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.
Ronald Acuña Jr. and Juan Soto have been linked since they were rookies in 2018, when it became immediately clear that, despite Acuña being just 20 years old and Soto just 19, these were two of the future faces of Major League Baseball.
The friendly rivalry between the two players has only blossomed over the years, as both Acuña and Soto have, indeed, become superstars.
So right now, it's only fitting that they're heating up at the exact same time.
Soto has hit nine home runs in his last 15 games for the Mets, batting .382 with a 1.341 OPS over that span.
And Acuña? He's homered in four consecutive games for the Braves, with five total homers and four stolen bases in those last four games. That's the power-speed star we know and love.
Soto's Mets and Acuña's Braves are in very different places as the calendar flips to June, but it's fun to see the two of them playing at the top of their game, just like old times.
Soto is doing his best to drag the Mets back into contention. This weekend, his Sunday grand slam was the swing that punctuated New York's sweep of the Marlins, the team's best offensive series of the year. But the Mets are still in fourth place in the NL East at 26-33.
The Braves, on the other hand, are the only team in the Majors with 40 wins. Acuña's power surge helped them get to that mark over the weekend.
We're just happy the old Acuña vs. Soto debate is back on. That's baseball at its best.
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JUDGE IS GREAT AT ABS CHALLENGES, TOO |
If you were looking for something else Aaron Judge is awesome at, besides "breaking home run records" and "winning MVP trophies" and "being the most dangerous hitter on the planet" … well, we've got something for you.
Judge has been really good at ABS challenges, too.
The Yankees captain has won six of his eight challenges at the plate, which makes him one of the most valuable ball-strike challengers in baseball.
And it's not just about the 6-foot-7 slugger picking out the missed calls at the bottom of the strike zone, where umpires have historically had a tough time calling his zone accurately, just because Judge is so tall even compared to other Major League hitters.
So what exactly does Judge's skill at challenging boil down to? Mike Petriello takes a crack at explaining it here.
Judge isn't challenging a ton of calls, but he's shown a good eye for picking out the ones he's going to win, in situations where flipping those called strikes to balls matters a lot.
And on the flip side, he's also shown restraint at not challenging the pitches he shouldn't -- called strikes that other hitters with worse eyes might challenge … and would lose. That's also valuable. Judge doesn't waste the Yankees' challenges by pulling the trigger at the wrong time.
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MIZ'S MONSTER MONTH OF MAY |
This has to be the closest Pitcher of the Month race of all time. Because after Cristopher Sánchez finished off a completely scoreless month of May earlier last week, Jacob Misiorowski finished off a completely overpowering month of May over the weekend.
If there's anyone who could possibly have a case to win Pitcher of the Month over a guy who just threw 39 innings without allowing a single run, it's the Miz ... who also just won his first career Player of the Week Award.
The Brewers flamethrower barely missed out on a scoreless month of his own -- Misiorowski pitched 38 1/3 innings in May and only allowed one lonely run. That's a 0.23 ERA. But the big thing is the strikeouts: The Miz racked up 57 K's in May, a full dozen more than Sánchez.
And while Sánchez's stuff is nasty in its own right, particularly his changeup, Misiorowski has the most purely explosive stuff in baseball.
Consider this: Misiorowski threw 241 pitches 100 mph or faster in May. Since pitch tracking began in 2008, that is by far the most triple-digit heaters thrown by a pitcher in a single month.
Most 100+ mph pitches in a single month
2008-present
- 241 -- Jacob Misiorowski, May 2026
- 175 -- Jordan Hicks, August 2018
- 160 -- Aroldis Chapman, August 2016
- 139 -- Aroldis Chapman, July 2016
- 139 -- Mauricio Cabrera, July 2016
- 139 -- Joel Zumaya, June 2009
The Miz also set the record for most 100-plus mph strikeouts in a single month in the pitch-tracking era. Thirty-six of his K's were on triple-digit fastballs, which is 15 more than any other pitcher (Chapman had 21 in July 2012).
Every game, it seems like, Misiorowski does something mind-boggling when it comes to velocity -- like in his last start of May, when he threw 20 straight 100-plus mph fastballs to start the game.
Now we'll just have to wait and see how he ups the ante in June.
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AROUND THE LEAGUE THIS WEEKEND |
A monkey off a superstar's back, a souvenir for the Tarps Off crowd and more highlighted the action around the Majors this weekend.
• Fernando Tatis Jr. finally -- finally! -- hit his first home run of the season on Saturday. The Padres superstar had gone his first 238 plate appearances of 2026 without homering. It was almost unbelievable. But Tatis took out 55 games' worth of frustration with one swing, crushing a 114 mph, 451-foot blast for home run No. 1.
• Pete Crow-Armstrong, hearing "Overrated!" chants from Cardinals fans in St. Louis on Saturday, responded by blasting a home run straight to the rowdiest part of the ballpark -- the "Tarps Off" section where the most enthusiastic, and shirtless, fans congregate. That's gotta be the best way to silence the haters.
• Even the Bronx Bombers don't put up innings like this every day. The Yankees scored 13 runs in the third inning against the A's yesterday, tied for their biggest inning in 106 years. The only time the Yanks have ever scored more than 13 runs in an inning was on July 6, 1920, when Babe Ruth & Co. put up 14 in the fifth inning against the Washington Senators.
• The Dodgers got the series win in their NLDS rematch vs. the Phillies, thanks to a postseason-esque performance by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the rubber game. The Dodgers ace struck out 10, a season high, over 5 1/3 scoreless innings.
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The Mariners' new kid is making us nostalgic for the Mariners' old Kid.
Twenty-year-old Colt Emerson, Seattle's top prospect and MLB Pipeline's No. 5 overall, smacked his second big league home run over the weekend. But more importantly: Emerson's sweet lefty swing is evoking the sweet lefty swing of all sweet lefty swings: Ken Griffey Jr.'s.
Watch Emerson's latest home run swing, and you'll see shades of Griffey. Check it out …
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Now Emerson just has to hit, oh, about 600 more homers to really copycat Griffey. We believe in you, kid.
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The original Backyard Baseball game, released in 1997, was not merely popular at the time. The computer game, in which players drafted teams from a group of neighborhood kids, has become something of a cultural touchstone for a generation of fans since it cut to the essence of what makes the national pastime special and accessible for everyone.
The player everyone remembers is the legendary Pablo Sanchez, but sequel Backyard Baseball 2001 added MLB superstars to the mix. The Cardinals’ representative was, of course, Mark McGwire. And if you’re a St. Louis fan who has fond memories of this game and/or the Big Mac era, tomorrow is your night.
Fans who purchase a special ticket for the Cardinals' game against the Rangers on Tuesday get an exclusive McGwire Backyard Baseball Bobblehead. Not within shouting distance of Busch Stadium? Not to worry: the Rays, Giants and Pirates all have Pablo Sanchez Bobblehead Nights on the schedule in the next couple of months.
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