Two middling teams in the Eastern Conference clash Saturday night when FC Cincinnati takes on host Charlotte FC.

Cincinnati (4-4-3, 15 points) arrives on the upswing after beating the New York Red Bulls and Chicago to vault back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture. It sits sixth in the Eastern Conference with potential for more by getting guys back from injury to be close to full strength.

“The idea is not to play guys out of position,” head coach Pat Noonan said. “It was a unique stretch there and, hopefully with the healthy (players) of those returning, we can get guys in more comfortable positions and have better depth, better health and better competition.”

In their most recent match last Saturday at Chicago, their star, Evander, netted his first career hat trick in a 3-2 gut-check win. Evander ranks second on the team with five goals, one behind Kevin Denkey.

Charlotte (4-5-2, 14 points) comes into Saturday night having lost its last five MLS regular-season matches. It also lost in the Round of 16 in the U.S. Open Cup last week.

After a 4-0-2 start, Charlotte FC hasn’t won since April 18 to drop to seventh in the Eastern Conference. They lost two of those MLS regular-season games by multiple goals, but their most recent match was a 1-0 loss to the New England Revolution last Saturday. It was a hard-fought effort from Charlotte, but it still did not stop its losing streak.

“I thought the players pressed extremely well,” head coach Dean Smith said. “But, we must improve on what we did, but also know that the opposition is going to play a little bit differently as well.”

Midfielder Pep Biel leads Charlotte with five goals, one of six players with multiple goals.

Charlotte leads the all-time series 4-2-2 and it swept Cincinnati last year. Cincinnati hasn’t beaten Charlotte since September 2023.

–Field Level Media

Dylan Cease struck out 10 in seven innings Friday night and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Los Angeles Angels A2-0.

Cease (3-1) allowed five hits with no walks in the opener of a three-game series. It was Cease’s second win of the season over the Angels and it gave the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead in the season series. He struck out 12 in five innings on April 20 in Toronto’s 5-2 win at Anaheim.

Louis Varland pitched the ninth to earn his fifth save of the season and end Toronto’s four-game losing streak.

Toronto scored both runs in the third against left-hander Reid Detmers (1-3). George Springer led off with a single, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walked with one out and Kazuma Okamoto grounded an RBI single to center. Daulton Varsho walked and Ernie Clement hit a sacrifice fly to right.

Cease retired his first nine batters with five strikeouts before Zach Neto led off the fourth with a single, but Mike Trout grounded into a double play. Nolan Schanuel singled to second and took second on Clement’s throwing error. Jorge Soler grounded out to end the inning.

A walk and a catcher’s interference put two on with one out in the Toronto fourth. Detmers struck out Myles Straw with his 96th pitch before Jose Fermin replaced him and finished the inning on Guerrero’s lineout to shortstop.

Detmers allowed two runs, two hits and six walks while striking out three in 3 2/3 innings. He also lost to the Blue Jays on April 20.

The Angels’ first extra-base hit was Jo Adell’s double to center with two out in the seventh. Cease struck out Josh Lowe to end the inning.

Pinch hitter Vaughn Grissom led off the eighth against Jeff Hoffman with a double to left. Hoffman worked out of the inning with a groundout, a popup and a strikeout.

Former Blue Jay Alek Manoah pitched in the majors for the first time since May 29, 2024, when he worked the bottom of the eighth. He received a mixed reaction from the fans. Manoah, who had elbow surgery, tossed a perfect inning with one strikeout.

–Field Level Media

Alex Newhook posted his first two-goal postseason game for the Montreal Canadiens, who evened their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the host Buffalo Sabres on Friday thanks to a 5-1 victory in Game 2.

The Canadiens seized home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven set ahead of Game 3 in Montreal on Sunday.

Newhook now has three goals for the Habs this postseason, and Nick Suzuki added an empty-netter with 4:01 remaining to extend his goal-scoring streak to three games. Five of Montreal’s six defensemen got points as Mike Matheson and Alexandre Carrier netted their first playoff goals while Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson and Noah Dobson each registered an assist.

Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes rebounded from a subpar Game 1 performance, making 27 saves in the victory.

Zach Benson recorded his third playoff goal for the Sabres, with assists from Conor Timmins and Josh Doan.

Buffalo goaltender Alex Lyon endured his worst game of the playoffs as he gave up four goals on 27 shots.

The Canadiens needed just 96 seconds to take the lead with Newhook in the slot tipping Guhle’s shot past Lyon.

Less than three minutes later, Matheson doubled the Habs’ lead. Phillip Danault won the faceoff in the offensive zone and the puck went back to the defenseman, who found a lane and ripped a shot from the blue line that went in off the post.

Newhook, who entered Friday with just three goals in 40 Stanley Cup playoff games, netted his second of the night with 15:13 left in the second period. On a 2-on-2 with Evans, Newhook found a way to get past Rasmus Dahlin and beat Lyon, who could not glide back before the puck got to Newhook.

Buffalo managed to score in the final minute of the second, with Benson at the post to redirect Timmins shot from the right circle.

The Canadiens regained momentum less than four minutes into the third with Carrier getting the puck in the defensive zone off a Tage Thompson turnover and converting it into an unassisted goal that secured the victory.

–Field Level Media