The 2026 MLB season kicked off Wednesday night as the Yankees throttled the Giants, 7\u20130, but today is when things really get going. In all, 22 teams will be in action, representing nearly a full slate of action. <\/p>\n
We\u2019ll be keeping you updated on the action throughout the day with our live blog. Check out our full preview of the day\u2019s action below the blog.<\/p>\n
Opening Day Live BlogOpening Day preview<\/p>\n
The Mets host the Pirates to kick things off at 1:15 p.m. ET. Paul Skenes will be on the mound for Pittsburgh, fresh off his all-tournament performance for Team USA at the World Baseball Classic. He\u2019ll duel with New York\u2019s new ace, Freddy Peralta, who arrived via trade with Milwaukee this offseason. It profiles as the best pitching matchup of the day. Skenes will be facing a revamped Mets lineup that Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto still lead, but now features new additions Bo Bichette, Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert Jr., Marcus Semien, and rookie right fielder Carson Benge. It\u2019s a new era in Queens. <\/p>\n
The Red Sox and Reds will meet at 4:10 p.m. in Cincinnati as they always do to open the season. Both teams have playoff aspirations and will throw their top lefties out there to open the season. Garrett Crochet will go for the Red Sox, while Andrew Abbott will oppose him for the Reds. Cincinnati has only opened the season on the road once since 1991, which came in 2022 due to the lockout changing the schedule. <\/p>\n
Skenes\u2019s fellow reigning Cy Young award winner, Tarik Skubal, will start his 2026 campaign in San Diego against the Padres at 4:10 p.m. The Tigers\u2019 ace is in his final season before hitting free agency, so it\u2019s an important year for Detroit to take advantage of his presence before he\u2019s expected to depart for greener ($$) pastures. He\u2019ll face a Padres team looking to reach the postseason for a franchise record third consecutive season. Nick Pivetta will be on the mound for the Friars.<\/p>\n
Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers will begin their pursuit of a three-peat when they host the Diamondbacks at 8:30 p.m. on NBC. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will take the hill for L.A., while Zac Gallen will oppose him after re-signing with Arizona this offseason. Ohtani will be chasing his fifth MVP award this season, and his fourth in a row. New Dodgers acquisition Kyle Tucker will be in the lineup and closer Edwin Diaz will be ready in the bullpen. <\/p>\n
In the nightcap, the Guardians travel to Seattle to take on the Mariners in what could be a pitchers\u2019 duel. Cleveland is set to start Tanner Bibee, while Logan Gilbert got the Opening Day nod for the Mariners. Both teams won their divisions in 2025, but the Guardians were ousted in the wild-card round, while the Mariners lost a tight ALCS against the Blue Jays in seven games. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s just a sampling of the action coming up around the league on Opening Day, and we\u2019ll be here with live updates as it goes. <\/p>\n
More MLB from Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 MLB season kicked off Wednesday night as the Yankees throttled the Giants, 7\u20130, but today is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,2583,4,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-645427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-tigers","11":"tag-detroittigers","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116297969717773033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}