There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to handle themselves.
That’s why we’re here to help, though, by sifting through the previous days’ games, and figuring out what you missed, but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball:
Skubal [gasp] walked a batter, but it didn’t matter
Here’s a fun thing about Tigers’ ace and last year’s Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal: he’s very efficient. Ridiculously so! He actually hadn’t even walked a batter since May 20, going 23.1 innings in between free passes, but on Thursday he surrendered one. And then a second one later on! You would think this might have resulted in some chaos, but no. Skubal went seven innings on 98 pitches, 74 of them thrown for strikes, scattered three hits and those two other baserunners, and the Tigers defeated the Orioles, 4-1.
Skubal’s strong showing lowered his ERA to 1.99 – the one run Detroit allowed wasn’t his – which is all the more impressive for two reasons: his adjusted ERA numbers are just as good as that, and he’s also leading the American League in innings, at 90.1. He’s had plenty of opportunities to show he’s not quite this good, basically, but it turns out that he is. Skubal is also leading the AL in strikeouts after leading the majors a year ago, and his current ERA is 0.4 runs per nine lower than last year’s AL-leading, Cy Young-winning mark.
He’s not the only reason that the Tigers now find themselves 20 games over .500 on the season, with a record of 45-25, but it’s difficult to pinpoint someone who has contributed more to that cause. He is, after all, leading the majors in pitcher wins above replacement, just as he did a year ago, and it’s Detroit’s rotation that is their true strength. The lineup is good and all, but Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, and Reese Olson have made for a hell of a group to this point.
Misiorowski’s spotless debut interrupted
The Milwaukee Brewers called up their top pitching prospect, Jacob Misiorowski, to start Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals. And he did nothing to dispel the hype. The 6-foot-7 flamethrower, who is responsible for throwing a 103 mph pitch as a starter last month in the minors, threw over 100-mph on his first three pitches, and met or exceeded that mark 14 total times in his debut.
He did it with great command, too, as he hadn’t allowed a hit through his first five innings.
But then, while facing the first batter of the six inning, the Cardinals’ Victor Scott II, Misiorowski through an errant pitch well out of the zone and seemed shaky stepping off the mound. Trouble increased as he retreated to the mound and twisted his right ankle. It was a complete fluke, and seemingly not a major injury according to the Brewers themselves, but it spelled the end of his sublime first MLB start, at least.
The Rangers dropped 16 on the Twins, again
The Texas Rangers rank fourth-worst in MLB in runs scored this season, but on Thursday, they had one of their most potent offensive nights of the season to beat the the Minnesota Twins 16-3. Yes, they scored 16 runs against Minnesota, again, just like on Tuesday.
While the previous effort was the most team-wide one possible with every starter picking up at least one hit and most of them actually getting two – further emphasized by Texas hitting two homers accounting for just three of their runs – Thursday was different. This was a homer-centric beatdown, with the Rangers going yard six times against Twins’ pitching.
Josh Smith kicked things off in more ways than one with a home run to lead off the game. Jake Burger would hit his own solo shot in the second, while Wyatt Langford would hit a three-run blast the same inning. Evan Carter added another solo homer in the fifth, Adolis Garcia a three-run dinger in the eighth, and finally, pinch-hitter Sam Haggerty – the lone player with an at-bat in Tuesday’s game to not record a hit – went deep in the ninth for the Rangers’ third three-run long ball of the day.
The Rangers took two out of three from Minnesota, and outscored them 34-13 in the process. As a team, they’re hitting .331/.410/.620 with nine homers and 17 extra-base hits in 139 plate appearances at Target Field this season. Twins fans might want to know that the next time these two face each other, it will be in Arlington, and not until September.
This time the Rockies came back
The Colorado Rockies entered Thursday with a 12-55 record, in the unenviable position where every loss could set a new worst-through-that-many-games mark in MLB’s modern era. They were facing the San Francisco Giants for the fourth time this week, and trying to avoid a sweep.
The Rockies found themselves already trailing 7-2 in the fifth inning. They battled back, however, scoring three runs across the sixth and seventh, but eventually were down to their last out.
Trailing 7-6 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Orlando Arcia came through with a two-run single to score Thairo Estrada and Ryan McMahon. After blowing consecutive late-inning leads to the Giants in the previous two games, this time it was Colorado with the come-from-behind victory.
A tale of two defenses
Sometimes it’s good to give you the detailed rundown. And sometimes it’s enough to just see a couple of highlights sitting in opposition. This pair of plays from Thursday’s Yankees-Royals finale is in the latter camp. Here’s an impressive play from New York…
…and whatever this was from Kansas City.
Baseball is truly a land of contrasts. Yankees won the game (1-0) on that play, and the series (3-0).
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