Ladies and gentleman, minor league baseball is BACK! From Low-A to Triple-A, 43 minor league games were played on Tuesday, and boy was it a sight for sore eyes. For the first time since 2019, we get to follow our favorite prospects as they journey to the big leagues, and enjoy delicious ballpark concessions at easily accessible professional baseball locations from Kannapolis to Clearwater. Feels good, doesn’t it?
There were also a few Major League games that were played yesterday. Here are the six best moments from those games, if you’re still interested. It’s an okay alternative I guess.
Huascar’s No Slouch
Six hundred and fifty-three. That’s how many plate appearances it took for a pitcher to hit a home run in the 2021 MLB season, until Milwaukee’s Adrian Houser did so last week. Once that was out of the way, Huascar Ynoa apparently got the memo that pitchers mashing was allowed and promptly went 2-3 with a 397-foot longball to left while throwing 5.1 innings of nine-strikeout, zero-run ball. His next start came yesterday against the Nats. How could he follow up his last performance? See for yourself.
HUASCAR YNOA GRAND SLAM pic.twitter.com/1ll7yEnkN5
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) May 5, 2021
Unbelievable. Ynoa served that ball 427 feet (!!) to dead center at 107.4 miles per hour, both of which ranked in the top five of statcast’s daily leaderboards at the time it was hit. Ynoa also ranked among the top performers in pitch velocity, touching as high as 99.6 mph on the radar gun. Oh, and he pitched seven full innings this time, allowing zero earned runs once again and striking out four.
Ynoa’s Babe Ruth turn this year has been something to behold: in addition to his breakout campaign on the mound (a 2.36 ERA through six starts now), the 22-year-old is hitting .385 at the plate with six RBIs in 13 plate appearances with a hilarious 1.308 OPS. According to Sarah Langs, he’s just the fifth pitcher in Braves history (since 1901) to homer in back-to-back games, let alone with a grand slam. The last guy to do that for Atlanta was… well, just read the tweet:
The last @Braves pitcher to hit a grand slam was Jaime Garcia on July 21, 2017. Three days later, he was traded for Huascar Ynoa… Who is now the most recent Braves pitcher to hit a grand slam 🤯 pic.twitter.com/FxUfhDBQCN
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 5, 2021
Have we mentioned recently that baseball is awesome?
Flippin’ Habits
If you’re Javy Baez, you know you were put on this earth to do two things. The first is to hit moonshots or die trying (sometimes more of the latter). The second is to do cool things with a baseball glove, and he’s never had much trouble doing that. Among his many signature moves is the glove flip, a trick he makes look absurdly effortless about 99% of the time. Case in point, from the sixth inning of Tuesday’s afternoon tilt vs. the Dodgers:
flip. or flip not. there is no try. pic.twitter.com/jVjdSb4T6M
— Cut4 (@Cut4) May 4, 2021
See? Pretty damn cool. But the very next inning, he tried a similar move… and had somewhat less success.
https://gfycat.com/imaginativebestgrub
Baez finished the game with three errors, but hey, that’s showbiz, baby. Besides, the Cubbies went on to win this one 7-1. And in game two, he made up for it by flipping this ball approximately one thousand feet into the left field bleachers to tie the game:
Redemption, your name is @javy23baez.#CubTogether pic.twitter.com/DzMLWklyYQ
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 5, 2021
The flip life stops for no man. Never change, Javier.
Lessons in Parenting
With Mother’s Day coming up, it’s the time of year where we all come together and show a little appreciation for all the moms out there. We got one of those reminders a little early in the Red Sox game yesterday when this mother showed quick instincts to protect her kid from a foul ball:
She. Didn't. Even. Flinch.
Mom mode: activated ✔️ pic.twitter.com/MEhIDIN5f6
— NESN (@NESN) May 5, 2021
Meanwhile across the league, in an alternative display of parenting instincts, this dad taught his son a hard lesson in Bleacher Culture.
Absolutely amazing moment, when a dad taught his son what we do with HR balls from the other teams at Wrigley Field. #Cubs pic.twitter.com/tftgHTXWN7
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) May 4, 2021
That child may never forgive him for making him toss the home run ball out, but at least he got on TV, right?
The Ultimate Changeup
Giving up three runs, three hits, and walking four in as many innings in a loss to the Yankees is probably not a night that Zack Greinke will want to remember. But I’ll remember it, if for no reason other than that it gave us this absolute beauty of an overlay from PitchingNinja:
Zack Greinke, 53mph Eephus and 90mph Fastball, Overlay. pic.twitter.com/pRO0RC2pky
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 5, 2021
Can we put Greinke’s eephus in the Hall of Fame already?
Philly Card Tricks
There are a lot of emotions that come with getting your first big-league call-up of the season. Still, a 6-1 advantage in the seventh is as good a place as any to get that first taste. Or at least, that’s what Enyel De Los Santos was probably thinking when he answered the call from Phillies manager Joe Girardi late in Tuesday night’s tilt with the Brewers. The only problem? According to the umpires, he was supposed to be in Triple-A.
The Phillies called up Enyel De Los Santos to pitch today but it was denied when umpires did not see his name on the lineup card pic.twitter.com/3iUDfX6TLY
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 5, 2021
As a result of the lineup card snafu (which apparently the result of some processing mistake that Girardi missed), the Brewers mounted a rally, posting four runs on replacement David Hale to get within one before Sam Coonrod came in to clean up the mess. But the most hilarious part of the whole thing is that the man who was on the lineup card by mistake — Cristopher Sánchez — was actually pitching in Triple-A.
Cristopher Sánchez was the pitcher who was on the Phillies' lineup card instead of Enyel De Los Santos. He quite literally pitched in Triple-A tonight and still managed to appear on the big league lineup card. You can't make this stuff up.
— Devan Fink (@DevanFink) May 5, 2021
Hoo boy. First day of minor league ball and we’re already having these problems? Should be a fun season, folks.
Big Number Bookends
Conventional wisdom would say that when you’ve got 14 innings of baseball to play in one day, it’s best to spread out the scoring. The Giants didn’t listen to that poppycock. Instead, they went ahead and got Tuesday’s doubleheader in Colorado started with a 10-run inning before the Rockies ever came to bat.
The @SFGiants first inning: 10 runs, 8 hits, and 2 homers.
WOW. pic.twitter.com/P2hmNN7gYp
— MLB (@MLB) May 4, 2021
The show was headlined by Brandon Belt, who had an RBI single and a grand slam in the inning, making him the first Giants player since the team moved to California in 1958 to record five RBIs in the first inning of a game (per @SlangsOnSports once again).
But wait, he wasn’t done: after San Francisco closed out game one with a 12-4 win, Belt homered again in the first inning of game two, this time a two-run shot to the right field corner. According to ESPN Stats & Info, that made him the first Giant since some guy named Willie Mays to hit first-inning jacks in both games of a doubleheader in one day.
CRUSHING it in Colorado.#ResilientSF pic.twitter.com/4sRqvO0dMA
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 5, 2021
However, karma is very real, and the Coors Field gods don’t mess around. Fast forward to the decisive seventh inning of game two (abbreviated for the D-H, obviously), and the Rockies get their revenge by posting six runs, all with two outs, to walk it off and end the night in style.
I just want to walk it off … tonight!
The @Rockies score 6 in the final frame for the W. pic.twitter.com/eLKVYrCowT
— MLB (@MLB) May 5, 2021
Shoulda saved some of those runs after all, fellas.
Bonus: All Da Dingers
May the 4-baggers be with you. pic.twitter.com/cR2Zjkxt89
— MLB (@MLB) May 5, 2021
What, you thought we’d forget?