It’s the final home game of the season for the Brewers. You can bet I’ll be at Miller Park…
Home Run of the Day: Jorge Cantu, Texas Rangers (Trot Time: 20.87 seconds) [video]
With a magic number of two over the A’s, all the Rangers had to do yesterday in Oakland was beat the A’s to clinch their first postseason berth since 1999. With a lead of 3-1 in the seventh, the A’s tied it up on a two-out home run from Cliff Pennington. In the eighth, Jorge Cantu gave the Rangers all the room they would need with a two-out blast off of Michael Wuertz. An inning later, Texas was celebrating a playoff berth right on top of Dallas Braden‘s mound. It was a nice sight to see (even if the A’s fans were booing for some reason).
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Slowest Trot: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers – 26.55 seconds [video]
Miggy gets the top spot for the second day in a row, barely edging out Ryan Howard (26.29 seconds) and Aubrey Huff (25.48 seconds). I should point out that Arizona’s Cole Gillespie had an interesting trot. From contact to home, it took him 27.36 seconds [video]. However, after Reed Johnson went over the wall to snag the ball, he fell to the ground in a heap. No one on the basepaths knew if he had caught the ball or not, so everyone stopped running. It wasn’t until it was clear that Johnson did not catch the ball that everyone started running again. As I’ve done all year, this paused trot from Gillespie does not count.
Quickest Trot: Will Venable, San Diego Padres – 16.8* seconds [video]
See, this is why I hate the Fox Saturday broadcasts. Well, there’s a number of reasons, but this is the one I hate that most closely pertains to the Tater Trot Tracker. Will Venable turned in one of the ten quickest home run trots of the year yesterday afternoon, but, because Fox was the only crew with cameras at the game, I don’t know exactly how fast his trot was. Fox cut away from Venable as he was one step away from the plate, at 16.7 seconds. Looking at his stride, it seems that there’s no way for him to have slowed down at all before touching the plate. But, if there’s anything I’ve learned from watching home runs all year, players can find all kinds of ways to slow down at the plate. If Venable continued straight through the plate, though, his trot would almost certainly be about 16.8 seconds. That would give him the sixth quickest trot of the year, with only Adam Rosales ahead of him on the list. If only I could see another angle of the home run to know for sure.
Michael Young from the Rangers gave us the second quickest trot of the day, coming in at 17.67 seconds.
