NEWSLETTER
It was bombs away around baseball on Tuesday night as teams clubbed a combined 54 home runs.
A couple of those homers were historic …
Halos Fall Short Despite Ohtani’s Historic Night
What a night for Shohei Ohtani! The Angels superstar went 3-for-4 with a pair of home runs and 8 RBI on Tuesday night. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Ohtani became the first player born in Japan to have 8 RBI in an MLB game.
Ohtani’s second three-run bomb of the night tied things up between the Angels and Royals in the bottom of the ninth inning in Anaheim.
The Angels also lost to the Royals in 11 innings on Tuesday night, adding another historical wrinkle to Ohtani’s big night. Per STATS, LLC., Ohtani is the only MLB player to drive in 8+ runs and yet have his team never hold the lead in the game (since RBI became an official stat in 1920).
Shohei wasn’t the only player with a multi-homer game last night in Anaheim. Royals rookie Bobby Witt, Jr. also went yard twice, the first time he’s done so in his young career.
Ultimately it was neither Ohtani nor Witt who played the hero in this contest; instead, it was the veteran Whit Merrifield who logged his second RBI double of the night in the top of the 11th inning, scoring Nicky Lopez to give Kansas City an 11-10 lead over the Angels.
New Ball Handling Guidelines Take Effect Today
Rob Manfred is telling everyone how they should handle their balls. In a memo from the Commissioner’s Office on Tuesday, MLB has enacted new baseball storage and handling guidelines that will go into effect today.
The memo, complete with an instructional poster to be placed in clubhouses, details a particular process of “muddying” the baseballs before they are ready for on-field use, a universal method that MLB hopes to create a uniform tackiness to the baseballs that pitchers had complained they lost when the sticky stuff ban went into effect.
There’s a process to the muddying of the baseballs that MLB refers to as “painting” that must be followed as well as guidelines and timeframes for when the application process should take place, how long balls should be placed in the humidor when they can be placed into the ball bag to be brought to the field, and more. It’s kind of intense. We’ll see if it has the desired effect, or if grips about the balls continues throughout the year.
Jesse Rogers breaks it all down in his story on the new procedure:
Dealin’ Dylan Stymies the Jays
Dylan Cease was filthy last night against a very dangerous Blue Jays offense. Cease struck out 11 Blue Jays and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning against Toronto. Cease was plastered on the popular Pitching Ninja Twitter page all night as he induced 20 swinging strikes against Blue Jays. This is no small feat as Toronto entered the night with the American League’s third-highest wRC+ as a team at 111. (Brett: Am I allowed to mention that the gargantuan strike zone helped?)
Cease was nearly unhittable, and everyone in the ballpark knew it. Cease knew it, too.
“It feels like if I get it in the zone, I’m pretty much unhittable,” Cease said of his performance. “So, that’s kinda what I was rolling with today.”
Cease’s 11 strikeouts on Tuesday night give him 108 on the season and raise his league-best K/9 to 13.14. The next closest pitcher in the K/9 department is Shane McClanahan, who is more than a full strikeout less than Cease at 12.06. Cease’s 108 strikeouts rank third in baseball behind only Robin Burnes (110) and McClanahan (113).
“He was pretty much unhittable, watching him from second base,” said White Sox second baseman Josh Harrison after the game. “I was just telling those boys good luck out there.”
Here’s a fun stat:
Isaac Paredes Clubs Three Home Runs
Isaac Paredes came into Tuesday night’s contest with the Yankees hitting just .181 on the season with a .640 OPS. He woke up this morning with a .209 batting average and his OPS up to .797 after his performance last night.
Paredes, whom you might remember as a Cubs prospect many years ago, had three at-bats against the Yankees. He hit a home run in all three at-bats, drove in four runs, and raised his wRC+ from 85 to 128 on the season. Granted, Paredes only has 95 plate appearances on the season, so his numbers can fluctuate more quickly than an everyday player at the nearly three-month mark of the season. Still, that’s some pretty wild inflation in one game.
If you missed it, here is Paredes trio of bombs:
