John Lackey was taken deep by Eric Thames on Monday night, and had some thoughts on the matter.
Since returning to the major leagues from Korea, Eric Thames has turned heads all around the baseball world. John Lackey was his latest home-run victim, serving up a longball in the third inning of Monday night’s game in Chicago. It was the seventh home run of the season for Thames, who has now homered in five straight games.
Thames hit the 3-2 curveball from Lackey the opposite way to left field for a solo home run. After the game, in which he gave up three home runs and four earned runs over six innings, Lackey expressed some doubts about the legitimacy of the source of Thames’ newfound power.
There is no denying the fact that Thames is a very muscular player, and the stringency of drug testing in the KBO can be debated as well. However, Thames has always had very large arms and plenty of raw power. By insinuating through his words and facial expressions that Thames may have used steroids, Lackey comes off as a bitter pitcher coming off a poor start. He did not execute his curveball, caught too much of the plate, and was punished by one of the hottest power hitters in baseball.
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At some point, Eric Thames will cool off this season. He last played in Major League Baseball in 2012, and hit .250/.296/.431 with 21 home runs and 175 strikeouts in 181 games before going over to Korea. In the KBO, Thames became a superstar, batting .348/.449/.715 in four seasons with 126 home runs in only 1,386 at-bats. The Milwaukee Brewers, a rebuilding team, took a chance on him. After only two weeks back in the states, the three-year, $16-million contract Thames signed looks like a massive bargain.