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.

NASA generally defines the entrance into space at about 50 miles above sea level. We don’t have the exact calculations of the apex of the epic bat flip you’re about to see, but it doesn’t seem like much of an exaggeration to say it was sent into orbit. 

Red Sox Minor Leaguer Andy Lugo has set the bar extremely high for all other flips to come. After hitting a walk-off knock for the High-A Greenville Drive on Saturday night, the 21-year-old prospect sent his lumber lurching so far into the night sky that it disappeared out of the camera’s wide-lens view. See it for all its true wonder and glory in the GIF below:

The raw display of emotion was the culmination of a comeback from seven runs down for Lugo’s squad, and it kicked off a party that started as soon as he touched first base. Lugo was doused in Gatorade and mobbed by his teammates, who tore off his jersey -- another item that was promptly launched into the atmosphere. He then strutted toward the cameras and the crowd, which incredibly included a pair of Hall of Fame managers in Tony La Russa and Jim Leyland.

You should never really need an excuse to revisit the best bat flips in MLB history. This comprehensive list is one you ought to just bookmark and flip (sorry) through whenever you need a lift. While we’ve limited the list to only big leaguers, it’s a fun exercise to consider where Lugo – and his bat – might land on it. 

There are obviously flips that had far more gravitas, like José Bautista’s in the 2015 ALDS (can you believe that was a decade ago?), or innovative ones like Rhys Hoskins’ touchdown spike for the Phils in 2022. Then there are the ones that simply shock you, like Tom Lawless, who had one career big league homer to his name when he went deep in the 1987 World Series and carried the bat halfway up the line as though he wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to be doing, before casually disposing of it. 

When it comes to pure artistry, though, pure joy and, frankly, pure height, it’s unlikely anyone will ever measure up to Andy Lugo. 

-- Scott Chiusano

Until yesterday, nobody in the Yankees’ dugout had really tested the boundaries of the team’s new relaxed facial hair policy. OK fine, this guy is not actually on the team, but the visiting bat boy in Cleveland is something of a viral sensation, having made headlines two years ago when broadcaster Michael Kay playfully ribbed him for defying the Yankees’ guidelines with his long blond locks. Nate the Bat Boy was back for the opener of the Guardians’ series, now sporting a “Tom Hanks in Cast Away”-level beard. Even Nate’s dad, Guardians radio broadcaster Jim Rosenhaus, had to admit “the beard might be pushing it.”

• Padres @ Tigers (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): The Tigers started off this measuring-stick series against the Padres on the right foot yesterday, but San Diego now gives the ball to Nick Pivetta, who has been a surprise ace with a 1.57 ERA and 24/5 K/BB ratio through four starts.

• Dodgers @ Cubs (7:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV): The last time Shota Imanaga saw L.A.’s vaunted lineup was at Tokyo Dome, where he kept them scoreless over four innings. Shohei Ohtani is in his first few days of parenthood, so we’ll see if he flashes any dad strength while probably running on very little sleep. 

• Rangers @ Athletics (10:05 p.m. ET, MLB.TV and MLB Network): The A’s are calling up their No. 1 prospect, Nick Kurtz, who was the No. 4 pick in the Draft just last year. The heavy-hitting first baseman could make his debut today after just 32 games in the Minors, and he’s joining a squad with a bunch of fun young mashers. The man tasked with keeping them in the ballpark tonight is Patrick Corbin, who did his best Peter Parker impersonation last week by pitching with a venomous bug bite on his foot.

We’ve lost far too many Mike Trout moments to injury over the past few years. But the Angels superstar is back, he’s healthy and he’s launching baseballs into orbit once again. Trout provided yet another reminder of what we’ve been missing on Saturday, hitting a ball so far that it momentarily made us stop and wonder if we’d just been sent back to 2019.

And like any good (ahem) fish tale, the majestic blast has only gotten bigger with time. Except, in this case, we know there’s no exaggerating. (If you have any doubts, just watch it.) After review, the distance has been corrected to 484 feet, making it the longest dinger of the season and the longest dinger anyone has hit in nearly two years. Then-teammate Shohei Ohtani launched a 493-foot home run on June 30, 2023.

For Trout, it was the third-longest homer he has hit in the Statcast era (since 2015). He had a 490-footer in 2022 and a 486-footer in 2019 -- both at the Coliseum in Oakland, and both to nearly the exact same spot above the batter’s eye in center field. He now has eight homers of at least 470 feet under Statcast tracking. The only player with more? Giancarlo Stanton with 10.

-- Thomas Harrigan

Pick one of the day’s games, open up your board and see if you can get bingo with these baseball occurrences. It's our favorite way to play this classic. Play free >>

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