Last Night in Baseball: Mike Trout, Kenley Jansen Make Very Different MLB History

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: Trout goes yard again On Monday, Angels’ center fielder Mike Trout hit a pair of homers, giving him four for the season. And on Tuesday, also against the Yankees, Trout went yard yet again. He picked up his fifth long ball of the year in the first inning against New York starter Ryan Weathers, hitting a 94.7 mph four-seam fastball down in the zone 432 feet to center. Trout crushed this one. The Angels would hit five dingers to beat the Yankees, 7-1, with four of those homers and five of those runs coming against Weathers — including in a back-to-back-to-back sequence following Trout’s homer, where right fielder Jo Adell and designated hitter Jorge Soler also went deep. Per MLB’s Sarah Langs, that was the sixth time in his career that Trout has been part of a  back-to-back-to-back homer run, tied for the most since at least 1961. Or, to put it another way, as far back as there is reliable play-by-play data for. The players Trout is tied with? Hall of Fame third baseman Adrian Beltre, and former outfielder J.D. Drew. Which means that, should Trout have another back-to-back-to-back sequence in his career, he’ll be alone atop that particular all-time leaderboard. On top of that, Trout is off to a great start to the year: sure, he’s batting just .222, but his batting average on balls in play is unsustainably low, so that’s more likely a blip than a continuation of last season’s uneven performance. More importantly, he’s got a .388 on-base percentage and is punishing plenty of pitches, as he’s slugging .508. He might not be hitting everything to where they ain’t just yet, but he’s constantly driving the ball, hard. Jansen moves up the all-time list Another bit of history was made last night, as Tigers’ closer Kenley Jansen, in his 17th season in the majors, recorded the 479th save of his career. He is not only the active leader in saves, but now ranks third all-time, behind only Hall of Famers Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. It wasn’t a gimme save by any means, either: Jansen came in to protect a 2-1 Tigers lead over the Royals in the ninth, one earned in the bottom of the eighth when catcher Dillon Dingler doubled in rookie infielder Kevin McGonigle, who got the start at third base on Tuesday. Jansen had to face the heart of the Royals’ order, with number-three hitter and left fielder Lane Thomas leading off the frame with a single before stealing second. Catcher Salvador Perez grounded out but moved Thomas 90 feet from tying the game; that’s as close as Kansas City would get to forcing extras, however. First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino grounded out without advancing Thomas, and then right fielder Starling Marte harmlessly flied out to center. Save No. 479 was in the books, breaking a tie with Lee Smith for the third-most ever. Jansen has had a hell of a career. In 931 career innings and 938 games — the most among active pitchers — he has racked up those 479 saves while pitching for five different teams, including four different ones in the last four seasons. He’s been remarkably consistent, as well: he struck out 13.7 batters per nine as a 22-year-old rookie with the Dodgers, and until last season was still whiffing double-digit batters per nine. He made an All-Star team at 35 with the Red Sox in 2023, and this season is off to a strong start outside of allowing a home run. Getting any higher up the leaderboard seems unlikely, barring Jansen not only deciding to refuse to hang ‘em up for a while yet but also continuing to pitch at a high level for another four years, minimum — Hoffman has a 122-save lead on him — but hey. We’ll see how 2026 goes for the 38-year-old mainstay. Dodgers push Mets losing streak to seven Things aren’t going the Mets’ way right now, that’s for sure. The last game that star outfielder Juan Soto played in was on April 3 — he went to the IL a couple of days later with a calf strain. While New York managed to win the first three games without his tremendous bat in the lineup, since then, the Mets have dropped seven in a row, including a 2-1 defeat against the Dodgers on Tuesday. New York has been outscored 36-10 in this stretch, and while the pitching has settled down and allowed just one, four and two runs in the last three contests, the Mets were shutout twice and scored a single run in the other. The only reason the Mets weren’t shut out a third game in a row was because shortstop Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff home run off of Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday. That’s right, the Mets scored on the third pitch of the game, a 95.3 fastball middle-middle that Lindor punished, and then did nothing the rest of the way. They picked up just three more hits against Yamamoto, who lasted 7.2 innings in part because he gave up just one walk, and had a stretch where he retired 18 Mets in a row. The Los Angeles bullpen then blanked the Mets the rest of the way, with no baserunners nor runs allowed. Now, the Mets’ pitching was rolling, too: New York held the Dodgers to just one run on a ground out in the first for seven innings, with Nolan McLean going seven innings with just two hits allowed and two walks — he was every bit as dominant as his counterpart. New York’s bullpen faltered, however, with Brooks Raley coming on in relief and immediately walking pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas, then giving up a single to score him against right fielder Kyle Tucker following an intentional walk to DH Shohei Ohtani. New York just can’t seem to get everything working at the same time, but hey, Juan Soto won’t be gone forever. Marlins play pinball to get the out The important thing is that the Marlins got the out in the end. This play is perfectly legal, and also extremely funny. Well, not if you’re on the Braves, but hey, Atlanta won in the end so it’s all good now, right? Anyway: ping ping ping. Second baseman Ozzie Albies hit a ball right back up the middle against Marlins’ starter Max Meyer, which went directly under his glove while taking a couple of bounces on the mound. It then struck the glove of shortstop Otto Lopez in mid-air and changed direction, toward second baseman Xavier Edwards, who managed to corral it with a snag and make the throw to first just in time, with a little help from Liam Hicks stretching to receive it. It’s incredible that baseball has been played for as long as it has, and you still see something like this just happen on a random Tuesday in April. Denzel Clarke is still robbing dingers More predictable than the Marlins’ defensive plays? Athletics’ center fielder Denzel Clarke, and what he’s going to do when a fly ball tries to become a homer on his watch. And hey, that wasn’t the only defensive gem for the A’s on Tuesday. Check this move by shortstop Jacob Wilson to make the mid-air, mid-spin throw in time to get the out. Beautiful stuff. And the A’s would end up winning against the Rangers, 2-1, thanks very much to this kind of defensive performance from these players. Inside-the-park… grand slam! This is the minors, not the majors, but it’s worth shouting out here. Inside-the-park homers are rare, sure, but they happen a few times per year. An inside-the-park grand slam, though? Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff. Here’s a clip of that very thing from Tuesday’s Oklahoma City Comets game against the Albuquerque Isotopes, a Triple-A matchup in the Pacific Coast League. That was left fielder and leadoff hitter Zach Ehrhard with the drive to center that ricocheted off the wall just right to give the outfielders trouble, and allow for him to just keep on running all the way home. The Comets — a Dodgers’ affiliate — wound up winning 9-6. Schultz debuts The White Sox rolled out rookie left-hander Noah Schultz to start last night’s game against the Rays, and it was a bit of a mixed bag for the southpaw. However, he’s a well-regarded pitcher who stands 6-foot-10, so some patience is warranted. The Rays also just had it going on Tuesday, too: they scored four runs off of Schultz in his 4.1 innings of work, and then another four off of the Chicago bullpen. The Rays ended up winning 8-5, pushing the White Sox to 6-11, but it’s worth pointing out that most of Schultz’s trouble came in the first, where he allowed three of those four runs and two of his four walks. As with most things White Sox, it’s going to be a work in progress, but at least there might actually be some. Blue Jays make it happen in extras It took 10 innings to do it, but the Blue Jays defeated the Brewers. Milwaukee was in control for much of the game, as they were in the lead from the fourth inning until midway through the ninth, when Toronto finally did better than a run here and there by scoring three in the same frame. Third baseman Kazuma Okamoto tied the game at four with a single to left, then shortstop Andres Gimenez knocked another run in with a ground out. Second baseman Ernie Clement would add another run on a single to left, giving the Jays a 6-4 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. The Brewers, though, were not done: Milwaukee scored two to tie things back up and force extras, thanks to second baseman Brice Turang (RBI single) and left fielder Brandon Lockridge — who had entered earlier as a pinch-runner — hitting an RBI double. Toronto had another three runs in them in the top of the 10th, however, starting with first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ripping an RBI double to left to drive in Clement. DH Ernie Straw — who also entered originally as a pinch-runner — would double home both Guerrero and outfielder Jesus Sanchez to make it 9-6. The Brewers only managed one run in the bottom of the inning, and Toronto would get the come-from-behind, extra-innings W. Guardians just miss, Cardinals win That wasn’t the only extra-innings thriller. The Guardians and Cardinals had a back-and-forth affair, too. With the game tied up 2-2 in the eighth — all four runs scored on solo home runs, all in the first three innings — Cleveland reopened the scoring on a double by right fielder George Valera. Outfielder Angel Martinez would then open things up more with a two-run double, but that wasn’t enough. Cardinals’ second baseman JJ Wetherholt struck back in the bottom of the eighth with his second dinger of the day… …and then St. Louis would tie things up in the bottom of the ninth while down to their last out, on an RBI double off the bat of DH Yohel Pozo. Still tied up 5-5 in the bottom of the 10th, the Cardinals got a gift when Guardians’ reliever Tim Herrin threw a wild pitch, moving Thomas Haggese, the runner placed on second to begin the frame, over to third. Center fielder Nathan Church, who had come into the game earlier to replace a pinch-runner in the field, launched a flyball to center, just deep enough to score Haggese. And that “just” is no exaggeration: look how close this play at the plate was. The Guardians lost by that much, but credit to the Cardinals for fighting back late. Buxton, Abel power Twins The Twins blanked the Red Sox, 6-0, for two reasons. The first was the performance of starting pitcher Mick Abel, who struck out 10 for Minnesota in a dominating seven-inning, four-hit, no-walk affair. The second was center fielder Byron Buxton, who went 4-for-5 from the leadoff spot with two solo homers and four runs scored. The first came on a Sonny Gray pitch right down the middle, but the second one, Buxton golfed that a bit — 438 feet to left-center. Absolutely crushed. Buxton had a slow start to the year, but he’s course-correcting in a hurry the last few days. Duck! If you respond with “Where?” then you’re going to get hit with the throw. Unlike Rangers’ first baseman Jake Burger, who hit the deck to avoid that fate on a throw from lefty pitcher MacKenzie Gore. Getting his head down was actually heads up. You can call that one “ground beef”. Since Jake Burger drove in the Rangers’ only run on Tuesday, you could say he was on a roll. Alright sorry, we’re done. Well done that is.