Monday, April 06
Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.
April series don’t get any bigger than this one. We’ve got a World Series rematch — the Dodgers vs. the Blue Jays — starting tonight.
It feels like it was just yesterday that the Dodgers prevailed over the Jays in a thrilling Game 7 in Toronto, ending a Fall Classic that was, well, an instant classic as L.A. became back-to-back World Series champs.
Of course, that was actually five months ago, not yesterday. But when these two teams take the field again for tonight’s series opener in Toronto (7:07 p.m. ET, MLB.TV/FS1), it will be like the World Series never ended.
As Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman put it: “It feels like we’re getting ready for Game 8.”
The Blue Jays-Dodgers showdown will showcase the postseason heroes on both sides. The ageless Max Scherzer, who was great in Game 7 for Toronto, will get the ball again for tonight’s opener. World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who closed out the Fall Classic on zero days’ rest, will pitch the second game for L.A. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the best hitter of the 2025 postseason, will be anchoring the Blue Jays lineup all series. And Wednesday’s finale will feature Shohei Ohtani at his two-way best, starting on the mound and at the plate for the Dodgers.
Sonja Chen and Keegan Matheson have all the details on the must-watch series of the 2026 season so far — including what all the Dodgers and Blue Jays are saying about the World Series rematch.
GAMES OF THE NIGHT
Besides Dodgers-Blue Jays, here are three other games to watch today:
• Cubs at Rays (4:10 p.m. ET, Marquee Sports Network/Rays.TV)
After 561 days, the Rays are finally returning to The Trop. Today’s home opener will be the first game at Tropicana Field since its roof was torn apart by Hurricane Milton in October 2024.
• Mariners at Rangers (8:05 p.m. ET, Mariners.TV/Rangers Sports Network)
This is the best pitching matchup of the day, with aces on both sides — the Mariners’ Logan Gilbert against the Rangers’ Jacob deGrom.
• Phillies at Giants (9:45 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Philadelphia+/NBC Sports Bay Area)
How will Andrew Painter follow up his dazzling MLB debut? The Phillies’ star pitching prospect is back on the mound after an eight-strikeout gem in his long-awaited first career start last week.
WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO WITNESS 3 HR ROBBERIES
Jo Adell had one of the greatest defensive games of all time on Saturday when he robbed not one … not two … but THREE home runs in the Angels’ 1-0 win over the Mariners. The third and final robbery in the ninth inning, when Adell went flipping into the stands in the right-field corner, even produced a once-in-a-lifetime fan photo.
We wanted to know what it was like to be in the building to witness Adell’s historic performance. So we asked our reporters who were there covering the game — Angels reporter Rhett Bollinger and Mariners reporter Daniel Kramer.
Bollinger:
I’ve seen my fair share of home run robberies during my time covering baseball since 2008, especially at Angel Stadium because of the relatively short height of the fences. But I’ve never seen anything like what Jo Adell did on Saturday night.
It was crazy enough to see Adell take away the first two homers, but the ninth inning is what made it so incredible. Torii Hunter put it best: That it felt like a movie, with Adell disappearing into the stands and everyone wondering if he had caught it, before he triumphantly stood up with his glove raised high near the foul pole.
The fact that it came in a 1-0 win and in front of a sold-out crowd made it even better, because the atmosphere was electric and the catches directly impacted the win. And it made for several iconic photos of Adell. It’s a night I won’t forget anytime soon, and it just shows that anything can happen at the ballpark on any given night.
Kramer:
You always try to be factually, statistically and objectively grounded in these moments.
Yet my first reaction was — did Griffey ever do anything like this?
I never saw The Kid play in person, but I guarantee he’s since seen the highlights from Adell’s insane night — and he must have marveled at it, even if it was against the team that he’s still so associated with.
The short answer to the hypothetical — if Griffey might’ve had some home-run-robbery record that Adell matched — is no. As far as anyone can tell (these stats are unofficial and have only recently been tracked), no one ever pulled off a hat trick like that in a single game.
Griffey aside, watching Julio Rodríguez man center field every day has been a marvel in itself. I’ve seen him rob three home runs in person, and the one he took back from Fernando Tatis Jr. in 2023 — complete with a crowd-wide fakeout — was one of the best theatrical performances I’ve seen on a baseball field.
But what Adell did on Saturday takes the cake. Heck, it takes the whole bakery.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Here are five more big things that happened in baseball this weekend:
- Shohei’s first home runs
Ohtani crushed his first two home runs of the season over the weekend as he extended his MLB-best on-base streak to 40 games. His homer on Sunday was a 114.6 mph, 438-foot monster. It’s the hardest-hit home run of the 2026 season so far.
- Vintage Yordan
Yordan Alvarez is back to being one of the most fearsome hitters in the league. The Astros slugger hit his fourth home run of the season yesterday and is batting .400 with an MLB-leading .900 slugging percentage and 1.478 OPS through his first 10 games of 2026. (And Alvarez isn’t the only Astros star who looks rejuvenated this season — Jose Altuve does, too.)
- Ben Rice is raking
Giancarlo Stanton might have made headlines by literally putting a dent in the Yankee Stadium outfield wall, but it’s Rice who’s been the Yankees’ best hitter. After his breakout 2025 season, Rice is batting .370 with three home runs — including a 110 mph rocket off Rays closer-turned-starter-for-a-day Pete Fairbanks yesterday — plus an AL-best 11 RBIs.
- Good luck hitting Mason Miller
Miller has been the most overpowering reliever in baseball for a while, but the Padres fireman is taking things to another level right now. Not only has Miller not allowed a run yet this season, he hasn’t allowed one in his last 25 2/3 innings — the longest active scoreless streak in the Majors. And he’s struck out the last nine batters he’s faced after back-to-back lights-out outings this weekend. Miller has 11 K’s in 4 1/3 innings this season. Insane.
- Murakami again
Munetaka Murakami just keeps slugging home runs for the White Sox. The Japanese star has hit four in his first nine Major League games. The latest one on Saturday was his biggest swing yet: 111.1 mph off the bat and 431 feet to center field against the Blue Jays.
J-RAM TO MAKE HISTORY IN CLEVELAND
José Ramírez is the present-day face of Guardians baseball. But he’s about to become even more than that.
J-Ram’s next game will make him Cleveland’s all-time franchise leader in games played. The team’s cornerstone third baseman will have played 1,620 games in a Guardians uniform. Ramírez will be the only active player to lead an MLB franchise in games played.
Ramírez tied Terry Turner atop the Cleveland list on Sunday. He’s already passed Nap Lajoie (1,614) this season. And after today’s game against the Royals at Progressive Field, Ramírez will stand alone.
J-Ram made his MLB debut as a 20-year-old on Sept. 1, 2013. Over the last 13-plus years with the Guardians, he’s made seven All-Star teams, won six Silver Sluggers and finished in the top five of AL MVP voting six times. But playing his 1,620th game for Cleveland will top all of that.
Ramírez said Friday: “Of all the records, I feel that one is the most important because it kind of resembles what I wanted to do with this team.”
DAILY WALKOFF
Put your baseball brain to the test with Daily Walkoff, where you can find 30 brand-new trivia puzzles every day, one for each team. Play Daily Walkoff >>
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RJ Hamster 