Three horses are confirmed as headed to Baltimore for the Preakness Stakes, though the status of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan remained unclear Tuesday, with no imminent decision expected.

Mystik Dan is scheduled to return to the track Wednesday at Churchill Downs, site of his photo-finish victory Saturday ahead of Sierra Leone and Forever Young in the most-watched Derby in 35 years. Trainer Kenny McPeek has not committed to running Mystik Dan in the Preakness, telling the Maryland Jockey Club that he and owners would let the rest of the week play out before making a decision on the 3-year-old colt.

Entries for the Preakness must be made by Monday, when the post position draw is held.

If Mystik Dan does not run in the Preakness, it will be the fifth time in six years that the race goes on without a true Triple Crown on the line, a combination of Derby circumstances, the pandemic and other factors. McPeek has expressed concern about putting the horse through another two-week turnaround, which did not work out so well in November.

At least one Derby entrant is on track for the Preakness, with Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas bringing 17th-place finisher Just Steel, along with Seize the Grey, who won the Pat Day Mile on the undercard Saturday. Lukas, 88, has won the Preakness six times.

Also going is Mugatu, the last horse left out of the Derby field, with trainer Jeff Engler calling the Preakness a logical spot.

Two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert is expected to have a couple of horses in the Preakness after he was unable to run any in the Derby because of the ban on him that Churchill Downs extended for an additional year, based on Medina Spirit’s positive drug test from 2021. Muth, winner of the Arkansas Derby in his most recent start on March 30, could be the Preakness favorite ridden again by Juan Hernandez, while Frankie Dettori is set be aboard Imagination.

Baffert, 71, won his record-breaking eighth Preakness last year with National Treasure, whose victory ended Mage’s chance at a Triple Crown.

The Preakness is May 18. The Belmont Stakes, being run at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York each of the next two years, is June 8.

BOSTON — Prior to last season, the Boston Red Sox renovated the home clubhouse, constructing new maple lockers, adding 16 TV displays and updating the lighting and sound systems to create a modern, sleek look. Maybe most importantly, there is also room to squeeze in a couple of temporary lockers — no small consideration given the current state of the team.

The Red Sox have 13 players on the injured list. It’s been a carousel of players coming and going to fill those spots, lockers emptied for those designated for assignment or sent down to the minors, new ones squeezed into the middle of the floor.

“It’s crazy. Definitely more than I can remember,” outfielder Tyler O’Neill said. “Obviously, we have a lot of star players on the list right now. That sucks. It’s up to the rest of us guys to take a step up to try and fill those holes, but man, we want those guys on the field for sure.”

In April, the Red Sox lost more days and more player dollars to the IL than any other team. Four-fifths of their projected starting rotation is injured, with Lucas Giolito out for the season. Shortstop Trevor Story is also out for the season after fracturing his shoulder. Cleanup hitter Triston Casas, who posted an OPS over 1.000 in the second half in 2023, is out two months with torn cartilage in his rib cage. Designated hitter Masataka Yoshida landed on the IL last week with a hand injury. O’Neill even missed a week himself after suffering a concussion in a collision with third baseman Rafael Devers.

Craig Breslow, the first-year chief baseball officer, has been busy just trying to keep the 26-man active roster filled, while manager Alex Cora has had no choice but to be pragmatic about the whole situation, as the team makes moves on the fly to shore up the roster before a game. Cora believes bench production can help a team win eight or nine games a season — and the Red Sox are certainly testing the limits of that theory right now.

“It’s a star-driven league, we know that, but what you do with the edge of the roster is very important,” Cora said. “We work so hard on chemistry and culture in spring training. Then you have a whole different team in the beginning of May. It’s going to keep changing, but I do believe we’re in a good place. We’re playing good baseball, which is awesome.”

Indeed, the Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 9-2 on Sunday to snap a three-game skid and end Minnesota’s 12-game winning streak. Boston is 19-16, within shouting distance of the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees in the American League East despite all the injuries.

How have the Red Sox done it? The pitching staff is atop the majors with a 2.59 ERA led by a rotation that has posted the lowest ERA (2.10) through a team’s first 35 games since the 1981 Dodgers had a 2.06 mark. With Giolito (Tommy John surgery), Brayan Bello (back tightness), Nick Pivetta (elbow strain) and Garrett Whitlock (oblique strain) all sidelined at the moment (although Pivetta is expected to return this week), Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford have stepped up to lead the group — but the success can be attributed as much to a change in philosophy as any one starter’s improvement.

“If we keep doing the things we’re doing on the mound, it doesn’t matter who comes in,” Cora said. “We’re going to be in a good place.”

Breslow and Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey insist their approach to pitching, while unprecedented, isn’t some kind of revolution.

The two were bullpen teammates with the Oakland Athletics and Red Sox during their playing days. They remained friends as Breslow worked for the Chicago Cubs from 2019 to 2023, first as director of pitching and then as assistant GM/vice president of pitching, while Bailey worked as a coach with the Los Angeles Angels and then as the San Francisco Giants’ pitching coach the past four seasons.

“We talked a lot about staying in the game of baseball and working together. Craig’s a brilliant mind and you always knew he was going to be a GM or a manager,” Bailey said, not even mentioning the fact that Breslow majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale. “So, yeah, I was like, ‘If you never need a bullpen coach or a pitching coach.'”

After the Red Sox hired Breslow in late October, one of his first calls was to Bailey. Since joining Boston, Bailey has implemented a concept that was one of the trademarks of the Giants under his guidance and has been the key to Boston’s pitching success this season: fewer fastballs.

The Red Sox are throwing the fewest fastballs of any team in MLB in 2024. Just 31.8% of their pitches have been fastballs (either four-seamers or sinkers), well below the MLB average of 47%. Just one other team is under 40%, and no team was below that last season.

“I know a lot has been made of this,” Breslow said, “but if you were to take a step back and say, ‘OK, we can rank all of your pitches and what we’re asking you to do is take your best pitch and throw it more and take your worst pitches and throw them less,’ I don’t think anyone would be like, ‘You’ve reinvented the game.’

“I think what we have done is refuse to be beholden to traditional baseball thought, which says you have to be able to throw a fastball down and away. I would argue you have to be able to throw a pitch over the plate. I have no idea why that has to be a fastball.”

What the Red Sox are doing is simply a more extreme version of a trend we’ve seen across the sport. Detailed pitch tracking data goes back to 2008, and the percentage of fastballs has steadily dropped since then:

2008: 59.8%
2014: 57.0%
2019: 52.4%
2023: 47.8%
2024: 47.0%

That’s happening even as average fastball velocity continues to increase. But fastballs, no matter how hard they’re thrown, get hit — at least more than other pitches. Check out the numbers from 2023:

All fastballs: .269/.354/.447
Curveballs: .224/.274/.372
Sliders/sweepers: .220/.275/.379
Changeups: .239/.287/.381
Cutters: .269/.333/.448

“I think every pitch we make is a business decision,” Bailey said. “These guys are competing to provide income and to obviously play a game at the end of the day, but this is their livelihood, and if they do well, the Red Sox do well, and we win and get to the playoffs. So every pitch we throw is a business decision to make a bet to suppress damage or induce swing-and-miss.”

You can see that mentality in the changes in approach from individual Red Sox pitchers, especially the starters.

Houck has ditched a four-seamer he threw nearly 10% of the time last season — which batters hit .325 and slugged .550 against — and started throwing his splitter more often. His overall fastball rate has dropped 9 percentage points. He has a 1.99 ERA; his strikeout rate has increased 4 percentage points while his walk rate is down 5.

Batters hit just .163 against Crawford’s four-seamer last season, but he’s still throwing it 10% less often in favor of a big increase in his sweeper usage and a slight increase in his splitter. His strikeout and walk rates have held steady, but his hard-hit rate has improved from the 76th percentile to the 95th percentile, resulting in a lower home run rate. His 1.56 ERA through seven starts ranks second in the majors.

Whitlock threw a sinker 53% of the time last season and batters hit .326 and slugged .538 against it. In his four starts before his injury, he added a slider and cutter and dropped his sinker usage to just 22.7%. He has a 1.96 ERA in his limited time. Bello has a 3.04 ERA in five starts after scrapping a four-seam fastball that he threw 21% of the time and which batters hit .310 and slugged .646 off in 2023, now sticking with a three-pitch mix, throwing his changeup and slider more often to go with his sinker.

“I don’t really say that it’s we don’t want to throw fastballs,” Bailey said. “It’s just they don’t produce as great of outcomes as off-speed pitches in general — and some guys have unicorn fastballs. We just want guys to know their identity as a pitcher and use that to their strength.”

The initial talks between Bailey and the pitching staff surrounding a change in approach began in the offseason. Red Sox players took quickly to the message upon arriving at spring training.

“If you know that a certain pitch type is going to outperform another and you can throw that in the zone, why wouldn’t you want to throw that more often than not?” Bailey said.

Finding what to replace the fastball with is essential. For Houck, a splitter he is throwing twice as frequently as a season ago has become an option after he improved it this offseason. A slight grip change has added a little more depth and north-south movement to it, but Houck has also simply grown more confident in using it. Batters hit .310 against the splitter last season, but are hitting .208 without a home run against it in 2024.

“I think my splitter is better than it’s ever been, so I feel more comfortable throwing it any count, where in the past maybe I’d throw a fastball,” he said.

No matter the pitch, an important key for the Red Sox is still strike one and “pounding the zone relentlessly,” as Bailey put it. With fewer fastballs, that means pitchers have to throw breaking balls or off-speed pitches often enough for strikes rather than simply as chase pitches, otherwise batters will eventually adjust to take those pitches for balls and get ahead in the count — forcing pitchers to come in with a fastball that might not be their best pitch.

In the first pitch of a plate appearance, MLB pitchers throw a fastball 51% of the time in 2024 — slightly more often than overall. There can be a price to pay for that, however: When batters put the first pitch in play in 2024, they’re hitting .327 with a .544 slugging percentage. The Red Sox throw a first-pitch fastball just 34.2% of the time, yet they’re still getting a first-pitch strike 62% of the time — a hair above the MLB average. And when the first pitch is in play, Red Sox pitchers have allowed the third-lowest OPS, behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers and Seattle Mariners.

Maybe it’s not quite a revolution, but it’s certainly different from any team we’ve seen before.

“Anytime you stand off on a limb and challenge the norms of what we do …” Bailey started to say, and then paused. “It’s not really challenging the norms. I want our pitchers to succeed. I want them to be the best versions of themselves. I want them to be happy and excited and purposeful and fulfilled. When you look at things through an analytical lens, then you can build a relationship with a player and provide them the support they need to become that best version. You’re just educating them on what they do well and what makes them an outlier relative to the league.”

Breslow is quick to point out that this could just be a moment in time, that in a couple months, maybe the percentages will have changed. Baseball is, after all, a game of adjustments. There is no doubt, however, that the Red Sox are the extreme case of the fewer fastballs movement. Just as every team eventually joined the shift revolution, perhaps in five years every team will be throwing 32% fastballs.

For now, the approach has helped Red Sox pitchers to an extraordinary start that has kept the team over .500 despite all the injuries, a makeshift roster — and one crowded clubhouse.

On a Saturday night in January 2023, the Golden State Warriors had an off night in Chicago.

Draymond Green didn’t want to go to dinner or out on the town. He had another idea: going to the suburbs to watch junior hockey.

“​​How often do you get an opportunity to see Sidney Crosby at 17?” Green reasoned.

The next big thing in hockey is Macklin Celebrini, the unanimous No. 1 prospect of the 2024 NHL draft class. Celebrini is also the son of Rick Celebrini, the Warriors vice president of player health and performance.

NHL Draft lottery: Tonight on ESPN/ESPN+, 6:30 p.m. ET

“I was like, really? You wanna go?” Rick Celebrini said to Green. “I mean, it’s actually not close to where we stay with the team.”

“I don’t care,” Green replied. He wanted to support the Celebrinis.

So a group of Warriors staffers and players arranged a ride to Geneva, Illinois.

“We found out a lot of stuff that night,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Like Macklin’s nickname was The Cheetah. We didn’t know that until the announcer said something.”

NHL scouts have been dazzled by The Cheetah for years because he is the complete package: elite hockey sense, skill, shot and, yes, his motor. The 5-foot-11 two-way center is also known for his desire to win — and ability to bring his teammates along with him, making everyone great.

But even the best athletes have off nights, and according to Macklin, that was one of them.

“It was not a good game,” Macklin said. “We didn’t play very well.”

Once again, Green didn’t care. He saw enough.

Macklin was just 16, playing against more physically mature 20-year-olds. Everyone on the ice also knew the NHL buzz surrounding him and wanted to make their mark. Opponents kept checking Macklin, again and again.

“One guy comes out of nowhere and just chucks him and Mack stumbles over and he comes right back — chucks the guy, doesn’t fall,” Green recalled. “Mack hits him again to make sure the guy falls. [Macklin] just takes off to the penalty box. That’s going to suit him going forward. There’s always going to be a target on your back. You’re the projected No. 1 pick and I’m not waiting on my bruiser to come lay you out. I’m going to lay you out myself. That said everything I needed to know.”

Macklin Celebrini grew up in Vancouver as the second of four kids. He also played soccer until he was 12, the sport both of his parents played. But hockey always had his heart.

“I started off skating, like any kid would, just skating laps at a public rink,” Macklin said. “Then once I had a stick in my hand, it was game over.” That may be an understatement. At age 10, Macklin competed in the prestigious Brick Invitational Tournament. He had an intense schedule leading up to that tournament, and his team ended up winning.

“It was amazing. But afterward his coach told me, Macklin needs a break after this,” his mom, Robyn, recalled. “Like, hide his skates for two weeks, keep him off the ice.”

Robyn did in fact hide Macklin’s skates.

“That lasted two days,” she said, with a smile. It didn’t help that the local hockey club was within walking distance. Robyn eventually succumbed to Macklin’s pleas.

That Brick Tournament was also the first time the Celebrinis realized Macklin could command a locker room. Rick Celebrini’s favorite story about his son was relayed by one of the team’s assistant coaches.

“The first practice, all the kids were really nervous and quiet in the dressing room, and nobody was talking to each other,” Rick Celebrini said. “And Macklin, I guess he picked this up from hearing some [older players] at his hockey club, but all of the sudden goes in front of everyone and says: ‘Listen up, guys. We only have one rule in this dressing room. There’s no effing swearing in this dressing room.'”

The entire room erupted with laughter. The 10-year-old effectively broke the ice.

The Celebrini kids had exposure to professional athletes from an early age. Rick Celebrini worked for the Vancouver Canucks and MLS Whitecaps before getting the gig with the Warriors. Rick is also a renowned physiotherapist who worked closely with Steve Nash since his rookie season, helping the Hall of Fame point guard overcome a low back condition.

Or, as he’s known in the Celebrini household, Uncle Steve.

“When Macklin was younger, there was sort of almost like an osmosis,” Rick Celebrini said. “He wasn’t really paying attention, but I believe he took a lot of it in, especially the early days when I’d work with Steve Nash and I would spend four or five hours on the court and in the gym.”

As Macklin got older, and Rick took the job with the Warriors in 2018, the lessons became more acute.

“Just being around some professional athletes, you learn how detail-oriented they are,” Macklin said. “How they take care of their bodies, how they approach every day, even in the offseason when it doesn’t really have a translation on the season. Every day they’re still doing something to take care of themselves.”

From an early age, Macklin was determined to reach the highest levels — and began to differentiate himself. “Every step of the way he has set goals that seem almost unreachable,” Rick Celebrini said. “And each step of the way he’s surprised us.”

Macklin enrolled at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota in 2020, the same prep school that helped develop one of his idols, Crosby. Macklin’s statistics during that 14AUU season are so absurd, they almost read like a misprint: 51 goals and 141 points in 50 games. After three years there, he was off to the Chicago Steel for junior hockey (46 goals and 86 points in 50 games).

A standout performance at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship in April 2023 firmly cemented his draft stock. Macklin matched Canada’s single-tournament scoring record while making a gorgeous game-winning overtime goal in the bronze medal game. He scored the most points by a Canadian player 16 or younger — edging out Connor Bedard and Connor McDavid.

This past season, as a 17-year-old freshman at Boston University, he won the Hobey Baker Award as best player in the country.

The head of one NHL scouting department told ESPN that Macklin was “as complete a prospect as there is” and said he’s more than ready to make an impact in the NHL next season.

Macklin said he models his game after two-way centers like Jonathan Toews, Brayden Point and Crosby.

“Those guys that do it on both sides of the puck,” he said. “They’re leaders on their teams and they also drive offense.”

He cites Crosby and Patrick Kane as his favorite players to watch growing up.

“The Blackhawks and Penguins both made their runs to the Cups,” he said. “And some of my best memories were just watching them play in the playoffs and battle.” Rick helped Macklin and his siblings — brothers Aiden, 19; RJ, 12; and sister, Charlie, 15 — along each of their athletic journeys, where he balanced the line between trainer and dad.

“When they’re working out, I tell them there has to be a professionalism to your approach and what you do. And that’s when I’m not Dad,” Rick said. “But in their times when they’re vulnerable, then I become Dad, and I’ll always be Dad.”

The family is extremely close, texting and supporting each other constantly. In his interview with ESPN, Macklin wanted to make sure he gave love to his mom, citing her as the one who keeps it all together.

Aiden, a 2023 sixth-round draft pick of the Canucks, was teammates (and roommates) with Macklin at Boston University this season. The 6-foot-1 defenseman is a late bloomer. RJ’s hockey highlights have already gone viral on social media. Meanwhile, Charlie is a fast-rising star on the junior tennis circuit.

“When Rick first got [to Golden State] his kids would be running up and down the court playing pickup 3-on-3, with the whole family, Robyn too,” Kerr said. “It’s so funny seeing them as kids and then all of a sudden, you find out the two older boys are big-time hockey players.

“And then I started to really ask Rick more about his kids and what they were doing. Then there’s little Charlie, the tennis player. And then I realized, Rick’s cooking something up in his house. … He’s just churning out athletes over there.”

There’s a reason the Warriors wanted to support Rick. He’s been crucial to their culture and success.

“He’s one of the best human beings I know, and that’s straight from the heart,” Kerr said. “He’s got this great combination of emotional intelligence and technical knowledge of his field and humor and authority. The players see him every day, and so for us it means so much that he’s one of the first people they see and feel, and he just sets an incredible tone.”

Green called Rick “a giver.”

“He gives his time, he gives his energy, he gives his effort,” Green said. “He’s a magician when it comes to the body. He’s a magician when it comes to the mind. He is our secret weapon and he’s an incredible father. He’s an incredible man.”

Green said he checks in with Rick about Macklin about two to three times per week. Green knows a decent amount about hockey, growing up in Michigan and attending Michigan State. By appearances, Green could tell Macklin had the “it” factor when he first met the pre-teen.

“I’m like, ‘Yep, Mack, you’re definitely a player,'” Green said. “‘You got the hockey hair.'”

While getting to know Macklin over the years, Green was struck by something else. “He’s quiet but super confident, and is not afraid to share that confidence with you,” Green said. “We don’t get the opportunity to see him often, but every chance, he has a smile on his face. He walks in the room like he belongs in the room. Like he’s supposed to be there.

“It’s not something over the top where it’s like, ‘Hey, I need you to realize that I’m here.’ You feel the seriousness when you talk to him. Like, he wants to work, he wants to be great. I have no doubt in my mind that he will be.”

At the Steel game in 2023, the Warriors contingent — minus Rick — left after the second period. After all, it was a long drive back to Chicago. Naturally, Macklin scored after they had departed.

When Rick met Macklin in the locker room afterward, his son gave him a good hockey chirp to pass along to the Warriors.

“Dad,” Macklin said, “I go to your games all the time, and they’re boring as hell, and I don’t leave.”

Rick relayed the story to the Warriors the next day, and the room erupted in laughter.