The Chicago Sky tied for the league low of 10 victories last season and have since revamped the roster as they prepare to open the 2026 season at the expansion Portland Fire on Saturday night.

The most important newcomer is seven-time All-Star Skylar Diggins, and one of the players shipped out was stellar rebounder Angel Reese.

Chicago added Rickea Jackson and Azura Stevens to the frontcourt, while it loaded up in the backcourt by bringing in Natasha Cloud, DiJonai Carrington and Jacy Sheldon and drafting Gabriela Jaquez out of UCLA in the first round in addition to Diggins.

Sky coach Tyler Marsh doesn’t mind having a guard-heavy squad.

“I don’t think you can go wrong with a lot of good guards, capable guards,” Marsh told reporters earlier this week. “It’s not like we’re just stock holding a bunch of players. It’s players that can contribute and we’re going to find ways to utilize them.”

Diggins, 35, averaged 15.5 points and 6.0 assists for the Seattle Storm last season. Her wealth of experience will patch a leadership void early in the season as star point guard Courtney Vandersloot continues to rehab her knee injury. The five-time All-Star tore her ACL last June.

Carrington (foot) and Stevens (knee) will also be sidelined as Chicago opens a four-game road trip. The Sky won’t play at home until May 20 against the Dallas Wings.

Portland is beginning its expansion season with four straight home games — including a two-game set against the New York Liberty and one versus the Connecticut Sun.

Fire coach Alex Sarama is focused on building a foundation around defense.

“I feel in a pretty good place with where our defense is at,” the 30-year-old Sarama told reporters earlier this week. “The offense is gonna take a little longer. Just a new system, players doing a good job getting used to it.”

Portland took forward Bridget Carleton (Minnesota) with the first pick of the expansion draft and also nabbed guards Carla Leite (Golden State) and Sarah Ashlee Barker (Los Angeles) and guard/forward Haley Jones (Dallas), among others.

Barker is fully bought in on being part of the Fire’s building project.

“I think every single day you can tell that, one, we come in and we work really hard no matter what,” Barker said earlier this week.

“When people make mistakes, we pick each other up. There’s a lot of effort and energy, and you can’t teach effort and energy. But you can teach the mistakes, you can teach the Xs and Os, you can teach the defense.”

This is the second rendition for Portland in the WNBA. The original Fire played from 2000-02 before folding.

–Field Level Media

Nashville SC will attempt to move past the disappointment over their exit from the CONCACAF Champions Cup when they host D.C. United on Saturday night.

Nashville’s 1-0 loss on Tuesday night at Tigres UANL in Mexico completed a 2-0 aggregate defeat in the Champions Cup semifinals, keeping Nashville (7-1-2, 23 points) a match shy of reaching a second continental final in its history.

Saturday’s home clash will mark a fifth match in 15 days for manager B.J. Callaghan’s squad, which also hasn’t scored in its last three games across all competitions.

But after a strong start to MLS play overall, which still has Nashville four points clear atop the Eastern Conference, Callaghan believes the loss could rejuvenate his team.

“When it’s over, it’s over. So you kind of almost see a refreshed-ness in the group, that we know we have a full focus on MLS play and MLS play only,” Callaghan said. “We’ve got a great sense of hunger out of the Tigres game. And I think we just want to continue to fuel that kind of fire in our eyes, fire in our belly.”

Sam Surridge was the last Nashville player to score, registering his eighth and ninth goals of the season in the second half of a 4-2 home win over Charlotte on April 25.

And he’ll be part of an interesting subplot Saturday: the meeting of two of MLS’s most productive strikers since the start of 2025, with D.C. striker Tai Baribo expected to return from a thigh injury that has kept him out of his team’s last two matches.

Baribo has six goals for D.C. (4-4-3, 15 points) after leading Philadelphia with 16 a season ago. But even without the Israeli international, the Black-and-Red have looked much improved as they continued a four-match unbeaten run with consecutive victories, 3-2 at home against Orlando on April 25 and 2-0 at New York City FC last Sunday.

“It gives us this confidence boost,” D.C. manager Rene Weiler said. “We know that we are able to play good games against all of the teams in our league. But it will be a tough game. And of course we know how difficult it is to win games. It hasn’t changed after this win.”

Club-record offseason signing Louis Munteanu scored once against Orlando and twice in New York for his first three career MLS goals.

–Field Level Media

Kyle Isbel’s second RBI of the night came via a two-out single in the ninth, giving the host Kansas City Royals a walk-off 4-3 victory over the scuffling Detroit Tigers on Friday.

The Royals trailed 3-1 when they tied the game with three hits on the first five pitches of the eighth inning against Detroit’s Kyle Finnegan. Michael Massey opened the frame with a double to left-center field, and he scored on Isbel’s hit that turned into a three-bagger when the ball rolled under the glove and well past Tigers right fielder Wenceel Perez. Maikel Garcia followed an RBI single to center.

In the bottom of the ninth, Detroit’s Brant Hurter (4-1) retired the first two batters before Nick Loftin delivered a pinch-hit double to left field. One batter later, Isbel sent a slow bouncer through the left side of the infield to give the Royals a victory in this series opener and snap a four-game slide against the Tigers.

All four 2026 games between these teams have been decided by one run.

Keider Montero allowed one run, one walk and three hits over six solid innings for Detroit, which has lost four in a row.

Detroit opened the scoring against Kansas City starter Kris Bubic in the second inning when Riley Greene led off with a double into the right field corner for the first of his three hits. He went to third on Perez’s single and scored via Spencer Torkelson’s double-play ball.

Kansas City, though, evened things during its half of the second. Jac Caglianone doubled off the right field fence with two outs and came home on Isaac Collins’ single.

Detroit regained the lead in the sixth. With two outs, Dillon Dingler raced from first base all the way home on Perez’s double after Royals catcher Carter Jensen couldn’t hang on to the relay throw. Perez then scored on Torkelson’s double into the left field corner off reliever Nick Mears.

Bubic allowed three runs, four hits and four walks while striking out five in 5 2/3 innings. Teammate Lucas Erceg (3-1) pitched the ninth for the win.

–Field Level Media