Mile High Baseball

I’ve been in Denver all week and was able to attend two Rockies games at Coors Field.

Among the highlights:

I saw Evan Longoria hit home runs – his 15th and 16th - on back-to-back nights.  The first shot got the Rays on the board in the first inning on Tuesday en route to their 12-4 win over the Rockies, whose 11-game winning streak came to an end.

I watched Rays’ phenom David Price pitch against Aaron Cook, who in my opinion should have been the MVP of last year’s All-Star Game.  (People have a hard time voting for a player from the losing team, but Cook was more valuable to the N.L. than J.D. Drew was to the A.L.)  Price got knocked around for four runs in the second inning, but recovered to last seven innings while allowing five runs.  He was outpitched by Cook, however, who went seven innings and gave up just three runs.  Each surrendered two home runs, but the ones hit off Cook were both solo shots (including Longoria’s).  In addition to a solo homer, Price served up a three-run bomb.

How ‘bout that?

How about Luke Scott?  In just 170 at-bats, Scott has hit 14 home runs and is tied for 14th in long balls among American Leaguers.  Though he is not on the official list of league leaders because of a stint on the 15-day DL, Scott is slugging nearly .600 and if he had enough at-bats to be eligible, he would be ahead of the likes of Justin Morneau, Jason Bay, and Carlos Peña – among others - in the A.L.

How about the Nationals?  With a winning percentage of .281 (18-46), the Nats not only hold the worst record in the majors, but no other team is even close.  The Indians – the team with the next worst record – are 29-39, good for a .426 winning percentage.  Despite their awful record, Washington actually beat the Yankees the last two nights (including shutting them out on Thursday) to win the interleague series against the Bronx Bombers.

How about tomorrow’s all-Weaver all-Los Angeles matchup?  The Angels send Jered Weaver to the hill against the city’s other team, the Dodgers, who have big brother Jeff Weaver scheduled to pitch.  Should be a fun family affair.

Pujols Watch

With 95 games remaining (a little under 60 percent) in the 2009 regular season, Albert Pujols is up to 23 home runs with only 25 strikeouts.  The closest the Cardinals’ slugger has come to having as many homers as strikeouts over an entire season was in 2006, when he finished with 49 and 50, respectively.  I’m not sure if he was the last man to do it, but Joe DiMaggio accomplished the feat multiple times, the last time being in 1948 when he hit 39 home runs and struck out just 30 times.  (Even more impressive was his 1941 season, when he clubbed 30 homers compared to only 13 strikeouts.)  If Pujols can do it, he’d be in pretty good company.  By comparison, the great Mickey Mantle, who hit 52 home runs in 1956 and 54 in 1961, struck out 99 and 112 times in those two seasons.

A short recess

I’m afraid I’ll have to take a break from writing for the next several weeks as I’ll be traveling in Spain for the better part of July.  I’ll plan on posting again on July 31st.  I’m bummed about missing the All-Star Game, but as long as it doesn’t end up being a 15-inning thriller like last year, I’ll be able to live with watching on tape when I return.  Or if I get really lucky, maybe I’ll find a sports bar that stays open all night for major American sporting events.  Not bloody likely, though.