With one weekend of Major League Baseball in the books, here are five things to know about this past weekend’s games.
Bombs Away In the Bronx – The New York Yankees tied a Major League record with 15 homers over their first three games of the 2025 season, leaving Milwaukee Brewers fans, well, crying in their beer. On opening day, the Yankees got a leadoff homer from Austin Wells, who was batting atop the order for the first time in his MLB career. They got back-to-back-to-back homers from Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, and Aaron Judge to start Saturday’s game, in which they won 20-9 and clubbed a team record nine homers. The Yankees are off to a 3-0 start.
Is It the Bats or the Pitching? – Part of the Yankees’ slugging over the weekend has been attributed to the “torpedo bats” designed by a physicist employed by the organization who designed a reshaped bat that moves some of the mass closer to the batter’s hands, hopefully increasing the number of “barrels,” or hits where the exit velocity combined with the ball’s launch angle results in a .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
Designated Hitter? More Like Designated Sitter – Rafael Devers wasn’t happy when Alex Bregman came to Boston, and didn’t want to take a role as the Red Sox’ designated hitter. But that’s where he fits best in the lineup, so that’s where manager Alex Cora penciled him in. Unfortunately for Devers, he hasn’t done much hitting — he’s struck out 12 times in the first four games of the season and is 0-for-16.
Sugano’s Early Exit – Tomoyuki Sugano, one of the best pitchers in Nippon Professional Baseball over the past 15 years, left his first MLB start for the Baltimore Orioles early on Sunday, throwing just four innings before leaving due to cramps. Sugano, 35, allowed two runs on four hits and two walks against the Toronto Blue Jays, striking out one. In 12 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants, Sugano threw 1,857 innings in 276 appearances with a 2.43 ERA and 1,585 strikeouts.
That’s… Not How You Do That – An absolute downpour confounded the grounds crew at Rate Field in Chicago, where the White Sox were playing the Los Angeles Angels. The grounds crew made an attempt to get the tarp onto the infield, but were only partially successful, and had to use a number of other tarps — tarps for pitchers mounds, tarps for the home plate circle, whatever tarps they could find — to try and cover the infield.
The White Sox grounds crew couldn't get the whole tarp on the field so they had to patch it up with a bunch of smaller tarps
(via @SamBlum3) pic.twitter.com/y2CBSjQDj5
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 30, 2025
Photo: The grounds crew covers the field with a tarp during a rain delay in the seventh inning of a baseball game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Chicago White Sox in Chicago, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
