Last month, I wrote about the MLB in the month of April. Now, I will do the month of May. Before we begin, I want to say that this is not the end of the baseball season. In fact, it’s not even close to the end of the season.
Ok, let’s begin. The league batting average is .237, tied for the worst in MLB history. If you’re a pitcher, this is great news for you,but if you’re a power hitter, a batting average this low,
could get you demoted. The average for strikeouts per game is 9. In April, we had 2 no-hitters (3 if you count Madison Bumgarner’s 7-inning no-no). Earlier in the month, Orioles pitcher John Means threw the first no-hitter for Baltimore in 30+ years. Not even 2 days later, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Wade Miley had a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland. This is the first Reds no-hitter since 2013. Then, Spencer Turnbull of the Detroit Tigers came to Seattle and no-hit the Seattle Mariners. Seven no-hitters in less than 2 months of play?! WOW!!
Remember when the Yankees were struggling in April? They’re now sitting at 29-25, good for 3rd in the AL East. The reigning AL champion, the Tampa Bay Rays lead that division in most wins (35-20.) In a Chicago White Sox-Minnesota Twins game, Chicago was dominating 15-4 in the 9th inning. A Twins position player was brought out to pitch. He threw a 47 mile per hour ball and Yermin Mercedes crushed it to make it 16-4. White Sox manager Tony La Russa wasn’t happy. He said Mercedes “broke the unwritten rule” and that “there will be a consequence he has to endure here within our family”. It seems silly to argue that, especially when it’s for your team. Mercedes is a young player who just wanted to have fun. During the next game, the Twins threw at Mercedes and hit him. La Russa was actually ok with it. Really though, there’s no real “unwritten rule”.
L.A. Angels two-way player Shohei Ohtani has been tearing it up, both at the plate and on the mound. He’s near the AL lead in home runs. Bad news for the Angels, however: Star center fielder Mike Trout has a right calf strain and will miss 6-8 weeks. The Texas Rangers traded away star second baseman Rougned Odor to the Yankees.
Mets star shortstop Francisco Lindor started 0-for-26 in the month of May. The Dodgers, last year’s World Series champion, have been on fire, but they’re only 3rd place in their division. The Giants have a new pitcher: Scott Kazmir, who last pitched in September of 2016. He has had two comebacks. In May, MLB hit a record of 20,000 players.
That is it for May. Next time, I will recap the month of June in MLB. See you soon.
