Baseball Page 930 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Dodgers Have Won The Manny Machado Sweepstakes, Finally
Manny Machado is heading west. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported yesterday that the Baltimore Orioles had the framework of a deal in place to trade Machado to the Dodgers for a bushel of prospects, and the trade finally went through today after a “brief medical blip” caused both parties to stay a...
Gleyber Torres's Video Isn't The Best Way To Watch Aaron Judge's All-Star Game HR, But It Is The Funniest
Gleyber Torres thought he was taking horizontal video of his teammate Aaron Judge’s dinger in last night’s All-Star Game. He was not. Good effort, though....
Serving Up A Three-Run Homer Is Somehow Only The Second-Worst Part Of Josh Hader's Night<em></em><em></em>
Brewers reliever Josh Hader pitched just a third of an inning during Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game, and allowed a mighty three-run Jean Segura tater that put the American League ahead in the eighth. His hair was perfect, but it was otherwise not a great night for Milwaukee’s closer. But getting ...
MLB Commissioner: Actually It Is Mike Trout's Fault That He Is Not More Popular
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred says Mike Trout, the very best baseball player in the world and one of the best in history, isn’t popular enough because he doesn’t want to do commercials:...
Jacob DeGrom Deserves Better Than To Be Left Hanging By The Mets
Mets ace and two-time All-Star Jacob deGrom, who also has MLB’s lowest ERA by more than half a run, sent out a message yesterday, through his agent, expressing his desire to remain a Met long-term, but only if they reciprocate that sentiment and pay him accordingly. This, courtesy of Ken Rosenthal, ...
Watch This Weird Old Japanese Home Run Derby Featuring Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, And Bernie Williams
MLB’s single-elimination bracket format has revitalized the Home Run Derby—last night ruled—but can we do even better? As with game shows, the Japanese remain light years ahead of us in Home Run Derby technology....
Bryce Harper Wins Extremely Kick-Ass Home Run Derby
A Home Run Derby field that was light on star wattage wound up producing a tremendous contest, with a climactic finish featuring exactly the outcome Major League Baseball would’ve scripted if they’d had the chance: Bryce Harper surging dramatically in the final round to win it with a majestic dinger...
Joe Maddon Shamelessly Reams Out Umpire Without Getting Tossed
There’s no lip reading required to figure out why Cubs manager Joe Maddon was pissed off in Sunday’s 7-4 win over the Padres. Home plate umpire Ryan Blakney’s strike zone was indecipherable all day—both teams complained about it—so in the eighth inning, Maddon had had enough....
10 Years Ago, Two Trades Broke The Mold For MLB Deadline Deals<em></em>
In the days and hours before the 4 p.m. trade deadline on July 31, contenders across baseball will make their moves. Manny Machado will likely take his MVP-caliber bat and NASA-caliber arm to the left side of some new and less bleak team’s infield; the Yankees are thought to be looking for starting ...
There's A New Co-Leader In The Manny Machado Sweepstakes
Manny Machado homered in his first-at bat, his 24th of the year, and then left the game after the fourth inning, because of wet grass following a rain delay. Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said, without outright saying, what we all know: that Machado is currently more valuable to the Orioles on th...
Pirates Plunder Walk-Off Win On Basically The Open Sea
Playing extra innings on Sunday in a ballpark that had essentially become an extension of the Allegheny River, the Pirates managed to capture a walk-off victory. First baseman Josh Bell was the one who showed off his sea legs and sent Milwaukee to Davy Jones’s locker, crushing the ball about 60 fat...
Starling Marte And Gregory Polanco Combine For Rare Slice Of History With Double-Header Dingers
History has a habit of repeating itself over and over in sports, especially in baseball. Saturday afternoon Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco got in some history-making of their own: they became the third teammates in MLB history to amass back-to-back home runs in both games of a double-header. Thi...
Indians Cede Winning Run To Yankees On Delightful Little League Homer
The Indians and Yankees were tied at four apiece in the top of the seventh Saturday night when Austin Romine stepped to the plate and smoked a double to right center field. A slicing, dangerous hit, an easy stand-up two-bagger. Until!...
Chaotic Cardinals Season Continues With Mid-Season Firing Of Manager Mike Matheny
The St. Louis Cardinals axed manager Mike Matheny Saturday night, following an 8-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The loss was their fourth in five games, and 10th in their last 15 games. The Cardinals are now 7.5 games back in the NL Central. The Cardinals announced Matheny’s firing via a team releas...
Boston's Blake Swihart Embarrassed On Base Path By Blue Jays Trickery
The timing on this is very fun. Red Sox first baseman Blake Swihart singled in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday, with one out and the the Red Sox down a run. Three pitches later, Sandy León skied a fly ball to left field, a harmless out that earned León’s disappointed body language. And tha...
Billy Hamilton Cannot Possibly Be Human
Billy Hamilton’s season at the plate has improved significantly from its dismal start. Where he was producing an awful .517 OPS in early June, and considering dropping switch-hitting as a potential remedy, he is now producing a more recognizable .636, in line with what he’s generally done over the p...
It's Time To Take The Oakland A's Seriously
The start of this Oakland Athletics season started out in unsurprising fashion, by which I mean everything went wrong....
You Don't Forget Albert Pujols
A striking thing to me, which struck when I went to look up his career stats, was the realization that this is Albert Pujols’s seventh season in Anaheim. That is a long, long time in baseball terms, an entire second career that started at age 32. It’s surprisingly tough to recall his Cardinals heyda...
Mookie Betts's 13-Pitch Grand Slam At-Bat Is Best Viewed In Its Entirety
The best short film of the summer has arrived, and it’s Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts patiently working through a 13-pitch at-bat against Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ before socking a grand slam dinger over that big Green Monster in left field. It’s got pathos—Justin Smoak dropping a foul pop-up ju...
Wednesday Night Blowouts Produce A Bonanza Of Position Players Taking The Mound
These are truly the dog days of summer. Baseball has slipped into that surreal midseason phase where absolutely nothing seems to matter at any given moment, and the reason to watch is to doze off to the hypnotic lull of half innings breezing by uneventfully. We have hit the part of the year where ev...