The Month That Was in Baseball: May 2026

Friday, May 1

It’s a very good night for tall Milwaukee ace in the making Jacob Misorowski—until he’s forced to depart with one out in the sixth inning at Washington with a hamstring cramp. He leaves having allowed no hits and throwing half (43) of his 86 pitches at 100 MPH-plus, topping out at 103 in the first inning; Only Jordan Hicks (2022) has recorded faster pitches by a starter in a regular season game since velocities began being officially recorded in 2008. Aaron Ashby keeps the combo no-hit bid and shutout going until an inning later, when the Nationals scarf up their lone run on the night. The Brewers take a 6-1 victory behind the second straight four-hit effort from William Contreras—the first time that’s been accomplished by a Brewers player since 2010.

Arizona suffers a 6-5 defeat in Chicago to the Cubs, despite another impressive performance by Ildemaro Vargas—the part-time journeyman who’s suddenly hitting like a no-doubt-about-it All-Star. The 34-year-old Vargas goes 4-for-4 (all singles), increasing his season batting average to an MLB-leading .404 while extending his hitting streak going back to last season to 27 games. That breaks the old mark by a Venezuelan-born player, previously held by Wilson Ramos in 2019; it’s also the second longest streak in Diamondbacks history, behind Luis Gonzalez’s 30-game run in 1999.

Saturday, May 2

Two near-record streaks come to an end. In a 2-0 loss to the Cubs at Chicago, the Diamondbacks’ Ildemaro Vargas goes 0-for-4 to end his 27-game hit streak, the second longest in Arizona team history. Later out in Sacramento, the A’s Nick Kurtz gathers two hits but fails to earn a walk, ending his 20-game streak with at least one. Kurtz’s run is tied for the second longest in major league history, trailing Roy Cullenbine’s 22 straight games in 1947.

The Cincinnati Reds miss the strike zone—and keep missing—in an out-of-whack second inning, tying a major league record with seven straight walks in a 17-7 defeat at Pittsburgh. Reds starter Rhett Lowder, who entered the day with 10 walks over his first 34 innings this season, concedes four passes—the last three consecutively—before being shown the door with one out in the second. His replacement, Connor Phillips, is far worse; he faces four batters, walking them all, while throwing just five of 26 pitches for strikes. Overall, the Pirates walk 11 times, on top of 19 hits and a hit batter; the 31 times reaching base safely are the most they’ve accrued in a game since 1975, when they famously shut out the Cubs, 22-0. It’s also the first time since that wipeout that every batter in the Bucs’ lineup has at least one run batted in.

The Atlanta Braves improve their MLB-best record to 24-10 with a 9-1 victory at Colorado—but they’re holding their breath for the results of an MRI on star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr., who pulls up lame running down the first base line, clutching at his back upper left leg. Chris Sale strikes out 11 over seven outstanding innings, as the Braves clinch their 10th series in 11 attempts this year—splitting the other one.

Acuna’s injury, a strained hamstring, isn’t as awful as feared; he’ll miss only 14 games.

On the night Seattle retires the uniform number of nine-time season strikeout king Randy Johnson, Mariners pitcher Emerson Hancock feels the inspiration and collects 14 K’s—the most by any pitcher so far this season. The dominant performance, which includes the allowance of just one run on six hits through seven innings, isn’t enough; the opposing Kansas City Royals will score once in the ninth to tie, and once again in the 10th on Maikel Garcia’s RBI single to secure a 3-2 comeback win.

The San Francisco Giants aren’t very good right now—and they’re not very lucky, either. In the second inning at St. Petersburg against the Rays, the Giants’ Heliot Ramos crushes a drive to straightaway center; Tampa Bay outfielder Cedric Mullins runs all the way to the wall, begins to look high upward—and then quickly runs back in some 25 feet to catch the ball. The Giants claim that the ball was redirected downward by one of Tropicana Field’s catwalks—which, if struck between the foul poles, becomes an automatic home run. But none of the umpires see it, and none of the broadcast cameras follow the ball in flight; a video review to follow leads to inconclusive (really, incomplete) evidence to change the umps’ minds. The Giants howl from the dugout in response, leading to two ejections.

Ramos’ non-homer—which is initially measured at 424 feet by Statcast, before curiously being downgraded to 385—is part of another frustrating evening for the offensively-challenged Giants, who suffer their fifth straight loss, 5-1; they end the day dead last in the majors in both runs scored (105) and home runs (19).

Sunday, May 3

New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, once labeled as the second coming of Derek Jeter and given the team’s lowest unretired uniform number (11), has been sent to Triple-A as he finishes rehab on a surgically repaired shoulder. Part of the reason for Volpe’s demotion is the quality work of his fill-in at short, Jose Caballero—who’s batting .259 on the year but has recently been hot with the bat; his 13 steals are also tied for the AL lead. The 25-year-old Volpe has shown good speed of his own and has decent power, but has a career .222 batting average over three seasons and, last year, led the AL in shortstop errors after winning a Gold Glove in his rookie campaign.

Volpe will return 10 days later despite an underwhelming spell at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, batting .208 in nine games.

The Braves are off to their hottest 35-game start since the 1800s. At Denver, Atlanta finishes off a three-game sweep of the Rockies and improve to 25-10 with an 11-6 victory, pulling away after trailing early as Spencer Strider, making his 2026 debut, strikes out six over 3.1 innings—but also five walks with three runs allowed. Offensively, Jonah Heim brings home five runs on a double, sac fly and two-run homer.

Monday, May 4

The Detroit Tigers suffer a big blow as two-time reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal is expected to miss roughly half of this season as he will undergo arthroscopic surgery of his pitching elbow to remove loose bodies. The 29-year-old southpaw, who’s a free agent at the end of this year, is scratched from his start against the visiting Red Sox; in seven outings this year, Skubal is 3-2 with a 2.70 ERA.

Skubal’s injury could minimize the Tigers’ chances of dealing him at the trading deadline—and could hurt Skubal’s own prospects of signing a record-breaking free agent contract for a pitcher in the coming offseason (a target further clouded by the likelihood of a work stoppage).

Munetaka Murakami belts his 14th home run of the year to match the Yankees’ Aaron Judge at the top of the leaderboard, but also punches out his first MLB double as part of a three-hit night in the White Sox’ 6-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels and an ineffective Jose Soriano at Anaheim. The double ends a streak of 14 home runs without an additional extra-base hit to start a career, a major league record which smashed the old mark of 10.

John Sterling, who did play-by-play for more Yankees games (5,651) than anyone else, dies of heart failure at the age of 87. Born in New York City, Sterling’s early broadcast career included work with many New York sports teams including the NHL’s Islanders and NBA Nets; he also called the action for a number of teams in Baltimore and Atlanta, including the Braves in the 1980s. He came on board with the Yankees in 1989—broadcasting 5,060 consecutive games through 2019. Listeners developed a bond with Sterling and his borderline-schmaltzy catchphrases, most memorably his elongated, oscillating use of the word “the” in advance of “Yankees” whenever the team won a game. As with most seasoned broadcasters reaching senior citizen status, Sterling tired of the traveling—the prime reason he stepped down early during the 2024 season. He returned later that year to do a handful of games—including the entire World Series, during which the Yankees lost to the Dodgers.

Sterling suffered a heart attack earlier this year in January, which likely hastened his passing.

A day after knocking in five runs for the Braves at Colorado, catcher Jonah Heim is traded to the Athletics for cash. The former Texas All-Star was 9-for-39 with a homer and eight RBIs in limited play for Atlanta, but with Sean Murphy’s return to the Braves combined with the presence of reigning NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin (who looks even better so far in 2026), Heim was considered expendable at the catcher spot.

Just six days later, Murphy will have his finger fractured in his fourth game back behind the plate, and will miss up to eight weeks; a week later, Baldwin will suffer a mild oblique injury that will nevertheless leave him out over a month.

Tuesday, May 5

The Dodgers have been giving Shohei Ohtani time away from the bat whenever he pitches. Perhaps they need to rethink that. At Houston against their old friends in the Astros, the Dodgers suffer a 2-1 loss despite another solid start on the mound for Ohtani, who over seven innings allows two runs—both solo homers, the first round-trippers he’s given up this season—on four hits and no walks with eight strikeouts. But his presence at the plate is sorely missed, as the Dodgers can only scrimp up three hits through seven shutout innings against Houston starter Peter Lambert—who boosts his career record to 10-21. It’s the second straight game in which Ohtani has started in which he hasn’t hit—and both times, the Dodgers have only mustered one total run of support.

One of the two home runs hit off of Ohtani comes from Christian Walker, who continues his role as a Dodger killer. It’s Walker’s 30th homer in 95 games against Los Angeles; according to MLB stat hawk Sarah Langs, only Willie Mays hit more homers (36) in the same amount of games to start his career against the Dodgers.

Ohtani has a career 41-22 record as an MLB pitcher—but he’s 3-7 against the Astros.

The news is not all good on the day for the Astros. Once-and-current Houston infielder Carlos Correa, batting .279 with three homers and 16 RBIs through his first 32 games this year, will miss the rest of the year after tearing up his left ankle while taking swings in the batting cage.

While Lambert has a night to remember for the Astros, so does a former Houston pitcher—though he’d prefer to forget about it. At Detroit against the Red Sox, the Tigers’ Framber Valdez gives up a career-high 10 runs, the last two coming on back-to-back solo homers to start the fourth inning. His next pitch, to Trevor Story, does not result in a home run; it’s a 94-MPH fastball that dangerously plunks Story in the shoulder. An incensed Red Sox bench empties out to confront Valdez, who’s ejected by umpires. The 10 runs will be all the Red Sox need to defeat the Tigers, 10-3.

After the game, Valdez pleads ignorance and states that he didn’t mean to plunk Story—just as he claimed that he didn’t mean to plunk his own catcher last year after giving up a grand slam while pitching for the Astros. He’ll still ultimately serve a five-game suspension.

The Cubs make it 13 straight wins at home—the last two in walkoff fashion, as Micheal Busch’s grounder up the middle appears to knock Cincinnati shortstop Elly De la Cruz off his feet despite never touching himself nor his glove. Busch’s base hit brings home gift runner Dansby Swanson for a 3-2 win, pushing the Cubs to a 24-12 record. The Reds, meanwhile, suffer their fifth straight loss—and lose closer Emilio Pagan for up to two months after straining his hamstring while trying to hold a 2-1 lead in the ninth.

Bob Skinner, a member of the 1960 world champion Pittsburgh Pirates, passes away at the age of 94. A two-time All-Star, Skinner was one of many young, talented Pirates players who were asked to grow up fast during the 1950s—and like most everyone else on that team, evolved into a highly respected talent. A solid hitter without eye-popping numbers, Skinner occasionally batted over the .300 mark and settled with a .277 career figure at the end of his 12-year career, which also included late stops with the Reds and Cardinals. After hanging up his spikes, Skinner tried managing and lasted parts of two seasons (1968-69) with the Phillies; he then served the next two decades as a coach with San Diego, Atlanta, the Angels and, of course, the Pirates.

Skinner is the fourth member of the 1960 Pirates to pass away over the past eight months. That leaves pitchers Vern Law and Bennie Daniels as the only living members from that championship roster.

Wednesday, May 6

It’s déjà blew all over again for the Reds, who blow a late lead for the third straight game against the Cubs at Chicago and suffer their sixth defeat overall with a 10-inning, 3-2 loss. To be fair, the Reds set up their latest collapse after scoring four times in the top of the ninth to take a 6-4 lead, with the last two of those runs both scoring on a sacrifice fly from Elly De La Cruz. But after the Cubs level on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s two-run homer in the bottom half of the ninth, the winning run is notched in the 10th when Reds reliever Brock Burke—who intentionally walks two batters to load the bases with one out—unintentionally walks Michael Busch to force home the game-winner.

De La Cruz’s two-run sac fly is the majors’ first such in five years. 

For the Cubs, the win is their eighth straight and 14th in a row at Wrigley Field; that’s their second longest streak at the iconic ballpark, after an 18-game run during their 1935 pennant push.

The Dodgers blow away the Astros at Houston, 12-2, taking the rubber match of the three-game series behind Andy Pages’ hat trick of home runs—and a hat trick of wild pitches by Houston starter Lance McCullers Jr., each bringing home the Dodgers’ first three first runs. The rout also features the first two hits in a week for Shohei Ohtani, who snaps a 0-for-18 string with a third-inning double, followed by an RBI single in the fifth. The three-homer game for Pages is the majors’ second this year, with both accomplished by a Dodger; Max Muncy was the first, on April 10 against Texas. It’s the 31st such achievement in team history—with 14 of those taking place within the last 10 years.

There are three batters hit by pitches in the Angels’ 8-2 home win over the White Sox—and all three come with the bases loaded to force in a run. Two of those occur on back-to-back pitches by White Sox reliever Osvaldo Bido, facing his first two batters in the fourth; the other occurs in the seventh, when the Angels’ Drew Pomeranz plunks Sam Antonacci with the bags full. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first time since at least 1956 that a game has included three bases-loaded HBPs.

The Braves suffer their first series loss of the year, dropping a 3-1 decision at Seattle behind six sharp shutout innings from Seattle starter Bryan Woo, who allows just one hit with nine strikeouts. The win gives the Mariners two wins in the three-game series; the Braves had won 10 of their 11 previous series to start the year, splitting the other.

Off the field, the Braves and the rest of the baseball mourn the passing of former team owner Ted Turner, one of the game’s more influential—and assertive—lords, who dies at the age of 87. Turner inherited his father’s billboard business and used that small fortune to buy WCTG, a UHF TV station (for all you kids out there, UHF was…oh never mind). In 1976, Turner purchased the Braves, stating he wanted to buy the team for two reasons: “To get an autographed ball without pleading for it and to get good seats.” To prop up fading attendance at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, Turner spared no shred of shamelessness. He had pitcher Andy Messersmith—baseball’s first modern free-agent signing—wear “Channel 17” on the back of his jersey as a way of promoting WCTG before the league office told him to stop. He made himself Braves manager after firing Dave Bristol, getting away with it for one day before MLB, citing a rule that owners could not manage, told him to get out of the dugout. He introduced numerous promotions at the ballpark, most infamously with Wet T-Shirt Night. And he was suspended in 1977 for tampering with pending free agent outfielder Gary Matthews, who was still employed at the time by the Giants.

In the years to follow, Turner’s meddlesome behavior mellowed as he tackled bigger ambitions—launching CNN, promoting world peace and saving the environment. He let his baseball people do more of the work on the Braves, and the team became a relevant contender—briefly at first in the early 1980s, and then with a bang in 1991, going worst-to-first in the standings to initiate an impressive run of winning campaigns. Through it all, the Braves were showcased on WCTG—which became WTBS, then TBS—not just in the Atlanta area, but nationwide on basic cable systems as the first “superstation.” (Chicago’s WGN, which carried the Cubs, would soon follow as the second.) Turner sold the Braves in 1996, and the team gave tribute by renaming the rebuilt-for-baseball Olympic Stadium as Turner Field for 1997.

Thursday, May 7

The Cubs sweep the Reds and win their 15th straight game at Wrigley Field—their longest such streak since 1935—this time doing it without the drama as they score all eight of their runs within the first four innings and on their way to an 8-3 victory. Veteran outfielder Michael Conforto, a mostly off-the-bench commodity for the Cubs this season, wields the big bat in a rare start with a single, double, walk and home run; from the mound, Shota Imanaga strikes out 10 over six innings, allowing a run on six hits.

The loss for the Reds is their seventh straight, dropping them into last place in the NL Central—but they still remain over the .500 mark, at 20-18.

It’s a seventh straight win for the Rays, and it’s a good thing that they rack up the most runs in nearly three weeks as they surrender more than three for the first time in 13 games, a streak which set a franchise record. But a win is still a win; the Rays break an early 3-3 tie and prevail over the Red Sox at Boston, 8-4. A Wilyer Abreu sac fly in the eighth leads to the Red Sox’ fourth and final run of the night, breaking Tampa Bay’s streak.

Friday, May 8

It’s the Yankees and Brewers at Milwaukee, the possible second coming of Aaron Judge is unveiled—and Jacob Misiorowski apparently gorges on Wheaties before the game. The 24-year-old eight-hander, already known for a 100-MPH+ fastball, ramps it up against the Yankees—throwing the six fastest pitches by a starting pitcher since MLB officially began tracking velocities in 2008. Three of those reach 103.6 on the radar; seven other tosses are also over 103. In all, 41 of Misiorowski’s 95 pitches are served up at over 100, as he departs the Brewers’ 6-0 win with six shutout innings, allowing a pair of hits and walks each while racking up 11 strikeouts.

The victim of one of Misiorowski’s strikeouts—but also the recipient of one of his walks—is the 24-year-old Spencer Jones, who at 6’7” and 240 pounds resembles a slightly lighter version of Judge. Listed #7 among top Yankee prospects, Jones was batting .258 in 33 games at the Triple-A level with 11 home runs, 41 RBIs and seven steals; with the Yankees, he’ll last 13 days before being sent back to the minors, knocking out four singles in 24 at-bats. Jones’ presence on the Yankees, along with that of Judge, makes the duo the first ever within any MLB roster to stand 6’7” or higher.

Brewers left fielder Brandon Lockridge, who knocks out a pair of RBI singles early in the game, departs midway through the sixth after a violent collision with the side wall along the left-field line while chasing a Cody Bellinger pop fly. Despite the ugly optics, Lockridge somehow avoids a fracture of his right kneecap, but will still miss time with a deep laceration. Yet the incident leaves us to ask: Why pad the walls but not the lower, recessed concrete portion, roughly one foot in height? Even a minor cushion could have spared Lockridge all that pain.

The Cubs take their winning ways on the road and pick up a 7-1 victory over the Rangers at Arlington, extending their win streak to 10 games. It’s already the second 10-game streak for the Cubs this year; only four other teams have enjoyed multiple streaks of 10 or more straight wins within the first 40 games of a season, the last being the 1955 Dodgers—on their way to their lone World Series title in Brooklyn.

No other team has yet to win 10 straight games this season. 

The start of the game is delayed as Texas starter Kumar Rocker is told to remove a long-sleeved white shirt that’s under his short-sleeved red jersey, a violation of MLB uniform policy. The long-sleeved whites are barred because they can help “hide” the ball from hitters.

If it’s a series opener involving the White Sox, you can bet that Munetaka Murakami will be around to send a baseball over the fence. The first-year Chicago slugger goes deep in the first inning against the visiting Mariners, making it the eighth straight series opener in which he’s belted a home run—something no other major leaguer has ever done. Murakami’s homer, his 15th of the year to tie Aaron Judge for tops in MLB, isn’t enough as the Mariners outlast the White Sox, 12-8, behind a pair of homers and seven RBIs from Luke Raley.

Fernando Tatis Jr. (zero homers in 38 games) isn’t off to a great start offensively for the Padres—and his typically sterling defense isn’t up to par against the visiting Cardinals. The two-time Platinum Glove outfielder charges a base hit from rookie JJ Wetherholt in the fifth inning, but the ball goes under his glove and rolls all the way to the right-field wall; Wetherholt will round the bases, following three baserunners, for a single/three-base error grand slam. It’s the defining moment in the Cardinals’ 6-0 win, their ninth victory in their last 11 tries.

Saturday, May 9

Bobby Cox, the Hall-of-Fame manager who led the Atlanta Braves through their most sustained period of success while holding the all-time record for ejections, passes away at the age of 84. No cause of death is made public, but Cox’s health had deteriorated since suffering a stroke in 2019. Fourth on the all-time managerial wins list with 2,504, Cox played two seasons as a third baseman for the New York Yankees, batting .225 with nine home runs over 220 games before being sent back to the minors a year later and, shortly thereafter, dropping out of the game due to chronic knee issues. But the Yankees thought much of his potential as a manager and gave him a spot as pilot of the team’s Class-A affiliate in Fort Lauderdale. He quickly worked his way up the system, became a coach back at the parent level under Billy Martin starting in 1977, and later that year was plucked away by Ted Turner to become manager of the Braves. Fired after the 1981 season, Cox quickly hooked on as manager at Toronto—guiding an improving team to 99 wins and an AL East title before losing, heartbreakingly, to Kansas City in the 1985 ALCS.

In 1986, Cox returned to the Braves to be closer to his family (who had remained in Atlanta) and to tend to unfinished business with a team that had fallen apart since his departure. Cox served as the Braves’ general manager until placing himself back in the managerial chair midway through 1990, believing he had accumulated enough aspiring talent—particularly within the pitching staff—to lead them directly. That intuition paid off in spades when Cox led the Braves to a worst-to-first finish in 1991 and their first NL pennant since 1958. From there, Cox oversaw a consistently strong team that made 14 straight postseason appearances (the cancelled-in-progress 1994 campaign excluded), winning his lone world title in 1995—ending up as bridesmaids in four other World Series and four NLCSs. Along the way, he was ejected a record 164 times—leading the league in 13 seasons, peaking with 11 ejections in 2001.

The Giants, seeking to ramp up their hitting, trade two-time Gold Glove catcher Patrick Bailey to the Guardians in exchange for minor league pitcher Matt Wilkinson and a Round A pick in the upcoming amateur draft. Trading Bailey, who’s never hit well and is particularly struggling (.146) this season, opens the door for two younger, better hitting catchers (rookies Daniel Susac and Jesus Rodriguez) on the Giants roster. And although Bailey is considered a terrific pitch framer, that talent in general has lost some of its importance with the emergence of the ABS system.

Ernie Clement leads the way for the Toronto Blue Jays, piling up five hits including a home run in a 14-1 drubbing of the visiting Angels. It’s Clement’s second career five-hit game, and only the second by any major leaguer so far in a season that is already almost one-quarter done. By comparison, there were 19 five-hit games last season, 18 in 2024…and 32 in 2023.

The Minnesota Twins defeat the Guardians at Cleveland in 11 innings, 2-1, on the strength of two hits, both by Byron Buxton: a leadoff home run in the first, and the eventual game-winning double in the 11th. In between, the Twins go 0-for-28, but Twins starter Joe Ryan—back on the mound after experiencing elbow soreness in his last start six days earlier—and six relievers combine to also hold the Guardians to two hits. It’s is the first time that a game has gone 11 or more innings with both teams combining for four or fewer hits.

Every once in a while, you hear about a young kid somewhere who’s simply too good to be true. That brings us to Brody Bumila. The 6’9” left-hander from Bishop Feehan High School in Massachusetts faces 21 batters—and strikes out 20 of them, retiring the other for a seven-inning perfect game. Early through this prep season, Bumila has struck out 69 batters over 27 innings. Bumila was ranked as the upcoming amateur draft’s #22 prospect, but this indestructible effort may shoot him closer to the top of the list.

Sunday, May 10

Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson enhances his ironman image by breaking into the all-time top 10 list of consecutive game streaks. In the Braves’ 7-2 win over the Dodgers at Los Angeles, Olson plays in his 823rd straight game, surpassing Gus Suhr (1931-37). The potential wear and tear of everyday play doesn’t seem to be affecting Olson. Against the Dodgers, he homers in the ninth inning, the seventh time he’s gone deep over his last 16 games—a stretch in which he’s batting .361.

If Olson plays in the Braves’ remaining 121 games this season, he’ll also surpass Eddie Yost (829, 1949-55) and Stan Musial (895, 1952-57) and move into eighth place on the list; his next target, late in 2027—assuming no work stoppage—would be #7 Joe Sewell, who played 1,103 straight games from 1922-30. 

Monday, May 11

The Rays continue their recent rampage, winning their 15th game over their last 17 tries with an 8-5 victory at Toronto. The result increases Tampa Bay’s lead in the AL East over the Yankees (3-2 losers at Baltimore) to two games. Taking the loss for the Blue Jays is Kevin Gausman, who is shelled for seven runs (six earned) over 4.2 innings—but, on the bright side, he reaches a milestone with his 2,000th career strikeout, joining four other active major leaguers (Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Chris Sale and Gerrit Cole).

There are five other pitchers who are within striking distance of reaching 2,000 this year: Sonny Gray (1,940), Aaron Nola (1,920), Jacob deGrom (1,908), Patrick Corbin (1,881) and Zack Wheeler (1,838).

Tuesday, May 12

All is well again in Paul Skenes’ immortal universe. For the second straight game, the young Pittsburgh ace throws eight shutout innings allowing two hits and no walks, retiring the first 18 Rockies he faces—the first six of those by strikeout—and registering 10 K’s overall in a 3-1 home win. Skenes has struck out 40 batters over his last five-plus starts without issuing a walk, establishing a modern Pirates record.

For all of Skenes’ magnificence, Bailey Ober has the best pitching performance of the night. Against the Marlins at Minneapolis, the 30-year-old right-hander throws 89 pitches in securing his first career shutout (and third complete game), allowing two hits and no walks in the Twins’ 3-0 victory. It’s the fewest number of deliveries thrown by a Twins pitcher while throwing a shutout since Bill Krueger in 1992.

The Mariners get a grand slam from Dominic Canzone, a big four-hit display from Randy Arozarena, and even two hits from the badly struggling Cal Raleigh in a 10-2 stomping of the Astros in Houston. Raleigh’s knocks, singles in his last two ups, break a string of 38 straight at-bats and 43 plate appearances without a hit. To further wash away his long slump, which was four at-bats shy of a Seattle team record, Raleigh showers before the game—in full uniform.

Kyle Schwarber is having another one of his unstoppable rampages. The Phillies’ slugger, whos’ been prone to rack up his home runs in bunches over the years, goes deep for a fifth straight game to tie a franchise mark. Schwarber’s solo homer in the first, followed an inning later by an RBI ground-rule double from Bryson Stott, is all Zack Wheeler (one run allowed through 7.1 innings) will need to neuter the opposing Red Sox in Boston, 2-1.

Of Wheeler’s 87 pitches, only 16 are thrown within the first three innings; that’s the fewest tosses thrown by a starting pitcher through his first three frames this century.

The Mets, who enter the day with the majors’ worst record at 15-25—on pace for 100 losses—get a big boost from newly-arrived outfielding prospect A.J. Ewing. In his first major league game, the speedy 21-year old— with 101 steals over 251 career minor league games—reaches bases four times on a triple and three weeks, pilfering a base to boot in the Mets’ 10-2 drubbing of the visiting Tigers. Ewing is the 13th player since 1900 to have both a triple and steal in his first major league game, and the first since the Tigers’ Travis Demeritte in 2019.

Wednesday, May 13

The Yankees get no runs—and almost no hits—at Baltimore, and may have no Max Fried for a while. In a 7-0 loss at Baltimore, Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s fifth-inning double off of Orioles starter Kyle Bradish is New York’s only hit of the game, while Fried makes a beeline to the clubhouse after allowing three runs in three innings with was is believed to be a hyperextended elbow. Tests are to be performed today to determine the extent of the injury—and the extent of the Yankee ace’s potential absence.

The one-hit shutout for the Orioles, courtesy of Bradish (six innings) and three relievers each pitching a hitless inning, is their first blanking of the year. They’re one of two teams—the Twins being the other—who have yet to be shut out in 2026.

Shohei Ohtani makes it look easy again on the mound—though to be fair, it’s actually easy for almost any pitcher when facing the punchless Giants. In a 4-0 win at Los Angeles, the Dodgers’ two-way star tosses seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and two walks with eight strikeouts to lower his season ERA to 0.82—the second-lowest figure by a Dodgers pitcher after the first seven starts of a season, following Fernando Valenzuela’s incomparable 1981 start (0.29).

In five career starts against San Francisco, Ohtani has authored a 0.32 ERA—the lowest by any pitcher against the Giants through the first five starts of one’s career. 

It’s the eighth time this year that the Giants have been shut out. No other team has been blanked more than five times.

So many things are happening in threes for the Padres’ Gavin Sheets. At Milwaukee, the 30-year-old first baseman punches out a three-run homer in the top of the ninth to erase a 1-0 Brewers lead; Mason Miller takes it from there, closing out the Brewers in the bottom half of the frame for his MLB-leading 13th save and a 3-1 San Diego win. Sheets’ three-run, go-ahead blast is already his third in the ninth inning or later this season; no other batter had previously done that more than twice in a full season.

MLB players seem to have a pretty good understanding of the rules regarding the new ABS challenge system; now, if the umpires would just follow suit. At New York, the Mets are trailing Detroit in the sixth inning, 2-1, when Brett Baty takes a Framber Valdez pitch at the knees for a called strike. Baty briefly motions with his right arm held upward toward home plate umpire Junior Valentine, who believes he’s calling for a challenge on the pitch. But Baty challenges the challenge, saying he didn’t do the required double-tap on top of his helmet (let alone even reach for his helmet) and wasn’t asking for one. Valentine ignores him and calls for the review—which confirms the strike. Baty ends up striking out, and the Mets are out of challenges for the rest of the game—but manage to come back and overcome the Tigers in 10 innings, 3-2.

Growing pains are expected with the new ABS process—we’re actually surprised that there has yet to be an instance of an umpire mistaking a player’s adjusting his helmet as a double-tap signal for a challenge—but Valentine’s misinterpretation looks pretty bad.

Unassisted double plays by an outfielder were a more common thing back in the deadball era; Tris Speaker had six alone throughout his Hall-of-Fame career. So, it’s something of a big deal when someone in this day and age completes the solo double from the outfield. It happens in Pittsburgh, where Colorado’s Jake McCarthy quickly ends the first inning by snaring a liner from the Pirates’ Kevin Reynolds in left field, then with his momentum jogs to second base and doubles up Oneil Cruz, who was running on contact. McCarthy will also contribute at the plate with an RBI double during the Rockies’ six-run fifth—the big rally in a 10-4 win. The unassisted double play by McCarthy is the first ever accomplished by a Rockies outfielder, and the first by any major leaguer since Boston’ Jonny Gomes in 2013.

Minnesota slugger Josh Bell steals his first base since 2018, a span of 969 games which, according to baseball-reference.com, is the third longest by a major leaguer position player—trailing Cecil Fielder (1,078) and Tony Clark (973 games). Bell’s theft, the fifth of his 11-year career, isn’t enough as the Twins suffer a 9-5 loss to the visiting Marlins.

Thursday, May 14

Under the file of “stop us if you’ve heard this one before,” the Tampa Bay Rays along with local area politicians announce a $2.3 billion Memorandum of Understanding to build a new ballpark in Tampa, walking distance from Steinbrenner Field (the Yankees’ spring home and temporary Rays ballpark from last season), and Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Buccaneers. The budgeted cost will include $967 million in tax dollars to be accessed from both the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County; both entities are scheduled to vote on the MOU next week.

Are the Mets finally snapping out of it? At New York against the Tigers, the Mets crank out five home runs—one short of their all-time high at Citi Field—including the first from A.J. Ewing, who’s impressed in his first major league series. The three-game sweep of Detroit is the first by the Mets since last August; in between those two sweeps, New York was 26-43.

Friday, May 15

We’re halfway through the month of May, and Kyle Schwarber already has 20 home runs. The Phillies slugger continues his power binge with a pair of two-run homers to help dig Philadelphia out of an early 6-0 deficit at Pittsburgh; his bases-loaded walk in the ninth is part of a three-run rally to tie the game, before the Phillies add three more in the 10th to pull away, 11-9.

No other major leaguer has hit 20 homers on an earlier date—though it should be noted that the 2026 regular season started a good three weeks earlier than it once used to. In terms of games played to start a season, only seven other players have hit 20 within their first 45 games, including one Philadelphia Phillie of lore: Cy Williams, in 1923. (Williams finished that season with 41.)

The Phillies’ win brings them to within a game of the .500 mark; they’re 13-4 since Don Mattingly took over as manager for the fired Rob Thomson on April 27.

At Colorado’s mile-high Coors Field, Arizona’s Merrill Kelly becomes the oldest player since 39-year-old Connie Marrero in 1950 to throw his first MLB complete game, going the distance on exactly 100 pitches in a 9-1 victory against the Rockies. The only run allowed by the 37-year-old Kelly comes when Hunter Goodman goes deep in the first inning. Kelly has achieved quality starts (at least six innings with no more than three runs allowed) in seven straight appearances at Coors, the longest streak at the ballpark by a visiting pitcher. Only Ian Kennedy has a lower career ERA among visitors at Coors in more innings than Kelly (3.68 over 63.2 frames).

Just hours before only his second start of the season, the Dodgers’ Blake Snell is scratched and later determined to have loose bodies in his elbow, which could result in surgery. It’s a similar injury to that of Detroit ace Tarik Skubal, who just 11 days after undergoing his own surgery is already doing light tosses with a baseball—so Snell’s absence may not as long as some might fear. Without Snell, the Dodgers go the bullpen route and use eight relievers to shut down the Angels, 6-0, in the year’s first meeting between the two Southland rivals. The Angels can only muster two singles and strike out 11 times against the Dodgers’ pen.

Houston pitcher Spencer Arrighetti takes a no-hitter into the eighth and loses the bid on a one-out single from Texas rookie Justin Foscue. The Astros remove Arrighetti after the hit, but he still gets the win, 2-0 over the Rangers. In six starts since rejoining the Astros from Triple-A on April 15, Arrighetti is 5-1 with a 1.50 ERA—not bad for a pitcher who in two previous seasons had accumulated an 8-18 record with a 4.69 ERA.

Milwaukee’s Aaron Ashby leads the majors with eight wins—each of them earned as a reliever. The left-handed pitcher enters in the sixth inning at Minnesota and gets three outs facing two batters, but gets slighted with a blown save because a double-play grounder yields the Twins’ tying run (charged to Brewers starter Coleman Crow). Ashby will concede a go-ahead run in the seventh, but the Brewers will bounce back with a pair of runs in the eighth, helping to cement a 3-2 win with Ashby as the pitcher of record.

This is the first time that a relief pitcher has two more wins than any starter, at any point of a season. Ashby’s eight wins already represent a career high; his previous personal best was five, from last season.

Saturday, May 16

A masterful gem by Cristopher Sanchez at Pittsburgh helps the Phillies win their 14th game in the last 17 tries, returning to the .500 mark in a 6-0 victory over the Pirates. Sanchez needs 108 pitches to collect his second career shutout and fourth complete game, scattering six hits; he strikes out 13 and walks none. Only Vince Velasquez, in 2014, struck out more batters (16) in a game for the Phillies without giving up a walk or run.

Filling in to manage the Phillies is Dusty Wathan, while Don Mattingly attends his son’s college graduation. Wathan officially becomes the fourth son of a father who also managed; John Wathan piloted the Royals and Angels from 1987-92.

It’s a taut 2-2 game between the Rays and Marlins after nine innings in St. Petersburg, but Miami gets the gift runner across in the 10th—followed by seven more runs. The eight-run outburst—with all tallies charged to Tampa Bay reliever Hunter Bigge—is more than enough for the Marlins, who win the game, 10-5. The loss for the Rays ends their 11-game winning streak at Tropicana Field, three shy of a franchise record.

The Dodgers enjoy an odd win, to say the least, with a 15-2 rout against the Angels in Anaheim. They get to Angels ace Jose Soriano for six runs on just one hit—plus six walks and a hit batsman—before he departs in the sixth. From there, the Dodgers add nine more runs over the final two innings, with all nine charged to Angels reliever Alex Manoah, apparently still a mess as he continues to try and rejuvenate a once-promising career. Shohei Ohtani features for the Dodgers with a two-run triple he himself scores on as Jo Adell’s throw to the infield goes untouched until it nearly reaches the third-base line; Ohtani will add a bases-clearing double to cap the scoring in the ninth.

Ohtani’s triple-turned-little league home run is debated on social media, because the ball hops above the retaining wall in foul territory and bounces off the netting, back into play. The Angels argue that it should be a ground-rule double, but as a wild pitch can deflect off netting and still be a live ball, so can it with the netting down the line.

The Angels have lost five straight and 20 of their last 25 games, their worst stretch over such a span since 2001.

Sunday, May 17

Not even Paul Skenes can stop the rebounding Phillies. The Pirates ace looks dominant through the first four innings at home against Philadelphia, extending his streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 20, but he begins to fold in the fifth—allowing two runs, followed by three more an inning later before being removed. Meanwhile, Zack Wheeler coasts through seven shutout innings for the Phillies, allowing four hits while striking out eight to lower his season ERA to 1.99. The Phillies have won 15 of their last 19 games, and are above the .500 mark at 23-22 just three weeks after being 10 games below water (at 9-19).

Before falling apart, Skenes had struck out 45 batters without a walk—a modern Pirates franchise record.

Down three runs and with no outs to spare against the visiting Yankees, the Mets finally conjure up some long-overdue ninth-inning magic as Tyrone Taylor smacks a game-tying home run. An inning later, gift runner Marcus Semien nets the game-winner for the Mets after being bunted over to third and scoring on Carson Benge’s grounder. The 7-6, 10-inning win is the first by the Mets when trailing after eight innings since their penultimate regular season game of the 2024 season—a span of 93 losses. (They also came from behind in the ninth to eliminate the Brewers shortly afterward in the Wild Card Series.)

The Cleveland Guardians muscle up for six home runs—their most in seven years, and one shy of their all-time high at Progressive Field—and defeat the visiting Reds, 10-3. Kyle Manzardo, entering the day with just two homers on the season after hitting 27 last year, doubles his 2026 total with a pair of dingers.

Monday, May 18

J.T. Ginn has a no-hitter through eight innings and, more importantly, has a chance to finish it with a win after the A’s give him a 1-0 lead in the top of the ninth on Lawrence Butler’s pinch-hit, RBI single against the Angels at Anaheim. But Ginn gives up a single to Adam Frazier to start his ninth, ruining the no-hit bid—and then Zach Neto ruins both the shutout and win by drilling a two-run homer to center, giving the Angels a 2-1 victory to end their six-game skid. The come-from-behind win preserves the Angels’ streak of regular season games without being no-hit, which extends to 4,179; that’s the majors’ longest active streak.

For only the seventh time ever in big-league baseball history, a team scores 10 runs in an extra inning. That team is the Mets, who like the Phillies before them are looking to be turning things around after a miserable start. At Washington, the Mets and Nationals each notch a run in the 11th, before the Mets explode for 10 in the 12th. It’s a 13-batter rally that starts small with a sacrifice bunt, two infield hits and a bunch of singles off D.C. reliever Paxton Schultz, before a pair of doubles off third baseman/batting practice pitcher Jose Vivas caps the scoring. It’s the first time since 1919 that a NL team has scored 10 times in a single extra inning; the record remains 12, notched by Texas in the 15th of a 1983 game against the A’s.

The Cubs see an end to their 15-game win streak at Wrigley Field—their second longest at the fabled ballpark—dropping a 9-3 decision to divisional rival Milwaukee, which closes to within a half-game of Chicago for the NL Central lead. The Brewers pile up early on Cubs starter Shota Imanaga, who allows eight runs on nine hits—including home runs from Christian Yelich and Jake Bauers—over just 4.1 innings.

Colt Emerson, in his second game at the big-league level after earlier being given an eight-year, $95 million contract by Seattle, launches a three-run homer in the eighth that caps the scoring for the Mariners in a 6-1 victory over the visiting White Sox. Emerson was stationed at Triple-A Tacoma, batting .255 with seven homers, 26 RBIs and 10 steals over 38 games, before being called up the freeway to Seattle; at 20 years and 302 days, Emerson is the youngest Mariner to go deep since Jose Lopez in 2004.

Tuesday, May 19

James Wood hits the majors’ first inside-the-park grand slam since 2022—and the first by a member of the Nationals since Michael A. Taylor in 2017—the launching point for Washington in its comeback 9-6 victory over the visiting Mets. The slam by Wood—the first of his career—occurs after the Mets are spotted a 5-0 lead in the second inning; the Nationals will score five more times through the fourth inning to take a 9-5 lead, holding the Mets down the rest of the way.

Wednesday, May 20

Shohei Ohtani is back to showing off his two-way powers in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win at San Diego. He leads off the game with a first-pitch home run, his eighth round-tripper of the year, against the Padres’ Randy Vasquez. Later on the mound, Ohtani throws five more scoreless innings to lower his season ERA to 0.73 over 49 innings—one inning less than needed to qualify for the league lead—while extending a streak of consecutive scoreless frames to 16.2. With the win, the Dodgers take the year’s first series between the two NL West rivals and depart San Diego with a 1.5-game lead in the division.

A bad week for Pete Crow-Armstrong gets worse. It all began with him ultimately getting fined for profanely barking back at a heckling female fan behind the fence at Chicago’s Rate Field; then, a couple of days later at Wrigley Field, he drops a routine fly ball against the Brewers. In the series finale against Milwaukee, Crow-Armstrong—or “PCA,” as often used by the character-challenged social media crowd—charges a base hit by David Hamilton, but the ball ends up going under his glove and continues all the way to the center-field fence. The speedy Hamilton rounds the bases, following two others scoring in front of him. Crow-Armstong’s gaffe accounts for two of the three unearned runs allowed by the Cubs in a 5-0 defeat, securing a three-game sweep by the Brewers. After rampaging early in the month, the Cubs have dropped five straight games and have fallen into a second-place tie with St. Louis, a game and a half back of the Brewers.

Loose bodies in the elbow seems to be the current injury de jour within MLB. Numerous star pitchers, from Tarik Skubal to Blake Snell, have been affected—but both appear to be on their way to avoiding long-term absences. The same cannot be said for Toronto’s Jose Berrios, whose condition in the elbow is so bad that he’ll undergo Tommy John surgery; he is not expected to return until midway through the 2027 season—assuming that there will be one. The soon-to-be 32-year-old Berrios hasn’t pitched since last September; over 10 seasons, the right-hander has accumulated a 108-82 record.

Thursday, May 21

Last season, the Guardians were 11 games behind the Tigers on September 4 and, just three-plus walks later, caught up and passed Detroit to win the AL Central. If the Tigers are to get even and pull off the same comeback sprint this year, they’re putting themselves in a perfect position to do it. At home against Cleveland, the Tigers drop a 3-1 decision, are swept in four games by the Guardians, and run their losing streak to six games—part of an extended slide in which they’ve won only two of their last 16. They’ve fallen into last place in the AL Central, 9.5 games back of the first-place Guardians—who, conversely, have won six straight contests.

Friday, May 22

They don’t make pitchers like they used to, and here’s why: Both starters in the Cleveland-Philadelphia game—the Guardians’ Gavin Williams and Phillies’ Cristopher Sanchez—each throw eight absolutely sharp shutout innings on less than 100 pitches, and are then both removed for the ninth inning despite showing no signs of fatigue. Sanchez, who extends his streak of consecutive scoreless innings thrown to 37.1—the second longest in Phillies history, behind Pete Alexander’s 41.2 in 1911—helplessly watches as Jhoan Duran, his replacement, gives up hits to the first two batters he faces. The second is a pinch-hit home run from Kyle Manzado, breaking the ice and giving the Guardians a 1-0 lead. (Jose Ramirez, who notched the first hit down the right-field line, was thrown trying to extend a single into a double.) After striking out 11 batters with no walks through his eight scoreless innings, Williams is also given the bench in the ninth—but closer Cade Smith does his job, quickly dispensing of the Phillies in order to secure the win, the seventh straight for Cleveland.

As mentioned, neither pitcher reached 100; Sanchez was removed at 96 throws, Williams at 99. Since pitch tracking became an official thing back in 2008, there have been 747 instances of a starting pitcher throwing 120 or more pitches in a game—with only two taking place in the last two-plus seasons. One of those was by Williams, who racked up 126 pitches while trying (and failing) to secure a no-hitter last August against the Mets. 

Some on social media are calling the Williams-Sanchez duel one of the greatest ever. But to be honest, it probably doesn’t sniff the top 100—or maybe even the top 1,000. We get that baseball is obviously different these days with health sensitivities, financial responsibilities and analytic calculations of far greater importance than in generations past. But this was a duel between two pitchers humming along, one that cried out for a chance to see them continue to the finish.

Fully recovered from Tommy John surgery, Gerrit Cole makes his first appearance for the Yankees since the 2024 World Series and looks just as good as ever. The 35-year-old ace eases through six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and three walks with two strikeouts on just 72 pitches before being given the rest of the night off. But the Yankee bullpen collapses in the eighth, as Tim Hill gives up all four runs which the opposing Rays will need to take a 4-2 road win.

Yankees mega-boomer Aaron Judge can’t be totally faulted for New York dropping 5.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East, but his recent lack of star production certainly hasn’t helped. Judge has just one hit over his last 26 at-bats—dropping his season average to .245—and has gone a career-worst 11 straight games without a single RBI.

The Giants hold the visiting White Sox scoreless and hitless for eight innings. But it’s what happens in the other inning—the fourth—that dooms them. Chicago piles up all nine of their runs, and all five of their hits, in inflicting all of its damage in an eventual 9-4 victory. The White Sox’ rally also includes a walk, three hit batters and a San Francisco error.

No other team has scored as many runs in a nine-inning game with all of their runs and hits produced in just one inning. The Blue Jays did rack up all 11 of their runs and hits each in the seventh inning of the second game of a 2021 doubleheader, but that was a nightcap limited to seven innings per MLB’s then-post-COVID restrictions.

Saturday, May 23

There’s much to unpack—much of it positive—for the Dodgers in their 11-3 win at Milwaukee. The victory ends a skid of nine straight regular season losses to the Brewers (conveniently omitting their four-game sweep of Milwaukee in last year’s NLCS); Teoscar Hernandez ties a career high with six RBIs on a pair of run-scoring singles and a three-run homer; and the L.A. bullpen yields no runs in four innings of work after Roki Sasaki’s okay start, extending a much longer streak of consecutive scoreless frames to a franchise-record 36.

The Dodgers’ bullpen will extend its streak to 38 innings before it ends on May 25.

Paul Skenes is in a rut—by his standards, anyway. For the first time in his career, Skenes allows four or more runs in successive starts, getting charged with four runs over five tiring innings at Toronto after surrendering five in his previous outing against the Phillies. The winning pitcher for the Blue Jays in their 5-2 decision is Patrick Corbin, the veteran hurler who’s taken more than his share of hitting abuse from opponents over the years; he throws a season-high six innings, allowing just a run on five hits and no walks with seven strikeouts.

Memo to the Guardians and Phillies, who the day before refused to let aces Gavin Williams and Cristopher Sanchez pitch into the ninth: This is how you do it. In Kansas City, the Royals’ Stephen Kolek tosses 96 pitches against the Mariners through eight innings—but unlike Williams and Sanchez, he’s given the keys to the ninth. The Royals stick with him, even after Kolek needs eight pitches to dispense of leadoff Seattle batter Colt Emerson. He’ll retire the next two batters in much quicker fashion, achieving a 5-0 shutout win on 108 pitches. This is Kolek’s second shutout in 23 career starts; since 2010, only two other major leaguers (Chris Archer and Mike Montgomery) have thrown a pair of shutouts within their first 23 starts.

It’s better late than never for Bryan Torres, who takes advantage of his first taste at the big-league level after spending 11 years stuck in the minors. In the first game of a weather-created doubleheader at Cincinnati, the 28-year-old outfielder has two hits for the Cardinals, including a ninth-inning home run to cap the scoring in an 8-1 win; he’ll be rewarded with a start in the second game, collecting a single and walk in a 7-6, 11-inning loss. Back in the clubhouse at the end of the day, Torres fights back tears as he recounts the long and winding road to the majors, which bottomed out from 2022-23 playing for the independent Milwaukee Milkmen. “At some point, my brother, when I was going to my second year in indy ball, he said, ‘Hey, don’t try to do the same as last year’,” Torres said. “And I told him, ‘I’m gonna do not the same. I’m gonna do better.’ Those were my words. I will never forget that.”

Sunday, May 24

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 5-3 comeback 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.

Monday, May 25

Tatsuya Imai, first-year pitcher struggling to adjust to American culture and American baseball. Steven Okert, journeyman reliever. Alimber Santa, 23-year-old reliever making his major league debut. It’s hard to believe, but these three pitchers group up to pitch the first no-hitter seen in the majors since 2024. At Arlington against the Rangers, Imai pitches the first six innings for the Astros, walking four but allowing no hits. Okert follows up with a hitless seventh. Santa, just called up from Triple-A Sugar Land, retires all six batters he faces to finish off the 9-0 no-no.

This is the fourth combo no-hitter in Houston franchise history—or the fifth, if you count 2022 World Series Game Four. No other MLB team has had more than two such games. 

Santa is the second player to be part of a no-hitter in his big-league debut; the first was Bumpus Jones, all by his lonesome way back in 1892.

In what’s turning out to be a stellar year for starting pitching—at the season’s one-third mark, seven hurlers have ERAs under 2.00—the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski is certainly starting to stand out from the pack. At Milwaukee against the Cardinals, the tall 24-year-old right-hander throws an astonishing 57 of his 96 pitches at or over 100 MPH—easily the most ever recorded since pitches began being officially tracked in 2008—is the first to surpass 100 K’s this season, and takes a no-hitter into the sixth. That’s when Misiorowski will give up his first hit to Pedro Pages; later in that inning, he’ll surrender his lone run on the day, ending a streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 29.2—the third longest in Brewers franchise history. Misiorowski will finish the day allowing the one run on two hits through seven, striking out 12; his record improves to 5-2 with a 1.83 ERA as the Brewers ease to a 5-1 victory.

It’s a quiet first nine innings—and then a quiet 10th, as the Rays and Orioles struggle for offense and a victory in a 2-2 game. But then the floodgates open, with both teams combining for 12 runs over the next three innings. Each team scores twice in the 11th and once in the 12th; after the Rays take a 7-5 lead in the 13th, the Orioles respond with four runs—the final two on yet another walkoff home run from Colton Cowser to win the game, 9-7.

It’s the second straight day that Cowser has belted a game-winning homer, but not the second straight game; in between, there was the second game of a doubleheader between the Orioles and Tigers.

Wander Franco’s legal journey of the past three years appears to have finally come to an end. The one-time All-Star shortstop, handed an 11-year, $182 million contract by the Rays in 2021, is found to be “criminally responsible” for sexual and psychological abuse of a minor in his native Dominican Republic—but he will not serve any prison time. According to the presiding judge, Franco is set free as he was a victim of extortion and blackmail by the mother of the 14-year-old girl whom Franco engaged with. The mother has already been sentenced to 10 years for sexually trafficking her daughter.

The question now becomes: Will Franco, his name rightfully tarnished, be re-admitted back to the Rays by MLB, let alone the United States by the immigrant-adverse Trump administration? In a public statement, the Rays all but defer to the ongoing investigation by MLB—which it says will conclude “at the appropriate time.” Given the facts in the case, don’t bet the house on Franco’s return to the majors. (There is a place on the field for Franco should MLB deny him, and that place is the Mexican Baseball League.)

Tuesday, May 26

Within the first 55 games of their season, the Chicago Cubs have had two 10-game winning streaks. Now, they also have a streak of 10 straight losses. The Cubs’ riches-to-rags circumstance reaches double-digit standing with a bludgeon, being handed a 12-1 whipping by the Pirates at Pittsburgh. Jordan Wicks, making his first start this season for the Cubs after beginning the year at Triple-A, is lit up for five first-inning runs, and eight before departing midway through the fifth.

No team in major league history has experienced multiple 10-game win streaks and at least one 10-game skid in the same season—let alone the first third of a single campaign. 

During their slide, the Cubs have been outscored 65-25, are batting .179 and have a staff ERA of 6.18.

A day after being no-hit by Houston, the Rangers quickly make up for lost offense, piling up eight runs on five hits in the first inning alone against the visiting Astros, on their way to a 10-7 victory. Two walks and a hit batsman from Astros starter Jason Alexander helps fuel the Rangers’ initial rally, capped by Joc Pederson’s three-run homer. The eight runs are the most scored by the Rangers in the first inning since 2012, and they’re the second most by a team coming off a no-hit loss. In 1905, the White Sox scored nine to start a 15-1 win in the nightcap of a doubleheader, after being no-hit by Boston’s Bill Dinneen in the first game.

Nick Kurtz is kept off the basepaths for the first time in 48 games, failing to reach in either of his four at-bats as the A’s suffer a 4-1 home loss to Seattle. The streak ends with Kurtz tied for the all-time franchise mark within a season, matching Mark McGwire—who reached safely in each of his last 48 games in 1995; McGwire still owns the A’s record over multiple seasons, as he extended his streak to 61 to start the 1996 season.

During his 48-game streak, Kurtz batted .308 with 11 doubles, a triple, eight homers, 37 RBIs, and 48 walks; he was held hitless in 13 of those games.

With the loss, the A’s drop below .500 to 27-28—but still lead the AL West by a half-game over the Mariners. Ironically, the NL Central’s two last-place teams—the aforementioned Cubs and Pirates—would share first place in the West by two games.

The Yankees accomplish something none of their almighty predecessors of lore could not. In a 15-1 smacking of the Royals in Kansas City, every member of the Yankees’ starting lineup has at least two hits, with the team in total collecting 21; six of those are home runs, tying a one-game record by a team at Kauffman Stadium. Amed Rosario leads the way for New York with four hits including a pair of homers.

Nine other teams have hit six homers in a game at 53-year old Kauffman Stadium. None of them were the Royals.

The 21 hits by the Yankees are the most known to be given up in the post-1900 modern era by any major league team based in Kansas City (not including the Negro League Monarchs, owing to a lack of data) in a home game. That includes not only the Royals, but also the A’s (1955-67) and the Federal League’s Packers (1914-15).

Recently released by the Mets, veteran closer/reliever Craig Kimbrel finds yet another new home with the Tampa Bay Rays, and gets quickly inserted into the action, pitching a scoreless eighth in a 6-1 loss at Baltimore. The Rays are the 11th team for Kimbrel—and the ninth over just the past five-plus seasons.

Bob Horner, the burly slugger with curly blonde locks drafted by Atlanta in the first round of the 1978 amateur draft and immediately inserted into the Braves’ starting lineup without any minor-league seasoning—blasting 23 homers over 89 games to win NL Rookie of the Year honors—passes away at the age of 68.

Over a 10-year career in which he amassed 218 homers, four of them in a single game in 1986—a game which, ironically, the Braves lost—Horner never played a single game in the minors. Injuries and weight issues did take their toll on his playing longevity; salary-depressed collusion also didn’t help, as Horner fled to Japan after 1986 after being offered little to nothing by MLB owners during the offseason. In 1988, he returned to America and played one more season with the Cardinals, collecting just three homers in 60 games before retiring at age 30.

Wednesday, May 27

We’re a long way—six months and change, to be exact—from the expiration date of baseball’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement between owners and players, but the players’ union goes ahead and delivers its first proposal to management. It calls for a “competitive integrity” tax on teams with payrolls under $150 million—a salary floor of sorts—a raising of the competitive balance tax threshold from $244 million to $300 million, a doubling of the minimum salary to $1.5 million with annual increases up to $2.2 million by 2031, and increased sharing of local broadcast revenue while reducing ballpark-related revenue sharing. That lost suggestion is something the union believes would incentivize teams to bring more fans through the turnstiles. The union’s proposal, basically a wish list, is rejected by MLB. “We understand their proposals are designed to benefit players,” said league spokesman Glen Caplin. “Unfortunately, they do not address and in fact exacerbate the competitive balance problem our fans are telling us we must address.”

Let the public negotiations begin. Oh, what fun that always is.

The Phillies’ Cristopher Sanchez extends his streak of consecutive scoreless innings into record territory, shutting down the Padres through seven innings in a 3-0 win at San Diego to break Pete Alexander’s 1911 team mark of 41.2 straight scoreless frames. Sanchez’s current run of 44.2 innings is now the seventh longest in major league history.

In his last five games, Sanchez has thrown at least seven innings with no runs allowed—one short of the all-time record co-held by Orel Hershiser (1988) and Don Drysdale (1968), both during their record scoreless inning streaks that respectively rank 1-2 on the list of the longest.

Cubs win! Cubs win! A 10-game skid for Chicago is now past tense as the Cubs roll up a 10-4 victory at Pittsburgh. A six-run seventh, highlighted by a three-run homer from Ian Happ (who overall knocks in five runs) breaks a 4-4 tie and helps to firmly put the Cubs firmly back in the win column.

It’s not a great start for White Sox pitcher David Sandlin in his major league debut. His first pitch, initially called a strike, is successfully challenged by the Twins’ Byron Buxton and reclassified as a ball. Sandlin’s second pitch is then hammered 417 feet by Buxton for a leadoff home run. From there, Sandlin settles down—to say the least. He retires the next 18 batters before being given the rest of the night off with just 61 pitches through six innings, picking up the win as the White Sox run away with a 15-2 home romp. Offensively, Chicago is buoyed by Munetaka Murakami’s 20th homer, technically making him the first MLB rookie to reach the mark before the end of May.

A more well-known pitcher compiles six no-hit—but not scoreless—innings. In Los Angeles, Shohei Ohtani gives up a run on no hits through six hitless frames, but does concede a run in the fourth to the opposing Rockies on a walk, hit batter and two well-placed ground outs which brings home the lead runner. Ohtani fuels his own cause at the plate with a leadoff homer in the first as the Dodgers take a 4-1 victory over the Rockies, who muster up just one hit—an eighth-inning Tyler Freeman single off Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott.

The early reports of the Rockies’ return to credibility appear to have been proven premature. After starting the season at a respectable 6-6, the Rockies have gone 14-31; at 20-37, they’re still baseball’s worst team.

Ohtani’s no-hit bid isn’t even the longest of the night. Former Dodgers and current St. Louis pitcher Dustin May takes a hitless start into the eighth at Milwaukee, when he gives up a double and bunt single to the first two Brewers batters. At 87 pitches, May is promptly removed—and Jojo Romero, his replacement, can’t hold the fort as the Brewers take a 2-1 lead later in the inning on a Christian Yelich RBI single, followed by a Masyn Wynn error to bring home the go-ahead (and ultimate winning) run. The benefactor of the lead change on the Milwaukee side is reliever Aaron Ashby, who scoops up his ninth win of the year (against no losses) to lead all major leaguers.

Is this the end of the road for Andrew McCutchen? The 39-year-old outfielder and former MVP made the Texas Rangers’ Opening Day roster after signing a minor league contract with the team this past offseason, but he hasn’t impressed enough since, batting .192 with one homer and a .537 OPS in 37 games. As such, the Rangers have designated him for assignment.

Thursday, May 28

A day after the players’ union presents its first proposal for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the owners present theirs—and it’s just as dissed by the other side. Not surprisingly, the owners’ proposal insists on a salary cap, to be initially set at $245.3 million—but they also set $171.2 million as a salary floor, which would be a first as presented by management. Additionally, owners call for a 50-50 split in revenue, and a centralized fund from local broadcast revenue that would be evenly doled out to the 30 MLB teams. Union head Bruce Meyer is not a fan of management’s offer. “Billionaire owners are not seeking to cap their profits or asset values, only player salaries,” he says in a statement. “It’s a play to control costs, increase profits and maximize franchise values—all at the expense of players, past, present and future.”

The good news out of all of this: There’s six months for both sides to close the gap and come to an agreement before the current pact expires—and MLB likely declares a lockout of the players. The bad news: Owners are laser-focused on establishing a salary cap, while the union is laser-focused against it. How hard-nosed both sides will be on holding the line will determine whether we have a lockout or not.

Friday, May 29

The White Sox’ marquee will have a dimmer look for roughly the next month as first-year breakout slugger Munetaka Murakami injures his hamstring running out a ground ball in Chicago’s 4-3, 10-inning win over the visiting Tigers. The 26-year-old Japanese native has generated a great deal of buzz throughout baseball with an AL-leading 20 homers and 43 runs; he’s also on pace for over 100 walks and 200 strikeouts—or at least he was until pulling the hammy.

The White Sox’ win, secured on Miguel Vargas’ two-run, two-out homer in overtime, is one of four games decided by a multi-run, walkoff round-tripper—a major league first, according to STATS.

In Pittsburgh, Bryan Reynolds’ two-run shot is also a come-from-behind game-winner, elevating the Pirates past the Twins, 6-5. The game is also highlighted by the return of pitcher Jared Jones (4.1 innings, five runs allowed) after missing all of last year from elbow surgery, and Oneil Cruz’s 450-foot monster homer that’s the seventh to land on the fly in the Allegheny River beyond PNC Park.

In New York, MJ Melendez supplies the game-winning fireworks for the Mets with a two-run homer in the 10th to break away from the Marlins, 9-7.

And in Denver, Ezequiel Tovar launches his second homer of the game to cap a five-run, ninth-inning rally and defeat the Giants, 8-6. The comeback spoils the return from injury of San Francisco ace Logan Webb (one run allowed through 4.1 innings) and outfielder Jung Hoo Lee, who collects four hits and makes a pair of run-saving catches.

Saturday, May 30

It takes 57 games and 241 plate appearances going back to the end of last season, but the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. finally goes deep. His 451-foot home run against the Nationals, the longest hit by any Padres player this season, has got to feel good for the slugger who once belted a league-leading 42 homers—before testing positive for PEDs. Alas for Tatis and the Padres, his first round-tripper of 2026 isn’t enough as they suffer a 9-4 defeat at Washington.

Tatis’ blast leaves Tampa Bay’s Chandler Simpson as the only player with more at-bats but no homers this year.

The Athletics survive several odd moments in defeating the visiting Yankees at Sacramento, 6-4. In the fourth inning, the A’s Tyler Soderstrom challenges a pitch that, clearly according to the broadcast, misses low and away despite being called a strike. But home plate umpire Adam Beck and the 12,361 in attendance don’t see the review of the location on the video board due to some sort of technical glitch; after more than a few seconds, Beck loses patience with the delay and announces that the pitch remains a strike as originally called. Soderstrom will ultimately overcome the errant glitch and draw a walk, part of a 3-for-3 day in which he also homers. The A’s take a comfortable 6-1 lead into the ninth, but the Yankees rally thanks to five walks—three of them on consecutive bases-loaded passes from Scott Barlow that reduces the A’s lead to two. But that’s as far as the Yankees get, and the A’s survive with a 6-4 victory.

Earning the victory for the A’s is J.T. Ginn, snapping a 13-game winless drought for A’s starters.

Sunday, May 31

The Yankees explode for 13 runs in the third inning—one shy of the all-time team record—and are silent for the remainder of the afternoon at Sacramento as they defeat the A’s, 13-8. The New York rally extends nearly two full turns through the lineup, lasting 17 batters—with eight singles, two doubles, a triple and four walks. Outside of the third, the Yankees do not score nor get a hit—breaking the record for the most runs/hits in one inning while otherwise going scoreless and hitless in a game lasting nine or more frames. The previous mark had been set just nine days earlier by the White Sox (nine runs, five hits in the fourth inning) at San Francisco.

This is the third time that a team scored 13 runs in a single inning but none in any other. 

Jacob Misiorowski finishes off a remarkable May with seven shutout innings, allowing three hits with eight strikeouts, in the Brewers’ 2-0 win at Houston. In six starts during the month, Misiorowski produces a 5-0 record with just one run allowed over 38.1 innings; his 57 strikeouts set a monthly Milwaukee franchise record, and his .101 slugging percentage against—only one of his 14 hits allowed goes for extra bases—establishes an all-time MLB mark for any month.

The Giants, entering the day dead last in the majors in runs scored, rack up an MLB season-high 19 on 25 hits, nine of them doubles—the latter two numbers also high-water marks for any team this year—in a 19-6 throttling of the Rockies at Denver. Jung Hoo Lee leads the hit parade with a career-high five, while Rafael Devers (three doubles) and Bryce Eldridge (two doubles and a home run) each add four.

The 25 hits are the most totaled by the Giants since 2020, when they knocked out 27—also in a game at Coors Field against the Rockies.