We had another crazy week of home runs with 267 bombs hit in total. That was one off from the previous week. The players are still adjusting to some games getting postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests. For those who love to watch the game, we have seen more doubleheaders this year than in any year in recent memory.
With the trading deadline upon us, only a handful of teams are really out of the newly expanded playoffs. The next four-plus weeks will be very entertaining. There is still time for some of the most feared sluggers to get on one of those crazy home run streaks and lead their team to the playoffs. The Major League leader in home runs has 12 and the overall team leader has 59. This is a far cry from previous seasons. But strap in for perhaps the most exciting stretch run the league has ever seen.
Padres Are Grand
The San Diego Padres had a grand old week. The keyword being grand. In what was an amazing performance the Padres smashed five grand slams in six days. It started on Monday with the Padres playing in Arlington against the Texas Rangers. With the Padres leading 10-3 in the top of the eighth inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. stepped up to the plate with the bases full. Tatis who already hit a three-run homer worked the count to 3-0 when he broke the unwritten rule and swung away. Bam. Tatis clears the bases with a four-run bomb. Tatis’ grand slam certainly broke an unwritten rule that could be outdated with the way the game is played in 2020.
The slam parade continued the next day with Wil Myers doing the honors. Wednesday night the series switched to Petco Park when Manny Machado hit a walk-off grand slam. Finally, on Thursday Eric Hosmer hits the fourth slammer for the Padres in four days. After taking a slam break on Friday Padres rookie Jake Cronenworth hit the fifth slam of the week against the Houston Astros.
Additionally, there were three more grand slams hit in the week. Matt Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals hit his slam on Tuesday vs the Chicago Cubs. On Friday, the Detroit Tigers rookie Isaac Paredes hit a grand slam against the Cleveland Indians. For Paredes, it was his first major league homer. Also on Friday, Matt Davidson of the Cincinnati Reds hit a slammer against the Cardinals.
Multi Homer Games
Each week the number of multi home run games gets bigger. This past week 18 different players accomplished this feet with one player doing it twice. Going into the week there was only one player who hit three bombs in a game. This past week that number doubled and both happened on the same day. On Saturday, Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox and Trent Grisham of the Padres each hit three home runs in one game. It’s no surprise that both teams finished the week with the most homers hit. Abreu also homered in four straight at-bats over two games.
The National League players who had two-homer games are Brad Miller of the Cardinals, Robinson Cano, and Pete Alonso of the New York Mets, Ryan McMahon of the Colorado Rockies, Marcell Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves, Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Fernando Tatis of the Padres.
In the American League, we had Luke Voit of the New York Yankees, Nelson Cruz of the Minnesota Twins, Tim Anderson, Luis Robert and Edwin Encarnacion of the White Sox, Evan White of the Seattle Mariners, Anthony Santander of the Baltimore Orioles, Randal Grichuk of the Toronto Blue Jays, and Matt Chapman of the Oakland Athletics. Abreu besides his three-homer game also had a two-homer game and had six total homers during the week.
Oh Brother
On Monday the Mariners traveled to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers. The two teams combined to hit seven home runs with the Dodgers winning a slugfest 11-9. But there was a very rare occurrence in this game between two brothers.
In the bottom of the second inning, Corey Seager hit a three-run home run. Not to be undone Corey’s older brother Kyle Seager smashed a solo home run in the top of the third inning. This was the first time siblings have homered in the same game since 2001 when Felipe Crespo of the San Francisco Giants and Cesar Crespo of the Padres both went deep. Corey Seager had this comment after the game. “It was a special moment, It’s one of those things where you go home and think about it and soak it all in.”
Welcome to the Show
With the shortened season, the larger roster size, and the number of injuries we have had many players hit their first big-league bombs this season. This past week that list grew by seven players. Tigers rookie Isaac Parades’ first homer was a grand slammer. The other six were less dramatic but still special.
Max Schrock of the Cardinals hit his first homer vs the Cubs. Luis Garcia of the Washington Nationals went deep vs the Braves. Astros rookie Taylor Jones touched them all against the Padres. Sam Haggerty of the Rockies victimized the Mariners. The next two players to hit their historic round-trippers are highly touted prospects.
Dylan Carlson of the Cardinals hit his first home run vs the Reds. Alec Bohm of the Philadelphia Phillies smashed his first bomb vs the Braves.
Game-Winning Bombs
Nine game-winning home runs were hit in the week with four of them being walk-off homers. On Monday, Dansby Swanson hit a walk-off three-run homer leading the Braves to a win over the Nationals. Tommy La Stella hit the second walk-off homer of the week with his being a two-run bomb leading the Los Angeles Angels to a win over the Giants.
The next day Carlos Santana hit a three-run game-winning home run to lead the Indians over the Pittsburgh Pirates. On Wednesday we had three game-winning homers with one being a grand walk-off bomb. Michael Conforto of the Mets hit a two-run game-winning homer vs the Miami Marlins. Jose Abreu also had a game-winning homer against the Tigers. Manny Machado’s walk-off slam capped the night.
On Friday Chance Sisco led the Baltimore Orioles to a win over the Boston Red Sox with a game-winning three-run homer. The next day Cody Bellinger hit a walk-off solo homer to lead the Dodgers to a win over the Rockies. Closing out the week was Gregory Polanco and his two-run game-winner against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Weekly Leaders
It’s no surprise that Jose Abreu led the league with six bombs. Luke Voit was next with five homers. Cody Bellinger, Luis Robert, Nelson Cruz, Randal Grichuk, and Tim Anderson all hit four homers.
The White Sox clubbed 24 homers during the week. The Padres were second with 18. The Dodgers hit 16, the Blue Jays hit 13 and the Mariners rounded out the top five with 12.
Season Leaders
Fernando Tatis is the Major League leader in homers with 12. Mookie Betts and Jose Abreu are next with 11. Nelson Cruz, Luke Voit, Anthony Santander, Mike Trout, and Teoscar Hernandez each have 10 homers.
The Dodgers have the most home runs for the year with 59. The White Sox and Padres are tied with 55 long balls. The Blue Jays and Yankees have 45. A total of 1,075 home runs have been hit through the week of August 17th.
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