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What’s Happening in Baseball Today
The First Pitch: April 2, 2025
Los Angeles fans are realistically hoping to see their Dodgers go 162-0 this season. They may just get their wish.
Against the suddenly anemic Atlanta Braves, the Dodgers get five innings of one-hit ball from Dustin May—the injury-wracked pitcher making his first appearance in almost two years—and a go-ahead home run in the sixth by Mookie Betts off Braves ace Chris Sale to help clinch a 3-1 victory.
With a 7-0 start, the Dodgers are the first defending World Series champion since the 1933 New York Yankees to win their first seven games. It’s their best start since moving to Los Angeles in 1958; they started 10-0 in 1955, the year they won their only World Series in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, the Braves are 0-6 with nine runs scored. They remain the lone winless MLB side to begin the 2025 campaign.
It’s not that the Dodgers are already running away with the NL West—yet. The Padres are the majors’ only other undefeated ballclub, winning the season’s first six games for the first time in franchise history with an easy 7-0 victory over the visiting Cleveland Guardians. Michael King strikes out 11 over five shutout innings, allowing the Guardians’ only two hits on the night.
The Padres’ Luis Arraez, batting champion over each of the past three seasons, finally gets his first hit after a 0-for-18 start at the plate. Only Ferris Fain—who began the 1952 season hitless in his first 21 at-bats—had a worse start after winning the batting title the previous year.
The Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi throws the first complete game of the year, allowing four hits and striking out eight over 99 pitches in a 1-0 win at Cincinnati. Wyatt Langford’s solo homer in the first inning is all the offense Eovaldi needs for his fourth career complete game and second shutout. (His career numbers say five CGs and three shutouts, but they count a five-inning blanking shortened by rain at the end of the 2022 season. We aren’t.)
No Texas pitcher went the distance for the entire 2024 season; the Rangers were one of 12 teams without a complete-game performance.
The Minnesota Twins finally wake up and grab their first win with an 8-3 triumph over the White Sox at Chicago. The eight runs scored by the Twins are more than the six they notched in their first four games combined—though they don’t erase the goose egg until racking up five runs in the sixth, the first two of those charged to White Sox starter Shane Smith in his major league debut. That ends a season-beginning streak of 28 straight innings by White Sox starters without allowing an earned run.
Victor Robles punches out a leadoff single at Seattle against the Detroit Tigers, but the Mariners will go 0-for-25 the rest of the way at the plate, dropping a 4-1 decision. Casey Mize also walks three batters in his 5.2 innings of work for the Tigers. Seattle starter Logan Gilbert strikes out 10 over five frames of work but is tagged with the loss.
Unable to secure an offseason contract, 37-year-old pitcher Lance Lynn announces his retirement from the game. The right-hander came off an admirable 2024 campaign in which he finished 7-4 with a 3.84 ERA for the St. Louis Cardinals. Over 13 years at the major league level, Lynn secured a 143-99 record and 3.74 ERA, earning two All-Star roster spots and a World Series ring with the 2011 Cardinals.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
4-2-3-3—Brandon Lowe, Tampa Bay
The 30-year-old Virginian collected two singles and his second homer of the young season to help push the Rays to a 7-0 home win over Pittsburgh. Though we’re obviously still in short-sample territory less than a week into the season, Lowe’s 100.8-MPH exit velo is the majors’ best thus far.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
9-4-0-0-0-8—Nathan Eovaldi, Texas
The 35-year-old right-hander proved affirmed his standing as the Rangers’ most reliable pitcher, shutting down the Reds for the majors’ first complete game of the year. Perhaps just as impressively, Eovaldi kept Elly De La Cruz quiet a night a night after the emerging Reds megastar had two homers among four hits with seven RBIs.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1907: The Mills Commission, formed to uncover the origins of baseball, concludes that the game was invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York in 1839. It’s later established that Doubleday had almost nothing to do with baseball—and never visited Cooperstown in 1839. The official report papers will perish in a 1911 fire.
2003: Alex Rodriguez, aged 27 years and 249 days, becomes the youngest major leaguer to reach 300 career home runs during the Rangers’ 11-5 loss at Anaheim against the Angels.
2017: The Cardinals’ Yadier Molina is the recipient of the first intentional walk that doesn’t require four pitches, as the Cubs’ Mike Montgomery watches from the mound at St. Louis. It’s MLB’s latest effort to curtail the length of baseball games.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Atlanta third baseman Austin Riley is 28; 131-game winner Jon Lieber is 55; slugger of 206 home runs Pete Incaviglia is 61; seven-time All-Star third baseman Reggie Smith is 80. Born on this date is Hall-of-Fame pitcher Don Sutton (1945), two-time league leader in saves Dick Radatz (1937), stingy, underrated ace Billy Pierce (1927), 1954 AL batting champ Bobby Avila (1924), Cooperstown-bound White Sox shortstop Luke Appling (1907), energetic shortstop/manager Hughie Jennings (1869), and three-time 40-game winner Tommy Bond (1856).
Shameless Link of the Day
The March Comebacker is now live, the daily look back at the news, notes and numbers from the past month. Check it out!
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!
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