d'Arnaud Domination

It was all Travis d'Arnaud on Monday night. The Rays catcher, seemingly reborn since that early-season trade to Tampa Bay, single-handedly beat the Yankees 5 - 4. His three home runs -- in the 1st (to lead off the game), 3rd, and most crucially, in the top of the 9th off Aroldis Chapman -- drove in all five Rays runs. Two solo blasts and a just-far-enough three-run job to the cozy right field corner.

This was one for the history books: never in the nearly 120-year of the Yankees, had a catcher ever smacked three home runs off them. And it wasn't by Pudge Fisk, Joe Mauer or Pudge Rodriguez. This was Travis d'Arnaud, who never became an offensive force in Flushing, but seems to have finally put it together in Tampa Bay.

(My image of d'Arnaud is from the Yankees/Rays game on June 18th.)


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