MLB Bullets made a difference

Let’s just get right to the links today, OK? Lots of West Coast action Tuesday night.

• In case you missed it late Tuesday night, Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin had a no-hitter broken up with two outs in the ninth when Giants first baseman Brandon Belt broke it up with a check swing infield single that went against the shift. Tough way to lose a no-no, but Corbin did finish with a complete game one-hitter.
• Angels pitcher (for last night, at least) Shohei Ohtani took his first major league loss when gave up three runs in two innings against the Red Sox. The Angels said he left the game early because of a blister. This is why we as baseball fans aren’t allowed to have nice things.
• By the way, Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts hit three home runs against the Angels, including one off Ohtani to lead off the game.
• Even though he was writing before last night’s game, I’m sure Tom Verducci stands by this piece where he examines the phenomenon that is Shohei Ohtani. Verducci is impressed.
• Jon Wertheim writes that as big as Ohtani is in America right now, his celebrity has grown even more in Japan. Ohtani was a big star in Japan before this season but his start to the year has taken his celebrity to a new level.
• Did you know that Ohtani was almost a Red Sox? No, not this season. Ohtani eliminated all the East Coast teams pretty quickly this winter. But Rob Bradford explains how Ohtani almost signed with the Red Sox out of high school, before being convinced to start his professional career in Japan. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• Neil Paine looks at the Angels strong start to the season and how the team has finally given Mike Trout a supporting cast worthy of his greatness.
• Mike Axisa has five reasons why the Angels are off to the best start in their history.
• Buster Olney thinks that a great rivalry is building between the Astros and the Angels.
• MLB returned to Puerto Rico last night with a game between the Twins and the Indians. Whitney McIntosh writes that while MLB can’t fix what’s broken on that not-a-state, not-a-foreign-country island. they are doing what they can to alleviate the suffering and bring some joy to the people.
• And Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor certainly brought a lot of joy when he hit a home run in his native Puerto Rico. The fans went nuts. I just want to reiterate how classy Lindor is and remind you that he went to the Cubs’ clubhouse after Game 7 of the 2016 World Series to congratulate Javier Baez. He didn’t have to do that, but he did.
• Yankees legend and Puerto Rico native Bernie Williams played the Star-Spangled Banner before the game, and he did an incredible job. If you didn’t know that Williams is a Grammy-nominated jazz musician since he retired from baseball, you do now.
• Ben Lindbergh looks at how most of the “Superteams” that were expected to dominate the 2018 season (including the Cubs) are not exactly dominating anything so far.
• Joseph Nocco finds the reasons for the Mets hot start in some “unsung heroes.”
• Chris Cwik has three reasons why the Pirates are off to such a good start to the season.
• However, the Pirates hot start has to be tempered by the news that starting second baseman Josh Harrison will miss the next six weeks with a broken finger.
• Bad news for the hot-starting Diamondbacks as well. Taijuan Walker has been diagnosed with a UCL injury, and that usually means Tommy John surgery. That decision hasn’t been made yet though. Sometimes players can rehab their way through it without surgery, but that’s pretty uncommon.
• Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge became the fastest player to sixty career home runs.
• His teammate Giancarlo Stanton is still struggling and may get moved lower in the lineup. He’s also still getting booed in Yankee Stadium.
• Jerry Crasnick talks with besieged Phillies manager Gabe Kapler and Kapler vows that you will never boo him for the same mistake twice. Yeah, he can think of hundreds of different ways to mess up.
• Jeff Sullivan writes that Brewers reliever Josh Hader is becoming the most valuable reliever in the game.
• But then Sullivan writes about Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino, who is off to a historic start to the season. Sullivan tries to figure out what Ottavino is doing different this year.
• Then there is Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks, who has come out of nowhere (well, A-ball) to become the hardest-throwing pitcher in the majors this year, even harder than Aroldis Chapman. Michael Baumann has a profile of Hicks.
• The Athletics have designated Trayce Thompson for assignment. I guess we’re not getting that Odd Couple remake with him and his brother Klay after all.
• A popular Twitter account that uses MLB gifs got suspended this week and Jeff Passan looks at how MLB is trying to change its social media policy. Passan writes that the account is expected to be reinstated later this week after its owner communicated with MLB.
• This should come as little surprise to anyone who knows their baseball history, but Jay Jaffe documents how the three teams that embraced integrated baseball the earliest—the Dodgers, Giants and Braves, came to dominate the National League throughout the 1950s. Meanwhile, PK Wrigley made Gene Baker stay in the minor leagues for four seasons until he could find someone to room with him on the road. Sure, he found Ernie Banks and that’s great, but Baker should have been in Chicago four seasons earlier.
• Rays outfielder Carlos Gomez tried to throw out his former teammate Adrian Beltre at first base on a one-hopper to right field and Beltre was not amused. He was safe, however.
• The International League Rochester Red Wings successfully pulled off the hidden-ball trick.
• If you’ve been to Safeco Field recently, I’m sure you’ve had the grasshoppers that they serve at the park. Or at least heard about them. Eric Gomez documents how the chapulines go from the maize fields of Oaxaca to your seat at a Mariners game. It’s a pretty interesting story about food that is also about baseball.
• And finally, tragedy was averted when in Toronto, ice fell off one of the Royals team buses and crashed into the windshield of the other one, breaking the window and injuring the bus driver. Luckily, reliever Blaine Boyer grabbed the wheel and steered the bus to safety. Now that’s certainly the biggest save of Boyer’s career.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.