Category: Baseball

While the big league club had an up and down week, it was all sunshine and roses down on the farm. Nats prospects were absolutely killing it last week. There were so many guys producing that I probably won’t be able to give all of them the shine they deserve here. Of the 20 prospects on Baseball America’s weekly hot sheet, five of them were Nats prospects.

The crazy thing is that there are still a few Nats prospects who arguably got snubbed here. Coy James hit his first two pro homers, Landon Harmon fired five scoreless innings, Ethan Petry put up monster numbers and Cayden Wallace continued raking. Yet, none of those guys were able to make the cut.

They probably should have, but whoever was making the list probably did not want half the players to come from one team. It was the most productive week in the minor leagues that I can remember. The hitting development in this organization has taken a massive step forward under Paul Toboni. From the Fred Nats to the real Nats, you can see the improvements.

In my opinion, no player has improved more at the plate than Seaver King. The turning point for him seemed to be the Arizona Fall League, but it has carried over. Right now, he is hitting .286 with a .992 OPS in Double A. Last season, he posted a .600 OPS in 80 Double-A games. In 14 games, he has homered just as many times in Harrisburg as he did all of last season. Last week, he had a two-homer game.

The biggest change for King is that he is swinging way less. That has predictably led to way more walks. He has 15 walks to just 16 strikeouts. Last year in AA, he had 23 walks and 74 strikeouts. In 2025, he swung at over 53% of pitches, but that number has dropped to 36.8% this year. 

That number is a bit lower than you would like, but it is clear he has a plan of attack now. He is only going to swing at pitches he can do damage with. Eventually, this approach will be attacked and he will have to find a happy medium. For context, that 36.8% swing rate is lower than James Wood’s swing rate, and Wood is a guy who many nitpick for not swinging enough.

This more selective version of King is producing much better results, and landed him a place on the hot sheet. If he keeps hitting like this, a promotion to Triple-A could come soon. There is a chance he could make his MLB debut this year if he keeps performing. The Nats could use a second baseman with an offensive punch.

Another infielder performing well is Ronny Cruz. Ever since Spring Training, his name has been on the tip of people’s tongues. He is emerging as a breakout prospect and a real coup for the Nats. They acquired Cruz as part of the Michael Soroka trade last July.

He spent all of last season in rookie ball, but he absolutely lit it up in Low-A to start the season. Cruz posted a .333 average and 1.087 OPS. He is a power speed threat, who has 7 extra base hits already. Cruz also stole 12 bases just last week. That production was enough to secure him a promotion to High-A despite only 14 career games above rookie ball.

This aggressive promotion shows how much faith the Nats have in Cruz. He has been a guy the organization has been absolutely raving about. They think they have unearthed a hidden gem here. Right now, he is the Nats 25th ranked prospect, but that will not be the case for long.

Speaking of players who could be in line for a promotion, Yeremy Cabrera should not be with the Fred Nats for much longer. After posting solid, but not elite numbers in Low-A for the Rangers last year, the Nats had Cabrera repeat the level. For guys who are repeating levels, you want to see big numbers. 

Cabrera has certainly put up big numbers to start the season. In 13 games, the 20 year old is hitting .362 with a 1.223 OPS. This just looks like a player who is too good for the level he is playing at right now. He was considered a smaller piece in the Gore trade, but Cabrera has emerged as a name to watch.

Yeremy Cabrera seems like a well rounded outfield prospect with a complete game. He is well regarded as a defender in center field, and the offensive numbers speak for themselves. How the offense translates is still the question mark, but he is off to a great start. While neither his hit or power tools are elite, they show quality flashes. I am excited to see what he can do in Wilmington.

King, Cruz and Cabrera had the best weeks, but there were other names on the hot sheet. Eli Willits got off to a slow start, but he had a big week, hitting his first two pro homers. One was an inside the parker, but the other one was a well struck opposite field bomb. He hit the ball with more authority this past week and got his OPS up to .773. We know Willits is a great defender, with a phenomenal approach and good speed. The question with him is how much power is there. This week was a positive step in answering that question. 

The last guy on the list was flame thrower Miguel Sime. He was the Nats 4th round pick last year and stands out for his triple digit velocity. In Sime’s three starts, we have seen the complete package, both good and bad. His first and third starts were electric, with the big righty striking out 15 and walking just two in those outings. However, in his other start, he only went two innings and walked six batters.

When Sime is on, he is electric, but when he is off, he just can’t find the zone. He is strikingly similar to Jarlin Susana at the same age. Both are big burly righties who throw gas, but have control issues. However, for both of them, the control issues don’t occur every time out. Some nights, they are pounding the zone, but when they don’t have it, things get ugly.

Overall, the Nats minor league seasons have gotten off to as good of a start as you could ask for. Most of the Nats breakout guys are emerging, and the 2025 draft class has a chance to be a special group. While 2026 could be a long year for the big league team, the future of the Nats is sprouting in the minor leagues.

Dave Roberts took exception to comments from Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell on Monday about a rule that makes Shohei Ohtani an exception.

“He’s an exception because he’s an exceptional player," the Dodgers manager told reporters after his team's 12-3 victory against the Colorado Rockies.

Addressing the rash of injuries to Cubs pitchers and whether teams should have more roster flexibility than the rules currently allow, Counsell questioned the fairness of the MLB rule that allows Ohtani to be excluded from the 13-pitcher roster maximum because he is a two-way player.

“There’s not another player like that, but one team gets different rules for that player,” Counsell told reporters.

MLB rosters are capped at 26 players, up to 13 of whom can be designated as pitchers. Players designated as position players are not allowed to pitch unless a game is in extra innings or there is at least a six-run differential in the score when they take the mound.

Read more:Max Muncy and Dalton Rushing each homer twice in Dodgers' 15-hit, blowout win

Teams can also designate two-way players — players who are both position players and pitchers — if they meet certain criteria: In the previous season they must have pitched at least 20 major league innings and started at least 20 major league games as a position player or designated hitter, with at least three plate appearances in each of those games.

Ohtani, who won most valuable player awards in four of the last five seasons, is the lone two-way player. Counsell termed the rule "bizarre."

"There’s one team that’s allowed to carry basically one of both, and that he gets special consideration," he said. "Which is probably the most bizarre rule.”

Roberts offered a pointed rebuttal.

“It certainly benefits us, because we have the player," he said. "But that’s something that, any team that had Ohtani would have that player.

Read more:Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz to have surgery, expected out until after All-Star break

“We’re more than willing for other teams to go out and find a player who can do both."

The rule exception helps the Dodgers in one obvious way: They can utilize a six-man starting rotation while maintaining the full complement of eight relievers. Any other team using six starters would be down to seven relievers.

The topic likely will be revisited when the Cubs visit the Dodgers for a three-game series this weekend.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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The New York Mets’ struggles are well beyond an ordinary slump. That’s why FanDuel is now offering bettors the chance to wager on when they will win their next game.

After starting the year 7-4, the Mets haven’t registered a win since their victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 7.

Key Takeaways

• The Mets are -180 favorites against the Twins on Tuesday, April 21.
  
  
• FanDuel dropped the Mets from +1300 preseason to +2200 current odds to win the World Series.
  
  
• No MLB team has a lower on-base percentage or OPS than the Mets.

The Mets began the year at +1300 in World Series odds at FanDuel, the fourth-shortest on the board.

It was mostly business as usual for the Mets early on. They won their first series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, sputtered against the St. Louis Cardinals, and then took three of four from the San Francisco Giants. 

New York's momentum carried over to a four-game winning streak, capped off by their April 7 victory against the Diamondbacks; but unfortunately for them, they haven’t tasted a win since.

An impressive 11-game losing streak sent the Mets free-falling to last place in the National League East, 8.5 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves—the largest deficit faced by any team in all of baseball. 

They’re down to +2200 to win the championship and +340 to win the division, while the Braves are already a -155 favorite. That’s despite them opening behind the Mets at +2000 in odds to win the World Series.

The Big Apple representatives are going to win again, but the question is when it will happen. 

Betting on the Mets’ losing streak 

Mercifully for Mets fans, FanDuel expects the team to snag a win against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday evening. Real-time moneyline odds have them as -180 favorites over their NL Central opponents, who are 11-11 and lost four straight games.

FanDuel has odds for the Mets’ losing streak to end for each of the next six games, and a “not before 4/28” option. Cashing that bet would require the Mets to tie a franchise record established in 1962 and lose 17 straight contests.

The New York Mets are on an 11-Game losing streak🤯

They may never win again...

OR

there's a market for the Mets to get their next win pic.twitter.com/pVlBhUPx9P

— FanDuel Canada (@FanDuelCanada) April 20, 2026

Breaking the ongoing skid will require the Mets to get their act together at the plate. They have the lowest on-base percentage in all of baseball, and also rank third-from-bottom in home runs and eighth-worst in batting average. Fittingly, they scored fewer runs than all other teams (3.3 per game).

Their pitching has also been the definition of average, ranking 16th in both combined ERA (4.06) and batting average allowed (.239).

Mets future outlook

The Mets’ miserable performances are antithetical to their expectations. Their $370 million payroll projection is the second-highest in all of baseball, only behind the Los Angeles Dodgers ($397 million) and more than 19% higher than the next-closest team, the New York Yankees ($310 million).

FanDuel believes the Mets will win 80-90 games this season. Their win total odds at the time of writing are:

• 80+ wins: -215
• 90+ wins: +310
• 100+ wins: +1800
• 110+ wins: +5000

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.

Yesterday, it was announced that the Kansas City Royals released pitcher Asa Lacy.

Lacy, a lefty out of Texas A&M, was the #4 overall pick in the MLB Draft in 2020, ranked #3 overall by Baseball America, and his $6.67 million signing bonus was the fourth largest in the class. He has been dogged by injuries in his professional career, and hasn’t pitched in an affiliated game since 2022, when he had a 10.61 ERA in 28 innings over 15 appearances between the Arizona Complex League and the Texas League.

We have previously discussed how the 4th overall pick in the MLB Draft seems cursed, although Wyatt Langford and Nick Kurtz are currently doing their best to dispel that notion. Still, in the 30 years since Kerry Wood was selected fourth overall in 1995, only five players — Ryan Zimmerman, Kevin Gausman, Kyle Schwarber, Gavin Floyd and Wyatt Langford — have hit double digits in bWAR.

But fourth pick superstitions aside, almost six years after the 2020 draft took place, the first round as a whole appears to be a massive disappointment. Here are the first ten picks:

1 — Spencer Torkelson to the Tigers. Torkelson, a third baseman out of Arizona State, was supposed to be a major league ready impact bat. After three disappointing seasons in the majors from 2022-24, Torkelson appeared to have turned a corner in 2025, when he put up a 117 OPS+ and 2.3 bWAR. Alas, he’s off to a slow start in 2026, slashing .179/.329/.224 in 22 games.

2 — Heston Kjerstad to the Orioles. Kjerstad was a below-slot pick as an outfielder out of the University of Arkansas. He’s slashed .218/.284/.365 in 314 major league plate appearances over three seasons as a platoon COF/DH, and started 2026 on the injured list.

3 — Max Meyer to the Marlins. Meyer got the third highest bonus as a righthander out of the University of Minnesota. He’s missed time with injuries and hasn’t been good when he has been on the mound, with a 5.07 ERA in 30 career starts, though the 27 year old has a 3.96 ERA and 3.49 FIP through five starts this season.

4 — Asa Lacy to the Royals. Released.

5 — Austin Martin to the Blue Jays. A shortstop out of Vanderbilt, Austin Martin got the second highest bonus in the draft. Barely a year later, he was traded, along with Simeon Woods Richardson, to the Minnesota Twins in a deal that was initially viewed as a coup for Minnesota, but was probably more the Jays realizing their #5 overall pick wasn’t what they had hoped. He’s missed a lot of time with injuries, and has just a 0.5 bWAR in 163 major league games, though he’s off to a very good start in 2026.

6 — Emerson Hancock to the Mariners. Hancock was a righthanded pitcher out of the University of Georgia. After spending parts of 2023-25 in the majors and not pitching well, he’s put up a 2.83 ERA in five starts so far this season, albeit with a 3.97 FIP and 3.81 xERA.

7 — Nick Gonzales to the Pirates. A shortstop out of the University of New Mexico, Gonzales has played mostly second base in the majors. He has a career .257/.300/.370 slash line in 244 games, with a 0.2 bWAR.

8 — Robert Hassell IIIto the Padres. The first high schooler selected, Hassell was a toolsy outfielder who you may remember as being the subject of talks between the Rangers and Padres when they were discussing Joey Gallo. Hassell, who turns 25 in August, ended up being traded to the Nationals in the Juan Soto trade. After slashing .223/.257/.315 in 206 plate appearances in 2025, with an ugly 62:8 K:BB ratio, Hassell is back in AAA this year and sporting a 667 OPS.

9 — Zac Veen to the Rockies. The second high schooler taken, and like Hassell an outfielder, Veen made his major league debut last season, putting up a 424 OPS in 12 games. He is in AAA this year and has a 576 OPS.

10 — Reid Detmers to the Angels. Finally, a success story, kinda! A lefthanded pitcher out of the University of Louisville, Detmers, in typical Angels first round fashion, made his major league debut in 2021. He put up a 4.6 bWAR between 2022-23, was bad in 2024, pitched out of the bullpen in 2025, and is back in the rotation in 2026. His 4.9 career bWAR is the fourth highest of any 2020 first rounder.

There were some productive picks later in the first round. Garrett Crochet went 11th overall. Pete Crow-Armstrong was the 19th overall pick. Jordan Westburg looks like a terrific pick at #30. Tyler Soderstrom, selected 26th overall, had a very good 2025 season. Patrick Bailey, selected 13th, is a defensive savant behind the plate, though the bat is lacking.

Still, this is an underwhelming draft — particularly given how college-heavy it was, especially at the top. A college player selected in 2020 should be in his age 26 or 27 season, should be in his prime. Out of the 37 players selected, it looks, at this point, like there are two stars* — Crochet and Crow-Armstrong — a handful of solid regulars, and then guys who are role players, at best.

* Three, if you are sold on Jordan Walker’s start to the season.

That includes, of course, Justin Foscue, who the Rangers took 14th overall. Texas would have been much better off grabbing Crow-Armstrong, or Westburg, though the picks immediately after Foscue were Mick Abel, Ed Howard, Nick Yorke and Bryce Jarvis.

The overall whiff is, I imagine, largely going to be blamed on the pandemic, which resulted in an abbreviated spring season that left evaluators with scant data to go off of in making their selections, as well as disrupting players’ overall development paths, both pre-draft and in the year-plus after they were picked. Under the circumstances, the large number of misses seem understandable.

But hey, at least the Rangers grabbed Evan Carter that year.

It’s been a bit of a tradition around here to have a Community Bold Predictions post. Last week, Demetrius put a boldest prediction post on our Feed. We got some interesting feedback. Let’s sift through these and have a look at some of the great ones.

Win the whole thing

This is a mainstay of the predictions post. Running the table and going all the way always gets a mention. Is it bold? Sure, I think so. It’s been a minute since the Braves have made a deep playoff run. They haven’t advanced to the NLCS since their World Series run. Right now, they’re at +1400 to win it all. That suggests around a 7% chance to win it. That seems a tad low to me, considering how fast the Braves got out of the gate. Yankees are have about a 22% chance to make it to the World Series to lose.

This post is how you play. Pro-Braves and around 2-3% chance of happening? Certified bold.

Walt puts the hurt on WWE

If there was a MMA competition for MLB personnel, I would not want to be in Walt’s bracket. A little taekwondo, a little ground and pound. That’s a no from me. I do think Weiss has to be the leading candidate right now for the National League Manager of the Year competition. MOY is basically awarded to the manager of a team that improves the most year-to-year. And Atlanta’s 2026 is the opposite of last year so far.

Weiss is maybe 30% odds for Manager of the Year for me right now. Summer Slam? I’m not telling him no, even if the Braves will be beating down the Nats that weekend. Bold for me.

Luke Williams gets a save

The MLB rules don’t state it exactly but do imply that a player listed as a shortstop cannot get a save. However, ones classified as a two-way player can and pitchers do. He has a career 54 wRC+ and no true position. He has a lifetime 3.27/4.47/5.13 line and a 61 MPH eephus. So you can squint and say he might have more of a MLB job as a pitcher. That route would might start in Single-A Rome though. Maybe not this season, but soon?

Bold? Oh please please please make this happen, baseball gods.

Braves finish with best run differential in baseball

I’m very curious about this one. So let’s dig in. The Dodgers were +48 coming into tonight (and looking like +57 after they’re done with the Rockies). The Cubs are next at +34.

Coming into this season, the Braves were short five starting pitchers, Sean Murphy, Ha-Seong Kim, and Daysbel Hernandez. Spencer Strider will miss at least a month. It hasn’t mattered. The Braves are 16-7 and in first place at +62 in run differential. They’re second in baseball in wRC+, second in wOBA, second in OPS. They’re first in ERA, sixth in FIP, fourth best at walk prevention.

They’re getting big contributions from the 17th to 26th players on the team. Bryce Elder, Grant Holmes have been great. Even Martin Perez and Jorge Mateo have chipped in. The Braves are also taking pitchers that pick up three-inning saves and cutting them or sending them to Gwinnett. That’s seemingly one large benefit of having an open competition for several spots. Guys threw themselves into Spring Training, and that’s continued into the season. Interestingly the only open lineup spot that had a lot of coverage, left field, has not been great outside of super-utility Mauricio Dubon.

Their starters have been great as well. Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson have been on fire. Michael Harris’ Savant page is filled with giant red bars. Chris Sale has been dominant as well. So they’re gonna run away with the run differential title. Eh, maybe? Let’s look at the other side.

Fangraphs Depth Charts isn’t a Braves fan

These are the Fangraphs Depth Charts estimates right now. This has the Braves’ hitters in eighth in WAR, and the pitchers at tenth. WAR isn’t perfect (and neither is projected WAR), but it can give you a good idea because it’s measured in runs above replacement. So it’s a decent proxy for run differential. These get updated throughout the season.

They do a great job at Fangraphs, but I have a couple of issues with it. One issue with Depth Charts is that it is underselling the contributions of the currently injured players and fringe players (or at least fringe coming into the season). Are Hurston Waldrep and Spencer Schwellenbach going to throw fewer than 60 innings each? Is Spencer Strider perma-broken at 120 innings and 2.0 WAR? Bryce Elder is only getting 110 innings, when he already has 30 and led the team last year?

Are the Braves keeping JR Ritchie and Didier Fuentes down on the farm for under 30 MLB innings apiece? JR has a sub 1.00 ERA in Gwinnett right now. Didier is mowing down practically everybody and looks completely bored in Triple-A for my eyes. With Strider coming back, Hurston Waldrep and Spencer Schwellenbach behind him, and two prospects looking to break down the door, the entry to the Braves’ rotation is going to get higher. They have Martin Perez right now, who has been good and someone that the Braves will likely keep as depth. But he’s not long for the rotation, and may not stay through this week. I think the fifth starter in going to be getting 1.5-2.0 WAR per 150 innings pretty soon, and the top end might be closer to 4.

The other issue is that while I don’t doubt their math, the numbers going into 2026 they they were mathing with have been soured by 2025. A lot of those poor numbers was the injury misfortune and results from the hitting approach from last season. Last year the hitting approach forced some aggressive players into worrying about swing rate and cutting down their swing with two strikes. But look at the turnaround that Michael Harris II has made. He’s just concerned with killing the ball now, and that’s it. And it’s handy because he can do that.

These factors along with some weird choices make me doubt the estimates. Drake Baldwin at 2.9? After a 3.1 WAR rookie year while playing zero DH? He’s already at 0.9 WAR now. Mauricio Dubon at 1.1 WAR was always silly to me. He’s already at 0.6. You can see most of the logic being applied, and FG is very good. But if they’re off to the downside as much as they were to the upside last year, the Braves can win the team WAR title and likely the run differential one as well.

The Braves schedule has been light so far

The Braves will play a heavy schedule early (29 in the first 31 days), but the competition will be light. There’s only one 2025 playoff team in that time, and it’s the Phillies. I think Philly will piece it together soon, but right now they’re a train wreck. It’s been the Kansas City Royals, the (don’t call me Sacramento or any city) Athletics, D-backs, Angels, Guardians, Marlins, Nats, and those underperforming Phillies. It hasn’t been murderer’s row. And they are killing them, like any top team should. But let’s pump the brakes a little. They haven’t met the NL West or NL Central. And outside of the Rockies, they’re decent to outstanding. The Guardians look good, but the Braves haven’t met the Dodgers, Yankees, and Cubs yet. And those look to be the top teams.

The Dodgers might lap the field

Speaking of the Dodgers, they are punishing the Rockies tonight. (Though along with the White Sox, Colorado is barely in professional baseball.) The Dodgers will field Yamamoto, Glasnow, Sheehan, Snell, Ohtani in the rotation. They have Ohtani, Tucker, Betts, Freeman, Smith, Muncy for hitters and on and on. They’re pegged at 47 WAR this season, far and away the best. It’s almost not fair the wealth of talent and pocketbook.

The TLDR

And yet, the Braves have the Dodgers beaten by 5 runs in the run differential race. Can the Braves outrun the Dodgers, injuries, and a tougher schedule? I’ll put it at around 20 percent. Definitely a bold prediction. Let’s just make sure they can beat the Dodgers in the playoffs when it really counts.

Clamoring for someone to lose their job isn’t the best thing to do in the world. However, if you are bad at your job, what reasons should you keep it? It’s just the nature of the real world, when you can’t maintain the standard that your job requires of you, you have to go and someone else should get your job and a chance to make things better.

After the Royals made the playoffs in 2024, the expectations the last two seasons have been to win the division. Well, we know how last year turned out. This year is somehow off to an even worst start.

Before the Thursday meltdown in Detroit, the Royals had scored 2 runs or less in 11 of their first 18 games and in 7 of their last 8. Losing games despite strong starting pitching, with no one running away with the division, makes those early-season games a lost opportunity. Similar to last season, the Royals are losing a bunch of games because their offense is downright terrible.

The Royals have the worst record in baseball at 7-16, losing eight straight contests. They are currently averaging 3.30 runs per game, second worst in the league. They have seven guys who have struck out 17 or more times in the first 23 games. If you took a shot for every pop up or strike out the Royals hit every game, you might be heading to the hospital by the fifth inning. They’ve been shut out three times in 23 games, which makes them to be on pace to be shut out 22 times this season. Finally, they are awful with runners in scoring position. As a team, they are hitting .200/.277/.259 in those situations, a wRC+ of 50 that is dead last in baseball.

Look no further than last night’s debacle against Baltimore. The Royals loaded the bases THREE times, once with nobody out and ZERO times did they hit the ball out of the infield. They have run into more outs on the bases than homers hit, although that might be a Hollins/Wilson issue. The Royals were 5-for-21 with RISP and left 16 guys on base in the loss last night. The performance is preposterous and the lack of runs puts way too much pressure on the bullpen. Yes, I know they’ve struggled, but they have no breathing room. The Royals had 14 hits last night, 12 singles. Meanwhile, guys like Leody Taveras, who has 42 career homers, is crushing grand slams to dead center in Kauffman Stadium. The Royals can’t even hit doubles or triples! Only the Mets have fewer extra-base hits!

The Royals haven’t won a baseball game in which the other team has scored since April 6th.

The best hitters in the lineup, Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez are all struggling. Bobby Witt Jr. is looking for his first home run. Salvy is 2-for-27 with runners in scoring position. Vinnie and Salvy are among the ten worst qualified hitters in baseball by wRC+.

If you want to blame it on the Royals big three mightily struggling as to why the offense is bad, fine you can do that, but what is your solution, bench them? Trade them? Send them down? Salvy sat out on Saturday afternoon and he posted his displeasure on social media on the way it was handled.

Royals director of hitting performance/player development Alec Zumwalt has had a rather long leash and opportunity to prove his worth to stay. He is in his ninth season with the organization – he is a holdover from Mike Matheny’s staff! And what does he have to show for his performance?

Jac Caglianone currently sits at one homer. While he is hitting the ball hard a decent amount of the time, his swing is pounding a lot of balls into the ground. After he crushed homers all throughout the minors, who is to blame for his big league struggles?

Cags isn’t the only hitter to struggle under the Zumwalt regime, Drew Waters was once a highly touted prospect, he is nothing more than an AAAA player now. He is Barry Bonds in Omaha but has consistently been bad when getting run with Kansas City. MJ Melendez was a 40-homer guy in the minors and was then really bad for the Royals. Look at what he is doing so far for the Mets. Ryan O’Hearn and Brent Rooker have also found success with other organizations.

And this isn’t just a three-week sample size to panic over either. It’s a multi-year issue with Zumwalt and the offense. In the 130 games that Zumwalt was the hitting coach in 2022, the team averaged 4.01 runs, which over a full season, would’ve been 23rd best in the league. Since then, the 2024 playoff run looks like an aberration, rather than progress.

Outside of the runs not being scored, the Royals hit a lot of fly balls, and most of them are easy outs. They have a 43.4 percent flyball rate, third-highest in baseball. The Royals are batting .223 as a team currently, but according to Baseball Savant, their expected batting average is just a measly .229, which means they aren’t unlucky. Their at bats stink and when they put the ball in play, it’s either not well struck, or the launch angle is astronomical which makes for a very routine play. As a team they have a 13.8% pop up rate, fifth-highest in baseball.

The Royals also don’t hit for that much power for a team that is trying to hit as many flyballs as they do. In 2022, they hit 138 homers, the 26th most in baseball. In 2023, they hit 163, tied for 26th most. In 2024, they hit 170, which was tied for the 20th most. Last year, they hit 159, which was 26th best. So far this year, they have hit 18, which is tied for 22nd most. So, they’ve always been bottom third of the league in homers, despite putting the ball in the air a lot, and moving the fences in this year.

The Royals may turn it around like last season, but like last season, it’ll probably be too late, and they’ll never truly compete for a postseason spot. We are in the prime Bobby Witt Jr. era, and he has been turned into a singles hitter that can’t be driven in by his teammates. They are also wasting a top three starting pitching staff in baseball. It’s beyond time JJ. The move needs to be made now.

To borrow a phrase from Rex Hudler, “Alec Zumwalt, you got to go!”

The Boston Red Sox are something of a rollercoaster ride…

It’s safe to say that watching them has been rather nauseating at points, as the peaks and valleys not only arise with each passing series, but with each game, inning, and pitch.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa was the perfect encapsulation of this on Monday, as he was called upon to pinch-hit for Jarren Duran in the seventh inning of an eventual 8-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Kiner-Falefa, whose only job was to drop down a bunt and advance the runners on first and second, failed miserably and was eventually called out on strikes as he bunted the ball foul — which might just be the worst thing you can do in professional sports. How did he respond? That very same guy lined a two-run single into the right field gap and played what would ultimately serve as the game-winning runs.

No, seriously!

It’s like that one episode of “The Office” where Michael Scott admits during the dinner party that he had three vasectomies for Jan Levinson.

Snip-snap! Snip-snap! Snip-snap!

Does that sound fun to you?

It isn’t, which is why folks should be excited about what this week’s series against the New York Yankees represents.

The Red Sox, despite having done the exact opposite over the last several weeks, have an opportunity to find consistency in their first divisional matchup of the season.

Why?

Connelly Early, Ranger Suarez, and Brayan Bello are slated to start during the three-game set, but if the folks in charge want to get funky, they could replace the latter with Payton Tolle — who is likely to soon receive a call-up thanks to Sonny Gray hitting the injured list — and make it three consecutive left-handed starters against New York.

The Yankees probably won’t be too thrilled to face three consecutive southpaws, as they carry a significantly lower team slash line against left-handers (.185/.283/.393) than they do against right-handers (.232/.340/.417).

Roman Anthony, Masataka Yoshida (please), and Caleb Durbin should help lead the charge offensively, with all three starting to string together consistent at-bats over the weekend. Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras tapping back into their power alongside that trio would go a long way in helping an offense that scores either two runs or nine runs and nothing in between.

The Yankees, who boast one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, are at their worst when facing heavily left-handed lineups.

I don’t want to be the guy who gets clouded by his admiration for one team and his hatred for the other, but things have lined up rather nicely for the home side. It’s too early to call this a must-win series, but it’s about as close as you can get while still recovering from the festivities (either your hangover from watching people run or your dead legs from running yourself) of Patriot’s Day.

Alex Cora’s club is starting to get the hang of this whole small ball thing, is moving in the right direction when it comes to the pitching staff, and should be playing with unmatched desperation.

Call me dumb, but I like their chances of taking two out of three.

For much of Mets history, fans have been able to find some solace amid their misery in a simple notion: At least it’s not as bad as 1962. With the 2026 Mets mired in an 11-game losing streak, now would seem the perfect time to cue that sentiment once again.

The 1962 Mets managed to lose at least 11 consecutive games on three separate occasions en route to a 40-120 record, the third-worst win percentage (.250) of any AL/NL team in the modern era behind the 1916 Athletics (.235) and 1935 Braves (.248). The Mets even began the season on a nine-game losing streak. But after that horrific start, they actually managed to go 12-10 over their next 22 games. On May 21, they had won 9 of their last 12 games, including four walk-offs at the Polo Grounds, moving all the way up to eighth place out of ten teams in the National League.

That’s when the wheels came off. They would never see the likes of eighth place again, and soon ninth place would be permanently out of reach as well, as the 1962 Mets were about to begin a breathtakingly baffling 17-game losing streak — the longest in franchise history, and the subject of this long-deserved, game-by-game retrospective. However absurd, miserable, and outright hilarious you might think this seventeen-game losing streak was: think bigger.

It involved a curse on eighth innings, a run-in with Calvin Coolidge (not that one), a brawl with a pair of Hall of Famers, a homestand of emotional reunions at the Polo Grounds, a forgotten hitting streak, and the dramatic redemption of possibly the worst pitcher in Mets history. So without further ado, let us travel back to May 21, 1962, taking a whimsical journey through baseball history to witness what is actually, indisputably, still the feeblest stretch of New York Mets baseball….

GAME 1: NYM 2, HOU 3 (Monday, May 21)

The Mets made their first-ever trip to Houston to face a fellow rookie franchise in the Colt .45s, who at this point were 1.5 games behind the Mets in the NL standings. 

Believe it or not, the first game of this unfortunate streak began as the snapping of a positive one, as the Mets entered looking to extend their budding three-game win streak. They even took an early 2-0 lead (the ’26 Mets are still yet to maintain a two-run lead at any point during their losing streak) against Houston starter Jim Golden, but were shut out the rest of the way in one of Golden’s five career complete games. Golden would go on to win only seven games during the 1962 season; five of them came against the Mets.

Relief pitcher and future U.S. congressman Vinegar Bend Mizell, nicknamed for a town in Alabama near his native Leakessville, Mississippi, was pinned with a hard-luck loss for the Mets despite turning in 5.1 innings of one-run ball in relief. The game was tied at 2-2 until the bottom of the eighth (an inning which would soon come to be synonymous with terror for the Mets), when Houston’s 38-year-old Jim Pendleton knocked a pinch-hit triple off the left-center-field wall and was promptly brought home on a sac fly. The Mets threatened in the ninth thanks to hits from Sammy Taylor and Richie Ashburn, but could not tie it.

GAME 2: NYM 2, HOU 3 (Tuesday, May 22)

Jay Hook, owner of the first win in Mets history the previous month, took the ball for a nighttime getaway game in Houston. Hook went eight strong, surrendering a game-tying solo shot to Román Mejías — the right fielder who delivered the sac-fly the day prior — and nothing else until the eighth inning, when the Colt .45s rallied for two.

Houston starter Turk Farrell, who would go on to put up 7.0 bWAR that season despite going just 10-20 with a 3.02 ERA in 241.2 innings pitched, worked around trouble. The Mets mustered ten hits but just two runs. A promising rally seemed to be building in the ninth inning when they got two on with nobody out while trailing by two, but Sammy Taylor flew out and the pitcher Hook (who was not pinch-hit for in this situation, probably making Casey Stengel delighted there was no Twitter at the time) struck out. The Mets’ lone All-Star Ashburn once again came through late, hitting an RBI single to make it a 3-2 ballgame, but an Elio Chacón grounder ended it.

The Mets were now bound for the West Coast to face their New York forefathers, the Dodgers and Giants, for the first time. The flight from Houston to Los Angeles was scheduled to arrive at about 5:45am, though Roger Craig, the next day’s starting pitcher and the ‘62 team’s de facto ace, had already made the trip.

GAME 3: NYM 1, LAD 3 (Wednesday, May 23)

The first-ever contest between the Mets and Dodgers was, fittingly, a pitchers’ duel, as Roger Craig and NL Cy Young winner Don Drysdale kept things locked at a 1-1 tie until the eighth. The Dodgers got on the board in the third thanks to NL MVP Maury Wills, who hit a one-out single just out of the reach of a diving Richie Ashburn and drew enough attention at first to cause a balk from Craig after multiple pickoff attempts.

The Mets got on the board with an RBI single the following inning from right fielder Joe Christopher, who had been promoted from Syracuse two days earlier (meaning his first game with the Mets unfortunately aligned with the start of the losing streak). The next batter, Frank Thomas, nearly put the Mets ahead with a deep fly ball to left field, but the Dodgers’ Tommy Davis caught it before it could land in the sparkling new Dodger Stadium seats.

The Dodgers finally got to Craig in the eighth, of course, scoring a pair. Meanwhile, Drysdale was impenetrable, retiring nine of the last ten Mets to complete a dominant four-hitter. Speaking of streaks, the game began a stretch lasting through early August in which Drysdale went 16-1.

GAME 4: NYM 2, LAD 4 (Thursday, May 24)

The Mets’ defense got off to a hot start in this one, with Wills shockingly being caught stealing by Mets catcher Harry Chiti before Tommy Davis was robbed of a hit in right. The game then became a battle of the Franks, with the Dodgers’ Frank Howard and Mets’ Frank Thomas trading early homers. The Mets were up 2-1 until an error by second baseman and former Dodger Charlie Neal set up an L.A. run in the seventh, and the familiarly stubborn eighth inning yielded two more. For four consecutive games, the Mets had surrendered the go-ahead run in the eighth.

Aside from Thomas’ homer, the Mets couldn’t get anything going against Johnny Podres — the man on the mound for 1955 World Series MVP who was on the mound when Dem Bums finally won a championship — and were four-hit for the second straight day.

With the loss, the Mets were now relegated to last place in the National League. It was a slot in the standings they would never escape.

GAME 5: NYM 8, LAD 17 (Friday, May 25)

Unlike their previous four losses, this one wasn’t a tight, low-scoring affair decided by a late rally or defensive miscue. The Dodgers barraged the Mets for 17 runs on 18 hits, tying a record for the most runs the Dodgers had scored since moving to Los Angeles four years prior.

To add insult to injury, the Mets’ offense actually put up a valiant effort, scoring eight runs off 19-year-old Dodger rookie Joe Moeller. It was the only game during the 17-game losing streak in which they would score more than six runs, and yet they still somehow lost by nine. Frank Thomas hit another home run for New York, while third baseman Cliff Cook — who had been traded to the Mets from Cincinnati as part of a package for veteran third baseman and baseball legend Don Zimmer — notched his first Mets homer. 

The Mets also got the first four-hit day in franchise history from Félix Mantilla, who somehow accomplished the feat despite only entering the game in the third inning after starting shortstop Elio Chacón was ejected. But this one was all Dodgers, leaving the Mets searching for answers as they departed north for San Francisco.

GAME 6: NYM 6, SF 7 – f/10 (Saturday, May 26)

It seemed the Mets might finally pull one out, leading 5-4 with only six outs to get. But that pesky eighth inning struck again, as the scorching hot Willie Mays — coming off three homers in his prior two games — drilled a solo homer off the Mets’ starter Jay Hook. Just like that, the first Mets-Giants contest was going to extra innings.

Félix Mantilla, despite his four-hit performance in L.A. the previous day, once again was forced to prove himself off the bench. Entering late at third base, Mantilla hit a go-ahead solo homer in the top of the tenth, putting the Mets back in position to win. But with one out in the tenth, Mays struck again, hitting a two-run, walk-off homer off Hook, who was still on the mound facing his 39th batter of the game.

While one established Giants Hall of Famer proved the hero at the plate, a 23-year-old rookie named Gaylord Perry proved himself with four quality innings of relief in just the seventh appearance of his career.

GAME 7: NYM 1, SF 7 (Sunday, May 27)

The Mets didn’t show much fight in this 7-1 loss, though they did fight in a much more literal way with the Giants. It just wouldn’t be a seventeen-game losing streak without a brawl, would it?

Trailing 4-1 after a Willie Mays RBI single in the seventh inning, Mets starter Roger Craig — who had pitched up and in on Mays a earlier in the game — drilled Orlando Cepeda in the back. Cepeda went for Craig at the mound before being tackled by his own manager Alvin Dark, preventing a larger melee at least for the moment. Craig then tried to pick off Mays at second, with the Say Hey Kid supposedly spiking shortstop Elio Chacón as he slid back to the bag. Chacón then threw a punch at Mays, who, in the words of the New York Times’ John Drebinger, proceeded to “pick up Elio bodily and throw him to the ground as though he were a sack of flour.”

While the idea of Craig and Chacón going toe-to-toe with Hall of Famers Mays and Cepeda during a blowout loss might seem like the ultimate encapsulation of the ‘62 Mets, the funniest part was actually yet to come. Craig immediately tried to pick off Cepeda at first after the brawl was over, but the throw got by first baseman Ed Bouchee, allowing the runners to advance before Felipe Alou singled them both home. Talk about an embarrassing inning. Additionally, Chacón, who had been ejected two days prior as well, managed to be the only player ejected after the scuffle. But he was right back in the lineup for the back half of the doubleheader…

GAME 8: NYM 5, SF 6 (Sunday, May 27)

This time, it really seemed the Mets’ misery was coming to an end. The lovable losers were up 5-2 with four outs to go, having jumped on San Francisco’s 23-year-old starter and future Cy Young Award winner Mike McCormick. 

But the curse of the eighth inning came back to haunt them, with Mays, Cepeda, and Alou all delivering clutch hits as the Giants mounted a three-run comeback. Reliever Bob Miller looked to keep the game tied facing a young Willie McCovey, but instead the go-ahead run came home on a passed ball charged to catcher Harry Chiti. 

The Mets made a familiar late comeback attempt, getting a pair of two-out hits in the ninth from Marv Throneberry and Richie Ashburn, but Rod Kanehl flew a 3-2 fastball into the glove of left fielder Harvey Kuenn to bring the Mets’ losing streak to eight games as they departed Candlestick Park.

GAME 9: LAD 13, NYM 6 (Wednesday, May 30)

The Mets returned home to New York for a Memorial Day doubleheader with a familiar old friend: the Dodgers. 

The highly-anticipated return of the Dodgers resulted in a crowd of 55,704 fans, the largest attendance at the Polo Grounds since a matchup between the Dodgers and Giants on September 6, 1942, and overtaking the opening of Dodger Stadium on April 10 for the largest crowd at a Major League game that season. Unreserved seats were sold for a sum of $1.30, while bleacher seats cost 75¢, and fans lined up as early as 7 a.m. on the day of the games.

The Mets faced off against 26-year-old Sandy Koufax, who was yet to win a Cy Young but had earned his first All-Star selection the prior season. The Mets managed six runs and thirteen hits off Koufax, but the Dodgers put up 13 runs, reaching that total for the second time in six days against New York. Maury Wills continued his MVP campaign by clubbing two homers, one of the inside-the-park variety to right-center and one which landed in the left-field seats. Four different Dodgers got at least three hits, and Jay Hook wound up on the hook for the loss.

GAME 10: LAD 6, NYM 5 (Wednesday, May 30)

The Mets put up quite the fight with Johnny Podres back on the mound for the Dodgers. Gil Hodges, after hitting a homer off his old teammate Koufax in the opener of the doubleheader, hit two more in the back half. The second homer moved Hodges into a tie with Ralph Kiner for 10th place on MLB’s all-time home run list, and it was the second-to-last homer Hodges would hit in his big league career.

The Mets even turned a triple play to end the sixth inning, the first in franchise history and the first in the Majors since July of 1960. The triple play preserved a 4-3 Mets lead, but homers by Frank Howard and Willie Davis gave the Dodgers a late edge. The Mets, of course, rallied with a pair of singles in the ninth, but could not push the tying run across.

While their losing streak wasn’t snapped, another Mets streak was: Frank Thomas’ hitting streak, which had reached 18 games. It would hold as the longest hitting streak by a Met until Tommie Agee hit in 20 straight in 1970.

GAME 11: LAD 6, NYM 3 (Thursday, May 31)

The festive series served not only as a chance for fans to see their formerly beloved Dodgers take the field once again, but for ex-teammates to reunite as well. Former Dodgers Charlie Neal and Frank Thomas got to reunite with old friends, while pitchers of days past Ralph Branca and Don Newcombe returned to throw out batting practice. Casey Stengel embraced the pregame atmosphere by talking to devoted Mets fans in center field, vowing that the team would attempt to do better while the fans assured him they would support the Mets even in bad times.

Such times were not difficult to find, as the Mets suffered their 11th straight defeat, while the Dodgers conversely picked up their 11th straight win. It was a meager effort, with the Mets’ lineup recording only three hits while the Dodgers scored six off Al Jackson.

Above all else, the series was perhaps a spiritual a sort of spiritual passing of the torch for fans, affirming the Mets as New York’s new team rather than — though unmistakably in the spirit of — the departed Dodgers. The New York Times’ Arthur Daley wrote in a May 31 story:

“Yet even when the Mets were being hanged, drawn and quartered, their new rooters cheered wildly at every feeble and hopeless counter-rally by their heroes. It’s the same sort of fierce devotion the Dodgers used to get from the Flatbush Faithful when they were so fearsomely inept in ancient days. Perfection cannot evoke such deep emotions and, heaven knows, the Mets are far, far from perfection.”

GAME 12: SF 9, NYM 6 (Friday, June 1)

After the Dodgers’ dramatic return to New York, now it was the Giants’ turn to come into town for a four-game set, with the two California squads tied for first place in the N.L. The Giants blasted four homers during the opener in their old home ballpark, with one from Willie Mays, one from that season’s Gold Glove Award winner Jim Davenport, and two courtesy of Willie McCovey.

The Mets trailed 9-1, appearing doomed to a dismal 12th-straight loss. But their curse of miserable eighth-inning meltdowns was suddenly reversed, as an error by San Francisco’s shortstop José Pagán ignited a five-run Mets rally. A two-run homer from Félix Mantilla brought the score to 9-6, apparently leaving the crowd in such a frenzy that play had to be paused when one fan actually made their way into the Mets’ dugout.

Frank Howard came to bat as the tying run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but the Giants held on as Thomas grounded into a 5-4 forceout to end it. 

GAME 13: SF 10, NYM 1 (Saturday, June 2)

Any logical hope of the Mets’ losing streak ending at 12 was quickly quenched when the Giants pounced on Jay Hook for five runs in the first inning, before adding two more against Bob Moorhead in the second. The remarkable duo of Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda continued to shine, with each homering and driving in three runs. 

Aside from squeaking out a run in the first with help from an error charged to Mays, the Mets’ offense got nothing across against 33-year-old Jack Sanford, the former 1957 N.L. Rookie of the Year with the Phillies who would go on to finish second in N.L. Cy Young Award voting with 24 wins in 1962. Seemingly the hardest hit at the Giants’ expense came when Jim Davenport had to be removed after being struck on the base paths by a throw from Mets right fielder Jim Hickman.

Before the Mets could recover from the rout, they headed right back onto the field for another contest with the Giants.

GAME 14: SF 6, NYM 4 (Saturday, June 2)

The Mets found life in the back half of the doubleheader, erasing an early 4-0 deficit. The Mets had help from a pair of unearned runs, with Felipe Alou making an error in the third and second baseman Chuck Hiller dropping a throw from catcher Tom Haller (you’re forgiven if you think you’ve just stumbled upon a lost Abbott and Costello bit) in the fourth, allowing the Mets to tie the game. The score held at 4-4 until, of course, the haunted eighth inning, when Harvey Kuenn took Craig Anderson deep and handed the Mets a 14th consecutive loss. Over the course of the doubleheader, there were apparently six arrests made for disorderly conduct in the stands, meaning the number of spectators detained outweighed the number of Mets to score in both games combined. I suppose there are only so many losses a fan can take in a given day.

Anderson was pinned with his fourth loss of the losing streak, and he would end the season with a total of 17 losses while accumulating -2.6 bWAR. 64 years later, no player has managed to put up a single-season mark that low with the Mets since. Craig’s -3.6 bWAR over three seasons in orange and blue is also the lowest of any pitcher in franchise history.

But Anderson’s role in this story wasn’t over. Not yet.

GAME 15: SF 6, NYM 1 (Sunday, June 3)

The Giants’ stars were at it again in the Sunday afternoon series finale. 24-year-old Juan Marichal tossed a six-hit complete game, allowing just one unearned run on an error from Chuck Hiller, while Willie Mays hit yet another home run — his fifth in seven games against the Mets. 

The score was even at 1-1 until the top of the seventh, when Mets reliever Bob Miller surrendered a single to Tom Haller, hit Chuck Hiller (welcome back Abbott and Costello), allowed a hit to José Pagán and then egregiously walked Marichal to force in a run, igniting a four-run Giants rally.

Having now been swept at home and on the road by both the Dodgers and Giants, the Mets’ losing streak reached 15 games. The New York Times ran a piece on June 3 by Robert L. Teague titled “Close-up of the Met Fan: Loud, Happy Desperation,” which I believe is just as relevant 64 years into the franchise’s history as it was two months in. Here is just one excerpt from it:

“Baseball’s latest phenom is so singular a performer that he strains credulity even when observed at close range with the naked eye. He is a Met Fan—a warm-hearted mixed breed that cannot be explained but merely described. His natural habitat is the Polo Grounds, where he cheerfully and regularly pays from 75 cents to $3.50 to suffer the exquisite tortures involved in watching the objects of his unbounded affection battle valiantly but vainly against clearly superior forces. 

He voluntarily put himself on the rack again yesterday while the Mets scrambled and stumbled through a doubleheader with the mighty San Francisco Giants. Deep in his heart he know [sic] that the odds against his heroes were prohibitive, to say the least. But he does not believe in odds, facts, league standings, or diamond statistics. He concedes defeat almost daily, but only after the very last Met has been retired…”

GAME 16: NYM 0, PHI 2 (Wednesday, June 6)

The Mets and their 15-game losing streak were bound for Philadelphia to face the fledgling, eighth-place Phillies in a quick doubleheader. Ace Roger Craig turned in his best performance of the season thus far, tossing eight innings and allowing just two runs, but the Mets ran into a buzzsaw in the form of 36-year-old Phillies starter Cal McLish. The Mets had a golden opportunity to score in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded and nobody out, but a questionable call on a forceout of Elio Chacón at second ended the threat. Stengel and Chacón argued with the umpire, though Chacón avoided being ejected for at least the third time of the losing streak.

In case you happened to be wondering, Cal McLish’s full name is Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish. When asked for an explanation of his name, McLish pointed to the fact that he was his parents’ seventh child, and the first that his dad got to name. Despite the many historically relevant options, his nickname of choice somehow wound up being “Bus” or “Buster.” Go figure.

McLish’s name might be long but he made quick work of the Mets, shutting them out on seven hits to extend their losing streak to 16 games. It now tied the longest streak recorded by a New York major league team, a mark set by the 1944 Dodgers. That unfortunate streak began for Brooklyn on June 28, 1944, in a game at Wrigley Field which featured relief pitching from — you guessed it — 18-year-old Cal McLish. Et tu, Brute?

GAME 17: NYM 1, PHI 2 (Wednesday, June 6)

The 17th and final loss in the Mets’ streak might just have been the most painful.

The Mets seized an early lead in the top of the first when Richie Ashburn drew a leadoff walk, stole second, and came home to score on a single by Charlie Neal. The Mets struggled to manufacture any more runs against right-hander Art Mahaffey, but starter Al Jackson was masterful on the mound, holding the Phillies scoreless through seven innings.

In the bottom of the eighth, longtime Philly second baseman Tony Taylor led off with a solo homer to even the score. Jackson escaped the rest of the eighth and came back out for the ninth, getting one out before allowing back-to-back singles, forcing Stengel’s hand. The ball was handed to Craig Anderson, who avoided being pinned with his fifth loss of the losing streak only because the run which he promptly allowed to score was charged to Jackson. Anderson threw just one pitch, and it resulted in a walk-off base hit off the bat of pinch-hitter Wes Covington. And thus, the streak had reached 17 games.

THE WIN: NYM 4, CHC 3 (Friday, June 8)

If the Mets overcoming the Cubs to win the N.L. Pennant in 1969 was one of the greatest miracles in sports history, perhaps this triumph over Chicago was a tinier but no less certain act of the baseball gods. How did the Mets, these Mets, who had lost 17 games in a row, finally taste victory? In the most bafflingly lucky way possible, of course.

It was an adventurous afternoon at Wrigley for starting pitcher Jay Hook, who put the Mets on the board with an RBI single in the third and held the Cubs to one run through six. The Mets clung to a 3-1 lead which nobody seemed to expect them to hold, and it evaporated when 22-year-old Ron Santo hit a game-tying, two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. 

The score was even at 3-3 until the top of the ninth, when the Mets loaded the bases on a series of Chicago miscues. Jim Hickman hit a leadoff single, Hook reached on a bunt thanks to an ill-advised forceout attempt at second, and Richie Ashburn reached on a bunt of his own thanks to an error by Ernie Banks at first. Charlie Neal hit a one-out fly ball to right to bring home Hickman, somehow giving the Mets a 4-3 lead. The New York Times’ Louis Effrat wrote that the run “should probably be donated to Cooperstown,” as it not only helped snap the streak but was also “one of the most uninspiring runs imaginable.”

Since the losing streak began, the Mets had now scored 58 earned runs. 14 of those 58 (24.1%) were unearned.

Hook was sent out to pitch the top of the ninth inning, but was removed after his warm-up pitches due to fatigue from baserunning (Hook had now reached base multiple times). Stengel handed the ball to none other than Craig Anderson. After loss upon loss, Anderson quickly retired Lou Brock and Bob Will to get the first two outs, putting the Mets on the cusp of salvation. Then, a pair of singles — the first a bloop hit, the second a grounder up the middle. Santo, who homered in his previous at-bat, came to the plate with the winning run on base. 

The 1962 Mets, and Anderson in particular, had seen this movie a million times by now. They knew how it ended. A future Hall of Famer at the plate. A flimsy lead about to be obliterated. But somehow, against all odds, Anderson induced an easy grounder from Santo, one fittingly hit right back to the mound. Anderson fielded it cleanly and fired to Marv Throneberry at first.

It took a gift-wrapped run courtesy of botched fielding on a pair of bunts. It took arguably the worst pitcher in Mets history retiring two Hall of Famers in the final inning. It took 18 games and 19 days, enduring an eighth-inning hex, and surviving fights (of the baseball and brawling variety) with their city’s ex-sweethearts. But the Mets had finally won. Ya gotta believe.

How did they celebrate their long-awaited victory?

By immediately playing another game against the Cubs that very same day, and losing 3-2 when the game was called for darkness. In the eighth inning.

Miguel Rojas had three of the Dodgers’ 15 hits in Monday night’s win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver, driving in a pair of runs in the 12-3 victory.

The second of those hits was a single off Rockies starter José Quintana in the sixth inning, the 1,000th hit of his career.

“Getting to 1,000 hits in my career is something that I marked on my calendar for this year,” Rojas told Kirsten Watson on the field on SportsNet LA after the game. “It’s a pretty cool personal accomplishment, but at the end of the day the most important part was winning this game with the boys banging at the plate and [Justin Wrobleski] throwing the ball really well.”

This year is a swan song for Rojas, in his 13th major league season. He plans to retire as a player at the end of 2026, and will transition into a role in the Dodgers front office.

“He’s been waiting for this one. He’s big on milestones and moments,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters at Coors Field, as shown on SportsNet LA. “He’s done a lot of good things in this game, so for him to get it was a huge thing for him.”

You’ll notice at the end of that clip that Roberts started to pretend that he was going to throw the ball from Rojas’s milestone hit into the stands. “I wanted to have a little fun with him, but I don’t think I had enough arm to throw it over the screen anyway,” Roberts said.

Rojas, now 37, is in a reserve role now, having started eight of the Dodgers’ 22 games. Five of those starts have come against left-handed pitching, against whom Rojas has nine hits in 17 at-bats with two doubles, a home run, and three walks.

Getting to 1,000 hits seemed like a long shot when Rojas signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in November 2012, then at age 24 hit just .233/.303/.307 with a 74 wRC+ in Double-A Chattanooga. Defense was his calling card, and for that he received high praise. Manager Don Mattingly in 2014 compared Rojas’s glovework to Omar Vizquel, which fueled Rojas making it through nearly all of spring training camp as a non-roster invitee before getting cut.

The Dodgers called up Rojas that June, swapping spots with Erisbel Arruebarrena. On June 8, in his second major league game, Rojas singled in the sixth inning off Matt Belisle for his first major league hit. That hit scored Jamie Romak, who had just doubled for his first major league hit as well.

The timing was perfect, as only one more player batted in that game at Coors Field. The game was called by rain after six innings. Clayton Kershaw struck out nine in his five innings to earn the complete-game victory, two starts before his no-hitter, which Rojas famously helped preserve with an outstanding play from behind third base.

It was defense that kept Rojas in the majors, first in Los Angeles and then eight years with the Marlins in Miami before returning to the Dodgers in 2023. But he’s going out with a relative bang, having hit .279/.333/.410 with a 109 wRC+ in a part-time role since the start of 2024, including .296/.361/.477 with a 134 wRC+ against lefties, the longest sustained run of offensive success of his career.

Rojas will be forever remembered in Los Angeles for his game-tying home run with one out in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2025 World Series. His place in Dodgers history is cemented. But it was a nice touch that Rojas got his 1,000th hit in the same ballpark as his first, a nice bookend to a long major league career.

“It means a lot, because I received an opportunity 13 years ago by this organization,” Rojas said Monday night. “And remembering that this is a special ballpark, because that’s where I got my first hit. All it took was an opportunity.”

Mika Zibanejad has been through a ton of highs and lows over the course of his 10-year tenure with the New York Rangers. 

When Zibanejad was traded to the Rangers in 2016, he joined a team filled with veterans at the tail end of a multi-year playoff run that was simply running out of steam. 

Two years into his time on Broadway, the Rangers’ management released a letter outlining the team’s plan to reshape the roster and get younger, essentially rebuilding. 

From 2018-2021, the Rangers failed to make the playoffs, as they progressed through their rebuild. Over that time frame, Zibanejad emerged as one of the Blueshirts’ cornerstone pieces. 

Once the Rangers rose from the shadows and became a playoff team again, starting during the 2021-22 season, Zibanejad experienced the best statistical seasons of his hockey career. 

The veteran forward posted a career high of 81 points during the 2021-22 campaign and followed that up with a 91-point season during the 2022-23 campaign. 

After two trips to the Eastern Conference Final in three years, the Rangers plateaued in 2024-25, failing to make the playoffs for the first time since 2021. Zibanejad’s individual statistics also took a dip, with his 62 points in 82 games being a significant decrease from his output compared to the previous seasons.

Despite the Rangers' further plummeting in the Eastern Conference in 2025-26, Zibanejad had a resurgence, going from 62 to 78 points and regaining his dominant offensive form. 

“I think I proved — to not myself, but maybe to some other people who had a thing or two to say about me last year — what I can do and what I’m still capable of doing,” Zibanejad said. “I’ve still gotta bring it again next year, but of course it was a positive thing for me. … I don’t think I doubted myself too much, but it’s nice to see some results.”

In January, Chris Drury issued a letter outlining the Rangers’ plan to “retool” the roster, putting the team's immediate future in doubt.

At 33 years old and still in the midst of his prime, does Zibanejad have the appetite to sit through yet another retool?

The Swedish forward, who holds a full no-move clause in his current contract, expressed his desire to stay in New York for the long haul. 

Rangers Excited About Chance To Add Cornerstone Piece In Top Five Of Draft The New York <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers/">Rangers</a> will hold a top-five pick in the 2026 NHL Draft coming up on June 26.

Contrary to public sentiment, Zibanejad believes the Rangers could become a competitive team in the immediate future.

“I’ve been here for 10 years. I’ve gone through the ups and downs,” Zibanejad said in his exit interview. “For me, yeah retool or whatever, but you just look around the league and see how fast it can go. I’m optimistic, especially with the young guys coming in, too, and playing. I don't feel like we need a whole lot. I want to be here to turn this around.”

Zibanejad is still under contract with the Rangers until 2030 at a cap hit of $8.5 million, and for now, it doesn't appear he’s going anywhere.

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Runs — or a lack thereof — is the theme of our MLB best bets for today, April 21.

Our MLB expert picks have found the best prices at Polymarket (which allows users coast-to-coast to get in on the baseball action), with a focus on pitching outlasting the wind in Wrigley, a slow start in Kansas City, and Atlanta continuing to roll with Reynaldo Lopez on the mound.

MLB expert picks for today

Pick	Odds
Josh Inglis: CHC/PHI u8.5	+100
Neil Parker: BAL/KC NRFI	-104
Joe Osborne: ATL ML	-133

Prices courtesy of Polymarket.

Josh Inglis' expert pick: Cubs/Phillies Under 8.5

Price: 50¢ (+100) at Polymarket

The 10 mph wind blowing out may be driving some Over action at Wrigley Field, but I’m comfortable on the Under, which has a fair price around -150 and THE BAT projecting 7.79 total runs. Jesus Luzardo is not a 7.94 ERA pitcher and should get things back on track as an elite groundball + strikeout pitcher, while Shota Imanaga has allowed just six hits over his last 17 innings and will be backed by a Cubs bullpen with five LHPs — against a Phillies lineup that ranks last in wRC+ vs. left-handed pitching.

Neil Parker's expert pick: Orioles/Royals NRFI

Price: 51¢ (-104) at Polymarket

The Orioles and Royals rank third and last in percentage of games scoring a run in the first inning, so even with the wind forecasted to be howling out at Kauffman Stadium, I’m expecting starters Shane Baz and Kris Bubic to post zeros in the opening frame. Baltimore hasn’t scored an opening-inning run on the road all season, and Kansas City is the lowest-scoring team in the opening frame for the year — and the second-lowest scoring team overall.

Joe Osborne's expert pick: Braves moneyline

Price: 57¢ (-133) at Polymarket

While both starting pitchers are off to respectable starts, these offenses are miles apart right now, and the Braves' bullpen has been lights out. Atlanta is 4-0 in Reynaldo Lopez’s starts, as he's allowed one earned run or fewer in three of them, and this matchup suits him against a Nationals lineup that ranks 28th in OPS vs. righties over the last two weeks. On the other side, Foster Griffin could struggle against a Braves team that's crushing left-handed pitching and is 6-1 when facing lefty starters.

More MLB best bets for today

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The 1929 Yankees were riding high. Coming off back-to-back World Series sweeps and with the heart of Murderers’ Row still intact, a team which had been an afterthought for most of its history appeared to be cresting a wave. Then, tragedy struck. Beloved manager Miller Huggins, who’d been at the helm for the Yankees’ turnaround and was the only skipper Babe Ruth had played under in New York, died unexpectedly on September 25th. His squad, while in mourning, ended up a distant 18 games behind Philadelphia for the pennant. The next year, under Bob Shawkey, the Yankees finished third as the A’s became a dynasty; it looked like the Yankees’ moment had passed.

That’s when the team’s owner, Jacob Ruppert, hired a new manager to right the ship, a man who’d one day join Huggins in Monument Park.

Joseph Vincent McCarthy
Born: April 21, 1887 (Philadelphia, PA)
Died: January 13, 1978 (Buffalo, NY)
Yankees Tenure: 1931-46 (manager)

Born on a Philly spring day in 1887, young Joe’s father died when he was just three in a cave-in, leaving his son to grow up in poverty. Baseball was a saving grace for McCarthy, netting him first a scholarship at Niagara University and then a long career in pro ball. He was a scrappy and versatile ballplayer, a decent enough hitter who never ran well due to a knee injury sustained in his youth. McCarthy’s determination and wiles kept him afloat in the minors for 15 seasons, throughout much of which he served as a player-manager.

McCarthy was first given the reins while playing in the New York State League for the Wilkes-Barre Barons—a long-ago predecessor of the Yankees’ modern Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. At the age of 25, he was the youngest manager in pro ball. He continued managing into his 30s with Double-A Louisville. Between 1921 (his final year as a player) and 1925, his Cardinals twice won the pennant and became a reliable contender.

It was on the strength of this track record that Cubs owner William Wrigley, Jr. hired McCarthy to lead his squad for the 1926 season. Chicago finished just seven games back of the pennant that year, their best finish since they’d won it in 1919, and would remain in regular contention throughout McCarthy’s tenure. The Cubs made it to the World Series in 1929 but were trounced by Connie Mack’s Athletics four games to one, a resounding defeat that was the beginning of the end for the team’s manager. “I have always wanted a world’s championship, and I am not sure that Joe McCarthy is the man to give me that kind of team,” Wrigley said after the ‘29 loss, a comment that wouldn’t take long to age poorly.

Despite finishing just two games back in the NL the following season, McCarthy was shown the door. The Yankees, still reeling from the loss of Huggins, jumped on the opportunity to recruit the former Cubs skipper, making him a more attractive offer than the rival Red Sox to secure his services — even going so far as dismissing the longtime pitcher Shawkey as their skipper after just one year. The response among the baseball press to the signing was exultant. “The coming of McCarthy to New York is one of the biggest achievements of the American League since Colonel Ruppert engaged the late lamented Miller Huggins 12 years ago,” one paper gushed. “McCarthy is a figure of national importance.”

McCarthy righted the ship in year one, leading his team to 94 wins and a second-place finish. He quickly became known for a reserved, cautious temperament, both with his team and with the press. This remove led to a contentious relationship with the New York media, who would give the manager his propers for the nuts-and-bolts management of his team but withheld the type of adulation they’d heap upon one of his successors, Casey Stengel, throughout the ‘50s. A representative back-handed compliment came from Arthur Daley of The New York Times. “Few men in baseball were ever as single-minded as he. That was to be both his strength and his weakness,” the columnist opined of McCarthy. “Baseball was his entire life and it never was lightened by laughter because he was a grim, humorless man with a brooding introspection which ate his heart out.”

Perhaps the fairest characterization of what made McCarthy great was his ability as a teacher of the game. “Never a day went by that you didn’t learn something from McCarthy,” said no less an authority than Joe DiMaggio of the man under whom he played for the first eight years of his career.

Whatever the reason, the Yankee behemoth was back in full force the following season. Led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, who combined for 75 homers, and a pitching staff that included future Hall of Famers Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez, the 1932 Yankees became the third team in AL history to win 107 games, coasting to the pennant.

In a sweet twist of fate for McCarthy, his Bronx Bombers would face the Cubs team that had thrown him overboard just two years prior. It was to be a good, old-fashioned beatdown. Ruffing and Gomez hurled complete game victories in Games 1 and 2 and the five future Hall of Famers in the Yankees’ stacked lineup each posted an OPS of at least .900. Gehrig was the star of the show, hitting .519 with three homers to lead the Yankees to a sweep. The resounding victory was vindication for McCarthy, who later called it the greatest thrill of his career. “First, it was my first World Series winner,” he stated plainly. “Secondly, it was against the Cubs.”

The Yankees missed out on October the next couple years and McCarthy’s relationship with the biggest star in the sport waned. Ruth was unhappy that he wasn’t offered the opportunity to be a player/manager in any of the searches following Huggins’ death, and as such, he was not fond of McCarthy. The Bambino’s time as a Yankee was coming to a close anyway, but it was probably best for both sides when Ruth departed the Bronx after the 1934 campaign.

Soon, McCarthy had another star on his hands with DiMaggio joining Gehrig, and a new standard of excellence was set. They won a then-record four consecutive championships from 1936-39 and then two more in ’41 and ‘43. During this time, he not only shepherded his star-studded teams to success on the field but played a pivotal role in establishing the mythos of the “Yankee Way,” ensuring his players adhered to strict standards of dress and behavior, even when outside of the clubhouse. When one player tried to carry on the age-old, impish tradition of giving a teammate a hotfoot, his skipper told him simply, “You’re a Yankee now. We don’t do that.” George Steinbrenner would have been proud.

McCarthy’s teams excelled into the mid-’40s before their momentum was slowed by World War II, which cost them the likes of DiMaggio and Ruffing as well as fellow Hall of Famers Bill Dickey and Joe Gordon. Thirty-five games into the 1946 season, his 16th at the helm in New York, McCarthy resigned, citing a recurring gall-bladder condition (though he was also battling alcoholism). Many at the time assumed a rift with new general manager Larry MacPhail was the true culprit, a theory that gained more credibility when a 60-year-old McCarthy returned to manage the Red Sox two years later. His Boston squads won 96 games in each of his two full seasons there before he retired for good during the 1950 season, once again citing health concerns.

McCarthy enjoyed a long retirement, living on his farm in Tonawanda, New York until dying of pneumonia in 1979 at the age of 90, just a few years after the Yankees dedicated a plaque to him in Monument Park. Well before, he had the chance to travel to Cooperstown to be recognized in 1957 for his excellence with induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame — an achievement well-earned for someone all over the all-time managerial leaderboard. “Little did I think when I was in the minor leagues I would ever make the Hall of Fame,” the normally reserved McCarthy said upon hearing of his induction. “I’m very, very happy.”

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

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The Milwaukee Brewers head to the Motor City to start a series with the Detroit Tigers today, and both teams will see something unfamiliar: an opponent with a winning record.

Detroit has yet to beat an opponent over .500, going 0-4. Milwaukee is facing just its second winning foe after taking two of three over the Rays (who, full disclosure, are over .500 now but weren’t when they played the Brewers).

See why our Brewers vs. Tigers predictions and MLB picks look for the Tigers to win at home.

Who will win Brewers vs Tigers today: Tigers moneyline (-110)

The Detroit Tigers return home, where they have won six straight and are 8-1 on the season.

Only five teams have allowed fewer runs than the Tigers, who've surrendered two or fewer in five of their last six home games, and in three of the four in Boston. Today's starter, Keider Montero, has yet to allow a home run through three starts. 

With injuries to Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, and Andrew Vaughn, the Milwaukee Brewers have a skeleton crew lineup. Three starters and the top four bench players are hitting below .200 with an OPS under .600.

COVERS INTEL: A key to Montero's success has been a barrel rate of 2.2%, which ranks in the 89th percentile.

Brewers vs Tigers Over/Under pick: Under 8.5 (-107)

The Brewers are in the bottom 10 in MLB in home runs, and the Tigers are in the bottom five. Both teams are exactly league average in OPS+, and are in the Top 8 in fewest runs allowed and ERA. 

Brewers starter Kyle Harrison missed his last outing after getting banged up in a collision covering first base.

He’s been cleared and has been outstanding this season, striking out more than a batter an inning and posting a 3.07 ERA and 1.09 WHIP.

Montero has a 3.31, 0.86. The two combined have walked six in 30-plus innings, setting this up as a pitching-forward showdown.

Brewers vs Tigers odds

• Moneyline: Brewers +100 | Tigers -104
• Run line: Brewers -1.5 (+170) | Tigers +1.5 (-178)
• Over/Under: Over 8.5 (+104) | Under 8.5 (-108)

Brewers vs Tigers trend

The Milwaukee Brewers have hit the Team Total Under in 16 of their last 23 away games (+7.55 Units / 27% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Brewers vs. Tigers.

How to watch Brewers vs Tigers and game info

Brewers vs Tigers latest injuries

Brewers vs Tigers weather

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The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees will renew a rivalry for the first time this season.

These two teams have been dead-even lately with a 5-5 head-to-head record over the last ten games although the Yankees got the last laugh a season ago eliminating its rival from the playoffs. However, Boston should get a measure of revenge tonight.

My Yankees vs. Red Sox predicitons and MLB picks break down why the Over and the underdog have value on Tuesday April 14.

Who will win Yankees vs Red Sox today: Red Sox moneyline (-115)

For the moment, I’m kind of out on New York Yankees hurler Luis Gil. He needs to regain my trust, and there’s not much to suggest that will happen anytime soon.

He’s posted some of the worst underlying metrics in 2026 to begin the season for any starting pitcher. Getting simply hit hard regularly per inning with an average exit velocity that sits in the bottom 5% of the sport and an overall hard-hit rate that is only slightly better.

The command issues that tanked his 2025 persist, and a 6.40 xERA suggests a player who has been more bad than unlucky. The Boston Red Sox have enough power in the lineup to hurt him. They’ve done it before, and the sixth-best hard-hit rate in the league looms large here.

While Connelly Early’s 2.29 ERA is propped up by a 5.25 xERA, his 74th-percentile run value suggests real competence. At a pick-em price, the Red Sox have the better matchup.

COVERS INTEL:Gil's chase rate has ranked in the bottom 10 percent of baseball for over a full year now.  In the 2025 season, it sat at the bottom one percentile (20.0%) and through two starts this year it has climbed only to the bottom 9th percentile (22.4%)

Yankees vs Red Sox Over/Under pick: Over 8.5 (-105)

It was a fairly easy Over bet for me as I projected a total of 9.4. The cool temperatures probably make this total a half run lower than it would otherwise be, and I get it, but it still isn't enough to overcome the struggles these two pitchers have.

We’ve talked about Gil and why Boston will have success, but New York should be able to score, too.

Early's 13% barrel rate, paired with an average exit velocity that’s actually worse than Gil's, is going to give the Bronx Bombers clear paths to run-scoring opportunities. I’d play this to 9.5 with a fair amount of confidence.

Yankees vs Red Sox odds

• Moneyline: New York -110 | Boston -110
• Run line: New York -1.5 (+150) | Boston +1.5 (-178)
• Over/Under: Over 8.5 (-105) | Under 8.5 (-110)

Yankees vs Red Sox trend

The New York Yankees have hit the Team Total Over in 31 of their last 50 away games (+9.25 Units / 16% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Yankees vs. Red Sox.

How to watch Yankees vs Red Sox and game info

Yankees vs Red Sox latest injuries

Yankees vs Red Sox 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.