Phillies third baseman Maikel Franco had his left elbow wrapped up Friday morning at Citi Field. But at least he had a bat in his hands and was headed to the batting cage to hit.

Every lineup, every day, as they are made public by the clubs.

Genesis? Mayo? Storm?

The wait is over.

In dramatic fashion, Albert Pujols moved one RBI closer to a milestone as he fashioned a walk-off single in the ninth to give the Angels a 4-3 win over the Rangers.

The 2016 season is young but already loaded with hot topics, and we’re going to touch on a few of them (and touch all the bases) here in The Cycle. Four items (single, double, triple and home run), each with a little more magnitude than the last. Let’s start swinging.

“We look at surgery as the day you get cut and the day you come back, but it’s all those days in between that make a person who he is.”

With two outs, the score tied and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, Albert Pujols unleashed a line drive deep into the left-center-field gap, sending the Angels to a thrilling, 4-3 walk-off victory at home on Thursday night.

Serving up a home run on his first pitch as a Cub wasn’t how John Lackey planned on starting the season, but the right-hander did settle down and picked up a win Thursday night.

Tigers No. 10 prospect Steven Moya ripped two homers in Triple-A Toledo’s season opener, Red Sox prospects Andrew Benintendi and Yoan Moncada had a strong showing for Salem and more in Thursday’s top prospects roundup.

A slow roller put runners on second and third, with the score tied and two outs in the bottom of the ninth at Angel Stadium on Thursday night, and everybody knew what was coming: The Rangers were going to walk Mike Trout, and they were going to dare Albert Pujols to beat them.

Manny Machado was in the mood for some dancing after his first home run of the season helped the Orioles rally for a 4-2 victory over the Twins.

Cubs left fielder Kyle Schwarber exited Thursday night’s game against the D-backs with an apparent left leg injury after running into center fielder Dexter Fowler in the bottom of the second inning at Chase Field.

The Yankees slugged three home runs, including a three-run shot by Mark Teixeira in the seventh inning off reliever Ken Giles that snapped a tie, en route to an 8-5 win over the Astros in the series finale Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

The Padres agreed to a Minor League contract with veteran first baseman James Loney on Thursday, a source told MLB.com. The club has not confirmed the report.

It may not come as any surprise that Mark Teixeira wants to continue his baseball career beyond this, the final year of his eight-year, $180 million contract with the Yankees.

The Marlins had five players finish with multihit games as they bombarded the Natiionals with 13 hits en route to a 6-4 victory Thursday, giving Don Mattingly his first win as Miami’s manager and spoiling Washington’s home opener at Nationals Park.