Ramón Laureano was hit twice by a pitch in the game that ultimately resulted in a bank-clearing brawl between the A’s and the Houston Astros on August 9th.
That, in addition to Astros’ striking coach Alex Cintrón writing a slur about Laureano’s mother, is what resulted in this:
Laureano was not wise with the Astros after he was hit by a pitch pic.twitter.com/ysiXICstKb
– A’s on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) August 9, 2020
However, Laureano has been hit by six pitches this season. The A’s led the American League overall by 19. Only the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets had more with 24 pieces entered Saturday to lead Major League Baseball.
Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo was tied with Laureano for the MLB lead in HBP header that day. Oakland, Chicago and New York have five of the six most striking players this season.
That… what does that mean? A striking coach Darren Bush narrowed it down to Oakland’s fearful mentality on the plate.
“I mean, pitchers need to step up. Especially against a lineup like us, they need to,” Bush said on Friday. ‘If they continuously jump over the plate and don’t push you back, they will get in a lot of trouble. Because they will make mistakes. ”
Bush said as a hitter began to become comfortable in the box, “you’re in trouble.”
“Against a lineup like ours, if you don’t push us in and you don’t push back, you’re usually giving us the outside of the plate,” Bush added. “That’s pitching.”
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In recent years, the plunkings have reached a very high level. There could be several reasons why that is with the way the game is changing. One reason may be to shorten long at-bats, but we do not see any pitchers on the pitch today.
Another theory, from FiveThirtyEight, says that the overhaul in speed may be the cause. As pitchers concentrate on adding miles per hour to their pitches, control often takes a back seat. Plus, pitchers also throw in more than they ever have.
With so many home points in today’s game, is it possible that a pitcher would just hit a target in hopes of freeing the hitter from the chance at homer? Instead of threatening to run away from home, as pitchers did in Barry Bonds’ day, are they just boys?
Or is it just out of plain-old revenge? What if some bat flipped when, please, tried to make baseball fun?
But that’s another article.
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Regardless of the reason, Oakland embraces the feeling of pain more than just about anyone else this season.
‘It has been forever, and are we also hit by pitches? Yes. But our boys too – they’re hit by a pitch, they’re coming right back, “Bush said. man on the deck do you as much harm as I can. ‘
‘So, when they hit someone, they get us a chance to score more runs and our boys do a good job of taking advantage of that and they do a very good job of saying’ Hey, you hit me, the next at- bat, I’ll be right back, exactly the same place that does exactly the same thing. ‘”
