City of Angel

Angel Martínez (CLE): 1-4, HR, 2 R, RBI, 2 SB.

Angel Martínez continued his strong start to the season, going 1 for 4 with his 7th homer of the season. He also stole two bases, giving him eight on the season, while being caught only two times. Martinez led off the game for the Guardians against Reid Detmers by golfing a slider below the zone 378 feet to left field. Martinez has been feasting on soft stuff from pitchers all season, hitting .336 and slugging .570 against non-fastballs. Martinez later reached on an error, then stole second and third off the Detmers/Sebastián Rivero battery. Jose Ramirez also stole two bases in this one, as Rivero has now caught only 7 of 39 attempted steals across the equivalent of roughly 37 full games behind the plate.

Martinez has been succeeding this year through exceptional contact ability. He’s made contact on 94.1% of swings in the zone and on 73.2% of chase swings. He’s had strong contact skills in all three of his major league seasons, but he’ll need to maintain them to keep up his .260/.300/.473 line for the rest of the season since his plate discipline isn’t doing him any favors. Martinez’s chase rate has crept up each year he’s been in the majors, now sitting at just over 40%, while he swings at only 64% of pitches inside the zone. His spot in the lineup is secure, however, with Statcast loving his defense (80th percentile in fielding runs), although DRS is still skeptical. With his main competition for playing time, CJ Kayfus and George Valera, both scuffling in the majors, Martinez looks like someone you can count on for power and speed, even if there’s a bit of a cost in batting average.

Let’s see how the other hitters did Wednesday

Mickey Moniak (COL): 3-5, 2B, 3B, HR, R, 5 RBI.

Moniak continues to surprise, this time combining with the rest of the Rockies offense to exact payback on Mitch Keller for what Paul Skenes did to them a day earlier. Moniak was celebrating his birthday yesterday and finished the day a single short of the cycle. He really should have had the cycle—he struck out in the first, but hit a 107.9 MPH line drive in the fourth, which was caught despite a .690 hit probability. His hits were all struck at 101 MPH or harder, and mostly came off non-fastballs, which have been his weakness in 2025 and 2026.

Byron Buxton (MIN): 2-4, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB.

Buxton did all of his work at the start of the game, hitting solo home runs in the first and third innings off Max Meyer. By the time Buxton came back up to the plate in the 5th, the game was already mostly over with the Twins trailing 8-2. Buxton is whiffing more and walking less than just about ever before, but when you barrel the ball 20% of the time, you can still be highly effective. Buxton is making such hard contact that, despite his elevated swing and miss, he’s still getting a barrel in over 13% of plate appearances, a rate which leads the majors.

TJ Rumfield (COL): 3-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, RBI.

Rumfield’s solo homer capped off a strong night for the first baseman. It came off a 96 MPH fastball from Brandan Bidois which could not have gotten any more of the plate. Rumfield turned on it and launched it 415 feet to right field, leaving town at 106 MPH. Rumfield also had two hard-hit balls earlier in the game, line drives at 98.8 MPH for a single and 102.5 MPH for a double. Rumfield is making the most out of his opportunity with the Rockies. Since May 1st, he’s hitting 3rd or 4th every day and has put up a .317/.364/.561 line, raising his overall season line to .277/.339/.452.

Daulton Varsho (TOR): 1-4, HR, R, 4 RBI, BB.

Varsho ended the game for the Blue Jays with a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning. Coming to the plate down 3-1, Varsho chased a 2-2 fastball which was out of the zone up and away. He made solid contact, though, driving the ball to the opposite field at 98.5 MPH and just hard enough to clear the left field wall. It looks a bit like Varsho has given up the power gains he showed last year, but at least part of that is the Blue Jays’ injury issues forcing him to see more lefties than usual. He’s up to 42 plate appearances vs lefties already this season after only 56 in all of 2025.

Daylen Lile (WSN): 2-4, HR, R, 3 RBI, SB.

Lile won this one for the Nationals with a two-run homer in the 10th inning off interim Reds closer Tony Santillan. Lile crushed an inside-corner slurve 105.8 MPH to right field to put the Nationals up 8-6. The Nationals needed both runs, as Spencer Steer nearly tied the game in the bottom of the inning—despite a Reds fan trying to help the ball over the fence, Steer was sent back to second and stranded there. Lile’s other RBI came on a sacrifice fly in the 2nd inning, another hard-hit ball that left the bat at 102.2 MPH. Lile also chipped in his third steal of the year on six attempts. It’s worth paying attention to whether the new Nationals regime continues letting him run – they’ve already shut down teammate Jacob Young’s opportunities after he was only successful in 58% of his attempts last year.

Bobby Witt, Jr. (KCR): 1-3, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB.

Witt and the rest of the Royals made most of their progress by walking against a wild Noah Schultz yesterday. It wasn’t sufficient, though, as they entered the 9th down 6-3. Witt closed the gap to 6-5 by demolishing a middle-up sweeper from Seranthony Domínguez that didn’t look like it swept much at all. Witt’s other batted ball was a hard-hit groundout in the first before he walked in the 4th and 5th innings and struck out against Jordan Hicks in the 7th. There’s not much to say about Witt other than that he’s fantastic and deserves more help from the rest of the Royals offense. The Royals are heating up, though, ranking 7th in MLB with a 114 wRC+ over their past 22 games (half of their season so far).

Colson Montgomery (CHW): 3-4, HR, 2 R, RBI.

Montgomery continues to hit the ball hard when he hits it. Following a first inning strikeout, Montgomery singled in the third inning at 106 MPH. He reached on another single in the 5th, this time off a soft liner, but smoked John Schreiber’s first pitch of the game 110.3 MPH to right for the decisive run in the White Sox’s 6-5 victory. Montgomery has put about 27% of his batted balls in the air to the pull side in his career, well above the MLB average. The issue in his profile is swing and miss, ranking in the 4th percentile for whiffs in MLB this year. Even so, the start of Montgomery’s career looks like the good Jake Burger seasons, except with excellent defense at shortstop. A little development on cutting his whiffs, and the White Sox could have a star.

Adley Rutschman (BAL): 1-3, HR, R, 3 RBI.

Rutschman had a soft groundout in the first inning before a hard-hit sacrifice fly in the third. He then turned on a middle-middle cutter from Paul Blackburn in the 5th inning, muscling the ball out to right. He may have had some assistance from Spencer Jones as the ball hit Jones’s glove and just barely cleared the wall. Adley didn’t think it was gone off the bat, hanging his head as he ran to first, but it may have been – Jones is a giant and Rutschman’s fly would have left 26 of 30 MLB parks. Rutschman has been great to start the season, with last night’s game raising his season line to .291/.339/.553.

Luke Raley (SEA): 2-3, HR, R, RBI.

Raley continued his torrid early season with two well-struck balls and a strikeout against Lance McCullers Jr. before getting lifted for a pinch-hitter when the Astros brought in a lefty. Raley’s first at-bat resulted in a 104.7 MPH single off McCullers in the 2nd inning before striking out in the 4th inning. He chased McCullers in the 6th inning, though, lifting an outside-corner breaking ball a few rows deep into the Crawford boxes. Raley’s homer could have brought rain – despite leaving the bat at 102.2 MPH, it only traveled 356 feet due to a 36 degree launch angle. Raley is barreling over 22% of his batted balls this season, but his extreme 36.1% strikeout rate and platoon role caps some of his upside. Still, you want him in your lineup whenever the Mariners are facing a string of righties.

Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire | Featured image by Ethan Kaplan (@djfreddie10.bsky.social on Blue Sky and @EthanMKaplanImages on Instagram)