Gary Thorne's Sanity Is Collateral Damage In Gleyber Torres's Demolition Of Orioles Pitching

Remember way back in May, when Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres recorded his fourth multi-homer game against the Orioles of just this season? Remember how Torres became just the fourth player in MLB history to record four multi-homer games against one team in one season? Remember how O’s broadcaster Gary Thorne was driven to the uttermost depths of despair that day?

My friends, the onslaught continues. The Yankees and Orioles played a day-night doubleheader Monday in New York, which of course meant that Torres was salivating like a hungry lion creeping up on an exhausted and helpless baby antelope, alone on the Serengeti. Orioles pitchers, helpless under even the best of circumstances, were just completely doomed.

Torres socked a three-run jack in the day game, which the Yankees won 8–5. Since basically any reasonably healthy toddler can do that nowadays, Torres needed a more spectacular showing in the night game to fully reassert his dominance. He got it, knocking in six runs and registering his fifth multi-homer game of the season just against the Orioles, in an 11–8 Yankees victory:

Torres has now hit 13 home runs against the Orioles this season, putting him in a five-way tie with some heavy hitters—Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx, legendary sluggers Joe Adcock and Roger Maris *, and 1952 NL MVP and home run champion Hank Sauer—for the second-most ever hit against a single opponent in MLB history. Lou Gehrig, with 14 against the Cleveland in 1936, is within striking distance. The Yankees wrap up their season series with the Orioles tomorrow and Wednesday; at the rate Torres is going, he should have no trouble whatsoever catching and surpassing the all-time mark. Hell, he might get to 20.

If Torres gets the record, Thorne may not survive. Monday’s fireworks once again drove him to the brink of insanity, especially when Yankees counterpart Paul O’Neill bum-rushed the O’s broadcast booth to gloat over Torres’s dominance:

A full half of Torres’s 26 dingers on the season have come against the Orioles. This is violence! Assault and battery! O’Neill is lucky Thorne didn’t bite his hand off.