Category: Sports News

The Nats won yet another road series with a gutsy 5-4 win against the Mets. It was a glorious win for the Nats and an agonizing loss for the Mets, who are now a shocking 10-21. This game was always going to be decided by a clutch hit, and the Nats were the team that got the big hit when it mattered most.

Going back to the very start of the game, this contest could have been very different if not for an insane defensive play by James Wood. The Nats 6’6 right fielder needed every inch to rob a Juan Soto home run. Wood made another great defensive play later in the game. It really feels like Wood is much more comfortable out in right field.

Perhaps powered by the momentum from that play, the Nats offense went to work in the second inning. After a Jorbit Vivas single, a ground ball hit to the pitcher by Nasim Nunez led to Vivas scoring all the way from first after a comedy of errors by Mets pitcher Freddy Peralta. Jacob Young then delivered later in the inning, driving in Nunez on a base hit.

After the Nats tacked on another run in the third, and now it was up to Miles Mikolas to make the 3-0 lead stick. Ultimately, he was not able to. The Mets put together a two out rally in the third that was punctuated by a three run homer by MJ Melendez on a pitch that was about head high. 

It is tough to blame Mikolas for allowing that homer. A red hot hitter just put a crazy swing on a well executed pitch. In his last few outings, Mikolas has thrown the ball better. He only went four innings today, but he gave the Nats a chance to win.

After that, it was a deadlock for a little while. Both offenses went quiet in the middle innings. That is until the Mets got something going against Mitchell Parker in the 6th. Mark Vientos made the Nats pay for pitching around Juan Soto, driving him in on an rbi double.

Mitchell Parker was far from excellent and did not have his best stuff, but he did well to only allow one run in his three innings of work. That set the stage for the fateful 8th inning. Luis Garcia Jr. led things off with a knock. After Daylen Lile hustled to beat out a double play, it was up to CJ Abrams.

After briefly going cold, the Alien announced he was officially back. He destroyed a Luke Weaver changeup. Abrams knew he got it, pointing into his dugout to fire up his teammates. Citi Field was stunned as Abrams rounded the bases to make it a 5-4 ballgame.

However, the work was still far from finished. The Nats bullpen needed six outs against a Mets team that was desperate to comeback. After a Juan Soto double, Richard Lovelady got two key outs before turning things over to Gus Varland.

It was now up to Varland to get the four biggest outs of the game. He got Tyrone Taylor to end the 8th for the first out. After not adding an insurance run due to some poor base running and situational baseball, it was time for Varland to hold his nerve.

When I talked to Varland a few weeks ago, he talked about how he has been on a journey to find confidence. He felt like his mindset was in the best place it had been in a long time. Varland would need that confident mindset to hold on and get the win.

He got two quick outs, but allowed a double to Francisco Alvarez. With a full count to Ronny Mauricio, the gutsy Varland fired off a perfect slider, which got him the strikeout. Varland pumped his fist as the Nats improved to 15-17 and won yet another road series.

The Nats are now 12-7 on the road, but they need to show that they can carry some of this momentum to Nationals Park, where they are 3-10. This was a fun and satisfying win. Extending Mets fans’ misery gives me great joy. The Nats did that with a nice team win this afternoon.

Anthony Volpe’s return from shoulder surgery will probably be judged in extremes. If he comes back looking like the polished two-way shortstop Yankees fans once imagined, every line drive, diving stop, and stolen base will reignite the belief that a true breakout might finally be here.

If the offensive line remains parked where it has spent too much of the last three seasons, the familiar frustrations around strikeouts, on-base percentage, and whether the bat will ever fully arrive will return quickly. The truth, as usual, likely lives somewhere in the middle.

That is what makes Volpe’s 2026 campaign so fascinating. This is less about whether he can suddenly become the star many once hoped for and more about what a healthy, age-25 Anthony Volpe should realistically look like. For Yankees fans, that means separating three different buckets: what to expect, what to accept, and what to hope for from Volpe.

What to expect: Volpe returns as the Yankees’ shortstop

When the Yankees bring Volpe back up to the big league club, it will not be as a bench player. Barring a setback, he is rehabbing to resume being the club’s everyday shortstop. Fans may debate it, but that is the organization’s plan. Even if he’s not playing, say, seven games in seven days because the Yankees aren’t going full-bore yet so early in the season, Volpe will get the vast majority of time at the six.

Players returning from shoulder surgery often need reps for timing, trust, and everyday rhythm to fully return. Entering play yesterday, Volpe had hit .276/.300/.379 in 30 plate appearances while looking steady, but not anything more than that, in the field. That is perfectly fine. The point of rehab is readiness, not domination.

If the shoulder is healthier, the biggest gains may not show up first in the traditional counting stats like batting average and OPS as much as it will in better contact quality, more line drives, and harder hit balls in play. Too much of Volpe’s offensive profile drifted toward weak popups last season as his line-drive percentage fell six percent below his career normal. A compromised shoulder can do that, especially for a hitter whose game depends on quickness through the zone and the ability to drive the gaps.

If the surgery corrected that issue and rehab strengthened it, the expectation should be a healthier version of the player the Yankees already know: not superstardom, but a player entering his prime years who has already shown double-digit power, speed, and quality defense. Thus, fans should expect Volpe to start and have an extended run to fully earn the spot … with the word “earn” meaning he produces slightly better than his career numbers while playing good defense.

What to accept: Caballero has earned a role and is ready

Volpe’s return should not create panic about José Caballero. It should create excitement about roster depth. I am fully on the “start Caballero every day” train, but I also accept that he is a role player with a clearly defined place on this roster. That role is exactly what he has been doing, now with a little whipped cream and a cherry on top at the plate thus far, plus the added value of defensive versatility.

Since Volpe began his rehab assignment, Caballero has been one of the hottest Yankees on the roster. From April 14th onward, he’s hit .347/.396/.510 with two doubles, two homers, six stolen bases, and a .906 OPS, while injecting energy into nearly every game. Aaron Boone acknowledged that reality this week, saying Caballero has “earned a lot of opportunities” and has been “right in the middle of us winning a lot of games.”

That matters. Caballero has provided exactly what winning teams crave from role players: versatility, speed, defensive flexibility, and enough offense to force his way into the lineup.

However, it is worth remembering Caballero got off to a slow start. From opening night against the Giants until April 14th, he was actually hitting a disappointing .179/.220/.286 with a 28.8-percent strikeout rate in 59 at-bats. My colleague Andrés Chávez further broke down Caballero’s contributions in a piece worth reading.

Volpe returning does not mean Caballero disappears. It means Caballero becomes a true utility weapon who can move between shortstop, second base, and third base, even having the ability to man the outfield if a need arises. Amed Rosario should, and will, remain part of that rotation as well.

The Yankees will give Volpe runway to reclaim his everyday role. That is reasonable given what the organization has invested in and communicated about him over the last several years. At the same time, the team now has a much clearer picture of what it has in Caballero and Rosario, and that depth already matters and should continue to matter over the course of the season.

Boone’s comments on Wednesday reinforce that balance. The Yankees still view Volpe as their starting shortstop when healthy, but they have also been clear that Caballero is more than just a placeholder, praising his ability to impact the game in multiple ways and expressing confidence in him holding things down in the meantime.

Fans should resist turning this into a one-week referendum. If Volpe struggles after returning, patience is warranted, even if criticism is fair. If he struggles for a month while Caballero continues producing, then the conversation certainly changes — and that’s to say nothing of top prospect George Lombard Jr., who will likely have his own adjustment period but was just promoted to Triple-A. We have all seen that Caballero can play an effective shortstop and, at least for the half a month of the season, is what we have all hoped Volpe would become at this point of his career offensively.

What to hope for: The Dansby Path

For much of Volpe’s career, he has lived inside comparisons that were never fair to begin with. Because he is a homegrown, righty-hitting shortstop in pinstripes with leadership traits and polished media instincts, the Derek Jeter parallels arrived before his own game ever had a chance to develop.

I am sure that like all of us in a certain generation, Volpe dreamt of being Jeter or as close as possible, and now as fans we would love to see Jeter 2.0. However, the healthier and more realistic hope is not Jeter, a no-doubt Hall of Famer and an outlier. It is Dansby Swanson.

Although a few years older when he was drafted out of Vanderbilt in 2015, Swanson stormed to the majors with star-level pedigree and quickly became a lightning rod for debates about strikeouts, offensive inconsistency, and whether the bat would ever fully match the reputation. His age-24 season with Atlanta in 2018 was affected by injury, and he posted a .238/.304/.395 line.

Then came the rebound. Following offseason surgery and a clean bill of health, Swanson returned in 2019 and slashed .251/.325/.422 while pairing that 91 wRC+ offense with strong defense. He stopped feeling frustrating and started feeling dependable. Over the next four years, Swanson hit a combined .259/.325/.441 with a 108 wRC+ and 16.8 fWAR for the Braves and Cubs, becoming a two-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner.

The similarities between the two are not just narrative, either. Among qualified shortstops in 2024, Volpe ranked 16th in batting average while Swanson ranked 17th. In OBP, they sat 17th and 14th, in slugging 17th and 15th, and in OPS 17th and 15th.

That is not just stylistic similarity. That is the same offensive neighborhood. The same held true again in 2025. Volpe ranked 24th among shortstops in batting average to Swanson’s 20th, 24th in OBP to 21st, 16th in slugging to 14th, and 21st in OPS to 17th.

Even in what felt like a disappointing season, Volpe remained within just a few slots of one of the league’s most accepted veteran shortstop standards, albeit at a dramatically different price point and with Swanson’s bat not quite as electric as his 2020–23 peak. And honestly, that contrast is part of the point. It is easy to live with this profile on a rookie deal if you are the front office. It becomes a much different conversation once a salary climbs north of $20 million annually.

If Volpe lands in the “2018 Swanson” zone over roughly 100 games, something around .238/.304/.395 with mid-teens power and steals, Yankees fans should probably walk away happy. The public projection systems are already pointing almost exactly there. ZiPS projects Volpe for 103 games with a .230/.292/.397/.689 line, 13 home runs, and 16 steals. Steamer is nearly identical at 102 games with a .232/.297/.399/.696 line, 13 home runs, and 16 steals.

Both systems also land on 1.9 WAR, which is exactly the kind of quietly valuable full-season pace contenders take from the bottom of the lineup bats. If the healthy shoulder restores some of the line-drive contact that disappeared last year, there is a realistic path to something even closer to Swanson’s 2019 jump. The realistic hope should be that Volpe lands somewhere above 2018 Swanson, while understanding that the 2019 version likely represents the true ceiling for 2026 at this point.

That is exactly why the Swanson comp works so well as the hopeful path. Swanson has built a long-term career as a 2–4 WAR shortstop, which is exactly the range Volpe is trending toward. That is the hope for Volpe. It’s not that he suddenly becomes an MVP candidate, but that his age-25 season becomes his version of Swanson’s settling point — a player who moves from polarizing to reliable entering their prime seasons. More directly, a shortstop who quietly helps a team win every single day and shows some of the potential that made him an early draft pick has developed into skills and talent.

The bigger picture

Volpe does not need to be Derek Jeter to matter. He does not need to become a superstar to justify patience. He does not need to settle a fan debate the moment he is activated. However, he may need the last bit of grace fans have left for him as he works his way back into the flow of an MLB season. The better question is simple: What does this Yankees team actually need from Volpe?

They need him to be an above-average shortstop whose offense trends upward from last season and his career norms, and whose presence gives the Yankees more ways to win. If he can make a Swanson-like jump while Caballero remains a versatile contributor, the Yankees will have something more valuable than nostalgia or prospect dreams. They will have options, and good teams win with options.

If Volpe struggles, the Yankees appear to have an in-house option ready for the moment. However, there is also a very real possibility that they have two similar and productive players. Neither projects as a star, but both could become valuable contributors for a winning roster this season and beyond. If the Caballero momentum keeps building, Yankees fans will make their voices heard. The front office is already showing they are not wasting time this season after they designated OF Randal Grichuk for assignment after Jasson Domínguez’s hot start in Triple-A, and deciding to call up top prospect Elmer Rodríguez after Luis Gil struggled.

Until then, it is worth hoping for improvement while expecting the numbers to not look great for Volpe right out of the gate. However, he deserves and will receive at least the same runway that was just granted to Caballero to start the season.

The headline says it all: the Mets lost again today at Citi Field, losing 5-4 to the Nationals, and have now lost 17 of their last 20 games. Something has to change, and quickly.

Freddy Peralta looked sharp early, despite walking James Wood to start the game. Peralta struck out the side after allowing the free pass. In the top of the second, Peralta continued to look sharp pitching, but his fielding bit him.

Jorbit Vivas singled with one out. Nasim Nuñez hit a ball to the right of the pitcher’s mound, and Peralta had to rush, throwing an errant throw to Mark Vientos at first, who was not able to handle the throw. Vivas was already at second by the time the ball got away from Vientos, and he not only took third but also came home and scored, while Nuñez got all the way to third. Jacob Young would single Nuñez home, putting the Nats up 2-0.

Peralta wouldn’t be out of the weeds just yet, as in the third Luis Garcia Jr. doubled to lead off the inning. CJ Abrams singled him home one batter latter to put the Mets down by three.

The Mets were struggling to make anything happen against former Cardinal Miles Mikolas, who is having an absolutely atrocious season. In the bottom of the first, Juan Soto hit what looked to be a solo home run to right field, but Wood, calm and measured, jumped and nestled it into his glove. But aside from that and an MJ Melendez single, the Mets weren’t putting anything really on the ball.

That changed in the bottom of the third when, with two outs, Bo Bichette walked and Soto singled to put two on. Melendez then turned on a ball and tied the game with one swing.

With the game now tied, Peralta settled in, not allowing a baserunner in the fourth or fifth inning. In the sixth, Peralta walked José Tena and Vivas back to back. But after a mound visit, Peralta emptied the tank, throwing his hardest pitches of the game and getting Nuñez to pop out to end the frame.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets played some small ball, and it paid off. Soto walked to lead off the inning, and was pushed to second on a sacrifice bunt by Melendez. Mark Vientos doubled and scored Soto to put the Mets up 4-3.

Brooks Raley pitched a perfect top half of the seventh inning, and the Mets stranded Carson Benge on second in the bottom half. Luke Weaver would get the eighth, and things did not go very well.

Garcia singled to start the frame, and Daylen Lile hit into what could’ve been a double play ball, but Ronny Mauricio took too much time on a throw to first, and Lile was safe. Abrams was up next, and he deposited a changeup into the bullpen to put the Nationals up 5-4.

Old friend Richard “Dicky” Lovelady pitched the eighth for the Nats. Juan Soto greeted him with a double off the centerfield wall that just missed being a solo home run. Pinch hitter Austin Slater hit a weak grounder to short, not advancing the runner for the first out. Vientos hit a sharp liner right into Nuñez’s glove for the second out of the inning. Gus Varland came in to face Tyrone Taylor and, three pitches later, Taylor hit a weak fly out to left to end the frame.

Devin Williams pitched the ninth, and was greeted by a single, a stolen base, and a sacrifice fly, putting Nuñez on third with just one out. A hard two-hopper by Young to short was fired back to Luis Torrens at home to get Nuñez. Young then tried to steal second, but was thrown out by Torrens, keeping it a one-run game going into the ninth.

The Mets got a two-out baserunner when pinch-hitting Francisco Alvarez pulled a double down the left-field line. Mauricio represented the winning run at the plate, and he struck out on a breaking pitch (shocker) to lose the game and the series.

The Mets travel to Orange County, California for three with the Angels. Christian Scott takes the ball Walbert Urena.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: MJ Melendez, +29.0% WPA
Big Mets loser: Luke Weaver, -46.0% WPA
Mets pitchers: -32.0% WPA
Mets hitters: -18.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: MJ Melendez’s home run, +29.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: CJ Abrams’s home run, -48.4% WPA

Pitching matchups are fun when they are marquee matchups. Logan Webb against Cristopher Sanchez is something one might consider marquee. It was that way for a while, but a wild ending propelled the Phillies to a victory, one that gave them their first series win since Easter.

The Giants opened the scoring by getting to Sanchez early. Heliot Ramos doubled on the first pitch of the game, then scored when Luis Arraez grounded out, giving the Giants a lead. Matt Chapman, who had doubled after Ramos, scored when Casey Schmitt singled him home and the lead was 2-0. In the bottom of the first, Kyle Schwarber responded by hitting a titanic shot off of starter Logan Webb, making it 2-1.

From there, the pitchers settled in and dominated the game. Webb looked excellent, setting down the Phillies with relative ease while Sanchez also traded zeroes on the scoreboard. The biggest threat on offense was in the fourth inning. Adolis Garcia and Brandon Marsh singled and doubled, respectively, to open the frame with no one out.

Then Bryson Stott struck out in an ugly, ugly at bat with the infield back, conceding a run.

Then Edmundo Sosa grounded out with the infield in, making Garcia a sacrificial lamb at home.

Then Justin Crawford bunted.

The Phillies didn’t score.

Things looked bleak as they had wasted their best chance then and weren’t doing much of anything outside of perfecting the art of grounding into double plays on the first pitch thrown. Yet in the ninth, with Ryan Walker on trying to end it for the Giants, the offense came alive. Garcia singled to open things, followed by a strikeout by Marsh. With that one out and Stott up, it was a reminder that the last time the Phillies fired a manager midseason, Stott hit a walkoff home run in the first weekend of the new manager’s tenure. Things didn’t happen the same this time, but how about an RBI triple?

I’ll allow it.

How about an RBI infield single by Crawford to end the game?

The kid has had his struggles this year, but he also has now two walk off hits for the team. That’s going to play in the major leagues.

As mentioned above, this was the Phillies’ first series win since Easter. They begin the Mattingly regime with two victories and now we can say they’ve won three out of four.

Maybe the start of something?

Game Summary

Two first inning homeruns by Wetherholt and Walker spotted the Cardinals to an early 3-0 over Paul Skenes, who would ultimately require 100 pitches to make it through five innings. Burleson and Gorman tacked on RBI hits following Pirate mistakes (error, WP). Another game where the Cardinals 3-4-5 hitters collect RBI. That seems like a good sequence.

On the pitching side, Hunter Dobbins leads out with 3.2 hitless innings, then comes unraveled when a hit breaks the sequence, and subsequently walks five of the next seven batters, allowing the Pirates to cut the lead to 5-3. The bullpen continued the parade of free passes and HBP, further slicing the lead to 5-4.

A late game (8th inning) eruption plates five runs for the Cardinals to make this game a bit of a laugher, as much as can be funny with the recent bullpen history. Pittsburgh plates a late but ultimately useless run in the bottom of the ninth (aided by a throwing error by Walker) to produce the final score of 10-5.

The Cardinals’ bullpen was a mixed bag. Tasked protecting a 4-run lead over 4.2 following innings, they did accomplish that, with assitance of the offense. Bruihl allowed 2 inherited runners to score. Graceffo with a pretty clean 1.1 IP. Romero gave up a solo HR. Stanek with a pretty nice relief inning. Svanson gave up a run in his inning when the game was out of hand. Only 1 walk over 4.2 relief innings, coupled with 4 K. Like I wrote, mixed bag.

It all totalled up to a win and a Cardinals sweep (a mop?) of the Pirates! And they come home with a bullpen that has piled up a lot of innings and walks. The middle of the Cardinal order had 7 RBI today, and the line-up in total had 14 hits to overcome 12 Ks.

Line-up (and roster) machinations

• An early start today, 1235a Eastern.
• Pretty standard line-up against LHP, if you view Church a fixture in LF.
• Ryan Fernandez optioned to Memphis to make room for Dobbins.
• Tink Hence optioned to Cardinals’ FCL (Florida Complex League) affiliate in Jupiter. He gets some time in the pitching lab down there. @DGoold reports that the option to FCL is in lieu of placement on the MiLB development list. Apparently, because Hence is on the 40-man roster, he can NOT be placed on the MiLB development list. Assigning him to FCL accomplishes the same thing – gets him to Florida to work in the lab, outside game situations.

The Game Details

T1 – Wetherholt leads off with a solo HR. Herrera reaches on throwing error (E5). This was later changed to a hit. Burleson backwards K. Walker with a towering 2-run HR. Gorman K. Winn K. Odd inning. Cards up early 3-0.

B1 – K. F-8. K. Good start for Dobbins.

T2 – Church K. Pages single. Scott II bunts Pages over the second, but JJW pops out to strand the runner.

B2 – P6. L9. 4-3. Dobbins doing well, but some deep counts adding to pitch count.

T3 – Herrera K. Burly awarded a single on a dribbler to short that Griffin threw away, error on the throw, putting Burly on second. Walker lines out. Gorman picks up the RBI. Winn bounces back to Skenes 1-3. Cards now up 4-0.

B3 – Griffin K. Infield single. Davis GIDP to make a quick inning.

T4 – Church P5. Pages K. Scott II K. Skenes strikeouts piling up now.

B4 – 4-3. 4-3. A double breaks the hitless string. A walk extends the inning, as does another, and yet again another walk with the bases loaded. Dobbins becomes unnerved giving up his first hit????? Griffin grounds out to end the threat. Pirates cut the lead to 4-1.

T5 – Wetherholt singles. Trying to figure out all the fuss about the Skenes guy. Herrera backwards K on a failed challenge. WP. Boy, the Pirates make a lot of mistakes. Burleson singles in JJW. Walker K. Gorman out 5-3. Cardinals now up 5-1.

B5 – Leadoff walk. Cruz walks. Dobbins walks have really piled up now. Bruihl in for Dobbins. He starts his day with a pitch clock violation. A deep fly to center gathers an out but advances two runners to scoring position. A double Reynolds plates 2 runs for the Buccos. 4-3 ends the rally. Pirates cut the Cards lead to 5-3.

T6 – Ramirez in for Skenes. Winn K. Church grounds out 6-3. Pages with an infield hit (yes, an infield hit!). Scott II out 4-3.

B6 – Graceffo in for Bruihl. Cardinals are going to have to find another 12 bullpen outs today if they want to sweep. He avoids the obligatory first batter walk syndrome with an HBP, instead. He follows with a P4, K and 5-3 to navigate the inning. Cardinals still up 5-3.

T7 – Montgomery in for Ramirez. Wetherholt walks. Herrera lines out L8. Burleson F8. Walker forces out Wetherholt.

B7 – Graceffo back out. 4-3. Romero in for Graceffo. Starts with a K. Lowe HR (416 ft) tightens the game some more. Gotta love that lefty lane. Will see them in the ninth, again, I suspect. A walk extends the inning. A K finishes it. Pirates cut the lead to 5-4. No more room to cut.

T8 – Mattson in for Montgomery. Gorman singles. A Winn line drive is misplayed for an error, advancing runners to second and third. This later re-scored to a hit, as well. Church doubles in two runs. Pages F8. Scott II walks. Wetherholt L8. He has hit the ball hard today. Herrera walks. Devenski in for Mattson. Burleson singles in two more. Walker with an RBI single. Gorman K to end the eruption. Cardinals now up 10-4.

B8 – Stanek in for Romero. 3u. F8. Single. Backwards K. Pretty clean inning for Stanek, noticeably lacking in walks.

T9 – Winn P4. Church L8. Pages K.

B9 – Svanson in for Stanek. 4-3. Single. Double, plus throwing error by Walker plates a run. F8 advances runner to third. L7 ends the game (not as nerve-wracking as yesterday’s last out!). Cardinals win 10-5.

Post-Game Notes

• In The Feed, check out Today on the Farm – Thursday 4/30 for updates on MiLB action.
• The Cardinals head back home today with an upcoming homestand against LAD and MIL before heading west. Expecting Wrobleski, Sasaki and Sheehan as the Dodgers’ trio of pitchers.
• The Cardinals ran themselves out of challenges early, which was unfortunate because this umpire missed a number of strikes later.
• To my eye, the Pirates got out-managed at every step this series. Probably starting with the 8-pitcher bullpen game to start the series. It was a brilliant move until it wasn’t and set a lot of things in motion that could go wrong. And things did go wrong for them, in bunches. A good pitching team gave up a ton of runs to a team that is not an offensive juggernaut, and likewise couldn’t find a way to overcome a bullpen having trouble throwing strikes.
• Pirate mistakes were a theme of this series … unforced errors, wild pitches, passed balls, throwing to wrong base. The scorer can change them back to hits all he/she wants, but they are still plays not made. Much to clean up for them.

It’s almost a shame the Orioles have another game of baseball to play today, because it’s going to be hard to top their game one performance.

The O’s opened a doubleheader with an all-around fantastic win over the Astros, 10-3. Chris Bassitt posted his most impressive outing as an Oriole by a long shot, shutting down the AL’s best offense for just one run in 6.2 innings. The Orioles didn’t score until the fifth but opened the floodgates after that, crushing two grand slams — by Adley Rutschman and Jeremiah Jackson — to reach double digits in runs for the second time this season.

This game pitted a guy with a 6.75 ERA this season against one with a 6.15 ERA in five career seasons. So of course it turned into a pitcher’s duel. But for Chris Bassitt and the Orioles, that was just fine. Bassitt was in dire need of a quality performance as an Oriole, and boy, did he get it this afternoon.

From the get-go, Bassitt was absolutely dealing. It was impressive enough that he started his day with two straight strikeouts, but even more impressive that the second one came against Yordan Alvarez, who historically has crushed Bassitt in his career (9-for-22 with five home runs, his most against any pitcher). But Bassitt carved him up with no issues on his way to a perfect inning.

Bassitt allowed a baserunner in the second but twice got help from Adley Rutschman, who first pulled off a successful ABS challenge to eventually strike out Yainer Diaz and then threw out Jose Altuve trying to steal. Bassitt worked past another baserunner in the third and two more in the fourth, and he followed up with his second perfect inning in the fifth. The veteran right-hander looked every bit like the pitcher the O’s thought they were signing. He was hitting his spots, mixing his pitches, and generally making a very good Astros offense look very silly.

Early on, the O’s had trouble giving Bassitt any support. They were stymied by Peter Lambert, who’d had a very bad MLB career with the Rockies (something that happens to a lot of pitchers, to be fair) before reinvigorating his career in Japan last year. Lambert started the game with three scoreless innings of his own before the O’s broke through in the fourth. Pete Alonso walked, and with two outs, Jeremiah Jackson started his excellent day of work by lacing a double down the left-field line. Alonso huffed and puffed around the bases as fast as his Polar Bear legs could carry him, crossing the plate with the game’s first run.

From then on, the Orioles scored lots and lots of runs, and none of them required a lumbering slugger to breathlessly chug around the basepaths. The O’s chased Lambert from the game in the fifth on a Blaze Alexander one-out double, snapping his 0-for-14 drought. Lefty Steven Okert tried to defuse the rally and instead poured gasoline on the fire. Gunnar Henderson reached on a check-swing squib infield single to third and Taylor Ward walked, loading the bases for Adley Rutschman.

Folks. Adley is so back. If you hadn’t gotten the memo, allow Rutschman to demonstrate. He crushed a sizzling fly ball to deep center field. Astros center fielder Brice Matthews made a leaping attempt at the wall and nearly pulled off an incredible, home run-saving catch. Nearly. The ball was in his glove, but it popped out into the O’s bullpen when Matthews slammed into the wall. The Orioles’ relievers, with an up-close look at the play, erupted into cheers and celebrations while Matthews looked forlornly at his empty glove. GRAND SLAM, Adley Rutschman! The O’s catcher has 11 hits, four homers, and 14 RBIs in his six games since returning from the IL. See my earlier comment re: Adley and his backness.

During the home run call, MASN announcer Kevin Brown gleefully exclaimed that analyst Jim Palmer was now obligated to eat a chicken wing, something that the Hall of Fame O’s legend somehow had never done in his 80 years on this earth. Apparently Palmer made an on-air promise during a 2025 game that he’d eat a chicken wing if the O’s hit a grand slam during a game he was calling. Here it was, and so he delivered: Palmer dug into some chicken wings in the bottom of the eighth, proclaiming, “These are actually pretty tasty.”

Good times at Camden Yards, everyone. And they only got better.

Two innings later, the Astros turned to long reliever Jason Alexander, and today definitely was not the Summer of George. The O’s battered the poor guy for five runs with an incredible rally after there were two outs and nobody on base. It started harmlessly enough with a Ward walk, and then Rutschman did his thing again with a single and Alonso walked. Alexander couldn’t find the strike zone, walking Dylan Beavers on four pitches to force home a run.

Alexander was gifted an automatic strike when Jeremiah Jackson didn’t get to the batter’s box in time. No matter. Jackson swung at the next pitch and blasted it 380 feet into the left-field seats, to a very similar spot as his comeback-inspiring grand slam against the Diamondbacks a couple of weeks ago. It’s another salami for Jeremiah! He increased his team-leading RBI total to 24. Where would the Orioles be without Jackson this year? My goodness.

The offensive explosion made things easy for Bassitt, not that he needed any help. The right-hander ultimately 6.2 strong innings, giving up just one run on seven hits. His seven strikeouts were a season high by far; his previous best was three. Wonderfully done, Chris. That’s exactly what the O’s needed to save their bullpen in the first game of a doubleheader.

Rico Garcia stranded two of Bassitt’s baserunners in the seventh. Anthony Nunez gave up two runs in the eighth, but both were unearned thanks to two O’s errors (good thing the Orioles were already way ahead). Newly recalled Jose Espada, a second cousin of Astros manager Joe Espada, worked through a ninth-inning jam with help from Jackson, who made a nice defensive play at second to start a double play.

And there you have it. A fun, easy, 10-3 Orioles win. What a beautiful day of baseball. Any chance we can keep it up in game 2, guys?

After an exciting walkoff win that extended their season-opening streak of not losing series on Wednesday night, the Braves got to work in a short turnaround matchup against the Tigers with a chance for a sweep. For a while, a sweep seemed likely, but the Braves were undone by poor pitching and defense in the game’s final frames. Meanwhile, they had their hands relatively full with Framber Valdez, scoring just two runs en route to a 5-2 loss.

Bryce Elder got the start, and, well, it looks like at least in the early going, the universe is paying him back a bit for his lines in past years. Elder’s overall line wasn’t all that great, with a 5/3 K/BB ratio and a paltry 22 percent grounder rate that is the lowest he’s ever recorded in a start, but he nonetheless deked and ducked his way through six innings, only getting a run on his ledger the third time through.

Elder got into a spot of trouble in the first with a random two-out, four-pitch walk after a single. He followed with a get-me-over sinker that Spencer Torkelson took a very awkward swing on and lifted harmlessly to right field. After a quick second, another walk and a single put two on against Elder with one out, but a groundout and a wave from Riley Greene on a hanging, crushable slider stifled that threat. Elder worked around a Torkelson leadoff single in the fourth, and had a 1-2-3 fifth thanks to Ronald Acuña Jr. throwing out Gleyber Torres trying to stretch a down-the-line single into a double.

While all this was happening, the Braves opened up a 2-0 lead on Valdez. They stranded a couple in the first as Valdez bamboozled Austin Riley, but plated the game’s first run when Eli White singled Kyle Farmer (making his first start of the year) home on a hard liner to center. The Braves had a chance for more, especially when a Valdez pitch clipped Acuña’s foot, but it was confusingly ruled as not doing so on replay because there apparently “wasn’t enough evidence” to overturn the call at the plate, and consecutive strikeouts ended the rally. Not to worry, though, as Mauricio Dubon’s single to center in the third plated Ozzie Albies, who had a leadoff double earlier in the inning.

The Tigers got to Elder in the sixth — Riley Greene drew another walk, Torkelson hit another single, and after Elder battled back to strike out Kerry Carpenter on a high four-seamer (for the second time in the game), Matt Vierling blooped a ball in front of Acuña to plate Greene. A soft tapper in front of the plate ended the rally and Elder’s outing. Again, hooray for the 2.95 FIP (and one run charged in six innings), but a 5.10 xFIP is Elder’s second-worst mark of the season, and now gives him three straight starts with a below-average xFIP.

Valdez rolled through the middle innings, as the Braves made ten straight outs after Dubon’s RBI single. He finished with a sparkling 0.95 FIP and 2.15 xFIP in six innings of 8/0 K/BB ratio ball, by far his best start of the year so far.

Tyler Kinley had an adventurous seventh. The Tigers loaded the bases with one out on a walk, a “normal” single, and then a slow bouncer. But, Kinley struck out Greene on three pitches, showing him two sliders in the zone that were fouled off, and then burying a slow curve in the dirt for a whiff. Torkelson then followed with a hard liner to left, but Dubon was able to run it down, and the Braves still led.

The Braves got a couple on against reliever Drew Anderson in the seventh (Acuña two-out double, intentional walk), but Albies grounded out. And then, things fell apart.

The Braves’ bullpen has been a bit short-handed, somewhat in preventable ways, and somewhat just due to the injury to Raisel Iglesias and the fact that Dylan Lee missed a game on paternity leave before returning and throwing a lot of pitches. While I don’t really blame Walt Weiss and company for messing around at all given where the season is, going with your “guys you don’t really wanna use” relievers with a one-run lead will blow up in your face, and yeah, it did here.

Joel Payamps got the call for the eighth, and woofing commenced. Carpenter crushed his fastball to center, where Eli White didn’t track it down — it bounced off the boards for a triple. Vierling followed with a weak bouncer that nonetheless got by given where Riley was positioned at third for a game-tying double. After a walk and a strikeout, Payamps was out and Aaron Bummer was in — but Bummer missed with four straight to Kevin McGonigle, who drew his third walk of the day. Gleyber Torres followed with a weak fly that pushed the go-ahead run across; Bummer ended the top of the eighth with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones.

Oh, but we weren’t done with foibling (that’s not a word) yet. After Anderson threw a perfect second frame of work, it was Jose Suarez time with a one-run deficit, and… yeah. Suarez looked dominant striking out both Greene and Torkelson, but there’s his enigma in two-minute showcase: he goes from tantalizing to unpitchable from batter to batter, if not from pitch to pitch. Despite being so close to giving the Braves a chance to mount another ninth-inning rally, Suarez walked Wenceel Perez (after being ahead of him 1-2). Vierling followed with a hard grounder that A) Riley couldn’t snag, sending it shooting up in the air, B) Mike Yastrzemski goofed picking up in left, and C) resulted in a slow replay back home, such that D) Perez scored. After another walk (I want to spray Jose Suarez with a spray bottle so badly), Dillon Dingler uncorked a double down the left-field line, which made it 5-2 but also sent the game to the bottom of the ninth as an attempt at a sixth Detroit run was thrown out at home.

The bottom of the ninth, now with a three-run deficit in play, was not very exciting. Facing Kyle Finnegan, all the Braves managed was a one-out single by Yastrzemski. Acuña went down looking to end the game.

This was not really a showcase game for the Braves, as they managed just two extra-base hits, and were diced up to the tune of an 11/1 K/BB ratio by Valdez and the subsequent Detroit relief duo. Meanwhile, Braves arms managed just a 10/8 K/BB ratio.

But hey, they’re still doing great this season, they won the series yesterday, and now they’re off to see what adventures await them on a long and hopefully fruitful road trip. Stay tuned.