Pittsburgh Pirates closer Aroldis Chapman helped close the door on the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, earning a hold after throwing a scoreless eighth inning during the 1–0 win at PNC Park.
At one point, however, Chapman seemed to think that he'd served up a lead-changing three-run home run to Teoscar Hernández. After the Dodgers outfielder lifted a ball to deep center field, Chapman could be seen spiking his glove in frustration, clearly under the impression that the ball was going to leave the park.
Instead, center fielder Jack Suwinski made a routine catch just shy of the warning track for the second out of the inning. Chapman then struck out Andy Pages to end the inning, but his rage-induced antics on the mound didn't go unnoticed by some of his teammates.
Perhaps a slight overreaction from the hard-throwing southpaw, who clearly thought he'd surrendered his fifth home run of the season and blown the lead in the eighth inning.
Andrew McCutchen couldn't help but mock Chapman over the ordeal, and he could be seen in the home dugout mimicking the spike with his own mitt while laughing with his teammate.
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 5, 2024
Ultimately, no harm was done from the bat of Hernández on that occasion, though Chapman's teammates may not let him forget about his reaction anytime soon.
Ippei Mizuhara, the former translator for Shohei Ohtani, pleaded guilty to multiple bank and tax fraud charges in federal court on Tuesday morning. With the guilty pleas Major League Baseball has closed its investigation, saying they consider Shohei Ohtani a victim of fraud, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.
Ohtani also released a statement saying he wanted to “sincerely thank the authorities for finishing their thorough and effective investigation so quickly and uncovering all the evidence." Ohanit now plans to focus on "playing and winning ballgames."
Despite the distractions that began at the very start of the season, the Dodgers have amassed a 38-23 record, which is the secon best in the National League. Ohtani leads the Dodgers in doubles,home runs, batting average, slugging and OPS.
When Mizuhara arrived at the courthouse on Tuesday morning there was a media mob waiting and they had not dispersed by the time he left. Mizuhara did not end up making any remarks or respond to any of the questions that were shouted at him, but that didn't stop the assembled press from trying to get a comment.
Ippei Mizuhara arrives at federal court in Santa Ana where he is expected to plead guilty in Shohei Ohtani fraud case. He didn’t comment but attorney says they may have remarks after the hearing. @FOXLA#FOXLApic.twitter.com/1DZgPLxVia
Despite the distractions caused by this situation, which began on opening day, the Dodgers have amassed a 38-23 record, which is the second best in the National League. Ohtani leads the Dodgers in doubles, home runs, batting average, slugging and OPS.
Overall, it was quite a notable day for Major League Baseball on the gambling front. In addition to Mizuhara pleading guilty, Tucupita Marcano of the San Diego Padres was banned for life for betting on baseball and four other players were suspended for a year.
Armageddon awaits. Likely for the first time since the 1978 World Series, the New York Yankees will host the Los Angeles Dodgers this weekend with each team claiming first place.
The Yankees have the better offense, the better starting pitching and the better bullpen. The Dodgers have the better defense. Most surprisingly, we all know which team has the better 1-2-3 at the top of the lineup. And it’s not the one with the three Most Valuable Players that even before a box of game balls was cracked open had people scrambling to compare them to the greatest trios ever to top a lineup.
Step aside Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. You have been upstaged by Anthony Volpe, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge.
First, the cold, hard facts:
R
H
HR
RBI
Total Bases
Avg.
SLG
Volpe, Soto, Judge
131
207
44
125
394
.298
Betts, Ohtani, Freeman
119
215
30
105
366
.311
Second, one 100 mph pitch that helps explains why the Yankees’ trio is better: an 0-and-1 cut fastball to Volpe on Sunday from San Francisco Giants closer Camilo Doval, who had held righthanded batters to a .098 average this year. With one on and one out in the ninth, Doval was holding a two-run lead and a 91.7%-win probability. If he dismissed Volpe, Doval could avoid Judge, whom the Giants had retired only four times in 12 tries in his Bay Area homecoming.
Last season Doval could have exploited multiple holes in Volpe’s swing to put him away. Caught up in an analytical-fueled quest to get balls airborne to the pull side, Volpe swung uphill with too much head movement. He could not hit top-rail fastballs (.125), inside fastballs (.195) or breaking pitches (.148).
Doval was about to find this out. He threw a 99.9 mph cutter buried so far inside that it was off the plate. No matter. Volpe 2.0 kept his hands inside the ball and with a short, quick lash carved the pitch into the right-centerfield gap for an RBI triple. He could not do that last year.
With that one swing, another Yankees win was set in motion. Two pitches later, Soto clobbered a high fastball for a go-ahead homer.
A high fastball? Is anybody paying attention? I am astonished how teams keep thinking they can get high fastballs past Soto. This is all you need to know about how to pitch Soto:
Soto by Fastball Height in Zone This Season
Avg.
SLG
HR
Top Third
.459
1.054
7
Middle Third
.447
1.128
8
Bottom Third
.188
.313
0
That’s 15 of his 17 home runs this year resulting from fastballs in the zone belt high or higher. His past 35 home runs off fastballs in the zone have all been middle-up. Soto hasn’t hit a low fastball for a home run in almost a year—since June 14, 2023.
Judge, who is hitting everything, walked, stole second and scored on a Giancarlo Stanton double. In a span of just a dozen pitches, the Yankees scored four times and turned what was about to be a 5–3 loss into a 7–5 win.
Sure, Judge is slugging .658 and Soto has a .417 OBP and Stanton is on pace for 37 homers … all impressive, but … they’ve all been there, done that. All have been better than that in past years. Volpe is the difference maker, slashing .284/.352/.440 a year after going .209/.283/.383. He and Jurickson Profar of the San Diego Padres are the most improved hitters in baseball. Volpe gives the Yankees a leadoff hitter with speed and that kind of OBP for the first time since Derek Jeter in 2009. He creates traffic for Soto and Judge as an elite baserunner (95th percentile).
Volpe’s transformation is extraordinary. Adopting a more traditional, 1980s-type style in the batter’s box, Volpe is embracing groundballs (up from 41% to 52%), hitting the other way (23% to 32%) and putting the ball in play (he has cut his strikeout rate from 28% to 21%)—qualities that are not stressed enough at a time when batting average is the fourth lowest in history (.240).
Try to find another hitter who cut his pull percentage anywhere near what Volpe has done. You won’t. He has cut his pull rate by 21.4% (46.7% to 25.3%). Betts’s 13.8% decline is the next biggest turning away from the pull side.
The Dodgers coming to Yankee Stadium is a clash of titans and the rare renewal of a classic rivalry. The Yankees and Dodgers rank Nos. 1 and 2 in OPS, respectively, and 1 and 3 in home runs, slugging and ERA, respectively.
The Dodgers are 13–24 in the Bronx, including 3–2 in regular season games in 2016 (when the Yankees were in fourth place) and 2013 (when the Dodgers were 29–39). In the postseason, the Yankees own a big edge at home against the Dodgers, 22–10. (The Yankees were a fourth-place team when they met in the 1981 World Series; having qualified for the playoffs in the split season of the strike-marred year by winning the division in the first half.)
The star power is off the charts this weekend. Six of the past 14 MVP Awards have been won by players in this matchup (Ohtani has won two; Judge, Freeman, Betts and Stanton one each). Ohtani is a career .130 hitter at Yankee Stadium, the seventh worst of anyone with 50 plate appearances in the latest version of the yard—but he does have four homers there in just 46 at-bats. Judge has a 1.026 OPS in Yankee Stadium, the highest by any active player in any park with at least 1,500 plate appearances.
Judge has homered in 28% of the games he has played in Yankee Stadium. The Yankees win 79.0% of games when Judge homers in the Bronx (98–26). For some historical perspective, Babe Ruth homered in 27% of his games in the original yard while the Yankees won 77.1% of those games (178–53).
Amid all the MVPs and the monster home run hitters, however, don’t overlook the importance of the 5'9" leadoff hitter for New York looking to make his first All-Star team. Volpe has emerged as an impact player. The Yankees are 27–5 (.844) when Volpe scores a run and 14–14 (.500) when he doesn’t.
There are not many MLB ball clubs going through it right now like the New York Mets.
The Mets, who have lost eight of their last 10 games and are 7–19 in May, were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday. And in the eighth inning of the series finale, reliever Jorge López joined a long list of Mets players to have a meltdown on the field.
López entered the game in the eighth with the Mets trailing 5–3. He was assessed an error on a pickoff attempt gone wrong, and then gave up a two-run double to Miguel Vargas and a two-run homer to Shohei Ohtani.
In the next at-bat, López thought Dodgers slugger Freddie Freeman offered at a pitch. When third base umpire Ramon De Jesus disagreed, López argued the call and was quickly ejected. López continued to shout at De Jesus as he walked off the field and hurled his glove into the stands before disappearing into the dugout.
One lucky fan is going home with quite the souvenir.
Jorge López has been ejected by third base umpire Ramon De Jesus.
"That's where the Mets are at right now," an analyst said on the SNY broadcast.
López, an All-Star is 2022, has hit a rough patch lately, allowing a home run in three straight outings. He hasn't pitched in a Mets win since a 6–5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on May 16.
New York has sunk to 22–32 through 54 games and currently is 15 and 1/2 games behind the first-place Phillies in the NL East. The Mets will continue an 11-game homestand at Citi Field on Thursday with a four-game set against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw is just like every other MLB fan: He's sometimes befuddled by Shohei Ohtani's greatness.
Kershaw, on the 60-day injured list as he continues to recover from shoulder surgery he underwent in November of 2023, has had a front-row seat to watch Ohtani in his first season in Los Angeles. And the two-time American League MVP hasn't disappointed, as he is swinging a hot stick lately, having belted four home runs in his last three games for the Dodgers (24-13).
Kershaw raved about Ohtani on Monday night in an in-game interview with Dodgers broadcasters Joe Davis and Orel Hershiser on Spectrum Sportsnet LA during the team's 6-3 win over the Miami Marlins on Monday, saying that the Japanese slugger's recent hot streak has been "unbelievable."
"I don't remember him even being this good in Anaheim," Kershaw said, shaking his head. "I don't remember him ever being on this kind of tear. This is unbelievable. Every ball that he hits, he's just so strong. I don't get it. I don't think anybody does. He's just amazing."
We don't get it either, Mr. Kershaw.
Ohtani, 29, is the early frontrunner for the National League MVP, as he currently leads MLB in batting average, hits, home runs and OPS (On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage). In April, he broke the record for the most career home runs hit by a Japanese-born player.
Beyond the numbers, Ohtani's feats of strength have been of the usual, jaw-dropping variety. He smashed a heat-seeking missile of a single, the hardest-hit ball of the 2024 season, in an April 27 game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Ohtani crushed the second-longest home run of the 2024 season, a 464-foot blast into the center field bleachers of Dodger Stadium, on Sunday against the Atlanta Braves.
But the fact that Kershaw, an all-time great pitcher ticketed for Cooperstown, can't comprehend Ohtani's greatness tells you all you need to know about just how good he really is.
Nearly two years after his last major league start, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler returns from the IL tonight. He is slated for a two-step this week.
That's right. Buehler is a two-start pitcher, meaning for those who set weekly roto lineups, the potential upside is enormous but not without risk.
If you've been stashing him on your IL, you're no doubt eager to slot him back into the rotation. Buehler finished fourth in Cy Young voting in 2021—the last full season he pitched—striking out batters at a rate of more than nine per nine innings and finishing with a 2.47 ERA.
Monday will be Buehler's first start on a major league mound since undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2022. He'll be facing the Miami Marlins, who are already waving the white flag on the season. Miami traded Luis Arraez to the Padres on Saturday morning and promptly got walloped by the Oakland A's20-4 that night.
Buehler made six minor league rehab starts, posting a 4.15 ERA and striking out 21 batters across 21 2/3 innings pitched. While his K-rate is in good shape, his command has not been ideal. Buehler walked nine total batters in those starts for an average of 3.7 per nine innings, and he finished with a 1.64 WHIP.
Buehler's second start comes vs. the Padres in San Diego. The Dodgers' rivals have been playing strong baseball this season and, as mentioned above, just acquired Arraez, who has a league-low 7.1% strikeout rate this season. The Padres have scored the fifth-most runs per game this season (5.08) and have won three of their five matchups with the Dodgers in 2024.
Nearly two years after his last big league start, the 29-year-old right-hander should have a little rust. Expect Buehler to be on a pitch count, which reduces his chances of qualifying for the win.
I'll wait and see in all but my deepest leagues with a weekly lineup lock. I don't trust Buehler in his first week back facing major league pitching.
In DFS, however, I'll be giving Buehler a start vs. the Marlins. It's a contrarian play that could pay dividends in a GPP tournament.
The Seattle Mariners' decision to trade Jarred Kelenic to the Atlanta Braves this offseason came as quite a surprise given the apparent up-and-coming status of both the Mariners and Kelenic. Regardless of the why of it all, the Braves were more than happy to add Kelenic to their loaded lineup.
So far it looks like a solid enough decision. Atlanta went 20-12 in the first month of the season. Kelenic hasn't quite found his swing and is still hunting for his first home run of the year, but he's batting a perfectly fine .274 in 26 games played. The 24-year-old outfielder is also stirring discussion with his impressive American flag cleats, which he apparently got from the unlikeliest of sources.
During Sunday afternoon's broadcast of the Braves' matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bally Sports play-by-play announcer Brandon Gaudin revealed Kelenic did not have his cool kicks custom-made or anything of the like. In fact, as Kelenic tells it, he got it from a "random guy" on eBay.
Jarred Kelenic says he got the cleats he was wearing today from a "random guy on eBay" pic.twitter.com/bev9pDTNe3
In a day and age where any professional athlete can shell out thousands for highly-customized apparel through avenues unavailable to the average consumer, this is a beautiful thing. A throwback to when times were simpler and eBay was the only place to find pretty much anything unique.
Those are some seriously high-quality shoes from some random dude, though. Pro athletes put their shoes through incredible wear-and-tear in short periods of time no matter the sport. If they're up to snuff in Kelenic's eyes then maybe Nike should be reaching out to get his design ideas because he's got the durability factor down already.
Unfortunately the shoes held no magic yesterday as Kelenic went 0-1 against the Dodgers with one strikeout. But tomorrow the Boston Red Sox will come to town for a quick two-game series and give the shoes another chance to shine.
Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani is off to quite the start at the plate in 2024.
Ohtani homered twice in the Dodgers' 5–1 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday to help complete a sweep of the team which entered the weekend with the best record in baseball. He went 4-for-4 on Sunday and smacked his second homer of the day 464 feet to center field.
Ohtani now is tied for the league lead in homers with 10. In 35 games, he has collected 25 extra-base hits (14 doubles, one triple, 10 homers), the most for a player's first 35 contests with the Dodgers in MLB history (h/t Sarah Langs).
But there's more.
Ohtani's 25 extra-base hits through 35 games also marks his best start to a season. He also has never posted more hits (52), runs (30), total bases (98) or notched a better batting average (.364), on-base percentage (.426) or slugging percentage (.685) through 35 contests in his career.
Ohtani already has 2 unanimous MVPs and is off to his BEST start thru 35 games as a hitter:
XBH: 25, most Hits: 52, most BA: .364, best Runs: 30, most Total bases: 98, most OBP: .426, best SLG: .685, best OPS: 1.111, best https://t.co/TYhs9I00JS
The Dodgers gave Ohtani a 10-year, $700 million contract in free agency last offseason in hopes he'd continue to be the two-way superstar
Ohtani won't pitch until next year, but he already might be worth the Dodgers' investment solely from his offensive production so far.
Ohtani and the Dodgers return to the field Monday to begin a three-game series against the Miami Marlins, who own the second-fewest wins in the National League with a 10–26 record.
Shohei Ohtani, the $700 million man, bought his manager Dave Roberts a new car before Saturday's game, which saw the two-way star break Roberts's record for the most career home runs by a Japanese-born Dodgers player.
Only, it wasn't a car in the sense that Roberts thought, as Ohtani had actually gifted the Dodgers skipper a toy Porsche in an amusing prank before the game against the Atlanta Braves, which resulted in an 11—2 victory for Los Angeles.
After the game, Roberts made an appearance at Ohtani's press conference, showing off the mini Porsche to reporters as he shared a laugh with the Dodgers star.
Dave Roberts came out during Shohei Ohtani’s presser to show the Porsche Ohtani gave him before the game today. pic.twitter.com/8eApE7A4ZC
"He said he wanted a car and I'm glad that he was happy he got a car." 😆 Shohei Ohtani on the toy Porsche he gifted Dave Roberts. pic.twitter.com/towENHmfXD
"He said he wanted a car and I'm glad that he was happy he got a car," Ohtani said.
The Dodgers star, after breaking Hideki Matsui's record for the most career home runs by a Japanese-born major leaguer in April, joked with Roberts, who was born in Naha, Okinawa, Japan, that he was coming for his record next.
True to his word, Ohtani eclipsed Roberts's mark — seven home runs in 302 games with Los Angeles from 2002 to '04 — with a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning.
The homer was part of another productive day for Ohtani, who went 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored — and one perfectly executed prank.
Roberts, asked about the toy car before the game, had this to say.
"He did buy me a car," Roberts said. "I guess I didn't specify what type of car. So I can't say he never gave me anything."
Ohtani ranks second in MLB in OPS through 34 games played in 2024.
On March 8, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated that Mookie Betts's move to shortstop in spring training was "permanent, for now."
Now, it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that Betts's move will be "permanent, forever."
Roberts heaped praise on Betts for his play at shortstop so far after the Dodgers' 8-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks Wednesday.
“Right now, where (Betts) is at, I certainly think he’s playing an above average shortstop,” Roberts said. “I’d grade him out a solid B+. It’s hard to imagine me even saying that... given that he started not playing the position. So it’s really, really impressive and only going to get better.”
Even by Betts's lofty standards, his start to 2024 has been special. Last year's runner-up in the NL MVP voting is slashing .377/.481/.623 with six home runs and 25 RBIs. He leads the majors in batting average, on-base percentage, runs, hits, walks and total bases.
“I’m trying to wrap my head around any comparable—as far as on the hitting side, the (defensive) side. I haven’t seen it. You’re talking about a complete position change," Roberts said. "To play it at a high level at that position, I just haven’t seen it.”
Baseball Reference has Betts at third in defensive WAR, behind only Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte and St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn.
