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MLB News & Moments You Should Know: 8/8/2024

Second time's the charm for a rookie, and a tied high mark for a vet.

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 8/8/2024

Stay updated on everything baseball with our morning MLB News & Moments articles. We’ve got you covered to keep you in the know.

On the one hand, it’s been rainy and gross here in New York City for two straight days now, but on the other hand it’s no longer Way Too Hot, so I will take my rained out Yankees game that I had tickets for on Tuesday in stride and continue to enjoy the finer moments of this great game we all call baseball.

 

Today’s Headlines

 

It’s A Young Man’s Game

Well, it’s been a heck of a second half for Jackson Holliday, who’s hitting .400 since getting called back up a week ago. And it’s not like he’s out here playing the singles merchant, either:

That gives him three straight games in a row with a dinger and makes him the youngest player in AL history to do so. The O’s have struggled to create separation with the Yankees for the AL East crown this year, so they’re definitely hoping young Jackson can keep this going the rest of the way after his very underwhelming start to the year.

First Timers

I always love when I get to feature some rookies getting their MLB firsts. Well, the good firsts, I’m not up here trying to highlight errors or strikeouts or anything.

In the second game of their doubleheader, newly promoted Arizona catcher Adrian Del Castillo picked up his first big league hit, and a bonus RBI to go with it:

Del Castillo is with the big league club as more than just the 27th man, as he’s going to get some runway given the injury to Gabriel Moreno, I assume his current .333/.500/.667 slash line will stand up, right? (He has absolutely torn the cover off the ball at Triple-A this year, but that’s the PCL so, you gotta cut a bit off the top there.)

The Astros had their own rookie get his first hit with a booming OF shot as well, as Zach Dezenzo punched one out to LF that beat a sprinting Josh Smith:

It’s slightly less exciting when you have to wait for a scorer’s ruling to determine a first hit or not, but I would say they made the right decision here. Dezenzo will have to wait a bit longer for his first RBI, but he did add a pair of runs which ended up being the difference in their 6-4 win over the Rangers.

Big Crew, Good Cause

Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe rolled deep to the doubleheader in The Bronx today:

O’Hoppe went 0-for-10 on the day, but the Angels did split the doubleheader, winning the nightcap 8-2, and Logan caught both games. Now let’s all raise a toast to Michael O’Hoppe and his continued good health!

Schwarber City

Last night the Phillies bested the Dodgers 9-4. Seven of those RBI came from one man: Kyle Schwarber.

He got the scoring started early with a patented Leadoff Beefy Lad Home Run:

Hit what had to be one of the most predictable grand slams possible off of Joe Kelly (it was a real Classic Joe Kelly Inning) in the sixth:

And then capped things off with a nice solo shot in the ninth:

Schwarber tied his career-high numbers for single-game HRs and RBI at three and seven, respectively, and well, hard to disagree with whoever runs the Phillies’ Twitter account about this one:

deGoat On deWay

Some good news for Rangers fans about Jacob deGrom:

No, you know what? Not just Rangers fans, but anybody who enjoys nasty pitching. And isn’t that all of us? (MLB batters who read this, sound off.) deGrom only threw 30.1 innings in 2023 before needing Tommy John surgery in June. At the time he said he was aiming for a return in August 2024 and well, would you look at that? He’s thrown some bullpens recently, and it sounds like everything in his recovery has gone about as well as could be hoped for, so hopefully we’ll see him flummoxing big-league batters very soon.

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

Parker? Mover!

The Tigers beat the Mariners 6-2 last night, and the latter’s score is thanks in no small part to this incredible grab from Parker Meadows:

I find that sometimes it’s difficult, even with slo-mo and all that, to tell exactly where a ball would have landed were it not for a fielder’s well-timed jump. Well, that’s certainly not the case here thanks to the following photo:

That’s one heck of a catch, which I can freely admit while also being a bit sad it had to come at the expense of Big Dumper aka Cal Raleigh.

Wheel Snipe Celly

I always appreciate some cross-sports fun, and the Blue Jays didn’t miss a chance for it while modeling some George Springer hockey sweaters:

My personal favorite is Davis Schneider showing off his puck-handling skills there at around the 13-second mark.

Oh, So That’s How You Do It

CJ Abrams hit a pretty insane home run on Tuesday if you didn’t see it. Yesterday he sat down with the Nats social media folks to go over the at-bat and explain how he managed to get to a face-high fastball over the fence:

Well, kind of, I guess. We had a long discussion about batting vs pitching on the PL Discord Wednesday, and I am pretty adamant that there are simply unquantifiable inputs at work during the whole process at the plate, and Abrams looking back at an AB and going “Yeah I dunno I just hit it, no idea it was that high” does nothing to dissuade me of that notion. Hitting is black magicks, man, and I have no idea how anybody does it.

Big Hit History

We got our rookie firsts up above, but how about we dive into the vaults to see some landmark hits from past August 7ths?

First up we have Barry Bonds and HR number 756:

The overshift may have been on, but it didn’t seem to work. Oh, and lest you forget, Bonds hit six more round-trippers that year to bring his career total up to 762.

Going even further back to the pre-HD era, enjoy Wade Boggs reaching the 3,000-hit mark:

This was actually one of only two home runs Boggs hit in 1999, and he would only add 10 more hits on top of it, finishing his Hall of Fame career with 3,010 total. As a side note, I’m very glad that Tampa is bringing back the vibes of those 90’s-era Devil Ray uniforms.

Miami Good Boy

And now for your moment of baseball zen cuteness:

 

Injuries and Other Moves

 

⚾ Cody Bellinger is dealing with a “sore hamstring” as a result of some awkward base contact on Tuesday. Cubs manager Craig Counsell said the day off was precautionary at this point, as the team also has Thursday off.

⚾ In worse Cubs injury news, though, Adbert Alzolay needs Tommy John surgery and is at risk of missing the entirety of the 2025 season as a result.

⚾ The Phillies pulled Austin Hays from last night’s game with “left hamstring tightness,” and there haven’t been further details as of the submission of this article.

⚾ Twins starter Joe Ryan left yesterday’s game after only throwing 33 pitches, he came out for the third inning and immediately signaled something was wrong after only one pitch. There should be details coming in the next couple of days, but it doesn’t seem like a promising situation.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

Let’s Ballpark Roki Sasaki’s Market – Eric Longenhagen, FanGraphs

‘It’s baseball PTSD’: How Gavin and Larry Sheets Have Navigated Record Losing Streaks – Sam Blum, The Athletic (sub req’d)

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

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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.xyz on Bluesky.

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