By Ron Kaplan, contributor
Between the weekend and Rosh Hashana, this is the first chance I’ve had to do any sort of recap. Too much time has passed to do an individual thing, so here are the highlights:
- Rowdy Tellez continued to shine for the Toronto Blue Jays (65-78, fourth in AL East). He started out with four doubles in his first five MLB at-bats. He had two more on Friday in five at-bats against the visiting Cleveland Indians. That tied a rookie record set by Joe DiMaggio for the most two-baggers in any three-game stretch of a player’s debut season. Tellez finally hit his first single the next day, but only after he launched his first home run, giving him seven extra base hits to start his career. He went 0-for-4 on Sunday. Tellez’s homer was the 100th hit by MOTs this season.
- Tellez teammate Kevin Pillar hit his 12th home run on Friday and hit doubles #36 and 37 over the weekend. The homer had some extra “oomph,” since it won the game for the Jays in the 11th inning. Hard to believe it, but Pillar — now in his sixth season with Toronto — is the longest-tenured Blue Jay on the current squad.
- Ryan Braun hit his 15th homer on Friday to start the scoring for the Milwaukee Brewers (83-62, second in NL Central, 1 GB) in their 4-2 win over the visiting San Francisco Giants. He also was involved in an interesting at-bat versus Madison Bumgarner the next day. Braun was hit by a pitch in the sixth to load the bases, leading to an ejection for his manager, Craig Counsel, after the umpires issued a warning to both teams. (Braun had a game-tying double off the wall in the first, so maybe Bumgarner had some lingering resentment.) Anyway, that loaded the bases, but not for long: Jonathan Schoop followed with a grand slam in what ended as a 6-3 win for the Brew Crew.
- Alex Bregman hit his 30th home run — his fifth in seven games — for the Houston Astros (90-54, first in AL West) against the host Boston Red Sox on Saturday. Barring any unforeseen catastrophe, he’s a lock for 100 RBIs (97 right now) and with little luck will finish with a .300 batting average. I know it’s not fashionable to make BA a big deal these days, but it’s still a nice number and certainly entitles him to MVP consideration.
- Ian Kinsler will probably hold down second base for the Red Sox (98-46, first in the AL East) the rest of the season; Dustin Pedroia will not return from the DL in 2018. Kinsler was 2-for-12 in their series against the Astros.
- Reliever Robert Stock made two appearances for the San Diego Padres, (57-88, fifth in NL West), tossing a total of three scoreless innings (no hits, two walks, three strikeouts).
- Joc Pederson was 0-for-9 in his last three games for the LA Dodgers (78-6, second in NL West, 1.5 GB) in their series against the Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies.
- Ryan Lavarnway still has not appeared for the Pittsburgh Pirates (71-72, fourth in NL Central). Same for Max Fried, back with the Atlanta Braves (80-64, first in NL East).
- Gabe Kapler’s Phildelphia Phillies (74-68, second in NL East, 5 GB) lost two of three to the host NY Mets and were rained out Monday.
Ron Kaplan (@RonKaplanNJ) hosts Kaplan’s Korner, a blog about Jews and sports. He is the author of three books, including The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games and Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War.
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