Washington’s 7-5 win over the Padres produced two top five players in the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings. Fernando Tatis Jr.of the Padres homered in five trips to the plate to stay on top of the leaderboard. Trea Turner of the Nationals went two for four with a walk and a home run to move into the fifth slot. With Carlos Correa still fourth after a night off for Houston, three shortstops are among the best hitters in the game.
Sunday at a Shiva I ran into a friend of a friend, and we started talking baseball. He had not been to a game for a while, but recently went to a major league stadium. The thing that stood out to him was how much bigger the players looked than he remembered. When I was young, it was thought that tall players did not make good shortstops, as the height took away from defense. Ed Brinkman, who was six feet tall and a good shortstop moved the needle a little bit away from that, then Cal Ripken Jr. at six feet four inches blew that out of the water. Today, shortstops can be big, powerful, and good defensively. Tatis stands six feet three inches, Turner six feet two inches, and Correa six feet four inches.
Vladimir Guerrero remains second as the Blue Jays took the day off. Max Muncy of the Dodgers sits in third place as he did not start in a 5-4 Miami victory.
The best game score of the day goes to Ben Gamel of the Pirates, an 82. Gamel hit the Braves for a three for five night with a double and two home runs, driving in six. The Pirates take the game 11-1. Gamel is not having a great year overall, but his slugging picked up since joining the Pirates with an isolated power of .225.