Outside The Confines: Making a good second impression

Good morning.

• In his second-ever start for the Phillies, right-hander Michael Lorenzen threw a no-hitter against the Nationals. It was the Phillies 14th no-hitter of all-time and the fourth of 2023.
• Some “incredible” facts about Lorenzen’s no-hitter.
• Jayson Stark calls Lorenzen’s no-hitter “poetry.” (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Ben Clemens offers his thoughts on Lorenzen’s no-no that was a “celebration of baseball.”
• Zach Crizer looks at Lorenzen’s career and how he always believed in himself.
• R.J. Anderson has six MLB teams under the most pressure the final two months.
• At top of that list is the Angels. Ben Clemens writes that the Angels dared to dream at the trade deadline, but what’s happened since then has been a nightmare.
• The Orioles are riding high at the moment. Tim Kurkjian looks at how the O’s transformed from a talented team to a good team.
• Of course, Orioles gonna Oriole. The story of broadcaster Kevin Brown was covered in the last edition of this feature. But Ken Rosenthal has the explanation of why the Orioles have not yet signed a new lease to stay at Camden Yards. (The Athletic sub. req.) Their lease runs out at the end of the year and there is no agreement for next season. For those who don’t have a subscription, team president John Angelos wants Baltimore to approve a development area around Camden Yards filled with businesses, housing and hotels — like what the Braves got with their new stadium. The problem is that Camden Yards is built in the middle of a big city and not way out in the suburbs and there simply isn’t any available space to meet Angelos’ demands.
• Over at South Side Sox, Leigh Allen has a great piece absolutely blasting White Sox management and saying that they’re playing the fans for suckers.
• Jeff Passan gets the behind-the-scenes story of how the Rangers landed pitchers Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery at the trade deadline. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• David Adler looks at the adjustments that returned Brewers starter Corbin Burnes back to his old ace self.
• Tom Verducci examines the Rays pitching program that transforms other teams’ castoffs into valuable pitchers.
• Unfortunately, Rays ace Shane McClanahan will miss the rest of the season and may need surgery. Maybe even Tommy John surgery.
• Aaron Gleeman asks: How worried should the Twins be about Carlos Correa’s poor season so far? (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Padres outfielder Juan Soto says that the Friars “just give up” too easily when they fall behind. Even earlier in the season when I was quite critical of David Ross, I noted that the one thing the Cubs had going for them was that the team never quit. And now look at them.
• The Dodgers have signed Korean right-handed pitcher Hyun-Seok Jang. The highly-regarded 19-year-old Jang decided to skip signing with a KBO team and go straight to an MLB franchise.
• Sticking with Korea, the Kiwoom Heroes are still expected to post slugger Jung Hoo Lee at the end of the season, despite a season-ending ankle injury to Lee.
• Mike Axisa explains how players can still change teams after the deadline.
• Will Leitch has one thing for each fanbase to watch the rest of the year.
• Andy McCullough and Zack Meisel look at the phenomenon that many of you have noticed. Why are so many plays, that most of us have always considered to be errors, being called hits this year? (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Fill-in umpire Lew Williams had a rough day with errors as well. In Tuesday’s game between the Phillies and Nationals, Williams had three calls overturned in the first two innings. Luckily, the day didn’t get worse as he had no further calls overturned. Hey, there are lots of rookies who go 0 for 4 with four strikeouts too.
• Identical twins Tyler and Taylor Rogers are both pitching out of the Giants bullpen this year. And believe it or not, their stats are almost identical as well.

• Mariners rookie right-hander Bryce Miller and Orioles rookie infielder Jordan Westburg are likely to face each other for the first time in the majors this weekend. But it won’t be the first time they’ve faced off. In one Little League game 12 years ago, Westburg homered off of Miller in the third inning. In the next half-inning, Miller homered off of Westburg.
• And finally, Royals outfielder Kyle Isbel did something that no one can remember anyone doing before. Isbel smashed a lamp on the Green Monster in Boston with a line drive and the ball came to rest inside the broken bulb. They did actually have a rule for this, and it’s no different than the ball getting stuck in the ivy at Wrigley—ground-rule double.

Here’s the play.

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