, Woo has failed to notch a win, with three no-decisions and two losses. Today, he stepped on the hill, and, one inning aside, he looked as sharp as he has all season. While Woo certainly has the ability to flex his power, show off with a 97 mph fastball right at the numbers, today was all about keeping everyone off balance and dominating with soft contact, jam shots, and precision control. After the game, Dan Wilson commented on Woo’s mindset today:

“I think from pitch one you could see a little more determination on his face today, and wanting to really go out this afternoon and give us a good ballgame.”

Woo echoed much of the same sentiment:

“Being in the zone consistently, throughout the game, and not fishing for punchouts, just consistency in the zone and executing. And if they’re punchouts, if they’re quick outs, whatever they are, just take them as they come.”

The mindset showed as Woo used his fastballs to extreme effectiveness today, keeping the Rangers off balance and using his sinker to elicit weak contact and befuddled swings. Woo did an excellent job of keeping the ball in the infield as well, bringing about six ground balls and three infield fly balls to go against two hits from the Rangers today. Woo was near perfect in preventing free passes as well, issuing his only walk of the game to Corey Seager in the 7th inning (thanks partially to a savvy challenge from Mitch Garver in the first that flipped Seager’s first at-bat around from a 3-0 to a 2-1 count and eventual popout). Otherwise, Woo was playing in the zone all day, keeping hitters honest and tallying six strikeouts along the way.

The Rangers began to figure Woo out around the third time through the order, as a poorly timed walk to Seager to lead off the seventh, followed by a single Wyatt Langford and an HBP to Joc Pederson, loaded the bases. Josh Jung nearly got a hold of one but drove it out to the wall for a sacrifice fly as Seager ran in to score. A double from Evan Carter would bring home Langford and give the Rangers two runs off of Woo. Josh Smith would end the inning with a soft grounder to second, but the damage had been done, and Woo’s day came to a close at 7 innings pitched, 2 ER, 1 walk, and 6 Ks.

Despite the strong six innings, Woo struggled to hide his frustration with his difficulties in the 7th. But he remained calm, limited the damage, and finished the inning. Even so, Woo was very critical of the free pass and the HBP, expressing so after the game:

“The leadoff walk, number one. Hitting Joc, stupid. But it’s just the concept of keeping teams down when they’re down, not giving them any life, not letting them have any momentum, not letting them breathe in any way, just keeping our foot on the gas. You give up the two there and then it’s like, the at-bats for Gabe the next inning are just more stressful. And there’s no need for that if I just do my job. Yeah. I’m still beating myself up over it. It’s just little things like that. It’s like, if they were to hit their way through that inning it’s one thing, but for me to give them free passes, that’s another thing.”

Despite the negative self-talk, it seems to me that Woo is as locked in as he’s ever been, consistently focused on improving and not letting small mistakes eat at him too much:

“I give myself tonight to be pissed, and then once I wake up tomorrow, it’s a new day, and we get on it again…I try to take the positive and analyze the negative. So yeah. Six good and one bad. Try to weigh it in that way too, proportionally, like, don’t be too hard on yourself but take the good and learn from the bad, and it is what it is. Yeah, I hold high standards for myself but there’s a balance there too of not being too hard on yourself.”

The Mariners’ offense also put on a mighty display today to follow up on their strong performance from last night. Rob Refsnyder got the scoring started today with his first hit as a Mariner, a lead-off homerun off the first pitch of the day from MacKenzie Gore. Having just returned from paternity leave, it seems dad power is back on the menu!

Refsnyder spoke after the game on his struggles getting started here in Seattle:

“I feel thankful for my teammates, trying to help me through. I don’t think you ever want to slump, especially early in the year, new team, new city, so I’ve definitely been hard on myself, but I’ve had a lot of help. Our mental coach, Bern [Adam Bernero] has helped me a lot…And especially as a platoon guy, it kind of stinks because you have a couple of days to sit on it, too. But the most frustrating thing is that we feel like we’re playing decent baseball, just the results as a whole haven’t been exactly where we want it to be, but it’s a good group, and we honestly believe in each other. Hopefully this series we can kind of build on that.”

Refsnyder has had a difficult start to the season but remains committed to taking advantage of the opportunities and expressed thanks for the fan support he has received so far despite his cold start:

“I really appreciate, there’s been some fans out in early batting practice, even today in the outfield, who have been really supportive. That helps. Honestly, I’m human, so we hear a lot of things. So just to have the fan support, it meant a lot, it’s pretty cool. I’ve played in some places where you get booed at home and things like that, and it definitely wears on you…[The fans said] just supportive things like you got it, we believe in you, keep going, just nice stuff like that. And it means a lot when you’re going through it, wondering who knows if I’m ever going to get another hit. So just to have that support, honestly, it genuinely meant a lot. It was nice.”

Hopefully, today marks a turnaround moment for the journeyman outfielder and the spark for a successful run for him here in Seattle.

The Mariners wouldn’t end the scoring there, putting on a show of strength and power today in front of the hometown fans. In the second, a leadoff walk for Mitch Garver set up JP Crawford for a two-run home run of his own.

With the swing, Crawford became the first player to get a hit off of Gore’s curveball all year and the second lefty in the league with two career homeruns off of Gore (Michael Harris II being the other).

Randy Arozarena followed that up with a two-run homer of his own in the 5th. A Julio Rodriguez single put him on first and in a 0-2 count against the curveball Randy hit it off the left field foul pole to put the Mariners up 5-0.

The Mariners were relentless against Gore today in a way they have not been before. In the previous three games in which the Mariners faced Gore over 18 innings, they scored 1 run, struck out 25 times, and walked 3 times, a record that certainly suggests today’s game should have gone differently. Today, however, the Mariners sparked Gore for 5 runs on 7 hits over 5 innings today, a marked improvement from previous outings. On top of that, as I mentioned earlier, coming into this start, Gore had not given up a hit all year on his curveball. 4 of the Mariners’ 8 hits came on Gore’s curveball, and two of those were home runs. Whatever change was made in the clubhouse, the Mariners have finally managed to get to a guy who has seemingly had their number over the last year or so.

Muñoz came in and shut the door in typical fashion in the 9th to put the bow on one of the most complete Mariners games I’ve seen so far this season. The Mariners have struggled in various areas so far this season – the bullpen not showing up, the starter struggling through the first 5 innings, or the offense doing their best impression of a ghost – but today the Mariners really put it all together. All the ingredients were there: a dominant start from Woo, who went on a solid run, run support from the top of the order, and the bullpen came in and shut down the game without incident. Hopefully, this is a sign that the Mariners are turning it around and maintaining the strong performances we are used to seeing from last year. There is another division-winning team here; it remains to be seen if that team can show up consistently.

The Cleveland Cavaliers took care of business in Game 1 against the Toronto Raptors. They kept Toronto from getting out in transition, forced them to play in the half-court, and then were able to out-execute them there on both sides of the court.

The Raptors desperately missed Immanuel Quickley in Game 1, who was out with a hamstring injury. His three-point shooting and quickness in the open court were things the team could’ve used. Toronto head coach Darko Rajaković mentioned before Saturday’s game that he was getting better even though he wasn’t able to go on Saturday. Quickly is once again questionable for Game 2.

The Cavs, meanwhile, have a clean injury report for the second game in a row. Thomas Bryant is the only player unavailable. He will be missing the game with a hamstring injury.

We’ll see if the Cavaliers can repeat Saturday’s success in Game 2 and grab a 2-0 series lead.

Who: Cleveland Cavaliers (1-0) vs. Toronto Raptors (0-1)

Where: Rocket Arena – Cleveland, OH

When: Mon., April 20 at 7 PM

TV: Peacock, NBC Sports Network

Point spread: Cavs -8.5

Cavs injury report: Thomas Bryant – OUT (calf)

Raptors injury report: Immanuel Quickley – QUESTIONABLE (hamstring)

Cavs expectedstarting lineup: James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Dean Wade, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen

Raptors expected starting lineup: Jamal Shead, RJ Barrett, Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes, Jakob Poeltl

Previous matchup: The Cavs grabbed a 1-0 lead with a 126-113 victory.

Here’s a look at both teams’ regular-season impact stats via Cleaning the Glass.

The first weekend of the 2026 NBA playoffs has wrapped up, with each first-round series having one game completed.

And, thus far, every higher seed has taken care of home-court advantage, but the playoffs are a long haul and series can change on an instant.

This may be disappointing to the rest of the league, but arguably no team was as impressive as the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, who dominated in their postseason opener.

So what, exactly, can be gleaned from the early games of the playoffs? Plenty.

Here are the winners and losers from the first weekend of the 2026 NBA playoffs:

WINNERS

Jayson Tatum

What he’s doing, 11 months removed from a torn Achilles, is nothing short of spectacular. Tatum shined in his return to the playoffs, posting an all-around efficient game of 25 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. His day would’ve been even better had he not shot 1-of-7 from 3-point range, but Boston looked every part of a legitimate threat in the East in its commanding win Sunday over Sixers.

Knicks defensive versatility

Speaking of contenders in the East, the Knicks sent a message Saturday against an upstart Hawks squad that can generate offense from different sources. New York harassed the Hawks, deploying Josh Hart on Jalen Johnson, which allowed OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges to fly around the perimeter and smother other weapons. Even Karl-Anthony Towns made his presence felt with a team-high 3 blocks.

The Nuggets-Timberwolves series

This is, by far, the gem of the round. They’re frequent opponents, having met in three of the last four playoffs. These are fierce, competitive teams that don’t like each other. And these teams are fairly evenly matched. The play was physical, chippy and compelling, and there’s no shortage of star power. The rest of the series should be fascinating.

Donovan Mitchell is on a mission

Although he has put up statistically impressive performances in the postseason, Donovan Mitchell often draws criticism because his teams have never gotten past the second round. Mitchell appears determined to erase that narrative; in Game 1 on Saturday, Mitchell dropped 32 points and 4 assists on the Raptors. He, James Harden and backup guard Max Strus combined to shoot 12-of-20 (60%) from beyond the arc.

So are the Oklahoma City Thunder

The defending champions looked hungry, efficient and cohesive in a 35-point blowout victory over the Suns. The defense, unsurprisingly, was oppressive, holding Phoenix to just 34.9% shooting. That, plus the 17 turnovers Oklahoma City forced, opened the path for easier transition points, with the Thunder taking an 18-2 edge on fastbreak points.

LOSERS

Lower seeds

The first round of the playoffs tends to produce expected results, and this year has been no exception. Through the Thunder-Suns game, higher seeds are a combined 6-0, and the games, in many cases, have been lopsided. The combined average margin of victory so far has been 18.5 points.

The Houston Rockets

Yes, Kevin Durant was out. But their opponent, the Lakers, was missing Luka Dončić (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique), the highest-scoring duo in the NBA this season. And, yet, the Rockets, a team that tied for fifth in defensive rating (112.1), allowed the Lakers to shoot 60.6% from the field, including 52.6% from 3-point range. Houston let Luke Kennard, a solid, role-playing shooter, hit all five of his 3-pointers for a playoff career-high of 27 points.

Arguably more disappointing was Houston’s lack of offensive cohesion. Often, players appeared to be ball watching and waiting for iso opportunities. The problem, however, was that the Rockets shot just 37.6% from the floor.

The 76ers without Joel Embiid

It’s clear that Philadelphia is going to struggle without its big man. Embiid (appendectomy) finished the regular season strongly, generating 28.6 points per game over his last five games played. The issue, as it has been with Embiid, is that he has been so infrequently available.

Against the impressive defense that the Celtics bring, there’s simply no way the 76ers can compete without Embiid. According to ESPN, Embiid hasn’t even started basketball activities for his return and may miss the entire first round. The Sixers, almost certainly, will be eliminated at that point, anyway.

Zaccharie Risacher and Dyson Daniels

Risacher, the 2025 No. 1 overall selection, played just 2:29 on Saturday against the Knicks and missed badly on his three shot attempts, two of which were point blank. Though he played far more, Daniels, similarly, forced difficult shots and couldn’t settle into a rhythm. The pair combined to go 2-of-10 for 4 points, though Daniels did dish out 11 assists and haul in 9 rebounds.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA playoffs: Who shined and who struggled early?

Austin Hedges had the best Sunday.

Hedges scored the first run in the Cleveland Guardians‘ 8-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles, then saved his best score for the postgame, when he proposed to his girlfriend, Lexi Dickinson, on the field.

With a few friends and teammates present, a “Lexi, will you marry me?” message was displayed on the scoreboard at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.

“Really hoping to win that game,” Hedges said. “I was going to do it regardless, but I really wanted to win that game to make it extra special.”

Hedges, 33-year-old, 12-year major-league veteran catcher, admitted to being nervous the entire day.

“Lots of nerves, lots of nerves,” Hedges said. “A lot of nerves about – I’m always nervous for baseball games. I mean, obviously that’s a good team over there and we want to win the series. And just trying to stay present, knowing that there was some activities after. But special day, special day to be able to soak it all in.”

Hedges said that he’s had the engagement ring since spring training and was looking for the right moment to propose to Dickinson, who he has had been dating since November 2024. After the successful proposal, Hedges’ teammates joined in an on-field celebration.

Hedges has played six of his 12 big-league seasons in Cleveland, and also spent time with the San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers, with whom he was a member of the team’s 2023 World Series winners.

USA TODAY’s eNewspaper is here – your source for timely, relevant stories, updated continuously.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Austin Hedges gets engaged after Guardians’ win over Orioles

NEW YORK (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic are the finalists for NBA MVP.

It had been a laborious weekend for the Giants bats. After two — count ‘em two — high intensity games in which they scored 17 total runs on 31 hits over 21 innings, the offense looked relatively exhausted in Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Washington. Spring’s bipolar nature abruptly swapped the tank-top heat of summer for an abrasive, chill-laced wind. Sunday was a day of indoor batting practice, of clubhouse breakfast buffets, of yawns in the dugout. They team had secured a series win and won three in a row. Didn’t they earn a day to just chill, to just zone out in the batter’s box and suck seeds on the bench with your cleats up? What does the good book advise? I say, unto thee: Pack all thou grinding and disciplined at-bats, thou situational contact, thou two-baggers and round -trippers and rallies and swipt bases into six days in order to rest on the seventh.

Obviously I don’t actually think the offense played with this level of lackadaisicalness, but it did, at time, look like they took these words to heart. Hitters truly did observe at the plate. Their swings were often hole-y as lefty opener PJ Poulin, struggling veteran Miles Mikolas, and recent Triple-A arrival Andrew Alvarez cruised through 9 shutout frames.

Mikolas, who lugged a 11.49 ERA (15.2 IP) into this game, scattered four singles across four scoreless innings while striking out 4. His four-seam fastball and its  -3.3 RV/100 earned three of his four strikeouts. Previous opponents had hit .316 and slugged .526 against the pitch… but not these opponents. Seemingly non-descript fastballs exposed out over the plate proved fatally feisty for Willy Adames and Heliot Ramos. Four of six swings elicited by the pitch came up empty. Only one of them was put into play. 

Frustratingly unproductive outs added up to an 0-for-11 day with runners in scoring position. And I joke that the offense took the day off, but the reality is some work was being done because the table was set multiple times. San Francisco out-hit Washington 8 to 7 and also got a boost from three defensive errors. 11 at-bats ain’t nothing to sneeze at. Those chances were more than enough rungs on a ladder to help the Giants climb out of their three-run hole. The difference proved to be a lack of decisiveness. A 2-run shot that echoed Ramos’s game-tying homer on Saturday, or his 3-run blast on Friday night, was glaringly absent.

Instead with a chance to bring home a run or two, the Giants batters piled up six strikeouts and also hit into a double play. They had a runner standing on second base with nobody out in the 6th, 8th, and 9th innings…and that runner managed to reach third just once. 

And to be clear, no tension or suspense was built in these at-bats with runners on. These were not gritty, 10-pitch showdowns, or spirit-filling shows of defiance and resistance. They were blink-and-you-missed-it outs. A candlelight in a windstorm. Mere whimpers. Twice Drew Gilbert and Patrick Bailey reached with two outs to set-up an RBI chance for Willy Adames, and twice Willy Adames flailed at strike three. The first time, in the 2nd, Adames was felled on three straight fastballs from Mikolas. In the 4th, he managed to see four. 

After Casey Schmitt led off the 6th with a double, southpaw Andrew Alvarez, who had been called up from the Rochester Red Wings earlier in the day, dispatched Jung Hoo Lee with a sinker, slider, curveball. Easy as A-B-C. The hot-hand Ramos fouled off three pitches in the middle of the zone before being called out on strikes. In the 8th with a runner on third, pinch hitter Jerar Encarnacion waved helplessly at an 0-2 curveball from Alvarez to end the innings. Easy as 1-2-3. 

Just another outing of little to no run support behind a solid Robbie Ray performance. After getting beat by a pair of solo shots in Cincinnati, Ray swallowed another bitter pill in D.C., logging his second quality start of the year as well as his third loss.

The veteran had been excellent for four innings, uncharacteristically pitching with efficiency and count leverage. The Nationals recorded three soft-contact singles in the first three innings, and Ray did well to manage the undeserved traffic.

Jacob Young led off the 2nd with a bloop single, but Ray softened the lead-off hit with back-to-back strikeouts. In the 3rd, Keibert Ruiz managed an infield single on a soft roller and advanced into scoring position after a James Wood walk. More troublesome soft contact off the bat off of Curtis Mead resulted in a heads-up defensive play by Willy Adames to expose some poor baserunning by the lead runner Ruiz. Brady House then flew out to deeeeep center field before Ray escaped the jam by inducing a routine flyout from Abrams. 

The relief of that escape lasted one more inning before Washington broke through the scoreless deadlock in the 5th.

A bunt single from Nasim Nunez was the inconspicuous start to the Nationals 3-run rally. Nunez promptly stole second and from scoring position scored on Keibert Ruiz’s double — a “double” really in name only. Off the bat, the ball looked to be destined to be caught. It boasted an xBA of .170. It lingered in the air. Perhaps the wind pushed it further away from Ramos than expected. He initially broke back towards the wall before course correcting to the right. The ball clipped the end of his glove before finding grass. An opportunity for out missed there. But Ramos got the ball quickly into Adames in shallow left. Nunez had a late break for home, and the relay to the plate beat him by plenty, but Bailey couldn’t corral the hop before prematurely bringing his glove over for the tag. The baseball rolled freely up the line as Nunez came to a complete stop, turned around, and cheekily leaned on the plate. 

Either end of that play could’ve produced an out. Instead the Nationals claimed the lead and then extended it. Two pitches later, Mead jumped on a first pitch change-up to plate the second and third runs of the day. 

The three earned runs allowed are so far a season high for Ray. He went on to bag two more strikeouts (7 K on the day) and complete the 6th before being relieved by scoreless appearances by Keaton Winn and JT Brubaker. All for naught though. The crooked number in the 5th proved to be a bridge too far for San Francisco’ listless lineup. Considering the looming midweek series against LA, and the arms they’ll be facing (Yamamoto, Ohtani, Glasnow), the offense might be kicking themselves for shrugging off the opportunities that presented themselves today. 

There should be no rest for a 9-13 team.