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Los Angeles Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon had 4,528 career plate appearances under his belt as he stepped into the batters box in the bottom of the eighth inning last night at Angel Stadium.
All 4,528 of those at-bats were from the right side of the plate.
Which made what he did in his 4,529th at-bat all the more impressive. With the Angels holding a 10-0 lead over the Rays, Rendon decided to hit lefty for the first time in his 10-year career. How’d that go for him? Pretty darn well as he crushed a 411-foot home run over the right-field wall on just the second pitch he saw and the first one he swung at. The stadium went bananas, his teammates loved it, and man, how does anyone not love this!?
This is easily one of the coolest homers ever. He had never batted lefty in a MLB game before and he does THIS!?
Anthony Rendon bats left-handed for the first time in his career and he hits a home run! pic.twitter.com/pXcE8GhrVW
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 11, 2022
So. Damn. Cool.
Rendon didn’t want to talk much about it after the game because his pitcher, rookie Reid Detmers, threw a no-hitter, which is all class from Rendon. But I was dying to hear from him and why he decided to bat lefty. The fact that the Rays had a position player, RF Brett Phillips, in as the pitcher probably had a little something to do with it, I’m guessing, but still – what a homer.
His manager, Joe Maddon, had this to say:
“I thought it was great theater,” said Maddon, who added that Rendon sometimes takes cuts lefty in BP for the fun of it. “It was the perfect time to pull it off. Baseball is looking for moments like that. The crowd responded properly. No disrespect to the other side. It was just a fun baseball moment.”
It was great theater and it was exactly what baseball needs and nobody should be mad about it or bring up dumb unwritten rules or anything like that. Baseball needs to be fun and that’s exactly what that home run was, fun!
MLB also needs the Angels to be good and right now they are very good, as they’re in first place by a game in the AL West with a 21-11 record. Why does MLB need them to be good? Because it would be great for the league if two of its biggest starts – Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani – get to play on the game’s biggest stage in October.
But right now all we can do is tip our cap to Rendon and his lefty homer. What a cool thing to do.
Man, that was fun.
Quick hits: ‘Wine Mom’ goes viral… NBA tunnel fight… Javy Baez’s NSFW message to ump… And more.
– ‘Wine Mom’ became a hilarious meme during the Warriors’ Game 4 win over the Grizzlies.
– Here’s everything we know about Marquese Chriss confronting Bismack Biyombo in the tunnel after they were both ejected from last night’s Mavs-Suns Game 5.
– Tigers shortstop Javy Baez had a very honest and NSFW message for a home plate ump that led to his ejection.
– DJ Khaled gave Heat coach Erik Spoelstra a nice little shoulder rub during last night’s Game 5 and NBA fans loved it.
