Yankees keep streaking; Cabrera enters 500 club
It wasn’t exactly a surprise when 1B Miguel Cabrera hit his 500th career home run Aug. 22. He had been within one of the milestone for nine games and within two since Aug. 3.
But what was surprising was that he did it at Toronto, where he had not homered since 2017. His drive to right-center off Blue Jays LHP Steven Matz made Cabrera the 28th player to reach 500 but the first born in Venezuela and the first to do it while with the Tigers.
Reaching 3,000 hits this season will be a more difficult proposition. He was at 2,955 with 36 games left.
❚ Hall of Famer Jack Morris was suspended for a racist comment about Los Angeles Angels RHP/DH Shohei Ohtani during an Aug. 17 game at Detroit. When asked by play-by-play announcer Matt Shepard how the Tigers should pitch to Ohtani, Morris used an exaggerated East Asian accent while saying “be very, very careful.”
Kansas City Royals
C Salvador Perez had a .272 batting average and a careerhigh 32 home runs through 122 games. The 31-year-old already had surpassed his previous career best of 27 homers in 2017 and 2018 for a team that had gone deep an AL-fewest 124 times.
Furthermore, Perez played in all but one of the Royals’ first 123 games, including 94 starts behind the plate.
“The guy loves to play the game, and I love watching him,” said manager Mike Matheny,a catcher for 13 seasons.
❚ Matheny was irate when the umpires, anticipating rain, stopped the game for 34 minutes at the end of the sixth inning in an Aug. 21 win over the Cubs at Chicago. It never rained, and LHP Kris Bubic then lost a no-hit bid by giving up a home run to Patrick Wisdom.
2B Jorge Polanco drove in the game-ending run for the third time in four games Aug. 18 by lining a bases-loaded single in the 11th inning to give the Twins an 8-7 victory over Cleveland.
He also walked off the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 15 and Cleveland a night later.
Polanco’s five walk-off RBI this season tied the club record set by Kent Hrbek in 1987.
Polanco became the third major league player since 1920 with a walk-off RBI in three straight regular-season team wins, joining the Milwaukee Brewers’ George Scott in 1973 and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Tony Pena in 1982.
“He’s a special hitter. In those moments, he needs to take care of the team, and he puts it on his back, and he knows what he needs to do,” 1B Miguel Sano said.
❚ The Twins were 2-17 in their last 19 games at Yankee Stadium after being swept in a rainshortened three-game series Aug. 19-21.
AL WEST Houston Astros
The Astros surged to the top of the AL West thanks to their elite offense. But Houston allowed the Oakland Athletics to stay within striking distance because that offense hasn’t produced at its first-half levels.
Maybe that changes with the expected activation of 3B Alex Bregman (calf ) and the returns of OFs Chas McCormick (hand) and possibly Kyle Tucker (health and safety protocols).
❚ The Astros could deploy a six-man rotation in the season’s final weeks if RHP Jose Urquidy is added to the expanded roster on Sept. 1. Urquidy, a standout in the past two postseasons, hasn’t pitched since June 29 because of a sore shoulder after going 6-3 with a 3.38 ERA.
DH/RHP Shohei Ohtani is showing no signs of letting up as he closes in on becoming the third Angel to be named the AL MVP, joining CF Mike Trout (three) and DH Don Baylor.
Ohtani is producing a season that is arguably the greatest in major league history. Also a candidate for the AL Cy Young Award, he improved to 8-1 with a 2.79 ERA by allowing one run in eight innings Aug. 18 against the Detroit Tigers.
That meshed with Ohtani’s 40 homers, which led the majors through Aug. 22 and is the most ever by an Angels lefthanded hitter.
❚ Trout (calf ) increased his workouts and remained motivated to return. He has been out since mid-May.
Oakland Athletics
The Athletics hope RHP Chris Bassitt will be able to pitch again this season despite being struck in the face by a line drive Aug. 17. He was expected to undergo surgery Aug. 24.
Bassitt (12-4), an AL All-Star selection and in the midst of the best season of his seven-year career, was leading the A’s in five significant pitching categories before he was felled by Chicago White Sox OF Brian Goodwin’s liner.
Team officials anticipate having a better understanding of Bassitt’s availability a week after his surgery to repair multiple fractures.
RHP Paul Blackburn, who lost in an earlier start this year, was called up after compiling a 4.97 ERA over 17 games in Class AAA. Blackburn was 5-8 with a 5.66 ERA in his career.
❚ OF Starling Marte has added an element of speed to the Oakland offense by stealing 17 bases over 22 games, a pace not seen since Rickey Henderson in 1992. Marte’s 39 stolen bases were the most in the majors through Aug. 22.
Seattle Mariners
The Mariners, to the surprise of many, have stayed relevant in the race for the second AL wild card. Now comes the heavy lifting down the stretch run, which includes 10 games against the two teams above them, the Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics.
Seattle has home-and-away series left with the Astros after going 5-8 against them. The Mariners’ playoff hopes were teetering when the Astros nearly completed a three-game sweep Aug. 22 at Houston, but RH reliever Paul Sewald escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the 10th inning and Seattle won the game in the 11th.
The Mariners were 6-4 against the A’s going into their series Aug. 23-24 at Oakland.
❚ The race to lead the Mariners in homers is down to two veterans. 3B Kyle Seager, 33, was first with 29 homers, one short of his career high, through Aug. 22, and RF Mitch Haniger, 30, had a career-high 28.
Texas Rangers
2B Nick Solak is back, bent on making sure he sticks after a stint in the minors.
The Rangers’ opening-day second baseman was elevated on Aug. 20, but only after Texas had earlier bypassed Solak in favor of IF Yonny Hernandez.
It wasn’t surprising that Solak was demoted in July, even for a team showing patience with struggling youngsters as it builds for the future. Solak, always an offense-first player, was sizzling at the plate in the season’s first six weeks before hitting .190 in a span of 255 plate appearances and going nearly a month between multihit games.
Solak flipped the script in 22 minor league games, batting .353 with a home run and six RBI.
❚ Rookie OF Adolis Garcia had recorded 12 outfield assists through Aug. 22, the second most in the American League.