Yuliesky Gourriel produces against A's and achieves leadership of IMPORTANT offensive department

September 26, 2021

It is well known that Yulieski Gurriel, better known as "La Piña," is in full battle for the batting title, but far from the spotlight of media attention, Yulieski is co-leader of the Major Leagues in an important department that is often overlooked: sacrifice flies.

Many times a hit to the outfield is all a team needs to bring a run to the plate that could be decisive. You can't always hit a home run, or even a base hit, but delivering the necessary hit to drive in a runner is equally vital for a result.

The clash on Friday, September 24 was not the best for the Astros; the Oakland team outscored the Texans 14 runs to 2. It wasn't the best of days for the Cubans either; between Yordan and Yulieski they went 0-for-7, but one of the two runs for the Astros was driven in by the Spiritano, who thus reached the mark of 78 runs batted in for the season.

What made it special? That he did it by hitting his 12th sacrifice fly of the season, with which he tied Whit Merrifield, of the Kansas City Royals in the lead of all of Major League Baseball. Now, the Cuban achieves it in 585 plate appearances, compared to 679 for the Royals player, so by better frequency, the top of the department belongs to Yuli.

It's true that it's not the most publicized offensive category, but what luck it would be to hit at least one sacrifice fly in each game, that would imply one run driven in per appearance and such a performance, even without getting a hit, would be extraordinary.

Therefore, one should not underestimate what this glory of Cuban baseball has achieved, who moreover, despite going 0-for-3 in the game, is second among batters in the American League, now tied with Michael Brantley, with 315, 4 points behind Vladi Jr. He also holds second place in OBP with 381, also behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. himself.

To complete his excellent performance, he's in 8th place in hits with 161, leader among Cubans, 19th in OPS with 837, surpassing the great Pito Abreu by 3 points, and that same place in doubles, with 30.