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.
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Even a pro ballplayer can have a side hustle. But this one is really out of (pun intended) left field.
Ali Newland isn't just a softball star who plays in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League. She also helps write the dictionary.
Yes, you read that right. When she's not a utility player for the Portland Cascade, Newland has a very different title: "Baseball-Softball Expert Consultant" for the Oxford English Dictionary.
So what exactly does a ballplayer-turned-dictionary consultant do? Newland helps the OED review its baseball and softball definitions to keep them nice and up-to-date.
"It's like the coolest side hustle ever," Newland said.
Some of the things Newland has to consider when she's perusing the dictionary: Does the word in question relate to softball, baseball, or both? Is it still used? How can this definition be better or clearer?
Newland was a journalism major at LSU -- and an Academic All-American her senior year on the softball team. She started working with the OED last year, when a softball friend of a friend referred her to the renowned dictionary across the pond. They send her a baseball or softball definition, and she pores over it to see what additions and subtractions are needed.
Newland's job started with about 15 or so queries from the OED, and she got paid by the definition. But now she's gotten a promotion. The OED is working on reviewing 400 words related to baseball and softball, and Newland has a quarterly quota to meet.
Here's a sampling of the words she's contributed to recently:
- Meatball -- an easily hit pitch.
Newland added: Because the pitch was thrown over the middle of the plate.
- Windmill -- chiefly softball, a type of underarm delivery used, especially in fast pitch softball, in which the pitcher moves his or her arm around in a full vertical circle before releasing the ball, resulting in a fast and powerful delivery.
Newland eliminated "windmill" because it is an outdated term no longer used. ("Windup" is now the common way to describe the classic softball pitching motion.)
- Cutter -- a high-velocity pitch thrown like a fastball but featuring a sharp, tight break toward the pitcher’s glove side as it reaches home plate.
Newland classified that "cutter" is specific to baseball and not a term used in softball.
Read more about Newland and her literary pursuits here >>
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A HISTORICALLY CLOSE DAY OF GAMES |
Here's hoping today's games are as nail-biting as the ones we got yesterday. It was the closest day of games in nearly 37 years.
Yesterday, there were a dozen games played around the Majors. Those 12 games were decided by a total of 20 runs. Eight of the 12 games were one-run victories.
According to STATS, that is the smallest combined run differential on a single day with at least 12 games since August 6, 1989 -- when 13 MLB games were also decided by 20 runs total.
There was no shortage of suspense, and no shortage of great games. Just a few of the highlights:
The Rockies' crazy walk-off
A triple is already one of the most exciting plays in baseball. The Rockies took it up a level with a walk-off triple. Jake McCarthy's bases-clearing knock in the bottom of the ninth -- off Aroldis Chapman, no less -- was the first walk-off triple with a team trailing by two runs since Grady Sizemore did it for the Guardians 20 years ago on Aug. 11, 2006.
The Rockies also finished the game with eight straight hits (spanning both the eighth and ninth inning, thanks to some outs on the bases thrown in there). It was the first time in the Expansion Era (since 1961) that a team closed out a game with hits in its final eight plate appearances.
The Dodgers' 50th win
The reigning champs became the first team to 50 wins in 2026 with a 2-1 victory over the Twins, which included Shohei Ohtani crushing his 30th career leadoff home run (or 33rd, if you count his three in the playoffs). The Dodgers are even off to a slightly better start this year than their last two World Series-winning seasons. They got to the 50-win mark in their 79th game, compared to their 81st game in both 2024 and '25.
Woodruff's near-perfect return
The Brewers eked out a 2-1, extra-inning win over the Reds as Brandon Woodruff took a perfect game into the sixth inning in his return from the injured list. Woodruff finished with just one hit allowed, no walks and 10 strikeouts. In baseball's Modern Era (since 1900), only two pitchers have at least three career starts with one or zero hits allowed, no walks and 10-plus strikeouts: Corbin Burnes, and now Woodruff.
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THE CHANGES BEHIND PCA'S HOT STREAK |
Pete Crow-Armstrong is hotter than hot right now. All of a sudden he's one of MLB's most valuable players. And it's not even just because he's easily the best fielder in the league.
It's because he's raking. Entering tonight's series opener against the Mets, PCA is riding a 23-game on-base streak in which he's batting .412 with 10 home runs and a 1.303 OPS.
MLB.com Cubs reporter Jordan Bastian breaks down the numbers behind PCA's hot streak here, but this is the most interesting part: Crow-Armstrong has made several changes to his setup in the batter's box.
As the season has gone on, PCA has …
1) Gotten closer to the plate,
2) Narrowed his batting stance, and
3) Lowered his hands in his setup before his swing.
The changes in his batting stance were first prompted by facing Braves ace Chris Sale on May 14. Crow-Armstrong started standing several inches closer to the plate in an attempt to get on top of the pitcher, lay off pitches inside and cover pitches out over the plate.
Since then, he's also brought his feet much closer together, in addition to staying close to the plate. Check out this visualization of how Crow-Armstrong has changed his setup over the course of the 2026 season, using Baseball Savant's batting stance data:
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The results speak for themselves. PCA was batting .236 with a .676 OPS before that May 14 game against Sale and the Braves. He's batting .346 with a 1.125 OPS since.
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TOP DRAFT PROSPECTS SHOWCASE SKILLS |
The 2026 MLB Draft Combine is underway today as the top prospects in this year's Draft class put on a showcase.
The Draft Combine is hosting 334 MLB Draft prospects -- 194 collegiate players and 140 high school athletes. That group also includes 192 of the players on MLB Pipeline's Top 200 list.
The event is streaming live on MLB.com and MLB Network, and runs from today through Friday. The Draft Combine includes on-field workouts, showcase games and strength and conditioning testing.
MLB Pipeline's top-ranked Draft prospects who are participating in the on-field workout portion of the Combine include:
- No. 16: Sawyer Strosnider, OF, TCU
- No. 22: Trevor Condon, OF, Etowah (GA)
- No. 33: Cole Prosek, 3B, Magnolia Heights (MS)
- No. 36: Aiden Ruiz, SS, The Stony Brook (NY)
- No. 38: Bo Lowrance, 3B, Christ Church Episcopal (SC)
- No. 46: Taj Marchand, SS, James Island (SC)
- No. 49: Tyler Spangler, SS, De La Salle (CA)
- No. 53: James Clark, SS, St. John Bosco (CA)
- No. 56: Rocco Maniscalco, SS, Oxford (AL)
- No. 63: Landon Brown, RHP, Iowa Colony (TX)
The 2026 MLB Draft takes place from July 11-12 during All-Star Week in Philadelphia.
See complete coverage of the Draft Combine here >>
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KNICKS' BASEBALL TOUR GOES ON |
Clearly the best perk of winning your city's first NBA championship in 53 years is getting to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game after.
Everyone on the Knicks is doing it. Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart threw perfect strikes at Yankee Stadium last week, and now two more Knicks are getting in on the action.
OG Anunoby -- the hero of New York's historic comeback against the Spurs in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, with the tip-in heard 'round the world -- will throw out the first pitch at Citi Field on Sunday before the Mets' game against the Phillies.
And before OG, Brooklyn native Jose Alvarado is set to throw out the first pitch before Thursday's Mets game against the Cubs.
But can we get Karl-Anthony Towns out on the mound, too? KAT wanted to be a Yankee, after all.
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LAST DAYS OF PHASE 1 ALL-STAR VOTING |
Phase 1 of All-Star voting is open until this Thursday, June 25, at noon ET. So get those ballots in while you still can.
Vote now to help send your favorite players to this year's All-Star Game in Philadelphia. Fans can vote up to five times per day.
Fill out your 2026 All-Star Ballot here >>
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