Excellent! That makes it a really good night for the Indians, who swept a rainy double-header against the White Sox tonight.
The AL Central this year feels like it has the potential to be the NL West from early in the 2000s, when there was a season where it was questionable until the final weekend as to whether the division champ was going to finish above .500.
I think your last two paragraphs explain why it was a toothless penalty.
Plunking happens, but if you can admit it without repercussion, it will happen a lot more. So they had to suspend him, but not seriously (he got fined equal to 5 games pay, also). If someone else is stupid enough to bean a guy and admit it, it’ll be more than 5 games.
I think it was a fair penalty. I don’t see what the point was of beaning a guy just because he’s a rookie, though, but that’s Hamels’ and the Phillies’ issue.
And Werth out. Ouch. Now the Nationals rotation will have to come up with about 15 innings of shutout ball a night before their team mates can come up with a run.
The Orioles are getting pounded by the Rangers for the second day in a row.
Josh Hamilton is on fire. Yesterday he went 1-4 with a HR and two walks.
Today he is 5-5 with 4 home runs (!!!) and 8 RBI. First 4-homer performance since 2003 (Carlos Delgado).
If the Rangers get a couple of guys on, they could be able to get him to the plate one more time… EDIT: Nope. Still, five for five with four homers and a double. Hamilton really is a natural. I hope he stays healthy this year.
In fact in his last six at-bats, Josh Hamilton has five homers and a double for 10 RBI and 22 total bases.
I got to see Hamilton play at the end of his first professional season, back in '99 I think it was, before anyone knew about the drugs and drinking that would cause careerus interruptus. He’d been called “up” (if short-season A ball ever counts as “up”) from the rookie leagues, where I believe he’d torn everybody apart.
I remember thinking he seemed a little overmatched at the plate in the couple of games I saw–my memory’s a bit hazy here, but I think it was that he was having trouble timing his swing to match the speed of the pitch, though it might have been a strike zone judgment issue instead. But he was very impressive in the outfield, and fast, and graceful, and appeared to have all the right baseball instincts, and I remember thinking that he probably would be the real deal. Just didn’t expect that it would take as long as it did.
Oh well, I’m very pleased for his success overall, and it’s great that he hit 4 homers tonight. Fun to think back to how I “knew him when.”
Hamilton’s the sixteenth player to do this. It’s a rarer accomplishment than the perfect game.
Frustrating night at Dodger Stadium. Kershaw pitched brilliantly, sans one big mistake pitch in the 2nd inning. The Dodgers failed to capitalize on all kinds of scoring opportunities tonight. They hit into either three or four double plays – I lost count from the stands. I definitely give Vogelsong credit for working out of trouble when he had to, but the Dodgers should have been able to put up more than the one run they scored on, I believe, eight hits and at least two walks on the evening.
Re: Hamilton. Sucks it was against the Orioles, but he is on my roto team so I’ll take it. He had a nice week last night.
After 14 years of feeling the game was over if the Yanks had the lead in the 9th I had the strange sensation of not being sure last night. I had almost forgot what it last felt like in 1997 and especially before Mo was closing. So Robertson had to load the bases first before getting his save. Welcome back to the real world fellow Yankee fans.
That was a Righetti-style save. Still, I feel pretty good about Robertson and Soriano looks good too.
I sure am glad that the Reds traded Josh Hamilton for Edinson Volquez, who’s turning into Matt Latos on the mound, who’s now also a Cincinnati Red.
A fascinating fact about four-homer games; the last time it was done was by Carlos Delgado in 2003. In that game Delgado actually got only four at bats to hit his four homers. He is in fact the only player to ever play a full nine-inning ballgame and homer every time he went up.
Another fact; Hamilton’s 18 total bases are, incredibly, not the record. That belongs to Shawn Green, who had 19 total bases in his 4-homer game with the Dodgers.
More;
Josh Hamilton has hit 132 homers in his career. In the modern era the fewest career homers by a four-homer man is 86, by the otherwise forgotten Pat Seerey.
The most prolific slugger among four-homer men is Willie Mays, with 660.
Bob Horner’s four-homer game in 1986 was not enough; his team lost the game anyway.
The Mets swept the Phillies at Citizen’s Bank, for the first time since 2006. More to the point (and this is why you don’t bet on baseball games), Halladay, Blanton, and Lee were defeated by Niese, Batista, and Gee, although none of those 6 got the W or the L.
Los Mets have still allowed more runs than they’ve scored, which is worrisome, but it’s fun to watch all these young guys knock the ball around a little bit.
The Cardinals got their first sweep of the year, scoring 9, 6, and 7 against the Diamondbacks.
Their run differential (+75) is now more than 50 runs better than second-best in the NL. And 10 better than the top AL team (the Rangers). I doubt they can keep up this pace, but it’s been pretty damn fun so far.
The Padres aren’t the worst team in baseball this week!
Huzzah! Thank you, Minnesota!
On Friday, Dodger call-up Scott Van Slyke will potentially have the opportunity to face Jamie Moyer, who also pitched against Scott’s father, Andy Van Slyke. When informed, Scott said, “Did he? That’s crazy. I’ll get some scouting reports from him.”
In last night’s game, if I’m recalling the stat correctly, Scott Van Slyke was the first Dodger to collect [del]both his first hit and first RBI[/del] in his first major league at-bat since 1961.
ETA: Correction – it was getting a pinch-hit RBI in his first major league at-bat.
The M’s have the day off today. I wish they had one more game against the Tigers. The only game they lost to Detroit was when Verlander started and the bullpen was one spectacular catch from blowing that game too.
Thanks for the trivia Rick!
Crazy stuff. I continue to be a little disappointed Moyer probably won’t pitch against Omar Vizquel (45) this season. I guess he could pitch against Jim Thome (42 in August).