Kyle Schwarber puts the Phillies on the board in the top of the fourth inning with a lead-off home run. That’s his fourth home run of the post-season, all in the NLCS.
Update: According to the broadcast, Schwarber’s 19th career post season home run puts him in front of Reggie Jackson for most post-season homers by a left-handed batter.
Josh Jung hits his second home run of the game to bring the Rangers back to a three-run deficit, the Astros leading 7-4. It also is ninth multi-HR game of the post-season tying this season with 1995 for the second most multi-HR games in a post season.
So far in the 2023 playoffs, we’ve seen player-games with the batter hitting at least two home runs. That’s tied for third for all post-seasons. There were twelve in 2020, nine in 1995, and eight in 2011. There are plenty of games and plenty of power left to break that record.
Kyle Schwarber leads off the bottom of the sixth inning for the Phillies with a monster home run to right-center. That’s his second home run of the game and this third of the series. The Phillies keep showing the power that makes a difference in a close game. The Phillies lead the Diamondbacks 3-0 as Philadelphia continues to bat in the sixth inning.
Update: Merrill Kelly walks Trea Turner, but gets the next two batters. He comes out of the game with three runs allowed, five strikeouts, and two walks. Unfortunately, he also allowed three homers.
Update: Joe Mantiply comes in and gives up a single to Bryson Stott, then a double to JT Realmuto. Brandon Marsh follows with a double of his own, and just like that the Phillies are up 6-0.
Mantiply had not allowed a hit in the post season.
Update: A grounder to third ends the inning, but the damage is done. The Diamondbacks are in a huge whole with just nine outs to go.
Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies hits a two-out home run in the bottom of the third inning to increase the Phillies lead over the Diamondbacks to 2-0. That’s five home runs for the Phillies in two games, accounting for five of their seven runs.
The Phillies have only struck out once in the game. They are putting the ball in play, but not getting hits unless they blast it out of the park.
Trea Turner of the Phillies opened the game committing an error on a ground ball from Corbin Carroll of the Diamondbacks. The miscue did not lead to a run, but Turner blasts a ball out of the part in the bottom of the first to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. The crowd will forget the error.
Nick Castellanos of the Phillies homers with one out in the second inning to extend the Phillies lead over the Diamondbacks to 3-0. He’s now homered in three straight games, five dingers in all. I have to believe that a pretty good home run streak for the post-season.
Update: As far as I can tell, Schwarber ties a record help by Donn Clendenon of the Mets and Hank Aaron of the Braves in 1969. Aaron hit home runs in three straight games against the Mets in the best of five NLCS, but the Mets won the series. Clendenon, who did not play in the NLCS, then hit home runs in three straight games for the Mets against the Orioles in the World Series.
Yordan Alvarez of the Astros comes up in the bottom of the eighth with two outs and homers for the second time in the game. That give him six home runs in his six 2023 post-season games.
The homer causes the Rangers to pull Aroldis Chapman from the game and go to their closer Jose Leclerc for a four-out save as the Rangers lead is down to 5-4.
Update: Leclerc comes in and walks Jose Abreu on five pitches.
Update: Leclerc walks Michael Brantley on four pitches.
Update: Chas McCormick grounds to third for a force to end the inning.
Nick Castellanos of the Phillies homers in the bottom of the sixth inning, his second homer of the game and the second game in row he hit two home runs! The Phillies lead the Braves 3-1 as they are nine outs from a trip to the NLCS.
Yordan Alvarez of the Astros goes deep in the top of the ninth inning to extend the lead over the Twins to 7-1. The homer comes after two doubles, giving him six hits in the series, four homer and two doubles. He is now slugging 1.667 in the three games, meaning his average at bat lands him two thirds of the way between first and second.
Jose Abreu follows with a homer, his second of the game, and the Astros lead 9-1.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Ronald Acuna Jr.is hit by a pitch, and two batters later Austin Riley takes a ball into the leftfield bullpen to give the Braves a 5-4 lead. The Braves found their home run power late in this game, and that gave them the edge.
Ronald Acuna Jr.of the Braves picked up a home run and a double in the first three innings as the Braves jump out to a 4-1 lead over the Nationals. That gives Acuna 78 extra-base hits on the season, all from the lead-off slot. The Day by Day Database has lineup positions back to 1974, and in that time only ten players have more extra-base hits from the lead-off slot in a season. Grady Sizemore of the Indians in 2006 collected 92 EXBH, the most. A number of active players are in the top ten, a reflection of the change in lineup construction. Charlie Blackmon collected 86 EXBH in 2017, Mookie Betts reached 84 EXBH in 2018 ( and is at 78 this season), and Francisco Lindor collected 80 in 2018. The least recent season in the top ten belongs to Nomar Garciaparra with 85 in 1997.
The home run give Acuna 40 on the season, another impressive number for a lead-off hitter. Most players who hit like that get moved down in the other, but the Braves have so much power they can afford him blasting at the beginning to create big innings.
Jose Ramirez of the Guardians homered on Sunday, his birthday. It was the fourth time he homered on his birthday. That’s two short of the record for homering on a birthday, held by Mark Reynolds (August 3rd) and Alex Rodriguez (July 27). Four batters hit five birthday homers, including active player Mike Trout.
This made me ask, what is the record for home runs on a particular day? Going back to 1920, the most on a particular day belongs to Albert Pujols, who hit a total of 13 home runs on May 30th. Barry Bonds (Aug. 18th), Gil Hodges (May 30th), and Jimmie Foxx (June 8th) all had 12 home runs on a date.
There’s something about May 30th.
Ozzie Albies of the Braves hit a two-run homer in the top of the first inning to give the Braves a 2-0 lead over the Marlins. The hit gives Albies 30 home runs on the season, the fifth Braves player this season to hit 30 home runs. That ties the MLB record for players with 30 home runs in a season, set by the Twins in 2019. It also sets the NL record. Thirteen other teams fielded four 30 home run hitters, but none before 1977, when the Dodgers became the first team to reach that level. The 1998 Braves also saw four players hit 30 home runs.
The Braves lead the Marlins 3-1 in the bottom of the first as Austin Riley added a solo shot for Atlanta and Luis Arraez went deep for the Marlins, his third home run in two days.
Update: Yuli Gurriel adds a three-run homer in the bottom of the first to put the Marlins up 4-3.
Royce Lewis of the Twins set a team and rookie record on Friday with his fourth grand slam in eighteen games. Four is a season is the most by a Twins player. He’s now hit five as a rookie, since he came up last season, hit a slam, and retained his rookie status. That record is a bit of a stretch, and Alexi Ramirez did not have a cup of coffee. The four slams in ten games is pretty amazing:
All four of Lewis’ grand slams this season have come in his last 18 games, the shortest span to hit four grand slams in MLB history (Don Mattingly is next, accomplishing the feat in 39 games during the 1987 season, and Travis Hafner in 44 games in 2006).
ESPN.com
Mattingly and Hafner each hit six grand slams in their seasons, the record. Three players have five slams in a season.
In a throwback to previous eras, we should drop Royce and just call this hitter Slammer Lewis. A quarter of his MLB home runs have gone for grand slams. He’s slugging .545 in his short career while hitting over .300. He’s not yet in his prime. Let’s get this nickname to stick.
The Brewers score twice in the top of the twelfth inning, but Giancarlo Stanton leads off the bottom of the inning with a two-run homer to tie the game again. One of the great games of all time is tied at three in the twelfth.
Update: The next three Yankees go down, and the game goes to the thirteenth inning. New York has three runs on two hits, thanks in part to the ghost runner.
Update: The Brewers fail to score in the top of the thirteenth.
Update: Kyle Higashioka of the Yankees makes an adjustment at the plate in the bottom of the thirteenth. He moved a bit closer to the plate, which caused Brewer catcher Victor Caratini to make a mound visit. On the next pitch, Higashioka moves closer again and lines the pitch into the leftfield corner for a 4-3 Yankees win.
What a great game. A heart breaking loss for the Brewers. They dominated the Yankees hitters, but New York came through with the game on the line twice, and wins the contest.
The Mets had a funny reaction to a Shohei Ohtani foul ball knocking out a light in an auxiliary scoreboard. They lit up the main scoreboard with the message, “We’re sending you the bill for that, Shohei.”
Ohtani doubled and tripled in the game, which the Angels lead 5-3 in the bottom of the sixth inning. His eighth triple of the season matches his career single season high from 2021. His injury has not effected his hitting so far.
The Atlanta Braves hit three more home runs Wednesday afternoon in defeating the Angels 12-5. That brings their season total to 206, tying them with the 1973 Braves for their eighth highest home run total. That was the year Davey Johnson, Darrell Evans, and Henry Aaron all hit at least 40 home runs.
The Braves set the franchise record in 2019 with 249 dingers. At their current pace they would hit well over 300 homers, shattering the franchise record. The probably won’t get three players to the forty home run level, but they could easily get five players to the 30 home run level. The only team with five players with 30 home runs was the 2019 Twins.
Brothers Josh Naylor and Bo Naylor both home for the Guardians, the first time the brothers homered in the same game at the major league level. Both homers came in the third inning, Bo hitting a two-run shot after a leadoff single by Myles Straw. Josh’s came with two out and one on.
Cleveland leads Texas 4-2 in the sixth inning in the Lone Star State.
Update: They had to add some qualifiers, but this was a first.
Bo and Josh Naylor of the Cleveland Guardians became the first brothers major league history to hit multi-run homers in the same inning for the same team when each hit a two-run shot during the third inning at Texas on Friday night.
Chron.com
Three Astros players collect a double and a home run in the 12-11 win over the Rangers Monday afternoon. Jose Abreu and Chas McCormick both go two for five, while Kyle Tucker goes four for four with a hit by pitch, missing the cycle by a triple.
That’s the fourth time in 2023 three players on a team each had at least one homer and one double. It only happened twice in 2022, but six times in 2021. Four players for a team in a game happened 14 times since 1920, but the earliest I find in the Day by Day Database is 6/5/1982. That day, Robin Yount, Ben Oglivie, Cecil Cooper, and Ted Simmons helped the Brewers to an 11-3 win over the Athletics.
Joey Gallo of the Twins often generates the lowest probability of getting a hit according to the Beat the Streak neural network. He was certainly last this morning with Spencer Strider scheduled to start for the Braves. Gallo, however, take Strider deep, something that batters do against the strikeout artist more often this season. Strider won the second battle, with a K.
It’s a pitcher and a batter who are all power and strikeouts, and so far we’ve seen one of each.
The Twins and Braves are tied at one at the end of five innings.
Update: Gallo walks his third time up just to complete the outcomes. It’s still 1-1 in the seventh inning.
The Braves and Reds combine for eight home runs as Atlanta takes the game 7-6, ending the Reds 12-game win streak. The Braves hold a large lead in home runs for the NL now 138. The Reds bring their total to 77, less than half of the Braves. Hanging with Atlanta today in long balls was a at least a moral victory for Cincinnati.
The Rays held the Rangers to just three hits, but all three were home runs as Leody Taveras goes deep twice and Josh Jung once. That accounted for all three runs, which was nowhere near enough as Tampa Bay takes the game 8-3. Isaac Paredes matched the Rangers hit total with two home runs and a double, driving in six of the home team’s runs.
This was a pretty good matchup, but only 17,447 fans showed up.
Shohei Ohtani of the Angels hit the longest home run of his career Wednesday afternoon, 459 feet:
Ohtani increased his career total to 13 multihomer games with his first this season. He now has nine home runs of at least 450 feet in his career, all coming in the past three seasons and tied with Ronald Acuna Jr. and Salvador Perez for second in MLB in that span, behind only C.J. Cron, who has 16. He also has 12 career home runs in 31 games against the White Sox, his most against any team not in the American League West.
Trout pulled a hanging curve for his 13th home run and longest of the season. It was the 10th of his career of at least 460 feet, and since he entered the league in 2011, the only players with more at that distance are Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge.
ESPN.com
It’s about time we came up with a nickname for this pair, a la the Bash Brothers. The Sushi Slammers?
The Mets used two last-minute, three-run homers to beat the Rays 8-7 in ten innings Wednesday night.
The rookies gave the Mets a chance, and their leader took them home.
Mark Vientos — making his season debut — drilled a game-tying home run in the seventh. Francisco Alvarez crushed a three-run, game-tying home run in the ninth.
And in the 10th, with the Mets down two, it was Pete Alonso’s turn.
Alonso crushed his fourth-career walk-off home run in a wild, 10-inning, 8-7 win over the Rays at Citi Field on Wednesday night in a game that felt as if it included 2022 magic.
“Three homers to end it,” Kodai Senga, who was excellent through six, one-run innings, said through a translator, “is something from a movie.”
NYPost.com
The Rays led 1-0 after six innings, then the offenses took off. The Tampa Bay bullpen came into the game with a .213/.304/.350 opponents slash line. The Mets went five for 18 with three home runs, a walk, and two hit batters to win the game in dramatic fashion.
Aaron Judge responded to accusations of sign stealing made on Monday by hitting a massive home run on Tuesday without taking his eyes off the pitcher:
The New York captain stepped up to the plate Tuesday after coming under fire after he appeared to glimpse at his Yankees dugout for what the Blue Jays believe were indications on what pitch was going to come at him in Monday’s game.
But the six-foot-seven slugger got his revenge the following game as he hit a 448-foot monster of a homer dead at center field in the eighth inning to help the Yankees into the lead during their 6-3 victory.
The moonshot was so powerful it ricocheted off the wall and appeared to break the maple leaf on the signage on the front of the Rogers Centre’s restaurant above the batter’s eye, silencing his Toronto doubters.
MSN.com
You can watch the home run here.
I love this kind of response. It’s not just a home run, it’s a home run to centerfield. Not just a home run to centerfield, but off the back of a wall well beyond the outfield wall. Not just off the wall, but it breaks the sign on the wall. It just doesn’t break any sign, but the part of the sign that’s the symbol of the country. It’s not quite the climax of “The Natural”, but it’s pretty close.
Note that this doesn’t mean the Yankees and Judge didn’t pick up on something Monday night, it just means Toronto fans are going to see the broken leaf every time they say something.
Update: Jay Jackson of the Blue Jays admits he was tipping his pitches on Monday. He was delivering the ball faster when he was throwing a slider. There is also a clarification in the article on what is allowable. A player or coach on the field can relay information they gather by site, but no one in the dugout can relay that information to someone on the field.
Josh Jung of the Rangers hit two home runs Wednesday afternoon, his second two home run game in as many weeks. With another two-homer game in September of 2022, Jung has three multi-home run games in his 54 MLB appearances, or in 5.5% of his games played. Compare that to Babe Ruth, who holds the record for multi-HR games with 72. Ruth did that in 2503 games, or 2.8% of his games. Jung is off to a great start to his career in this regard.
Unfortunately for the Rangers, that was not enough as the Diamondbacks win 12-7. Christian Walker hit two home runs for Arizona in the game, and the two teams drove a total of eight balls out of the yard.
The Giants lead the Padres 11-8 in the top of the seventh inning as the teams play the first MLB game in Mexico City. The altitude of the city seems to be helping the hitters. At the moment, the two teams combined for 24 hits, 17 of them for extra bases. The Giants hit four doubles and five home runs, while the Padres hit three doubles and five home runs. The home runs came off the bats of ten different players.
The Angels visit the Yankees, and the game will feature the last two AL MVPs, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge. Since the start of the 2021 season, Judge and Ohtani rank 1-2 in the American League in home runs (1-3 in the majors) respectively. Note that Judge hit significantly better than Ohtani with 23 more homers and a much better slash line. Of course, Ohtani is a top pitcher as well, two players in one. Ohtani won’t be pitching in this game, so the two can play home run derby. Of course, Mike Trout is there as well, easily the best hitter of his generation.
Arizona sends Drey Jameson against the Cardinals and Jordan Montgomery. Jameson is now 5-0 in his MLB career in eight appearances, five of them starts. He struck out 36 and walked 12 in 36 2/3 innings helping him to a 1.47 ERA. Montgomery stands 8-4 with a 2.96 ERA since being traded to the Cardinals in the middle of the 2022 season. He allowed just six home runs in 82 innings.
The Mets continue their series with the Dodgers as Tylor Megill faces Clayton Kershaw. Megill won his first three starts of the season despite averaging just 5 1/3 innings. Without a chance to get in trouble, his ERA stands at 2.25. Kershaw has allowed more unearned runs (4) than earned runs (3) this season. Opponents have managed some power against him with three home runs allowed in 18 innings.
Enjoy!
The Angels Blue Jays beat the Angels 12-11 in an extra-inning slugfest. The two team collected twenty six hits in the game, eight for extra bases. Kevin Kiermaier of Toronto missed the cycle by a home run, while Hunter Renfro of LAnaheim took the more traditional route and missed the cycle by a triple.
Coming into the season I thought triples might go up due to the larger bases. Through Saturday, however, only 0.26% of plate appearances ended in triples, which would be the lowest rate of all time. It looks like today yielded a good number of three-baggers, so we’ll see how this looks tomorrow morning.