Mark Teixeira homers from both sides, makes history in Yankees win
Take a look around the league with Big League Stew’s daily wrap up. We’ll hit on all of the biggest moments from the day that you may have missed, while providing highlights, photos and interesting stats.
It seems Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira are taking turns being the New York Yankees offensive leader. That’s pretty impressive considering Yankees fans didn’t know what to expect from either, with A-Rod coming off his suspension and hip surgery and Mark Teixeira battling back from wrist problems.
On Friday, it was definitely Teixeira’s turn to do the damage. New York’s first baseman muscled to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in their 13-6 victory against the Chicago White Sox.
Batting right-handed against White Sox starter Carlos Rodon, Teixeira launched a second-inning grand slam that broke the game wide open early. Two innings later, Teixeira stepped up left-handed against Matt Albers and connected for a two-run blast.
In doing so, Teixeira has now homered from both sides 14 times, which sets a new MLB record.
To have 14 multi-homer games in a career would be pretty remarkable. The added caveat of homering from each side only makes it more special.
Teixeira finished the game with three hits, adding a double in the fifth, while driving in six. Rodriguez was far from quiet too. He’s reached base five times and scored four times as New York slugged its way to victory.
STARLING MARTE SAVES THE DAY
Pittsburgh Pirates left fielder Starling Marte was a man on a mission in the ninth inning of their 5-4 win against the Cincinnati Reds. With no margin for error, Marte made two sparking defensive plays that helped preserve the victory and extend Mark Melancon’s 21-game scoreless streak.
In that ninth inning alone, Marte cut down Brandon Phillips at home plate as he attempted to score the tying run. Home Run derby champion Todd Frazier started the play by lacing a single to left that Marte fielded and fired home for the second out of the frame.
One batter later, Marlon Byrd lined a 3-2 breaking ball toward Marte that he caught with a dive just before the ball landed on the grass. It was a somewhat risky play. With the runners moving and two outs, both would have scored easily and given Cincinnati a walkoff win had the ball bounced squirted away from Marte. As it turned out, he made the play, and the Pirates escaped with a huge victory.
With the win, Pittsburgh finished July with a league-best 17-9 record. They’re currently 5 1/2 behind St. Louis in the NL Central while maintaining a four-game lead in the NL wild-card race.
TEMPERS FLARE AS RANGERS TOP GIANTS
Friday night was a rough night for San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner.
The 2014 World Series MVP was touched up for six runs in the first two innings during San Francisco’s 6-3 loss to the Texas Rangers. A rare bad start to be sure, and his frustrations seemed to spill over into the fourth inning when he reacted unfavorably to a reaction from Delino DeShields.
DeShields had just popped out to second base to end the inning when he tossed his bat down in his own fit of frustration. That didn’t appeal to Bumgarner, who then exchanged words with DeShields. At that point the benches emptied but nothing came of it other than Bumgarner getting into a shouting match with Adrian Beltre.
It was quite strange, but thankfully it didn’t escalate beyond words.
DeShields also had an RBI single against Bumgarner in the second inning but there didn’t appear to be any issues there. Beltre and Elvis Andrus each homered, but nothing there appeared to tick off Bumgarner either. The general feeling is Bumgarner just doesn’t like when an opponent feels comfortable enough to express anger that he missed a hittable pitch.
It’s a unique way of thinking, but Bumgarner is competitive enough that it makes sense. Thankfully, we’ll never have that problem with him.
ORIOLES RALLY TO TOP TIGERS
A six-run deficit was nothing for the hot-hitting Baltimore Orioles.
Starting in the fourth inning, Baltimore scored eight unanswered run over three innings to take the lead and ultimately walk away with an 8-7 victory.
Adam Jones delivered perhaps the biggest swing when he cracked a three-run homer off Detroit starter Buck Farmer. That cut the deficit to 6-4. One inning later, Manny Machado put them ahead for good with a two-run shot against Jose Valdez.
The Orioles found themselves in a similar position one night earlier against Detroit, but fell short 9-8. That made Friday’s comeback all the more important as Baltimore attempts to stay above water in the AL East. With the win, they remained six games behind the Yankees and tied with the Blue Jays. They’re also very much alive in the wild card race at one game behind Minnesota.
Whew.
Thus concludes a wild July in MLB.
Bring on August.
Want to see more from Friday’s slate of games? Check out our scoreboard.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
