Giancarlo Stanton
didn’t live up to expectations at Coors Field earlier this week. He
went just 1-for-12 and didn’t homer, and the dream of him hitting
60-plus homers appeared to be dead.
Not so fast, my friend.
Stanton crushed two bombs on Thursday night, giving him 59 on the season with three games left on the season.
Let’s take a second and talk about how impressive 59 homers is. It’s obvious, but we haven’t had this many homers by anyone since Ryan Howard hit 58 in 2006. It’s the second-most homers hit by any right-handed hitter ever, and the most by any player not named Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire. In a season that has seen more homers hit than any other, it’s still 20 more than Cody Bellinger has hit, and he’s currently second in the National League. If those numbers don’t impress you, you either don’t like baseball or you’re just not easily impressed. Probably the former.
Here’s the scary thing: Stanton might be just entering his prime. The issue with him has always been health, but he won’t turn 28 until November, and we’ve certainly seen players who have battled health problems have better luck with injuries. It’s not a foregone conclusion, but nothing that’s happened with Stanton appears to be debilitating or chronic.
Stanton may or may not get to 62 or even 60, but this is the most impressive home run season we’ve seen in years, and there just might be more coming.
Gray roughed up against Rays
For most of his time with the Yankees, Sonny Gray has been excellent. For the second time in three starts, however, Gray was anything but. Gray didn’t make it out of the fifth inning on Thursday, giving up six runs in 4 ⅔ innings in a 9-6 loss to the Rays.
Pitchers are going to struggle, but the concern right now with Gray is with his control. He walked five Rays on Thursday, and he’s put 10 runners on via walk in his last 14 ⅔ innings. It doesn’t matter how good your stuff is, when you’re facing quality lineups -- and in his next start, playoff-quality lineups -- you can’t have that much self-inflicted damage.
It’s not worth a huge panic, but sometimes when a pitcher gets tired at the end of the year he loses his release point, and when you consider how much Gray has struggled with walks as of late, you have to wonder if that could be happening, especially when you add in his small stature.
Correa Can’t Be Stopped
There’s hot, there’s red-hot, and then there’s what Carlos Correa is right now. Correa went 4-for-4 on Thursday in a 12-2 shellacking of the Red Sox, hitting a double and his 24th homer of the season in the process. With that stat line, he’s now 11-for-14 over his last three games.
Despite missing six weeks with a broken thumb, this has been a very solid -- and solid might be an understatement -- season for the 23-year-old shortstop. A .315/.389/.553 line is nice for any position, but when you consider that he puts up that line while also playing shortstop, it escalates things.
Correa struggled somewhat in September with a .739 OPS coming into the game, but for the most part, Correa has looked like one of the best offensive shortstops in baseball. Again.
National League Quick Hits: Cardinals 2B Matt Carpenter (shoulder) will be shut down for the remainder of the season now that St. Louis is eliminated from playoff contention. Carpenter is hoping to avoid surgery. … Nationals OF Howie Kendrick left Thursday’s game with tightness in his foot. … Pirates RHP Ivan Nova left Thursday’s game with an injury to his right index finger. X-rays came back negative. … Marlins LHP Wei-Yin Chen received a PRP injection in his throwing elbow. Chen has thrown just 33 innings this season. … Cardinals RHP Alex Reyes is schedule to throw a bullpen session Friday. He’s missed all of 2017 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that he’s hopeful OF Chris Taylor will be able to play this weekend after suffering a left-knee contusion on Wednesday.
American League Quick Hits: Red Sox LHP Eduardo Rodriguez was roughed up for six runs in 1 ⅔ innings in the 12-2 loss to the Astros. He gave up eight base runners in that time frame, six hits and two walks. … Royals C Salvador Perez left Thursday’s game with groin soreness. … Athletics SS Chad Pinder won’t return to the field this year after suffering a concussion on Saturday. … Royals LHP Mike Minor says he will prepare for next season in hopes of being a starting pitcher. … Royals LHP Carlos Rodon underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder on Thursday. He’s expected to miss 6-to-8 months while recovering. … The Rangers picked up LHP Martin Perez’s option for 2018 for $6 million on Thursday. Perez went 11-11 with a 4.83 ERA in 2017.
Not so fast, my friend.
Stanton crushed two bombs on Thursday night, giving him 59 on the season with three games left on the season.
Let’s take a second and talk about how impressive 59 homers is. It’s obvious, but we haven’t had this many homers by anyone since Ryan Howard hit 58 in 2006. It’s the second-most homers hit by any right-handed hitter ever, and the most by any player not named Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire. In a season that has seen more homers hit than any other, it’s still 20 more than Cody Bellinger has hit, and he’s currently second in the National League. If those numbers don’t impress you, you either don’t like baseball or you’re just not easily impressed. Probably the former.
Here’s the scary thing: Stanton might be just entering his prime. The issue with him has always been health, but he won’t turn 28 until November, and we’ve certainly seen players who have battled health problems have better luck with injuries. It’s not a foregone conclusion, but nothing that’s happened with Stanton appears to be debilitating or chronic.
Stanton may or may not get to 62 or even 60, but this is the most impressive home run season we’ve seen in years, and there just might be more coming.
Gray roughed up against Rays
For most of his time with the Yankees, Sonny Gray has been excellent. For the second time in three starts, however, Gray was anything but. Gray didn’t make it out of the fifth inning on Thursday, giving up six runs in 4 ⅔ innings in a 9-6 loss to the Rays.
Pitchers are going to struggle, but the concern right now with Gray is with his control. He walked five Rays on Thursday, and he’s put 10 runners on via walk in his last 14 ⅔ innings. It doesn’t matter how good your stuff is, when you’re facing quality lineups -- and in his next start, playoff-quality lineups -- you can’t have that much self-inflicted damage.
It’s not worth a huge panic, but sometimes when a pitcher gets tired at the end of the year he loses his release point, and when you consider how much Gray has struggled with walks as of late, you have to wonder if that could be happening, especially when you add in his small stature.
Correa Can’t Be Stopped
There’s hot, there’s red-hot, and then there’s what Carlos Correa is right now. Correa went 4-for-4 on Thursday in a 12-2 shellacking of the Red Sox, hitting a double and his 24th homer of the season in the process. With that stat line, he’s now 11-for-14 over his last three games.
Despite missing six weeks with a broken thumb, this has been a very solid -- and solid might be an understatement -- season for the 23-year-old shortstop. A .315/.389/.553 line is nice for any position, but when you consider that he puts up that line while also playing shortstop, it escalates things.
Correa struggled somewhat in September with a .739 OPS coming into the game, but for the most part, Correa has looked like one of the best offensive shortstops in baseball. Again.
National League Quick Hits: Cardinals 2B Matt Carpenter (shoulder) will be shut down for the remainder of the season now that St. Louis is eliminated from playoff contention. Carpenter is hoping to avoid surgery. … Nationals OF Howie Kendrick left Thursday’s game with tightness in his foot. … Pirates RHP Ivan Nova left Thursday’s game with an injury to his right index finger. X-rays came back negative. … Marlins LHP Wei-Yin Chen received a PRP injection in his throwing elbow. Chen has thrown just 33 innings this season. … Cardinals RHP Alex Reyes is schedule to throw a bullpen session Friday. He’s missed all of 2017 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that he’s hopeful OF Chris Taylor will be able to play this weekend after suffering a left-knee contusion on Wednesday.
American League Quick Hits: Red Sox LHP Eduardo Rodriguez was roughed up for six runs in 1 ⅔ innings in the 12-2 loss to the Astros. He gave up eight base runners in that time frame, six hits and two walks. … Royals C Salvador Perez left Thursday’s game with groin soreness. … Athletics SS Chad Pinder won’t return to the field this year after suffering a concussion on Saturday. … Royals LHP Mike Minor says he will prepare for next season in hopes of being a starting pitcher. … Royals LHP Carlos Rodon underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder on Thursday. He’s expected to miss 6-to-8 months while recovering. … The Rangers picked up LHP Martin Perez’s option for 2018 for $6 million on Thursday. Perez went 11-11 with a 4.83 ERA in 2017.
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