This Week in Baseball – Red Hot Sox, Puerto Rico Series, Weather Delays, Bartolo Colon, Bryan Price Fired
Puerto Rico Series is a big hit…
The Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins travelled to Puerto Rico to face off in two regular season games. Even through island-wide power outages, the two teams managed to play exciting games with an epic home run by Puerto Rico native Francisco Lindor followed by a 16 inning marathon game. Each team had players from the island. So, the fans were rooting for both teams and also hot and cold running water.
Red Hot Start…
While most teams are struggling just to get to .500, the Boston Red Sox are off to the best start in the teams’ history and the best start in MLB in over 30 years. Despite losing the 20th game of the season to a no-hitter by the Oakland Athletics and Sean Manaea, the Red Sox started 17-2, placing them in historic company among just a handful of teams. Finally, New England-based sports fans have something to get excited about.
Rain, Rain Go Away…
As much of the country has dealt with extreme, unpredictable and outright bizarre weather this April, MLB games keep getting postponed for a current total of 25 games. The delays for this season has already matched 2007 for the most weather-related postponements through April. With over a week left to go in this month, this is something we find to be an inconvenient truth. (Get it? Because of the documentary about global warming and climate change? Get it?)
Almost Perfect…
Bartolo Colon, the 44-year-old Rangers pitcher, was perfect through seven innings against the Astros before walking Carlos Correa to leadoff the eighth inning. Colon then lost the no-hitter on the following at-bat when Josh Reddick smacked a double. At 44 years and 326 days old, the rotund “Big Sexy” would have been the oldest pitcher in history to record a perfect game or a no-hitter – and certainly the largest.
You’re Fired!
With the worst record in baseball at 3-15, the Cincinnati Reds announced Thursday morning that they have fired Bryan Price after four-plus seasons as manager. Since the Reds have the worst pitching stats in the game, they also dumped pitching coach Mack Jenkins. Former Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres manager Jim Riggleman will serve as the team’s manager in the short-term. And the team will look for a long-term replacement who can lead the team and be fired before his contract is up.
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