Baseball Page 936 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
It Is Unconscionable How Hot Ronald Acuña Is Right Now
“He’s the best leadoff hitter I’ve ever seen,” Braves teammate Ender Inciarte said of Ronald Acuña Jr. “He’s the best player I’ve ever seen.” Gushing praise, from a teammate, sure, but counterweigh that bias with the fact that Acuña is still just 20 years old. And at least over the last week, it has...
Ben Zobrist Is Still Very Much Looking Forward To Robot Umpires
Ben Zobrist was ejected in the ninth inning of the Cubs’ 7–0 home loss to the Brewers Tuesday, for arguing (what else) balls and strikes with home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. The beef went back a few innings, to when Zobrist took a called third strike in the sixth, and reacted angrily. Zobrist survived...
Nick Markakis? Really? Huh, That's Weird.
Braves outfielder Nick Markakis has built himself a solid, respectable baseball career—one better than 99 percent of guys who ever pick up the ol’ ball and stick. A .290 career hitter with a wRC+ of 111 in 12-and-three-quarters seasons with Baltimore and now Atlanta, Markakis has never been especial...
The Braves Are Co-Hosting A Fundraiser For Xenophobic Gubernatorial Candidate Brian Kemp
The Atlanta Braves are among the hosts of an upcoming fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, shelling out $13,200 to do so. The team’s name is prominently displayed on the event’s invitation:...
Where Are All The A's Fans?
The Oakland A’s are good, and they are hot, and they are young, and this week they have the opportunity to make a statement. Three games against the Mariners, whom they lead by 2.5 games for the second wild card spot, and then three games against the Astros, whom they trail by 2 games for the divisi...
Jose Ramirez Utterly Baffled By Utility Man Brandon Dixon's 10th Straight Curveball
This is wonderful. Reds utility man Brandon Dixon made his first career pitching appearance Monday night, in the ninth inning of an eventual 10-3 loss to the Indians. His pitching line was great: Dixon threw 10 total pitches; no one of them was harder than 74 miles per hour; the slowest came in unde...
Break Up The Mets!
The Mets beat the Yankees Monday night, 8–5, for their second consecutive win, and fourth in five games, and sixth in nine. They’re coming off their first consecutive series wins since April, and recently got long-suffering Jacob deGrom his first win since mid-June. Things are finally looking ... kn...
Ronald Acuña Jr. Is Donging His Way Into The Record Books
Ronald Acuña Jr.—the second-most impressive sub-legal drinking age player in the NL East—is having an extremely good time these days. He’s batting leadoff for an Atlanta Braves team that suddenly finds itself half a game up in the division, and he is smoking the hell out of the damn baseball....
Leonys Martín Battling Life-Threatening Bacterial Infection
Leonys Martín has been out for the Indians with an undisclosed illness since Wednesday, August 8. This started to look like it might be quite a bit more serious than the usual flu-like symptoms on Friday, when manager Terry Francona gave an ominous update of Martín’s condition:...
The Constantly Stupid Braves Announcing Booth Has Infected Jeff Francoeur
Even in a profession that asks old men to talk about baseball non-stop for four hours a night, the Atlanta Braves’ announcing team stands out for its dedication to infuriating dumbassery. Most often, it’s the duo of Joe Simpson and Chip Caray who do the heavy lifting, running their mouths about suit...
Edwin Dí<em></em>az Will Save Every Damn Game If He Has To
After closing three games in three days, Edwin Díaz was supposed to have Sunday off. It didn’t look like the Mariners would need him anyway, as they trailed the Astros heading to the ninth. But Ryon Healy homered to tie the game, and then Mitch Haniger doubled in the go-ahead run in the 10th, and Dí...
Max Scherzer, Still An Intense Weirdo
Lost in the thrill of rookie David Bote’s spectacular walk-off grand slam was the best pitching duel of perhaps the entire season. New Cubs acquisition Cole Hamels threw seven innings of one-hit, one-run ball, and Max Scherzer, favorite for a third straight Cy Young, did him one better with three h...
David Bote's Walk-Off Grand Slam Was Exhilarating
When you’re playing baseball as a kid, just messing around with a bat and a ball in the park or your backyard, what are you picturing? Every time, it’s you’re down three, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, two outs, two strikes....
Ramon Laureano Threw The Shit Out Of This Baseball
Ramon Laureano has played a total of five games in the majors, all this season, all since the start of August. It’s been a fun start! He’s already had a number of defensive highlights, and his first hit in the bigs was a walk-off game-winner in extras, in his first career game....
The Rockies' Bullpen Needs To Get Its Shit Together
The Colorado Rockies had a chance at a signature win Thursday night against the division-leading Dodgers. Instead they got a signature loss, or at least lost in the same way they’ve lost all year. At home versus their division rivals in a crucial series, Chris Iannetta smacked a go-ahead three-run h...
Giancarlo Stanton Set A Record For The Hardest-Hit Home Run
Exit velocity has become the bugbear of baseball’s anti–“super nerds” crowd. For them, the relatively recent ability to measure how hard a ball comes off a bat is a symbol of everything wrong with modern baseball analysis: a quantification of something that doesn’t need to be quantified; a number th...
The Mariners' First Four Batters Hit For The Cycle Off Justin Verlander In The First Inning
The Seattle Mariners rocked Justin Verlander for a home run, a triple, a double, and a single, all in the first inning of their game against the Astros on Thursday night. The reverse cycle put the Mariners up 3-0 at the end of the first inning, which accounted for exactly half of Verlander’s game. H...
Vlad Guerrero Jr. Is Healthy And Back To Mashing Taters In The Minors<em></em>
Good news for anyone deeply troubled by the mid-season injury of Blue Jays prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr: He’s back, he got called up to Triple-A at the end of July, and he’s still belting the ball in that same heroic way we’ve enjoyed all year....
Jayson Werth Has Me Feeling Nostalgic For The Sabermetric Wars
After 15 seasons as a big leaguer, Jayson Werth is out of baseball this year, which has given the 39-year-old an opportunity to pick up a couple of age-appropriate hobbies: reliving past glories in pick-up games, and hating on the newly powerful generation directly behind his. In Werth’s case, his q...
The End Of Felix Hernandez
Felix Hernandez, once and not too long ago among the AL’s most feared and fearsome fireballers, is near the end of the line. It’s been a steady decline too, not a cliff, which makes it feel less like an aberration and more the irreversible march of time. His injury-plagued 2017 was his worst statist...