Monday evening open thread

It’s another off day, so another open thread. The two games-starting-in-the-evening-but-before-7-pm-ET tonight are some real lopsided matchups: Dodgers-Pirates, and Brewers-Reds. Freddie Freeman just got hit by a Jose Quintana pitch. Luis Castillo is starting for the Reds in his 2022 debut, and just got a 5-4-3 double play for his first two outs of the season. Brandon Drury has a 150 wRC+ and a .380 xwOBA in 84 PAs this season; he’s never finished a season with an xwOBA above .311 or a wRC+ above 114, the latter of which came with a giant xwOBA outperformance.

The best matchup remaining on the docket today is probably Rays-Angels, with Noah Syndergaard set to take the hill. The Rays are 18-11 and 2.5 back in the AL East, while the Angels are 19-11 and maintain a half-game advantage in the AL West.

The Rays are second in MLB in position player fWAR (Mets are first...) and the Angels are eighth; both teams are middle-of-the-pack with 2.6 pitching fWAR, 14th in MLB.