Last Night in Baseball: Jose Ramirez Made Guardians and MLB History by Showing Up

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in Major League Baseball: Ramirez is 1-of-1 Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez went hitless on Monday — though he did draw two walks — and Cleveland lost to the Royals, 4-2. So what’s he doing in the feature spot up top in this article? Making some history, is all: Ramirez’s game last night was number 1,620 in a Guardians’ uniform, the most that anyone in the franchise has ever played for it. On top of that, it makes Ramirez the only active player to also be the leader in games played for their team. Playing a lot is one thing, but Ramirez has also been excellent this whole time. He’s in his 14th year in the majors after debuting as a 20-year-old back in 2013, and has hit .278/.352/.502 in that time. He ranks fourth all-time among Cleveland position players in wins above replacement, behind only a trio of Hall of Famers in Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker and Lou Boudreau. He’s ahead of the likes of Kenny Lofton and Jim Thome — another Hall of Famer — in part because he has spent his entire career with Cleveland, but also because he’s just been that good. He ranks seventh in hits (1,674), second in total bases (3,018) and home runs (286), third in doubles (400), second in RBIs (954) and stolen bases (289), and first in extra-base hits (729). Ramirez also has the chance to be just the ninth player to ever reach the 300-home run, 300-stolen base club — and could do so as soon as this season — with plenty of potential to go beyond that, to levels that only Barry Bonds has ever reached. The Giants’ legend is the only player to ever reach 350-350; Ramirez is 33 years old and needs 64 more home runs and 61 more steals to get there. He went 39-41 in 2024 and 30-44 in 2025. Ramirez is a future Hall of Famer who doesn’t get as many headlines or as much attention as he should, but that just means he is quietly moving up the ranks — he is and has been legit, and his continued push up both Cleveland’s and MLB’s leaderboards backs that up. A first since ‘95 Now here’s a play you have to see, because you might not see another like it for decades, if the previous gap between them was any indication. All four Royals’ infielders touched this grounder from Guardians’ DH Rhys Hoskins, starting with third baseman Maikel Garcia. He couldn’t get a handle on it, and the ball bounced over to shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who then tossed it to second base and Jonathan India before he fired to Vinny Pasquantino at first to get Hoskins. A 5-6-4-3 double play, the first since 1995. Maybe you don’t want to give Garcia credit there at the start, since he didn’t actually pick it up and throw it, but his deflection went right to Witt to the point that it looks intentional even if it might not have been. Yeah, 5-6-4-3, that rocks. Cam Smith crushed this Things didn’t go so well for the Astros overall on Monday — the Rockies ended up with an eight-run fifth inning that won the game for Colorado — but before then, Houston gave us something to marvel at. Right fielder Cam Smith absolutely unloaded on a 2-0 pitch that could not possibly have caught more of the middle of the strike zone. Smith sent that 95 mph fastball 462 feet to straightaway center, with an exit velocity just shy of 111 mph. He’s off to an excellent start in his sophomore campaign, hitting .297/.422/.595 with three home runs and 11 hits in the first 11 games of the season. Smith wasn’t bad last year by any means, but his rookie campaign showed off his defense more than his bat. If he has them both going at once this year, the AL West is not going to be thrilled. Beat that bunt, you can’t The Astros had Smith hitting a ball that Artemis II might have captured in its photos of Earth, but the Rockies had this bunt from their own right fielder, Troy Johnson. It’s basically the equivalent of impressiveness, but on the other end of the spectrum. Look at this thing roll: Literally nothing to be done about it. You can’t pick it up because it might roll foul. You can’t even pick it up when it’s showing that it might stay fair, because it’s too late then and the chance of it still rolling out of play are higher than those of an out at first at that point. A true thing of beauty, just a few hundred feet shorter than Smith’s own showcase hit. Baseball rules. Freeman keeps doubling Freddie Freeman is great at a lot of things, but the thing he might be best at? Hitting doubles. He’s MLB’s active leader, and hit number 551 on Monday against the Blue Jays: The game — which the Dodgers would win in a World Series rematch, 14-2 — was already well out of hand at that point, as Freeman drove in Los Angeles’ 11th run of the night with the two-bagger. So let’s just talk about Freeman for a second. The Dodgers’ first baseman has hit at least 43 doubles — and as many as 59 — five times in his career, and has a season with 39 in the mix, too. Two 35-double campaigns, and in 11 of his 16 completed seasons, managed at least 32 of them. In 2020, which was limited to 60 games thanks to COVID-19, Freeman led the majors with 23 — that very well could have ended up being his career-best season, if the whole thing had played out. [4 Takeaways: Dodgers Defeat Blue Jays In World Series Rematch] Freeman currently ranks 32nd in MLB history in doubles — 24 more will get him sole possession of 25th place, and another 25 would make him just the 19th player to ever pick up 600 of them. It’s not like doubles are the only thing Freeman hits, either. He has 370 career homers, too, after also smacking one of those on Monday. Just 12 players have ever managed to hit at least 550 doubles and 400 homers in their career. Freeman is 36 years old, but he’s also coming off of a season in which he hit .296/.367/.502, and has an even higher OPS+ than last year to start this one. He might even end up being the 10th 400 homer, 600 doubles player ever, at this rate; he’s just also at the age where you have to take those kinds of projections one year at a time. Dalton Rushing x2 Obviously the Dodgers had more of an offensive attack than “just” Freddie Freeman, considering the score. He’s another big part of that result: Dalton Rushing. The Los Angeles catcher went deep twice against the Blue Jays, first in the seventh to give the Dodgers a 10-1 lead, off of reliever Tommy Nance… Then in the very next inning, off of Spencer Miles, to make it 14-1 Dodgers. Good news, Blue Jays fans: Tuesday is a new day. Potential bad news? That one also features the Dodgers. Dumper goes deep The end result of this is that Mariners’ backstop Cal Raleigh, he of the 60-homer 2025, on Monday finally went yard for the first time in 2026. It ended up being the only offense that Seattle could generate against the Rangers, so Texas was the winner, but still, Raleigh deserves more here than just “he finally hit a dinger.” And that’s because he got it in a 12-pitch at-bat against Jacob deGrom. Raleigh fouled off seven pitches, pushing the count to 3-2 on the eighth pitch of the at-bat before rattling off the last three fouls in a row. On the 12th pitch, a 99.1 mph four-seamer, Raleigh sent it back 418 feet to right. Just a tremendous battle between two elite players, and Raleigh fouled off some wicked pitches to get things to that point, too, with all but one of the fouls coming on pitches that very easily could have been called strikes, even in an ABS world. What a snag! Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson is a double-threat, in that he can hit plenty but he sure can play defense. And not just in the traditional ways, either. Check out this running snag to left-center — you can’t even really call it shallow left at that point, he’s nearly halfway into it — where he manages the over-the-shoulder catch with a flourish at the end to secure it. The Cubs would end up falling to the Rays, 6-4, despite Swanson’s effort, but hey, we’ll get to that. The Rays are back home See?  The Rays went back to Tropicana Field for the first time in 561 days, following the destruction that Hurricane Milton wrought on it in Oct. 2024 — if you’ll recall, Milton tore through the roof of the Trop, allowing its winds and torrential rains to fill the stadium interior. Tampa Bay played in actual Tampa in 2025, at George M. Steinbrenner Field, but with the roof and insides once again fixed up, the Rays were able to go back to St. Petersburg for 2026. And on Monday, Cedric Mullins hit the first home run of the season at the Trop for Tampa Bay. The Rays’ center fielder lined a Jameson Taillon changeup to right, tying the game up at 2-2 in the second inning. DH Yandy Diaz would then single in another run, giving Tampa Bay a lead they would not relinquish in what became a 6-4 victory. Soriano keeps rolling What a start for Jose Soriano. The Angels’ right-hander went eight innings against the Braves on Monday, striking out 10 batters without walking any and allowing just three hits, one a solo homer — the lone blemish on an otherwise stellar performance. That shot came in the first inning, when catcher Drake Baldwin smashed his fifth homer of the year: Atlanta’s bats were almost entirely silent from that point forward, as one of the only other two hits also came in that frame. Soriano has already amassed a league-best 20 innings, and is also leading the league in strikeouts with 21. He’s had plenty of success in the past, and his 2025 was much better than his 4.26 ERA indicated, too, but if he can limit walks while being his usual stingy self with homers, then the Angels really have something here in their rotation. Nationals dinger their way to comeback The Nationals went up on the Cardinals early, scoring a pair of runs in the first off of starter Andre Pallante, but the righty settled down from there and held Washington scoreless for his other four innings of work. St. Louis then scored once in the fifth, twice in the sixth and three times in the eighth to go up 6-3 on Washington. That was not enough of a lead. In the bottom of the frame, right fielder James Wood hit his third long ball of the year, a three-run liner to center, to drive in Drew Millas and Joey Weimer, tying the game up 6-6. St. Louis changed pitchers, taking out Ryne Stanek for Matt Svanson, but things did not go better for him. First baseman Curtis Mead, who had pinch-hit earlier, doubled to left, and then third baseman Brady House hit his own homer to put the Nats up 8-6. Shortstop CJ Abrams then followed up with a solo shot to push the lead to 9-6 — St. Louis did not score again. The Nationals aren’t exactly playing like a powerhouse early, but they are 4-6 with a run differential of just -1 to begin the year. Remember, this team lost 96 games in 2025, and avoided 100 because of a second half that was just regular bad instead of atrocious — maybe they can keep it going and get moving on that rebuild with more success than the last one.