by Chris Wilder | Aug 24, 2024 | 6TH SLOT
Michael Harris II and the Atlanta Braves walked out of Truist Field with a 3-2 extra-inning victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday night. They also pulled a game closer to the Phillies in the NL East race thanks to some Harris heroics.
Michael Harris came into the game with 43 career home runs but none of them led off a game. Hello 44. Harris’s Friday night 410-foot shot off of Washington Nationals starter, MacKenzie Gore, came out of the lead off spot in the first inning. You might think Harris was setting the tone for the game, but Gore went on to pitch six innings with four strikeouts and no walks with Harris’s homer being the only run he allowed.
With not much happening after Harris’s homer, we can fast forward to the 10th inning where the Braves and Nationals are tied at 2. In the top of the inning Bro, CJ Abrams, pinch hit for Nasim Nunez, who had gotten the start at Abrams’s usual spot: shortstop. CJ popped out which is inconsequential except that it put him in the field for the bottom of the 10th after sitting in the dugout for nearly three hours.
Deep in the grass for the first batter, CJ made the play on a ground ball as the ghost runner moved to third. After a line out, there was a man on third with two outs and Michael Harris II coming to bat. As expected, he hit it to CJ Abrams who picked it up cleanly and then threw it wide and low to first as he was compensating for Harris’s speed. Safe at first. Run scored. Braves win.
Michael Harris II Is The Five-Tool Diamond-Igniter For Lethal Atlanta Braves Squad
“I gotta make a better throw in that situation,” Abrams said after the game. “Maybe take a little more time. I think I had more time than I thought.”
There was no RBI on the play for Harris, but maybe he should get one. His speed is what caused Abrams to flub the throw. “In that situation, with two outs, you try to put the ball in play and see what happens,” Harris said.
What happened is they won the game.
by Chris Wilder | Jul 1, 2023 | FRONT STREET
Josiah Gray leaned on his 8 Ks to hold the Phillies bats down in the Nationals’ 2-1, Friday night win. His MLBbrother From Another Mother, Stone Garrett, homered to knock in both of DC’s runs.
by Chris Wilder | Jun 25, 2023 | FRONT STREET
Dusty Baker got ejected on Saturday after his pitcher, Ryan Stanek, was called for an 8th inning balk that forced in the go-ahead run in the Astros’ 8-7 loss to the Dodgers.
by Chris Wilder | May 21, 2023 | 5TH SLOT
The Yankees cut outfielder and MLBbro, Aaron Hicks, on Saturday just before their game in Cincinnati. He was in the fourth year of a seven-year, $70 million contract, so he is still owed around $27.6 million.
With Aaron Hicks Struggling…Could He Be the Next MLBbro Released?
Money is no object for a team like the Yankees, so that $27 million won’t even be thought about up in The Bronx, but Aaron Hicks will be glad he’s getting it while he’s figuring out where to go next.
“It is what it is,” he told the New York Post. “It’s part of the business side of it. Just got to move on to the next chapter. … This is a very good baseball team. It kind of seemed like it wasn’t working out for me.”
The 33 year-old was designated for assignment (DFA) to make room for outfielder Greg Allen who they picked up in a trade with Boston on Friday. This will be Allen’s second stint with the Bombers as he played in 15 games back in 2021.
As for Hicks, he wasn’t having a great 2023, batting .188 with a homer and five RBIs in 28 games this season. In fairness, his entire tenure wasn’t that great. The Yankees signed him in 2019; he got injured that season, needed Tommy John surgery and hasn’t been the same since. He came back to a pandemic-shortened season and then suffered a different season-ending injury the following year. For his career, he batted .236 before the surgery and .212 after.
“Difficult decision, one we felt we had to make,” manager Aaron Boone said about cutting Hicks.
Having come over from the Twins in a 2016 trade, Hicks had been the longest-tenured position player on the team.
Top Four Destination Where New York Yankees MLBbro Aaron Hicks Can Revive His Career | Take A Step Back To Move Forward
“Five-plus years from my standpoint with someone,” Boone lamented. Obviously, he predates me. It’s family. You go through everything with these guys. Obviously, with Aaron, he’s had some ups and downs. He had some good seasons for us. Some playoff moments for us. The last few years, he’s had some struggles, some injuries. Not an easy conversation.”
by Chris Wilder | May 6, 2023 | 5TH SLOT
The Oakland A’s have denounced a remark made by their longtime announcer, Glen Kuiper, and indefinitely suspended him after he used a racial slur on the air. During the pregame broadcast of their 12-8 win at Kansas City on Friday, Kuiper was describing the city and said that he went to the “N***** League Museum” in what many are calling a slip of the tongue.
The A’s are not calling it that. In fact, they called it “unacceptable” in a statement put out by the team shortly after the game last night.
Today, a team spokesperson said that Kuiper will be off the air until a review of Friday’s incident is completed. As shocking as it is to see a baseball team speak out against its own announcer in such a public way, it’s even more shocking to watch a game and hear him use language like this.
Before the start of the sixth inning, Kuiper apologized on the air which sent some people running to their remote control’s rewind button to figure out what he had said. But, apparently enough people had caught his words in real time for him to have to address it.
Kuiper came back from commercial with this: “Welcome back to Kauffman Stadium. I just want to… a little earlier in the show, I said something, didn’t come out quite the way I wanted it to,” Kuiper said. “And I just wanted to apologize if it sounded different than I meant it to be said. And like I said, I just wanted to apologize for that.”
This incident is very reminiscent of the Reds announcer, Thom Brennaman situation from 2020, in which he was caught on a hot mic using a homophobic slur. He was taken off the air mid-broadcast and has not called a game since. That was three years ago.
Baseball set a precedent with that situation. Let’s see what happens here.
Recent Comments