MLB Bullets can’t make this stuff up

Good morning.

• In their first game back in Anaheim after the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs, two Angels pitchers, Taylor Cole and Felix Pena, combined to throw a no-hitter on Friday night. Eric Stephen has the details from a game that no one will ever forget. Every member of the Angels was wearing “Skaggs 45” on the back of their jersey on Friday, and you can see in the photo above what they did with those jerseys after the win.
• Here’s a collection of photos and videos from the game.
• Fabian Ardaya has a detailed recap of the game (The Athletic sub. req.) and how the Angels have been dealing with Skaggs’ passing. As Mike Trout said, “you can’t make this stuff up.”
• The Angels found many ways to pay tribute to their fallen teammate on that night, writes Ashley Varela.
• The Angels have placed the game ball from the no-hitter in Skaggs’ locker.
• Ben Weinrib has some of the incredible facts and figures from that night.
• The Rays took a combined perfect game into the ninth inning on Sunday before Orioles infielder Hanser Alberto hit a ground ball away from the shift to lead off the ninth. There’s never been a combined perfect game in MLB history, although when I was growing up the books told me there was one. That game has since been correctly changed in the record books to a combined no-hitter and not a perfect game.
• David Schoenfield looks at the Rays’ outing and evaluates whether Tampa Bay can make the postseason this year.
• Neil Paine has seven big questions for the second half of the season. One of Paine’s questions is “How wrong was I about Washington?”
• Maybe the biggest question right now is the trade deadline and how the new rules are going to affect it. Anthony Castrovince explains how the trade deadline rules have changed this year.
• Jon Paul Morosi has five ways the new rules will affect the trade deadline.
• Ben Lindbergh says the truth of the matter is no one knows how the new rules are going to affect deals this summer.
• Anthony Castrovince proposes some “crazy” trades and wonders who says no.
• Will Leitch has one player from each team that is “untouchable” at trade time.
• Kevin Tresolini opines that the Phillies need to make some deals by the deadline.
• Will Leitch looks back at the deadline deals from last year and how they turned out.
• There were some deals made over the weekend. The Royals sent pitcher Homer Bailey to the Athletics for a minor league prospect.
• The Red Sox picked up pitcher Andrew Cashner from the Orioles for a pair of minor league prospects.
• The Rangers dealt right-hander Peter Fairbanks to the Rays for minor leaguer Nick Solak.
• The independent Atlantic League has started using TrackMan to call balls and strikes. Dan Connelly talks to the players, coaches, umpires and executives to see how it all went. (The Athletic sub. req.) It was not without problems, but overall it worked.
• The Atlantic League also had their first batter stealing first base. It was former Cubs farmhand Tony Thomas.
• Tony Wolfe notes that the 2019 Diamondbacks could set a new major league record for best stolen-base percentage.
• After eight years in the minors, Royals outfielder Bubba Starling has finally made the majors. Blake Schuster thinks Starling making the majors is one of the better stories of 2019. I remember draft day in 2011 and the discussion around here about what the Cubs should do if Starling fell to them in the first round. He went to the Royals with the fifth pick in the draft, four picks before the Cubs took Javier Baez.
• Two-time MVP Dale Murphy knows he sounds like an old man yelling at the kids to get off his lawn, but he believes that players should not socialize with players on other teams on the field. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The Cardinals confirmed that Hall-of-Fame pitcher Bob Gibson is being treated for pancreatic cancer.
• A few days after saying that he would be forced to give up catching because of repeated concussions, Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli told everyone to never mind what he just said about not catching anymore.
• The Phillies had a retirement ceremony for Ryan Howard.
• And finally, Francisco Tatis Jr. turned in a Matrix-like slide into first base to avoid a tag and return safely to first base after initially getting picked off.

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