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The First Pitch: May 7, 2026
It’s déjà blew all over again for the Reds, who blow a late lead for the third straight game against the Cubs at Chicago and suffer their sixth defeat overall with a 10-inning, 3-2 loss.
For the Cubs, the win is their eighth straight and 14th in a row at Wrigley Field, tied for the second longest streak at the iconic ballpark after an 18-game run during their 1935 pennant push.
To be fair, the Reds set up their latest collapse after scoring four times in the top of the ninth to take a 6-4 lead, with the last two of those runs both scoring on a sacrifice fly from Elly De La Cruz. But after the Cubs level on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s two-run homer in the bottom half of the ninth, the winning run is notched in the 10th when Reds reliever Brock Burke—who intentionally walks two batters to load the bases with one out—unintentionally walks Michael Busch to force in the game-winner.
De La Cruz’s two-run sac fly is the majors’ first such in five years.
The Dodgers blow away the Astros at Houston, 12-2, taking the rubber match of the three-game series behind Andy Pages’ hat trick of home runs—and a hat trick of wild pitches by Houston starter Lance McCullers Jr., each bringing home the Dodgers’ first three first runs. The rout also features the first two hits in a week for Shohei Ohtani, who snaps a 0-for-18 string with a third-inning double, followed by an RBI single in the fifth.
The three-homer game for Pages is the majors’ second this year, with both accomplished by a Dodger; Max Muncy was the first, on April 10 against Texas. Is the 31st such achievement in team history—with 14 of those taking place within the last 10 years.
There are three batters hit by pitches in the Angels’ 8-2 home win over the White Sox—and all three come with the bases loaded to force in a run. Two of those occur on back-to-back pitches by White Sox reliever Osvaldo Bido, facing his first two batters in the fourth; the other occurs in the seventh, when the Angels’ Drew Pomeranz plunks Sam Antonacci with the bags full.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first time since at least 1956 that a game has included three bases-loaded HBPs.
The Braves suffer their first series loss of the year, dropping a 3-1 decision at Seattle behind six sharp shutout innings from Seattle starter Bryan Woo, who allows just one hit with nine strikeouts. The win gives the Mariners two wins in the three-game series; the Braves had won 10 of their 11 previous series to start the year, splitting the other one.
Off the field, the Braves and the rest of the baseball world learn of the passing of former team owner Ted Turner, one of the game’s more influential lords, at the age of 87.
Turner inherited his father’s billboard business and used that small fortune to buy WCTG, a UHF TV station (for all you kids out there, UHF was…oh never mind). In 1976, Turner purchased the Braves, stating he wanted to buy the team for two reasons: “To get an autographed ball without pleading for it and to get good seats.”
To prop up fading attendance at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, Turner spared no shred of shamelessness. He had pitcher Andy Messersmith—baseball’s first modern free-agent signing—wear “Channel 17” on the back of his jersey as a way of promoting WCTG before MLB told him to stop. He made himself Braves manager after firing Dave Bristol, getting away with it for one day before MLB, citing a rule that owners could not manage, told him to get out of the dugout. He introduced numerous promotions at the ballpark, most infamously with Wet T-Shirt Night. And he was suspended in 1977 for tampering with pending free agent outfielder Gary Matthews, who was still employed at the time by the Giants.
In the years to follow, Turner’s meddlesome behavior mellowed as he tackled bigger ambitions—launching CNN, promoting world peace and saving the environment. He let his baseball people do more of the work on the Braves, and the team became a relevant contender—briefly at first in the early 1980s, and then with a bang in 1991, going worst-to-first in the standings to initiate an impressive run of winning campaigns. Through it all, the Braves were showcased on WCTG—which became WTBS, then TBS—not just in the Atlanta area, but nationwide on basic cable systems as the first “superstation.” (Chicago’s WGN, which carried the Cubs, would soon follow as the second.)
Turner sold the Braves in 1996, and the team gave tribute by renaming the rebuilt-for-baseball Olympic Stadium as Turner Field for 1997.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
5-3-3-6—Andy Pages, Los Angeles Dodgers
It’s the first hat trick and a career high in RBIs for the 25-year-old center fielder, who’s quietly emerged as the most dangerous Dodger on a team full of dangerous candidates. After his big day in the Dodgers’ 12-2 smashing of the Astros, Pages is batting .336—tied for second in the NL—while his 33 RBIs lead all of baseball.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
8-2-0-0-0-7—Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh
There was not a Cardinal to be found nearby in Phoenix, and that was good news for the reigning Cy Young winner as he rebounded from his latest non-win against St. Louis with eight flawless shutout innings against the Diamondbacks in the Pirates’ 1-0 win. Skenes’ five wins is already half of what he mustered up last year, and his 0.71 WHIP is tops in MLB.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1902: In consecutive games, the Cubs are caught cheating on the mound against the New York Giants. After Jack Taylor throws a two-hit shutout over Christy Mathewson and the Giants, the Giants successfully argue that Taylor was illegally pitching from in front of the pitching rubber. A day later, the Giants sense that the mound has been moved closer to home plate—and they’re right, by 15 inches. Both games are not forfeited but, rather, replayed later.
1906: Stealing second, third and home in the same inning by the same player is not entirely rare in the deadball era—except when it’s a pitcher committing the thefts. The Tigers’ Wild Bill Donovan is just that pitcher, circling the bases the hardest way possible at Cleveland. He also knocks out a triple—his only extra-base hit of the year—and pitches his way to an 8-3 win over the Naps.
1957: Cleveland pitcher Herb Score, fulfilling the prediction of many as the next Bob Feller, takes a line drive scorched by the Yankees’ Gil McDougald in the right eye. Score will not return in 1957, and his comeback attempt the following season clearly lacks his pre-injury dominance, thanks in part to elbow problems. He retires after 1962, but soon begins a prolonged career as the Indians’ play-by-play announcer.
1959: Wheelchair-bound for life, former Dodgers star Roy Campanella is honored at an exhibition game between the Dodgers and Yankees before a Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum crowd of 93,103—at the time, the largest gathering for a game pairing two major league teams. An additional 15,000 fans are turned away after the game is sold out. The game, won 6-2 by the Yankees, is a mere postscript to the main event of saluting Campanella—the highlight of which comes when the stadium lights darken and fans hold up lighters and lit matches into the air.
1998: The Seattle Mariners set an all-time mark when they leave 16 men on base while being shut out, 6-0 against Toronto. Roger Clemens goes seven innings for the Blue Jays—scattering seven hits, four walks and two hit batsmen while keeping the Mariners scoreless. Reliever Paul Quantrill goes the final two innings and allows four hits.
2009: Manny Ramirez, off to a great start after his blistering finish with the Dodgers a year earlier, fails a drug test and is suspended for 50 games. The circumstances are interesting; Ramirez had a prescription for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, a female fertility drug that is said to help lower testosterone levels for people coming off steroids. In the 27 games before the suspension, Ramirez is batting .348 with six homers and 20 runs batted in; in the 77 games after his return, he’ll bat a more modest .269 with 13 homers and 43 RBIs.
2010: Philadelphia pitcher Jamie Moyer becomes the oldest pitcher, at age 47, to throw a big-league shutout when he blanks the Braves on two hits.
2017: In an 18-inning contest between the Yankees and Cubs at Chicago, both teams combine for a record 48 strikeouts—26 by the Cubs to tie the major league mark and set a NL record.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
Cincinnati closer Emilio Pagan (35)
James Loney (42), first baseman of 1,425 hits; career .350 batting average over 80 postseason at-bats
Born on this date:
Dick Williams (1929), 13-year utility player who made bigger splash later as Hall-of-Fame manager, guiding three different teams (Red Sox, A’s and Padres) to pennants; TGG interview subject
Tom Zachary (1896), southpaw pitcher with 186-191 record over 19 seasons; won all three of his World Series starts, for 1924 Pirates and 1928 Yankees
Mickey Doolin (1880), no-hit, all-glove shortstop of the Deadball Era who thrice led his position in fielding percentage
Casey Patten (1874), left-handed pitcher who featured in the Washington Senators’ first seven-plus seasons; career 106-128 record
Shameless Link of the Day
Andy Pages’ three-homer performance against the Astros puts him on the expansive list of Dodger hat tricks. Check out who else is on it.
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