June 12, 2021
1. Anthony Rizzo has the at-bat of the year
On the day Wrigley Field finally opened back up to full capacity, on the day the Cardinals came to town, on the day the Cubs needed a win to stay in first, on the day Bill Murray was there to sing the stretch, on the day Rizzo was criticized (unfairly, I would argue) by a lot of the public, on the day, the moment, when the Cubs were down by a run — that’s when he’d done it, my favorite Cub in history, a 14-pitch at-bat starting from an 0–2 hole, and a rocket shot into the right field seats, to tie the game:
A beautiful day for baseball, a beautiful day at Wrigley. An an absolutely beautiful at-bat, by this generation’s Mr. Cub, Anthony Rizzo.
2. Stat of the day: Jacob deGrom has more RBIs than earned runs
This might be the stat of the entire year.
Last night, he pitched six scoreless innings, with only one hit allowed and ten strikeouts. And in a game the Mets only one by one run, deGrom had a two-run single to win the game himself:
This is unprecedented stuff, completely, as we collectively enter the Summer of deGrom, and — then, he’s out with an injury again (which seems to be pretty minor, fortunately, tendonitis in the finger):
3. The Rays are the first team to 40 wins
“Rays” your hand if you had that in your preseason predictions:
4. Clayton Kershaw had four strikeouts in one inning
Yes, you read that correctly — here’s the video:
5. Mike Tauchman robs another home run
He did it about a week ago with the game on the line at Dodger Stadium, and now, another leaping catch at the wall in left:
6. More scenes from glorious Wrigley Field, yesterday afternoon
The bleachers were full, the revelry was back, and this guy? This guy was feeling it:
And then, a must-watch clip from Bill Murray at the game:
7. Shohei Ohtani balks on back to back batters
8. Today in massive cup snakes updates
The whole Twitter thread on this one is great, if you open up the link itself:
9. Christian Arroyo hit another massive HR over the Green Monster
If you saw yesterday’s newsletter, you saw him hit a deep shot into the night over the billboard atop the Monster, and now the next night — again:
10. Liam Hendriks gets angry in the rain
And this is what happened after — ouch (though the Sox did go on to win in extras):
11. Quote of the day: Dusty Baker
12. Walk-off winners: Alex Verdugo and Elvis Andrus
13. Injury and roster news updates
14. The (non-Tauchman) catch of the night
From the Lincoln Saltdogs (Lincoln, Nebraska):
15. And lastly, the just going for it steal of home of the year
The kid almost got hit entire head bonked off in the process, but hey, a run is a run:
See you all on Monday. Enjoy the weekend. Peace.
