The Baseball Buffet for 5/23/2025

Issue #283

What follows is a new feature for 2025 at Now Taking the Field. The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day! Let me know what you think of each issue… leave a comment on the post or send me an email at [email protected].

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

The 57th day of the season had a partial slate (9) of Thursday games:

• TEX 0, NYY 1 - This one ended up a pitchers duel as it seemed like it might. Nathan Eovaldi pitched well (6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K), but let up a HR to rookie 2B Jorbit Vivas—the first of his career and the only run of the game. Meanwhile Carlos Rodón was excellent (6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K) and three Yankees relievers combined with him for a four-hit shutout. Luke Weaver notched his 7th save, and lowered his ERA to 0.40 over 21 appearances.

• SDP 6, TOR 7 - Gavin Sheets hit two HR, but that only helped the Padres reach a 4-4 tie through nine. Both teams scored a run in the 10th, and the Padres did again in the top of the 11th. But then in the bottom of the frame, Daulton Varsho tripled to drive in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who was the ghost-running Manfred Man, and Nathan Lukes later singled to drive in Varsho for the win.

• PHI 2, COL 0 - The Rockies out hit the Phillies 7-4, but were 0-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 runners on base. Germán Márquez pitched well (7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) but Ranger Suárez did even better (6.2 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K). Three Philadelphia relievers combined on the shutout, with Jordan Romano picking up his sixth save.

• LAA 10, ATH 5 - Brent Rooker hit a HR in the first inning and Luis Severino pitched well (6 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K) enabling the Athletics to take a 5-2 lead. But in the 7th inning Taylor Ward hit a grand slam and Logan O’Hoppe added a solo HR. Tyler Anderson was both hittable and wild (4.2 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 6 BB, 0 K) but the Angels bullpen pitched 4.1 innings of shutout ball, giving the Angels a seven game winning streak.

• CLE 7, DET 0 - Angel Martinez hit a HR, but Jack Flaherty otherwise pitched pretty well (6.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 8 K). But the Detroit offense couldn’t get anything going as Tanner Bibee was outstanding (7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K) and three Guardians relievers combined with him for the 5-hit shutout.

• MIL 8, PIT 5 - Spencer Horwitz hit his first HR of the season for the Bucs, and 25-year old prospect Mike Burrows made his first major league start (5 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K). He gave up homers early to Christian Yelich and Joey Ortiz, but did OK overall. After a nearly two-hour rain delay, Yelich ended up 2-3 with a walk, 2 HR, 3 runs, and 4 RBI, and Trevor Megill locked down his 8th save on the season.

• ATL 7, WAS 8 - Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna hit back-to-back solo HR in the first inning, and each ended up with three hits on the day. AJ Smith-Shawver did not have a good game (3 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, 3 BB, 1 K), and the Braves found themselves down 7-5 through six. They then scored two and tied the game 7-7 to force extra innings. In the bottom of the tenth, with the ghost-running Manfred Man Robert Hassell III (who had gone 2-5 in his major league debut) already having advanced to third, a simple ground-ball single to left by Amed Rosario is all it took to drive in the winning run.

• SEA 2, HOU 9 - George Kirby’s 2025 debut didn’t go so well (3.2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K). Dylan Moore hit his 8th HR in the second inning, but Lance McCullers otherwise pitched well (4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K), and Jose Altuve went 2-4 with two HR to power the Astros.

• BAL vs. BOS - postponed

Today’s Trivia Question

Aaron Judge is currently hitting .396, and Freddie Freeman leads the NL at .368. Setting aside 2020 when DJ LeMahieu led the AL with a .364 average in the shortened season, who is the last player to lead the majors with a batting average over .360? (Hint: the year was 2009.)

Trivia answer is at the bottom of the newsletter.

Who’s on the move?

In this section I won’t list 26th-man moves, or every time a team shuttles relievers back and forth to AAA to keep a stock of fresh arms in the bullpen. I’ll focus on the biggest, more impactful demotions, promotions, and injury list changes (for a full list, see all the latest MLB transactions).

➕ Sent on a Rehab Assignment

• BAL LF Colton Cowser

• BOS SP Richard Fitts

• COL RP Victor Vodnik

• CIN 1B Christian Encarnacion-Strand

• COL 2B Thairo Estrada

🤕 Placed on the IL

• NYY RP Fernando Cruz - 15-day IL (right shoulder inflammation)

• COL SP Chase Dollander - 15-day IL (right forearm tightness)

• CLE OF Will Brennan - 10-day IL (left forearm inflammation)

• HOU SP Ronel Blanco - 15-day IL (right elbow inflammation)

League Leaders

It has been over two weeks since I checked on the pitching WHIP (Walks + Hits per IP) leaders, and I see that the Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi pitched well enough yesterday to stay at the top of this leaderboard:

• 0.79 - TEX Nathan Eovaldi

• 0.81 - MIN Joe Ryan

• 0.87 - SEA Bryan Woo

• 0.89 - PHI Zack Wheeler

• 0.91 - HOU Hunter Brown

• 0.91 - LAD Yoshinobu Yamamoto

• 0.93 - NYY Max Fried

• 0.93 - TEX Jacob deGrom

• 0.94 - DET Tarik Skubal

• 0.94 - PIT Paul Skenes

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history (for a longer list, see the feature at the Baseball Almanac or the Bullpen feature at Baseball-Reference.com):

📅 On May 23…

• 1988: Danny Tartabull hits an inside-the-park HR against Bert Blyleven… again. Better known for his power hitting than speed on the bases, the Royals’ Danny Tartabull hit an inside-the-park home run against the Twins’ veteran Bert Blyleven. Oddly, he had also done this against Blyleven the previous October.

• 1991: Tommy Greene threw a no-hitter. The Phillies’ Tommy Greene tosses the season's second no-hitter, a 2-0 win over Montreal.

• 2000: Rickey Henderson gets his 2,000th career walk. Seattle's Rickey Henderson draws his 2‚000th career walk in the 9th inning of a 4-2 loss to the Orioles. In doing so he became only the third player to reach that milestone‚ following Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. Barry Bonds would later eclipse them all to become the all-time leader in walks.

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys🎉

• LF Zack Wheat (1888) is a Hall of famer who played from 1909-1927, mostly with Brooklyn in the National League. He hit 10+ triples in eleven seasons, and developed a little HR power as the rest of the league did in the 1920s, hitting 14-16 HR four times from 1921-1925. He led the NL with a .335 average in 1918, and retired with 2,884 hits, 172 triples, 205 SB, a .317/.367/.450 slash line and 129 OPS+.

• Deacon Phillippe (1872) pitched in the majors from 1899-1911, almost all with the Pirates. He won 20+ games in six seasons, and retired with a 189-109 (.634) record, 2.59 ERA, and 119 ERA+.

• Augie Galan (1912) played in the majors for parts of 16 seasons spanning from 1934-1949, mostly as a LF, but with some time at CF, 1B, 2B, and 3B too. He mostly played with Chicago and Brooklyn in the National League, but also had a few seasons with the Reds, Giants, and Athletics. A three-time All-Star, Galan led the NL with 133 runs in his first full season in 1935. He posted 100+ runs four times in his career, but only had modest power, with a career high of 18 HR in 1937. Later in his career he started taking more walks, including posting 100+ free passes each year from 1943-1945. Overall for his career he had 1,004 runs scored, a .287/.390/.419 slash line and a 122 OPS+.

• Lennie Pearson (1918) played in the Negro major leagues from the age of 19-30 (1937-1948), and then played a few years in the minors but never came up to the AL or NL. According to the numbers available at baseball-reference.com, Pearson led his league in HR twice, and took home a batting title in 1942 by hitting .347 in 52 games. His career slash line is .296/.355/.465 with a 124 OPS+.

• Billy Hoy (1862) played in the majors with seven different teams for 14 years, spanning from 1888-1902. He was given the colloquial nickname “Dummy” after a bout of meningitis at the age of 3 left him deaf and mute. Hoy overcame this to become a major leaguer and particularly excel at stealing bases with 25+ SB in 13 of his 14 seasons, including leading the NL with 82 as a rookie in 1888. He scored 100+ runs nine times in his career, and retired with 1,429 runs, 596 SB, a .288/.386/.374 slash line, and a 110 OPS+.

Today’s Matchups

A full slate of Friday games (15), plus one make-up game from yesterday, so lots of possibilities. Some games that jump out to me are:

• MIL vs. PIT is an excellent pitching matchup with Freddy Peralta (2.59 ERA, 57 K in 55.2 IP) vs. Paul Skenes (2.44 ERA, 62 K in 62.2 IP).

• CHC vs. CIN features Matthew Boyd who is doing well this year (2.98 ERA, 53 K in 51.1 IP) facing off against Hunter Greene (2.36 ERA, 61 K in 45.2 IP) who is making his first start since May 7th.

• LAD vs. NYM involves the great Clayton Kershaw making his second start of the season with the Mets countering with Griffin Canning who is doing quite well this year (2.47 ERA, 46 K in 47.1 IP).

• SDP vs. ATL is a good pitching matchup with Nick Pivetta (2.86 ERA, 56 K in 50.1 IP) vs. Chris Sale (3.62 ERA, 72 K in 54.2 IP).

Also on the bump today are WAS MacKenzie Gore, TBR Drew Rasmussen, DET Jackson Jobe, TEX Tyler Mahle, MIN Pablo Lopez, and PHI Zack Wheeler.

HR Watch

Predicting who might hit a HR on any given day is a challenge. But here are a few to consider based on opposing SP past performance:

• ATL Marcell Ozuna, only 8-31 (.258), but with 6 HR vs. SDP Nick Pivetta

• ATL Orlando Arcia, 7-11 with 2 HR and a double vs. SDP Nick Pivetta

• AZ Eugenio Suárez, 6-14 with 2 HR and a double vs. STL Miles Mikolas

• CHC Seiya Suzuki, 6-13 with 2 HR, a triple, and a double vs. CIN Hunter Greene

Hits Watch

If you play MLB’s Beat the Streak mobile game, or otherwise bet on/parlay players to collect hits, I’ll try to provide some good options in this section. In addition to the HR Watch guys listed above, here are some others to consider based on opposing SP past performance:

• BAL Cedric Mullins, 8-13 with a triple and 3 doubles vs. BOS Lucas Giolito

• BOS Rob Refsnyder, small sample but is 4-7 with a HR and a double vs. lefty BAL Cade Povich (and Refsnyder is a LHP-hitting specialist)

• KCR Kyle Isbel, 5-13 with 3 doubles vs. MIN Pablo López

Who is streaking?

These are players on active hit streaks and who for this reason (if playing) might also be interesting picks to get a hit today:

• 15 - CLE Jose Ramirez

• 10 - CIN Spencer Steer

• 9 - MIA Kyle Stowers

• 9 - CHW Chase Meidroth

• 9 - ATH Miguel Andujar

• 9 - SDP Luis Arraez

• 8 - BAL Jackson Holliday

• 8 - ATL Ozzie Albies

• 8 - LAA Taylor Ward

• 7 - CIN Will Benson

• 7 - CHC Dansby Swanson

• 7 - SFG Heliot Ramos

• 7 - HOU Jake Meyers

• 7 - KCR Maikel Garcia

• 7 - LAA Zach Neto

• 7 - PHI Bryce Harper

Who might struggle today?

Betting against any given player to not get a hit is tough, as guys in the starting lineup get at least one hit in a game more often than not. That said, here are some guys who clearly have struggled against their opposing SP today:

• SDP Martin Maldonado, 3-20 with 13 K vs. ATL Chris Sale

• SDP Jake Cronenworth, 0-10 with 6 K vs. ATL Chris Sale

• KCR Vinnie Pasquantino, 0-13 with 3 K vs. MIN Pablo López

• ATL Michael Harris II, 0-12 with 6 K vs. SDP Nick Pivetta

• CHW Josh Rojas, 0-10 with 6 K vs. TEX Tyler Mahle

• CHC Dansby Swanson, 0-10 with 6 K vs. CIN Hunter Greene

• PIT Tommy Pham, 1-12 with 7 K vs. MIL Freddy Peralta

• KCR Salvador Perez, 2-16 with 6 K (though the hits were a HR and a double) vs. MIN Pablo López

• KCR Hunter Renfroe, 2-15 with 5 K vs. MIN Pablo López

• BOS Alex Bregman, 2-17 with 5 K (though one hit was a HR) vs. BAL Charlie Morton

⚾ Enjoy the games today!⚾

Today’s Trivia Answer

Aaron Judge is currently hitting .396, and Freddie Freeman leads the NL at .368. Leaving aside the short 2020 season when DJ LeMahieu led the AL with a .364 average, the last player to lead the majors with an average over .360 was Joe Mauer in 2009 with a .365 mark. Chipper Jones had also done so in 2008 with a .364 average.

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• Detroit Tigers: 5 Thoughts on a Tremendous Start, by Joe Underhill at Here's the Pitch: the IBWAA Newsletter, 5/23/2025

• Kim's on-base streak, Schwarb's 300th highlight stats of the week, by Sarah Langs at MLB, 5/22/2025

• 6 teams that could jump-start the trade market, by Mark Feinsand at MLB, 5/22/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

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