It figures to be a pretty busy day around here today, because a heck of a lot of weird and funny stuff happened last night (an outfielder did his best Aroldis Chapman impression, an umpire caught a catcher’s mask, a “ball-dude” misplayed a grounder, and a cringe worthy error lost a game). Well get to all of it in time, but first we need to check in on last night’s highlights.
And hell, it was even difficult to narrow things down to just six from yesterday. Here are the three most noteworthy:
1. When the Chicago Cubs meet up with the Chicago White Sox four times a year, the two-part series is known as the Crosstown Classic. Although, now that I look it up, there are apparently a bunch of nicknames: The Windy City Showdown, Chicago Showdown, Red Line Series, Halstead Street Series, City Series, Crosstown Series, Crosstown Cup, and Crosstown Showdown. There’s 15 seconds you’ll never get back in your life. Anyway, game one began yesterday at U.S. Cellular field and got off to a bang, when Melky Cabrera robbed Kris Bryant of his 26th home run in the top of the first inning. Now, Cabrera has been one of the worst defensive outfielders for a while now, but there’s no denying his performance on this play. He tracked the ball well, timed the leap perfectly, and brought one back into the stadium. Given that the White Sox won by just one run in the bottom of the ninth inning, this play seems all the more impactful.
Your browser does not support iframes.
[adinserter block=”1″]
2. The White Sox, however, were not the only team with a walk-off victory last night, as Adrian Beltre hit a home run in each of his final two at bats to bring the Rangers close in the 7th and ultimately give them the win in the 9th. The two homers were his 15th and 16th of the season and came as part of a 4-5 night. Beltre, 37, is slashing .281/.334/.468 for the season. The Rangers – who had been scuffling a bit after the All-Star Break (1-6) – have now won three straight games, and remain 3.5 games ahead of the Astros in first place of the NL West.
Your browser does not support iframes.
[adinserter block=”2″]
3. This past offseason the Kansas City Royals signed outfielder Alex Gordon to a four-year/$72 million deal – the largest such free-agent contract in team history – after he led the team to the World Series in each of the last two years. And although his bat has been above average for a while (2016 notwithstanding), the Royals felt comfortable dolling out such a huge deal, because Gordon is a four-time gold glove winning left fielder and defense is something teams are starting to pay for (See Jason Heyward’s mega-deal with the Cubs). Well, Gordon isn’t quite hitting in 2016 (.202/.312/.342, 7 HR), but his defense hasn’t gone anywhere. In fact – at least for last night – he looks as good as ever. Check it out:
Your browser does not support iframes.
[adinserter block=”3″]
Oh, and also from Last Night:
What you may have missed from Yesterday: