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MLB News & Moments You Should Know – 7/6/23

"The knob... THE KNOOOOOB!"

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 7/6/2023

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

LóPez Dispenser

Sure, the Twins traded away the dude everybody’s talking about hitting .400 this year, but they didn’t exactly deal him for a bag of balls. Pablo López has a 3.89 ERA on the year, and that number is definitely down after his complete game shutout last night. PabLó needed only 100 pitches to author a sterling 9 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, and 12 K line. He only faced three hitters over the minimum and those 12 strikeouts at a new career high. “The path to ERA redemption continues marching forward” indeed, Nick, is there an AGA lurking far behind?!

Oh, and did I mention it came along with a 5-0 Minnesota win to complete their three-game sweep of the Royals? Because that happened too.

Marlins Are Soaring

A franchise high in wins? Seems pretty good.

And win 51 came in pretty dramatic fashion, scoring two runs, including the walk-off, on an errant throw from erstwhile Cards closer Jordan Hicks:

Unfortunately for Miami’s fun baseball boys, they have the misfortune of playing in the same division as the Atlanta Braves, so even with a 51-37 record, they’re still eight games out of first place. They are 3.5 games up in the first WC spot though, so we could be in for a pretty fun second-half down in The 305.

Troll Toll: Paid

Miami wasn’t the only NL East team dialing up the drama on Wednesday. Christian Walker broke a 0-0 deadlock in the seventh inning with a solo shot, marring what was up until that point the best MLB start of Kodai Senga’s young stateside career. The Mets were down to their last strike against the NL West division leading(!) Arizona Diamondbacks until Francisco Alvarez decided he wasn’t ready to head to the showers:

To give you a better view, here’s Alvarez taking a 93 mph fastball all the way on the outside black the other way for a 383 foot home run, the Mets’ longest of the year:

Brett Baty followed it up with a groundball single, and Mark Canha brought him home with a triple. Two runs was all the Mets needed, although they did get a wink and a nod from the Baseball Gods, as David Robertson got his 13th save in part thanks to this uh, 1U?

Either way, you can celebrate Alvarez in August down on Coney Island by heading to a Cyclones game and picking up…this:

The Field Is Set

We’re less than a week away from the true mid-summer classic: THE HOME RUN DERBY.

And the bracket is all filled out:

There’s nobody on this list I wouldn’t want to see win the thing, and I can only imagine the sheer coolness of a Crossed Arms Randy Arozarena as they bring him the trophy, but I gotta throw in for Julio Rodríguez winning on his home field. His 2022 performance was one of the most electric I can recall seeing, and he barely fell short in the final. J-Rod would also become the youngest champ in the history of the event, so that’s cool too.

Either way: D I N G E R S

Oh and the winner gets this:

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

PLEASE LET ME GO FIRST I’M DOING SOMETHING

I have nothing to add here except that if you haven’t watched Detroiters you really, really should do that.

PetCo Crown

Manny Machado had a slow start to the year, then a hand fracture, but his performance is turning around:

And he’s got a new accolade to go with that upward-sloping line:

Now, that’s 66 out of 295 career dingers. The man likes his home park, I suppose.

Speedy Freeman

Hey quick who has the most stolen bases on the Dodgers? Well, I definitely gave it away with the header here but, it’s everybody’s favorite 1B Freddie Freeman. And you can see the absolute elite footspeed that got him those 11 swiped bags on this infield pop up:

And here, again, but slower in case you missed it:

Incredible form, he’s one of those guys who’s moving so fast you could swear they were barely moving at all.

Faster Than Rickey

Ok, this one kind of blows my mind. Last night, Esteury Ruiz stole his 43rd base of the season, which is already pretty mindblowing. But he also set a franchise rookie record doing it:

Which like, yeah, 43 is a lot of bases to steal with less than half of the season in the can. But this is the team that had Rickey Henderson as a rookie! The dude who stole 130 bases in 1982! Ruiz beat that guy to the rookie SB record! Hopefully his shoulder injury turns out to be minor, I wanna see him chase triple digits.

The “De” Stands for Data

Or is it Drama?

In the second inning of yesterday’s game, Dave Martinez asked umpires to take a look at a knob protuberance on Elly De La Cruz‘ bat:

Turns out, it’s a bat data sensor that Elly uses as kind of part of his standard grip and is also totally legal to have on the bat in a game. And oh boy did Elly let Dave know that fact a few innings later when he absolutely blasted a 455 bomb:

The Reds are two games up in the NL Central and hot dang it’s been fun watching them shoot up the standings.

Also, last night Joey Votto did this:

Jawn (n.)

Cop ’em if you got ’em.

 

Injuries

 

Esteury Ruiz injured his shoulder sliding back into the bag at first last night. More news to come, as it’s being characterized just as “something” right now.

Dansby Swanson left yesterday’s game with a left heel contusion.

Rowdy Tellez is headed to the IL with “right forearm inflammation.” Both Rowdy and the team are adamant it will be a short stay on the shelf.

Jose Altuve seemed to injure his oblique during batting practice prior to Tuesday’s game, and he’s getting an MRI today. It seems like the team is going to hold him out through the ASB even if he doesn’t go on the IL.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

Let’s Ban the Home Run – Russell A. Carleton, Baseball Prospectus (sub req’d)

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Starting Pitcher Roundup

Hitter Performances

Reliever Ranks (Closers) (Holds)

Starting Pitcher Streamers

 

Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)

Asher Dratel

Asher hails from Brooklyn, wears a 2008 Joba Chamberlain jersey to every Yankees game he attends, and pronounces BABIP funny. Appreciator of Beefy Lad dingers and beers. @asherd.bsky.social on Bluesky.

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