Nine innings, nine items to get you going. Ladies and gentleman of the Stew, take a sip of morning Juice.
1. Took him long enough: After 26 games and 119 plate appearances without going into a home run trot — the longest drought of his career — St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols went deep against the Padres in a 3-1 victory Monday night. Eyewitnesses claim Pujols hit two other balls harder, but they were merely long outs at PETCO.
Watch Albert get phat
Albert's still not right; He's batting .268/.340/.421, but manager Tony La Russa says opponents are pitching Pujols like he's batting .350, so look for him to get hot, I guess.
Scott Miller at CBS Sports put together an amusing list of occurrences since Pujols previously went yard April 23. Most notable: The Cardinals went 16-10 and Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista hit 12 homers. TWELVE-UH.
2. Well, they didn't waste any time: After long absences due to injury, Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz each hit a home run to back Alexi Ogando in a 4-0 Texas Rangers victory. Hamilton hadn't seen the field in six weeks, but he delivered his first homer against John Danks. Cruz missed three weeks. Ogando pitched a five-hitter and lowered his ERA to 1.81 in nine starts. He's one of eight major leaguers with an ERA at 2.00 or lower. Juice that ball up, eh?
3. Mutiny!: The Los Angeles Angels scored three in the eighth to key a 4-1 victory against the A's. But get a load of what Oakland's Brian Fuentes said about his manager after he fell to 1-7. Please, do not invite him and manager Bob Geren to the same baseball team.
4. Keep on truckin': The Cleveland Indians might not ever lose again. Asdrubal Cabrera lined a go-ahead, two-run double in the eighth, letting the Boston Red Sox taste the Tribe's wrath by a 3-2 score.
5. Just as everyone predicted: Despite getting two home runs from Jim Thome and his blue ox, the Minnesota Twins are 15 1/2 games out of first place in the AL Central after falling to the Seattle Mariners 8-7 in 10 innings.
6. Show us your hits!:
He took the collar in his return from knee hell, going 0 for 5, but Chase Utley must have supernaturally sparked the Philadelphia Phillies to a big night offensively in a 10-3 victory against the Cincinnati Reds. Three guys — Placido Polanco, Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibañez — each hit a homer and Cole Hamels allowed three runs over six. Bronson Arroyo had a bad night.
7. How do you walk like an Angel?: Angel Sanchez worked an 11-pitch walk in the ninth, which Hunter Pence said keyed the Houston Astros big comeback against the Dodgers. Pence later came through with a game-ending, two-out single against Kenley Jansen for a 4-3 victory at the Juice Box.
8. But did he wear sunglasses?: Corey Hart came in with no home runs in 21 games. So he took corrective steps and had the night of his life: Three home runs and seven RBIs (both tying club records) in the Milwaukee Brewers 11-3 victory against the Washington Nationals. The middle homer was the 100th of his career.
9. Walk at your own risk: The New York Yankees put a lot of effort into pitching around Jose Bautista in a disastrous sixth inning. They ended up putting too many people on base and the Toronto Blue Jays made them pay with a five-spot to key a 7-3 victory against Bartolo Colon. Earlier, Bautista had hit his 19th homer. Saps!
Follow Dave on Twitter — @AnswerDave — and engage the Stew on Facebook
沒有留言:
張貼留言