How 1 trade built 2 of baseball's best teams

Plus: Elly's record-setting rocket throw

Wednesday, September 09 View Online 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 Red Sox are very good. The Brewers are very good. And they have each other to thank for that.    Let's take it back to Feb. 9, right before the start of Spring Training. That's the day the Sox and the Brew Crew swung what's turned out to be one of the most impactful trades of the year.    It wasn't a Tarik Skubal-sized blockbuster … far from it. But it supplied key pieces for two of this season's top playoff contenders.    This was the deal, to jog your memory:  Red Sox receive: INF Caleb Durbin, INF Andruw Monasterio, INF Anthony Seigler, Competitive Balance Round B Draft pick Brewers receive: LHP Kyle Harrison, INF David Hamilton, LHP prospect Shane Drohan Now let's fast-forward seven months.    The Brewers have the best record in baseball. They're the first team to 90 wins. And they wouldn't be there without Harrison, who's 10-4 with a 3.66 ERA and 134 strikeouts in 23 starts this season, or Hamilton, a perfect Brewers-style utility player who plays great defense, puts the ball in play and causes havoc on the basepaths.   The Red Sox have bounced back from an awful start to surge into American League Wild Card position. Durbin's own surge has mirrored the team's -- after a tough first two months, he's batting .288 with 11 home runs, 13 stolen bases and an .815 OPS over his last 90 games while playing great defense at the hot corner. He's been a top-five third baseman over that time.   So we're pretty confident in calling this a win-win trade. And that doesn't happen all that often -- especially not right away, in the first season following the deal. Jared Greenspan takes a look at how rare it is for a trade to pay off with so much immediate, Major League value on both sides.   You might be able to guess the No. 1 trade on that list (if you're thinking about Juan Soto … you're right), but there are some interesting other comps, so check that out.    And watch Durbin and the Red Sox take on the Angels tonight at Fenway Park (6:45 p.m. ET, MLB.TV). Harrison next pitches for the Brewers on Friday in Milwaukee's series opener against the Reds (7:45 p.m. ET, Apple TV). ELLY'S RECORD-SETTING ROCKET If you want to see what a human bazooka looks like, well, here's Elly De La Cruz:  We'll give you a minute, because we know you're watching that throw on loop right now. OK, ready? You probably want to know how hard that thing was now, right? We got you.    102 mph.   Yep, 102 mph. That's Elly essentially firing a Jacob Misiorowski fastball from short center field to the plate -- almost 200 feet away -- to take a would-be inside-the-park home run away from Teoscar Hernández last night.    It's the hardest tracked assist by an infielder in the entire Statcast era, which goes back to 2015.    Elly broke his own record ... four times over!    And how does his relay stack up against all the other speediest plays in Statcast history? Check that out here. GAMES OF THE NIGHT Here are three games with playoff implications to watch tonight.    Guardians at Orioles (6:35 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)    The Guardians are within two games of the White Sox in the AL Central after star rookie Travis Bazzana led them to a key W last night. Today All-Star lefty Foster Griffin (15-4, 3.26 ERA) gets the ball with the chance to keep the pressure on Chicago.   Astros at Phillies (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV)    The Astros started off their crucial road trip with a big win over the Phils yesterday, and tonight's game should be another good one. Both teams have their aces going. The Phillies, who remain a half-game ahead of the Cubs for the top NL Wild Card spot, send Cy Young contender Cristopher Sánchez to the mound against the Astros' Hunter Brown.   Rays at Braves (7:15 p.m. ET, MLB Network Showcase / MLB.TV)    The AL's best team romped over one of the NL's best in yesterday's series opener in Atlanta, as the Rays handily dispatched the Braves, 7-1. But Atlanta didn't lose any ground to the Phillies, who also lost, and will look to even the series tonight. HOME RUN FEATS GALORE It was a bad day to be a baseball yesterday. We got some big old home runs.    Let's start with the biggest: Lazaro Montes hit a 474-footer.    The Mariners rookie absolutely destroyed a 116.1 mph, 474-foot home run to center field in Seattle -- one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in the Majors. In fact, Montes' monster shot is the longest home run at T-Mobile Park in the Statcast era. It's also tied for the longest in the Majors this year with one by Fernando Tatis Jr. on July 21. Watch Montes' homer here >>   Next up: Junior Caminero took over the AL lead.    The Rays All-Star passed Yordan Alvarez for the American League home run lead with his 39th dinger of the season. Caminero's was also a rocket shot -- 110.2 mph off the bat and 455 feet to left-center in Atlanta as Tampa Bay walloped the Braves. Watch Caminero's homer here >>   Then there was Mr. Rocket Arm himself: Elly De La Cruz took Tarik Skubal WAY deep.    In the same game as his record-setting 102 mph relay to the plate, De La Cruz hit a huge home run off the reigning Cy Young winner for his 25th of the year. Elly's blast went 444 feet into the night at Dodger Stadium -- and he relished it with a 30.13-second home run trot. Watch De La Cruz's homer here >>    And last but not least: Kazuma Okamoto made rookie home run history.   The Blue Jays slugger became the third rookie this season to reach the 30-homer mark, along with countryman Munetaka Murakami of the White Sox and Reds Rookie of the Year frontrunner Sal Stewart. This is the first time in MLB history that three rookies have hit 30 home runs in the same season. Watch Okamoto's homer here >> © 2026 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. 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