Tag: Jose Abreu

Duke baseball alum Joey Loperfido called up by Houston Astros; set to make MLB debut

Duke baseball alum Joey Loperfido set to make MLB debut for the Houston Astros.

The Houston Astros have played horrific baseball to start the 2024 season, and now, with their backs against the wall and in desperate need of a spark, the Astros are looking to a former Duke baseball alum.

Former Blue Devils Joey Loperfido got called up to make his MLB debut on Tuesday when the Astros host the AL’s best team, the Cleveland Guardians.

Loperfido leads all minor league baseball with 13 home runs, including a solo bomb he smashed during his final game with the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys on Sunday. He finished the game 2-for-3, raising his OPS to 1.106 after 101 at-bats during a remarkable April.

Loperfido may not be a seasoned first baseman, but he’s had enough reps there, playing in seven games in Triple-A. His time in Durham saw him as an outfielder, so he also offers the Astros versatility defensively.

 

Houston drafted Loperfido out of Duke in the seventh round of the 2021 draft. At Duke, Loperfido started all 170 games he appeared in during his time with the Blue Devils. In his four years at Duke, Loperfido posted a .317 career batting average, collecting 201 hits, 37 doubles, nine triples, 18 home runs, and tallying 96 RBI. He drew 85 walks and held a slugging percentage of .488, adding an on-base percentage of .419. In the field, Loperfido posted a career fielding percentage of .992

Last season, he won the Astros’ Minor League Player of the Year award after slashing .278/.370/.510 with 55 extra-base hits across three levels of affiliated ball. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked him as Houston’s sixth-best prospect before the season started.

The Astros are still led by the same core, which has helped them win two World Series: Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, and Alex Bregman. However, the rest of the lineup needs a spark.

Already ten games below .500 and six games back in the American League West, the Astros can’t rely on Jose Abreu much longer as he’s become one of the worst offensive players in the league to start the season.

The game starts Tuesday at 7:10 CT / 8:10 ET at Minute Maid Park and can be seen on MLB.TV.

An ump called a strike on Jose Abreu that was obviously so low and out of the zone

C’mon!

I guess you have to give Jonah Heim all the credit for the frame job here.

Because the umpire behind the plate called a strike on Jose Abreu that was like 20 feet too low to be a strike.

Seriously! Abreu’s reaction — he was heading to first base, thinking it was ball 4 on a 3-1 pitch, when he stopped in his tracks and bent over, as if to protest the call — was perfect.

MORE: Every MLB Stadium in 2023, ranked

Was this worse than the call from last month that was on Jeimer Candelario? You make the call. I’d say that one was worse than this one, but that’s just me:

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White Sox walk-off Twins twice in one at-bat after umps reverse game-winning call on Jose Abreu

That’s gonna put a dent in the fireworks budget

The White Sox cannot help but remain the weirdest team in baseball. Even when they’re not really trying.

Friday night provided the latest example as American League central rival Minnesota Twins came to town looking to halt Chicago’s two-game win streak.

Let’s jump ahead to the ninth inning, where the Sox had two runners on in a tie game and Andrew Vaughn stepping up to the plate against the shaky control of Jorge Lopez. You can guess where this is headed. Lopez hit Vaughn high and in on the first pitch of the at-bat and both teams immediately began jawing.

That loaded the bases for Jose Abreu, which seemed like a good time to swap Lopez out for, uh, anyone else. The Twins did not do this. And the break Lopez had while players returned to their benches did not fix his control issues. Immediately, Lopez threw in on Abreu and the veteran first baseman appeared to take it off the hand for a hit-by-pitch walk-off win.

The Sox sure thought so, too. Players ran out on the field to mob Abreu while fireworks shot off overhead. There was just a slight problem—in the midst of all the chaos, the Twins successfully challenged the ruling on the field and kept the game from ending.

So after all the celebrating, Abreu had to grab his bat and head back into the box with one strike, bases loaded and one out.

This time he made sure to deliver for real. Cue the fireworks and lights and everything else (again).

As bad as that ride was for Twins fans, it was arguably even worse for Twins bettors. According to Action Network, 82 percent of all bets and 91 percent of the money wagered backed Minnesota (-135). They had to watch those bets miss twice in a matter of pitches.

The White Sox, however, used the win to get to 66-66 on the year—the 23rd time this season they’ve been exactly .500. So it’s really debatable which side is feeling more pain overall in 2022.

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Jose Abreu’s in-game response to a hit by pitch sparked a bench-clearing scuffle with the Tigers

Abreu has been hit 21 times this season.

It’s pretty clear that the Chicago White Sox are tired of getting hit by the pitch. They’re even taking issue with seemingly unintentional plunkings.

The White Sox have been hit 76 times as a team this season — compared to hitting opponents just 50 times. And no player on the White Sox has been hit by more pitches than Jose Abreu this year. He went into Monday’s game with 20 HBP and he wasn’t pleased about taking No. 21 to the elbow.

After Alex Lange’s 0-2, 97 mph fastball hit Abreu on the elbow in the ninth inning, frustrations were obvious from the White Sox dugout. Bench coach Miguel Cairo was ejected for shouting from the dugout. Tony La Russa also had some words with the umpiring crew.

But the real fireworks started the following at-bat.

Abreu tried to take second on a pitch in the dirt and was thrown out in a close play at the bag. Abreu, though, went into second unusually hard. His slide looked like a takeout slide you’d see to break up a double play, which understandably had the Tigers’ Niko Goodrum upset.

Abreu was taking his frustration out on Goodrum when the Tigers infielder had nothing to do with the hit by pitch. It was a needlessly hard slide, after all.

 

That exchange set Abreu off even more as benches cleared while the two players were separated.

Thankfully, the scuffle didn’t escalate beyond a bunch of pushing, holding each other back and yelling. It was the final inning of the final game between the two division rivals this season, so it’ll be an easy ordeal to move on from.

The White Sox held on to win, 8-7.