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The First Pitch: May 1, 2026
The St. Louis Cardinals continue to be Kryptonite for Paul Skenes. The reigning NL Cy Young winner is socked for two first-inning home runs, and allows five runs (four earned) overall through five innings before being plucked out of the game. The Cardinals don’t stop there, adding five more tallies in the eighth against the Pirates to pull away with a 10-5 road victory.
Skenes remains winless in seven career starts against the Cardinals, with a 0-5 record—all despite a respectable 2.95 ERA. He’s 25-10 against all other MLB teams.
The Phillies make it 3-0 in the Don Mattingly era, as the interim manager oversees two come-from-behind, walkoff victories in a single day. In the first game of a rain-created doubleheader, J.C. Crawford races to first on a ninth-inning, two-out infield single that brings home the winning run, completing a two-run rally in a 3-2 victory over the Giants. Trailing again by a run in the 10th inning of the nightcap, Alec Bohm caps another two-run uprising with a deep sac fly to center that brings home Adolis Garcia to finish a 6-5 win. By virtue of being the pitcher of record at the end of each game, reliever Chase Shugart gets the win in both for the Phillies.
It’s the first time since 2004 that a team has won each game of a doubleheader in walkoff fashion; the Giants haven’t been on the losing side of such an occurrence since 1956.
Brandon Woodruff, one of the more effective yet fragile pitchers in recent years for Milwaukee, leaves his sixth start of the year in the second inning against Arizona and tells manager Pat Murphy that his arm is “dead.” The radar seems to agree; Woodruff’s fastball averages only 85 MPH, well below his normal velocity. An MRI taken later will determine what exactly is going on.
The Brewers blast away without Woodruff, pouring it on the Diamondbacks in a 13-1 rout. William Contreras (see below) leads the charge with four hits, including a home run, and four RBIs.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
4-3-4-4—William Contreras, Milwaukee
There’s something about the Diamondbacks that turns on the 28-year-old catcher. In the Brewers’ 13-1 home rout of Arizona, Contreras contributed with two singles, a double and his third home run of the year. That gives him a .430 batting average with nine doubles, eight homers and 26 RBIs over 25 career games against the DBacks.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
7-7-1-1-2-6—Logan Webb, San Francisco
The Giants ace was gifted two first-inning runs (and nothing more) by his hitting mates as Webb held a 2-1 lead through seven innings before departing—and before the Phillies mounted a ninth-inning comeback that resulted in a 3-2 walkoff victory. Pitching well and not getting the win is nothing new for Webb; it won’t be long before he pitches in some money to help ownership, which seems more interested in their real estate portfolio than in building a contending roster, to get someone who can actually hit.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1920: In his 10th game as a member of the Yankees, Babe Ruth hits his first home run in pinstripes—doing so in a 6-0 home win against the Red Sox, the team that dealt him to New York. The round-tripper will be the first of a record-smashing 54 Ruth will belt on the year.
1920: The Brooklyn Robins and Boston Braves battle for 26 innings to a 1-1 tie; it’s the longest game by innings in major league history, lasting three hours and 50 minutes—a length surpassed by many nine-inning contests nearly a century later. The game officially doesn’t count, but its statistics do—small comfort for both starters, the Robins’ Leon Cadore and the Braves’ Joe Oeschger, who pitch all 26 innings. The Robins will get no rest for their effort; their next two games, on consecutive days, will last 13 and 19 innings.
1930: The Indians’ Joe Sewell is forced to the bench with a high fever, ending his consecutive-game string at 1,103 games. The Yankees’ Lou Gehrig now takes over as the active leader, closing in on 750 straight performances.
1969: For the second time in two years, teams trade no-hitters against one another on consecutive days. Don Wilson throws his second career no-no in Houston’s 4-0 win over at Cincinnati, a day after the Reds blow by the Astros, 10-0, behind Jim Maloney’s no-hit gem.
1991: Nolan Ryan, 44, throws his seventh and last career no-hitter, striking out 16 Blue Jays in the Rangers’ 3-0 win before a crowd of 33,439 at Arlington Stadium.
1991: Rickey Henderson, his career barely halfway over, surpasses Lou Brock to become the all-time stolen base king at Oakland against the Yankees. His 939th lifetime steal comes in the fourth inning of the A’s 7-4 win.
1992: Exactly a year after breaking Brock’s mark, Henderson becomes the first (and still only) player to reach 1,000 career steals in Oakland’s 7-6 victory at Detroit. There’s still 400-plus thefts left in Henderson, who’s only 32.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
Athletics outfielder and home run thief Denzel Clarke (26)
Detroit pitcher Casey Mize (29), first pick of the 2018 amateur draft
Kansas City reliever Lucas Erceg (31)
Marcus Stroman (35), outspoken, two-time All-Star pitcher of 11 seasons
Scooter Gennett (36), second baseman who launched four homers in a 2017 game
Shameless Link of the Day
Look later today for the April edition of the Comebacker—including our first installment of the Best and Worst hitters, pitchers and teams from each league since Opening Day!
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