Apr 28, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (30) watches game action from the dugout against the St. Louis Cardinals during the ninth inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
The Pittsburgh Pirates have on paper one of the best rotations in baseball, but they cannot expect to maximize that talent if they continue to limit their ace, Paul Skenes.
In 2026, Skenes has seven starts under his belt with a 4-2 record and a 3.18 ERA. When he’s on the mound, he’s mostly been very effective, with his starts against the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals being outliers. Outside of those two ugly starts though ,Skenes has only allowed one earned run or less in his other appearances. The problem now though is when Skenes, pitches he’s averaging less than five innings pitched, 4.76 innings on average to be exact.
If this is the plan the Pirates have to keep Skenes fresh for the postseason, they will fail. The game plan of playing not to lose instead of playing to win has a weak foundation, and the Pirates won’t even sniff the playoffs if they continue to utilize Skenes this way. The middle innings have been rough for Pittsburgh’s bullpen, and the longer those arms are out there the more likely it is that opposing teams are going to win.
Paul Skenes took a perfect game into the 7th inning in one of his best career starts 👏 pic.twitter.com/FRQcvx949K
Perhaps the biggest flaw in Skenes’ game is why the Pirates have been cautious with his starts; his biggest flaw being that he throws a lot of pitches. Skenes relies a lot on swing and miss pitches, and balls that just barely miss the strike zone. Because of his approach, he racks up pitches, sometimes quickly. In his most recent start against the Cardinals, the 23-year-old righty threw 102 pitches in just five innings. His start before that against Milwaukee, he threw 93 pitches, and twice this season topped 85 pitches thrown as well. If it’s a matter of workload ,the Pirates are still letting him throw a high number of pitches in a smaller amount of innings, as he’s currently averaging roughly 78.3 pitches thrown per contest.
Perhaps the reason that the Pirates have limited the action that Skenes sees is the dark underlying one that all Buccos fans fear. It’s possible that the Pirates don’t see Skenes as a long term option for the club, but instead as a massive trade package for future assets. Let’s not sugarcoat it, Skenes is the best pitcher in baseball. The best pitcher in baseball figures to fetch quite the contract extension when his time comes. However, the 19-year-old unproven prospect who hadn’t yet played an inning of Major League ball got the largest contract extension in franchise history. Meanwhile Skenes is already a two-time All-Star and Cy Young Award winner, and is still playing on the deal he signed when he was drafted.
Ever since he was drafted but especially last season, there have been numerous rumors about the Pirates receiving trade offers for Skenes. Now even if the Pirates have no intention of trading the superstar pitcher now, they might not have him in the budget long term. Skenes could easily garner a $5o million yearly salary, which would break the bank for the thrifty Pirates. Zach Wheeler and Jacob DeGrom are currently averaging about $40 million a year, and Skenes could easily get that or more. Perhaps the Pirates are just trying to keep Skenes as healthy as possible to keep the trade market as bountiful as possible, or it’s entirely possible that Skenes doesn’t want to be a Pirate long term, although nothing to this point has indicated that.
Regardless of what the Pirates or Skenes’ plans are longterm, both parties need to be focused on the task at hand. Pittsburgh is at the bottom of the NL Central, and it’s not going to get any easier down the stretch. The goal should be to win, and Skenes is the guy that can help bring this team out of the basement and into the limelight.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 04: New York Yankee broadcasters Michael Kay and Suzyn Waldman stand for a moment of silence for long time colleague John Sterling after placing flowers at home plate before a game against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on May 04, 2026 in New York City, New York. Sterling passed away at the age of 87 years earlier in the day. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Ringer | Ben Glicksman: Early yesterday morning, WFAN broke the news that legendary Yankees broadcaster John Sterling had passed away at the age of 87. Immediately, broadcasters and journalists throughout the league penned tributes to the beloved man. Saying, “Of all the people I didn’t really know in my life, I knew him the best,” Ben Glicksman of The Ringer reflected on the idiosyncrasies that made Sterling an icon in the broadcasting world, as Sterling remained unapologetically himself throughout his career.
FanGraphs | Michael Baumann: The biggest baseball news of the Yankees’ week is, of course, Anthony Volpe’s demotion to Triple-A Scranton. Yesterday, Michael Baumann reflected on the move, noting that while the beleaguered shortstop has not met the sky-high expectations imposed on him when he made his debut on Opening Day three years ago, Volpe has nonetheless been a solid player in his early career (with the exception of the period after his injury last season). Ultimately, Baumann expects him to eventually return to The Show and reclaim the starting shortstop job — after José Caballero comes back to Earth, of course.
New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: While Jasson Domínguez’s big two-run homer that broke open the game on Sunday and sparked the seven-run eighth inning drew most of the attention, it was his two other hits that game — a sixth-inning double off lefty Grant Wolfram and an eighth-inning double (as the 11th batter in the inning) off Dietrich Enns, another southpaw — that should get the Yankees most excited. After making some adjustments from the right side of the plate, El Marciano has looked much better this season, posting a 1.172 OPS in Scranton against lefty pitching and recording three hits (including the two aforementioned doubles) in his first five plate appearances against them since being recalled when Giancarlo Stanton hit the IL.
MLB Trade Rumors | Anthony Franco: Randal Grichuk, designated for assignment last week, signed a Major League deal with the Chicago White Sox yesterday. With former Yankee prospect Everson Pereira, who has been the right fielder on the South Side, on the shelf, the White Sox now turn to Grichuk to fill the bench spot vacated by Austin Hays, who is now likely in a platoon with Jarred Kelenic in right.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MAY 04: Trevor McDonald #72 of the San Francisco Giants pitches against the San Diego Padres in the top of the first inning at Oracle Park on May 04, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The San Francisco Giants, feckless and fully on life support after one of the worst road trips in franchise history, were in desperation mode after Sunday’s defeat. As we’ve been told since birth, desperate times call for desperate measures, and in baseball parlance, desperate measures means desperate transactions.
And so it wasn’t surprising that the team that flew out of Tampa Bay on Sunday was not the same as the one that arrive to Oracle Park on Monday to face the San Diego Padres to kick off a six-game homestand.
The reports trickled in on Sunday night while the plane was likely still on the tarmac in Florida. They were confirmed by the beat reporters later in the evening. They were announced by the team on Monday afternoon.
Exactly a month ahead of the schedule set by last year’s “it’s time to go” quote, Buster Posey was pulling the trigger on the biggest in-house moves he could make.
Bryce Eldridge, the team’s top hitting prospect since Posey himself, was coming up. Jesús Rodríguez, one of the top contact hitters in all of the Minors, was accompanying him.
The third move was almost an afterthought, both in the announcement and in the literal sense. After opting to use two starters during Thursday’s excruciating doubleheader, the Giants needed to add a starter for Monday. With a shrug, a sigh, and perhaps even a blindfold, they waved their collective finger around and landed on Trevor McDonald.
If you could inject truth serum into a press release, here’s what the one from the Giants would have said: Giants call up top prospect Bryce Eldridge, oh my god that’s exciting and they also call up Jesús Rodríguez, and my goodness that’s going to be so much fun, all of this is for Monday’s game and oh yeah, if you’re curious, not that you care, Trevor McDonald is also up to start that game, don’t get used to him, he’ll be gone tomorrow.
That was the sentiment, and I don’t say that negatively. It’s just the reality of the situation, and it was entirely justified.
But that chasm in excitability was forgetting two of the foundational tenets of baseball.
The first tenet: inexperienced hitters tend to take quite a lot of time getting their feet wet and their gears spinning and their numbers numbering. They’re usually pretty bad for a while, making it a little bit of a paradox that Posey was calling on two such players to fix a broken offense.
And so it was that neither of the young electric hitters did much in the batter’s box.
Eldridge, making his season debut, hit a weak pop up that carried into left field in his first at-bat, and struck out in his final one, and while he sandwiched those two negative outcomes around a walk, it’s hard to give him much credit there when it was a four-pitch bases on balls in which Randy Vásquez couldn’t find the strike zone if you built a new mega strike zone out of four normal-sized strike zones.
Rodríguez, making his Major League debut, used his three at-bats to make four outs, hitting a line out and two ground outs, the first of which erased Eldridge’s walk with a double play.
The second tenet: no player in the history of baseball has as large of a gap between their ability to be bad in AAA and their ability to be good in the Majors as McDonald.
And so it was that McDonald, who entered the game with a 5.40 ERA in five AAA games this year, and with 15 walks in 15 innings, made the Padres look feeble and foolish from start to finish, pitching seven of the most efficient innings the Giants have seen all year, allowing just two hits and one run, walking nobody, and striking out eight.
It truly defies explanation. McDonald now has pitched 205 innings in AAA and has a 5.18 ERA, with 192 strikeouts and 91 walks. He’s pitched 25 MLB innings and has a 1.44 ERA, with 23 strikeouts and just three walks. I don’t know what kind of bizarre magic that is, but if the Giants are going to take at-bats away from Matt Chapman to facilitate time for Eldridge, one would have to imagine they’ll be compelled to siphon some of Adrian Houser’s innings in the direction of McDonald.
McDonald stated his case immediately, striking out Ramón Laureano on three pitches to open the game. It was a statement for McDonald, for McDonald’s sinker (which he threw all three times), and for Rodríguez, who suited up behind the dish and saw his first taste of MLB action calling and receiving a strikeout.
For as impressive as the punchout was, it arguably wasn’t the best thing that McDonald did in the inning. After retiring Fernando Tatis Jr., he faced his first bit of adversity: following five straight sinkers to open the game, McDonald finally deviated on the first pitch he threw to Jackson Merrill. Instead of his best pitch, McDonald went to a changeup, which not only hung, but floated into the worst spot of the plate. Merrill responded the way All-Stars do, by taking on center field with absolute ease, clearing the fence with room to spare, and earning a slow jog around the bases while admiring a 436-foot blast.
A lot of things have plagued the Giants over the last five seasons of relentless mediocrity. A whole lot of things. That’s a can of worms for another day. I recommend following our own Bryan Murphy’s writing if you really want to get into it.
But the defining characteristic of the Giants during this half-decade of futility has been an inability to right the ship once the bad times commence. Miniature obstacles turn to small slumps turn to large swaths of failure. The inability to get the team to stand up after falling over ultimately cost Bob Melvin his job, and plenty of players have exited the stage for the same reason.
So it was a breath of fresh air — and an injection of something sorely needed (no, not steroids) — that McDonald galumphed about on the mound as he watched Merrill run his 360 feet, then rubbed up a new baseball, dug in, and attacked Manny Machado, earning a two-pitch out. And then he needed just 10 pitches to cruise through the second inning, while striking out a pair of batters. To that point, McDonald had thrown 18 pitches, and 17 of them had been strikes.
If there’s a way to Posey’s heart, it just might be that (if there’s a way to mine, however, it is food; I am not beating that stereotype).
From that point on, McDonald would only allow two more baserunners: one in the third, when he hit Jake Cronenworth, and one in the fourth, when he gave up a single to Merrill. And this time he was once again prepared to bounce back from the baserunner: after Merrill reached second on a fielder’s choice, McDonald provided one of the highlights of the game, and one that showed his deft theatrics, as well. Right as Kruk and Kuip were alerting fans to the fact that McDonald can field his position well, he stabbed a comebacker from Xander Bogaerts, whipped to third, and fired a strike to Casey Schmitt to get the lead runner out. It was a gutsy play, and one that required a tremendous amount of skill.
Thankfully, neither guts nor skill seem to be in short supply for McDonald.
The offense, meanwhile, may not have been jumpstarted by the arrivals of Eldridge and Rodríguez, but it wasted no time giving McDonald a lead to play with. It took only until the second batter in the first inning for the Giants to have one of their best at-bats of the season, and it’s not hard to guess who provided it: Schmitt.
Starting at third base while Chapman rested (it appears Schmitt will be roving around the field now that Eldridge has arrived), the breakout star of the team continued his torrid start on Monday. After falling behind in the count 0-2, Schmitt took three consecutive brilliant pitches, all off the plate by merely an inch or two.
The fish weren’t biting, and with the count now full, Vásquez was forced to find the strike zone. He opted for the pitch he (and most people) can most reliably accomplish that with, and Schmitt was waiting for it all the way. The four-seam fastball entered batter’s box at 95.6 mph and exited it at 102.5 mph, finding a home comfortably up the left field bleachers as Schmitt rounded the bases.
That was the equalizer, but the Giants were hungry for more. Luis Arráez followed Schmitt by smacking a double in an 0-2 count, and then the Padres reminded you that they, too, are capable of a little bit of ineptitude. With one out, Heliot Ramos grounded a ball to the shortstop Bogaerts, while Arráez broke for third. Bogaerts attempted to take out the lead runner but was unable to do so, and suddenly Giants had runners at the corners thanks to the no-out fielder’s choice. Two pitches later, they would cash in one of those runs on a Rafael Devers RBI single.
They added a critical insurance run in the sixth inning in remarkably similar fashion: Arráez doubled for the second time and Ramos (who would later triple as he continues to come to life) once again grounded the ball to Bogaerts, who this time did the smart thing and got the easy out, allowing Arráez to take third, where he would score on a Devers sacrifice fly.
That run proved necessary, as the the bullpen took a bend-don’t-break approach. Tony Vitello opted to not risk ruining a good thing, and didn’t let McDonald go out for the eighth inning, despite the righty having thrown a mere 81 pitches (60 of which were strikes). Instead, it was Keaton Winn, who appears to be settling into the setup man role, especially with Erik Miller currently injured. Winn played that role excellently, needing just eight pitches to retire the side in order.
The ninth was a little less smooth, but reminiscent of the first inning. Vitello continues to search for the right bullpen buttons to press, and on Monday opted for a very sensible one, as he gave Caleb Kilian a chance to close. And the very first batter he faced, Laureano, hit a 447-foot moonshot — as no-doubter as a no-doubter can be at Oracle Park.
Suddenly it was just a one-run game, and the heart of the order was showing up.
But if McDonald provided the first example of a Giants player proving that you can stop negative momentum in its tracks, Kilian brought the closing blow. He responded by completely breaking down Tatis, getting him to strike out with all three strikes coming via ugly swings-and-misses.
Then he got Merrill to weakly ground a ball to second base … so weakly, in fact, that it almost wasn’t an out, save for the brilliance of Arráez, who had a truly sensational game with the glove, making highlight play after highlight play.
Eldridge and Rodríguez will have their time in the sun. Hell, it might be as early as tomorrow. But it’s a team sport, and sometimes it’s the less heralded call ups that stop the bleeding, and lead you to a 3-2 victory.
May 4, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford (3) celebrates in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run during the sixth inning against the Atlanta Braves at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images | Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images
Every Star Wars Day (May the Fourth, in case this particular branding hasn’t been pounded into your skull) produces the same opportunity to lay the story of the baseball game over the Star Wars leitmotif. Last year we had an uninspiring 8-1 loss to the Rangers where Zach purposefully trolled by mixing up Stars War and Trek, but ultimately got trolled by the game being so bad no one got particularly mad about it. Maybe the only person he really made mad was staffer Jake Parr, who wrote his own Star Wars-themed recap a week later, repeating a theme of his from 2024 (and 2023!), when he was mad I had the recap on Star Wars Day and neglected to do anything with it, because by this point I have been through so. many. baseball Star Wars Days, while still having only ever seen the original trilogy, and at that only in 20-minute asynchronous increments on my break at the Cineplex Odeon Southcenter Theatre (-tre because we were Fancy).
But sometimes the narrative pull is so strong, and tonight that narrative pull involves a guy named Luke using the force to win (or help win) a baseball game, you just have to throw up your hands, pour a nice [frantic googling sounds] Tarisian Ale, put on some [more frantic googling] Max Rebo Band, and give yourself over to the story being told.
The story tonight was of two halves. The first half: bad. I will not be making an analogy to a Star Wars Thing here because I don’t want to make anyone mad, but it’s Jar Jar, right? Jar Jar is universally regarded as Bad? Anyway, things got off to a rough start right away, with Logan Gilbert surrendering a homer on the third pitch of the ballgame, a slider that reigning NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin was able to elevate over the right-center wall for a no-doubter. Gilbert said postgame he wasn’t unhappy with his slider, saying he thought they hit some good ones – and he did get two of his four strikeouts on the slider – but that’s also the number of home runs he have up on the slider, and I am not sure that is a tenable ratio going forward.
The other concerning aspect of Gilbert’s outing was how much hard contact he gave up. The Braves finished this game with an xBA of .314, and that was down from the .385 it was earlier in the game while Gilbert was pitching. This is just way too much good stuff, too much in the middle of the plate, especially on the fastball:
So, things could have been worse, for Gilbert, but conversely, they also could have been better for the Mariners. Facing Bainbridge Island-raised JR Ritchie, the Mariners were able to get traffic on against the rookie, pitching in the ballpark he grew up attending as a fan. Ritchie’s command was far from pinpoint, and he only struck out two over five innings, but the Mariners continually shot themselves in the foot with runners on, generally looking like the disconnected, discombobulated mess we’ve come to expect from them offensively over the last week-plus. They hurt themselves at seemingly every opportunity: Braves catcher Sean Murphy, making his first start back after off-season hip surgery, blew both Atlanta’s challenges in the first inning, leading to a leadoff walk for J.P. Crawford, but Josh Naylor lined into an inning-ending double play to kill that momentum. A leadoff infield single by Randy Arozarena in the second, followed by a walk by Luke Raley, similarly went nowhere. A Naylor leadoff single in the fourth was erased by Randy Arozarena immediately grounding into a double play; and then when Dominic Canzone tried to keep the line moving with a single, Raley flew out harmlessly to end the inning.
The real crushing moment was when the Mariners loaded the bases without a hit with two outs in the fifth – Leo Rivas was hit by a pitch (a fireable offense, says one Brad Adam) and Crawford and Julio Rodríguez each worked walks behind him, but Naylor grounded out easily on the third pitch he saw to end the threat.
That last inning might have been the back-breaker for Logan Gilbert, who did everything he could to hold the Braves’ powerful offense down but lost the battle in the sixth, as all the hard contact he’d given up during the game came home to roost at once. It started with back-to-back solo home runs, first to Ozzie Albies, who smacked a fastball on the plate over the wall; and then another one, to Matt Olson, on one of the aforementioned sliders. Two batters later, Austin Riley, who had been pushed down in the lineup because he is off to such a slow start this season, demolished another fastball on the plate for a 4-0 lead that felt like game over facing the Death Star of Atlanta’s scorching-hot lineup.
But this is Star Wars Day, and the Mariners have a guy named Luke. Ritchie led off the sixth by walking Arozarena on four not particularly close pitches followed by a walk to Dominic Canzone on five pitches, four of which were nowhere close. Atlanta manager Walt Weiss opted to leave Ritchie in to face Luke Raley, who was on an 1-for-24 skid with 11 strikeouts over his past 11 games (and that one was…a questionable ruling). I feel like we’ve all earned this: Luke Used The Force.
After that bit of managerial misconduct, Weiss went out and collected his starter, bringing in Tyler Kinley. Kinley was able to strike out Cole Young, who had a rough game offensively, but walked Mitch Garver on four non-close pitches, something one Brad Adam calls a fireable offense. With two outs, J.P. Crawford came up, battled the count full, and punished a slider of his own:
Because who else could it be but J.P. Crawford? Author of so many walkoff wins for the Mariners, king of the two-strike hitting, subject of much criticism over this past week for his defense, flipping his bat like a light saber into the dark Seattle night.
The bullpen held it down over the stretch, with José Ferrer pitching in 1.1 innings of work, Eduard Bazardo – maybe the most Star Wars-coded names of the current Mariners – doing his Bazardo thing and hanging another Bazero, and Andrés Muñoz protecting that one-run lead like the Mandalorian protects Grogu (because if there’s a Mariner with Pedro Pascal vibes, it’s definitely Muñoz). The Braves’ last (not new) hope was the dangerous Baldwin, up with a runner on after pinch-hitter Dominic Smith came up with a sharp single on a 98 mph fastball. Baldwin took a called strike on a slider and then chased one, putting himself in an 0-2 hole, but declined to chase a third straight slider. Muñoz went to the slider one more time and Baldwin helpfully hit it to the Mariners’ most surehanded infielder, Cole Young, for an easy 4-3 putout and a losing streak-snapping win. Just like the script said.
In this week’s Injury Report, Jackson Chourio returns to make his season debut for the Brewers. The Tigers’ rotation takes a hit with defending Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal set for a lengthy absence. The early-round hits keep coming as Ronald Acuña Jr. lands on the injured list with a hamstring strain. Let's break it all down as we run through the relevant injury news around baseball.
⚾️ Baseball is back! MLB returns to NBC and Peacock in 2026! In addition to becoming the exclusive home of Sunday Night Baseball, NBC Sports will broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, “Opening Day” and Labor Day primetime games, the first round of the MLB Draft, the entire Wild Card round of the postseason, and much more.
Tarik Skubal (elbow)
Skubal came out of his last start reportedly feeling fine despite a check-in with a trainer in the seventh inning. Turns out, the two-time AL Cy Young winner was not fine. He was scratched from his start on Monday as a precaution, and it took all of about ten minutes to report that he needed surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow. Hunter Greene and Spencer Schwellenbach underwent the same procedure before the season, with a projected return timeline sometime after the All-Star break. And Edwin Díaz is looking at a three-month recovery, as well. It seems like in a best-case scenario, we get six weeks of Skubal to end the season, something he may be more motivated to do as a pending free agent. But in leagues without IL spots, he’s probably a drop.
Skubal wasn’t the only first-round pick to hit the injured list this week. Acuña pulled up, grabbing at his hamstring as he ran out of the box on a ground ball in the second inning on Saturday. He was placed on the 10-day injured list on Sunday. Imagining revealed a Grade 1 left hamstring strain, which was much better news than expected. The timeline of a Grade 1 strain varies, but I wouldn’t expect the 28-year-old star back after the minimum. But a return before June could be in play. For reference, Jeremy Peña has been sidelined since April 11 with a Grade 1 strain.
Ryan Helsley (elbow)
Another week, another closer goes down. Helsley was placed on the 15-day injured list on April 29 with right elbow inflammation. The 31-year-old right-hander was one of the top-performing closers over the first month, posting a 2.53 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, and 15 strikeouts over 10 2/3 innings while going 7-for-7 in save chances. An MRI revealed no structural damage, and he’ll be reevaluated later this week to determine a plan to resume throwing. Barring any setbacks, we could see him back before the end of the month. Of course, the occurrence of elbow inflammation will put him at an elevated risk of re-injury throughout the season. Rico Garcia could be in line to handle closing duties in Helsley’s absence.
Joe Ryan (elbow)
Ryan threw nine pitches on Sunday against the Blue Jays before leaving the game with a trainer in the first inning with right elbow soreness. There’s been no word on the severity of Ryan’s injury or what exactly he’s dealing with, but the team is expected to provide an update on Tuesday. It’s a good sign that Ryan traveled with the team ahead of their series opener against the Nationals.
Garrett Crochet (shoulder)
Crochet hit the 15-day injured list last week with left shoulder inflammation. It came as a surprise following one of his better starts in which he struck out seven batters over six shutout innings against the Orioles. While there’s no timetable for a return, an MRI revealed no structural damage, and he played catch on Sunday. Of course, the Red Sox will likely be extra cautious with their ace.
Jackson Chourio(hand)
Andrew Vaughn (hand)
Christian Yelich (groin)
The Brewers are getting some much-needed major reinforcements back, activating both Chourio and Vaughn on Monday. Chourio made his season debut after suffering a broken hand during the World Baseball Classic, making an impact right away, going 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles. In fact, all four of his hits were on batted balls of over 102 mph. Vaughn had been missing in action since late March with a hamate bone fracture. While the young star Chourio was universally stashed, Vaughn deserves some consideration in deeper leagues after hitting .309 with nine homers over 64 games with the Brewers last season. Meanwhile, Yelich is inching closer to a return as he recovers from a groin injury that has sidelined him since April 14. He took batting practice on Monday and is still aiming to return in mid to late May. The Brewers have a team WRC+ of 88 since Yelich hit the injured list.
Diaz was scratched from Monday’s lineup with what was described as an abdominal injury. After the game, manager Joe Espada indicated he’ll be placed on the 10-day injured list with an oblique issue. The team recalled César Salazar in anticipation of the move. Christian Vasquez will step in as the primary catcher in Diaz’s absence. The 27-year-old backstop hasn’t exactly been lighting it up, hitting .248/.264/.356 with two homers and 14 RBI across 106 plate appearances.
Josh Hader (shoulder)
After a couple of live batting practice sessions, Hader is ready to start a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sugar Land on Tuesday. The 32-year-old left-hander is on the 60-day injured list and eligible to be activated on May 24. So he’ll have plenty of time to build up and be ready for activation, barring any setbacks.
Brandon Woodruff (shoulder)
Woodruff left his start against the Diamondbacks last Thursday in the second inning. You knew something was wrong when he topped out at just 86.9 mph. It was no surprise when he landed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. Woodruff seemed to downplay the issue, calling it a dead arm situation. He’ll begin his throwing program this week, signaling it could be a short stay on the IL. Woodruff’s injury opened the door for Logan Henderson, who struck out eight over six innings in his first start on Sunday. The talented 24-year-old right-hander deserves to be added in all formats.
Roman Anthony (wrist)
Anthony’s status will be one to watch this week. He was removed from Monday’s game against the Tigers in the first inning following an awkward swing with right wrist discomfort. X-rays came back negative for any fractures, but Anthony will travel back to Boston for further evaluation, meaning he’ll likely miss at least a couple of games.
Cal Raleigh (side)
Raleigh will be another one to look out for on Tuesday. He missed his third consecutive game on Monday since experiencing right side tightness during Friday's contest against the Royals. The 29-year-old slugger indicated that he's feeling better, but the Mariners should have an update following an MRI. A trip to the injured list seems to remain in play.
ST. LOUIS — Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio produced a spectacular season debut in a losing cause Monday after missing the first month of the season.
Chourio went 4 of 4 and hit a pair of doubles in the Brewers’ 6-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. Chourio and teammate Andrew Vaughn came off the injured list earlier in the day after both players were dealing with fractured bones in their left hand.
Vaughn went 0 for 4 in his first game since getting hurt in the Brewers' season opener.
“Physically, I feel really, really good right now,” Chourio told reporters through interpreter Daniel de Mondesert before Monday's game. “Thanks to God, I'm going to be able to go out there and give my everything.”
Milwaukee also optioned outfielder Blake Perkins to Triple-A Nashville and designated outfielder Greg Jones for assignment.
The Brewers had been lacking power while Chourio, Vaughn and 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich were all on the injured list. Yelich last played on April 12 as he deals with an adductor strain.
Brice Turang's two-run shot in the ninth inning Monday was just Milwaukee's 23rd homer of the season. Only the San Francisco Giants have homered fewer times. Milwaukee’s .354 slugging percentage entering Monday's game ranked the Brewers ahead of only the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets.
Chourio collected at least 20 homers and 20 steals in each of his first two seasons in the major leagues. Vaughn had nine homers and an .869 OPS in 64 games for Milwaukee last year after they acquired him from the Chicago White Sox.
The 22-year-old Chourio was hit by a pitch from Washington’s Clayton Beeter while playing for Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic team in a March 4 exhibition with the Nationals at West Palm Beach, Florida. After Chourio felt bothered while attempting a check swing in late March, an MRI revealed a small hairline fracture at the base of the third metacarpal — something that hadn’t been visible during the initial testing that followed the March 4 game.
Chourio had left a game Saturday after fouling a ball off his left ankle during a rehabilitation appearance with Nashville, but the incident didn’t delay his return to the big leagues.
“It hurt, for sure,” Chourio told reporters. “It hurt right away. But I knew after that it wasn’t going to be anything that put me out for any long period of time or anything like that.”
Vaughn, 28, was injured during an at-bat in the Brewers’ 14-2 season-opening win over the Chicago White Sox. He was diagnosed with a fractured hamate bone.
The return of Chourio and Vaughn led to the exits of Perkins and Jones.
Perkins, 29, batted .109 with a .212 on-base percentage, no homers, five RBIs and one steal in 19 games. Jones, 28, hit .095 with one RBI, one steal, no walks and nine strikeouts in 22 plate appearances.
The Brewers also returned pitcher Quinn Priester from his rehabilitation appearance, though the right-hander remains on the injured list as he recovers from thoracic outlet syndrome. Priester allowed nine runs and walked eight batters over five innings in three appearances with Nashville.
Priester went 13-3 with a 3.32 ERA for Milwaukee last season.
Trevor McDonald prepares to throw a pitch during the Giants' May 4 game.
SAN FRANCISCO — Trevor McDonald wasn’t the headliner of the Giants’ roster shakeup Monday, but credit the third newcomer of the day with making the moves look good.
Neither top prospect Bryce Eldridge nor hot-hitting rookie Jesus Rodriguez gave the Giants’ offense the jumpstart it needed. But McDonald was brilliant beyond expectations.
The 24-year-old right-hander, called up to make a spot start, held the Padres to one run on two hits over seven innings in a 3-2 win to open a six-game home stand. The club was in desperate need of a course correction after going winless on its six-game road trip.
Trevor McDonald prepares to throw a pitch during the Giants’ May 4 game. Getty Images
Eldridge, the Giants’ No. 1 prospect, went hitless in two at-bats with a walk in his return to the majors after a brief 10-game stint last September. Rodriguez, who sported a .330 average at Triple-A, put his funky stance on display in the bigs for the first time but came up empty in three at-bats.
Instead, it was an increasingly common character who got the Giants on the board: Casey Schmitt, who launched a solo home run off Padres starter Randy Vasquez in the first inning.
Casey Schmitt hits a home run during the Giants’ May 4 game. Getty Images
The solo shot was the Giants’ first home run since they left home last Sunday, ending a six-game drought. It was their 20th as a team, still the fewest in the majors, and Schmitt’s fifth, leaving the Mets as the only team without a player to hit at least five.
Caleb Killian recorded the final three outs to earn his first career save, but not without drama. He served up a 447-foot homer to the first batter of the inning, Ramón Laureano, before getting Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado in order to preserve the one-run lead.
What it means
San Francisco snapped a six-game losing streak dating back to the start of its last road trip.
The Giants improved to 11-3 when hitting a home run; they’re 3-18 when held in the ballpark.
Who’s hot
Rafael Devers drove in the Giants’ other two runs, only the second time this season the slumping slugger has recorded more than one RBI in a game — his first since April 8. Luis Arraez doubled twice and was driven home by Devers both times, on a single in the first to put the Giants up 2-1 after Schmitt’s homer, and again with a sac fly in the sixth.
Devers has hit safely his past five games — matching his longest streak of the season — raising his OPS to .572 from a low-water mark of .530 last Sunday.
Rafael Devers hits an RBI single during the Giants’ May 4 game. Getty Images
McDonald didn’t allow a hit to anybody besides Merrill, who got him twice, including a solo shot to straightaway center that briefly put the Padres ahead 1-0 in the top of the first.
Schmitt is responsible for the last three home runs hit by the Giants, dating back to last Saturday, hitting safely in nine of his past 10 games. Over the stretch, dating back to the start of their series against the Marlins, Schmitt is 13-for-36 (.361), raising his average to .308 and OPS to .901.
Who’s not
It was largely the same story for the rest of the Giants’ lineup, which was held to three runs or fewer for the 23rd time in 35 games this season — three more than any other team.
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With the chance to add on with runners at the corners and two outs in the eighth, Willy Adames struck out swinging, the second time he offered at a pitch above the strike zone for strike three.
Up next
The Giants will look to make it two in a row Tuesday against RHP Walker Buehler, who they beat 3-2 in the second series of the season. San Francisco hasn’t named its starter.
Munetaka Murakami continues to dominate the league, now with 14 home runs. | Getty Images
The Force was strong with the White Sox tonight as they shut out the Angelswith a 6-0 win. Davis Martin reached a career-high double-digit strikeout milestone, and Munetaka Murakami finally doubled!
José Soriano started off the night with back-to-back walks, but redeemed himself with back-to-back strikeouts. But Soriano’s woes could not be escaped for long, with back-to-back RBI singles from Chase Meidroth and Andrew Benintendi, making it 2-0 before the Angels ace could get out of the top of the first.
Martin was outstanding once more, shutting down the Angels with efficiency. It was the third inning before Travis d’Arnaud got the first hit for the Angels, but Adam Frazier hit right into a double play to follow, keeping Martin facing the minimum batters.
In just the fourth inning but for the third time in the game, Sam Antonacci got on base. Insert Munetaka Murakami, who put the Good Guys up 4-0 with a two-run bomb:
Not to be outdone, Miguel Vargas followed with a solo homer, pushing the lead to 5-0.
Two innings later, Murakami finally doubled for the first time in his major league career, ending his MLB record streak of 14 straight extra-base hits as a homer at 14. In the bottom half, Martin reached a career high of nine strikeouts, still at just 68 pitches. And by the seventh, Martin notched his 10th strikeout of the game, and he would end his outing there, at seven innings, five hits, no walks and 10 Ks.
In the eighth, Colson Montgomery had an RBI single to extend his on-base streak to 17. Sean Newcomb, who entered in the eighth and was the only other pitcher used by the Sox in the game, retired the Angels in order, and then dominated the Angels in the ninth by striking out the side to preserve the shutout win.
May 4, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Mariners left fielder Luke Raley (20) celebrates in the dugout after hitting a three-run home run during the sixth inning against the Atlanta Braves at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images | Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images
May 4, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Atlanta Braves starter JR Ritchie (60) delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images | Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images
The Braves saw their winning streak come to an end on Monday night in Seattle, falling to the Mariners, 5-4, despite hitting four homers and leading 4-0 at one point.
Walt Weiss has been terrific this year, but his very questionable decision in the sixth inning turned the game upside down.
With the Braves up 4-0, JR Ritchie was very clearly out of gas — and had lacked command all night — and was inexplicably sent to the mound once again in the sixth. He issued back to back walks and was *still* not taken out of the game, giving up a three-run homer moments later on a hanging slider to Luke Raley to cut the lead to 4-3.
Tyler Kinley entered in relief and surrendered a two-out, two-strike, two-run shot to JP Crawford to give Seattle a very sudden 5-4 lead.
The Braves hit Mariners starter Logan Gilbert hard all night, launching four solo homers and spraying line drives all over the field. Drake Baldwin led off the game with a homer. Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson then went back-to-back in the sixth, followed by Austin Riley two batters later with a rocket of his own. The Braves could have very easily scored more than four against Gilbert, but some poor luck on batted balls prevented a bigger night offensively.
Pitching in front of hundreds of friends and family, it was not a great night for Ritchie, who issued six walks and scattered four hits across 5+ innings. He only struck out two. We’ll see if he makes another start against the mighty Dodgers this weekend or if Atlanta turns to a different option, like Martin Perez or Didier Fuentes.
The series continues Tuesday night with Bryce Elder set to face very good righty George Kirby. First pitch at 9:40 p.m. ET.
The Mets are at an interesting crossroads with David Peterson.
After turning in another solid outing from the bullpen on Monday against the Colorado Rockies where he allowed two earned runs in four innings while striking out six, Peterson now has a 2.45 ERA in three appearances this season as a reliever. In five games as a starter, his ERA is 8.10.
So what should New York do with the left-hander?
Obviously, Peterson is more valuable to the Mets as a starting pitcher and if given the choice he would choose to be a starter. However, the numbers don't lie and so far this season Peterson has been more effective as a reliever.
"That’s how I expect myself to pitch and that’s how I expect myself to attack hitters so that’s why it is disappointing when it has gone the other way a couple of times this year," Peterson said. "Great win today and one to build off of."
Actually, this isn't Peterson's first instance with pitching in relief. In his career he's made 18 relief appearances, albeit none since 2023 (although he did predominantly pitch out of the bullpen during New York's 2024 postseason run). Interestingly enough, Peterson's career regular season ERA as a reliever is 2.41 in 33.2 innings pitched. In the postseason? 3.14.
Pretty elite numbers.
As a starter, Peterson is 34-34 with a 4.33 ERA with his best year coming in 2024 when he had a 2.93 ERA in 21 starts after he began the season on the IL. Last year, after a terrific first half that made him an All-Star for the first time in his career, Peterson fell apart in the second half while reaching a career-high 168.2 innings pitched.
Despite the pretty noticeable difference in numbers between starting and relieving, as well as Peterson's inability to prove he can either stay healthy for an entire season or be effective the whole way through, the Mets and manager Carlos Mendoza still view the 30-year-old as a starter.
"It’s easy [to think Peterson pitches better in relief] because of three outings now where he’s been really, really good, but I keep saying it, he's a starter," Mendoza said. "He’s very good when he’s at his best and we saw it today. I think the key is attacking the strike zone. He pounded the strike zone today with everything."
The question becomes why hasn't Peterson pitched like he did on Monday or in his two other relief appearances this season when he starts a game?
When asked what the difference was between this relief outing and his last start where he allowed seven earned runs in 3.2 innings, Peterson pointed to examining his pitch-usage and finding that he wasn't using his slider enough, instead opting for other pitches like the curveball in similar spots.
"The slider is one of if not my best pitch and the curveball, overall, is towards the bottom of the list," he said. "So kinda switching that today and really being able to attack with the fastball and the slider off of it felt like gave us a really good chance."
If it's really that simple and Peterson can take what he did against the Rockies into his next start and beyond then the Mets will be ecstatic. If not, then the case for Peterson to remain in the bullpen grows.
Regardless of what New York decides to do with the left-hander, it's clear that Peterson plays an important role on the team.
"He’s too good of a pitcher and I know he’s gonna continue to help us," Mendoza said.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - OCTOBER 02: Manager Craig Counsell #11 of the Chicago Cubs looks on during the team celebration after defeating the San Diego Padres in game three of the National League Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field on October 02, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Welcome back to BCB After Dark: the coolest spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and sit with us for a while. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. We still have a few tables available. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
The Cubs beat the Reds tonight 5-4 in dramatic fashion. Trailing 4-3 going to the bottom of the ninth, Pete Crow-Armstrong led off with a triple and after a Dansby Swanson strikeout, Nico Hoerner got him home on a sacrifice fly. Then Michael Conforto pinch hit off the bench and knocked it into the left-center field stands for his first career walk-off home run.
Last week I asked you if you to grade the Cubs’ first month of the season. Sixty-two percent of you gave the Cubs a “B” and 34 percent gave them an “A.” Some of you made a point that I should have put in plusses and minuses and well, maybe I should have and maybe I should not have. But I lot of you apparently wanted to give the Cubs a “B+” since they were in second place at the time. But they haven’t lost since then. Maybe it the Cubs were in first place like they were now, the number of top grades would be higher.
Here’s the part where we listen to music and talk movies. You can skip ahead if you want.
I feel like I play too many of these Emmet Cohen videos, but in my defense, he’s one of the top jazz pianists at the moment, he releases new stuff on a regular schedule, he brings in a lot of other top jazz talent to play with him and most of them are pretty darn great.
So here is Cohen playing “On the Street Where you Live” by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe from My Fair Lady. Joining Cohen is vocalist Stella Cole, Philip Norris on bass and Hank Allen-Barfield on drums.
This is from 2025.
The only movie I’ve seen over the past week is Filipino director Lav Diaz’s historical epic Magellan (2025), starring Gael García Bernal as the titular explorer. I’m unfamiliar with the previous works of Diaz and I found this film a bit tough to get through, although I don’t regret having watched it because there is some good stuff in there.
Diaz is one of the forefront directors in the field of “slow cinema” and it might have helped me to have known that going in. From the reviews, I’ve discovered that at two hours and 45 minutes, Magellan is perhaps the most accessible of Diaz’s movies. Most of his earlier films go four or five hours. One of his movies is over ten hours long. So while I found Magellan to be slow, it’s apparently a sprint compared to his other films.
I also came into Magellan knowing just the bare-bones of the historical event for which the title character is known for. He led the first circumnavigation of the globe, although he didn’t make it all the way back to Spain because he was killed in the Philippines. I knew only one of the five ships and a handful of the men made it all the way back.
I mention this because Diaz doesn’t spend a lot of time explaining things in this film. Nor is there a lot of connective tissue from one scene to the next. Not that I recommend being on your phone while watching a movie, but I found Magellan much easier to follow along after I decided to open up the Wikipedia summary of the Magellan Expedition to follow along with. The good news here is that the film appears to be fairly historically accurate.
That’s not to say that choices weren’t made. Even at two hours and 45 minutes, there was a lot of stuff about Magellan that I was interested in and Diaz wasn’t. But he’s understandably concerned about two things—what motivates Magellan and his relationship to Diaz’s native Philippines. The six-month voyage across the Pacific is reduced to about five minutes. The mutinies all get scenes, but they just appear out of nowhere with no build up. Until we get to the Philippines, the scenes lack a narrative cohesion. I’m guessing that’s intentional.
You would think a Filipino director would be unsympathetic to Magellan, but Diaz tries to be fair to the man while still portraying him as kind of a monster. García Bernal’s Magellan is a deeply-religious man who sees the mission of colonization as one of bringing about the second coming of Christ. He seeks forgiveness from the Church for the terrible crimes that he commits. He gives a Filipino child dying of scurvy some quince jelly, which cures him. He longs for the touch of his wife back in Seville, who visits him often in a dream.
But Magellan also has the brutality of a fanatic, striking out at all of his enemies, real or perceived. He executes several of his own men during the voyage. He rampages through a village because of their refusal to give up the idols of their old gods after Magellan baptized them. His downfall comes over his decision to go to war against a tribe that refuses to convert. Diaz also reveals the real hero of his story at the end, Magellan’s translator/slave, Enrique of Malacca (Amado Arjay Babon).
García Bernal’s Ferdinand Magellan is probably the best reason to watch Magellan. He’s certainly a man of contradictions, full of both small acts of goodness and tremendous atrocities, and García Bernal makes us believe that they could all come from the same person. He also learned to speak Portuguese to accurately portray Magellan, who sailed for Spain only after being rejected by the King of his native Portugal. Don’t ask me about his accent, however.
While I’m sure the film was a big-budget film for a Philippine film, Diaz does have to do a lot with less. Things like the death of Magellan, which would have been the climax of any American film, ends up happening offscreen. That’s part of the reason I had trouble following it. A lot gets elided between scenes and you’re just expected to pick it up.
Unsurprisingly for a Filipino director, Diaz treats the island wilderness and its inhabitants tenderly. It’s certainly not a paradise and the islanders fight amongst each other, but they also are real people who have hopes, dreams and weaknesses. There are certainly a few stunning images at sea as well.
Overall, I found Magellan to be a mixed bag. Even though I now know it’s intentional, I found it slow. I needed a reading guide to follow along with it. But it also wa a film with a clear point of view and a couple of great performances by Gael García Bernal and Amado Arjay Babon. I’m not sure I’m going to go on and watch more Lav Diaz films after this one though. I don’t think I could get through a ten-hour movie.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
The Cubs have now won six in a row, 16 of their last 19 and 12 straight at home. The team is clicking on all cylinders at the moment.
The players are clearly the ones most responsible for the winning, but how much credit do you give to the coaching staff?
Three years ago, the Cubs fired manager David Ross, whom we got to see in the pregame rain delay theater if you weren’t at the game, in order to hire Counsell away from the Brewers. The hope was that Counsell, who had been a thorn in the Cubs side with the “Far-North Siders,” would be the difference in getting the Cubs over the hump.
The Brewers promoted Counsell’s bench coach and finished ahead of the Cubs in each of the past two seasons. To add insult to injury, Milwaukee knocked the Cubs out of the playoffs in five games during the Division Series last year.
But this year the Cubs are rolling to a 23-12 start, which is their best start since 2016. The players all praise Counsell for his leadership. Of course, a lot of players on last place teams praise their manager too.
So grade Counsell’s two-plus years as the Cubs manager. And in the comments, tell us how many wins do you think Counsell is worth. No one knows how much impact a manager can have on a team. Certainly a bad one can mess a team up, but can a good one actually help win a significant number of games? No one knows. So give us your guess. And if you want to give plus and minus grades in the comments, be my guest.
Just get home safely, OK. Thanks for stopping by. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next time for more BCB After Dark.
Emilio Pagan took the mound in the 9th inning for the Cincinnati Reds on Monday, and he did so in a save situation for the first time in some two weeks. The Reds had scratched and clawed their way back to a 4-3 lead after earlier watching a 3-0 lead evaporate, yet the powers that be in Wrigley Field simply weren’t having any of it on the night.
Pete Crow-Armstrong sent a laser to the wall in center field that Dane Myers badly misplayed in the ivy, and the end result was a leadoff ‘triple’ that later scored on a sacrifice fly. That had the bleachers in the venerable stadium rocking, rocking that only got mightier when Pagan later served up a meatball to Michael Conforto that the veteran lefty bat mashed into the stands in left-center for a homer that won the game for the Chicago Cubs and sent the fans who had waited out the rain delay into a frenzy.
It was an obviously frustrating end to an evening that had, at times, shown ample promise. Chase Petty was recalled to start for the first time in 2026 after being bashed all over the place in his trio of appearances last year as a 22 year old, and despite Seiya Suzuki blasting a 3-run homer off of him Petty looked otherwise very, very much ready for the show.
The Reds also got offense from Ke’Bryan Hayes, who walked before later swatting a 2-run dinger. JJ Bleday also kept his hot start going with a homer of his own, and Elly De La Cruz was on-base four times on the night. Positives abounded before, y’know, the 9th inning meltdown, but that’s somewhat the issue for the Reds at this juncture of the season – they’ve built a team that, for whatever reason, ends up in tight ballgames almost every single night.
On Monday, it backfired in the most spectacular way, and the end result is their second consecutive defeat in a 1-run game and their fourth straight loss on this road trip through NL Central foes.
This one burned. It will burn tomorrow. It will likely burn in August, still.
San Diego Padres DH/1B Nick Castellanos (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
San Diego Padres Nick Castellanos has been trying to dig himself out of a slow start to the 2026 season. He is hitting .164/.215/.279 with one home run and nine RBI over 62 at-bats. His statistical numbers do not offer much confidence that Castellanos can get out of this slump.
The Friar Faithful envisioned him as a lethal righty bat from the DH/1B position in the lineup. But that has not developed in the season’s first month. At 34, it may be time to question if Castellanos will ever be a serviceable run-producer again.
The Padres’ next move should be to designate him for assignment (DFA), so he can catch on with another ballclub. It would allow the Friars to replace him with a better option on the roster.
Castellanos failing to adapt to bench role
Castellanos’ struggles at the plate have mirrored some of his teammates for the first month. He has failed to make consistent contact, as his strikeout rate is at 26.2%, the highest of his career. Castellanos has only five extra-base hits this season.
All the blame cannot be placed on him, as the Friars have not given Castellanos the playing time needed to find his stroke. Throughout his 14-year major career, the right-handed slugger has averaged 130 games a season. The lack of playing time has adversely affected his offensive production.
His glove does not merit more starts, and the Padres cannot wait for Castellanos to figure it out offensively. Unfortunately, walking back to the dugout after an at-bat has been the pattern all season.
What is next?
Such a roster move allows the front office to add a player who is more familiar with the bench role. Any candidate must be versatile to play multiple positions, but more importantly, have the ability to hit in the clutch. This void has been an issue for the last several seasons.
The Friars have other roster issues to settle, but as we get deeper into the season, a deal to upgrade the bench must happen. With the trade deadline looming, the front office may have to sacrifice versatility to add a proven bat to the bench.
Acquiring a seasoned veteran might be more valuable than versatility as we inch toward October.
The signing of Castellanos has not worked out for either side. The Padres expected more power, and he largely has failed to deliver.
The organization cannot wait much longer to revamp the bench.
HOUSTON –– The Dodgers finally found the ingredients needed to snap out of their recent offensive malaise on Monday.
A hitter-friendly venue, in the form of Houston’s Daikin Park.
A woeful opposing pitching staff, facing an Astros team with the majors’ highest ERA.
And, after a two-week scuffle that had frustrated almost every member of their lineup, some much-needed big swings that keyed an 8-3 victory in the opening game of this week’s series.
The Dodgers finally found the ingredients needed to snap out of their recent offensive malaise on Monday. Getty Images
“I like where our guys’ heads are at,” manager Dave Roberts said before first pitch. “There is a new sense of revitalization walking around the clubhouse today.”
That energy might have initially picked up on Sunday, when the Dodgers snapped a four-game losing streak with a vibe-shifting win in St. Louis.
It wasn’t until they arrived in Houston, however, that the club snapped a stunning six-game home run drought, rediscovered a relentless identity up and down the batting order, and finally broke out with a complete offensive display –– scoring their most runs since April 25 in a dominant 13-hit display.
The onslaught began in the first inning, when the Dodgers strung together three two-out hits against Astros opener Steven Okert, including an RBI knock from ex-Astros star Kyle Tucker.
The onslaught began in the first inning, when the Dodgers strung together three two-out hits against Astros opener Steven Okert, including an RBI knock from ex-Astros star Kyle Tucker. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
Then, with the Astros up 2-1 in the second, it was none other than light-swinging No. 9 hitter Alex Freeland who ended the club’s longest stretch without a homer since 2014. He belted an opposite-field drive into the short Crawford Boxes in left. It would mark the first of seven unanswered runs from the Dodgers (22-13) that helped them pull far and clear away.
The offensive resurgence was also aided by Will Smith, who had three hits, including a go-ahead double later in the second; and Freddie Freeman, who added a pair of RBI singles in the third and fifth.
Tucker followed up his opening-inning knock with the team’s second home run of the evening in the third inning, as well, snapping his own 13-game long ball drought with a scorching line-drive to right.
And Freeland ultimately put together the team’s best all-around performance, reaching safely in four of five plate appearances with two later singles and a walk.
That all gave Yoshinobu Yamamoto plenty of support in an unremarkable six-inning, three-run start, which left his ERA at 3.09.
It also compensated for another hitless night from Shohei Ohtani, who drew two walks and recorded an RBI by beating out a potential inning-ending double play in the third, but is now 0-for-17 in his last five games.
Then, with the Astros up 2-1 in the second, it was none other than light-swinging No. 9 hitter Alex Freeland who ended the club’s longest stretch without a homer since 2014. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
What it means
Throughout the Dodgers’ recent, both Roberts and his players had repeatedly preached patience and calm.
While the skid was glaring, they framed it as an inevitable ebb in a long season. While their lack of power was jarring, they insisted they were on the verge of heating up.
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Now, the team has some tangible new results to cling to. And for as bad as the last few weeks were, they still rank top-five in the majors in batting average, runs scored and (somewhat amazingly, given they still have just five long balls in their last 13 contests) home runs.
“We don’t really focus on the home runs,” hitting coach Aaron Bates said before the game. It’s more so just … if we impact the ball the way we want to, and we swing at good pitches, then usually the home runs are a byproduct of that.”
On Monday, that was finally the case once again.
And for as bad as the last few weeks were, they still rank top-five in the majors in batting average, runs scored and (somewhat amazingly, given they still have just five long balls in their last 13 contests) home runs. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
Who’s hot
We noted in this space on Sunday that Freeland seemed to be in danger of being sent down once Mookie Betts returns from his oblique injury (which is getting closer, with Betts slated to take live at-bats later this wee).
But then, he turned around and delivered his best game of the season, flashing the potential that helped him earn a spot on the opening day roster to begin with.
Before his second-inning home run, Freeland hadn’t gone deep since the second game of the season. His three hits were also his most since April 7.
He is still only batting .256 on the season, and sporting a below-league-average .688 OPS. However, he also has a .343 average since April 19.
Maybe the team’s roster decision when Betts returns won’t be so easy, after all.
Before his second-inning home run, Freeland hadn’t gone deep since the second game of the season. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
Who’s not
The Astros –– in what will be music to Dodgers fans’ ears.
With Monday’s loss, Houston is now 14-22, plummeting toward the bottom of the American League standings despite owning a top-10 payroll, and watching their decade-long window of contention finally begin to slam in their face.
This era of Astros success, of course, was kicked off by their controversial, trash-can-cheating 2017 title team, which knocked off the Dodgers in that year’s World Series.
For years, that storyline that had fueled frustration within the Dodgers’ organization.
But now, at least Roberts said Monday that he has “gotten past it.”
“Our fan base has feelings about them. Their fan base has feelings about us,” he said.
But, he added that, “honestly, I don’t put too much thought into it,” before noting that the Dodgers’ three recent championships have “certainly helped” him reframe his perspective.
Up next
Coming off his Pitcher of the Month award for March/April, Ohtani (2-1, 0.60 ERA) will be back on the mound Tuesday –– but not in the lineup as designated hitter. Roberts initially planned on having Ohtani hit in the game, but changed course following another quiet night at the plate on Monday. It will be the third time in his last four pitching starts that Ohtani will not serve as DH.
David Shovein
