Outside The Confines: Wash your hands!

Good morning Monday.

• The Rays finally lost on Friday, ending their winning streak to start the season at 13. Then they lost again on Saturday in Toronto before winning the final game of the series to go to 14-2.
• Emma Baccellieri has five stats that explain the Rays 13-0 start.
• Despite losing two of three in Toronto, Hannah Keyser writes that the Rays have reasons to be confident the rest of the way.
• Michael Bauman believes that one of the big keys to the Rays turning their hot start into a pennant is the emergence of second baseman Brandon Lowe.
• There was a big brouhaha in Saturday’s Yankees-Twins game. Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán was perfect through three when a substance check revealed that he had sticky hands. Germán was told to wash it off, but he was allowed to stay in the game. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected arguing the decision.
• Germán protested his innocence, saying that it was just rosin and that he had washed his hands (The Athletic sub. req.), but that he had touched a rosin bag again on his way to the mound.
• The Cubs aren’t the only team signing players to extensions after the season has started. The Giants agreed to a five-year, $90 million deal with right-handed pitcher Logan Webb.
• Grant Brisbee argues that signing Webb to an extension was both the obvious and necessary move for the Giants. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• It was Jackie Robinson Day in baseball on Saturday. There is no doubt that Robinson was a great man, but David Schoenfield wants you to remember that Robinson was a great baseball player too. Probably a better player than you think he was.
• Dayn Perry wants you to know that Robinson’s one season in the Negro Leagues played an overlooked role in his path to greatness.
• And in what has become an increasingly-embarrassing story every year, only 6.1% of MLB player on Opening Day rosters in 2023 were African-American, the lowest total since 1955. Bob Nightengale looks at what MLB is doing to try to change that trend. MLB is encouraged that the percentage of Black Americans among the top 100 prospects to start the year was 14 percent, including six of the top 25, according to MLB Pipeline.
• Evan Drellich looks at the state of baseball broadcasting and the possibilities of a blackout-less baseball streaming service for all 30 teams. (The Athletic sub. req.) Short answer? It’s not impossible, but don’t get your hopes up.
• There’s a new group trying to bring an expansion MLB team to Salt Lake City.
• Mike DiGiovanna explains that MLB has a procedure for avoiding a pitch clock violation like Cody Bellinger got at Dodger Stadium on Friday. The problem is that a team has to ask the commissioner’s office for an exception. The Cubs didn’t request one because they thought it was presumptuous to ask for one in Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers didn’t ask for one because they didn’t want to ask for a Cubs player.
• Ken Rosenthal has more on the Bellinger pitch-clock issue (The Athletic sub. req.) He also talks about how the upcoming return of the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. from his PED suspension could affect his teammate Juan Soto. And other nuggets from around MLB.
• As far as Tatis goes, he’s in his rehab assignment in Triple-A in anticipation of his return to San Diego. He’s only hit six home runs in 12 at-bats down there.
• Bradford Doolittle explains what conclusions we should draw from the early trends in MLB this year. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Jay Jaffe writes that Brave outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.’s bat is back from his injury, but every other aspect of his game is still off from his pre-injury form.
• R.J. Anderson has three stats that explain why Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida has struggled to start his MLB career.
• Tom Verducci looks at how the Rangers’ pitching staff can end their long playoff drought.
• Cody Stevenhagen notes that Tigers shortstop Javier Báez looks “locked in” since his one-game benching after forgetting how many outs there were. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The Yankees put outfielder Giancarlo Stanton on the injured list with a hamstring strain.
• And his teammate, Aaron Judge, won a trademark lawsuit over the use of the phrases “All Rise” and “Here Comes the Judge.” (The Athletic sub. req.) Honestly, that second one should belong to Pigmeat Markham. But I suppose Judge’s use is baseball-specific.
• If you were wondering where catcher Will Smith was this weekend, the Dodgers put him on the 7-day concussion IL.
• Reds first baseman Joey Votto has suspended his minor league rehab assignment, saying his “swing is not there yet.”
• On the tenth anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, the members of that Red Sox team spoke to Bob Nightengale about what it meant for Boston to win the World Series that year.
• Justice delos Santos gets the story behind the Pirates “cutlass” home run celebration.
• Tony, Grammy and Emmy-Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda finally got to see his cousin, Twins third baseman José Miranda, play in person. Lin-Manuel was pretty emotional about what José means to their family. Of course, José says he still hasn’t seen Hamilton.
• And finally, this is what Jon Sciambi and Rick Sutcliffe have to look forward to today. The Mets broadcast team explained about the large possum living in the visiting broadcast booth at the Oakland Coliseum.

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