Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz drew a walk against right-hander Michael Wacha in the fourth inning of Wednesday’s game. The free pass pushed his streak to 18 games with a walk. Kurtz is now tied with Barry Bonds for the third-longest run since 1900 (h/t Martin Gallegos of MLB.com). Ted Williams is next on the list at 19 games.
1. Dominguez leaves after HBP
Yankees outfielder Jasson Dominguez was knocked out of Wednesday’s contest after taking a Nathan Eovaldi cutter to the elbow. He was replaced by Max Schuemann in left field. Dominguez underwent initial X-rays and is now headed back to New York for more imaging, per Erik Boland of Newsday Sports. It’s a tough blow for the former top prospect, who has struggled to gain his footing as a big leaguer. The returns of Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham this offseason helped push Dominguez off the Opening Day roster. An injury to Giancarlo Stanton afforded him another opportunity with the big-league squad. He was recalled on Monday and started all three games against Texas. Dominguez went 1-for-9 before the elbow injury.
2. Dobbins activation Thursday
Cardinals right-hander Hunter Dobbins is expected to be activated for a start today. The 26-year-old is making his way back from a torn ACL and has been on the 15-day IL all year so far. Dobbins came over from the Red Sox in the Willson Contreras trade, along with prospects Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita. He was solid in his first taste of the majors with Boston, delivering a 4.13 ERA across 13 appearances (11 starts). St. Louis moved several veteran players in the offseason, bringing back a slew of prospects. Dobbins will be the first of the group to debut with the club. The Cardinals have been more competitive than expected this year, but finding out what they have in the players acquired last winter will be a key storyline to watch as the season unfolds.
3. Palencia could return without rehab
The Cubs’ banged-up bullpen could get back a key piece on Friday. Closer Daniel Palencia has a chance to return for the series against the Diamondbacks, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. The righty has been sidelined with what was initially labeled an oblique injury, then was updated to a lat strain. Chicago is also missing Hunter Harvey, Caleb Thielbar, Ethan Roberts, and Riley Martin. Porter Hodge is done for the year. Phil Maton returned this week after missing time with a knee injury. Manager Craig Counsell has mixed and matched in the ‘pen with Palencia out. It was lefty Hoby Milner who recorded the final out on Wednesday against the Padres. He’s the fifth different Cubs reliever to pick up a save this season.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images
So who is ahead of Ted Williams at #1?
Come on Charlie you dropped ball (pun intended tee hee)…..
I thought everybody knew it was Roy Cullenbine in 1947.
gbs – Can’t tell if serious, but thank you for the info!
FPG, I had no idea until I clicked on the link at the top of the article.
Definitely sucks for Jasson. I’d have to think any IL time would bring up Jones, though Volpe needs activating as well so that might be the simplest solution, have him DH for now. Cabby can also spell the OF’s as well.
Have the guy who cant hit DH? Why?
doesnt sound too good for jasson if he got x rays but needs more imaging…
spencer jones, welcome to the majors finally! 1st game prediction: 4 at bats, 4 strikeouts. 2nd game prediction: 2 home runs, 1 stolen base. 3rd game prediction: 4 at bats, 4 strikeouts
4th game: huge three way collision with Error in Judgement and the Giant Carlo Stand In resulting in an earthquake that destroys Yankee Stadium.
I’m looking forward to the double header today and the top 150 Pipeline draft release
Astros – What are your thoughts on the upcoming weekend series? Pitching matchups?
The Astros haven’t named a single starter for the series and the Sox haven’t named on for Friday night’s game. I imagine Burrows and Arrighetti will go in two of the Games for Houston and there’s talk that either Sonny Gray will be activated tomorrow or Bennett called up for a spot start
RSox – Gray isn’t eligible to return until May 6th.
15-day IL, not 10-day.
We swept ya’ll last time, and as an Astro fan, I want the Astros to go 6-0 against Boston this year. I know that a Red Sox fan won’t want it. We’re currently losing to Baltimore 5-0. I still don’t know much about the series. I’ll have a follow up comment later.
Astros – Are you sure about that score? I’m showing it’s only 5-1 right now.
If the ‘Stros win today, they will have an identical record to the Red Sox. LOL
I just saw the O’s hit their 2nd grand slam of the game. I’m sad. It’s 10-3 at the time of posting this comment.
Astros – For the record, I don’t want Paredes ;O)
Me and my fanbase has lost total hope. I don’t know if we’ll win 62 games (and I’m not the most pessimistic one). I don’t know if Boston’s fanbase is optimistic or pessimistic.
So, I hope I don’t offend you, but both of our teams should be selling.
Astros – No offense at all, it certainly is looking that way for the Red Sox too. I’m gonna hold out hope for another month though, only because the league is so bad and I’m hoping Tracy will create a spark with the team.
I haven’t followed your team close enough to have an opinion, but don’t you have a few important injured players returning?
“I haven’t followed your team close enough to have an opinion, but don’t you have a few important injured players returning?”
Totally okay if you haven’t followed the Astros close enough to have an opinion (I haven’t either with Boston). Pena is nearing a rehab assignment, Imai is coming back soon, Zach Dezenzo is also coming back soon and will be a better bench option than a lot of our current bench guys. I saw a Red Sox poll on Over The Monster, and I’m signing in just to vote for that poll. It says it RSox win 1, 2, sweep, or Astros sweep. I want Red Sox to get swept, you want it the other way around.
Fangraphs’ projected starters are Mike Burrows vs William Bennett (I thought it was Jake Bennett, maybe I’m wrong, or Fangraphs is wrong, or it’s something I don’t know about), Arrighetti vs Early, and Teng vs Suarez. After that we will face Yamamoto, Ohtani, and Glasnow (the worst possible combination)
Look at the pitching stats. Reliever and starter wise, we are last place in ERA, WHIP, and BB/9. Our fielding isn’t good either, though this is a good offense. The pitching is so bad that even if we had the best offense in MLB, getting to .500 is questionable.
For ya’ll, it looks like the rotation and offense are struggling, while the bullpen is average. Your fielding looks great.
fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/astros
PS: You should be able to see Boston’s by clicking the BOS.
Astros – Hate to break it to you, but Early & Suarez are by far our two best SP’s. I fully expect the Sox to take two, especially with it being in Fenway.
Let me know what you think of the Sox uniforms tomorrow, they’ve won 7 Friday night games in them – all walkoffs, how about that!
Well, we’ve lost some walk offs in the most excruciating ways possible. We got to Suarez last time, but he’s probably in a better rhythm. Early is the one I’m worried about. Hey, Arrighetti is our best SP. Mike Burrows is eating innings, nothing else.
I’ll let you know about the Red Sox uniforms tomorrow. I’m pretty sure the Astros are in their orange or gray (I don’t follow their uniform color). Almost everyone here on MLBTR would know what they are.
I said I wanted the Astros to sweep (obviously), but really I think we’ll only win one (Arrighetti’s start). But he’s going against Early, so… Burrows shouldn’t be too bad so if we can get on Bennett than it’ll be fine. I don’t want to ruin a guy’s MLB debut, but sometimes it’s tougher than others.
Arrighetti vs Early is probably the most competitive matchup. We’ll probably go with an opener (Teng) against Suarez. Teng goes around 50-60 pitches? Maybe more, that’s just my guess. An opener every five to six days with the worst bullpen in major league baseball sounds like a great plan. I know, I know, I know.
I won’t predict Arrighetti vs Early, but I think we’ll win the first one, you guys will win the third one. Or who knows, maybe you’ll walk off all three games (hopefully not). Or maybe we’ll blow you out all three games. Baseball is unpredictable.
Astros – The key to beating Early is getting to him early (no pun intended). He tends to throw a lot of pitches, gets into trouble, then pitches his way out of it. So if you run up the pitch count he should be gone by the 5th.
Ranger is just a beast. Twice in the past 3 games he pitched 8 shutout innings, giving up a combined 3 hits in the 16 innings. ‘Stros were lucky to face him early, he wasn’t prepared for the season coming out of ST (thanks to Cora).
The Martian got hit by an asteroid.
Half the Cubs pitchers are injured and out so sure why not have our CP return without any rehab