Baseball

Oakland, California – Back on the mound after nearly 23 months, Shohei Ohtani hardly felt comfortable. Rather rusty, in fact, the ball leaving his hand without the purpose and feel he is so accustomed to. The way things started, Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon couldn’t see the day getting […]

Chicago – Yu Darvish allowed three runs over four innings and took the loss in his first start of the delayed MLB season on Saturday as the Chicago Cubs fell 8-3 to the Milwaukee Brewers. Darvish (0-1) allowed six hits and walked none, while striking out five of the 20 […]

Houston – Dusty Baker posted a win in his debut as Houston’s manager and the Astros, playing for the first time since their sign-stealing scandal rocked baseball, opened the season by beating the Seattle Mariners 8-2 Friday night. « The guys had a lot of energy, a lot of belief and […]

New York – Yoshitomo Tsutsugo made his long-anticipated major league debut with a fifth-inning, two-run home run on Friday, but the Tampa Bay Ray lost 6-4 against the Toronto Blue Jays. Tsutsugo, who signed with the Rays over the winter, blasted an opposite-field home run off Blue Jays starter Ryu […]

Toronto – The displaced Toronto Blue Jays will play in a minor league ballpark in Buffalo, New York, this year after being turned down by the Canadian government and blocked from playing in Pittsburgh by the state of Pennsylvania. The Blue Jays’ home for the season will be Sahlen Field, […]

Washington – The Nationals and Yankees knelt in unison before the first game of the baseball season as part of an opening day ceremony Thursday night that featured references to the Black Lives Matter movement, the coronavirus pandemic — including an off-the-mark first pitch by Dr. Anthony Fauci — and […]

Washington – The coronavirus-shortened Major League Baseball season finally started amid the pandemic Thursday night with plenty of unusual elements – zero fans, umpires wearing masks, Washington star Juan Soto sidelined by COVID-19, all Nationals and Yankees kneeling together before the national anthem. « It’s hard to describe. That’s 2020 in […]

New York – Major League Baseball and the players’ union agreed Thursday to expand the playoffs from 10 teams to 16 for the pandemic-delayed season, a decision that makes it likely teams with losing records will reach the postseason. The agreement was reached hours before the season opener between the […]

Nagoya – The Central League-leading Yomiuri Giants overpowered the Chunichi Dragons 6-1 on Thursday, with Kazuma Okamoto driving in the go-ahead run as part of a five-run rally in the eighth. Yomiuri starter Cristopher Mercedes (2-2) got the win after throwing seven innings of one-run ball. The southpaw from the […]

New York – Opening day, at last. A baseball season that was on the brink before it ever began because of the virus outbreak is set to start Thursday night when excitable Max Scherzer and the World Series champion Washington Nationals host prized ace Gerrit Cole and the New York […]