June 19, 2021
1. Cedric Mullins hits two HRs on Cedric Mullins t-shirt day
If you haven’t heard of him, the guy’s batting .322 with 11 home runs in his second full season so far. And last night, free Cedric Mullins t-shirt jerseys were given out at Camden Yards.
And so, he goes and hits two home runs and the Orioles win:
Here’s the curtain call:
2. And on the release day his new Japanese jersey, Ohtani hits two HRs
First, the jersey with his name in kanji Japanese characters:
And second, the two home runs. What are the odds that kind of the same thing happened in Baltimore and in Anaheim?
3. Cubs owner Tom Ricketts is getting heckled at Wrigley Field
“Extend Rizzo!”
“Extend KB. Extend Rizzo!”
4. Johnny Cueto slips on the mound, then sprints around the bases
And then, an inning or two later, he’s recovered, he’s fine, he’s rolling around the bases, coming home to score:
5. The Bay Area now has the two best records in baseball
The Giants are 45–25, ahead by 2.5 games in the NL West.
And the A’s are now 44–27, the second-best record in baseball — after winning the first of a three-game set at Yankee Stadium:
6. The Blue Jays are falling backwards
They’ve felt like one of the best few teams in the league, watching the games, yet also very mediocre — almost winning each night, but somehow finding ways to lose. And now two games under .500 after a bad week.
This is fine. Everything is fine. It’s fine.
7. Roster and injury news: Tyler Glasnow and Mike Ford
The Rays have gotten encouraging news after Glasnow visited a specialist doctor in Texas, with a chance he could come back by September:
And the other day, the Yankees sent Mike Ford to the Rays after he’d been DFA’d, a guy very well liked by Yankee fans — and here’s maybe his career highlight moment:
8. Adalberto Mondesi hit a very deep HR in his second game off the IL
The Royals are 31–37, in a strange up and down season alternating between extreme hot and cold streaks — likely out of the running for even the AL Wild Card at this point. But, this guy might just go on a tear all summer:
9. Yu Darvish ordered balls from the Japanese league, to show teammates the natural grippy-ness
The NPB League has a “pre-tackiness” applied to balls, unlike their MLB counterparts, allowing pitchers to have enough grip right out of the box.
So, Yu ordered a box of balls to show off in the Padres clubhouse — maybe MLB brass will take note, and make some changes, given the drama that’s been going on amid the “sticky stuff” crackdown:
10. Baseball media is finally just about back
Broadcasters are in the booth together, without the plastic partitions. Reporters are on the field, next to the dugout, interviewing players directly, as one of the last, unnatural regulations of this whole time period passes:
11. Stat of the day: Cardinals pitching
It’s mid-June, and they’ve tied the franchise record for bases loaded walks (given up) in a season:
12. Ji-Man Choi shows off Korean food at The Trop
“What animal is it?”
“Cow. Mooooo!!”
13. Tony La Russa wears a very high hat
Not sure how else to describe that — the altitude of his cap is quite vertiginous, indeed. Must be one of those old-school, unwritten baseball rules kind of things, just a bit beyond the ken of us young’ns.
But a pretty cool guy he’s standing there chatting with, in Houston:
14. A fan caught a bullpen ball in New York and it stuck to his hand
The claim seemed legitimate enough, scrolling around in the comments on the tweet, but hey, he could always just be making the whole thing up. But, very interesting, given that “sticky stuff” has been the entire talk of the baseball world:
15. And lastly, a fantastic tackle by minor-league security
This one from a few nights ago, at the Worcester Red Sox game. And who ever said baseball games were boring?
See you on Monday, everyone. Enjoy the weekend.
