For 6th time in 7 seasons, Max gets Opening Day start

 

 

The tradition continues -- Max Scherzer will be the Nationals’ Opening Day starter for the sixth time in seven seasons.

“He’s ready,” manager Dave Martinez said following the Nats’ 6-2 loss to the Mets on Sunday. “He’s the guy that gets everything started for us. He competes. We know what we’re going to get from him. He loves Opening Day, so he’s the guy we’re going to follow Opening Day.”

The 36-year-old Scherzer built up to 90 pitches against the Mets and Jacob deGrom, the same team and starter he will face on April 1 at Nationals Park. He pitched five innings, allowing four runs on six hits (including two home runs), with six strikeouts and one walk. Even though there were missteps with location on the homers, Martinez lauded the way Scherzer is “throwing the ball with less effort” this spring.

Belli shows shoulder is fine with 1st HR of '21

  

It didn’t take long for Cody Bellinger to show that his right shoulder feels just fine.

The Dodgers’ star outfielder made his second appearance in a Cactus League game since undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right (non-throwing) shoulder and had much better swings, including his first homer of the spring in the seventh inning of the Dodgers’ 7-7 tie with the D-backs on Thursday.

“I think he’s seeing the baseball really well,” said manager Dave Roberts. “Certainly the results were good today, but more importantly, he’s feeling good and seeing the baseball.”

Bellinger took a big hack in his first plate appearance on Thursday, flying out to left field. He flied out to left field again in his second at-bat, but the ball left his bat with a 101.3 mph exit velocity. He got in the hit column with his third appearance, smacking a single to right field.

But in his final at-bat, a more timed-up Bellinger took the biggest swing of the day and crushed a homer off D-backs right-hander Keury Mella. The exit velocity was 107.3 mph, and the estimated distance was 373 feet.

Read more HERE.

Shohei Ohtani goes 464 ft off reigning Cy winner

 

Two-way star Shohei Ohtani has stolen the show for the Angels this spring and wowed yet again on Tuesday, crushing a two-run blast over the batter’s eye in center field off Indians ace Shane Bieber, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. The homer was estimated at 464 feet, and he cleared the 30-foot high batter’s eye in center field at Tempe Diablo Stadium for the second time this spring.

"It's pretty impressive," Angels manager Joe Maddon said of Ohtani, who went 2-for-3 in the Angels 17-8 win over the Indians. "Every swing he takes, it looks like he's going to hit the ball hard and he pretty much has. Everything has been up the middle or to left, which I like. He's been barreling up a lot of balls, obviously, and even with two strikes. We want to bottle this up, keep it for the next 10 years because he's feeling really good about himself."

Read more HERE.

MLB Is Set To Return, July 1st Spring Training 2.0 Starts!

On July 1st, all 30 Major League Baseball teams are set to officially begin preparing again for the 2020 season a mere 97 days after it was supposed to start.

The Red Sox will train and play at Fenway Park. JetBlue Park in Fort Myers has been grounded. The number of COVID-19 cases in Florida has spiked. 

According to MLB, players will undergo coronavirus testing upon arrival, then begin workouts if they test negative. Players, coaches and support staff will be tested for COVID-19 every other day during training camps, the regular season and postseason. Anybody testing positive will be quarantined. Two negative tests are reportedly required for a return. Players will also receive temperature/symptom checks at least twice per day, and antibody testing will be conducted approximately once per month.

Three Rockies, including 4-time All-Star outfielder Charlie Blackmon tested positive for the virus earlier this month.

Are you ready for the return of baseball? This is going to go down as the strangest season in the history of the game.

Rookie Phenom Pete Alonso Hits 53rd Homer, Sets New Record!

CNN reports:

Slugger Pete Alonso has been a bright spot in an otherwise so-so season for the New York Mets. And now he's broken Major League Baseball's rookie home run record.

"Polar Bear," as he's nicknamed, hit his 53rd home run during this past Saturday's game against the Atlanta Braves. The record-breaking blast came in the third inning against Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz.

The fan favorite and 2019 Home Run Derby champion raised his arms to the sky as the ball soared over the wall at New York's Citi Field. Mets fans gave him a standing ovation as he rounded the bases.

"To be a part of Major League Baseball history, to be number one out of every single guy that ever played the game, it's humbling and it's such just a ridiculously awesome feeling," an emotional Alonso told reporters after the game. "That moment was just pure magic."

"I didn't know that I was going to be overcome with all that emotion," added Alonso, who got teary on the field as fans cheered him. "At that point, might as well just let it out."

Alonso bested another New York player -- Yankees star Aaron Judge -- in becoming MLB's all-time home run leader for rookies. The Yankees outfielder had set the record in 2017 with 52 home runs.

The Mets won Saturday's game 3-0. Although the team was officially eliminated from postseason contention earlier this week, at least Alonso gave their fans something to celebrate.

Mets Slugger Pete Alonso Hits 52nd Homer, Ties Rookie Record

MLB.com reports:

Because Pete Alonso is a walking, talking, home run-bashing superlative, it seems only natural that his vocabulary should mirror his production. When asked earlier this week about the possibility of hitting as many home runs as any rookie in Major League history, Alonso described the idea as “super, incredibly, amazingly awesome.”

For Alonso, everything seems to be “amazing” and “fun” and “special” and “a dream come true.” And why shouldn’t it be? During a seven-minute interview last week, Alonso used the words “awesome” and “miraculous” eight times. Teammate Marcus Stroman described him as “a big kid” with “true joy every time he comes in the clubhouse to play baseball.” Manager Mickey Callaway gushed: “There’s just something about Pete that draws everybody in.”

Part of it is recognition of the sublime. Alonso, who spent his summer ripping Major League Baseball’s record book into pieces with his bare hands, reached one more significant milestone Friday in the Mets’ 4-2 win over the Braves. Batting against Dallas Keuchel in the first inning, Alonso lined his 52nd homer just over the orange line painted onto Citi Field’s left-field wall. In so doing, he matched Aaron Judge for the most by a rookie in Major League history.

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"There is no better person to share it with," Judge said after the Yankees' game in Texas. "He’s eventually going to break it. I know that for sure."

Astros Slugger George Springer Hits 3 Homers To Help Team Clinch AL West

 Denver Post reports:

George Springer has hit a career-high three homers for the Houston Astros, all of them in the first four innings against the Los Angeles Angels on this past Sunday.

The MLB record of four home runs in a game has been done 18 times. J.D. Martinez did it most recently for Arizona on Sept. 4, 2017.

In his first chance at tying the mark, Springer popped up with the bases loaded in the fifth. He then grounded out in the seventh. 

 Springer got to work immediately, sending Jose Rodriguez’s first pitch into left-center field for his franchise-record 12th leadoff homer this season. That left the 2017 World Series MVP one shy of the MLB record for leadoff homers in a season set by Alfonso Soriano with the Yankees in 2003. 

The game was tied in the second when Springer connected off Rodriguez again, this time for a two-run shot that put the Astros up 3-1.

There were two outs in the fourth when Springer sent a fastball from José Suárez into the seats in left field to make it 4-2.

It is the 14th time in a regular season game in franchise history that an Astros player has hit three homers and the second time this season after rookie Yordan Alvarez also did it.

A win would clinch the AL West for the Astros.