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The older you get, the easier it is to think four, five years ago wasn’t ancient history. I still have the same phone, same laptop from 2022, for instance – the same desk chair, car, house, backpack. But watching Wednesday evening’s contest in Great American Ball Park between the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants was enough to make one realize just how long ago the promise of the early 2020s Reds really was.

Tyler Mahle, who was dealt during the 2022 teardown to Minnesota for the likes of Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, was back on the mound in GABP to face the Reds. He was doing so as a Giant after he’d been a Twin and Texas Ranger in between, a nomadic post-Reds trip that shows just how fickle the business of baseball can be once injuries begin to tear away at your fabric.

Mahle was the vet in this one, the one whose velocity is down and pitch-mix is new as he works to figure out how to pitch once rearing back for a couple extra miles per hour isn’t in the cards any more. Sharing the mound with him was Rhett Lowder, who was a 19 year old pitching for the Strasburg Express in the Valley League of collegiate summer ball during the same 2021 season when Mahle posted career-bests in bWAR (4.9) and IP (180.0) with the Reds.

And it was Lowder who was in command.

Cincinnati’s righty exited after going 6.2 IP, his longest outing yet in the big leagues. He’d allowed 2 ER while on the bump, though Brock Burke did allow one inherited run to score once taking over in the 7th. It was an effective, efficient 90 pitch outing for Rhett, who limited hard contact for the most part and threw all of his pitches all over the strike zone.

The same could not be said for Mahle, however. He spiked a handful of balls in the dirt, walked 5 batters in his 4.0 laborious IP, and left enough pitches over the heart of the plate for the Reds to not just homer four times off him, but post some tape measure shots in the process.

Neither of the 3-run blasts by Sal Stewart were tape measure, truly, as both only flew into the first few rows of GABP’s small confines. Still, they were lasers off the bat on pitches not exactly right down the pipe, both coming on swings where Stewart’s elite combination of hand-eye coordination and reaction time allows him to put his own unique swing on each pitcher’s pitch and still find ways to barrel them. Both were also to right-center, in case anyone’s worried whether or not he’s a step-in-the-bucket rookie who’s just thriving on pulling the ball.

(He’s tonight’s Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game, by the way. He was a senior in high school down in Florida during Mahle’s brilliant 2021.)

Similarly, Eugenio Suarez (3 for 4, HR, R, RBI) poked a slider the other way for a homer on a pitch Mahle left up, a good piece of hitting as opposed to just running into one that missed in a hot zone.

Elly De La Cruz, though, hit the snot out of one. He launched a 442 foot homer to straightaway CF off Mahle, a true tape measure shot from the left-side of the plate as he reminded us that, despite recent success hitting righty, it’s him hittin’ lefty that’s the show-stopper.

All told, it was a brilliant night of baseball for the Reds, who won 8-3 and moved to 11-7 on the season. They claimed the series win over San Francisco, as that ends tomorrow at 12:40 PM ET with Chase Burns on the mound. They also made the iffy-hamstring issue that closer Emilio Pagan is dealing with a moot point for a night, as their offense finally kicked it into gear enough to make needing a closer not really a thing.

It was a rough night at the plate for the Colorado Rockies as they failed to get their offense rolling once again as the Astros took home a 3-1 victory to win the series and hand the Rockies their sixth-straight loss.

Not Around Long Enough

Things did not get off to a good start for Jose Quintana on the mound. The veteran lefty struggled to find his command out of the gate as he walked the first three Houston batters into the bottom of the first inning. It marked the first time in his long career that he had ever done that to start a game. The Astros then managed to scratch across their first two runs via sacrifice flies, but the inning set a tone for Quintana. After giving up a Yordan Alvarez home run in the third inning, Quintana’s night would end in the fourth with two outs. He lasted just 3.2 innings, giving up three runs on three hits with one strikeout and four walks.

Labored at-bats and an Astros team that refused to chase resulted in a lot of deep counts for Quintana. He threw 75 pitches with 41 going for strikes, with roughly 25 of those pitches coming in the first inning because of the walks and long at-bats. He lines up to make his next start in Colorado, where he will need to be effective and efficient.

Can’t Touch Arrighetti

The Rockies hadn’t faced Spencer Arrighetti since 2024, when he tossed seven shutout innings and allowed just three hits with 10 strikeouts. This time around wasn’t all that forgiving an encounter either, as Arrighetti appeared almost unhittable. He went six innings, allowing just one run on two hits, having thrown 100 pitches. He again struck out 10 Rockies but did pair it with four walks and a couple of hit batsmen. He generated 20 swing and misses, the majority of which came on his curveball, which he threw 38% of the time. The lone run he gave up was a Willi Castro RBI double in the second inning, as he later escaped a bases-loaded jam in the third inning.

Ouch That Hurts

Speaking of those hit batters, Arrighetti ended up knocking two Rockies out of the game. Troy Johnston was plunked by a fastball on the meatier part of his thigh in the first inning, but remained in the game until he was replaced by Kyle Karros in the bottom of the third. Castro was then hit on the hand by a fastball in the fourth inning and had to immediately depart the game to get checked out, and was replaced by Tyler Freeman.

That left the Rockies with a shortened bench the rest of the game, but the good news is that Johnston has only a contusion, while Castro’s results were negative on the hand, though his hand is going to be swollen.

Trust the Gordon Pitcher-man

After Quintana’s shortened start, the Rockies turned to the recently recalled Tanner Gordon to pick up some innings out of the bullpen. Luckily, a long reliever stepped up in the moment once again for manager Warren Schaeffer.

Gordon proceeded to cruise through four innings, allowing just two hits as he struck out four batters against one walk. Peppering in a healthy dose of fastballs with his improved secondaries, Gordon threw 40 of his 60 pitches for strikes.

Rockies starters have struggled to give length over the last few games, and luckily, the bullpen has stepped up to limit the damage, but more members of the rotation will need to find a way to work through five innings more often than not, despite the excellence of the performances of pitchers like Gordon, Chase Dollander, and Antonio Senzatela.

Too Many Strikeouts

Once again, the woes of the Rockies’ offense boiled down to the strikeout. After striking out 10 times against Arrighetti, the Houston bullpen tallied five more for a total of 15. The team managed just one run on three hits, producing 27 whiffs against the Astros’ pitching. The top third of the order had eight strikeouts while the team managed just five walks in the game. Despite generating a few opportunities to score as the game went on, the Rockies went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and had a team total of 10 men left on base. The lone extra-base hit was Castro’s RBI double.

Up Next

The Rockies and Astros will conclude the series on Thursday before heading home to face the Los Angeles Dodgers. Colorado will use an “opener” before giving way to Dollander for the bulk of the innings as they try to avoid the sweep. Houston has not announced a starter.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 pm MT.

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Sometimes the stupidest things can change a team’s momentum.

In the eighth inning tonight, a Brewers offense that was grasping at straws all night managed to score two runs on four batted balls that had an average exit velocity of 63 mph and went combined distance of 23 feet in the air. Baseball is a stupid game.

Those two runs, plus a big day for Brewers’ starter Chad Patrick and a beleaguered Milwaukee bullpen (who pivoted to a likely new closer), were enough to finally put an end to the Milwaukee’s dismal six-game losing streak.

Though no one would’ve predicted it at the time, Toronto nearly won the game in the top of the first inning. After Marshfield native Daulton Varsho drew a walk with one out, he moved to third on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. single and scored on a Jesús Sánchez sacrifice fly. It was 1-0 in the top of the first, but that score nearly stood for the entire game.

Milwaukee’s offense is missing a whole lot of punch right now, and Toronto starter Dylan Cease—the newly-minted $210 million man—smelled blood. Cease, who came in with a 2.45 ERA and an absurd 26 strikeouts in less than 15 innings, was on his game. William Contreras did manage a line drive single in the bottom of the first, but Milwaukee didn’t have another hit until fifth inning (a Joey Ortiz single), and they managed to get a runner past first base only once during Cease’s entire six-inning outing, when Ortiz stole second and moved to third on a groundout but was stranded there.

Patrick, though, was up for the challenge after the early hiccup. He’s had a somewhat strange season—walks are up, strikeouts are way down, he’s not giving up runs but things have been pretty shaky. Patrick came in with a FIP of 4.29 and an ERA of 0.73, which is borderline funny. He still couldn’t find his strikeout stuff tonight, and that remains a concern, but Patrick was inducing weak contact all over the place, took advantage of the good defensive players behind him, and worked with shocking efficiency.

After Toronto’s first-inning run, they did very little to threaten Patrick again. A third-inning leadoff single was erased one batter later by a double play. Lenyn Sosa hit a two-out single in the fifth (just after Brandon Lockridge made a fantastic leaping catch on a foul ball), but did not advance. The one time the Blue Jays got a little bit of a rally going was in the seventh: Kazuma Okamoto drew a one-out walk, but Patrick got the second out before giving way to DL Hall. Andrés Giménez singled to put two on with two out, but Hall retired Sosa on a fly ball to end the inning.

In total, Patrick needed just 81 pitches to go 6 2/3 innings—he was the first Brewer starter this season to record an out in the seventh inning. He struck out just two batters, but allowed only three hits (all singles) and two walks.

It was in the eighth when the Brewers, down 1-0 and looking helpless at the plate, made their move. Cease was pulled after six, so Milwaukee had gotten that hurdle out of the way, and the pitcher in the eighth was the submariner, Tyler Rogers, who entered with a 0.00 ERA in 8 2/3 innings this season. The Brewers will not win any awards for style for what came next, but they needed something to go their way, and something finally did. Here’s how it went:

• David Hamilton hit an infield single on a swinging bunt. 48 mph exit velocity, 2 feet, -79 degree launch angle.
• Sal Frelick hit a high chopper directly in front of the plate that just sort of died. It went 0 feet, according to game day, with a -76 degree launch angle. The exit velocity here was 61.3 mph. Catcher Brandon Valenzuela waited to see if it would go foul, then tried to pick it up to throw Frelick out, but mishandled it; it was ruled an E2.
• William Contreras poked a single through the right side of the infield, which was pretty open for him due to a defensive shift. A classic piece of slap-hitting—this one had a distance of 17 feet and a launch angle of -7 degrees, with an exit velocity all the way up at 92.3 mph. Hamilton scored, and Frelick advanced to third.
• Brice Turang hit a soft ground ball just past Rogers that enabled Frelick to score from third. Turang was out at first, and his RBI groundout went 3 feet, with a -57 degree launch angle, and came off the bat at 53.3 mph.

Here are the highlights from that sequence:

Of course, given Milwaukee’s issues lately finishing ballgames, no one was comfortable heading to the ninth with a 2-1 lead. Nobody except perhaps Abner Uribe, the man with the baseball. Looking sharp and hitting 99 on the radar gun, Uribe got Okamoto to ground out and struck out Ernie Clement. With two outs, Giménez hit a ball pretty hard toward the left field gap but the speedy Lockridge moved over and made the catch without too much trouble. The losing streak was over. Uribe, at a time when the team desperately needed someone to come through in a save situation, came through.

There was nothing pretty about Milwaukee’s offense today, but the pitching staff showed up big time and the Brewers managed to turn a game that looked like it was headed toward a soul-crushing 1-0 loss into a feel-good, come-from-behind victory. There were no Brewer extra-base hits and only Contreras reached base more than once, but they did what they needed to do tonight. On the mound, Patrick had his good outing and was followed by scoreless appearances by Hall, Aaron Ashby (who allowed a hit and a walk in his inning but struck out the side), and Uribe, who struck out one and didn’t allow a hit.

For all the (justified) doom and gloom after Monday’s game, the Brewers can now win this series and build some real momentum with a win tomorrow afternoon. That game will be at 12:40 p.m., and will see two players on opposite ends of their careers face off: the veteran lefty Patrick Corbin for Toronto, and Brandon Sproat, making his return to the rotation, for the Brewers.

Coincidentally on Jackie Robinson Day across Major League Baseball, Cincinnati Reds' rookie Sal Stewart continued a rookie season surge that has him on the fast track to winning the award named after the player who broke the game's color barrier 79 years ago.

The Reds waited 22 years for one of their rookies to win the Jackie Robinson Award, also known as the Rookie of the Year.

Jonathan India broke through in 2021, now Stewart is the betting favorite five years later.

Stewart has shined in a struggling Cincinnati lineup through the first month of the season. He helped his National League ROY campaign in a big way on Wednesday, April 15, slugging a pair of three-run homers in the Reds' 8-3 win over the San Francisco Giants at Great American Ball Park.

According to the Reds, Stewart's six RBI are tied for the second-most by a Reds rookie in a single game since rookie rules were established in 1958.

"Don't throw it over the plate to him," fellow rookie Rhett Lowder. "He's a beast."

Elly De La Cruz added: "I like everything (about Stewart's game). He's a really good hitter."

Anthony Volpe played a baseball game Tuesday night for the first time since he underwent shoulder surgery to deal with a torn labrum last October. It was in Somerset, not Yankee Stadium. And he only played long enough to take two at-bats. But he was out there again, and he felt that was worth celebrating.

"It was great. Like, so much fun to be back out there,” Volpe said. “It felt like a big milestone. We appreciated it for what it was.”

Whatit was is the beginning of a build-up that his manager, Aaron Boone, said will likely continue in the minor leagues through at least next week. He said Volpe will play five-plus innings in Somerset again Thursday and Friday, take a day off Saturday, then play again Sunday. Minor league teams do not play on Mondays, so the Yankees currently plan to use that as a rest day before transferring Volpe’s rehab to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he will continue to increase workload.

“Probably four or five games next week, then we’ll kind of evaluate and see where we’re at from there,” Boone said.

Volpe admitted it will be difficult for him to wait through such a deliberate build-up before returning to the big leagues, though he conceded he wants to experience a variety of in-game occurrences – running the bases, diving for a ball, etc. – so he knows how the shoulder will feel during and after each of them.

“I wish I could play more to test it more, but it felt amazing,” Volpe said. “I feel like we have a great routine to warm everything up and get ready, so it feels good.”

The Yankees have mostly relied on Jose Caballero to play shortstop in Volpe’s absence, with a few appearances from Ryan McMahon sprinkled in as well. That combination left the Yankees tied for the worst shortstop OPS in baseball entering Wednesday night’s game -- .471, tied with the Boston Red Sox.

Exactly what a now-healthy Volpe will be offensively remains to be seen, but he certainly enjoyed a good test of his readiness Tuesday: Both of his at-bats came against rehabbing Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. He struck out both times.

“He looked sharp,” Volpe said. “But I feel like I saw it okay. It was a treat for sure.”

Speaking of injured aces, two Yankees who qualify for that title should be taking steps forward in the next few days. 

Carlos Rodón, who threw three innings and 50 pitches in his last live batting practice session, will pitch to live hitters in Somerset on Saturday, Boone said. Gerrit Cole, meanwhile, threw his regularly scheduled side session before Wednesday’s game. The team later decided that Cole will pitch in a game Friday at Somerset. The veteran threw three innings in a live batting practice session last weekend.

Exactly when both will return to the majors remains unclear, though Boone said earlier this week he still estimates Rodón is ahead of Cole. But both pitchers are firmly in the building-stamina phase of their rehabilitation process, which means if everything continues to go well, they can both now count their remaining absence in weeks, not months.

For those of you asking. Jaxon Wiggins was placed on the injured list today. The Cubs say that they’re hopeful it will be a short trip.

Porter Hodge will have elbow surgery and is out for the season.

Dylan Carlson elected free agency.

Left-hander Marino Santy was promoted to Double-A Knoxville from High-A South Bend.

Iowa Cubs

The Iowa Cubs were broadsided by the Columbus Clippers (Guardians), 9-4.

Paul Campbell pitched the first four innings in his Cubs’ organization debut. Campbell allowed a two-run home run in the fourth, but otherwise acquitted himself well. His final line was two runs on four hits over four innings. He struck out four and walked no one.

Unfortunately, Tyler Beede did not have as good of a Iowa debut. He came on to pitch the sixth inning and didn’t managed to get through it. Beede got the loss after allowing four runs on two hits and two walks over two-thirds of an inning. One of those hits was a three-run home run. Beede did not have a strikeout.

Catcher Casey Opitz made his season debut and went 2 for 3 with an RBI single and a squeeze bunt. He scored once in addition to the two RBI.

Shortstop Ben Cowles went 2 for 3 with a walk and an RBI single.

DH BJ Murray was 2 for 4.

Here’s Opitz’s safety squeeze.

Knoxville Smokies

The Knoxville Smokies reeled in the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (Marlins), 8-0.

Four Knoxville pitchers combined on the five-hit shutout. Yennri Rojas started and gave up just one hit over 3.1 innings. Rojas did walk four while striking out two.

Jace Beck pitched the next 2.2 innings and got the win. Beck surrendered one hit while walking two. He struck out six.

Evan Taylor pitched the seventh and eighth innings. He allowed two hits but didn’t walk anyone and struck out one.

Marino Santy handled the ninth. He allowed a leadoff single but nothing else. Santy struck out one.

Right fielder Alex Ramirez was 3 for 5 with a double. He scored twice and drove in one.

DH Ethan Hearn was 2 for 4 with a two-run double. He went 2 for 4 and was hit by a pitch. Hearn also stole a base.

Miguel Useche added an insurance run with a pinch-hit home run in the top of the ninth.

Some Smokies highlights from the fourth inning.

South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs filleted the Beloit Sky Carp (Marlins), 9-5.

Starter Kevin Valdez struggled tonight, giving up three in the first inning and two in the fourth. His final line was five runs on five hits over 3.1 innings. Valdez walked two, hit one batter and struck out three.

Ethan Bell relieved Valdez in the fourth and while he did let two (out of three) inherited runners to score, he didn’t allow any runs of his own and took home his first South Bend win. Bell allowed no runs and no hits. He walked one and struck out one over 1.2 innings.

Ethan Flanagan pitched the final four innings without giving up a run for the save. Flanagan allowed just two hits while striking out seven and walking no one.

Right fielder Kade Snell gave South Bend the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth with an two-run single. Snell also had an RBI ground out earlier in the game and a sacrifice fly later. That gave him four RBI on a 1 for 4 game. Snell also stole a base.

First baseman Cameron Sisneros clubbed a solo home run in the seventh inning. It was his second on the year. Sisneros went 3 for 4 with two RBI.

Catcher Owen Ayers tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth with a solo home run. It was his fourth home run already this season and third in as many games. Ayers went 2 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored.

Second baseman Drew Bowser was 2 for 3 with a walk. He scored once.

An RBI triple for Leonel Espinoza. He was 1 for 4 and was hit by a pitch. He scored twice.

Easy power out of Sisneros.

Ayers’ home run.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans melted down the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (White Sox), 5-4 in 10 innings.

Starter Dominick Reid surrendered three runs on four hits over 3.1 innings. He walked three and srtuck out five.

Eli Jerzembeck provided solid relief after not giving up a run over 2.2 innings. He allowed two hits and walked one while striking out four.

Ben Johnson pitched the top of the tenth, didn’t allow a run and got the win. After balking the automatic runner over to third with no outs, Johnson escaped with a walk, a caught stealing and two strikeouts. Johnson walked two batters total.

First baseman Cole Mathis provided most of the offense tonight with two two-run home runs. The first came in the bottom of the first and the second one was in the third. Mathis now has six home runs in just 11 games. He just missed a home run later in the game and had to settle for a double. Mathis went 4 for 5 with the double and two home runs.

Left fielder Jose Escobar singled home the winning run in the bottom of the tenth. Escobar was 3 for 4 and was hit by a pitch.

Shortstop Ty Southisene was 1 for 2 with two walks. He scored one run.

The two Mathis home runs.

Escobar sends everyone home happy.

In the first two games of this series, the Braves had to weather an offensive barrage from the Marlins. They didn’t do so effectively in the series opener, and needed a huge hit from Dominic Smith to even the series last night. Tonight, though, it was largely smooth sailing through Marlin-infested waters, as Bryce Elder mostly cruised and the Braves jumped out to an early lead and more or less left the opposition in their wake.

Elder’s first frame was a bit rocky, as he walked Xavier Edwards and then grazed Otto Lopez to put two on with one out. Not to worry, though, a routine flyout and then a slider-slider-slider strikeout of Connor Norby ended that threat. Elder then struck out two more in a perfect second and let his defense help him to a perfect third, before another two strikeouts started the fourth. Norby collected the first hit off Elder with a plonked double down the right-field line, but Michael Harris II flagged down a hard-hit liner by Owen Caissie to keep Miami off the board.

Chris Paddack struck out both Ronald Acuña Jr. and Drake Baldwin in a perfect first, but the Braves got to him in the second. Ozzie Albies hooked the first Paddack pitch he saw Chop House-ward for a solo homer. The trio of Mike Yastrzemski, Smith, and Mauricio Dubon followed with singles to plate another run; Paddack struck out Acuña to end the inning with two in scoring position.

After that, things were quiet until the fifth, where they got slightly dicey. Graham Pauley did a nice job connecting on a good Elder slider and thwacked it for a one-out double. Deyvison De Los Santos followed with a soft bouncer that Dubon charged, rushed, and threw wide of the bag. Elder then had a very unfortunately-timed lapse in command, issuing a walk (six pitches, but none anywhere near the zone) to load the bases, with Edwards coming up. Elder threw two four-seamers to Edwards. The first missed its spot but nestled in for a strike. The second was fought off and bounced weakly to Dubon, who raced to second and fired on the first — aided by a big stretch from Matt Olson, the initial call was safe at first, but it was quickly overturned on replay review to keep Miami off the board once again.

Paddack departed after a two-out single by Acuña in the fifth. Baldwin followed with a single off new pitcher John King, but the Miami reliever froze Olson on 1-2. After a leadoff single started the sixth, Elder got two groundouts, but neither could be converted to a double play. Skipper Walt Weiss then lifted Elder in favor of Dylan Lee, who walked pinch-hitter Austin Slater but then caught Heriberto Hernandez looking on a 3-2 slider right down the pipe. Elder finished the game with more or less a return to form to his earlier, Bryce Eldar-level of pitching, with a 7/2 K/BB ratio in 5 2/3 innings. Things felt a little rocky for him because his three free passes (remember the hit by pitch) came with men on, but the slider was absolutely on point tonight both in terms of command and in terms of results, with a whiff rate north of 50 percent.

Elder left the game when it was 2-0, but that quickly changed. Austin Riley connected for his first homer of the year, a 400-footer to left center, on King’s first pitch of the sixth. After an easy Tyler Kinley frame in the seventh, the Braves basically engaged in a bit of batting practice against Andrew Nardi: Acuña doubled (on basically a missed sliding catch), Baldwin singled, and Olson obliterated a hanging slider to make it 6-0. Riley added a double for good measure, but was stranded.

With the game now resembling a rout, the Braves went to Osvaldo Bido for the eighth, and …. egh. Liam Hicks had a two-run homer, Norby reached on a bad throw to first by Riley, Bido uncorked two wild pitches, and Slater walked (again), before Weiss had seen enough and sent Robert Suarez in to restore order. The first batter Suarez faced hit yet another dinky bouncer to Dubon, who took a chance and threw to second — but Albies couldn’t corral the throw. Not to worry, though: Pauley, as the tying run, got beat on a changeup and hit into an easy double play.

The Braves went 1-2-3 against Calvin Faucher in the bottom of the eighth, and Raisel Iglesias easily wrapped up the game. He struck out pinch-hitter Agustin Ramirez on three pitches, clipping the zone with a four-seamer to end the at-bat. He then threw three straight changeups and got three straight whiffs from Jakob Marsee. Edwards ruined the potential immaculate inning with his PA that resulted in a single up the middle, which was a shame because Iglesias ended the game on his third three-pitch strikeout of the night: Lopez waved weakly at a buried changeup to seal yet another series win for the Braves.

Every Brave had a hit except Harris, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Though the Braves went without a walk, they hit three homers, so, y’know, whatever. They’ll try to keep things rolling after Thursday’s off day in a big weekend set in Philadelphia.