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. If you ever thought pitching isn't rocket science, think again.
Mason Estrada is a relatively unknown right-handed hurler who opened some eyes at last month's Draft Combine with his 96 mph fastball. He also happens to be an aerospace engineering major at MIT, one of the most prestigious academic schools in the country.
Our own Combine correspondent Jesse Borek has the story of how Estrada's fascination with paper airplanes as a child ultimately led him to MIT, where he's now excelling in more than just the classroom. As a senior coming out of high school, Estrada wasn't getting much Division I interest, but then there was the matter of his perfect ACT score. After weighing his options, the idea of a degree from MIT was too attractive to pass up.
In his sophomore season on the bump, Estrada mostly breezed past hitters with 66 strikeouts in 40 2/3 innings and a 2.21 ERA. Not quite so simple was his thermodynamics class, which Estrada said has been his most difficult.
A school that can boast 105 Nobel Prize winners, 64 National Medals of Science and 84 MacArthur "Genius" fellows among its alumni base is not exactly built for sending guys to the bigs. The players are contending with all the challenges that come along with any Division III program, like retractable batting cages and movable mounds that slide on the slick gym floor. But MIT does have one graduate who made it to the Majors -- Jason Szuminski -- and two others who received degrees from the school after their playing careers were over (Skip Lockwood and Art Merewether).
Like Estrada, Szuminski was a right-handed pitcher who majored in aerospace engineering, which was obviously a big talking point around the Padres when he broke camp with the team for the 2004 season. "You wouldn't know he went to MIT," then-San Diego manager Bruce Bochy – as quotable then as he is now – said. "He fits in with the ballclub, not that we're all dummies or anything."
Szuminski pitched in seven games that season, and though he never appeared in the bigs again, he could provide a blueprint for Estrada to someday make it there himself.
And blueprints are something he might know a little bit about. -- Scott Chiusano |
• Mariners @ Yankees (7:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): Mariners pitchers enter their Bronx opener on a roll the franchise has never seen, having thrown three consecutive shutouts for the first time. The last two of those were 1-0 wins, but one run might not be enough against a Yankees team that leads MLB in OPS despite having dropped 16 of its last 23 games.
• Blue Jays @ White Sox (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): It's been nearly 10 years since the Blue Jays were in first place this late in a season, and a win tonight would be the Jays' 10th straight, one shy of the franchise record, achieved twice in 2015 and three other times in club history. • Dodgers @ Brewers (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): Jacob Misiorowski was handed his first Major League clunker by the Mets last week after a historic three-start run to open his career, and he faces the toughest test there is tonight. The Dodgers may be riding a four-game skid, but they still lead the Majors in runs scored and homers. The Miz's counterpart, Clayton Kershaw, takes the ball for the first time since becoming the 20th player in history to reach 3,000 strikeouts. |
The Padres' Manny Machado joined the 2,000-hit club on Monday night against the D-backs, which got us thinking, who's the next hitter likely to reach 3,000 knocks? Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru looked into this in April after the Mets' Francisco Lindor registered hit No. 1,500. From that, let's consider some of the likeliest candidates to obtain 3,000. • Manny Machado, age-32 season, 2,001 hits: Machado could get to 3,000 by his age-39 season if he averages even 160 hits over the next six years. • Freddie Freeman, age-35 season, 2,358 hits: The Majors' active leader in hits, Freeman averaged 186 knocks per year from 2021-24, putting him on track for No. 3,000 early in 2029. That seems doable. • Jose Altuve, age-35 season, 2,323 hits: About eight months younger than Freeman, Altuve reached 1,500 hits quicker than any active player (1,190 games), making 3,000 a realistic target. • Francisco Lindor, age-31 season, 1,585 hits: The Mets' star shortstop got halfway to 3,000 in the opening weeks of his 11th season. Can he keep it going for another decade? If that group falls short, we may have to look to two 26-year-olds: Juan Soto (1,018 hits) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (997). But the chances the 3,000-hit club will have a new member within the next handful of seasons look fairly strong. -- Brian Murphy |
Are you a fan of watching guys nearly hit the covers off of balls? You're in luck: Pirates slugger Oneil Cruz has been announced as the fifth member of the 2025 T-Mobile Home Run Derby field for next Monday's slugfest at Truist Park (on ESPN). Almost nobody in the game hits the ball harder than Cruz. The lanky, 6-foot-7 shortstop-turned-center fielder set a record with his 122.4 mph single as a rookie in 2022, then he topped that earlier this season with an epic 122.9 mph homer against the Brewers on May 25. It's pretty safe to say that Cruz, who also leads all big leaguers in average bat speed (78.5 mph) and exit velocity (96.1 mph) will be looking to put on a show in front of an international audience. -- Ed Eagle |
You voted for the All-Star Game starters, but there is still time for you to stuff the ballot box for baseball's best ballboys or ballgirls. There are four nominees for this year's All-Star Ball Crew -- two who made highlight plays during the season and two other wild cards. From now until 11:59 p.m. ET tonight, you can vote here as many times as you like for your two favorites. The top two vote-getters will be alongside MLB's best players at the Midsummer Classic on July 15 in Atlanta. Here are the four candidates: – Adam Crognale (Phillies) More >
– Jacque Harrington (Red Sox) More >
– Frankie Boyd (Tigers) More >
– Nate Rosenhaus (Guardians) More > |
They're coming to your area and all you "Blinks" can rep Blackpink in time for their "Deadline" World Tour. Renowned girl group Blackpink has teamed up with MLB, the NBA, Fanatics and Complex to bring their iconic K-pop style to the sport scene, creating a fresh, new look for Blinks (Blackpink fans, for short). The group kicked off its tour in South Korea last weekend and will hit stateside this month in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York (Citi Field) – three cities featured in the collection as part of the group's first sports collaboration. The collection is available online at MLBShop.com, so get the gear "As If It's Your Last" chance. (Had to sneak that line in, Blinks.) |
Can you guess today's mystery player using clues like age, league, division, position and place of birth? You'll have nine tries to get it right. Good luck! Play here >> |
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