Thursday, June 18
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. Thanks for being here.
Alaska in summer is the Land of the Midnight Sun. In the northern city of Fairbanks, during the summer months, the sun basically never sets. And that makes for one of the most unique baseball games in existence.
Tomorrow is the 121st annual Midnight SunGame — a baseball game played at midnight in Alaska under only the natural light of the Midnight Sun, with no artificial stadium lights to be found.
The truly one-of-a-kind baseball game has been taking place in Fairbanks, Alaska, just south of the Arctic Circle, since 1906. That first Midnight Sun Game was played on the summer solstice, June 21, establishing what has become one of baseball’s longest-running and coolest traditions.
Today, the Midnight Sun Game is hosted every year by the Alaska Goldpanners, a collegiate summer team based in Fairbanks. They typically play local amateur teams or other summer college squads from around the country.
But back in 1906, the inaugural game was a contest between two local bar teams in the gold-rich town, who agreed to play each other in a baseball game that would run through midnight. Because, why not?
After the first Midnight Sun Game, the story in the local newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily Times, read: “Tell this to your friends when you go outside. Say to them that on June 21, while you were in Fairbanks you attended a game of baseball that started at 11 o’clock at night and ended at 12:30 the morning after.”
Over the years, many baseball legends have passed through Alaska, playing in the Alaskan Baseball League summer circuit. Aaron Judge played for the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. So did Mark McGwire and Randy Johnson. Paul Goldschmidt and Jeff Kent played for the Anchorage Bucs. No less than Barry Bonds once played for the Goldpanners. So did Jason Giambi, Dave Winfield and Tom Seaver, who was even the starting pitcher for the Midnight Sun Game.
A couple of years ago, we sent Matt Monagan to Alaska to chronicle the Midnight Sun Game and its history.
Read the whole story here >>
— David Adler
TRADE TALK
You can usually count on the Angels to stick with the status quo, but this is about to be their 12th straight season without a playoff berth. It’s probably time to change up the approach.
Will they actually do it? That right there is one of this year’s most intriguing Trade Deadline questions.
Mike Trout likely isn’t going anywhere, but the Halos have a chance to land one of the biggest prospect hauls of any team this summer if they put starters Reid Detmers and José Soriano on the table.
Both are controllable through 2028, so this technically isn’t an urgent “must-trade” situation for the Angels, but it’s hard to believe either pitcher is ever going to have more trade value than he will this summer.
Detmers has been quite inconsistent during his career and even spent all of 2025 in the bullpen, but the former top prospect is having a breakout campaign in ’26. He’s recorded a 1.36 ERA with 39 K’s over his past five starts and owns the fourth-lowest expected ERA(2.75) among pitchers who have faced at least 250 batters. The only pitchers ahead of him? Jacob Misiorowski, Paul Skenes and Shohei Ohtani.
Soriano has faded after a historic start to the year and tends to get wild at times, but a hard-throwing 27-year-old who misses bats and racks up grounders should generate plenty of trade interest nonetheless. We’ll see if the Angels look to capitalize.
— Thomas Harrigan
HOW SWEET IT IS TO BE A GREAT DAD
One of the things that we dads are most proud of is putting our kids’ needs before our own. Perhaps there is no better gift on Father’s Day than being told that those efforts were not only noticed, but appreciated.
Jim King, the father of Padres pitcher Michael King, made a huge professional sacrifice for his kids, which very well might have made all of the difference in Michael ultimately becoming a big leaguer. And it was made all the more sweet by … ice cream.
King was a nighttime news anchor throughout the Northeast who was making his way up the professional ladder — which included near-constant moving from city to city — when he and his wife decided it was time for them put down roots for Michael and his sister. This was all made possible by an old family recipe that was so good that the Kings were able to sell their ice cream in local stores, right alongside the national brands.
The career switch — plus Jim’s connections in the broadcast industry — enabled him to spend more time with his kids and led to meetings with big leaguers who helped young Michael develop into the star pitcher that he is today.
“I don’t know if he would have had enough time to find the connections that were able to help my career,” Michael said of his dad’s previous job as a newscaster. “I think of it all the time. I want to be a huge part of my daughter’s life.”
Here’s to Jim King and all of the other dads out there who continue to put their kids first. Put your feet up Sunday and enjoy a big bowl of ice cream!
– Ed Eagle
SERIES TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND
We’re getting an early start on this, since the Pregame Lineup will receive an off-day tomorrow. (We’ll be back on Monday.)
White Sox at Tigers (Friday, 6:40 p.m. ET on MLB.TV)
Tigers ace Tarik Skubal made a successful return from left elbow surgery on Saturday, touching 99 mph while allowing two earned runs in 4 2/3 innings in a 3-1 loss to the Guardians. The electric left-hander will now make his first start at Comerica Park since April 23, facing a White Sox team that has been around the top of the standings all season. Skubal, of course, will attract plenty of attention from contenders who could be interested in adding the two-time defending AL Cy Young Award winner to the front of their rotations.
Brewers at Braves (Friday, 7:15 p.m. ET on MLB.TV)
At this point, every Jacob Misiorowski start constitutes must-see viewing. The Brewers fireballer leads the league in virtually everything, and his most recent start was particularly absurd: He tossed a “Maddux” in which he fanned 15 batters and threw 31 pitches at 102+ mph in a win over the Phillies. The Braves will try to break through against the Miz, but the NL East leaders are a bit banged up, most notably having lost Ronald Acuña Jr. to the IL with a left hamstring injury for the second time.
Mets at Phillies (Saturday, 7:15 p.m. ET on FOX)
The Mets traded for Freddy Peralta last winter to slot at the top of their rotation and pitch against the other team’s best. He’ll have his work cut out for him when he faces the Phillies, who counter with left-hander Cristopher Sánchez, who enters 8-3 with a 1.82 ERA in 15 starts this season. If New York can take solace in anything, it’s that Sánchez was relatively mortal in his last start, allowing four earned runs vs. the Brewers — four more than he allowed in the entire month of May.
Reds at Yankees (Sunday, 1:35 p.m. ET on MLB.TV)
Chase Burns was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 Draft for a reason, and opposing hitters have seen what it is all season long. Burns is 8-1 with a 2.01 ERA in his second campaign for the Reds, though he’ll face a stern test from the AL-best Yankees, who lead MLB in homers and have been scoring in bunches even without franchise player Aaron Judge.
FROM LUPUS TO THE PROS
In sports, we often forget that the athlete on the field is someone who is human — someone who is working through issues in their lives outside of their career, just like everyone else. Some of them have to overcome more adversity than others can even comprehend. Maya Johnson — a rookie left-handed pitcher who was drafted third overall by the Oklahoma City Spark in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League entering this season — is someone who falls into that category.
At the age of 15, she was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to attack healthy tissues and organs. She redshirted her freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh due to concerns with lupus. Since she wasn’t medically cleared, she entered the transfer portal and ended up with Belmont University in 2023.
But a severe kidney flare-up during last year’s offseason forced a more aggressive treatment plan, including 10 rounds of low-dose chemotherapy infusions to prevent kidney failure. She recovered and flourished on the field as she led NCAA Division I softball in ERA (0.78), strikeouts (397), strikeout-to-walk ratio (11.03) and complete games (31) this past season.
“I’m grateful to even be stepping on the field, given my personal adversity with my health circumstances,” Johnson said. “I had so much personal adversity in my life that the adversity on the softball field doesn’t seem that hard.”
She graduated with a bachelor’s degree (with honors) in nursing. And now, she hopes athletes with chronic illnesses can find what she never had — high-level examples of athletes who openly balance illness with elite competition, a mission that shapes her advocacy work with the Lupus Foundation of America.
“[I am] being vocal about that, so that other kids that are diagnosed with chronic health conditions can still see someone perform within their sport at a high level,” Johnson said. “[So] they know that their diagnosis, a lot of times, is not going to impede them if they have the right physicians and the right support system.”
— Noah Yingling
VOTE NOW FOR THE ALL-STAR GAME
Phase 1 of All-Star voting is open until Thursday, June 25, at noon ET.
Vote now to help send your favorite players to this year’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia. Fans can vote up to five times per day.
Fill out your 2026 All-Star Ballot here >>
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RJ Hamster 