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What’s Happening in Baseball Today
The First Pitch: June 3, 2025
On a night when the road team wins all seven games on the schedule, the visiting Los Angeles Angels get off to a booming start in Boston by becoming the first away team in the 114-year history of Fenway Park to hit three home runs in the first inning. It’s part of a six-run rally against Red Sox pitcher Richard Fitts that the Angels will need as they ultimately hold on and defeat the Red Sox, 7-6.
Zach Neto, Mike Trout and Jo Adell launch the three long balls; it’s the 10th homer each for Neto and Trout—both of whom have missed significant time this season. Adell adds a second homer in the sixth, giving him nine on the year.
At Chicago against the White Sox, Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter muscles up and achieves the Tigers’ first three-homer game since 2016 in a 13-1 drubbing. Carpenter’s four-baggers are hit in the first, fourth and sixth innings; the opportunity for a fourth homer is denied when he floats a lazy fly ball to center in the eighth.
Carpenter’s last seven hits against the White Sox, over a span of five games, have all been home runs.
The Rockies are 4-0 when entering the day with an eight-game skid. Fighting back from an early 4-1 deficit at Miami, Colorado plates five unanswered runs and grabs a 6-4 decision over the Marlins, ending their fourth skid of eight straight losses this season. Catcher Hunter Goodman, with three hits including a pair of homers, is the star hitter for the Rockies in becoming the last team this year to secure their 10th win—four full weeks after the White Sox became the second-to-last team to reach 10 victories.
Authorities say they have found the person who sent death threats against Houston’s Lance McCullers Jr. and his family after a particularly bad outing for the Astros pitcher on May 10. He’s a guy living abroad in an unidentified country; not surprisingly, he made the threats toward McCullers after betting on him. When McCullers bombed instead—giving up seven runs on three hits, three walks and a hit batsman while getting just one out against Cincinnati—the bettor, fueled by a combination of anger and alcohol, fired off his threatening posts.
Once discovered, the bettor apologized to authorities, asking to extend that apology to McCullers and his family. It’s reported that charges may still be levied against the man, the effectiveness of which while be determined if he’s living in a foreign country or is (was) traveling.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
5-3-3-5—Kerry Carpenter, Detroit
The 27-year-old slugger’s hat trick was a big-time wake-me-up, given that he hadn’t gone deep in nine games and knocked in just that one run over his last 18. Carpenter’s 13 homers on the year puts him easily on pace for over 30; his career high is 20, from two years ago.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
8-6-0-0-0-7—Logan Webb, San Francisco
The Giants’ ace had his best start of the year, keeping the Padres silent for eight shutout innings—but all he got out of it was a lousy non-decision, as the Giants’ offense (30 runs over their last 15 games) continued their disappearing act with a 1-0, 10-inning loss. Webb lowered his season ERA to 2.55 over an NL-high 81.1 innings, but his record remains stuck at 5-5.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1925: The White Sox’ Eddie Collins collects his 3,000th career hit in a 12-7 win at Detroit. He’s the fifth player to reach the milestone.
1927: The Pirates’ Paul Waner collects a home run it what will be his first of 14 straight games with at least one extra-base hit, a major league record.
1932: Lou Gehrig pounds out four home runs in the Yankees’ wildly offensive, 20-13 victory at Philadelphia over the A’s. He is the first player in the 20th Century to hit four homers in one game; a chance for a fifth is denied in his last at-bat when a deep fly to center is caught at the wall.
1932: Hall-of-Fame Giants manager John McGraw, facing declining health and an unusually poor start by his team, announces his retirement after 30 years at the job. First baseman Bill Terry takes over and guides the Giants to a 72-82 finish—the team’s worst showing in 17 years.
1944: A game between the Giants and Braves at the Polo Grounds comes to a standstill when it’s announced that the Allies have launched a massive invasion on Nazi-occupied France. It turns out that the news is premature; a wire operator in London, in the know about the approaching D-Day, is testing her writing skills and accidentally sends out the item.
1958: By a thin margin, Los Angeles voters approve the building of Dodger Stadium.
1995: Montreal pitcher Pedro Martinez retires all 27 batters he faces through nine innings against the Padres at San Diego—but he’s asked to face more as a scoreless game enters extra innings. Martinez allows a double to the 28th batter, Bip Roberts, and is removed; he’ll get credit for the win as Mel Rojas saves a 1-0 Expos win.
1998: Toronto’s Roger Clemens wins his first of an AL-record 20 straight games, going the distance in a 5-1 home victory over Detroit. His streak will last nearly a year and end after he signs with the Yankees.
2017: With a grand slam belted against Minnesota at Anaheim, the Angels’ Albert Pujols becomes the ninth major leaguer to surpass 600 career home runs.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
2024 AL Rookie of the Year and currently shelved pitcher Luis Gil (26)
Minnesota center fielder Harrison Bader (31), 2021 Gold Glove recipient
Travis Hafner (48), powerful DH who clouted 213 home runs in injury-marred career; led AL with 1.097 OPS in 2006
Carl Everett (54), two-time All-Star outfielder; twice collected over 100 RBIs
Jim Gentile (91), three-time All-Star first baseman; career year in 1961; TGG interview subject
Born on this date:
Yordan Ventura (1991), promising pitcher who perished in car crash at age 25; member of 2015 world champion Royals
Barney Morris (1910), two-time All-Star Negro League pitcher
Shameless Link of the Day
Now live: The May 2025 edition of the Monthly Comebacker, including our picks for the Best and Worst of the month that was.
Join Us on X and BlueSky
Besides our growing and active presence on X, TGG has spread its social media wings to BlueSky for those who’ve found the X culture too toxic. For those who are wondering, we provide the same posts on both platforms, and they’re non-political. We’re just talking baseball.
Meanwhile, we’ve given up our fight trying to reactivate our Facebook page, which was hacked last year. The page remains up but is frozen in time, as we are unable to access it—and Facebook, in all its infinite lack of wisdom, continues to provide absolutely no customer support in the matter as they literally have none. All the more reason to join us on X and BlueSky.
And Now For Something Completely Different From TGG Co-Founder Eric Gouldsberry
From 1975-78, my father, Ray Gouldsberry, took photographs of the original San Jose Earthquakes soccer team, an ingeniously marketed collection of colorful players embraced by a growing, sports-starved community which constantly sold out ancient, cozy Spartan Stadium. Shortly after my father’s passing in 2019, I took the negatives of all the precious, invaluable photos he snapped, scanned them, and put together Our Life & Times with the Earthquakes: Images and Memories from the Glory Days of San Jose’s Original Pro Soccer Team. It’s not only a tribute to the Earthquakes and the North American Soccer League, but to my father for capturing all the wonderful memories we shared during our time as season ticket holders of the team through its entire existence (1974-84).
Much like baseball’s Deadball Era, Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes looks at a similar era in soccer history when the game in America was boldly attempting to blaze its own trail clad in flamboyance and imperfection, giving the NASL vivid character. As with those early times of baseball, historical images from the NASL remain scarce and elusive, making Ray Gouldsberry’s photographic collection of the Earthquakes and other star NASL players all the more cherished.
Although the Earthquakes are the primary focus of Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes, the book also spotlights the vibrant and turbulent history of the NASL and its legendary list of stars such as Pelé, Giorgio Chinaglia and George Best (who briefly played for the Earthquakes), all through my father’s photos and the treasure trove of memorabilia I collected during those years.
Formatted at 8.25” x 8.25”, running 200 pages plus cover and containing over 200 photos, 100 images of memorabilia, and a foreword by former Quake and U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Johnny Moore, Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes is available for purchase on Amazon. Read and enjoy!
To Whom It May Concern
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