As the 2025 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:
1. Ragans nursing groin issue:
The Royals swept their doubleheader against the Rockies yesterday, but the pair of wins came at a cost when southpaw Cole Ragans was pulled from his start after just three innings due to left groin tightness. The lefty is set to undergo additional testing today to determine the severity of the issue, at which point we’ll likely know more about if he’s going to miss significant time or be back on the mound in relatively short order. Ragans has pitched to a lackluster 4.40 ERA across his six starts this season, but the underlying metrics look phenomenal nonetheless as he’s struck out 35.9% of his opponents while walking just 7.0%, leaving him with a 2.69 FIP. That wouldn’t be easy production to replace at the front of the rotation, though Luinder Avila and Noah Cameron are in Triple-A and already on the 40-man roster as potential depth options.
2. Will the Mets’ streak continue?
The Mets have won seven games in a row, giving them an 18-7 record overall that’s good for the best in baseball. They hold a relatively commanding five-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East currently that’s all the more impressive given the early point in the calendar, and at 6:45pm local time this evening they’ll go for eight straight wins when they take on the Nationals. Right-hander Kodai Senga will be on the mound and looking to build upon a brilliant first four starts this year during which he’s posted a 0.79 ERA and a 2.89 FIP while striking out 23% of his opponents. Opposite Senga on the mound will be Nationals righty Jake Irvin, who has offered D.C. solid mid-to-back of the rotation results so far with a slightly above-average 3.68 ERA across five starts but a somewhat lackluster 4.66 FIP in 29 1/3 innings of work.
3. Pitchers’ duel in Los Angeles:
A match-up between two of the league’s top starters is always intriguing, but tonight’s game between the Pirates and Dodgers in L.A. figures to stand out even among other potential pitchers’ duels. At 7:10pm local time, Dodgers righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto will take the mound opposite Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes. The two most talented rookie pitchers in all of baseball last year are now emerging among the early potential front-runners for this year’s NL Cy Young award. Yamamoto has put the shoulder injury that cost him much of his debut season entirely behind him as he’s posted a microscopic 0.93 ERA in five starts, pairing it with a 2.02 FIP and 35.2% strikeout rate. Skenes, meanwhile, is building on last year’s dominant NL Rookie of the Year campaign with a 2.87 ERA, a 2.00 FIP, and 25.4% strikeout rate in his own five starts to this point in the season.
Dodgers and Pirates game is worth staying up for tonight. Can’t get much of a better pitching match up then that.
The kid with the Skenes debut card chose wisely.
I don’t think it was much of a choice for most of us.
That mets lab is remarkable & full of magic & sorcery . Careers have risen from the dead. Its unbelievable
As someone who has only been able to follow the Mets by the crawl on MLB Network, it seems as if re-signing Alonso was a good move. Yes or no?
The fact that 29 tms didnt so much as offer him a dime is a crime. Now he’s gonna cash in big time. Hopefully mets keep him bc vladdy’s no longer an option & clearly pete is perfect in queens. I never doubted it for a second, and was sad when he remained a FA so long & thrilled when mets resigned him
I’m not a gracious person, I’m petty and I hold grudges so I won’t let the fact that it’s only been 0.15% of the season stop me from pointing out that 9/10 people here said Mets pitching was doomed from game 1 through 162
Cubs have shown they can beat anybody.
PiazzaParty:
Yes, thank you. I remember all those absurd comments that the Mets pitching is horrible. I could certainly accept if people were saying the Mets pitching was average and maybe they were off the mark and it’s better than that. However, the comments were absolutely ridiculous and not based in reality when some of these guys have had recent successful track records. Also, we saw what the Mets did last year with guys off the scrapheap so they deserved the benefit of the doubt.
They told me I was an idiot for saying they were top 10.
Miken31: And Manea hasn’t even pitched yet (right?).
nor has Montas or Blackburn.
0.15% of the season would be about 2 innings.
“0.15% of the season would be about 2 innings.”
This explains a lot about the general competency of the people here
While I am currently still correct about:
1) the Dodgers’ 10 (now 12) stupid contracts
2) Bryce Harper playing OF or 3B is still an easier fix for Philly than anything they have tried/will try
3) Trade Tanner Houck for anything except OF
4) Trade Triston Casas for pitching
I will take 3 slices of petty pie for saying that the Mets’ pitching wasn’t enough. Cheers
I’ll definitely watch it, but it’s not the best of matchups.
Yama is the much better pitcher right now, and the Dodgers have the much better offense.
If skenes is on point none of that will matter
Every skenes game is a pitchers duel with the pirates offense being so bad
At least the finally sent suwinski packing he was awful
Come summer fans at PNC Park will miss the cool breeze that floats through the park three times a game when Swingandamisski fans on consecutive pitches.
Over their last 10 games, the Pirates have hit .284/.349/.419 and their ..768 OPS has been the Sixth (6th) best in MLB.
Rich – When using such small sample sizes, it’s important to look beyond the numbers.
Over the last 10 games the Pirates have played:
3 games vs LAA, the 6th-worst pitching in MLB
3 games vs Cle, the 16th-worst pitching in MLB
4 games vs Wash, the 4th-worst pitching in MLB
The opponents matter.
Skenes has a 2.00 FIP. Nobody on the planet is a “much better” pitcher than Skenes right now.
Ok, Bob Nutting.
How about Yamamoto’s ERA, strikeouts, earned runs, hits allowed, H/9, K/9, batters hit by pitch, and win-loss record compared to Skenes “right now”?
Skenes is the one pitcher I would pay to watch pitch.
Rich – The Pirates OAA is actually better than the Dodgers, how about that! Pirates are 10th in MLB, the Dodgers are 19th.
Liberatore has a better FIP than Skenes, does that mean he’s better than Skenes?
BTW – Yama’s FIP is 2.02, so what’s your point?
It will be 1968 all over again, with a 1-0, Gibson-Perry final score!
Lord – I remember that game, I crapped my pants watching it live ….. although I think I did that every day as a toddler back then.
Anyone else ever noticed that Chandler Bing had a Blue Jays hat on his desk?
Stein – Yes, his real life Mom is not only Canadian but was the press secretary for Pierre Trudeau … and Matthew had dual citizenship.
Cole Ragans’ 35.9% K-rate and 2.36 SIERA are carving up the AL.