Baseball News
Blake Snell makes his season debut against Spencer Strider.
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PHOENIX — Tobias Myers is quite the utility player for the Mets.
But unlike other players fitting that description, Myers doesn’t play multiple positions. Instead, he’s a pitcher who has shown the capability to handle various roles.
Already this season he had been used as an opener, long reliever and setup man. And then on Friday he got thrust into the closer’s role, working a perfect 10th inning in the team’s 3-1 victory over the Diamondbacks.
Myers’ save was the first of his major league career.
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Try it free“It was a cool moment to get my first one and have guys like Craig Kimbrel, Devin Williams and Luke Weaver, guys who have done it in the past, cool to kind of see their reaction and talk to those guys after the game,” Myers said before the Mets’ loss to Arizona on Saturday.
He entered the day with a 3.42 ERA in 12 appearances, a trusted reliever in a bullpen that overall has been respectable, but hardly great. The Mets began play with a 3.93 ERA from relievers, which ranked 13th in MLB.
“[Myers] has been huge for us, in a lot of different ways,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “As a multi-inning guy, an opener. High leverage, [Friday] night asking him to get the last three outs and coming in and doing his part, bouncing back from a tough one in Colorado, that shows a lot. It shows who he is as a competitor and as a player.”
For that Wednesday appearance, he was summoned to protect an eight-run lead, but got knocked out, forcing Mendoza to work deeper into his bullpen in the victory.
Myers allowed four earned runs on five hits, including two homers, over two-thirds of an inning in his least effective outing since arriving at the club.
“I think it was a lack of a good game plan,” Myers said. “I knew going in the splitter wasn’t going to play the same [because of the altitude] and I probably should have went away from it a little bit. It was a mixture of that and a lot of noncompetitive middle/middle pitches, either non-competitive or right down the middle.”
The Mets acquired the 27-year-old righty in the January trade that also brought Freddy Peralta to Queens and sent Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams to Milwaukee.
Myers has pitched as long as three innings in relief. His lone start came April 19, when he pitched two inn- ings as an opener against the Cubs.. It’s possible Mendoza will go the opener route Sunday, ahead of David Peterson, putting Myers in play for the start. Mendoza has also used Huascar Brazobán in the opener’s role ahead of Peterson.
If Myers has an obvious strength it’s his ability to throw strikes. He entered Saturday with four walks in 23 ²/₃ innings. His walk rate of 4.3 percent ranked in MLB’s 96th percentile.
“When I am going my best I am going in there, no matter what the pitch is called, I am just attacking the zone, trying to throw it in the zone,” Myers said. “Get ahead, strike one, strike two. That mentality is definitely where I wants to stay at. Coming in from the bullpen, nobody wants to give free bases, especially late in the game. So, just trying to make the hitters earn it type of mentality.
Myers had a barrel rate of 4.2 percent that placed him in the 84th percentile.
“I probably have to give credit to the catchers and the pitches they are calling,” Myers said. “I think I have done a decent job of putting the fastball in good spots, but as far as the breaking balls and the splits, they are kind of over the plate, so I think the catchers read the hitters, read the swings and are pressing the right buttons.”
Today is a weird day. The San Francisco Giants traded their two-time Gold Glove catcher and then, a few hours later, placed their two-time All-Star starting pitcher on the 15-Day Injured List. And yet, through it all, the games must go on, and the Giants still have a date with the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight.
Landen Roupp makes the start for the Giants, as he looks to build on his great season. The 27-year old right-hander has made seven starts this season, and is 5-2 with a 3.18 ERA, a 2.65 FIP, and 43 strikeouts against 16 walks in 39.2 innings. He’s looking to bounce back from his worst start of the year, when he allowed four runs in 4.1 innings against the Tampa Bay Rays.
For the Pirates, it’s Braxton Ashcraft, a 26-year old right-hander in his second season. Ashcraft has made seven starts this year, and is 1-2 with a 3.02 ERA, a 2.99 FIP, and 45 strikeouts against 14 walks in 41.2 innings. He’s coming off his best start, when he pitched 7.2 shutout innings against the Cincinnati Reds.
Enjoy the game, everyone! Go Giants!
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Who: San Francisco Giants (15-23) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (21-18)
Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California
When: 6:05 p.m. PT
Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area
National broadcast: n/a
Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM
If the sun is blocked at some point Sunday by clouds passing over Dodger Stadium, Freddie Freeman won’t move his sunglasses to the brim of his cap.
He doesn’t want his shades to obscure the Dodgers’ logo.
“It will be on the back of my hat,” Freeman said. “That’s Bobby. Bobby’s still in me.”
Freeman smiled often Saturday as he told stories of his first MLB manager, Bobby Cox, whose death was announced earlier in the day by the Braves. The Dodgers are in the middle of a three-game series against the Braves.
Cox, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014, was 84.
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A September call-up in Cox’s final season as a manager, in 2010, Freeman’s time with the Braves didn’t overlap much with Cox’s. However, Freeman said Cox had an oversized influence on him.
“A manager who relentlessly had our backs,” said Freeman, who was in the Braves’ major-league spring training camp in each of Cox’s last two years.
Freeman recalled walking into the Braves’ clubhouse for the first time on Sept. 1, 2010, and seeing a lineup card on which he was listed as the team’s No. 6 hitter.
“I almost threw up,” Freeman said.
Freeman was staring into space in front of his locker when Cox walked over. The manager dropped an expletive, which was followed by a question: “What took you so long to get here to the big leagues?”
“All the nerves immediately went away,” Freeman said.
Freeman said everyone who was in Cox’s orbit had stories like that.
“A lot of how the game goes is already played out before the game,” Freeman said. “There’s meetings with pitching coaches, who’s available, who’s down, but the managers that can connect with you as a person, that’s what makes a great manager. And that’s what Bobby was.”
Freeman’s favorite memory of Cox wasn’t even from a baseball field or clubhouse. In spring training of 2017, Freeman and his wife were out to dinner with their then-6-month-old son, Charlie. They ran into Cox and his wife.
“To see Hall of Famer Bobby Cox, the joy on his face when he saw my 6-month-old son, that’s the stuff I will never forget,” Freeman said.
Location: Oracle Park, San Francisco, CA
Broadcast: KDKA AM/FM, Sportsnet
Starting Pitcher: Braxton Ashcraft
The Pittsburgh Pirates are on the road today against the San Francisco Giants looking to grab a win.
Please remember our Game Day thread guidelines.
BD community, this is your thread for today’s game. Enjoy!
MILWAUKEE — The biggest Yankees workhorse over the past two seasons is ready to get back in the saddle.
Nearly seven months after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow to remove loose bodies and shave down a bone spur, Carlos Rodón is set to return from the injured list Sunday to make his season debut against the Brewers at American Family Field.
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Try it freeThe left-hander will do so with an unfamiliar feeling: no longer pitching through discomfort.
Across an MLB-high 33 starts last season, and even for some time before then, Rodón had limited range of motion with his left arm — making everyday tasks like buttoning his shirt difficult — which he had learned to pitch through, and pitch well. He posted a 3.09 ERA with 203 strikeouts across 195 ¹/₃ innings and finished sixth in the American League Cy Young voting.
Now, after spending much of his rehab process rediscovering how to harness the extended range of motion that he was not used to, Rodón is about to find out how it plays on a big league mound.
“I just want to go out there and compete,” Rodón said Saturday. “I know I can still do this.”
After right hamstring tightness in late March slightly delayed his buildup, the 33-year-old made three rehab starts, getting up to 83 pitches and 6 ¹/₃ innings Tuesday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He will likely be limited to a pitch count around that same range Sunday as the Yankees ease him back in.
“This being probably my third time through a lengthy rehab process, I have some experience, although most people don’t want to really say that,” Rodón said. “Just [leaning] back on those times and working on the craft and trying to get back here and help the team.”
Aaron Boone acknowledged that Rodón, who admitted not being good at staying patient, would have liked to be back pitching in the big leagues a few turns sooner. But the manager is looking forward to getting him back Sunday.
“Feel like he’s had a good couple months, even in and around the hamstring that didn’t trip him up too much,” Boone said.
Rodón’s return gets the Yankees one step closer to having their full rotation, with Gerrit Cole possibly joining it by the end of the month after he makes two or three more rehab starts in his own comeback from Tommy John surgery.
The Yankees rotation has gotten off to a terrific start without the two veterans, entering Saturday with a 3.09 ERA (the second best mark in the majors, trailing only the Dodgers’ 2.95) and a 4.9 fWAR (which was the best in the majors). Much of that has been thanks to Max Fried and Cam Schlittler, though Will Warren and Ryan Weathers have been strong in their own rights, with the rotation providing the backbone for the AL-best 26-13 record coming into Saturday.
“They’ve been impeccable,” Rodón said.
But adding Rodón — whose 370 ¹/₃ innings from 2024-2025 were the fifth most in the majors and 3.50 ERA the 20th best during that span — into the mix has the potential to make the Yankees even better.
In his first few starts back, Rodón’s command and velocity will bear watching. He only walked three batters in 16 innings during his rehab process, though he acknowledged at various points of his comeback that he was still relearning his arm path after compensating for the limited range of motion in recent years.
As for the velocity, part of the reason why Rodón finally underwent the surgery in October was because his four-seam fastball velocity took a fairly significant step down last season — averaging 94.1 mph compared to 95.4 mph in 2024. In his final rehab start Tuesday, Rodón’s four-seamer averaged 93.3 mph, though that number is expected to tick up a bit when he gets the adrenaline back of pitching in the major leagues.
Just how much that accounts for in miles per hour remains to be seen, but after staying patient throughout a lengthy rehab process, Rodón is champing at the bit to find out.
Join us and discuss tonight’s game in the comments below, as the Braves look to even up their series against the Dodgers in LA!
Game Time: Saturday, May 9th, 9:10 pm EDT
Location: UNIGLO Field at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA.
Watch: BravesVision
Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
The Nationals had a chance to get back to .500 this afternoon and after the first couple innings, it looked like they would pull it off. They were all over Marlins starter Janson Junk early. However, when the game got turned over to Zack Littell and Mitchell Parker, things went off the rails.
As we mentioned, things started so well in this late afternoon showdown. For the third time this season, James Wood hit a leadoff home run. It was a towering 442 foot shot that went way into the second deck. Seeing Wood really get a hold of a ball is truly a joy to watch.
After the Wood homer, Luis Garcia Jr., Brady House and CJ Abrams got three straight hits. Before you could even blink an eye it was 3-0 Nats. The same sort of thing happened last night, but this time it was even faster. Last night the Nats could not add on and were lucky to escape with a victory.
This time the Nats scored on a sac fly after a CJ Abrams triple. However, the offense went quiet after that. The Nats did not score between that Lile sac fly and the ninth inning. While the Nationals were in an offensive malaise, the Marlins struck.
Once Zack Littell entered the game, the momentum really shifted. Littell has probably been the biggest disappointment of the season so far. He is fooling absolutely nobody, and even in a bulk relief role he struggled. Even the outs he was getting were loud outs.
Littell did not totally melt down in this one, but he allowed the Marlins to slowly chip away. In the 4th, he allowed a home run on an absolute meatball to Kyle Stowers. Nats pitchers got punished for hanging their offspeed pitches all afternoon in this one. All three Marlins homers came on secondary pitches right down the middle.
Littell was also not helped by his defense. CJ Abrams made an error for the second straight game, and has really gone back to old habits defensively. He looked great on defense the first week or two of the season, but that has shifted in a big way. While Abrams is a superstar at the plate, he might be the worst defender of any everyday shortstop. His -5 OAA ranks in the 1st percentile.
Littell was not convincing at all, but he did maintain the lead for the Nats in his four innings of work. However, I am not sure how much longer you can continue with this experiment. He just has not had it in a Nats uniform.
Mitchell Parker had looked promising in a multi-inning relief role before this game, but today was not his day. After giving up a game tying home run and limping his way through the 7th inning, that much was clear. However, Blake Butera decided to stick to his plan and roll out Parker for a second inning.
That decision backfired in a huge way. Parker’s command was just completely off today. He was unable to consistently throw his fastball in the zone and his slider was just hanging on a tee for Marlins hitters. After a single and a walk, Parker allowed a gut punch of a homer to Jakob Marsee. It was on yet another hanging slider.
He was unable to stop the bleeding there either. Still in the game, Parker allowed a double to Esteury Ruiz before Blake Butera finally pulled him, a move he made way too late. Butera went to Zak Kent, who allowed the inherited runner to score, but stopped the bleeding there.
It was a major gut punch and the game felt all but over, but the Nats had one last rally in them. Jose Tena led off the inning with a double, and then the light hitting Drew Millas drove him in with an RBI knock. With the top of the order coming up, the boys were in business.
James Wood made the game even more interesting with an RBI double on a rope to left field. Luis Garcia Jr. drove him in with yet another hit. It was now 8-7 Marlins with a runner at second base. Joey Wiemer would pinch run for Garcia, but his base running would cost the Nats. Pinch hitter Jorbit Vivas hit a ground ball to third, and Wiemer was caught between second and third base. He got tagged out trying to scramble back to second.
That meant the game would be up to CJ Abrams. There was only a runner on first now, but the Nats had the right man in the box. The Marlins went to a lefty out of the bullpen, and unfortunately, the move paid off. Abrams got under an 0-2 sweeper and flew out to left to end the ball game.
This was a really frustrating loss. The Nats were in control for most of the contest, but allowed the Marlins to wrestle that control away. Sloppy mistakes were just scattered across this contest. I did not think Blake Butera had his best game either. The Nats had a chance to get to .500 and they blew it. Now the boys need to brush off that disappointing loss and go for the series win tomorrow afternoon.
After dropping the first game of this nine-game homestand last night and on a three-game losing streak, the Chicago White Sox will rely on Anthony Kay to provide a lead the turnaround. Kay (1-1, 5.70 ERA, 7.62 xERA) has struggled with consistency in the early going and hasn’t pitched into the sixth inning since April 9 in Kansas City. He’s yet to find the success he had on the other side of the world, so here’s hoping he settles in against a Mariners squad on the verge of breaking through.
As for his mound mate, he’s off to a rocky start himself. Luis Castillo (0-3, 6.29 ERA, 5.86 xERA) has given up runs in every start apart from his first of the year. He’s already had two such starts where he’s given up seven runs. Let’s see if the Sox can make it three.
Either way, something’s gotta give between these two starting pitchers.
Looking to keep the offense the way it was last night, Will Venable makes two small changes: swapping out his catcher and substituting an Andrew Benintendi dealing with neck soreness with Randal Grichuk, who homered in his pinch-hit appearance yesterday.
Here’s how the Mariners will line up:
Luckily for us, Luke Raley is not in tonight’s starting lineup — but Josh Naylor is.
You can catch tonight’s game at 6:40 p.m. CT on CHSN or ESPN 1000. Let’s get back in the win column!
This game was summed up for me by two innings. Be warned; it’s not pretty.
In the top of the third, the Athletics’ Brent Rooker came to the plate with two on and one out. Orioles starter Shane Baz had already given up a four-pitch walk and a single. Then, with the right-hitting Rooker up to bat, Baz left a cutter hanging up and just off the plate. Rooker swung, launching the pitch 365 feet away onto the flag court. That meatball, and the bombardment thereof, made the game 4-0 Athletics.
This felt like an insurmountable lead until the Orioles got a glorious scoring chance in the bottom of the fifth inning. Infielder Jeremiah Jackson had reached on a Bermuda Triangle single, Gunnar Henderson doubled, and Taylor Ward walked. That brought up to the plate Adley Rutschman, a career .407 hitter with the bases loaded. Sadly, Adley did not deliver that inning. Nor did Pete Alonso. Nor did Samuel Basallo. The former struck out after a long battle with A’s starter Aaron Civale; the second popped up too shallowly to score the lead runner; the third also flew out.
There was a late, two-run Baltimore rally against Mark Leiter Jr.—brother of Jack, son of Mark, nephew of Al, but also a pitcher who entered this game with a 7.63 ERA. Leody Taveras, Dylan Beavers, and a pinch-hitting Colton Cowser strung together consecutive hits to make it 5-2. That was as good as it got.
Anyway, today’s game is still defined by Shane Baz handing out runs with missed pitches and Orioles hitters making Civale look like an ace. I’m not sure which is more concerning: Baltimore hitters failing to take advantage of Civale, a pitcher whose average exit velocity is higher than his fastball, or Baz failing to go five while throwing one hundred pitches.
Start with the pitching side. Shane Baz is way too talented to be allowing five runs in 4 1/3 innings to an offense like the Athletics’. Command issues were at the heart of his problems today. It started in the first, when Baz hung a cutter to leadoff man Nick Kurtz, who doubled. Then Baz missed with three straight cutters to catcher Shane Langeliers, who singled home a first run.
After looking lost against the first two hitters, Baz appeared to find something, and reeled off three consecutive outs, plus a scoreless second.
But again, there was that third inning, which felt completely avoidable, barring that early walk and two bad cutters.
It still feels true to say that with his stuff, most teams can’t beat Shane Baz, so long as he doesn’t beat himself. But he sure seems to be beating himself a lot lately…
As for the offense, let’s put it this way. At one point in the third inning, with Baltimore still scoreless, MASN flashed a graphic placing Aaron Civale in the bottom 110 to 130 MLB pitchers in hard-hit percentage and whiffs. Perhaps such stats undervalue “Crafty Veteranness.” And true, Civale did command his breaking pitches today.
But I don’t quite buy this excuse, for the reason that today, it was the same O’s hitters who’ve been connecting who connected, and the same ones who’ve lately looked hopeless who continued to look hopeless.
Gunnar Henderson had two hits, including a double. (He’s chasing too much, but still.) Adley Rutschman had a double. (Also that crucial bases-loaded strikeout, but still.) Taylor Ward walked three times (!!). Samuel Basallo singled twice, one of them 112 mph.
But that was it for the hitters against Civale, who over five innings racked up six punchouts, equal to nine per nine innings. Given a pitcher who averages 6.6 strikeouts a game, it feels hard to deny that O’s hitters aren’t giving opposing pitchers much of a challenge.
And toward the middle innings, it was the talented Shane Baz who looked error-prone, not Civale with his more limited stuff. Baz allowed a leadoff double to first baseman Nick Kurtz, then allowed Kurtz—no Trea Turner in sprint speed, from what I can see—to take third base uncontested as Baz missed high to catcher Shea Langeliers, who then got the RBI with a sac fly to center.
Now 5-0 Athletics, this felt like a slow trudge through nine. The fifth inning was the one exception: a bases-loaded situation that had you dreaming of grand salamis, only to cruelly rob you of all hopes of a stirring comeback.
The bullpen pitched okay, with the exception of Andrew Kittredge. Lou Trivino covered two 1/3 scoreless and Dietrich Enns threw one, too, despite allowing two hits. Kittredge continues to look problematic, allowing a sixth run in the ninth, although at this point it didn’t feel very important.
The two-run rally in the eighth was nice, in that it raised the averages of the struggling Beavers and Cowser, but I doubt the Athletics were very nervous.
It is what it is. Back this spring, there were high hopes for both this lineup and the starting rotation. Well, maybe not high hopes for this rotation, but at least reasonable expectations of competence. Now, Trevor Rogers is hurt (or something), Zach Eflin is out for the year, Dean Kremer—who didn’t even make the rotation—is out with a quad, and Shane Baz is highly erratic.
If this is the Orioles throwing their hardest punches and still getting KO’d, this is going to be a long season.
Time/Place: 7:10 p.m., Kauffman Stadium
SB Nation Site: Royals Review
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: RHP Ty Madden (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Michael Wacha (3-2, 3.05 ERA)
| Player | G | IP | K% | BB% | GB% | FIP | fWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madden | 1 | 5.0 | 35.0 | 0.0 | 69.2 | 0.34 | 0.2 |
| Wacha | 7 | 44.1 | 20.7 | 8.6 | 31.1 | 4.06 | 0.7 |
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Well, that was an interesting day!
Here’s the Twins lineup:
Here’s the Guardians lineup:
Let’s go, Guardians!
LOS ANGELES — Blake Snell was activated off the injured list on Saturday to start against the Atlanta Braves, after missing the first six-plus weeks of the season with left shoulder fatigue. To make room on the active roster, Brock Stewart is back on the injured list, this time with a bone spur in his left foot.
With Tyler Glasnow sidelined with back spasms, the Dodgers turned to Snell, who was scheduled to pitch five innings in his final rehab start for Class-A Ontario on Saturday, with a proposition he was eager to accept.
“You try to figure out if [Snell] is open to taking the five innings here versus on rehab,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday. “And he was. he couldn’t be more excited to do that.”
Snell had a 4.50 ERA in eight innings over his three minor league rehab starts, with two walks and 10 strikeouts among his 32 batters faced between Class-A Ontario and Triple-A Oklahoma City. The 10 strikeouts came in his last two outings, with six in three innings for the Tower Buzzers on April 28 and four in four innings last Sunday for the Comets in Round Rock, Texas.
Saturday is the 39th game of the season for the Dodgers, who to date have only used six starting pitchers in an incredibly stable rotation to date. This is the latest into a season the Dodgers have used their seventh different starting pitcher since 2021, when it took until game number 40 with opener Jimmy Nelson.
Stewart was just activated on Wednesday after missing the first 36 games while rehabbing from last September’s shoulder surgery. Stewart pitched in both games in which he was active, throwing scoreless innings on both Wednesday in Houston and on Friday against the Braves, totaling three strikeouts and a walk among his seven batters faced.
Dustin May will get the Saturday night start at Petco Park for the Cardinals as he’ll do battle with Randy Vásquez who will take the mound for the Padres. First pitch is set for 6:15pm central time and the musical chairs broadcast schedule has the game being broadcast on Fox Saturday night.
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One of my favorite things that happens on Royals Review is Suff76’s Path to 90 wins. Now that we’re at the quarter-point of the season, I wanted to check in on that. If the Royals were following that path, they’d have been 19-19 entering this series, and would want to be 21-20 exiting it. Instead, they entered it 17-21 and are now 18-21. If they at least split tonight’s game and tomorrow’s, they’ll be 19-22, only two games off the pace they’d need for 90 wins, assuming they can follow the path the rest of the way. Especially considering the 8-game losing streak, they’ve made up a TON of ground already.
One of the things I preach but don’t always practice is trying to view the season in homestand/away trip chunks rather than on a game-by-game basis. Going game by game, that Cleveland series was disappointing, but looked at from a series perspective, it was solid. Going series by series, the Oakland series was disappointing, while the Mariners series was terrific; from a road trip standpoint, a 4-2 trip was fantastic.
If we look at it from a homestand perspective, after the Royals take at least two out of three from the Tigers, that would be a good homestand. Win more games on a homestand/road trip than you lose, and you’re always making up ground, even if you lose individual games or even individual series.
What that means is the Royals have a chance to guarantee themselves a good homestand and give themselves a chance at a terrific homestand tomorrow with a win tonight. But that also means if they do win tonight and lose tomorrow, that’s not a lost opportunity, that’s a successful homestand. Baseball is, famously, a marathon rather than a sprint. But we fans so often treat individual games as if they will make or break a season.
The Royals, on paper, should have an excellent opportunity in front of them tonight. Michael Wacha will take the mound for KC, and five of his seven starts to begin the year have been of the above-quality version. A quality start is, of course, six innings and three runs. All five starts were that good, but all of them saw him allow fewer than three runs, and multiple saw him go more than six innings. He did have a couple of rough starts against Baltimore and the Athletics, but he rebounded with seven innings of two-run ball against the Guardians earlier this week in one of the Royals’ wins.
Wacha hasn’t faced the Tigers this year, but he faced them in every series the two teams played last year. He had two quality starts, one start where he allowed only 2 runs in 5.1 innings, and a final start that was a bit of a dud where he gave up 4 runs in 4.2 innings, but had some terrible sequencing luck as he only allowed 5 hits and 1 walk. Hopefully, he’ll pitch something more like the seven shutout innings he gave KC on May 31 last year, when the Royals won 1-0.
The Tigers had originally planned to throw Tarik Skubal in this one. Unfortunately for them, he had a loose body removed from his elbow earlier this week so he’s unavailable. As Rex might say, the Royals won’t be sending any sympathy cards. Instead, the Tigers will use old friend Burch Smith as an opener and likely follow him with bulk reliever Ty Madden.
Smith has had a rough time since pitching for KC, he bounced around the majors for a couple of years before spending 2022 in the NPB and then even took a stab at the KBO in 2023. He returned to the states in 2024 and pitched a few subpar innings for the Orioles and Marlins. Last year, he pitched exclusively for Pittsburgh’s AAA affiliate before signing a minor league deal with Detroit over the offseason. They recalled him on April 22, and he’s been pretty good with a 1.59 ERA in 11.1 innings. He can be hard to hit, but when he does get hit, he gets hit hard.
Ty Madden is a rookie who pitched a handful of big league innings for the Tigers in 2024, though he remained in the minors all of last year. He came into the season ranked 27th among the Tigers’ prospects by FanGraphs. He was pretty mediocre in 2024, but his bulk relief appearance against the Red Sox earlier this week saw him pitch five shutout innings with seven Ks and no walks. He had trouble finding the zone in that start, though; the Red Sox just kept chasing. If the Royals can be more patient, they ought to find more success.
The Tigers have put their dangerous lefties back in the lineup. Things won’t be easy for Wacha. On the other hand, Quatraro has actually removed Isaac Collins in favor of Lane Thomas. I’m not sure why, but hopefully it will pay off.