Bases Covered is a roundup of the most interesting stories in baseball.
Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig smashed a three-run home run in his team’s 8–2 win over the New York Mets on Wednesday, and at least a few members of the Mets didn’t take kindly to Puig’s admiration of his work.
Puig paused to have a look at his home run before trotting around the bases, and as he passed first base, Wilmer Flores yelled something at him. Puig then yelled something at Flores in return.
“I just told him to run the bases, that was it,” Flores said after the game. “I don’t think he knows what having respect for the game is.”
Flores added that Puig “disrespected” the Mets. “I think there’s a way to enjoy a home run,” he said. “That was too much.”
Puig, for his part, claimed not to remember the exchange with Flores, though he did tell reporters after the game that Mets infielder Jose Reyes had spoken to him between innings, telling him: “Try to run a little faster.”
Ended on a bunt
(Paul Beaty/AP)
Justin Verlander’s bid for a perfect game was broken up in the sixth inning on Wednesday when Seattle Mariners outfielder Jarrod Dyson laid down a bunt single. Things only got worse for the Tigers after that, with the M’s eventually taking a 7–5 victory — good for Detroit’s fifth straight loss.
Verlander, to his credit, didn’t begrudge Dyson for the bunt despite the game’s so-called unwritten rules.
“It was a perfect bunt,” Verlander said. “That’s part of his game. I don’t think it was quite too late, given the situation, to bunt, especially being as how that’s a major part of what he does. I really didn’t have any issues with it. It’s not like I got upset about it.”
Back on top
(Kathy Willens/AP)
The Yankees snapped a seven-game losing streak — their longest in a decade — on Wednesday thanks to an 8–4 victory over the Angels. The win took the team back to first place in the AL East. They’d spent one day in second, behind the Red Sox.
As Tyler Kepner writes in the New York Times, “With the win, the Yankees sidestepped the quicksand beneath them, which has threatened to pull them into the A.L.’s sinkhole of mediocrity.”
Shopping around
(Chris Carlson/AP)
It’s no secret that the Washington Nationals are in need of a closer. So who might be on their list? According to Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports, the team is interested in Tony Watson, Kelvin Herrera, David Robertson and former Nationals closer Mark Melancon, now with the Giants.
Of interest to fans in Toronto, Heyman writes: “The Nats don’t see the Toronto Blue Jays as likely to trade closer Roberto Osuna, and the same is probably true for the Tampa Bay Rays and Alex Colome, but those are two more closers who would interest them. Osuna has 19 saves in 22 chances. Colome has 20 saves in 23 opportunities with a 2.43 ERA.”
Career first
(Kathy Willens/AP)
Salvador Perez hit his first career grand slam on Wednesday in a 6–4 win over the Red Sox.
The Kansas City Royals catcher used a bat given to teammate Drew Butera by Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera.
Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star has the story of how Cabrera ended up gifting the bat to Butera last month.
“I think I’m gonna use it on Friday, too,” Perez told reporters after his team’s win. “What do you guys think?”
