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The 7 Best MLB Moments from Monday

MLB's best moments against the backdrop of another of America's worst.

Matt Goodwin
Best MLB Moments 4/13/2021

Author’s Note: The entire function of these daily articles is to look at the lighter side of baseball, but in the wake of yet another police-involved shooting of an unarmed black man where Daunte Wright lost his life during a traffic stop, that can seem trite. It is my sincere hope that this article provides you with a break from your day-to-day but is not a distraction from the very real and very important social issues to which we, as a country and a people, still owe a lot of work, time, and energy.

Mondays aren’t normally meant for nearly full slates, but that is certainly what we had lined up for us. Unfortunately, not all of those games were played, mostly due to weather, but one, in particular, for something much more tragic. The Twins and the Red Sox had their start abruptly postponed in the wake of a released video of another unarmed black man being shot and killed by a police officer at a traffic stop. I’ll not editorialize their intentions, but will instead provide you with their official statement as it was shared on Twitter:

 

 

 

Around the rest of the league, the Orioles and Mariners got rained out…

 

 

…as did the Mets and the Phillies, and Carlos Rodón was unable to make his scheduled start, but everything else went largely as planned, except for all the teams that lost. They didn’t plan that.

 

We also learned a little something about Liam Hendriks today too:

 

 

No judgment here, but some real strong Major League vibes:

 

https://gfycat.com/selfassuredreasonablecornsnake

 

There was also this 51 mph pitch from Zach Greinke (that is not a typo, by the way, the pitch was thrown at 51 mph):

 

 

For context, here’s a cool side-by-side from Rob Friedman, Pitching Ninja, showing the juxtaposition of the eephus at 51 and Jordan Hicks, doubling that up, dialing it in at 102:

 

 

And, before we get into it, let’s check out this catch by Josh Palacios in the Blue Jays and Yankees game, described best by the OG Tweeter, Jomboy himself:

 

 

But I digress, let’s get to the official Monday moments.

 

Kyle Higashioka Does It

 

What “It” did Kyle Higashioka do, you ask? Well, he hit a home run. And then he did “It” again. Here ’s a pretty sweet look at the side-by-side (unfortunately, you do have to listen to Michael Kay talking over himself which is twice as much Michael Kay as anybody really needs, but be grateful I didn’t pull the John Sterling version):

 

 

So besides the fun of the dingers, did you catch the reaction of Ryan Borucki after giving up the second one? If not, here’s another angle:

 

 

And a still image:

 

 

If he pitched for the Dodgers, he’d already be on the IL with a lower back strain.

 

Wil Myers Gets Two “Hits” At the Same Time 

 

The Padres are good. They are very good. And apparently, Wil Myers is so talented that he can hit the ball twice with one swing to get himself on base:

 

 

And he wasn’t done for the night:

 

 

Have yourself a night, Mr. Myers.

 

Vlad Blesses Bats

 

If Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was in my dugout, and I was facing Major League pitching, I’d want to snake some of his mojo, too. That is exactly what Rowdy Tellez did when he brought all of his bats over and asked Vladdy to bless them. Not only did he oblige, but he also kissed each one for a little something extra:

 

 

Rowdy then went out and…

 

 

And then, in the field, Vladdy did this:

 

 

I can only assume that, tomorrow, he will be making out with everybody’s gloves pre-game. Stay tuned.

 

Ronald Acuña Jr. Does Stuff (Again)

 

Ronald Acuña Jr. is really good at baseball. We saw him beat out a routine ground ball to shortstop two nights ago and then he did this last night:

 

 

Here is the full, regular camera angle view:

 

 

Before we move on from Ronald and the Braves, here is another clip of him scoring a run, this time complete with some serious passive-aggresive shade from Atlanta’s official Twitter account (with obvious reference to Alec Bohm’s home-plate-gate):

 

 

Freddy Peralta Workin’ It

 

Freddy Peralta has emerged as a climber in the first week and a half of the season.  He has been getting some ugly swings, but none more so than this one (admittedly against a fellow pitcher, but still…)

 

 

Every time a pitcher manages a hit, we see tons of “See, pitchers can hit!” Tweets from the pitchers-can-hit crowd, and from now on I think I’ll just have that clip on standby, ready for a quick copy-and-paste rebuttal.

However, this wasn’t the best moment of the game for Peralta, depending on how you define “best” and whether it’s the same or different from me. Here’s the best moment:

 

 

And here’s the official Brewers’ account asking Pitching Ninja about it:

 

 

Classic.

 

Salvador Perez Notches 1,000

 

No quip here. No sarcasm. No puns and no shade. Big congratulations to Salvador Perez on his 1,000th hit:

 

 

Here’s a fan vid:

 

 

Cincinnati Reds Two-Fer

 

Jesse Winker hits this ball well; very, very well. But the best part is the “Full House” reference in the Tweet:

 

 

https://gfycat.com/emptydifficultargali

 

And, for our last moment of the day, this absolutely amazing clip of Joey Votto Votto-splaining how to pronounce Tyler Naquin’s name:

 

 

For reference, the MLB pronunciation guide says: (NAY – kwin). Maybe Joey’s right in France? Or perhaps Canada.

That’ll do it. Let us know what moments you loved from yesterday in the comments or on Twitter. Hug the people that you love.

 

 

Photo by Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)

Matt Goodwin

Husband. Dad. Teacher. Writer. Podcaster. Baseball Fan. Quippy. Makes up words. FSWA. IBWAA.

2 responses to “The 7 Best MLB Moments from Monday”

  1. Karl says:
    April 13, 2021 at 1:41 PM

    Just want to pop in and say I absolutely love this article series. I’m a busy person so it’s nice to not miss out on any of the moments that make baseball beautiful. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Matt Goodwin says:
      April 13, 2021 at 1:53 PM

      Thanks so much! This is a team effort with many different staffers taking on different days/nights of the week. I’ll be sure to pass this on to them and thank you for checking us out on the regular!

      Reply

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