Hard-throwing right-hander Jacob Misiorowski will look to benefit from the Milwaukee Brewers’ rejuvenated offense against the visiting New York Yankees on Friday in the opener of a three-game series.

Misiorowski (2-2, 2.84 ERA), who left his last start with a right hamstring cramp after 5 1/3 hitless innings, will be opposed by left-hander Max Fried (4-1, 2.39).

The Yankees rallied for a 9-2 victory over Texas on Thursday with a six-run sixth inning to finish their homestand 6-1. Cody Bellinger had three hits to extend his hitting streak to nine games.

Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez was carted off after crashing into the wall while making a catch on the first play of Thursday’s game. Dominguez sustained a low-grade left AC sprain in his left shoulder and will be placed on the injured list, the team announced. Concussion tests have been negative.

Milwaukee, which was idle Thursday, won at St. Louis 6-2 on Wednesday behind Andrew Vaughn’s three-run homer. It was his first homer since coming off the injured list.

The Yankees, tied for the best record (26-12) in the majors with the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves, have won 16 of their last 19 games. Bellinger is hitting .471 (16-for-34) over his nine-game streak with seven doubles, two triples, two homers and 14 RBIs. Aaron Judge leads the majors with 15 homers, including three in his last five games.

Fried allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings in his last start, but did not get the decision in an 11-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. In his two starts prior to that, he did not allow an earned run over a combined 14 innings.

“I was happy with being able to limit and not give up the lead, especially when stuff started kind of going sideways,” Fried said following his last start.

Fried is 3-1 with a 2.84 ERA in six career starts vs. Milwaukee.

The Brewers, whose 24 homers are just one ahead of San Francisco for fewest in the major leagues, have been bolstered by the return of Vaughn and Jackson Chourio.

Chourio, who went on the injured list Opening Day morning with a fractured left hand, is 6-for-9 with three doubles in two games back.

Chourio hit 21 homers with 78 RBIs last season after 21 homers and 79 RBIs as a rookie in 2024. Vaughn, who also went on the IL with a fractured bone in his left hand after playing in the opener, had nine homers and 46 RBIs in 64 games with the Brewers last season after being acquired from the Chicago White Sox.

“He’s done those types of things for us in the past, and it’s great to have him back and in just his second game having that type of impact,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of Vaughn following Wednesday’s game.

Misiorowski was dominant his last time out with eight strikeouts and two walks in a 6-1 win at Washington, retiring the final 12 hitters before cramping. He had 43 pitches of more than 100 mph, third most in the pitch-tracking era.

Misiorowski has 59 strikeouts in 38 innings, an MLB-best 13.97 per nine innings. Opponents are batting .172 against him. He will be facing the Yankees for the first time.

The meeting is the first since the Yankees swept last season’s opening series in New York, outscoring the Brewers 36-14.

–Field Level Media

The Chicago Cubs are riding high with nine wins in a row and 19 in their past 22 games.

The Texas Rangers have lost seven of their past 10 games, mustering a total of 27 runs in that span.

The Cubs will look to continue their torrid play on Friday night when they begin a nine-game road trip with the opener of a three-game series against the Rangers in Arlington, Texas.

Michael Conforto homered to highlight a 3-for-3 performance as Chicago coasted to an 8-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday. The right fielder also drew a bases-loaded walk to ignite a seven-run fourth inning, helping the Cubs extend their home winning streak to 15 games.

“He had a big day,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said of Conforto, who was playing in place of Seiya Suzuki (rest). “The at-bats that he’s provided in limited playing time, it’s just really impressive.

“… Player of the game offensively, nice piece to have on your team.”

Conforto also came through in a pinch on Monday, belting a solo homer in the ninth inning to lift the Cubs to a 5-4 walk-off victory over the Reds.

Chicago’s Ian Happ went 0-for-3 with a walk on Thursday, extending his on-base streak to 28 games.

While there is little question about the Cubs’ offense of late, there was a bit of mystery surrounding the team’s starting pitcher for the series opener.

That slot originally was held by Opening Day starter Matthew Boyd, who underwent surgery Thursday morning on the meniscus in his left knee. The left-hander is expected to be sidelined for approximately six weeks.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell ultimately decided to give Ben Brown (1-1, 2.10 ERA) his first start of the season on Friday. The right-hander has one save, 24 strikeouts and eight walks in 25 2/3 innings across 12 relief outings this year.

“That’s really been my goal with Ben, period, is to keep him in bigger outings,” Counsell said, according to MLB.com. “Just because I think he’s capable of carrying that innings load, and it’s a good contrast to the other guys we have in the bullpen.

“We’re just trying to think about the innings puzzle moving forward here. And then you’re also just trying to think about what’s next; you have to play that game, unfortunately. You always have to play that game. What do we do if something else happens? We just have to make sure we are covered there.”

Brown struggled in his lone previous appearance against Texas, when he allowed six runs in 1 2/3 innings in 2024.

Rangers right-hander Kumar Rocker (1-3, 4.71 ERA) will start on Friday.

Rocker lost his second straight start on Saturday after allowing five runs on seven hits in two innings during a 5-1 setback against the host Detroit Tigers. He exited after a season-low 43 pitches.

Rocker has yet to face the Cubs in his career.

Ezequiel Duran homered and drove in both Rangers runs in Texas’ 9-2 road loss to the New York Yankees on Thursday afternoon. He is 7-for-17 with five RBIs and four runs during his season-high five-game hitting streak.

“I’m just trying to keep it simple,” Duran said, per The Dallas Morning News. “Use the big part of the field.”

Texas’ Brandon Nimmo has hit safely in seven of his last eight games after going 2-for-5 in the finale at New York.

–Field Level Media

These days, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ offense is mirroring the desert climate of the team’s home: dry.

The Diamondbacks have lost six of their past seven games. They’ve scored just 12 total runs in those losses and have been shut out twice.

They’ll aim to get it back on track Friday night when they face the New York Mets in the first contest of a three-game series in Phoenix.

In their most recent setback, the Diamondbacks fell 4-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday in the rubber match of a three-game set.

Arizona appeared to find some life offensively in the opener of that series with a 9-0 victory on Tuesday, only to get blanked 1-0 the next night.

“We’ve got to get back to our basics and some of the things that we really, really believe in,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “… But overall, I believe in this offense, and I see them working every single day, and those results will come, but it doesn’t happen by just going up there and believing it’s going to happen. You got to make it happen.”

Right fielder Corbin Carroll delivered two of his team’s five hits on Thursday, including a solo homer that put Arizona ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the third inning. The Diamondbacks struggled to get on base from that point on, going out in order in each of the next three innings before leading off their half of the seventh with a single. They had one more hit in the eighth.

“Once again, I think this was mostly an offensive issue that I’m going to kind of talk about and target,” Lovullo said. “This game is hard, for sure. It’s hard to hit, it’s hard to pitch, hard to catch, hard to do everything, but we’re making it way harder than it should be.”

Right-hander Ryne Nelson (1-3, 6.61 ERA) will be on the mound on Friday for Arizona.

Nelson is 1-3 with a 5.86 ERA in six career appearances (five starts) against New York. That lone win came on April 8 when he allowed just one run on five hits with five strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings of a 7-2 victory.

The Mets, meanwhile, will look to bounce back from a 6-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Thursday that ended a three-game winning streak.

New York had a two-run lead after two innings. Colorado’s Jake McCarthy helped sink the Mets, driving in the game-tying run in the sixth before mashing a grand slam in the eighth to complete the comeback.

The home run was met with some question, however. The ball sailed over the right-field foul pole and was deemed fair, a call that stood after a crew-chief review.

“It was close,” New York manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Especially from our angle, I couldn’t tell. … It just didn’t go our way there.”

Mendoza went to his bullpen in the fifth inning after starter Christian Scott threw 82 pitches. Mendoza was managing Scott’s pitch count after the right-hander missed all of last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Mendoza hopes to count on a longer run for right-hander Nolan McLean (1-2, 2.97 ERA), who will start for the Mets on Friday. McLean has faced Arizona once in his career, allowing two runs on three hits in 6 1/3 innings in a 7-1 loss on April 9.

–Field Level Media