May 11, 2012

Tater Trot Tracker

Trot Times for May 10

by Larry Granillo

Printer-friendly

If it's not one thing, it's another. On Tuesday, Josh Hamilton hit four home runs in a game. On Wednesday, despite only a few home runs being hit, we still got to see Matt Joyce run out his trot after falling down with a twisted ankle at the plate - in less than 30 seconds! For Thursday, we were given back-to-back-to-back home runs by the Orioles to start the game. Overall, the Orioles had five hits in the game, with all five hits clearing the fences. The only game to see a team have more than five home runs when they had no singles, doubles, or triples was when the Indians did it to the Rangers in 1989. The Indians had six hits and six home runs that day and Joe Carter had three of them. It goes to show that you just don't know what's going to happen, especially when the Rangers are involved!

Let's get to the trots!

Home Run of the Day: Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers - 20.72 seconds [video]
The Rangers and Orioles played a doubleheader on Thursday. The Ryan Flaherty-JJ Hardy-Nick Markakis trio of home runs led off the afternoon game (with Flaherty's shot being his first career home run). In the second game, Hamilton hit a bomb to rightfield in the first inning. The ball clearly hit the warehouse out beyond Eutaw Street at Oriole Park, but, on close inspection, it appears to have bounced before doing so. Regardless, it was a monster of a blast from Hamilton.

Slowest Trot: Wilson Betemit, Baltimore Orioles - 23.31 seconds [video]
One of the five home runs in Baltimore's "all or nothing" game. Betemit isn't the luckiest man: a 23-second trot is very rarely the slowest of the day. Brandon Inge, who hit a home run in his first game against his former team on Thursday, may have had a slightly slower trot, but the television cameras didn't follow him all the way to the plate. His trot will instead go down as "N/A".

Quickest Trot: Curtis Granderson, New York Yankees - 18.37 seconds [video]
This should be no surprise, seeing Granderson trotting home with the quickest time. The only other trot to be faster than 20-seconds was from Dustin Pedroia, who clocked in at 19.71 seconds.

All of Today's Trots

Wilson Betemit....23.31     Ryan Flaherty.....20.79
Kila Ka'aihue.....22.72     Andy Dirks........20.78
Nick Markakis.....22.7      Josh Hamilton.....20.72
Josh Willingham...22.52     JJ Hardy..........20.64
Jack Hannahan.....22.41     Jason Kipnis......20.56
Adam LaRoche......22.33*    Roger Bernadina...20.03
Robinson Cano.....21.63     Dustin Pedroia....19.71
Adam Jones........21.48     Curtis Granderson.18.37
Rick Ankiel.......21.1      Brandon Inge......n/a
David Murphy......20.8

Click here for the ongoing 2012 Tater Trot Tracker Leaderboard. You can also follow @TaterTrotTrkr on Twitter for more up-to-the-minute trot times.