MLB

The Diamondbacks were mostly stifled by Brandon Waddell and the Mets’ bullpen in this one as Gurriel was the only member of their lineup to tally multiple hits. His ninth inning double set Arizona up to score some valuable insurance runs that proved vital after the Mets rallied in response, but fell just short. Still, Gurriel and his .181 batting average has put him in danger of losing his starting job.

Taylor gave the Mets life with his ninth inning home run and continues to play a tremendous defensive center field for them. Despite a poor .592 OPS on the season, he has a hit in his last three games and has started 14 of the 17 games since Jose Siri went on the injured list. The Mets have been trying Jeff McNeil in center field a bit to keep Luisangel Acuña in the lineup more often, but it’s clear that they’re sacrificing defense if so. Taylor steals enough bases with regular playing time to be borderline viable in very deep leagues.

The Mets called on Waddell for the spot-appearance as they’re in the midst of a 26 games in 27 days stretch and he performed as well as anyone could have hoped. He followed opener Huascar Brazobán the funky, left-handed Waddell was lethal over his 60-pitch outing. He retired the final eight batters he faced and forced a swing-and-miss with all five of his pitches. Those five pitches all got some real use too, as he threw each at least 12% of the time and he looked passable as a spot-starter.

Lovullo added that Martinez is undergoing further evaluation after his velocity was down significantly during Wednesday’s relief appearance against the Mets. The hard-throwing 23-year-old was pulled in the ninth inning after giving up a solo homer to Tyrone Taylor and issuing consecutive walks to Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto. It was Ryan Thompson who came on to escape the jam and pick up the save. It certainly sounds like the Diamondbacks are considering giving him some time off to rest and focus on getting back to his previous form.

Butler put the game away for the A’s with a salami off Shawn Armstrong that turned a 3-1 game into a 7-1 rout. It’s the fifth homer of 2025 for Butler, and his RBI total bumps up from seven to 11 with the bases-clearing bomb. He ends the month with a slash of .258/.324/.432, and those numbers should keep climbing.

With the score tied at 1-1, Rooker came to the plat against Luke Jackson and clobbered a pitch from Jackson over the left-field fence to give the A’s a 3-1 lead. The Athletics would score four more on a grand slam by Lawrence Butler in the inning to turn a nailbiter into a blowout. Rooker has gone deep eight times in 30 games — putting him around a 40-homer pace — and remains one of the most underrated offensive weapons in the sport of baseball.

Eovaldi didn’t walk anyone while throwing 61-of-93 pitches for strikes before exiting. The only run allowed came on a safety squeeze from Jacob Wilson in the third, and he was able to work around eight hits thanks in large part to the aforementioned strikeouts. He ends April with a sparkling 2.11 ERA and his 46/3 K/BB ratio is nothing to sneeze at, either. Unfortunately, he got just a single run of support while he was in the game, so it’s a hard-luck no-decision against the A’s on Wednesday. He’ll face the Red Sox next week.

Severino allowed eight hits, but outside of a single from Adolis Garcia that scored a run in the fourth, he was able to keep the Rangers off the board. It’s the third time in four outings that the 31-year-old has given up no more than one run, and his ERA has lowered to 3.30 from 4.74 in the process. Severino isn’t dominating, but he’s getting the job done; more so from a ‘real-life’ standard than a fantasy one. He faces the Mariners in Sacramento on Monday.

Oof. Jackson came in with a runner on to try and get Brent Rooker in a time game, but instead gave up a long two-run homer to Rooker. He allowed two walks and another hit before exiting, and a grand slam by Lawrence Butler after he exited saw his ERA explode to 6.55. Jackson looked good to begin the year as the closer, but it’s fair to say this isn’t going very well, anymore. Don’t be surprised if the Rangers begin conversations for a closer change, if those discussion haven’t taken place already.