Julio Teheran might want to call in sick on Monday. Or at the very least, he might just want to intentionally walk Yoenis Cespedes. Why? Because a horse won a race at the Aqueduct Racetrack on Friday afternoon, that’s why. A horse named Cespedes — presumably after the New York Mets outfielder — won the ninth race at Aqueduct on a soggy track this Friday afternoon. And Cespedes the baseball player has done well when Cespedes the horse has run before one of his games with the Mets.
Cespedes hits a homer in the Friday finale at Aqueduct! pic.twitter.com/QRNjN6TcO5
— TVG (@TVG) March 31, 2017
In fact, freakishly so.
In his competitive debut on Aug. 29 of last year, the aforementioned horse ran sixth at a race during the summer meet in Saratoga. That evening, the Mets outfielder went 3-for-5 with a home run and a run batted in, a sparkling effort in a 2-1 win over the Miami Marlins. Three weeks later Cespedes, the outfielder, went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs driven in as the Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-8. Earlier that day, his namesake thoroughbred took third in an early race at Belmont Park, finishing in the money for the first time in his young career in just his second start. All told, the 3-year-old has placed top three in eight starts, including Friday’s win which was the first of his career. But the numbers for the Mets’ Cespedes immediately after this particular horse runs are mind-boggling. That’s a rather nifty 6-for-9 with a home run and three runs batted in for the Mets outfielder, all done in the regular season game immediately after the horse named Cespedes runs a race. The performances certainly are not a bad batting average for a player who hit .280 a season ago, quite an uptick on days when the horse named after him runs. And the next regular season game following Cespedes the horse’s race this past Friday? Yup, Opening Day. All of his other starts came during the Mets offseason with Friday now representing his last race before baseball’s Opening Day. For Teheran, the announced starter for Atlanta on Monday, it is certainly bad timing. Cespedes has a lifetime .250 batting average against the Braves pitcher and now with the news that the horse named after him not only ran a race but won it, anything short of hitting for the cycle in this upcoming game would be a disappointment. That is some serious Bob Uecker-caliber statistic diving right there.
