May 12, 2022

Best Batter Today

Manny Machado of the Padres stays atop the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings with a two for four game in a 7-5 Cubs win. Now at .383, Machado is doing a good job of maintaining his high batting average. Second place goes to Pete Alonso of the Mets, who homered and singled in an 8-3 Nationals win. The Nationals got to Mets starter Tylor Megill early, and he lasted just four outs.

Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals ranks third after going two for three with a double and a walk in a 10-1 drubbing of the former St. Louis Browns. Ty France of the Mariners posts a two for four for fourth place, but the Phillies take that game 4-2. Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers goes one for three with a walk in a 5-3 Pirates win, and Freeman ranks fifth.

The best game score of the day came in the slugfest of the day, as the Reds beat the Brewers 14-11. Christian Yelich of the Brewers hit for the cycle as he connected for four hits in five at bats. That was good for a game score of 84. It appears Yelich’s power is coming back this season, and that’s a very good sign for the Brewers success.

That performance gave Yount three cycles in his career, tied for the most by a major league player. It’s the modern record, and five player who accomplished the feat did so since the 1920 season, when home runs became common enough to light the cycle engine. For a very long time, Bob Meusel and Babe Herman sat alone on this list, but in recent times Adrian Beltre, Trea Turner, and now Yelich joined them. It seems both Turner and Yelich, given their speed, have a decent chance of breaking that record.

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