Cody Bellinger Leads MLB With 7 Homers And 18 RBI's

MLB.com reports:

As the Dodgers completed a series sweep at Coors Field Sunday night with a 12-6 rout of Colorado, Bellinger slugged his MLB-leading seventh home run for his 18th RBI. Since RBIs began being tracked in 1920, the only other player with seven homers and 18 RBIs in the first 10 games of a season was Willie Mays in 1964, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

And Bellinger didn’t stop there on this night, showing off all the tools in his kit on Sunday Night Baseball. He legged out an infield single before Max Muncy’s homer, doubled, scored four runs, made a very tough catch in foul ground to cut off a Colorado rally in the first inning and threw out Trevor Story trying to go first to third on a two-out, sixth-inning single by Nolan Arenado with the Rockies down by six runs.

“I think any way you can help offensively or defensively, and if you can get both in one day, that’s a huge confidence booster and everyone wants to do that,” said Bellinger.

Bellinger is batting .455 with a 1.512 OPS. And he has only six strikeouts in 44 at-bats (13.6 percent) after striking out 27 percent of the time last year.

“Just feel really good and just trying to stay within myself in the cage and not get too ahead of myself and give in to the hype and just try to perform,” he said.

5 Ejected After Reds, Pirates Benches Clear

MLB.com reports:

After launching a two-run homer that sailed out of PNC Park and bounced into the Allegheny River, Reds first baseman Derek Dietrich dropped his bat and stood in the batter’s box for a moment to admire his prodigious blast.

That didn’t sit well with the Pirates, and what happened in the fourth inning of Sunday afternoon's 7-5 Pittsburgh win didn’t appear to go over well with anybody at PNC Park.

• Notable brawls in baseball history

Right-hander Chris Archer, who gave up the home run, threw a first-pitch fastball behind Dietrich when the Reds infielder led off the fourth inning. Archer denied any intent, saying he simply “yanked” the pitch and “missed my spot.” Home-plate umpire Jeff Kellogg saw it differently and immediately issued a warning to Archer. The Reds also believe there was retaliatory intent behind Archer’s pitch, and the lack of an ejection drew the ire of manager David Bell.

“Any time another team or another player is intentionally trying to hurt one of our players, that’s the problem. It’s that simple,” Bell said. “It’s unacceptable, and we’ll always stick up for our players no matter what.

“When you hit a home run, you’re allowed to run around the bases any way you want. It’s unacceptable and unfortunate that that happened. It should never happen … for any reason. It’s completely -- it shouldn’t be part of the game. It shouldn’t be allowed.”

To add further insult, Dietrich ended up hitting a second homer in the game.

Albert Pujols Passes Ichiro Suzuki On All Time Hits List

MLB.com reports:

Albert Pujols and Ichiro Suzuki will always be linked, as they both burst onto the scene in 2001, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in their respective leagues. Pujols has been known more for his power over his 19-year career, but he passed Ichiro on the career hits list on Sunday with his 3,090th hit, which ranks 22nd all time.

In the Angels' 7-2 victory over Texas, Pujols singled to right field to lead off the third inning against right-hander Shelby Miller to pass Ichiro, who racked up 3,089 hits over his 19-year career with the Mariners, Yankees and Marlins. Pujols has long admired Ichiro and spoke glowingly about him during Spring Training, when Ichiro retired after playing in the Japan Series with the Mariners against the A’s.

“Obviously, a great career, a future Hall of Famer,” Pujols said on March 21. “It's really amazing what he was able to accomplish -- not just in Japan but also here at this level in the big leagues. I'm honored to say that I came up around the same time and we both won Rookie of the Year. It's an amazing, amazing career. I'm really happy to him."

Pujols, 39, has already reached several milestones, including 600 homers -- he has 634 in his career -- and his next one will be reaching 2,000 RBIs, as he has 1,984 in his career, the most among active players. Pujols had 2,073 hits, 455 homers and 1,329 RBIs in his 11 years with the Cardinals and has 1,017 hits, 189 homers and 655 RBIs in his eight seasons with the Halos.

"That’s impressive," Angels center fielder Mike Trout said. "Obviously, Ichiro had an unbelievable amount of hits. It seems like every day Albert is passing somebody. I was joking with Noé [Ramirez after he caught Pujols' homer in his hat Saturday]: 'Why did you give that ball to a fan? He just passed Babe Ruth or something.' It seems like every day he passes a Hall of Famer."

Pujols has won three National League MVP Awards, a batting title and has been an All-Star 10 times. Ichiro won the American League MVP Award as a rookie in 2001, won two batting titles and was also a 10-time All-Star.

Gary Sanchez Hits 3 Homers In Pounding Of Orioles

NJ.com reports:

Sanchez’s best-career day stole some of the spotlight from his teammates on an afternoon in which the Yankees slugged seven homers and right-hander Domingo German started his day with 5 1/3 no-hit innings.

Outfielder Clint Frazier was 4-for-5 with two homers the day after hitting a game-changing, three-run homer on Saturday night, but Sanchez trumped that with his first career three-homer game.

Sanchez made some headlines earlier in the series by being picked off a base in consecutive games, but he went deep four times in the three games to run his homer total to six, which ties Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger for the major league lead.

In the series finale against the O’s, Sanchez hit a two-run homer in the third inning off Orioles starter David Hess to stake the Yankees to a 4-0 lead, then he hit another two-homer shot in the seventh off reliever Mike Wright to make it a 7-0 game and he hit his third with a runner aboard in the eighth batting against Dan Straily to make it 11-3.

Sanchez had a shot at a fourth homer in the ninth inning facing infielder Hanser Alberto pitching for the Orioles, but he flied out to shallow left.

There still are things about Sanchez’s game that are far from perfect. His average is a subpar .233, he leads the club with four errors, he’s still polishing up blocking skills that have been atrocious in past years and his recent base-running mistakes ran his club out of threats in the first two games of this series in Baltimore.

Mike Trout Hits Grand Slam To Beat Rangers

L.A. Times reports:

It was after 5 o’clock on Saturday afternoon and Mike Trout had just turned away from his locker at Angel Stadium to face the cameras.The Angels star had stood in the same spot after three straight games. Each time, reporters thrust microphones toward Trout’s face. Each time, they asked Trout to describe how he used his 6-foot-2, 235-pound frame to muscle a baseball over an outfield fence. Angels had loaded the bases with one out. Trout usually would have been pitched around but there was nowhere for him to go. 

All Smyly could do was hope he could sneak some pitches by him. Smyly tried. Trout fouled off a high fastball on the first pitch. Then the last pitch came in at 91 mph, riding in at the top of the zone right over the middle of the plate. Trout timed it better, clipped it with his barrel and sent it soaring. The ball hurtled through the air at 109 mph and towered, traveling 458 feet and reaching a height of 128 feet before carrying over the Angels’ bullpen and dropping into the left-field seats for Trout’s first grand slam since Sept. 17, 2015, and fifth of his career.

Cody Bellinger Leads Major Leagues With 6 Homers And 16 RBI's

MSN sports reports:

Unwind and Indulge

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Bellinger, Max Muncy and Russell Martin homered as the visiting Dodgers kept up their longball barrage, beating Colorado 10-6 on Friday in the Rockies’ home opener.

After hitting a franchise-record 235 home runs last year, the Dodgers have connected 21 times in eight games this season. They’ve homered in every game so far.

What’s more, the 21 homers through eight games are the second-most in major-league history behind the St. Louis Cardinals, who had 23 in 2000.

“We have a talented lineup,” Muncy said. “We’re very deep. On top of that, we’re all up there and having fun.”

Bellinger hit his sixth of the year, breaking the game open with a three-run drive in the fifth. He didn’t hit his sixth homer last season until game No. 41.

“I’m just feeling good and trying to keep it going,” Bellinger said.

Gleyber Torres Hits 2 Homers To Help The Yankees End Losing Skid

Young slugger, Gleyber Torres, stepped up big time for his team, hitting two homers and getting four hits overall in a victory over the Orioles.

NJ.com reports:

Down three runs through five innings, the Yankees rallied for an 8-4 win to spoil the Orioles’ home opener.

Torres was the hero, as he was 4-for-4 with a single, double and two homers, including three-run, sixth-inning dinger that turned a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 Yankees lead that held up.

By winning, the 3-4 Yankees avoided losing five of their first seven games for the first time since 1991 when a 2-5 start led to 71-91 season and the firing of manager Stump Merrill.

The Yankees appeared to be in big trouble Thursday, as the Orioles scored three first-inning runs facing James Paxton and were still ahead 4-1 through five.