April 28 in Major League Baseball brought us a full slate of 15 games. Most notably, Theo Epstein's current team visited his former team, and the Orioles and Yankees played a crazy one in the Bronx. Let's dig in ...
Friday's games
Mets 7, Nationals 5 (box score)
Yankees 14, Orioles 11 in 10 innings (box score)
Rays 7, Blue Jays 4 (box score)
White Sox 7, Tigers 3 (box score)
Red Sox 5, Cubs 4 (box score)
Mariners 3, Indians 1 (box score)
Pirates 12, Marlins 2 (box score)
Angels 6, Rangers 3 (box score)
Braves 10, Brewers 8 (box score)
Astros 9, Athletics 4 (box score)
Cardinals 7, Reds 5 (box score)
Twins 6, Royals 4 (box score)
Rockies 3, Diamondbacks 1 (box score)
Dodgers 5, Phillies 3 (box score)
Giants 4, Padres 3 (box score)
O's, Yanks bring the power in a wild, wild game
The first-place Orioles and second-place Yankees began a key series in the Bronx on Friday night, and as you see above the Yankees prevailed. Along the way, we saw some impressive displays of power in Yankee Stadium. For a prominent example, please regard Manny Machado's absolute bomb ...
Yep, that's an estimated 470 feet, and that's the longest home run of 2017 so far. Another right-handed Baltimore slugger said his piece later in the game ...
So 11 feet shy of Machado's blast, but it's a grand slam for Mark Trumbo. This is particularly encouraging for the O's, who coming into Friday night hadn't got much production from Machado or Trumbo. In other words, they've been one of the best teams in baseball despite lackluster production from two of their core hitters.
Speaking of core hitters, young Aaron Judge is just that for the Yankees. The 25-year-old colossus entered the game batting .269/.347/.642 with an AL-leading seven jacks. Well, Judge would register the first two-homer game of his big-league career in this one. The most impressive of these was the second. It wasn't particularly noteworthy in terms of distance, but as you're about to see Judge scalded it off the bat ...
That left the bat in a hurry, and it even made a bit of Statcast history along the way ...
Yep, 119.4 mph off the bat. Larduhmercy.
Anyway, circling back to all that grand slam talk earlier, here's Jacoby Ellsbury ...
Welp, all that's missing is a clutch late-inning blast. Fortunately for purposes of intrigue, Starlin Castro was up to the task ...
At various points in this game, the Yankees trailed 5-0, 9-1 and 11-4. Castro's tater tied the score at 11-11 and sent it to extras. Because there was no other way, the 10th inning brought us, yes, another home run. Matt Holliday, take us home ...
In all, these two hard-hitting squadrons combined for eight homers, two grand slams, six doubles, 29 hits and 10 pitchers used. To sum it all up, let's have a look at the win expectancy chart from this one ...
At one point in the seventh inning, the Yankees had a 0.5 percent chance of winning the game. Speaking of which ...
Yep, this might have been the wildest game of 2017.
Molina part of another wild play
Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina is fresh off a contract extension that figures to keep him in St. Louis for the remainder of his career. He's also off to a solid start at the plate in 2017, and, perhaps more notably, he's been central to a growing number of baseball miracles thus far in 2017.
Let's run them down shall we ...
- First, there's Molina's throw in tandem with Javier Baez's no-look tag in the World Baseball Classic.
- Also in the WBC, there was Molina's surprise pickoff of the inattentive Jurickson Profar.
- Earlier this week, Molina was attempting to apply the tag when Chris Coghlan pulled off a Cirque du Soleil "slide."
Well, on Friday night against the Reds, Molina was at it again. The King of the Back-pick this time victimized Eugenio Suarez, who strayed a little past the bag after being forced to third on a walk ...
Also, credit Jedd Gyorko for casually meandering his way into position to apply the tag without alerting Suarez to what was afoot. Had Suarez merely stayed the on the bag, the Reds would've had bases loaded with two outs in a 3-1 game. As you can see, the Cardinals went on to prevail 7-5, so that was potentially a big moment.
As for Molina, that was his 48th career pick-off, which ranks fourth all-time among catchers.
Theo returns to Boston with his biggest prize
The Cubs are in Boston for a three-game series against the Red Sox in Fenway. On the field, there's a lot to like about this matchup. It's two defending division champions that many expect to repeat. Surely some predicted this to be the World Series matchup as well.
In keeping with that sense of intrigue, the Red Sox won a nip-and-tuck affair in the opener Friday night. The Cubs got the tying run in scoring position in the ninth thanks to a Ben Zobrist double off Boston closer Craig Kimbrel (Zobrist has a thing for clutch doubles against AL power teams lately). The Sox, however, held on. For the losing Cubs, though, the highlight was probably Kris Bryant's first at-bat in Fenway Park ...
At 449 feet, that's the longest home run hit at Fenway this season. Some supporting evidence for this claim ...
This is not the first time the Cubs have visited Boston since Theo Epstein took over as Cubs president of baseball operations. There was a series between these teams in Fenway in 2014 (a three-game Cubs sweep). This is, however, obviously, the first time since the Cubs won the World Series.
Epstein now has won the World Series as either general manager or president in 2004, '07 and '16. Two of those were considered curse-breaking for the respective franchises, giving Epstein deity status in each city. I call 2016 Epstein's "biggest prize" because that 2004 Red Sox team was at least moderately built before he was at the helm. He did some exceptional tinkering with the roster to win it all and deserves all the credit he received, but last year's Cubs team was all assembled under his watch. The longest-tenured Cubs player in 2016 was Travis Wood, and he was acquired by Epstein.
Regardless, it's a fun storyline that the Cubs and Red Sox are teaming up to make into a great cause. Both the 2004 and 2016 World Series trophies will be on display in Fenway on Sunday in the K/B concourse. Fans in attendance will have a chance -- likely after waiting in a long line -- to get their picture taken with the trophies. It's not required but recommended to make a $20 donation that supports the Red Sox Foundation and Cubs Charities.
Great cause. Hopefully as part of a great series. The first game certainly qualifies.
Quick hits
- Nationals CF Adam Eaton suffered a leg injury against the Mets on Friday night. He'll undergo an MRI on Saturday.
- Madison Bumgarner's shoulder injury will keep him out at least until the end of July.
- Mets SP Noah Syndergaard will start Sunday against the Nationals. He was scratched from his last scheduled start because of a tired arm.
- As expected, the Mets placed Yoenis Cespedes on the DL and Matt Snyder says the organization deserves scrutiny for how it is handling injuries.
- The Mariners might be without Felix Hernandez and Mitch Haniger for the next month.
- Red Sox legend Pedro Martinez says he would've thrown at Manny Machado, but he wouldn't have thrown at his head.
- The Browns' three first-round picks threw out the ceremonial first pitches before the Indians' game.
- Albert Pujols of the Angels hit his 594th career home run on Friday night.
- The group still competing with Bush-Jeter for the purchase of the Marlins is reportedly the Romney-Glavine one.
- Xander Bogaerts admitted the Red Sox's offense misses a certain large father.
- The Yankees activated Didi Gregorius.
- Rockies 1B/OF Ian Desmond hit a home run in an extended spring game and could return to the Rockies on Sunday (Thomas Harding).
- Sam Dyson was activated from the DL by the Rangers, with Anthony Bass headed back to the minors.
- Pirates INF Gift Ngoepe, who recently became the first African-born player in MLB history, reached base five times in just his second game.
- The Blue Jays promoted catcher Luke Maile to the majors while designating Jarrod Saltalamacchia for assignment.