Cup of Coffee: July 14, 2022

Good morning! And welcome to Free Thursday!

As I mentioned the other day, today is my birthday. I would like the record to reflect that, when I woke up this morning and opened Gmail, my first two “happy birthday!” messages were from (a) my therapist; and (b) a whiskey distillery:

There’s probably a significant takeaway to be had from that, but I think I’m going to just let that sit there and not try to hard to think about what it means.

Anyway, in today’s newsletter: the Angels and Astros combined to strike out a gazillion times, the Dodgers dug themselves out of a big hole to win again and the Yankees dug themselves out of a not-quite-as-big but still fairly significant hole of their own. A manager got fired, the Royals are the leaders in the anti-vaxxer clubhouse, the Home Run Derby is shaping up, Jon Heyman and Ozzie Guillen throw down, and I have deep thoughts while sitting next to a pool.

And That Happened

Here are the scores. Here are the highlights:

Yankees 7, Reds 6: Cincinnati blew an early 4-0 lead when the Yankees put together a five-run third inning keyed primarily by Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s three-run double. The Reds took the lead back but a Giancarlo Stanton homer in the eighth forced extras and Manfred Man DJ LeMahieu took third on one wild pitch from Alexis Díaz and then scored on a second Díaz wild pitch to walk it off. It was LeMahieu’s birthday yesterday. I wonder if his therapist and a distillery wished him well too.

Royals 5, Tigers 2: Brady Singer went six innings, allowing one run on seven hits and five walks. Then, later, he was named as one of the outrageously large number of Royals players who will not be joining the team in Toronto for the series against the Jays because he’s unvaccinated. More on that down below in the Daily Briefing but, boy howdy, the Royals have a lot of dumbasses on the roster.

Blue Jays 8, Phillies 2: Teoscar Hernández hit a pair of two-run home runs, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. also went deep, and Ross Stripling allowed two runs in seven innings to give the Jays their first back-to-back wins in some time. Philly dropped both games in which they were without some key players due to them not getting vaccinated. What a time to be alive.

Mariners 6, Nationals 4; Mariners 2, Nationals 1: Eugenio Suárez smacked a three-run homer while Jesse Winker, Adam Frazier and Cal Raleigh hit solo home runs in the first game. Winker went deep again in the second game while five relievers pitched a bullpen game and combined to allow only a Juan Soto solo homer. That’s wins nine and ten in a row for Seattle. En Fuego.

Orioles 7, Cubs 1: That’s also ten wins in a row for Baltimore, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never looked back. This is the O’s longest winning streak in nearly 23 years.

Mets 7, Atlanta 3: Chris Bassit held Atlanta to one run on five hits over six and Francisco Lindor hit a three-run homer to give the Mets the series, two games to one, over their most serious challenger for the division. Their lead over the Barves is now two and a half games.

Twins 4, Brewers 1: José Miranda hit a walkoff three-run homer off of Josh Hader to cap a 3-for-5 day in wonderful style. Joe Ryan gave up just two hits in five and a third innings, with a solo home run by Jace Peterson being his only real blemish. Milwaukee has lost five of its past seven games.

Giants 4, Diamondbacks 3: The Snakes took a 3-0 lead into the seventh but the Giants got two back that frame, one of which came on a Brandon Belt dinger, Wilmer Flores homered in the eighth to tie it up, and Brandon Crawford’s walkoff RBI single in the ninth gave the game to San Francisco. The Giants have won four of five.

Marlins 5, Pirates 4: The Pirates got two in the top of the tenth but in the bottom half Jon Berti singled in a run, Jesús Aguilar hit a tying single, and then scored the winning run on a wild pitch to rally Miami to victory. That snapped the Pirates' four-game winning streak. They play one more today in the four-game set.

Rays 4, Red Sox 1: Shane McClanahan won his tenth game by allowing one run into the seventh and striking out six. In so doing he lowered his AL-best ERA to 1.71 and upped his AL-best strikeout total to 147 in 110.2 innings pitched. Taylor Walls homered.

White Sox 2, Guardians 1: Lucas Giolito allowed one run into the seventh himself, getting both of his runs of support in the sixth. Guardians' starter Aaron Civale left the game after just one inning because of a sore right wrist. The clubs split the four-game series.

Dodgers 7, Cardinals 6: St. Louis had a 6-0 lead after six — roughing up the 11-0 Tony Gonsolin of all people — but blew it thanks to a Will Smith two-run homer in the seventh, RBI hits from Mookie Betts and Trea Turner in the eighth, a game-tying sac fly from Max Muncy and and then a go-ahead RBI single from Hanser Alberto in the ninth. Los Angeles has won eight of nine.

Rangers 5, Athletics 2: Jon Gray allowed only one hit in seven shutout innings, striking out nine and not walking a soul. He had a nice lead for all of that thanks to Leody Taveras and Brad Miller hitting two-run singles during a five-run first inning.

Rockies 10, Padres 6: José Iglesias drove in a career-high six runs with a homer and two singles and Sam Hilliard had three hits and scored three runs to key the Rockies victory. Colorado will go for the series win today.

Angels 7, Astros 1: Shohei Ohtani struck out 12 while allowing one run over six. He also hit a two-run triple to — all together now — help his own cause. Sadly, he is the only pitcher to whom I can still apply my hacky “all together now” joke. Alas. Houston's starter, Cristian Javier, went only three and two innings but had 10 strikeouts or his own. The two teams combined to strike out 32 — THIRTY TWO!!! — damn times. That’s an American League record for a nine-inning game. For the second time in these recaps I have to declare: what a time to be alive.

The Daily Briefing

Blue Jays fire Charlie Montoyo

The Toronto Blue Jays fired manager Charlie Montoyo yesterday. Bench coach John Schneider has been named interim manager through the end of the 2022 season.

The Blue Jays went 91-71 and missed the postseason by one game in 2021. Based on that finish they were expected to contend for the World Series this year. In keeping with those high expectations Montoyo signed a contract extension through the 2023 season in April, but the club has disappointed this season. After last night’s win in Schneider’s debut, they’re 47-42 and they’re in a three-way tie for the second and third Wild Card spots.

Not that that’s necessarily Montoyo’s fault. He’s not that one who has caused José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi to pitch poorly nor is he the one who caused Hyun-Jin Ryu to require Tommy John surgery. Ultimately, however, when a team expected to contend fails to contend, the manager pays the price.

Montoyo managed the Blue Jays for parts of four seasons, including the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Under his leadership they went 236-236, qualifying for the expanded 16-team postseason in 2020.

Stand aside, Phillies, the Royals are the leaders in the anti-vaxxer clubhouse

I ripped the Phillies the other day for having a small handful of players who could not make the road trip to Toronto because they were not vaccinated. The Royals are making them look like model public health advocates.

Jeff Passan reported yesterday that ten — TEN! — Royals players will not travel to Toronto because they have not gotten vaccinated. And it’s not just scrubs. It includes Andrew Benintendi, Whit Merrifield, MJ Melendez, Hunter Dozier, Brad Keller, Brady Singer, Michael A. Taylor, Kyle Isbel, Dylan Coleman and Cam Gallagher.

Just a stunningly large group of morons here. Absolutely inner-circle Fox News-induced brain worms. Gotta tip your cap.

The Home Run Derby field is shaping up

The field for the 2022 MLB Home Run Derby has been coming together over the past few days. Here’s who we have so far:

• Pete Alonso, Mets

• Juan Soto, Nationals

• Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves

• Albert Pujols, Cardinals

• Kyle Schwarber, Phillies

• Julio Rodríguez, Mariners

That’s a really fun group.

Alonso, of course, won the last two Derbies, taking the hardware in 2019 at Progressive Field in Cleveland and then again last year in 2021 at Coors Field in Denver. He has to be the odds-on favorite. Pujols is an interesting choice in that it’s hard to imagine him doing well given the miles on the odometer, but if he does do well it’ll be an amazing moment, that’s for damn sure. Schwarber is a beast, of course. Soto, Acuña, and Rodríguez are some of the game’s hottest young stars and, while MLB has often had trouble promoting such stars, they have really done a great job doing it with the Derby.

There still two more slots remaining. We’ll likely know who will fill them in the next day or two.

Jon Heyman and Ozzie Guillen had quite a Twitter spat

So on Tuesday former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen took a swipe at current White Sox manager Tony La Russa:

Jon Heyman commented on it:

By way of background, Guillen and Heyman have never been pals. Eleven years ago Heyman was calling Guillen “more [of] an entertainer than a manager” as he was exiting Chicago and heading toward Miami. Heyman wasn’t necessarily wrong there, but it was certainly the stuff of a long-running animosity, which obviously set the stage for this little tiff. Which quickly became a much bigger tiff:

It went on for a bit before Guillen challenged Heyman to a fight. At least it was in a ring and not in an alley someplace:

Heyman did no take that bait, but said he will donate $500 to Guillen’s charity of choice if Guillen does the same and they can call a truce.

I did not see if Guillen responded to that and I do not have much of an opinion on that other than to say that anything which avoids these two old farts throwing slow, sloppy punches at each other in a boxing ring is probably for the best.

Atlanta gets Kenley Jansen back

Atlanta activated closer Kenley Jansen from the 15-day injured list before yesterday’s game against the Mets. Jansen, you’ll recall, was placed on the IL last month because of an irregular heartbeat. He underwent his second corrective heart surgery in November 2018.

Jansen, 34, has a 3.48 ERA and 20 saves -- the third-most in the National League -- in 33 games this season, his first with Atlanta.

Other Stuff

Touchstones

I’m still in middle-of-nowhere Virginia, relaxing and catching up with old friends. 

By the time you reach middle age most people have built up a pretty big list of grievances, anxieties, problems, fears, and regrets. This is the case even if you love your life and are a generally happy person. It’s part and parcel of existence. It’s the damn nigh inevitable result of living in an imperfect world and living with the knowledge that this imperfect world will inevitably reward terrible people more than good people and, if that’s not enough, it will eventually kill you.

A thing a lot of people do when they reach this point in life is to look back at their younger selves and think about what that younger self could’ve done differently to avoid the mistakes they made and to head off the misfortunes which were thrust upon them which brought them to their current place. As one does this, one tends to idealize one’s younger self and one tends to convince oneself that, yes, that sharp, clear-eyed, and energetic young man or woman could’ve, with only a little bit of guidance or better luck, achieved better, less-fraught outcomes. One also tends to believe that everyone else did a better job of doing just that than you managed to as you bollocksed things up.

One of the cooler things about hanging out with your old friends is that they provide you with a good baseline that helps you put that unproductive line of thinking to rest. Your friends knew you back then and will remind you or inspire you to remember that even if you were a profoundly imperfect person, you mostly did the best you could back then. They will also remind you that no, you solipsistic putz, you are not the only one with grievances, anxieties, problems, fears, and regrets. They have them too. Their problems are, in all likelihood, a lot like your problems, either in kind or in degree. Nothing you did or they did caused them and nothing you could’ve done or they could’ve done likely could’ve prevented them. Shit has just happened, as it happens to us all. And there’s great comfort in knowing all of the above.

Maybe that’s not a realization that can or should only come from hanging out with old friends, but it’s one that comes way easier when you’re around them. It does so because, unlike so many of the people in our present lives, we cannot construct an idealized facade to present to them nor they to us. They knew us before we were us and we knew them before they were them. Everyone knows where everyone came from, which makes where we actually are a far less malleable or deceptive concept. It makes you want to give yourself a break.

One may lose touch with old friends in various ways, but one can not lose the touchstone they provide.

Have a great day, everyone.