MLB May 2024

The Game Room
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Top pitching prospect Paul Skenes will have his debut this afternoon for Pittsburgh, facing the formidable Justin Fields of the Cubs.

That game and a bunch of others this weekend are available for free on MLB network app

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The Brewers called up their own top pitching prospect this week, Robert Gasser, whom they’d received from the Padres as part of their trade of closer Josh Hader in 2022.

In his MLB debut last night, against the Cardinals, Gasser started, and pitched six shutout innings, giving up only 2 hits and no walks, as the Brewers won 11-2.

(With that surname, you’d think he’d have a hot fastball, but that does not appear to be the case. :smiley: )

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Wow, he’s both an NFL quarterback and an MLB pitcher? :wink:

(Justin Steele is the Cubs’ pitcher. A bit ironically, given today’s matchup, Fields used to play for the Chicago Bears, and is now with the Pittsburgh Steelers.)

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And it looks like the Pirates have squandered a very good debut. He was staked to a 6-2 lead, and the bullpen walked in 3 runs and gave up a bases-loaded infield single to tie it up.

It’s currently 6-6 in the top of the 5th inning in a rain delay.

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It seems obvious that the Pirates had Skenes on a strict pitch limit, but maybe they should have let him face a few more batters, because the next Pirates pitchers walked in 6 runs.

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Clearly they need the help.

O’s walk off the Diamondbacks for their 3rd consecutive come from behind victory, opening up a 1.5 game division lead after the Yankees lose. Craig Kimbrel has redeemed himself the last couple of games after a bad stretch. Gunnar Henderson hit another home run to tie for the league lead with 12.

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I’m not a fan of most city connect uniforms as they’re not only a money grab but they’re mostly ugly

Cleveland sets a new low

The Angels are the only team to get it right, primarily because their regular uniforms are so bland and generic. They had such a good look as the Anaheim Angels in the 1990s.

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I’m not a fan of the idea either, but I don’t think Cleveland’s uniforms are any worse than the others. (I sort of liked Minnesota’s Twin Cities one)

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Baltimore’s looks like they forgot about it and just threw something together last-minute. It’s just a black jersey that reads BALTIMORE in white across the chest. Wow!

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Now I’ll be very generous here and say that I believe that Blanco was being honest when he didn’t realize he would get in trouble. He’s an Astro, so he was probably led to believe that cheating is something allowed in a game.

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MLB needs to just provide pitchers a pre-approved substance to use, just like they allow rosin on the mound. Or use the AA balls that are pre-tacked.

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Yanks slipped back into first; beating the Twins 5-1 with 13 hits as O’s were postponed. Rodon pitched a very nice game, 6 innings, 1 run.

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wow the A’s aren’t the worst team in baseball like it was predicted

and it seems after a rocky start the Dodgers are finally beginning to live up to theirs

But there’s still time for a dive …

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Baltimore wins 3-2 over Toronto this afternoon. It was the 4th game in MLB history for a team to score on a leadoff home run and a walk-off home run, with no runs scored in between. Previously occurred in 1983, 1971, and 1966, coincidentally all years the Orioles went to the World Series.

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Baltimore also avoided being swept for the first time all season with that win. They haven’t been swept in two years.

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Today, in his second career start (both of his starts have been against the Cubs), Skenes threw a no-hitter for six innings (before being pulled). He struck out the first seven batters he faced, and 11 overall, while giving up one walk.

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It’s amazing what 20 extra-base hits and 20 walks can do for your numbers. Aaron Judge had an OPS of .645 on April 22nd. It’s now .981 heading in to today’s game.

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Aaron Judge’s split May vs. Prior:

Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
April/March 31 31 141 116 12 24 6 0 6 18 1 0 23 38 .207 .340 .414 .754 48 10 1 0 1 2 1 .247 56 116
May 15 15 65 49 15 20 9 0 6 12 1 0 14 10 .408 .547 .959 1.506 47 1 1 0 0 2 0 .424 202 327

It is kind of nuts.

Sadly Soto is kind of the other direction:

Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
April/March 31 31 144 117 22 38 6 0 8 25 2 1 25 18 .325 .438 .581 1.019 68 3 0 0 2 0 1 .323 122 190
May 15 15 66 59 8 15 3 1 1 9 2 1 5 12 .254 .318 .390 .708 23 2 1 0 1 0 0 .298 55 105
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And today Soto went 4 for 4 to nicely improve his May.

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In case you were wondering how bad Kyle Hendricks had been.