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.

What’s the easiest way to catch a knuckleball? As the great Bob Uecker quipped, just wait for it to stop rolling and pick it up.

For Tigers pitching prospect Kenny Serwa, it’s always a good sign when his catcher can’t get a handle on his knuckler, as our Jason Beck chronicled in his most recent Tigers Beat newsletter.

You may not know Serwa’s name, but he is a rare player. He played college ball at four different universities and spent two seasons in independent ball before getting his first taste of affiliated baseball this season … at 27 years old. Furthermore, he might be responsible for bringing the knuckleball back to the Majors, and it's a knuckleball like we’ve never seen before.

The Tigers gave Serwa a shot after his 88 mph knuckler made him a viral sensation this past winter. And just last week, Serwa got one step closer to the Majors when he was promoted to Double-A Erie. He pitched six innings and picked up the win in his debut.

You could say Serwa’s unique pitch is one of a kind, but he actually has two different knuckleballs: There’s the one with high velocity and the one that’s about 5-10 mph slower that Serwa calls “Yoshi,” named after the animated green dinosaur that throws knuckleballs in the Mario Super Sluggers video game.

Serwa’s fast knuckleball seems like something out of a video game, because no pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) has thrown a knuckler faster than 85 mph, much less 88. The Padres’ Matt Waldron is the only hurler to touch 84 mph in an MLB game with his no-spin special.

Thirteen years ago, a knuckleballer was the best pitcher in the National League. But since R.A. Dickey’s magical season with the 2012 Mets, only four other knuckleballers have thrown their floaters in the big leagues: Steven Wright, Eddie Gamboa, Mickey Jannis and Waldron, who has spent all of this year in the Minors after suffering a left oblique strain in Spring Training.

There are other hopefuls in the Minors; Cory Lewis is the Twins’ No. 11 prospect and throws his knuckler about 20% of the time. But he also has an ERA above 9.00 at Triple-A this year. Bennett Flynn (Blue Jays) and Devin Kirby (Twins) use the knuckleballs as their primary pitch, but they have allowed 34 earned runs across 42 1/3 combined innings at Single-A.

And again, none of them is reaching 88 mph like Serwa. 

“I have been thinking my entire life that the game needs another knuckleballer,” he said. “I’ve always felt like I am the next knuckleballer and just waiting for the opportunity to show that I am.”

-- Brian Murphy

• Dodgers @ Padres (4:10 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): This 2024 NLDS rematch will need a rubber game to decide the difference between the NL West rivals, who are only one game apart in the standings. After a hotly contested 8-7 Dodgers win in 10 innings in the opener, the Padres roared back behind an electric Dylan Cease to even the set with a rout in front of their home crowd.
  
  

• Tigers @ Orioles (6:35 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): The Tigers, who sat atop our Power Rankings for the second consecutive week, continue to lead the pack with an MLB-best 44-24 record -- their first time being 20 games over .500 since 2013, when they pushed the eventual World Series champion Red Sox to a six-game ALCS. Casey Mize (6-1) will look to keep the good vibes rolling, with Detroit facing Orioles ace Zach Eflin (5-2), who is coming off a pair of quality starts.
  
  

• Yankees @ Royals (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV and MLB Network): AL Cy Young hopeful Max Fried, who could make history in more than one way this season, pitched a gem for the Yankees to win Tuesday’s opener, but another contender for that crown will take the mound for the Royals tonight. Reigning AL Pitcher of the Month Kris Bubic, who recorded a remarkable 0.56 ERA in May, will look to shut down the Yanks’ high-powered offense, which leads MLB in home runs (107) and the AL in runs scored (359). 

Is it the dog days of summer already?

Apparently so at Nationals Park, which will feature the big league debut of a new top pawspect on Saturday (for tickets, click here). Bruce the bat dog got the call from Triple-A Rochester, and he’ll em-bark on his big league career after posting a 1.000 retrieving average in three appearances for the Red Wings this season. No word yet on the canine’s K/9.

Bruce starred alongside Rochester manager Matt LeCroy in an Oscar-worthy spin on the spontaneous big league callup videos, which have become popular around baseball for giving a candid inside look at the heartwarming moment a young player finds out his dream is about to come true.

The patient pup gave his new skipper a wag of the head when he heard the good news, which LeCroy seemed thrilled to deliver. After all, his former manager said, Bruce has been working his tail off to get here.

-- Scott Chiusano

A panel of MLB.com experts was asked again recently to pick their current favorites to win the Cy Young Award in each league, and the results of the poll should really come as no surprise when considering that Tigers ace Tarik Skubal -- the defending AL winner -- and Pirates phenom Paul Skenes -- the reigning NL Rookie of the Year and a Cy Young finalist last season -- have actually improved upon what they did in 2024.

Skubal, who will next take the mound Thursday night against the Orioles having allowed just one run in his past 23 2/3 innings, has lowered his ERA from 2.39 a year ago to 2.16 this season while also improving on his K/9 (10.7 to 11.3) and FIP (2.49 to 1.85). He garnered 37 of the 40 first-place votes.

Skenes, who earned 32 first-place votes in our polling, has dropped his already miniscule ERA from 1.96 a year ago to 1.88 this season. He leads the Major Leagues with 91 innings pitched and he’s pacing the NL with a 0.84 WHIP. The only thing Skenes hasn’t done much of this season is win, but that’s mostly because he hasn’t gotten much offensive support. 

 -- Ed Eagle

In Japan, manhole covers have become more than just street utilities; they are works of art, highlighting local landmarks, popular icons and cultural symbols. Major League Baseball, in an effort to celebrate the growing success of Japanese stars across the league, recently announced that 12 active Japanese players will soon be featured on custom manholes in their hometowns.

The project will launch Monday with Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani in Oshu, Angels pitcher Yusei Kikuchi in Morioka and Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki in Rikuzentakata. The other players set to be showcased this month are Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga (Cubs), Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui (Padres), Kodai Senga (Mets), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers), Lars Nootbaar (Cardinals), Masataka Yoshida (Red Sox) and Tomoyuki Sugano (Orioles).

Each of the manholes was designed by a different artist and crafted to tell the unique stories of the player’s path to MLB. For Ohtani, that means his two-way ability, which has been missed since August 2023 due to his second Tommy John surgery. But he is expected to be back on a Major League mound by the season’s second half, or perhaps even before the All-Star break.

For our Japanese-speaking audience, that information and much more can be found at our new Japanese-language site.

-- Betelhem Ashame

Can you guess today’s mystery player using clues like age, league, division, position and place of birth? You’ll have nine tries to get it right. Good luck! Play here >>

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