Thursday, March 26

View Online

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.

Opening Day is already off to a crazy start. 

In the very first game of the day, the Mets shocked Paul Skenes at Citi Field, knocking the reigning NL Cy Young winner out of the game after just two-thirds of an inning and five runs. 

And there’s going to be a lot more where that came from. So sure, the Yankees and Giants already got the 2026 season started last night… but today is the big day. Eleven games. Twenty-two teams. Aces on the mound. Superstars at the plate. There’s nothing like it. 

There are four games going on as we speak: Pirates-Mets, White Sox-Brewers, Nationals-Cubs and Twins-Orioles. But that just means we’ve still got seven more games of real-life, regular-season baseball coming our way today. 

Here are three big things to watch for the rest of Opening Day.

1) Here come the dominant southpaws 

We’re in a golden age of great left-handed pitchers, and the three best in baseball are all taking the mound for their Opening Day starts this afternoon. 

We’ve got Tarik Skubal for the Tigers (4:10 p.m. ET, vs. the Padres). We’ve got Garrett Crochet for the Red Sox (4:10 p.m. ET, at the Reds). And we’ve got Cristopher Sánchez for the Phillies (4:15 p.m. ET, vs. the Rangers).

Skubal is on a quest for a third straight Cy Young Award. Crochet is the biggest challenger to his throne. And Sánchez might have the best chance of anyone to take the NL Cy Young from Skenes.

2) Dodgers’ road to a three-peat begins   

The Dodgers will raise their 2025 World Series championship banner tonight at Dodger Stadium (8:30 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock). It’s their second in a row. And goodness, the team that’s about to try for a third is STACKED. 

You’ll see four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani leading off. World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. Marquee free-agent signing Kyle Tucker making his Dodgers debut. Veteran stars Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts trying to make another run in L.A. And maybe even new closer Edwin Díaz coming out of the bullpen to his famous trumpet entrance. 

3) Two top-five prospect debuts 

The two biggest MLB debuts of Opening Day 2026 are about to happen. 

The future stars about to play their first big league game: Tigers shortstop Kevin McGonigle (the No. 2 overall prospect) and Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt (No. 5 overall). 

The 21-year-old McGonigle is set to make his debut after learning he made the Tigers’ Opening Day roster just two days ago. Wetherholt is jumping straight to the top of the Cards’ order — the 23-year-old is batting leadoff on Opening Day against the Rays (4:15 p.m. ET).

Want to know what else to watch today? Check out our ultimate guide to every 2026 Opening Day matchup. 

 

A SURPRISE INJURY FOR A YOUNG STAR

The Brewers announced an unexpected injury just before their Opening Day game today: Jackson Chourio has a fracture in his left hand and will miss at least the first 2-4 weeks of the season. 

It turns out that Chourio’s injury goes all the way back to March 4, when the 22-year-old rising star was hit by a pitch in an exhibition game for Team Venezuela before the World Baseball Classic. 

Chourio missed the first two games of the WBC but had been playing since then, both for Venezuela and the Brewers after he returned to Spring Training. But recently Chourio started having discomfort, and an MRI revealed a small hairline fracture at the base of his middle finger. So he’s now on the injured list. 

The timing couldn’t be worse for the NL Central champs’ most exciting player, but hopefully Chourio, who has back-to-back 20-20 seasons to start his career, heals up soon and gets back in the lineup. 

GUESS WHO HAS THE MOST POPULAR JERSEY?

It should be no surprise which MLB star has the most popular jersey entering the 2026 season. 

It’s of course Shohei Ohtani, whose jersey has been purchased the most of any player on Fanatics’ family of websites since the 2025 World Series ended.

Ohtani has paced the sport on Opening Day for each of the past three seasons. But hot on his heels in 2026 is another Dodgers and Samurai Japan sensation: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who’s holding down the No. 2 spot after his star turn as last year’s World Series MVP.

After Aaron Judge at No. 3 — no surprise there — Cal Raleigh ranked No. 4 after his breakout 60-homer campaign for the Mariners in 2025. 

Other highlights of the list? New Orioles slugger Pete Alonso slotted in at No. 8. And then back-to-back at Nos. 9 and 10 are Boston’s Roman Anthony and the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong, two rising stars who could cement themselves near the top of this list for years to come.

Check out the entire list here, and shop for your favorite players’ jerseys at the MLB.com Shop.

— Bryan Horowitz 

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM OPENING NIGHT

The Yankees got the first win of 2026 by shutting out the Giants, 7-0, on Opening Night, in a game that featured a historic first ball-strike challenge, Barry Bonds telling the story of how he almost joined the Bronx Bombers, Jazz Chisholm Jr. making juggling catches while rocking “One Piece” gear and plenty more.  

Here are three quick takeaways from the very first game of the MLB season. 

1) Max Fried looks awesome 

For Fried, Year 2 in pinstripes is off to a flying start. Making his first Opening Day start since he left the Braves, the Yankees’ ace-in-place-of-Gerrit-Cole shut down the Giants for 6 1/3 innings, allowing just two hits and striking out four. Fried, known for his wide-ranging pitch arsenal, mixed and matched six different pitches against the Giants — his four-seam fastball, sinker, cutter, curveball, sweeper and changeup. He’s a master of keeping hitters off balance. 

2) Big G is still Big G 

Giancarlo Stanton’s elbow issues haven’t gone away, but when the game starts and the Yankees slugger gets into the batter’s box, he still hits the ball as hard as anybody. 

Stanton ripped a 114.4 mph line-drive RBI single off Giants ace Logan Webb yesterday, by far the hardest-hit ball by any player on Opening Night (the next-hardest was Rafael Devers’ 107.4 mph lineout against Fried). No one has hit more baseballs 110 mph or harderthan Stanton in the Statcast era, which goes back to 2015. 

3) Luis Arraez keeps knocking base hits 

The Giants definitely want to put Game 1 behind them, but one thing they did get was a base hit from Arraez in his San Francisco debut. Expect a lot more of those in 2026 from last year’s NL hits leader, who’s also a three-time batting champion. Arraez entered the season on a 15-game hit streak (all with the Padres at the end of last year), the longest active hitting streak in the Majors. Well, make that 16 now after one game with the Giants. 

OPENING DAY x BTS

This year, the soundtrack of Opening Day is BTS. 

The supremely popular K-pop superstars, who just released their new album “Arirang” last week, have teamed with MLB for the start of the season. 

To hype up Opening Day, MLB dropped a video featuring BTS’ new single “FYA.” Watch it here.  

BEAT THE STREAK IS BACK

It’s Opening Day, and Beat the Streak is back. Try to top Joe DiMaggio’s record hitting streak of 56 games by selecting a player each day to record a hit. If you get to 57, you can win $5.6 million. Plus, there’s a chance to win unique weekly prizes.

Today’s player prediction: How about Kyle Tucker to get a hit in his Dodgers debut? Not only is Tucker a great hitter, period, but he’s also had success against D-backs Opening Day starter Zac Gallen (who had a 4.83 ERA last season). Tucker is a .333 career hitter in 18 at-bats vs. Gallen with two doubles and a triple.  

 

© 2026 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (pahovis@aol.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com.

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe  or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.