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What’s Happening in Baseball Today
The First Pitch: May 25, 2026
A Sunday of walkoffs along the East Coast gets started in New York, where Aaron Judge ends an 11-game home run (and RBI) drought with a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth to break up a scoreless tie and triumph against the Rays, 2-0. The 363-foot drive—which, by the way, would have been a homer in just two other MLB ballparks—reduces Tampa Bay’s lead in the AL East over the Yankees to 4.5 games.
Of historical note in the game is the 2,000th career strikeout suffered by the Yankees’ Paul Goldschmidt, making him the ninth player in major league history to reach the milestone. Only one other active player has over 2,000, and that’s Goldschmidt’s Yankee teammate Giancarlo Stanton.
Down in Miami, the Marlins also break up a 0-0 deadlock in the bottom of the ninth—this one on a grand slam by Heriberto Hernandez to defeat the Mets, 4-0. It’s the first walkoff slam of a scoreless game since 2013; it’s the first such blow in Marlins franchise history. Also, combined with Judge’s homer up in New York, this is the first day in which multiple 0-0 contests are broken up by walkoff homers since 1945.
There’s more walkoff drama in Baltimore, where the Orioles’ Colton Cowser nails a 440-foot bomb on a 0-2 pitch from Detroit closer Kenley Jansen with two outs in the ninth, completing a comeback 5-3 victory over the Tigers in the first game of a weather-created doubleheader. This is the first time since 2008 that a major leaguer has bashed a game-winning, come-from-behind homer with two outs and a 0-2 count on him.
The Triples Guy is at it again. At Phoenix, the Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll has his fifth career multi-triple game, as his two three-baggers are part of a four-hit day in a 9-1 win over the Rockies. Carroll’s second triple gives him 51 for his career, tying Stephen Drew for the most in Arizona team history—and he’s still only 25 years old and contracted with the DBacks through at least 2030. This season, Carroll’s eight triples are double the number of the guy with the second most, Tampa Bay’s Chandler Simpson.
Only one player in major league history accrued 50+ triples and 80+ homers in fewer games than Carroll (537); that would be Lou Gehrig, who did it in 461 games.
The Blue Jays’ early-season malaise continues. In a space of 20 minutes at Toronto against the Pirates, the Jays lose pitcher Dylan Cease to a bad hammy and star slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. after getting drilled on the elbow by a Mitch Keller pitch. Both look like they’ll survive in the short term—Cease will undergo an MRI, just to be sure—but the twin trauma, on top of current absences from Shane Bieber, Alejandro Kirk, Jose Berrios, Max Scherzer and more, won’t help the Blue Jays try to shake off an underwhelming start to a year in which they’ve so far gone 25-28 after this 4-1 loss to the Pirates.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
4-3-2-3—Casey Schmitt, San Francisco
Giants fans have been blurting out “Holy s**t” quite a bit given the team’s woeful start, but “Holy Schmitt” has turned into a more positive variation. In San Francisco, the emerging 27-year-old Schmitt doubled and singled in the Giants’ 8-5 win over the White Sox, giving him five blasts over his last eight games; at the season’s one-third mark, his 11 homers and 29 RBIs put him on pace for…well, multiply by three.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
8-1-1-1-0-14—Reid Detmers, Los Angeles Angels
The career of the Angels’ first-round pick from 2020 has been a story of frustrating extremes; he’ll throw a no-hitter (as he did in 2022), but then look awful for long stretches. And then, once in a rare while, he’ll come back to blissful life—as he did Sunday against the Rangers. Detmers surrendered a second-inning homer to Jake Burger, but otherwise retired all 24 other Texas batters, striking out 14 of them—tied for the most by any major leaguer this year. All of this, and he couldn’t pick up the win; after 96 pitches, Detmers was removed with the game tied at 1-1—and the Angels walked it off an inning later on Oswald Peraza’s RBI grounder. Despite the gem, Detmers remains a 1-5 pitcher with a 4.57 ERA.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1935: With just three hits in his previous 44 at-bats and running on fumes at age 40, Babe Ruth comes alive one last time, smashing three home runs for the Boston Braves in what will still be a losing effort, 11-7 to the Pirates in Pittsburgh. Ruth’s third home run clears the right-field roof atop Forbes Field’s second deck; it will be the 714th and final homer of his legendary career, as he’ll play five more games and then quit.
1937: After homering in his previous at-bat against the Yankees’ Bump Hadley, future Hall-of-Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane suffers a fractured skull after being beaned by Hadley in the fifth inning of the Tigers’ 4-3 loss to New York. Though he’ll continue to manage when he returns, he’ll never play again.
2011: Giants catcher Buster Posey suffers a major knee injury when he’s run over by the Marlins’ Scott Cousins in a home plate collision, giving Florida a 7-6 win in 12 innings. The brutality of the injury—to a rising All-Star talent, no less—leads to the creation of what will unofficially referred to as the Buster Posey Rule, stating that runners can no longer make contact with catchers who aren’t blocking home plate.
2016: The Rangers’ Nomar Mazara hits a 491-foot homer that’s the longest in the history of Globe Life Park, providing insurance in Texas’ 15-9 defeat of the visiting Angels.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
San Diego starting pitcher Michael King (31)
Chris Young (47), 6’10” pitcher of 79 wins; current Texas president of baseball ops
Miguel Tejada (52), six-time All-Star shortstop; 2002 AL MVP; played in 1,152 consecutive games, fifth longest streak in MLB history; implicated steroid user
Todd Walker (53), second baseman of 12 seasons with 1,316 career hits; lifetime .289 batting average
Bob Knepper (72), 15-year southpaw pitcher who won 146 games; two-time league leader in shutouts; two-time All-Star; at forefront of unsuccessful effort to keep woman reporters out of MLB locker rooms
John Montefusco (76), nicknamed “The Count”; 1975 NL Rookie of the Year; led NL with six shutouts in 1976
Born on this date:
Martin Dihago (1905), outstanding Cuban-born Negro Leaguer of practically all positions; won 1926 Eastern Colored League batting title; owner of 27-19 record and 3.34 ERA as pitcher; Hall of Famer
Joe Judge (1894), 20-year first baseman, 18 of them with Washington Senators; career .298 batting average; ranked second in Senators/Twins history with 157 triples
Shameless Link of the Day
On this Memorial Day, we look back at how baseball gradually took a backseat to the immense war effort during World War II; read the stories of the times in 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945, as the games somehow continued on while nearly a half-million Americans made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our country.
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