Could this be the Mike Trout Renaissance?

Blyleven No. 26

Padres 1, Giants 0 — As I wrote on Monday, we are on a crazy pace for 1-0 games this year, which I am calling “Blylevens.” There were only 35 of them in all of 2024. Monday night, five Padres pitchers threw a 10-inning Blyleven as San Diego won 1-0. Three Giants pitchers, including the stalwart Logan Webb, took the Bly-loss.

That was Blyleven No. 26 for the season.

We’ll keep you updated here anytime another Blyleven happens.

I guess I should mention that a bunch of you wrote in to complain — some quite angrily — because I call this a Blyleven rather than a Walter, for Walter Johnson. I said in the article that Blyeven has thrown the most 1-0 games — and I didn’t add that I only meant over the last 100 years. In baseball, you HAVE to add that 100-year part because there are always people out there worried that Walter Johnson or Pete Alexander or Nap Rucker or Old Hoss Radbourn is not getting his due.

Yes, Walter Johnson pitched in the most 1-0 games overall — 64. Incredible. He also pitched during the Deadball Era, which, by definition, was, you know, dead. In 1911, they started calling a guy “Home Run Baker” … because he hit a staggering 11 home runs.

Walter Johnson was obviously one of the greatest to ever play the game. I’m calling these things Blylevens.

Rockie Mountain High!

The Colorado Rockies actually won on Monday. I mean, yeah, they beat the Miami Marlins, which should only count for like .8 of a victory, but the Rockies will take wins anytime they can get them, especially comeback wins like this one. They trailed 4-1 early, but Hunter Goodman, which sounds like the name of a handsome and brave stranger that a Disney Princess would meet in the woods, homered to begin the comeback and then homered again later.

Between May 2 and June 1, the Rockies won three games. I wrote about this in a notebook item Monday afternoon (if you would like to get the notebook items live and raw in your inbox as soon as they go up — and not wait for the newsletter roundup — just drop a note to our intrepid editor Kathleen, and she will set you up):

You might have seen this social post comparing Wins since May 2:

These Rockies are truly something different from any team I can ever remember. Since May 2 (they came from behind to beat the Giants on May 1):

• They beat the Padres 9-3 on a getaway Sunday, May 11.

• They outslugged Arizona 14-12 on May 17, thanks to a five-homer barrage.

• They delightfully beat the Yankees 3-2 on May 23. The Bombers couldn’t do anything against Tanner Gordon, Jake Beird, Seth Halvorsen and Zack Agnos.

That’s it. Those are their three wins in the last month.

In addition to Scottie Scheffler winning three times in the last month, the Denver Nuggets have won FOUR times, and they’ve been out of the playoffs for a while now.

Lainey Wilson won four Academy of Country Music Awards.

Billie Eilish won seven American Music Awards.

EastEnders won six British Soap Awards.

And so on.

Baseball really does seem to be splitting apart. There are so many terrible teams. The White Sox, of course, are coming off the worst season in baseball history. The Pirates have two of the most dynamic players in memory in Paul Skenes and Oneil Cruz, and they’re still dreadful. The Orioles are still on 100-loss pace despite getting a weekend sweep (against the White Sox, of course). The Sacramento Athletics are awful on the field and off. The Marlins are awful on the field and off.

It might not happen … but all five of them have at least a shot at losing 100 games.

There has never been a season in which five teams lost 100 games.

But here’s something that I didn’t realize: In 2002, the Royals, Tigers, Brewers and Devil Rays all lost 100 games — that was the first time in baseball history that four teams lost 100 in the same season. That, not coincidentally, is when Moneyball came out, when the big talk all around baseball was that small-market teams couldn’t compete, and that the game was in danger of breaking apart.

But the game found its balance. From 2014 to 2017, just one team (the 2016 Minnesota Twins) lost 100. The small-market Kansas City Royals won back-to-back pennants and a World Series. The small-market Cleveland Indians went to the World Series to play the long-hapless Chicago Cubs. The big-spending Yankees and Red Sox had trouble getting their footing. It might not have been full-fledged parity, but it felt pretty close.

And here’s what happened since then:

This is an unprecedented run of stink. There have been more 100-loss seasons in the last six full seasons than there were in the 1980s and 1990s COMBINED. Sure, there were fewer teams then, but this is unquestionably a bad run, and this year’s batch of basement dwellers is particularly noxious.

And even in this company, the Rockies are their own thing. They are playing .150 baseball. They are on pace to lose 137 games this year. Of the ten players with 100-plus plate appearances this year, six have sub-zero WAR. They obviously have the highest ERA in baseball, and in a time when nobody’s hitting, the league hits .294/.359/.473 against them. Basically, every batter in the league turns into Bobby Witt Jr. when playing the Rockies.

And here’s the worst part:

Nobody thinks the Rockies are tanking.

Nobody thinks that they’re losing to build for the future (heck, because of the new rules, they are projected to get no higher than the 10th pick next year). No, this is just the team they have built.

Kathleen’s Korner

• For all you Royals fans, here’s a video of Jac Caglianone finding out he got the call. And here’s a bonus video of him flipping through a pack of cards and finding himself for the first time.

• The Tigers had this ridiculous tipped ball highlight where Dillon Dingler connected with Zach McKinstry for the out.

• Twins announcer Kory Provus had this super relatable moment on air, calling the A’s Oakland and then admitting it will absolutely happen again this series.

• In one of my favorite hockey traditions, the NHL released Stanley Pup player cards yesterday. Enjoy the punny names and adorable faces of these little athletes ahead of their game on June 6.