Pitchers tend to hold the upper hand to start the season, with batters warming up with the weather. But, some batters buck that trend and are hot to start the season, including some who do so on a regular basis. So, who are April’s heroes? Spoiler alert: they’re also the heroes in the other months of the season. More after the jump.
Continue readingRonel Blanco lived up to his name, turning in the young season’s first no-hit game as the Astros romped 10-0 over Toronto. Blanco walked the first batter of the game and the next-to-last (both former Astro George Springer) but retired everyone else, as no Blue Jay reached second base. It was the 13th no-hit game by an Astro pitcher (11th at home), and the second time Houston has no-hit Toronto. More after the jump.
Continue readingTo tide us over for the next couple of days, here’s a quick quiz. Not very hard, but some of the names may surprise you. So, what accomplishment can be claimed only by these players?
| Rk | Player ▲ |
|---|---|
| 1 | Richie Ashburn |
| 2 | Rod Carew |
| 3 | Corbin Carroll |
| 4 | Joe DiMaggio |
| 5 | Mark Fidrych |
| 6 | Ron Hansen |
| 7 | Frank Robinson |
| 8 | George Scott |
| 9 | Fernando Valenzuela |
| 10 | Dick Wakefield |
| 11 | Jerry Walker |
On April 23rd this season, Clayton Kershaw pitched 6 innings for the win against the Mets. And, on June 14th, Jose Berrios went 7⅔ against the Orioles and also collected the W. What do these two games have in common? Find out after the jump.
Continue readingThis past season, Braves’ right-hander Kyle Wright won 20 games for the first time. His majors-leading total of 21 wins came in his 5th major league season, though it was really Wright’s first opportunity to win 20 games as he did not appear in more than 8 games in any of his four preceding seasons. In winning 20 games in his first opportunity to do so, Wright became the 87th such pitcher since 1901 and the second in as many seasons, after Julio Urias recorded the same feat in 2021. More after the jump.
Continue readingThe 118th World Series is underway, the first contested by this season’s league champions. The 19 game difference in the regular season records of the the Astros and Phillies is the largest since the 22½ game spread between the Cubs and White Sox way back in the 3rd World Series in 1906. More after the jump.
Continue readingThe NL is featuring two wildcard teams in its championship series, while the #1 and #2 seeds square off in the AL. More after the jump.
Continue readingWith the wildcard round completed, it’s on to the division series. Three of this year’s division series feature teams from within the same division. So, no secrets and no love lost. More after the jump.
Continue readingThe 2022 post-season is underway and, as in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the first round is a best-of-three wildcard series. This time there are four teams involved in each league instead of the eight that qualified two years ago. The other difference is that this time there are fans in the stadiums. More after the jump.
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For his final season, Albert Pujols returned to his home state from his high school and college days and to the team for which he enjoyed his greatest successes. Probably both Pujols and the Cardinals expected his season to be largely a farewell tour, at most platooning at DH, giving first sacker Paul Goldschmidt an occasional day off his feet, and providing a bat off the bench when a pinch-hitter was needed. It turns out that Pujols must have taken a side trip to St. Augustine FL en route to St. Louis, as his season has become much more than he or the Cardinals might have expected, turning in one of the better seasons ever at his age, with some of the best rate stats of the back half of his career. More after the jump.
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