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. Thanks for being here. Father Time may be undefeated, but Rich Hill isn't ready to concede this one just yet.
Almost 20 years to the day after he made his first career start -- on July 25, 2005, at Wrigley Field -- Hill will be back on the same Chicago mound tonight (8 ET on MLB.TV), pitching for the Royals at the age of 45. When he steps onto the field in a Kansas City uniform, the veteran left-hander will be making all sorts of history. (Be sure to check out our list of fun facts about Hill's MLB return.)
The Royals will be Hill's 14th franchise, tying him for the MLB record held by Edwin Jackson. He'll have made appearances for seven clubs after turning 40, the most of any player in AL/NL history, according to STATS.
Hill will be just the 18th pitcher to start a game at age 45 or older in MLB history and the sixth in the 21st century. The last time someone older than Hill (45 years, 133 days old) started for an MLB team was Jamie Moyer's final game on May 27, 2012.
A quick pass through the box score from Hill's MLB debut -- as a reliever on June 15, 2005 -- puts his longevity into perspective. The Cubs' starter in that game? Greg Maddux, who retired after the 2008 season and was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in '14. Hill faced six batters that day, including a 22-year-old Miguel Cabrera, then in his third season with the Marlins.
The clip of his first career strikeout also screams "2005," coming against a Marlins-era Carlos Delgado (on a rainbow curveball, of course), with a "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" movie ad on the backstop. Two decades later, Hill is still going. -- Thomas Harrigan |
- Yankees @ Blue Jays (7:07 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): A win tonight by Toronto would seal the season series against the Bombers and give the Jays a crucial tiebreaker advantage in the AL East race. The Yankees have gone winless this year at Rogers Centre, where the Blue Jays have won 11 straight.
- A's @ Rangers (8:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): Jacob deGrom's dominance was never in doubt, just his durability. Now that he's firmly re-asserted himself as a healthy, top-of-the-rotation ace, a dark-horse run at a third Cy Young Award is very much on the table. He's held the A's to two runs over 11 1/3 innings this year, with 13 strikeouts and no walks.
- Astros @ D-backs (9:40 p.m. ET, FREE on MLB.TV): No team will be more closely watched leading up the Trade Deadline than the D-backs, and perhaps no trade candidate is more coveted than Eugenio Suárez, who is scalding hot at the plate with five homers over his last three games. Facing Framber Valdez tonight, the Snakes know every win matters as GM Mike Hazen plots the club's course.
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When's the last time someone wanted to take your picture while you were shopping for toilet paper and breakfast sausage?
This very specific scenario happened to the Brewers' Jacob Misiorowski while he was shopping at Target just last week. Such is life right now for the rookie phenom. His Q score has risen so much over the past couple of months that Brewers manager Pat Murphy said that while the team was playing the Dodgers this past weekend, "The Japanese media in Los Angeles wanted to know about two things: [Shohei] Ohtani and The Miz."
Misiorowski will be back in the spotlight tonight when the Brewers try to run their winning streak to 12 consecutive games against Seattle (9:40 p.m. ET, MLB Network). It will be The Miz's first start since an electric All-Star Game outing in which he showed off his triple-digit fastball and a 98 mph slider. That kind of velo can overpower almost any hitter. But Misiorowski's stuff looks even nastier to hitters – and makes him look like a one-of-one pitcher – because of his extreme release extension, as our David Adler wrote.
Plenty of cameras will be focused on The Miz tonight. Whether he's on the mound or in a department store, he seems to be getting comfortable with all of the attention. -- Brian Murphy |
DO PITCHERS MISS TAKING THEIR CUTS? |
With Shohei Ohtani both giving up and hitting a home run in the first inning last night, we were able to harken back to a time not so long ago when pitchers regularly had to hit for themselves in the NL, prior to the universal designated hitter being implemented before the 2022 season.
While most pitchers struggled mightily at the plate, many of them nonetheless miss having the chance to take their hacks.
"Getting a bunt down. Moving a runner. Maybe running into something. Getting on base. Beating out balls at second to break up double plays. Being able to run home," said Yankees reliever Luke Weaver, who has 18 career hits, including a home run. "It's just cool. Those are memories I'll get to keep."
There are still rare occasions in which pitchers are still pressed into duty at the plate, including earlier this season, when the D-backs' Ryne Nelson delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in his first at-bat since he was in college in 2018.
Unsurprisingly, though, most position players don't miss seeing pitchers flailing away helplessly in the batter's box on a nightly basis, as Theo DeRosa explains. -- Ed Eagle |
We're putting this idea out into the world: A buddy comedy starring Elly De La Cruz and Terry Francona.
The 23-year-old Reds superstar and the 66-year-old skipper clearly have a special relationship, as seen again during a pitching change last night. With Tito on the mound and De La Cruz waiting around alongside him, the young shortstop decided to try on his manager's glasses. He took the specs straight off Tito's face and placed them on his own, immediately reacting as though he'd been blinded by Francona's presumably, shall we say, different prescription.
That got a good laugh out of Tito, although just wait. Someday when De La Cruz is no longer such a young whippersnapper and things start to get just a tiny bit blurry, maybe he'll be asking his manager for a good eye doctor.
The Reds' social media account had some fun with the interaction, posting a photo of De La Cruz wearing the glasses with the final score of last night's game, which did not favor the Reds, blurred out. Some things are better left unseen.
-- Scott Chiusano |
Can you Beat the Streak? Try to top Joe DiMaggio's record hitting streak of 56 games by selecting a player each day to record a hit. If you get to 57, you can win $5.6 million. Plus, new for this year, a chance to win unique weekly prizes. Who's hot right now: The Brewers' run of 11 straight wins has been fueled in part by Jackson Chourio, whose 15-game hit streak (.373 AVG, .990 OPS) is currently the longest in the Majors. |
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