A look at what’s happening around the majors today:
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WELL RESTED
Jacob deGrom and the Mets hope to finally play some baseball. New York has had four games in six days either postponed or suspended due to weather, including a snow out Friday night for the opener of their series at Colorado. The club has had seven postponements this season, including all three games of its opening series against Washington, which was called off due to the Nationals’ COVID-19 outbreak.
Saturday’s forecast in Denver looks chilly but clear, making it likely deGrom (0-1, 0.64) will finally get back on the mound two days after he was initially supposed to take his turn. New York’s ace will start the opener of a doubleheader against Chi Chi Gonzalez (1-0, 3.60), and Mets lefty Joe Lucchesi (0-0, 0.00) will face Germán Márquez (0-1, 4.02) in the late game.
BEAT-UP BEARS
Willson Contreras and the Cubs are feeling understandably unsettled in the box. Chicago batters were plunked four times by Braves starter Kyle Wright on Friday and have been hit a major league-leading 13 times this season - the Cubs also led the bigs last year with 52 hit-by-pitches. Contreras was hit Friday for the third time in four games and fifth time overall this season.
The Cubs are frustrated by all the bruises, especially after reliever Ryan Tepera was suspended three games Thursday for throwing behind Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff. Manager David Ross and game-planning coach Mike Borzello were also suspended one game each, bans they served in Friday’s 5-2 loss to Atlanta.
ACES UP
The Dodgers and Padres continue their first series of the year with aces Clayton Kershaw (2-1, 2.89 ERA) and Yu Darvish (1-0, 3.06) on the mound. Kershaw has shaken off a difficult opening day start with consecutive gems, allowing one run over 13 innings against Oakland and Washington. Darvish is having a similar season, struggling against Arizona in the opener before limiting San Francisco and Pittsburgh to a run each in his past two outings.
The season series between the NL West rivals got off to a tense and rousing start Friday night, when Corey Seager hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer on Tim Hill’s first pitch of the 12th inning to send the Dodgers to an 11-6 victory. The game took 4 hours, 57 minutes and ended early Saturday morning. The benches even emptied after Los Angeles reliever Dennis Santana hit Jorge Mateo with a pitch in the 10th.
In the final inning, the Padres finally ran out of relievers. Dodgers lefty David Price contributed a sacrifice fly off infielder Jake Cronenworth that was caught in left field by pitcher Joe Musgrove.
“I’m very hesitant to get ahead of things, but it was like a playoff game,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said. “They played a lot of guys, we played a lot of guys - the intensity was there.”
EAST BEAST
Tyler Glasnow (1-0, 0.46) takes the mound as the Rays continue a series at Yankee Stadium. The 6-foot-8 right-hander has 29 strikeouts and just three walks in 19 2/3 innings this season, and he’s been outstanding in the Bronx in his career, going 1-0 with a 1.54 ERA in two outings. Left-hander Jordan Montgomery (1-0, 3.27) is up for New York after allowing four runs in five innings against the Rays on Sunday.
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