The ball Taylor Trammell tattooed in Tuesday's fifth inning landed some 10 rows up the right-field seats at Daikin Park, but he made sure. Trammell ran a half-dozen steps out of the batter's box, following the trajectory, before turning to the Houston Astros dugout with an emphatic nod.
Trammell's three-run home run helped propel the Astros to a 7-2 win over the Blue Jays. It also offered the outfielder a measure of redemption a night after a harmless miscalculation.
On Monday night, Trammell had tagged a pitch from Toronto starter Shane Bieber into deep center field. Myles Straw made a leaping catch against the fence. But Trammell rounded the bases and crossed home plate thinking he had homered, modestly celebrating as such before realizing.
It was an honest misjudgment, he explained Tuesday night. For one, Trammell crushed that ball, as well. The fly out against Bieber had a 110.4 mph exit velocity and a 32-degree launch angle and flew 418 feet, per Baseball Savant.
ASTROS 7, BLUE JAYS 2
| Toronto |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
Avg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Totals |
32 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
6 |
|
| Lukes rf |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.271 |
| Guerrero 1b |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
.261 |
| Okamoto 3b |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
.231 |
| Springer dh |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.239 |
| Kirk c |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.237 |
| Sánchez lf |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.271 |
| a-Schneider ph-lf |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.147 |
| b-J.Smith ph |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
| Clement 2b |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.288 |
| Giménez ss |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.230 |
| Straw cf |
4 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.223 |
| Houston |
AB |
R |
H |
BI |
BB |
SO |
Avg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Totals |
31 |
7 |
9 |
7 |
7 |
4 |
|
| Peña ss |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
.320 |
| Alvarez dh |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.330 |
| Paredes 3b |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.252 |
| Varsho cf |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
.242 |
| Walker 1b |
4 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.237 |
| Altuve 2b |
4 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
.236 |
| Allen 2b |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.257 |
| Trammell lf |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
.236 |
| Diaz c |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.261 |
| C.Smith rf |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.216 |
| Toronto |
000 |
020 |
000_2 |
5 |
1 |
| Houston |
000 |
240 |
10x_7 |
9 |
1 |
|---|
a-struck out for Sánchez in the 7th. b-grounded out for Schneider in the 9th.
E_Sánchez (0), Allen (3). LOB_Toronto 4, Houston 7. 2B_Straw (9), Walker (22). 3B_Straw (1). HR_Trammell (5), off Dallas. RBIs_Straw (17), Diaz (26), C.Smith (39), Altuve 2 (31), Trammell 3 (16).
Runners left in scoring position_Toronto 1 (Guerrero); Houston 4 (Varsho, Peña 2, Paredes). RISP_Toronto 0 for 3; Houston 5 for 10.
Runners moved up_Alvarez. GIDP_Kirk, J.Smith, Trammell.
DP_Toronto 1 (Guerrero, Giménez, Guerrero); Houston 2 (Peña, Walker; Allen, Peña, Walker).
| Toronto |
IP |
* | H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
NP |
ERA |
| Yesavage |
2 |
* | 0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
27 |
3.73 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas, L, 1-0 |
3 |
* | 7 |
6 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
74 |
1.93 |
| Fisher |
1 |
* | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
14 |
4.00 |
| Little |
1 |
* | 2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
18 |
12.00 |
| Fluharty |
1 |
* | 0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
12 |
4.33 |
| Houston |
IP |
* | H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
NP |
ERA |
| Wesneski, W, 1-0 |
6 |
* | 4 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
78 |
4.76 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sousa |
1 |
* | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
7 |
3.24 |
| De Los Santos |
2 |
1-3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
29 |
4.38 |
WP_Wesneski.
Umpires_Home, Gabe Morales; First, Doug Eddings; Second, Mike Muchlinski; Third, Emil Jimenez.
T_2:26. A_30,450 (41,000).
Entering Tuesday, there had been nine batted balls put into play this season with an exit velocity of 110 mph or higher and exactly a 32-degree launch angle. Eight were home runs. The other landed in Straw's glove. Statcast deemed it a homer in 25 of 30 ballparks.
"I kind of knew I got it really well," Trammell said. "Still confused on how it didn't get out."
Straw's reaction after the catch, meanwhile, was not entirely clear. He jogged away from the fence with his head down and right hand on his face. Bieber lifted both hands in the air and smiled, aware the ball was caught. Trammell kept running.
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"I didn't know what happened," Trammell said. "There's a lot of padding out there … I didn't know if the ball got lodged, if he had jumped over the fence and tried to catch it and lost his glove and they were still trying to figure it out – I didn't know. So the last thing I wanted to do was have the ball be in play and I'm sitting on second when I could have possibly had an inside the parker."
Trammell slowed as he reached home plate, pointing a finger skyward, and tapped his chest twice as he crossed it. Realization arrived as he walked to the dugout, followed by a look of resignation, a sequence that afterward made its way around social media.
"Afterward it just was kind of funny," Trammell said. "I was pretty upset for the next two innings. I made it a point not to look at Brice Matthews – made it a huge point not to look at Brice Matthews."
The mirth spread beyond Matthews, per Trammell, who said ribbing from "the whole team" lasted into Tuesday, when "it was like they hit a second wind." Trammell, meanwhile, said he found Bieber prior to Tuesday's game and "made sure he knew I wasn't trying to show him up or anything like that."
"It's a funny meme now," Trammell said. "Hopefully it's my last meme. But I feel good with it. It's little things like that that get you ready for today's game."
In the fifth inning Tuesday, a two-out single by Jose Altuve broke a 2-2 tie and brought Trammell up with two runners on base. Blue Jays right-hander Chad Dallas , summoned in the third inning after starter Trey Yesavage left abruptly with left knee discomfort, still toed the mound.
Trammell had drawn a four-pitch walk from Dallas in their first matchup. Dallas threw three curveballs in the plate appearance, and Trammell said he saw the pitch well. An inning later, Dallas threw a first-pitch curveball that stayed in the zone. Trammell laced it 388 feet.
"Just saw it kind of pop and put a good swing on it," Trammell said. "It's comforting. Something that we've worked on for a while now is just staying through the ball. The early ones you're going to pull, but if you stay through the middle, you're going to have a lot of success."
For as well as Trammell had struck his fly out Monday, this piece of contact was better. Trammell's home run left his bat with a 113.3 mph exit velocity. It is the hardest-hit ball he has put into play in the majors, per Baseball Savant.
Houston has lacked outfield production all season, a reason it acquired Daulton Varsho from Toronto at the trade deadline Monday. While Varsho will serve as their center fielder down the stretch, the Astros still seek reliability in left field, where they have started nine different players this season.
Trammell drew the start there Tuesday, the ninth consecutive game he has started. Entering the day, he had a 101 OPS-plus; overall, Houston outfielders owned an 86 OPS-plus. Trammell is 8-for-29 with three home runs in those nine games, a stretch raising his OPS from .654 to .738.
"He's seeing the ball really well," manager Joe Espada said. "His at-bats are really good, he's walking, he's hitting the ball with authority. He's playing really well, he's really maximizing this opportunity he's getting right now."
No doubt accompanied his home-run trot Tuesday. Trammell was asked why, on his non-home run, third-base coach Tony Perezchica had not alerted him to Straw's catch. He said Perezchica "didn't know either" and thought "maybe I saw something that he didn't." As he passed Perezchica on his way home Tuesday, Trammell exchanged a low-five and a line with the coach.
"I was like, 'Hey, we got it right this time,'" Trammell said.
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This article originally published at Taylor Trammell had no doubts about this one, but he made sure just in case before his home-run trot .
