9:21 PM ET Clayton Kershaw‘s back, which landed him on the 10-day injured list four hours before he was scheduled to throw the first pitch of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ season on Thursday night, is progressing well enough to make him believe he won’t be sidelined much longer. Kershaw said Friday that the injury, classified
MLB
5:47 PM ET Associated Press BRISTOL, Conn. — The pandemic-delayed Major League Baseball opener was the sport’s most-watched regular-season game on any network in nine years. The New York Yankees‘ rain-shortened 4-1 win at the Washington Nationals on Thursday night averaged 4 million viewers on ESPN, according to Nielsen fast national ratings. The game peaked
2:34 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — A record 109 players from the Dominican Republic were on Opening Day rosters across Major League Baseball, boosted by an expanded pool following the layoff caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Major League Baseball said 288 of the 1,026 total players on the Opening Day rosters were born
8:00 AM ET CHICAGO — With no time to spare, the Chicago Cubs‘ new television network, called Marquee, has a last-minute agreement with Chicagoland’s largest cable provider, Comcast, to air their games. The deal allows fans in the Chicago market to watch the Cubs as soon as Friday night when the team hosts the Milwaukee
12:21 PM ET ESPN News Services The displaced Toronto Blue Jays will play the majority of their home games in Buffalo, New York, this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, the team announced Friday. The Blue Jays will play at Sahlen Field, home of the team’s Triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons. “We are extremely grateful to
12:57 PM ET ESPN News Services The Atlanta Braves will be without their top two catchers, Tyler Flowers and Travis d’Arnaud, for Friday’s opening game at the New York Mets after both players showed symptoms of the coronavirus. Manager Brian Snitker said Friday that Flowers and d’Arnaud have tested negative for COVID-19 but did not
3:31 PM ET The Twitter feed of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrated Opening Day on Friday morning with a social justice message. Today is Opening Day, which means it’s a great day to arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor — Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) July 24, 2020 Breonna Taylor is one of several Black people
7:00 AM ET Baseball is back. The home runs are back. The blazing fastballs blurring across our TV screens are back. The bat flips, the doubles in the gap, the “how did he do that?” defensive plays, the box scores, the exit velocities, the hot takes, the debates, the hopeful late-game rallies, the walk-off hits,
3:44 AM ET LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts and Mookie Betts both were raised by fathers who served in the military. A few years ago, after Colin Kaepernick took a knee to peacefully protest social injustice and police brutality toward people of color in this country, Roberts and Betts each spoke out against not standing
7:00 AM ET Mike Trout is not the best player in baseball anymore. I know — that reads like blasphemous clickbait. After all, Trout already has produced more career WAR (72.8) than Larry Walker, Derek Jeter, Tony Gwynn and Ernie Banks. He already has collected more top-two MVP finishes (seven) than Hank Aaron, Pete Rose,