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It’s probably not exactly news to anybody reading this that the Colorado Rockies are having a bad year. They’re rocking a .163 winning percentage and -157 run differential. -157! But they’re within a dozen games of tying some truly wretched history:
They must go 5-7 over their next 12 games to beat the 1899 Cleveland Spiders record at the point when teams started refusing to travel to play the Spiders.
I would have to imagine teams will keep flying out to Denver for their free wins, but when you’re chasing down 1899 Cleveland Spiders equivalencies, something has to give. Even Coors isn’t that scary in the early going this year!
Starting pitchers are 32/49 (65%) in quality starts against the Rockies this season. They have quality starts in just 35% of starts against every other team.
— Chris Towers is a small sample size All-Star (@cptowers.bsky.social) 2025-05-22T06:19:53.311Z
Nick’s talked about it in the SP Streamer notes, as well. It’s still a weird feeling to be running out your middling arms in the Mile High City.
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Today’s Headlines
A True Unicorn
It was something of a slugfest down in Tampa on Wednesday, as the Rays took down the Astros by a final score of 8-4. Hunter Brown had his first bad start of the year, going only 5.2 innings (tied for his shortest appearance with a far better outcome in Cincinatti back on May 9th) while giving up seven hits and two walks to total up five runs (all earned) with only four strikeouts to go along with it. His opposite number had a far better day, as Taj Bradley got the dub with a six-inning appearance, giving up only four hits and two walks, two runs (both earned), and a nice heaping helping of seven strikeouts.
But like I said, a slugfest, which means we’re really here to watch some hitters go to work. It was actually Houston who got onto the board first, with an Isaac Paredes homer that was pulled, but not that much?!
Paredes on a tear!#BuiltForThis pic.twitter.com/jj37iei6i8
— Houston Astros (@astros) May 21, 2025
That’s 407 feet! It’s a dinger in 30 out of 30 parks!
The Rays tied the game up in the bottom of the first on a string of walks and singles, plus a pair of errors by Mauricio Dubón. It wasn’t until the bottom of the fourth that they got in on the power parade, with Curtis Mead hitting his first round tripper of the season:
Im-mead-iate lead ✔️ pic.twitter.com/E6vlQBy05g
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 21, 2025
In the bottom of the fifth, both Josh Lowe and Brandon Lowe went back-to-back. How Lowe can you go indeed.
First home homer for the homie Josh pic.twitter.com/DGrLtZmDRu
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 21, 2025
Bamm-Bamm Wham pic.twitter.com/N2GP8gf2Lg
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 21, 2025
I want to pause for a minute to talk about that Brandon HR, because it’s a true unicorn. A 1/30 dinger that would only go out at GMS field. Which is strange, since isn’t it supposed to have the same dimensions as Yankee Stadium? Well, it does…but the field isn’t actually level, which means the walls in Tampa are lower:
Steinbrenner Field and Yankee Stadium are very similar in park configuration, and both fences are ~8 feet above groundThere is one very big difference: relative to HOME PLATE, outfield fence is about 2 FEET lower in Tampa than NYYou see, the ground is not perfectly level across 400 feet
Lowe’s wasn’t the first 1/30 this year, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but it has the lowest xBA so far, at a mere .010. And every 1/30 this year for GMS (I guess not every 1/30 can be hit there, but let’s be real) is different from your usual Yankee Stadium porch job in that in 2026, that ball will no longer be a homer anywhere. Every Rays home 1/30 this year will be a guaranteed flyout next year when they move back into a real MLB stadium.* That’s something you don’t see every season.
But anyway, back to the dingers. Houston clawed back to within one run on a pair of eighth inning homers, first from Dubón:
Dubi with a solo shot! pic.twitter.com/6lSbgQlYIb
— Houston Astros (@astros) May 21, 2025
Followed by Paredes leaving the yard for his second of the day:
ISAAC PAREDES ARE YOU KIDDING#BuiltForThis pic.twitter.com/zak4avWgmF
— Houston Astros (@astros) May 21, 2025
That homer? Also 407 feet and a 30/30. Baseball.
It was up to Yandy Díaz to put the game out of reach in the bottom half of the inning with a three-run home run to dead center:
Yandy's ball has left the chat pic.twitter.com/ixNCVyrQNi
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 21, 2025
That Yandy dinger? Wouldn’t have been one in AZ, but that’s because of their arbitrary painted line across the outfield which I simply will not respect.
*I mean, The Trop technically meets that criteria. And I guess there’s a chance that Sternberg loves his Steinbrenner experience so much he replicates it perfectly.
.500 With A Bang
We might as well stick with our Hitter List vibe, right? The Blue Jays are only rolling with a two-game winning streak, but they’re 6-4 over their last ten games, which brings them up to 24-24 on the year (good enough for second place in the AL East, 5.0 games back of the Yankees.) They hit that .500 mark with aplomb on Wednesday with a 14-0 win over the Padres. The Dads bats were stifled by Kevin Gausman, to the tune of 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, and 9 Ks. But pitching doesn’t hang 14 runs on the board, does it?
Well, there wasn’t much offense for the first four innings overall, as both teams traded zeroes on the board. Then in the fifth, Nathan Lukes put the Jays on the board with a two-run homer:
Daulton Varsho's GRAND SLAM makes its 12-0 @BlueJays 🤯 pic.twitter.com/XTrg2lRzPq
— MLB (@MLB) May 22, 2025
The Blue Jays will look to complete the sweep on Thursday afternoon and get themselves truly back above water in the W-L sense.
Jonesing For A Full Recovery
In news that isn’t particularly surprising, but still bums me out, the Pirates officially announced that Jared Jones had elbow surgery on Wednesday:
RHP Jared Jones underwent right elbow surgery today in Dallas by Dr. Keith Meister. The procedure performed was a repair to the UCL. A projected return to full competition in 10-12 months.
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@pirates.com) 2025-05-21T18:57:30.184Z
The upshot here is that 10-12 month “full competition” recovery means that Jones probably just needed an internal brace procedure, rather than a full replacement TJS. That timeframe obviously means (assuming all goes well) we should see him back on the mound before the All-Star Break in 2026, rather than having to most likely wait for a 2027 return as I think we all expected. Here’s to a quick and uneventful recovery!
Best Moments From Yesterday
Jasson Dongminguez
The Yankees had the misfortune of running into dang near vintage Jacob deGrom on Wednesday night, who threw seven innings of two-run ball with nine strikeouts. His fastball averaged 97.7 mph, his slider 89 mph, and his changeup was absolutely disgusting. I was at the game and you could just tell from the swings any lefty was unfortunate enough to put on it.
But it was the Yankees, and lefty-hitting Jasson Domínguez who had the last laugh:
The Martian walks it off 👽#RepBX pic.twitter.com/OWBXbudmis
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 22, 2025
I appreciate that Paul O’Neill was so deep in his story that he just changed the excitement in his voice rather than cut himself off.
You Can’t Spell Catcher Without HR
Ok, so this is a very offense-heavy installation of the News & Moments You Should Know, isn’t it? Well too bad, because check out this opposite field blast from Salvador Pérez:
The Captain goes oppo! 🫡 pic.twitter.com/YwKzFgZrWu
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) May 21, 2025
While an opposite field homer in SF is impressive in its own right, especially off of Logan Webb, but that’s Salvy’s 276th homer, moving him into sole possession of 5th place in catcher HRs in AL history. Oh, and that was one of sixteen hits the Royals got against the Giants yesterday.
The Homer…The Homer…
Oh you thought the dingers were done? Never!
https://twitter.com/Athletics/status/1925397676155445419
https://twitter.com/Athletics/status/1925407241630621923
That’s 866 feet of Nick Kurtz dinger, although the Angels walked away with the win in the end.
Injuries and Other Moves
⚾ The Astros have sent Ronel Blanco back to Houston for evaluation due to elbow soreness. Keep an eye out for any news from said evaluation. While Houston waits for word, they are seemingly planning to keep Colton Gordon in the rotation.
⚾ Anthony Santander left Wednesday’s game due to hip inflammation. Manager John Schneider made the move sound like a precautionary move, and Santander is considered DTD at this point.
⚾ Nationals’ OF Dylan Crews is going on the 10-day IL due to an oblique strain. They’re also calling up Robert Hassell III to presumably fill his spot on the roster.
⚾ In some good news, Seattle has scheduled George Kirby to be back on the mound Thursday versus Houston.
⚾ The O’s have reinstated Andrew Kittredge from the IL, where he was dealing with knee soreness, and optioned Chayce McDermott in the corresponding move.
⚾ The Giants will be without Justin Verlander for at least 15 days as he heads to the IL with a pectoral injury.
⚾ Jean Segura has announced he’s hanging up his spikes.
Articles You Should Read
The Park Factors Are in the Pudding – Kiri Oler, FanGraphs
Bring Back The Shift – Russell A. Carleton, Baseball Prospectus (sub req’d)
Fantasy Baseball Coverage
