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Snell is throwing off a mound but still not at full intensity. The Dodgers mostly care about October here, so Snell isn’t expected back before the end of May. He could well be one of the NL’s best pitchers for three or four months, though.

Four innings after homering off Tomoyuki Sugano for the first run of the game, Sheets, the Padres’ first baseman against right-handers, won it off Juan Mejia in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth. He had been homerless in 12 games to start the year, but he’s gone 4-for-9 against the Rockies the last two days to raise his OPS from .553 to .785.

With his fastball up about one mph from his first two starts, Buehler allowed only three hits, all of them singles. He walked none and struck out four. It’s definitely an encouraging development, but he’s still a long way from being a fantasy option. He’ll get the Mariners next week.

Miller came into a tie game and retired the side on 13 pitches. He’s faced 24 batters this year and struck out 19 while allowing one hit and one walk. It’s time to make things interesting and give the first team to score off him an automatic postseason berth.

Gavin Sheets and Luis Campusano homered off him in the fifth. Aside from that, Sugano allowed just a double and a single and walked none. It probably says more about the state of San Diego’s offense than it does Sugano. Still, Sugano has a nice 2.16 ERA through three starts; he’s given up four homers in 16 2/3 innings, but they’ve all been solo shots and he’s allowed no other runs. He’ll make his next start in Houston.

The Padres went out and got Nick Castellanos, Miguel Andujar and Ty France in part because they didn’t want to look at Campusano as more than their backup catcher. Campusano, though, still might well wind up as their best option as a DH against lefties. He’s 6-for-17 with a homer and four doubles in the early going. He’s second on the team in extra-base hits and 11th in at-bats, with one-third as many as the top three.

A pleasant surprise so far, Matz looks like a completely adequate starting pitcher. The Yankees sent out a lineup of nearly all right-handed batters to face the lefty Matz and he stymied them with a heavy diet of changeups and sinkers. They flailed at that changeup over and over again and he broke off a few nice sliders too as the game wore on. All in all, this was a great result against a very tough lineup. He’ll try to build on this momentum next time out against the White Sox.

It seems as if a new pecking order has been established in the Rays’ bullpen. Baker has now been used in consecutive save situations while Hunter Bigge and Ian Seymour worked in set-up roles. This was the first time in a week Griffin Jax returned to a relatively high-leverage situation as he relieved starter Steven Matz in the fifth inning to face Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton. Nevertheless, Baker appears to be the closer in Tampa Bay right now.

Díaz has been one of the best hitters in baseball over the first two weeks of the season with a .373 batting average, 1.066 OPS, and three home runs. Despite entering his age-34 season, his bat speed is up a tick in the early going and has fantasy managers hopeful that he can get near the 25 home runs he hit last season despite the Rays moving back to Tropicana Field. Power aside, Díaz remains one of the best bets for a high batting average in the league.

The left-handed Steven Matz got the start for the Rays in this one. So, that relegated Rice to the bench while Paul Goldschmidt started and hit lead-off. Matz turned a great start, but once Goldschmidt’s spot came up in the order after he’d been pulled, Aaron Boone sent up Rice who immediately blasted a long home run. We’re unsure how long this platoon will continue because of how staunchly the Yankees appear to be committed to it. Still, Rice seems too good to leave off the field at this point. It shouldn’t matter if Sandy Koufax or Randy Johnson are on the mound, Rice needs to play every day.

This was Gil’s season debut and he did not look crisp. After being spotted a two-run lead in the top of the first, he gave it right back after a walking Jonathan Aranda with two outs – when he was up 1-2 on him – before Yandy Díaz sent a hanging slider into orbit. From there, practically every batter felt like a slog as Gil struggled to throw his fastball in the zone. He eventually opted for more sinkers, which he also struggled to command. He’ll have a chance to improve next time out against the Angels at home.