dingers Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
1998 As Baseball’s Salvation Is B.S.
What last night’s underwhelming (and that’s being kind) and uninspired 30 for 30 on the 1998 Home Run race tried to capture was that baseball would have been in the toilet without it. It’s a narrative that Bud Selig tried to push to do himself credit, then shit all over to also do himself credit, an...
Jose Altuve Sends Astros To World Series With Walk-Off Bomb Against Aroldis Chapman
The final inning of the ALCS was a dramatic one, as the Astros booked their tickets to the World Series with an emphatic walk-off dinger. After spotting Houston a three-run lead in the first inning and trailing for the entire game, the Yankees finally drew even in the top of the ninth when D.J. LeMa...
Howie Kendrick Finally Has A Legacy
You’d be forgiven, Nats fans, if you wanted Howie Kendrick out of the game long before his instantly legendary grand slam in the top of the 10th that won the Nationals their first-ever playoff series. Kendrick, despite turning in a pleasant surprise of a 2019 season that saw him become one of Washin...
We Are Drowning In Dingers
The home run that made baseball history was pretty workaday, as they go. Sure, it was a big moment in the game, breaking a seventh-inning tie to give the Orioles a 5-2 lead over the Dodgers. But this game didn’t really matter to either team, and Jonathan Villar’s homer—the 6,106th homer hit in MLB t...
Ronald Acuña Jr. Robs Home Run, Immediately Turns It Into Inside-The-Park Home Run
You would think that robbing a home run at the wall comes down to getting a good jump, timing your leap, and having the insane hand-eye coordination to rip the ball out of the sky with your off hand, while crashing into a padded wall. Turns out that’s only most of it. As Ronald Acuña Jr. learned in ...
In A Surprise To No One, Aristides Aquino Broke Another Rookie Home Run Record
It didn’t take long for Aristides Aquino to hit another home run and attach his name to yet another record. On an 0-1 pitch from Miami’s Robert Dugger, the Reds rookie smoked one into the stands in left for his 14th dinger of the month, officially breaking Cody Bellinger’s NL rookie record of 13 set...
Aristides Aquino Continues To Homer At An Alarming Rate
Aristides Aquino is a phenomenon. But with every home run the Reds’ rookie outfielder hits and just keeps hitting, he makes it slightly harder to dismiss as a late-season, Kevin Maas/Shane Spencer–type smash-in-a-pan, and adds evidence that he might just be a young dude who’s really, really good at ...
Paul DeJong Pulled A "The Natural" On The Big Mac Sign In St. Louis
You know the big, climactic ending to The Natural, where Robert Redford booms a huge, pennant-winning bomb that knocks out a lighting fixture in the stadium? Okay, so maybe Paul DeJong’s sixth-inning homer in the Cardinals’ 3-0 win against the Brewers in mid-August isn’t quite that dramatic, even if...
Vlad Guerrero Jr. Did A Spot-On Impersonation Of His Father With This Head-Scratching Homer
While Vlad Guerrero Jr. has proven in his short career to be a dinger-mashing machine just like his father was, the comparisons between the two can often be a bit much. Guerrero Jr. could hit a line-drive single to left field and someone will inevitably say something like “Wow, that’s just like the...
Bryce Harper's Walk-Off Grand Slam Was Pure Catharsis
The Philadelphia Phillies were down to the Chicago Cubs entering the bottom of the ninth inning Thursday night. The Cubs have had a dicey bullpen all season long, so this was by no means a sure thing, but that doesn’t make what happened any less nad-rocking, for all but the most committed Bryce Har...
Tigers Outfielder Generously Guides Kyle Seager's Third Dinger Over The Outfield Wall
It says something about the state of baseball that the least interesting thing about this play, from the top of the ninth inning of an 11–6 Mariners win over the Tigers, is that it was Kyle Seager’s third dinger of the night. Multi-homer games are so common now that they’re becoming passé—for crying...
No Rookie Has Ever Homered Like Aristides Aquino
The Reds outfielder with the cool nickname and the even cooler actual name was called up on Aug. 1 after the Reds shipped away Yasiel Puig, and he’s done nothing but hit dingers. Dinger after dinger after dinger. Here’s Monday night’s dinger:...
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...
John Sterling Must Be Stopped
Even given that the Yankees are constructed to hit home runs, and that the Orioles are (in fact if not in intention) constructed to give up home runs, what New York has done to Baltimore—and especially in Baltimore—this season beggars belief. After Wednesday’s 14-2 win at Camden Yards to complete a ...
![Marlins Rookie's Dad, During And After Son's First Career Dinger: [Screaming]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/pv2o1avzfkb8kofqpeuh.png)
Marlins Rookie's Dad, During And After Son's First Career Dinger: [Screaming]
Facing the reigning NL Cy Young award winner in your first ever MLB game is a tall order. Marlins rookie Isan Diaz went 0-for-2 in his first two at-bats against Jacob deGrom Monday afternoon, but in his third try, on a 1–2 count, Diaz took a mighty rip at a grooved fastball and crushed it deep to ri...
Yuli Gurriel Can't Stop Smashing Dingers
Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel is on a remarkable run. Coming into Tuesday night he’d crushed 11 home runs in 17 games in July, including six over the course of five games* to open the month. That’s two more homers in three weeks than he’d hit in the other three whole months of the season. Tuesda...
Stephen Strasburg's Mighty Batsmanship Overwhelms The Braves
Stephen Strasburg pitched five-plus innings Thursday night in the first game of an important four-game series in Atlanta against the NL East-leading Braves. It was a solid outing, especially considering the competition: Strasburg struck out seven and allowed three earned runs, and got the win, in la...
Trevor Bauer Knows He Could Just Not Pitch To Max Kepler, Right?
The Minnesota Twins are socking dingers at a historic pace, and the individual that is currently leading everyone on the roster in that stat is Max Kepler. With that knowledge, it shouldn’t be a complete surprise that he added a couple more in a 6-2 win over the Indians on Saturday, especially when ...
Rob Manfred Says Owners Don't Much Enjoy The Rising Tide Of Dingers
Commissioner Rob Manfred was prompted Tuesday to respond to comments from American League All-Star starting pitcher Justin Verlander, accusing Major League Baseball of deliberately juicing baseballs in order to goose offensive production. To no one’s great surprise, Manfred maintained once again th...
Vlad Jr. Versus Joc Pederson Was The Coolest
The second round of the 2019 MLB Home Run Derby was, dare I say, the very coolest sequence in the history of the event. Pete Alonso beating Ronald Acuña Jr. on his final swing was very cool, but the real show was the insane dong-off between Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays and Joc Pederson of ...