Last Night’s Highlights: Two Gold Glovers Show Off, Pham Kills A Rally, Bourjos Robs Ichiro

July 27, 2016, by Michael Cerami Baseball Is Fun

MLB had quite the day yesterday, as all 30 teams were in action, and 16 games were actually played (thanks to a Cardinals/Mets doubleheader). Care to guess what the most MLB games ever played in one day was? The answer is at the bottom (like the back of a cereal box game, only I won’t put it upset down – that might get you some weird looks at the office).

Anyway, that’s a heckuva lot of baseball, so there are a ton of highlights to get to. I still only featured three video highlights below, but be sure to check the “Oh, and also from Last Night:” section for more of yesterday’s top plays. Lastly, I won’t do this every day, but because there were so many games, let’s take a look at the winners and losers, before getting to the good stuff:

Chicago Cubs 0 v. Chicago White Sox 3
Mariners 7 v. Pirates 4
Cardinals 3 v. Mets 2
Cardinals 1 v. Mets 3
Rockies 6 v. Orioles 3
Padres 6 v. Blue Jays 7
Tigers 9 v. Red Sox 8
Phillies 0 v. Marlins 5
Nationals 6 v. Indians 7
Athletics 6 v. Rangers 3
D-Backs 4 v. Brewers 9
Braves 2 v. Twins 0
Yankees 6 v Astos 3
Angels 13 v. Royals 0
Rays 2 v. Dodgers 3
Reds 7 v. Giants 9

1. Alright, your first and top highlight from last night is actually a two-fer (what a value!). The Angles may have trounced the Royals 13-0 yesterday, but not before Alcides Escobar was able to make a stellar jump-throw, to nail a speedy Andrelton Simmons at first base. Escobar was a Gold Glove award winning short stop in 2015, though, so there’s not much of a surprise there. Of course, he wasn’t the only Gold Glove award winning shortstop on the field, and Andrelton Simmons made sure to remind us of that. Not one inning later, Simmons returned the favor to Escobar, throwing him out after making a fantastic bare-handed grab. Check out both plays here:

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2. The next play, while certainly impressive, is at least partially notable because of the situation. With one on and nobody out in the bottom of the 9th inning yesterday, the Mets had a real opportunity to tie things up against the Cardinals. But when Yoenis Cespedes sent one deep into center field, taking Tommy Pham all the way to the wall, Curtis Granderson got a little greedy. As Granderson tagged up from first, Pham camped under the ball, setting himself up perfectly to make a play. He catches the ball, fires to second and nails Granderson, taking the steam out of the Mets rally. And, to be fair, that was a phenomenal throw. It was strong, right on the money, and in time to get Granderson who’s no slowpoke. Really great play. The Cardinals held onto win 3-2.

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3. Once again, this is nice play, but the context surrounding it matters more than the defensive requirements and skills it took to make. As I hope you know, Ichiro Suzuki is (or rather, was, at this point) just four hits shy of 3,000 for his MLB career. That is a very notable milestone, and one he figures to reach any day now. But I’ll bet he thought he was going to be one hit closer after sending one deep to right center field in the bottom of the first inning yesterday. Unfortunately, Peter Bourjos was patrolling right field and spoiled all of the fun. Suzuki eventually got another hit, later in the game, and now sits just 3 away from the big 3000. Check it out:

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Oh, and also from Last Night: