Last Night in Baseball: Yankees, Max Fried Match 83-Year-Old MLB Record

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:

Yankees match MLB record

The Yankees did something that no team has managed since 1943: through their first five games New York has allowed just three runs. Somehow, the Yankees managed to lose one of those games by giving up two of those three and then scoring just one, but hey, no one is perfect.

The driving force this time around — as it was in the first game of the season — was Max Fried. The lefty starter followed up 6.1 scoreless innings on Opening Day with seven more against the Mariners on Tuesday. He also found the strikeouts he was missing in his first outing, with six Ks against a single walk in those frames, while throwing two-thirds of his 90 pitches for strikes. The result? The Yankees defeated the Mariners 5-0, for their third shutout of the season and first W against Not The Giants.

An important thing to remember about the 2026 Yankees is that Max Fried will, eventually, pair with ace Gerrit Cole like he was supposed to a year ago, before Cole underwent Tommy John surgery and missed the entire season. The rotation as a whole should not be expected to pitch like this all year, no, but Fried is legit and Cole is Cole, assuming his recovery has gone just fine — that is going to be some 1-2 punch for New York once everything settles.

Ricochets count

Not everything went New York’s way against Seattle — not that it ended up hurting them in the end. Still, check out how unfortunate this play was for the Yankees: star right fielder Aaron Judge hit a ball right back to the pitcher, reliever Cole Wilcox, and the ball deflected off of his glove… and right into the glove of second baseman Cole Young. That’s the Cole-to-Cole express right there. The Cole Train, if you will.

It’s even wilder in slow motion, since you can really see the deflection in action.

Baseball’s special brand of physics is truly something.

Shohei Ohtani, folks

Dodgers’ star two-way player Shohei Ohtani has already debuted in 2026, but Tuesday was his first time on the mound in the regular season. So he of course threw six shutout innings while allowing one hit and striking out six Guardians, helping the Dodgers to a 4-1 victory.

But wait, there’s more:

Ohtani last allowed a run in a regular-season game on Aug. 27, 2025 against the Reds. He gave up just the one, on a home run by right fielder Noelvi Marte in the third inning with one out. Since then — again, just in the regular season — Ohtani has not allowed a run. He threw another 1.2 innings in that outing, shutout opponents over his final three starts in 2025. Now he’s kicked off 2026 with six scoreless to extend that streak to 22.2 innings.

Which is fun enough on its own since it represents a career-best for Ohtani, but it’s happening in conjunction with reaching base in 36-consecutive games as a hitter — he went 1-for-3 at the plate with a single and two walks against the Guardians on Tuesday night.

C.B. Bucknor, what

There has been plenty of praise to go around for MLB’s Automated Ball-Strike challenge system, which lets pitchers and players contest called balls and strikes, but longtime umpire C.B. Bucknor has been getting torn apart early on in the season for how regularly his calls end up challenged and overturned. Generally, the ABS challenges have shown just how difficult the job of umpires is, and how well they tend to do it—there aren’t that many challenges happening, in the grand scheme of things. Except in the case of a few umps like Bucknor, who has already had eight pitches challenged and six of those overturned, and that’s before he goes behind the plate again on Wednesday.

Bucknor was the first base official on Tuesday while the Brewers hosted the Rays, but he still ended up having a call overturned anyway despite being free from ABS duty. And it was atrocious. First, a screengrab — pay close attention to what Bucknor is looking at here, because it sure is not the play he’s calling an out on.

It was egregious enough of a call that the players — especially Brewers’ first baseman Jake Bauers, who is the one that hit this ball in the first place — all looked incredulous whenever the camera panned to their faces, and the announcers were openly mocking both the call and the amount of time it took to overturn it. A true "what are we even doing here?" moment.

Well. At least a challenge system is already in place here to fix moments like this one.

Painter debuts just how Phillies need

The Phillies have had a rough start to the year, but Tuesday brought a bit of hope with it: top prospect Andrew Painter was making his big-league debut, and while he struggled a bit in Triple-A in 2025, there were reasons to believe that those issues were behind him enough to stick in the majors. The 22-year-old — 23 later this month — and former first-round pick certainly showed some of that promise against the Nationals, pitching 5.1 innings of one-run ball while allowing four hits, a walk and striking out 8. 

And hey, he even has his own fan section. That was fast.

There are still reasons for Phillies fans to be upset and annoyed, of course — Painter is just one guy in one start — but designated hitter Kyle Schwarber bashed his second homer of the year, and free-agent signing Aroldis Garcia went deep for the first time in a Phillies’ uniform, too, so there were at least some signs of the way things can come together in 2026.

This team won 96 games a year ago, and there are still a ton of talented players on the roster even if the offseason was a little quieter than it could have been, as far as acquisitions go. Painter showing up and regularly succeeding would go a long way toward keeping Philly in the race again this season.

Alonso’s first O’s dinger

Ex-Mets faced off on Tuesday, with Pete Alonso’s Orioles taking on Jacob deGrom’s Rangers. It was a good night for Alonso and not as good of one for deGrom, but in the end Texas got the W over Baltimore, anyway.

As for Alonso, he hit his first homer for the Orioles, after signing a five-year, $155 million free-agent deal this offseason. And he hit it off of his former teammate, deGrom!

The two also had a playful interaction later on, when Alonso was on first base and deGrom threw over to check on him. Pete Alonso is not really a guy a pitcher needs to worry about stealing a base — he had one in three attempts last year  — but that’s what makes this whole bit work.

Alonso is off to a pretty solid start for the O’s, hitting .316/.381/.474 in his first five games and 21 plate appearances. Baltimore is going to need a whole lot more of that to keep up in a loaded AL East this season.

Four-hit night for Adames

Giants’ leadoff hitter and shortstop Willy Adames had himself a night against the Padres, as he recorded four hits in five at-bats, while scoring twice and driving in two runs, as well. San Francisco probably didn’t need quite all that from him, given it won 9-3, but hey: Adames set the tone.

Really, though, he did. Adames hit a leadoff homer off of Padres’ starter German Marquez in the top of the first on the second pitch of the game. He then singled in the top of the second, singled again in the fifth to drive in outfielder Harrison Bader for his second RBI of the day, scored on a Heliot Ramos single later in the frame then doubled in the eighth for his fourth and final hit. Eight total bases is a pretty good day at the office.

What a debut for Fernandez

Shortstop Jose Fernandez made his big-league debut for the Diamondbacks on Tuesday against the Tigers, and it was one to remember. Signed as a teenager out of Venezuela, Fernandez wasn’t actually on Arizona’s Opening Day roster, but was added after Pavin Smith went on the 10-day IL with elbow soreness. Despite not being a top prospect in the system, Fernandez was added to the 40-man roster as depth and had a solid enough spring that the D-backs kept him in mind for a moment just like this one. It paid off for everyone involved.

Fernandez went yard twice, becoming just the seventh-ever player to do so in his big-league debut, and the second of those blasts ended up being the game-winner, too, as part of a six-run inning.

He had another hit besides, two runs, four RBIs and nine total bases. It’s just one game, but Arizona will have to give him some more opportunities to play is on the IL, to see if Fernandez can give this team a little boost while there is space on the roster for that opportunity.

Langeliers is hot

It has gone a little under the radar since the Athletics were winless to start the season — well, until they won on Tuesday night, at least — but catcher Shea Langeliers has been on fire to start 2026. Against the Braves, Langeliers picked up just the one hit, but it was a yet another homer — his fourth of the season already, and one that gave the A’s another insurance run against a potent Braves’ offense.

Langeliers is batting .350/.381/.950 in his first five games, leading the league in homers and total bases (19), and the American League in slugging percentage and RBIs (7). It’s early, of course, but Langeliers also has 60 combined homers over the past two seasons, so it’s not as if this guy never mashes and is uncharacteristically good out of the gate. Shooters shoot, hitters hit, and Langeliers is a hitter.

Just as good for the Athletics is that starting pitcher Aaron Civale had a solid outing: while he struck out just three batters and allowed a homer himself, Civale limited Atlanta to two runs in five innings, and the A’s bullpen kept the Braves scoreless the rest of the way. The pitching staff was the problem last season for the A’s, and could be an issue again in 2026, but more outings like this from Civale will keep that from being as much of a going concern.

Raleigh is no pitcher, but that’s a strike

Just watch that replay a few times, and check Cody Bellinger’s face, too. He can’t believe Mariners’ catcher Cal Raleigh can throw that fast and that accurately, but that’s just how he is back there.