Eric Thames, the best story in baseball right now, homered twice on Monday as his Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 11–7.
Thames now has 10 dingers on the season — the most in the majors — and seven of those have come against Cincinnati.
The 30-year-old, who was selected by Toronto in the seventh round in the 2008 draft, recently revealed that his time in the Korean Baseball Organization allowed him to let go and learn to have fun.
“When I was a prospect and [breaking into] the big leagues, I stressed out a lot,” he told MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. “I drank a lot. I was just like, ‘Oh my God, I have to hit a home run or I’m going back to double-A and triple-A.”
Kershaw’s bat
Clayton Kershaw is baseball’s best pitcher, but he’s no chump at the plate.
Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times has an interesting look at Kershaw’s approach, which involves dividing his life into strict five-day increments and watching a lot of video. Part of Kershaw’s strategy, too, is taking it easy: there’s no pressure on him to be a great hitter, which makes the job more fun.
“Obsessed with his craft and fixated on execution, Kershaw relishes the opportunity to compete in an arena with lowered expectations,” McCullough writes.
Kershaw himself says: “All these hitters will tell you: They know exactly what these guys are going to try to do to get them out. The hard part is laying off the stuff you should, swinging at the pitches you should and not missing. I can tell you what the guy is going to throw me. It’s the hitting that’s the hard part.”
Kershaw will get the start on Tuesday as the Dodgers face the Giants at AT&T Park.
A nice moment
Speaking of that series: The Giants hosted the Dodgers for the first of a four-game series on Monday. Former San Francisco reliever Sergio Romo, who signed on with the Dodgers in the off-season, earned a standing ovation from the fans at AT&T Park.
The righty, who was clearly emotional upon experiencing the warm welcome from fans of his old team, called it “a homecoming.”
It wasn’t all joy for Romo, though. His team took a 2–1 loss.
Bullpen session
David Price threw a 45-pitch bullpen session at Fenway Park on Monday. The left-hander has been working his way back from an elbow strain in his throwing arm, but his comeback has recently been slowed by soreness.
Price had a busy day on Monday. He and teammate Steven Wright were seen handing out ice cream on Yawkey Way. The Red Sox host the Yankees for a three-game series starting Tuesday.
Speeding up the game
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is doing his best to increase the pace of play (or, as some fans call it, “ruin the game”). One idea that’s recently been put forth by a few different observers has been the notion of games ending in a tie after 12 innings.
But would tie games ruin baseball’s great tradition? One writer argues that tie games “are far more rooted in the tradition of baseball than pretty much any of the rule changes Manfred has suggested in his three-year tenure as commissioner.”
