By Ron Kaplan, contributor
Ian Kinsler gave the Boston Red Sox (91-42) a 1-0 lead with a single in the bottom of the second inning on Tuesday. He added another hit and scored a run as the Sox beat the visiting Miami Marlins, 8-7. The Marlins scored five times in the eighth to take the lead, but Boston came back with three of their own to regain, including Kinsler’s scamper across the plate on a wild pitch which gave them the (brief) lead. Miami scored in the ninth to tie before the Sox won the darn thing on a walk-off error on a made-to-order double play ball.
Alex Bregman hit his 42nd double to go along with a single in four at-bats and drove in two-thirds of the Houston Astros’ (80-53) runs in a 4-3 loss to the visiting Oakland A’s. There’s been a fair amount of talk about Mike Trout of the LA Angels being the new “face of baseball,” but could it be Bregman?
Kevin Pillar was 2-for-5 with an RBI as the Toronto Blue Jays (60-72) lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 11-3.
Joc Pederson was 2-for-6 with a run scored as the LA Dodgers (71-61) beat the host Texas Rangers, 8-4.
Ryan Braun– who is having a hot August — was 1-for-3 as the Milwaukee Brewers (73-60) lost to the host Cincinnati Reds, 9-7. He came out of the game on a double switch in the bottom of the sixth. Look for his name to pop up fairly regularly while stories about the new book, Baseball Cop: The Dark Side Of America’s National Pastime, continues to be newsworthy because of Braun’s use of PEDs. Funny — and sad — how people seem to gravitate to the “dirt side” of things.
Robert Stock did not pitch for the San Diego Padres (51-83) in their 2-1 win over the visiting Seattle Mariners.
Gabe Kapler‘s Philadelphia Phillies (70-62) lost to the visiting Washington Nationals, 5-4, when their runner left second base too soon, trying to advance on a fly ball in the ninth inning. Double play, game over.
Friday marks the last day a player can join another team and be eligible for the post-season. With that in mind, Danny Valencia — who was released earlier this month by the Orioles — is still out there. But it seems his reputation is preceding him. In an article from Inquisitor.com about rumored moves, the writer notes that the limbo-ed player “is available and can hit, but not a single GM has inquired about him as he is seen as a bad clubhouse presence. He would be extremely cheap to acquire, but the rumor on him is that his juice isn’t worth the squeeze.”
Get it? Because Valencia is a type of orange?
:: Crickets ::
Anyway, I thought that was funny. Here’s a piece from 2017 that goes into Valencia’s difficulties a bit more.
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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