Thursday, April 23

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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.

The MLB ERA leaderboard right now is just a thing of beauty. 

At No. 1 we’ve got José Soriano, the breakout Angels righty who has a historically low 0.24 ERA. 

But right behind him at No. 2? None other than Shohei Ohtani, who has a 0.38 ERA and just might mess around and win his first Cy Young.

Soriano and Shohei both pitched yesterday, and despite Ohtani coming into his start with a 0.50 ERA and Soriano coming into his start with a 0.28 ERA, both of them somehow lowered those marks.  

So who would you rather have on the mound? (And no, you don’t get Ohtani’s hitting, too.) 

Here’s an Ohtani vs. Soriano tale of the tape. 

• 2026 STATS

Soriano: 6 starts, 5-0, 0.24 ERA, 43 K’s in 37 2/3 innings (10.3 K/9)

Ohtani: 4 starts, 2-0, 0.38 ERA, 25 K’s in 24 innings (9.4 K/9)

• PITCH ARSENALS

Soriano (5 pitches): Sinker, knuckle-curve, 4-seam fastball, splitter, slider

Ohtani (7 pitches): 4-seam fastball, sweeper, curveball, splitter, sinker, slider, cutter

• BEST PITCH 

Soriano: Sinker 

Soriano’s sinker is his bread-and-butter, and it’s been the single most valuable pitch in baseball so far in 2026 in terms of runs prevented. Plus it’s inducing a 71% ground-ball rate.

Ohtani: Sweeper 

We’re going with Ohtani’s signature sweeper here, which he used to dominate the league from 2021-23 and has brought back in full force this season. Ohtani’s sweeper is sitting at over 85 mph with 15 inches of horizontal break — a terrific combination. 

• KEY CHANGE THIS SEASON

Soriano: More 4-seamers 

Soriano’s sinker might be his best pitch, but he’s actually throwing it less often this season. Instead, he’s mixing in a lot more four-seam fastballs — but that’s actually making his sinker even better, because he can change hitters’ eye levels with an extra fastball variation, as pitching coach Mike Maddux told The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner.

Ohtani: A lethal splitter-curveball combo

Ohtani’s splitter and curveball have been his top weapons against left-handed hitters this season. That’s a big change from the 2025 regular season, when Ohtani had all but phased out his once-unhittable splitter from his arsenal due to erratic command, and when he didn’t even throw a single curveball until August.

• FUN FACT

Soriano: His 0.24 ERA is the lowest in a starting pitcher’s first six starts of a season since earned runs became an official stat in 1913 (minimum 30 innings pitched).

Ohtani: He’s just the fourth Dodgers pitcher to allow zero or one earned run total through his first four games of a season (minimum 20 innings pitched), along with Kenta Maeda in 2016, Fernando Valenzuela in 1981 and ’85 and Wheezer Dell in 1916. 

 

BOSTON KID PITCHES AT FENWAY … FOR YANKS

Tonight’s series finale between the Yankees and Red Sox is a big one (6:10 p.m. ET, FS1/MLB.TV). The Yankees are going for a sweep of their rivals at Fenway Park, and they’re sending rising star Cam Schlittler to the mound. 

Schlittler just so happens to be a Walpole, Mass., native and former Red Sox fan … but now he relishes playing the villain on the other side of the Yanks-Sox rivalry. This will be his first career start at his hometown ballpark, and Bryan Hoch goes into detail on why this game means a little bit more to Schlittler. 

“Some guys, I think that rivalry feeds them a little bit — like it does for me,” Schlittler said.

He also just so happens to have some of the nastiest stuff in baseball, led by a trio of overpowering fastballs — his four-seamer, sinker and cutter — that he throws a combined 90% of the time. Schlittler broke down his arsenal to Jared Greenspan here.  

But the Red Sox will have their own promising young pitcher throwing against the Yankees tonight in Payton Tolle — the imposing 6-foot-6, 250-pound lefty who’s Boston’s top prospect and who quickly became a fan favorite after his first big league callup last season. 

Tolle is back to make his 2026 season debut against the Bronx Bombers after Sonny Gray went on the injured list with a right hamstring strain.   

THE METS WIN! THEY WIN!

The Mets finally snapped their 12-game losing streak yesterday with a 3-2 win over the Twins. It was the longest losing streak in the Majors this year and the team’s longest since 2002. 

The return of Juan Soto changed the Mets’ fortunes at least for one game, and Soto himself is hoping to draw on lessons learned from the 2019 Nationals — who came back from 12 games under .500 in May to win the World Series — to help the Mets turn their whole season around. 

“Those are my secrets,” Soto said. 

But even the streak-snapping win came with a price. Just as the Mets got Soto back from one calf injury, they lost Francisco Lindor to another.   

Now, can the Mets make it a two-game winning streak tonight in the series finale against the Twins at Citi Field? (7:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)

They have another player returning to give them a boost — this time former top pitching prospect Christian Scott, who’s going to pitch his first game since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2024. 

Also, shoutout to Luke Weaver for closing out the Mets’ win and (literally?) exorcising their demons. 

 

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Here are the other big things happening around the Majors. 

• Murakami-sama x5

Munetaka Murakami slugged his way into a bunch of history by homering for a fifth consecutive game yesterday (the MLB record is eight in a row, done by Ken Griffey Jr., Don Mattingly and Dale Long). Murakami is up to 10 home runs on the season, one behind Yordan Alvarez for the most in the Majors. Murakami and Colson Montgomery have also both homered in each of the White Sox last four games, becoming the first pair of teammates in MLB history to homer in four straight team games.   

• Yordan leading in everything 

Speaking of Alvarez — the Astros star hit his 11th home run yesterday and leads either all of MLB or at least the American League in basically every hitting category. Entering play today, Yordan ranked No. 1 in the Majors in homers (11), RBIs (26), hits (33), on-base percentage (.466), slugging (.779) and OPS (1.245), and he was leading the AL batting race with a .347 average.

• Cubs still rolling, Phils still reeling 

The Cubs beat the Phillies again yesterday to extend their MLB-best winning streak to eight games — and extend the Phillies’ losing streak to an MLB-worst eight games (now that the Mets have won).

• Gilbert literally wears one  

Mariners ace Logan Gilbert “caught” one of the most bizarre comebackers you’ll ever see — in his jersey. The line drive off the bat of Carlos Cortes wormed its way right in between the buttons and got lodged insideGilbert’s uniform. But is that a catch? Nope! It counts as a base hit for Cortes. Here’s why.

• It isn’t humanly possible to top this home run 

Oneil Cruz’s home run last night might’ve been even crazier than Gilbert catching a ball in his jersey. The Pirates star absolutely crushed a 116.9 mph moonshot — the hardest homer in MLB this season — and he hit the ball so high and so far that it bounced off the top of the foul pole. What are the odds? Apparently not zero, because Cruz’s current teammate, Marcell Ozuna, once hit a home run off the top of the foul pole years ago in Miami. But you have to watch this crazy Cruz missile.  

STREAK TRACKER

With Shohei Ohtani’s on-base streak now over, this will be a dedicated Mason Miller scoreless streak tracker from now on … until he gives up a run. If he ever does.

Shohei Ohtani’s on-base streak 

Streak status: Ended at 53 games (Wednesday)

AL/NL record: Ted Williams, 84 games (1949)

Ohtani’s on-base streak is over at 53 games. Ohtani went 0-for-4 last night against the Giants, his first time not reaching safely since Aug. 23 of last season. His streak ends in a tie with Shawn Green’s in 2000 as the longest for a Dodgers player since the team moved to Los Angeles … but far short of Ted Williams’ record streak of 84 games.

Mason Miller’s scoreless innings streak

Currently at: 32 2/3 innings 

AL/NL record: Orel Hershiser, 59 innings (1988)

Reliever record (Expansion Era): Gregg Olson, 41 innings (1989-90) 

DAILY WALKOFF

Put your baseball brain to the test with Daily Walkoff, where you can find 30 brand-new trivia puzzles every day, one for each team. Play Daily Walkoff >> 

 

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