MLB

7:12 PM ET ESPN News Services BALTIMORE — Eduardo Rodriguez won in his return from heart inflammation that caused him to miss the 2020 season, allowing three runs over five innings to lead the Boston Red Sox over Baltimore 7-3 in the Orioles’ home opener Thursday. Rafael Devers and Enrique Hernandez homered for the Red

5:50 PM ET Even the New York Mets called Thursday’s walk-off 3-2 victory over the Miami Marlins a lucky break. With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth after Jeff McNeil had tied the game with a home run leading off the inning, a 1-2 pitch on the inside corner

7:00 AM ET How much can really change in one week of a 162-game MLB season? Exactly one week since the excitement of Opening Day had fans of, well, almost every MLB team thinking positive thoughts about the possibilities to come in 2021, our first regular-season rankings of the young season offer something of a

4:12 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Yankees slugger Aaron Judge was held out of New York’s lineup Wednesday night with soreness in his left side. Judge had a homer, three hits and four RBI in a 7-2 win on Tuesday night but wasn’t back in the lineup against the O’s a day later.

4:38 PM ET Associated Press WASHINGTON — The postponed season-opening series between the Nationals and Mets has been rescheduled, with two of the games moved to June and the other to September. A coronavirus outbreak on the Nationals prompted Major League Baseball to scrap the games originally slated to be played in Washington on Thursday,

7:00 AM ET CARLOS GOMEZ KNEW he needed to get Fernando Tatis Jr. on the phone. After Tatis hit a controversial grand slam in the eighth inning of an Aug. 17 game against the Texas Rangers last season, Gomez, a former major league outfielder, called the San Diego Padres shortstop. Tatis’ slam represented a violation

12:00 PM ET MLB InsidersESPN With the news that MLB is moving its 2021 All-Star festivities to Denver this summer, one thing immediately came to our minds: An All-Star Home Run Derby at Coors Field is going to be really fun to watch. Sure, the game itself will be a blast and the MLB draft

12:22 PM ET The Washington Nationals finally will open their season Tuesday, but they will do so with a patchwork roster due to COVID-19 issues. The Nats announced that starting pitchers Patrick Corbin and Jon Lester, catchers Yan Gomes and Alex Avila, first baseman Josh Bell, infielders Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer, left fielder Kyle

7:00 AM ET Revenge and backlash have always been the American response to defeat, especially in the case of civil rights. Despite the resulting muddiness, misdirection and outrage, the Georgia voting bill, signed into law last month, was clearly a response to defeat, just as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was. Sports

1:59 PM ET ESPN News Services The Nationals and Braves will make up their game that was postponed Monday because of Washington’s coronavirus outbreak as part of a doubleheader Wednesday. Major League Baseball announced the change Monday while Nationals players were working out at Nationals Park. Four players on the Nationals have tested positive for

7:00 AM ET Baseball players, like the rest of us, have had lots of spare time during the pandemic and in quarantine. “I’ve learned to be alone,” said Padres pitcher Blake Snell. There has been lots of learning, trapped in a hotel room or sequestered at home. There has been time to think, to experiment,

9:32 PM ET ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani threw a baseball 101 mph in the top of the first then hit a baseball 115 mph a half-inning later, a stirring start to a historic Sunday night for the Los Angeles Angels’ two-way sensation. Ohtani, pitching and hitting in the same game for the first time

8:45 PM ET We had a lot happen the first four days of the 2021 MLB season. The Reds and Cardinals had the first bench-clearing incident of the season. The Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger lost a home run when he passed Justin Turner on the basepaths. White Sox rookie designated hitter Yermin Mercedes set an MLB

5:17 PM ET Associated Press BOSTON — The Red Sox fell to their first 0-3 start at Fenway Park since 1948 and their second ever as Trey Mancini and Austin Hays hit two-run doubles during a seven-run third inning that carried the Baltimore Orioles to an 11-3 win Sunday. Cedric Mullins went 5-for-5 with three

7:15 AM ET MLB InsidersESPN We’ve all seen flashes of what Shohei Ohtani can do, both at the plate and on the mound. After lightning up spring training with his bat and entering the 2021 MLB season healthy and ready to pitch, is this the year he finally puts it all together to become the

12:11 AM ET Welcome to the record books, Yermin Mercedes. The Chicago White Sox rookie went 8-for-8 to start 2021, the most consecutive hits to start a season by any player in the modern era (since 1900). Mercedes, who had one major league at-bat entering the season, going 0-for-1 in 2020, has started at DH

6:28 PM ET ESPN News Services ANAHEIM, Calif. — Los Angeles Angels reliever Ty Buttrey is walking away from baseball, saying he’s lost his affection for the game. “I just wanted to prove everyone wrong,” the 28-year-old posted on social media Saturday. “As time went on baseball became more of a business and less of

12:18 AM ET Kelly CohenESPN Sports are great. Animals are great. So what is the general consensus when the two mix? Chaos — and awesomeness. From from a cat-tastrophe, a furry feline got loose during Friday’s Dodgers–Rockies game in Denver. It had a nice run and spent some time luxuriating in the outfield grass. CAT