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 Brian Murphy.
"He missed that ball by a MILE."
Every baseball fan has had that thought at some point or another, watching a hitter whiff hopelessly at a particularly nasty pitch.
Of course, hitters don't literally miss the ball by a mile. But … how much DO they miss by?
For the first time ever, we can actually answer that question.
Baseball Savant has a brand new leaderboard for Swing Timing and Miss Distance. And there are a ton of cool new stats on there.
The biggest one is miss distance. And that measures, well, pretty much exactly what it sounds like: How far is the barrel of the bat from the ball on a swing-and-miss?
Thanks to Statcast's tracking, we can also measure everything about where the bat is compared to the ball on a swing:
• Whether the hitter swings over the pitch, under the pitch or lines the pitch up
• Whether the hitter is late with his swing, early with his swing or right on time
• Whether the hitter gets jammed inside, flails at a pitch outside or centers the pitch on his barrel
These new stats let us answer all sorts of interesting questions. We can see which pitchers, and which pitch types, get hitters to whiff by the most. We can see which hitters have the best timing on their swings and perfectly make contact on the barrel. And much, much more.
There's just a ton to explore. Mike Petriello explains all of the new swing timing and miss distance metrics here.
But we also have a teaser for you here: The biggest swings-and-misses on record since the start of Statcast bat tracking at the 2023 All-Star break.
You can watch the 10 biggest whiffs here, but let's show you the top three right now …
No. 1) Clayton Kershaw: 57.5 inches vs. Ronny Mauricio (June 3, 2025)
Kershaw's curveball was famously labeled "Public Enemy No. 1" by legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, and even in his final season, that was still true. Kersh holds the honor of the biggest whiff tracked by Statcast thanks to his Cooperstown curve.
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No. 2) Tyler Kinley: 48.9 inches vs. Jeimer Candelario (April 7, 2026)
This one was a curveball in the dirt, too, and Candelario was just … looking for something else. He swung at this curve from Kinley like he was trying to hit a fastball down the middle. Heck, he probably was. He guessed, and he guessed VERY wrong. Hitting is hard.
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No. 3) Chris Sale: 47.8 inches vs. Kazuma Okamoto (June 4, 2026)
We've got two all-time great pitchers in the top 3 on the "biggest miss" leaderboard. You love to see it. The whiff here was on Sale's slider, of course -- the signature pitch for one of the best strikeout artists of this generation. Call it a "welcome to the Majors" moment for Okamoto.
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Of course, it should be noted that this top-10 list was published on Tuesday. Several hours later, in the seventh inning of the Yankees-Guardians game, Cleveland reliever Tim Herrin buried a curveball in the dirt and completely fooled Paul Goldschmidt, who missed by a whopping 54.2 inches. That’s now the second-biggest miss on record, bumping Kinley.
Please excuse the, uh, miss. Goldy, we feel your pain.
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IS 3,000 IN REACH FOR FREDDIE? |
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman entered a club of one on Tuesday night against the Pirates. When he lined an RBI single to center as part of the Dodgers’ 10-run seventh inning, he became the only active player with 2,500 hits.
So you know what’s next, right?
“Everybody said we’d better get 500 more,” Freeman said after the win.
Five hundred more hits for one of baseball’s most consistent and durable batters certainly seems attainable. Since the start of 2018, the 36-year-old Freeman has played in 96.5% of possible games, and he is, naturally, MLB’s hits leader during that span. When might he get into the 3,000-hit club?
Freeman is on pace for 171 knocks this season, meaning he would end 2026 with 2,602 hits. Three more years of at least 150 knocks per year -- something he has accomplished in every non-shortened season since ‘18 -- would put Freeman at 3K sometime in 2029. And Freeman said recently that he intends to play through the ‘29 season.
“Hopefully, I can get there, but I only have one more year left on my contract, so you never know, and I also have four kids now,” he said Tuesday. “We’ll see what happens.”
Although Freeman is the first player to reach the 2,500-hit plateau since Robinson Canó in 2019, he may have company later this year; Astros star Jose Altuve is at 2,430 hits entering Wednesday. No other active player has as many as 2,300 hits.
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Shohei Ohtani takes his 0.74 ERA to the mound in Pittsburgh tonight! But he’s not the only big-name pitcher we’ll be watching. For info on how to watch every game this season, go to MLB.com/Watch.
Dodgers at Pirates (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
While Freeman continues his chase toward 3,000 hits, Shohei Ohtani looks to bolster his NL Cy Young case tonight. When we last saw him pitch, he was putting together a performance the likes of which we hadn’t seen in the Majors in more than 60 years. Those kinds of historic feats feel like just another day in the life of Ohtani, but we should never stop being amazed at his one-of-a-kind greatness.
Phillies at Blue Jays (7:07 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Max Scherzer has waited about six weeks to get one monumental strikeout. That wait ends tonight, as he will make his first start since April 24 after dealing with right forearm tendinitis and left ankle inflammation. Scherzer’s next K will make him the 11th pitcher to reach 3,500 strikeouts. Only Justin Verlander (3,554) has more among active pitchers. The Phillies, who are 6-2 this month, will try to upset Mad Max.
Braves at White Sox (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)
Chris Sale vies for his ninth win of the season tonight against a lot of new faces wearing a very familiar uniform. The lanky lefty will face the White Sox, the team that made him a first-round Draft pick in 2010. This will be his second start against the White Sox since he became a Brave in 2024. (He did face them a handful of times with the Red Sox before that.) These young South Siders (35-31) could pose quite a challenge for the veteran ace, as their .772 OPS against southpaws ranks third in MLB.
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A storybook debut, another long ball barrage in Vegas and AUSL Opening Day headline a few more stories that you need to know.
• Here's what White Sox outfielder Braden Montgomery, MLB's No. 21 overall prospect, had to say about his big league debut last night against the Braves: "That was … I still don’t know what to say."
You’ll forgive the 23-year-old for being at a loss for words since he had just become the fifth player to hit a walk-off home run in his first Major League game. Talk about making an immediate impact.
• After the Brewers and Athletics staged perhaps the wildest game of the season on Monday, the A’s went deep five more times in Tuesday’s victory in Las Vegas. There have been 17 home runs in the first two games between these clubs, so if you dig dingers, you’ve got to tune into tonight’s series finale from Las Vegas Ballpark (9:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV).
• Back-to-back homers, including a grand slam. A championship rematch. A complete game. Franchise firsts for expansion teams. Those are just a few of the things that occurred during a tripleheader of games during the Athletes Unlimited Softball League’s Opening Day on Tuesday. Here’s your full recap.
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The most discussed starting pitcher leading up to the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline will undoubtedly be rehabbing Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. But there’s another southpaw starter who should be a very popular name on the block: the Angels' Reid Detmers.
Detmers posted a 6.70 ERA as a starter in 2024, then was moved to the bullpen the next year. This season, he has a 4.26 ERA across 74 innings. So, what’s the big deal for a guy who may soon be involved in a big deal?
ERA does not properly describe Detmers’ successful transition back into the rotation. Just consider where the 26-year-old ranks among qualified starters in MLB heading into his start tonight against the Astros (9:38 p.m. ET, MLB.TV, MLB Network):
7th in FanGraphs WAR (2.2)
Tied for 5th in xERA (2.92)
8th in FIP (2.91)
Detmers’ strikeout rate (28.5%) is his best as a starter, while his walk rate (7.8%) is at a career low. And the former first-round Draft pick has not one, not two, not three, but four pitches that can leave batters swinging at nothing but air.
Brent Maguire has more on how Detmers has emerged as a pitcher to watch as we close in on the Deadline.
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VOTE NOW FOR THE ALL-STAR GAME |
Phase 1 of All-Star voting is open until Thursday, June 25, at noon ET.
Vote now to help send your favorite players to this year's All-Star Game in Philadelphia. Fans can vote up to five times per day.
Fill out your 2026 All-Star Ballot here >>
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