Monday, March 30

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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.

Tonight we get a real blast from the past: Justin Verlander in a Tigers uniform. 

Back with his original team, the likely Hall of Famer is making his first start of the season against the D-backs at 10:10 p.m. ET. 

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch called Verlander a “living legend” this weekend, and that’s the truth. 

Verlander began his career with the Tigers as a 22-year-old in 2005 and spent 12 1/2 seasons in Detroit, winning a Cy Young and MVP Award in 2011. Now the oldest player in the American League at 43, Verlander will be pitching his first game for the Tigers since he was traded to the Astros in 2017. 

In Verlander’s words: “It’s kind of like a full circle thing.” 

JV’s Tigers reunion is actually just one of a bunch of interesting 2026 pitching debuts happening today. Here are five more you’ll want to watch:

Reds RHP Chase Burns (vs. Pirates, 6:40 p.m. ET)

Hunter Greene’s elbow injury opened the door for Burns to win a spot in the Reds’ rotation, and now we get to see if the 23-year-old righty can harness his electric stuff in his sophomore season. Burns had an up-and-down debut in 2025, but there’s no question how high Burns’ ceiling is. He had a ridiculous 36% strikeout rate and 32% swing-and-miss rate as a rookie, his fastball touched triple digits and his slider is a wipeout pitch. 

Blue Jays RHP Cody Ponce (vs. Rockies, 7:07 p.m. ET)

Ponce is returning to the Major Leagues for the first time in five years after reinvigorating his career in Korea, where he was the KBO League MVP last year. The 31-year-old is a totally different pitcher now, armed with a 95-plus mph fastball — several mph harder than the last time he was in the Majors — and a filthy new changeup he learned overseas. Ponce had a 0.66 ERA for the Jays this spring, and he looks legit.

Red Sox LHP Ranger Suarez (at Astros, 8:10 p.m. ET) 

Suarez was Boston’s marquee free-agent signing this offseason, and the former Phillies All-Star makes his anticipated Red Sox debut tonight. The Sox are counting on Suarez to join ace Garrett Crochet and trade acquisition Sonny Gray in leading the team back to the playoffs in 2026.

Yankees LHP Ryan Weathers (at Mariners, 9:40 p.m. ET) 

Weathers is an X-factor for the Yankees’ rotation this season. Acquired from the Marlins in January, the 26-year-old southpaw has overpowering stuff — he’s one of the hardest-throwing lefties in the Majors, and the closest comps for his fastball-slider-changeup combo are Jesús Luzardo, Tarik Skubal and Crochet. On the other hand, Weathers also got knocked around in Spring Training. So what will the Yankees get out of him in the regular season? We’ll find out when Weathers pitches his first game in pinstripes tonight. 

Dodgers RHP Roki Sasaki (vs. Guardians, 10:10 p.m. ET)

Sasaki’s time in the Major Leagues has been an insane roller-coaster ride. In just one year, he’s: arrived from Japan as an elite prospect … struggled so badly he was sent to the Minors last summer … re-emerged as a lights-out postseason closer for the World Series champs … and had one of the shakiest Spring Trainings imaginable where he consistently struggled to throw strikes. Well, the real games are here, and it’s time for Roki to step up if he wants to stay in the Dodgers’ starting rotation.  

 

THE RETURN OF JUDGE VS. RALEIGH

We’ve got the two top-dog sluggers in the American League going head-to-head in a series you won’t want to miss this week. 

Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh, who just battled it out in one of the tightest MVP races we’ve seen in a long time, are facing off in Seattle starting tonight. The series opener between the Mariners and the undefeated Yankees starts at 9:40 p.m. ET/6:40 p.m. PT. 

Raleigh hit 60 home runs and broke the single-season catcher home run record, but the 2025 AL MVP Award narrowly went to Judge, who hit 53 homers, won his first batting title by hitting .331 and led the Majors with a 1.144 OPS.

Judge has homered in back-to-back games entering the series in Seattle, while Raleigh has yet to go yard in 2026, but we’re sure the two heavyweights will bring their A-game to the showdown. 

THE JAPANESE BABE RUTH HAS ARRIVED

Munetaka Murakami has been dubbed the “Japanese Babe Ruth” (that’s thanks to his historic 56-homer season in Japan a few years ago), and he’s sure living up to that right now. 

Murakami has homered in each of the first three games of his MLB career, making the White Sox slugger just the fourth player ever to do so — along with Trevor Story in 2016, Kyle Lewis in 2019 and Chase DeLauter … also this year. 

He’s left those on the South Side literally agape. After Murakami’s latest homer yesterday, White Sox broadcaster John Schriffen exclaimed: “My mouth is open right now. … He is something else!” 

Now, is that an overreaction? Yeah, maybe. Murakami still has to answer questions about whether he can hit high velocity and whether he can keep up his contact rate over a full season. 

But this guy was a superstar in Nippon Professional Baseball, no one denies Murakami’s light-tower power, and it’s hard to imagine a more encouraging start to his MLB career. 

One positive sign: Murakami’s already shown he has the bat speed required to send Major League pitching out of the park. On his home runs, he had swing speeds of 76.3 mph, (Opening Day), 79.6 mph (Saturday) and 75.4 mph (yesterday). Statcast’s threshold for a “fast swing” is 75-plus mph, and Murakami is routinely exceeding that. 

Here’s what a Murakami home run swing looks like in slow motion — visualized with Statcast bat tracking technology:

 

THE NASTIEST K OF THE SEASON SO FAR

You have to see what Mason Montgomery did to Juan Soto yesterday. No one gets swings like this from Soto. 

But Montgomery’s 100 mph lefty fastball tied Soto up in knots on Sunday. It’s the nastiest strikeout of the season so far. 

The young Pirates southpaw brought Soto literally to his knees in the seventh inning at Citi Field with a heater at Soto’s eyes — inducing the most awkward swing you’ll ever see from the Mets superstar. 

Soto’s futile attempt to put the bat on the ball with two strikes sent him tumbling to the ground in the batter’s box and the bat tumbling out of his hands.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Here are some of the other biggest storylines from Opening Weekend: 

• The Orioles had two huge ball-strike challenges that helped decide the game in the ninth inning of yesterday’s win over the Twins.
• Another Japanese star, Kazuma Okamoto, slugged his first MLB home run for the Blue Jays — an impressive inside-out swing that produced a 110.4 mph rocket to the opposite field.
• Bo Bichette heard some early-season boos from Mets fans — but he’s taking them in stride, saying, “I get it. I thought my at-bats were terrible, too.” 
• Dodgers fans got to hear closer Edwin Díaz’s famous “Narco” intro for the first time on Friday night at Dodger Stadium — and it was a live trumpet performance.
• Christian Yelich made the first pinch-hit home run of his career count — the 111.1 mph, 421-foot second decker carried the Brewers to a season-opening sweep of the White Sox in Milwaukee.
• The ageless Andrew McCutchen launched his first home run as a Ranger — then apologized! — as he led Texas to a series win over the Phillies. 
• Newcomer Owen Caissie crushed a walk-off home run to send the Marlins to their first 3-0 start since 2009. 

 

THE BEST CHALLENGERS OF OPENING WEEKEND

The first weekend of MLB’s new Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System is in the books. We’re keeping track of which batters, pitchers and catchers are winning the most challenges over at Baseball Savant’s ABS dashboard — and the two early-season leaders are definitely names you’ll recognize. 

The batter who’s won the most challenges so far? Mike Trout. The Angels superstar has flipped three called strikes to balls. 

And the fielder who’s been the best? Salvador Perez. The Royals’ nine-time All-Star catcher is a perfect 4-0 in flipping called balls to strikes behind the plate. 

 

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