Back in December Rangers pitcher Martin Perez broke the elbow on his non-pitching arm when a bull charged him on his ranch in Venezuela. He’s better now — he recovered faster than expected and made his spring debut for the Rangers over the weekend.
Can’t say the same for the bull. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
“I killed him and I ate him,” Perez said . . . “It was good meat. No more bull.”
Chase Utley is lucky he broke Ruben Tejada‘s leg and not Perez’s, that’s for sure.
New York Mets pitchers struck out 26 Braves batters last night. That ties a major league record for strikeouts in a game. Four other teams have performed the feat. The Mets joined the the then-Anaheim Angels, however, as the only two teams to strike out 26 batters and lose. Those Angels fell to the Brewers 1-0 in 17 innings in 2004. The Mets fell to the Braves last night, 2-1.
Jacob deGrom led the charge with 13 Ks in seven innings of work, with his only blemish being an RBI single surrendered to Freddie Freeman in the sixth inning. deGrom atoned for that himself, however, hitting a home run off of Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz in the bottom of the sixth to tie things up at one. That’s how things would remain when both starters left the game and it moved on to extra innings.
The first arm out of the pen for the Mets was Seth Lugo, who struck out four batters in two frames. Then came Edwin Díaz, who fanned two, followed by four relievers who each punched out one batter. The Mets final reliever of the night, Jeurys Familia, worked the fourteenth inning and recorded three outs, all via strikeout.
Unfortunately, he also gave up two hits and walked two batters. One of the hits was a ground rule double off the bat of Adeiny Hechavarría. Hechavarría, of course, was designated for assignment by the Mets earlier this month, one day before he was to earn a $1 million bonus for days on the active roster. Take that, old boss. He was then singled in by another recent Braves pickup, Billy Hamilton to make it 2-1, which would prove to be the final score.
In all, 26 strikeouts and a loss. I’m guessing the Mets would’ve taken fewer Ks and a win.
