It’s been quite a week for Reds pitcher Michael Lorenzen.
The Reds have cornered the market on pitchers who rake
In Sunday’s Say Hey, Baseball, we look at pitchers who rake, futuristic uniforms, and we celebrate Bobby Bonilla Day.
Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images
On Saturday, when the Reds were facing the Brewers, Lorenzen stepped into the box and delivered the death blow of the game. With the bases loaded, he slammed a home run to right field, putting a dagger in the game and giving the Reds a 10-3 lead. Lorenzen’s grand slam capped off an eight-run seventh inning. When the seventh began, they were losing 3-2. When it was over, well, so was the game. The crowd even demanded a Lorenzen curtain call.
The video of Lorenzen hitting that homer is pretty wonderful. How he managed to serenely sprint around the bases instead of do cartwheels the whole way is beyond me. The crowd at Great American Ballpark wasn’t huge, but they demanded a curtain call from their pinch-hitting pitcher, and he was thrilled to oblige.
That grand slam on Saturday wasn’t the first time Lorenzen had homered that week. It wasn’t even the second! It was the third home run Lorenzen clubbed in seven days. Last Sunday, he sent one deep in the final game of a three-game sweep against the Cubs. Five days later, his home run scored one of just two runs the Reds would get in a loss to the Brewers. And then the grand slam on Sunday. That’s three homers in three straight at-bats. Jim Riggleman may be on to something in Cincinnati.
Lorezen’s grand slam was his third homer of the week, and it was the second grand slam hit by a Reds pitcher in the same amount of time. Anthony DeSclafani hit one when the Reds annihilated the Cubs last Saturday. How often do you get to talk about multiple pitchers HITTING grand slams instead of giving them up?
The Reds are still in last place, 13.5 games behind the Brewers. The absolute highest they’ll finish is fourth, if they manage to over take the sinking Pirates. (It’s not impossible, just 4.5 games separate the Reds and Pirates.) But this is why baseball is so wonderful: there are even reasons to watch a rebuilding, last place team. Thank you, National League rules, for keeping baseball interesting.
- If you like it when a team’s uniforms are even remotely more interesting than they normally are, the Royals and Mariners celebrating “Turn Ahead the Clock Night” is for you. Backwards hats, sleeveless jerseys, awesome batting helmets, it was all there, and Royals Review has the tweets to prove it.
- The game ‘Fortnite’ has become a major thing among athletes these days. Who’s the best player in sports? Is he in baseball? Harry Lyles Jr. and Whitney Medworth discuss.
- Vince Velasquez took a screaming 96mph liner off of his pitching elbow, but managed to recover and throw the ball with his opposite hand to get the out. That’s incredible. AND the X-rays were negative, which is insane. Vince Velasquez is Iron Man.
- Sonny Gray is having an abysmal season with the Yankees, and Saturday was no exception. He lasted less than three innings and gave up a grand slam against the Red Sox. Woof.
- The Giants 2013 draft class was universally panned at the time, and five years later, McCovey Chronicles confirms that was actually the right reaction.
- No one wanted to sign J.D. Martinez on the offseason for reasons that totally aren’t collusion related, but the Red Sox aren’t regretting plunking down that money. Over the Monster argues that he’s the leader the Red Sox have been looking for.
- We could talk about how the Mets had a 5-21 June, the worst month in franchise history, but we can’t because it’s Bobby Bonilla Day! The day every year when the Mets give Bobby Bonilla his annual check for a million bucks. And as Yahoo Sports says, this is a day that we should use to celebrate Bobby Bonilla! He gets his money from the Mets AND we’re still talking about him!
- Bobby Bo isn’t the only player getting deferred money. There’s a Twitter thread with so many more. The Mets also give Bret Saberhagen $250,000 a year until 2028. Ken Griffey has been getting over $3 million a year from the Reds! Check out the thread here for many more.
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