The Walk Off: Mark Trumbo homers twice in one inning to lead O’s
Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look at the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about.
It would appear Mark Trumbo has found his comfort zone with the Baltimore Orioles.
After struggling to get on track during his year and a half stint with the Arizona Diamondbacks and never truly settling in with the Seattle Mariners last season, Trumbo finally looks like his old look in the middle of Baltimore’s loaded lineup.
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In fact, based on his performance in Friday’s 11-5 win against the Rangers, that would actually be an understatement. In the seventh inning alone, Trumbo connected for two home runs and five RBIs as he bookended a nine-run frame.
Trumbo drilled a two-run shot off starter Martin Perez to start the inning to bring the Orioles within 5-3. Then he finished it with a three-run shot against Andrew Faulkner to make it 10-5. In between, Baltimore got homers from Jonathan Schoop and Nolan Reimold as well to keep the line moving. Schoop would add a second homer one inning later to give Baltimore five for the game.
Overall, Trumbo now has five homers on the season, all of which have come in the last five games.
Indeed, he’s locked in. As is the entire Orioles lineup. They’re now tied with the Rockies for the MLB lead in homers with 20. The offense is leading them to good results, as they’ve started the season 8-2.
TOP PERFORMERS
Braves & Twins: The Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins were the only two teams to begin the season 0-9. Fortunately for both, they did not make it to 0-10.
The Braves got in the win column after defeating the Marlins 6-3 in Miami. Atlanta had to rally from a 3-0 deficit in the seventh inning, but pulled it off by scoring six unanswered runs. The key hits belong to Nick Markakis, who tied the game with an RBI single in the eighth, and Adonis Garcia, who put them ahead with a two-run single.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the Twins scored two in the seventh and one in the eighth to beat the Angels 5-4. Rookie Byung-ho Park delivered the go-ahead hit with an RBI double, so it was an encouraging night all the way around for Minnesota. .
Chris Sale: The White Sox ace was on point, tossing a complete shutout in their 1-0 win over the Rays. Sale needed just 106 pitches to go the distance. He allowed just two hits, walked none and struck out nine on his way to becoming MLB’s first three-game winner. The shutout was only Sale’s second in 199 career starts, which is pretty surprising. The complete game was his ninth.
Ryan Braun: The Brewers star slugger delivered his first multi-homer game since May 15, 2015 to lead them to an 8-4 win against the Pirates. In the sixth inning, Braun absolutely crushed a two-run shot off Kyle Lobstein that traveled an estimated 450 feet. Two innings later, he hit another two-run blast, this time off Neftali Feliz.
Kike Hernandez: The Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw got some sweet revenge against Madison Bumgarner thanks largely to Hernandez. LA’s left fielder collected three hits against the Giants ace, including a pair of home runs and a double, as the Dodgers cruised to a 7-3 victory. Hernandez finished with four RBIs, while unlikely hero Charlie Culberson knocked home the Dodgers other three runs.
MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT
The Cardinals hit six home runs in their dominating 14-3 victory against the Reds. Billy Hamilton personally saw to it that it wasn’t seven.
THE SCOREBOARD
Rockies 6, Cubs 1: The best way to beat the Cubs? Catch them on a day they make four errors. The Rockies took advantage of Chicago’s sloppy play with timely hitting and six scoreless innings from starter Chad Bettis.
Mariners 7, Yankees 1: Chris Iannetta homered and drove in three as the Mariners irmproved to 3-1 on the road.
Nationals 9, Phillies 1: Washington jumped all over Jeremy Hellickson in a five-run first that was highlighted by Jayson Werth’s bases-clearing double. Later, Bryce Harper smacked a two-run homer against Brett Oberholtzer as he officially begins the trek toward 200.
Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 3: Boston scored three in the first inning and held on despite two home runs from Edwin Encarnacion.
Mets 6, Indians 5: New York’s offense finally broke out, connecting for four home runs in the win. Three of those came in the fifth inning, when Alejandro De Aza, Yoenis Cespedes and Neil Walker all went yard. Michael Conforto also homered for the Mets.
Astros 1, Tigers 0: Detroit’s offense had no answer for the AL’s reigning Cy Young award winner Dallas Keuchel. Houston’s left-hander tossed eight scoreless innings, allowing just four hits while walking two. Houston scored its only run in the first inning on a Colby Rasmus RBI single.
Royals 4, A’s 2: Kansas City got six innings of two-run ball from Edinson Volquez and then got the ball to Wade Davis in the ninth. Davis took care of the rest, picking up his fifth save of the season.
Diamondbacks 3, Padres 2: San Diego is still winless this season at Petco Park, but at least they scored their first runs at home. Phil Gosselin was the hero for Arizona, driving in the go-ahead run with an infield single in the ninth.
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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
