Happy Saturday! Stay updated on everything baseball with our morning MLB News & Moments articles. We’ve got you covered to keep you in the know.
Today’s Headlines
Rain, Rain Go Away
It’s never fun when a top headline has to do with weather, but here we are. It is hard to ignore that rain played a huge part in the story of baseball on Friday, May 6th. Rainouts are usually best left in April, and all we can do is hope to move further away from inclement weather as the days tick off of the calendar.
The majority of the squads have already rescheduled Friday’s washed-out games as doubleheaders this weekend. A scheduling nightmare has me picturing Charlie Day from Always Sunny in Philadelphia during his stint in the mailroom.
Give credit where it’s due. Those schedule makers do not nearly get enough credit for shifting in real-time. It’s like Sudoku turned up to level 10,000.
Major League Baseball's Friday slate took a hit after six games were postponed due to rain.
The six rainouts mark the most MLB postponements in a single day since April 15, 2018, when six games were also called off due to inclement weather.https://t.co/W6Ip5qxvcx
— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) May 6, 2022
Royce Rolls to First MLB Hit
Welcome to the big league’s Royce Lewis. It had to wait two years to happen, but it has been worth the wait. The pandemic and injury issues prevented Royce Lewis from getting this moment sooner, but there’s no better time than the present. The former number 1 pick in the 2017 draft was called up to make his major league debut to replace the injured Carlos Correa at shortstop and capitalized with his first hit.
Royce Lewis gets his first big league hit with the @Twins! pic.twitter.com/0sUMrphY3z
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) May 7, 2022
Ronald Even Looks Cool Falling
During his at-bat in the 4th inning against the Brewers on Friday, Ronald Acuña Jr. lost his balance and took a spill while his swing was in motion. You’d figure most players would dust themselves off and get ready to jump back into the box for the next pitch. Not Acuña.
This once-in-a-lifetime talent made contact with the ball and was still able to send the ball into orbit. He hit a humongous home run to the furthest part of center field. When measured, the official distance was 450 feet. Just an unbelievable feat that has to be seen to be believed.
Acuña literally swung out of his shoes and still hit it 450 pic.twitter.com/SgLgRsaWEs
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 7, 2022
Best Moments From Yesterday
Kelenic Me Softly
What a moment in Seattle. If you stayed up late watching baseball last night, you were in for a treat watching Jarred Kelenic connect on a pinch-hit go-ahead home run in the bottom of the 8th. Seattle has been dubbed an electric factory, and the fans create an atmosphere unlike any in the big leagues.
We certainly got a taste of it during their push for the playoffs that ultimately fell short in 2021, and we saw more of the same tonight. You can feel the passion in the highlights from the fans, the players, and the announcers. What a moment for Jarred Kelenic, who has had his fair share of struggles since his call-up.
Here’s hoping this starts a stretch where he can build on this moment with a comfortability at the plate. No more pressing. This home run could be that release he needed to just relax at the plate.
JARRED KELENIC TWO RUN BOMB. GOLDYS VOICE IS GONE AND SO IS THAT BASEBALL. pic.twitter.com/crQFwKQPCA
— Gravel (@Gravel_sense) May 7, 2022
The Ageless Ichiro
Ichiro Suzuki took some batting practice today pregame, and it shouldn’t look this natural. But it does. He’s been out of baseball for the better part of three seasons now, but he looks like he could shag some fly balls out in the misty air in Seattle and still launch a few balls while he’s at it. A handful of players could make the news by taking batting practice, and Ichiro is one of them.
ichiro taking bp in the year 2022 🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐 pic.twitter.com/hCvBQioTOF
— Cut4 (@Cut4) May 6, 2022
Life Replicates Art
Even when he’s not trying, Shohei Ohtani is an icon. Maybe he is summoning his powers a few days late from a certain Sith Lord in the Star Wars universe. It may be the way to explain just how good he’s been. I think it’s time to retire the Kermit meme and replace it with Shohei from here on out.
— Cut4 (@Cut4) May 7, 2022
Camera Plays Tricks
Camera work is everything, and it certainly plays a big part in bringing the game straight into our living room. This moment made it so obvious how much control the cameras have over how we perceive what is happening on the field. As avid viewers, we take for granted how often the people working the camera get it right. They get it right so often that it takes a moment like this to realize it.
I suppose the thinking on Manfred’s end is: If you can’t increase the offense leaguewide organically, why not just make the camera pretend some balls go out? The only thing missing from this was John Sterling on the call—then we’d have a real party on our hands.
Cameraman must be working their first game since the juiced ball era pic.twitter.com/xE9MAxDaxs
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 7, 2022
MLB Debut is a Tall Order
The beautiful thing about baseball is that players come in all shapes and sizes. There is no one set body type that is conducive to the optimal level of success in the league. But that does not mean we can’t marvel at the difference height can make on the mound.
Everything about Sean Hjelle’s debut for the San Francisco Giants was fascinating. He went 1.0 inning, throwing 11 pitches and 7 for strikes. His strikeout impressed fans at home and in the stadium and also was a topic of discussion in the post-game.
For science, we need Jose Altuve in the batter’s box vs. Sean Hjelle. It might replace that now-famous picture of Aaron Judge and Altuve standing at second base.
6'11" pitcher Sean Hjelle is tied for the TALLEST player in MLB history 😳
He plays for the 𝑮𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 😅 pic.twitter.com/ETJM5hT1Gr
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 7, 2022
Injuries
- Following a CT scan, it was revealed that Carlos Correa does not have a fracture, his finger is bruised and sore.
- Brian Anderson was placed on the injured list after testing positive for COVID-19
- Ji Man Choi will be activated on Sunday after battling an elbow injury
- Sonny Gray will be activated and will start today’s game against the Athletics
- Teoscar Hernandez is expected to return to the Blue Jays lineup this weekend following a stint on the injured list due to an oblique issue.
- Tom Murphy left Friday’s game with a dislocated shoulder
- Adam Wainwright was put on the injured list following his positive COVID-19 test.
- Mike Soroka is starting to throw off of a mound in his battle back from a torn Achilles. The original injury happened in August of 2020 when he came off the mound awkwardly after a ground ball. He got surgery, but they had issues with reattaching the tendon. Since it did not originally heal the right way, the same Achilles was torn while walking in the clubhouse in 2021. Braves expect him back around the All-Star Break.
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Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)
The camera work has been awful. For fans that can’t tell when homers are going out of the park based off the sounds of the bat they are definitely being tormented seeing high flys land in the gloves of the outfielders. Ichiro taking bp is something I hope to see every year!