I’ve been playing Satisfactory with a buddy for around a week now and he’s out of town until Tuesday, which is a good thing because it means I can’t spend every waking moment trying to maximize my pipeline throughput to make plastic and instead can watch all of the baseballs. And man, it’s been a very dramatic month in the NL East, although I would probably advise Mets fans to look away:
And while there haven’t been any shocking reversals in the AL East, things look like they have the real potential to get interesting down the stretch:
Here’s hoping a certain gray line continues that course it’s been on lately…
Like Riding A Bike
Eloy Jiménez has played seven whole games so far this year after injuring himself trying to rob a home run many moons ago, so we all have to forgive him a little lapse in his conditioning after scoring from first on a Yoán Moncada double.
https://gfycat.com/nimbleshockedatlanticspadefish
I mean, I just finished a season of beer league softball and this is how I looked anytime I had to do anything at all, so I’m really inviting everybody to gaze upon my gorgeous glasshouse while hefting many stones, but for real it’s just very cool to see Eloy out there doing the thing again this year.
Gardy Bangs Again
Brett Gardner, the longest-tenured current Yankee and general big-headed weirdo (he once drove all the way from NY to South Carolina without realizing he hadn’t turned on the radio) is infamous for banging on stuff, usually various parts of the dugout, and usually in protest of bad strike zones. Well, he’s back to banging, but definitely not in the dugout, and not about balls and strikes and was instead calling for a review of his slide into second:
YANKEES NEW THING WHO SAYS NO pic.twitter.com/9hto6fWXXT
— Big Baby David (@BigBabyDavid_) August 7, 2021
Now, part of the reason Gardy was doing this is that the Yankees are trying to win games because they might actually be decent and that means they’re fun and watchable again! This guy in the background here captures the vibe pretty well:
Fan of the Game award goes to this guy pic.twitter.com/7HTB0K1Gyo
— Emily Nyman (@EmSheDoesIt) August 7, 2021
Ice Cold Curry
I have long held that all American professional athletes want to, deep down, be pro baseball players. Look at how they always want to take BP and throw out first pitches. I’m sure fans of other sports feel this way about their favorite sport too, but still. (Well, hockey fans don’t feel this way because we all know that 90% of athletes probably couldn’t skate worth a dang.) Steph Curry isn’t dissuading me of that take with stuff like this:
I’m taking that straight over the left field wall with the meanest bat flip you’ve ever seen. Bautista style https://t.co/1fLSiZMSMm
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) August 7, 2021
Unnecessary
In the sixth inning last night, Drew Smith uncorked this curveball that simply didn’t curve:
https://gfycat.com/ordinarykindheartedintermediateegret
And in case you were wondering juuuuust how a little inside it was, SNY helpfully threw up the K-zone overlay for some assistance:
https://gfycat.com/determinedlinearbigmouthbass
Enlightening!
The Straw Sombrero
It was an interesting game by the end in Philadelphia, but the difference was Brad Miller, who had a double dong day, and earned himself (as the Mets booth called it) the Sombrero Doble:
https://gfycat.com/coolhealthyisabellinewheatear
As far as types of sombreros that a hitter can end up wearing, it’s definitely better than any type of precious metal.
Slow Brock
Brock Holt(!) pitched yesterday, which isn’t really a tremendously interesting thing on its own, position players pitch all the time now. But he channeled his inner Zack Greinke and threw…this:
Brock Holt's 31.1 mph called strike is the slowest pitch to be a called strike in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008)
Prior slowest was a 41.3 mph called strike by Willians Astudillo on June 4 this season https://t.co/1ZIdTt9S0I
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) August 7, 2021
He’s actually pushing the limits of physics here, as he was only around 4mph above the minimum (with bonus Willians Astudillo pitching footage!)
I think I once calculated it to be about 27 mph. It's an easy calculation.
— Alan Nathan (@pobguy) April 17, 2021
Attaboys
And finally, we go to Milwaukee, where Willy Adames hit an RBI double and attracted the attention of manager Craig Counsell and the athletic trainer. Willy was adamant that he was fine and eventually convinced Counsell of that fact, and sent him and the trainer back to the dugout in the most baseball way possible.
https://gfycat.com/amusingapprehensiveindianpangolin
“That’s beautiful. That’s Willy.” should be the new team tagline in my humble opinion. Or at least their official hashtag.
Featured image by Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)