Have you ever been to a Little League game where some poor kid can’t find the strike zone and the other team knows it? The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds just gave us the major league version of that.

The Pirates tied an MLB record on Saturday by drawing walks in seven straight plate appearances, turning what was previously a 5-3 lead into a laugher. The two pitchers responsible for the walk streak: starter Rhett Lowder and reliever Connor Phillips.

The Pirates went on to win 17-7.

The strike zone carnage came in the second inning, after the Pirates had already gone through their entire order in a five-run first inning. Leadoff hitter Oneil Cruz struck out looking, then the 2-8 batters in the Pittsburgh lineup all drew walks, with Phillips replacing Lowder after three walks, then walking in four runners himself.

The Pirates pulled Phillips after that and replaced him with Sam Moll, who didn’t walk Henry Davis, but did allow another run in on a fielder’s choice grounder. Cruz then grounded out to end the inning, making him responsible for two of the three outs.

It was 10-3 Pirates at the end of the inning, with five runs scored on zero hits. Please enjoy a supercut of all seven walks, featuring a Pirates broadcast falling further into disbelief with each ball:

And if you’re curious what all of that looks like from a pitch perspective: ball, strike, ball, foul, ball, ball strike, foul, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, strike, ball, strike, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, strike, foul, ball, foul, ball, ball, ball.

Only two other teams have yielded seven straight walks in MLB history. The last one to do it is the Pirates, who did it against the Atlanta Braves in 1983 per Dan Zangrilli of 93.7 The Fan. The other team do it was the Chicago White Sox in 1909.

The Pirates went on to post another five-run inning in the fourth, giving them a 15-3 lead. Their offense was so dominant that starting pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski could be seen jumping and running in place in the dugout to stay loose while waiting for his next trip to the mound.

The win improves the Pirates’ record to 18-16, while the Reds are now 20-13.

The Kansas City Royals (13-19) face the Seattle Mariners (16-17) in the second game of their series. The Royals won Friday’s opener 7-6. Starting pitchers are Seth Lugo for Kansas City, with a 2.63 ERA, and Emerson Hancock for Seattle, with a 2.86 ERA.

How to watch Kansas City Royals vs. Seattle Mariners

• Date: Saturday, May 2

• Time: 9:40 p.m. ET / 6:40 p.m. PT

• Where: T-Mobile Park, Seattle, WA

• TV Channels: Mariners.TV, Royals.TV

• Live Stream:ESPN+, MLB.TV | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Team records

• Kansas City Royals: 13-19 (No. 5 in AL Central)

• Seattle Mariners: 16-17 (No. 3 in AL West)

Odds

• Spread: Seattle Mariners -1.5

• Moneyline: Seattle Mariners -147 (57.0%) / Kansas City Royals +123 (43.0%)

• Over/Under: 7.5

Starting pitchers

Kansas City Royals: Seth Lugo (1-1, ERA: 2.63, K: 31, WHIP: 1.17)
Seattle Mariners: Emerson Hancock (2-1, ERA: 2.86, K: 32, WHIP: 0.98)

Weather: 72°F at first pitch

Ballpark: Capacity: 47,929 | Roof: Retractable | Surface: Grass

The Baltimore Orioles will reportedly activate top pitching prospect Trey Gibson to start against the New York Yankees on Sunday.

The move hasn’t been officially announced, but Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said the plan was for Gibson to pitch Sunday, according to the Baltimore Banner’s Andy Kostka. He’ll be opposed by Max Fried pitching for the Yankees.

The 6-foot-5 right-hander was called up from Triple-A to join the Orioles’ taxi squad of minor leaguers that travels with the major-league club on road trips to provide replacements when necessary.

For Baltimore, a starting pitcher is certainly necessary. Trevor Rogers (illness), Dean Kremer (quad) and Zach Eflin (elbow) are on the injured list, among the 12 players who are currently sidelined for the Orioles.

Gibson, 23, is ranked as Baltimore’s No. 3 prospect by MLB.com and Baseball America. He signed with the Orioles as an undrafted free agent in 2023 out of Liberty University and has steadily progressed through the minor-league system.

From MLB.com:

“Gibson has a power-pitcher build and power-pitcher stuff. He’s a 6-foot-5, 240-pound right-hander with a four-seamer that he can rev into the high 90s, a two-seamer to generate ground balls and an array of secondary offerings designed to miss bats in abundance.

“He throws two different sliders and an above-average curveball, both in the low-to-mid 80s, as well as a cutter and developing changeup. He’s added velocity and proven durable since entering pro ball, cutting his walk rate as he’s climbed to the upper levels.”

In starts for Triple-A Norfolk this season, Gibson has a 4.01 ERA in six starts with 25 strikeouts and 12 walks in 24 2/3 innings. He was already scheduled to start on Sunday, so he will be on his normal turn in the rotation.

The Orioles went into Saturday’s matchup versus the Yankees (21-11) with a 15-17 record, six games out of first place in the AL East.

There’s a reckoning due in Denver after a stunning first-round playoff loss to a Minnesota Timberwolves team that played two-plus games without Anthony Edwards and Donte Divincenzo.

Per multiple reports, it won’t come on the sideline. Head coach David Adelman is expected to return next season according to the Denver Post’s Bennett Durando and ESPN’s Shams Charania. But anybody not named Nikola Jokić on the roster is expected to be expendable.

Would Nuggets part with Jamal Murray?

Per Charania, the Nuggets are expected to field calls this offseason for any player but Jokić. This includes Jamal Murray, Jokić’s two-man partner who helped lead the Nuggets to their first and only NBA championship in 2023.

Jokić’, meanwhile, is expected to sign a four-year, roughly $290 million extension this summer, according to Charania. On the heels of the disappointing playoff loss, the Nuggets are under pressure to rebuild a contender around their three-time MVP for the remainder of his prime.

Denver attempted to do so last offseason after a seven-game loss to the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the playoffs. They traded away Michael Porter Jr. in a move that triggered an effort to build needed depth around Denver’s talented starting five.

But that depth frequently failed to surface in Denver’s playoff loss to Minnesota and was further tested by injuries to Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon. Watson missed the entire series with a hamstring injury, and Gordon missed Games 3, 5 and 6 with a calf strain, exacerbating an injury-plagued season that limited him to 36 regular season games.

Can Nuggets fix depth, rim protection issues?

As Minnesota took control of the series from Game 2 on, the Nuggets ran an inconsistent cast of bench players that failed to find reliable production the bench and their role players.

By the end of games against the Timberwolves, Jokić and Murray frequently looked gassed. Each played arguably the worst playoff series of his career against a swarming Minnesota defense.

The Timberwolves, meanwhile, exposed Denver’s lack of rim protection throughout the series. Ayo Donsumu had a career game with 43 points off the bench in Game 4 highlighted by frequent attacks of an unprotected basket.

Terrance Shannon Jr. repeatedly scored uncontested buckets at the rim in a 24-point effort in Minnesota’s closeout win in Game 6. There’s a defensive hole at the basket that won’t be plugged by a healthy Gordon.

Nuggets don’t have much room to maneuver

Fixing Denver’s roster construction issues will require some creativity. The Nuggets have an expensive roster don’t have a lot to offer in return to a team looking to build for the future.

Their 2026 first-round pick is the 26th in the draft. They’ve traded their first-round pick in 2027 to the Thunder, barring top-5 protection kicking in.

Christian Braun is likely untradeable after a down season and playoffs (8.3 ppg, 41.7% from the field) and five-year, $125 million extension set to kick in.

And the Nuggets as constructed project to have roughly $203 million to $214 million in salary next season, well over the projected $165 million salary cap and flirting with the projected $209 million first apron. That’s before any effort to re-sign free agents Spencer Jones, Bruce Brown, Watson and Tim Hardaway Jr.

Murray’s due roughly $111 million on the remaining two years of his four-year, $208 million contract. For a team seeking cap relief, parting with his contract could be an appealing if painful prospect if there’s another team interested in taking his contract on coming off a likely All-NBA season.

Whatever the Nuggets decide to do to maximize the remaining of Jokić’s prime, it won’t come easy.

The Tampa Bay Lightning played as good of a hockey game as you can play in the playoffs. Yet unfortunately, they’re going home regardless.

On Sunday, the Lightning lost Game 7 of their first round playoff matchup against the Montreal Canadiens in a wild turn of fortune. Despite outshooting the Canadiens 29-9, the Lightning lost 2-1 after Alex Newhook gave Montreal the late third period lead on an incredibly bizarre sequence of events.

With less than nine minutes to play, the Canadiens were set up in the Lightning end on one of their only major moments of extended pressure in the attacking zone. Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson shot a puck that went high off the glass, landing behind Andrei Vasilevskiy’s cage. Newhook was in the right position at the right time to take the bounce off the ice and backhand it off of Vasilevskiy and into the net for the lead.

It’s a truly stunning sequence of events that feels like a one-in-a-million chance that has to be seen to be believed.

ALEX NEWHOOK PUTS THE HABS BACK IN THE LEAD!! 😱 #Game7#StanleyCup

🇺🇸: @NHL_On_TNT
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet & @TVASportspic.twitter.com/6AbrpCrpIM

— NHL (@NHL) May 4, 2026

The Lightning had the pressure on the Canadiens all game long, so to bow out of the playoffs on this kind of goal has to be excruciating. Not only that, the Lightning now have exited the playoffs without winning a round for four straight seasons since losing the Stanley Cup Final to the Colorado Avalanche in 2022.

It’s going to be a long summer for the folks in Tampa Bay after this one.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Lightning’s playoff hopes ended on brutally unlucky Game 7 goal

It’s going to happen. You can guarantee it. At some point in the Oklahoma City Thunder‘s Round 2 series against the Los Angeles Lakers, the latter’s supersized fanbase will invade social media with slowed-down clips of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to prove one point.

Gilgeous-Alexander gets an unfair whistle. He foul-baits his opponents. He initiates contact. His nonstop flopping is a poison to the integrity of the sport. Blah. Blah. Blah. About every other NBA fanbase has voiced those same complaints to the ether over the years. It comes with the territory of basketball dominance.

That’s why Austin Reaves’ answer was a breath of fresh air. Also known to dive into the dark arts of generating contact to get to the free-throw line, the Lakers’ homegrown scorer refused to swing at the slow-pitch setup question about Gilgeous-Alexander’s free-throw numbers.

“I know that’s a tough topic to talk about because everybody blows it out of proportion. He wants to win and is gonna do whatever it takes to win,” Reaves said. “If it’s shoot 20 free throws, so be it. If I shoot 20 free throws, I’d be happy. I don’t think there’s any bad intentions with trying to get to the line.”

Smart. While you could say Gilgeous-Alexander’s ascension into being a 30-point scorer over the last four seasons can be tied to his free-throw numbers, the same can be said about every all-time bucket-getter. It’s the secret fourth level of scoring that every pseudo-NBA-All-Star hopes to unlock to become a perennial MVP candidate.

Gilgeous-Alexander averaged a measly 4.9 free-throw attempts in his first four seasons. In his next four seasons — when he graduated into NBA superstar status — that number jumped to 9.3 attempts. In a similar vein, Reaves went from a nice undrafted rookie to slowly climbing Los Angeles’ ladder. Becoming a 20-point scorer over the last two years, he’s averaged 5.9 free-throw attempts.

The Thunder will enter their Round 2 series against the Lakers as the overwhelming favorite. As they should. They dominated the rest of the league and look primed to go back-to-back. They’ve also had Los Angeles’ number this year, with four blowout wins this past regular season.

Whatever happens, it feels like both sides respect the other’s ability. At least for now. The Thunder won’t take the Lakers lightly after they won an NBA playoff series without Luka Doncic. And Los Angeles understands the magnitude of its upcoming challenge and how daunting the odds are against it.

Austin Reaves was asked about his and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s ability to draw fouls.

“I know that’s a tough topic to talk about because everybody blows it out of proportion. He wants to win and is gonna do whatever it takes to win. If it’s shoot 20 free throws, so be it. If I… pic.twitter.com/tbwaO2i6e4

— Daniel Starkand (@DStarkand) May 3, 2026

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Austin Reaves defends Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on this 1 controversial subject

The Brooklyn Nets have developed their teams through a number of strategies over the decades, and their front office has put together considerable success through the NBA draft. Many of the franchise’s best players have joined the Nets either by being selected directly in the annual draft or through trades made on that day.

Moreover, it is not only the star players who have been acquired by the Nets through the draft. Several prominent alumni have been selected by the team each offseason during this annual event, with certain colleges being more prominently represented than others. An analysis of the players from different schools reveals that both prestigious programs and smaller institutions have contributed top talent to the Nets’ roster over the years.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at every player who has been drafted by the Nets out of

Frank Booker – guard

Draft year and position: seventh round (second pick, 140th overall), 1987 NBA Draft

Seasons at Bowling Green: four

Seasons played with Nets: did not make the team

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Every Bowling Green player drafted by the Nets

The Houston Rockets have had players donning a total of 52 different jersey numbers (and have one not part of any numerical series for Houston assistant coach and general manager Carroll Dawson) since their founding at the start of the 1967-68 season, worn by just under 500 players in the course of Rockets history.

To honor all of the players who wore those numbers over the decades, Rockets Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who wore them since the founding of the team all those years ago right up to the present day.

With seven of those jerseys now retired to honor some of the greatest Rockets of all time to wear those jerseys, there is a lot of history to cover.

And for today’s article, we will continue with the seventh of 11 who wore the No. 13, wing alum Kirk Snyder. After ending his college career at Nevada, Snyder was picked up with the 16th overall selection of the 2004 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz.

The Los Angeles, California native played the first seasons of his pro career with Utah. He would also play for the (then) New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets (now, Pelicans) before he was dealt to the Houston Rockets in 2006. His stay with the team lasted until he was dealt to te Minnesota Timberwolves in 2008.

During his time suiting up for the Rockets, Snyder wore only jersey No. 13 and put up 3.8 points and 1.3 rebounds per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Rockets jersey history No. 13 – Kirk Snyder (2006-08)

PORTLAND, Ore. — Bridget Carleton has officially arrived in the Rose City, stepping into a role that feels like the ultimate culmination of a journey that began as a dominant collegiate star and evolved through years of professional grit.

Although she arrived later than her teammates due to finishing her season in Prague, Carleton remained tethered to the franchise’s inaugural steps. “The whole practice film was sent to us, so I was in Prague watching the whole thing in my off time,” Carleton said.

From Iowa State Legend to WNBA Resilience

Carleton’s arrival as a franchise cornerstone is particularly poignant given her history. She entered the professional ranks following a storied career at Iowa State University, where she was the first Cyclone women’s basketball player to named Big 12 Player of the Year (Ashley Joens won the award in 2023) and was the recipient of the 2019 Cheryl Miller Award as the nation’s top small forward. Despite leaving Ames as the program’s second all-time leading scorer with 2,142 points, her transition to the WNBA was far from guaranteed.

Drafted 21st overall in the second round, Carleton faced immediate adversity when she was waived just one month into her rookie season in Connecticut. “I think it’s kind of surreal,” Carleton said reflecting on a path that saw her fight for roster spots in Minnesota before becoming a full-time starter.

“To be where I am today, I know younger me would not believe it and just – really proud of all the work I’ve put in, and I just love the game so much,” she added.

A Choice Based on Value

Her decision to sign with Portland was rooted in a desire to play where her contributions were not just useful, but essential. “I wanted to go somewhere where they wanted me, and Portland showed how much they wanted me here,” Carleton said, pointing to the fact that the team selected her first in the expansion draft. At nearly 29 years old, she views this transition as a definitive new chapter. “I’m ready just to take that next step… and show a little bit more of what I can do,” Carleton stated.

This belief is shared by General Manager Rana, who has publicly challenged her to reach an All-Star level—a goal the forward has fully embraced. “She sees that in me, and I see it in myself,” Carleton said.

The Analytical Approach and Chemistry

Carleton’s excitement is further fueled by the tactical vision of Head Coach Alex, whose system favors the fluid, “read-and-react” style she mastered while playing internationally. “It’s not a lot of X’s and O’s,” Carleton said. “It’s just reading, reacting, driving, cutting, shooting threes. It’s all things I like to do, and high IQ players do well in that system.”

In the whirlwind of a first-year franchise, Carleton has found an anchor in assistant coach Sylvia Fowles, a legend she spent four years playing alongside in Minnesota. “Seeing Syl’s face, it was like automatic comfort,” Carleton said., whom she has leaned on since 2019.

To bridge the gap of unfamiliarity among a new roster, Carleton is preaching a philosophy of radical transparency: “It just starts with communication, over-communicating even, because we don’t know each other as well yet.”

Reviving a Legacy

As she plays in her first game at the Moda Center on Sunday, Carleton is acutely aware that she is part of a larger movement to return professional women’s basketball to a city that has long championed the sport.

“My first time in Portland, but I know, especially for women’s sports, the Thorns do so well and draw such a great crowd,” Carleton said. “Really big fans of women’s sports here, so I’m excited that the W is back here, and we have a piece in that. So I’m really excited. I feel the excitement on social media a little bit, but I’m excited to see it and feel it in person.”

As the Fire have their second oreseason game Sunday, Carleton has a goal as “one of the best shooters in the league right now”: “I would like to be even better. So hopefully … All the three-pointers go in.”