We are fully in the second half, and Asians in Baseball are HOT!
First off, congrats to Kelsie Whitmore and the US Women’s Baseball Team for winning Silver at the Women’s Baseball World Cup! Gold went to Japan, of course, in their 7th consecutive win.
In position player news, Connor Wong and Rob Refsnyder hold it down for the Red Sox, Volpe is mashing even from the bottom of the lineup, Travis d’Arnaud has a 10-game hit streak, and it’s that time of year for Seiya Suzuki to turn up the heat.
Pitching is blessedly having a much better week! Kikuchi crushes in his first start as an Astro, Bryan Woo tosses a career-high 7 innings against the Phillies slugging machine, and Sean Manaea still got that Grimace Bump.
Slow Ohtani news week as he is still slumping, but of course that still includes being first to 30HR/30SB on the year and 3rd fastest player in history to achieve the feat. YAWN! (For legal purposes, this is a joke.)
Athletic article about Yusei’s pitches: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5677686/2024/08/03/yusei-kikuchi-astros-debut/
