St. Paul Saints 1, Toledo Mud Hens 0 (box)

Pitching was sharp on both sides in this one as Sawyer Gipson-Long posted his best start of the season while the Hens were held to four hits.

The right-hander fired five scoreless innings of one-hit ball of his own in this one. Gipson-Long allowed two walks, but he struck out five on the evening. As usual, his slider-changeup combo was very good, but his fastball metrics remain well below average. Ricky Vanasco succeeded him with a scoreless inning of work, and Troy Watson took it the rest of the way. He too pitched a solid three innings, but allowed a solo shot in the top of the ninth for the only run in this one.

Max Clark went 0-for-5 but didn’t strike out, and he was the only Hen who could say that. Corey Julks had two hits to lead the offense, such as it was as Saints veteran Austin Voth struck out eight in his start.

Julks: 2-4, 2B, 2 K

Gipson-Long: 5.0 IP, 0 R, H, 2 BB, 5 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a 7:05 p.m. ET start on Friday in Toledo.

Erie SeaWolves 8, Akron RubberDucks 7 (box)

John Peck came through with a walkoff double after the RubberDucks tied this one up late.

Starter Sean Hunley struggled for Erie in this one, but the offense seized control pretty early after Hunley gave up four runs in four innings.

Brett Callahan is really pressing his case for a move to Toledo now. The left-handed outfielder crushed a solo shot in the bottom of the first for his 12th home run of the season, and his fifth in the last six games. Callahan is holding his own against left-handed pitching and destroying right-handers. The Tigers do things at a glacial pace but Callahan should be moving up after the All-Star break if he can avoid a slump in the meantime.

In the second, singles from Chris Meyers and Izaac Pacheco led to their second run. In the third, they really poured on the offense. Peyton Graham singled with one out and John Peck drew a walk. A two-out single from Andrew Jenkins plated Graham, and then Meyers walked to load the bases. Pacheco ripped a two-run single to right field and then stole second base. E.J. Exposito came through with a two-run single of his own, and it was 7-3 Erie through three innings.

The Detroit area’s own Alex Mooney hit a solo shot off of Hunley in the fourth to make it a 7-4 game, and the RubberDucks chipped away at the lead with a two-run sixth against Johan Simon.

Moises Rodriguez took over in the ninth with a 7-6 lead looking for the save. He got a quick pair of ground outs and his sinker is popping triple digits now that the weather has heated up. That didn’t stop Jaison Chourio, who got a hanging slider and launched it to right for just the second homer against Rodriguez this year.

Tie ballgame.

The reversal came quickly in the bottom half. Graham walked, and Peck smoked a double off the right field wall. Graham raced first to home ahead of the relay, and the SeaWolves had a walkoff winner.

Peck: 2-4, R, RBI, 2B, BB, 2 K, SB

Graham: 1-4, 2 R, BB, K

Pacheco: 2-3, R, 2 RBI, BB, K, SB

Hunley: 4.0 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 H, BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: The SeaWolves will morph into the Flagship City Kitties on Friday, as they hunt for their fifth straight victory at 6:35 p.m. ET.

Lake County Captains 6, West Michigan Whitecaps 5 (box)

The Whitecaps beat up on Captains starter Melkis Hernandez, only to watch their bullpen blow the lead late on Thursday.

Right out of the gate, a one-out single from Andrew Sojka and a double from a still hot Ricardo Hurtado got the Whitecaps in scoring position, and Sojka scored on a ground out for a 1-0 lead.

Starter Lucas Elissalt leaked two runs in the bottom half on a single-double-single combination, but in the second, Samuel Gil and Junior Tilien led off with singles. Caleb Shpur’s automatic double scored Gil, and a Sojka single scored Tilien. Shpur was thrown out at the plate, but it was 3-2 ‘Caps.

The third opened with back-to-back doubles from Clayton Campbell and Luke Shliger for a 4-2 lead. Unfortunately Gil lined into a double play to snuff that threat from developing further.

Elissalt allowed a Dean Curley solo shot off a high fastball in the bottom of the third that got the Captains back within one. The right-hander has struggled early on this year, but we keep seeing hints of more velocity, and he was really just bit by sequencing. Other than the solo shot he wasn’t hit hard at all and was in pretty good command of his stuff.

Again the Whitecaps pushed across a run in the bottom half on a Campbell sac fly that scored Sojka.

Unfortunately, that 5-3 lead wouldn’t hold up as Preston Howey surrendered three runs in the sixth, and the offense went quiet.

Sojka: 3-5, 2 R, RBI, 2 K

Hurtado: 2-5, 2B, K

Gil: 2-4, R

Elissalt: 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a 7:00 p.m. ET start on Friday with the Captains up 2-1 in the series.

Clearwater Threshers 5, Lakeland Flying Tigers 2 (box)

Malachi Witherspoon’s control was pretty shaky again in this one, and the bullpen kept leaking runs while the offense was pretty quiet.

Witherspoon did settle in eventually, but he coughed up two runs in a pretty laborious first inning. He shut the Threshers down from there and found his command to a degree, but was still pretty efficient. He departed in the fourth and Yendry Gomez cleaned up that inning and spun a scoreless fifth as well.

In the fifth, the Flying Tigers finally capitalized on an opportunity when a passed ball got Nick Dumesnil to second base, and a Beau Ankeney single scored him. In the sixth, Anibal Salas singled with two outs, and Hunter Dobbins doubled him in.

At that point it was a 2-2 game and things were looking up.

In the bottom of the sixth, Luke Hoskins came on for Lakeland and an error on Jude Warwick allowed the leadoff hitter to reach and then steal second base. A double that Javier Osorio couldnt’ snare at third gave the Threshers the lead. Hoskins leaked another run before getting out of the inning, and gave up one more in the seventh as the Flying Tigers’ offense went silent.

Dobbins: 2-4, RBI, 2B, K

Warwick: 2-5, 2 K, SB

Witherspoon: 3.1 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 4 K

Coming Up Next: The Flying Tigers lead the series 2-1 heading into a 6:30 p.m. ET matchup on Friday.

FCL Tigers 4, FCL Phillies 2 (box)

20-year-old Jack Bushell, another of the Tigers’ Australian pitching contingent alongside Ali Tanner, went through the Phillies like an angry weedeater in this one, striking out 10 and allowing just a solo shot in five innings of work.

Angel de los Santos, a fast-rising 19-year-old shortstop prospect, mashed a three-run shot in the fifth that was the decisive blow in this one.

Just as nice to see was the return of SS/2B Franyerber Montilla. The 21-year-old slick fielding switch hitter blew out his ACL last July, and this was the first we heard about his status. He went 0-1 with two walks and scored a run. He’ll need some time to build up, but my guess would be West Michigan is his final destination, playing second base alongside Bryce Rainer.

De Los Santos: 1-2, R, 3 RBI, HR, BB, K

Steven Madero: 1-3, R, RBI, 2B, K

Bushell (W, 1-1): 5.0 IP, ER, H, 0 BB, 10 K

The Yankees are going to have to pass the “Playing without Aaron Judge Test” repeatedly over the next several weeks, but they’ve passed the initial run. They’ve won five of six since the Captain’s injury was officially announced, with the offense particularly stepping up in a series sweep in Cleveland. The road trip continues with the team’s first visit to Canada this year, where they’ll look to repay the Blue Jays for Toronto’s domination of New York last year.

On the site today, we turn our sights to the Jays, with Matt previewing the three-game set. Later, Sam recaps Thursday’s American League action, and Nick praises the great Hideki Matsui on the occasion of his 52nd birthday. Also, Peter’s sequence of the week highlights Fernando Cruz, and Jeff discusses how Trent Grisham’s resurgence couldn’t have come at a better time.

Today’s Matchup:

New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays

Time: 3:07 p.m. EST

TV: YES, Sportsnet, TVA Sports

Venue: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON

Questions/Prompts:

1. On the occasion of the Yankees visiting Toronto, do you think the Jays are still a major threat to come back in the division? Or do you think they’ve fallen far back enough?

2. Can you think of a baseball analogue to what happened in Game 4 of the NBA Finals?

ESPN | Enrique Rojas: The Red Sox sit in last place in the division, and even though the last Wild Card slot is currently held by the .500 Texas Rangers, there isn’t much faith in Fenway making a push to contend this year. Plenty of people expect Boston to be sellers, and they have a few short-term rentals that could entice some good returns including their closer, Aroldis Chapman, who is miraculously in the best form of his career despite now being 38 years old.

Chapman knows he’s on the trading block, and could expect to be in a different uniform by the deadline, but there’s one particular jersey he wouldn’t want to put on again unless his conditions were met. He said he would want an apology from the team, more specifically Brian Cashman, for how his Yankees tenure ended before he could feel comfortable playing for them again. This may come as a surprise to anyone who was following the team when he last played here, because that 2022 season burned every ounce of remaining goodwill the closer had with the fanbase — after years of underperformance in the playoffs and routine stretches of blowing games by not coming close to finding the strike zone, Chapman went and got a tattoo midseason that got infected forcing the team to sit him on the IL and all but handed the closer gig over to Clay Holmes. Then at the end of the year, Chapman got left off the postseason roster when he missed a mandatory practice before the ALDS.

Frankly, the Sox would never trade Chapman over to their archrivals in the first place so this is a moot point, but I also wouldn’t want him to ever come back even if he is pitching lights out nowadays and I certainly don’t think Cashman owes Chapman any sort of apology. I hardly think I’d be alone in that belief.

NY Post | Greg Joyce: The Yankees are heading north of the border to Toronto for the first time this season, and thus also returning for the first time since their brutal ALDS games last year. The team may be without Aaron Judge in the lineup for the foreseeable future, but their rotation looks to be significantly better than when they traveled up and got shelled for 23 runs in two games. They’re also facing a Blue Jays team that is much further out of the race than the last time they made their initial trip up, as last year’s first meeting was the turning point that gave Toronto a division lead that wouldn’t get relinquished following a four-game sweep.

NY Daily News | Gary Phillips: There was some friendly tomfoolery at the ballpark on Wednesday, as Cody Bellinger was subjected to a professional heckler. The content creator Trevor Gilmore has a dedicated page to heckling the road team’s left fielder with some ultimately harmless jokes alongside playfully calling them a bum, and he gets invited by several MLB teams to come and run his schtick for them with Cleveland happening to be his latest appearance. Bellinger said that he heard the chants loud and clear, but had fun with it and noted that he had some good lines.

MLB.com | Henry Palattella: Paul Goldschmidt entered this season expecting a part-time role for the first time in his lengthy career, and he openly embraced the role of the veteran backup. He kept himself productive enough in the first month and change of the season, but once injuries began to mount in the lineup and his name started appearing regularly in the lineup again he showed that there was no rust on the seven-time All-Star’s bat. He’s had a hot May and carried it over into June, hitting for a .924 OPS with seven homers and 23 RBI in 31 games played, and even though some of the regulars are set to return soon having a productive Goldy who can stay ready whether he’s sitting for days on end or has to play a week straight will be vital to this team staying in a rhythm offensively.

Introduction

Fifty Six years ago on this day Dock Ellis, a 25 year old right handed starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, tossed a no hitter against the San Diego Padres. This wouldn’t normally warrant a full article, especially a no hitter where said pitcher walked eight batters and hit one, but you’ve already read the title, so I’ll just let Dock tell the story in his own words first, since he was a far better story teller than I ever will be.

The Doubters

Apparently there are people out there who don’t think this story happened, among them Pirates beat reporter Les Biederman who was AT the game. Biederman pokes holes in Dock’s story, noting that Ellis arrived on time, and didn’t look like he was under the influence. None of his teammates in that game have corroborated the story either, most notably Willie Stargill, the offensive hero of the game. To put it politely, Dock Ellis was quite the storyteller and some have suggested it is just that, a story. I however am not swayed by most of the arguments that have been made suggesting that this outright didn’t happen.

Context is Important and Addicts Are Unreliable Narrators

First off, I think it’s important to point out the context of when this happened, and when this story became public, which was long after the fact. Dock Ellis was a 25 year old in active addiction when this happened. He told this story decades later after sobering up, and later admitted that his biggest regret in life was not being able to remember his greatest personal achievement in pro sports. Having had my own struggled well over a decade ago, I know the struggles of addiction and the pain in Ellis’ voice when discussing it is very real and relatable, and it’s enough for me to believe that some version of his story happened. As far as Ellis not being late for the game, I am sure in his mind Ellis though he was super late, you have to remember that this is someone under the effects of multiple drugs. LSD messes with your perception of time, it can make you very paranoid, but most importantly it makes you a very, very unreliable narrator.

“But Wesley! That still sounds like lying to me!”

The only lying going so far are the lies by omission, that only someone who is familiar enough with the substances mentioned could catch.

Ellis, D wasn’t on just LSD

This is a bit of a side point, but as someone with ADHD, I would be shocked if Dock Ellis wasn’t self medicating for ADHD, considering all the stimulants he used, and the fact that he struggled to pitch without them. getting back to the main point though, Ellis wasn’t just on LSD, he was on a bunch of stimulants as well as a barbituate. Dexamyl was a combination of the active ingredient in the ADHD medication Dexidrine, and a barbituate tranquilizer, which later was taken off the market due to abuse, and being phased out by more effective Benzodiazapines. The other stimulant medication mentioned is literally just amphetamine, which is also a component of the ADHD medication Adderall. Having friends in both the EDM and the Jam Band/wook scene, I have been told that mixing ADHD meds won’t affect the intensity of a trip or its duration, but what will affect the intensity and effect of an LSD trip is repeatedly dosing yourself for multiple days in a row, which usually just results in a higher tolerance and bum vibes on the last day of EDC. Ellis described using LSD throughout his days off. So Doc’s trip is not off to a great start just from those f.actors. Having taken his dosage at noon, he’d be feeling the affects by one, and by first pitch he would be on the back end of the peak effects, considering LSD lasts roughly 10-12 hours. Even if we account for this being 1970 LSD, which by all consensus was way way too strong, Doc wouldn’t have been tripping his balls off by the end of the game. Regardless of how strong any visual effects were, his performance would still likely have been affected due to one common physiological side affect of LSD though, excessive sweating from the palms. There’s no reason to believe that it would actually interfere enough with his in game performance to actually be all that noticeable, or for it to prevent him from playing, especially a starting pitcher.

Ellis wasn’t himself in that game

Dock Ellis threw multiple complete games in his 1970 season, and in none of those games did he struggle with his control like he did in his no hitter. This is a guy who had BB/9 of 3,9 that season and that includes his eight walks in that game. Take the walks from that game out of his stats and I’d imagine his BB/9 drops down to close to 3 walks per nine innings. So here’s a starting pitcher with otherwise decent control, suddenly walking batters at twice his normal rate. Dock would hit batters on occasion, but usually it was on purpose. Ellis was also usually a fairly good hitter; that season he had 10 hits, including a double, a walk, and a stolen base. Keyword usually, as Ellis was hitless, striking out twice. Having worse control as a pitcher, a bad day at the plate, yet somehow still throwing a no hitter is actually exactly how I’d expect LSD to affect an athlete.

Final points

As far as the lack of corroboration from teammates goes, specifically Willie Stargill, I understand completely why he would remain silent. Willie Stargill was involved in the cocaine scandals of the 1980s, I doubt he would want to comment on it for that reason alone. The beat reporter not noticing ‘Ellis being on something’ means very little when this was an addict in active addiction, and when said beat reporter likely had very little familiarity with the substance in question. Unless you know what you’re looking for, you’re not going to notice. (for a great example, look at the creators of South Park when they went to the Oscars on LSD. None of the media noticed or said anything, but in hindsight it is also VERY obvious) Sadly, we don’t have the full game footage, only the final inning, so we can’t examine the game itself for further evidence.

Conclusion

Dock Ellis was a great pitcher, and he deserves to be remembered for more than just his famous feat. He was one of the first athlete activists. He was a great motivational speaker after he got sober, and he used his stories both to help people in recovery, and to hopefully help others avoid making the same mistakes he made. I highly recommend finding ‘No No: A Dockumentary’ which is a fantastic full length documentary exploring more than just Ellis’ no hitter, but his entire life. I think most importantly, it goes over the things Dock was famous for prior to this story taking a life of its own, like in the scene I’ve included below.

So just to conclude things, maybe in reality, this didn’t happen exactly as Dock Ellis described it, but in my heart, I’ll always believe it did.

Good

Rejected

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