- Programming note: Watch the full "All A's" interview with Mark Canha on Saturday, Sept. 4 after "A's Postgame Live" at approximately 3:30 p.m. on NBC Sports California.
Mark Canha could never be disliked, right?
Well, he admitted it’s one of the reasons why he believes he gets hit by pitches so much. But there’s more to it than that.
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“That’s one way of putting it, that’s one of the reasons, I think that’s a multiple-reason thing,” Canha said on the latest episode of “All A’s.”
“Then just the way I load when I hit, sometimes I tend to dive in toward home plate, and that makes it difficult for me to get out of the way a lot of times and I think that it’s just the way that I hit. Sometimes I’m going in that direction. So when I see, it’s coming in tight, I tend to just brace and it’s become kind of habitual, so I’m not trying to get out of the way, and I think that’s a good skill if anything.”
Canha leads MLB with 22 hit-by-pitches this season.
Canha said he doesn’t feel as if he’s trying to get hit on purpose, but …
Oakland Athletics
“If the opportunity presented itself, I’ve become good at not moving out of the way,” Canha said.
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A’s manager Bob Melvin did agree Canha’s way of getting on-base certainly is a skill, as long as he doesn’t get hurt in the process, of course.
On Aug. 11, Canha was plunked at the plate, as he typically is, against the Cleveland Indians. It was the 21st time it had happened to him in 2021 and it became the most in Oakland A’s single-season history. It put him ahead of Jason Kendall who had 20 of his own, and it wasn’t too far ahead of Canha’s other notable number in 2019 when he was hit by 18 pitches, the fifth-most for a single season.
Canha’s happy to get on base, so whatever works for him, we suppose.