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MLB News & Moments You Should Know: 5/8/2025

A Double Double-Dinger Day and Some Slick Glovework

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 5/8/2025

Stay updated on everything baseball with our morning MLB News & Moments articles. We’ve got you covered to keep you in the know.

Wednesday was a great day because, despite a terrible, no good outcome to my softball game, I discovered a very good taco place just a couple of blocks away, and you gotta take your wins where you can get them. Well, the tacos and also all the rad baseball we all get to watch. There’s even some bonus cross-sport content below, although those of you tuning in from Boston may have to look away. But first, let’s all take a moment to appreciate Zach Agnos‘ moustache.

Incredibly solid work, I would definitely trust him to close out my baseball games.

Don’t forget to watch every game with the Pitcher List community on Playback!

 

Today’s Headlines

 

New York Groove…

It was a good day for New York sports teams on Wednesday. The Mets got things started in the afternoon with a 7-1 win over the Diamondbacks down in Arizona, where Kodai Senga set the pace from the mound, throwing six innings of shutout ball, although he walked five to go with four strikeouts. His ghost fork wasn’t particularly effective, generating only five swings and a mere two whiffs. Thankfully, the whole arsenal stifled any hard contact from Arizona, as he only gave up six hard-hit balls over the course of the outing. His scoreless outing was helped along by an incredible relay from left field in the second inning:

But you can’t score seven runs thanks to good pitching, and while Merrill Kelly kept the Mets off the board until the sixth inning, the runs came fast and consistently from that point on. The scoring was opened by none other than Juan Soto, with a towering shot out to center field:

In the seventh, it was Luisangel Acuña and Jeff McNeil adding a run each, although on less thunderous hits:

 

In the top of the eighth inning, Soto made it a double-dinger day, going opposite field for another solo shot:

In the top of the ninth, it was Francisco Lindor adding another pair of runs with a double:

And a Soto sac fly accounted for the final Mets run of the day.

…By Ace Friedly

The Yankees, meanwhile, didn’t get started until the sun was setting, and they had a considerably tougher time of things overall. The Padres were in town, and Dylan Cease was through 6.1 no-hit innings. Jackson Merrill had given him a one-run lead in the fourth inning on a home run that I think Max Fried may have suspected was gone right off the bat:

I do have to say that despite Cease getting the headlines with the no-hitter going into the seventh, Fried was no slouch either. His final line: 7 IP, 5 hits, 1 run (earned), no walks, and 8 strikeouts. His ERA on the season, with 51.2 innings pitched, is 1.05.

And when the Yankees did get their first hit in the seventh, Cody Bellinger made it count on a ball that was better located than Fried’s, but left just as little doubt in the mind of the man who delivered it that he was not gonna get it back:

The Padres retook the lead in the eighth again thanks to a Merrill single and a Xander Bogaerts sac fly:

However, the Yankees Stadium crowd was in a raucous mood despite that, because of something that was happening around 200 miles to the northeast…

And apparently Trent Grisham can surf the vibe because in the very bottom of that same inning, he entered as a pinch hitter and proceeded to hit the third no-doubter of the game, tying the game back up at three apiece:

That’s Grisham’s 10th homer of 2025, which is all of 31 games old for him. He hit nine home runs in 2024 in 76 games.

The score would remain knotted at three into extra innings, when erstwhile closer Devin Williams gutted out a hairy top of the 10th inning, where the Manfred Man, a walk, and a HBP had loaded the bases before he struck out Bogaerts and was feeling it:

In the bottom of the inning, an Oswaldo Cabrera sac bunt moved the Yankees’ own Manfred Man Jasson Domínguez over to third, and J.C. Escarra sent ’em home happy with a sac fly:

That’s a heck of a day for New York sports fans. Oh, the Rangers? We simply shan’t be talking about that tonight.

Breg Wilyer Style

It was also an auspicious day for Boston baseball, as they took down the Texas Rangers by a score of 6-4, and all of those runs were batted in by two guys having some pretty good days for themselves.

First, it was Alex Bregman paying a visit to the top of the monster for his 200th career home run:

Bregman drove in another run with a single in the bottom of the seventh inning, as well. He’s now hitting .327/.401/.612 (180 wRC+) on the year with nine dingers. Who needs a Crawford Box when you have a Green Monster?

But Bregman only accounted for half the runs from Fenway, and it was Wilyer Abreu that added the other three, adding his own double-dinger day along the way:

 

He added another RBI with a double off the CF wall in the bottom of the sixth, but the homers are the main thing I want to talk about, because it’s Wilyer’s third multi-homer game and his second of the season, with his other being on Opening Day. Which was also against the Rangers. And so was the one last year. That’s three career multi-homer games in two seasons, and they’ve all come against the same team. Some franchises just throw your speed, I guess.

The Most Important Anniversary

Folks, we’ve talked a lot about dingers so far today, but I want to cast your mind back for the most important, most impactful, most majestic home run you’ve ever seen. That’s right, it’s the ninth anniversary of Bartolo Colón’s only career home run, hit on May 7, 2016, out in Petco Park.

I still remember where I was when it happened: standing packed in a crowd at Baby’s All Right for a White Lung show. I missed an entire opening band because I was just watching it over and over again. I pulled no less than three people aside on the way home to show them. The impossible happened, and we’re all witnesses.

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

The .000 xBA RBI

This double(!) off the bat of Pete Crow-Armstrong is the only base hit with an xBA of .000 in the Statcast era, much less one that scored a run, and you can see that Heliot Ramos was not very comfy tracking that ball…

It ended up not mattering as the Giants went on to win the game 3-1, but avoiding the shutout on a .000 xBA XBH has to be worth something, right? To someone?

Happy Gilmore Cosplay

And now we’ll just head right across the diamond to bring you our next highlight. It’s been a very offense-centric recap so far today, so how about some defense to even you out?

That ball came off Justin Turner’s bat at 95 mph and could not have lost much of that by the time Matt Chapman absolutely wears it, taking a hard bounce off his chest. Thankfully, Willy Adames was there to snag the ball and absolutely rifle it to first base to get the out.

Chapman also made an incredible play to end the game, because he’s Matt Chapman, so of course he did.

 

Varland Slide Far, On Land

And while we’re on the subject of great plays, a reminder that Pitchers Are Athletes. Of some type, for sure.

Jorge: Fashion Plate

I need to make sure to shout out these sunglasses that Jorge Polanco was wearing for yesterday’s 6-5 over the A’s:

In a sport awash with boring wraparounds, these incredibly rad shades are truly a breath of fresh air.

 

Injuries and Other Moves

 

⚾ In the best news for baseball player-related Database Admins in quite some time, the Baltimore Orioles have acquired Luis F. Castillo from Seattle in exchange for cash. The O’s sent him to Triple-A.

⚾ Dylan Cease left the game Wednesday night due to what’s being described as a “forearm cramp” and passed tests postgame. Probably the best news you can expect for a guy leaving a game with a trainer after shaking out his arm.

⚾ Hunter Greene also left his start early, in his case, it’s due to a “right groin injury”, so hopefully we’ll get more news shortly.

⚾ The Twins are shuffling their rotation a bit: Joe Ryan is missing his Thursday start due to illness. Bailey Ober will be pitching instead.

⚾ J.T. Realmuto was removed from the game on Wednesday because of a “left foot contusion” and is awaiting further testing.

⚾ Blue Jays 2B Andrés Giménez was removed from yesterday’s game because of “right quad tightness”, although the team described it as “a precaution”.

⚾ The Dodgers have placed reliever Evan Phillips on the IL due to the dreaded “right forearm discomfort”.

⚾ The Reds have placed Noelvi Marte on the IL due to a left oblique strain.

⚾ Andrew Benintendi is back on the IL, this time due to a left calf strain.

⚾ The Tigers have officially released Kenta Maeda after having DFA’d him last week.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

Andrés Muñoz Is an Analytical Blind Spot – Alex Chamberlain, FanGraphs

A isn’t for “Attendance” – Marc Normandin, Baseball Prospectus (sub req’d)

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Starting Pitcher Roundup

Hitter Performances

Waiver Wire Picks

Starting Pitcher Streamers

 

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Asher Dratel

Follow the author on Bluesky

Asher hails from Brooklyn, wears a 2008 Joba Chamberlain jersey to every Yankees game he attends, and pronounces BABIP funny. Appreciator of Beefy Lad dingers and beers. @asherd.xyz on Bluesky.

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