Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Thanks for being here.

Make no mistake, summer belongs to baseball, but this summer, a challenger has emerged.

Like Taylor Swift’s appearance (and new album announcement) on her now-fiancé Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast with his brother, Jason, it’s been nearly impossible to miss the phenomenon that is Prime Video’s hit series “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”

Last month’s premiere of the third and final season of the show based on Jenny Han’s bestselling YA book trilogy attracted 25 million viewers worldwide in its first week of release, according to the Amazon-owned streamer, and it has consistently ranked as the platform’s No. 1 title as the weekly installments have hit the airwaves. (If you’re one of those avid watchers, don’t worry, there are no spoilers in this newsletter for the episode that dropped this morning at 3 a.m. ET.)

Even MLB teams are getting in on the “Team Conrad” vs. “Team Jeremiah” excitement. With the Red Sox and Yankees squaring off in New York over the weekend, two of the show’s stars who are on opposite sides of the rivalry -- Christopher Briney (Conrad Fisher) and Sean Kaufman (Steven Conklin) -- took in Saturday’s game (a 12-1 Boston win) and also took part in a baseball-themed Q&A.

While wearing a Nomar Garciaparra No. 5 jersey, Briney said he became a Sox fan when he was 5 simply because his favorite color was red and he saw Garciaparra on TV, calling it “the beginning of the end.” Kaufman, sporting a No. 99 jersey for his favorite player, Aaron Judge, joked that he “came out of my mother’s womb” a Yankees fan.

A Connecticut native who named Fenway Franks as the best ballpark food, Briney met and took a picture with his favorite player, Jarren Duran -- last year’s Midsummer Classic MVP -- which the Red Sox appropriately captioned “Team Conrad” as a nod to their pick in the show’s vaunted love triangle.

New York native Kaufman, who attended the city’s famed LaGuardia High School alongside series star Lola Tung (Belly Conklin), had the chance to pose with Yankees rising star Cam Schlittler and donned a Yanks cap with #TeamSteven on the side (for the uninitiated, Steven is Belly’s brother and not one of the two Fisher brothers on either side of the love triangle).

While my esteemed colleague Marina Hada -- who is responsible for designing one or two of our back pages referencing the show -- and I considered recreating this photo of the duo squaring up, we decided against it, mostly because neither of us wanted to fall on the sword of Team Jeremiah.

If you aren’t on the show’s bandwagon yet, start your binge now. The series finale will air on Sept. 17 -- plenty of time before the playoffs begin.

-- Betelhem Ashame

• Phillies @ Mets (7:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): New York entered the week seven games behind Philly in the NL East with seven games between the rivals to go, giving the Mets little margin for error if they're serious about making a run at the division title. So far, so good for the Amazin's, who turn to rookie righty Nolan McLean tonight to help finish a sweep and make it 10 straight wins at Citi Field against the Phillies (including last postseason).

• Reds @ Dodgers (8:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): Shohei Ohtani starts on the mound tonight on Shohei Ohtani 50/50 Bobblehead Night at Dodger Stadium, celebrating his historic achievement from last season. With a sure-to-be massive crowd on hand and Ohtani seemingly well on his way to a third straight MVP Award, it'll be tough sledding for the Reds to avoid a three-game sweep at Chavez Ravine.

• Tigers @ A's (10:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): The Athletics are 21-15 since the All-Star break, behind only the Blue Jays for the best record in the AL in the second half, and they overcame Riley Greene's monstrous grand slam to win a 10-inning barnburner last night, giving them a chance for an impressive sweep of the first-place Tigers.

Preseason predictions are always tricky. One of the things we love about baseball is how unpredictable it is, even over a 162-game season.

But if there has been one safe bet year after year, it’s that Aaron Judge would hit the ball consistently harder than anyone else in the big leagues. Since setting a then-record for rookies with 52 homers in 2017, the hulking Yankees slugger has led the Majors in hard-hit rate (balls hit at least 95 mph) in every full season he’s played.

This year, despite Judge once again being very much in the mix for another MVP Award and home run title, there’s a new king of the hard-hitting mountain: Kyle Schwarber. The Phillies star is not only on pace for career highs in most important offensive categories, he’s also hitting the cover off the ball nearly every time he makes contact. His 60.4% hard-hit rate leads the Majors by 1.9 points over Shohei Ohtani. Judge, for his part, is still elite at 56.4%, currently ranking fifth in the big leagues.

As noted in Mike Petriello’s excellent deep dive on the topic, Schwarber had a hard-hit rate of 49% two years ago and 56% last year, as he totaled 85 homers and 208 RBIs. His hard-hit increase has correlated to 45 long balls and 110 driven in already this year, with a .934 OPS that’s more than 100 points higher than his combined mark for his first three seasons in Philly.

Not a bad way to head into free agency.

-- Ed Eagle

Get ready for prime time, Jonah Reid Tin Chee Matthew Tong (for real, that's his full name). And with a name that long, you can also just call him The Canadian Cannon. Or the next Tim Lincecum, whom he's often compared to because of his wiry frame and springy delivery.

There has not been a more electrifying pitcher in the Minors this season than Tong, the Mets’ No. 4 prospect and No. 44 overall per MLB Pipeline, whom the club is promoting to make his MLB debut against the Marlins on Friday. And it hasn’t even really been close. 

Not only does Tong lead MiLB with 179 strikeouts, he’s 32 strikeouts ahead of anyone else. The 22-year-old also paces MiLB qualifiers with a 1.43 ERA -- two-tenths of a run ahead of anyone else. 

The Mets drafted Tong in the seventh round in 2022 out of the Toronto prep ranks, and as recently as the start of last year, he did not rank among the club’s Top 30 Prospects. But after he got off to a hot start at High-A, people began to take notice and he's been rocketing up prospect lists around the industry ever since.

Now, he’s arriving in New York in the midst of a pennant race for what will be a primetime debut.

-- Joe Trezza

Justin Verlander passed Walter Johnson (3,515 K's) for ninth place on the all-time strikeout list last night. That's heady company, but there could be even more history ahead for the 42-year-old.

Verlander, sitting at 3,520 strikeouts, should move into eighth place on that list sometime in September, with only 14 punchouts standing between him and Gaylord Perry (3,534). Could he reach Don Sutton (3,574) for seventh this season? With at most six starts left, Verlander would need to dial back the clock a bit to net the necessary 50 K's, but it's not impossible.

If Verlander returns for his 21st MLB season next year, passing Sutton would be a sure thing, and catching Tom Seaver (3,640) at six would seem likely. That could be where he tops out, with Bert Blyleven (3,701) looking out of reach at fifth, and everyone beyond him having a strikeout total that starts with a 4.

Don't etch anything in stone, though: Max Scherzer (3,468, 11th) could throw a wrench into all of these rankings if he comes back for season No. 19 in 2026.

Can’t get enough K’s? Put your knowledge to the test with these quizzes:

• Pick the members of the 3,000-strikeout club

• Who got to 3,000 K’s AND won a Cy Young?

• Did this pitcher reach 3,000 strikeouts, yes or no?

-- Andy Werle

The Royals' upcoming series against the Tigers is already kind of a big deal, with Detroit looking to all but put an end to the division race and K.C. chasing a Wild Card spot. 

But the giveaways for each of the three games between the division rivals make for an epic weekend for fans. Friday is the final installment of the club's Collector Card Series Bobbleheads, and this one's a doozy, with Bobby Witt Jr. breaking through the third wall to make a grab. Saturday's Hawaiian Shirt giveaway is sure to dial up anyone's drip, and Sunday offers up an unreal item: a Pasquatch Handmade by Robots Vinyl Figure complete with crown.

So if you're in the Kansas City area during the clash, you'll be in prime position to take home some supreme swag.

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