Wednesday, April 01
Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.
The hitter with the longest on-base streak in Major League Baseball is also the pitcher with the longest scoreless-inning streak in Major League Baseball.
That’s not an April Fool’s joke. That’s Shohei Ohtani.
After Ohtani’s first two-way game of the 2026 season last night — when he pitched six shutout innings on the mound and went 1-for-3 with two walks at the plate — the Dodgers superstar has reached base safely in 36 consecutive games going back to last season … and thrown 22 2/3 scoreless innings going back to last season.
Both of those streaks, incredibly, are the longest active regular-season streaks in baseball.
MLB’s longest active on-base streaks
- Shohei Ohtani (Dodgers): 36 games
- Geraldo Perdomo (D-backs): 22 games
- Jonathan Aranda (Rays): 19 games
MLB’s longest active scoreless-inning streaks
- Shohei Ohtani (Dodgers): 22 2/3 innings
- Mason Miller (Padres): 22 1/3 innings
- Max Fried (Yankees): 18 1/3 innings
Now, sure, Miller could leapfrog Ohtani between now and his next start, but we’ll worry about that later. For right now, Shohei is king of both sides of the ball.
And guess what? Ohtani has a chance to set his own personal hitting record tonight when the Dodgers face the Guardians (8:20 p.m. ET/5:20 p.m. PT).
Ohtani’s on-base streak, which goes all the way back to Aug. 24, 2025, is tied for the longest of his career. He had another 36-game streak from 2023-24, but if he gets on base today, his current streak will stand alone. His scoreless innings streak as a pitcher is already the longest of his career. Who knows how far he can take that one?
DEGROM TRIES NEW TRICK VS. OLD FRIEND
You probably saw that Pete Alonso’s first home run as an Oriole last night came against old friend Jacob deGrom.
The two former Mets teammates — one now in Baltimore, the other in Texas — had some fun with each other in the O’s game against the Rangers, too. deGrom sent the Polar Bear lumbering back to first base on a rare pickoff throw before Alonso got the last laugh with his homer.
But here’s the interesting thing about Alonso taking deGrom deep, beyond just their history in New York: deGrom tried a new trick against Alonso … it just backfired.
The pitch Alonso homered against was a sinker — which is a new pitch for the 37-year-old deGrom this year. deGrom hasn’t thrown a sinker in seven years. The last time deGrom had a sinker, Alonso was a rookie on the Mets in 2019.
deGrom has one of the best four-seam fastballs … well, ever. But the two-time Cy Young Award winner has decided to start mixing in sinkers as a new wrinkle this year, his 13th MLB season. The one he threw to Alonso wasn’t bad, either — 96.5 mph with 14 inches of horizontal movement and right on the inside edge of the zone. But the Silver Slugger Alonso was still able to turn on it and hammer it out to left-center.
Will that be the end of deGrom’s sinker experiment, or will he stay with his new pitch? We’ll see.
‘THIS WEEK IN BASEBALL’ IS BACK!
In the mood for some nostalgia today? Well, here’s some good news:
“This Week in Baseball” has returned.
MLB is reviving the classic franchise — complete with its iconic theme music.
The @MLB account on X will show a new short-form episode every Friday at noon ET from now through the 2026 postseason. The reimagined “TWIB” will highlight the biggest plays, amazing moments and fun stories of the season — all while keeping the vibe that made “This Week in Baseball” a hit with fans for decades.
“This Week in Baseball” debuted in April 1977 — hosted by Hall of Fame broadcaster Mel Allen — as a weekly 30-minute highlight program that showcased standout moments from around the league in the days when baseball highlights were usually limited to brief segments on local newscasts. The original run lasted until 1998, with a revival version also running from 2000-11.
WHY THIS 2-HOMER DEBUT WASN’T A SURPRISE
D-backs No. 27 prospect Jose Fernandez turned heads last night with a historic big league debut. Fernandez became just the eighth player in MLB history to hit two home runs in his first career regular-season game. (Crazily enough, two of those eight times have happened this season, with the Guardians’ Chase DeLauter also doing it on Opening Day.)
But if you were watching the 22-year-old tear it up at Spring Training, this wasn’t a surprise.
Fernandez had a ridiculous 100.1 mph average exit velocity this spring. He was one of only three players to average 100 mph or harder on at least 15 batted balls — and the other two guys were Giancarlo Stanton and Junior Caminero.
Fernandez’s 83% hard-hit rate was the highest of Spring Training, and 13 of his 18 balls in play were hit at least 100 mph off the bat. Oh, and he also smacked a 102.4 mph triple and 96.1 mph single in the D-backs’ Spring Breakout prospect showcase game.
So seeing Fernandez barrel up a 104.2 mph home run off Tigers starter Casey Mize and a 101.6 mph home run off closer Kenley Jansen last night? Makes perfect sense to us.
THE NASTIEST PITCHES OF PAINTER’S DEBUT
Andrew Painter’s much-hyped Major League debut yesterday was even more dazzling than we could’ve hoped for.
The Phillies’ star pitching prospect pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball and racked up eight strikeouts on four different pitch types — his fastball, slider, curve and changeup.
Here’s a look at some of his nastiest pitches of the night — one K for each pitch type.
YOSHI, MEET YOSHI, MEET YOSHI
Yesterday was one of the best stadium giveaways of all time: Yoshi bobblehead night at Dodger Stadium.
If you haven’t already seen it by now, the bobblehead was Yoshi (the green Super Mario dinosaur) wearing a Yoshi (Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto) jersey.
And Pitcher Yoshi even autographed the Dinosaur Yoshi bobbleheads for his Dodgers teammates, as captured by Sonja Chen:
There were actually three Yoshis at Dodger Stadium last night: Yamamoto … a giant Yoshi mascot … and Donald Glover — the voice of the Yoshi character in the new Mario movie — who threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Yamamoto.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” premieres in the U.S. today.
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RJ Hamster 