Cal Baseball: Three Ex-Bears Each Enjoy A Big Saturday in the Big Leagues
A productive Saturday for three former Cal players in the major leagues.
Here’s a recap:
MARK CANHA, New York Mets: The 33-year-old, playing in his 864th career game, hit his first big league grand slam as the Mets routed the Miami Marlins 11-3 to move ahead of Atlanta into the top spot in the NL East at 88-52.
Canha, who hit his 100th home run on Aug. 30 against the Dodgers, figures it’s about time he got one with the bases jammed.
"My very first major league hit was inches (from) being a grand slam," Canha said. "I was joking with (teammate Brandon) Nimmo that I haven't even come close since. I finally got my first one after seven years.”
It was home run No. 101 for Canha.
Canha was hot in August, assembling a .979 OPS. But he had just one RBI in his past nine games.
"I am trying to have a good at-bat, not really trying to go deep there," Canha said. "Just wanted to hit something hard and knock in a couple of runs. And it worked out.”
Andrew Vaughn raps out one of his four hits
Photo by D. Ross Cameron, USA Today
ANDREW VAUGHN, Chicago White Sox: Vaughn, who had been hitting just .185 over his previous seven games, broke out with his fourth four-hit game of the season, producing two RBIs, as the White Sox clobbered the A’s 10-2.
His outburst bumped his batting up six points to .289.
Chicago won its fourth straight game, its ninth in the past 11 outings, and improved to 72-68, pulling within 1.5 games of AL Central division leader Cleveland.
“It’s been special,” Vaughn said. “One through nine, everybody’s taking great at-bats and we’re scoring runs. We’ve just got to keep this going.”
Vaughn hit his 27th double and leads the team with 68 RBIs. The 24-year-old also is the club’s home run leader with 15.
Marcus Semien has reached base in 21 consecutive games
Photo by Ron Chenoy, USA Today
MARCUS SEMIEN, Texas Rangers: The 31-year-old went 2-for-5 with his 69th RBI and stole his team-leading 24th base, but Texas lost 11-7 to Toronto.
Semien also extended his on-base streak to 21 games, longest active streak in the majors.
Still, it’s been a disappointing season for Semien and the Rangers. The middle infielder was third in the AL MVP voting with the A’s in 2019 and the Blue Jays last season, but his move to Texas has been rocky.
He’s hitting just .243 and the Rangers are in fourth place in the AL West, 20 games below .500. In response to the tough season, the organization fired both the team manager and president of baseball operations within days of each other last month.
Cover photo of Mark Canha by Charles LeClaire, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo