Issue #630
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!
⚾ Welcome! ⚾
Yesterday’s action included a partial slate of games (12), as some teams were traveling or otherwise had the day off. Here are the results (link to all game box scores):
CIN 4, CHC 5 - Seiya Suzuki hit a 3-run HR off rookie CIN SP Chase Petty (5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K). The Reds also had three runs from HRs by JJ Bleday and Ke'Bryan Hayes off CHC SP Edward Cabrera (6 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K). Cincy went up 4-3 in the eighth, but then in the bottom of the ninth their closer Emilio Pagán gave up a triple to Pete Crow-Armstrong and a sacrifice fly by Nico Hoerner that tied the game. With two outs, pinch-hitter Michael Conforto then hit a walk-off HR for the win.
TOR 1, TBR 5 - TBR SP Nick Martinez once again pitched well (5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K), and now owns a 1.71 ERA over 42 innings across seven starts this year. Five Rays relievers kept the Jays off the board, including Bryan Baker who came in for the final out and notched his 9th save. Toronto rookie Yohendrick Piñango (what a name!) was 3-5 with a double in the losing effort. For Tampa, Ryan Vilade had a 3-run HR, Jonathan Aranda went 3-4 (after going 4-5 on Sunday), and Ben Williamson went 2-4. The Rays have now won 10 of their last 11 games as they keep pace with the Yankees in the AL East.
ATL 4, SEA 5 - SEA SP Logan Gilbert had trouble with the longball today, giving up solo HR to Drake Baldwin, Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson, and Austin Riley. Of note, for Olson it was the 300th HR of his career. Meanwhile, rookie ATL SP JR Ritchie had some control issues (5 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 6 BB, 2 K), and also allowed a 3-run HR to Luke Raley. That was part of a big five-run sixth inning for the Mariners, which also included a go-ahead, 2-run HR by J.P. Crawford. After Gilbert exited, three Seattle relievers kept the Braves off the board, including closer Andrés Muñoz who struck out two in the ninth to secure his 7th save.
NYM 4, COL 2
BOS 5, DET 4
PHI 1, MIA 0
BAL 1, NYY 12
CLE 2, KCR 6
MIL 3, STL 6
LAD 8, HOU 3
SDP 2, SFG 3
CWS 6, LAA 0
RIP, John Sterling
As noted in an article by Bryan Hoch at MLB, John Sterling has died at the age of 87. He broadcast more than three decades of Yankees games, which amounted to 5,426 regular season games and 225 postseason games from 1989 until he retired in 2024. As Hoch describes, Sterling was “Known for his gyrating ‘Sterling Shake’ victory call (‘Yankees win … theeeeee Yankees win!'), humorous phrases tacked onto play-by-play action (‘Back to back, and belly to belly!’) and personalized home run calls (‘Bern, baby, Bern!’), Sterling called 5,060 consecutive games from September 1989 to July 2019 – every at-bat of Derek Jeter’s career, every inning of Mariano Rivera’s, and many more.”
Advertisement
Stop Drowning In AI Information Overload
Your inbox is flooded with newsletters. Your feed is chaos. Somewhere in that noise are the insights that could transform your work—but who has time to find them?
The Deep View solves this. We read everything, analyze what matters, and deliver only the intelligence you need. No duplicate stories, no filler content, no wasted time. Just the essential AI developments that impact your industry, explained clearly and concisely.
Replace hours of scattered reading with five focused minutes. While others scramble to keep up, you'll stay ahead of developments that matter. 600,000+ professionals at top companies have already made this switch.
Today’s Trivia Question
Even this far into the season, there is still a team with an overall ERA below 3.00. Which team’s pitching staff is doing that well so far?
(Trivia answers are provided for paid All-Star subscribers of the Baseball Buffet.)
🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉
Row 1: Charles Bender, Charles Nagy, Larry Hisle
Row 2: Bob Cerv, Tommy Helms
Currently active players who were born on May 5 include SEA Logan Gilbert, SFG Joel Peguero, MIN Eduardo Salazar, and ARI Philip Abner.
Help yourself to more of The Baseball Buffet!
What you are reading are just some highlights from the full Baseball Buffet newsletter. Paid All Star subscribers receive all of the following, every day:
Game summaries for every game
Current MLB standings
Notable player transactions… injuries, call-ups, free agent signings, trades, etc.
Rotating statistical leader lists
Current hitting streaks of seven or more games
On this day in baseball history…
Career summaries for each of The Birthday Boys
Daily Hitter Watch and Pitcher Watch lists - who has historically done well or poorly against their matchup today?
Good Reads… my favorite recent baseball articles from other writers
… and the answers to the daily trivia questions!
Become an All Star subscriber to The Baseball Buffet today for $7 a month, or the annual rate of $49 a year. That is less than 14 cents a day for more baseball goodness delivered to your inbox every morning!
Today’s Matchups
We are back with a full slate (15) of Tuesday games today, with the following matchups looking particularly interesting (see also full list):
TOR Kevin Gausman vs. TBR Drew Rasmussen - two solid starters in this AL East matchup
TEX Jacob deGrom vs. NYY Elmer Rodríguez - the veteran vs. the rookie
ATL Bryce Elder vs. SEA George Kirby - Kirby will be challenged by the tough Braves' lineup, while Elder has done well so far this year (1.88 ERA over 43 IP)
Other notable starters today include DET Framber Valdez, PHI Cristopher Sánchez, MIA Sandy Alcantara, MIN Taj Bradley, CLE Gavin Williams, LAD Shohei Ohtani, and NYM Freddy Peralta.
Baseball Quote of the Day
One of today's Birthday Boys (see above) is Charles "Chief" Bender. As noted at The Baseball Almanac, he had a list of "Baseball's Ten Commandments" which were as follows:
Nobody ever becomes a ballplayer by walking after a ball.
You will never become a .300 hitter unless you take the bat off your shoulder.
If what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.
Keep your head up and you may not have to keep it down.
When you start to slide, SLIDE. He who changes his mind may have to change a good leg for a bad one.
Do not alibi on bad hops. Anybody can field the good ones.
Always run them out. You never can tell.
Never quit.
Do not find too much fault with the umpires. You cannot expect them to be as perfect as you are.
A pitcher who hasn't control hasn't anything.
⚾ Enjoy the games today!⚾
Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.
This newsletter was produced with beehiiv.
New to Now Taking the Field? Become a subscriber and get each article in your email inbox so that you don’t miss anything!