Sports
Blue Jays, Tigers start pitchers on rebound from tough outings
Apr 4, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch (14) take the ball to relieve pitcher Jack Flaherty (9) in the fifth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images Jack Flaherty still is seeking his first victory of the season. Kevin Gausman is coming off his worst outing of the campaign.
Those two veteran right-handers will be the mound opponents in the finale of a three-game series between the Toronto Blue Jays and host Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon.
Flaherty (0-4, 5.73 ERA) will be making his 10th start of the season. He couldn’t even get out of the fourth inning of his last start, a 10-2 loss to the New York Mets on Tuesday. Flaherty allowed three runs on six hits and issued three walks.
“Just too many long at-bats,” he said. “I’ve got to find a way to shorten those at-bats, get some quicker outs and get us back into the dugout.”
Flaherty has walked 29 batters in 37 2/3 innings this season. Two seasons ago, Flaherty walked 38 batters in 162 innings.
“I know he had a hard time finishing at-bats,” manager A.J. Hinch said after Flaherty’s last outing. “It looked like he was getting into counts and they kept working long at-bats and taking advantage of a few pitches. They definitely made him work.”
Flaherty hasn’t lasted more than five innings in his last five starts. He’s been tagged with the loss in three of his last four games.
He has enjoyed good success against Toronto during his career. In six starts, he’s 5-1 with a 2.08 ERA.
Gausman (2-3, 3.86) recorded his 2,000th career strikeout in his last start against Tampa Bay on Monday. He received a big ovation from the home crowd.
Otherwise, the start was not a source of pride. He surrendered seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings. He had not given up more than four runs in any of his previous starts.
“I’ve had some really cool moments here as a player, where the fans have made you feel some love,” he said of the strikeout mark. “I just wish I would have been able to enjoy it a little bit more. Giving up six runs isn’t fun, but, yeah, it was a cool moment, and I’ll definitely remember that forever.”
The 2,000th strikeout came against Tampa Bay’s catcher, Hunter Feduccia, in the fourth inning.
“My career has been ups and downs and been very different, and not all sunshine and rainbows,” he said. “So I take those things very seriously. And I’m honored by it for sure.”
Gausman will now concentrate on getting his first win in four starts. His last victory was April 25 against Cleveland.
He is quite familiar with the Tigers. He has started 14 games during his career against Detroit, posting a 4-3 record and 3.16 ERA.
The game on Sunday will determine the series. Detroit won the opener 3-2 on Friday night via Spencer Torkelson’s walk-off RBI single. The Blue Jays turned that around on Saturday, winning 2-1 in extra innings on Daulton Varsho’s RBI single.
Detroit’s Riley Greene extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a ninth-inning single. It’s the longest active streak in the majors.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Shopify Rebellion earns LCS Spring playoff spot with Disguised defeat
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
Cloud9 closed out an undefeated regular season while Shopify Rebellion clinched a playoff spot with a win on Sunday at the LCS Spring event in Los Angeles.
Cloud9 improved to 7-0 with a sweep of Team Liquid, while Shopify Rebellion swept Disguised, which was in the final playoff spot but will now finish in seventh place and fail to advance.
Eight teams will compete in best-of-three matches in the round-robin regular season before advancing to the playoffs of the League of Legends event, which will be contested in best-of-five matches in a double-elimination format. The top two teams will qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational.
Cloud9 opened with a 38-minute win on blue and finished off the sweep with a 34-minute defeat of Team Liquid on blue.
Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen of Denmark had a 10-3-19 kill-death-assist ratio for Cloud9, supplemented by Robert “Blaber” Huang’s 10-5-23 K-D-A ratio. Argentina’s Brandon “Josedeodo” Villegas led Team Liquid, which will be either the third or fourth seed depending on Sunday’s LYON result, with a 6-9-9 K-D-A ratio.
Shopify’s sweep came on 30- and 37-minute triumphs on blue. Juan “Contractz” Garcia led Shopify Rebellion’s victory with a 20-4-17 K-D-A ratio. South Korea’s Oh “Callme” Ji-hoon led Disguised with a 8-6-10 K-D-A.
The seven-week regular season concludes Sunday with FlyQuest taking on LYON and winless Dignitas facing Sentinels.
Regular-season standings (Win-loss total, map differential)
1. Cloud9, 7-0, 14-4
2. LYON, 5-1, 11-4
3. Team Liquid, 5-2, 11-7
4. FlyQuest, 3-3, 9-7
5. Sentinels, 2-4, 7-9
6. Shopify Rebellion, 2-5, 5-10
7. Disguised, 2-5, 4-11
8. Dignitas, 0-6, 3-12
–Field Level Media
Sports
Unbeaten Team Falcons take top spot in Group A
Team Falcons downed Team Spirit 2-1 on Saturday in a battle for first place in Group A at the DreamLeague Season 29 event.
Now the only unbeaten team, Team Falcons is 6-0 going into the final day of the group stage as Team Spirit fell to 5-1.
Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak of Russia led Team Falcons with a 27-14-46 kill-death-assist ratio. Denis “Larl” Sigitov of Russia paced Team Spirit with a 27-12-36 K-D-A.
GamerLegion (1-5) notched their first win in Group A by downing Virtus.pro 2-1.
In Group B, Natus Vincere and PARIVISION are atop the standings at 5-1. PARIVISION went 1-1 on Saturday, sweeping Nigma Galaxy 2-0 and falling to PlayTime 2-1. Natus Vincere went 2-0 on the day, sweeping PlayTime and edging Tundra Esports 2-1.
Artem “Niku” Bachkur led Natus Vincere in the sweep of PlayTime with a 21-3-32 K-D-A ratio, while teammate and fellow Ukrainian Taras “gotthejuice” Linnikov contributed a 17-8-29 K-D-A in the win over Tundra Esports.
The $1 million Dota 2 event is beginning with the 16 teams divided into two groups for round-robin play. The top four teams in each group earn spots in the upper bracket for the double-elimination playoffs, while the fifth- and sixth-place teams will start the playoffs in the lower bracket.
All matches through the event are best-of-three until the final on May 24, which will be best-of-five. The championship team will receive $250,000 in player prize money, a club bonus of $40,000 and a minimum of 6,000 ESL Pro Tour points.
On Saturday in Group A, Team Spirit opened with a win in 43 minutes on green before Team Falcons rallied with victories in 65 minutes on green and 45 minutes on red.
Team Liquid swept ex-HEROIC in 44 minutes on red and 24 minutes on green.
Aurora Gaming opened with a 44-minute win on green before Vici Gaming drew even with a 32-minute victory on green. Aurora closed it out with a marathon 69-minute win on red.
GamerLegion bounced back from an opening loss in 41 minutes to Virtus.pro, which was on red, to win in 28 minutes and 35 minutes, both on red.
In Group B, Tundra Esports started with a 51-minute win on green before BetBoom Team drew level with a 37-minute win on green. Tundra had green for the third map and won in 49 minutes to take the match.
PARIVISION swept Nigma Galaxy in 31 minutes on red and 35 minutes on green.
Natus Vincere dispatched PlayTime 2-0, winning in 31 minutes on red and 43 minutes on green.
Xtreme Gaming swept REKONIX in 36 minutes on green and 33 minutes on red.
BetBoom Team followed suit against Xtreme Gaming, winning in 70 minutes on green and 36 minutes on red.
Natus Vincere outbattled Tundra Esports 2-1. Natus Vincere opened with a 44-minute victory on green, then Tundra won in 43 minutes on green. Natus Vincere took the match with a 53-minute win on red.
PlayTime opened with a 50-minute win on red in taking down PARIVISION 2-1. After PARIVISION responded with a 30-minute victory on red, PlayTime won in 41-minutes on green.
Nigma Galaxy swept REKONIX, winning in 45 minutes on red and 42 minutes on green.
The Sunday schedule:
Group A
–Team Spirit vs. ex-HEROIC
–Team Falcons vs. GamerLegion
–Team Liquid vs. Vici Gaming
–AuroraGaming vs. Virtus.pro
Group B
–Xtreme Gaming vs. Natus Vincere
–BetBoom Team vs. Nigma Galaxy
–Tundra Esports vs. PlayTime
–PARIVISION vs. REKONIX
DreamLeague Season 29 group standings, with match record and map record
Group A
1. Team Falcons, 6-0, 12-2
2. Team Spirit, 5-1, 11-3
3. Team Liquid, 5-2, 9-5
4. Aurora Gaming, 3-3, 7-7
T5. Vici Gaming, 2-4, 5-8
T5. Virtus.pro, 2-4, 6-8
7. ex-HEROIC, 1-5, 2-10
8. GamerLegion, 1-5, 2-11
Group B
T1. Natus Vincere, 5-1, 10-4
T1. PARIVISION, 5-1, 11-5
T3. BetBoom Team, 3-3, 8-7
T3. PlayTime, 3-3, 7-7
T3. Xtreme Gaming, 3-3, 7-6
T6. Nigma Galaxy, 2-4, 5-8
T6. Tundra Esports, 2-4, 6-10
8. REKONIX, 1-5, 3-10
DreamLeague Season 29 prize pool, with player prize money, club bonus money and base ESL Pro Tour points
1. $250,000, $40,000, 6,000 points
2. $100,000, $30,000, 5,000 points
3. $80,000, $25,000, 4,000 points
4. $60,000, $20,000, 3,200 points
5-6. $40,000, $15,000, 2,200 points
7-8. $27,500, $12,500, 1,000 points
9-12. $20,000, $10,000, 375 points
13-14. $12,500, $10,000, 140 points
15-16. $10,000, $10,000, 60 points
–Field Level Media
Sports
Streak-busting Marlins seek series victory over Rays
May 16, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Miami Marlins left fielder Heriberto Hernandez (13) is congratulated by catcher Joe Mack (80) after hitting a home run during the seventh inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images Jakob Marsee is squeezing out plenty of offense in the Citrus Series.
Fresh off back-to-back three-hit performances, Marsee will look to lead the Miami Marlins to a series victory against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon in the rubber match of the three-game set in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Marsee collected his third hit on Saturday after recording a single with two outs in the ninth inning. He promptly scampered home on Javier Sanoja’s RBI double to take a 2-1 lead. The Marlins erupted for eight runs in the 10th en route to securing a 10-5 victory.
So, what does Marsee attribute to his recent success at the plate?
“Honestly, I used (teammate Liam Hicks’) bat. Another thing is talking to my dad back home, my hitting coach back home,” Marsee told the Marlins Radio Network. “Couple things cleaned up mechanically to give me more confidence. … It’s bound to happen.”
Marsee is happy it has, given he was mired in a 4-for-29 stretch with nine strikeouts over his previous nine games.
Then there’s Sanoja, who also had a bases-clearing double to highlight Miami’s monster 10th inning on Saturday. He went 2-for-5 with four RBIs after going 0-for-14 in his previous four games.
“He’s come through so many times,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said of Sanoja. “I know he was frustrated, but to get the big one in the ninth to give us the lead, and then to come back again and come up with another big one, that’s what he does. Happy for him. Happy for us. That’s what he’s shown is that the moment is never too big for him.”
While Miami improved to 2-3 on its six-game road trip, Tampa Bay saw its 11-game home winning streak come to a halt following just its fourth loss in 21 games.
Eury Perez (2-5, 4.94 ERA) will look to halt a four-start losing streak for the Marlins on Sunday when he takes the mound against the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen (3-1, 3.16) in a battle of right-handers.
Perez allowed three runs on as many hits in six innings of a 3-0 setback to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. The 23-year-old has yet to face Tampa Bay in his career.
Rasmussen also gave up three runs in six innings in his last start but walked away a winner in the Rays’ 8-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.
While happy with the win, Rasmussen sees room for improvement — namely, cutting down on the home-run ball. He has been taken deep seven times over 42 2/3 innings this season, including once in each of his last two starts.
“It seems right now the only runs that I’m giving up are via home runs, so I’ve got to figure out a way to limit damage in certain situations,” Rasmussen said, per the Tampa Bay Times. “But other than that, like we’ve talked about, every single outing it just seems to be a pitch or two. That’s pretty hard to complain about in the grand scheme of things. But, like, we’ve got to get back to keeping the ball in the yard a little bit.”
Rasmussen, 30, is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA in six career appearances (four starts) versus Miami.
–Field Level Media
Shopify Rebellion earns LCS Spring playoff spot with Disguised defeat
Unbeaten Team Falcons take top spot in Group A
