Triple-Double

With a double last night, Alfonso Soriano joined the "40-40-40 Club." I would say that's a prestigious club, but it's a club no one else had ever joined before. I don't know if a previously unestablished club can be considered "prestigious." It's hard to attach prestige to something that hasn't been accomplished. I mean, now it's prestigious, I suppose, but when Soriano was stalking the club? No. The club didn't exist. Can we get a Man Law on this one?

Let's just split the difference and call it "exclusive." Now that, it certainly is. (Not that the "40-40 Club isn't exclusive, of course.)

At any rate, this might be hard to believe this morning, but it was not at all a foregone conclusion that Soriano would attain that fortieth double this season.

As I noted back then---but had sort of forgotten since then---Soriano rose on the morning of May 24 with a rather uneven ratio of homers to doubles:

[editor's note, by Basil] Then I said that Soriano was "a lock for thirty-five homers and ha[d] a very good shot at forty." Let's forget that part, shall we?

Almost immediately, Soriano began correcting that ratio:

• On the 24th, Soriano banged out a double, his first since April 21.
  
• On the 25th, Soriano had another double.
  
• On the 26th, Soriano collected two more doubles.

Sort of amazing, isn't it? Soriano arose on the morning of May 24 on pace to hit fifty-six home runs. Since that date, he's hit even better overall.