Tuesday, May 26

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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. 

Jacob Misiorowski might be pitching the best month of baseball we’ve seen in over a decade.

Except … Cristopher Sánchez might also be pitching the best month of baseball we’ve seen in over a decade.

The Brewers phenom and the Phillies ace are both vying for the NL Cy Young Award, and they both have been absolutely ridiculous in May. Check out these stat lines: 

• Misiorowski: 5 starts, 4-0, 0.29 ERA (1 R in 31 1/3 IP), 49 K’s
• Sánchez: 4 starts, 3-0, 0.00 ERA (0 R in 32 IP), 36 K’s 

The Miz is striking out the world — he has three double-digit strikeout games for the Brew Crew this month and now leads the Majors this season with a nice, round 100 K’s. Plus, he’s doing things with his velocity that are literally unprecedented for a starting pitcher. 

But is he even the best pitcher in his own league? Because Sánchez hasn’t allowed a run all month. He has MLB’s longest scoreless streak at 37 2/3 innings and is closing in on both the Phillies’ Modern Era record held by Grover Cleveland Alexander (41 innings in 1911) and the top 10 in MLB history.   

Sánchez will make his last start of the month tomorrow, and Misiorowski could potentially make one more start in May, too. So the debate’s not settled yet. 

But here’s a fun fact. The last pitcher to pitch at least 30 innings in a month with no more than one run allowed and 30-plus strikeouts was Clayton Kershaw in July of 2015. Before that, it hadn’t happened since 1991 (Roger Clemens in April, Tommy Greene in May). And before that, the last guy to do it was Orel Hershiser during his MLB-record scoreless streak in September 1988. Then there was Fernando Valenzuela at the height of Fernandomania in April 1981, and Hall of Famer Rube Waddell in May 1906. 

The Miz and Sánchez both have a chance to join that short list of pitchers. 

 

GAMES OF THE NIGHT

Here are three games to watch tonight. For info on how to watch every game this season, go to MLB.com/Watch. 

Braves at Red Sox (6:45 p.m. ET, TBS / MLB.TV) 

Spencer Strider is pitching like he has something to prove. Entering tonight’s series opener against the Red Sox, the 2023 MLB strikeout leader has an 11.6 K/9 through his first four starts of 2026. 

Reds at Mets (7:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

Add Chase Burns to the list of pitchers who’ve been really, really good in May. The Reds’ young flamethrower has a 0.72 ERA in four starts this month, and has lowered his season ERA to 1.83 entering tonight’s start against the Mets — tied with Misiorowski for the second-best in the NL, behind only Sánchez (1.62).

Yankees at Royals (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

After a ninth-inning comeback yesterday, the Yankees have now won 11 straight regular-season games vs. the Royals. And tonight they have Cy Young favorite Cam Schlittler on the mound. He’s already shut down the Royals once this season, at Yankee Stadium in April.  

HOW ASTROS SPUN THEIR NO-NO

The Astros finally ended MLB’s league-wide no-hitter drought last night. Tatsuya Imai, Steven Okert and Alimber Santa — making his MLB debut! — combined to no-hit the Rangers at Globe Life Field.

It was the first no-no in the Majors since the Cubs’ combined no-hitter against the Pirates on Sept. 4, 2024. Blake Snell threw the last solo no-hitter earlier that year for the Giants on Aug. 2. 

So how did Houston’s three pitchers attack the Rangers to get the no-no done? A steady diet of sliders. 

Check out Imai, Okert and Santa’s pitch charts for the game: 

The three of them combined to throw some variety of slider — either a normal slider or a sweeper — for 54% of their pitches in the no-hitter. 

Imai threw 46% sliders. Okert threw 60% sliders. Santa threw 79% sliders and sweepers.

The Astros’ team-wide slider/sweeper usage yesterday was the second-highest for any team in a game this season. The only team to throw more was the Marlins earlier this weekend — they threw 56% sliders and sweepers in their win over the Mets on Saturday. 

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Besides the Astros’ no-hitter, here’s what else is going on around the Majors. 

• Colton Cowser has hit a walk-off home run two days in a row for the Orioles. There’s no way he can make it three tonight against the Rays … can he? 

• The White Sox became just the third different team ever to start two Japanese-born position players together in the same lineup: Munetaka Murakami, who hit his American League-leading 18th home runyesterday, and rookie Rikuu Nishida, who had a whirlwind MLB debut.

The only other teams to start Japanese position-player duos are the Phillies, who had Tadahito Iguchi and So Taguchi in 2008, and the Mariners, who had Ichiro and Munenori Kawasaki together in the lineup for a short run in 2012 and had Ichiro and Kenji Johjima together many times from 2006-09.

• The Rays, who hold the American League’s best record, are taking a flier on Craig Kimbrel. Tampa Bay signed the veteran reliever to a Major League dealtoday for some extra bullpen depth. Kimbrel, who has 440 career saves, was designated for assignment by the Mets on Friday after posting a 6.00 ERA in 14 appearances this season.

• Kyle Schwarber blasted his MLB-leading 21st home run yesterday. He’s on pace for 65 homers this season. It was also Schwarber’s 21st home run against the Padres in just 50 career games — which makes Schwarbs vs. the Padres one of the most dangerous home run hitters ever against a single opponent. 

• With the Yankees battling the Rays at the top of the AL East, Aaron Judge delivered a big swing for the Bronx Bombers — and himself — on Sunday. Judge snapped an 11-game home run drought with a walk-off blast at Yankee Stadium, his 17th home run of the season and the fourth walk-off home run of his career.

• The Dodgers and Brewers faced off over the weekend in a clash of first-place teams — and a 2025 NLCS rematch. Los Angeles got the series win thanks to another gem by Yoshinobu Yamamoto against Milwaukee in Sunday’s rubber game. His seven-inning, one-run effort wasn’t quite a playoff complete game, but it was still pretty good. 

STREAK TRACKER

We’ve got another streak to keep track of: Nick Kurtz has reached base safely in every game since April 3. 

• Currently at: 48 games 

• A’s single-season record: 48 games (Kurtz / Mark McGwire, 1996)

• MLB record: 84 games (Ted Williams, 1949)

Kurtz tied Big Mac’s single-season A’s record yesterday, drawing a third-inning walk to extend his on-base streak to 48 games. If he reaches base again tonight against the Mariners (9:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV), he’ll take sole possession of first place on the A’s single-season leaderboard.  

MiLB NICKNAME BRACKET SHAPING UP

Get your votes in now for MLB Pipeline’s “Nickname Knockout.” 

Voting is open for the bracket to decide which player has the best nickname in the Minor Leagues, and the leaderboard is starting to take shape:

There are some great nicknames out there. You can vote for your favorites until this Friday at noon ET. 

VOTE HERE >> 

 

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