He didn’t come to a stop. That’s a balk.
Looked like a stop to me. But I guess once the ump calls it once you have to do a really long stop to make sure.
what do you mean nothing has been decided , almost everyone decided the dodgers are going to be the champs again before it even started except for some poor stubborn fools that insisted to play the season …
I give the Dodgers a 30% chance of winning the World Series.
I think the jury remains out as to whether the new p[layoff format will increase excitement. In the AL the only remaining question is whether Baltimore can catch up, but the odds are rather heavily stacked against them. In the NL, Milwaukee could still make it. And then we don’t know which of the Mets or Braves will win the East. All the other divisions ended up being runaways.
Judge just hit #61
I don’t understand why Judge’s home run count is such big news. Yeah, he tied a team record, but it’s not like he broke Bonds’ record. I know the taint of steroids is all over Barry (and McGwire and Sosa, for that matter), but the official records are 73 and 762.
I just don’t get it.
He’s a Yankee. If he played for Texas it wouldn’t be getting one fifth the attention.
He also tied the American League record, for what that’s worth. Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa, were all playing for NL teams when they surpassed Maris.
But, yes, I agree with @RickJay : the fact that he’s a Yankee is driving a big part of the hoopla, as is the desire, among more than a few fans, to disregard records set by PED users.
AL record hopefully being set soon 61 years after Maris set the record with 61 in '61.
Also a large number of fans don’t honor the Ped records. Sorry about that but it is a real issue.
The NY factor is part of it, especially as the player turned down a huge contract to start the year. And Judge looks like someone that should break the record at 6’8" and all muscle.
I know there’s a contingent of fans that don’t celebrate the PED records. I myself am on the fence about them. But they are the official records, so I just can’t see the hype, except for the New York angle. It’s not like the Cal Ripken scenario, where it was just kind of an Everyman being celebrated for showing up to work every single day for umpteen years. That was something to rally around.
There were six games today that went extra innings. I thought that that might be a record but there were seven in one day twice, in 1918 and in 1998
I think NY helps the hype, but it is also a legitimately big deal. I certainly mentally categorize the Bonds/McGwire/Sosa numbers differently than the Maris/Stanton/Ruth ones. So I think a player breaking the Maris number is a significant achievement.
Similarly I think if Pujols (or someone else some day) were a few years younger and making a run at Aaron that would be seen as a big deal even if they were playing in a small market. For many baseball fans 755 is the more meaningful record.
Toronto has clinched a wild card spot.
Baltimore could still catch Seattle or Tampa Bay but their time is running out.
They’d have to win out and need Seattle or the Rays to completely collapse.
But they’ll still likely finish at or over .500, which nobody gave them a chance of doing even that coming in to the season, so as a lifelong O’s fan I consider this a wildly successful year. If they can bring up Grayson Rodriguez (and he’s everything they hope he is), and sign a couple of other decent starting pitchers, they’ll make the playoffs next year.
At the other end of the spectrum, Detroit just swept my Royals in a 3-game series to move ahead of KC in the woeful AL Central. In the 3 games, the Royals scored 7 runs and left 32 runners on base.
Does an achievement need to break a record to be significant?
Here’s a quote from an article from The Athletic, which requires a subscription to log in:
MLB’s implementation of a pitch clock in the minor leagues this year cut down the average time of games by 25 minutes, according to the commissioner’s office.
The average length of a minor-league game in 2022 came in at two hours and 38 minutes, compared to 3:03 during the 2021 season. Minor-league pitchers were allowed 14 seconds to start their motions with the bases empty and 18 seconds with at least one runner on base (19 seconds in Triple A).
Offensive statistics saw minimal variation, with runs per team per game increasing from 5.11 to 5.13, batting average up to .249 from .247 and home run percentage dipping to 2.7 from 2.8. Pitchers’ strikeout percentage dropped to 24.4 from 25.4, walk percentage increased to 10.5 from 10.2 and hit-by-pitch percentage stayed at 1.6.
ALERT: Shohei Ohtani has a no-hitter through 7 innings against the A’s in Anaheim.
And Ohtani lost his bid for his first no-hitter, at 7.2 innings pitched.
Several teams out of the playoff hunt played spoiler last night to teams trying to get into the playoffs or fight for division titles.
Boston beat Baltimore, who’s gonna need some kinda miracle to earn a playoff berth but has frankly had an amazing turnaround this year.
The Cubs blanked the Phillies and Marlins beat the Brewers.
And after beating the Braves in ten innings two days ago, the Nationals have the chance to seriously screw over Bryce Harper and the Phillies’ chances to finally make the playoffs if we can win even one game of today’s doubleheader.
“Because if we can’t save the world, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it.”
–Tony Stark