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The Guardians put another big right-handed hitter on the Orioles today, getting right-handed reliever Carter Rustad for Johnathan Rodriguez.

Rusted is 24 years old, about to turn 25, and spent his last season on Double-A for the Orioles, putting up a 3.23 ERA and 3.25 FIP with a 9.51/3.91 K/BB/9 in 53 innings.

Erik Longenhagen wrote him up for FanGraphs here, pointing out he is sitting 94-96 with his fastball, with a high graded sinker, a low 80’s slider and a changeup that looks like a split. He swapped to a reliever role last season, so it seems like there is still some developing to do there. Gaining some additional control would go a long way.

Rustad has above average extension as seen in this metric posted by cdlenthusiast on Twitter from TJStats

Follow Thomas Nestico @TJStats on Twitter for more excellent insights.

Rustad is a solid return for a player who had no position and was blocked by several more promising prospects. Now, to see if the Guardians pitching factory can sprinkle some magic dust on him and get him to take a further step toward fewer walks and a spot in a major league pen.

Rodriguez, we barely knew ye. But, I will always remember you as the worst major league outfielder I have ever encountered. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him be a decent DH for a while at some point, however, and I wish him the best.

At times during the first three games of his Mets tenure, Bo Bichette was unrecognizable at home plate.

The former American League batting champion is 1-for-14. The man who had a better average with runners in scoring position than any player in baseball last year went hitless with one sacrifice fly in six tries this weekend. And the player so tough to strike out that the Mets gave him $42 million not to do it for them struck out eight times in three games, swinging through pitches up and the zone and down at his back foot, alike. He did not, in other words, look much like Bo Bichette.

“I’m not familiar with it either,” he admitted, eye black still pulled across his face after the Mets’ 10-inning loss to the Pirates Sunday. “… I think I’ve just gotta be more committed, more committed in the process. I definitely find myself trying to have a moment out there.”

Who knows where 158 more games will lead Bichette, who also spent this weekend working through growing pains at third base. But it could turn out that Bichette’s first “moment” as a Met came late Sunday afternoon, when the soft-spoken 28-year-old was not shy about an opening weekend so bad for him personally that it led to some Citi Field boos.

“If anything, I thought it took too long,” Bichette said. “I get it. I thought my at-bats were terrible, too.”

In some ways, the fix for Bichette is simple. Instead of chasing a moment, he will need to focus on “being in THE moment,” as he phrased it, and stop chasing pitches he might normally let go.

“I think he’s missing good pitches early in counts, and then they’re making him chase, especially at the top of the zone,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s going to swing. He’s going to go up there and he’s going to hack. He’s a good hitter.”

In some ways, settling in will be more complicated. His six-week crash course on third base did not yield a finished product. He is handling reaction plays well, making stops and charging rollers with no signs of inexperience. But on plays that gave him time to set, his throws leaked up the first base line on multiple occasions, though only one resulted in an error.

“Front side, arm angle, footwork, there’s a lot there. It’s a completely different throw, and it’s new for him,” Mendoza said before the game. “He’s going to have to continue to get reps, which he has. I’m not worried about it because of the work ethic. It’s not going to be perfect, but he’s in a good place, but he’ll be out there right now working with our infield coaches.”

Mendoza was wrong: Bichette actually came out to work with the infield coaches a few minutes after his press conference ended. When he did, he worked mostly on routine plays at mid-to-deep third, and he debriefed with third base and infield coach Tim Leiper afterward.

“I rushed a little bit [Saturday] on a play, but overall pretty good,” Bichette said. “So I just have to keep working and getting better.”

Bichette has not been the only new Met to struggle at his new position. Jorge Polanco also wrestled with some hops in his first two games at first base. And in the meantime, having works-in-progress at the corners has made the sturdy double-play combination of Francisco Lindor and Marcus Semien look even more foundational to this team’s defensive fate. While Semien has started slowly offensively, the former Gold Glover has been as solid as advertised so far at second, and Lindor has looked like his usual self at shortstop.

“We do talk. Bo is a little more quiet when it comes on the defensive side,” Lindor said after Sunday’s game. “But it’s been great. He made great plays today … he’s excelling. He’s doing his thing. He looks good.”

Lindor said he understands Bichette’s desire to prove himself to his new team and city right away. He, too, was beloved with the only team he had ever known before becoming a Met.

“[I understand] 100 percent,” Lindor said. “He’s one of the best hitters in the game. He’s going to have a lot of big moments for us. This is only normal.”

Normal, Bichette said, might take some work, at the plate and in the field. He said he started imagining his first big moment as a Met the second he signed, but “didn’t anticipate it would affect the way I played.”

Asked if he thought heading to St. Louis and San Francisco would help ease the pressure, Bichette offered a wry smile.

“Maybe,” he said. “But I’ve gotta figure out how to hit here anyway, so…”

Bichette is right, of course. But what stands out is his willingness to say so. Struggling players often insist they took good swings or swung at good pitches, that they were happy with their approach or are so close to a hot streak. But nothing speaks to confidence like candor. Perhaps Bichette is right to stop chasing his Mets moment. Strange as it sounds, he might have just had one.

Brandon Sproat is likely to be a pretty solid big league pitcher. Especially given how the Milwaukee Brewers organization develops arm talent. Today, however, was not that day, even if a late comeback rescued Sproat from a loss in his first start as a Brewer.

The 24-year-old righthander’s Milwaukee debut registered as something we’re used to out of White Sox prospect debuts: loads of anticipation that gets nipped right in the bud. Nerves may have played a role in the back-to-back walks to Chase Meidroth and Munetaka Murakami to start the game, but the sequence of events that followed was straight out of the White Sox playbook. First, Miguel Vargas blooped a single in to center field that probably would have been caught had the usually excellent Blake Perkins charged in off the bat. When that kind of thing happens to South Side pitching, you just know what’s coming next. Colson Montgomery swung the bat 83 mph and the ball went boom.

Welcome to the midwest, Mr. Sproat!

Similarly, though, lefthander Anthony Kay had some shakiness of his own to work through in his first major league start since 2021, allowing William Contreras to continue his weekend reign of terror with a double down the line before Gary Sánchez tanked one into the left field crowd.

While I was skeptical of whether Kay’s new arsenal would be good enough to play anything close to as well as it did in Japan, it’s hard to blame him for that one. 98 mph about six inches above the zone? That’s virtually impossible to hit unless you’re looking for that exact pitch. Credit to Gary on that one — Kay made a good pitch, and he was just ready for it.

Kay settled down somewhat nicely after that over the subsequent couple innings, utilizing all parts of his arsenal and generating a nice mix of weak contact and whiffs. One can see why the sinker was his meal ticket to success in Japan. Despite poor command, his pitch showed bowling-ball traits, dropping a healthy amount more than the typical sinker coming from his arm slot, and in combination with his four-seamer and sweeper, it’s tough for lefties to square up.

The real building block, though, was the velocity on his four-seamer, which averaged 96 mph and brushed 98 mph on the afternoon, both of which were easily the highest of his career, Spring Training included. All three of the hits he gave up came against the four-seamer, but with an efficient sinker and the low-90s slider, effectively making up the majority of his other pitches to lefties and righties, respectively, it’s going to be very difficult for batters to get the ball in the air when he’s locating everything.

Unfortunately, Kay had less control today, which is why he only made it through 4 2/3 innings before getting the hook. This is not the pitch chart of a guy who had a particularly astute feel for the strike zone.

The clusters of four-seamers at the top of and above the zone is actually pretty solid, but the spread of sinkers and sliders is way too scattered to keep hitters appropriately off-balance, and the four walks on his final line is not want you want to see from your starter. Kay still wound up whiffing five, and encouragingly, four of those five were against righties.

On the offensive side, the Good Guys weren’t even close to done, continuing to make Sproat’s life difficult. This might be a bit of a deep cut, but you may have heard of the newest lefty in the White Sox lineup, a guy named Munetaka Murakami. After Sproat walked Tristan Peters to lead off the second inning, Murakami continued to show that he’s not going to let MLB pitchers get away with too many mistakes, belting his third homer in as many games.

Murakami is now the fourth player ever to homer in the first three games of his major league career, joining Trevor Story, whose 2016 record of four straight games remains standing, as well as Kyle Lewis in 2020 and Cleveland’s Chase DeLauter just this week.

Also joining the homer parade? Everson Pereira, who recovered from a simply brutal first two regular season games in a Sox uniform to bash his first homer as a South Sider, and the third of his big league career.

The analysts I’ve spoken think Pereira’s swing is just a little too long and unorthodox to consistently work at the big league level, but if he learns to purely hunt the pitches his swing can get to, he may yet have a spot on this roster moving forward.

The game was going smoothly, likely just how the Sox would draw it up, until it wasn’t. Jordan Leasure came on to relieve Kay in the 5th inning, working out of the jam left for him but allowing a run to come home in the 6th, courtesy of a pair of knocks from Sal Frelick and Brandon Lockridge.

Grant Taylor was next in line for the South Siders, working for the second straight afternoon and doing so with a bit more effectiveness than his outing yesterday. Milwaukee hitters didn’t have much of a chance as he worked through the top of their order, striking out Brice Turang and Contreras (and touching 102 mph in the process) before a two-on, two-out punch out of Frelick gave him his first hold of 2026.

Once again, the Sox bullpen looked like it was cruising, that is until the wheels started to fall off. Chris Murphy entered the game to work the 7th and only managed to record one out, retiring just one of five hitters and leaving the bases loaded after a Turang single brought the Crew within three.

Bringing back glimpses of Liam Hendriks’ 2021 heroic efforts, Seranthony Domínguez found himself in a similar situation, attempting to work a five-out save. He managed to get the first out before Luis Rengifo brought the Brewers within a run after driving a two-strike base hit up the middle. That brought erstwhile MVP Christian Yelich up to the plate, pinch-hitting with the tying run on third base. I don’t even feel like talking about it. This is what happened:

Plot twist: The score held, and the While Sox ultimately suffered the 9-7 loss. There’s really no way around it — that sucked; and while I’m not going to re-write the majority of this post to reflect the negativity of the outcome, it’s hard to not feel a sense of futile dejá vu.

Nevertheless! The Good Guys have a fresh start and fresh series in Miami tomorrow, with Davis Martin taking the ball for his first outing of the year. Opposing Martin, Chris Paddack will also make his Marlins debut, more than a decade after being drafted by the organization in the 8th round of the 2015 draft. First pitch is at 5:40 p.m. CT, and we will see you there!

In the top of the third inning, the plastic wrapper of a hot dog was blown onto the field and picked up by the batboy for the Texas A&M Aggies. That drew the biggest cheer of the day from the Mizzou contingent at Taylor Stadium on Sunday who watched the Tigers lose 14-3 in the third straight game where the Aggies took it right to the front door that is the Missouri pitching staff and did so early. 

Down by eleven after allowing seven in the top of the third, Missouri (17-12, 1-8 SEC) found themselves in a spot that’s been all too familiar the past three games. More specifically, the third straight game where the Tigers have been trailing by at least eight runs before the fourth inning rolls around. 

The clock striking midnight before the halfway point hits hasn’t been a theme that’s been so prevalent up to this point in SEC play for Missouri. Tigers coach Kerrick Jackson has emphasized multiple times in the past, the importance of putting up “zeros” as a pitching staff. As exciting and blistering as the Tigers’ comeback against UIC was, after being down 12-1 past three, it can’t be expected to be the norm once top 25 opposition rolls into town.

Last season, it was the Tigers who rolled into College Station and picked up not only the three-game sweep, but their first SEC wins of the season, capped off by a 10-1 victory in the series finale. A&M well and truly pulled the reversal and in dominant fashion at that, also encapsulating its not sometimes how you finish a game, its how you start. 

“We just flush it,” Jackson said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to look at what we didn’t do well — which this weekend was pitching — and understand what that means. Next week, we have to pitch it better than we did. We’ve proven we’re going to play defense. We’ve proven we can score runs. We’ve proven we can pitch it well at times. We just haven’t had enough games where all three phases are clicking. Getting that figured out and getting all three phases clicking at the same time will put us in a great situation.”

Aggies long ball proves damaging

Eight of the Aggies’ runs on Saturday came via the long ball, as two each were hit by Gavin Grahovac and Nico Partida. The wind at Taylor Stadium blowing out on a sunny Sunday afternoon was a recipe for disaster for the Tigers’ pitching staff that struggled mightily in the three-game series. All in all, five home runs, totaling nine in the past two days for the Aggies. 

JD Dohrmann, after being a game time decision for the Tigers on the SEC availability report, acted as the opener, pitching one inning of work while giving up no runs and striking out a batter. Dohrmann was one of two pitchers of the day for Mizzou who put up a zero. 

“He just ended up not being healthy,” Jackson said when asked why Dohrmann pitched just the opening frame. “We couldn’t run him back out there, his stuff wasn’t good for where he has been. I think he tried to force it up, and we cautioned him to be honest with us. I think he wanted to go out there and do it, but we couldn’t continue to send him out there when he had below‑average stuff.”

Luke Sullivan came in to replace Dohrmann, after starting earlier in the week on Wednesday against Lindenwood. The Aggies offense got to him early. After a pair of walks and outs, Boston Kellner opened the scoring in the top half of the second with a two-run RBI single. 

Gavin Grahovac started off his day-that wasn’t over by a longshot-with a two-run 405 foot shot over the deep center field fence, putting the Aggies up 4-0. 

If the third inning was an offense, the fourth was a barnyard explosion. Again, a walk started the baserunning traffic for A&M and one batter later, Blake Binderup, who came a triple short of the cycle Sunday, connected on a two-run shot of his own. For Binderup, it marked his fifth tater shot of the season. That marked the end of Sullivan’s line, six earned runs, two strikeouts and four hits in 1.1 innings pitched. 

“Luke, he started against Lindenwood, so that’s a Wednesday start,” Jackson said. “This is the first time he’s gone short‑rested, but we needed to use him. Luke throws strikes, but with some of the pitches we need to execute, he’ll leave stuff over the middle and that’s where we get hurt. But he throws three pitches for strikes, and he’s a true freshman. We’re asking him to grow up at the moment, and that can be tough.” 

Ian Lohse, who’s typically played the role of closer this season, came in to stop the bleeding. The A&M offense didn’t have those plans. Jorian Wilson welcomed Lohse to the game with a single and Lohse gave the next two batters free passes with a hit by pitch and a walk. 

Bases loaded, up stepped the last person the Tigers needed to face, Grahovac. Four pitches into his at bat, Grahovac continued to tee off as if Taylor Stadium was a local driving range, connecting on a back-breaking grand slam. 10-0 Aggies and the only noise was coming from the pocket of maroon red fans behind the visitors dugout. 

In the words of Tom Cruise in a Few Good Men, “the hits just kept on coming.” Caden Sorell hit a follow up solo home run, drawing a mound visit from Mateo Serna to Ian Lohse, draping his arm on the left-hander. Lohse struck out the remaining two batters, ending the inning of 7 runs and four hits. 

Fast forward to the top of the seventh, Jake Duer’s solo homer increased the A&M lead to eleven, marking the final run of the game in a fitting way, the long ball. 50 runs in the last five games have been given up by Missouri pitching as a whole. 

“At the end of the day, you take the five‑game week, and we had to move McDevitt and Kehlenbrink up, so they were short‑rested,” Jackson said. “Now we’ll be able to go into a situation where they’ll have full rest. We only have four games this week and we’re looking for some other guys to step up and fill in for where JD and Javyn (Pimental) are out. That’s ultimately what it comes down to.”

He continued. “I fully expect next week we’ll get better starts from both McDevitt and Kehlenbrink, because both of their starts this weekend were uncharacteristic. You’re talking about guys who had some of the better numbers in our league in conference play and the short rest with long outings last time didn’t go well for them.”

Peer, Durnin, Ward stand out for the Tigers offense

Kam Durnin continued the kind of weekend that’s reaffirming the why behind the anticipation of his arrival to Jackson’s program. The third‑inning solo shot on Sunday capped off a 6‑for‑12 series that included two doubles, continuing his presence as a reliable bat in the lineup, whether he’s in the leadoff spot or sitting third or fourth in the batting order. 

Blaize Ward, reached base all three times for the Tigers and his recent resurgence has come in his eight hits in the last nine games for the freshman, who’s continued to establish himself in the past week. 

Kaden Peer’s 3-for-4 day at the plate, three singles and a run scored come as less of a surprise, as he’s been a key bat for Missouri dating back to last season, more encouragingly, he’s shown little reason for concern since coming back from injury on Mar. 3.

UP NEXT 

This past weekend might have brought the Tigers a lot of difficulty, this upcoming Tuesday presents them the perfect rebound opportunity. Missouri has the chance to earn what A&M got against them and that was revenge, as the Kansas Jayhawks will come into Columbia for a rivalry clash Tuesday evening. In Lawrence, the Tigers lost 10-0 in run rule fashion; they had the chance to split the season series in the Border War matchup. 

“We need to pitch it better and give ourselves a chance to be in that game a little more,” Jackson said. “If we do that, we’ll be just fine.”

After hosting Kansas, the Tigers head back on the road in SEC play to take on No. 19 Kentucky, beginning Friday at 5:30 p.m in Lexhington. 

After a heartbreakingly close loss last night, the Mariners will look to avoid losing their first series of the season today against Cleveland. Emerson Hancock will make his season debut for Seattle. Thanks to Zach Mason, who accidentally wrote this preview for Hancock when he’s actually recapping Castillo’s start against the Yankees tomorrow. All mine now, baybeeee.

Seattle will hand the ball to Emerson Hancock for his first start of the season. This ought to be Bryce Miller’s spot, but he’s still getting stretched out after missing some time in Spring Training with oblique tightness. Hancock lost his spot as the sixth starter last season to Logan Evans and was eventually relegated to the bullpen. But with Evans out for the year with Tommy John surgery, Hancock returns to the rotation.
Three things to watch from Hancock tonight:

• He was able to gain some velocity on his fastball when he moved to the bullpen, and he kept most of the gain in three-inning outings this spring. Can he hold the added velo over a full start?
•  He workshopped his sweeper over the winter and turned it into a pitch that was highly effective in Cactus League play. How effective is it against a legit lineup, and does he use it more than the three-or-so pitches per game he’s used in the past?
•  He’s had to trade velocity for movement on his slider in years past. This spring, he was able to get both at the same time. Was that a fluke, and, if not, how effective is it now?

Some in-case-you-missed-it reading:

• Some background info on the Steelheads, as well as quotes from Mark McLemore and Mike Cameron on the significance of wearing the Steelheads jerseys and lifting up this particular part of Negro Leagues history at this moment in time.
• That’s right, three games in and we’re lineup-construction-posting.
• Last night’s loss felt designed in a lab to make me, personally, feel as best as I possibly could about a loss, and after sleeping on it, I tried to explain why.

Lineups:

Back to the usual with a righty on the hill for Cleveland.

The Guardians will send out Slade Cecconi, who was the centerpiece in the trade when the cash-strapped Guardians shipped out Josh Naylor to Arizona. Cecconi is a junkballer (complimentary) who will throw a lot of off-speed at the Mariners to try to disguise his less-impressive heater, so the Mariners’ hitters job will be to not chase after his curve and slider and try to get to the fastball.

Injury Updates:

J.P. Crawford (shoulder) remains with the team; Tacoma has an off day tomorrow and then returns home, so it’s likely he’ll head there on a rehab assignment this week while the team faces the Yankees. Carlos Vargas (lat strain) was in the building today, but no news on where he is in his return from injury. Tomorrow will be Justin Hollander’s weekly update, so look for more info then.

Roster move:

Prior to the game, the Guardians announced they have traded OF Johnathan Rodriguez to the Baltimore Orioles for minor league reliever RHP Carter Rustad.

Today’s Game Information:

Game time: 4:20 PT

TV: NBC Peacock. The broadcast crew for Peacock is Jason Benetti, Rick Manning, and will also include our own Ryan Rowland-Smith.

Radio: 710 AM Seattle Sports, with Rick Rizzs and Gary Hill.

Looking Ahead:

The Mariners start a three-game series against the Yankees tomorrow and you know what? Good. Let’s go ahead and get it out of the way early. Monday night is Hello Kitty night with a HK squish pillow promotion (must purchase ticket special to receive promotion)