Week 7 preview: Who needs a win in the worst way?
There are some college football doozies on tap for Week 7, which once again should result in some separation in conference races (for the time being, that is) and even the race for the College Football Playoff (for the time being, that is).
Perhaps no game is bigger than No. 8 Oregon at No. 7 Washington, pitting two high-powered offenses in a Pac-12 showdown to remain undefeated. But that’s not the only marquee matchup Saturday. USC travels to Notre Dame, which is coming off a drubbing at the hands of Louisville, and Miami, fresh off its own embarrassing loss, is at North Carolina.
Our reporters preview Week 7 with a look at the which teams need the win more, offensive lines to watch and some of the week’s best quotes.
Who needs the ‘W’ more?
Miami at North Carolina (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC): Had Miami actually lined up in victory formation and beaten Georgia Tech last week, this would have been a far more difficult question to answer. But since the Hurricanes lost, this is an easy choice. Miami needs this one maybe more than any other team across the country needs a win. Coach Mario Cristobal has been at the center of a firestorm for opting to hand the ball off with the lead and 30 seconds remaining. You know what happened next: Don Chaney fumbled, and Georgia Tech scored the game-winning touchdown with one second remaining.
Cristobal and his players fielded one question after another this week about the way that game ended and how they would respond on the road against a vastly improved North Carolina team following such an emotional loss. Players were asked whether they had faith in their coaching staff for bungling the end of the game. In one clip from the sideline, center Matt Lee is seen crying and saying, “What the f— are we doing?” Lee said this week he had “unwavering faith” in Cristobal to get the job done. “When our leadership council met, it was all very positive and it’s, ‘Hey guys, move on.’ You have to have a short memory. You put in work all year for 12 games, so s— happens and you move on, and the team and every coach has done a great job of that.”
Miami is now 0-1 in ACC play, but this game presents a huge opportunity. The Hurricanes have games against all three current undefeated ACC teams left on the schedule: North Carolina, then Florida State on Nov. 11 and Louisville on Nov. 18. They can get themselves back into the ACC race with a win Saturday. But to do that, they have to find a way to push past the disappointment and not allow what happened against the Yellow Jackets to linger and ruin their season.
“Yeah, it sucks. We know we should have won,” quarterback Tyler Van Dyke said. “But we’ve got to move on from it. We’ve got a tough matchup this week, and we’ve just got to get ready for that.” — Andrea Adelson
Oregon at Washington: There is a compelling case for both teams here because they essentially are mirror images, sitting at No. 7 and No. 8 in the country, with high-powered offenses and Heisman candidates at quarterback.
However, Washington hasn’t been on a major stage yet this season, so this is a much bigger opportunity to make a national statement. Oregon had 10 million people watch it absolutely embarrass Colorado. This will be a similar chance for Washington, with “College GameDay” in town, a nationally televised game and an appealing kickoff time (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
If Washington loses, it will have chances to get back into the mix, but not until Nov. 4, when it travels to USC, the first of four games against ranked teams to end the season. Perhaps unfairly, a loss might also delegitimize Washington’s hot start for people who hadn’t been watching it until this week. That’s just how college football operates sometimes.
But again, a lot of this is equally true for Oregon. That’s all to say this is a game with massive stakes. It has the potential to be among the best games this season. — Kyle Bonagura
USC at Notre Dame (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock): The answer is Notre Dame, which has already lost twice despite looking improved from last season. It needs to avoid a spiral under second-year coach Marcus Freeman. But let’s start with USC’s defense, which has been unable to shed the stink from 2022 despite upgrades.
The Trojans excel in the flashy categories — they’re in the top five nationally in sacks (22), tackles for loss (57) and forced fumbles (8) — but remain prone to busts, even though many have come with comfortable leads. Coach Lincoln Riley is tired of the criticism, saying Tuesday the defense isn’t being evaluated with enough context.
“This is a much-improved unit, there is no question about it,” Riley told reporters. “This is a unit that, when you talk about the top-end potential, has a chance to really grow and get better fast. … There’s a lot of good things happening on this defense, man.”
Back to Notre Dame. The Irish are fighting through a brutal stretch against opponents that entered their game undefeated — Ohio State, Duke, Louisville and USC. Quarterback Sam Hartman had not thrown an interception during six games at Notre Dame before getting picked three times against Louisville. Hartman’s accuracy has dropped in the past two games, and Notre Dame’s deficiencies at wide receiver are starting to show up again.
Freeman stressed the need to establish a run game with Audric Estime, who had just 20 yards on 10 carries against Louisville.
“If we have to simplify, we have to do it,” Freeman said. “That’s the biggest thing when you talk about the difference between two weeks ago till now. It’s like, ‘OK, we’re making mistakes [identifying] in the run game, and why aren’t we blocking this guy?’ We have to simplify to make sure there is crystal clarity on what we need to do.” — Adam Rittenberg
Florida at South Carolina: It’s difficult to see the loser of this game going on to have a successful season, a season that was pivotal for both teams — albeit for different reasons. Billy Napier, in his second season at Florida, needed to show marked improvement after the Gators suffered through a 6-7 campaign a year ago. Florida (4-2, 2-1) was pummeled two weeks ago at Kentucky and has played poorly away from home since Napier arrived. The Gators are 1-7 when they’ve ventured outside the Swamp, and after the trip to Williams-Brice Stadium, they still have to play Georgia in Jacksonville and LSU and Missouri on the road before closing the season at home against No. 4 Florida State.
For Shane Beamer and South Carolina, there was a ton of momentum surrounding the program after the Gamecocks won eight games a year ago and beat Tennessee and Clemson to end the regular season, creating lofty expectations in Year 3 for Beamer Ball. But much like a year ago, the Gamecocks (2-3, 1-2) need a strong close to the season after losing to three top-25 teams in their first five games.
Florida routed South Carolina 38-6 last season, but the Gamecocks bounced back to play their best football of the season and win their next two over Tennessee and Clemson. They’re going to need a similar resurgence to finish with their third straight winning record under Beamer, and that starts Saturday at home against the Gators. — Chris Low
Wyoming at Air Force: Week 7 brings us a couple of enormous matchups in the race for the Group of 5’s New Year’s Six bowl bid. Tulane and Memphis are each 4-1 and 1-0 in AAC play; the winner of Saturday’s game in the Liberty Bowl could tell us who the American front-runner is, and generally “one-loss AAC champion” is a good thing to be.
At the moment, however, Air Force might be at the front of the line. Troy Calhoun’s Falcons are 5-0 and already 3-0 in Mountain West play. They have been held under 39 points only once, and they’re allowing just 12.2 points per game.
On Saturday, however, they face by far their best opponent, a 5-1 Wyoming team that boasts wins over Texas Tech and Fresno State and a loss only at Texas. The Cowboys technically need this one more because they’ve already suffered a blemish, but this one’s huge either way. This weekend will bring quite a bit of clarity to the New Year’s Six race. — Bill Connelly
Whose offensive line makes the difference?
ACC: Duke coach Mike Elko has done a terrific job in transforming the offensive line to a position of strength since his arrival in Durham. This season, the group got even stronger with the additions of transfers Jake Hornibrook (Stanford) and Scott Elliott (Harvard), two veterans with starting experience at their previous schools. The projected starting lineup for their game Saturday against NC State has a combined 162 starts. Duke has allowed only four sacks on the season and ranks in the Top 25 in the country in rushing offense. But this unit will definitely face a test against the Wolfpack, who have 21 sacks this season and have allowed less than 100 yards rushing per game. If QB Riley Leonard (ankle) is unable to play, that could affect what Duke does on the ground — especially if NC State tries to load the box to make Henry Belin IV make some plays. — Adelson
Big Ten: Michigan’s offensive line has won the Joe Moore Award for best offensive line unit the past two seasons. Offensive coordinator and line coach Sherrone Moore had to replace a few players from last season, but the staff went to the transfer portal to fill those needs immediately. Rimington Award winner Olu Oluwatimi left for the NFL, so the coaches brought in Drake Nugent from Stanford, who has started at center this season. They also added tackle Myles Hinton and guard LaDarius Henderson. Michigan’s line has been an important part of the offensive success and has once again been dominating defenses up front. Michigan quarterbacks have been sacked just three times, and the Wolverines’ running backs are averaging 2.36 yards before contact on runs. Running back Blake Corum has an FBS-leading 10 touchdowns, and while Corum has executed those runs, he also has an excellent offensive line to thank for creating holes and blocking up front. — Tom VanHaaren
Big 12: Last season, Texas Tech averaged 3.9 yards per carry and was 111th nationally in sacks allowed at 3.15 per game. The Red Raiders brought in transfer center Rusty Staats, who started 45 games at Western Kentucky, and reshuffled the entire offensive line in the process. This season, they’re averaging 179 rushing yards per game, 4.9 yards per carry, and running back Tahj Brooks is the first Tech player with four straight 100-yard games in the past 20 years. Kansas State, meanwhile, ranks fourth nationally in run defense, allowing just 2.99 yards per carry and 93.4 yards per game. The Wildcats have given up just three rushing scores all season. How the Texas Tech line holds up will go a long way toward its survival in the conference race. — Dave Wilson
Pac-12: Bo Nix may be the headliner in Eugene as he tries to continue a Heisman-level start to the season, but the work of the Ducks’ offensive line so far cannot be overstated. The unit has allowed only three sacks of Nix all season and only 20 tackles for loss. Washington’s offensive line has protected Michael Penix Jr. in similar fashion, which has allowed him to get off to an equally, if not more, impressive start than Nix. Both offensive lines may be the key to Saturday’s matchup; whoever gives their respective quarterback more time against staunch defensive lines could be the team that emerges with a crucial win. — Paolo Uggetti
SEC: Another year, another solid Georgia offensive line. And this time the Bulldogs are doing it without Warren McClendon and Broderick Jones, who left during the offseason for the NFL. And they’re doing it without starting right tackle Amarius Mims, who has missed the past few weeks after undergoing tightrope surgery to repair a sprained ankle. But the numbers say Dylan Fairchild, Earnest Greene, Tate Ratledge, Xavier Truss and Sedrick Van Pran are doing just fine. Ratledge hasn’t given up a pressure all season. All told, Georgia ranks fourth in the FBS in pressure percentage (20.5%) and sixth in yards before contact (2,069). — Alex Scarborough
Notable quotes
Mario Cristobal: If you’ve been paying attention, you might have heard the Miami coach’s mea culpa regarding the Canes’ agonizing loss to Georgia Tech.
“I made the wrong call. I take full ownership in not taking a knee and giving them the opportunity to have a couple extra plays and preventing us from sealing the win.”
Mark Stoops: Kentucky’s coach made a pitch to fans for donations to fund his team during a weekly radio show, using Georgia, which had just beaten the Wildcats 51-13, as the primary example.
“I can promise you — Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days, and we could use some help. That’s what they look like, you know what I mean, when you have 85 of ’em. I encourage anybody that’s disgruntled to pony up some more.”
The opening weekend of the 2025 MLB season was taken over by a surprise star — torpedo bats.
The bowling pin-shaped bats became the talk of the sport after the Yankees’ home run onslaught on the first Saturday of the season put it in the spotlight and the buzz hasn’t slowed since.
What exactly is a torpedo bat? How does it help hitters? And how is it legal? Let’s dig in.
Read: An MIT-educated professor, the Yankees and the bat that could be changing baseball
What is a torpedo bat and why is it different from a traditional MLB bat?
The idea of the torpedo bat is to take a size format — say, 34 inches and 32 ounces — and distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional form to ensure the fattest part of the bat is located where the player makes the most contact. Standard bats taper toward an end cap that is as thick diametrically as the sweet spot of the barrel. The torpedo bat moves some of the mass on the end of the bat about 6 to 7 inches lower, giving it a bowling-pin shape, with a much thinner end.
How does it help hitters?
The benefits for those who like swinging with it — and not everyone who has swung it likes it — are two-fold. Both are rooted in logic and physics. The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players’ swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.
The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer’s weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick’s is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.
Why did it become such a big story so early in the 2025 MLB season?
Because the New York Yankees hit nine home runs in a game Saturday and Michael Kay, their play-by-play announcer, pointed out that some of them came from hitters using a new bat shape. The fascination was immediate. While baseball, as an industry, has implemented forward-thinking rules in recent seasons, the modification to something so fundamental and known as the shape of a bat registered as bizarre. The initial response from many who saw it: How is this legal?
OK. How is this legal?
Major League Baseball’s bat regulations are relatively permissive. Currently, the rules allow for a maximum barrel diameter of 2.61 inches, a maximum length of 42 inches and a smooth and round shape. The lack of restrictions allows MLB’s authorized bat manufacturers to toy with bat geometry and for the results to still fall within the regulations.
Who came up with the idea of using them?
The notion of a bowling-pin-style bat has kicked around baseball for years. Some bat manufacturers made smaller versions as training tools. But the version that’s now infiltrating baseball goes back two years when a then-Yankees coach named Aaron Leanhardt started asking hitters how they should counteract the giant leaps in recent years made by pitchers.
When Yankees players responded that bigger barrels would help, Leanhardt — an MIT-educated former Michigan physics professor who left academia to work in the sports industry — recognized that as long as bats stayed within MLB parameters, he could change their geometry to make them a reality. Leanhardt, who left the Yankees to serve as major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins over the winter, worked with bat manufacturers throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons to make that a reality.
When did it first appear in MLB games?
It’s unclear specifically when. But Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton used a torpedo bat last year and went on a home run-hitting rampage in October that helped send the Yankees to the World Series. New York Mets star Francisco Lindor also used a torpedo-style bat last year and went on to finish second in National League MVP voting.
Who are some of the other notable early users of torpedo bats?
In addition to Stanton and Lindor, Yankees hitters Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have used torpedoes to great success. Others who have used them in games include Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers and Toronto’s Davis Schneider. And that’s just the beginning. Hundreds more players are expected to test out torpedoes — and perhaps use them in games — in the coming weeks.
How is this different from a corked bat?
Corking bats involves drilling a hole at the end of the bat, filling it in and capping it. The use of altered bats allows players to swing faster because the material with which they replace the wood — whether it’s cork, superballs or another material — is lighter. Any sort of bat adulteration is illegal and, if found, results in suspension.
Could a rule be changed to ban them?
Could it happen? Sure. Leagues and governing bodies have put restrictions on equipment they believe fundamentally altered fairness. Stick curvature is limited in hockey. Full-body swimsuits made of polyurethane and neoprene are banned by World Aquatics. But officials at MLB have acknowledged that the game’s pendulum has swung significantly toward pitching in recent years, and if an offensive revolution comes about because of torpedo bats — and that is far from a guarantee — it could bring about more balance to the game. If that pendulum swings too far, MLB could alter its bat regulations, something it has done multiple times already this century.
So the torpedo bat is here to stay?
Absolutely. Bat manufacturers are cranking them out and shipping them to interested players with great urgency. Just how widely the torpedo bat is adopted is the question that will play out over the rest of the season. But it has piqued the curiosity of nearly every hitter in the big leagues, and just as pitchers toy with new pitches to see if they can marginally improve themselves, hitters will do the same with bats.
Comfort is paramount with a bat, so hitters will test them during batting practice and in cage sessions before unleashing them during the game. As time goes on, players will find specific shapes that are most comfortable to them and best suit their swing during bat-fitting sessions — similar to how golfers seek custom clubs. But make no mistake: This is an almost-overnight alteration of the game, and “traditional or torpedo” is a question every big leaguer going forward will ask himself.
Sports
‘It’s taken on a life of its own’: Inside the 48 hours torpedo bats launched into baseball lore
At 1:54 ET on Saturday afternoon, New York Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay lit the fuse on what will be remembered as either one of the most metamorphic conversations in baseball history or one of its strangest.
During spring training, someone in the organization had mentioned to Kay that the team’s analytics department had counseled players on where pitches tended to strike their bats, and with subsequent buy-in from some of the players, bats had been designed around that information. In the hours before the Yankees’ home game against the Brewers that day, Kay told the YES Network production staff about this, alerting them so they could look for an opportunity to highlight the equipment.
After the Yankees clubbed four homers in the first inning, a camera zoomed in on Jazz Chisholm Jr.‘s bat in the second inning. “You see the shape of Chisholm’s bat…” Kay said on air. “It’s got a big barrel on it,” Paul O’Neill responded, before Kay went on to describe the analysis behind the bat shaped like a torpedo.
Chisholm singled to left field, and after Anthony Volpe worked the count against former teammate Nestor Cortes to a full count, Volpe belted a home run to right field using the same kind of bat. A reporter watching the game texted Kay: Didn’t he hit the meat part of the bat you were talking about — just inside where the label normally is?
Yep, Kay responded. Within an hour of Kay’s commentary, the video of Chisholm’s bat and Kay’s exchange with O’Neill was posted on multiple platforms of social media, amplified over and over. What happened over the next 48 hours was what you get when you mix the power of social media and the desperation of a generation of beleaguered hitters. Batting averages are at a historic low, strikeout rates at a historic high, and on a sunny spring day in the Bronx, here were the Yankees blasting baseballs into the seats with what seemed to be a strangely shaped magic bat.
An oasis of offense had formed on the horizon, and hitters — from big leaguers to Little Leaguers, including at least one member of Congress — paddled toward it furiously. Acres of trees will be felled and shaped to feed the thirst for this new style of bats. Last weekend, one bat salesman asked his boss, “What the heck have we done?”
Jared Smith, CEO of bat-maker Victus, said, “I’ve been making bats for 15, 16 years. … This is the most talked-about thing in the industry since I started. And I hope we can make better-performing bats that work for players.”
According to Bobby Hillerich, the vice president of production at Hillerich & Bradsby, his company — which is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and makes Louisville Slugger bats — had produced 20 versions of the torpedo bat as of this past Saturday, and in less than a week, that number has tripled as players and teams continually call in their orders.
Even though Saturday marked its launch into the mainstream, this shape of bat has actually been around for a while. Hillerich & Bradsby had its first contact with a team about the style in 2021 and had nondisclosure agreements with four teams as the bat evolved; back then, it was referred to as the “bowling pin” bat. The Cubs’ Nico Hoerner was the first major leaguer to try it — and apparently wasn’t comfortable with it. Cody Bellinger tried it when he was with the Cubs before joining the Yankees during the offseason.
Before Atlanta took the field Sunday night, Braves catcher Drake Baldwin recalled trying one in the Arizona Fall League last year (noting that his first impression was that it “looked weird”). Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor used it in 2024, in a year in which he would finish second in the NL MVP voting; Lindor’s was a little different from Volpe’s version, with a cup hollowed out at the end of the bat. Giancarlo Stanton swung one throughout his playoff surge last fall, but no one in the media noticed, perhaps because of how the pitch-black color of Stanton’s bat camouflaged the shape.
Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli saw one in the Twins’ dugout during spring training and picked it up, his attention drawn to the unusual shape. “What the hell is this thing?” he asked, wondering aloud whether the design was legal. When he was assured it was, he put it back down.
Baldelli’s experience reflected the way hitters have used and assessed bats since the advent of baseball: They’ll pick up bats and see how they feel, their interest fueled by the specter of success. Tony Gwynn won eight batting titles, and many teammates and opposing hitters — Barry Bonds among them — asked whether they could inspect his bats. The torpedo bat’s arrival was simply the latest version of that long-held search for the optimal tool.
On Opening Day, eight teams had some version of the torpedo bat within their stock, according to one major league source. But with video of the Yankees’ home runs being hit off unusual bats saturating social media Saturday afternoon, the phone of Kevin Uhrhan, pro bat sales rep for Louisville Slugger, blew up with requests for torpedo bats. James Rowson, the hitting coach of the Yankees, began to get text inquiries — about 100, he later estimated. Everyone wanted to know about the bat; everyone wanted to get their own.
In San Diego, Braves players asked about the bats, and by Sunday morning, equipment manager Calvin Minasian called in the team’s order. By the middle of the week, all 30 teams had asked for the bats. “Every team started trying to get orders in,” Hillerich said. “We’re trying to scramble to get wood. And then it was: How fast can we get this to retail?”
Victus produces the bats Chisholm and Volpe are using and has made them available for retail. Three senior players, all in their 70s, stopped by the Victus store to ask about the torpedoes. A member of Congress who plays baseball reached out to Louisville Slugger.
The Cincinnati Reds contacted Hillerich & Bradsby, saying, “We need you in Cincinnati on Monday ASAP,” and soon after, Uhrhan and pro bat production manager Brian Hillerich, Bobby’s brother, made the 90-minute drive from the company’s factory in Louisville with test bats.
Reds star Elly De La Cruz tried a few, decided on a favorite and used it for a career performance that night.
“You can think in New York, maybe there was wind,” Bobby Hillerich said. “Elly hits two home runs and gets seven RBIs. That just took it to a whole new level.”
A few days after the Yankees’ explosion, Aaron Leanhardt, who had led New York’s effort to customize its bats as a minor league hitting coordinator before being hired by the Marlins as their field coordinator, was in the middle of a horseshoe of reporters, explaining the background. “There are a lot more cameras here today than I’m used to,” he said, laughing.
Stanton spoke with reporters about the simple concept behind the bat: build a design for where a hitter is most likely to make contact. “You wonder why no one has thought of it before, for sure,” Stanton said. “I didn’t know if it was, like, a rule-based thing of why they were shaped like that.”
Over and over, MLB officials assured those asking: Yes, the bats are legal and meet the sport’s equipment specifications. Trevor Megill, the Brewers’ closer, complained about the bats, calling them like “something used in slow-pitch softball,” but privately, baseball officials were thrilled by the possibility of seeing offense goosed, something they had been attempting through rule change in recent years.
“It’s all the rage right now, given what transpired over the weekend,” said Jeremy Zoll, assistant general manager of the Twins. “I’m sure more and more guys are going to experiment with it as a result, just to see if it’s something they like.”
That personal preference is a factor for which some front office types believe the mass orders of the bats don’t account: The Yankees’ recommendations to each hitter were based on months of past data of how that player tended to strike the ball. This was not about a one-size-fits all bat; it was about precise bat measurements that reflected an individual player’s swing.
“I had never heard of it. I’ve used the same bat for nine years, so I think I’ll stick with that,” White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi said. “It’s pretty interesting. It makes sense. If it works for a guy, good for him. If it doesn’t, stick with what you got.”
As longtime player Eric Hosmer explained on the “Baseball Tonight” podcast, the process is a lot like what players can do in golf: look for clubs customized for a player’s particular swing. And, he added, hitting coaches might begin to think more about which bat might be most effective against particular pitchers. If a pitcher tends to throw inside, a torpedo bat could be more effective; if a pitcher is more effective outside, maybe a larger barrel would be more appropriate.
That’s the key, according to an agent representing a player who ordered a bat: “You need years of hitting data in the big leagues to dial it in and hopefully get a better result. He’s still tinkering with it; he may not even use it in a game. … I think of it like switching your irons in golf to blades: It will feel a little different and take some adjusting, and it may even change your swing subtly.”
Two days after the home run explosion, Boone said, “You’re just trying to just get what you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit. And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be — it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”
“I’m kind of starting to smile at it a little more … a lot of things that aren’t real.”
Said the player agent: “It’s not an aluminum bat with plutonium in it like everyone is making it out to be.”
Reliever Adam Ottavino watched this all play out, with his 15 years of experience. “It’s the Yankees and they scored a million runs in the first few games, and it’s cool to hate the Yankees and it’s cool to look for the bogeyman,” Ottavino said, “and that’s what some people are going to do, and [you] can’t really stop that. But there’s also a lot of misinformation and noneducation on it too.”
Major league baseball mostly evolves at a glacial pace. For example, the sport is well into the second century of complaints about the surface of the ball and the debate over financial disparity among teams. From time to time, however, baseball has its eclipses, moments that command full attention and inspire change. On a “Sunday Night Baseball” game on May 18, 2008, an umpire’s botched home run call at Yankee Stadium compelled MLB to implement the first instant replay. Buster Posey’s ankle was shattered in a home plate collision in May 2011, imperiling the career of the young star, and new rules about that type of play were rewritten.
The torpedo bat eruption could turn out to be transformative, a time when the industry became aware how a core piece of equipment has been taken for granted and aware that bats could be more precisely designed to augment the ability of each hitter. Or this could all turn out to be a wild overreaction to an outlier day of home runs against a pitching staff having a really bad day.
On Thursday, Cortes — who had been hammered for five homers over two innings in Yankee Stadium — shut out the Reds for six innings.
In Baltimore, Bregman, who had tried the torpedo bat earlier this week, reverted to his usual stock and had three hits against the Orioles, including a home run. Afterward, Bregman said, “It’s the hitter. Not the bat.”
This story was also reported by Jeff Passan, Jorge Castillo, Jesse Rogers and Kiley McDaniel.
ATLANTA — The Braves hope to learn more about right-hander Reynaldo Lopez‘s ability to return to the rotation when he has exploratory arthroscopic surgery on his inflamed right shoulder on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
The Braves placed López on the 15-day injured list on Monday. He was moved to the 60-day IL on Thursday, so he will miss at least two months.
“We won’t know anything until that procedure,” manager Brian Snitker said before Friday night’s home opener against the Miami Marlins.
The Braves returned home with an 0-7 record, their worst start since an 0-9 start in 2016. They were swept at San Diego and Los Angeles to open the season.
No Major League Baseball team has reached the playoffs after an 0-7 start.
López allowed three runs and nine hits in a loss to San Diego on Friday night. The right-hander was an important part of the rotation in 2024, when he was 8-5 with a 1.99 ERA in his first year with the team.
The Braves recalled right-hander Bryce Elder from Triple-A Gwinnett to take López’s spot on the active roster.
Right-handed reliever Jesse Chavez, who was designated for assignment on Tuesday and refused an outright assignment to the minors, returned to the organization on a minor league contract on Friday. Chavez allowed one run and two hits in his only outing with Atlanta following his recall from Triple-A Gwinnett.
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