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MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Some of you may have realized that Gleyber Torres has been doing fairly well against the Orioles this year. My bid for SB Nation’s “Most Drastic Understatement of the Year” award aside, with Thursday’s pinch-hit walk Torres is now hitting a bonkers .465/.540/1.233 against the Birds.
As Hoch reports, Torres has also become the first player in the history of MLB to hit 10 of his first 12 dingers against the same team. After watching the Yankees struggle inexplicably against the Orioles last year, Torres’ outburst against them has been nothing short of cathartic. Here’s hoping the young rising star can keep giving Gary Thorne nightmares.
New York Post | Joel Sherman: Following news that Giancarlo Stanton suffered a setback after being hit by a pitch on the knee in a simulated game, some of you may have wondered how such an event could have such large repercussions. Here, Sherman provides some context for Stanton’s latest injury, which turned out to be a calf strain.
The strain itself wasn’t directly caused by the ball to the knee; rather, it was incurred by Stanton trying to work through the resulting knee pain and build up leg strength by running. That ill-advised course of action was, in turn, spurred by a recent call with Aaron Boone, who told Stanton to get his legs strong so that he could play the outfield in Aaron Judge’s absence. In short, you can’t really blame anyone for this situation. It seems to be an unfortunate confluence of various factors, which is a pretty apt description of life in general, come to speak of it.
New York Daily News | Kristie Ackert: Thursday’s outing makes it four consecutive quality starts for Masahiro Tanaka, who now owns a sub-3 ERA. Unfortunately, it was also the second consecutive start in which the right-hander was struck by a batted ball. After being hit on the right shin by a 111 MPH grounder in his previous start, Tanaka was introduced rather forcefully to a 102 MPH comebacker off the bat of Rio Ruiz in the second inning. Luckily, the veteran avoided injury both times. Maybe these recent experiences with high exit velocity will prompt Tanaka to focus on limiting hard contact, as he did quite well in his 2016 campaign, but lost the knack of it the following year. At any rate, it’s certainly a relief to hear Tanaka’s fine, especially with the run he’s on now.