Looks Like... Homers

A quick peek at the AL West and we are reminded of how long the season is. Texas' sprint out of the gate has turned into a slow trot and a 1 1/2 game deficit to the steady eddie LA Angels. The White Sox were the Rangers' best friend in last night's tilt when they snuck past the Angels after falling behind by 3 runs.

Adam Dunn put the big bop on the ball and racked up 4 hits including a Home Run to fuel the Sox rally.

Nearly the same story exists over in the NL West where those Falling Rockies were caught on Wednesday behind the 5th straight W of the San Francisco Giants.

Ironically, the Giants also rallied from a 3 run deficit to sneak past the D'Backs. Andres Torres provided the spark with a couple of timely knocks including a go ahead RBI double to bring SF even in the standings with Colorado.

Speaking of go ahead doubles that won games.. Hunter Pence.. c'mon.. this guy is en fuego in Houston. Not only did he extend the longest active hitting streak in the NL (15) with an early hit, he one-upped it with a clutch Walk Off double into the right field corner that scored his not so fleet footed catcher from first base without a throw.

Pence has raised his average to .307 during the streak and now sits 2nd in the Majors with 31 RBIs, one behind Lance Berkman and Ryan Howard. Nice.

Check out Adam Jones over in Baltimore. This guy is a spark plug and fun to watch. The O's are hanging in there in the East and won a tight one yesterday behind Adam's antics. His 4 for 4 day included his first triple of the season and led the O's to a 6-4 win over Seattle. Jones is hitting a solid .286 on the year.

Remember my post about the kid KC was bringing up for his MLB debut, Eric Hosmer? Well, after getting his toes in the water with a couple of games. . the kid was in THE spotlight last night when KC visited Yankee Stadium. Ok, not only was every friend and family member present to watch the "event".. the kid was penciled in as the no. 3 hitter in the lineup! Are you serious?

So, what does he do... ? Not much, just belted out the first HR of his career (and what a swing), scored what looked like the game winner in the 10th (until NY tied it), then.. just for giggles.. he won the YH with a sac fly in the 11th that scored the winning run from 3rd. Nice job of hitting Eric!

Nomar No Mas!

Hold on there Buckaroo! Take a look at the NL Central standings and you may be just a tad surprised at where the Bucs are sitting. Yep, you read that right... Pittsburgh is over .500 this late in May! Last time that happened was nearly 7 years ago. Now, we won't go into the "how" in this particular instance because that's a mighty touchy subject to the Dodgers and.. the Umpires.. and, probably MLB at this time. But, suffice it to say the Bucs won a close game in the late innings with a nifty little hit and run that scored the winning run from first base. That's baseball. Well done Bucs!

Slide on over to the AL Central and you may be just as surprised to see where the ChiSox are sitting... uh, ya... nearly in the cellar and 8 games under .500 for the year. Yikes. But, hey.. it's early ; )

Part of the reason is the offense only has one player hitting over .300 on the year. Yesterday it was Carlos Quentin trying to up his average a few points by stroking out 3 hits, including a HR and 5 RBIs to lead the Sox over the Angels in a shutout. Another few games like that and Carlos might be able to sneak back to .300 on the year. He does have 23 RBIs to rank near the top of the league.

Detroit is sitting directly on that .500 mark at 18-18 thanks to V-Mart, Victor Martinez who is doing his best to fit in with the Tigers. Victor had a big 3 hit day to up his average to .293 on the season. He posted an HR and 3 RBI outing to help Detroit's run away win over the Blue Jays. The Tigers are 3 games back in the Central and trail both KC and those 22-11 Indians.

All in all though, not alot of fireworks in Monday's league action. So, let's look back to 1934 and see if something special happened at the plate. Hmm.. yup, You might recognize the name Lou Gehrig.

Well, he had himself quite a day 77 years ago. Lou was ailing and tired after 5 innings and took himself out of the game. But, by that time.. he had already smoked 2 Home Runs and rapped out two doubles that gave him 7 RBIs as the Yankees pasted the White Sox. Yea, I'd be tired too. Way to go Lou but.. ya ain't getting the YH.

Because... a dozen years ago a fella named Nomar Garciaparra had himself one heck of a day. Nomar racked up 10 RBIs on the strength of two Grand Slams and a two run HR. Wow! No Mas! No Mas!

Hang Five!

Kind of a quirky thing happened yesterday in the American League games when every single tilt featured at least one of the teams scoring 5 runs. Some of those were winners and some of those were losers. But.. each and every game had a team scoring 5. Kinda funky huh. Imagine if that would have happened on Cinco de Mayo ; )

Kudos to Andre Ethier who somehow shook off his disappointment of losing the hit streak on Saturday by blasting a Home Run in the LA Dodgers win over the Mets. His two hits helped him maintain an incredibly lofty .371 batting average, good for third in the League. I know Andre deflects any personal accomplishments in favor of a team win, but at some point ya gotta acccept your props.

Ok, back to the number 5. How about the Pirates getting some late fireworks to knock off Houston 5-4. Trailing 4-2 in the bottom half of the 8th inning it was up to Ryan Doumit with a couple of ducks on the pond. A hit would have gotten them a touch closer but Ryan went one better and simply pounded the ball over the wall for a 3 run bomb. All Houston could do was look up at that darn 5 on the board.

Oh Captain, My Captain! Anybody ever see the Robin Williams movie Dead Poets' Society when the students stand on their desks in honor of "the Captain"? Well, the Yankees were standing on the top step of the dugout in Arlington and they may as well have been chanting "Oh Captain, My Captain" to Derek Jeter. All he did is smoke the ball his first four times at the plate to erase a 4-0 Texas lead. The Clipper Captain homered twice and drove in 3 as the Yankees bombed Texas with '5' Home Runs! Thats weird huh?

Gabby Sanchez had a terrific game yesterday as the Marlins put a rompin on tthe Nats 8-0. The Fish are just two games behind the Phightins in the NL East and part of the reason is guys like Sanchez picking up the massive slack in the line left by their multi billion dollar flop - Hanley Ramirez. Gabby powered out a huge Home Run and knocked in 3 Ribs with his 4 for 4 day at the dish. Just for the heck of it, he scored 3 times as well. Nice Gabby.. but, ya gotta have some kinda 5 to take down the YH on a Big 5 kinda day like Mother's Day. Gimme 5 dude!

So, let's hand it to the White Sox hitter that sparked a rally in the 10th inning of a 2-2 tie. Yup, Paul Konerko notched his '5th' hit of the day and started a 3 run rally that ultimately hung up the last 5 of the day in the quirky Mother's Day AL tilts. I know, his 5 hits didn't really accomplish much all day when it comes to production.. except that last hit did carry with it the eventual winning run. I only wish Paul was wearing number 5 on his back ; )

and then there were none..

Look at those San Francisco Bay teams playin walk off games like they're the norm. San Fran's 2nd Walk Off winner in as many nights has them sneaking up on the Rockies in the NL West. The Giants' little utility man extraordinaire (Mike Fontenot) lofted a deeep sac fly in the bottom of the 9th to score Aaron Rowand and send the Rocks falling to their third loss in a row. They're hanging on to a two game lead in the West.

Across the Bay... (and a few thousand miles more ; ).. in KC, the A's were in a Walk Off battle of their own, Again! Problem is, they were in Kansas City and falling victim to a resurgent Royals team that is learning how to win games late. In a near copycat of events, the Royals got a runner on 3rd with less than two outs in the bottom of the 9th and waited for someone to be the hero. Mike Aviles stepped up and said "I'll be that guy!" while lofting a sweet little sacrifice fly to score the Walk Off win and give KC another boost of confidence in 2011. The Royals are a real threat in the Central.

Meanwhile in Arlington, the Rangers and the Yankees were going at each other tooth and nail. Texas jumped out to a fast start. Michael Young helped by carding a Home Run in the 1st off NY's new "old thing" Bartolo Colon. Then, they jumped on him again in the 2nd putting up 4 more on the speed of Julio Borbon's two run triple.

But, the Yanks arent' the Yanks for nothin and by the bottom of the 6th it was all back to square in a 5-5 tie. Which is when we get to see something I love a player to show off.. versatility at the plate.

Fresh off his triple earlier in the game, Julio laid down a beautiful bunt to squeeze the air out of New York and give the Rangers that much needed W at home.

I guess you already know Andre Ethier's 30 game hit streak came to a screeching halt last night in New York. The heat of that city's media is just hard to fathom. The very humble Andre had a tough time talking about his accomplishments while his team slid further and further into a hole in the NL West. That didn't really mesh too well for a succesful outcome.

You wonder how Joltin Joe did it back in 1941. Well, lets see.. yes, Joe DiMaggio was a humble guy, but in a very different way. Yes, alot of media in New York even in 1941.. but.. c'mon. Just a slight difference in today's app driven society. Couple that with the fact that nearly every game he faced one.. possibly two pitchers for the entire game.

Oh, and the Yankees were kicking some serious behind at the time. Ya, Joe.. you had the right ingredients thats for certain. We're gonna hand you the YH.

Rhymes with Cant Miss!

C'mon... how can you not smile for Sir Lance (Homers) Alot!? I read that he was a bit nervous going back into Houston after all those years as an Astro. Maybe nervous for the Astro pitching staff since he has more HR's there than any other player in history.

Nervous.. Smervous.. Lance Berk'd 'em with 4 hits, a couple of Dingers, 5 RBIs and raised his batting avg. to a robust .410 to lead the Cards over the Astros. That first HR was a missile shot too.. Watch it Here!

HooRay for Nick Swisher! I love watching this guy, he's fun to watch no matter what is going on. Yesterday he finally got that monkey off his back by belting his very first HR of the year against Chicago. Thats the longest streak of Nick's career to start a season without a bomb. He did alright last night by wrapping out 3 Hits, scoring 3, knocking in 4 and slowly but surely edging his average upward. The Yanks romped on the ChiSox.

Worth mentioning is the little guy in Toronto, Corey Patterson. Ya it's true.. it wasn't much.. just a tiny little bunt. But, that's not the point. It's "when" the bunt came and the fact that the day before he showed he could go yard. This is called "situational hitting" and why a guy like Corey can make his mark in the Show. What did he do? Ya gotta click here to check it out.. it's kinda cool and brought a W to the jays.

What rhymes with "Can't Miss"? ... ah... Ben Zobrist! Are you kidding me? What a day! 8 RBIs in the first game of the doubleheader and 2 more in the Night Cap.. 10 Ribbies for the Utility man. How about this for a day's work: 7 hits, two HRs, three doubles and oh yea, those 10 Ribs. And just for the sake of conversation.. has anybody noticed how the AL East is getting back to normal. It's a funny game, dontcha think?

Squeezin The Splendid Splinter

I wonder how many people realize it's been neary 3/4 of a century since Ted Williams broke into the Big Leagues. Yup. Believe it or not today marks the Anniversary in which one of the most heralded hitters in baseball played in his very first MLB game. Cool huh?

Oh, how did he do... you ask? He smacked the dog snot out of the ball! Ted cracked a 400 foot.... double.. in the cavernous Yankee Stadium. But, the Red Sox went on to lose to the New York Yankees, 2-0. Ted would go on to figure in a heckuva lot more of those Yankee/Red Sox tilts over the next 20+ years.

He'd also go on to belt another 500+ doubles in that time. Funny that a guy with this kind of POP was nick named after a Splinter. Yea, he was lanky.. but he could coil and uncoil with the best of them. Here's something I think is incredible about Ted - He led the AL in Slugging Percentage in '41 and '42 .. went off to war for 3 years, came right back and led the AL again for the next 4 years running. From MLB to the US Marines to MLB and never missed a beat. Crazy.

Ok, enough history... let's look at Yesterday's Hitter.

No, he's not a lanky dude that can belt the ball a hundred miles. Nope, not a war veteran either. He is a scrappy second baseman that never fails to surprise me. John McDonald isn't even the starting 2B for the Blue Jays, but that doesn't keep him from contributing when they need him.

They needed him on Tuesday when the Jays were in a dog fight against those pesky Yanks. McDonald came into the game as a runner for Aaron Hill only to be thrust into the spotlight in the bottom of the 9th inning. The Jays were rallying against the greatest closer of all-time and had runners on the corners and down by a run. What's a scrappy little dude do against Mo Rivera when the game is on the line? Squeeze 'em!

Check it out Here!

Chipper, The Mick and... Freddy ?

Not long ago there was a heckuva lot of speculation on whether Chipper Jones would even play this season. With his longtime Manager and mentor, Bobby Cox, retiring... Chipper on the heal from a host of nagging injuries and all.. most fans were wondering. Well, he's playing and off to a fabulous beginning for the 2011 campaign.

Chipper has already reached a couple of very cool milestones in his career and has provided a steady thump to the middle of the Braves batting order, batting a solid .327 and ranking among the NL Leaders in RBIs with 12. He led Atlanta to a Double Header sweep over NL East rivals NY Mets yesterday. The Brave Nation couldn't be prouder of the future Hall of Famer.

Bet ya didn't know that Today marks the Anniversary of Mickey Mantle's very first game in the Major Leagues. Yep, 'Ol No. 7 notched a hit way back in 1951 and helped the Yankees beat their Boston Red Sox rivals 5-0.

Of course, the Mick went on to do some pretty great things! Funny, Chipper and Mickey, 2 of the Greatest Switch Hitters in History with a couple of cartoon like names : ) There was nothing funny about Mickey's legendary Home Run that also occurred on this date in 1953. He blasted a cartoon like moon shot that cleared the bleachers in old Griffith Stadium that measured... 565 feet!

Ok, back to the present. The YH for today is none other than former NL Batting Champ Freddy Sanchez. Freddy is Mr. Steady for the SF Giants and is slowly pulling his team back toward the top in the NL West. This guy is a real throwback player that knows how to get the ball in play when you need it.

Freddy tied the game in the sixth inning with a double and then sent the Diamondbacks back to their locker room with an "L" when he iced the game in the seventh with a 2 run single. The Giants won 5-3. Nice Job Freddy!

King of Troy

I guess you might say that the passing of the guard is taking place in the position of Shortstop. You can call it a Baton if ya want. Or, more appropriately a BAT ON. ; )

I say this because Troy Tulowitzki, who idolized arguably one of the greatest SS's ever - Derek Jeter, is rising above the pack a little more with each year he logs in the League. Troy wears the #2 on his back in honor of Derek, but clearly.. he is #1 at the position in this particular era of baseball.

He's doing it all. He makes stellar defensive plays at critical moments in the game.. ala Derek.

He's pounding the ball with incredible power in the vein another superstar in the center of the diamond did - Alex Rodriguez.

He's led his team to the Post Season and is on a quest to reach the ultimate .. a World Series Ring. In 2011 he is on a terrific offensive tear in an effort to accomplish just that. Because, without the ring.. you can't be The King.

Yesterday Troy kept the quest in tact when he led the Rockies to a smashing of the hapless New York Mets in a double header sweep that left many people in awe of his talents. Troy homered in both games to lead the charge. He homered in each of the 4 games in the set against the Mets, a feat that fanned the accolades. We may not be able to annoint him just yet as he has many hits to gain before reaching the incredible milestones of his idol. But, you can't deny.. he's on the right path.

What's a Walk Off Worth....

A Crazy day in baseball yesterday with a host of Walk Off's, an extra inning rally and... one for the ages. California teams were in the spotlight with late game heroics by 4 of the 5 Cali teams. In and of itself, that's pretty amazing.

Let's kick it off in San Diego where the "O Dog", stroked a Walk Off single that lifted the Padres over Cincinnati 3-2. Orlando Hudson's scrappy style of play and mindset was just what the Pads needed at the dish in the bottom of the 9th. San Diego had posted a single run in the 7th and 8th innings to tie the game and were desperately trying to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Reds.

Enter Orlando. He ripped a bases loaded, opposite field missile into left field to notch a much needed win for San Diego. I loved his statement when asked about his game winning single - "I just wanted to have a Quality At Bat". Beautiful. You certainly did "O Dog". Watch it Here!

The Oakland A's were just as impressive, if not more so, in their late game heroics vs. the White Sox. Down by 3 in the 9th the A's put together a terrific rally that tied the game and sent it into extra innings for the third game in a row. Having every game in a 3 game series go "extra" had not happened to the A's in over 23 years! Incredible stuff.

More Mindset stuff for you hitters out there. . . with two out in the 9th Cliff Pennington came to the plate with ducks on the pond. What was he thinking when he was facing a fireballing pitcher? "With Thornton on the mound throwing 97 miles an hour," Pennington said, "I was just looking for a fastball I could hit."

He got it. First Pitch too! Tie game. The game winners came in the 10th when Oakland posted 3 more runs to walk away with a series win against Chicago. Not exactly a Walk Off.. but pretty cool, just the same.

In Anaheim it was another extra inning tilt AND a Walk Off win! The Angels' billion dollar baby (jus kiddin'),Vernon Wells, earned a few of his dollars by delivering a base knock in the 12th that clinched the win over the Indians. A huge hit for Vernon's confidence as he was mired in 0 for 16 slump when he stepped in the box. His single off the shortstop started the rally. Wells eventually scored the winning run on a Sac Fly by Jeff Mathis with the bases juiced. I'll bet the Rally Monkey was going bonkers in Anaheim ; )

The Fans in Atlanta got to see something pretty special on Wednesday. Yes, their team got dumped by the Marlins and there were plenty of long faces in the crowd. That is until the 9th inning when Braves super hero Chipper Jones came to the dish.

Chipper launched a deep drive that cleared the center field wall for a Solo Home Run. Yea, yea.. so what you say? Well, that Home Run gave Chipper 1,500 RBIs for his career! In the History of baseball there is only one other switch hitter to have amassed 2,500+ hits and notched 1,500+ RBIs (Eddie Murray). That put a smile on the face of alot of Atlanta fans last night. Check it out by Clicking Here

Yesterday's Hitter honors has to go to our scrappy little throwback dude in Detroit. . . Brandon Inge. The Tigers have a couple of these guys I really like, but last night it was all Brandon. He tied the game in the 6th inning with a Sacrifice Fly. Great hitters do what has to be done to get that run home in close games and Brandon is a great hitter.

Not exactly satisfied with his 6th inning success, Brandon came to the plate in the 9th inning with one out and the game still knotted at 2-2. He had to be looking for something with a little 'wrinkle' to it because... on the very first pitch (one with some wrinkle) he Belted a Blast to deep Left Field. It was one of those - Crack! It's Gone! kind of shots. A real No Doubter that gave Detroit it's 2nd straight Walk Off win vs. the Rangers. Watch Yesterday's Hitter by clicking Here!