Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that will get you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s slate of games, while catching you up on the most fun stories you might have missed. Thanks for being here.
Nod if you’ve heard this story before: Thousands of people line up outside Dodger Stadium for the shot to snag a Shohei Ohtani bobblehead, and he rewards them by hitting a homer. We expect a lot of bobbing heads.
Yes, last night Ohtani homered on his bobblehead night for the second straight year, this time making it a dramatic game-winner to keep the Dodgers undefeated. This got us thinking a silly thought: Is there a trend of players stepping up on their own bobblehead nights?
We’ll admit we are working with some circumstantial evidence, and stats guru Mike Petriello all but laughed in my face when I brought this up, but a deep dive (read: definitely worthwhile and exhaustive search of MLB.com archives) shows there might be something here. Take José Ramírez as our first example: Last year, he went 3-for-5 with three RBIs on his bobblehead day, and for the 2022 version he homered twice. In 2023 he had a reversible bucket hat day (not quite the same but let’s include it anyway) and was 1-for-4 with a double. Add it all up and in the past three years on José Ramírez-themed days, José Ramírez is 6-for-13 with eight RBIs and three homers. Not a huge surprise from a guy who’s been known to wear a chain with his own face on it!
There are plenty more examples. Mike Trout homered twice on his bobblehead day in 2019, and Mookie Betts homered in his first one with the Dodgers in 2021. The force seems to be with Yankees players specifically on their Star Wars-themed bobblehead nights: Anthony Rizzo homered twice after his Mandalorian giveaway in 2023 and Aaron Judge went deep on his Jedi bobblehead day in 2018. Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Yordan Alvarez have all dabbled (bobbled?) in this.
Maybe you’re a bit skeptical because these are all big-name stars, and of course they are both more likely to have bobblehead days and, frankly, to hit homers. We see that point and raise you a Patrick Bailey splash homer into McCovey Cove on his bobblehead day or a Nathaniel Lowe two-HR performance on the night of his Gold Glove Award giveaway.
Surely we are missing some or conveniently overlooking a few 0-fers, but there were always going to be holes in this exercise. Don’t overthink it, and instead just imagine what Juan Soto is going to do on Aug. 16, his first bobblehead night with the Mets.
— Scott Chiusano
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Pictured: Kevin Pillar’s son and the family llamas (via Instagram)
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Kevin Pillar was very much at peace living among his six llamas and 50 chickens. He had announced his retirement from baseball and had plenty of good company in his family and, of course, the llamas. Did he name those llamas, you ask? Our own Kennedi Landry has the answer: Vanilla, Cinnamon, Bluey, Oreo, Molly and … Betty White.
But Pillar quickly realized he wasn’t quite ready for his “Golden Girls” retirement years and decided he still had the itch for baseball. The Rangers helped him scratch it when they signed him to a Minor League deal in February, and the 36-year-old outfielder broke camp with the team. He’s appeared in three games for Texas and has three hits in six at-bats, so that whole baseball thing is still working out.
No word (so far) on what the llamas think about all this.
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It’s a quiet night slate in the baseball world, but never fear – there are a couple games still worth keeping an eye on.
• D-backs @ Yankees (7:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): The D-backs have quickly quieted all that tantalizing torpedo talk from the weekend by winning the first two games of this series, with the chance for a clean Bronx sweep tonight. Both games have been tight, though, and the Yankees did wake up for three runs in the ninth yesterday even if it was too little too late. We’d be remiss not to mention that in six games Eugenio Suárez still does not have a hit that has not gone over a fence.
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• Reds @ Brewers (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): This is the series opener between two NL Central rivals who have gotten off to sluggish starts, but the division is expected to be a dogfight at the top and it starts here. Every time Elly De La Cruz steps onto a baseball field there is the potential for something you’ve never seen before, and yesterday was no exception. So for that reason alone, this is one to watch.
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• Sometimes special moments are created on a baseball field that have nothing to do with the players. Definitely take the time to check out Brian McTaggart’s story on Vivian Espada, the daughter of Astros manager Joe Espada, who delivered an emotional (and perfect strike!) first pitch to her father on Autism Awareness Night. Vivian was diagnosed with autism in 2017 and has made remarkable strides in the last few years thanks to help from her family, school and community. It was a special day for the Espadas, and for all families with an autistic child or family member who were warmly welcomed to Daikin Park.
• Big shoutout to roving reporter Scott Merkin, who roamed the concourse at Rate Field during a lengthy rain delay yesterday to chat with fans who were bravely sticking it out. These are the tried-and-true fans, the ones the players do it for, and hearing their earnest reasons for being there on an otherwise dreary day was heartening.
• Guess how many Division I teams offered reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal a scholarship? That’d be one, the unheralded Seattle U, which helped Skubal become the pitcher he is today. The ace left-hander paid it forward yesterday by inviting the current Redhawks to watch him pitch at T-Mobile Park. Josh Kirshenbaum tells the story of this reunion, complete with a friendly wager and some tacos.
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Pick one of the day’s games, open up your board and see if you can get bingo with these baseball occurrences. Do it for two-time World Series champion Bing Miller. Play free >>
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