PLAYERS OF THE WEEK MLB: Minnesota LF Eddie Rosario
Rosario joined some exclusive company when he belted three home runs and drove in five runs Tuesday night in the Twins’ 20-7 pummeling of Seattle at Target Field. He became only the third No. 9 hitter with at least three homers and five RBI in the same game, joining Milwaukee’s Dale Sveum (1987) and Boston’s Trot Nixon (1999).
Brewers: 1B Eric Thames
Thames showed twice in two games that baseball can be a game of inches, as if we didn’t already know. On Thursday in St. Louis, he hit a laser beam over the right-field wall in the ninth inning that sent the Brewers to a 6-4 victory. Back home Friday, he provided the Brewers’ first walk-off homer of the season — an opposite-field wall-scraper in the 10th that beat San Diego, 6-5.
BREWERS THIS WEEK
After the Brewers end their weekend series with San Diego, the Pittsburgh Pirates make their first visit of the season for four games. Then it’s on to Atlanta and the Brewers’ first peek at brand-new SunTrust Park.
DID YOU KNOW?
San Francisco’s Jeff Samardzija hit a 446-foot home run Friday night in Colorado, the longest by a pitcher since Statcast was introduced in 2015 as MLB’s measuring system.
YOU FIGURE IT OUT
The Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo appeared to have opened with a home run for the third consecutive game Friday night in Pittsburgh when he sent a drive to deep right that left PNC Park and landed in the Allegheny River. Rizzo trotted around the bases but the umpires gathered and decided on a video review. The umps reversed the call and ruled it foul, a decision that led to manager Joe Maddon’s first ejection of the season. Rizzo, who then walked, would have been the first player to lead off three consecutive games with home runs since Baltimore’s Brady Anderson in 1996.
QUOTE
“I don’t know what else there is to say.” – Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on rookie Cody Bellinger, who homered 18 times in his first 47 games.