MLB Weekly Recap (May 4-10): Home Field Magic, Cubs Chaos, & the Rays Take Over

Hey babes!

This week in baseball felt very home-field coded~~

In this episode of Baseball for Girls, we’re recapping everything from May 4th through May 10th, including:

• home team advantage was everywhere!
• the Cubs’ chaotic win streak era 
• the Rays quietly taking over the AL East 
• talking about my new sneaky team of the week 
• Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber battling for the home run lead 
• the Reds finally snapping their 8-game losing streak 
• Alec Bohm heating back up after a rough start to the season 
• Jacob deGrom absolutely DEALING against the Cubs 

I also talk a little about traveling to Paris for work while trying to keep up with baseball from another time zone, because baseball will follow me wherever I go!

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Transcript

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Hey babe, welcome to Baseball for Girls, where baseball meets soft girl energy. I'm Shaunacy, and here we do baseball with heart, humanity, and a little humor. So, whether you're brand new to the game or deep in your baseball era, you're in the right place. So grab something cozy, settle in, and let's get into today's episode. Let's play ball. So just to get started with our overall weekly vibes, I noticed that this week a home team advantage was actually a very real thing. So typically in the week we have 15 games, and then over the weekend there's 15 games that go on. So a total of 30 games per week. And this week, um 16 home wins were recorded out of those 30 games compared to 14 from last week and 13 from the week before. Um I I like to keep track, obviously, of all the games that are going on throughout the week. And whenever I was like just looking over the entire spread of the week, I just noticed that a lot of the home teams had the little star that I put beside them for winning the series. And so I thought that it looked like there was a lot more on the home team side than usual. So I went back and I counted, and yeah, this week over half of the home teams won their series. So home team advantage was a real thing this week. Other than that, the National League Central is still dominating, can't be touched, even though the Reds had an eight-game losing streak. I'll get into that a little bit later, but they're still above 500. And now I'll go into the sweeps for this past week. So starting with the weekday series. So the Red Sox swept the Tigers. That's actually the Red Sox's first ever sweep for the 2026 season. So so proud of them. They're they've been getting better. Um, so maybe that managerial change that they went through about two weeks ago, maybe it really did do something for them. The Blue Jays were swept by the Rays. The Mets swept the Rockies, and the Cubs swept the Reds. And the Cubs sweeping the Reds, actually, you know, the Cubs have had a 10-game winning streak that they that was broken over the weekend. I'll get into that a little bit later. But that was also just a part of that whole um new winning streak that they've been that they had been accumulating. That is their second um 10-game winning streak so far this season. And then over this past weekend, the only sweep that was recorded was the Brewers sweeping the Yankees. We are we love all baseball here, but we're not necessarily Yankees fans. So when we see a sweep of the Yankees, we do applaud. We do applaud at that. Um, especially since they swept the Orioles last week. Um, I will touch on, so I did have a weekly recap for the week of April 27th through May 3rd. So I did want to touch on a couple of those sweeps. So during the weekday series, the White Sox swept the Angels, the Phillies swept the Giants, good for them. Um, and the Cardinals swept the Pirates in four games during the, and that was during the week, and then over the weekend, the Yankees swept the Orioles, as I just mentioned, the Royals swept the Mariners, unfortunately. I'm also a Mariners fan, and the Pirates swept the Reds, so that was interesting because it was an interdivision series. We know that the Reds and the Pirates are both in the National League Central, and like I mentioned, the National League has been doing extremely well. All teams have steadily been over 500 um for a good part of this first quarter, I think they said uh we're at of the season. The Rays swept the Giants, the Cubs swept the D-Backs, and the Braves swept the Rockies. So that was from April 27th through the uh through May 3rd. So going back to this week, my sneaky team of the week is the Royals. So Kansas City, uh, Kansas City, Missouri. I always think that's so interesting. Kansas City, but in Missouri. Um, they have the Royals, and so the Royals have been doing super well as of late. They're still under 500 at 4475, but they have won seven and lost three out of their last 10 games, and overall they have won 19 games and they've lost 21. So, like I mentioned, they're just below 500. They won two games in a row um this past weekend, and over the week they broke their five-game winning streak on Thursday versus their game um against the Guardians, but they did win that series. Right now, I am recording the episode for this week on Sunday night, and currently the royals are playing the Tigers. Let me just do a quick check of the score. Last time I checked, it was 3-3. Right now, the Tigers are five and the royals are three, so the Tigers are leading, but right now, the either way, the Royals are going to win this series, regardless if they lose tonight, because they won yesterday, which was Saturday, and they won on Friday. So they will still win this series. So, what we would say is that they are looking for the sweep. They're looking to sweep the tigers tonight, and so we'll see what happens. Now it's time for our temperature check of the week. So I'll go into the teams that are cooling down and the teams that are heating up. So I'll start with the teams that are heating up right now. We have the Rays, like I just mentioned. They have swept the Blue Jays um this past week. They swept the Giants um the week before, which was the April 27th or May 3rd. They swept the Giants, they just won their series, um, which was supposed to be a four-game series, against the Red Sox. They won two out of the three. One of their games ended up having to be postponed. I was gonna say one of the weekly vibes is that a lot of the games ended up getting postponed. Bad weather was a part of the week. Um, a lot of series had to be kind of cut short. Um, there wasn't really any series that did a lot of double headers this week, so there are a lot of postponed games. And the Rays versus Red Sox series was one of those. But the Rays have a 26 wins to 13 losses, so they are above 500 at 667, and they've won eight and lost two of their past 10 games. So they are starting to heat up. They were my sneaky team of the week two weeks ago when I did the April 20th through the 27th weekly recap. So I guess I was correct, um, that they are starting to really make a name for themselves. They are now the head of the division, they are in the American League East, which is also the division that the Yankees are in, the Red Sox, the Blue Jays, and the Baltimore Orioles. So right now the Rays are at the top of the division. When I made the division um leads of the month during my previous recap, I mentioned that the Yankees are at the top. Um, so now the Rays are at the top and they've removed the Yankees as number one for right now. The other team I think is heating up is the Red Sox. So they are still below 500, but they've won five and lost five of their last 10 games. They are currently 17 wins to 23 losses, so they're below 500 at 425. So it kind of seems like they're not doing great, but like I just mentioned, they did just sweep their first series of the season. So we're gonna see if this ends up being kind of a turning point for them, and we'll see if they'll start winning more games. The Phillies are also a team that's definitely heating up. They have won seven and lost three of their past 10 games. They're currently on a two-game winning streak, but like I mentioned, um, in that week of April 27th through May 3rd, they did sweep the Giants, and so they were kind of struggling, you know, at the beginning of this season, but it seems like they might be starting to get the hang of it, and their players are really starting to warm up. And for the teams that are cooling down, this week I only have one, and it's the Astros. So they have lost four out of their last five series. Um, so they haven't really been winning series like we would expect them to. They have won five and lost five of their last ten. They are very, very below 500 at 390, which is 16 wins and 25 losses for them. So they haven't really been doing great. They are starting to cool down a little bit. You know, your Don Alvarez was the home run leader for several weeks in a row. He has 13 home runs, so he was really um one of the driving forces for the Astros to win games at all. But he is kind of starting to cool down. So we're gonna have to see how things go for the Astros in the coming weeks. But speaking of home run leaders, so right now Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber, so Aaron Judge from the New York Yankees and Kyle Schwarber from the Philadelphia Phillies, they are both tied at 16 home runs for this season. Murakami from the White Sox, he is at 15 home runs, and Matt Olson is at 14, and he just hit his 14th home run this past weekend. Oh, but also Aaron Judge hit his 16th home run this past weekend as well, and it was a first inning home run, which is his seventh first inning home run of this season. And this is a crazy statistic. He has had 92 first inning home runs in his career, and he's already at seven for this season, so that's just something that he likes to do, you know. I feel like it was the first pitch, I think they said it was the first pitch of the first inning, and he hits a home run. I mean, the Yankees still ended up losing the game, but that's still incredibly impressive. I mean, Aaron Judge is just you can't. I I love Aaron Judge. I love Yankees players, don't love Yankees as a team. And Kyle Schwarber, like I mentioned, he's at 16. He hit his 15th and 16th home run in one game versus the Rockies this past weekend. So he had two home runs in one game. Kyle Schwarber does that quite often. I don't have the statistic in front of me, but he loves a good multi-homer um game. I know he has multiple home run, multiple home run games that are like three or four. Insane. Kyle Schwarber also won the home run derby last year at the all-star break, or I guess during the all-star break. I should definitely do an episode about the all-star break because it's such a fun little time that they have. It's like that's kind of well, I'll explain more of it later. It's kind of a something that needs to have some more details to it. But the home run derby is kind of what it sounds like. There's like a handful of players that I can't do they sign up. They're either sign up or they're selected to do the home run derby, and it's like they're competing to see who gets the most home runs. Just some other interesting things that happened over the week. Like I mentioned, the Cubs had a 10-game win streak that was just broken over the weekend, but they have a 15-game win streak at home, which is super cool for them. Oh, I forgot to mention when the Cubs when the Cubs swept the Reds, they actually swept with three walk-off wins, which is kind of really cool. Some not so great news from this week is that Tarek Skoobel of the Detroit Tigers has been sidelined for a few months due to a surgery that he has to have on his arm, so he is a starting pitcher. He was a forerunner for the Cy Young Award, which is an award that's given to the one of the like the better pitchers of the season. So now other pitchers are gonna have an opportunity to be in contention for that award that's given at the end of the year. But we are obviously hoping for a very speedy recovery for Tarek. So just to go through the series winners from the past week. So for the weekday series, the Orioles won their series against the Marlins, the Mariners won theirs against the Braves, the Dodgers won theirs against the Astros, the Brewers swept their series versus the Cardinals, the Padres won their series against the Giants, the Angels won their series against the White Sox, and speaking of the Angels, their pitcher Jose Soriano just won the American League pitcher of the month, so congratulations to him. Oh, and today Joe Adele hit two home runs on Mother's Day, which was just a really special thing for him, and then the Phillies won their series against the Athletics, the Nationals won theirs against the Twins, the Yankees won against the Rangers, the Nationals won their series against the Twins, the Yankees won theirs versus the Rangers, the Pirates won theirs versus the D-Backs, and the Royals won theirs against the Guardians. And then over this past weekend, the Cardinals split their four-game series versus the Padres. The Rays won their series against the Red Sox. Again, that was supposed to be a four-game series, but ended up just being three. The Athletics won a series versus the Orioles, sad face. And the White Sox won their series against the Mariners, also sad face. The Braves won against the Dodgers. I'm also a Dodgers fan. Again, sad. Um, the Reds won their series against the Astros. The Phillies won theirs against the Rockies. Blue Jays won theirs versus the Angels. The Marlins won their series versus the Nationals. The Twins won theirs versus the Guardians. The Tigers versus Royals game is still ongoing. I will give you a live score check. I guess semi-live. The score right now in the bottom of the seventh inning is Tiger 6, Royals 3. So it seems like the Tigers could win that game. And the Royals will still win that series. The Rangers uh won their series versus the Cubs, the D-Backs won theirs versus the Mets, and the Giants won theirs versus the Pirates. And then just for my kind of softer take from this week, I did mention the Reds uh the Reds snapped their eight-game losing streak. So it just kind of goes to show that even some of the best teams, which we know the Reds are in the National League Central, the division to beat, you know, they lost eight games, but they're still above 500. But I'm still sure that going through an eight-game win losing streak is incredibly difficult. Um, but when you know that you're good, I'm sure it's even harder to keep losing. But they were finally able to get a win, and I'm sure that you know reignited their spirits, but it also just goes to show that no matter how many games you lose or how many times you fail, you can still get up and show up the next day and possibly get the win. Another thing that I wanted to mention is Alec Bohm, who is starting to heat up after having a 159 start. So 0.159 was his batting average. So we had a 159 start to this season, so extremely low, the average, a good, well, the average, good batting average, I would say is probably between 0.22 to like 0.25, being like super good. Um, but I feel like most players are around 0.22-ish. So 0.159 is not not great. But now, over this past weekend, he had two home runs versus the Rockies in that series. Um, and the Phillies did end up winning that series, as I just mentioned. So he is a part of the Phillies starting to heat back up. And he was talking about how he was trying a bunch of different techniques to start getting back into the swing of things, pun intended. And so sometimes you really have to go back, look, look within, experiment, diff experiment with different things to see what works best for you. And in the end, it'll work out. Oh, and like I mentioned, the Rangers won their series versus the Cubs in one of those games. Jacob deGrom, who was like a very well-known all-star kind of pitcher, he threw seven shutout innings, so no one scored in seven innings, and he had 10 strikeouts. In that game, I'm pretty sure they blanked the Cubs, which just means the Cubs got zero. They didn't score at all. Yes, the score was 6-0 for the game that Jacob DeGrom won. And so finally, I'd like to talk about some of the games I'm excited for for next week. So for the weekday games, we have the Rays versus the Blue Jays and the Giants versus the Dodgers. So those are the two games that I'm really looking forward to during the week. So for the Rays versus Blue Jays, that's gonna be a rematch because the Rays just swept the Blue Jays this past week, and the that was the Rays at home, so now it's gonna be the Blue Jays at home. The Blue Jays are below 500. They've won four and lost six out of their last 10 games, and overall they've won 18 games and lost 22, so they're not doing they're not doing terribly. So it'll be a good game to watch, and it'll be an interdivision game. Like I mentioned, we know that the Rays and the Blue Jays are both in the American League East, so they're in the same division, and then the Giants versus Dodgers. I just really love their rivalry. There's like a lot of tension during those kinds of games, so I'm super excited for that. And then over the weekend, the Phillies are playing the Pirates and the Yankees are playing the Mets. Those are the two games that I'm super excited for. So the Phillies versus Pirates, that is an interleague game, so they're both in the National League, and the Yankees versus Mets. I'm excited for that just because it's like a New York game, and then like the Phillies versus Pirates is a like a Pennsylvania game or whatever. And we know that the Yankees versus Mets games are called the Subway series. I guess maybe because you can take a subway between the two games or between the two teams. I actually have no idea, but I just know this is what it's called. And so then I looked it up to see if there was a little name for Phillies versus Pirates games, and there really isn't, but the closest thing I could find was called the Keystone series, which doesn't sound nearly as cool. Um, but we know that Pennsylvania's nickname is the Keystone State. So I guess that's why they said that. But anyway, I'm interested to see how those two games play out. Oh, and next week during the week, well, I guess this upcoming week, um the Yankees are gonna be playing the Orioles. They're gonna have a rematch. Oh my goodness, and I'm nervous, so keep your uh keep me in your thoughts. Okay, babes. Thanks so much for hanging out with me again today. Thanks for tuning in. I hope that this was interesting and I hope that you share it with someone else who is interested in hearing about the things that have been going on through this past week and baseball. So, yeah, thanks for tuning in and I hope that you're able to tune in again. Oh, I did want to mention that I travel a lot for work. So there is gonna be some times where I'm not gonna be able to do a weekly recap, and I'll have like these other kind of episodes that are more conversational versus the weekly recaps. So tomorrow I leave for Paris. So I have to go to Paris for work and I will be gone for about a month. So I will still be doing some content and uploading podcasts. I kind of have been batching some episodes. I'll try to at least do one or two weekly recaps in that time period, but I will be in a different time zone. So I'll probably make an episode about watching baseball in a different time zone, or just like my life in Paris trying to watch baseball. Well, I'll be in Paris for half of it, and then I'll be in the south of France for a little while, and then I have to go to the Netherlands. Yeah, I have to travel, I travel a lot for work, especially during the summer, but baseball keeps me grounded. Um, I have an episode coming up about that, so I do have things still coming. So yeah, I hope you're excited to stay tuned with me and keep up with me as I navigate, trying to have a podcast. I'm starting a substack. Um, I have my baseball score log that I have posted on Amazon. So I'm trying to do a couple of different things. So I hope that you are gonna be along for the ride. And I'll see y'all next week. Bye.