The Upper Deck

Welcome to The Upper Deck, Baseball America’s daily look at the biggest stories around the game and some lighter fare. If you have videos, GIFs, photos or stories you want us to know about and feature in this space, hit me up on Twitter at @vincelara or email me here.

Slammin’ Salvy

Kansas City’s Salvador Perez had himself a productive Wednesday. Bear with me here, because it’s a three-act play. First, he smashed a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning against Boston.

Salvy Slam 👏 #RaisedRoyal pic.twitter.com/2srY4rQ3t0

— #VoteHos (@Royals) June 21, 2017

What makes his blast so impressive is that he didn’t even use his own bat—he enlisted the help of future Hall of Famer, and owner of 453 career longballs, Miguel Cabrera.

And if that wasn’t enough, the catcher showed off some slick moves in the postgame, and did his best to duck and cover to avoid the impending Gatorade shower his teammates were ready to graciously bestow upon him.

Oh No, There’s No No-No

Washington’s Max Scherzer was five outs away from doing what just five pitchers in MLB history have done—thrown at least three no-hitters. That is, until he wasn’t. A.J. Ellis broke up the no-hitter with an infield single with one out in the eighth inning and, believe it or not, the Marlins rallied to beat Scherzer and the Nationals, 2-1. How’s that for a tough way to miss out on history?

A Dugout Workout

Wednesday marked the official start of summer, which means beach season is upon us. Still not satisfied with your summer body? Don’t fret, because LSU’s Chris Reid has the perfect workout to get YOU in shape in the midst of the College World Series. The Tigers’ sophomore had an ambitious approach to celebrate his team’s offensive outburst against Florida State by doing 20 crunches for every run scored. LSU won by a score of 7-4, meaning Reid had to do 140 crunches. We all know Kanye West already wrote a song called Workout Plan, but maybe Reid can hop in on a remix?

Chris Reid is doing 20 crunches for every run LSU scores.

Dude’s gonna have a six-pack. #CWS pic.twitter.com/0j42Q3GLyQ

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) June 21, 2017

Good Things Come In Threes

What if I told you Jacob Scavuzzo hit one-third of his season home runs on Wednesday? Well, he did. Playing for Tulsa, the Double-A affiliate of the Dodgers, Scavuzzo cranked home runs in the fourth, seventh and ninth innings of the Drillers’ game against Springfield.

Gallo-ping Around The Bases

Joey Gallo is known for his power. The Rangers’ slugger came into Wednesday’s game against the Blue jays with 18 home runs on the season. His 19th wasn’t his usual moonshot, however. Rather, it required a little more finesse and speed to get around the bases for an inside-the-park home run (Steve Pearce crashing into the wall helped a bit, too).

Homers just find @JoeyGallo24. pic.twitter.com/rewxf2dCCm

— MLB (@MLB) June 22, 2017

Happenings at Baseball America

Behind seven innings from Brady Singer, Florida defeated Louisville 2-0, and Teddy Cahill has the story . . . The dynamic duo of Carlos Collazo and Hudson Belinksy break down the talent seen at the Perfect Game National Showcase . . . Shawnee (Okla.) High School is named Baseball America’s 2017 High School Team of the Year . . . Ben Badler takes a look at Wander Franco and Daniel Flores in advance of the July 2 international signing period.