The Yankees capped a comeback from down 5-0 with a Giancarlo Stanton walk-off home run to beat the Mariners 7-5. It was Stanton’s first walk-off as a Yankee. Cool story. We’re not here for that. We’re here for the swear word!
The Phillie Phanatic aimed his hot dog gun, pressed a button and fired into the stands. The duct tape-wrapped hot dog flew through the air … and hit Kathy McVay in the face. It knocked off her glasses, gave her a black eye and sent her to the emergency room. She has to ice her face every 20 minutes.
It rained just a bit in Pittsburgh this evening, forcing the postponement of tonight’s Brewers-Pirates game. But before Milwaukee bullpen catcher Marcus Hanel returned to the safety of his hotel room, he made the courageous, selfless decision to rescue some powerless equipment from the terrifying flood that ravaged…
Cubs second baseman and shortstop Javier Báez is a known defensive wizard who makes all sorts of cool-looking plays all the dang time, but he really showed off his skills this afternoon against the Dodgers. Kikè Hernández smacked a double to lead off the eighth inning, but got just far enough out of position on a…
The Cubs didn’t use closer Brandon Morrow in either of their games Tuesday against the Dodgers, instead relying on a bevy of other relievers. He would’ve been really helpful in the first game, which the Cubs lost 4-3 after Justin Wilson blew a 3-2 lead in the ninth. According to the team, the reason Morrow wasn’t…
Jackie Bradley Jr. has been having a truly nightmarish season at the plate. The kind you tell your kids about, the kind that would otherwise warrant a player riding the bench for much of the year. We’re talking about a .182/.279/.297, four-dingers-through-65-games sort of season. But his defense is insane enough to…
There’s no other way to say it: Mike Trout is in Barry Bonds territory. Not merely statistically, as noted by former Deadspinner Emma Baccellieri, who is either dead or at SI now, I forget which. But in the fear he engenders in opponents, who will pitch to him only when they absolutely must.
With four home runs last night in a 7-2 win over Seattle, the Yankees are on pace for 273 home runs this season, which would top the MLB record set by the 1997 Mariners. “Everybody here can hit,” Miguel Andujar said. Indeed.
The Pirates have a college-educated singer in their bullpen, and they’re putting him to good use. Before Pittsburgh’s game tonight against the Brewers, relief pitcher Steven Brault stepped up to the plate and sang the national anthem, pulling off a rare feat that was maybe done most memorably in recent years by…
Giants reliever Hunter Strickland was very definitively Not Mad while exiting the eventual San Francisco loss last night. On his walk back to the dugout after blowing his team’s lead, Strickland exchanged words with Giant-killing Marlins outfielder Lewis Brinson after Brinson both tagged Strickland for a game-tying…
Hunter Strickland has long been established as the biggest baby, as he once threw a retaliatory pitch for a nearly 3-year-old dinger. It doesn’t take much to get under the Giants closer’s skin, besides exposing him as kind of a mortal pitcher in front of large crowds.
Mike Trout got on base four times against the Diamondbacks on Monday night, thanks to two walks and two singles. Trout is basically always on base—he’s currently sporting a career-high .464 OBP—so that’s not a remarkable thing in and of itself. Neither is the fact that his teammates failed to drive him a single time.…
Laurence “Dutch” Rennert, a National League umpire from 1974–1992, has passed away at the age of 88. You might not even know his name! You know his strikeout call:
The Royals’ Whit Merrifield has 15 stolen bases on the year, and Rangers pitcher Bartolo Colon had yet to pick off a baserunner this season heading into tonight. In this case, one would think that the 29-year-old on first base would have the clear advantage over the 45-year-old on the mound. But that’s the problem…
Juan Soto is 19 years old and has been in the majors for less than a month, and he’s already qualified as a Yankee killer. He followed up last week’s two-homer game in the Bronx by hitting this absolute dong during the resumption of a suspended game today in D.C.:
Brewers hurler Adrian Houser got recalled from AAA for just his fifth career MLB appearance, was tapped to pitch the top of the eighth inning, finished his warm-up tosses, and then promptly barfed.
The Nationals are depressing. After another disappointing loss Sunday afternoon they’re a ho-hum 37-31, having just been swept by the crummy and forgettable Toronto Blue Jays. They can’t hit the damn ball: they’re 10th in the National League in runs; they’re a miserable 11th in on-base percentage; none of the three…
It appears the Orioles will not, in fact, let Chris Davis have the worst season in baseball history. Davis hasn’t played this week, and Friday night Orioles manager Buck Showalter reportedly indicated there’s no timetable for his return. This news is less happy than, say, news of Davis breaking out of his slump with a…
The defensive shift is having a moment. It’s of course being used more than ever, and now even by certain crotchety types who’d previously resisted it. Royals manager Ned Yost, for example, is skeptical of statistics that support use of the shift, and in fact is vocally in favor of the shift being banned altogether;…
There’s a thing that happens to old ballplayers, a strange and salty suspension that leaves their approach to the game frozen at precisely the moment they left it and tends to lead them to spend the rest of their days grousing spicily about everything that happened since. That never happened to Davey Johnson, for a…