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.

 

On May 27, 1968, during what would forever be known as “The Year of the Pitcher,” Eddie Mathews went deep twice for the Tigers and eventual AL batting champion Carl Yastrzemski clubbed a homer for the Red Sox on a day when there were just four games combined across the two leagues.

 

Despite it being a memorable day on the diamond for those two Hall of Fame sluggers, what sets this date apart from all others in history involves another pair of legendary bashers who were still decades away from going deep in the big leagues. You see, May 27, 1968, also happens to be the only date in which two Hall of Famers were born on the same day.

 

While most of Boston was enjoying Yaz’s heroics at the plate, the Bagwells welcomed son Jeff to the family. About a thousand miles south, in Columbus, Ga., Frank Thomas also entered the world.

 

Hall of Famers having the same birthday isn’t all that rare. In fact, there are 86 days on the calendar with at least two legendary births — six were born on May 14 alone! However, only on this one specific day do two Hall of Famers share the exact same birth date.

 

Bagwell went on to be drafted by his hometown Red Sox only to famously be dealt (for reliever Larry Andersen!) to the Astros, where he’d spend his entire 15-year big league career and end up with a .297/.408/.540 slash line, 449 homers, 202 steals and a mantle full of trophies, including the 1994 NL MVP Award.

 

Thomas, who made his debut with the White Sox in 1990 about eight months before Bagwell, ended his 19-year career with a .301/.419/.555 line and 521 home runs along with two MVP Awards, one of which he won in ’94 — just like his Hall of Fame birth-date brother.

 

— Ed Eagle

• Braves @ Phillies (6:45 p.m. ET, MLB.TV, TBS): Spencer Strider didn’t quite look like himself last time out, his second start of the year and first after a stint on the IL with a hamstring strain. He’s back on the bump tonight for the opener of a huge set with the Phils, who just reeled off nine straight wins to claim the Majors’ best record (and the top spot in our Power Rankings).

 

• Twins @ Rays (7:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): The Rays appear to have fully shrugged off a recent 1-11 stretch at their temporary home park, Steinbrenner Field; a seventh straight win tonight would tie their longest run since June 2023. In their way is Twins co-ace Joe Ryan, who’s second in the Majors in K/BB ratio (10.50) and 10th in the AL in ERA (2.68).

 

• Athletics @ Astros (8:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): The A’s were responsible for ending the Phillies’ aforementioned win streak Sunday, but the big draw here is Astros ace Hunter Brown, whose surge put him atop our Starting Pitcher Power Rankings last week (yes, even above Tarik Skubal). The 26-year-old righty has been especially tough to hit in Houston, where he’s posted a 0.96 ERA and struck out 12.1 batters per nine this year.

• “That was everything I wanted it to be.” Tim Stebbins documented the emotional story of Guardians reliever Nic Enright, who made his MLB debut two and a half years after being diagnosed with cancer.

 

• It seems like Jacob deGrom has done everything possible on the pitcher’s mound, but he posted a quirky personal first on Monday. Kennedi Landry digs into the first zero-strikeout start of the ace’s 12-year career.

 

• Almost a year after his last MLB game, Ronald Acuña Jr. homered on the first pitch he saw in 2025 on Friday. Then on Saturday, he went deep again. The Braves lineup is starting to look like its old, scary self, writes Mark Bowman.

• The first complete game of Tarik Skubal’s career was also arguably the best-pitched game of the season, a 13-strikeout, two-hit Maddux masterpiece against Cleveland. Jason Beck’s recap begins at the finish, with a 102.6 mph game-ending fireball that sent Comerica Park into hysterics. And Thomas Harrigan broke down how Skubal has gotten even better after his Cy Young 2024 season.

That sound you hear? It’s Jac Caglianone knocking on the door.

 

Well, more like Jac Caglianone banging home runs off the door.

 

The Royals’ top prospect, and the No. 10 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, just got to Triple-A … and he’s already making the Minors look too easy for him.

 

Caglianone homered five times in his first week with Triple-A Omaha. Even more impressive, the 22-year-old slugger hit those home runs over four games in a row. He’ll try to make it five straight games with a homer when the Storm Chasers host the St. Paul Saints tonight at 7:35 p.m. ET, a game you can watch for free on MLB.com and MLB.TV.

 

And it is top prospect callup season right now — the Red Sox just called up the second of their “Big Three” prospects, Marcelo Mayer (MLB’s No. 8 overall prospect), for his big league debut over the weekend.

 

Will Caglianone be next? Anyone who digs the long ball can only hope so, because he’s hitting big boy home runs, and he’s poised to bring the boom to the big leagues, too.

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.

 

Juan Soto’s career .400 average and 1.382 OPS against the White Sox are his highest marks against any opponent, even after taking an 0-fer yesterday.

© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (pahovis@aol.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com.

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe  or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.