As the 2024 MLB regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1: Series Preview: Yankees @ Orioles
The top two teams in a crowded AL East division are set to clash for the first time this season in a four-game set that starts tonight. The Orioles host the Yankees at Camden Yards starting at 6:35pm local time, when right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (4.45 ERA) will face fellow righty Clarke Schmidt (3.55 ERA). Dean Kremer (4.61 ERA) and Corbin Burnes (2.55 ERA) are set to take the mound opposite Nestor Cortes (3.50 ERA) and Luis Gil (4.01 ERA), respectively, over the next two days. The Orioles have yet to announce who will face lefty Carlos Rodon (2.48 ERA) in the series finale, but right-hander Kyle Bradish (2.83 ERA in 2023) will likely make his season debut that day.
Baltimore sits just one game back of New York entering play, but the Yankees that have been the hotter team of late. New York took two of three from the Brewers in Milwaukee this weekend, while the Orioles lost two of three to the A’s. In particular, the Yankees enjoyed scorching hot weekends from a trio of key sluggers who had struggled so far in 2024: Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Anthony Rizzo combined to go 16-for-41 with five homers, one of which was the 300th of Rizzo’s career. Will the Orioles pitching staff, which could be without closer Craig Kimbrel for the time being, be able to cool off the Bronx Bombers?
2. Yoshida exits game with injury:
Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida exited yesterday’s game against the Cubs after jamming his hand on a swing, as noted by MLB.com’s Injury Tracker. The club had not scheduled imaging on Yoshida’s hand after last night’s game, with Yoshida telling reporters via an interpreter that the current plan is to “just wait and see how it feels” today before determining next steps. If Yoshida were to be forced to take a seat for a few days by the injury, it would be an unfortunate turn of events as the 30-year-old had just begun to heat up after a slow start to the season with a .318/.375/.477 slash line in his last 13 games. Should Yoshida miss time, the club could turn to outfielder Rob Refsnyder or perhaps newly acquired first baseman Garrett Cooper to take the outfielder’s at-bats, which have primarily come as a DH this season.
3. Royals roster move incoming:
The Royals are off to a 17-12 start that has them just 2.5 games back of the Guardians for the AL Central lead. Kansas City’s rotation of Seth Lugo, Cole Ragans, Michael Wacha, Alec Marsh, and Brady Singer has combined for a 2.98 ERA that ranks third in the majors. With Marsh having been placed on the injured list last week, however, the club will need to turn to a new arm to take the ball against the Blue Jays in Toronto today.
Per Jaylon T. Thompson of the Kansas City Star, that fresh arm will be right-hander Jonathan Bowlan. Bowlan made his MLB debut last year and has just three innings of big league experience under his belt. He’s impressed this season with a 2.57 ERA and a 25% strikeout rate through four Triple-A starts and will look to continue that momentum in the majors opposite righty Yariel Rodriguez this evening. Bowlan is already on the 40-man roster, but the Royals will need to make an active roster move before tonight’s game to accommodate the addition of the righty.
The Yankees are cheaters. The dumpires blew the call on Error in Judgement’s deliberate hand up deflection. That was so freaking obvious, following in Aroids footsteps, cheater through and through. But, it’s their tradition. Cheaters.
Lol. Your team has cheated every year since it’s inception. No matter who
Yeah that deflection really made a difference in a 15-5 game. You don’t have to cry incessantly about the Yankees just because your team is a joke
The Yankees are only 3 games ahead of the Red Sox. Also, Judge’s interference definitely affected the game. The Brewers would have got out of the inning without the Yankees scoring and the game still tied at 4 – before the blowout. The umps admitted they missed it.
ftw.usatoday.com/lists/aaron-judge-blocks-throw-ha…
The Red Sox have looked better than expected to this point but the rotation is obviously over performing. Regression is going to hit them like a truck as the season goes on
Where’s Carl Winslow when you need him?
Carl Winslow is a national treasure.
Urkel? Not so much. Absolute jabroni.
That’s just baseball. They came in and beat the snot out of my Brewers. Tip your cap, they can mash. Bad calls happen, bad pitches get crushed.
This is why I like Brewers fans. They are almost always real and not overbearing.
LOLOL c’mon man, don’t be so bitter. Judge had his back to the play, there was no intentional interference.
Look at the picture in the article I posted above. Judge was facing 2nd base with his arm fully extended.
There is a strong correlation between being against Trevor Bauer and being and incel. The number one incel of all time(Elliot Rodger) would hate Trevor. He hated anyone that had sex with women
I’m gonna call you the hammer from now on because you nailed it.
falling all over yourself to defend Bauer, and make comments about those of us that don’t want him anywhere near our teams, says a lot more about you than it does about the supposed incels you are accusing.
That’s funny. Because in my experience, it’s the anti-Bauer crowd who abides by the argument strategy of “Only our opinion is right. If you disagree you’re not only wrong but also a terrible person.”
Or…you know people on both “sides” are trolling to illicit these types responses..
30 mlb teams that have heard both sides wont sign him for the league minimum i think that says more than “incels” or whatever. Incels would love Bauer btw, their whole thing is hating women its like u dont actually know what ur talking about
@machumizer Another degenerate who has no idea what “incel” means.
He’s defending Trevor because he actually has class. Learn from it.
Yeah if you watch Rodger’s final video Trevor Bauer is exactly the *type* of man he was ranting about.
I don’t really understand what you’re saying. But as a person with a scouting background I seek thr best information I can find. I have it on good authority from two people in the game that Bauer has much larger issues.
To put that in context. These two sources aren’t puritans. They’re regular baseball people who wouldn’t bat an eye at the regular jauntings of professional athletes. I’ve surmised that Bauer is believed to have some deep seated mental health issues involving women. He was fully open to being blackmailed for sure.
But I don’t know the guy. I don’t LIKE seeing anyone have issues. I’d prefer he be ok and being playing. We’d all be better off. But I’m a realist and I’ll trust my sources on him.
Source: Trust me bro!
Source: Not going to out current MLB employees to apes in captivity, or otherwise.
Sure, Jan.
You’re the easiest mute there’s ever been.
How will I sleep?
Still surprised that Oakland took 2 games in each series at NY and Baltimore recently.
We’re a month into the season and the A’s are 3rd in the West. Wouldn’t have guessed that at the outset. They’re not exactly good, but still.
That’s why they play the games.
Canuck – Exactly, any MLB team can beat any other MLB team on any given day. Oakland has been accumulating young talent for years with all their trades and top draft positions from all their losing, they were bound to become decent. Their closer Mason Miller could already be the best in the game, 25 strikeouts in just 12 innings!!
The bigger surprise over the weekend was the ChiSox sweeping the Rays, nobody saw that coming I’m sure.
The back-end of the A’s of OakSacLos pen make them more of a challenge this year, but they’re still not good. Just not horrible.
No one saw the ChiSox sweeping anything except bathroom floors. The Rays had actually been over achieving the past couple of years, now they’re looking like they should have.
Lord – Ya gotta walk before you can run, right? I can see the A’s winning 70 games this year and then .500 next season.
freak – I agree about the overachieving, but also you can’t lose a Glasnow and Franco without taking a big hit in your record. Even if they didn’t overachieve last year, they’d still have won at least 92 games.
They’re third simply because Houston and LA are terrible.
They still sit 12/15 in the AL, sport a .414, and outside of the White Sox, have the worst DIFF in the AL. (-43)
That’s like saying they’re third because they’re third.
Its not. It’s like saying a hundred dollars is a hundred bucks. While still technically the same, they’re completely different.
Ok, revised. That’s like saying they are third because they have won more games than the 4th and 5th place teams.
lol. Fair
cheese – Okay I’ll bite …. what’s the difference?
Please don’t mention deerskins. LOL!
More like the A’s beat Craig Kimbrel…the Orioles were winning in the ninth inning on Friday and Sunday. Orioles out played the A’s through the weekend…box scores tell you little about how it went down.
Would have been an Orioles sweep with Felix Bautista. So it goes.
The A’s won…no need for the mental gymnastics or excuses.
Take the Ls and move on. It’s April not October.
But it is true that Kimbrel blew it twice, the A’s were headed for losses both times until…
If that’s the case then Raul Ibanez beat the 2012 Orioles?
Hey, the Yankees win the 2001 World Series if Mo doesn’t blow and throw it into centerfield. So there’s that.
One guy can lose it for the other 25. Doesn’t mean the team with the W actually outplayed their opponent. Talk about take the L… in Sacramento! 🙂
Baseball is a team sport last time I checked….but don’t pull a muscle on that reach 🙂
Pretty sure when one guy is throwing the ball from the mound, there is only one opponent standing at the plate with a bat. Singular players matter.
What lead up to that point though? The score on the board is reflective of the lineup/pitching staff. If a closer is in during a tight game maybe it’s because the team didn’t score enough runs? Or just maybe the starting pitcher wasn’t able to go past the 4th inning and had to rely on the bullpen? This is common sense if you actually watch baseball or have played the game.
The guy drove me insane when he was in LA. Every outing was like he was more than halfway through a game of Jenga and halfway through a fifth of JD. Even his clean innings were enough to give you a heart condition.
The lineup is not full of Major leaguers, but its pesky. The pitching staff is. The game is so much a bullpen game.
Royals vs Jays should be an interesting watch for those who love good pitching performances. The Jays have a strange quirk in regards to rookie pitchers. Pretty much every time they face a new/rookie pitcher with no video on him, they get absolutely blown away.
Bowlan should have a great debut. If he can make it through 9 innings, he’s got a shot at a shutout, a no-hitter, or maybe even a perfect game. Admittedly a perfect game is hard to come by, but a rookie pitcher against the Blue Jays is your best bet.
MLBTR is getting that man-crush on the Yankee team again.
Again? Nobody quits the Yankees!
YBC – Not true!
Carl Pavano, Jack McDowell, Jacoby Ellsbury, Chris Carter, Kevin Brown, Kei Igawa, Javier Vazquez, Domingo German ….
Lol. We’re only talking about the people not on their payroll.
Nice change of pace from the Ohtani fan-girling tbh 🙂
What surprises me most about the Royals so far is their defense. They were allowing about a half a run over their FIP last year and this year they are preventing about a half a run based on their FIP. I really don’t know what’s changed I don’t watch them regularly. I know that’s a big ballpark outfield defense is very important there.
Most honest team in MLB since they completely stopped their (low level) “cheating” (debatable) and completely made up for it. Meanwhile, every other team in MLB continues much much much higher level cheating to the present day all while lying about it. Best and most underrated city in America. Best fanbase in America. Most underrated sports team in America. Most underrated stadium in all of international sports.
The next time they’re referred to as the “Trashtros” or any mention of “cheating” is made, theres going to be a problem
Most honest team? Lol sure. The Astros window is closing rapidly. We will see how loyal the fans are once they start losing regularly again.
#1 Troll comment of the day. Love it!
Why do you support the cheating Trashstros and what problem will I have, child? Hush now.
If it’s not Red Sox & Yankees fighting for 1st in the East, Orioles & Yankees is a decent rivalry too. Good to see both teams doing well this year. Should be a good series.
Glad to see the offense wake up from their nap. Yankees are 6th in MLB in runs scored. The Dodgers are in 1st with ten more RS.
No love for the White Sox sweeping the Rays?
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut…
I don’t think squirrels look for nuts, I think they smell them.
Exactly… hence even blind ones …
Just to point out, Wacha has not performed like those other guys. Underneath the hood he’s pretty much KC’s weak link.
Royals are looking like a 500 team. That’s actually astonishing given that hole they were in last year. Maybe Sherman will jeep they payroll up enough while he’s PRing for a stadium of some kind in the region.
Yeah they look promising. We’ll see what happens if/when the offenses catch up to the pitching. I’m always hesitant about teams doing very well with pitching as excellent as the royals have been thus far. Some solid arms in that rotation but definitely seeing over performance there
Every signing they made other than the Witt extension was very “floor-ish” so you could sew how they might atleast break right to get to .500. I don’t consider it an insult to congratulate this team IF they’re 500. It’s very hard to go from nearly mlb alltime bad to competitive. And the Royals notoriously slow start and have a wild winning late season.
We’ll see. This team isn’t super high end. BUT….in the AL Central winning 84-85 could get the jib done. That’d be fun to see. No team looks to just up and own it.
They’re playing inverse so far. It was the staff that looked shaky. So if the offense picks up their part. We COULD be looking at reality here. It’s not 100 game winning reality. But it’s intriguing in the Central.
The season isn’t even a fifth old. Let’s not right off any team that is only 6.5 games out. Looks like only 3 teams are toast.
I will say bringing in Hader was a head scratcher when they did it and relying on injured pitchers was too.