Rays third baseman Junior Caminero seems to have avoided serious injury after fouling a ball off his face on Tuesday. He reached for a Tanner Bibee breaking ball and nicked it, sending it straight down. The ball careened off the plate and struck Caminero in the jaw (h/t Talkin’ Baseball for the video). He was able to finish the at-bat, but was removed on defense.
1. Pitcher-only Ohtani deals again
For the second time this season, Shohei Ohtani did not hit in a game he pitched. The right-hander fired six innings of one-run ball against the Marlins. After reaching six innings just four times last year (including the playoffs), Ohtani has completed six frames in all five starts so far. The outing against Miami actually raised his ERA from 0.38 to 0.60. Ohtani was pitching on regular rest for the first time this season, which was part of the reason he wasn’t in the hitting lineup. “I’m always going to respect the decision regardless whether I’m pitching or doing both,” Ohtani told reporters through an interpreter (h/t Alden Gonzalez of ESPN). “I also understand the importance of getting to the end of the season with everybody healthy.”
2. Yankees pitching prospect to make debut
Right-hander Elmer Rodriguez is expected to be promoted for his MLB debut against the Rangers on Wednesday. The 22-year-old is among the top pitching prospects in New York’s system. Rodriguez came over from the Red Sox in the Carlos Narvaez trade. Boston has already reaped the rewards of the deal, with Narvaez developing into a viable everyday backstop. Now it’s the Yankees’ turn to find out how they fared in the trade. Rodriguez climbed from High-A all the way to Triple-A in 2025. He’s delivered a 1.27 ERA across four starts with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season.
3. Mattingly off to 1-0 start
The Phillies cruised to a shutout win over the Giants behind seven strong innings from Jesus Luzardo. It’s the first victory for interim manager Don Mattingly, who took over after Rob Thomson was fired on Tuesday. Mattingly is now 10 wins shy of reaching 900 victories as a big-league manager. He led the Dodgers to five straight winning seasons from 2011 to 2015. Los Angeles won three consecutive division titles in that stretch, but postseason success eluded the club. Mattingly’s run with the Marlins wasn’t as successful. Miami finished above .500 just once during his seven seasons in charge, and that was the shortened 2020 campaign. Mattingly will be tasked with turning around a Philadelphia squad that is currently tied with the Mets for the worst record in baseball.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
There’s already an ERod, what should we go with? ElRod?
How he performs in the majors could further tarnish Breslow’s legacy.
We need more elrods!
Remember all those top tier prospects the Marlins got under Mattingly? Wonder how many all star appearances they have combined.
So they created that rule for him where he can start and remain in the game as a DH but now he’s not hitting in games he’s pitching?
MLB working on a new rule when Ohtani pitches. Ohtani will be allowed to pocket the ABs and get extra ABs in other games during the rest of the week. Dont worry, every team will be allowed to do though, they just have to develop an Ohtani really fast to use it, the rule goes away when Ohtani stops pitching or is traded from the Dodgers.
Just because a rule exists does not mean he has to take advantage of it every game. Staying healthy for the postseason is obviously more important to him and the Dodgers.
Dodgers are so good they can sandbag all season. MLB should be embarrassed
Red Sox trades from a pitching surplus in the minors to acquire a starting catcher, which the team desperately needed.
Yankees traded from a catcher surplus, and acquire a quality young arms.
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It looks like both teams won.
Haha! Signed Braves fan
Edouard Julien is out to a great start for the Rockies, the Rockies traded Jace Kaminska for Edouard Julien and Pierson Ohl this off-season, Ohl out for the year but Julien is in the starting lineup everyday and leading off and hitting .303/.393/.449 – a candidate for Comeback Player of the Year.
Three early Cy Young candidates took the ball last night. DeGrom and Schlittler faced off in Texas, DeGrom takes the tough luck loss. Schlittler has pitched above most expectations and is a force in the Yankees rotation.
Ohtani kept pace firing 6.0IP of one-run baseball. No run support last night, Janson Junk and the Marlins bullpen shut the Dodgers down. Ohtani also a tough-lick loser on the night. Clay Holmes and Chase Burns both had nice starts and are both contenders early.
How about Davis Martin? Moved his record to 4-1 with: 5.2IP 7H 0HR 1ER 7K 1BB
Last but not least, Nick Martinez and the Rays continue to roll. Martinez has been as good early and the Rays have won six games in a row.