MLB Daily: Scott Van Slyke, A-Rod and Kris Bryant Go Deep; Happy Birthday Yogi Berra

Welcome to a Tuesday edition of the award-winning MLB Daily, a post that unlike fine wine doesn’t exactly get better with age …

That’s a walk-off: Scott Van Slyke went deep off Marlins’ closer Steve Cishek in the bottom of the ninth, lifting the Dodgers to a 5-3 win. Cishek is now 1-3 with an ERA over 10.00. Not good.

Wonder if Van Slyke’s dad, Andy, approves of his Lumbersexual-wave beard? More practically, Van Slyke sports a .971 OPS in 47 at bats. Alex Guerrero is even better at 1.155 in 46 at bats, meaning the Dodgers have options while Carl Crawford and Yasiel Puig are on the disabled list, saying nothing of rookie Joc Pederson in centerfield.

Meanwhile Justin Turner continues to look like a rejected WWE character, but that’s neither here nor there.

Hit machine: Dee Gordon went 0-for-4 against his old team last night, dropping his average from .439 to .425, which still leads the Majors. He’s the only player still above .400 and about 50 points better than Adrian Gonzalez. We know that Batting Average is a basic stat that doesn’t matter much in 2015 baseball — fantasy categories aside. Even so, from a historical standpoint, the .400 batting average is one of those thresholds that carries some weight in baseball. Odds are nobody is going to come within sniffing distance of it ever again — Ted Williams’ frozen head can rest easy — but it’s fun nonetheless. Gordon, a lifetime .287 hitter, probably isn’t going to be the guy to do it when Hall of Famers such as George Brett, Tony Gwynn, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs and others fell short.

Anyways, I don’t want to waste much more time on batting averages. The highest in the last decade was Ichiro hitting .372 in 2004. For whatever it’s worth last year’s winners were Justin Morneau (.319) and Jose Altuve (.341).

Boomsticks: This is how Theo Epstein probably drew it up: Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo smacking home runs at Wrigley Field for the next decade.

Hot take: baseball looks much better when fans are sitting in the outfield bleacher seats.

This stat doesn’t bode well for reigning NL Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom:

Blast off: Speaking of tarps, Alex Rodriguez hit a ball to Disney World Monday night in Tampa St. Petersburg.

Lo and behold the Yankees sport the best record in the American League at 21-12. Yay!

Happy Birthday: Yogi Berra turns 90 today. Here’s a vintage commercial with him touting the greatness of Miller Lite with a young Jason Alexander in the background.

Sometimes you forget that Berra’s given name is Lawrence.

This & That: The Astros promoted top prospect Carlos Correa to Triple-A Fresno. It stands to reason he’ll be in the Majors sooner rather than later. … Barry Bonds will reportedly file a grievance against baseball for collusion after nobody signed him after the 2007 season. Another baseball legal court case — simply as good as sports gets. Sigh. … The Rangers again ran out a lineup last night with one player wearing No. 84 (Prince Fielder) and another with No. 88 (Kyle Blanks). Although I do not have official confirmation from the Elias Sports Bureau, I’ll guess that’s the first time it’s been done in big league history. … Aroldis Chapman blew a save for the second straight day. Rare. … Pablo Sandoval hit a game-winning homer in the 11th in Oakland, dropping the A’s to 12-22.

[All in a Day’s Work]