Somewhere, somebody had to have had money on it, right?
What was going to happen first…Robinson Cano was going to collect his 100th hit of the season or Mark Reynolds was going to go down swinging for the 100th time?
Both are their respective league leaders in each category and both are, seemingly, looking to get to the 100 mark earlier than in previous years.
Last season, Cano didn’t get his 100th hit until the Bronx Bombers’ 82nd game…a July 6 contest against the Toronto Blue Jays. It was his 351st plate appearance.
He would finish the season third in the American League with 204.
The all-time leader in strikeouts in a season, Reynolds, hit the century mark last year on June 26. It was his 307th plate appearance and his team’s 74th game of the season…coincidentally, an interleague affair against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Monday night, both entered the 2001 World Series rematch stuck at 99.
Cano has done little wrong this season. His .367 batting average entering Monday night’s game is nearly 30 points higher than his closest competitor and on the mound for the Diamondbacks was a pitcher he had seen 21 times before…Rodrigo Lopez.
Head to head, Cano came in batting .286 lifetime against Lopez and in his fourth at bat, he would get the base knock he needed in the top of the eighth…his 302nd plate appearance of the year.
Across the diamond, the free swinging Reynolds had never faced Yankees starter A.J. Burnett, so it was unknown how the two would match up. After hitting a home run off the righty in the first, it was clear that the bullpen might have to come into to play.
First out of the pen was Chad Gaudin, a pitcher who has K’d Reynolds six times in eleven plate appearances…but the best he could do was walk the slugger.
In the bottom of the seventh, facing Chan Ho Park, the Diamondbacks third baseman struck out. And if you’re keeping track, it was Reynolds’ first ever strikeout against Park and his 282nd plate appearance of the season.
Now, I’m not sure what the payout would have been (we’ll leave that up to the eggheads over at bodog.com), but if you picked Mark Reynolds…you won.
If you have either one on your fantasy team, odds are it is a different story.
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