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The First Pitch: April 22, 2026
No team has ever lost 12 straight games within a season and made the postseason. That is now the factual challenge facing the Mets, the team with MLB’s highest payroll.
The Mets look solid for the first five innings against the visiting Twins, thanks to Nolan McLean’s five perfect innings and Francisco Lindor’s three-run homer to give New York a 3-0 lead. But McLean wilts, the Mets’ bats go quiet, and the game moves to the ninth inning knotted at 3-3. Called on to preserve the tie, Mets closer Devin Williams flops again, allowing two runs on three walks and a base hit to give the Twins a 5-3 lead; Williams departs to a cacophony of boos from 32,798 fans at chilly Citi Field.
McLean is the first major league pitcher to twice go five perfect innings into a game within his first 13 starts.
After the game, the Twins’ X handle posts: “Things you can get in a dozen: Eggs, roses and Mets losses.”
If Mets fans are looking for any sliver of hope for their team breaking a slide that’s tied for the sixth longest in franchise history, they should know that Juan Soto returns to the lineup today for the first time in 19 days after injuring his calf.
The first career home run for the White Sox’ Sam Antonacci is a memorable one on multiple fronts. It’s an inside-the-park shot—the first by a White Sox rookie since 1976—that starts as a fair ball down the left-field line curling into foul territory, where a ball guy accidentally attempts to make a play off it. The ball ricochets off his glove and into left field—where Arizona’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr. doesn’t make a move on it, believing that interference has already been called. But Gurriel has to be the one throwing his arms up in the air to let umpires know; he doesn’t, and by the time he realizes Antonacci is still rapidly rounding the bases, he restarts back into action, collects the ball and throws home—too little and too late to retire Antonacci.
The bizarre sequence has no bearing on the game’s outcome; it takes place in the ninth inning of Chicago’s 11-5 beatdown of the Diamondbacks at Phoenix. Antonacci’s homer is the fourth of the game for the White Sox, with the other three coming back-to-back-to-back in the second inning from Munetaka Murakami, Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery. The blast from Murakami is his ninth of the year; it’s his fourth straight game going deep.
A new book from Lou Wolff, the former face of the Oakland A’s, has reopened all the wounds revolving around the team’s move out of the Bay Area—and its many efforts to build a new ballpark somewhere within it.
The 90-year-old Wolff writes that the Giants bare “100 per cent” responsibility for the A’s departure due to their “nasty, shameful, and continuing opposition” to shut the team out of a potential move south to San Jose, the Bay Area’s largest city and self-anointed “Capitol of Silicon Valley.” Wolff notes, factually, that the A’s once owned the territorial rights to San Jose, but previous owner Walter Haas gifted those rights to the Giants when that team sought—and failed—to build a new ballpark there; when Wolff asked for those rights back so he could build a new ballyard there, the Giants refused.
When reached by The Athletic to comment, Giants majority partner Greg Johnson defended his team’s ongoing hold of San Jose, stating that the team has a “huge fan base” there and that a move to the city by the A’s would have “been detrimental to the strength of (the Giants),” adding: “The ownership group personally guaranteed debut (to get Oracle Park) built. And a part of that was, ‘You’re not going to put a team next to us after we’re taking the risk.’”
The Giants certainly can’t be blamed for the A’s exodus to Las Vegas (via Sacramento) when the A’s, the City of Oakland and Alameda County were deep into a project for an attractive new waterfront ballpark. Though the project never got far past the planning stages and a shovel was never placed into the ground, the city and county reportedly spent tens of millions of dollars on a myriad of consultant fees and detailed reports. Yes, the project was moving slower than the A’s wished, but in the end team owner John Fisher—whom Wolff dedicates his book to—simply just wanted to be in Las Vegas.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
6-3-3-5—Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati
A year ago, baseball experts forecasted a breakout campaign for the young, multi-talented shortstop; a year later, they may finally be right. In the Reds’ 12-6 pummeling of the Marlins at Miami—the team’s fifth straight win—De La Cruz bookended the scoring with a two-run homer in the first and a solo shot in the ninth; he also stole his sixth base of the young season. It’s De La Cruz’s sixth multi-homer game, breaking the all-time Reds’ record by a switch-hitter—a mark formerly held by Pete Rose.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
7-3-0-0-0-5—Randy Vasquez, San Diego
Impressively, the 27-year-old right-hander saved his best start in an impressive year to date for mile-high Coors Field, where he matched a career high with seven shutout innings against the Rockies. The 1-0 result—the 12th in the offensively-inclined ballpark’s 32-year history—was the second win for Vasquez on the year, while lowering his ERA to 1.88.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1876: The very first National League game is played with the Boston Red Stockings (Braves) defeating the Athletics of Philadelphia, 5-4. Boston outfielder Jim O’Rourke gets credit for the first hit.
1922: Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns becomes the first player in American League history to smash three home runs in one game during a 10-7 drubbing of the White Sox.
1959: The White Sox clobber the Athletics at Kansas City, 20-6, thanks to a third inning where they score 11 runs—on just one hit. The A’s do their part to aid the White Sox rally with 10 walks, a hit batsman, and three errors.
1970: After receiving his 1969 Cy Young Award in a pregame ceremony at Shea Stadium, the Mets’ Tom Seaver goes out and ties the major league record for most strikeouts in a nine-inning game with 19, while breaking another all-time mark by striking out 10 consecutive batters—the last 10 he faces—in a 2-1 victory over San Diego.
2018: The Giants’ Brandon Belt engages in a 21-pitch at-bat against the Angels’ Jaime Barria at Anaheim, losing the battle when he flies out to right field. It’s the most pitches recorded in one plate appearance since 1988, when such statistics began to be kept.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
Houston reliever Bryan Abreu (29)
Kevin Kiermaier (36), center fielder who collected four Gold Gloves
Dee-Strange Gordon (38), speedy second baseman of 11 seasons; 2015 NL batting titlist; two-time All-Star; 336 career steals, leading league three times
Mickey Morandini (60), 11-year second baseman with 1,222 hits; 1995 All-Star
Jimmy Key (65), four-time All-Star southpaw pitcher with career 186-117 record; 1987 AL ERA titlist
Cincinnati manager Terry Francona (67), led Red Sox to world titles in 2004 and 2007; over 2,000 managerial wins
Moose Haas (70), 12-year pitcher of 100 wins, mostly with the Brewers
David Clyde (71), pitcher who woke up Dallas-area baseball fans with wonderful debut, but never fulfilled high expectations
Born on this date:
Stefan Wever (1958), big German-born pitcher; made one MLB appearance for Yankees, followed by career-ending injury; TGG interview subject
Mickey Vernon (1918), seven-time All-Star first baseman with 2,495 hits from 1939-60; absent two years for military service during World War II; two-time AL batting champ; led league in doubles three times
Taylor Douthit (1901), 11-year center fielder with career .291 batting average; three-time collector of 100+ runs
Shameless Link of the Day
Of the five losing streaks in Mets history that are longer than the current 12-game skid the team is enduring, two of them—including the all-time longest, at 17—are from the club’s infamous 1962 campaign. Here’s our story on those loveably awful Mets.
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