Bases Covered is a roundup of the most interesting stories in baseball.
Chris Archer put up a strong performance on Wednesday versus the Kansas City Royals, pitching eight shutout innings and allowing just five hits and zero walks in Tampa Bay’s 12–1 victory.
As Marc Topkin notes in the Tampa Bay Times, Archer has had more success lately in part because he’s been pitching inside more often, which has also created “questions about his motives.”
In his latest start, the right-hander once again hit a batter. In the seventh inning, Archer nailed Royals catcher Salvador Perez, who insisted the hurler did it on purpose.
“‘That’s bull—t,’ Perez said afterward. ‘That’s what I think.'”
Archer, for his part, maintained that he was just trying to pitch inside. “There is no malicious intent with 96 miles an hour,” he said.
Fruitful boredom
At least as far as breakouts are concerned, Eric Thames has been the story of the MLB season to this point. The 30-year-old, who signed a three-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers this past winter, currently has 13 home runs—good for a tie with Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman for the most in the majors.
A story by Travis Sawchik in FanGraphs explores how Thames transformed his approach while playing for the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization. The catalyst for his success? Intense boredom brought on by not knowing the language, and spending most of his time overseas alone.
Sawchik writes: “It was boredom, and how he filled in those often wasted minutes and hours, that allowed Thames to reinvent himself. He read. He meditated. He tried to become mindful. ‘I didn’t want to do pleasure reading. I wanted to read books that would give me perspective,’ Thames said. It allowed him to become a better player.”
Living out of a suitcase
A fun profile of New York Yankees rookie Aaron Judge from Sports Illustrated has this interesting detail: Judge “lives out of two suitcases in an Art Deco hotel in the heart of Times Square.”
Judge apparently hasn’t looked for an apartment in the city for fear he might get sent down to triple-A this season.
Hotel living, it turns out, is not without its perks for the towering Yankees sensation.
“His lobby is one of the few places he can watch people, tourists who aren’t watching him. He hears a different language seemingly every time he rides the elevator. … But his favorite part of the Times Square location, he explains eagerly, is that ‘if I want to get frozen yogurt at 12 o’clock at night, I can do it.’”
Saying thanks
Seattle Mariners catcher Carlos Ruiz received a standing ovation from Phillies fans when he took to the plate against his former team on Wednesday. The 38-year-old, who spent his entire MLB career with Philadelphia before being traded to the Dodgers last summer, was even lauded with cheers as he hit a three-run double against the Phillies.
“That was really emotional,” he said afterwards. “I’m really happy to come back here and enjoy the ovation from the fans. That’s something that you’re always going to remember. We don’t see that too often. Just want to say thank you to everybody for the ovation and the support. They were so good to me throughout my career. I was so happy.”
The M’s took an 11–6 win; they next face Toronto for a four-game series beginning Thursday.
Playing the hero
Wednesday offered up a bad night for professional sports in Washington, with the Capitals eliminated by the Pitsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the Wizards being pushed to the brink by the Boston Celtics in the NBA Conference Semifinals. But as Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post notes, the Nationals delivered a small bright spot as Matt Wieters walked off his former team and the Nationals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7–6.
“We just needed a win,” Wieters said. “We’d kind of played poorly the first two games all around. Finally, we were able to get some momentum there in the last inning.”