Mets lineup

Bo Bichette – 3B
Juan Soto – DH
Francisco Alvarez – C
Mark Vientos – 1B
Marcus Semien – 2B
Andy Ibáñez – LF
Tyrone Taylor – CF
Austin Slater – RF
Ronny Mauricio – SS

Nolan McLean – RHP

Angels lineup

Zach Neto – SS
Mike Trout – CF
Nolan Schanuel – 1B
Jorge Soler – DH
Jo Adell – RF
Josh Lowe – LF
Vaughn Grissom – 2B
Oswald Peraza – 3B
Travis d’Arnaud – C

Reid Detmers – LHP

Broadcast info

First pitch: 9:38 PM EDT
TV: SNY
Radio: Audacy Mets Radio WHSQ 880AM, Audacy App, 92.3 HD2

The sequence that most perfectly encapsulates today’s loss to the Astros began in the bottom of the third inning. Willson Contreras was at the plate with the bases loaded and just one out; Astros’ starter Spencer Arrighetti was teetering and had just walked the previous two men, and there was more lumber lurking on deck with Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu due up next. The Red Sox were down 1-0, but it very much felt like they were about to take control of the game.

I remember thinking to myself in this moment “Boy, after that three hit game last night, it feels like Roman Anthony’s really about to turn the corner. Now he’s gonna get a golden opportunity to build on that momentum against a struggling starter with either a chance to take the lead or put the Sox already ahead.”

Instead, by the time Anthony came to the plate, the Sox were down 5-0 in the bottom of the next inning.

The deadly combination of events came as follows:

First, Willson Contreras hit into this brutally costly double play to ruin the third inning threat:

Then Brice Matthews hit this three run bomb off Connelly Early in the top of the fourth:

That wasn’t quite the ballgame, but it sure felt like it. The Red Sox are now 0-17 when they fall behind by at least two runs at any point in the game, and this lineup just proves relentlessly incapable of changing that stat.

Today was actually a perfect example of what that’s the case. There were plenty of other chances for the Red Sox to get back in the thing and mount a comeback, but time and time again they lacked the big hit when they really needed it. They had several opportunities to the tune of eight hits and seven walks, but not a single one of those hits went for extra bases, and the team went just 2-9 with runner in scoring position (zero of which came when the deficit was within three runs).

The Astros meanwhile had three extra base hits in just the fourth inning alone (the biggest frame of the game for either team), and that really was the difference in this tussle. The Astros lineup leads the American League in batting average, RBI, OPS, and wRC+. It doesn’t matter if your measuring stick is a metric old or new, their bats are good! The reason they have an even worse record than the Red Sox overall though is because their pitching staff has fallen apart like a piece of single-ply toilet paper.

And along those lines, I can’t underscore enough how much this Astros pitching staff sucks and how much the Red Sox offense sucks even more. In the five games Houston has played against Boston this year, they’ve held the Sox to 4 runs or less every single time. But in the other 29 games, the Astros opponents have scored 5 or more runs 22 times. Ironing that out more, the Red Sox have averaged 2.60 runs per game in their five slates against the 2026Astros, and everybody else has averaged 6.45 runs per game in the other 29 contests.

This lineup is beyond disgraceful!

Three Studs

Roman Anthony: After three hits last night, Roman Anthony was on base three more times today with a hit and two walks. Also, the hit was a liner the other way into the left field corner, so it was nice to see Anthony smack a free strike teams have been getting against him on the outer third of the plate.

Wilyer Abreu: On base four times with two hits and two walks, and the only Red Sox player with a multi hit game.

The bullpen: Ryan Watson and Tyler Samaniego probably wouldn’t tell you it was their best day on the mound, but together them combined for five innings of one run baseball that base kept the team in today’s game and saved all the high leverage relievers for a potential series win tomorrow.

Three Duds

Willson Contreras: That third inning double play was the backbreaker that set the table for the rest of the game. If he gets a hit or a walk in that spot, the Red Sox probably win as Arrighetti walked both the two batters before this and the two batters after.

Trevor Story: Hit into a costly double play in the second inning and then had a costly strikeout with nobody out in the fourth after the first two batters walked.

Connelly Early: The was the worst outing of Connelly Early’s career so far. Four runs allowed in four innings and gave up plenty of hard contact.

Play of the game:

One of the many frustrating things about this Red Sox season in a long line of frustrating things is how high the overall percentage of great defensive plays made in center field have been by their opponents. The Red Sox are supposed to have a huge advantage here with Ceddanne Rafaela patrolling that part of the diamond, and for whatever reason he’s off to a slow start with the glove while just about every opponent coming into Fenway Park has made themselves right at home in one of the more difficult centerfields in all of baseball.

Anyways, it happened again today with Brice Matthews:

Winning is fun! The Chicago White Sox are on a four-game winning streak and have won three of their last four series. The Good Guys look to extend both streaks tonight, to five and four.

After notching his first career road win on April 22 in Arizona, Sean Burke takes the bump tonight and looks to snag his second. He’s been avoiding walks and missing barrels, which will be crucial against one of the best teams in baseball.

The ace for the San Diego Padres, Michael King, plans to put an end to Chicago’s offensive explosion. Where Burke excels with the fastball, King gets his job done with his breaking and off-speed pitches. Hopefully, he’ll hang a few tonight!

Here’s how the Sox are going to line up against King, with a few changes from last night:

Jarred Kelenic makes his first White Sox start, and Edgar Quero will take over tonight’s backstop duty.

The Padres are shaking it up a bit compared to last night:

Gavin Sheets (old friend alert), Jackson Merrill, Luis Campusano and Jake Cronenworth find themselves in the starting nine.

Luckily, starting an hour earlier today, you can catch the White Sox at 7:40 p.m. CT on CHSN for your viewing pleasure and WMVP-AM 1000 for your listening pleasure.

The Cincinnati Reds pitching staff accomplished something Saturday that hadn’t been done in more than 40 years.

Two Reds pitchers walked seven consecutive Pittsburgh Pirates hitters in the second inning of a May 2 game at PNC Park, tying an MLB record and turning what was already a rough afternoon into a historically bad day.  

Starter Rhett Lowder and reliever Connor Phillips combined to walk seven consecutive Pirates with one out in the second inning. That included issuing the final four walks with the bases loaded. Between them, they threw 42 pitches and only 11 for strikes, according to MLB.com.  

Lowder struck out leadoff hitter Oneil Cruz and then it went off the rails from there.

Lowder issued the first three walks before being pulled for Phillips. He came in with the bases loaded and walked four in a row, each one forcing in a run. Reliever Sam Moll finally stopped the bleeding. Entering the game with the bases loaded, he got both catcher Henry Davis and Cruz, batting for the second time that inning, to ground out.  

After that inning, the Pirates led 10-3.

The MLB record for consecutive walks had last been set on May 25, 1983, when the Pirates walked seven consecutive Atlanta Braves batters. One of the pitchers that day happened to be named Bob Walk. On April 27, 1994, the Seattle Mariners walked six in a row, hit a batter and then walked the next batter in a 12-2 loss to the Yankees.  

The Reds entered play Saturday having walked 11.6% of batters they faced this season, which was the fifth highest in baseball. Saturday, they showed just how much they struggle with the strike zone.  

Lowder, 24, came in 3-1 with a 3.18 ERA, which ballooned to 5.09 after that inning. Phillips had been one of the more reliable arms in Cincinnati’s bullpen before Saturday’s outing. He had walked just 15 in 17 appearances before Saturday.  

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Reds pitchers tie MLB record for consecutive walks

As a fan of this team, all of the losing at home is getting old. The Nats have been playing a fun and aggressive brand of baseball on the road. However, they have treated their fans to some flat and sloppy baseball. Today was a perfect example of that. This game was there for the taking, but the Nats did not grab it.

They went 1/11 with runners in scoring position and only scored one run despite constantly getting the leadoff man on. It was not a blowout, but I think this was one of the Nats worst overall performances of the season. The pitching kept them in the game, but the bats went quiet and the gloves were mistake prone.

It turned out that this game was decided in the first inning. After Foster Griffin got two quick outs, he ran into trouble, giving up one hit and two walks. However, with the bases loaded, he got a ground ball that should have ended the inning. Instead, an indecisive Brady House booted the ball, allowing a run to score and everyone to advance a base. Then Brandon Lockridge drove a single through the hole to score two more runners.

The game was now 3-0, but none of the runs were earned. It has been a really rough start to the season on the defensive side of the ball for Brady House. He looked rock solid last year, but now already has six errors in 2026. Coming into this game, House had posted -2 outs above average, a number that is likely to drop even further. It has been an all around regression on that side of the ball for the 22 year old.

It is still early, but you have to wonder if House’s job could be in jeopardy. Yohandy Morales has been hitting the cover off the ball in AAA and is deserving of an opportunity before too long. Between his poor defense and his issues with fastballs, House might need a re-set if this continues for much longer.

Outside of their 14 run outburst against the Mets, this offense has really cooled off. That was likely to be inevitable given the talent on the roster. It is still a bummer though. The lack of clutch hitting has been very frustrating lately. 

One bright spot for today and the season as a whole is Foster Griffin. While Griffin did not have his best stuff or command, he was able to grind through six innings, and did not allow any earned runs. Griffin did not allow any runs at all after that unfortunate first inning.

Griffin only got two whiffs today, both on curveballs. However, he did a good job keeping the ball off the barrel. There was not a lot of loud contact given up by Griffin after that first inning. He was uncharacteristically wild, walking four batters, but that is an outlier for the normally precise Griffin.

Foster Griffin pitched well enough to get a win, but instead, he tasted defeat for the first time as a National. The disparity between how the Nats play at home compared to how they compete on the road is truly jarring. You would think a team would come out with more juice and energy in front of their home fans, but it has been the opposite for the Nats.

Tomorrow is going to be a really big game for them. They desperately need Zack Littell to step up and be the guy Paul Toboni signed him to be. He had a solid start against the Brewers the last time he pitched against them, so hopefully that can give him some confidence. 

Today was yet another disappointing day at the yard for Nats fans. They will look to avoid the sweep tomorrow and avoid falling 10 games under .500 at home. This Nats team has shown some real positive signs, but the home losing is becoming a dark cloud for this group.

Let’s beat the Rockies again tonight, but maybe don’t go down 5-0 in the first inning this time. Join us and discuss tonight’s game in the comments below!

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Saturday, May 2, 8:10 p.m. EDT

Location: Coors Field, Denver, CO

TV: BravesVision

Streaming: MLB.tv (and Braves.tv if you’re in-market, etc.)

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

We ought to have a boilerplate template for 2026 Twins recaps, because it feels like every time the Twins lose this season, it’s for exactly the same reasons as I am about to describe. Another encouraging start from a young arm was emphatically erased by possibly the most predictably incompetent bullpen you’ve ever seen in your life, rendering any offensive contributions almost entirely meaningless. Sound familiar? Well, these were the same beats that played out in Saturday afternoon’s 11-4 Blue Jays victory, the 20th loss of Minnesota’s season, and another defeat that transpired for reasons that anyone could have seen coming.

In his third major-league start, Connor Prielipp went another five innings and only allowed three hits, although two were homers (Lenyn Sosa and Myles Straw, both in the second inning.) The Jays generated five hard-hit balls off the young lefty, who walked two and only struck out four in a 91-pitch outing, which is the longest of his professional career.

When he left, Minnesota even had a 4-2 lead. Byron Buxton had started the game with a leadoff bomb to right, his 10th homer of the year, and latest offensive outburst in a scorching-hot stretch that has raised his OPS back up to .857. The Twins added two more in the second, with a pair of runners scoring on a Brooks Lee single + Vladdy Jr. throwing error. Add on an RBI single from Trevor Larnach in the fifth, and Minnesota had pole position going into the later innings.

This has happened before, and it will happen again, and the usual suspects will be involved.

Toronto got one back as soon as the doors to Derek’s Magical Arm Barn opened; the homer-happy Kazuma Okamoto tagged Justin Topa for his 8th of the year with one out in the sixth. Okay, 4-3, you say. Not bad.

Bad!

BAD!!!

It could have been 10-3. It could have been 10-3, brother. And the Twins would have lost this game anyway.

That’s because the wheels came off completely in a marathon 8-run 8th inning for the third-place Jays. It’s an inning that behests bullet-pointing brather than a bregular baragraph. Let’s take a look at the highlights real quick before we get you the heck out of here.

• Eighth inning begins. Luis Garcia enters. (Why?!)
• Ernie Clement singles
• Vladdy Jr. walks
• Okamoto ties the game with a shot back up the middle off Luke Keaschall. 4-4.
• Lenyn Sosa drops an infield single into the mix and scores Vladdy from third. 5-4.
• Anthony Banda comes in. At least we tried, Luis!
• Daulton Varsho reaches and everybody’s safe on a fielder’s choice attempt that ends in an Anthony Banda error.
• Myles Straw walks and everybody moves up. 6-4 Jays.
• Davis Schneider smacks a two-run double to left. 8-4 Jays. Two runners still in scoring position.
• Brandon Valenzuela ropes a three-run homer to center. 11-4 Jays, although at this point, it would be reasonable to assume that nobody is keeping score anymore.
• Three quick outs are then recorded. Presumably the Jays got bored.

It may not surprise you to learn that the Twins did not reach base for the rest of the game.

The team is ass.

STUDS:

RP John Klein (IP, 0 R in his major-league debut. For this bullpen, stud-worthy.)

LF Trevor Larnach (2-for-4, RBI, 2B)

DUDS:

DH Josh Bell (0-for-4, K)

RF Matt Wallner (0-for-4, K)

RP Justin Topa (0.2 IP, H, ER, K, HR)

RP Luis Garcia (0.0 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, BB)

RP Anthony Banda (IP, 2 H, 4 R, 3 ER, BB, HR)

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 Detroit Pistons can complete another historic comeback against the Orlando Magic. The Cleveland Cavaliers will settle for one more home victory over the Toronto Raptors.

The Pistons host the Magic in their Game 7 on Sunday in a late-afternoon contest, while the Cavaliers and Raptors wrap up the first round in primetime.

The winners move on to meet in an Eastern Conference semifinal series, which begins Tuesday in either Detroit, Cleveland or Toronto.

Detroit faced a 3-1 deficit to Orlando in its first-round series in 2003 before winning the final three games. The Pistons are the only top seed to do so against the No. 8 seed since the first round was expanded to a best-of-seven series the same year.

They are hoping to do it again.

After a 116-109 win in Game 5, the Pistons rallied from a 24-point second-half deficit to defeat the Magic 93-79 on Friday and send the series back to Detroit.

Orlando missed 23 straight shots from the field, including 13 from 3-point range, the most by any team in a playoff game during the play-by-play era that started in 1996-97. This was part of a 35-5 Pistons run.

“Having your back against the wall really shows who you are,” said Detroit point guard Cade Cunningham, who is averaging 32.5 points in the series. “There has been a lot of adversity so far in this series. I think we have learned a lot about who we are as a team and individually, and what we are made of. It has been a fun series. We want to get back to the crib and handle our business back home.”

The Magic still hope to become the seventh No. 8 seed to eliminate the conference’s top seed in the first round, but they need to bounce back quickly.

“The series ain’t over. I know they’ve clawed their way to tie it up 3-3. We won a game to start the series, and we’ve just got to go do it again,” forward Paolo Banchero said.

In a first round where the road team has won 17 games in seven other first-round series, the Cavaliers and Raptors have maintained serve, with the home team winning each game.

The Cavaliers’ 2024 first-round series against the Magic went the same way, with Cleveland winning 106-94 in Game 7 to advance.

“Protect home court. It doesn’t matter if we lost by 30 or two, protect home court. That’s all you can do,” point guard Donovan Mitchell said.

Toronto’s RJ Barrett sent it back to Cleveland for a deciding game when his 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1.2 seconds remaining in overtime hit off the back rim and bounced high above the backboard before going through the net to give the Raptors a 112-110 victory.

For many fans, the shot brought back memories of Kawhi Leonard’s four-bounce buzzer-beating winner in Game 7 of the 2019 East semifinals against Philadelphia. The Raptors would go on to win the NBA championship.

Barrett noted that the focus quickly shifted to Sunday night.

“Kind of forget everything that’s happened so far. Got one game to decide it all,” he said. “I think this group has been tough and resilient, and we’ve fought through the toughest of tasks all year long. So going to Cleveland is going to be a tough task, but that’s what we’re built for.”

The Raptors are trying to become the first team since Dallas in the 2022 Western Conference semifinals to win a Game 7 on the road after the first six were won by the home team.

Orlando Magic at Detroit Pistons

When/Where to watch: Game 7, 3:30 p.m. EDT (ABC)

Series: Series tied 3-3

Betting line: Pistons by 8.5

What to Know: Whoever wins will end a long playoff drought. The Pistons haven’t made it past the first round since 2008, while the Magic haven’t won a playoff series since 2010. Detroit is 5-5 in Game 7s and unbeaten in four home games. Orlando is 2-2 and 1-2 on the road. Cunningham has scored at least 25 points in all six playoff games, including a team-record 45 in Game 5. Orlando forward Franz Wagner, who averaged 16.8 points in the first four games, is expected to miss a third straight game with a right calf strain.

Toronto Raptors at Cleveland Cavaliers

When/Where to watch: Game 7, 7:30 p.m. EDT (NBC/Peacock)

Series: Series tied 3-3

Betting line: Cavaliers by 8.5

What to Know: Cleveland is looking to advance past the first round for the third straight year. It is 6-2 in Game 7s, including 4-0 at home. So far in the 2026 playoffs, James Harden is averaging 21.0 points and 6.7 assists, but he is also committing 5.7 turnovers per game. Toronto is 3-3 in Game 7s and is playing its first one on the road since the 2021 conference semifinals against Philadelphia, which it lost 88-87. Forward Brandon Ingram is questionable after missing Friday’s game due to right heel inflammation.

___

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