The Loop
DJ LeMahieu swallowed this 48.7-mph Rao's-sized meatball whole
First off, shoutout to our very own Shane Ryan, who wrote the 2020 New York Yankees eulogy exactly one week ago. As a fellow Yankee fan myself, I agreed with much of what he said. It was harsh but very fair. Not only did the pre-season World Series favorites stink, they were in danger of missing the playoffs.
Since Shane wrote that piece, the Yanks have won six straight, all of them against divisional opponents. They are now six games above .500, and just four back of the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays. After falling into seventh place, which would pit them against those Rays (their kryptonite) if the postseason started today, the Yanks have vaulted into the 5 spot, which would pit them against the Minnesota Twins, who they own. Shane, a sincere thank you for the reverse maloik.
Tuesday night was a vintage Bronx Bombers performance, as they scored 20 runs on the Toronto Blue Jays. It got so ugly that Toronto had to trot out a position player to pitch in the 8th inning. That player was infielder Santiago Espinal, who made it through one inning and only gave up one run. Not bad!
Of course, that one run was a 397-foot moonshot by DJ LeMahieu, who Espinal served up a 48.7-mph Rao's-sized meatball to on his second pitch of the night. It's the slowest pitch homered against since they started keeping track of that stuff in 2008:
You're damn right it counts, Paul O'Neill. You serve up a meatball like that and you should expect nothing less than a hitter like LeMahieu swallowing it whole. All is right again in Yankee-land, folks.