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It was the start of MLB’s official Rivalry Weekend on Thursday as the Houston Astros locked horns with the Texas Rangers in a phenomenal pitcher’s duel between two of the American League’s best. The rest of Rivalry Weekend begins on Friday. The Twins continued to roll, while the Orioles have dropped eight of their last 10 contests. Shohei Ohtani showed up big on his bobblehead night, of course, and after a two-homer performance, he is now tied for the MLB lead in that category.
To the action!
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Today’s Headlines
Twins Win 11th Straight Behind Paddack’s Seven-Inning Gem
Let’s begin with the winning streak.
The 2025 campaign didn’t start all that well for the Minnesota Twins and starting pitcher Chris Paddack. The Twins were 13-18 at the end of April. Since the calendar flipped to May, Minnesota is 11-2 after Thursday’s 4-0 shutout completed a three-game sweep of Baltimore. Make it 11 victories in a row for the 24-20 Twins, who saw their seven-year veteran toss seven scoreless innings with three hits allowed to earn his second W of the season.
Recall, in Paddack’s first start of 2025 against the White Sox, he allowed nine runs over 3.1 innings. In his last eight starts since that time, Paddack’s given up 12 runs over 43.1 frames and has seen his ERA go from 5.60 at the end of April down to 4.05 after Thursday’s outing.
Enough talk about the stellar Twins pitching. Let’s discuss their offense, which was good enough to put four runs on the board, including three in the third. Rookie DaShawn Keirsey Jr. and leadoff man Byron Buxton went back-to-back to give the Twins a 3-0 advantage.
However, in the bottom half of the same inning, there was a scare after Buxton and shortstop Carlos Correa collided on a pop-up in shallow center.
Correa left the contest immediately following the collision, while Buxton exited at the end of the third. Both players are on concussion protocol. I think it goes without saying that Minnesota would have preferred any other combo on their franchise to go down in that manner based solely on the fact that Buxton and Correa have been injury-prone for their entire careers. The good news is that neither appears to have sustained any serious injuries, and now it’s just the waiting game to see if they’ll be cleared for their next series in Milwaukee this weekend.
Minnesota added its fourth run in the seventh, and closer Jhoan Duran entered in a non-save situation in the ninth frame to finish off the last-place O’s.
Vintage Pitcher’s Duel in Texas
Speaking of winning streaks and good pitching, let’s head to Texas, where starting pitchers Jacob deGrom and Houston’s Hunter Brown went toe-to-toe in the first of four games between AL West rivals. I’m going to get the offense out of the way early since there literally was none to speak of other than a Jake Burger opposite field 394-foot solo shot in the sixth inning of a scoreless game.
The Burger long ball was one of only eight hits combined between the squads, thanks to the efforts of deGrom and Brown. Both pitchers went eight frames, and other than the sixth inning tater surrendered by Brown, no other runners crossed home plate as Texas earned a 1-0 win and increased its winning streak to six games (second current longest streak only to the aforementioned Twins).
The efficiency both starting pitchers showed was incredible to watch. deGrom needed only 96 pitches (69 for strikes) to get through eight innings, while Brown threw 91 pitches (65 for strikes) in his outing. Brown struck out nine, walked none, and allowed three knocks for the contest. Unfortunately, the 26-year-old right-hander took the loss despite arguably having a better statistical outing than his opponent. deGrom struck out seven, walked one, and yielded five hits to earn his fourth win of ’25. The eight innings pitched by the 36-year-old were the most he has thrown in a game since 2021. deGrom’s 2.29 ERA after this contest ranks 10th in MLB, while Brown’s improved to 1.43, good enough for third in all of baseball.
Both SPs are worthy of some highlight reels. Starting with the winner…
And to the worthy runner-up, Mr. Brown…
There will be no complaints from my end if we get more of these efficient pitching duels as the season progresses. The official time of the game was two hours and one minute. I hope the fans got their beer early.
Dodgers Dominate A’s For Series Win
From great pitching matchups to, shall we say, a not-so-great battle on the bump between the Dodgers and A’s.
It was Shohei Ohtani Bobblehead Night for Thursday’s rubber game, so who better than ‘Shotime’ himself to come up big when the fans gathered to celebrate him? Well, considering he clocked two homers and knocked in six runs, the answer is no one. However, that doesn’t mean no one else showed up to play for the Blue Crew on this day. The Dodgers hammered the A’s 19-2 on 18 hits, five of which were homers. Every player in the starting lineup had at least one knock.
Here are Ohtani’s two round-trippers.
At this point, the Dodgers were up 15-2, and Ohtani put himself in a tie with Kyle Schwarber and Aaron Judge for the MLB lead in homers with 15. Los Angeles wasn’t done. In the eighth, scorching-hot rookie second baseman Hyeseong Kim delivered a two-run double for his third hit of the contest.
Since being called up on May 3, the 26-year-old Kim has gone 12-for-28 at the plate with a .467 on-base percentage. Kim also scored four times and stole his third base of the season.
Third baseman Max Muncy collected four RBI and three hits, as well as his third homer of ’25 in the first inning to put his squad ahead 3-1 in what turned out to be the game winner.
Dodgers reliever Justin Wrobleski kept the A’s scoreless over the final four innings to secure his first win of the year. On the other side, A’s SP Osvaldo Bido took the L after surrendering six runs over 1.2 innings. Sadly, he wasn’t the worst arm on the Athletics in this one after Jason Alexander replaced Bido and gave up nine runs in 2.1 frames.
With the win, the Dodgers improved to 29-15 and have a one-game lead over San Diego in the NL West. The Dodgers will host the Angels for three contests this weekend. As for the A’s, the series loss dropped them to .500 and two games back of Seattle in the AL West. The Athletics will head north for Rivalry Weekend to take on another National League West squad, the San Francisco Giants.
Best Moments From Yesterday
Robert Jr. Unable to Take Homer Away From Fellow CF Benson
Usually, White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. makes potential catches like the following look routine. However, in Cincinnati’s 7-1 victory over Chicago on Thursday, Robert Jr. failed on what looked like an easy over-the-wall catch off the bat of Reds center fielder Will Benson.
The loss for Chicago snapped their modest three-game winning streak as the Reds avoided being swept at home by the American League’s worst team. Cincy’s starting pitcher Nick Martinez tossed seven scoreless frames for the W.
Ohtani Bobblehead Night
As mentioned, it was Shohei Ohtani Bobblehead Night in Los Angeles, and after his monster performance, I’ll take one of these Ohtani bobbleheads for my collection. Let me know if any of you reading this has an extra and needs it out of the house. Appreciated. Thank you.
Mr. 50/50.
It’s Shohei Ohtani Bobblehead Night presented by Toyo Tires! pic.twitter.com/nWNyexojWo
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 16, 2025
Congrats to Bochy
Bruce Bochy notched his 2,194th win as a manager, tying him with Sparky Anderson for the sixth most victories in MLB history. Bochy turned 70 in April and is managing in his 28th season. He’s been the skipper of three franchises in that time: the Padres, Giants, and now the Rangers. The four-time World Series champion is 132 wins behind Joe Torre for fifth on the list. Even though catching Connie Mack’s 3,731 victories to become the all-time winningest manager is probably out of the question, a congratulations for being this successful for this long is certainly in order. So, I’ll be one of many to say…Congrats, Bruce. Keep it up!
Continuing to move up the all-time ranks.
Congrats, Boch! #AllForTX pic.twitter.com/pGvcgjGXZP
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) May 16, 2025
Injuries and Other Moves
⚾ Atlanta sent outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Gwinnett, and on Thursday, he went 2-for-3 at the dish with a double. Acuna has been out of the big leagues since last May while recovering from a torn ACL. Atlanta hopes to have their 2023 MVP back by June 1.
⚾ The Rays swapped outfielders on Thursday by sending Travis Jankowski to the IL with a groin strain and recalling Josh Lowe (Grade 2 oblique strain) from the injured list. Lowe, who had last played on Opening Day, collected three knocks on Thursday, including his first homer of the year in the fifth inning of Tampa’s 8-3 rubber game victory over Toronto.
⚾ The Twins optioned Simeon Woods Richardson to Triple-A St. Paul after the right-hander surrendered six runs over four frames against Baltimore on Wednesday. Richardson is 2-2 with a 5.02 ERA across 37.2 innings pitched this season.
Articles You Should Read
One day after Pete Rose’s reinstatement, Cincinnati celebrates his life and career — C. Trent Rosecrans, The Athletic
How Pete Alonso’s plate discipline improved after his swing was ‘out of control’ in 2024 — Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic
Dodgers’ Sasaki unsure if velocity dip tied to shoulder issue — Alden Gonzalez, espn.com
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