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Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta witnessed his home scoreless streak come to an end at 52.2 innings when he surrendered an RBI double to Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Alex Presley in the fifth inning of Thursday’s eventual 7-2 Cubs victory, per Sportsnet Stats.

Arrieta‘s streak, unsurprisingly, is the longest of its kind by any Cubs pitcher in Wrigley Field history. 

Although Presley’s RBI double was the only earned run charged to Arrieta on Thursday, the Cubs ace did walk four Brewers and allow three hits en route to his league-leading fifth win of the 2016 season.

Last year, he posted a 22-6 record to go along with a 1.77 ERA and 236 strikeouts on his way to winning the Cubs’ first National League Cy Young Award since Greg Maddux in 1992.

Arrieta‘s impressive feat brings back memories of other notable scoreless innings records in MLB history. One in particular that comes to mind is that of Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Orel Hershiser, who famously went 59 consecutive innings without allowing a run during the 1988 season.

Interestingly enough, Hershiser tossed 41 of those innings on the road, per Andrew Simon of MLB.com.

In any case, Arrieta‘s next home start is scheduled for May 8 against the Washington Nationals, though he’s first slated to face the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on Tuesday.

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The is-this-for-real conversation begins to happen after the first month of the Major League Baseball season like a young actor enjoying the first taste of celebrity.

What we try to take away from April’s baseball action is what is fact and what is fiction. One month provides us little that is definitive in a six-month MLB season.

But, of course, we want our answers. And we want them now.

Overreaction tends to be the general theme of baseball’s first month. It goes both ways, too. A struggling team might watch its fanbase unnecessarily panic. The Kool-Aid of a surprisingly good team or player tastes like a fine wine.

Until we hit May.

Everything could change with the weather in the eastern part of the country. So before we hit baseball’s second month, on this final day of April, here is what we can draw from the first month of the 2016 MLB season.

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Yoenis Cespedes gets the attention, as he should. But the New York Mets‘ 12-run third inning got going Friday night when Michael Conforto doubled home the game’s first run.

Cespedes’ recent power surge has made the Mets look unbeatable. But the Mets’ surge really began when manager Terry Collins put a 23-year-old kid into the third spot in the batting order.

The Mets are baseball’s hottest team and maybe baseball’s best show. And as much as this is a team built around its young and ridiculously talented starting rotation, the Mets look like a championship contender again because of a lineup built around the unassuming kid from the Pacific Northwest and the flashy star from Cuba.

They each had two hits in the 12-run inning that was the biggest in the Mets’ 55-year franchise history and fueled a 13-1 rout of the San Francisco Giants to give the Mets their seventh straight win. True to form, Conforto had a pair of line drives that drove in runs. True to form, Cespedes hit the rocket of a grand slam that you’ll see on the highlights.

Cespedes hits the ball hard, and his last two home runs have been dramatic lasers over the left-field fence. But as Mark Simon of ESPN.com tweeted Thursday, it’s another Met who tops the list of the hardest hitters in the major leagues:

Simon didn’t break down those numbers by date, but the other numbers show Conforto is hitting .380 in the 13 games since Collins moved him to the middle of the lineup, with eight doubles, three home runs and 12 RBI.

The Mets, who were 3-5 and scoring 2.5 runs a game before the move, are 11-2 and scoring more than six runs a game since.

Conforto isn’t solely responsible, any more than Cespedes was solely responsible for fueling the second-half charge that gave the Mets a division title and eventually a National League pennant last year.

Or any more than Cespedes has been the key to the Mets’ current seven-game winning streak. Neil Walker has nine home runs this month, Asdrubal Cabrera has fit in well as the new shortstop, and the Mets still have that pitching.

Besides, Cespedes only started two of the seven games, showing up for just one plate appearance in the other five because of a deep bruise on his right leg. That one appearance, of course, was the three-run, game-tying, pinch-hit home run Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds. It was a home run that reached legendary status when it came out the Mets had to go find Cespedes in the training room, where he was getting treatment.

Cespedes has homered six times in his last nine games—a stretch that began the day Collins put Conforto in the third spot and pushed Cespedes from third to cleanup. He has at least one extra-base hit in each of those nine games, which is another Mets franchise record.

It’s pretty much what the Mets have seen from Cespedes ever since the trade that brought him from the Detroit Tigers last July 31. Michael Fulmer, the 23-year-old right-hander who was a key piece in that deal, debuted with a strong effort for the Tigers Friday night in Minnesota. But as Gary Cohen said Friday on SNY, the Mets will have no regrets even if Fulmer becomes a star.

Cespedes already is one. He already helped deliver one pennant, the Mets’ first in 14 years, and he energized this team with his January decision to re-sign.

The three-year, $75 million contract includes an opt-out that would turn it into a one-year, $27.5 million deal, but at this point the Mets would say that big price is worth it, too.

Besides, they’re only paying Conforto $517,246 this year.

The Cespedes signing was supposed to turn Conforto into a platoon player, because the Mets’ original plan was to play Cespedes in left field with Juan Lagares in center and Conforto on the bench against left-handers. That’s still the official plan, but the Mets have somehow faced only two lefties this season, and Conforto played in one of those games because Cespedes couldn’t.

The reality is that Conforto needs to be an every-day player, one way or the other. The reality is the Mets need him, just as they need Cespedes.

They make a pretty good pair in the middle of the lineup, as different as they are. And they make the Mets a team that could easily repeat or outdo what it accomplished last year.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Miami Marlins pitcher Adam Conley was four outs away from a no-hitter in just his 16th career start.

But with Conley’s pitch count at 116, manager Don Mattingly opted to protect the 25-year-old’s arm, taking him out of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning for reliever Jose Urena with Miami leading the Milwaukee Brewers 5-0.

The Brewers managed to get to the Marlins bullpen and put up three runs, but Miami was able to hold on for a 6-3 win.

Conley’s final stat line was 7.2 innings pitched, no runs, no hits, seven strikeouts and four walks. 

The Marlins congratulated the young pitcher after he exited the game:

With a 4-2 career record entering Friday night, Conley had never pitched more than seven innings in a major league game. He pitched exactly seven against the New York Mets on Sept. 16, giving up just three hits and no runs while striking out six.

He also had never thrown more than 106 pitches in a game. At the rate he was pitching Friday, he could have gone over 130 pitches if he had finished the contest, which would have been an enormous strain on his developing arm.

If Conley weren’t such an important asset to the Marlins rotation, Mattingly might have been more inclined to let him finish the game.

But for a Marlins franchise that is attempting to build a team that can keep up with the Washington Nationals and Mets in the National League East, overworking a young pitcher—whom FanGraphs ranked as the organization’s No. 5 prospect in 2014—during a game that was already in hand would have been unnecessary. 

Conley’s start was a needed bright spot for a team that received a huge blow late Thursday night when MLB announced an 80-game suspension for All-Star second baseman Dee Gordon after he tested positive for performance-enhancing substances. 

So while it might be disappointing that the young pitcher was unable to go the distance Friday night, Marlins fans have another young arm to look forward to watching every five days in a rotation that already features Jose Fernandez.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper was the 2015 National League MVP, but he missed out on the batting title because of Miami Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon. It would be understandable if the Nationals slugger felt like he was robbed of the achievement because of the performance-enhancing-drug revelations regarding Gordon, but he blamed only himself in recent comments. 

Major League Baseball announced early Friday morning that it suspended Gordon for 80 games because he tested positive for performance-enhancing substances.

Harper discussed the suspension, calling it “a disappointment,” per Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com, but he wasn’t quick to point fingers when it came to last year’s batting title.

“I lost the batting title. I lost it completely,” he said. “I was hitting like .345 with three weeks left or so. I completely lost it. It was nothing to do with that. You’ve still got to hit the baseball. You’ve still got to perform. And he did that. I completely lost the batting title last year, so that’s all behind us.”

Harper finished with a .330 batting average and was only .003 behind Gordon’s .333 mark. Zuckerman noted Harper lost the crown on the last day of the 2015 campaign and struggled down the stretch with a .162 average in his last 11 contests. During that span, his average fell from .343 to .330.

However, Harper was more productive in other areas, with 42 home runs, 99 RBI and a 1.109 OPS, compared to four long balls, 46 RBI and a .776 OPS for Gordon. Those power numbers helped Harper become the MVP, although his Nationals missed out on the playoffs.

This season, Harper was hitting .314 with nine home runs and 24 RBI through his first 70 at-bats, while Gordon was off to a slow start at .266 through his first 94 at-bats.

Losing Gordon will be a blow to Washington’s National League East rivals in Miami, but Harper seemed upset the second baseman will not be on the field, per Zuckerman:

He’s one of the best second basemen in the game, a big talent, a lot of fun to watch. It’s just disappointment, something you don’t want to see. Not good for the sport, not good for baseball. But he’s still one of the best players in the game and I’ve still got a lot of respect for him. But it’s definitely something that’s just tough.

It may be tough, but the Nationals probably would have been better off if Gordon wasn’t on the field in their head-to-head matchups last year. The second baseman hit a blistering .342 in 19 contests against Washington in 2015 and helped the 71-91 Marlins beat the Nationals nine times.

Miami also swept the Nationals in April during a six-game losing streak for the latter. Washington ultimately finished seven games behind the New York Mets in the division and failed to live up to elevated expectations. Perhaps if the Nationals had beaten Gordon and the hapless Marlins more often last year, they could have challenged for a postseason spot late in the schedule.

At least Washington won’t have to worry about Gordon when it plays Miami seven times in May this year. 

Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander didn’t think enough penalties were in place regarding players who use PEDs when he sent out a tweet after Gordon’s suspension (warning: contains NSFW language): “This PED s–t is killing me. If you test positive, you need to not play. You shouldn’t be allowed to [affect] games while appealing.”

Zuckerman did point out MLB’s performance-enhancing-drug system “remains the strictest…in American professional sports.”

Harper said there are talks to come over whether the penalties are strict enough, per Zuckerman: “I think as players and as a union, we’ll speak about that.” The Nationals star also said it’s important that the players stay together and open up communication with the union.

The union will likely have meetings and potentially respond to the situation, but for now, Harper has a clearer path to a potential batting title in 2016 with the reigning champion suspended for a large portion of the season.

His Nationals were also in first place in the division at 14-7 heading into Friday and are looking to reach the playoffs after that disappointing 2015 campaign. However, they are fresh off a three-game losing streak against the Philadelphia Phillies. 

The sweep to Philadelphia underscored the fact Harper is not receiving enough help in the lineup. He is the only player on Washington who had more than three home runs entering play Friday, and not a single one of his teammates posted double-digit RBI totals through the first 21 games. 

Considering Harper has to carry the Nationals this season if they want to reach the playoffs, it’s ideal that he is not lamenting the missed opportunity of a batting title in 2015.

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The 13-9 Pittsburgh Pirates have gotten off to a solid start in 2016 and are fresh off a 98-win campaign. The coaching staff was rewarded for its efforts on Friday. 

The team announced on its Twitter page that the entire staff received contract extensions through the 2017 season:

Manager Clint Hurdle took over the Pittsburgh Pirates before the 2011 season when they hadn’t reached the playoffs since they lost the 1992 National League Championship Series. What’s more, they were in the midst of a prolonged slump that saw them finish with a losing record every year from 1993 through 2010 (when they were an abysmal 57-105).

While Hurdle’s hiring didn’t immediately lead to a winning record, the Pirates showed steady improvement under his direction and have reached the last three postseasons:

Hurdle deserves plenty of credit for the turnaround in Pittsburgh, but it hasn’t all been his doing. The Pirates promoted Jeff Branson to hitting coach after the 2013 season when Jay Bell left the organization to join the Cincinnati Reds. As a result, the Pirates were fourth in the National League in runs scored in both 2014 and 2015 under Branson after they finished a middling ninth in 2013.

While the hitting improvement has been critical, so has the shutdown pitching Pittsburgh has displayed during its recent surge. Adam Berry of MLB.com specifically singled out pitching coach Ray Searage when reporting on the coaching staff extension news on Friday.

That comes after Albert Chen of Sports Illustrated wrote a preseason article titled “The Pitch Doctor: The secret to the Pirates’ success is Ray Searage,” which underscores how important he has been for Pittsburgh.

Chen noted only the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals have been as successful as Pittsburgh in the last three years after the Pirates won 98 games in 2015, 88 in 2014 and 94 in 2013. He pointed to the pitching staff’s ability to exceed expectations on a team that “will once again rank among the bottom third of the league in payroll this season.”

According to Chen, the Pirates pitching staff has posted a 3.32 ERA since the beginning of the 2013 campaign, which is second-best in baseball behind only St. Louis’ 3.29. Chen praised Searage’s work because “Beyond 25-year-old ace Gerrit Cole, so many pitchers have found unexpected success in the Steel City that it has achieved a reputation as baseball’s Lourdes.”

Chen cited A.J. Burnett, J.A. Happ, Vance Worley, Edinson Volquez, Francisco Liriano and Charlie Morton as players who have found renewed success under Searage’s tutelage.

Payroll disparity may be a concern for many teams, but the Pirates have thrived because names beyond stars such as Cole and Andrew McCutchen have anchored their efforts. That is a credit to the coaching’s ability to maximize the players’ talents. 

Pittsburgh figures to once again be part of a daunting NL Central race this season after the division sent three teams to the playoffs last year. While competing with the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals will not be an easy task in 2016 and beyond, Pittsburgh at least knows there will be continuity in place with a coaching staff that has been quite successful the past three years.

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Coming off a National League Cy Young Award in 2015 and a dazzling start this season, Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta is seeking big money and a long-term contract from the team that helped him reinvent his career.  

Continue for updates. 

Cubs, Arrieta Far Apart in Contract Talks

Friday, April 29

Per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, Arrieta is seeking a seven-year deal, and the Cubs are currently offering four years, with “no optimism” that a deal gets done soon. 

Arrieta has been nearly unhittable since the 2015 All-Star break. He had a 0.75 ERA, 55 hits allowed and 113 strikeouts in 107.1 innings in the second half last year en route to winning the NL Cy Young Award. 

Proving his late flurry was no fluke, Arrieta is off to a 5-0 start this year with a 1.00 ERA, 18 hits allowed, 32 strikeouts and one no-hitter in 36 innings this season. He’s making $10.7 million this season, his second year being eligible for arbitration, per Spotrac. 

Even though Arrieta’s performance warrants consideration for a long-term contract, the Cubs have all the leverage with their star right-hander. He’s under control through next season and will be a free agent heading into his age-32 season in 2018. 

Zack Greinke, who turned 32 last October, signed a six-year deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks in December after finishing third in NL Cy Young Award voting with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015. He’s struggled out of the gate this year, admittedly in a small sample size, posting a 6.16 ERA with an MLB-high 39 hits allowed in 30.2 innings.  

But long-term deals for pitchers over the age of 30 are a riskier gamble because the stress of pitching, combined with advanced age, can lead to health problems. CC Sabathia has been an albatross for the New York Yankees since 2013. 

The Cubs front office is revered in MLB because it builds through drafts and trades, while largely avoiding big mistakes. Its big investment this winter, Jason Heyward, was unique because he was a free agent at 26. 

If Arrieta continues to be the most dominant starter in baseball, he will eventually get the deal he seeks. It may not come from the Cubs, but they don’t have to worry about losing him for two years. 

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The Baltimore Orioles reportedly reached an agreement Friday with veteran starting pitcher Wandy Rodriguez for a minor league deal.

Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com first reported the news. Roch Kubatko of MASN confirmed the details of the depth signing.

Rodriguez struggled across 17 appearances, including 15 starts, for the Texas Rangers last season. He posted a 4.90 ERA and 1.56 WHIP in 86.1 innings before getting designated for assignment in late July. He then signed with the Kansas City Royals organization, but didn’t see any action in the majors.

The 37-year-old left-hander rejoined the Houston Astros, where he originally started his career, in January. He actually pitched quite well in six outings during spring training, going 2-0 with a 3.95 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 11 strikeouts in 13.2 innings, but he didn’t make the final roster.

All told, Rodriguez has mostly been a replacement-level starter for most of his career. He’s 97-98 with a 4.10 ERA in 275 career games at the MLB level. He also had a stint with the Pittsburgh Pirates sandwiched between his time with the Astros and Rangers.

Connolly reported the Dominican Republic native is being sent to extended spring training in Sarasota, Florida. That’s a long way from the big leagues, but Rodriguez stated “all I ever want is a chance” during his time with the Astros, per Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle, and that probably still holds true.

He added: “Every time I get a chance, I will make it the best I can. Every opportunity, I try to do the best I can.”

The signing comes as Baltimore’s rotation has battled inconsistency out of the gate. The starting staff ranks 22nd in the league in ERA at 4.72 after nearly a month of action, per ESPN. So it doesn’t hurt to pick up another starter with MLB experience as insurance.

Ultimately, the Orioles will likely decide how to move forward after getting a chance to monitor his stuff during the stint in extended spring training. Rodriguez can provide a reliable veteran presence at Triple-A and serve as solid rotation or bullpen depth, at the very least.

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As the Major League Baseball season moves from April into May, the 2016 awards season gets one step closer.

It’s still too early to pick who’s going to win the big races, of course. It’s not too early, however, to check in on who’s in the lead.

Ahead are our picks for the early leaders for the Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards in the American League and National League. Managers were chosen based on who’s done the most for their team, and players were chosen based on all-around performance and general impact.

We’ll begin with the Manager of the Year awards. Step into the box when you’re ready.

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A week ago, there were serious stories in serious newspapers asking how long the Boston Red Sox should wait before making a managerial change.

By Tuesday, the Red Sox were half a game out of first place in the American League East.

Baseball’s monster division isn’t what it once was, and the Red Sox had the extra advantage of four games against their designated rivals, the overmatched Atlanta Braves.

So here’s the question as the Red Sox get set to host the New York Yankees for three games, starting on Friday: Can the AL East and the schedule save the Yankees the way they’ve saved the Sox (at least for now)?

Well, the schedule won’t.

The Yankees’ designated interleague rivals are the New York Mets, who are nothing like the bottom-feeding Braves. That’s four much more difficult games to contend with.

The Yankees won’t play the Braves at all, and they won’t play most of the other hardly trying teams that make up the bottom third of the National League.

So can the AL East save the Yankees, who are about to finish April with a losing record for the first time since 2008?

Maybe, but that’s because the division isn’t what it was then. Then again, neither are the Yankees.

In the 14 years leading up to and including 2009, an AL East team played in the World Series 10 times. The Yankees had a lot to do with that, but the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays made it too.

Compare that to the last six years, when the only AL East team to win a pennant was the 2013 Red Sox.

The division is more balanced than it was a decade ago without any easy touches. The danger of a superteam running away with it seems to be much less.

A decent team can stay in the race, just as the Yankees did the last two years. But could they do that again?

As Joel Sherman pointed out in Wednesday’s New York Post, there are already worrisome signs suggesting they won’t.

The offense isn’t scoring at all, which might change. The starting rotation is shaky, but that might not change.

It’s hard to believe they’ll keep hitting .191 with runners in scoring position. No American League team in 25 years has hit under .220 with runners in scoring position over a full season. The Yankees may not be good, but they’re not that bad.

The rotation problems are a bigger concern. Michael Pineda and Nathan Eovaldi have shown the type of inconsistency that has characterized both of their careers, and Masahiro Tanaka has shown the reluctance to trust his fastball that has characterized him since he suffered a partially torn ligament in his right elbow two years ago. As for CC Sabathia, who has a 5.06 ERA, he’s 35 years old, and the early-season results simply continue a downward trend.

As of Thursday, Yankee starters had combined for a 5.13 ERA. Only the Houston Astros and a few of the dregs of the National League have been worse.

And as Sherman wrote, the big concern is all this has happened without any apparent injuries. The Yankees rotation was supposed to be vulnerable because of health issues. Instead, the pitchers have been healthy but inconsistent and ineffective.

The Red Sox have their own rotation issues behind David Price, and despite what the standings might tell you, that hasn’t changed. But the Red Sox also have a lineup that has scored the most runs in the American League (114), and that might not change.

The Yankees have scored one more run than the weak-hitting Rays and fewer runs than everyone else in the league (72).

It’s bad enough that MLB.com columnist Barry M. Bloom suggested the Yankees trade Aroldis Chapman, who still hasn’t thrown a pitch for them, for someone who could spark the offense. That’s not happening, but by the time Chapman shows up for his suspension-delayed Yankees debut on May 9, the idea of having a killer end of the bullpen might not look as great as it did when the Yankees traded for Chapman last December.

The Yankees could turn seventh-inning leads into wins, and maybe they could even make sixth-inning leads look safe. Fine. Do you know how many times the Yankees have led a game after six innings so far this season?

Five. Five out of 20.

Even the awful Braves have led seven times after six innings. The Red Sox have led 11 times. The Toronto Blue Jays have led 14 times.

The Jays have actually lost five of those 14 games, which is another reminder that every AL East team has significant flaws. These aren’t the Yankees and Red Sox of 2003-04 or the Yankees of the late 1990s.

It’s a forgiving division, something to remember when you start thinking a team needs drastic changes because of a few losses in April.

But even in a forgiving division, some team is going to be the worst. Right now in the East, that team is the Yankees.

Check back in a few weeks (or months) to see whether it has changed.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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