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MLB News & Moments You Should Know: 9/5/2024

Gunnar Henderson and Kyle Schwarber: Same Player?!

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 9/5/2024

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

I have never hoped for a nearly impossible no-hitter as I did last night for Zac Gallen to be allowed to pitch in the seventh with 100 pitches. And then I rooted for a combined Arizona no-no harder than I’ve ever rooted for a combined no-hitter of any type, but it wasn’t meant to be.

 

Today’s Headlines

 

North Side Pseudo-No-No

Baseball’s a team effort, just ask the Cubs as they completed a combined no-hitter against the Pirates last night.

Now, I am definitely in the camp of “A combined no-hitter isn’t really a no-hitter” but also this one came on the back of a real gem from Shota Imanaga, so I can kinda get behind it:

 

 

Imanaga’s night looked to be in some trouble in the top of the sixth inning as a pair of Isaac Paredes errors let two runners reach, but Oneil Cruz struck out chasing a sinker below the zone to keep the no-no and shutout intact, and it was followed up by a 1-2-3 seventh by the southpaw hurler. After that, it was Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge who finished the game with an inning each, with zeros across the board, including no strikeouts between the pair, which seems anomalous? I dunno. Either way, the night came down to a routine groundball to Dansby Swanson off the bat of Oneil Cruz, and there was no drama as the 27th out was recorded and the Cubs won by a score of 12-0:

 

Gunnaring For That Top Spot (Plus Schwarber and Soriano-related records)

O’s shortstop Gunnar Henderson has officially taken the top spot on the franchise single-season HR list for the position, hitting his 35th of the year leading off yesterday against the White Sox:

I have a feeling he’s going to put some more room between him and Ripken between now and the end of the season, too. Astute viewers will notice the fun fact in the broadcast above, as this home run is also Gunnar’s 13th leadoff dinger of the year, which ties him with notable not-shortstop Kyle Schwarber:

It’s not every day that you manage to set a team record and tie a league record on the same swing. I’m furthermore going to go out on a limb and predict that both Kyle and Gunnar will put some room between themselves and Alfonso in the next month.

Unfortunately for Baltimore, that leadoff dinger was the only run they would get on the day, though, as they fell to the White Sox by a score of 8-1, which also marks some kind of milestone for the White Sox, with their 32nd win of the season:

Better late than never, I suppose!

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

Wyatt, He’s Done It Again!

Kind of. Tuesday night Wyatt Langford beat the Yankees by hitting a walk-off grand slam. Wednesday night he beat the Yankees by robbing Giancarlo Stanton of a three-run HR in the ninth inning:

(Globe Life Field is actually in the “Not A Home Run” column for parks, but this seems like one of those “Who are you gonna believe, Statcast or your lying eyes?” situations and I’m gonna call them wrong on this one.)

Thanks to Wyatt’s bat and glove, the Yankees remain half a game behind the O’s in the AL East, womp womp.

Masyn Win(n)s The Race Home

The Cardinals won their game against the Brewers last night in 10 innings by a score of 3-2, which actually means this play looms large in the grand scheme of things, as Alec Burleson’s relay to Masyn Winn cut down a Milwaukee run at home:

97.2 mph is obviously impressive, but the speed of the transfer and accuracy of that throw are both also incredible.

This Is How It’s Done

It was Ludacris night at Truist Park, as Atlanta had the man himself in the house to throw out the first pitch. And he didn’t disappoint:

To be clear, that is not photoshopped, Ludacris showed up to the park with the big arms from the Get Back video, and some shoes to match:

But that’s not all! Luda then delivered a first-pitch better than many thrown by a celebrity with their normal-sized arms, in their normal-sized shoes:

Too often, a first pitcher does not understand the weight of their responsibility, nor how far 60′ 6″ really is. Hopefully, this will usher in a new era of quality first pitches, if Luda can put in the work to learn how to throw with comically oversized arms on, anybody can learn to throw with their normal human hands! Stop embarrassing yourselves, the 50 Cents and Carly Rae Jepsen’s of the world!

Or at least do so in huge fun prosthetics. One or the other, no excuses.

But, if Luda’s comically oversized rubber arms aren’t making the point here’s Olympic Gold Medalist Hezly Rivera throwing out the first pitch at Globe Life last night, featuring the wildest windup since Carter Capps:

I implore all the famous people reading this: Just get it to the catcher in the air.

 

Injuries and Other Moves

 

โšพ The Dodgers officially have Yoshinobu Yamamoto lined up to pitch on Tuesday at home against the Cubs. Yamamoto threw two rehab starts of two innings each, so managers shouldn’t assume a particularly deep outing next week, but the wait is over for him to at least return to a big league mound.

โšพ White Sox outfielder Luis Robert Jr. left last night’s game due to “right hamstring tightness” and is considered day-to-day.

โšพ Bryce Harper was removed from the game yesterday in the second inning after being hit by a pitch, the immediate diagnosis was a “bruised left elbow” but they will be doing further testing and evaluation to confirm that’s all it is.

โšพ The Cubs will be without Justin Steele for a bit, as he was placed on the IL due to “left elbow flexor tendinitis.” Manager Craig Counsell brought up the possibility of a minimum stay on the IL for Steele, but only time will tell.

โšพ The Rangers put Corey Seager on the IL with a nebulous “hip injury” that may be serious enough to require surgery.ย  The team had previously talked about “load management” for Seager, although this seems like a pretty serious escalation from that original statement.

โšพ Good news for a trio of Baltimore players, as Ryan Mountcastle, Jordan Westburg, and Heston Kjerstad are all trending in the right direction: Westburg and Mountcast are playing catch, and Kjerstad has been cleared to play again following a concussion. Still no firm dates for potential returns for any of them, though.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

Bryan Woo Moves Like Zack Wheeler – Michael Rosen, FanGraphs

Bryan Woo Is Something From the 1990s – Mikey Ajeto, Baseball Prospectus (sub req’d)

Baseball slang 101: A Guide to Talking Like Youโ€™re in an MLB Clubhouse – Tyler Kepner, The Athletic (sub req’d)

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Is It Legit?

Closing Time

Starting Pitcher Streamers

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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