Powerful starts for last year's pennant winners as the Dodgers and Yankees stay unbeaten

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Powerful starts for last year's pennant winners as the Dodgers and Yankees stay unbeaten

2025-03-31 18:00 Last Updated At：18:31

In the spirit of this year's NCAA basketball tournaments — where Goliath has defeated David at almost every opportunity — the baseball season began with its own version of chalk supremacy.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, last year's pennant winners, are a combined 8-0. The Dodgers followed up their two-game sweep of the Chicago Cubs in Japan by taking three in a row from Detroit. The Yankees bashed their way to three straight wins over Milwaukee, scoring 36 runs and hitting 15 homers against the defending NL Central champs.

New York's start was particularly encouraging after the Yankees lost Juan Soto in the offseason and then had Gerrit Cole go down to a season-ending arm problem. So far their offense has looked so good, the torpedo-shaped bats — with wood lower down the barrel — has become a significant story.

Four Yankees already have multiple home runs — Aaron Judge with four, Jazz Chisholm with three, and Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe with two apiece.

It's been a similar power show for the Dodgers, who are hitting just .224 as a team but have 12 homers — three in each of the past four games.

BetMGM is offering 5-1 odds on the Dodgers to break the major league record by winning at least 117 games in the regular season.

Two teams that could push Los Angeles at the top of the National League — Atlanta and San Diego — played a four-game series, and the Padres swept it. The Braves went 1 for 22 with runners in scoring position, and they didn't have a single opportunity with RISP in Sunday's finale, managing just one hit against Nick Pivetta and two relievers.

Fernando Tatis Jr. went 7 for 15 with a homer and three stolen bases for the Padres in the series.

Mike Trout returned for the Los Angeles Angels after his 2024 season ended early because of a knee injury. Trout singled Sunday for his first hit of the season.

Orioles closer Félix Bautista threw a scoreless inning Saturday after he missed all of last year because of Tommy John surgery. Miami ace Sandy Alcántara also missed all of 2024 thanks to Tommy John surgery. He threw 4 2/3 innings Thursday in a 5-4 win over Pittsburgh.

Jacob deGrom actually came back from his Tommy John surgery late last season, but any time he's on the mound it feels like a moment to savor given his health issues. He threw five scoreless frames Sunday for Texas in a 3-2 win over Boston.

It was deGrom's 10th start since the beginning of the 2023 season, and he hasn't thrown more than 92 innings since 2019, his second straight Cy Young campaign for the New York Mets.

Baltimore beat Toronto 12-2 on Thursday, scoring double-digit runs on opening day for a third straight year. Who were the winning pitchers in those games?

Judge hit three of New York's nine home runs in a 20-9 win over the Brewers on Saturday. One of his homers was a grand slam, and he finished with eight RBIs. The Yankees' power display — which included homers on Milwaukee starter Nestor Cortes' first three pitches — helped overshadow five New York errors in the field.

The Yankees fell just short of the major league record for homers in a game. The Toronto Blue Jays hit 10 in an 18-3 win over Baltimore in 1987.

Down by four, the Arizona Diamondbacks scored eight runs on their way to a 10-6 win over the Cubs on Sunday. Arizona's win probability was down to 3.3% in the eighth, according to Baseball Savant.

The decisive rally included an RBI single by pitcher Ryne Nelson, who was batting because designated hitter Ketel Marte had moved to second base, forcing Arizona's lineup to include the pitcher's spot. With no full-time hitters left on the bench, the Diamondbacks sent Nelson up to pinch-hit for reliever Justin Martinez.

Kyle Gibson, Corbin Burnes and Zach Eflin.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Stocks sway after Trump threatens to escalate trade war despite seeing how much Wall Street hates it

2025-04-08 02:46 Last Updated At：02:52

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are swinging in a manic Monday after President Donald Trump doubled down on his tariffs, despite seeing how much Wall Street wants him to do the opposite.

The S&P 500 was up 0.3% in afternoon trading, coming off its worst week since COVID began crashing the global economy in March 2020. The index, which sits at the heart of many investors’ 401(k) accounts, has been flirting with a drop of 20% from its record set less than two months ago.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 184 points, or 0.5%, as of 2:37 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher.

Earlier in a heart-racing morning, the Dow plunged as many as 1,700 points shortly after trading began, following even worse losses worldwide on worries that Trump's tariffs could torpedo the global economy. But it suddenly surged to a leap of nearly 900 points. The S&P 500 went from a loss of 4.7% to a gain of 3.4%, which would have been its biggest jump in years.

The sudden rise for stocks followed a false rumor that Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his tariffs, one that a White House account on X quickly labeled as “fake news.” Stocks then turned back down. That a rumor could move trillions of dollars' worth of investments shows how much investors are hoping to see signs that Trump may let up on his stiff tariffs, which have started a global trade war.

Soon after that, Trump threatened to raise tariffs further against China after the world's second-largest economy retaliated last week with its own set of tariffs on U.S. products.

It’s a slap in the face to Wall Street, not just because of the sharp losses it’s taking, but because it suggests Trump may not be moved by its pain. Many professional investors had long thought that a president who used to crow about records reached under his watch would pull back on policies if they sent the Dow reeling.

On Sunday Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he does not want markets to fall. But he also said he wasn’t concerned about a sell-off, saying “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

Trump has given several reasons for his stiff tariffs, including to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, which is a process that could take years. Trump on Sunday said he wanted to bring down the numbers for how much more the United States imports from other countries versus how much it sends to them.

“The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, one of the most influential executives on Wall Street, wrote in his annual letter to shareholders Monday. “Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth.”

The financial pain once again hammered investments around the world on Monday, the third straight day of steep losses after Trump announced tariffs in his “Liberation Day.” Stocks in Hong Kong plunged 13.2% for their worst day since 1997. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil dipped below $60 during the morning for the first time since 2021, hurt by worries that a global economy weakened by trade barriers will burn less fuel. Bitcoin sank below $79,000, down from its record above $100,000 set in January, after holding steadier than other markets last week.

On Wall Street, roughly 65% of the stocks fell within the S&P 500. The index is being lifted by gains from several big technology stocks, whose pricey values tend to give more heft to the market's direction, whether up or down. Nivida rose 4.6%.

Nike dropped 4% for one of the larger losses in the market. Not only does it sell a lot of shoes and apparel in China, it also makes much of it there. Last fiscal year, factories in China made 18% of its Nike brand footwear. Vietnam made 50%, and Indonesia made 27%.

Trump’s tariffs are an attack on the globalization that’s remade the world’s economy, which helped bring down prices for products on the shelves of U.S. stores but also caused production jobs to leave for other countries.

It also adds pressure on the Federal Reserve. Investors have become nearly conditioned to expect the central bank to swoop in as a hero during downturns. By slashing interest rates to make borrowing easier for U.S. households and companies, along with several untraditional moves to juice the economy, the Fed helped the U.S. economy recover from the 2008 financial crisis, the 2020 COVID crash and other bear markets.

But the Fed may have less freedom to act this time around because the conditions are so much different. For one, instead of a coronavirus or a system built up on too much belief that U.S. home prices would keep rising, this market downturn is mostly because of economic policy from the White House.

Perhaps more importantly, inflation is also higher at the moment than the Fed would like. And while lower interest rates can goose the economy, they can also put upward pressure on inflation. Expectations for inflation are already swinging higher because of Trump’s tariffs, which would likely raise prices for anything imported.

“The idea that there’s so much uncertainty going forward about how these tariffs are going to play out, that’s what’s really driving this plummet in the stock prices,” said Rintaro Nishimura, an associate at the Asia Group.

If the S&P 500 finishes the day 20% below its record, it would be a big enough drop that Wall Street has a name for it. A “bear market” signifies a downturn that’s moved beyond a run-of-the-mill 10% drop, which happens every year or so, and has graduated into something more vicious.

Nathan Thooft, a senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management, said more countries are likely to respond to the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs. Given the large number of countries involved, “it will take a considerable amount of time in our view to work through the various negotiations that are likely to happen.”

“Ultimately, our take is market uncertainly and volatility are likely to persist for some time,” he said.

Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok. McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Associated Press writers Ayaka McGill, Paul Harloff, Matt Ott and Jiang Junzhe also contributed.