Issue #658
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! ⚾
We had a full slate (15) of Tuesday games yesterday. Here are the results (link to all game box scores):
ATH 2, CHC 1 - The Cubs scored a run in the bottom of the first inning, but then rookie ATH SP Gage Jump settled in and pitched well in his second major league start (7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K). CHC SP Jameson Taillon did fairly well (6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K), giving up a HR to Nick Kurtz in the third, his 11th of the year. But the two runs Taillon allowed were all it took as the three A's relievers kept the Cubs off the board in the final two innings, including Hogan Harris getting the final out and his 5th save of the year.
NYM 3, SEA 8 - SEA SP Logan Gilbert had 8 K in 5.1 IP (4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB), but had trouble with rookie Carson Benge who hit a 2-run HR in the third inning, and added a solo HR in the sixth. But those were the only runs the Mets would get, while the Mariners scored in five consecutive innings, starting with Patrick Wisdom connecting for a 2-run HR in the second. Jhonny Pereda went 2-4 with a 3-run HR; Dominic Canzone was 3-4 with 2 runs; and Julio Rodríguez hit his 13th HR of the season as Seattle extended its winning streak to eight games.
KCR 3, CIN 4 (10) - The Royals scored first with three runs in the top of the fourth inning off CIN SP Andrew Abbott (6 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K). KCR SP Noah Cameron had a great game (7 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K), only allowing one hit, a HR by Spencer Steer in the fifth inning. Steer connected again in the eighth for a HR off reliever Matt Strahm, and then pinch-hitter Will Benson hit a HR to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, forcing extras. Reds reliever Brock Burke pitched a scoreless top of the tenth, the Royals turned to John Schreiber for the bottom of the tenth. He struck out pinch-hitter TJ Friedl, but then Blake Dunn hit a walk-off single that drove in Steer who was on second as the automatic runner.
DET 8, TBR 0
SDP 2, PHI 3
BAL 4, BOS 2
MIA 7, WSH 3
TOR 3, ATL 4
CLE 9, NYY 4
CWS 4, MIN 6
SFG 3, MIL 8
TEX 7, STL 4
PIT 10, HOU 6
LAD 6, ARI 5
COL 8, LAA 2
Start June with the 50% off discount!
The Memorial Day weekend 50%-off sale pricing I had recently led many readers to upgrade to receive the full Baseball Buffet every day. So I thought I’d run it again to kickoff the new month!
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Game summaries for every game
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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
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Today’s Trivia Question
One of today's Birthday Boys (see below) is Jim Gentile. In 1961 he belted 46 HR for the Orioles, which set a new record at the time for the combined Browns/Orioles franchise. Since then, four more Orioles players have hit more than 46 HR in a season—how many of them can you name? (Hint: one player did it twice.)
(Trivia answers are provided for paid All-Star subscribers of the Baseball Buffet.)
🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉
Jim Gentile, Travis Hafner, Carl Everett
Currently active major leaguers born on June 3 include SFG Harrison Bader, MIN Ryan Jeffers, STL Ramón Urías, LAD Eric Lauer, NYY Luis Gil, MIA Lake Bachar, ARI Luis Urías, PHI Max Lazar, and NYM Brandon Waddell.
Today’s Matchups
Today being a Wednesday we have another full slate of games (15). Here are a few interesting matchups that caught my eye (and here is a link to the full schedule):
DET Troy Melton vs. TBR Nick Martinez - Melton has done well in his two starts so far this year, while Martinez continues to impress with a 1.62 ERA over 11 starts
NYM Freddy Peralta vs. SEA George Kirby - nice matchup of two generally good pitchers who have had mixed results this year
CLE Gavin Williams vs. NYY Gerrit Cole - Williams has been among the MLB leaders in strikeouts this year, while Cole hasn't given up a run yet in 12.2 IP in his first two starts
PIT Paul Skenes vs. HOU Spencer Arrighetti - could be a solid duel between superstar Skenes and the surprising Arrighetti, who owns a 1.34 ERA in his 47 IP over 8 starts this year
Other starters scheduled to toe the rubber include MIA Max Meyer, PHI Cristopher Sánchez, CIN Chase Burns, BOS Payton Tolle, SFG Logan Webb, TEX MacKenzie Gore, and LAD Shohei Ohtani.
Baseball Quote of the Day
One of today's Birthday Boys (see above) is slugger Jim Gentile, so here are a couple quotes from him:
"To tell you the truth, I tried to hit what I could see—which is probably why I was a career .260 hitter. If the pitch was close and I could see it, if I thought it was in the strike zone, I’d swing at it." - from an interview at This Great Game (see more)
"I would love to be playing now and putting those millions in the bank, but I look back and I played against the best... That was the greatest time to play. That was baseball." - from a two-part interview at BallNine (see more here and here)
⚾ 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.
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