Great starting pitching stretches not enough for the White Sox and Reds early this season

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Great starting pitching stretches not enough for the White Sox and Reds early this season

2025-04-07 18:00 Last Updated At：18:11

The Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox both got brilliant stretches from their starting rotations — and largely wasted them.

Chicago's starters did not allow an earned run through the first four games of the season, but the White Sox split those games and then lost five in a row once their rotation came back to earth. The Reds lost three straight games 1-0 from Tuesday through Thursday. The only other team in the live ball era to lose 1-0 in three straight games was the 1960 Philadelphia Phillies.

That Philadelphia team finished 36 games under .500, in large part because it batted .239 on the season. Those 1-0 defeats were a better reflection of the Phillies’ batting than their pitching.

The Reds will hope for the opposite. Right-hander Hunter Greene began living up to his potential last year and has allowed three runs over his first two starts of 2025. Brady Singer, acquired from Kansas City in the offseason, threw seven one-hit innings in his Cincinnati debut.

Lefty Nick Lodolo has yielded two earned runs in 12 2/3 innings.

Although the Reds were shut out three straight times by Texas and Milwaukee, that came immediately after Cincinnati's offense put up 14 runs in a win over the Rangers. The Reds also beat the Brewers 11-7 on Saturday.

For the White Sox, the future looks a lot more challenging. Chicago actually did have a couple bright spots last year on its way to 121 losses, but Erick Fedde was dealt to St. Louis in July and then Garrett Crochet was traded to Boston during the offseason.

Even without Fedde and Crochet, Chicago's rotation was sharp its first time through, but reality has set in since then. The White Sox have allowed 32 runs in their last five games.

Speaking of good pitching numbers in an unexpected spot, Colorado's starters have posted a 2.61 ERA through 48 1/3 innings so far. That hasn't been enough for the Rockies, who managed just 18 runs through their first eight games and lost seven of them.

Don't assume the thin air at Coors Field has suddenly become a non-factor. Colorado began the season with seven straight road games against Tampa Bay and Philadelphia.

But even when the Rockies opened their home schedule against the Athletics, their starters were able to get through five innings in all three games, and Colorado's offense finally broke out in a 12-5 win Sunday.

The Athletics finally played their first three home games for the fans in the Sacramento area, and it wasn't pretty. They were swept by the Chicago Cubs, outscored 35-9 over the series,

That was more runs than the A's allowed in their first three home games the entire time they were in Oakland. In fact, it was a record for the whole franchise history. The Athletics gave up 31 runs in their first three home games in 1922, when the team represented Philadelphia.

Nathan Eovaldi pitched the first complete game in the majors this season when the Rangers beat Cincinnati on Tuesday night in one of those 1-0 games. Who is the last Texas pitcher besides Eovaldi to throw a complete game?

Martín Pérez threw six hitless innings in his debut for the White Sox on Monday, a 9-0 rout of Minnesota. He struck out nine with three walks.

The Houston Astros trailed 7-1 in the fifth inning Sunday against Minnesota before rallying to tie the game on a two-run homer by Yordan Alvarez in the ninth. Houston eventually won 9-7 in 10 innings.

The Twins had a win probability of 97.9% after taking a six-run lead in the fourth, according to Baseball Savant.

Jon Gray in 2023.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Fred Couples shoots 71 at the Masters. So much for the 65-year-old thinking he no longer belongs

2025-04-11 04:46 Last Updated At：04:50

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Fred Couples was so unflappable during the first round of the Masters that not even a sound engineer for one of the broadcasts who wandered down the middle of the fairway as the 1992 champion was trying to tee off threw him out of sync.

Couples chipped in for birdie from left of the green at the first. He holed a hybrid from 191 yards for eagle at the 14th. And after finishing with four consecutive pars, the 65-year-old Couples signed for a tidy 1-under 71 on Thursday that made him the second-oldest player to shoot a subpar round at the Masters. Tom Watson was a month older when he shot 71 in 2015.

“I don't want to be a clown,” Couples said, “but I can play golf. I can play around here. If the weather is like this and not hard, I can — as long as I don't do crazy things — I can shoot 73 or 4 or 5. That's not embarrassing myself at all. If I do that, and did that today and come back with 70 or 71 tomorrow, the goal is for me to make the cut.”

Hard to believe that a year ago, Couples wondered whether Masters chairman Fred Ridley would want him to keep playing.

His back was bothering him again, he had just limped through rounds of 80 and 76 to miss the cut and it seemed like a whole lot more than 12 months since Couples had become the oldest player in Masters history to play the weekend.

It took a phone call with Steve Ethun, the chief tournament officer for the Masters, to reassure Couples he was welcome.

He certainly looked like he belonged on Thursday.

Sure, Couples may have been 25 yards behind playing partners Harris English and Taylor Pendrith off the tees. He has a bag full of hybrids rather than conventional irons. But more often than not, Couples had his bright yellow ball tracking toward the hole, or at least staying out of trouble — perhaps the most important factor in making the cut at the Masters.

“Yeah, he was great, just to kind of see how he plays this place,” said Pendrith, who shot 77. “I learned a few things from him for sure just watching him play. He’s played here many, many times. He played awesome today — 1-under par is a fantastic round. He played really steady. Just kind of missed it in the right places and pecked away.”

It was an eventful round, and not just because of the chip-in and the hole-out with the hybrid.

Couples was even-par when he arrived at the par-4 ninth, and Harris had struck his drive down the middle of the fairway. Couples was about to tee off himself when one of the sound engineers in a trailing group wandered Waldo-like into the picture.

Couples waved at him. So did one of the gallery volunteers. After a minute, Couples resorted to cracking jokes.

Once the fella finally moved, Couples cracked his tee shot down the middle. He hit his approach to 7 feet, playing it perfectly off the ridge running through the green, and rolled in the birdie putt as the spectators roared their approval.

It sounded just like an echo from Amen Corner in 1992, when Couples' ball defied gravity at the par-3 12th and refused to roll back into Rae's Creek. He proceeded to hold off Raymond Floyd by two and win the green jacket.

“He’s a legend in the game and a legend here,” Pendrith said. “It’s his 40th time playing the Masters. People love him. They show great respect to him. They’re all cheering for him. It was really cool to play with him in my first and his 40th.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf