Category: MLB

Some of the plans for the Dodgers’ bullpen went out the window in an unceremonious fashion quite early on, but the unit continues to function at a high level. Among other things, that’s down to the emergence of Kyle Hurt as one of the top setup men in the National League—a big statement for a young pitcher whose not only role, but mere presence on the big league roster this season, was undefined heading into spring training.

After striking out 12 hitters in 7.1 innings in spring training, Hurt impressed but ultimately couldn’t land a spot on the Opening Day roster. It wasn’t until Ben Casparius hit the shelf that Hurt joined the club, and firstly, amidst Edwin Díaz’ injury, and also partially just through his own merit, Hurt began climbing up the leverage ladder in the bullpen.

Yet another success story of the Dodgers utilizing their vast resources to work the trade market in their favor, a former Marlins farmhand, Hurt relies on a four-seam fastball that hurts hitters. He throws it over 60% of the time with a 22.0% SwSt%, one that puts him in the 97th percentile. As it is the case with pitchers that generate a lot of swing-and-miss action on their four-seamers, Hurt throws it upstairs quite often, relying on batters swinging underneath it, and so far in 2026, they’re 6 for 32 on the pitch with 12 strikeouts and just one extra-base hit. To complement that heavy four-seamer, Hurt has a changeup. While generally it’d be reasonable to express some concern about how the splits would translate against same-handed batters having the changeup as your primary off-speed pitch, Hurt is able to find success against righties and lefties.

Something that’s appealing about what Hurt is doing now, but more importantly, when it comes to the sustainability of his success, is that the tall right-hander is attacking the zone with everything he throws. He’s not nibbling around the edges too much. Hurt throws his changeup in the zone (43.6%) more than the MLB average (33.9%), and it’s not as if he is thriving because hitters have been passive and will eventually adjust. On the contrary, the swing rate against Hurt’s changeup (60.0%) is well above Hurt’s (45.6%).

Attacking the zone is so important because if you can accomplish that while still being able to generate the constant swing-and-misses that Hurt has been able to, you find yourself as one of only four relievers in baseball with a strikeout rate of over 30% and a walk rate below 5%.

The recent series against the Padres, particularly the matchups against Mason Miller, showed how oftentimes when dealing with the elite relievers, you’re at the mercy of a momentary loss of command from them. All of the threat and action that the talented Dodgers offense generated against Miller basically came from him pitching against himself more so than anything else. Obviously, Hurt still has a long way to go. We’re evaluating a sample size of 14 innings, but out of that, the sky is the limit with his tools. It’s no surprise that before the start of the year, when we asked you here who was the reliever you were most excited about seeing called up to join the Dodgers bullpen in 2026, Hurt won it quite easily. And to think that a key chunk of this bullpen consists of a couple of players acquired for the services of Dylan Floro some years ago. You could not ask for anything more.

It may seem obvious that the Diamondbacks are better than the Rockies.  Up front, my expectation is for the Diamondbacks to win this four-game series against the Rockies.  Nevertheless, let’s compare the teams.  Top-level comparisons follow.

The 3-game Series at Coors.  In the previous two seasons, these teams split their games at Coors, but the Diamondbacks won more games at Chase (where this series is played, as you know).  So, after Kelly’s complete game win, I was hoping the Diamondbacks would sweep the Rockies at Coors (which would open the door for a rare sweep of a four game series at Chase).  Instead, the Diamondbacks won the series with 2 wins and 1 loss.

Offense.This season through 16 May, the Diamondbacks had more runs scored per game (4.37 vs 4.20), despite the Rockies batters having more games at Coors. The Diamondbacks OPS+ was only slightly better than the Rockies (94 vs 91)  Both were below average, which surprised me. 

Runners Left On Base. In games through 16 May, despite an increased runners left on base in May, the Diamondbacks had the second lowest runners left on base of 6.18 per game (The Padres were lowest with 6.09 per game).  The Rockies were higher (6.59 per game). 

Defense. In games through 16 May, the Diamondbacks defense is on a much higher level than the Rockies defense (9 vs negative 3 outs above average (OAA), and 17 vs 9 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS).

Bullpens. This season through 16 May, the bullpens are nearly equal in shutdown performances by the bullpen (49 vs 47).  Very slight edge to the Diamondbacks.

Starting Pitcher Matchups. An extremely amazing streak was that from 5 to 15 May, the Diamondbacks rotation had quality starts in 8 of their 10 games. For this series, the matchups are advantage Diamondbacks.

Saturday’s Game Could Be Interesting

In Saturday’s game, two batters have favorable matchups with starting pitchers.

• Mickey Moniak (Rockies) has 2 homers and 5 RBIs in 12 PAs against Zac Gallen. Recently (13 May) he was a single short of hitting for the cycle!  He was the first overall draft pick in 2016.
• Nolan Arenado (D-backs, former Rocky) has 2 homers and 3 RBIs in 28 PAs against Jose Quintana.  Recently (15 May), he hit a double and walked four times (that’s 100% on base)!  He won a silver-slugger five times, won a gold-glove ten times, and won a platinum glove six times.

Pitching Matchups.

Thursday, 6:40 PM MST. Eduardo Rodriguez will face TBD. On 20 May, the Rockies selected the contract of AAA long reliever Keegan Thompson. Perhaps he will start the game or the game will be a bullpen game.

Friday, 6:40 PM MST. Michael Soroka will face Tomoyuki Sugano.

Saturday, 7:10 PM MST. Zac Gallen will face Michael Lorenzen.

Sunday, 1:00 PM MST. Ryne Nelson will face Jose Quintana.

My view is that these matchups favor the Diamondbacks.

Four comparisons of starting pitchers, who will probably not face each other in this series (but in my mind might have faced each other).

Eduardo Rodriguez vs Tomoyuki Sugano.  Looking at earned runs and innings pitched, these two pitchers are similar because this season each was pulled from three games when they still had a shot at a quality start.  This season, Rodriguez has more quality starts (4 vs 2).  

Michael Soroka vs Michael Lozenzen. Looking at their last four games, they each had a clunker of 7 or 8 earned runs. Nevertheless, Soroka had a better ERA in the four games (4.64 vs 8.55).

Zac Gallen vs Jose Quintana. In their last four games, they each have one quality start. The difference is that Quintana had a better ERA in those four games (3.37 vs 7.08).

Ryne Nelson vs Tanner Gordon. Looking at only their last four games, Nelson had the better ERA (2.73 vs 6.06). On the other hand, Gordon had higher strikeouts per batter faced (24.6% vs 21.3%). Although Gordon may strikeout more batters, I’m expecting Nelson to allow less earned runs.

The Cubs, as you know, have had multiple pitching injuries.

That list got a bit longer Wednesday when Edward Cabrera left the game with a blister. Fortunately, that’s not usually a serious injury. Maybe he misses a start, maybe not.

The Cubs are not alone in having many rotation starters injured. Look at the Blue Jays, for example — and Toronto has had a rough time of it, currently sitting tied for third place in the AL East, 11.5 games out of first place at 22-27. At least the Cubs are still well over .500 at 29-21.

In the comments in the recap to Wednesday’s debacle, BCB reader D98 reminded everyone that the Brewers acquired a starting pitcher early in the season last year (April 7, to be exact) who turned out to be pretty good.

That guy was Quinn Priester, who in 20 games for the Pirates (14 starts) in 2023-24, had posted a 6.46 ERA, 1.585 WHIP and allowed 19 home runs in 94.2 innings. He’d been so bad that the Pirates traded him to the Red Sox for Nick Yorke, a bench player who currently has a .555 OPS in 27 games for Pittsburgh. The Red Sox gave up on Priester after one start and sent him to Milwaukee for two minor leaguers, neither of whom has played above Double-A.

Priester — who was a former No. 1 draft pick — turned out to be really good in Milwaukee, posting a 3.32 ERA, 1.239 WHIP and 13 wins in 29 games (24 starts). He’s currently on the IL, rehabbing from thoracic outlet syndrome issues.

It’s my thought that no one could have possibly known Priester would be that good when he was acquired. In fact, after his first five Brewers appearances he had a 5.79 ERA, which included getting absolutely pounded by the Cubs in this game.

Obviously, he turned things around and was a key piece for Milwaukee, including in the postseason.

So now I’m asking you: Can you identify someone like this, under the radar, who the Cubs might be able to acquire now? Any pitcher with any sort of reputation (Freddy Peralta, for example) isn’t going to be available in mid-May.

And don’t say “Well, I don’t have access to the Cubs’ internal scouting reports.” That’s pretty obvious.

I’m asking you to speculate, think about guys who might turn it around if given a chance, who the Cubs could get right now for a couple of prospects similar to the ones the Brewers sent to Boston for Priester.

Basically, here’s a discussion topic for an off day. Have at it.

Back in 2022-2023, the pitching matchup in tonight’s Braves-Marlins series finale would’ve been heralded far and wide. Things are a little different these days, but that doesn’t mean that either team will have an easy path to a victory. The Braves can no longer lose this series after yesterday’s victory, but they can indeed still win it, and that’s what they’ll try to do as Spencer Strider faces off against Sandy Alcantara in Miami.

From 2021-2023, Alcantara was not just a workhorse, but a dominant hurler. He pitched 619 frames across 93 starts in that span, going from 4.3 fWAR in 2021 to 5.9 in 2022, before wearing down into something worse but still above-average in 2023 (3.0 fWAR). Part of that wearing down was his elbow ligament making a sad face late in 2023, as he missed most of September of that season, and all of 2024, with Tommy John Surgery and the associated recovery. Alcantara’s 2025 comeback campaign was a mixed bag at best — the righty had a career 78/90/94 line through 2023 (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-), including a 73/82/85 line during the ‘21-’23 span mentioned. He stumbled around to a 126/103/101 line last year, giving the Marlins durability (31 starts) but less in the way of length (“just” 174 2/3 innings) or effectiveness.

In 2026, things are better for him in some ways, but not others. He’s once again pitching more deeply into games — 63 2/3 innings in ten starts — on the order of what he managed in 2021 and 2023 (but not 2022, where he averaged over seven frames per outing in his Cy Young-winning campaign). His ERA- and FIP- look better, both at 86… but his xFIP- is at 102. He’s running a career-low strikeout rate of just 16.9 percent at the moment, but riding high due to a teeny-tiny HR/FB.

He’s also been somewhat inconsistent in decently-long stretches. He had three nice outings to start 2026, including a complete game shutout of the White Sox, but then gave up four homers (the only four homers hit off him so far this year) in two starts, part of a bigger six-start stretch where he had a very blah 150/119/123 line. But, he then bounced back to dismantle the playing-very-good-ball Rays last Saturday, with a 6/0 K/BB ratio in what was arguably his best start since coming back from surgery, and perhaps his best start since winning the Cy Young Award back in 2022.

The Braves and Alcantara have a ton of history, as he’s made 16 starts against them in his career. His aggregate line includes a 3.99 FIP and 4.38 xFIP in 100 2/3 innings versus the Braves, which is notably worse than his performance overall. Even last year, facing a moribund team while perhaps still recovering himself, Alcantara’s performance wasn’t dominant: one good start, one okay start, and one where the Braves, diminished as they were, roughed him up.

On the flip side, the Braves will have Spencer Strider vying to suppress the Miami attack in the way that Chris Sale was able to on Wednesday. Strider’s three starts so far this season have also been a mixed bag: a struggle in his season debut at Coors Field, an evisceration of the Dodgers in Los Angeles, and then, most recently, a meh start against the Red Sox with a 4/3 K/BB ratio where he lasted 5 1/3 innings. On the season, Strider’s line is an appropriately-silly-for-three starts 60/90/101. I guess that makes this a pretty fitting matchup with Alcantara, as a battle of starters-that-are-currently-fortunate-to-have-a-low-HR/FB and who were once dominant, but are now working their way back to something more than mid-rotation candidates.

Strider has five career outings against the Marlins, though two were relief appearances in 2022. He completely obliterated them in two separate starts in 2023, and had a weirdly meh outing where he nonetheless went seven frames against them last season. There wasn’t much doubt about this, but Strider’s effectiveness in this one is going to be based on his own mechanics rather than any shared history.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Thursday, May 21, 6:40 p.m. EDT

Location: loanDepot (Stupid Capitalization) Park, Miami, FL

TV: BravesVision

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

After throwing two simulated innings yesterday in a bullpen session, injured Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet has declared himself free of the shoulder inflammation that landed him on the IL. That’s great! What’s less great is that he also declared that his mechanics are out of whack. Crochet will take a few days off, throw another bullpen over the weekend, and likely be out until early June as he works out the kinks. “I feel like everyone that goes on the IL, it’s always a little longer than they want it to be. I’m not exempt from that,” he said. “It’s definitely taken longer than I had hoped it would when I initially went on the IL, but it’s part of it. Right now, I’m just trying to be a good cheerleader.” (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)

Barring any further injuries, Crochet’s return will likely mean that someone is going to get bounced from the Red Sox rotation. If the Sox base things purely on performance, that person would unquestionably be Brayan Bello, who, after two promising appearances in a bulk role following an opener, once again struggled as a conventional starter his last time out. Manager Chad Tracy said the Sox may go back to the opener strategy for Bello, but it will be decided on a case-by-case basis, depending in large part on the health and availability of the arms in the bullpen. (Justin Turpin, WEEI)

When Garrett Crochet does return, will he return to an improved offense? Jarren Duran broke out in a big way in Kansas City over the past three days, providing some hope that Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu might finally get some help in the lineup. “I’m trending in the upward direction, and I’m just trying to stay simple and do stuff to help the team win,” said Duran. (Ian Browne, MLB.com)

But his bat wasn’t the only thing Duran was handling well last night, he also made a great catch at the wall. “I’m willing to get hurt to make a play for my pitchers,” he said. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)

It’s great that Duran’s willing to go all out on defense, but getting hurt wouldn’t exactly help the Red Sox at this point. And, speaking of getting hurt, Trevor Story still hasn’t decided on whether he’s getting surgery, and seems to be doing a little opinion shopping in the meantime:

With the way he was playing, an extended absence by Trevor Story wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. But it would be nice to get Roman Anthony back in the lineup, even though he may have been asked to do too much for this Red Sox team this year. (Chad Finn, Boston Globe)

Detroit Tigers (20-30) vs. Cleveland Guardians (29-22)

Time/Place: 1:10 p.m., Comerica Park
SB Nation Site: Covering the Corner
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Casey Mize (2-2, 2.43 ERA) vs. LHP Joey Cantillo (3-1, 3.40 ERA)

It is nice to get a one-run win for a change. They are 5-10 in one run games. I expect that to level off some.

There is a bunch of little bits of Jays news:

• Braydon Fisher gets the ‘start’ today, playing the opener for Spencer Miles. Maybe they can get four innings from Miles? Fisher has gone two innings once this season. But, it is likely the bullpen is going to have to cover 5ish innings. And we have been testing those arms a lot lately. That’s what I don’t like about bullpen days, there isn’t much room for taking a guy out quick if he ‘doesn’t have it that day’.
• They are saying that Jesus Sanchez got winded last night on that diving non-catch. It was very awkward, but then it seems most of his plays in the outfield are awkward. He’s on a nice little run, hitting .429 over his last dozen games. A bit more power would be ok, but we’ll take what we can get.
• John Schneider called Andrés Giménez’s 11-pitch at-bat was the at-bat of the season. And he has done very well with RISP .371/.385/.600. With bases empty .181/.200/.289. Some one should tell him there are always runners on base. I remember that Ryan Goins had a season like that and I said something like ‘if you can hit like that, why not do it all the time.’ I mean Goins had a career as a utility infielder. If he could flip a switch and be ‘Babe Ruth’ why not do that? Who doesn’t want to be rich? I think he blocked me on twitter soon after that. Which is fair.
• Trey Yesavage struck Aaron Judge out three times yesterday. Watching Trey pitch yesterday, you get the feeling he’s going to win a Cy Young at some point. Having him and Dylan Cease at the top of the rotation for the few years should be fun.
• How many times do you get to see two starting pitchers who are at the top of their game face each other. I remember Dave Stieb and Jack Morris. Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett? Well, Burnett wasn’t at the top of his game the time they faced each other.
• Apparently, Cam Schlittle said the Jays ‘will BABIP the **** out of you’. He hasn’t watched them at all this season.
• The Jays are still just 2 games back of a Wild Card spot which seems amazing. And more surprising, there are only three times to pass to get to it. The AL has been terrible this season, so far. But, really the Jays are going to have to get to .500 before we can seriously think about that. They are 5 games under .500 at the moment.

I had thought the strike zone was pretty big last night, but I was wrong, Sorry Brock.

Non-Jays, but wouldn’t this have been amazing:

Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals, May 21, 2026, 1:15 p.m. ET

Location: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO

Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet-PIT

Pitching Matchup: Braxton Ashcraft (2-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. Dustin May (3-4, 4.81 ERA)

The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road today against the St. Louis Cardinals looking to grab a win.

Please remember our Game Day thread guidelines.

• Don’t troll in your comments; create conversation rather than destroying it
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BD community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman doubled in each of his first two at-bats in Wednesday’s win over the San Diego Padres, finishing off a productive series at Petco Park. He now has 560 doubles in his career, tied for 30th all-time in MLB history.

He’s tied with Eddie Murray and Jeff Kent, both who like Freeman came to Los Angeles in the back half of their careers. Freeman and Murray were linked not only given their timing in joining the Dodgers, but by production as well. By similarity scores, Murray was the most similar player to Freeman for every age from 21 to 32. Murray and Kent are both in the Hall of Fame, and Freeman will join them one day in Cooperstown.

Freeman in his first four years with the Dodgers hit 180 doubles, the most in any four-year span in franchise history. He began the year tied for 34th all-time with Manny Ramirez, another former Dodger, and has since passed Alex Rodríguez and Freeman’s former Atlanta Braves teammate Chipper Jones.

Up next is Carlos Beltrán in 29th place with 565 doubles.

Freeman is nearing 200 doubles with the Dodgers (he’s seven away), something only 19 players have done in franchise history. He’s also at 967 extra-base hits, 33 shy of becoming the 40th player in history with 1,000 extra-base hits.

Freeman on Tuesday homered twice, giving him eight extra-base hits over his last 14 games. He’s the first Dodger with consecutive games of multiple extra-base hits since Mookie Betts last September 9-10.

We are through 50 games of this Dodgers season, and Freeman has 13 doubles, putting him on pace for 42 this year. Freeman has five seasons with at least 40 doubles in his career, plus 39 doubles last season.

Back in February, we asked how many doubles you think Freeman will hit this season. Now almost a third into the season, we’ll ask you to update your guesses: How many doubles will Freddie Freeman hit this season?

Welcome back to our Discussion series. With an off-day to sit and ponder, today’s question focuses on the people who live and die with every pitch: what are the best and worst traits of our fan base?

South Siders are a cocktail of loyalty, humor, pure stubbornness, and survival instinct. This bunch has survived more rebuilds, fake turnarounds, and bullpen implosions than anyone should have to. Still, we show up and convince ourselves that the next batch of prospects is the answer. Pride? Sure. Baggage? Lots of it.

Some say White Sox fans are some of the sharpest and most passionate in the game. Others say decades of letdowns have baked in an expectation of disaster before hope can even stretch its legs. Is that hard-earned wisdom, or just pessimism that has become deeply embedded in the fan experience?

No trophies for ‘best fans’ here, and no need to air out the laundry. We’re just curious about what actually makes Sox fans tick. Is it the stubborn loyalty, the pitch-black humor, the endless Twitter brawls? Or is there something uniquely South Side that outsiders simply don’t understand?

Step up and sound off because if there’s one thing Sox fans never run short on, it’s opinions.

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The New York Mets will try to salvage a series split as they take on the Washington Nationals this afternoon.

The Washington offense continues to roll night after night, and I like it to get a win and carry the Over in my Mets vs. Nationals predictions.

Read on for more analysis and to get my free MLB picks for Thursday, May 14.

Who will win Mets vs Nationals today: Nationals moneyline (+100)

New York Mets starter David Peterson has struggled to get back to the pitcher he was in early 2025. He’s 2-4 with a 5.40 ERA this season, and while he’s been better working behind an opener, his stuff still isn’t what it once was.

Peterson is allowing a hard-hit rate of 45.3%, and has seen his WHIP balloon to 1.57.

The Washington Nationals took advantage of this earlier this year, hitting Peterson for seven runs over 3 2/3 innings of work on April 29.

The Mets have been struggling to contain this Washington offense, and I like the Nats to win again tonight.

COVERS INTEL: The Nationals have a 46.2% pull rate against sinkers and sliders from lefty pitchers – the two most common pitches in Peterson’s arsenal.

Mets vs Nationals Over/Under pick: Over 7.5 (-122)

The Nationals have been the best offensive team in the majors so far this season, scoring 5.58 runs per game. That might be more sustainable than many suspect, as Washington has a .331 xwOBA on the year, sixth-best in the league.

But the Mets offense is waking up as well. New York has averaged 7.0 runs per game over its last nine, and both Juan Soto and Bo Bichette have hit three homers in this series so far. These teams are putting up tons of runs, and the Over is the play tonight.

Mets vs Nationals odds

• Moneyline: Mets +100 | Nationals -104
• Run line: Mets +1.5 (-213) | Nationals -1.5 (+203)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (-117) | Under 7.5 (+113)

Mets vs Nationals trend

The Over is 5-0-1 in six meetings between the Mets and Nationals this season. Find more MLB betting trends for Mets vs. Nationals.

How to watch Mets vs Nationals and game info

Mets vs Nationals latest injuries

Mets vs Nationals weather

This article originally appeared on Covers.com, read the full article here and view our best betting sites or check out our top sportsbook promos.

Stephen Vogt is a great manager, but we need to see some adjustment in how he uses David Fry.

Good news on David Fry! He appears to be a solid major league hitter. He has a 112 wRC+ this season and a 110 wRC+ for his career.

Bad news on Guardians’ catchers! The Guards have two amazing defensive catchers who cannot hit a lick – Hedges has a career 51 wRC+ and Bailey has a career 71 wRC+.

Good news! David Fry can play catcher, so he can be put in a catcher position to allow the team not to endure a Patrick Bailey or Austin Hedges at-bat with the game on the line.

Bad news! Stephen Vogt seems to have too much confidence in Bailey and Hedges as hitters (mistake!) and/or not enough confidence in David Fry as a catcher (he may be right!) to optimally employ this strategy. Notably, he can pinch-hit for Bailey or Hedges in the 7th or 8th and then get whichever defensive savant he wants in the game in the 9th to relieve Fry to reduce any defensive risks.

Last night, in the bottom of the fifth last night, Tuesday, May 20th, with right-hander Kyle Finnegan on the mound, Stephen Vogt pinch-hit Travis Bazzana for David Fry, who was in right-field at the time. I am really not sure why he did this, as Finnegan was clearly at the end of his appearance and Tigers’ manager AJ Hinch was likely to bring a lefty in to face a left-handed hitter, as he proceeded to do. Mostly, the issue with this move was the Fry was now unavailable to move to catcher if a pinch-hitter was needed for Patrick Bailey later in the game. This is not an isolated incident, nor is choosing to start David Fry at DH where moving him to catcher requires the team to lose the DH-spot.

Consequently, the worst possible outcome occurred later in the game. Needing one run to tie the game, Patrick Bailey took the most important at-bat of the game for the Guardians with only Petey Halpin and Austin Hedges available on the bench to bat for him. Bailey got the groundball to tie the game, but not without significant travail. Now, Bazzana did single ahead of Bailey’s at-bat to give the team the chance to tie the game, so maybe Vogt wins on this gambit. Yet, it doesn’t change the fact that Vogt and the team need to be clear on this strategem – if at all possible, Fry needs to be kept available to be used in the catcher spot so that Austin Hedges and Patrick Bailey do not have the fate of any game resting on their bats unless absolutely necessary.

Stop being confident in Bailey and Hedges to hit with the game on the line. There is AMPLE evidence that neither should be trusted to hit. Optimize David Fry’s presence on this roster by leveraging him into catcher at-bats late in close games. Please and thank you.

On May 21, 1880, a strange thing happened in upstate New York. While playing at Riverside Park in Albany, Lip Pike — playing for the National Association team in Albany in between stints at the professional/semi-professional level — hit a fly ball over the fence in right field and into the nearby river. Outfielder Lon Knight, playing for the visiting Worcester Ruby Legs, hopped in a boat to chase the ball — because, despite the fact that the ball went over the wall, it was still technically a live ball!

These days, when the ball goes over the fence, it is out of play, and depending on whether it gets there on the fly or on a bounce determines whether it’s a home run or a ground-rule double (yes, it’s officially called an automatic double, but, well, old habits die hard). However—like everything in baseball—this rule wasn’t written down on golden tablets handed to Abner Doubleday/Alexander Cartwright/whichever semi-mythological figure you consider to be the founder of baseball, but one that evolved throughout the history of the game. Unfortunately, the Baseball Almanac’s list of rules changes does not give us an exact moment that this rule was created, but we can surmise that it came into existence prior to the National League’s creation in 1876, as on May 2nd of that year, Chicago White Stockings second baseman Ross Barnes hit the first home run in what would become Major League history. But even then, its story was not so simple.

If you have followed my history-of-early-baseball posts over the past few years, you already know that 19th-century baseball was organized very differently than the baseball of today. Rather than a centralized league imposing a particular ruleset, the home team determined the particular rule set the game was played under, with convention dictating the most basic rules, up until the creation of the NL. Indeed, even after the Senior Circuit came into existence, the home teams still had quite a bit of say in how the game was played, as the NL office in its early years focused less on the product on the field and more on bullying other leagues out of existence to ensure a monopoly over the sport (but that’s a story for another day).

We see hints of this still today, where individual ballparks have rules to determine home run/ground rule double/foul ball when the ball hits a catwalk, or gets stuck in the ivy, or any other random thing occurs that is unique to that ballpark. But in the 1800s, even fundamental rules, such as what happened when a ball went over the fence, depended on where the game was played.

Did Lon Knight actually grab a boat and chase down a ball in the river in order to get the ball and try to make a play? In truth, it sounds a bit ridiculous. How slow must the batter have been where hopping the fence, heading into a boat, and setting sail on the river seemed a perfectly reasonable solution? It’s not for nothing that the SABR biography of Knight says “there is undoubtedly some fictitious element to the story.” Since the teams had a limited amount of balls back in those days, it seems more likely to me that Knight hopped in the river not to continue the play, but to continue the game, and that over time, the story grew in its telling. What this story does reinforce, though, is the fact that these rules depended by and large on the ballpark; if a ball over the fence was always a home run, after all, this story could not have come into existence in the version described.

Naturally, some teams took advantage of this. In the early 1880s, the Chicago White Stockings played on a field with short fences (some sources place them less than 200 feet from home plate), and according to convention at the time, batted balls hit over a fence that was less than 250 feet were treated as doubles, not home runs. According to SABR, however, in 1884, Chicago changed their own ground rule so that everything that went over the fence was considered a homer, not a double, resulting in a season in which Ned Williamson hit 27 home runs, a record that would stand until Babe Ruth’s 29-homer season in 1920.

In time, to stop shenanigans such as this, rules surrounding batted balls hit over the fence were ultimately standardized. Originally, in addition to all fly balls that went over the wall being considered home runs, all balls that bounced just once before going over fell into this category, neatly paralleling the fact that, up until 1864 for fair balls and 1883 for foul balls, batted balls caught on one bounce were considered an out; only in 1931 was this rule changed, and the modern-day ground-rule double brought into existence. As such, these days, shenanigans about long fly balls are limited to non-professional games, such as your local little leagues or bar softball games — or, apparently, the Saarikenttä in Finland.