Bases Covered is a daily roundup of the most interesting stories in baseball.
The man wants his beard back
Andrew Cashner got his first win with the Marlins on Wednesday as his team blanked the Phillies, 6–0. The right-hander, who was traded from San Diego to Miami this summer, has had poor results with his new team.
Cashner will be a free agent at season’s end, and it’s apparently unlikely that he’ll return to Miami. For one thing, despite those recent poor results, he will command a lot of money. But there’s also the beard issue: he apparently hates the team’s no-beard policy—the 29-year-old was forced to shave his famous facial hair this summer because of the trade—and told reporters “that is a big deal to me in free agency.”
Bad bullpen
The Giants’ bullpen had something of a meltdown on Wednesday versus the Rockies.
San Francisco held a 5–3 lead entering the ninth inning, which was squandered. In all, manager Bruce Bochy employed eight relievers in the game, and Colorado came away with a 6–5 win.
Since the All-Star break, the team has a 17-32 record—the worst in MLB.
Here and then gone
Stephen Strasburg returned from the disabled list on Wednesday to make the start versus Atlanta. But his return was brief: The 28-year-old righty felt a pinch in his right elbow and exited the game in the third inning.
The Nats beat the Braves in 11 innings. On Thursday, Strasburg will undergo an MRI. So what happens with the team’s rotation now?
The kid is fast
While Atlanta lost on Wednesday, there was some excitement for fans to behold: Dansby Swanson hit his first home run with the Braves. It also happened to be the 22-year-old shortstop’s first inside-the-park home run, and strangely enough, his first homer in double-A had been inside-the-park, too.
Per Statcast, it took Swanson 14.97 seconds to get home, making it the fastest inside-the-park home run in the majors this season.
Hot at the right moment
On Wednesday, the Yankees earned a three-game sweep over the Blue Jays. The Mets, meanwhile, have now won five in a row after a 6–3 victory over the Reds in Cincinnati.
As Tyler Kepner of the New York Times writes, things are suddenly getting interesting in New York: “The story lines are compelling. The Mets were battered and broken, over and over, by serious injuries to significant players. The Yankees were presumed dead by their own hand after trading several stars.”