As usual, Tuesday brings us a full 15-game slate of big league action, including a pair of fun NL East contender vs. NL West contender matchups in Southern California. Here is everything you need to know about the day in baseball.
Select games can be streamed regionally via fuboTV (Try for free). For more on what channel each game is on, click here.
Baseball scores for Tuesday, May 7Ohtani makes 2019 season debut
Although he is still unable to pitch, Shohei Ohtani rejoined the Angels on Tuesday night, and he will serve as their DH the rest of the season. He has been cleared to hit as part of his Tommy John surgery rehab, but not throw.
Ohtani batted third behind Mike Trout in his season debut Tuesday and, after striking out in his first at-bat, he drove in a run with a ground ball to shortstop in his second at-bat. The video, for posterity's sake:
Ohtani went 0 for 4 with a walk and two strikeouts in his 2019 debut. He also had the run-scoring ground out. Not his most productive day at the plate, but better days are surely ahead.
Angels designated hitters posted a .228/.328/.333 batting line with two home runs in 32 games, so it won't take much for Ohtani to be an upgrade. This is a guy who hit .285/.361/.564 last season with elite exit velocity (92.6 mph) and hard-hit rates (50.2 percent). Once he shakes off the rust, Ohtani should give the Halos a real nice offensive boost.
Indians drop third straight, offensive malaise continues
Make it three consecutive losses for the Indians. The worst part? The Indians scored one run total in those three games. Nothing less fun than a struggling offense. Cleveland is 1 for 18 with runners in scoring position in their last 27 innings. Ouch. Some of the season numbers are hideous:
At what point do we begin to worry about Ramirez? Because I'm almost there. Going back to last August, he is now hitting .181/.299/.293 in his last 73 games and 321 plate appearances. That is roughly half-a-season of well-below-average production from a guy who put up MVP caliber numbers in his previous 1,400 plate appearances. Something's wrong here.
Anyway, the Indians have lost three straight and nine of their last 15 games to fall four games behind the Twins in the loss column in the AL Central. Ramirez isn't hitting and both Corey Kluber and Mike Clevinger will be out several weeks with injuries. It is only May 7 and Cleveland's margin for error is already razor thin.
Harper busts out of slump with grand slam
Going into Tuesday's game Bryce Harper was riding a 6 for 48 (.125) cold streak in his last 14 games. It lowered his season batting line to .226/.364/.452, which is still pretty darn good, but certainly a notch below expectations.
Harper busted out of his slump in a big way Tuesday night. He swatted a second inning grand slam to give the Phillies an early 6-0 lead over the Cardinals. To the action footage:
Harper went 2 for 3 with a walk and the grand slam in Tuesday's game and the Phillies won for the seventh time in their last ten games. Aaron Nola allowed one run in six innings. It was the eighth time in the last 12 games that Philadelphia's starting pitcher allowed no more than one earned run.
Cano joins 2,500-hit club
Tuesday was a good night for notable but non-elite milestones. With a first inning ground rule double, Robinson Cano became the 101st player in baseball history with 2,500 hits. Here's the milestone two-bagger:
Among active players, only Albert Pujols (3,106) and Miguel Cabrera (2,712) have more hits than Cano. Among players who played at least 75 percent of their career games at second base, Cano is eighth all-time in hits. The list:
Eddie Collins: 3,315Nap Lajoie: 3,243Frankie Frisch: 2,880Charlie Gehringer: 2,839Roberto Alomar: 2,724Nellie Fox: 2,663Joe Morgan: 2,517Robinson Cano: 2,500Cano will play this entire season at age 36 and he is signed through 2023, so he has as good a chance at 3,000 hits as anyone right now.
Martinez joins 200-homer club
One day after Anthony Rizzo hit his 200th career home run, Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez did the same Tuesday. He took O's righty David Hess deep in the first inning for a two-run shot. Martinez is the 32nd active player with 200 career homers.
As noted by MLB.com's Andrew Simon, Martinez needed 2,442 plate appearances to hit his first 100 homers. The second 100 homers came in only 1,474 plate appearances. Martinez transformed himself after being non-tendered by the Astros during the 2013-14 offseason and, since then, he has simply been one of the best hitters in baseball.
Quick hits
