We’ve finally reached September. The playoffs are no longer in the distance. Instead, they are right around the bend. Several divisions remain neck and neck. Mets’ fans wait for their latest collapse, but their squad gets several chances to widen the gap between them and Washington themselves. On the other side of the city that never sleeps, the Yankees and Blue Jays find themselves trading first place back and forth with regularity. Some scintillating runs of form to end August have left the American League Wild Card race quite the scramble heading into the season’s final month. With so much drama in the MLB, it’s kinda hard trying to pick a Top of Heap. Without further ado, here are the five plays that defined the week that was in baseball.
5. Carlos Gonzalez’s Home Run Parade
To say Carlos Gonzalez was on a tear to start September would be a vast understatement. A tear is a couple of solid games pieced together. Carlos Gonzalez was on a seismic rift. CarGo had been on Top of the Heap before with his glove but to start this current month his bat was the money maker. He began September with a nondescript double header against Arizona. The series closer though was a doozy. He hit two home runs, one being a grand slam, with seven RBI in a 9-4 demolition of the D-Backs. His encore last Thursday was arguably better the next night going 4-for-5 with two more homers against the Giants. Gonzalez at that point had hit 25 home runs in 50 games. He also became just the 8th man in MLB history to have two separate pairs of two home runs games as he also did the feat on July 26-27 against the Reds and Cubs. Sadly, unlike the next man on this list (SPOILER) Gonzalez couldn’t find his way out of lowly Colorado. I guess he’s just going to have to continue to mash until then.
4. Tulo’s Lucky Leap
As his former teammate continues to rake in obscurity, Troy Tulowitzki has found himself in the midst of the best division race in the game with his new team Toronto. As of press time, the Jays found themselves just a half game ahead of the Yankees after an embarrassing loss to the Red Sox. They’ll get a chance to duke it out mano a mano as the two teams play seven times in September. In the interim, Troy Tulowitzki can dazzle us with displays like his little game of leap frog from last Friday. As the Jays took on the Orioles, Tulo led off the bottom of the sixth inning down 6-2. He started things off with a routine ground ball to shortstop Jonathan Schoop. It looked to be an easy out number one until Schoop airmailed the throw to first. Tulowitzki ran through the bag at first, like any normally does, but made the mistake of turning towards second, making him a live base runner again. Catcher Matt Wieters was backing up the play and fielded the carom off of Schoop’s errant throw. This set up a race to the bag in which Wieters won. You could tell he didn’t expect the Blue Jays shortstop to leap over him like a hurdle on the track to stick the landing at first and be ruled safe. Wieters was so blown away he tried to tag him in plain view of the umpire with his bare hand. Tulo was lucky here, but his team wasn’t so much as they absorbed four further runs for a 10-2 loss.
3. Salvador Perez Kills Threat With Sliding Catch
Salvador Perez is viewed throughout the league as a stellar defensive catcher. He’s won the Gold Glove at his position in each of the last two seasons in the American League and has done so with little opposition. With that being said, Perez may have made the best play of his career in last Thursday evening’s game against the Tigers. Up 8-6 in the top of the fifth, the Tigers had put men on second and third with two outs against Chris Young. Starter Edinson Volquez had already been knocked out and Young was looking worse for wear. Pinch hitter Andrew Romine fouled off the first pitch he saw from Young towards the third base stands. Salvador Perez popped out of his stance and galloped towards the opposition dugout. He tracked down the tailing pop fly and made a sliding catch on his rear end to end the inning right in the face of the Tigers. Though the Tigers would score one more run to make it closer an inning later, their momentum was murdered. The Royals would pile on seven runs in the seventh to put the result away and increase their league best division lead that much more.
2. Bartolo Colon’s And-1 Mixtape Audition
Bartolo Colon should be a source of inspiration to the common man. He has the body of a jellybean that you left on your car’s dashboard in the hot sun. He runs as if he is mimicking the motions of a person on a NordicTrack. He looks out of breath after each pitch. Nevertheless, the ageless Colon (42 if you were actually wondering) still pitches in the Majors at a high level and every once in a while pulls out some piece of magic out of his sweat-soaked hat like he did last Saturday against the Marlins. Up a touchdown in the bottom of the sixth, it wouldn’t be off-putting for a senior citizen like Colon to see if a ball would roll foul like the one off the bat of Justin Bour. Rather than exercise that option, Colon shimmied his way over to the first base line and fielded the ball straight away. He followed that up with, as the commentators referred to as “shades of Bob Cousy”, a behind the back arcing toss to get the third out. He would throw a complete game, nine-hit shutout, but this play will be etched in the memories of Mets’ fans for the rest of the year.
1. Kevin Kiermaier Stars The Game Off With A Bang
The old saying goes that you save the best for last. That is always what we do here at Top of the Heap. I guess Tampa Bay centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier must have had that memo go to his spam inbox. The top play of this past week, and potentially the play of the season, came from the first batter of the bottom of the first inning of last Monday’s game between the Rays and Orioles. Chris Archer’s 2-2 pitch to Manny Machado got taken deep to center. This ball was going to clear the wall easily. Well, it would have if Kevin Kiermaier didn’t interject himself into the ball’s trajectory. Kiermaier tracked back to the wall and bounded upwards. He caught the ball full extension with more than half his body above the Southwest Airlines sign adorned the outfield wall. He robbed Machado’s otherwise no doubter of a home run and left his starter Archer in complete disbelief. Archer’s brain still may not have fully registered what happened a week ago. We have registered it as our Top of the Heap.