Dodgers undefeated, Astros in the cellar. All is Right and Good with MLB.
ESPN is saying Hoerner’s extension is 6 years, $141 million.
One hell of a great ballgame between the Reds and Red Sox. Extras into the 11th inning. 1975 World Series rematch.
Mets/Pirates went scoreless into the 10th inning. Both teams scored 1 run in the 10th. The Mets nearly scored the winning run a couple of times. Pirates went ahead in the 11th until the Mets scored 3 on a Luis Robert Jr home run.
And the Yanks sweep their ancient rival the Giants, allowing only 1 run in 3 games.
@silenus I know you hate my Yanks, but you’re probably OK with this one?
Yep. I actually thought the Giants had a chance in the 9th, but that double play killed that.
I may hate the Giants, but their park is one of the best in baseball and their “Gigantes” uniforms are sharp.
Agreed on the uniforms.
I must say it was a pleasant surprise to see the Nationals take two of three from the Cubs at Wrigley. They have a brutal schedule the first month, especially for a team expected to flirt with 100 losses.
Who is the Brit broadcasting the Mariners-Guardians game tonite? It’s somewhat disconcerting hearing a British accent on a baseball game.
White Sox rookie* first baseman Munetaka Murakami, whom they signed this past off-season after eight seasons with the Yakult Swallows (and two Central League MVP awards), hit a home run in each game of this weekend’s series against the Brewers. As this is his first season in MLB, this makes him only the fourth player in baseball history to hit home runs in each of his first three MLB games.
Unfortunately for the Sox, their bullpen imploded in the eighth inning, giving up six runs to Milwaukee, and letting the Brewers sweep the season-opening series.
*- nominally a rookie in MLB terms, but like Ohtani, Ichiro, etc., already had an extensive professional career before his U.S. debut.
If you’re listening to the Mariners’ broadcast, that’s an Australian.
From the Obscure Yet Impressive Stats Category:
I just read this in The Athletic. Toronto pitchers struck out more batters (50) in the first three games of the season than any team in MLB history.
There are too many damned strikeouts. A team just rolling up fifty strikeouts in three games should be something that hardly ever happens in any three game series ever. The Rockies are coming into town so this may continue, although they “only” struck out thirty times over the weekend.
As it is a third of all outs are strikeouts, which is just crazy.
I agree, the number of Ks is the next thing MLB needs to address somehow.
And not only did the Jays net 50, but four other teams (Mariners, Astros, Guardians, Brewers) got 43+ Ks over the course of the initial three-game series. Super-small sample size, and early-season weirdness, maybe, but yeah, too many strikeouts.
Through the weekend, strikeouts accounted for fully 25% of all plate appearances, and “three true outcome” plays (strikeouts, walks, home runs) accounted for 38.2% of plate appearances. For the 2025 season, Ks were 22.2% of all plate appearances, and three true outcome plays were 33.7%. So, not a great trend in the first weekend.
ABS actually hurting this a bit too. Turns out that maybe missed calls were actually helping batters, not pitchers.
From Joe Posnanski, here is the rundown on challenges from the first weekend:
- 165 total challenges
- 78 by the batters — who were successful 42% of the time. They were able to flip 12 strikeouts and gain six walks.
- 97 by the defense (all but five by catchers), and they overturned SIXTY-ONE calls (63% success rate), flipping 20 strikeouts and overturning six walks.
Letting pitchers challenge those close strike calls, especially on pitches that clip the zone but historically batters are used to being called balls, is only going to increase strikeouts unless they either tweak the zone or hitters adjust.
People here (and everywhere) keep calling for the full ABS, but they did in fact test both that and the challenge system and the challenge system was preferred by everyone, and this is a big reason why. This isn’t tennis, figuring out what should be a strike over a 3D plane with different body types is a complex question, and ABS inevitably is not just going to correct bad calls but also redefine what the strike zone is. I think is worth implementing, but you have understand it will have impacts, not all of them anticipated. I’m sure they will have tweaks at some point, but it may just result in more walks instead, which isn’t great either. Really the problem is pitchers throw too hard and with too much movement, and that is a hard problem to solve.
Not only are the Nats up 9-2 on the Phillies in the sixth, they just pulled off a steal of home plate.
I would have never expected this team to score 31 runs in the first 4 games. Tonight every hitter reached base at least twice,