Home Run of the Day: Jose Lopez, Seattle Mariners #3 (Trot Time: 21.89 seconds) [video]
The big news in home runs yesterday was that Miguel Tejada hit the 300th home run of his career and that Oakland’s Chris Carter his his first career home run after finally ending the 0-for-32 start to his career earlier this week. Lopez gets Home Run of the Day, though, because he somehow managed to hit three home runs in the Mariners’ victory over the Blue Jays yesterday. That’s a pretty good day. Plus, his third home run trot was actually 1.5 seconds faster than either of his other two. That’s a rare thing.
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Slowest Trot: Pedro Alvarez, Pittsburgh Pirates – 27.84 seconds [video]
When you have a 26.71 second trot from David Ortiz or a 27.12 second trot from Billy Butler, you tend to think that either of those guys is going to be the slowest trotter of the day. Somehow, though, when we saw trots of those lengths from both of them, the slowest trot of the day actually ends up going to someone else: in this case, it’s Pittsburgh’s Pedro Alvarez. Now, Alvarez was slowed down dramatically by Garrett Jones, who decided to hang out at first base while he waited to see if the ball was gone, so that gives him a little bit of an excuse. He did, however, allow himself to fall way behind Jones between shortstop and third-base. Alvarez was barely rounding third by the time Jones was touching home plate.
Quickest Trot: Kosuke Fukudome, Chicago Cubs – 18.32 seconds [video]
A nice, quick, simple 18-second home run trot from Fukudome, who knew that ball was gone the moment he made contact. It’s precisely the kind of trot I like to see.
