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The 7 Best MLB Moments from Tuesday

A high school reunion, Vladdy unleashed, and Joe West meets the chicken

Wynn McDonald
Best MLB Moments 5/26/2021

Every now and then, we get a reminder of just how ridiculously good MLB pitchers are at their job. For those of you that read this site often, it probably happens a lot. We happen to enjoy it very much.

Yesterday, we were fortunate enough to get several of those reminders. And now, dear reader, you get to see them too.

What made this Tuesday special? Well, for starters, how about these starters!

Not even featured in the above graphic, some of yesterday’s other starting matchups included Joe Musgrove v. Corbin Burnes, Lucas Giolito v. Jack Flaherty, and Charlie Morton v. Garrett Richards‘ mustache (shhh, I know he shaved it, I just like to remember).

We also got a magnificent 13-K performance from Rich Hill (a.k.a. “Dick Mountain”), who has shown this year that all it really takes to be an elite pitcher in your 40s is a great nickname and a contract with the Tampa Bay Rays.

And finally, please enjoy this jaw-dropping Tejay Antone overlay courtesy of the Ninja known as Rob:

Now without further ado, here are the best moments from Tuesday’s games, starting with a little more great pitching flavor.

deGromination

Welcome back, ace. Jacob deGrom made his much-anticipated return from the IL one Tuesday, fresh off dismantling a bunch of helpless 18-year-olds on a rehab assignment in Palm Beach last week, and he absolutely delivered. DeGrom’s stuff looked as good as ever as he threw five innings of three-hit, one-run, nine-strikeout ball against the Rockies, who simply couldn’t believe it:

He also produced a base hit in the game, his eighth of the season already, and had the audacity to try and stretch it into a double. See for yourself:

He was called out on review for coming off the bag, but, like, check this out…

Truly inhuman, that man. Ain’t it beautiful?

High School Reunion

Among the great matchups mentioned above, as you may have heard by this point, there was another fun storyline beyond that of two aces facing off in a big matchup of division leaders. That would be the fact that once upon a time, Giolito and Flaherty were high school teammates at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles. It’s a well-documented fun fact (as is the detail that Max Fried was on that staff as well), but Tuesday was the first time that any of the three aces have actually faced each other in a big-league game.

The longtime friends took a moment before the game to take in the craziness of the moment, as captured by The Athletic’s James Fegan:

Fegan did a terrific write-up on the high school connection ahead of the game, which includes some excellent anecdotes like this one from Giolito’s dad. It’s worth a read if you subscribe.

“Jack could hit the hair on a gnat’s ass when he was 15 years old,” Rick said. “It was ridiculous. He’s always had that incredible command and control.”

The game was also a special moment for White Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz, who coached them at Harvard-Westlake as well. It was all smiles on Tuesday for these California boys.

As far as the game itself, Giolito came out on top, hurling six innings with five Ks and two runs in an 8-3 ‘Sox win. Flaherty got lit up for seven runs in 3.2 innings, his shortest outing of the season. I guess someone on the Chicago bench must’ve had the inside scouting report on the guy.

Lazer Sho

The next pitcher on our list is a fellow from the Angels named Shohei Ohtani, who had one of his worst lines of the season last night, tying career-lows with zero strikeouts, zero outs, and zero innings while playing the Designated Hitter position. In fact, he didn’t pitch at all. But he did do this:

That blast, which left the park in approximately half a second, was Ohtani’s 15th home run of the season. Some might say that’s a lot for a guy that pitches the ball too, but I’m no expert. I’ll leave such analysis to the professionals:

Cool stuff. Very cool, very normal stuff, that’s what I think. Right?

Vladdy Spells Silence

As of now, there’s only one guy who has more than 15 dingers in the big leagues. That would be the one and only Czar of the North, the Sultan of Snowshoes, the Terror of Tim Horton’s: the one and only (except for the other one) Vladimir Guerrero Jr.!

Okay, in my defense, his B-R page is currently bereft of nicknames, so I figured I’d give it a shot. He’ll need one soon if he keeps doing things like this:

After his third bomb in two days, Vladdy has overtaken the MLB lead in homers, OPS, UBR, fWAR, and wRC+. He took the chance to remind us of his eminence rounding third with a little Trae Young shush for the Yankee fans:

I, for one, welcome our new Vladdian overlord and will heed his command by halting all hating habits, um, posthence.

Deeee-fence!

It was another stellar night of plays in the field, starting with Jonathan Villar at the hot corner…

…to the cool corner, where A.L. MVP Jose Abreu is doing the splits:

https://gfycat.com/gorgeousflawedblobfish

Not to be overlooked, here’s a little outfield love for Kevin Kiermaier doing what he does best:

And to cap off our tour of the field, here’s Taylor Ward stealing a hit in right:

https://gfycat.com/realistickeyborzoi

Making it look easy, guys. Quit showing off.

Man of Many Talents

Luis Guillorme thought he could juggle baseballs in the dugout without people noticing. He was wrong. We noticed, and we f***ing loved it.

Today’s Your Day, Joe

Out of all the great accomplishments on the field, the most impressive belonged to umpire Joe West, who umpired his 5,376th career game last night in Chicago, breaking an 80-year-old MLB record.

Granted, whether Joe West having umpired that many games is a good thing may be up for debate. But it’s still a rare accomplishment, the kind that can apparently only be rightly celebrated with… well, whatever is going on here:

Congrats, Joe. You really did it. Now just don’t break that chicken’s heart, because he’s really putting himself out there.

Wynn McDonald

Born a Kentuckian, much like Dan Uggla. Braves fan by choice, unlike Dan Uggla. I enjoy long walks on the Brandon Beachy. @twynstagram

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