Mound Visits: Brandon McCarthy’s baby girl has some side eye for you

Welcome back to Mound Visits, where we recap all of the fun or unexpected things you might have missed from baseball over the past seven days. This week, Joe Kelly trades in throwing punches for a tracksuit, Bartolo’s almost no-no, and some serious side eye from a small baby.

Last week, Kelly was featured thanks to his best “hammered bar patron who caught you looking at him funny” impression. This week it’s because the Red Sox had a tracksuit dress code on their current West Coast swing and Kelly really committed to the theme.

Between the backwards cap, the dorky smile, and the 80s Look That’s So Intense It’s Hurting My Eyes Oh No It’s Too Strong We Can’t Stop It style all work together perfectly. A close runner up was Drew Pomeranz’s velour number. Sexy.

About 95 percent of people saw this already, because it was everywhere. But it was so awesome that it was worth including again because WHAT? HUH? HOW?

Remember earlier this season when snow baseball was fun and pretty and seemed sort of magical? Well, that’s over. It’s April 20 and the time for snow is over. Cardinals-Cubs was postponed Wednesday, the Twins postponed three games in a row before their series in Puerto Rico, and the Tigers have had a whopping six home games bumped because of weather now.

It’s not even worth it to get into the arguments about whether cold-weather teams should have fewer home games scheduled earlier in the season or whether the season itself should be shorter. That’s too big picture. The important thing in this moment is that we get warm weather and more baseball, together.

Everything from his cleats to his almost home run to kickoff the game to his actual home run in the fifth inning to his mom’s reaction came together to shape an amazing first game in San Juan. His custom cleats were a cherry on top as well. You couldn’t write that kind of emotional payoff for MLB’s return to Puerto Rico.

I wasn’t watching Bartolo pitch on Sunday night because I was at dinner and away from my phone for a few hours. By the time I checked my phone it was a few minutes after he lost his shot at a perfect game in the eighth inning and I made a noise after absorbing the situation that made the person I was with look at me with an “are you OK right now?” look.

Both because he even had a perfect game going at one point that I had missed AND because it got broken up. Bartolo is one of the most pure things about baseball and when you combine that with him just being an absolute unit and still shoving like that at almost 45 years old it’s almost unfair. Baseball doesn’t deserve Bartolo, and if you had any doubts about that ...

Speaking of absolute units. A now-notorious Tigers fan was enjoying a game against the Orioles while accessorizing with nothing but a backwards hat, sunglasses his beard, and hopefully some sort of suitable pants situation. It was 42 in Detroit at the time and felt like 37. Not all heroes wear capes.

Can you believe this is an actual thing that happened this week? I still cannot.

Someone needs to get Gattis some snacks before games, probably. He’s also lucky the Astros won handily because otherwise ... oof.

The Florida Fire Frogs, the Braves’ Advanced-A affiliate in in Kissimmee, held a “free beer until the other team scores” promotion on Thursday night. There was a lot of drinking to be had too, as the Fire Frogs shutout the St. Lucie Mets for five-plus innings behind Joey Wentz.

In the announcement they phrased it as their “first” of such nights, which means they either couldn’t possible see anything going wrong with such a promotion or they were fine with all the ways in which it could spin out of control.

Because 1. free beer at a 2. minor league game in 3. Florida on a 4. Thursday night all adds up to “well, the fans sure had a fun time blacking out but we can never do that again, someone set the bleachers on fire using a Florida Georgia Line tour shirt and their earrings.” If you were at this game, please tell me how much you drank in those six innings.

Braves pitcher Brandon McCarthy did a post-game interview with his adorable two-year old girl in his arms. The only thing better than her being super cute the whole time? This EXPERT side eye she threw about a minute and a half into the interview. That reporter has to quit their job and change their name now. It’s all over for them.

Have a favorite moment from the week? Tweet them at me and I’ll include them in next week’s column.