MLB Previews

The St. Louis Cardinals had planned to ease new staff ace Sonny Gray into the starting rotation after he recovered from a hamstring injury he suffered during spring training. The team also had intended to give Gray a minor league rehabilitation start this week. But the 34-year-old right-hander convinced manager Oliver Marmol that he was ready to debut for the team. Signed to a three-year, $75 million contract in the offseason, Gray will face the

The New York Yankees spent part of Monday afternoon wearing protective glasses to look at a solar eclipse above Yankee Stadium, and then they spent the rest of the day continuing their hot start. After matching their best 11-game start in team history, the Yankees will shoot for a fourth straight win Tuesday night when they continue a three-game series against the visiting Miami Marlins. The Yankees are 9-2 for the eighth time in team

Elly De La Cruz and the Cincinnati Reds opened their four-game series with the visiting Milwaukee Brewers in thrilling fashion Monday. Now they hope to continue that momentum Tuesday. The Reds built an 8-0 lead after four innings and then had to rely on two home runs from De La Cruz, including an inside-the-park homer, to fend off the Brewers, 10-8. The Brewers had scored three in the fifth, three in the sixth and two

The Cleveland Guardians and Logan Allen will try to continue their early-season dominance when the left-hander takes the mound against the visiting Chicago White Sox in the second game of a three-game series on Tuesday. The Guardians won the series opener 4-0 on Monday afternoon to improve to 8-2 on the season, their best start since the 2011 season. “It just seems like, in these games, we find a way to score runs, and that’s

The Pittsburgh Pirates will turn to veteran left-hander Martin Perez as they try to complete a two-game series sweep of the visiting Detroit Tigers on Tuesday afternoon. Perez (1-0, 2.45 ERA), who went 10-4 with a 4.45 ERA last season while helping pitch the Texas Rangers to their first World Series crown, will be making his third start with the Pirates. He comes in off a 7-4 win at Washington on Thursday during which he

The Detroit Tigers and New York Mets don’t have much in common so far this season. But they were both foiled by Mother Nature on Tuesday — and might be at the mercy of the weather again on Wednesday night. The Tigers and Mets will attempt to resume their scheduled three-game series Wednesday, when Detroit is slated to visit New York in the middle game of the set. Tigers right-hander Casey Mize is scheduled to

The New York Yankees finally lost a game, and the effort definitely wasn’t one for the memory books. The Yankees will aim to get back to winning on Wednesday afternoon when they look to claim the finale of a three-game series from the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix. New York opened the season with five straight victories for the first time since 1992, but there wasn’t much good about Tuesday night’s 7-0 loss to Arizona. The

With apologies to Clint Eastwood and his 2012 movie about an aging baseball scout, it’s the Seattle Mariners who have “Trouble with the Curve.” And it seems, any other breaking pitch that opponents throw at them. Heading into the finale of three-game series with the visiting Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday afternoon, the Mariners have struck out 66 times in six games, one behind Boston for the most in the American League. The Los Angeles Dodgers

Nick Pivetta will try to get Boston’s rotation back on track when the Red Sox wrap up a three-game series with the host Oakland Athletics on Wednesday afternoon. Red Sox starters were stunning through the first five games of the season, combining to allow just five runs (four earned) across 28 innings, good for an ERA of 1.29. Of the five pitchers who started, Pivetta (0-1, 1.50 ERA) was among three who worked six innings,