Shohei Otani hit his first home run of the season yesterday, and it was an impressive shot.

Ohtani added a single and two walks in five plate appearances and has a .379 OBP in 29 PA this season. Ohtani is almost to 400 career PA, and he’s slashing .283/.362/.551. Just a reminder that he didn’t come to the major leagues having used a good chunk of his best years overseas. Ohtani is only 24.

Pitching Performance of the Day

Monday was not a particularly good day for starting pitchers as none of the 12 starters had a scoreless outing. Collectively they barely averaged more than five innings per start, and they had a combined ERA of 5.19. Woof. Chicago’s Reynaldo López had the longest and best outing of the day going 7.2 innings against the Indians. Lopez allowed only four baserunners and one earned run while striking out six, which was tied for the high strikeout total of the day.

Despite the strong outing, Lopez’s ERA is still 5.58 through nine starts, and his 5.46 xFIP doesn’t indicate Lopez has been the victim of bad luck. If you’re searching for positives, you can say that Lopez’s numbers suffer from his horrendous first three starts of the season. In his six starts since he has a 3.19 ERA, but a 4.49 xFIP in that stretch isn’t overly encouraging. He has been missing more bats in that time frame with 41 strikeouts over 36.2 innings with a strikeout rate of 27.3-percent.

Hitting Performance of the Day

The leader in total bases for yesterday’s short slate was Chicago’s Yoán Moncada with nine. Moncada homered twice and singled with both home runs coming off right-hander Shane Bieber . The switch-hitting Moncada has been much better against right-handed pitching in his young career with a 117 wRC+ vs. RHP compared to 68 vs. LHP.

Moncada now has a 135 wRC+ for the season, and he finally has his strikeout rate under 30 percent. Moncada isn’t swinging any less, in fact he’s swinging more both on pitches in and out of the zone, but he has vastly improved his contact rates. Moncada has also upped his pull rate, which is helping generate more power along with simply hitting the ball more frequently. He went oppo on his second homer yesterday, but he drilled his first homer to right.

Game of the Day

After Khris Davis led off the eighth inning with a home run to stretch Oakland’s lead to 4-1, the Mariners had just a 6.2-percent chance of winning the game per the win expectancy on the Fangraphs game chart, which is included below. Seattle quickly erased those long odds as three of their first four batters in the bottom of the eighth reached base with the third of those being via Daniel Vogelbach home run that tied the game at four.

The game remained tied until extra innings when Ramón Laureano gave Oakland the lead again with a solo home run in the top of the 10th. Seattle’s win expectancy reached its nadir in the bottom of the 10th as their first two batters were retired, at which point they had a 4.3 percent chance of winning the game. But then Vogelbach kept things alive with a walk, pinch runner Dee Gordon stole second, and Domingo Santana doubled to tie the game. Omar Narváez then singled to score Santana and complete the two-out rally.

What to Watch for Today

The Houston Astros have a few streaks in place that they’ll try to keep going in Detroit this evening. Houston has won six in a row (and nine of 10), and they’re heavy favorites to make it seven in a row at -195 against the Tigers. Carlos Correa has the longest active hitting streak in the majors at 16 games. Teammate Michael Brantley isn’t far behind at 12 games, which is the third longest streak in the league. Correa will have the better chance to extend his streak tonight with the platoon advantage against left-handed starter Ryan Carpenter . Correa has a healthy 137 wRC+ vs. LHP for his career.