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Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Blue Jays' George Springer pulls off a career first in Cardinals series opener
The post Blue Jays' George Springer pulls off a career first in Cardinals series opener appeared first on ClutchPoints. Notwithstanding their series finale 6-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins on the road on Sunday, the Toronto Blue Jays are one of the best teams of late in the big leagues. They have won eight of their last 10 games going into Monday, the most in that span among teams in the American League. Advertisement Also having a good time of late is Blue Jays outfielder George Springer, who extended a hitting streak to five games with an RBI double in the first inning of Monday's series opener versus the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. With that hit, Springer has managed to reach an extra base in five games in a row now, the first time he's done such a feat in his career in the big leagues, according to Sportsnet Stats. Springer took on the first pitch he saw from Cardinals right-hander Andre Pallante, then got a strike on the second one. Both pitches were 88 mph sliders that went toward the right side of the strike zone. On Pallante's third offering, Springer finally made contact on a 94 mph sinker, spraying the ball to the left field, as Addison Barger scored and Alejandro Kirk moved to third base. Advertisement The 35-year-old Springer has been seeing action in the big leagues since 2014, when he was still with the Houston Astros. He suited up for the Astros for the first seven years of his time in MLB, earning three All-Star nods along the way before signing a six-year contract worth $150 million with the Blue Jays in 2021. He's been in the big leagues for over a decade, so it may be a bit surprising that this is just the first time Springer, who will turn 36 in September, has managed to put together such a streak. In any case, Blue Jays fans must be happy to see (or learn) that Springer appears to be having a power surge in the 2025 MLB season. In 2024, he had a 3.1 percent home run rate and a hard hit rate of 37.5 percent to go with a .371 slugging percentage. Entering the Cardinals series, Springer had a .487 slugging percentage, a 4.2 HR% and a 50.7 2 HardH%, per Baseball-Reference. Related: Blue Jays' Jose Bautista gets emotional at Canadian Baseball HOF induction Related: Why Myles Straw trade to Blue Jays was a blessing in disguise
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How struggling Boston Red Sox All-Star's stats compare to league average
Jarren Duran went 6-for-28 (.214) with no walks, 11 strikeouts and just one extra-base hit (double) on the Red Sox' 2-4 road trip that dropped them to below .500 (22-23). The 2024 AL All-Star is batting .253 with a .298 on-base percentage, .376 slugging percentage and .674 OPS in 44 games and an MLB-leading 208 plate appearances. Advertisement His OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) is 160 points lower than his .834 mark last year. Where do his statistics compare with the league average? The 2025 MLB averages so far for batting average, OBP, slugging and OPS are almost identical to 2024. 2025 : .243/.316/.394/.710 2024: .243/.312/.399/.711 The 28-year-old Duran's OPS this year is 36 points below the league average when his OPS last year was 123 points higher than the league average. His wRC+ is 84, below the standard league average of 100. He had a 129 wRC+ last year. Manager Alex Cora has said Duran is his leadoff hitter and that won't change. ('He's gonna hit first. He's our leadoff hitter. Nothing's gonna change,' Cora said Wednesday.) And that is probably the right call based on how dynamic he can be when he's going right. He didn't get real hot last year until June. Advertisement BETTING: Red Sox -1.5 runline is +168 on DraftKings for Friday's game versus the Braves. Our complete list of Massachusetts sportsbook bonuses will help you determine which sportsbook to use. Duran is so integral to the offense as a speedy leadoff man who sets the table for the Nos. 2-5 hitters. He's able to manufacture quick runs as a base stealer and by stretching a single into a double or a double into a triple. His 83 extra-base hits ranked fourth in the majors behind only Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani (99), Yankees' Aaron Judge (95) and Royals' Bobby Witt Jr. (88) in 2024. He's tied for 34th in extra base hits (16) right now with 20 other hitters. He's on pace for 57 extra-base hits. He had a .272/.340/.444/.784 line with 25 extra-base hits after his first 44 games last year. As mentioned, he started to get real hot in early June. Advertisement His OPS on the final day of last May was .744. It increased 102 points to .846 in June. He was at his best last year during the three warmest months with a .322/.377/.601/.978 line, 18 homers, 27 doubles and five triples from June 1-Aug. 31. June and July are historically his two best months. So he might be about to break out offensively. But so far this year, he hasn't provided the same value both offensively and defensively. He had 23 defensive runs saved in 1,421 ⅓ innings (17 in center field, six in left field) last year. But he has negative-2 defensive runs saved in 387 ⅓ innings between left field (-1) and center field (-1) this year. Advertisement He finished fifth in MLB in WAR (8.7) last year, per Baseball-Reference's metric. He has a 0.0 WAR right now. He's 11th among Red Sox players in fWAR (0.4) after finishing last year with a 6.7 fWAR. His chase percentage is up and his walk rate is down. His expected average, expected slugging and expected weighted on-base percentage are also down pretty significantly. More Red Sox coverage Read the original article on MassLive.
New York Times
05-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Giants takeaways: Willy Adames is back. So is Kyle Harrison, and Logan Webb's four-seamer
The Rockies have played in about one out of every nine games in Oracle Park's 25-year history, and they've hated almost every second of it. The last time they won consecutive games in the same series in San Francisco was May 2018, when the Giants were using Austin Jackson as their starting center fielder and Gorkys Hernández as their leadoff hitter. Giants reliever José Váldez gave up two runs in the top of the ninth of that second game, even though it's possible that Baseball-Reference made him up. Advertisement Some Giants fans might have taken comfort in that history of dominance before this week's four-game series. The real sickos and malcontents among you, though, were waiting for the jump scare. Baseball doesn't like to be that predictable. The Rockies were 6-29 in their last 35 games at Oracle Park entering this series, and it felt like the old movie cliché of 'It's quiet. A little too quiet.' It would be so very baseball-esque for the Giants to survive one of the gnarliest road trips in recent history, only to face-plant at home against a very, very bad Rockies team. So when the Rockies won the first game of the series, it wasn't time to panic, but it was time to tighten muscles you didn't even know you had. Tyler Rogers entered Thursday's game with one run allowed in 16 games, and then he gave up two runs in the span of 12 pitches. The Giants lost that first game, and the baseball gods' group chat was going wild. As it turns out, even the baseball gods can only do so much. The Giants won on Sunday, 9-3, winning the four-game series, and order was restored in the universe. The jump scare will eventually get everyone, but it'll have to wait for another month. And now, some notes, tidbits and general errata from the series. Willy Adames raised his season OPS by 73 points on Sunday, which tells us two things. The first is that he had an outstanding game, with two homers and a double. The second is that it's still early enough in the season that a single game can make that big of a difference in a player's stats. I'm not sure what the expiration date is for the 'it's still early' excuse, but apparently it's after the first week of May. Adames was hitting .202/.279/.263 at the conclusion of last Sunday's game, and he's up to .230/.312/.363 exactly one week later. Another week like that, and nobody will remember the slow start at all. Let's agree upon a general rule that you can stop using 'it's still early' when it's not possible for a player to raise his slugging percentage by 100 points in a week. Until then, it's still early, and the Giants are finally getting the player they were expecting when they gave him a franchise-record contract. Advertisement If this is the start of a turnaround, let's appreciate how much worse it could have been for Adames and the Giants. If the team were 10 games under .500 with their prize free agent struggling mightily, it would have been easy to place an outsized portion of the blame on him. 'Of course the Giants are struggling,' the pundit-industrial complex would have noted. 'They gave all that money to that guy, and he's not doing anything.' That kind of attention makes the spotlight brighter, which also makes it hotter. The hotter the spotlight, the sweatier the hands get. The sweatier the hands get, the squishier the batting gloves get. It gets worse from there. Instead, the Giants had a fine start to the season, which eased just enough of the burden on Adames. He might have been pressing, but he wasn't panicking yet, which might have been the case on a different team in a different situation. When Adames came to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning on Sunday, the Oracle Park crowd gave him a standing ovation that roughly translated to, 'We believed in you, and we're glad you're here now.' It was a nice sentiment. It also might not have happened like that without the hot starts from Jung Hoo Lee and Mike Yastrzemski, Wilmer Flores' well-timed RBI hits and a pitching staff that's been among the most effective in baseball. Baseball's a team sport, and the 2025 Giants have done incredibly well in spite of Adames. Now they'll have a chance to keep it going because of him, which is where they were expecting to be all along. After Sunday's game, the Giants designated Lou Trivino for assignment and recalled Kyle Harrison. You're also recalling Kyle Harrison right now, perhaps fondly. It's been quite the couple of months for him. Harrison found whatever was missing from his Cactus League outings, with uniformly positive reports about his velocity and stuff, and his Triple-A stats were trending toward absurdity. He struck out 33 percent of the batters he faced, with a 13.2 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. He struck out seven batters over five innings in his last start for Triple-A Sacramento, which was especially impressive considering that the game was in Reno, which is like the Coors Field of the Pacific Coast League, which is already a hitter-friendly league. Harrison left the game with a 4-1 lead, and the River Cats eventually lost 16-6, to give you some idea of the offensive environment he was thriving in. Advertisement Now the only question is how the Giants are going to use him. They're saying he's in the bullpen for now, but from the start of spring training, they've been adamantly against the idea of him being a second left-handed reliever, even when that looked like an obvious fit on paper. It would be odd for the Giants to reverse course after he's succeeded as a starter in Triple A, especially considering that Erik Miller has been far from overworked as the only lefty in the bullpen. At the same time, Robbie Ray is coming off his best outing of the season, and his fastball-slider combination has moments where it looks just as unhittable as it was in his Cy Young season. Justin Verlander is pitching well enough through seven starts to stick with him indefinitely. Landen Roupp's 3.86 FIP seems much more predictive than his 5.10 ERA, and his best career outing was just two starts ago. It doesn't seem like the time to yo-yo him in and out of different roles and rosters. That leaves Jordan Hicks as the starter who might be on the bubble. He hasn't had a quality start since his first game this season, and while there are a lot of questions about what the Giants would do with any of the other starters if they were removed from the rotation, none of them apply to Hicks. That thing he did very well at times for his previous teams? He'd be asked to do it again. Hicks moving to the bullpen is the easiest transition the team could make. Another possibility to consider is that it's Hayden Birdsong who will squeeze back into the rotation, with Harrison taking over the every-fifth-day bullpen role that Birdsong has been so good in. Or maybe we should just stick with Occam's Razor and assume that Harrison is going to step into the Lou Trivino role, because that's all we know with any specificity right now. Or maybe the Giants will use one of their extra starting pitchers to make a trade for Carlos Correa when they're in Minnesota this week. He could fill in for Tyler Fitzgerald until he's back, and then they'd figure it out from … OK, maybe we should just wait and see how Harrison is used. It's notable that this is the first roster move the Giants have made that wasn't a result of an injury. I almost miss the roster carousel of previous seasons. I'm pretty sure the Giants clubhouse doesn't, though. Webb threw 14 four-seam fastballs against the Rockies on Sunday, and they swung through five of them. That's more swings-and-misses than he got out of any his sweeper, sinker or changeup, even though he threw a lot more of those pitches. Advertisement The first time Webb used a four-seamer on Sunday was in a 3-2 count to Michael Toglia in the second inning. The pitch missed high and outside for ball four, and it would have been easy to ditch it entirely and stick with proven pitches. He used it again in a two-strike count with the very next batter, though. And it was nasty. Webb would then strike out the next two batters on six pitches, finishing them both off with the four-seamer. It's not just a pitch he's using to change eye levels. He's using it as an out-pitch. That's a development worth monitoring. He was facing the Rockies at Oracle Park, yes, and we've already established that they're being punished by the baseball gods for stealing the secrets of rosin from Mt. Olympus*. Still, whatever the Rockies' problems might be, it's not like their scouting report reads 'can't hit 94-mph four-seam fastballs.' It still takes a quality version of the pitch to get major-league hitters out, and that's what Webb is showing off right now. It's not like it's a new pitch for him — he was throwing a four-seamer predominantly as a rookie — but the effectiveness is what's different. And it's a welcome difference so far. * It's basically the tale of Prometheus, but instead an eagle eating the Rockies' liver every day, they have to play at different altitudes and tolerate a foam triceratops. You shouldn't feel bad for them. They know what they did. (Top photo of Adames: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)
New York Times
29-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
MLB Power Rankings: For the first time this season, we have a new No. 1
By Tim Britton, Johnny Flores Jr. and Andy McCullough Every week, we ask a selected group of our baseball writers — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results. Congratulations! We have made it through a solid month of baseball, which means we're getting ever closer to extrapolating real meaning from what's transpired so far in 2025. This season has so far preserved a strong balance of the expected and unexpected. The Yankees are in first place, which is not a surprise. But the Orioles are in last place, which is. Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal are among the best pitchers in baseball. Sounds right. Chris Sale, Aaron Nola, Dylan Cease and Zac Gallen have ERAs over five. Hmm. Advertisement Today we're gambling by looking at statistics — 'invisible but ineluctable' in the game, according to Roger Angell. Specifically, we're finding the statistical superlative for each team — the number that jumps out in bold on Baseball-Reference or deep red on Baseball Savant. What do they say about the now, and what do they suggest about the future? Record: 20-9 Last Power Ranking: T-2 Statistical superlative: Pete Alonso's red-hot start Look, when he broke Aaron Judge's rookie home-run record one year later and across town in 2019, Pete Alonso's intention was probably not to set up a career-long juxtaposition with the greatest hitter of his era. Right here in this moment, though, Alonso is the closest thing the National League has to Judge — a big right-handed power hitter who is doing everything right at the plate. Off a couple of down seasons, Alonso is as locked in as ever. He's swinging more at strikes and less at pitches out of the zone, he's hitting the ball harder and more often, and he's coming through whenever the opposition decides it prefers him at the plate over Juan Soto. He's basically carried a surprisingly suspect Mets offense to this point. — Tim Britton Record: 19-10 Last Power Ranking: 1 Statistical superlative: Yoshinobu Yamamoto's ERA+ Yamamoto clocked in with a 360 ERA+, even after taking the loss against Pirates phenom Paul Skenes over the weekend. Yamamoto gave up three runs, but two were unearned, so his B-Ref page continues to include bold ink. For a pitching staff that has already experienced some hiccups, in the form of injuries to Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, Yamamoto has been a stabilizing force. — Andy McCullough Record: 19-10 Last Power Ranking: 5 Statistical superlative: Logan Webb's strikeout rate In this era, 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings is impressive but hardly otherworldly. But for Webb, a venerable bulldog who has led the National League in innings each of the past two seasons, relying mostly on soft contact, it's a big deal. He averaged 7.8 strikeouts per nine innings during the previous three seasons. For 2025, he has incorporated a kick changeup into his repertoire, which has helped him subdue left-handed batters. His fastball and slider already elevated him to the top of the modern pitching heap. The extra weapon has put him in an early race with Paul Skenes for the National League Cy Young Award. — McCullough Advertisement Record: 17-12 Last Power Ranking: 4 Statistical superlative: Insert Aaron Judge stat How do you like to evaluate hitters? You like batting average? Judge was hitting .406 entering Monday. OBP? An even .500. Care more about power? He slugs better than .700. (A .300/.400/.500 slash line holds some aesthetic sway in this game; a .400/.500/.700 doesn't quite compute.) You prefer more advanced stats? His barrel rate, exit velocities and expected stats are all in the top 1 percent of the league. — Britton Record: 17-11 Last Power Ranking: T-2 Statistical superlative: Luis Arraez's strikeout rate Arraez has struck out twice this season. Twice! His ability to make contact is still mesmerizing, even if the entire industry knows it is his one elite skill. Since he debuted in 2019, Arraez has struck out 196 times – or one fewer time than Kyle Schwaber did in 2024 alone (Elly De La Cruz led the sport with 211 punchouts). Arraez's approach has diversified the Padres' lineup, which also benefits from Fernando Tatis Jr. looking more and more like the superstar that was promised before his injuries and PED suspension. — McCullough Record: 17-12 Last Power Ranking: 8 Statistical Superlative: Chicago's 44 stolen bases Statistically speaking, the Cubs might have enough to claim to be baseball's best offense. The club's .784 OPS is second best in the sport behind the Yankees, and its run total (172) is well ahead of the Mets' 155. Point being, the Cubs have been very good in the batter's box this season. But it's the Cubs' ability to steal bases at a high clip that is most worthy of this week's statistical superlative. With 44 stolen bases in 29 games, Chicago is as dangerous with a bat as it is on the basepaths. It's not just one player, either. Yes, Pete Crow-Armstrong leads the majors with 12 stolen bags, but Kyle Tucker has chipped in eight of his own, as has Nico Hoerner with six. First baseman Michael Busch has contributed two steals, and even 40-year-old Justin Turner has one. For reference, Turner stole zero bases across 139 games in 2024. — Johnny Flores Jr. Advertisement Record: 18-11 Last Power Ranking: 10 Statistical Superlative: The Tigers' 13-3 home record Listen, there's a lot to like about the 2025 Detroit Tigers. As of Monday, their 18-10 record was the best in the American League and third best in all of baseball. Both Casey Mize and Spencer Torkelson have made good on their 1-1 draft positions, and Tarik Skubal has been absolute nails to begin the season. But to truly understand how good these Tigers have been, you'd have to go back to 1911. That team won its first 12 home games en route to a 21-2 start. With a win on Sunday, the Tigers have a 13-3 home record, their best such start in over a century. On its own, it's pretty noteworthy considering the teams the Tigers have fielded over the years (early-2010s Tigers, anyone?). That this year's team has been able to not only stay afloat but also dominate with so many key pieces on the injured list is a testament to the depth and skill in Detroit. — Flores Record: 15-13 Last Power Ranking: 7 Statistical superlative: Eugenio Suarez's isolated power The statistic known as ISO is used to measure a player's raw power. The simple formula subtracts a player's batting average from his slugging percentage. After Suarez slugged four homers on Saturday night, his ISO jumped to .362, 26 points ahead of the next-best hitter, his teammate Corbin Carroll. But Carroll's numbers are reflective of an overall renaissance; he was hitting .302 heading into Sunday. Suarez has only been hitting homers: 10 of his 19 hits this season were dingers (and four were doubles). When Suarez makes contact this year, the ball goes far. He just hasn't made a ton of contact. — McCullough Record: 15-13 Last Power Ranking: 6 Statistical superlative: Zack Wheeler's splitter Wheeler developed his splitter in 2018, when he couldn't put away hitters and his career felt on a sort of precipice. Although he's used it inconsistently in the years since, basically shelving it in 2022 and 2023, it's been a critical pitch for him early this season. Hitters are 1-for-21 in at-bats ending with the splitter, and it's become his go-to putaway pitch. One of the best pitchers in baseball for a long time now, Wheeler knows his willingness to play around with his mix and his facility with learning new pitches are big reasons for his success. — Britton Advertisement Record: 16-14 Last Power Ranking: 11 Statistical superlative: Garrett Crochet's fastball value Some of our statistical superlatives are surprises that may not necessarily last; others are mere continuations of what we've seen before, projecting well the rest of this year and, perhaps if a player has signed a long-term extension recently, well into the future. Basically nobody in baseball derives more value from their fastballs than Crochet, and yes, the plural is important. Crochet throws three of them: four-seamer, sinker and cutter, the last of which has become his bread and butter so far this season. (Say 'That cutter is his bread and butter' in your best Boston accent.) His four-seamer was a top-five pitch in baseball last season. Guess there's a reason he got that deal. — Britton Record: 16-12 Last Power Ranking: 12 Statistical superlative: Logan Gilbert's innings total … in 2024 Gilbert logged 208 2/3 innings last year, more than any other starter in the American League. He was a trendy pick for the Cy Young Award this year. His 6-6, 215-pound frame looked like it offered him the best chance of any homegrown Mariners starter to avoid injury. Alas. Gilbert was placed on the injured list with a flexor strain in his elbow after leaving a start early on Friday. His injury occurred just as George Kirby, the other young Mariners All-Star pitcher, was making progress in his recovery from a shoulder injury. Pitching, man. Pitching. — McCullough Record: 13-15 Last Power Ranking: 14 Statistical superlative: Marcell Ozuna's walk rate In his very bad 2022 season, Ozuna walked 31 times in 507 plate appearances. He might pass that total this week, given the 26 free passes he's worked already this season (in 105 plate appearances) entering Monday. That 2022 low was an aberration, but Ozuna typically walked a bit more than 8 percent of the time; he's tripling that rate this season. And only once in a full season, back in 2019 with the Cardinals, did he walk even half as much as he struck out. This year, he has more BBs than Ks. Not bad for an, ahem, walk year. — Britton Advertisement Record: 15-14 Last Power Ranking: 9 Statistical superlative: Tyler Mahle's ERA While the Rangers wait for the offense to wake up, the starting pitching is keeping them afloat in the American League West. Nathan Eovaldi is filling up the zone with strikes. Jacob deGrom looks more human than superhero, but a human logging innings is more valuable than a superhero on the shelf. And Mahle, who was signed last year while recovering from Tommy John surgery, has been nails. When he gave up two runs in five innings against San Francisco on Saturday, his ERA actually rose to 1.14. He has permitted four earned runs in six starts. — McCullough Record: 15-13 Last Power Ranking: 13 Statistical Superlative: Steven Kwan's .346 average In the early part of the 2024 season, Kwan flirted with a .400 average, a feat that hadn't been accomplished since Ted Williams was still swinging the lumber in 1941. A year later, his start to the 2025 campaign might be even better. Through 27 games, Kwan is slashing .346/.397/.505 for a .902 OPS that is in the top 10 in the American League. His 37 hits are the third most in the majors, and his .346 average ranks fifth. He has 11 multi-hit games and, as of Monday, a 10-game hitting streak. Kwan makes it all look easy, and as he enters his 'prime' years, it begs the question of whether the best version of Kwan is yet to come. — Flores Record: 15-13 Last Power Ranking: 17 Statistical superlative: Steven Okert's swinging strike percentage You can be excused for assuming that Josh Hader led the Astros in this category. And Hader is, in fact, up to his usual bat-missing ways, generating whiffs with 17.7 percent of his pitches heading into Sunday. But it is Okert, a 30-year-old lefty signed to a $1.2 million deal, who is missing bats with 20 percent of his pitches. The back end of the Houston bullpen looks like a strength for a club still trying to find its footing. Hader, Okert, Bryan Abreu and Bryan King offer manager Joe Espada some options for protecting a lead. — McCullough Record: 16-13 Last Power Ranking: 19 Statistical Superlative: The 2025 version of Austin Hays Advertisement Signed to a one-year, $5 million deal in late January, Hays represented the kind of low-risk, high-reward signing that could help uplift a franchise that hasn't made the playoffs in a full 162-game season since 2013. So far, he's rewarded that belief with a .386/,449/.773 line in 11 games. His 1.0 bWAR is enough to lead all of Cincinnati's hitters and he became the first player in Reds history to amass at least 15 hits, five homers and 10 RBIs in his first 11 games. Various injuries, including a kidney infection, kept Hays from feeling like his regular self last year, and after a late debut, it appears the Reds are in line to get the best version of the 29-year-old. — Flores Record: 14-14 Last Power Ranking: 20 Statistical superlative: Christopher Morel's barrel rate The one player in baseball putting his barrel on the ball at a higher rate than Judge? That would be Morel, whose ability to square the ball up has kept him a viable big-league hitter despite a strikeout rate above 40 percent. While Morel needs to keep hitting the ball this hard when he does make contact, the rewards for doing so should increase. Just three of his 11 barrels have left the yard; over the past two seasons, more than half of his barrels went for homers. — Britton Record: 14-15 Last Power Ranking: 16 Statistical Superlative: Jose Quintana's 4-0 start Fourteen years into his big-league career, Jose Quintana might be off to his best start yet. He's 4-0 over four starts with a 1.14 ERA over 23 2/3 innings. If Quintana were to qualify (1.0 innings pitched per scheduled league), he'd be tied with Tyler Mahle for the second-best ERA in the league. Oh, and that 4-0 record, it's the first time since CC Sabathia in 2008 that a Brewers starter won each of his first four starts with a team. That Quintana has been able to etch his name alongside one of the greatest trade deadline acquisitions of all time is rather remarkable. That he's doing it at 36 years old, coming off an abbreviated spring training, is all the more reason to celebrate. — Flores Record: 13-15 Last Power Ranking: 15 Statistical superlative: Chris Bassitt's chase rate Advertisement Before PitchCom, Bassitt used to lead the league in shake rate, tormenting his catchers by making them work through his entire eight-pitch arsenal. But Bassitt this year is in the top 10 in the sport in chase rate, well above where the veteran right-hander usually ranks. Bassitt is generating chase on roughly one-third of his pitches out of the strike zone, up from annual averages around a quarter of the time. The unpredictability of his mix works, sure, but the big difference this year has been Bassitt's command around the strike zone. He's throwing more pitches than ever in the so-called 'shadow' zone, the area that straddles the edges of the strike zone. — Britton Record: 13-16 Last Power Ranking: 23 Statistical Superlative: Joe Ryan's 2.8 percent walk rate Only two qualified pitchers in the majors have fewer strikeouts than Minnesota's Joe Ryan — the Cardinals' Matthew Liberatore and the Rangers' Nathan Eovaldi. With 11 strikeouts and just one walk across seven innings on Sunday, Ryan bumped his season total to 39 Ks against four walks. His 2.8 percent walk rate is the third-lowest in MLB with a very sizzling 95th Statcast percentile. What's more, Ryan is doing this with a fastball that averages … 92.7 mph, well below the league average of 94.6 mph for right-handers. In his Sunday outing, Angels hitters swung and missed at his 'heater' 18 times. Of his 10 swinging strikeouts, only two came against non-fastballs. The numbers are strong enough to make even Greg Maddux blush. — Flores Record: 11-17 Last Power Ranking: 18 Statistical superlative: Cedric Mullins' slugging percentage Yes, of all the position players you thought might make a leap forward for the Orioles this season, the 30-year-old free-agent-to-be was tops on the list, right? Mullins is partying like it's 2021, when he broke out with a 30/30 season; unfortunately, so are the Orioles, who lost 110 that year. Mullins' slugging percentage — .574 entering Monday — would be the best by an everyday center fielder since Mike Trout in 2019. And since 2010, only Trout, Charlie Blackmon in Colorado and Matt Kemp in his best season have slugged more from center than Mullins has so far. — Britton Advertisement Record: 15-14 Last Power Ranking: 25 Statistical superlative: Tyler Soderstrom's slugging percentage Soderstrom, a first-round pick out of high school in 2020, cooled off a tad after a torrid start, but this month still demonstrated his big-league potential. He bashed nine homers in the first few weeks of the season. The Athletics' position-player core has some promise. Lawrence Butler and Shea Langeliers have been solid. Brent Rooker is there to stay. Jacob Wilson even took a walk. If Soderstrom keeps hitting for power, the group is that much more likely to hang around in the wide-open American League West. — McCullough Record: 13-16 Last Power Ranking: 26 Statistical superlative: MacKenzie Gore's strikeout rate Through six starts, Gore is punching out 37.3 percent of hitters, second in baseball behind only Seattle's Logan Gilbert. Maybe the more intriguing comparison is with a different one-time Mariner: Gore's strikeout rate is just off the career-best number for Randy Johnson. (Imagine how many hitters Johnson would strike out these days.) That jump in Ks — Gore struck out about a quarter of hitters last season — has aligned with a drop in walks, which is about as promising a combination as a pitcher could have. — Britton Record: 14-15 Last Power Ranking: 21 Statistical Superlative: Maikel Garcia's hard hit rate No, Kansas City's leader in hard-hit rate and exit velocity isn't Bobby Witt Jr. Both Garcia's hard-hit rate and average exit velocity numbers are in the 93rd percentile of the league, and his squared up percentage is in the 99th. To put things into perspective, Garcia's 55.8 percent hard-hit rate is better than Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Austin Riley and Cal Raleigh. His average exit velocity of 93.6 mph is better than Kyle Schwarber, Matt Chapman and … Juan Soto. For a Kansas City team with the fewest homers in the majors and the second-lowest slugging percentage, Garcia's ability to square up the ball could be a godsend if it can translate into the box score. — Flores Record: 12-17 Last Power Ranking: 24 Statistical Superlative: Lars Nootbaar's eyes Advertisement As far as leadoff hitters go, some teams opt for power (Yankees) and others for star power (Dodgers), but Cardinals manager Oli Marmol went with an old-school approach in putting Nootbaar at leadoff. He gets on base. Nootbaar has posted 10 game-opening walks between March and April to go along with 23 bases on balls overall, the third-most in the majors and ahead of Juan Soto. His 98th percentile walk percentage at 18 percent overall is fifth in the league. He attributes it to an 'old-school mentality of seeing some pitches,' and clearly that has worked out. — Flores Record: 12-15 Last Power Ranking: 22 Statistical superlative: Tyler Anderson's changeup value According to Statcast, Anderson's cambio has been the eighth-best version of the pitch in 2025. He ranked fourth in 2024 and third in 2022, his two All-Star seasons. He looks on track for his third appearance at the Midsummer Classic, in part because he's pretty good and in part because the Angels may not have many other viable candidates. Mike Trout's batting average is below the Mendoza Line, Kyren Paris has gone cold and Nolan Schanuel still isn't a slugger. At least Zach Neto is back! — McCullough Record: 11-18 Last Power Ranking: 27 Statistical superlative: Everything about Paul Skenes As largely expected, the Pirates have not been very good this season. Paul Skenes, however, has been very good. He leads the majors with six starts and a whopping 37 2/3 innings pitched. His 1.71 FIP is tops in the league, and his 2.39 ERA is top 10 in the National League. If those weren't enough statistical superlatives, then might we suggest a quick peek at Skenes' Baseball Savant page? Red means good on Baseball Savant, and Skenes has it in spades. He has a 99th percentile pitching run value, a 95th percentile fastball velo and a 96th percentile xERA at 1.92, meaning his stats should look even better than they already do. In his sophomore season, Skenes has been everything the Pirates could have hoped for and then some. — Flores Record: 12-16 Last Power Ranking: 28 Statistical superlative: Max Meyer's slider rate Meyer throws his gyro slider nearly 40 percent of the time; only four starters throw a breaking ball more. Only two throw their sliders harder than Meyer's 89.2 mph, and nobody has generated more swings-and-misses on a breaking ball this year than Meyer on his slider. Thanks to the effectiveness of that pitch, nearly two-thirds of batters facing Meyer this season have struck out or hit the ball on the ground. The rest of the Miami rotation, long the team's strength, has been pretty brutal to this point. The 26-year-old Meyer provides a reprieve every fifth day from that tumult. — Britton Advertisement Record: 7-21 Last Power Ranking: 29 Statistical Superlative: Edgar Quero's early slash line A season after losing a record 121 games, the 2025 White Sox have been less bad but also still not very good. The Rockies are doing their best impression and taking some of the heat off the Southsiders. That said, Edgar Quero's start has been one of the few bright spots in what is shaping up to be another lost season. Since being called up from Triple-A Charlotte on April 17, the White Sox's No. 5-ranked prospect, according to The Athletic's Keith Law, has done nothing but hit. He has a .344/.462/.406 slash line, with 11 hits (two doubles) in 11 games against just three strikeouts. Yes, it's a small sample size, but his track record in the minors suggests that he will be able to maintain a high OBP. A switch-hitter, he also gives Chicago another wrinkle to what is otherwise a below-average lineup. — Flores Record: 4-24 Last Power Ranking: 30 Statistical superlative: Jake Bird's ERA? As an adjective, superlative means 'of the highest quality or degree.' Outside of the altitude, there won't be many of those in Colorado this summer. It is a bad time. But Bird (1.08 ERA) had a nice April, and that is nice. — McCullough (Top photo of Cedric Mullins: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)
New York Times
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Weird & Wild: The 3-run walk, a bizarre strikeout and the baseball gods bless Manny Machado
Oh, man. What a week. There was a strikeout that hit the bat but never hit a glove. … There was a home run in San Diego scripted 100 percent by (who else) the baseball gods. … There was a pitcher who issued a walk after he'd gotten ejected. … And there was a guy who stole six bases in a game in which he forgot to get a hit. Advertisement But if you thought that was wacky, they weren't even close to being the Weirdest or Wildest things that happened in baseball all week. So let's get started, by taking … You know that old expression, you've got to walk before you run? Tell it to those Albuquerque Isotopes. What we learned from them this week was … You've got to walk before you score three runs. The Isotopes are the Triple-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. The big-league team can barely score any runs these days — on a walk, a hit or even (literally) an earthquake in San Diego. But enough about them. Back to Albuquerque. You have to see this play. And if you've already seen it, what's the problem? You can't possibly see it enough! THE ALBUQUERQUE ISOTOPES SCORED THREE RUNS ON A BASES-LOADED WALK AND THERE IS VIDEO [image or embed] — Codify Baseball (@ April 15, 2025 at 10:57 PM So if you weren't adding along at home, you just saw three runs scoring on a walk. And does that seem kind of rare to you? You should answer yes to that. 'I can't recall ever seeing three runs scoring on ball four,' said dulcet Isotopes broadcaster Josh Suchon … and also every other living human. When stuff like this happens in baseball, America seems to think this is what's known as a Weird and Wild kind of play. They're not wrong. And thanks for thinking of us, America. So we know what that means. It means there is lots to get to. But before we move along to bizarre questions like what just happened … and how do you even score a play like that … and how would somebody like Josh Suchon explain that play into a microphone in real time … You probably want some Weird and Wild tidbits. So here you go. So has this ever happened before? That's the question I asked Baseball-Reference's amazing Katie Sharp, because of course I did. Has there ever been a walk in a major-league game on which three runs scored? I'd have bet no — and I'd have been wrong! Katie actually found two of these in the Baseball Reference database: • Aug. 21, 1914: Should we even count this? It happened in a Federal League game between Tex Wisterzil's Brooklyn Tip-Tops and Biddy Dolan's Indianapolis Hoosiers. It's not totally clear from the play-by-play what happened. But it looks as if Brooklyn pitcher Ed (Don't Call Me BB) Lafitte muffed the catcher's throw back to the pitcher. Then the Tip-Tops started throwing the ball all over Federal League Park — and even the batter (Benny Kauff) scored, on a walk and two errors. Advertisement • July 11, 1983: This play — in a Cardinals-Dodgers game in L.A. — had actual living eyewitnesses. Fernando Valenzuela walked the bases full. Then in marched Dave Stewart to pitch to Tom Herr. Ball four was a wild pitch. Then the catcher, Steve Yeager, made a wild throw to the plate. And all three runners scored — even though Herr never made it beyond first base. Good times. So that's great knowledge, filled with exceptional name-dropping. But I still vote that the merry-go-round in Albuquerque was way more fun. However, there's one more thing. Meanwhile in Colorado … Have I mentioned that the Rockies have had a little trouble scoring recently? Over the first five games of their last road trip, they also scored three runs … in a span of 134 batters! And while that was going on, their triple-A team scored three runs in a span of one batter — who walked. But in other news … the rulebook says the Rockies also are allowed to walk with the bases loaded. They just don't do that much. They've scored three runs on walks … in their last 161 games combined! Meanwhile, their top minor-league team just scored three runs on a walk in a span of 20 seconds. Yes, the @ABQTopes scored 3 runs on a walk last night. Here's the longer clip with a replay from our elite @Windfire_pro crew that shows the "high home" angle of all the madness. Jackie Robinson would be proud of @RealSlimSchunky Cc: @jaysonst @CodifyBaseball @JomboyMedia — Josh Suchon (@Josh_Suchon) April 16, 2025 All right. That'll do it for the tidbits. Let's move along to … How'd you like to be the official scorer for a play like that? Somebody had to do that. And Frank Mercogliano was just the guy. He's one of America's ultimate students of all sorts of scoring decisions. So when this nuttiness broke out, he had a flashback. Advertisement He somehow remembered a Jose Bautista walk in 2017 in which the Mariners kind of zoned out … so Bautista ambled into second base. It took a couple of days but Bautista wound up getting credit for a steal of second — on a walk. And amazingly, Mercogliano recalled all of that. He just had to verify that recollection, with some assistance from Google and Retrosheet. 'I remembered that, but I wanted to make sure I found it,' he told Weird and Wild, 'so that if anyone asked me, 'Why is this a stolen base?' I could say, 'Well, it was done in 2017.'' So how did he score it? The runner on third (Austin Nola) scored on the bases-loaded walk. The runner on second (Aaron Schunk) advanced to third on the walk, then got credited with 'a straight steal of home.' And the runner on first (Jordan Beck) advanced to second on the walk, was awarded a steal of third and scored on a throwing error by bamboozled El Paso pitcher Omar Cruz. It all kind of makes sense, except the 'straight steal of home' part. WEIRD AND WILD: 'You used the expression, 'straight steal of home.' That's the least straight steal of home ever. … So it counts as a straight steal of home, even though he had to make a left turn?' MERCOGLIANO: 'Yeah, exactly. Straight steal of home. … He just had to make a left turn in Albuquerque.' This is what the scorebook looks like after that play and the wild game last night. — Josh Suchon (@Josh_Suchon) April 16, 2025 Got that, Google Maps? Great. Now let's ask: How'd you like to be the broadcaster for a play like that? I know you want to say yes. But first, let's hear Josh Suchon recount how he went about keeping his brain from overloading as all this was going on. First, you should factor in that it's Jackie Robinson Day, so everyone on the field is wearing the same number (42). And also understand that a broadcaster's normal instinct after every walk is not that The Bad News Bears is about to bust out, but just to write down that walk in his scorebook. So Suchon was doing just that. Except then, he said, he heard the crowd buzz. Advertisement 'Fortunately, our crowd is so great that I hear a commotion,' he said. 'So as I'm starting to write 'BB' in my scorebook, I look up and I just see the blur of somebody sliding headfirst into home plate. And that's when I realize something's happening here. And then you realize the pitcher does not realize this is happening here. And then his teammates are trying to get his attention, and he throws wildly to third. 'And so I'm just trying to keep up with it. Everyone's wearing No. 42, so I want to make sure that I don't misidentify anybody. And I'm hoping that I'm counting correctly — up to three.' Hey, mission accomplished on all of that. But also realize there's a surreal confluence of extreme events going on: • A savvy base runner in Schunk who detects immediately the pitcher has zoned out. • Another astute base runner in Beck who watches that second run score and realizes the pitcher still hasn't regained baseball consciousness. • And a pitcher in Cruz who is lost in his own brain space after what Suchon called 'the ultimate Jayson Stark inning.' By that, he means: a leadoff comebacker off Cruz's glove … two pitches heaved off the backstop … two ball-strike challenges … a throwing error by the third baseman … three other walks … then this fateful walk, after he'd jumped ahead in the count, 0-2. So was that a tipoff that Cruz was already reeling before that three-run carousel started spinning? Seems like it. But whatever happened, at least we got a three-run walk out of it that we can talk about for the next decade. Baseball! It's awesome. 'I think that plays like that reward people who truly love baseball and understand that something wacky can happen at any second,' Suchon said. 'So whether you're Aaron Schunk at second base, or whether you're a fan in the stands, or whether you're a broadcaster, or whether you're an umpire, whoever you are, you just always have to be alert for this once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-generation experience where something like that happens, right?' Advertisement Right! It was weird. It was wild. It was a carnival ride just to make sense of. But … 'But that's what makes it so fun,' Josh Suchon said. 'That's what makes baseball so great, is that these wacky things happen — and then Jayson Stark writes about them.' Thanks to that three-run walk and that conversation with Josh Suchon, we stumbled upon a fun theme to this week's Weird and Wild extravaganza: Broadcasters tell us about how they describe things that nobody has ever seen before … To people (on the radio) who literally haven't seen that thing! So let's just say you were the great Tom Hamilton, the radio voice of Cleveland baseball for 36 seasons and a man who is three months away from being honored on Induction Weekend in Cooperstown. Then let's just say the most bizarre strikeout of all time happened. And let's just say it looked like this. Thanks to that three-run walk and that conversation with Josh Suchon, we stumbled upon a fun theme to this week's Weird and Wild extravaganza: Broadcasters tell us about how they describe things that nobody has ever seen before … To people (on the radio) who literally haven't seen that thing! So let's just say you were the great Tom Hamilton, the radio voice of Cleveland baseball for 36 seasons and a man who is three months away from being honored on Induction Weekend in Cooperstown. Then let's just say the most bizarre strikeout of all time happened. And let's just say it looked like this. That's one way to do it 🤣 — MLB (@MLB) April 12, 2025 Yessir, just your standard strike three … in which the pitch somehow hits the bottom of the knob of the bat … and then the baseball miraculously caroms into that perfect spot between the forearm and the pads of the catcher (Austin Hedges). Um, what? I mean, he's out! So would it truly be accurate to say that Austin Hedges caught that strike three? Or did it catch him? Advertisement 'I know one thing,' Hamilton told Weird and Wild. 'Austin Hedges is as good a defensive catcher as there is in the game — but he does not practice that play.' And for good reason. After all, what were the odds of that happening — 9 quadrillion to 1? 'Just the fact that you and I are talking about it right now,' Hamilton said, 'tells us they're astronomical.' So how great is baseball? Think about how many baseball games Tom Hamilton has seen and called … and then this thing happens that none of us has ever seen and that seems almost impossible. And then … there it was. It was enough to make Hamilton think back to his first spring training in this job. He was driving back from a road game with his first partner, Herb Score. And Score pretty much warned him that some day, something this wacky was definitely going to happen — because on any day in baseball, you can see something you've never seen before and you'll never see again. 'He said that statement that I have lived for 36 years,' Hamilton said. 'It's just what you and I are talking about. How many times do you come to the park in what you think might just be another ho-hum day in a long season. … And then you're going to see something … and Jayson Stark is going to call you. 'And that,' Hamilton said, 'is the beauty of our game. That's why, to me, this never gets old, because no matter what kind of a team you're covering, something's going to happen that you and I haven't seen again. And the question is, will it be tonight? Will it be tomorrow? Or will it be four months from now? But it's going to happen again, where we're going to see something we've never seen before, and we'll have another story to talk about.' OK, let's do this one more time because why the heck not. Just suppose you were the radio voice of the San Diego Padres. And just suppose you were calling a game Tuesday night when Manny Machado lofted two foul balls onto the field of play in one at-bat … And that team on the other side — the Cubs — caught neither of them (for two errors). Advertisement Do you think you'd have the guts to say what the great radio voice of the Padres, Jesse Agler, said … into a microphone … where everyone could hear him? 'If you've watched enough baseball in your life,' Agler said on the air, as Machado's fifth-inning at-bat rolled along, 'you have a sense, deep down in your gut, about what's going to happen.' He said that. And then, on the very next pitch … yep. I think we all saw this one coming after two dropped foul pop-ups 😅 🎙️ @jesseagler — 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) April 16, 2025 'The most predictable, yet unpredictable, game in the world,' Agler said, while Machado was still in mid-trot. 'The Cubs dropped two foul pops in this at-bat, and the baseball gods reward the Padres with Manny Machado's second home run of the season.' You should know, if you're not a regular Padres radio listener, that Jesse Agler has a rep as a noted predictor of the baseball future. He even predicted the Padres' playoff-clinching walkoff triple play last September. Seems risky, right? But whatever! 'I think it's fun to throw stuff out there,' he told the Weird and Wild column. Oh, it's fun, all right. It's just that your chances of being wrong are so much higher than your chances of being right. And shouldn't we all know that logically — that the odds are totally against that home run? Let's prove that now. I asked my friends from STATS Perform to look into this. And you know how many other players, in the 52-season history of their play-by-play database, have ever done what Machado just did — hit a home run after the other team clanked two foul balls? None! Of course. So what is it about baseball that something that unlikely happens, and yet we actually find ourselves expecting it to happen? And then afterward, thousands of people are saying, 'Yeah, that made sense.' Do we even want to explain to them that no, that did not make sense? 'I mean, it makes sense in the context of the beautiful stupidity of baseball,' Agler said. 'It does not make sense in any other context. If you were going to run the numbers on it, there's no way it would make sense. But again, I think that's one of the things that draws people to this game in a deep, deep way, that is so uncommon in the rest of our lives.' Advertisement But what does the rest of our lives have to do with it? It isn't trigonometry. It's baseball. 'For those of us who are lucky enough to watch baseball professionally, with the amount of games that we see, there's no way that that should be happening on any kind of basis, much less a regular basis,' Jesse Agler said. 'And yet it seems like once or twice a week, you go, 'Man, I've never seen that before.' It's just the damnedest thing. It really is.' So remember that, OK? It isn't logic. It isn't science. It isn't normal. It isn't paranormal. It's just … Baseball! Poor Jose Miranda. There are a million things he hasn't done. But if this past week was any indication, just you wait. Just in the past week, the Minnesota Twins' third baseman was out even when he was safe. … And that got him shipped back to the minor leagues … where he headed off to Target … and wound up as the early leader in our annual Injury of the Year competition. So you know who's here to tell his story? We are! Let's hear a big hand now for … the cast (and chorus) of the Weird and Wild column. We don't know if history has its eyes on Jose. But we do. So in honor of his cousin — that Lin-Manuel Miranda guy, of 'Hamilton' fame — here's how we think the cast of 'Hamilton' would rise up and put Jose Miranda's week in its proper perspective. It was only last season that Miranda did something only three other players in history have ever done. He headed for home plate and got a hit in 12 at-bats in a row. So perhaps you thought that would have been enough to get him into the Twins' big-league (locker) room where it happens this season. But that was before he wandered onto the basepaths last Saturday … where this unfortunate thing transpired. Umpire called Jose Miranda safe, saying the fielder didn't touch the base to get the forceout. But then Miranda just walked away and got tagged out anyway. — Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) April 12, 2025 Oops! We think Lin-Manuel could have gotten a whole act out of that scene alone, featuring our chorus singing … • 'What'd I Miss?' • 'Wait for It' • 'Say No to This' • 'Stay Alive' And … judging by the stories on this game on our very site … that regrettable gaffe appeared to turn into … • 'The Story of Tonight' Advertisement Which then led to an even more unfortunate development for our hero … It never feels like a good plan for baseball job security to find a way to get yourself tagged out even when you're safe. But it's an even worse plan when you're 6-for-36, hitting .167/.167/.250 and have an OPS+ of (wait for it) 18. So what happened to Miranda after that Safe Wait No I'm Not Game? The Twins shipped him right on back to Triple-A St. Paul. And that inspired our Weird and Wild Chorus to launch into renditions of: • 'Take a Break' • 'The World Turned Upside-Down' And (with any luck) … • 'You'll Be Back' Except then, last Monday, Jose Miranda went shopping. And by the time he was through, he was … By now you probably have heard this story. But just in 'case' you haven't … According to the Twins, Miranda was zipping through Target and, because hydration is often the key to salvation, he grabbed a case of water off the shelf. Good idea, except … Those cases of water can get bulky and slippery on you — and this one attempted a daring escape from Miranda's hands. So he did what any great athlete would do at a time like that — try to … Catch it. But those cases of water are heavy, you know! So that didn't go well, either. Next thing we knew, Miranda was heading for the St. Paul injured list with a strained left hand … incurred in the most watery way possible. Twins notes from the minors: – Zebby Matthews starts for Triple-A St. Paul tonight, a week after his last outing. – Jose Miranda was placed on the Triple-A injured list with a hand strain before playing a game. – Brock Stewart begins a rehab assignment at Low-A Fort Myers. — Aaron Gleeman (@ April 15, 2025 at 2:46 PM We'd advise him to spend the next week heeding Aaron Burr's advice for Hamilton: Talk less, smile more. But that's going to be hard, when the cast of Weird and Wild is all around him, singing catchy tunes like: • 'Stay Alive' • 'Helpless' • 'How Lucky (You) Are To Be Alive Right Now' • '(Left) Hand Man' • 'Say No to This' And (accompanied by Rocco Baldelli and the Twins Singers) … • 'That Would Be Enough' Now this can still be a story of redemption, you understand. Miranda's season isn't over. Miranda's career isn't over. And this will not result in any ill-fated duels — with Ryan Burr or anyone else. So there will always be more chances for men talented enough to go 12-for-12. But … Yikes. What a week! Advertisement So Jose, the world's gonna know your name. And we're aware we just helped with that. But who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story? That can still be you, Jose. Unless you prefer to leave it to … the Weird and Wild chorus! And man, we sure hope not. After all this singing, our vocal cords are officially shredded. BEWARE OF ZOMBIES — While we're on this subject, how unstoppable are the Padres in San Diego? The Braves couldn't stop them. The Guardians couldn't stop them. The Rockies couldn't stop them. The baseball gods couldn't stop them. But you know who could? Those dastardly Zombie Runners. So on Tuesday, the Padres finally had their 11-game home winning streak end on a run scored by … a zombie runner. (Cubs 2, Padres 1, in 10 zombie-fied innings.) And thanks to Katie Sharp, we can tell you that no team has ever had any kind of single-season winning streak that long foiled by a Zombie Runner (a.k.a. that mysterious dude who gets to start every extra inning on second base). The Astros held the old home-streak record with 10 (ended in extras last July 13). The Rays got zombied after a nine-game road streak in 2021. And the Braves watched an overall nine-game win streak disappear in 2023 when they, too, were overrun by zombies. So zombie haters? This note's for you. CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER — The awesome voice of the Orioles on MASN, Kevin Brown, keeps going down that Weird and Wild rabbit hole, digging up new tidbits for us every week. Here's a fun one that caught his eye Tuesday. Let's recap Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins' first three trips to the plate: Third inning — walk to break up perfect game. Fifth inning — single to break up no-hitter. Seventh inning — home run to break up shutout. Ced sent this one. — Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) April 16, 2025 On one hand, this has been done before — 43 times, in fact, in the Baseball-Reference database. And the list of players who have done this, according to Kenny Jackelen, includes Ted Williams, Yogi Berra and Joey Votto. Whoever they are. But now here comes the Weird and Wild part. Since the Orioles moved to Baltimore 71 years ago, this had happened only once in any Orioles game — for or against them. And that game was … Game 1 of the 1983 World Series, when a fellow named Joe Morgan did that for the Phillies against the Orioles (and their starter, Scott McGregor). Advertisement GROUND CENTRAL STATION — Those Kansas City Royals rolled into Yankee Stadium this week … and got swept – because of course they got swept. Does it feel to you as if those AL Central teams never win at Yankee Stadium? You wouldn't be wrong. I checked. The record of the five AL Central teams in The Stadium over the past five seasons? How about 15-50 … or 17-55 if you count the postseason. A team that played at that pace over a full season would win (gulp) 38 games. What's up with that, you ask? Must be pastrami-related! THE OLD 1-2 — I'm guessing this was Keith Law's favorite thing that happened all week: On the same day (Monday), Pirates rock star Pauk Skenes … • Became the first No. 1 pick in the history of the draft to pitch to a catcher (Henry Davis) who was also the No. 1 pick. • Finally got to pitch against not just his friend and former LSU teammate, the Nationals' Dylan Crews, but also the player who got drafted right behind him, at No. 2 in the country the same year (2023) that Skenes got picked first. All that's cool, but I'm not done. • So Skenes has now pitched to either the No. 1 pick (Davis) or the No. 2 pick (Joey Bart) as his catcher in four of his first 28 big-league starts. • And finally, there's this: Hitters who were taken with either the first or second pick in the draft have three times as many strikeouts as hits against Skenes. That group — Dansby Swanson, Spencer Torkelson, Alex Bregman and Crews — is a combined 2-for-10 against him, with six strikeouts (and no extra-base hits). THE REAL DRAFT KING — Speaking of the draft, Astros phenom Cam Smith only got drafted last July 16. He hit his first career home run in the big leagues a week ago. So it took him only 269 days to go from the draft board to a home run trot. And that seemed quick. I asked my friends from STATS just how quick. Advertisement Only six players in baseball draft history could beat that. Three of them went straight to the big leagues: Bob Horner (1978), Dave Winfield (1973) and Dave Roberts (1972). Horner went deep a mere 10 days after he got drafted! Three more got drafted that summer and were in the big leagues, hitting home runs, by that September: J.D. Drew (1998), Bo Jackson (1986) and Nolan Schanuel (2023). My favorite bet-ya-didn't-know-this tidbit from that list: Bo Jackson hit his first big-league homer before he scored his first NFL touchdown! So let's hear it for … Baseball! Cam Smith blasts his first career home run 👏 — MLB (@MLB) April 12, 2025 All this stuff really happened in the last week. I swear. • Nationals reliever Jorge López managed to walk a guy (and give up three runs) after he got ejected (three pitches into a messy Andrew McCutchen plate appearance Wednesday). Washington reliever Eduardo Salazar helpfully finished López's walk. • Braves bopper Marcell Ozuna hit two home runs in the same *day* — in two different cities (Atlanta and Tampa) … with a little assistance from a two-hour, 45-minute rain delay that turned the first of those homers into a 12:53 a.m. walkoff special last Friday — err, Saturday. • Nationals rookie James Wood got hit by a Paul Skenes pitch Monday — but it was the catcher (Pittsburgh's Endy Rodríguez) who wound up on the injured list. Apparently, that can happen when baseballs ricochet off the hitter's leg and head directly for your bare hand. #Pirates Endy Rodriguez left with an injured hand tonight. Likely headed to the IL per reports — Mike Kurland (@Mike_Kurland) April 15, 2025 • Since that Pirates-Nationals series was about as bonkers as it gets, of course Tommy Pham got thrown out at first base Wednesday on a single. … OK, so it would have been a single if he'd just been aware that the aforementioned James Wood didn't catch his line drive to left before it hit the ground. Confusion then reigned. The Pirates wound up with two runners dashing toward first. And when the throw from left beat Pham to the bag, he wound up as only the eighth hitter in the live-ball era to 'single' into a 7-3 out at first. Hat tip: Katie Sharp. WATCH: Tommy Pham with a groundout to…LEFT FIELD???#Nationals # — No Warmup The Pod (@nwthepod) April 17, 2025 · Bryce Harper hit a home run Tuesday in breeeezy Philadelphia with a 45-degree launch angle. Not to imply that's a rarity, but the league average last season on balls hit with a 45-degree launch angle (or greater) was a dazzling .019! And the last left-handed hitting Phillie to pull a home run to right field in that park with a launch angle that pronounced was … Ryan Howard … 10 years ago! Advertisement • And here's to Beloit Sky Carp outfielder Emaarion Boyd. He stole six bases in a game last week … despite the slight technicality that he didn't get any hits. So how many bases has he stolen this season in games where he actually got a hit? Right you are. That would be none! THE NAME RINGS A BELL — Baseball is better than science fiction, isn't it? Last Sunday, new Red Sox ace Garret Crochet made his first start against that White Sox team that traded him, right there in the park where he'd pitched his whole career. So how'd that go? He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, naturally … only to have it broken up by … a guy he was traded for (Chase Meidroth)! Because America needs to know just how nutty baseball is, I asked Baseball-Reference's incredible Kenny Jackelen to look into this. And … Want to guess how many pitchers, in their voluminous database, had a no-hitter busted up that late in a game by a hitter he'd been traded for? As always, zero is a fantastic guess. How's that for your 3rd career MLB hit?!@whitesox No. 8 prospect Chase Meidroth breaks up Garrett Crochet's no-hit bid in the 8th. — MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 13, 2025 Nutty epilogue — Kenny did find a game in 1954 where Early Wynn lost a no-hitter in the ninth. Then, three years later … he was traded for the guy who got the hit, Fred Hatfield! RAIN ON ME — Welcome to one of the Strangest But Truest games in the history of the new Yankee Stadium. This was last Friday night, when the Giants and Yankees played baseball in the midst of approximately 2 billion raindrops — for five-plus innings anyway. There were a few walks! Yankees pitchers walked 11 Giants in this game — in 5 2/3 innings! And what's so Strange But True about that? They were the first team in the modern era to hand out that many walks without even getting 18 outs. And the last team to walk that many in six full innings did it as recently as 87 years ago (the 1938 White Sox). Advertisement The Stro Show! Then there was Yankees starter Marcus Stroman. He had quite a night, if only because he gave up five runs before he got an out — and then didn't make it through the first inning. On one hand, he's not the only Yankees starter on his own team who has given up that many runs before he got an out. (Carlos Rodón did it on Sept. 29, 2023, in Kansas City.) But Stroman did become the first Yankees starter ever to allow at least five runs before he got an out and not make it through the first inning in any version of Yankee Stadium. Well then. Robbie Ray broke the rules! And finally, how 'bout Giants starter Robbie Ray. He only went four innings — but he still got The Win. That's not actually allowed — in any other game. But did you know that in baseball, they let that whole five-innings requirement slide when it rains (and the winning team only pitches five innings)? Who knew it had happened five other times since that rule went into effect … 75 years ago. But baseball is inventive like that! SHUT UP AND PLAY THE HITS — Finally, how about Dodgers multipurpose man Miguel Rojas. Just as we all expected, he's pitched to more hitters in the big leagues this season than Max Scherzer, Alexis Díaz or David Bednar! That would be 14 of them. And he faced all 14 in a six-out outing last Saturday that played, let's just say, a pivotal role in the Dodgers' unprecedented 16-0 loss to the Cubs. But that's not even the Strange But True part. The Strange But True part is that in the eighth inning, Cubs rookie Gage Workman got his first career hit … against Miguel Rojas, position player. And then, in the ninth inning, Workman got his second career hit … also against Miguel Rojas, position player. So, how many players have gotten their first two career hits off the same true position player? Katie Sharp dug into that one. And that answer would be … none! In other words, no player in history has ever started his career like Gage Workman. But here's our advice. Gage, nobody will ever remember who that dude was who you got those hits against. So save that … Baseball! (Top photo of Manny Machado reacting after hitting a home run against the Cubs on April 15: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
