Last Night in Baseball: Tigers Rally Against Twins Falls Short Thanks to ABS

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: ABS ends a rally The Twins and Tigers faced off on Wednesday, with free-agent acquisition Framber Valdez on the mound for Detroit and Bailey Ober for Minnesota. It did not go well for the Tigers almost immediately: Valdez allowed six runs in the first, a stretch that began with a wild pitch to score center fielder Byron Buxton and was capped off by third baseman Royce Lewis driving in a pair on a single to center. The Twins would add a couple of runs by the end of the sixth inning, bringing their lead to 8-2, but in the seventh, Detroit started to truly come back. Designated hitter Gleyber Torres hit a double to score shortstop Javier Baez and rookie third baseman Kevin McGonigle, then left fielder Riley Green singled in Torres. Reliever Cole Sands would come in for Anthony Banda after this rally, but the righty would give up a single to catcher Dillon Dingler and then throw a wild pitch, allowing Greene to score — 8-6, Twins, with Dingler on second and two outs in the inning. That’s where the rally would end, however. Center fielder Parker Meadows had a far too passive at-bat to close it out. He took the first two pitches for balls — including a fairly close second pitch under the zone — then watched a 92.5 mph fastball on the inside corner for a strike. Meadows would foul off an 86 mph cutter in the middle of the zone on the next pitch, and then for the fifth, despite having two strikes, watched a curveball hit the bottom of the zone. The Tigers would get another chance in the eighth, though. The inning began with second baseman Zach McKinstry called out on strikes after catcher Ryan Jeffers challenged and won, but then Baez doubled and Spencer Torkelson was hit by a Cody Laweryson pitch. McGonigle popped out for the second, leaving Torres as Detroit’s last hope in this potential rally. Instead, in a 1-2 count, he didn’t protect the plate in the way that needs to happen in a world where ABS challenges exist. The 93-mph four-seamer caught just enough of the zone for the initial call to be overturned, resulting in a strikeout to end the eighth. Detroit would attempt another rally in the ninth, and while ABS didn’t stop it, the Tigers faltered the old-fashioned way by grounding out with two runners on, then lining out to harmlessly end the game. This game is a reminder that hitters need to be even more aware of the count than usual in 2026, and they already had to be real aware before ABS. Borderline pitches are not necessarily up to the ump’s discretion anymore: both McKinstry and Torres ended up striking out on fastballs that were in that outer part of the zone that is still very much a strike if it catches even a little bit of the interior. Those are pitches that, a year ago, would probably have been balls — borderline, but excusable. They are strikes now, though, and hitters are going to have to adjust as the season progresses. Blue Jays avoid the sweep It’s been a rough week for the Blue Jays, as Toronto had a World Series rematch with the Dodgers while scuffling out of the gate a bit to begin 2026. The result of that, before Wednesday, was a 14-2 beatdown and a 4-1 loss on Tuesday. The Blue Jays were able to avoid the sweep at the hands of Los Angeles, though, thanks to a late rally in the third and final game of the series. Shohei Ohtani exited as the starter and Jack Dreyer entered in relief in the bottom of the seventh. That’s when Toronto got to work. Pinch-hitter Davis Schneider started things off with a walk, then catcher Tyler Heineman singled him over to second. DH George Springer would double Schneider home, then center fielder Daulton Varsho tied things up with a ball right up the middle. Blake Treinen would come on in relief and, despite a steal of second by Varsho and walk to first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., got out of the inning without the Blue Jays scoring again. Ben Casparius would not be so lucky in the eighth in relief of Treinen. Schneider walked to give Toronto its first baserunner of the inning with one out, then shortstop Andres Gimenez singled him over to third, and that’s when things went off the rails for the Dodgers. Instead of just letting Gimenez have second, Dodgers’ catcher Will Smith tried to catch him stealing even with Schneider on third — when the throw wasn’t properly corralled, it gave Schneider a chance to score, and he did. The rest of the inning would go off without a hitch for Los Angeles, but the damage was already done, and Jeff Hoffman was able to close things out for Toronto in the ninth. Ohtani vs. Okamoto The Dodgers didn’t win the game, no, but they did take the series, and also came out ahead in the first matchup between two-way star Shohei Ohtani and Blue Jays’ offseason acquisition and third baseman, Kazuma Okamoto, who Toronto signed out of Nippon Professional Baseball this winter. Hey, if the Blue Jays turn things around soon enough, maybe there will be more matchups between these two Japanese talents later on this season. Things are rough for Philly Phillies fans have been known to overreact a little, it’s true. But let them have it this time, since Philadelphia hasn’t scored a run in 20 innings and just lost a series to the Giants to drop to 6-6 on the season. It’s not the end of the world — or even the end of early April — but yeah. Twenty innings without scoring. Woof. The Giants did not have trouble plating runs. First baseman Rafael Devers — he’s back to playing there now that his hamstring is feeling better — went yard in the bottom of the sixth, crushing a three-run shot 411 feet to center off of Aaron Nola to give San Francisco the only runs it would need. The Giants would score more, though. First on a sacrifice bunt by designated hitter Luis Arraez in the eighth, then when Devers singled him in later in the inning, making it 5-0. Nola actually pitched well overall, as he gave up three over six innings while walking one, but with Philadelphia’s bats missing, even that seemed insurmountable before the Giants added on against the Philly pen. The good news is that the Phillies won’t stay scoreless forever. The bad news is that Phillies’ fans have to wait until at least Friday to know if that’s true or not, since Thursday is an off day. Walker is locked in Jordan Walker has been on one in the early going. The Cardinals’ right fielder blasted his fourth home run in five games on Wednesday, taking Nationals’ hurler Brad Lord deep on a slider that didn’t slide so much as stay up in the zone. Walker hit it 108 mph back in the other direction, 405 feet to center, putting the Cardinals up 3-1. Walker is currently leading the majors in dingers with five, which is wild since just last year he hit six all season in 111 games. That was an abysmal year unlike what he managed as a rookie in 2023, however, when he batted .276/.342/.445 with 16 homers and a 113 OPS+, so maybe he’s finally locked in again at 24 years old following an interminable intermission the past two seasons. He was always supposed to develop into a hitter with real pop, and it might finally be happening. Four-hit day for Ward, O’s sweep What a day for Orioles’ left fielder Taylor Ward. He went 4-for-5 against the White Sox, bringing his average for the season up to .383, and he also drove in two runs and scored another in a 5-3 victory for Baltimore over Chicago. The last of those came in the ninth, when Ward had his second double of the day to provide some insurance for the O’s in their quest to pick up the sweep on the road. It ended up being insurance Baltimore didn’t need, but either way, they have to be pleased with how Ward has done in his first season in orange. Ward is batting .383/.464/.574 with an American League-leading 18 hits and MLB-best nine doubles in his first 12 games since coming over from the Angels in the Grayson Rodriguez trade. Rodriguez hasn’t taken the mound yet for Los Angeles, and it’s also April 9, but he might have some catching up to do, is all. Carroll gets three XBH Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll helped Arizona even the series with the Mets 1-1, heading into Thursday’s finale, thanks to picking up three extra-base hits in five trips to the plate. The right fielder got going early with a double in the first inning, and eventually came around to score Arizona’s first run of the day, as well. He then hit another double on a liner to center in the second, driving in two runs to put the Diamondbacks up 4-0 against a struggling David Peterson. While Carroll was done driving in runs, he wasn’t finished with the extra-base knocks. In the seventh, he moved into a tie for fifth among active players with the 46th triple of his career, tying Amed Rosario. Arizona wasn’t able to drive him in, but it also didn’t matter in the long run: the Diamondbacks didn’t need the help, as they ended up winning 7-2 even without that additional run. The Rockies are .500 for the first time in awhile The Rockies want you to forget 2025, but right now they are also reminding you of just how poorly that season went. Luckily, that’s because this one is going so much better. Their winning streak is now up to four games, and after sweeping the Astros, they have a .500 record. Once again, a big inning did Houston in and made the day for Colorado: the Rockies were up 1-0 after the first inning, but then had a five-run second, capped off by shortstop Ezequiel Tovar’s RBI double. Sure, the Rockies were .500 a year ago… literally days into the season, when they were 1-1 on March 29. But a non-losing record for the Rockies even this late into the early season, just 12 games in? You have to go back to 2022 for that. Which also happens to be the last time the Rockies didn’t lose at least 101 games. There is going to be a lot of remembering the Rockies’ terrible recent past throughout 2026, but maybe — maybe — it will be as a positive point of comparison instead of as part of the same endless sludge that the franchise has been stuck in throughout the decade. Martinez goes 4-for-5, hits a grand slam There was another big four-hit game on Wednesday, this one from Guardians’ left fielder Angel Martinez. Not only did he go 4-for-5, but he also hit a four-bagger, clearing the bases with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the eighth. Granted, Cleveland was already up on the Royals and in position to win at this point, but with the way big innings turn things over in a hurry in MLB these days, you can never have enough runs. Martinez’s grand slam made sure the Guardians had a dominant lead instead of a tenuous one, and it pushed Cleveland to 8-5 on the season. As has been mentioned before in this space and will be brought up again, the American League Central is likely going to be a tight race this year — these early divisional wins are going to matter a lot down the road. Mason Miller returns home, strikes it out Padres’ closer Mason Miller is a Pittsburgh native, and he returned to his hometown for the first time as a professional on Wednesday to take on the Pirates. Of course, these moments can only be so friendly: Miller is there to do his job, and his job is getting Bucs’ batters out. Which he did with ease, sitting them down 1-2-3 with a pair of strikeouts and a ground out. Using Miller in an 8-2 game might seem like overkill, but he had not pitched since April 5 against the Red Sox, so the Padres were just trying to get their closer some work rather than letting him rust in the pen. San Diego now heads back home to host the surging Rockies, so maybe Miller will get a little more work in on Thursday as these two teams duke it out to see which can get over .500 on the season first.