Baseball Time in Arlington celebrates Michael Young’s first walk-off home run:
But rationality couldn’t obscure the overwhelming raw emotions of euphoria and relief that streamed out of that jubilant home dugout as third baseman Michael Young, the de facto clubhouse leader whom has taken it upon himself to put this offense on his back, punctuated his first-ever major league walk-off home run trot with an understated fist-pump.
Rationality couldn’t explain the thrilling eighth-inning rally that positioned Texas to salvage a game that had almost pushed manager Ron Washington that much closer to termination. And rationality couldn’t account for one of baseball’s worst bullpens posting four startling shutout frames of one-hit baseball courtesy of Jason Jennings, C.J. Wilson and Frank Francisco, the final of whom is pitching as well as any reliever in baseball right now.
With 117 home runs before the walk off, Young was the active player with the most home runs without a game winner. That title now goes to Ty Wigginton. (Active players = have appeared in a game in 2009.)
| Hitter | Career HR |
|---|---|
| Ty Wigginton | 110 |
| Aaron Rowand | 108 |
| Fernando Tatis | 103 |
| Garrett Atkins | 91 |
| Xavier Nady | 87 |
Nady won’t be hitting his first walk off any time soon. I’m somewhat surprised Atkins never hit one playint at Coors where anything can happen.
The Rangers offense is good enough to win a number of games in which their pitchers allow five runs, like on Sunday. That’s why it’s so important for them to get their ERA down to around 4.50 as a team. Right now, it’s 6.45.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:26 am | Sluggers | Permalink | 2 Comments
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April 20th, 2009 @ 1:23 pm
Any diea who has the most walk off HR’s in history? That’d make a very interesting list. I wonder how many the most is, and who did it or doing it, and who might be able to break it, etc, etc. I’m not even sure how to find out who they’d be. I’d like to see a top 15 or top 20.
April 20th, 2009 @ 1:40 pm
Sammy Sosa has the most since the start of the 1974 season, 24.