baseball – Page 12

Caleb Joseph's Historic RBI Drought Is Finally Over

Last September, we brought you the tale of Orioles backup catcher Caleb Joseph—closing in on the sad feat of becoming the first baseball player ever to finish a season with more than 100 plate appearances and not a single RBI.

The Yankees' Ridiculous Comeback Included The Hardest-Hit Home Run On Record

Down by as many as eight runs at their lowest point last night, the Yankees managed to pull off quite the comeback against the Orioles—going from being down 9-1 in the sixth to winning 14-11 in the tenth.

Masahiro Tanaka Intensified An Existential Crisis For The Red Sox Offense

Tonight’s Yankees-Red Sox game was, for once, short—the shortest of my life. That was courtesy of a pitcher’s duel between Masahiro Tanaka and Chris Sale, in which both were excellent but in wholly different ways.

Shelby Miller's Bad Tenure With Arizona Gets Worse

More than a year after it happened, the Diamondbacks’ trade for Shelby Miller has come to serve as a sort of easy symbol of the organization’s dysfunction under former general manager Dave Stewart. But following a truly miserable 2016 that included extended stints in the minors, Miller actually took some steps toward…

Bryce Harper Sent A Dinger To The Forest

Bryce Harper sent a Jordan Lyles fastball to the tree-laden Rockies bullpen this afternoon. He stood and admired the shot for a second, as he should have. There’s no choice but to marvel at a perfect bat-on-ball THWACK like this one.

A Conversation With Gift Ngoepe, Your New Favorite Baseball Player

Last night, the Pirates’ Gift Ngoepe became the first African-born player to appear in a major-league game. He came in to play second in the top of the fourth and hit a single off Jon Lester in his very first at-bat in the bottom of the inning. Later, he walked and helped turn the game-ending double play in the…

The Mets Had Yet Another Rotten Day

Remember the Mets? You know, the team that made a surprise run to the 2015 World Series thanks to Yoenis Cespedes’s strong hitting, then made the play-in game last year, all the while flashing one of the deepest and most dominant young rotations baseball had seen in years? Things aren’t going well for them.

We Made Rick Ankiel Play Jenga With Us

When Rick Ankiel’s long, strange career ended in 2013, he was left with a .240 batting average in almost 2,000 at-bats, a 3.90 ERA over 242 innings, and a place in the record books next to Babe Ruth as the only other player to start a playoff game as the pitcher and hit a home run in the postseason as a position…

Gift Ngoepe, First-Ever African-Born MLB Player, Got A Hit In His First Career At-Bat

Earlier this week, the Pittsburgh Pirates were losing to the Cubs and they replaced Antonio Bastardo on the mound with Dovydas Neverauskas. The Lithuanian pitched two innings and became the first Lithuanian-born player to play in a major league game. Neverasukas was optioned back to Triple-A Indianapolis earlier this…

Parade Of Errors Helps Orioles Score On Little League Inside-The-Park Home Run

Kevin Kiermaier is one of the best defensive center fielders in the game, but tonight, he helped give the Orioles a pair of undeserved runs. Kiermaier’s error was the least decisive of the series of fuck-ups that gifted Seth Smith a little league inside-the-park home run, he just started what became a compounding…

The King's Arm Is Dead

Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez has had an underwhelming start to the season, and it turned worse Tuesday. Hernandez lasted two innings in Seattle’s 19-9 loss to Detroit, ceding four runs before getting yanked after 48 pitches. Hernandez leads the majors in hits allowed with 39 and currently has a 4.73 ERA. He was…

Homer-Smacking Eric Thames Isn't Worried About Drug Tests Because He Has "A Lot Of Blood And Urine"

Home run hero Eric Thames spent last week abusing Reds pitching and mashing big taters, and he picked right back up where he left off this week, smacking three more cuadrangulares in the past two games. He now has eight home runs in six games against the Reds and 11 on the year.

Chris Coghlan Scores With Spectacular Swan Dive

In the top of the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, a man achieved flight. After Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar hit a deep shot to right field, Chris Coghlan took off from first base. He rounded third as the throw came, sprinted for home as it arrived, and then launched himself over Cardinals catcher…

Astros Players Leave Game After Ugly Outfield Collision

Houston Astros right fielder Teoscar Hernandez and second baseman Jose Altuve took each other out while chasing down a fly ball to shallow right field in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Cleveland Indians tonight.

Reports: Jeb And Jeets Got The Marlins

According to multiple reports, the ownership group led by Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush has submitted the winning bid to purchase the Miami Marlins from disgusting rich person Jeffrey Loria.

Jason Heyward's New Swing Seems To Be Working

Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward has mashed three home runs in his last four games, a feat that would have been unthinkable during his miserable 2016 season.

Yasiel Puig Absolutely Snipes Brandon Belt At Home

After the Buster Posey smacked a hard grounder to right field, Dodgers’ defensive marvel Yasiel Puig launched this throw from the outfield, somehow zinging it straight into the glove of catcher Yasmani Grandal in time to cut down Brandon Belt, who was trying to score from second. Puig’s cannon ended the first inning…

Smart Baseball Can Still Be Fun Baseball

Functionally and historically, the sabermetric revolution in baseball is over. Analytics is not some outsider’s method of attacking institutional baseball; it’s how institutional baseball does business. Every single major-league team receives immense amounts of data from MLB about their players’ batting, pitching,…

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again And Again

If baseball is inherently a game of failure, the slog through the minor leagues can sometimes seem like a study in ignominious repetition. The long bus rides, bad hotels, and sparsely-attended games in forgettable towns: I imagine it can all start to feel like throwing a beach ball into the wind.

White Sox Enthusiast Enjoys Game

The Chicago White Sox defeated the Cleveland Indians 6-2 Sunday to improve their home record to 3-5. A portly fellow in a Paul Konerko jersey celebrated the win by invading the field in the ninth inning.

Phillies Smack Three Honkin' Taters In A Row

The Phillies, who haven’t finished above .500 since 2011, are actually making the early part of this season interesting—or at least, entertaining—for their fans. Granted: it’s still April, there’s essentially no chance of them catching the Nationals at any point over the next five months, and their weekend sweep of…

Red Sox Flub Stupid Attempt To Follow Dumb Unwritten Rule

The Red Sox gloriously botched an attempt to stupidly retaliate at Manny Machado for a hard slide that unintentionally spiked Dustin Pedroia on Friday. Reliever Matt Barnes tried throwing a 90-mph fastball directly at Machado’s head in the eighth inning…

Something's Off With Kenta Maeda

Kenta Maeda’s start to the season has been, to put it simply, pretty ugly. In four games so far, he’s failed to make it past the fifth inning; last night’s performance was the worst yet, allowing six runs and putting 10 men on base. Now, the Dodgers are saying that they might skip his next start in order to give him…

Things Are Not Good For The Blue Jays, Who Are Starting A 29-Year-Old Rookie Tonight

Most of the panic around the Blue Jays and their major-league-worst record of 4-12 has focused on their offense, and rightfully so—they’ve been the worst in baseball, with a collective slash line of .215./.283/.323. Three weeks into the season, their team offensive WAR is a negative number. (There are many valid…

The Red Sox And Orioles Have A Little Beef After Manny Machado Spiked Dustin Pedroia

Things got heated between the Red Sox and Orioles after last night’s eighth inning, when Dustin Pedroia had to leave the game after being spiked by Manny Machado as he tried to turn a double play.

White Sox Outfielder Struggles To Make Contact

Going into tonight’s game against the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox outfielder Jacob May, who won a tough competition for the team’s center-field job this spring, this doesn’t have a hit yet this year in 24 at-bats—the first 24 of his major-league career.

Madison Bumgarner Placed On The DL After Presumably Bitchin' Dirt Bike Accident

The Giants placed Madison Bumgarner on the disabled list with a sprained left shoulder and bruised ribs. According to Ken Rosenthal,

Fan Yelling "I Got It" Fucks With Tigers Fielders

Tigers center fielder JaCoby Jones, right fielder Tyler Collins, and second baseman Ian Kinsler watched a couple easy of fly balls drop between them in the first three innings of Wednesday’s 8-7 loss against Tampa Bay:

The Next Great Cuban Baseball Prospect Is Officially A Free Agent

Nineteen-year-old Cuban outfielder Luis Robert was declared a free agent yesterday, and will be free to sign with a team starting May 20. At 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, he’s considered one of the best international prospects on the market—second only to the already legendary Shohei Otani.

Travis Shaw Crushed The Hardest Dinger Of The Season So Far

Travis Shaw got things started for the Brewers in the first inning today with a monster three-run dong that flew into the second deck: