Last Night in Baseball: Shohei Ohtani is the Brian Roberts of his generation

Fox Sports

07-05-2025

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to handle themselves.
That's why we're here to help, though, by sifting through the previous days' games, and figuring out what you missed, but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Ohtani is off to another historic start
Stop us if you've heard this one before: Shohei Ohtani is doing something no one else in baseball is. One year after breaking the 50-50 barrier, and one day after crushing the hardest-hit home run of the season, he added another four-bagger to become the first player (and only, thus far) to total 10 homers and 10 stolen bases in 2025.
In fact, he's the first player in 20 years to reach that mark through the first 36 games. The last to do so was, as you have probably guessed, longtime Baltimore Orioles infielder Brian Roberts. He and Ohtani? Basically the same player. Especially if Ohtani learns the Birdland dance. Giants have a HUGE inning at Wrigley
Two big themes emerged from around the majors on Tuesday: high-scoring innings and walk-off wins. Four teams put up six or more runs in a single inning, led by the New York Yankees with a 10-run seventh inning. Five games were decided in the ninth inning or in extras.
Only one club, the San Francisco Giants, accomplished both feats on the same night.
First, the Giants blew yet another chance for Justin Verlander to get his first win with his new team. San Francisco was leading the Chicago Cubs 5-3 in the ninth, with the 42-year-old in line for the win after throwing five innings. But Verlander's winless streak extended to eight starts, the longest in his 20-season career, after the Cubs drove in the tying runs.
Neither team could score in the 10th, and then suddenly the Giants couldn't stop scoring in the 11th. Their bats exploded for a Wrigley Field-record nine runs in an extra inning.
Eight of those runs came off of Ryan Pressly, Verlander's former Houston Astros teammate. Pressly, whose ERA ballooned from 2.08 to 7.62, left without recording an out. Off the top of my head …
Let's check in with the Chicago White Sox.
Wait, let's freeze-frame that.
Oh no.
If you didn't know anything about the circumstances, you'd probably assume that Chase Meidroth missed a pop fly in the ninth, the ball then bounced off his head, and the Royals proceeded to rally for the win.
And yeah, that's exactly what happened. Bret Boone is a miracle worker
Kidding, kidding. Bret Boone did have a great first night on the job, though, in the sense he was there as the Rangers' new hitting coach, and Texas scored six runs against the Red Sox en route to a win.
Every Ranger besides Josh Jung picked up at least one hit in the win, and they were one of the teams with a big inning on Tuesday: Texas scored five runs in the fourth, and did so while batting around. Corey Seager started off the inning with a ground rule double, and ended it striking out looking. The damage was already done by then, however.
It helped, too, that former Red Sox hurler Nathan Eovaldi kept Boston's bats quiet with six innings of one-run ball that lowered his era to 2.03 for the season. Isn't it something when the pitching and the hitting can come together like that? Speaking of the opposite of that… Paul Skenes still cannot beat the Cardinals
Paul Skenes is already one of MLB's most exciting and talented pitchers, despite this being just his second season in the bigs. He's a stud, capable of defeating any lineup on any night. Unless that lineup plays for the St. Louis Cardinals, apparently. Skenes dropped to 0-4 in five career starts against the Cards on Tuesday. Which doesn't sound that weird, really, until you realize that Skenes has just seven losses in that career: somehow, more than half of them are against St. Louis, who hasn't even been particularly good since Skenes arrived on the scene.
Hell, they haven't even been that good against Skenes. Over those five starts, the Pirates' ace has limited the Cardinals to a line of .185/.224/.261 while striking out 36 batters against just six walks. He's allowed 10 runs against them, and just one homer, resulting in a 2.76 ERA in 32.2 innings of work. Tuesday night's effort was a two-run, six-inning affair, with four walks, sure, but with just three hits allowed, the damage was mostly kept to a minimum.
Not enough of a minimum for the Pirates, however, as they scored just one run of support for Skenes. That's been a common theme in 2025 so far in his starts: remove the one game where Pittsburgh scored 10 runs for him, and you're left with seven starts where they've managed just 2.6 runs for him. Even someone like Skenes is going to struggle in those conditions, as far as wins and losses go. Luckily, the Pirates have a sterling reputation for committing to building a winner, so this shouldn't be a problem that Skenes has to deal with forever. [taps earpiece] oh no.
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