As Albert Pujols' bat gets hot, is 700 HR in reach? Astros Alex Bregman hits HR for Uvalde girl, Rangers fire manager Chris Woodward amid 4th straight losing season, Red Sox’s Mata throwing 100 mph post-surgery, and more MLB news.
Pujols' bat gets hot…Are 700 HR in reach?
As his final season winds down, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman/designated hitter Albert Pujols, 42, has been getting hot going into the last three months of the season. While his season average is .249, he's been hitting .389 since the All-Star break, KSDK reported.
Pujols currently has ten home runs on the year, belting two of those on Sunday. The game marked his 63rd career multi-homer game, tying him for the fifth-most in MLB history (Willie Mays). Pujols has 689 career homers and ranks fourth on the career homer list behind Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), and Alex Rodriguez (696), Fox Sports reported.
Astros' Bregman hits home run for Uvalde girl
On Sunday, five hundred Uvalde, Texas, community members were bussed in by the Astros and given free tickets to the game. Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman spoke to a young girl from Uvalde prior to the game, Chron reports. She asked Bregman to hit a home run. So he did just that.
In the first inning against the Oakland Athletics, Bregman stepped up to the plate and pummeled a two-run homer. Watch it here.
"It was really cool," Bregman said to reporters after the game. "Anything we can do for them. I'm glad they were here today."
Rangers fire manager Chris Woodward amid 4th straight losing season
With Texas on pace for a fourth straight losing season and another 90 losses or more, the Rangers have fired manager Chris Woodward just shy of his 500th game with the club and with a season remaining on his contract, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Third base coach Tony Beasley will step up as the interim manager for the remainder of the season. Beasley took the helm with the team record at 51-63, with the Rangers 23 games behind Houston in the AL West and 9 1/2 games out of the expanded wildcard race.
Red Sox’s Bryan Mata throwing 100 mph post-surgery
Boston Red Sox’s right-hander Bryan Mata missed the entire 2021 season, as well as the first two months of 2022 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Now recovering, Mata got his fastball speed back up to 100 mph during an extended spring training game in May, MassLive reported.
Mata called getting triple digit speed "cool" but he is just "thankful" to be healthy again. He is on the 40-man roster with a 2.45 ERA, with 42 strikeouts and 18 walks in 36 2/3 innings.