Designed to break your heart - the 2026 MLB regular season thread

Opening Day is less than a week away!

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”

Joe Castiglione reading this in 2024

https://i.postimg.cc/Gtj09X13/IMG-1317.gif

Play ball.

It is, it is, with time out now and again for some fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWQmXFMZUMc

i wonder how ball/strike challenges will impact umps calling anything near the zone a strike on 3-0 and the zone shrinking on 0-2. like i wonder if it will be an unwritten rule that you don't challenge those calls. i guess it will be situational.

like i wonder if it will be an unwritten rule that you don't challenge those calls

god, I hope not

Chris Sale already said he wouldn’t challenge anything

Tyler O’ Neill home run opening day: y/n?

Roki Sasaki 15 earned runs in 8 2/3 spring innings, 2.77 WHIP

Slotted as #3 starter, I believe

it seems weird that not every team is playing on opening day. i didn't check every team but i noticed that KC/ATL doesn't start until friday

I read six teams aren't starting until Friday. It was to give NBC an exclusive window in prime time.

that's lame

The Yankees and Giants are off on Sunday too.

i read that it used to be tradition that the reds would always play first, guess that went out the window!

Speaking of the Reds, did we all see Joey Votto’s gift to them for opening day?

https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/joey-votto-gifts-street-clock-to-reds-at-great-american-ball-park.html

https://www.bajablasthomeruns.com/

ugh Bert Kreischer this season is doomed

first walk of the season drawn by . . . luis arraez!

I can't recall a time ever when the Giants opened up the season first, and it's been probably a decade since they opened at home.

My thoughts as well.

I don’t have Netflix and thought I could piggyback on my brother's account, like I have done in the past but they locked me out. $8 wouldn't kill me but nah.

golden sombrero for Judge while every other Stankee is the reincarnation of Roberto Clemente

So, sounds like the Netflix broadcast was not popular

it made roughly $1m for each team, which is clearly all that matters

Watched I think a couple of innings and then went to sleep, opening day to forget. This is all my fault, the last time I watched the Giants open their season against the Yankees they also got shit on. Apparently I missed Bonds show up, drop a nuke that he almost signed with the Yankees, and leave again lol

https://bsky.app/profile/lukeknox.me/post/3kbnxlj5s6h2d

Ozuna loudly booed at Citi field

Nbc announcers spotlighting a betting parlay for the game feels like a new low.

yeah, i was watching a mlb highlight reel of the opening game yesterday, and it showed a ABS challenge (called strike; upheld as it just caught in the zone) and the announcer was like ".....and if you bet on the first ABS in MLB being upheld...you would be a winner" or something.

thanks

honestly would love to get a 30-second break from each game and just show me a live feed of a near-empty casino at 5 am with one dude and a bucket of tokens, just feeding the slot machine and staring at his phone

IT'S BIG BALL CHUNKY TIME

Skenes gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the first and then got pulled after the Mets batted around!

“As we go to commercial break, we’d like to congratulate those of you who took that parlay where Skenes would give up 5 runs and be taken out after two-thirds of an inning. Enjoy your payout and we’ll be right back.”

Tbf, those runs sounded like a team effort (I missed the first few runs tho)

Just saw the boxscore for Skenes...yikes--hope he's not hurt.

He looked ok. Think it was just bad luck/ one of those games

america's feelings are hurt due to the iran war fuckup and the it's affecting skenes as well

Mets lineup is very sexy

Carson Benge’s first big league hit is a home run

that's my boy!

unintentionally funny and interesting piece of cards radio commentary from ricky horton

“a bad day to be a reliever….and a bad day to be in this city"

however, we’re in the middle of cardinals devil magic comeback against the rays so all is well

jj wetherholt will be mvp by 2030, easy, i’m calling it now, no problem

this guy jj wetherholt, he can’t miss

Skubal today: 6 innings, 3 hits, 6 K, no walks, no earned runs. Without any recency bias whatsoever, I am officially declaring him the best pitcher in baseball.

Cubs extending Nico Hoerner

The dodgers still looking very dodgery

Man its good to be back

was at the game today, pretty great atmosphere, I really love going to opening day because it comes right as the weather starts getting better, it's nice to see all these people around again

did not appreciate that it was against the White Sox, aren't opening day games supposed to be divisional??? oh well, we beat the hell outta them, notched 20 strikeouts which is apparently tied for a Brewer record

15 teams in each league means at least one game has to be intraleague, I guess

A lot of solid debuts today… Wetherholt, McGonigle, Benge & DeLauter

Just watched Jeff Kent chatting it up with Kruk and Kuip in the broadcast booth, he was smiling his head off and in great form, which I gather is not vmic for him

are the giants going to score this year

Nope

I got the Montreal Expos.

It’s a lot of loaded questions that presume I:
- Know anything about the Gilmore girls
- Enjoyed any subjects at all in school
- wear pants when I fly

i'm seeing some stories about Edwin Diaz being linked to illegal cockfighting tournaments?

the la times story on that really went out of its way to not name him in the headline

"loose bodies"

Dodgers megacontract curse strikes again?

wait, who is Edwin's translator?

“Loose Bodies” always sounds like a 90s hip hop group to me

how about these cherries!

HRs since March 25, 2026 (52 days):

Ohtani 7

HRs since May 7, 2026 (8 days):

Schwarbz 9

(could have more but he's getting the Bonds treatment: BB with bases loaded)

Los Angeles Dodgers
It's not enough for you to play in Baseball Nirvana, have the greatest player who ever lived on your team, enjoy classic and iconic uniforms, win 3 of the last five World Series, and be stewarded by one of the world's biggest private equity funds. You had to also make us hang out with Jason Bateman?

Literally cannot help who you are

steve shasta would you rather have ohtani or schwarbz on your team

have the greatest player who ever lived on your team

the ultimate question is which one people in california would take, ohtani or judge

it's pretty insane that the padres are almost in 1st place (tied with the best team in the history of baseball!) with their atrocious ice cold offense.

the ultimate question is which one people in california would take, ohtani or judge

it’s a tough one, ohtani’s dog looks a lot like my dog but judge’s dogs are seriously insanely cute

https://i.postimg.cc/MHnC9rJN/decohtani.webp

https://bsky.app/profile/gummyarts.bsky.social/post/3mlrn4gvo5225

Just how bad are the Rockies?

Merrill Kelly threw a 100 pitch 4-hit 0-walk CG in Denver.

there are the seeds of a very embarrassing “shirts off” movement in stl

it seems to be tied to a specific group of people, who i think are part of a traveling team? won their game in alton earlier today? and then when they arrive they get really rowdy. they do soccer chants. they also do the white stripes song. they sat in the upper outfield seats yesterday and all took their shirts off, until it started a movement and there were like 4 or 5 sections getting rowdy. the cardinals loved it. they won the game in extra innings. pozo lost his voice from shouting. oli marmol bought the entire rowdy boys free tickets for today’s game. they had some game in alton and won, and they showed up to the stadium mid-game and you can hear the difference. they’re doing ole right now. they chanted “thank you oli!” when they arrived and marmol acknowledged them.

ricky horton, who is my barometer for this kind of thing, absolutely loves it. which means i’m already starting to hate it. however, i am not a person who takes off my shirt and yells woo and gets wasted. i do some of those things, sometimes, but all at once, nah. so this isn’t for me. but damn if i buy a ticket to a game i’m gonna stay away from these dudes because at least one of them will get too drunk and think they need to make fun of me a lot

ricky says “i just can’t take my eyes off…the energy…that is coming from that part of the ballpark”

what’s unsettling is when it cuts from the game and then goes to radio commercial and it’s ricky horton doing an ad vor an anti-abortion organization, and the spot is all about “reclaiming masculinity"

the cardinal way is to tuck your shirts in and wear a belt, young men. listen to your elders, and understand that one of the times a runner on second can safely move to third on an infield hit is when the third basemen has to backhand it.

tag yourself!

https://i.ibb.co/bMFYNT46/Screenshot-2026-05-16-at-5-15-27-PM.png

will america finally start an oendan tradition? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cendan

I say let the dudes hang

Let’s not escalate things

So, the Ohtani hit last night. Fielders have to play balls off of nets, who knew.

Eury Perez has to basically stoop to talk to his catcher lol. Watching a bit of Rays-Marlins before subway series is on TV. The commentary team were talking approvingly about the Rays small ball ways.

“He and Chandler Simpson can deaden a bunt, according to Kevin Cash. They’re old school like those 1980s Cardinals teams…and Junior (Caminero) is the Jack Clark driving them all in.”

This commentary is great. “I think pitchers nowadays have too many pitches. They say, he’s got a seven pitch arsenal. Why? What are you going to do with it?”

https://i.postimg.cc/jjKDvMLQ/IMG-4548.jpg

Mets booth is genuinely great. They’re talking about hitters swing paths and attack angles and showing pitchers arm slots etc. You never see that on NESN.

Mets walking off the Yankees…unreal end to that game

signs of life from the Mets this month

fantastic

next spring training: if we're playing five infielders, here's who gets precedence . . .

https://i.postimg.cc/RV98DTC3/IMG-4570.jpg

I’ve Had The Time of My Life plays at Citi

usually when a player blows up at a fan the fan deserves it but man, PCA lost his goddamn mind

https://heavy.com/sports/mlb/chicago-cubs/cubs-pca-vulgar-white-sox-fan/

Aoty has a new contender

She was just doing the standard 2 thumbs down “you suck” thing and he got so tilted

Yeah it’s an awful look and his non apology also sucked

saw someone say about his non apology “eat crow-armstrong”

not to excuse PCA, or expect anything at all from heavy dot com, but this is garbage

MLB World Reacts to Pete Crow-Armstrong Incident With White Sox Fan

Here’s what people are saying on social media:

@Jandystl: This is actually insane he said this. Not cool. What a loser. Do you guys remember when he forgot how many outs there were?

lol I didn't want to link heavy.com but it appeared to be the only site that actually quoted what PCA said. the rest just say "vulgar tirade"

Rays are now on a 21-4 run.

ok make that 5 inside the park "homeruns" in 5 days... what is going on in the world of OF defense?

skenes outdueled by . . . patrick corbin

Not for nothing, but but Corbin has been decent for the jays. First time he’s had an ERA+ above 100 since 2019

https://i.postimg.cc/7hgpJ3nc/ladmil.jpg

Watching Guardians Phillies and stream has defaulted to the Phillies home broadcast. Cole Hamels in the booth, they get Mike Schmidt in for an inning. Schmidt barely says like ten words while Hamels and whoever else is in the booth try to get him to talk. He briefly shows signs of life when Hamels tells him “You should have come with us to eat omakase in Fishtown.”

Schmidt: What’s omakase
Hamels: Oh! Uh, it’s Japanese, ten courses…(rambles on the worst explanation of omakase I’ve ever heard in my life)
Schmidt: 😐

Later in this same inning it emerged that Schmidt is there to talk about skin cancer

Schmidt (to Hamels) when did you start using sunscreen?
Hamels: oh uh pro ball, I grew up in San Diego, and you would just…burn
Schmidt: so they left it around the clubhouse for you

(The inning ends and the broadcasters thank Schmidt for joining even though he got about ten seconds to talk about skin cancer)

that he didn't say anything racist counts as a win for all involved

fishtown was kind of a rough neighborhood when i was growing up, crazy (and fitting, huh) they got omakase now

some dudes having unexpectedly decent seasons!

patrick corbin: 2-1 (3.86) in nine starts for a 113 ERA+ and 0.9 bWAR

not killer, but over his past five seasons he was 38-74 (5.47) for a 73 ERA+ and -4.3 bWAR (tbf i would not call his 2026 peripherals great although he did get 15 swing-and-misses against the pirates yesterday)

michael conforto: .302/.408/.571 (184 OPS+) with 0.5 bWAR in limited action against almost entirely RHP

last year he hit .199/.305/.333 (80 OPS+) with -0.7 bWAR for the World Champion Dodgers

dominic smith: .327/.350/.518 (147 OPS+) with 0.7 bWAR

dude is .250/.315/.404 (98 OPS+) with 1.3 bWAR in nine previous seasons, from which essentially all the good came in the shortened 2020 season (1.9 bWAR in 50 games)