Baseball

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14897119

How the night unfolded: https://www.mlb.com/news/abner-uribe-jose-siri-brewers-rays-benches-clear

Trout, a three-time AL MVP and 11-time All-Star, suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee in Monday’s 6-5 win over the Phillies and will undergo surgery in the coming days, general manager Perry Minasian announced. It’s not expected to be a season-ending operation, but no immediate timetable was provided from the Angels or Trout.

“It’s tough,” said an emotional Trout prior to the Angels' 7-5 loss to the Phillies on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium. “It’s just frustrating. But we’ll get through it.”

Trout, 32, said the hardest part is he’s not even sure when he sustained the injury. He had no knee issues leading up to Monday’s series opener, but felt something while jogging off the field in the third inning. Trout continued to play through the injury, including stealing second base in the seventh inning and scoring the eventual winning run from second base on a wild pitch. But his knee continued to worsen and he underwent an MRI exam on Tuesday that revealed the damage.

“It’s crazy because when I look back, I don’t even know when I did it,” Trout said. “In the third inning when I was going back to the dugout, I felt an ache, but just like a little ache where it was more like, ‘This is weird.’ Didn’t think anything of it and was hitting and running and didn’t feel anything. Stole second, felt nothing. It was just after I did activity and sat back down and got back up, that’s when I felt it.”

Trout was off to a strong start to his season with a .220/.325/.541 line and 10 home runs, which were tied with Gunnar Henderson for the most in the Majors. Trout has also been more active on the bases this year, with as many steals (six) as he had in the last four years combined.

Trout called it another freak injury that was out of his control and was clearly frustrated by the prospect of missing time yet again.

“It’s all guesses, trying to pinpoint where this came from,” Trout said. “You play the game hard and [stuff] happens.”

Unfortunately for Trout and the Angels, injuries have become a recurring theme in recent years. Trout played in just 82 games last year due to a fractured wrist and 36 games in 2021 due to a right calf strain. He cleared 100 games played in 2022 but has not played in 130 or more games since 2019.

“We’re going to miss Mike,” manager Ron Washington said. “I think we know what he means to this organization. But the thing about baseball is, when there's a game on the schedule, you have to play. Some guys are going to get the opportunity that they've been craving. Now, we're going to see what they’re going to do.”

The start of Tuesday night's game between the Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers was delayed nearly two hours after a bee colony swarmed the top of the protective netting behind home plate.

Matt Hilton turned into the star of the night for removing the bees, earning a brief slice of stardom and the nod to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

"Minor leagues to the big leagues now," said Hilton, branch manager for Blue Sky Pest Control's Phoenix office. "It's pretty cool."

The buzz started about five minutes before first pitch.

Mike Rock, the Diamondbacks' vice president of baseball operations, got a call from the senior manager of events telling him a growing colony of bees was collecting atop the netting.

"She doesn't usually call me about that time. I knew something was odd," Rock said. "She said we have bees landing on the net right behind home plate. I said, 'How many?' And she said, 'Hundreds -- no way, thousands.' And I knew we had a problem."

The prominent modifications include a return to larger lettering on the back of jerseys, remedying mismatched gray tops and bottoms and addressing the new Nike jerseys' propensity to collect sweat, according to the memo distributed to players by the MLB Players Association on Sunday.

Kirby carved his way through the D-backs for a career-high 12 strikeouts over seven scoreless innings on Saturday night at T-Mobile Park, lifting the Mariners to a 3-1 victory to clinch their fourth straight winning series.

Six days after Kirby felt minor arm soreness and departed after five scoreless innings and 88 pitches at Coors Field, he was in peak form -- and not just in the box score. Kirby came out firing his four-seam fastball harder than he has all season, generating seven whiffs among the eight total swings in the first inning, when he struck out the side exclusively on heaters.

From there, he was off and running. Kirby topped out at 99.3 mph, his fastest pitch of the year and strike three to Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and sat at 96.4 mph on the four-seamer, a healthy 1.2 mph uptick from his season average.

Velocity and whiffs have always been part of Kirby’s game, but never like this. And though the game plan with catcher Cal Raleigh called for a heavy dose of heaters, they doubled down once they realized what they were working with.

Imanaga pitched into the seventh, improved to 4-0 through his first five starts for Chicago and headed off the hill with a 0.98 ERA. The lefty struck out seven and issued one walk, upping his ratio to 28 strikeouts against just three walks in 27 2/3 innings on the year.

As a result, Imanaga became the first Cubs starter to go at least 4-0 through the first five games of his career, and only the 37th pitcher to do so in AL/NL history. He is the first starter since 1945 (Boston’s Dave Ferriss) to go at least 4-0 with an ERA below 1.00 in his first five career games.

The Rockies made an epic comeback Thursday afternoon, erasing a five-run deficit with a six-run eighth inning and stunning the Padres, 10-9, to earn a series split at Coors Field.

Colorado sent 11 men to the plate in the eighth inning, putting five hits and three walks together as San Diego’s bullpen imploded under the relentless assault.

“You never know how it's gonna play out,” manager Bud Black said of the dramatic turnaround. “That's why you stay to the end.”

Top five all-time

1. Vince Coleman, Cardinals -- 50 from Sept. 18, 1988, to July 26, 1989 Coleman was the Henderson of the National League in the 1980s, leading the senior circuit in steals each year from his rookie campaign in 1985 through his final season with the Cardinals in '90. He stole more than 100 bases each year from 1985-87 and swiped 549 of his career 752 bags while with St. Louis. From Sept. 1988 to July of '89, you just couldn't catch him. His 50-for-50 in steal attempts over that span is unmatched in AL/NL history.

2. Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners -- 45 from April 29, 2006, to May 16, 2007 On his way to becoming the second player in MLB history to win his league's Rookie of the Year and MVP Awards in the same year, Ichiro led baseball with 56 steals in 2001. He proceeded to swipe at least 31 bases in each of the next seven seasons, and in 10 of 11 overall. From 2007-08, he was unstoppable, taking 45 in a row without being thrown out. He finished his illustrious Major League career with 509 steals to go along with 3,089 hits and 10 Gold Glove Awards in right field.

3. Trea Turner, Dodgers/Phillies -- 41 from Sept. 6, 2022, to April 24, 2024 Turner is more than just style on the basepaths -- he's one of the fastest players in the game today, and he's stolen 30 or more bases six times in his career. One of the most dangerous power-speed threats in baseball, Turner has been exhibiting the speed element to his game prominently over the past couple of seasons. His successful steals streak began while he was with the Dodgers late in the 2022 campaign with a swipe of second base against the Giants. He remained uncaught until he was tagged out in a rundown between third base and home plate during the Phillies' 25th game of the '24 campaign.

4. Tim Raines, White Sox -- 40 from July 23, 1993 to Aug. 4, 1995 What makes Raines' consecutive steals streak even more remarkable is that he produced it in his age-33 through age-35 seasons. Already regarded as one of the greatest basestealers of all time, the Hall of Famer wasn't caught stealing for more than two years in the early-to-mid 1990s with the White Sox. After leading either the NL or MLB in steals each year from 1981-84 while with the Expos, he showed a decade later that the wheels were still robust, nabbing 40 straight before finally being thrown out. His 808 career steals rank fifth in AL/NL history. Get the Latest From MLB

5. Jimmy Rollins, Phillies -- 39 from Sept. 1, 2007, to July 19, 2008 Rollins grew up in Oakland watching his baseball hero Henderson running wild on the bases for the A's. Rollins took that skill and made it his own, stealing 470 bases during his 17-year MLB career. The four-time Gold Glove Award-winning shortstop was named NL MVP in 2007, and he was instrumental in helping the Phillies reach back-to-back World Series in '08 and '09. From late in the '07 campaign to midway through the '08 season, Rollins went 39-for-39 in steal attempts.