A week into the 2024 season, here are three things to follow around Major League Baseball today:
1. Michael Lorenzen makes another rehab start:
This evening, Michael Lorenzen will make his second rehab start for the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A affiliate of the Rangers (per Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News). He threw 50 pitches in his first rehab appearance and could throw 65-70 today. If all goes well, Grant notes that Lorenzen could be activated next week; the earliest he can return from the 15-day IL is Tuesday. When Lorenzen rejoins the rotation, he is likely to push out Cody Bradford, who earned the No. 5 job this spring.
2. MRI results for Victor Robles:
After injuring his hamstring on Wednesday, Victor Robles is set to undergo an MRI today. Pending the results of the scan, it’s possible the center fielder will need at least a short stint on the injured list; both Mark Zuckerman of MASN and Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post speculated as much last night.
If Robles does indeed hit the IL, expect an announcement from the Nationals sooner rather than later. The team will take on the Pirates this afternoon at 3:05 pm CT, while manager Dave Martinez will host a pregame press conference at noon. What’s more, the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings play today at 12:05 pm CT, and as TalkNats points out, their lineup announcement could suggest who (if anyone) is headed to Washington to replace Robles on the active roster.
3. Mets, Tigers face off in doubleheader:
There are only six games on the docket in Major League Baseball today, and the Mets and Tigers will face off in two of them. After getting rained out on Tuesday and Wednesday, the two teams will play a doubleheader beginning this afternoon at 11:10 am CT. The second game will begin approximately 30 minutes after the first one wraps up. The Mets (0-4) have now been sitting on a winless record for several days, while the Tigers (4-0) are the only team left standing with a perfect record. Adrian Houser of the Mets and Casey Mize of the Tigers will take the mound in game one, while Detroit will bring up Matt Manning and New York will bring up José Buttó (per Mike Puma of the New York Post) as the 27th men to start game two.
Very Barry
Nothing like a little Casey Mize to cure the Mets hitting woes.
Liberalsteve
5 innings- 2 runs
Liberalsteve
Tigers have Manning,Jobe,Faedo, and Sawyer not in the starting 5 rotation and waiting in the wings? LOL. Watchout AL. You will not compete
JoeBrady
I don’t remember seeing a DH this early. And I believe this is a true DH so the Mets only get one gate out of it. Tough way to start the season.
lesterdnightfly
Going 0-4 and looking listless is also a tough way to start any season.
mike127
This is an obvious result of playing every team and even more so playing teams only one time. Forced into a doubleheader as they are actually making up two games from rain outs Tue and Wed. Today’s previous “open” date got gobbled up rather quickly.
Now being a real travel date, guess they want to get out of dodge sooner rather than scheduling a night game to prolong things.
filihok
Pointing out
Lamet closed the game for the Dodgers last night
Good decision by Roberts
Hudson, the better pitcher faced the order in the eighth
Lamer gets the save by facing lesser hitters at the end of the order
Well played
Hotdog 2
Muted
filihok
Hd2
Muted
Old York
I was watching the Twins-Brewers game yesterday and Alex Kirilloff was locked in.
5 PA
4 H
1 2B
1 3B
2 R
1 BB
AVG: 1.000
OBP: 1.000
SLG: 1.750
wOBA: 1.077
wRC+ 663
Gwynning
I appreciate your enthusiasm, York… but did you just give us a wRC+ # of ONE game? Haha, not making fun of you, I just can’t imagine a smaller sample size than that! Cheers bud, have a great day
Old York
@Gwynning
Yes, for one game, he was 563% better than the league average. One-Day HOF skill level! It’s reported on FG’s game log. So far, for the season, he’s 220 wRC+. Probably end up in the All Star Game on this pace…
dissentriot
seems there’s no antidote for mets’ anemic batting
paddyo furnichuh
I suspect trying to break up a double play could help. The Jomboy breakdown of Mets not looking competitive in attempting to make it hard for middle infielder (except Alonso) to turn the DP looks bad.
Bluntly, it’s hard to see NYM win 90 games until the org changes their philosophy on that strategy.