Walk-Off Mainia

If you’ve been paying any attention to baseball this year you’ll have noticed that a bunch of games are close heading into the late innings. I’m not sure if this is because of the quality of pitching or the tendency of managers to keep swapping pitchers or the offenses scoring more, regardless, there are a lot of close games. Beyond that however, it seems there are a lot of teams without a solid closer. All of this has resulted in this season being the season of the walk-off HR. There have been 81 walk-off home runs this season which breaks the record set back in 2004. Houston’s Tyler White’s game winning home run in the 9th of the Athletics’ Jeurys Familia was the record breaking 81st walk-off and anything in the next month of play will simply add more to the record.

The bottom line – don’t leave a game early.

3 Teams within 1 Game in the NL

Seattle 3, San Diego 8
Oakland 4, Houston 5
LA Dodgers 3, Texas 1
Arizona 3, SF 1

Other players may have had better statistical days but White had the most dramatic in the West. Sure, Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich had the best day going 6 for 6 and hitting for the cycle, but he’s in the NL Central. White’s blast gave the Astros a series win against the Athletics and pushed them to 2 1/2 games ahead in the AL West. It looks like Oakland has cooled off a bit even though they’re still playing well.

In San Diego, Joey Lucchesi had a great game going 6 2/3 innings which was the furthest he’s made it in a game ever. He allowed 1 run while striking out 9 and opened the door for the Padres’ offense to beat the Mariners 8–3. Also making a strong case for player of the day was Luis Urias who in just his 2nd game in the majors went 3 for 5 with a run scored (although it could have been better as what looked like a HR – he even ran the bases – was called a foul ball on review). San Diego has high hopes for this young second baseman.

In the NL, The Dodgers and Diamondbacks picked up ground on the idle Rockies. LA won their 5th in a row behind strong pitching from Alex Wood (7 Inn, 5 k, 0 ER) and while they only got 4 hits, they made each of them count as Machado, Bellinger, and Grandal all picked up a hit and an RBI. They beat a Texas team that’s dropped 4 straight and has been limping along lately. The D-Backs turned things around against the Giants finally by breaking out 3 runs against Dereck Rodriguez. They managed to salvage a win and avoid being shut out in the series as Steven Souza Jr. batted leadoff for the first time this season. His HR and RBI double gave Arizona some respect as they leave town.

Player of the Day: Houston Tyler White 2–4, HR, Run, RBI, BB
Pitcher of the Day: Dodgers Alex Wood 7 innings, 5 k, 0 ER, 2 BB

Daily Ramble 244.2 | Sports – West Coast Baseball – Walk-Off Mainia