Yankees Done In by Dunn Walk-off Homer

May 24, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

On an 0-2 pitch in the bottom on the ninth, Chicago White Sox first baseman Adam Dunn hit a two-run home run to beat the New York Yankees 6-5. In a game that lasted 3:52, Yankees reliever Dave Robertson knew in a nano-second Dunn’s blast was gone. Dunn’s homer was estimated at traveling 433 feet. Not estimated was the number of times he would hit such a poorly placed pitch into the seats. The guess here is that it would be at least nine times out of 10.

In case you care (and even if you don’t), there’s video below of model Karlie Kloss.

* Speaking of Dunn, he has eight home runs. That would be one more than he has doubles. The statistical analysis department at ElliottHarris.com will try to distill those numbers and figure out what — if anything — they might mean. The guess here is that any such results will remain unknown until after the All-Star Game break (no telling what year).

* On the bright (?) side for the Yankees, Derek Jeter tied White Sox great Luis Aparicio for second place on the list of most games played by a shortstop: 2,583. Yeah, probably not much consolation for Yankee supporters.

* The best thing (“best” being a relative term) about the Cubs 11-1 loss at San Diego is the game lasted a mere 3:04. Or much shorter for those who tuned out the game after one inning with the Padres leading 4-0 or after two innings with the score 7-0. Well, that’s one way not to lose sleep over the Cubs’ efforts — I believe that is how their performance is characterized in some circles (or other geometic shapes) in their quest to earn (if that’s an accurate verb) a high draft pick for 2015. Sheer genius, those Cubbies and their front office.

* On the bright (?) side for the Cubs, they didn’t waste a good — or even mediocre — pitching performance by their starter. Edwin Jackson gave up eight runs in four innings but did toss a scoreless third inning.

* The good news for Cubs fans (“good” being a relative term) is 45 percent of third baseman Mike Olt’s hits are home runs. He has nine homers. Meaning — after hours of the baseball analytics department at ElliottHarris.com calculating such statistics — he has 20 hits. In 114 at-bats (for a .175 batting average). Just guessing a .254 on-base percentage probably will not ensure most big-league position players much of anything — well, other than the possibility of a trip back to the minors. Maybe so, but the Cubs are not most teams. For better or worse (mostly the latter, if recent history is to be taken into consideration).

* Ex-White Sox pitcher of the night (actually the night before — because Friday’s effort was all soccer): Toronto left-hander Mark Buehrle became the major league’s first eight-game winner this season. He gave up two runs on seven hits in seven innings. He walked none and struck out five in a 7-2 victory at Boston. Buehrle is 8-1 with a 2.16 earned-run average.

***

Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the ever-evolving efforts of the editorial and video departments at ElliottHarris.com):