Sport Scores

The beginning of April means one thing for American sports fans: baseball is back. This year’s first game will be held on Sunday, when the Pittsburgh Pirates host the St. Louis Cardinals. According to legend, the game of baseball was born in 1835 in Cooperstown, N.Y.; the MLB was founded about sixty years later. And, though lots has changed between now and then, a game of late-19th-century baseball would still…

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

The Twins’ young talent is elevating the outside perception of the organization. For example, on Wednesday, our Randball played with the idea that the Twins could lock up the top three spots in American League Rookie of the Year voting. Byron Buxton wins the award, Jose Berrios is second and Byung Ho Park in third place. Realistically, the Twins would be fortunate to get one of these young guns in…

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

WGN Radio Robservations on the media beat: Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood Just in time for Opening Day next week, former Chicago Cubs pitchers Kerry Wood and Ryan Dempster have been hired as baseball analysts at Tribune Media news/talk WGN AM 720. Throughout the season Dempster will appear Thursday mornings on Steve Cochran’s show, and Wood will appear Thursday afternoons on Roe Conn’s show. “Woody and Dempster are the…

On his first day in office, in January 2015, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced his interest in “inject[ing] additional offense into the game.” Over the previous several seasons, scoring in baseball had dropped to levels not seen since the mid-1970s, as an expanded strike zone, an increase in average pitch velocity, the rise of defensive shifts, and detailed data on batter tendencies had combined to keep runs scarce….

With Opening Day almost here, we’ll look at the inside story of baseball’s most valuable commodity: the arm of the pitcher. Kansas City Royals’ Edinson Volquez throw during a spring training baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Monday, March 28, 2016, in Surprise, Ariz. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) Major League Baseball’s official Opening Day is Monday. And great pitchers have been limbering up the most valuable asset in all of…

There will be a new player in Major League Baseball dugouts this season: the iPad. Apple Inc. and MLB signed a multi-year agreement to equip every team with iPad Pro tablets to help coaching staffs make better use of data. Teams will be able sift through performance stats from current and past seasons, weigh potential pitcher-hitter matchups, look at “spray charts” showing where a player is likely to hit a…

Chris Bassitt’s first Major League Baseball pitching start came for the Chicago White Sox in late August 2014. He was 25 years old, just slightly older than the average age for a pitcher’s debut in the league. He had gotten the phone call notifying him of the start only two days earlier, and it had taken him completely by surprise. He spent the next 48 hours in an emotional and…

There will be a new player in Major League Baseball dugouts this season: the iPad. Apple Inc. and MLB signed a multi-year agreement to equip every team with iPad Pro tablets to help coaching staffs make better use of data. Teams will be able sift through performance stats from current and past seasons, weigh potential pitcher-hitter matchups, look at “spray charts” showing where a player is likely to hit a…

Baseball sure loves a manufactured controversy, especially if the terms “respect,” “class,” or “the right way” are involved. No team attempts to uphold the unwritten rules of the game quite like the Kansas City Royals. Last year, the Royals cleared benches six times — five times in April alone — and despite ending the season as World Series champions, the Royals are keen to clear the benches again to start 2016. You…

Ballpark food menus are devolving into train wreck mashups promoting little more than excess for the sake of it. They sound fun, in a let’s wait in line for 40 minutes in order to do something horrible to our stomachs like a day at Disneyland sort of way. Some are actually pretty clever, such as the Milwaukee Brewers’ Pulled Pork Parfait. That’s a logical combo of tasty items not normally…

South Carolina ran out of late-inning magic Tuesday night against the College of Charleston, falling 6-5 in 13 innings at Founders Park. The Gamecocks (23-3) rallied from a two-run deficit in the ninth inning and a one-run deficit in the 12th, but John Jones grounded out with two outs and the tying run on second in the 13th as the Cougars outlasted No. 5 USC. The result ends South Carolina’s…

There will be a new player in Major League Baseball dugouts this season: the iPad. Apple Inc. and MLB signed a multi-year agreement to equip every team with iPad Pro tablets to help coaching staffs make better use of data. Teams will be able sift through performance stats from current and past seasons, weigh potential pitcher-hitter matchups, look at “spray charts” showing where a player is likely to hit a…

Baseball sure loves a manufactured controversy, especially if the terms “respect,” “class,” or “the right way” are involved. No team attempts to uphold the unwritten rules of the game quite like the Kansas City Royals. Last year, the Royals cleared benches six times — five times in April alone — and despite ending the season as World Series champions, the Royals are keen to clear the benches again to start 2016. You…

By the time the season is over, the four baseball teams in the Class 3A Greater St. Helens League will have faced each other three times. Baseball purists probably hope there will be some closer games than the first ones. Columbia River scored 10 runs in the second inning and rolled to a 13-1 win over Prairie in a game shortened to five innings. Kelso, meanwhile, topped Fort Vancouver 23-1….

With Opening Day almost here, we’ll look at the inside story of baseball’s most valuable commodity: the arm of the pitcher. Kansas City Royals’ Edinson Volquez throw during a spring training baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Monday, March 28, 2016, in Surprise, Ariz. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) Guests Jeff Passan, lead baseball columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Author of the new book, “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the…