What can be said about the National League in these almost three months of action in the Major Leagues? That everything is normal and the figure of Fernando Tatis Jr., who was supposed to sparkle the stage, is missed.
His left wrist injury occurred during a practice game on March 14 and this is the time he still “has not been cleared to bat,” according to media reports. Before, a player in rehab ran his own program, now that’s not the case especially for a player who has a $341 million contract.
Let’s see how things are in the National.
EAST DIVISION: The Mets started without their star pitcher Jacob deGrom, but Max Scherzer was there to impress everyone. Well, Scherzer was also injured several weeks ago and is now trying to get back into action. The Mets also licensed Robinson Canó and will pay him $44 million for this and next year.
But none of that has mattered. However, they have dominated the league with 45 wins and 26 losses and control the East division. Recently the Atlanta team was able to get closer with a 14-game winning streak and now they are 5 games away, at 39-30. The Phillies canceled their manager and are 36-33, Miami has little at 30-36 and the same for Washington, off to a very poor start at 25-46. For Atlanta and the Phillies there is still room to compete.
CENTRAL DIVISION: So far the competition is centered on the two teams with the best chance, the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals, both of whom are 39-31 (as of last night). That means that you will most likely walk together for quite a while. The remaining three in the group have poor offers, the Pirates at 28-39, Cubs at 25-43 and Cincinnati lousy at 23-44.
WEST DIVISION: Turns out this group was won by the Giants last year with 107 wins, but this year the favorite Dodgers also have San Diego company, playing without Tatis Jr. The Dodgers lead 41-25 (20-12 at home). , San Diego 43-27 with their new manager Bob Melvin and Giants third with 38-29, only 3 and a half. The others are in negative, Arizona with 32-38 and Colorado 30-38 and it is difficult for them to raise their heads.
In the changes of the month of July, the most powerful will improve significantly.
The Cuban guy: Yordan Álvarez, the Cuban of the Houston Astros, is still super good in his production this year. Yesterday he hit a pair of home runs in Houston’s 5-3 victory over the New York Mets. His batting average is .315 with 21 home runs and 51 RBIs. In the end, if he’s healthy, he’ll be in contention for MVP.
MOVEMENTS: The Marlins sent Jerar Encarnación back to the minors, the boy from Bayaguana who hit a grand slam as his first hit in the Major Leagues. In his brief performance, Encarnación used up 8 at-bats, that was his only hit and he had 4 RBIs, obviously. Hanser Alberto of the Dodgers went on the passive list due to paternity issues. The Dodgers brought up Stefen Romero. As a substitute, Alberto has exhausted 66 at-bats, .242 average, one Hr., 4 RBIs. Tampa outfielder Manuel Margot injured his knee in a fielding against the wall Tuesday against the Yankees. In his batting this year he is .302-3-27. Former Yankees pitcher Albert Abreu was with Texas earlier in the season, then traded to Kansas City and was placed on waivers two days ago. Yesterday the Yankees claimed him, so he returns to his organization. The Oakland Athletics have promoted pitcher Domingo Tapia and Dany Jiménez is injured for 15 days. They are both Dominican.
FUNNY: The Toronto Blue Jays have a coach named Guillermo Martinez (I think he’s Venezuelan). It happens that yesterday, before the Toronto and White Sox game in Chicago, Martínez went to deliver the lineups to the referees, but it seems that he said something out of place because one of them expelled him immediately. Had something similar been seen before? The team had been locked up against the umpires since the night before when they lost 7-6 to the White Sox in 12 innings.