{"id":685455,"date":"2026-05-21T16:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/685455\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T16:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:02:09","slug":"the-opener-schlittler-yesavage-tong-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/685455\/","title":{"rendered":"The Opener: Schlittler\/Yesavage, Tong, Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shohei Ohtani<\/a> got back to two-way stardom on Wednesday against the Padres. He drilled a leadoff home run, which was all the support he needed. Ohtani breezed through five shutout innings, lowering his ERA to 0.73.<\/p>\n

1. AL East duel delivers<\/p>\n

Two of the most promising arms in the AL East faced off on Wednesday, and both came through with excellent outings. Trey Yesavage<\/a> silenced an imposing Yankees offense over six innings to secure the win. Cam Schlittler<\/a> matched him through six frames, but flinched in the seventh inning. He allowed the first three batters to reach, then walked in a run on an ABS challenge. Reliever Jake Bird<\/a> allowed an inherited runner to score. Yesavage and Schlittler each boast sub-2.00 ERAs with hefty strikeout numbers. Their matchups will continue to be appointment viewing.<\/p>\n

2. Tong call-up could be coming<\/p>\n

Mets right-hander Jonah Tong<\/a> was scratched from his Triple-A start on Wednesday. The club wanted to have him as an option this weekend against the Marlins, manager Carlos Mendoza<\/a> told reporters (h\/t Anthony DiComo of MLB.com<\/a>). The 22-year-old is among the top prospects in the organization. Tong posted strong strikeout numbers in his brief 2025 debut, but struggled with walks and run prevention. It\u2019s been a similar story at Syracuse this year. Tong has a 32.7% strikeout rate to go with a 14.3% walk rate and a 5.68 ERA in nine minor league outings.<\/p>\n

3. Rays keep rolling<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the AL East, Tampa Bay won its fourth game in a row with a comeback victory over the Orioles. Baltimore entered the eighth inning with a 3-1 lead, looking to salvage a game from the series. Anthony Nunez<\/a> got two outs after a leadoff single, but couldn\u2019t escape the frame. Jonathan Aranda<\/a> came through with a double to tie the game. Richie Palacios<\/a> followed with an RBI single. Ryan Vilade<\/a> then stole home to stretch Tampa Bay\u2019s lead. The club has won eight of 10 and now holds a four-game lead in the division. The Rays face off against the Yankees in a critical divisional battle this weekend.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of \u00a0Sam Navarro, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani got back to two-way stardom on Wednesday against the Padres. He drilled a leadoff home run,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-685455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}