The first shake-up of the season for the line-up, with Gabriel Moreno and Jordan Lawlar each sitting this one out, replaced by James McCann and Jorge Barrosa respectively. Maybe we can become the first NL West team apart from the Dodgers to win a game? The Rockies already lost their second game, joining us, the Padres and Giants, who all came into play at 0-2. The Giants have run their scoreless streak to open the season to 20 innings against the Yankees at time of writing, while the Padres are trying to avoid being swept by the Tigers. Hopefully, this is Detroit getting it all out of the way early, since they will be joining the D-backs in flying to Arizona tonight…

Tonight is Eduardo Rodriguez’s first start in 2025, and we’ll be hoping for an improved version of E-Rod for 2026. He comes in having made 39 starts for Arizona, with an ERA just over five (5.02). That’s an ERA+ of 85. Among those with more than twenty starts for the Diamondbacks, that puts him right in between Rodrigo Lopez and Barry Enright. It is also two points better than Brandon Pfaadt’s career figure, though the latter is not earning twenty-one million dollars this year. If Rodriguez can become the first Arizona starter to make it through five innings this year, that might be a good sign. Otherwise, we may be looking at a Joe Ross sighting.

The Iowa Cubs were broadsided by the Columbus Clippers (Guardians), 4-3.

Iowa scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning and then didn’t score again. First, left fielder Justin Dean walked to lead off the bottom of the inning. He then stole second, went to third on a bad throw and scored on a fielder’s choice by first baseman Jonathon Long.

Two batters later, right fielder Kevin Alcántara did this.

The two-run home run went 393 feet and came on a slider from a right-hander that drifted outside the zone.

The I-Cubs got a good 3.1 innings from starter Will Sanders. Sanders gave up one run on a solo home run by Petey Halpin but nothing else. The final line on Sanders was one run on five hits over 3.1 innings. He struck out six and walked just one.

Luke Little relieved Sanders. He did not allow a run or a hit over 1.1 innings. He did walk two while striking out one.

Meanwhile, Iowa only had three hits after the first inning. One of them was this double by center fielder Brett Bateman.

Columbus got one run in each of the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to lose the game. Ethan Roberts gave up a run in the seventh and Yacksel Rios allowed a run in the eighth and ninth to blow the save and take the loss. The final line on Rios was two runs on four hits and three walks over two innings. He struck out one.

Alcántara was 1 for 4 with the two-run home run. Bateman was 1 for 3 with a double and a steal.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Giants matched a franchise record Saturday by reaching 20 straight innings without scoring to begin the season, then finally recorded their first run in the third inning against the New York Yankees.

San Francisco had been shut out by New York 7-0 and 3-0 with only four hits over its first two games — the first time that had happened in baseball history to start a season.

Jung Hoo Lee began the third Saturday with a double to right off Will Warren, then Matt Chapman followed with an RBI single, and the crowd cheered wildly as many fans jumped to their feet in obvious relief.

New manager Tony Vitello, promoted from the University of Tennessee despite no professional playing or coaching experience, became the ninth manager in baseball history to be shut out in each of his first two games with a team, and seventh manager to do so in his first two games overall, according to Sportradar.

The 20 consecutive scoreless innings matched the previous franchise mark from 1909, when the Giants were scoreless for 13 innings in their opener and the first seven in Game 2.

The only team ever to get shut out three straight times to open the year was San Diego in 2016, when the Padres were swept by the Dodgers on the way to a 68-94 season.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

ATLANTA (AP) — Hubert Kós broke his own NCAA record while defending his title in the 200-yard backstroke to help the Texas men win a second straight national championship in swimming and diving on Saturday.

Kós won with a time of 1 minute, 34.13 seconds as the Longhorns piled up 445.5 points. He set an NCAA record of 1:34.21 in winning the event last season. Kós also broke the NCAA record in the 100 backstroke earlier this meet. Florida junior Jonny Marshall finished second and Virginia sophomore David King took third.

Runner-up Florida had 416 points. Indiana (351), Arizona State (328) and Tennessee (272) rounded out the top five.

Virginia freshman Maximus Williamson began the day by winning the 200 IM in 1:38.48. Indiana senior Owen McDonald was second, followed by Texas senior Baylor Nelson.

Florida senior Josh Liendo clocked a 39.91 to win the 100 freestyle. LSU junior Jere Hribar was second, followed by Tennessee senior Gui Caribe.

Arizona State junior Ilya Kharun won the 200 butterfly in 1:37.66, a half-second in front of Michigan senior Tyler Ray. Virginia freshman Thomas Heilman placed third.

Kharun, Adam Chaney, Remi Fabiani and anchor Jonny Kulow won the men’s 400 free relay with a NCAA record time of 2:42.15. N.C. State placed second and Florida was third. The Sun Devils won five of the seven relay races.

Texas A&M freshman Emilio Trevino won the title in platform diving with 465.40 points. Purdue sophomore Tyler Wills (451.15) and Florida sophomore Jesus Gonzalez (427.25) followed.

Coach Bob Bowman has led Texas to back-to-back championships. He guided Arizona State to the championship in 2024 before taking the Longhorns job.

Hall-of-Fame coach Eddie Reese led Texas to 15 championships during his 46-year run from 1978-2024.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Tobias Harris led a balanced scoring attack with 18 points on Saturday as the Detroit Pistons strengthened their hold on the top seed in the Eastern Conference with a 109-87 victory over the injury-riddled Minnesota Timberwolves.

Jalen Duren had 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Pistons, who have won nine of their last 11 games. They began the day with a four-game lead over Boston in the race for the Eastern Conference’s top seed.

Five other Pistons scored at least 10 points, led by Daniss Jenkins and Ronald Holland II with 13 apiece.

Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards (right knee inflammation) missed his sixth straight game. The Timberwolves also played without starting forward Jaden McDaniels (right knee soreness) and guard Ayo Dosunmu (right calf soreness).

Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (collapsed lung) also missed his sixth straight game.

Donte DiVincenzo hit five 3-pointers and led Minnesota with 22 points. Rudy Gobert had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who shot a season-low 32% (27 for 85) from the floor and 21% (9 for 43) from beyond the arc.

Paul Reed scored six quick points on two free throws and two dunks and Caris LaVert hit two fadeaway jumpers as the Pistons pulled out to 33-24 lead after the first quarter.

DiVincenzo helped Minnesota rally in the second, scoring all of their points in a 10-2 run that helped the Timberwolves cut the deficit to 49-44 at the half.

Up next

Pistons: At Oklahoma City on Monday.

Timberwolves: At Dallas on Monday.

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

HOUSTON – After a buzzer malfunction at Toyota Center caused an 11-minute delay during the first half of Saturday’s Elite Eight game between Iowa and Illinois, officials sitting courtside resorted to an old-fashioned solution.

Kevin Johnson sat at the scorer’s table armed with two blue-and-white air horns, which he used to signal timeouts, substitutions and the end of each half.

Johnson, who has worked for the Houston Rockets as a game clock operator for 25 years, said the game operations crew always keeps air horns and stopwatches available in the arena just in case. On Saturday, as the delay dragged on, Johnson had a feeling they would be needed. He relayed a message into his headset and an employee scurried through the back hallways of Toyota Center to fetch the two emergency horns.

“They tried to go up and they were going to cut (the scoreboard) off. I said, ‘OK in the meantime, just get the air horns out here in case there’s a problem,’” Johnson said. “They were going to try and switch them back but the horn is tied to the whole thing. When they turned the screens back on, the horn is not going to stay cut off.”

Johnson was working the NCAA regional games in Houston along with the rest of the Rockets’ regular scorer’s table crew. He and shot clock operator Larry Stick, another longtime member of the Rockets’ staff, said a similar malfunction happened once before at a Rockets game many years ago – but they emphasized that incidents like that are rare in NBA arenas.

However, Johnson and Stick said it’s not unusual for scorekeepers and clock operators who work high school games to use manual air horns.

At NBA games, Johnson and Stick control the horn by flipping a switch on a Tissot handset, which resembles a simplistic video game controller.  But that controller broke on Saturday, which caused a constant buzzing sound to emanate from the scoreboard overhanging the court.

At halftime, arena employees tried to switch out the Tissot unit entirely, but it still didn’t work. The scoreboard and horn remained inoperable for the second half. So Johnson returned to his seat, put down his cup of blue sports drink and positioned the air horn on the table in front of him.

“Got to stay ready,” he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iowa-Illinois game delayed by buzzer malfunction. Break out the air horn

NEW YORK (AP) — Luis Robert Jr. hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the New York Mets a 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.

Luis Torrens delivered a tying single in the 10th on his first swing this season, and the Mets improved to 2-0 following an 11-7 victory on Thursday over Paul Skenes and the Pirates in their opener.

After starters Mitch Keller and David Peterson matched zeros in 42-degree weather, Nick Gonzales lined an RBI single for Pittsburgh with one out in the 10th to break a scoreless tie.

Mets reliever Luis Garcia prevented further damage by retiring Jake Mangum with the bases loaded.

Bryan Reynolds put the Pirates ahead again with a two-out infield single in the 11th before Richard Lovelady (1-0) struck out Gonzales with runners at the corners.

Jorge Polanco worked a leadoff walk in the bottom half from rookie left-hander Hunter Barco (0-1), who pitched out of a huge jam in the 10th to extend the game in his third major league appearance.

With automatic runner Bo Bichette also aboard at second, Robert reached down and drove a 1-0 slider over the left-center fence for his first homer with the Mets and the second walk-off shot of his career. The center fielder from Cuba, acquired from the Chicago White Sox in a January trade, also had two RBI singles Thursday in his New York debut.

Pittsburgh finished 2 for 18 with runners in scoring position and stranded 17. Mangum’s ninth-inning double was the only extra-base hit in the game until Roberts went deep.

Following the Mets’ offseason makeover, the 30-year-old Peterson became the team’s longest-tenured player. The left-hander, a first-time All-Star last season before fading in the second half, allowed six singles and two walks in 5 1/3 innings.

He pitched around a throwing error by Bichette, switching from shortstop to third base this year, and induced a popup from new Pirates cleanup batter Marcell Ozuna on a 2-0 fastball with the bases loaded to end the fifth.

Keller was even better, permitting just three singles and no walks in six innings. The right-hander, an All-Star in 2023, has a 1.79 ERA in seven starts against New York.

Up next

Mets rookie right-hander Nolan McLean (5-1, 2.06 ERA) makes his season debut Sunday in the series finale. RHP Carmen Mlodzinski (5-8, 3.55) pitches for Pittsburgh.

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

There was ample action in Great American Ball Park on Saturday, and the end result was a 6-5 victory by the Cincinnati Reds over the Boston Red Sox.

Dane Myers swatted a single over the shortstop – a replacement shortstop, I should add – in the Bottom of the 11th inning for his first hit, RBI, and Gatorade bath as a member of the Reds, as that was good enough to plate TJ Friedl from 2B and end the game. For that he not only gets mentioned in his first recap here at Red Reporter, but also takes home Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game honors.

How this game got there, though, was a bit of a see-saw.

Cincinnati jumped on Boston early as former Red Sonny Gray struggled early, needing over 30 pitches just to make it out of the Bottom of the 1st. The top of the Cincinnati order got on, got over, and scored twice in the game’s initial frame, and the early damage was enough to limit Gray to just 4 IP before exiting having allowed 3 ER overall.

Cincinnati held an early 3-0 lead and later a 4-1 score, though Brady Singer ran into trouble in the Top of the 4th and allowe another pair of Boston runs before exiting himself after just 4.0 IP. Boston then began to chip away at Cincinnati’s bullpen as just about everyone they have down there got in on the action, including a Wilyer Abreu homer off Emilio Pagan in the Top of the 9th to tie the score at 5 each and send the game into extras.

Pagan, for the record, came on in the 8th to get out of a jam created by Tony Santillan, and his second inning of work wasn’t quite so effective.

Elly De La Cruz socked a solo homer, as did Sal Stewart for the Reds first round-trippers of the season. Matt McLain had himself a day with a trio of hits and a pair of walks, and the heart of the Cincinnati lineup is looking mighty tasty to begin the year.

Eugenio Suarez even picked up his first ’hit’ and ribbie of the season with a dribbler back to Gray early that scored McLain when the veteran righty couldn’t get the ball to the plate quick enough.

All told, it was an entertaining day at GABP as the Reds picked up their first win of the season.

Other Notes

• The ABS system got a workout with the erratic (at best) CB Bucknor behind the plate. The Reds had 6 (six!) correct challenges that overturned calls, Boston blew through theirs early, and shortstop Trevor Story (and manager Alex Cora) eventually got tossed by Bucknor at the end of the Top of the 8th after another one of his questionable calls. Story fanned 4 times on the day.
• Sal Stewart’s homer wasn’t all he did on the day, as he also added an RBI single and walked. The kid’s a machine in the making and the Reds should sign him to a 15 year contract yesterday.
• Boston is set to start lefty Connelly Early tomorrow, so I’d anticipate Myers getting his first start of the year in that one. Rhett Lowder will toe the rubber for the Reds in the rubber match, with first pitch set for 1:40 PM ET.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist in his return from injured reserve and the Dallas Stars pulled away from the undermanned Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 on Saturday.

Jason Robertson reached the 40-goal plateau for the third time in his career and assisted on Rantanen’s goal with a slick cross-ice feed to the right circle that Rantanen — who hadn’t played since getting hurt on Feb. 20 while playing for Team Finland at the Milan Cortina Olympics — powered past Stuart Skinner for his first NHL tally since Feb. 2.

Mavrik Bourque scored a pair of empty-net goals late after the Penguins had pulled within one. Justin Hryckowian and Lian Bichsel also scored for the Stars, who snapped a four-game losing streak. Jake Oettinger stopped just nine shots, but that was enough to improve to 7-1 in his career against the Penguins.

Erik Karlsson, Anthony Mantha and Noel Acciari scored for Pittsburgh, who played without franchise cornerstones Sidney Crosby (lower body) and Evgeni Malkin (upper body), both of whom coach Dan Muse described as “day to day.”

Skinner, making a second consecutive start following a solid outing in a shootout victory in Ottawa on Thursday, finished with 20 saves but couldn’t stop the Penguins from being leapfrogged by the New York Islanders, who moved into second place in the Metropolitan Division with a victory over Florida earlier Saturday.

Robertson and Rantanen gave the Stars the lead when they scored 3 minutes apart in the second period, each assisting on the other’s goal. When Bichsel’s shot from the point beat Skinner less than two minutes after Rantanen’s marker, Dallas had a two-goal lead.

Up next

Stars travel to Philadelphia on Sunday.

Penguins visit the New York Islanders on Monday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl