Bases Covered is a roundup of the most interesting stories in baseball.
Clayton Kershaw may be baseball’s greatest pitcher, but he isn’t perfect. On Monday, the Dodgers ace pitched six innings, allowing four runs and eight hits against the Giants, who took a 4–3 win in the game.
“Tonight, I wasn’t great,” he said.
There’s no reason for Dodgers fans to panic, of course, but as Andy McCullough in the L.A. Times writes, “Monday marked the second time this season Kershaw (4-2, 2.62 earned-run average) hinted at something resembling mortality.”
Sickening behaviour
Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones said Monday that fans spewed racial insults at him during a game at Fenway Park, as the Red Sox hosted the O’s for the first of a four-game series.
On Tuesday morning, the Red Sox issued a statement, apologizing to Jones.
“No player should have an object thrown at him on the playing field, nor be subjected to any kind of racism at Fenway Park,” the statement read. “The Red Sox have zero tolerance for such inexcusable behavior, and our entire organization and our fans are sickened by the conduct of an ignorant few.”
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has spoken out about the incident, saying, “These words and actions have no place in Fenway, Boston or anywhere. We are better than this.”
Massachussetts Governor Charlie Barker likewise condemned the behaviour:
Taking the blame
On Monday, the Mets announced the results of Noah Syndergaard’s MRI: the 24-year-old has a partial tear in his right lat and will be out indefinitely.
Mets GM Sandy Alderson, over the weekend, had spoken about Syndergaard’s refusal to get an MRI. The pitcher then got the start on Sunday but was pulled after two innings, with something clearly amiss. At the time, Alderson seemed critical of Syndergaard’s decision but indicated that he couldn’t force the pitcher to get an MRI.
Alderson addressed the media again on Monday and took responsibility for Syndergaard getting the start on Sunday.
“It was my decision for Noah to pitch with input with [a] variety of different sources,” he said. “The MRI was not dismissed out of hand, and we had to evaluate the situation. … From the overall standpoint, it is not to say things couldn’t have been done differently. From my standpoint, I made the decision.”
Alderson added that Syndergaard is likely to be out “for a considerable amount of time.”
The whole debacle has raised questions about how both Syndergaard and the Mets have handled the situation. It has also raised the question: Are the Mets doomed without Thor?
Beating the shift
Detroit Tigers designated hitter Victor Martinez hit his first career bunt single on Monday. In the fifth inning of a game at Comerica Park, the 38-year-old laid down a bunt to third base. Three Cleveland infielders had shifted over to the right side, so Martinez, who does not have speed on his list of attributes, made it to first base.
“Thank God I got it down good and I didn’t hit it back to [Cleveland pitcher Trevor] Bauer,” he said afterward. “It was a lot of fun. Finally got to put one down, the first one of my career. I really decided when Bauer started his windup. I was like, ‘Ah, I’m going for it.’”
It was Martinez’s 1,757th career major-league game, and just his second attempt at bunting.
The Tigers were victorious, 7–1.
An unconventional tribute
Mets fan Tom McDonald, a.k.a. “Porky,” has been honouring his childhood friend and fellow Mets fan in an unconventional way.
After Roy Riegel died nine years ago, McDonald has been paying tribute to his friend by scattering his ashes in meaningful places. And because Riegel was both a plumber and a baseball fan, McDonald thought it was only fitting to flush his friend’s ashes down the toilet at ballparks across the country—and even in Toronto.
There are rules to the tribute, though. McDonald will only dispose of the ashes when the game is in progress, and it has to take place between innings.
“I always flush in between, though,” he added. “That’s another rule of mine.”
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