Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today's edition is brought to you by David Adler.
Two superstar hitters, Shohei Ohtani and Cal Raleigh, have been mired in huge slumps lately. And that means one thing: It's time to get weird to change the juju.
Heading into yesterday's games, Ohtani had just six home runs and a .767 OPS this season, far from his usual MVP-level self. And Raleigh? He'd gone from 60 homers in 2025 to an 0-for-38 slump in 2026.
Like every baseball player worth his salt knows: Sometimes, to bust out of a slump, you need to bring out the big guns. And both Ohtani and Raleigh did.
For Ohtani's cold streak to end, he needed an ice cube. Well, THE Ice Cube. With the legendary rapper on the Dodgers broadcast in the third inning last night (Ice Cube was in the house for his own bobblehead night at Dodger Stadium), Ohtani stepped to the plate and promptly smacked his first home run since April 26.
For Raleigh, it was a nice hot postgame shower … in full uniform. The star catcher hopped in for a fully clothed shower after the Mariners' win on Monday -- at the urging of teammate Logan Gilbert -- and promptly snapped his 0-fer with a pair of hits last night against the Astros.
We'll have to wait a couple of days to see if Shohei's bat is permanently unfrozen (he's pitching tonight, and he's getting the day off tomorrow), but a dried-off Raleigh and the Mariners are back in action against the Astros at 8:10 p.m. ET on MLB.TV.
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SKENES' ERA WAS 67.50. NOW IT'S 1.98 |
Sound the alarms -- Paul Skenes is on the decline. Just look at his ERA season by season ...
- 2024: 1.96
- 2025: 1.97
- 2026: 1.98
Just kidding (duh). But the actual reason we're bringing this up is, the most predictable thing in baseball has happened: Skenes has an ERA under two.
It took all of eight starts for Skenes to lower his 2026 ERA from 67.50 to 1.98. Color us shocked.
Skenes' bizarro Opening Day start, when the Mets knocked him out of the game in the first inning, might as well have happened in an alternate universe.
Skenes' 2026 season ERA, start by start
- 67.50 <-- Opening Day
- 9.53
- 5.25
- 4.00
- 3.27
- 2.48
- 2.91
- 2.36
- 1.98 <-- Today
As of this morning, 2026 Paul Skenes now officially looks exactly like 2025 Paul Skenes, who looked exactly like 2024 Paul Skenes.
We know Skenes is the most dominant pitcher on the planet (at least until Tarik Skubal comes back), but boy, that was fast.
After Skenes' latest gem against the Rockies -- when he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and finished with eight scoreless innings and a season-high 10 strikeouts -- the final traces of that first start have disappeared.
So if you can bring yourself to look past the extremely troubling trend of Skenes' ERA going up by 0.01 every year, here's the good news: His 1.97 ERA since he debuted is the lowest in the Majors by a mile. Of the other 131 pitchers who've thrown at least 200 innings since 2024, Skubal is next-best at 2.34.
In 2024, Skenes had the lowest ERA of any pitcher who threw as many innings as he did. He had the lowest ERA again in 2025, and also had enough innings to qualify to win his first ERA title.
He doesn't have the lowest ERA in 2026 … yet … but would you really bet against him being right back at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the year? The guy's like clockwork.
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A powerhouse NL matchup and two electric arms on the mound highlight tonight's slate of games. For info on how to watch every game this season, go to MLB.com/Watch.
Cubs at Braves (7:15 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Shota Imanaga keeps rolling in his resurgent season (2.28 ERA in eight starts). But can the southpaw be the stopper with the Cubs on a three-game losing streak and facing the MLB-best Braves?
Padres at Brewers (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
The Brewers are on a four-game winning streak, and now they send The Miz to the mound. Jacob Misiorowski is fresh off dominating the Yankees and setting Statcast velocity records. But the Padres are a dangerous team, in first place in the NL West ahead of the Dodgers.
Giants at Dodgers (10:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Speaking of the Dodgers … it's Shohei's pitching day in L.A. Ohtani's Cy Young quest continues as he takes a 0.97 ERA into tonight's start against the rival Giants. This will be another "only pitching, no hitting" game for Ohtani.
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64 BATTERS FACED. 1 HIT. AND IT'S ... WHO?? |
Is a 32-year-old journeyman reliever more dominant than Mason Miller?
The numbers don't lie … but you'll have to see them to believe them.
Entering today, Orioles reliever Rico Garcia has pitched 20 games this season. He's faced 64 batters. He's allowed exactly one hit.
Who, has done what??? Yeah, we're as baffled as hitters have been against him.
Garcia has played for seven different teams in six big league seasons. He entered this year with a 5.27 career ERA.
And yet, somehow, he is technically the most unhittable pitcher in baseball right now. Heck, he's on one of the most unhittable stretches to start a season ever.
Garcia is the first pitcher in the Modern Era (since 1900) to allow no more than one hit over his first 20 appearances in a season.
And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, Garcia is the first pitcher in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to start off a season by allowing no more than one hit over a span of 64 batters faced.
But don't worry, Mason Miller fans. The last pitcher to have a 64-batter, one-hit stretch at any point was indeed the Padres closer, who had a stretch like that between September 2025 and April of this season.
Thomas Harrigan digs into this crazy story here >>
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FROM SPEED-AND-D SPECIALIST TO TOP-5 PLAYER |
Brice Turang has become an under-the-radar superstar for the Brewers. Brent Maguire, who has a nice story on Turang out today, explains:
When you think of the surefire superstars currently playing baseball, there are probably 5-10 guys who immediately spring to mind. But in the case of one player, he's quietly snuck into superstar territory dating back to last summer.
Wins Above Replacement leaders since last August
According to FanGraphs
- 1. Shohei Ohtani: 6.5 (3.7 hitting, 2.8 pitching)
- 2. (tie) Aaron Judge: 5.7
- 2. (tie) Bobby Witt Jr.: 5.7
- 4. BRICE TURANG: 4.8
- 5. Cristopher Sánchez: 4.8
That’s right. Since the beginning of last August, Turang has played like a legitimate top-five most valuable player in baseball, trailing only the elite trio of Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. in WAR.
Turang, mainly known as a speed-and-defense player when he debuted, added more bat speed than any player last season and subsequently had the biggest year-to-year improvement from 2024 to 2025 in hard-hit rate and exit velocity. As a result, Turang enters tonight's game with a .965 OPS and 18 home runs in 88 games since last August.
If you didn’t know much about Turang before this year, you certainly should get to know him now, with his elite production, his walk-off home run against the Yankees on Sunday and his stellar run with Team USA in this year’s World Baseball Classic.
Read the whole story on Turang here >>
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• Kyle Schwarber has homered in five consecutive games, tying the Phillies franchise record. The MLB record is eight straight games, done by Schwarber's own manager, Don Mattingly, as well as Ken Griffey Jr. and Dale Long.
• Staying with Philly, Zack Wheeler is back back. Wheeler reached historic levels of efficiency in making quick work of the Red Sox yesterday. He needed just 16 pitches to get through the first three innings, the fewest needed by any starter in a game this millennium.
• Speaking of aces who are back … Shane McClanahan. The Rays lefty extended his scoreless streak to 21 2/3 innings yesterday in Tampa Bay's win over the Blue Jays, leapfrogging Cristopher Sánchez (20 2/3 innings) for the longest active streak by any MLB starter.
• Yesterday was a great day for pitch efficiency. On top of Wheeler's start vs. the Sox, Twins right-hander Bailey Ober threw an 89-pitch shutout against the Marlins -- Minnesota's first "Maddux" since 2017. (A Maddux is a shutout on fewer than 100 pitches, named after the king of them, Greg.) Ober did this despite averaging just 88.8 mph with his fastball -- and while facing off against one of the league's hardest throwers, Eury Pérez -- which only makes his Maddux even more fun.
• Mets prospect A.J. Ewing looks like the real deal. In his MLB debut yesterday, Ewing drew three walks, ripped a triple for his first Major League hit and sparked the Mets to a big win over the Tigers. He's just 21 years old, but New York's top position-player prospect looks like a big league-ready hitter today.
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