Category: MLB

Spencer Jones was thrown right into the fire in his Yankees debut. 

The 24-year-old slugger had to face a tough Milwaukee staff headlined by ace right-hander Jacob Misiorowski over his first three games at the big-league level. 

Jones looked a bit overmatched, striking out four times in his six at-bats Friday and Saturday, but he finally delivered the elusive first knock and RBI early on Sunday. 

After Jose Caballero opened the top of the second with a double, he ripped the first pitch he saw from Brewers right-hander Logan Henderson right back up the middle for a single.

The liner left the bat at a whopping 106.4 mph. 

Jones celebrated at first base then pointed towards his teammates and fired-up family, sitting in the front row behind the Yankees’ dugout. 

“It was super exciting,” Jones said. “I’m glad that my family was here to share that with me, my teammates were rooting me on, I got a lot of congratulations, and I was excited to be able to get a run across for the guys -- just a special moment.”

He finished the day hitless across his other three at-bats. 

Despite reached base just two times in his first weekend up with the club, Aaron Boone actually liked what he saw from the free-swinger at the plate. 

“He had a lot of good at-bats,” the skipper said. “Was able to get the first one today which everyone was excited about, got some decent swings off, was recognizing the zone well, wasn’t chasing, but also ran into some tough matchups.”

Despite those tough matchups, the youngster feels he’s adjusting well. 

“Trial by fire is the best way to do it,” Jones said. “Getting exposed to a lot of really good arms is the best way to get your feet wet -- as the days have gone I’ve settled in more, I’m starting to feel comfortable and do what I do, and moving forward I’ll be in a good spot.”

Carlos Rodon spent most of last season pitching with a bone spur in his left elbow. 

After a lengthy recovery following offseason surgery, the left-hander was eager to make his way back into the Yankees’ rotation fully healthy once again. 

That chance finally came on Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee. 

Rodon showed some positives signs, but was ultimately hurt by struggles with command, as he allowed three runs on two hits and five walks over 4.1 innings of work. 

He issued a free pass to the leadoff man in all but two of those innings. 

“That was the bugaboo,” Aaron Boone said. “Overall his stuff was good -- fastball ticked up being here, I thought he had a really good changeup and some solid sliders to get swing-and-misses, but the three leadoff walks hurt.”

Rodon was able to dance his way around it in both the first and second innings, but Milwaukee finally made him pay in the bottom of the fourth. 

After two walks and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, the Brewers got on the board with a sacrifice fly then took the lead with their first hit of the day, a two-out two-run single. 

“He just lost the zone there,” Boone said. “It’s a really good job getting out of the first two innings, walking the leadoff batter usually isn’t a recipe for success -- a couple more they come back to haunt him a bit.”

The skipper pointed towards rust as a potential source of some of the left-hander's struggles finding the zone, but Rodon didn't have any sort of explanation himself. 

Rodon was trying to adjust on the fly over the course of the outing, but simply could not get himself into a groove. 

He'll look to turn thing around in his next outing, opening this year's Subway Series. 

“It’s frustrating,” Rodon said. “Obviously I need to be better in that aspect of just attacking the zone and getting ahead in the count quick, just some stuff to work on for the next time out.”

Well, you felt good about a sweep going in. All you had to do was best the Tigers bullpen, and after overcoming a 3-0 deficit to tie it after 4 innings, the Royals looked primed to sweep their divisional foe.

However, Gage Workman, who literally got recalled this afternoon from AAA hit his first career MLB homer off Nick Mears, it was worth two runs, and the Royals dropped the series finale 6-3.

It was another lackluster start for Noah Cameron. He went just 4 innings allowing 5 hits, 3 runs, walking 3 and striking out 4 batters. It took him 95 pitches to get just 12 outs.

John Schreiber threw a scoreless 5th. It’s still scary every time he takes the hill, but he has looked better after a very tough beginning of the season. Mears gave up a leadoff single ahead of the two-run homer.

Daniel Lynch IV finally looked human, struggling in his 2/3 of an inning. He allowed a run on two hits and a walk. Alex Lange pitched a scoreless inning, and two thirds and Steven Cruz threw a scoreless 9th inning for the second consecutive night.

Offensively, it looked like the April Royals. They were 3-11 with runners in scoring position and squandered an opportunity right out of the gate. After back-to-back singles in the bottom of the first, Vinnie Pasquantino weakly flew out to left, Isaac Collins fouled out to third and Carter Jensen fouled out to the catcher. Scoring right of the gate would’ve been the gut punch to the Tigers bullpen game plan and put a lot of pressure on the visitors, but the missed opportunity swung the momentum.

The Royals got a pair of runs back in the third after Garcia doubled and Witt singled. Vinnie came through this time with an RBI single and Jensen just missed a three-run homer with a sac fly to deep right field.

Garcia bailed out Elias Diaz and Kyle Isbel in the bottom of the 4th after Jac Caglianone led off the inning with a double, Garcia smacked a 2-out single to center to tie it at 3. Garcia was 3-3 after the first four innings of the game.

The Royals threatened in the 7th and 8th but hit into double plays that ended the threat. They went down 1-2-3 in the 9th.

The Royals finish the homestand 4-3. On the season, they are 3-4 against Cleveland, who they don’t play again until August and 2-4 against Detroit, who they don’t play again until July. A couple of key head-to-head tiebreakers as the season progresses.

The Royals are 19-22 on the season, just like the Tigers, and a game and a half back of the 21-21 Guardians for the division. The Royals are off tomorrow after 13 straight days of baseball. They have a three-game series against the White Sox in Chicago, and then next weekend are in St. Louis to take on the Cardinals. It’s a big trip and week for the Royals who are still trying to climb out of the hole they dug for themselves.

First pitch on Tuesday is at 6:40 p.m. CT, the game can be watched on Royals.TV. Stephen Kolek is expected to start.

The Syracuse Mets suffered their third straight loss to the Rochester Red Wings on Sunday afternoon, but some of the organizations top young talents enjoyed another big day.

Both A.J. Ewing and Ryan Clifford accounted for a bulk of the team’s offense. 

Ewing continued his strong start at the new level, picking up two more hits and driving in a run across four at-bats. 

One of those knocks was a double and he also stole a base.

The 22-year-old surging prospect is now hitting .333 with four extra base-hits, four RBI, five stolen bases, and a .844 OPS in 13 games since joining Syracuse. 

Clifford reached three times with a walk and a pair of extra base-hits. 

He helped Syracuse even things up with a 400 foot solo homer to deep right in the fourth, then ripped a triple down the right-field line before scoring on Christian Arroyo’s sacrifice fly in the sixth. 

The slugger is now hitting .252 with a triple, six doubles, seven home runs, 21 RBI, and an even .800 OPS after a bit of a slow start to the season. 

Not much went right for Syracuse on the pitching side of things, but Dylan Ross did strike out two as he worked around a pair of walks in a scoreless inning of work.

He was able to reach up to 99 mph on his fastball. 

27-year-old starter Xavien Curry and veteran lefty reliever Cionel Pérez made their first appearances with the organization after signing on minor league deals last week. 

PHOENIX — David Peterson received no love from his defense, particularly third baseman Andy Ibáñez, but he did his part to give the Mets an opportunity to win Sunday.

The lefty, who has been placed in the bullpen to work as a bulk reliever, pitched five innings without allowing an earned run in the team’s 5-1 loss to the Diamondbacks.

All three runs that scored with Peterson on the mound followed Ibáñez’s second throwing error of the day, in the sixth inning.

“I think it’s just getting back to who I am as a pitcher, getting the sinker down, and using the four-seamer,” said Peterson, who owns a 5.49 ERA. “I feel like I have had better feel the last couple of outings with the changeup and the sliders continue to be good.”

Peterson surrendered two earned runs over four innings in relief on Monday in Colorado, both scoring after Carson Benge tripped chasing a fly ball in the outfield.

Peterson has been less successful as a starter.

In each of his last four appearances as a starter Peterson has surrendered at least four earned runs.

That included a seven-run meltdown over 3 ²/₃ innings against the Nationals in his last start, on April 29.

“I thought he was really good today,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He got ground balls, made pitches, we didn’t make a couple of plays and it ended up costing us runs. But overall, I thought he threw the ball very well.”

Mendoza utilized Huascar Brazobán as the opener, sticking with him into the second inning and got burned when the right-hander walked two batters to begin the frame.

Tobias Myers got two outs before Ryan Waldschmidt delivered a two-run double for the game’s first scoring.

“Overall, [Brazobán] had a hard time throwing strikes today,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said he didn’t consider using Myers to start the second inning because of the right-hander’s recent workload.

“Toby was short today,” Mendoza said. “We knew we were going to try to get through the first time through the lineup with the two of them, it just didn’t work.”

Things were looking a bit better for the struggling Mets. 

Despite falling to the Rockies on a late-inning grand slam on Thursday afternoon, they showed some positives and took the first two series of their nine-game road trip. 

This weekend in Arizona, though, all of that was quickly erased. 

The Mets were able to salvage the series opener on Friday night thanks to Mark Vientos and some late-inning heroics, but otherwise the shorthanded offense wasted more strong pitching. 

Clay Holmes followed that by put together 5.2 innings of two-run ball on Saturday, only to be handed his second loss of the season as the bats managed just a run on three hits.

Despite facing struggling right-hander Merrill Kelly, who came into the night with a 9.95 ERA on the season, they didn’t record a baserunner after the top of the fifth. 

That stretch would carry into the fourth inning on Sunday afternoon, as 22 consecutive Mets were set down in order before Juan Soto drew a leadoff walk, which tied their season-high drought. 

While the perfect game was broken up, Arizona southpaw Eduardo Rodriguez kept his no-hit bid intact until Carson Benge laced a single with one out in the top of the sixth. 

Luis Torrens followed that with a double to breakup the shutout as well, but the D-backs answered back with three unearned runs in the bottom-half to put this one away for good. 

Rodriguez finished just two outs shy of his first career complete game, allowing just three walks and four hits. 

“He was hitting his spots,” Soto said. “He was throwing the ball well, he was being careful with the big guys and being aggressive with guys he thought he could be aggressive to.”

That's been the case of late for the extremely shorthanded Mets, as both Soto and Bo Bichette haven't nearly look like themselves with a lack of big threats behind them. 

Soto has just three hits in 33 at-bats this month, Bichette has seven in 36. 

New York dropped three of the final four games of the nine-game road trip, scoring just seven times over that span, after starting with four wins over the first six games. 

"We’re better than that,” Carlos Mendoza said. “Especially the past couple of days, we needed to be better.”

The younger Detroit Tigers powered them to victory on Sunday, snapping a five-game skid. Gage Workman launched his first major league homer after being called up for Kerry Carpenter earlier in the day. Hao-Yu Lee and Wenceel Pérez had big RBI knocks, as did Matt Vierling, and the bullpen was pretty good overall filling in for a suspended Framber Valdez as the Tigers won 6-3.

We at Bless You Boys hope you all had a good Mother’s Day and did something nice for your mother. The Tigers matchup vs. the Royals featured the usual array of pink bats, spikes, and catchers’ gear on a lovely sunny evening in Kansas City.

The Tigers got a leadoff walk to Matt Vierling from lefty Noah Cameron, a decent but certainly not overpowering starter in his second season, but didn’t take advantage. After Vierling reached, Kevin McGonigle battled through a long at-bat but ultimately popped out to shallow left field. Cameron kept everything soft and down to Jahmai Jones, who struck out swinging, while Dillon Dingler lined out sharply to Bobby Witt Jr.

Brenan Hanifee started things off in a bullpen game. Maikel Garcia hit a high chopper over Kevin McGonigle at third for an infield single. Witt Jr. lifted a weak flare to shallow right field and Wenceel Pérez froze before coming in late. The ball dropped and it was runners at first and second with no outs. Well this feels familiar. Vinnie Pasquantino popped out to shallow left field for the first out. Isaac Collins also popped out, this time foul down the third base line, and McGonigle hauled that in. With lefty Carter Jensen up, Hanifee’s work was done, and he didn’t allow a single well hit ball despite the results. Brant Hurter was warming, and AJ Hinch went to him to put Jensen away and snuff a potential rally. The big lefty got it done, quickly inducing a pop-up that Dingler handled.

Riley Greene led off the second, and he lined a ball to right field, and Jac Caglionone froze much like Pérez as the fading late day sun was directly into the right fielder’s eyes. Pérez was up next and he flipped a soft pop-up into shallow right field and again Caglianone looked like he never saw it off the bat. The ball got down, but Greene had to wait to see if it would drop and was thrown out by second baseman Nick Loftin at second. Spencer Torkelson took a curveball for strike three, Hao-Yu Lee, who hits for most of his power against lefties, crushed a drive off the right field wall for an RBI triple. So it was up to (checks notes) Zack Short? to drive in Lee from third. Shorty got into a full count, fouled off a cutter in on his hands, and then drew a walk. Nicely done.

That left it up to Matt Vierling, and he came through, cranking a drive off the wall in left centerfield. Lee scored, Short raced around from first to score, and Vierling cruised into third with a double and a one-base error after the Kyle Isbell had some trouble getting the ball in. 3-0 Tigers. Hamilton started McGonigle off with a pair of sliders on the outer edge. The Royals wasted a challenge on one of them, but in the end McGonigle slapped a broken bat grounder to Loftin for the final out.

Loftin drew a walk from Hurter to start the bottom half, but Caglianone grounded one to Torkelson, who fired to second to get the lead runner. Elias Diaz struck out as Hurter jammed him with a sinker, and Isbell lined out to Torkelson. Good defense from Torkelson in the inning.

Jahmai Jones opened the third with a rocket one-hopper that Maikel Garcia made a great diving play on, but the throw went a little wide and Pasquantino whiffed on it. They ruled it a single as Dingler dug into the batter’s box. Cameron was already at 60 pitches as Dingler drew a walk. This new Riley Greene with added plate discipline has been a rare nice development in the first quarter of the season. He worked a full count, but this time he chased a high heater for strike three. Pérez fouled off a pair of changeups and eventually worked a full count as well, but another changeup got a pop-up to Loftin. Eventually all this discpline and deep counts have to pay off, right? Not this time, as Cameron got ahead in the count pitching Torkelson in and then back-footed a slider for a whiff to turn the Tigers away.

Drew Anderson took over in the bottom of the third to take on the right-handed top of the Royals order. Garcia greeted Anderson with a double into the right field corner. An 0-1 changeup to Witt saw a grounder up the middle that tipped off Anderson’s glove. Lee cut across in front of Short moving toward third base, and couldn’t make the play as Garcia took third base. Anderson missed well down with a 2-2 changeup, and Pasquantino grounded a fastball away through the left side to score Garcia as Witt raced to third. That brought Chris Fetter out for a chat. Anderson responded by falling behind 2-0, but then worked back into 2-2 count and punched Collins with a power curve down and in for a whiff. That brought up Jensen and a first pitch slider was right down the middle. A fly ball deep to right field was caught by Pérez, but the sacrifice fly cut the lead to 3-2. Anderson punched out Loftin with a good changeup to finally get the Tigers off the field.

Lee flew out to right to open the fourth inning. Short flew out to deep left center field as Cameron neared 90 pitches. Vierling followed with a rocket to center field, but it was too low and Isbell hauled it in.

Anderson started the bottom half giving up an opposite field double to Caglianone. He bounced back to blow away Diaz and whiffed Isbell on a curveball. Unfortunately, that brought up Garcia again and he lined an RBI single to center to tie the game. The throw from Vierling should’ve gone to second, but Vierling tried to fire it home with no chance to get Caglianone, and that gave Garcia second base with Witt at the plate. Fortunately Witt flew out to left to end the inning. Still, after a bunch of solid outings in a row, Anderson had coughed up a three-run lead as we headed to the fifth inning.

Cameron was still on the mound despite being over 90 pitches, but he was just there to get McGonigle. The rookie nearly homered just down the right field line, but it went foul, and so he singled to center field instead. That brought John Schreiber into the game in relief of Cameron. That took Jones out of the game, with Colt Keith pinch-hitting for him as the DH. After another long at-bat, Keith flew out softly to left field. Dingler worked a full count and then chased two fastballs up and whiffed to strike out. Schreiber fell behind to Riley Greene and didn’t appear to want anything to do with him as the Tigers’ left fielder walked, but Pérez’s struggles hitting left-handed continued and he tapped back to Schreiber to squander the chance.

Enmanuel de Jesus took over in the bottom half, and he racked up three quick outs on balls in play. The middle out was a rocket to center from Isaac Collins, but Vierling hauled it in to send this to the sixth.

Nick Mears took over for the Royals, and Torkelson greeted him with a solid single to start the inning. Zach McKinstry pinch-hit for Hao-Yu Lee, but he took a pair of called strikes and then chased a slider down and popped out to shallow left. That brought up newly promoted infielder, Gage Workman, hitting for Short. An 0-1 fastball clanged off Diaz’s glove to the backstop but Torkelson read it poorly and didn’t advance. That didn’t matter, because Mears hung a breaking ball down and in and Workman launched it just fair down the right field foul line for his first major league home run. You’ve gotta love it.

Workman was teammates with Torkelson back at Arizona State and drafted by the Tigers in 2020 as well, as their fourth rounder in the five round draft. He struck out way too much, and eventually had to ditch switch-hitting and go lefty full-time, but he’s always had good power and speed, and solid defense at third base and decent shortstop too in a pinch. He was taken by the Cubs in the 2024 Rule 5 draft and got a look at the majors with them, and briefly the White Sox, last summer before being returned. It’s been a long road to get to the majors with the Tigers, but Workman has been white hot for a month in Toledo and finally got the call. Way to announce your arrival, Gage. You’ll be delighted to know his middle name is Tater. No joke. Baseball family.

That blow made it 5-3, but was followed by a Vierling strikeout, and Matt Quatraro turned to lefty Daniel Lynch IV against McGonigle. The rookie drew a walk, but Keith popped out again to end the frame.

De Jesus got Loftin on a pop-up, and then a deep flyout from Caglianone out to Vierling. Diaz grounded out to McKinstry to end the inning, and that was six straight outs for de Jesus, though with precious few whiffs involved. Could the Tigers now go three innings without allowing two runs? The Magic 8-ball says “reply hazy, try again.”

Dingler struck out to start the seventh, but Riley Greene pulled a hot ground ball down the right field line for a double. Pérez, hitting right-handed now, spanked a grounder back through the box for a single. Isbell pointlessly fired home with Greene easily scoring, and that let Wenceel take second base. 6-3 Tigers. That brought Torkelson to the plate, and it brought Quatraro out to call on old friend Alex Lange and the turtleneck of destiny. Pérez, knowing Lange’s long history of failure in holding runners, tried to exploit it by stealing third, but Diaz cut him down by a foot. Trying to get to third with Torkelson at the plate and one out is worth the attempt, but instead there were two outs, and after Torkelson walked, McKinstry grounded out to end the frame.

Lane Thomas pinch-hit for Isbell against the southpaw de Jesus to start the bottom half. De Jesus froze him with a good fastball on the bottom rail for strike three. Thomas lost the Royals last challenge on that one, but was wrong. So that was seven straight outs from de Jesus, and that was the end of his night with Garcia and Witt coming up. Hinch turned to Kyle Finnegan, hoping to get five outs from him and then presumably turn this over to Kenley Jansen in the ninth.

Instead, Finnegan took over and walked Garcia on four straight pitches. Witt pulled a hard grounder to third, and Workman fired to McKinstry and on to first for a 5-4-3 double play to send us to the eighth.

Workman flew out to left center field to start the inning. Vierling and McGonigle grounded out, and we were on to the bottom of the eighth.

Finnegan quickly gave up a sharp single to center field from Pasquantino. Collins bounced one to Torkelson, who fired to McGonigle to cut down Pasquantino. Jensen fell behind 1-2, but a pair of balls made it a full count and Finnegan missed down to walk him. Finnegan’s walk rate is already horrendous and it was getting worse in this game. Michael Massey pinch-hit for Loftin, but grounded into a slick 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. On to the ninth.

Right-hander Steven Cruz took over from Lange in the top of the ninth and just blew Keith away with high 90’s fastballs. Dingler worked a full count and smoked a cutter away up the left center field gap for a double. In a 1-1 count, Riley Greene challenged a fastball just off the outer edge successfully and so it was 2-1 and Cruz missed away again and then up to walk him as Greene reached for the fourth time in this one. Pérez popped up to third base, and Torkelson struck out.

So it was Kenley Jansen time. The right-hander hadn’t pitched in six days, and perhaps that allowed the slight groin strain he was dealing with for a few weeks to abate. Either way, he went through the Royals with no trouble, breaking Caglisnone’s bat on a baby bloop to Workman at third, and then blowing away Marte and Thomas to end it.

The Tigers move back to 19-22, tied with the Royals for third and a half game behind the White Sox. They’ll have a day off on Monday to rest their bullpen before tackling the struggling Mets on the road on Tuesday.

MILWAUKEE — Back in the spring, when he was still in the midst of his rehab from October elbow surgery, Carlos Rodón acknowledged that his command was a work in progress with a newfound range of motion in his left arm.

After his season debut Sunday, it appears that work remains ongoing.

Rodón issued five walks, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch across 4 ¹/₃ innings, spoiling his first start of the season in what became a 4-3 loss to the Brewers, who swept three games from the Yankees at American Family Field.

“Definitely was hyped up a little bit,” said Rodón, who struck out four, three on sliders. “Obviously need to be better in the aspect of attacking the zone and getting ahead quick. Some stuff to work on.”

The left-hander, who underwent surgery to remove loose bodies and shave down a bone spur in his left elbow, threw 42 of his 78 pitches for strikes.

Of his five walks, three came leading off an inning, and while he was able to work around the first two, the problem finally came back to haunt him in the fourth inning.

Rodón threw eight straight balls to begin the frame, then two pitches later misfired a 95 mph fastball that hit Andrew Vaughn on the left shoulder to load the bases.

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Two outs later, including a sacrifice fly that cut the Yankees lead to 2-1, Rodón sprayed a slider that got past J.C. Escarra to the backstop, allowing the runners to move up to second and third.

That proved costly when former Yankees farmhand Blake Perkins roped a single to center field, scoring both runners for the 3-2 Brewers lead.

“None of that happens if I get ahead and get guys out,” said Rodón, who was not entirely sure why he struggled with his command. “Just a little quick in the delivery, a little forward as I’m releasing the ball, so trying to make the adjustment and pour it in [the strike zone]. Obviously that didn’t work. Just got to be better.”

Rodón’s fastball velocity did tick up — which the Yankees were hoping would be one of the benefits of the surgery — as his four-seamer averaged 95.7 mph, up from 94.1 mph last season.

But he acknowledged that doesn’t matter much if he is not commanding the zone.

“[The walks were] the bugaboo, because I thought overall the stuff was good,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The fastball ticked up, being up here. I thought he had a really good changeup and some good sliders to get some swing-and-miss. … Obviously got to be a little more in the zone, especially starting off innings.”

Jesus Rodriguez had a chance to end Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh in the 10th inning. 

The bases were loaded, Willy Adames had just come through with a 2-out, 2-RBI single to knot the Giants back up with the Pirates at six. All the Bay Area mothers, crowned under their inside-out rally caps and feted with a tote bag stadium giveaway on their special day, crossed their fingers in hope. Rodriguez, who is learning to catch on the fly while trying to fill a defensive hole left by one of the elite defenders in the league, was chosen over Bailey for exactly these types of moments when a disciplined at-bat could make the difference.

The irony is that while Bailey was a liability with a bat, he’ll  be remembered forever in San Francisco, not for how he framed a Logan Webb sinker, but for his walk-off inside the park homer, or his walk-off grand slam against the Dodgers. The sub .600 OPS won’t be missed, nor the day-in and day-out lifeless at-bats — but once in a blue moon, Bailey did something truly magical. He just possessed that clutch gene.

Did his replacement? Perhaps an unfair question so early on his career — but a question that was quickly answered all the same when Rodriguez flailed at two sweepers nowhere near the zone. A four pitch see-ya, a couples of swings that looked like a white flag surrendering to an 11th inning. Based on that at-bat, the new catcher looked pretty dang similar to the old. Rodriguez wasn’t Blue Moon Bailey, just normal, really bad at hitting Bailey. 

But this wasn’t the end of the story. A man can not be judged on one at-bat. Rodriguez would be given a second chance after reliever Ryan Borucki and the Giants defense held the Pirates scoreless in the 11th and 12th innings. Right fielder Ryan O’Hearn clanked a Matt Chapman flare near the foul line that went for a double and pushed Heliot Ramos as the winning run to third. The Pirates coaches and right-handed reliever Justin Lawrence elected to walk lefty Drew Gilbert to set up the double play with the bases loaded as well as gain platoon edge against the right-handed Rodriguez. 

Made plenty of sense on paper, but Rodriguez, a contact-oriented, bat-first player, wasn’t going to be foiled twice in the same game. Bases loaded, game still tied at 6 runs a piece, with an opportunity to win the game and claim the series — second chances like this don’t come around like that very often. 

First pitch, Rodriguez got a 97 MPH sinker right in on the hands. Many hitters wouldn’t have been able to do much with that kind of offering. Pure speculation, maybe hearsay, but I could see Patrick Bailey rolling that pitch right into the defense for an inning-ending double play. Rodriguez was thinking the opposite field the whole way. He kept his hands back and flipped the ball to shallow right where it found grass in front of O’Hearn, allowing Ramos to scamper home (after initially freezing on the fly) and claim the win. 

The Giants played their worst game of the season yesterday. They burnt the pizza. Burnt real bad — but apparently they didn’t dwell on it too much, pivoted and ordered Chinese, then came back to the ballpark on Mother’s Day full of love and appreciation for their mothers and played one of their best.

Sunday’s win was one of their best because it wasn’t a walk in the park. The offense erased a trio of two-run deficits. How did they do it? Not singles. Or not just singles. 7 of their 13 hits went for extra bases. The line-up logged 22 at-bats with runners in scoring position with 7 hits. They walked 5 times and got plunked by pitches twice. 

Adames came up with the massive game-tying single in the 10th, but the tying run wouldn’t have been on base if not for a walk by Rafael Devers and a softly hit grounder from Ramos that advanced that runner into scoring position. 

Devers, Ramos, and Chapman all ripped two-strike doubles off reliever Isaac Mattson in the 6th to erase the Pirates second lead of the day. Devers (who settled for another double after just missing the tin roof above Levi’s Landing in the 8th) is hitting .333 in May with a .667 slugging percentage (10-for-30). Matt Chapman’s RBI double was his first extra base hit since April 30th, and his first run batted in since April 18th. 

Luis Arraez’s two out single in the 3rd punched Jung Hoo Lee home and cut into Pittsburgh early lead off Tyler Mahle. Ramos evened the score an inning later by crushing a hanging slider from starter Bubba Chandler into the left field bleachers. The 437 foot blast was his fourth on the year and first since April 25th.

All in all, key members of the line-up seemed to finally sync up and hit like they’ve been expected to all along. Lee, Devers, Ramos, Adames, and Chapman all had multi-hit games and each of them collected an extra-base knock. 

Seeing the heart of the line-up find a pulse was a relief. But the miracle underlying this win was the bullpen performance.

Six different arms maneuvered through the final 6.1 innings after Tyler Mahle (4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 5.2 IP) left in the 6th. They surrendered just two hits while handing out 7 walks, and somehow managed to avoid complete catastrophe. Every inning felt improvised, teetering on the point of collapse. Every button Tony Vitello pressed seemed to work until it quickly didn’t. The 2-run double by Spencer Horwitz off Joel Peguero felt like a knockout blow at the time. So did Dylan Smith’s wild pitch and the walk to number-9 hitter Henry Davis.

Lefty specialist Ryan Borucki proved to be the closer for the other closers.  He locked it down in the 11th after being tasked to manage a runners-at-the-corners, nobody-out mess given to him by recent call-up Dylan Smith. A medley of sinkers and sliders fanned the incredibly intimidating Oneil Cruz (who had homered earlier in the 3rd) before a 3-2 slider got Brandon Lowe to softly line into a double play to end the Pirates’ threat. 

Borucki held strong again through some unfavorable match-ups in the 12th thanks to some clutch glove work from Chapman at third.

And after bases loaded chances in the 10th and 11th, Jesus Rodriguez finally delivered in the 12th.

Happy mom’s day moms!

After 41 games, the Rockies are 16-25 (.390). That includes a much-improved road record of 8-14 on the road, but a 4-13 record against teams above .500, which might be expected. What might not be is the Rockies battling the Giants (16-24) last place in the NL West instead of claiming by a mile.

With a quarter of the season in the books, it’s bonkers to think the Rockies have played 18 of their 41 games against the NL East. They have concluded season series against the Mets, Phillies and Astros, while having yet to face their NL West foes, the Diamondbacks or Giants. Just facing the Dodgers and Padres, the Rockies have only played 11 of their games in their own division, posting a 3-8 record.

With three games against the Braves and Marlins, and the complete series season of six against the Phillies and Mets, the Rockies have gone 6-12 against the NL East. That includes being swept by the Miami and Atlanta, and a sweep of the Mets in New York. When it comes to home-and-away splits, the Rockies are 2-7 at Coors Field and 4-5 on the road against NL East opponents, which is pretty surprising.

With so many games against the NL East and much fewer against their own division, what do you think about the geography of the first 41 games of the schedule?

Would you rather delay playing more NL West games until later in the season or spread them out more throughout the season by playing all NL West opponents sooner? Is there a benefit for the Rockies either way?

Let us know what you think.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

Catcher Sean Murphy has had rotten injury luck since joining the Atlanta Braves via trade prior to the 2023 season. He’s only once played in more than 100 games since becoming a Braves and in 2026 he made his season debut on this past road trip after missing the end of the 2025 season and the start this year due to hip surgery.

In today’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers – at 7-2 victory for the second consecutive day – Murphy was called for a catcher’s interference when Hyeseong Kim’s bat nicked Murphy and he was replaced behind the plate by Drake Baldwin, who’d been the designated hitter.

The impact may have injured Murphy’s hand more than originally believed. Although initial reports were positive, late Sunday evening Mark Bowman posted that the Braves won’t have an update on Murphy’s injury until Tuesday.

With former Braves catcher Jonah Heim designated for assignment, and then traded to the West Sacramento Athletics when Murphy returned from the IL, if Murphy misses time, the Braves could bring up Chadwick Tromp or Jair Camargo as both veteran backstops have been stashed at Triple-A since the end of Spring Training. If Murphy’s injury causes him to miss significant time, the Braves may be back in the market for a high-end back-up catcher.

Outfielder Eli White, who’s wall-crashing catch in right field with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth inning prevented the Dodgers from scoring, is in the concussion protocol after exiting the game in the eighth inning, according to multiple reports, including from Bowman.

If White missed a few games, the Braves could opt to activate Ha-Seong Kim ahead of the Chicago Cubs series on Tuesday, since multiple players on Atlanta’s bench can cover the outfield. Kim himself is looking to make his season debut as soon as he is deemed ready after being on a rehab assignment.

Outfielder Ronald Acuńa, Jr., who has been on the IL with a hamstring strain, is eligible to be activated next week, but he may not be ready by the time his 10-day stint is up.

Andy Ibáñez’s time with the Mets hasn’t quite gone as planned. 

Ibáñez was picked up off waivers from the Athletics just over a week ago to help provide a boost for New York’s shorthanded offense against left-handed pitching. 

The 33-year-old went hitless over his first two appearances, and on Sunday afternoon he hurt them with his defense as he received just his third start of the season at the hot corner. 

The infielder committed not one, but two throwing errors in what ended as a 5-1 loss. 

“I stood a little bit wide and it got away from me,” he explained via a translator postgame. “It’s one of those things where you don’t want it to happen, but it’s baseball.”

The first ended up prolonging the fourth inning by just one batter, but the second provided to be much more costly. 

He allowed Ildemaro Vargas to reach leading off the sixth, then the Diamondbacks made him pay a few batters later, as back-to-back two-out run-scoring knocks put this one away for good.

The Mets' offense didn't do themselves any favors either, managing just four walks and four hits, but miscues like that cant not continue to happen. 

“Those are routine plays,” Carlos Mendoza said. “You expect those plays to be made, it’s as simple as that.”

Unfortunately for the Mets, too often this season those plays have not been made. 

They'll need to sharpen things up moving forward as they look to shake off their early-season skid.

Rangers 3, Cubs 0

• What if we made the whole team out of Jacobs?
• When I did a write-up for Bleed Cubbie Blue before this series, I said that Jacob deGrom was no longer “best pitcher in baseball” good, but he is still “legitimate #1 starter” good.
• They would be forgiven for assuming I lied to them.
• While it is cool to have a pitcher with a deep repertoire who throws six pitches and mixes things up and keeps batters guessing, it is also cool to have a pitcher who just pumps in a couple of elite pitches, MC Hammer-style.
• (U Can’t Touch This).
• Of Jacob deGrom’s 94 pitches on Sunday, 44 of them were fastballs. The Cubs swung 26 times at them, whiffed 12 times, fouled it off 8 times, and put the ball into play 6 times. None of the 6 fastballs in play went for hits.
• Per Statcast, here are the xBAs of the six deGrom fastballs that the Cubs put into play: .010, .030, .010, .010, .140, .180.
• Also per Statcast, three of the six balls in play off of deGrom fastballs qualified as “hard hit.” The launch angles on those three balls were 69 degrees, 43 degrees, and 64 degrees. So yeah, if the hitter is hitting the ball straight up in the air, as a pitcher, you’re fine with it being hit hard.
• Jacob deGrom threw 39 sliders on Sunday. 22 times the Cubs swung at a slider. 10 times they whiffed, 6 times they fouled it off, 6 times they put the ball into play. They got one hit off of deGrom’s slider, a Nico Hoerner sixth inning single.
• Just to keep things fair, deGrom did threw something other than the fastball/slider combo occasionally. deGrom threw eight change ups. The only changeup the Cubs put into play went for a hit. He also threw two curveballs, both for called strikes. He threw one sinker, which Hoerner hit for a double, then decided there was no need to throw that pitch again.
• The final line for deGrom was 7 innings, 3 hits, 0 walks, 10 Ks. Unlike Saturday, when the Cubs had baserunners all over the basepaths but couldn’t get them home, Sunday’s game saw the Cubs with just three baserunners all game. Chicago was 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position, though three of those were in the fourth, when Hoerner led off the inning with the double.
• 23 swings and misses on 94 pitches for deGrom. The man did some things today.
• After that, Jacob Latz came in and retired all six batters he faced for a two inning save. Jacob Latz, fireman extraordinaire.
• Despite the pitching dominance from the Rangers I was still more antsy than I would have liked due to the lack of offense.
• For most of the game the only run was one the Rangers scored in the fourth, when Josh Jung led off with a single, went to third on a Joc Pederson double, then scored on a fielder’s choice where the Cubs tried to get Jung at home on an Alejandro Osuna grounder. It was close, Jung may have been out, but when the Cubs challenged the play the call stood, giving Texas a 1-0 lead.
• The next play, Danny Jansen hit into a GIDP that the Rangers challenged. Jansen might have been safe, but once again the call stood. Had it been overturned Joc Pederson would have scored.
• It looked like Corey Seager had given the Rangers an insurance run in the eighth, when he smoked a ball deep to center, but it was caught in front of the fence. Seager was 0 for 3 with a walk and a K, and there will no doubt be more fretting about Seager’s bat, but along with the blast to center he had another hard hit line drive that was caught. I am not going to worry about Corey Seager.
• Evan Carter did provide insurance later in the inning, when, after another Jung single, Carter lofted one high in the air to right that found the seats and made it 3-0. Not as well hit as Seager, but better located.
• Josh Jung had a three hit game, as he continues to amaze.
• Brandon Nimmo, on the other hand, has kind of stopped hitting. He took a collar, making him 0 for 10 in the series, though with two walks. His last extra base hit was on April 23.
• Texas is now 2 back of the A’s in the A.L. West, and a half-game ahead of the hated Mariners.
• Jacob deGrom topped out at 98.3 mph with his fastball, averaging 97.2 mph. Jacob Latz touched 94.3 mph with his fastball.
• Joc Pederson had a 110.6 mph double and a 101.8 mph ground out. Corey Seager had a 103.6 mph fly out. Brandon Nimmo had a 101.8 mph line out and a 101.3 mph ground out. Ezequiel Duran had a 101.5 mph ground out. Josh Jung had a 100.4 mph single. Evan Carter’s homer was 98.6 mph.
• That was a nice couple of games of baseball. It would be even nicer if they could play the next few games like that as well.

Another disappointing week, what are your first thoughts?

Spencer: Average teams play like this. The offense is anemic. The pitching had an apocalyptic week last week. This version of the team is what I expected and why my win total projection was so low.

James Attwood: This is the sort of thing that happens when there is little depth. There simply hasn’t been anyone to step up when anyone on the normal roster has had a drop-off in play. The disappointing extra-inning loss to the Mets does not help things. I feel like this current run of poor form has the front office making some early season panic moves.

Justin27: Well, we ran into a hot Cubs team about to go on a win streak, and then Skenes, I don’t want to make excuses but I hope the “true” team starts to show up

Makakilo: The series against the Rangers (a team that lost most games in May, similar to the Diamondbacks) will provide insights. It will show whether the Diamondbacks are on the path to compete this season, or on a different undesirable path. That series is Monday through Wednesday (May 11-13).

Dano_In_Tucson: Well, the Saturday game turned out all right. And given that I’m intensely literate regarding the 2026 Pirates, I maybe didn’t find this week as disappointing than others–their starters are too good, their offense is good enough, I genuinely think they’re going to be a force this year. Their rotation is better than ours, and most other teams’. Ours is not. Their offense rarely gets entirely shut down. Ours does, especially right now. I’m not surprised that we only won one of those games….Pittsburgh is no longer the soft spot in the schedule that they have been in recent years.

Beyond that, though….what the hell has happened to the bats??!?

C. Wesley Baier: See my most recent article, but TLDR: This roster needs some major changes.

One bright spot has been the overall good reception to Lovullo’s closed door meeting with the starting pitchers. Have you seen anything in the recent run of good/decent pitching that suggests its sustainable?

Spencer: I was blacked out of most games this last week. So I have not seen much of anything recently. I certainly hope it’s sustainable. But man I don’t know. Sustainable and pitching aren’t words I think of together with Arizona.

James Atwood: Nothing specific one way or the other. The rotation has responded nicely, though Gallen still is giving up hard contact. If the defense continues to make some sparkling plays, then the odd hard contact can be survived. If the pitch sequencing continues to improve, then the likes of Ryne Nelson should do better as well. But the rotation has got to start trusting the defense more and throw more strikes. I’m not sure that the arms have enough swing and miss in them for them to get aggressive enough in the strike zone to clean up the problem of too many free passes.

Makakilo: In May, the Diamondbacks are on a path for 50% quality starts (sustaining 50% would have a positive impact). In the preseason, I wrote that despite the possibility that the rotation will be average, if they could reach 50% quality starts, the Diamondbacks offense could drive the team to a wild card berth.

Dano_In_Tucson: I remain deeply skeptical of Soroka, though he had a good outing against Skenes. But ERod bounced back, which suggests to me that maybe the ERod we saw in the WBC may actually be the pitcher he can be consistently, rather than the aberration I was starting to think it was. And Kelly tonight (I”m writing this after posting my Saturday recap) looked a whole lot more like his legit self than he’s seemed all season. So yeah, I think those two might actually be sustainable. Also, Ryne Nelson might be coming back around as well. We shall see.

C. Wesley Baier: The starting pitching has looked so much better, as far as that goes, it worked.

At the time of writing, the Diamondbacks are three games below .500. Are Hazen and Lovullo on the hot seat yet? If not, what will be the tipping point?

Spencer: Yes they are. I expect both are gone by the next Opening Day. And I think that’s fair. But it’s also true that Hazen/Lovullo are the best GM and Manager this franchise has had so far. They’ve spent half their tenure (and more) getting zero monetary support from ownership yet putting generally average or better product on the field (with some very large and notable below average ones). This franchise finally uses analytics thanks to Hazen. Their drafting has been far more sustainable than previous options as a result of this. But they need to crack the pitching development question.

I still believe Hazen and Lovullo will win a World Series together as the head pieces. I no longer believe it will be in Arizona. If nothing else, the Hazen/Lovullo Era will be known as the point where MLB stopped looking at Arizona as another Rockies franchise and being the geniuses who nabbed and finished developing Ketel Marte who may end up holding quite a few franchise records. Seems like a good but disappointing legacy to me.

James Attwood: They are not yet on my hot seat, though I understand those that want them there. Frankly, as long as they continue to play right around .500 ball while weathering the slew of injuries they started the season with, I’m content to let them continue to develop their project. If they fall entirely out of contention, then it is time to start talking about changes. I am far more interested in seeing how the team performs in August and September, than how they are performing with Puk, Martinez, Burns, and Lawlar all on the 60-day IL.

Justin27: I think so. I have a heard time believing their replacement would do much better. Sometimes mid season managerial changes work, sometimes they are rearranging chairs on the Titanic

Makakilo: No and none. Hazen and Lovullo have above-average years of experience, and they are well above-average in making an impact on the field. It is unlikely that the Diamondbacks could hire better replacements.

Dano_In_Tucson: Hazen, maybe, at least in my mind, because of his persistent failure/refusal to spend any money to try to build a respectable bullpen. That said, he somehow actually has a reasonably respectable bullpen right now, so I dunno. Go figure. As for Torey, I don’t think so. As has been noted, all he can do is arrange on the daily chessboard the pieces he has available to him, and frankly, given what he’s had to work with coming into this season with the deeply questionable rotation and the deeply strange lack of outfielders, I think he’s doing pretty well. I know a lot of people got very excited when we were however many games over .500 for a brief span of time there, and I was too, but I don’t think there’s any way that anyone with any sense could believe that we would still be on the rise like that but for poor lineup or game management decisions on his part. This roster, as it is currently comprised, is what it is. And in a lot of respects, it ain’t great. I feel like it’s a credit to our manager that we’re still as close to Mount .500 as we are.

C. Wesley Baier: Hazen and Lovullo aren’t on the hot seat unless this team goes on a serious losing streak.

The Ryan Waldschmidt Era has begun. What are your expectations for early results?

Spencer: I have no expectations. I would’ve called upon Kristian Robinson first. He’s less pivotal to the future and seems more prepared for big league pitching. Plus Lawlar returns in 4-6 weeks if reporting is to be believed. But Robinson doesn’t put butts in seats. So Waldy it is. I wish the kid nothing but luck.

Part of me can’t shake the feeling we may be showcasing Waldy for a big July trade…not sure how I’d feel about that honestly.

James Attwood: That he will get mis-used, like so many others. I would have likely brought up Kristian Robinson first, as the team still needs to get a good idea of what he brings as a 4th outfielder. I also am not convinced that Waldschmidt will get the necessary everyday at-bats right now. We shall see.

Justin27: I am happy for him. Maybe the DFA of AT and the call up of Waldschmidt lights a fired underneath the team. I am excited to see what he can do

Makakilo: His batting has a high ceiling (both homers and OPS). In February, I wrote (see AZ Snake Pit article Which Outfielder Will Most Exceed Expectations?) that if his defense in center field is at least average (and he continues to hit well), he will exceed expectations. Also, I wrote that I would be thrilled if he was promoted this season. I am.

Dano_In_Tucson: Expectations? None, really. Hopes? That he’ll suck less at the plate than Alek Thomas, and that fewer of his ABs will end by rolling over to second, often to start a double play. And small sample size, but he hasn’t done that yet. To be fair, he struck out three times tonight, twice looking, but there were no GIDPs, at least. Also, he looked smooth and supremely competent on the seven fly balls he had to contend with on Saturday….he chased them all down for outs, and he made them look easy, even though some of them certainly weren’t.

C. Wesley Baier: He’s probably going to be frustratingly passive at times, but I think he’ll be an improvement over Thomas.

On the flip side, the Alek Thomas Era has (probably) ended. What went wrong?

Spencer: Wrong? Not much. He never learned to hit good MLB pitching. Yet he was good enough to make and stick in the majors for a good while. He’s a reminder that there’s often a floor for “Top Prospects” but they aren’t sure things. For every Corbin Carroll there’s an unknown litany of Alek Thomases.

James Attwood: The expectations were sky-high. He has loads of talent, but is a prime example of how hitting the small round ball with a round bat is the hardest skill in sports. This is not the end of his MLB career, but it is almost certainly the end of his time as an Arizona Diamondback.

Justin27: He just couldn’t get it together offensively. A team with a better offense will scoop him up. Too bad he couldn’t hit .250 or something coupled with SF12 defense

Makakilo: Alek Thomas had injuries that slowed his development (hamstring and oblique injuries in 2024, and sore knee in July of 2025). This season his batting went downhill (OPS .578 in April, OPS .422 in May). This season, Alek Thomas had an OPS+ of 56 (impressively bad but better than Tim Tawa). That makes what Jim McLennan wrote in January prophetic. “If Alek Thomas doesn’t improve on his career 76 OPS+, and if Waldschmidt’s bat represents a clear upturn, then the team could decide to use Ryan in center. That would depend on his defense there being serviceable, and not outweighing the offensive positives.” — Jim McLennan

Dano_In_Tucson: Obviously, the failure of his bat to ever arrive and stick around consistently. Beyond that, he rarely looked consistently competent to me in center field (all those web gems aside), and for a guy with his speed, he never seemed to be able to learn to work competently on the basepaths. He should have been stealing bases at a level comparable to Perdomo at least, if not Carroll. I kinda felt, by the end, like it was a work ethic issue, though I have nothing but gut feeling to back that up.

In any event, I still think he can be a good ballplayer for someone, and I’m convinced that wasn’t going to happen for him in Arizona anymore, so I hope he goes someplace where he can succeed. The need for a change of scenery is a very real thing for some players, and I hope I gets it and I wish him well wherever he winds up. I never hated the guy, and I wanted to like him….it just got really old watching him continue to suck.

C. Wesley Baier: I have no idea. Maybe he just needs a change of scenery?

Well, would you look at that? Following a disappointing series loss in Seattle that brought their lengthy streak without series losses to a close, there was every possibility that things could’ve taken a turn for the worse with a trip to the house of horrors that is Dodger Stadium. While the Dodgers have seemed somewhat human in recent times, this was still a tough task for the Braves considering that the Dodgers were still among baseball’s elite.

The recent history also suggested that this was going to be an extremely tough task for the Braves to bounce back in Los Angeles. Dodger Stadium has been a true snake pit for this team, as they had lost eight straight games at Dodger Stadium and hadn’t won a series there since 2023. Plain-and-simple, this was going to be a very difficult mountain for the Braves to climb to finish off their long road trip out West. So how did things go? Let’s take a look at what ended up resulting in a happy plane ride back to Georgia.

Friday, May 8

Dodgers 3, Braves 1

The Braves certainly had their opportunities to get to Emmet Sheehan and the rest of LA’s pitching staff in this one but they were unable to capitalize on the vast majority of those opportunities. Atlanta collected nine hits and three walks in this one but they ended up leaving 10 runners on base and went 1-for-10 in situations with runners in scoring position. If you let this Dodgers team off the hook enough times, they’re going to eventually make you pay for it. Kyle Tucker smacked an RBI double off of Chris Sale in the second inning to tie the game at 1-1 early and then an RBI single from Shohei Ohtani in the fifth and a solo dinger from old friend Freddie Freeman in the sixth ended up giving the Dodgers just enough offense to squeak out the win.

It was a shame since this was a Chris Sale outing and you don’t want to waste too many of those. While Sale did give up five hits and three runs (one of which was unearned after Jim Jarvis followed up an incredible diving catch in the fourth inning with a throwing error in the fifth that eventually led to the Ohtani RBI), he struck out seven batters and finished with seven innings under his belt.

This could’ve been a win if Atlanta’s hitting was timelier. Alas, the Braves got what they got. That’s baseball for you!

Saturday, May 9

Braves 7, Dodgers 2

This game was all about Spencer Strider, who delivered what was arguably his best pitching performance post-elbow surgery — you could argue that his 13-strikeout night against the Rockies last June was better but the competition was certainly better this time around. Strider was an absolute nightmare for the Dodgers to deal with out there, as he stayed locked in for the most part and tossed six shutout innings with just one hit and two walks allowed with eight strikeouts to boot. Strider had it all going for him in this one and it was certainly encouraging to see him bounce back in an environment that was more conducive to success than Coors Field.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers decided that Blake Snell was ready for his first start of the season instead of giving him another rehab start to prepare for big league action. That decision ended up not working out for Los Angeles, as the Braves ended up jumping on him for five runs (four earned) through just three innings. The Braves had a 1-0 lead with the bases loaded wand two out in the second before they got a rally going to put some serious breathing room between themselves and the Dodgers.

Ozzie Albies golfed one from close to the ground and into the outfield for an RBI single that plated two runners, then a rare passed ball from Will Smith moved the two remaining runners into scoring position. Matt Olson capitalized on it by looping one into the green space for another two runs to make it a 5-0 game.

Atlanta added on a couple of runs via a fifth-inning RBI double from Michael Harris II and an eighth-inning RBI single from Drake Baldwin to make it a 7-0 lead. The only thing that kept the Dodgers from getting blanked at home for the first time this season was Andy Pages hitting a two-run dinger at Reynaldo López’s expense. Other than that, this was a very comprehensive win for the Braves.

The win came as small comfort for Braves Country, as the organization mourned the loss of another massive figure in the franchise’s history. Just days after former owner Ted Turner passed away, legendary manager Bobby Cox also passed away shortly before the game on Saturday. The sports world as a whole came together to mourn one of the most important figures of the sport during the 1990s and it has to be said that BravesVision did a great job of pulling together a very solid tribute broadcast in honor of the skipper.

Sunday, May 10

Braves 7, Dodgers 2

In the ultimate matchup of “Who’s going to keep on getting away with it,” we got our answer. Bryce Elder came out of this battle against Justin Wrobleski wtih the winning edge, as Elder ended up making it into the sixth inning with just one hit allowed while striking out eight batters. For 5.2 innings, Elder was absolutely dazzling in such a huge spot for Atlanta as the Braves were going for a rare series win at Dodger Stadium.

With that being said, Elder did eventually run into serious trouble with two out in the sixth inning, which is when he suddenly lost all command and walked the bases loaded on 14 pitches across those three walks. Walt Weiss made the astute decision to go with Robert Suarez in this situation but it almost backfired when Max Muncy crushed one out to right field. Eli White proceeded to put it all on the line as he went crashing into the wall to make a catch that helped preserve the shutout instead of dealing with what would’ve surely been at least three runs allowed. White ended up paying the price for it, as he exited the game after he tried to take a plate appearance in the following inning.

While Wrobleski did end up coming one out away from pitching a complete game, he did so while getting lit up by the Braves. Atlanta torched Wrobleski for four runs in the second inning, with the major blow being a bases-clearing double down the left-field line that built upon Eli White’s RBI single earlier on in the second to make it a 4-0 game for the Braves. Wrobleski calmed down after that but ultimately, Dave Roberts’ decision to keep Wrobleski out there came back to bite him.

Drake Baldwin hit a solo shot in the eighth inning to give the Braves a 5-0 lead and then after Max Muncy made up for his near-miss in the sixth with a two-run dinger in the bottom of the eighth, Matt Olson responded with a solo shot of his own to get one of those runs back. They got both of them back after Jorge Mateo eventually brought in another run off of Wyatt Mills. Both of those homers from Baldwin and Olson came in their fourth go-around with Wrobleski, which is why you don’t normally see pitchers go four times through the order. Anyways, Raisel Iglesias got the ball for the ninth and had no problem keeping the Dodgers quiet as the Braves ended up cruising to another 7-2 win — this time for the series.

This was really and truly a trying week for the Atlanta Braves. On top of this being a load road trip out West against some tricky-to-tough competition, this was also an emotional week due to the passing of both Ted Turner and Bobby Cox. On the field, this was also a really tricky time to lose Ronald Acuña Jr. due to injury. It would’ve been totally understandable if the Braves had ended up faltering in this series in Los Angeles following the disappointing series loss to the Mariners.

Instead, the Braves rose to the challenge and finished the West Coast swing in strong fashion. Any time the Braves can pick up a series in in any ballpark in California, it’s a bonus — doing it at Dodger Stadium is like hitting the jackpot. While the Dodgers offense is currently in the midst of a bit of a slump, it’s a testament to the performance of Atlanta’s pitching staff during this series that they were able to keep the Dodgers mired in that slump. Even Chris Sale’s performance in a losing effort was solid as usual. Seeing Spencer Strider perform like he did on Saturday night was incredibly encouraging and if Bryce Elder is doing this against the Dodgers then it’s probably safe to assume that he can keep up this level of form for the foreseeable future.

Instead, the Braves continue to fire on all cylinders and now they’re heading home after a lovely 6-3 West Coast swing. Personally, I would’ve been happy with 4-5 considering how Atlanta has recently performed out West. Instead, the Braves have shown now that the venue doesn’t matter — they’re going to be a nightmare to deal with on every night. It’s reminiscent of how this team was clicking back in 2022 and 2023 and picking up a series win in Los Angeles is very, very encouraging to see.

They’ll now have another day off before getting set for what’ll be a very interesting homestand. Another showdown is on the immediate horizon with the red-hot Cubs coming to town. If the Braves can make another statement against Chicago then they could have an opportunity to really keep this train going in the right track with a favorable stretch against Boston (twice), the Marlins and the Nationals. This could be another big month for the Braves, which would be huge once they get past the traditional early sign post of Memorial Day and into the Summer. Things are going very well for the Atlanta Braves at the moment and it’s exciting to see just how far this team can go and how high they can keep on flying at the moment.