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The Colorado Rockies are now through 12 games of the 2026 season. While we are clearly still working with small sample sizes in terms of performance data, which offseason MLB acquisition do you think has been the most successful so far?

Consider some of the choices:

• Valente Bellozo
• Brenan Bernadino
• Willi Castro
• Michael Lorenzen
• Jake McCarthy
• Troy Johnston
• Edouard Julien
• José Quintana
• T.J. Rumfield
• Tomoyuki Sugano 菅野 智之
• Brett Sullivan

This is probably a question we’ll return to as the season unfolds, but let us know in the comments what you think.

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

Listen, I’m not saying it was destined, but you go up against a team called the Angels on Easter, and you’re probably gonna lose. A simple coincidence? Probably, but I think the much more likely scenario is that this game took place inside the halo for the Angels at the Big A. It’s no secret the Mariners have never been highly favored by those persnickety baseball gods, and this game was no exception. Every time the Mariners seemed to get an edge or get out in front, the Angels would manage to pull it back.

Coming into the game, the Mariners are coming off a rough shutout from last night that featured Jo Adell having the defensive game of his career. Unable to shake the bad vibes from yesterday, today’s game started and remained equally frustrating.

Zach “Mariner Killer” Neto immediately gets the trouble started with a lead-off double to add to his two extra-base hits from last night. So far this series, Neto’s bat appears to be blessed with a prodigious level of power this series, and today was obviously not going to be an exception; it is their day after all. After advancing to third on a groundball to first from Trout and scored on a single from Jorge Solar, putting the Angels up 1-0 in the first.

However, the Mariners have been showing some fight early in the year, and do not go away easily. Our M’s roared back in the second against George Klassen, making his MLB debut. Klassen is a highly touted prospect for the Angels, though if his command issues persist as they did today, it’s hard to see the Angels being able to rely on him for innings this season. The young pitcher certainly had some moments, including his first career strikeout against Julio Rodriguez, but also lasted just 2.2 innings, issuing five walks.

Klassen certainly looked the part of the anxious rookie on the hill today. He started the second inning with a walk to Randy Arozarena, and then with one out issued back-to-back walks to Cole Young and Mitch Garver, loading the bases. A nice little Leo Rivas bloop single drove in both Arozarena and Young, and the Mariners took the lead 2-1 going into the third inning.

Clearly, the Mariners’ hubris was offensive, though, because the Angels almost immediately tied it up again. Trout doubled to lead off the inning and moved to third on a Nolan Schanuel groundout to first base. Jorge Soler then singled into left field to bring Trout home and take away the Mariners’ first lead of the day.

Thankfully, before things can get much worse, the inning is brought to an end in part thanks to a nice play by Cole Young. The young second baseman certainly seems to be settling in well to Seattle, as you shall see a little further down.

Up to this point, it was a good competitive game; seemingly, it could go either way, and then the fates stepped in. Unwilling to see the Mariners win this game, or at least win easily, they started causing trouble for the Mariners in the 4th inning. First, Luis Castillo, usually very solid, especially early in the year, logged an uncharacteristic HBP on Josh Lowe. Castillo followed that with a walk of Logan O’Hoppe (OH-Hop-e, appropriate for today). A sac bunt from former Mariner Adam Frazier put both runners in scoring position. Of course, this brought Neto to the plate, and he did what Zach Neto does, which is put the ball in play. A hard grounder to third and Leo Rivas couldn’t handle it: the ball ricocheted off his glove into foul territory and allowed both runners to advance, giving the Angels a 3-2 lead.

To make matters worse, on the next play, J.P. Crawford got a seemingly routine ground ball and overthrew Naylor at first, pulling him off the bag, allowing O’Hoppe to score from third, and putting the Angels up 4-2.

BUT, faithful reader, this version of the Mariners has something that other teams of the past have lacked: tenacity, stick-to-it-iveness, the ability to never really go away, and today it showed. Mariners’ young lion Cole Young stepped to the plate in the 5th inning with Arozarena on second after a HBP, and JP Crawford on first after drawing a walk. Feeling no fear or pressure, Young coolly stepped into the box, facing Brett Suter, who is roughly twice Young’s age. In a disgusting display of lefty on lefty violence, Young launched his second home run of the year to put the Mariners up 5-4. That Cole Young 25 home run season prediction isn’t looking so outlandish at this point.

However, playing the Angels on Easter is bound to end with their victory; it’s one of the few perks the team has! Certainly not a working HVAC system. (Note that this is not based on any empirical evidence, more just vibe science.) Jeimer Candelario reminded us he’s still playing in MLB in the bottom of the fifth with a lead-off double, and then Jo Adell immediately punished a mistake pitch from Jose Ferrer (sinker in the lefty loop zone) and followed it up with a single to tie the game again.

Adam Frazier continued to haunt the Mariners with a single of his own to drive in Adell and put the Angels up 6-5. Someone get that man out of the AL West.

For many teams, that would be the end, the back of the team being broken by former players and teammates dicing them up, and Jo Adell having a great defensive game and then continuing to assault the Mariners with his skills at the plate. But not these Mariners, embued with the spirit of the Easter Bunny, these Mariners keep bouncing back!

In the 9th, down to their last out, Cal Raleigh stepped to the plate. With the struggles he’s had so far this season, you could be forgiven for thinking game over, and yet it’s not. Raleigh muscled a dying seagull down the left field line and hustled for a double, bringing up the equally struggling Julio Rodríguez, again potentially as the last chance of the game. Not to be outdone, Julio lined a single into left center to bring Cal around to score and tie up the game. We’re going to extras, baby!

The Mariners stayed hot in the tenth, like a candy-fueled two-year-old after church, surging into the lead with the assistance of the Manfred runner. A single from Randy brought around Julio to score, and the Mariners lead 7-6 going into the bottom of the 10th.

The Angels, however, have the power of the heavens on their side on today of all days. Bryce Teodosio bunts over Jo Adell on second to third. A sac fly from O’Hoppe O’Hopped him home, and we are all tied up again! But the Mariners didn’t have enough left in the tank, as if experiencing a mighty sugar crash. Though they mustered baserunners in the top of the 11th, it’s not meant to be. With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the 11th, Cal Raleigh couldn’t play hero again, striking out swinging to end the inning.

The Mariners attempted to stop the inevitable, an intentional walk to Neto to start the bottom of the 11th and set up the double play. Neto has been killing them, so I understand. But a sac bunt by Oswald Peraza put runners on second and third, so all it took was a simple sac fly from Nolan Schanuel and the game is over as Adam Frazier (of course) crosses the plate; Mariners lose 8 – 7.

A sad end to an otherwise good game, if you ignore all the runners the Mariners left stranded, and because it’s a holiday for many people we are going to. Though it didn’t work out the way I would have liked, both Julio and Cal had some big hits, so the hope is that this game can at least help get the Mariners back on track to start the season.

WASHINGTON, DC. – Roki Sasaki has lost his signature pitch. 

He’s lost his forkball.

The role that luck played in his grotesque pitching line in the Dodgers’ 8-6 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday can’t be understated, but neither can his transformation into a diluted version of himself.

Here he was pitching against an unimposing opponent, throwing a fastball that was a tick or two slower than usual while mixing in a ho-hum slider because he didn’t have a feel for his out pitch. 

What Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called improvement looked more like an identity crisis for the 24-year-old Sasaki, who bore minimal resemblance to the Japanese-league fireballer considered the world’s No. 1 pitching prospect.

There was always an element of unpredictability with Sasaki’s forkball, which tumbles like a knuckler because of its extremely low spin rate. But Sasaki has started missing badly with the pitch with greater frequency. He threw one against the Nationals that was so off the mark that it ended up in the middle of the plate and was clobbered for a three-run homer by James Wood in a four-run fourth inning for the Nationals. 

To be fair to Sasaki, Wood wouldn’t have come up if not for spectacular misfortune. With two outs in the inning, Keibert Ruiz hit an unthreatening grounder at Freddie Freeman. Before the ball reached Freeman’s glove, however, it hit the bag, popping up over the first baseman’s head and bouncing into right field for a run-scoring single. Two batters later, Wood homered.

Sasaki regrouped to retire the side in the following inning to give manager Dave Roberts the five frames he wanted from him. But Sasaki departed the game with a 6-1 deficit after giving up five hits, including two homers, and three walks. If this counted as progress, it was only because he was even worse in his previous start.

Sasaki’s improved fastball command came at the expense of velocity, which dropped from an average of 97.6 mph in his last start to 96.6 mph. Sasaki has refuted the idea that the arm action required to throw his slider has negatively affected his forkball, but the truth is that he’s never thrown both pitches well at the same time.

What is Sasaki without an overpowering fastball and wipeout forkball? How effective can he be as a fastball-slider pitcher?

As he did after his previous start, Sasaki pushed back when questioned about his forkball. He said he hadn’t lost confidence in the pitch and the reason that he didn’t throw it as much was because he was following the lead of catcher Dalton Rushing.

“I’m not the one deciding,” Sasaki said in Japanese.

But Rushing, at very least, expressed some apprehension about Sasaki’s trademark offering.

“It’s just inconsistent,” Rushing said. “It’s a pitch that if you can’t strike it, it starts to give the opposing team the opportunity to just lay off of it every time you throw it. Maybe there’s a couple technique things we can figure out in his delivery to strike it a little more, or maybe it’s just a mindset (that) you don’t have to throw your best splitter every pitch.”

As for the 0-2 forkball on which Wood homered, where did Rushing want Sasaki to throw it?

“I wanted it in the dirt,” the backup catcher said. “He could have bounced it in the grass, I don’t care. Look, it’s part of pitching. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to lose a couple, but at the same time, it’s a maturity thing and hopefully he learns from it. You usually try to take advantage of 0-2 counts, especially with a guy that’s been struggling with plate discipline.”

Roberts tried to present a more positive outlook of Sasaki’s start.

“Roki getting through the fifth inning was big,” Roberts said. “Some people are going to look at the line score, but if that ball doesn’t hit the bag and the inning’s over, it could have been a different outing for him.”

What else was Roberts going to say?

The front office has shown no interest in sending Sasaki to the minor leagues, meaning he will probably remain in the rotation until Blake Snell returns from the injured list. 

Snell isn’t expected back until late May.

An interminable rain delay before Sunday’s game at Yankee Stadium was far from the ugliest part of the day for a team that entered as hot as any in the sport.

The Yankees blew a three-run lead to the Marlins in a 7-6 defeat, as a bullpen filled with question marks imploded in the eighth inning and the lineup mostly disappeared after the third.

Down by three runs in the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees rallied with walks by Cody Bellinger and Ben Rice.

Giancarlo Stanton struck out looking before Jazz Chisholm Jr. doubled in the gap to right-center to get the Yankees to within a run.

After an intentional walk to Austin Wells, J.C. Escarra pinch hit for José Caballero and struck out to end it.

“We don’t think the game is over until the last out,” Chisholm said of the late drama.

The defeat was surprising, but what caused it wasn’t, as even with the Yankees winning eight of their first nine games — and four in a row entering Sunday — there were some lingering questions.

At the forefront was the pen, filled with pitchers with lackluster résumés.

And the lack of production from the bottom of the lineup has been alarming.

Both were on display in the loss.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND YANKEES STATS

Jake Bird and Ryan Yarbrough gave up run-scoring hits in the decisive eighth inning, but they weren’t the only culprits.

The game began well enough, as the Yankees brushed off an early run allowed by Max Fried — his first of the season — with Rice’s three-run homer in the bottom of the inning.

It was Rice’s third home run in his past four games.

The 410-foot blast into the second deck in right came against Pete Fairbanks, who opened the game because he had to return to Miami for his wife’s induced labor Monday.

The bizarre strategy backfired early, as Fairbanks was terrible in the first, but Yankees hitters hardly did anything once he left.

They scraped together an unearned run in the third to make it 4-1 against Miami’s scheduled starter, Chris Paddack.

And with Fried on the mound — having pitched 13 ¹/₃ shutout innings to open the season — that seemed like it would be enough.

But Fried wasn’t sharp and lamented the three walks he issued, as he allowed three runs in 6 ²/₃ innings.

Miami got a run back in the fourth and inched closer in the sixth, as the first three runners reached — including on a throwing error by Caballero on Heriberto Hernández’s grounder to short.

Fried picked off Hernández at first and then Caballero made up for his miscue by throwing out Lopez at the plate on Connor Norby’s ground ball.

Home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez missed the call despite Wells clearly tagging Lopez’s elbow, but a replay review overturned it to preserve the Yankees lead.

But the game came apart in the eighth.

With the bullpen short after being used heavily, the Yankees went to Bird with one on and one out in the eighth.

Bird walked Lopez, hit pinch hitter Griffin Conine and then gave up a two-run, go-ahead double to pinch hitter Graham Pauley.

“I have to bear down and I didn’t do my job,” Bird said. “Just not a good day.”

Down a run, the lefty Yarbrough entered and allowed a single to Xavier Edwards to make it a three-run game.

It proved to be too much for the Yankees to come back from.

By the time this is published, three series will be in the books, and it’s been the best of times and the worst of times. Initial thoughts on the whip lash?

James: The team’s lack of overall depth is staring them straight in the face. Paul Sewald is still a head-scratching signing by the front office. Loaisiga is pretty much just who we all thought he would be when he signed the make-good minor league deal. He’s likely working his way into becoming the team’s primary closer the way Shelby Miller did last season. The team needs to find some consistency in the offense. Right now, Marte, Perdomo, and Carroll are largely carrying the team. Lawlar was just really starting to shape up before he got hurt. The currently rostered alternatives to Lawlar are not encouraging. Santana and Arenado need to find some sort of fountain of youth, at least for a few months. The current Eduardo Rodriguez is the one we all thought we were getting starting 1.5-2 years ago. Zac Gallen is starting to look like the “better” version of Gallen from last season, the post deadline version. Someone needs to get into the bullpen and work with Ryne Nelson on his pitch shape. His four-seam is not moving quite like it did last year and he is getting punished as a result.

Overall, the team is basically playing to the level expected, even if a closer examination has those results coming in a way other than expected. Mostly, the team cannot afford any further significant injuries. The roster is already being held together with bubble gum and bailing wire. One more injury to a starter or primary bullpen arm and this season could get ugly in a damn hurry.

Makakilo:  With a little bit of serendipity, the Diamondbacks could have won Friday’s game (tied after 8 innings), and they could have won two games against the Dodgers (each lost by 1 run).  Their record would have been 6-2!  So far, the Diamondbacks have not yet reached their potential to be a playoff team.  It could happen!

Spencer: I’m not sure what to make of it. Expecting a win against LA would be foolish. But expecting to sweep the Tigers would’ve been similarly foolish going in. And we pulled the worst of Atlanta’s pitching yet receive no offense….? Let’s talk at the end of May and see what’s up. 

1AZfan1: It’s been a rollercoaster, for sure, but I’m going to follow along with Mak’s comment and say that we’ve been blown out twice and in each other loss we’ve either lost by 1 or we were tied going into the 9th inning. Finishing about .500 in 1-run games is about what you should expect so sitting at 2-2 in those contests seems fair. The only disappointment with our current record is that we swept the Tigers instead of the Dodgers. It stinks losing to the Dodgers.

ISH95: Pretty crazy start to the season. There have definitely been positives. The offense got off to a great start, then switched to ice cold. E-rod has been great to see, Gallen’s been decent in total, but Nelson has been a concern. If this is how it’s going to be all season, we’re all going to have more grey hairs by the time it’s finished.

Which is more likely to continue: Rodriguez’ hot start of Nelson’s cold one?

James: I think Rodriguez’s hot start is the more likely for two reasons. First, this version of E-Rod is pretty much the pitcher the team was expecting to get all along. Over the previous two seasons he has shown flashes of this, but was constantly battling nagging injuries. A nick here, a knock there and he was rarely ever pitching at his best. Now, he’s in better shape after new conditioning and he was made ready earlier in the spring to pitch for Venezuela, which has helped him be in mid-season form in April. The second reason I pick E-Rod is that Ryne Nelson has had some ridiculously bad luck. The first four hits he surrendered this season all left the yard. Even Brandon Pfaadt bounced back from a similar stretch earlier in his career and he doesn’t have as high a ceiling. I’ve never been one convinced that Nelson had TOR stuff, but he does have the makings of a solid #2/3 pitcher if he can correct his current four-seam issue and continue to develop his secondaries.

Makakilo:  Two reasons that Nelson will bounce back before Rodriguez regresses.

• This season through Friday, Rodriguez’s FIP was 2.60 and Nelson’s FIP was 9.18. Nelson’s FIP is unbelievably different from his career FIP.  Rodriguez and Nelson have career FIPS that are not that much different (3.95 vs 4.25).  
• Nelson is 28.2 years old and Rodriguez is 33.0 years old.  Rodriguez has the experience needed to stay consistent. 

Spencer: Rodriguez’. Nelson is still young and the league has been adjusting to him. Plus he’s only been a full time starter for…what like months not even years at this point because of Yo-Yo Hazen? Rodriguez has a history of a great season every few years. 

1AZfan1: I’m expecting regression to the mean from both, but I don’t have faith in ERod to keep this going much longer. Maybe he really is the pitcher we had always hoped he was when we initially signed him, but it’s been a whole lot of disappointment over the last 2 years that have scarred me to the point that I’m just waiting on the other shoe to drop and he’s back to our old 5 ERA pal. I hope I’m wrong, of course.

ISH95: The constant hard contact that Nelson is giving up scares me. His last start saw 9 balls hit over 100 miles per hour while he was in the game and he was responsible for eight of them. That’s not a recipe for success, and if they don’t figure that out, he’s going to have a long season.

Bigger loss: Pavin Smith or Jordan Lawler?

James: Lawlar by a country mile. Pavin Smith is little more than a placeholder player in the 26-man roster anymore. He is entirely mediocre in the field, both at first and in right. Even without signing Santana, I wondered just how much time Smith would actually get as a starter. Yes, he puts together decent at-bats. But he doesn’t find the production of someone like Perdomo, despite his reputation for his discernment at the plate. On the other hand, this is basically Jordan Lawlar’s big make or break season. And right now, he is on the shelf with a significant break. Jordan Lawlar still looks to have a bright future in the desert, albeit in left instead of at short. This is likely Pavin Smith’s last season in Arizona

Makakilo:  Lawlar’s injury was the bigger loss because the outfield has significant uncertainty about which outfield players will exceed pre-season expectations.  After the injury, it looks like Carroll and Tawa have the best chances to exceed pre-season expectations.

Spencer: Lawlar because he needs healthy reps and was finally showing why judging a prospect with ~100 plate appearances is bad analysis. But don’t sleep on the effect of losing Smith. Santana’s leash just got a lot longer since we have basically no 1B depth. That’s going to have a big impact too. Positive behind the scenes (hopefully) and negative on the field. 

1AZfan1: Lawlar is the popular answer for all the reasons everyone mentioned above and I agree with it. Among players with at least 20 PA on the D-backs, he leads in OBP, wOBA and wRC+ and he’s second (to only Corbin) in SLG, xwOBA and fWAR. Pavin’s loss hurts because Santana is now our only first baseman, but I’m happy to see Fernandez getting reps there just to find him a spot in the lineup.

ISH95: At the start of the season, I’d have said Pavin Smith because Carlos Santana: Only First Base Option is the stuff of nightmares, but Fernandez has shown very strong early returns that might mitage that disaster a bit more. Plus I wasn’t really expecting a whole lot from Lawler in his first real season. But Fernandez and Lawler’s start has switched that around for me.

How has the first few games of ABS gone in your opinion? Has it changed anything about your game experience?

James: I don’t mind it. I think it is helping to drive home just who the worst of the worst umpires are. Mostly, I will be glad when ABS has been around long enough that I don’t get 5-10 minutes of explanation about the ABS system in every MLB game I watch. Overall, I think it is shaping up to be a net positive. That will only become more so once the early days negatives start to fade away.

Makakilo:  I like it!  Even a few corrected calls give the players more control over the game outcome, which is a great thing! 

Spencer: I’ve been singing its praises since I first saw it in AAA years ago. Full Robo Calling can’t come fast enough for me. Human action changes everything else about the game, why limit the one thing you can fully automate to create a level playing field? (We all know the actual answer: the ump union would be furious and mlb gets free marketing from bots and incels tweeting about wrong calls constantly…)

1AZfan1: I think on the whole it’s been a success, but I don’t think it’s made as much an impact on the game as the pitch clock did. I still feel there are too many missed opportunities by our hitters and catchers. To that point, our 4 ABS challenges by hitters is the least amount in the league, per FanGraphs (catchers are middle of the pack in total challenges). I hope our hitters get more comfortable challenging soon.

ISH95: Love it. And one thing I’ve been particularly happy to see is that my general reaction to a call being overturned against the Diamondbacks has been fairly neutral. I’m sure that will change as the season progresses and the stakes get higher.

What’s one topic that you could give a 15 minute Ted Talk on with no prep time?

James: I was a chef for 30 years before becoming a scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature, Tolkien, and fairy tales. So I have two knowledge bases that I can pretty readily draw from for anything from a 30 second explainer all the way up to a 90 minute lecture. None of those subjects are particularly Ted Talk type material though. I would probably have to settle for something like the value of art or something related.

Makakilo:  My journey from Diamondbacks fan to writer.  Along the way, I learned how to use statistics websites, improved my writing, and developed my own writing style. And I had a lot of fun!  I overcame several bumps in the road.  My writing moves between Microsoft Office Software, Google Docs, and the WordPress Editor.  The editor shows that I currently have 555 posted articles.

Spencer: Personal security in Big Brother America. More necessary than ever and yet rarely allowed. 

1AZfan1: My professional training is in maintenance management, but that’s not a very TED Talk friendly subject, so it would likely be on the value of utilizing history in organizational leadership. The Navy is huge on history and heritage and learning to leverage that has helped me tremendously as a leader. Maybe that doesn’t play too well outside the military, though.

ISH95: I’d always argue that history and heritage is important as a leader. What that history and heritage looks like, however, would differ from path to path. For me, I could probably give a pretty decent TED talk on how to improve the financials of a restaurant or how to train and develop younger people to get to where they want to be. That’s a huge part of my job as a fast casual/fast food restaurant manager, and, as much as I may complain about them kids sometimes, something I actually find very rewarding.

And on the third start did his ERA rise. Yes, Max Fried finally allowed a man to score, indeed early in Sunday’s rain-delayed series finale with the Marlins. The game started three and a half hours after the scheduled first pitch time, and maybe that delay took a little off Fried’s game. His control wasn’t sparkling, but the Yankee offense was able to pick up for that early snafu…but the bullpen couldn’t hold up their end of the bargain. The Yankees have lost for the second time this year, 7-6 your final.

Naturally it was old friend Austin Slater — er, old acquaintance —, he of the sub-.100 OPS, that reached in the first and came around to score, the first such player to do so against Fried in 2026. Nobody is going to be on it every single day, but you could tell that for the second time in three starts Fried wasn’t quite what you’d expect him to be, especially with his fastball offerings:

There’s far more easy takes here than we’re used to seeing with Fried, and when he uses his fastball early in counts to set up the four other, more “junky” pitches he uses later in the count, throwing fastballs for balls gets him into 1-0 or 2-1 holes, rather than spotting himself an early strike. We then are left with hitters in hitters’ counts and throwing more pitches than we’d like to see.

The Marlins got to Fried twice more in his outing, and were on the verge of tying things up when home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez calling Marlin Connor Norby safe on a contact play at home. Fortunately we have the benefit of review:

If nothing else the Yankees can return their own firepower, and Ben Rice was able to do just that in the bottom half of the first:

Rice’s all-world contact quality also helped the Yankees push across what would be a very needed insurance run, this time in the third inning with two men on once again:

No RBI here for Rice, but if that ball’s not 98 off the bat, maybe Norby is able to handle it cleaner and get off a better throw. Hit ball hard, good things happen.

That wouldn’t be enough for a contact-heavy Marlins team to overcome though. The Fish walked twice before Griffin Conine was hit by a pitch in the eighth, and Jake Bird couldn’t bear down. Graham Pauley’s double gave Miami the lead, and Xavier Edwards welcomed Ryan Yarbrough to the game with a two-run single of his own.

Ryan McMahon actually had himself a decent day at the plate, with a hit and a walk to reach twice. That was welcome because the rest of the bottom half of the order was bowling shoe ugly.

That same 6-9 entered the ninth with the score 7-4. Grisham, Judge, Rice and Giancarlo Stanton have all had strong starts to the year, but that’s still only half a lineup. The Yankees need more out of their depth bats, and while Jazz Chisholm Jr. is a better player than he’s shown, maybe this is why we don’t brag about going 50/50 in the offseason. Perhaps that pressure finally came to a head for Jazz, whose big two-run double down to the final strike of the game may be what shakes him out of this early-season slump:

That would be as good as it gets, as Austin Wells was intentionally walked and J.C. Escarra would be sat down on three pitches. Game over.

We haven’t had many of these games this year, and while it did come on a day the rest of the AL East was also slapped around, if the club goes 4-2 every week for the rest of the season we’ll end things just fine. If nothing else hopefully our upcoming series with the Athletics won’t involve multiple three-hour slogs, but will feature the same end result or better. Cam Schlittler gets the ball Tuesday night, with a 7:05pm Eastern start time.

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