Right-hander Emerson Hancock will look to continue his stellar 2026 when the visiting Seattle Mariners conclude their three-game series against the Washington Nationals on Sunday.

The teams have split the first two games with Seattle winning 10-2 on Friday night and Washington taking an 8-3 decision Saturday.

Hancock (5-2, 2.74 ERA) will be making his 14th start of the season. He has allowed three earned runs or fewer in 12 of the first 13 and has pitched at least five innings in each start. Last time out he allowed a run on three hits over five innings in a 6-3 win against the Baltimore Orioles on Monday.

“I thought he threw the ball extremely well,” manager Dan Wilson said after that game. “Everything on display against them. Some heaters, some sliders, a couple changeups. He was able to use his stuff well. He was finding the zone with it.”

Hancock allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings in his only previous appearance against the Nationals. He didn’t figure into the decision of that 10-inning, 9-3 loss on May 29, 2025.

Left-hander PJ Poulin (3-0, 3.20) has been the opener in seven of 26 appearances and will fill that role again Sunday for the Nationals. He will give way to right-hander Miles Mikolas (1-5, 5.90).

Mikolas has worked behind an opener in each of his past five appearances, going 0-2 with a 4.32 ERA over that stretch to bring his ERA under 6.00 for the first time this season. In his most recent appearance, he pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings on June 8 against the San Francisco Giants. He gave up three hits and did not walk a batter in the 4-3 win, but did not get a decision.

Mikolas is 1-1 with a 4.87 ERA in four career starts against the Mariners. His only win against Seattle came in 2014 when he was a member of the Texas Rangers.

On Saturday, Washington surrendered a 3-0 lead in the fifth inning but Luis Garcia Jr.’s two-run shot in the bottom half put the Nationals ahead to stay as they scored five unanswered runs to secure the win.

“They’ve got a good team over there, so we’re doing our job here on the mound and with the bats,” said Dylan Crews, who singled and has reached base in 19 of 21 games since being recalled from Triple-A Rochester on May 19. “Let’s just keep it going. This is fun.”

The Nationals (382 runs) continue to compete with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the MLB lead in runs scored, with the teams tied entering play on Sunday.

CJ Abrams had three hits and scored twice on Saturday. He also drove in two runs, and his 53 RBIs put him in the top five in MLB.

Colt Emerson has homered in each of the first two games for Seattle, which has lost three of four. The 20-year-old rookie has six home runs in 22 games and now ranks third in Mariners’ history for the most homers before turning 21, trailing Ken Griffey Jr. (38) and Alex Rodriguez (26). Emerson turns 21 on July 20.

“We knew he was a special player, but to see the power come this quickly like that is impressive,” Wilson said.

Cole Young was 2-for-5 and has now hit safely in 15 of his past 16 games.

Randy Arozarena was not in the lineup and is day-to-day after leaving Friday’s game with a left hamstring strain, Wilson said.

–Field Level Media

The day is finally here. In just a few hours, the UFC will host one of the most unique and anticipated events it’s ever done. Nearly one year after it was first teased by President Donald Trump, UFC Freedom 250 goes down on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.

The main event will see an undisputed UFC lightweight champion be crowned as reigning champion Ilia Topuria defends against interim champion Justin Gaethje.

Topuria claimed the championship by knocking out Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 last year. He’s been sidelined due to a custody battle. Gaethje became the UFC interim lightweight champion with a win over Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324 in January. It’s Gaethje’s second reign as interim champion, and this will mark his third chance at undisputed lightweight gold.

An interim heavyweight champion will be crowned in the co-main event as Alex Pereira takes on Ciryl Gane. History is on the line in this bout, as a win by Pereira will make him the first fighter in UFC history to ever win championships in three different weight classes during their career.

Pereira reclaimed the light heavyweight title in his last fight, finishing Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320. Gane enters this fight off the no-contest he had with current heavyweight champ Tom Aspinall at UFC 321. Gane is a former interim champion and has had unsuccessful cracks at the undisputed gold against Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones.

The rest of the UFC Freedom 250 card will see Sean O’Malley vs. Aiemann Zahabi, Josh Hokit vs. Derrick Lewis, Mauricio Ruffy vs. Michael Chandler, Bo Nickal vs. Kyle Daukaus, and Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia.

ILIA TOPURIA VS JUSTIN GAETHJE

It’s unanimously agreed that this might be Gaethje’s final chance to become undisputed champion – and he may just retire with a loss tonight. While he’ll have that motivation, he’s taking on one of the men consistently vying for the top spot in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings.

Topuria has a strong ground game and Gaethje has a wrestling background – but those will be thrown out the window. With Topuria being an exciting fighter and Gaethje someone who wants to produce entertaining highlights, expect these two to throw leather until someone goes down and stays down.

While that should mean a fight that produces fireworks, if Topuria has even an ounce of the technical skill with him and Gaethje gets too wild, it’ll be Spain standing on top at night’s end.

BET: Topuria to win by KO/TKO in Rounds 1 OR 2 (FanDuel: +105)

ALEX PEREIRA VS CIRYL GANE

This line is pretty disrespectful to Pereira. Yes, he’s moving up to a new weight class and taking on the guy who was pushing Aspinall to a limit before the anticlimactic ending. But Pereira is not your average fighter; he’s one of the pound-for-pound best.

Pereira’s power didn’t leave him when jumping from middleweight to light heavyweight. And at the weigh-ins yesterday, he jumped up to a massive 251 pounds – a jacked 251. Gane might have that “last chance” pressure on him, but is he really ready for “Poatan”?

Gane will need to tie up and take down Pereira, make the most of grappling, to have the best chance to win. The more he chooses to trade, the more he risks seeing stars on the White House lawn.

BET: Pereira via KO/TKO (DraftKings & FanDuel: +150)

MAURICIO RUFFY VS MICHAEL CHANDLER

It’s interesting to think about how different Michael Chandler’s UFC career would have been if he finished Charles Oliveira and won the UFC lightweight title at UFC 262. Unfortunately, it’s been downhill for him since. Chandler is just 2-5 in the UFC and was unable to see the dream match with Conor McGregor come to fruition.

He now takes on Mauricio Ruffy, a dangerous lightweight contender who comes from the Fighting Nerds camp. Chandler needs to use his wrestling, but that might not be enough for him here. Ruffy is powerful, he’s speedy and accurate, and he just has more to offer as a fighter right now than Chandler. Chandler might have the post-fight bonuses, but he doesn’t have the Ws.

BET: Ruffy to win via KO/TKO AND Under 1.5 rounds (DraftKings: -125)

The visiting New York Yankees could use continued contributions from Jasson Dominguez and Paul Goldschmidt Sunday afternoon in the rubber match of their series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Dominguez hit a solo home run in the fourth inning Saturday – the only hit allowed by Toronto’s Kevin Gausman over seven innings – to tie the game at 1.

Goldschmidt hit a two-run blast in the ninth against Toronto closer Louis Varland, who had not allowed a homer this season, to provide the decisive hit in the Yankees’ 3-1 victory.

It was only the second win in their past 11 games at the Rogers Centre for the Yankees since the start of the 2025 season and gave them a split of the first two games of the series that will end Sunday.

Dominguez did not arrive at the ballpark until about 2 p.m. Saturday, an hour before first pitch, after being recalled from his rehabilitation assignment when Trent Grisham was put on the injured list with a strained right hamstring. The Yankees already are without Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Dominguez had to wait at the airport in Toronto for his bats. “Four shots of espresso, two Red Bulls and one pre-workout later, I was ready to go,” Domínguez quipped. “It was a long day for me, but that’s all that was in my mind – be ready, be able to come and it doesn’t matter if I didn’t sleep or whatever, just be able to play and help the team.”

Goldschmidt has been on a hot streak when the Yankees have needed it most.

Over his past 35 games, he is batting .315/.376/.567 with six doubles, eight home runs and 28 RBIs. He is hitting .333 with four homers and 17 RBIs in his past 15 games.

“He’s been coming up huge,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Just when you think some righties hold him down a little bit, he comes up with a big at-bat. We’ve needed every bit of it. He continues to just be massively productive right in the middle of our order.”

The Yankees are scheduled to start right-hander Will Warren (7-1, 3.41 ERA) Sunday. He is 1-0, 11.00, in two career starts against the Blue Jays, including a 1-0, 5.40 mark this season.

Toronto is slated to start left-hander Patrick Corbin (2-3, 4.55), who is 2-1, 3.53 in eight career starts against the Yankees. He is 0-0, 6.75, in one start against them this season.

The Blue Jays squandered several chances on Saturday. They were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners.

“Just didn’t get the big hit,” Toronto manager John Schneider said.

Toronto played without Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was out with a tight lower back.

“His back was a little tight yesterday, and he’s been kind of grinding a little bit, so we just wanted to give him a blow,” Schneider said. “I’m hoping (Sunday) will be better. He was still sore and then it’s the toss-up between getting fired up (Saturday) and go have an at-bat or let it calm down and try to be in there (Sunday) with the off-day Monday. He’s way too valuable to lose. We’ll know more later.”

Alejandro Kirk, who returned from the IL with three hits and two RBIs in Toronto’s 8-5 win on Friday, also was given the day off on Saturday.

Toronto’s run on Saturday came on Kazuma Okamoto’s second homer of the series and team-best 15th of the season.

-Field Level Media