Monday offers a 12-game MLB slate now that the home opener on Chicago's north side has been postponed due to snow. They were able to play on the south side, however. Here's everything you need to know about the day in baseball Monday.
Monday's scores
- Rays 5, White Sox 4 (box score)
- Indians 2, Tigers 0 (box score)
- Phillies 6, Reds 5 (box score)
- Nationals 2, Braves 0 (box score)
- Brewers 5, Cardinals 4 (box score)
- Blue Jays 7, Orioles 1 (box score)
- Mets 4, Marlins 2 (box score)
- Angels 8, Rangers 3 (box score)
- Astros 2, Twins 0 (box score)
- Royals 10, Mariners 0 (box score)
- Padres 7, Rockies 6 (box score)
- Diamondbacks 2, Giants 1 (box score)
- Pirates at Cubs, (POSTPONED, makeup game Tuesday afternoon)
Scherzer throws shutout, steals a base
Max Scherzer, the reigning back-to-back NL Cy Young Award winner, showed off his two-way skills on Monday night. I guess he didn't want Shohei Ohtani having all the fun.
On the mound, Scherzer manhandled the Braves, striking out 10 in his fifth-career shutout. It was his first shutout since his 17-strikeout no-hitter against the Mets in September 2015.
At the plate Scherzer went 1-for-4 with a single against Braves righty Peter Moylan. He also stole second base. It was Scherzer's first career steal.
🚨 @Max_Scherzer just stole 2nd base! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Pa24t5K67v
— MLB (@MLB) April 10, 2018
Scherzer smacked his first (and so far only) career home run last season. Now he has his first stolen base. The Nationals even gave him the base as a memento.
Davey presented Max with the base after the game, and honestly he will probably treasure that more than the Cy Young.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) April 10, 2018
Through three starts this season, Scherzer is 2-1 with a 0.90 ERA. He's struck out 27 in 20 innings. In case you're wondering, baseball hasn't had a back-to-back-to-back Cy Young winner since Hall of Famer Randy Johnson won four straight from 1999-2002.
Kluber strikes out 13 in latest dominant start
With all due respect to Scherzer, for my money, there is no better right-handed pitcher in baseball today than Indians ace and reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber. He faced the rebuilding Tigers on Monday night and, well, the results were as expected.
Total domination. The 13 strikeouts are the most by any pitcher in a game so far this season. (Ohtani and Patrick Corbin are second with 12-strikeout games.) Kluber now has a 1.62 ERA with a ridiculous 251-to-27 strikeout-to-walk rate in his last 26 starts and 189 1/3 innings during the regular season, dating to last year.
Monday's game was Kluber's 29th-career start with at least 10 strikeouts and no more than one walk. That is rarefied air.
Corey Kluber now ranks 9th in MLB history in career starts with 10+ strikeouts and no more than 1 walk issued. Now has 29 such games -- tied with some guy named Sandy Koufax.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) April 10, 2018
The Indians have been offensively challenged so far in the early going -- they've scored 29 runs in 10 games including Monday's win -- which is why Kluber just now earned his first win of 2018 despite pitching to a 1.57 ERA in three starts. He pitched so well Monday he even cracked a smile.
Is … is that a smile?
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) April 10, 2018
We’ve officially seen it all. pic.twitter.com/xPxDtVVWts
The Klubot showing emotion? Does not compute.
Junis flirts with no-hitter
As they embark on their rebuild, the Royals just may have found themselves a rotation keeper for the future. Right-hander Jakob Junis pitched to a solid 4.30 ERA (104 ERA+) in 98 1/3 innings spread across 16 starts and four relief appearances last season, and that earned him a spot in the team's Opening Day rotation this year.
In his first start last week, Junis tossed seven scoreless innings against the Tigers. In his second start Monday night, Junis tossed seven more scoreless innings, this time against the Mariners. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before it was broken up by a Dan Vogelbach infield single, of all things.
The 25-year-old Junis is up to 14 scoreless innings on the season with only seven hits allowed. For a small-market team like the Royals, turning a good but not great prospect like Junis -- Baseball America never ranked him higher than the 15th best prospect in their farm system -- into an above-average regular is crucial to the rebuild process. You need guys like this to develop into surprise contributors to get back to contention. It can't all be left up to the high draft picks and top prospects.
Astros stay undefeated in Verlander starts
On Monday night, Justin Verlander made his third start of the 2018 season for the defending World Series champion Astros. Houston won his first two starts by the combined score of 14-7. Monday's game was a tad closer -- the 'Stros beat the Twins, 2-0.
Dating to the trade last season, the Astros are now 8-0 in Verlander starts, outscoring opponents, 42-11, in the process. They did lose Game 6 of the 2017 World Series with Verlander on the bump, but they remain undefeated when he toes the slab in regular- season starts. Verlander day is win day in Houston.
Including his final start with the Tigers, Verlander's teams have won his last nine regular-season starts. That is the second-longest such streak of his career. Here are the longest:
- 12 games (July 21 to Sept. 18, 2011)
- 9 games (Aug. 30, 2017 to present)
- 8 games (May 24 to June 30, 2011)
- 6 games (June 22 to July 20, 2008)
So far this season Verlander has allowed three runs and struck out 23 in three starts and 18 2/3 innings.
Holland has messy Cardinals debut
Monday afternoon the Cardinals officially added All-Star closer Greg Holland to their big league roster. They signed him two weeks ago and he spent some time at their spring training complex getting into game shape.
A few hours after being added to the roster, Holland made his first appearance for St. Louis, and it did not go well. He walked four batters and got one out against the Brewers, allowing the game-winning run to score in the 10th inning.
To be fair, one of those four walks was intentional. That makes Holland's pitching line look slightly less worse. Then again, he wasn't particularly close to the strike zone when he was trying to get outs. Here are Holland's pitch locations from Monday's meltdown:
Ouch. Not the best Cardinals debut for Holland. In hindsight, maybe more than two minor league tune-up appearances would've been the way to go. Or at least Cardinals manager Mike Matheny should've let Holland make his season debut in a lower-leverage situation, not in extra innings against a division rival.
Mets win sixth in a row
No team outside Boston has gotten off to a better start this season than the Mets. New York won its sixth consecutive game Monday night, beating the lowly Marlins, 4-2, in Miami. Noah Syndergaard had what qualifies as an off night for him, allowing two runs (one earned) in six innings. He struck out five.
The 8-1 start ties the 1985 and 2006 teams for the best start in franchise history. No Mets team has ever won nine of its first 10 games. The 2018 edition will try to do that Tuesday night, when Jacob deGrom faces Caleb Smith in the second game of this series with the Marlins. New manager Mickey Callaway couldn't have asked for a better beginning to his rookie season.
Donaldson plays first base for first time in five years
For the first time since 2013, Josh Donaldson played first base Monday night. He started the game at third, then slid over to first after Kendrys Morales exited the game with a hamstring injury in the second inning. Yangervis Solarte replaced Morales in the lineup and took over at third base.
Solarte has first base experience, so it could've been a straight substitution for Morales, but the Blue Jays decided to put Donaldson at third because he's still nursing an arm issue that hampers this throwing. Donaldson has called it a "dead arm." Whatever it is, it has led to throws like this pretty much all year:
Naturally, the ball found Donaldson right away. He made a throwing error to begin the second inning on the first play after he changed positions. Go figure.
Donaldson has some prior first base experience, but it is limited. He played six innings at the position for the Athletics in 2010, three more innings in 2012 and one inning in 2013. Donaldson has been a full-time third baseman ever since.
Given his ongoing throwing issues, Monday's game probably won't be the last time this year he mans first base.
Kingery hits first MLB home run
Just prior to the start of the season, the Phillies made headlines by signing top prospect Scott Kingery to an unprecedented six-year contract. They guaranteed him $24 million before he even played his first MLB game.
Seven games into his big league career, the 23-year-old Kingery is 6-for-24 (.250) with three doubles while playing five different positions (second base, third base, shortstop, left field, right field). On Monday night, he went deep for the first time in his MLB career:
Scott Kingery is on the board. The @Phillies' No. 2 prospect connects on the first home run of his @MLB career 👏
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 9, 2018
No. 35 on our Top 100: https://t.co/TuTZgdnqLqpic.twitter.com/zoTEMGbxiA
The Phillies have been using Kingery as a super utility guy. He's started seven of the team's nine games and has yet to play the same position in back-to-back games. Creative use of a roster spot!
Votto trolls Phillies fans (again)
Last season Joey Votto had a little fun with the Phillies faithful at Citizens Bank Park when he faked tossing a foul ball into the stands and instead pocketed it. He does that everywhere. He's joked around with fans at Wrigley Field and Nationals Park as well.
On Monday, Votto had some more fun with Phillies fans, this time deking a fan into thinking he'd let a foul grounder roll to him, then turning on the jets to run it down. Check it out:
True to form, Joey Votto's having a little fun with the Philly fans. 😂 pic.twitter.com/UXJ30kjsl1
— FOX Sports Ohio (@FOXSportsOH) April 9, 2018
Votto remains baseball's greatest troll.
O's lose in front of smallest Camden Yards crowd ever
Monday was not a good night for the Orioles. First of all, the team got hammered by the Blue Jays, losing 7-1 in front of their home fans. The game was actually very close until the ninth inning, when Toronto turned a 2-1 lead into a 7-1 lead with a five-run outburst.
To make matters worse, Monday's game was the least-attended game in the history of Camden Yards aside from the closed-door game in 2015, when the ballpark was closed to fans due to protests in Baltimore.
Tonight's attendance of 7,915 is the smallest crowd in Camden Yards history not counting the no fans game in 2015. #Orioles #BlueJays
— Eduardo A. Encina (@EddieInTheYard) April 10, 2018
Camden Yards opened in 1992 and has hosted more than 2,000 regular-season and postseason games. Never before have fewer fans come through the gates when the gates were actually open than Monday night.
Quick hits
- The Cubs are expected to place Anthony Rizzo on the disabled list with a back injury. Full story here.
- The Red Sox have placed Xander Bogaerts on the DL and expect him to miss 10 to 14 days. Full story here.
- Angels righty JC Ramirez has been diagnosed with a torn elbow ligament and is expected to have Tommy John surgery, according to MLB.com. He left his most recent start with the injury.
- First baseman Ryon Healy was placed on the disabled list by the Mariners. As a corresponding move, right-handed reliever Chasen Bradford was recalled from the minors.
- The Brewers have recalled outfielder Brett Phillips from Triple-A. He gives the club some extra outfield depth with Christian Yelich having been placed on the DL over the weekend.
- The Reds have placed Eugenio Suarez (fractured right thumb) and Scott Schebler (right forearm contusion) on the disabled list. Alex Blandino and Zack Weiss were called up in corresponding moves.
- Steven Souza Jr. felt soreness in his injured pectoral Monday and will be shut down for a few days, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo announced. He is still a few weeks away from joining the team.
