Sports

Skenes highlights MLB opening day starter list as youngest since ’14 to take mound to begin season 2014.

Published

7 days ago

March 27, 2025

Pittsburgh right-hander Paul Skenes, the reigning National League Rookie of the Year award winner, will be the youngest pitcher in 11 years to start a season opener when he takes the mound for the Pirates next week.

Skenes will be 22 years and 302 days old on March 27 when Pittsburgh plays at Miami. José Fernández of the Marlins was 21 years and 243 days old when he opened the 2014 season. In its annual announcement of the opening day starters, most of which had been already informally confirmed by their clubs during spring training, Major League Baseball also revealed Tuesday that Skenes will be the fastest first overall draft pick to make an opening day start.

Skenes was drafted by the Pirates in 2023. Mike Moore was the first selection by Seattle in 1981 and started opening day for the Mariners in 1984, and Stephen Strasburg was the top pick by Washington in 2009 and made his first opening day start for the Nationals in 2012.

Three natives of Japan got the nods for their openers, the most in MLB history. Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers were the starters for the grand opener in Tokyo earlier Tuesday, a 4-1 win for Yamamoto and the Dodgers. Yusei Kikuchi will also start for the Los Angeles Angels on March 27 against the Chicago White Sox. Seven other Japanese-born players have previously started season openers: Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Kenta Maeda, Masahiro Tanaka, Hiroki Kuroda, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideo Nomo.

Two teams have yet to declare their opening day starter: Arizona and Cleveland. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he’s deciding between newcomer Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen for the road game against the Cubs. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt has yet to commit, but all signs point to Tanner Bibee, who pitched in a Cactus League exhibition game on Monday that lines up his rest schedule to be ready for the March 27 game against Kansas City.

With the Cubs and Dodgers getting a head start, the 28 other teams will open on March 27. Four of the opening day starters will make their debuts with a new team: Garrett Crochet with Boston, Clay Holmes with the New York Mets, Luis Severino with the Athletics and Kikuchi with the Angels.

The others are Carlos Rodón (New York Yankees), Freddy Peralta (Milwaukee), José Berríos (Toronto), Zach Elfin (Baltimore), Nathan Eovaldi (Texas), MacKenzie Gore (Washington), Zach Wheeler (Philadelphia), Cole Ragans (Kansas City), Framber Valdez (Houston), Hunter Greene (Cincinnati), Logan Webb (San Francisco), Michael King (San Diego), Chris Sale (Atlanta), Sean Burke (Chicago White Sox), Sandy Alcantara (Miami), Sonny Gray (St. Louis), Pablo López (Minnesota), Tarik Skubal (Detroit), Logan Gilbert (Seattle), Shane McClanahan (Tampa Bay) and Kyle Freeland (Colorado).

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

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Minor League Baseball’s Emeralds Ownership Plans To Leave Eugene

Published

24 minutes ago

April 2, 2025

Austin Reed

Eugene voters said no to funding a baseball park in May 2024

Medford could be a relocation site.

For people in Oregon who enjoy going to Eugene Emeralds minor league baseball games, this could be the last year that they could go out to the ballpark and have a nice day or night out. The Emeralds’ ownership is done talking to local politicians who cannot come up with money for a new ballpark to be built in town. The Emeralds’ ownership group put out a statement. “After four years of extensive efforts to secure a long-term home in Eugene, the Eugene Emeralds have reached a difficult conclusion: the future of professional baseball in the Emerald Valley is coming to a certain end. The organization has explored multiple options, including a proposed stadium at the Lane County Fairgrounds and potential renovations to PK Park.”

The Eugene Emeralds baseball team is a High-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants organization. The partnership began in 2021. That year, 2021, Major League Baseball reorganized the minor leagues. MLB created an entity called the Professional Development League and cut the number of minor league teams affiliated with MLB to 120. MLB also created a new set of rules for working conditions and team facilities and gave local owners and municipalities four years to either renovate or build new stadiums in that time frame or have a deal in place for a new or renovated facility. The Emeralds ownership and local politicians came up with a plan for a new facility and sent the proposal out for a vote. Eugene residents in May 2024 said no to allocating $15 million in public funding to help pay for the stadium. Emeralds’ ownership is looking at the nearby Medford market as a possible relocation site. There may be other communities in the mix. For the time being, the Emeralds ownership is staying in Eugene until someone decides to fund a new stadium somewhere.

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Paul Skenes earns his first victory of the season, Pirates beat Rays 4-2

Published

55 minutes ago

April 2, 2025

Austin Reed

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the second inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Paul Skenes needed nearly three innings to warm up Wednesday, then struck out six over seven innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

Oneil Cruz hit his second home run of the season and drove in another to give Skenes, the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year, his first win of 2025.

The 22-year-old right-hander did not walk a batter and was on the mound when the Rays scored an unearned run in the sixth. Isaiah Kiner-Falefa’s throwing error on Jonn DeLuca’s ground ball allowed the Rays their only runner in scoring position against Skenes. He scored on Brandon Lowe’s groundout.

Skenes generated 13 swings-and-misses, but did not strike out his first batter until the third inning, a career first for him.

Ryan Pepiot pitched five innings for the Rays, allowing two runs on five hits, striking out three and walking three.

Key Moment

With one out in the top of the fifth, Cruz drove a changeup from Ryan Pepiot 391 feet to left-center field to give the Pirates a two-run lead.

Key Stat

It was the first time in his career that Skenes went the first two innings of a game without recording a strikeout. His first strikeout came with two outs in the third inning when he got Lowe to swing and miss on three pitches.

Up Next

The Pirates head back to Pittsburgh to open their season at PNC Park on Friday against the New York Yankees with RHP Mitch Keller on the mound.

The Tampa Bay Rays head to Texas with Zack Littell set to face RHP Tyler Mahle.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com

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Guentzel, Vasilevskiy help Lightning beat Islanders 4-1 for 4th straight win

Published

11 hours ago

April 2, 2025

Austin Reed

The puck gets past Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) on a goal scored by Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 3, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

NEW YORK (AP) — Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist, Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New York Islanders 4-1 on Tuesday night for their fourth straight win to inch closer to clinching a playoff spot.

Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his 20th of the season, Victor Hedman also scored and Nick Paul added an empty-netter for the Lightning. Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point each added two assists.

Bo Horvat scored a short-handed goal for New York and Ilya Sorokin made 19 saves as the Islanders lost their sixth straight (0-4-2), further diminishing their slim playoff hopes.

Guentzel scored the tiebreaking goal at 8:09 of the second period. Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech inexplicably left Guentzel alone and Kucherov delivered a beautiful pass to set up the go-ahead goal.

Hedman made it 3-1 about 2 1/2 minutes later, and Paul capped the scoring into an empty net with 3 1/2 minutes left in the third.

Takeaways

Lightning: Vasilevskiy recorded his 36th win of the regular season, trailing only Connor Hellebuyck of NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets.

Islanders: Sorokin started four of the Islanders previous six losses, allowing 14 goals during that stretch.

Key Moment

Horvat missed a one-timer during an Islanders two-man advantage roughly five minutes into the second period while the game was even at 1-1. Tampa Bay then scored twice in the period to take a 3-1 lead.

Key stat

Kucherov’s two assists raised his season total to 111 points and reclaimed the NHL scoring lead. Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon is in second place with 110.