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

On one hand, he didn’t trade himself. On the other, he turned into a slobbering embarrassment with his multiple public statements on the subject. Nobody asked!

Blue Jays Trade Daulton Varsho To Astros For Spencer Arrighetti

more like

Sp.....a...ghetti

*laughs*

(xpost) What did Skubal say? All I could find was this: https://abc7.com/post/tarik-skubal-says-dodgers-not-blame-every-team-could-trade/19621755/

Seems innocuous enough (and, unfortunately, true).

"So I don't really sympathize with people that are complaining because the Dodgers do all the right things.""

is a pretty dickish thing to say tbf

he's right though

I think he's absolutely right. If there is a villian here (and I don't think there is), why not the Tigers? They could have made an internal decision to trade to anyone except the Dodgers. But--just like the Dodgers--they acted out of self-interest.

Villain--will misspell that till the day I die.

"So I don't really sympathize with people that are complaining because the Dodgers do all the right things."

4 game losing streak at home, hope it continues for ROS 👍

Influenced here by the Jays series I've been writing about. In '92 and '93, when the Jays wanted someone, they just went out and got him--they paid what they needed to, and let the franchise's success and reputation take care of the rest. Just like the Dodgers today. I loved it then; complaining about it now would be hypocritical. (I did learn to hate the Dodgers for other reasons during the 2025 WS--and, in all honesty, winning it was not at the top.)

Blue Jays Trade Daulton Varsho To Astros For Spencer Arrighetti

more like

Sp.....a...ghetti

*laughs*

This man is called Spaghetti in my house and when he won a start i used to have a really nice pasta dish for dinner 💔 (the secret ingredient is angustora bitters, also love)

Jays need to bring in Pasta Diving Jeter as a coach.

Nick Pivetta, Joe Musgrove, and Tyler Glasnow all appeared in rehab assignments in the very same low A ball game at Lake Elsinore, CA this afternoon. 98 degrees out.

apparently nick pivettas arm exploded

go go go cubbies!

Watching Cubs Dodgers. First AB is Ohtani v Imanaga. Announcer: Ohtani hasn’t homered off a lefty this year

(Ohtani promptly homers)

First Cubs AB: PCA hits an absolute nuke out and same announcer shrieks WE’VE GOT US AN IN GAME MVP OFF!!!

They’re interviewing Gausman in the dugout. He’s talking about how much he loved being a Jay.

User SV (throwing a tantrum over the interview) What is this? I thought there’s a game going on?

It would be awesome if the Dodgers had to play in the first round.

The wild card? Hardly

@TimE, the Padres would need to do all the heavy lifting to make that happen (and I'm here for it!)

PCA showing Shohei up at this point.

LA looking at a 6-game skid right after ruining baseball

PCA really hates the Dodgers huh

(Kyle Tucker gets a perfunctory boo as he steps up)
Commentator 1: I always think baseball players getting booed gotta be like that show Severance. You know that show?
Commentator 2: uh, kinda?
Commentator 1: see they do this thing and they’ve got their work life and their uh personal life.
Commentator 2: sure

PCA's game shaping up as a rerun of Sandberg's famous game (lopsided, though):

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN198406230.shtml

Dodgers within a run now. Everyone prematurely victory lapping in this thread, this is on you!

Cubs <3

Nm all good

I was talking about if they end up with the third seed behind Milwaukee and Atlanta

Which is actually where they are right now

But yeah, go Pads! Mize on the mound tonight

Wouldn’t they still go through and bypass the WC round by winning the NL West

No worst record of the division winners plays the lowest WC seed

skenes is pitching tonight and now i’m very interested in his fastball speed per pitch, heh

They’re interviewing Gausman in the dugout. He’s talking about how much he loved being a Jay.

i know very little about kevin gausman but i *do* know that he loves toronto, and i massively respect him for it

He’s also a massive stoner and the only thing wrong with that interview was that he wasn’t visibly high as he often is in his interviews

(Kyle Tucker gets a perfunctory boo as he steps up)
Commentator 1: I always think baseball players getting booed gotta be like that show Severance. You know that show?
Commentator 2: uh, kinda?
Commentator 1: see they do this thing and they’ve got their work life and their uh personal life.
Commentator 2: sure

dying at this

I need to actually find and clip that interaction since it was way better than my rendering but the first guy made an absolute hash of explaining the show and the other guy couldn’t sound less interested, it ruled

If anything I think I undersold how disinterested second guy sounded

https://streamable.com/ur74h5

lmao

"So if you're a player that's getting booed all the time, then... you want to really... ride... the... "

"The elevator, yeah"

"The elevator"

this Red Sox run is insane. they were one of the worst teams in the AL and then they win 30 of 35. weird sport.

also happy to report that Skenes kinda sucks now

Red Sox streak is approaching the '84 Tigers 35-5 start.

Can’t wait till we find out how they’re cheating

good sock battle tonight

LAD just got walked off... that's 7 losses in a row.

Imagine having a zillion dollar payroll and your closer has an 11.00 ERA.

Save us Yamamoto!!!!

I realised in reading this that I had no idea who was the Dodgers closer, to my mind Diaz was injured? They also have Tanner Scott ofc. This is how I found out Diaz is back, and apparently has an ERA over 11. That slider was a meatball. I suspect they will still win over 100 games.