MLB’s strange start, plus the craziest French Open
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Baseball: Two months in, two MLB teams tell the story
MLB’s season crossed the two-month mark Thursday. Two teams, one in each league, explain the fun but odd vibe of the 2026 season to date:
- The Cubs are 31-27. Because they play in the National League Central, they enter play today five games back of the always-good Brewers and in the thick of a wild-card hunt that will have seven teams fighting it out for three spots. (This assumes the surprising 29-29 Nationals fade away and the 24-33 Mets, despite their giant payroll, don’t get back into it.) The Cubs have one of MLB’s best lineups and five Gold Glove defenders, but their pitching staff has literally fallen apart. They have two winning streaks of 10 games but also just got off a 10-game losing streak Wednesday, making them the second team in league history — along with the 2017 Dodgers — to have three such streaks in a season. They did it in two months.
- The Athletics are 27-30. Because they play in the American League West, they’ve led their division for most of the year and enter the day a game and a half behind the disappointing (to date) Mariners. The A’s haven’t exactly been good, but their first baseman, Nick Kurtz, is a 23-year-old titan who’s on a possible Hall of Fame track in his second season in the bigs. Catcher Shea Langeliers has been the most valuable player at his position, per FanGraphs WAR. They just called up lefty Gage Jump, Keith Law’s No. 37 prospect before the season, to add some juice to a pitching staff that has been among the league’s worst.
These two teams are interesting for the different things they reveal about the state of the league. The Cubs are good, maybe great, but are no sure thing to make the postseason because they’re playing in a loaded NL that has few easy outs. The A’s are mediocre, but in this weird season where the AL has only a few teams that appear better than “decent,” they’ve got a legit October shot. Meanwhile, they play their home games in front of fewer than 11,000 fans per night, because owner John Fisher has them shacked up in a minor-league ballpark in (West) Sacramento as they wait for a new stadium to spring up (in theory) in time for 2028.
Just look at the league standings (through Thursday’s games):
The NL’s superiority this season has been disorienting, in a century in which the AL has almost always had a deeper collection of teams. Seven of the top 10 in The Athletic’s latest power rankings (published midweek) are from the Senior Circuit.
Two parting thoughts: 1) This A’s team would be more fun if it still played in Oakland, a city that showed up when the club put a serious product on the field. 2) The Cubs do have a great lineup, but making the postseason with four starting pitchers out for either the whole season or multiple months would be an astonishing trick. Let’s keep following that story.
News to Know
Another French Open stunner
Rather than dwell on how strange it is that a men’s Grand Slam is about to be won by someone not named Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner or Novak Djokovic — all missing from the French Open’s Round of 16 — let’s take a beat to appreciate João Fonseca, who showed yesterday why some think he could reach that tier of tennis gods. The 19-year-old Brazilian was two sets down to Djokovic — previously 301-1 with a two-set lead — when he began his thrilling comeback, which The Athletic’s Ava Wallace said was best exemplified by his well-roundedness in the 5-5 game of the fifth set. A good quick breakdown of that with gifs here. Also in Paris:
- Turkey’s Zeynep Sönmez had to retire after she tripped on an advertising thingy at the back of the court. This thing has got to go, right?
- After losing to French prodigy Moïse Kouame, Adolfo Daniel Vallejo said the chair umpire should have been a man because “it’s very difficult” for a woman to handle a rowdy crowd. Woof.
Canes make Cup return at last
What briefly looked like it might be a competitive series turned out to be another breeze for Carolina, who beat Montreal 6-1 in Game 5 to advance to their first Stanley Cup Final since they won it in 2006. Our writers’ takeaways here. Carolina’s depth overwhelmed the Habs, who can hold their heads high after treating fans to two Game 7 wins. The Canes meanwhile have lost just once this postseason — is this the year they finally end their streak of playoff misfortunes? They’ll host Vegas in Game 1 on Tuesday.
More News
- A court filing in Brendan Sorsby’s case against the NCAA alleges that he bet at least $90,000 in college. Details here.
- USMNT midfielder Brenden Aaronson missed training yesterday, but you can relax: He was getting married.
- Knicks center Mitchell Robinson had surgery on his broken pinkie but could play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
- The Magic are nearing an agreement to make Spurs assistant Sean Sweeney their next head coach.
- Russia might be allowed back in international hockey tournaments. More here.
- The Nationals fired an executive who was secretly filmed discussing internal deliberations about politically provocative topics. Weird story.
- Giants Jaxson Dart and Abdul Carter had more to say about that President Trump rally. Their comments here.
- Speaking of Trump, he bought stock in the parent company of UFC in the months before the White House UFC event he’s been promoting.
- Brewers reliever Abner Uribe was suspended one game for doing a crotch chop celebration toward the St. Louis dugout.
📰 Find more news here 24/7.
Huh?
Scott Strazzante / Getty Images
Could the USMNT Cup opener not sell out?
It wouldn’t speak well of FIFA’s ticket pricing for this World Cup if on June 12, the world tunes in to the USMNT opener against Paraguay and sees empty seats at SoFi Stadium. Thousands of tickets — going for $1,120 to $2,735 a pop in FIFA prices and much less secondhand — have yet to be sold, writes The Athletic’s Henry Bushnell. This was supposed to be one of the Cup’s marquee matches. What’s going on? Henry’s piece digs into it.
Watch Guide
📺 UCL final: PSG vs. Arsenal
12 p.m. ET on CBS
PSG will be fresher than Arsenal, which had to work until last week to secure the Premier League title. (Ligue 1 plays four fewer matches per team, and PSG had their 12th title in 14 seasons wrapped more than two weeks ago. The club could also afford to rotate players more freely throughout the season.) How much does that rest matter? Fair question.
📺 NBA: Spurs at Thunder, Game 7
8 p.m. ET on NBC
Speaking of rest: The Knicks will watch with glee, having been idle since Monday. Game 1 of the NBA Finals will be in Oklahoma City or San Antonio on Wednesday. Prediction: This will be more like Game 1, which went into two OTs, than the wide-margin games that have followed it.
Get tickets to games like this here.
Pulse Picks
Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photo: Matthew Grimes Jr. / Atlanta Braves / Getty Images
Five mental shifts helped Braves All-Star pitcher Spender Strider. Maybe they can help you, too.
So a company stole $200,000 worth of LEGO from a private seller and essentially shrugged it off with “Well, sue us, then.” So this Napoleon Dynamite-looking kid who goes by Reckless Ben took up the seller’s case, and honestly, even if he rubs you the wrong way, you gotta respect the lengths to which he is willing to go. I was entertained. Fair warning, it’s an hour and a half long. — Levi Weaver
The greatest NL Cy Young Award race ever got even more ridiculous in May, as Jayson Stark explains.
It’s more of an eyeball-it drink, but this Tinto de Verano recipe serves me well at the start of each summer. — Torrey Hart
Here’s how coach John Tortorella and his “guidance counselors” helped the Golden Knights hit a new level.
It’s described as a knee wrap, but you can use this ice wrap for a hammy, a sore calf, even an aching foot. It works awesome. Big recommend, and stay safe out there. — Chris Sprow
Plenty of nonalcoholic beers fail: Some are flavorless, others taste weird — many are flat-out terrible. But after taste-testing 44, Wirecutter found several refreshing NA beers that come pretty close to replicating the experience of drinking real beer (intoxication aside). — Ben Keough
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our Claude Lemieux obituary.
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