The Yankees’ hot start to 2026 hummed along yesterday in their home opener. Aaron Judge and Ben Rice brought the lumber as Will Warren outpitched talented young Marlins righty Eury Pérez, and the Yankees woon, 8-6. At 6-1, the Yankees have the best record in baseball. So call the season there! It’s over!
No? Whatever, Manfred. We’ll roll on tonight as the Yankees take on the Marlins again. In the meantime, we’ll catch up on tbe other notable American League action from yesterday.
Toronto Blue Jays (4-3) 4, Chicago White Sox (2-5) 5 (10 innings)
The defending AL champions
got to start off 2026 with a cushy nine-game slate before their April 6-8 rematch with the Dodgers, and they seemeed on track to take care of business by sweeping the A’s in their Opening Day series. Since then, though? They inexplicably dropped two of three to the rebuilding Rockies at Rogers Centre, where they rarely lost in 2025, and now they’ve begun their first road series of the year by falling to the White Sox, who have lost 324 games across the last three seasons. Yikes.
The afternoon both began and ended with sloppy plays from Toronto that proved costly. Chicago grabbed an early 1-0 lead when Dylan Cease dropped a throw from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first base, allowing Chase Meidroth to score. Addison Barger and Alejandro Kirk responded with back-to-back doubles in the second to tie it up, but from there, bulk guy Sean Burke stymied Toronto on two hits, no walks, and seven strikeouts while tossing six innings.
On the strength of a two-run double off Cease from newcomer Austin Hays, the White Sox carried a 3-1 lead into the eighth. But one of Toronto’s lightest hitters, Andrés Giménez, silenced the excited South Side crowd:
Both sides had a chance to push across the go-ahead run to break the tie in the ninth. But after Daulton Varsho’s two-out double, White Sox skipper Will Venable called upon free-agent signing Seranthony Domínguez to strand him, and he did by fanning Kazuma Okamoto. The Pale Hose missed their first shot at walking off despite having the winning run at second with one down in the ninth. Tyler Rogers got Meidroth to fly out, intentionally walked Munetaka Murakami, and then got Miguel Vargas to ground out.
Vargas would compound his problems in the top of the 10th, as his two-out throw from third on a grounder ever-so-slightly pulled Murakami off the bag, bringing home the zombie runner. So Toronto handed a 4-3 lead to closer Jeff Hoffman, and it seemed like a done deal when Colson Montgomery grounded out and Hays went down swinging. During the Hays at-bat, however, a foul ball might’ve changed the course of the final result, as it went straight off Kirk’s thumb behind the plate. He was immediately in pain and had to leave (X-rays were still pending as of the time I write /this), forcing Toronto to put in backup Tyler Heineman.
Down to their last out, Derek Hill made the bold call to surprise the defense by dropping down a bunt, and Heineman was quickly tested. His throw to Guerrero went down the right-field line to score their zombie runner and give 26-year-old rookie Tristan Peters—purchased from the Rays in December—a chance to win the game. Peters did just that, roping a single to right to make the White Sox winners in their home opener.
Boston Red Sox (2-5) 5, San Diego Padres (2-5) 2
Both San Diego and Boston were off to shaky starts to 2026, but since they squared off against each other on Friday, someone had to get back on the right track. It would be the Red Sox, as the fans at Fenway for their home opener went home happy. It was a pitching matchup of former Yankees, with Michael King squaring off against Sonny Gray (who only overlapped in 2018 spring training), and the latter trade acquisition had the edge early with four scoreless while King allowed RBI hits to Ceddanne Rafaela and Caleb Durbin.
The erstwhile Baby Bomber Durbin had been 0-for-18 to start the season after coming over from Milwaukee and got booed early on, but his single scored Jarren Duran to make it 2-0, Red Sox.
The parade of old friends making an impact on this game continued in the fifth, when Miguel Andujar tripled off his former teammate Gray on a ball that Rafaela seemingly lost in the sun. He scored on a Gavin Sheets single, and Sheets came around himself on a Luis Campusano double.
The 2-2 tie held until the home half of the sixth, when Boston knocked King out of the game and took the lead for good. Willson Contreras delivered his first homer in a Red Sox uniform, a 423-foot blast to put Boston up, and after Wandy Peralta (hey, another former Yankee) relieved King, 2021 fourth-overall pick Marcelo Mayer went yard for a decisive two-run blow.
Although Ron Marinaccio (another!) pitched a scoreless frame after Peralta left, the Padres never chipped away. With Carlos Narváez (another!!) behind the plate, the Boston bullpen trio of Greg Weissert (another!!!), Justin Slaten, and Aroldis Chapman (one more for the road) closed it out with three hitless innings.
Seattle Mariners (4-4) 3, Los Angeles Angels (3-5) 1 (10 innings)
Offense was hard to come by during the first game of 2026 from “The Big A,” as Bryan Woo and Reid Detmers engaged in a pitchers’ duel. On paper, it was no contest. The 2025 M’s ace was nearly perfect, permitting just three baserunners across his seven innings of work with the lone hit coming on a measly infield single from Oswald Peraza (bonus!) in the third. Mike Trout was the only Angels to reach twice against Woo, via a plunking in a walk. Peraza and Trout reached in separate innings, and the Halos went down on five strikeouts across a perfect eighth and ninth from Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz.
However, the Angels’ own surprisingly good pitching also shut out Seattle through nine. Detmers walked four and allowed three hits, but he did match Woo in zeroes across 6.2 innings because the Mariners just couldn’t push a run across. They stranded at least one baserunner in almost every frame — most egregiously in the fourth, when Brendan Donovan grounded out with two on and one out before Detmers fanned J.P. Crawford—and the eighth, when another two-on, one-out jam went by the wayside at the hands of veteran reliever Drew Pomeranz. Cal Raleigh had walked and Julio Rodríguez singled to set it up for Josh Naylor and Randy Arozarena who … popped up and hit a comebacker, respectively.
Mercifully for Mariners fans, the trend came to a halt once Seattle inherited its zombie runner in the 10th. Cole Young led off with a triple into the right-field corner off Brent Suter.
That was nice, but since Rob Refsnyder and Cal Raleigh followed with unproductive outs, there was a chance that Seattle would have to settle for one and hold on for dear life in the home half of the 10th. However, Suter intentionally walked J-Rod and he moved to second on a ball in the dirt. Naylor came through this time with a two-run single and Seattle had a more comfortable 3-0 lead.
Gabe Speier entered to close it out in the Halos’ half of the 10th, and Naylor’s insurance proved to be valuable. The zombie runner Trout scored on a groundout and a sacrifice fly, but at that point, Seattle was happy to trade him for outs. Yoán Moncada struck out to end it, completing a combined extra-inning one-hitter for the Mariners.
Houston Astros (5-3) 4, Athletics (2-5) 11
The A’s second home opener as West Sacramento tenants turned into a whooping of the Astros in a hurry. Cristian Javier quite plainly didn’t have it for Houston, as he got waxed for six runs on six hits and five (!) walks while recording just 11 outs. The A’s scored three in the third to go ahead 4-1 and then doubled that inning’s output in the fourth, knocking out Javier and beating up reliever Roddery Muñoz for six more runs.
Lawrence Butler and Max Muncy the Younger were the stars of those two frames, with both contributing RBI knocks in the former, then muscling up in the latter for homers on back-to-back offerings from Muñoz.
Jeffrey Springs was superb on the A’s pitching side, firing six innings of two-hit ball with seven K’s, a third-inning sacrifice fly the only damage on his record. By the time Muncy’s homer landed, this one felt all but over since the A’s were into double digits, and the Astros—who had long since pulled Yordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, and Christian Walker—merely mustered a few garbage-time runs at the end to make the final score at least a smidge closer.
Detroit Tigers (3-4) 4, St. Louis Cardinals (4-3) 0
The Tigers began their 2026 slate at Comerica Park with an efficient 4-0 shutout of St. Louis. Big free-agent signing Framber Valdez got to make his first start in the Old English D, and he turned away the Cards with six shutout innings, allowing three hits and two walks while fanning five to earn his first win with Detroit.
Batterymate Dillon Dingler helped out his pitcher too, getting the scoring started in Detroit with a 433-foot shot for a two-run homer against Michael McGreevy. The Tigers tacked on insurance runs in the fifth and sixth via RBI knocks from 2025 All-Stars Riley Greene and Javy Báez, and three scoreless from the ’pen locked in the shutout.
