Baseball Page 1060 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Umpire Takes A Foul Ball To The Chest, Flexes
MLB umpire/country music singer Joe West wasn't nimble enough to avoid Stephen Vogt's foul line drive in Tuesday night's A's-Mets game, so he ended up taking a ball right to the chest. West didn't have the protective equipment of a home-plate umpire, but he was fine....

Adrian Beltre Gets 2,500th Hit, Unwanted Head Touching
Adrian Beltre collected his 2,500th hit in Tuesday night's game against the Tigers. (That's pretty impressive! He's only the seventh third baseman to reach the mark.) Miguel Cabrera was at first base to give him the ball and a quick touch on the head. Beltre, a man who hates having his head touched,...

Cubs Pitcher Jeff Samardzija Botches Bunt, Snaps Bat Over His Leg
After screwing up a bunt in last night's game against the Reds, Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija channeled the irate spirit of Carlos Zambrano and snapped his bat over his leg. SAMARDZIJA MAD....


D-Backs Closer Says He Quit Smokeless Tobacco After Tony Gwynn's Death
Though the late Tony Gwynn attributed his salivary cancer to smokeless tobacco, there wasn't necessarily a direct connection. (The stuff's obviously very harmful, but Gwynn's type of cancer was quite rare.) Either way, though, Gwynn's death has convinced at least one current MLB player to quit cold ...

Marcell Ozuna Ends The Game With A Perfect Laser To Home Plate
This Marcell Ozuna highlight is from Friday night, but it's still awesome enough to post now....

Hunter Pence And His Goofy Swing Crush A Ball Into The Upper Deck
Hunter Pence's goofy-ass swing shouldn't work, and yet sometimes, everything in his hitting motion connects, and a baseball visits the upper deck of Chase Field....

Padres Reliever Alex Torres Is First To Wear Padded Cap On MLB Mound
Padres reliever Alex Torres became the first MLB pitcher to wear a protective cap during last night's game against the Dodgers. The hat was very noticeable....

Brewers Score Three Runs On Wild Pitch
Here's something you don't see every day: a bases-clearing wild pitch. With the bases loaded for Aramis Ramirez in the top of the third, Rockies starter Christian Friedrich threw a wild pitch that Michael McKenry couldn't handle and one run scored. Then McKenry threw it past Friedrich as he tried to...

The Nationals Unleashed Their Chest Hair Last Night
The Washington Nationals decided to undo the top button of their jerseys last night against the Braves and show off some chest and/or hair. Was it a superstition thing, like the rally cap's hunky uncle? Or was it just coincidence? Hopefully someone in D.C. is asking the right questions today. ...

A Quick Look At Perfect Games Vs. No-Hitters Throughout MLB History
On Wednesday Clayton Kershaw threw the 283rd no-hitter in baseball history. What separated Kershaw's no-hitter from becoming a perfect game was a throwing error by shortstop Hanley Ramirez in the seventh inning that allowed the only Rockie player all night to reach first. The chart above, which come...

All 15 Of Clayton Kershaw's No-Hitter Strikeout Pitches In One GIF
When Clayton Kershaw came within one error of a perfect game Wednesday night, he added "no-hitter" to a list of accolades and achievements that already included three ERA titles, two Cy Young awards, and a Triple Crown. In fact, he did more than that—going by Bill James's old game score metric, he p...


Matt Joyce Hits Ball Back Into Pitching Machine; Machine Fires It Again
Your latest baseball oddity comes courtesy of Matt Joyce. During Thursday's batting practice, the Rays designated hitter fouled a ball that bounced off the top of the cage and right back into the pitching machine's loading slot. The machine then zipped another strike before Joyce realized what had h...

Idiot Rays Fan Has The Worst Videobombing Routine
What's this guy doing? He has the perfect opportunity to do something—anything—interesting in the background of Kevin Kiermaier's postgame interview, but he doesn't. It's a waste of TV time....

Gavin Floyd Leaves Braves-Nats Game With A Very Gross Elbow Injury
Do you see that bump on Gavin Floyd's elbow? That's not supposed to be there. ...

David Ortiz Is Bitching About The Official Scorer Again
David Ortiz hit a game-tying home run in extra innings last night. In the clubhouse after the game, he didn't want to talk about that. He wanted to complain about a seventh-inning ground ball that glanced off the glove of first-baseman Joe Mauer and was ruled an error....

Tony Gwynn Was The Babe Ruth Of Not Striking Out
Since Tony Gwynn died Monday, many stories have been written about what a great player he was. But among all the mentions of his eight batting titles and 15 All-Star games, there's an extraordinary facet of his game that goes slightly underappreciated even as it's constantly mentioned—his incredible...

Clayton Kershaw's No-Hitter Was Inexpressibly Ridiculous
Clayton Kershaw is the kind of pitcher who can win two National League Cy Young awards in three years for one of the most glamorous teams in baseball and still go a little underappreciated. Maybe it's because so much of the country sleeps through so many of his starts; maybe it's because he's not th...