| 01 June 2010
On Monday, the Dodgers defeated the Diamondbacks when Casey Blake scored on only the 13th walkoff balk (aka, "balkoff") in the Retrosheet era. It completed a pretty spectacular comeback for the Dodgers, or, depending on your point of view, a pretty spectacular collapse by the Dbacks' bullpen.
As you can imagine, most of the articles written about the game today focus mostly on Los Angeles' victory. It's the positive story, and it gets to highlight the work Blake did as the baserunner on third base to draw the balk. At the same time, we get this article (uncovered by Tango and written by ESPN stats guru, and current ESPNNY contributor, Mark Simon) from a few years ago highlighting some of the strangest walkoffs in baseball history.
It's always fun to talk about these weird game-winning stories. They're interesting, and the drama inherent in them being "game-winning" plays makes them all the more compelling. But what about the converse - plays that prove to be game-losing plays?
(Click "Read More" to continue reading.)
The most famous of these is probably from the 1926 World Series when, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7, Babe Ruth was caught stealing to end the game and the World Series. I heard someone speculate once that Ruth made the stolen base attempt out of anger for being walked in such a crucial situation. I don't buy that at all, but that doesn't make the "caught stealing" any less fascinating. To go from such high hopes for tying or winning the game to dejectedly walking away after one single play, it's hard to forget.
What other game-losing stories can we come up with? I've talked about game-losing double plays before, but those aren't what I'm looking for. Instead, I'm hoping to find something different or unique, something that people would remember as being different.
For example, in the Retrosheet era, there have been six seven games that ended on a triple play. The most recent happened in 1991, when the Expos faced the Reds. After Hal Morris and Eric Davis led off the top of the ninth with a single and a walk (against two different pitchers) while down two runs, Montreal's Barry Jones was called in to face Chris Sabo. On the second pitch, Sabo bounced the ball to third-baseman Bret Barberie, who initiated the easy 5-4-3 triple play. In the manner of two pitches, the Reds went from having the go-ahead run at the plate with zero outs to walking home with the loss. Now that's a game-losing play that people will remember.
EDIT: I somehow missed the unassisted triple play turned by Philadelphia's Eric Bruntlett last year. On August 23, the Mets entered the 9th down 9-6. A couple of errors to start the inning would score Angel Pagan and leave Luis Castillo on first with no outs. Dan Murphy would reach on a single before Jeff Francoeur stepped to the plate representing the winning run. On a 2-2 pitch, he lined out to Eric Bruntlett, who was able to tag the runner and step on the base like all other unassisted triple plays. It was the second game-ending unassisted triple play, with the first coming in 1927.
The little-known play that inspired this post happened in 1986: on June 5, the Red Sox were playing the Brewers in Milwaukee. The Sox entered the ninth losing 7-3. After back-to-back home runs by Rich Gedman and Dwight Evans and a couple of walks to Steve Lyons and Marty Barrett, Boston suddenly found itself with the tying run on first with two outs and the hot-hitting Wade Boggs at the plate. Boggs was so hot-hitting, in fact, that he was still batting .400 on the season.
Lyons took off for third - with a .400-hitting Wade Boggs at the plate! - and was promptly thrown out by Milwaukee catcher Rick Cerone to lose the game. Lyons had no reason for attempting the steal. From the paper the next day:
McNamara was livid, and there was no pity in his remark."He did go on his own," McNamara said of Lyons' steal attempt. "That's twice he's done that. That's one of the stupidest tings Ive ever seen. There's no reason for that."
...
Lyons had no satisfactory explanation for his baserunning goof. "I was runnong on my own," he said. "I don't know what I can say that can make it better."
I know, I know, it's Steve Lyons. What more can I expect? Even still, it was a terrible, terrible play. There have been plenty of other games that have ended on a caught stealing of third base (or even home), but I'd find it hard to believe that any happened with such a supremely talented hitter at the plate.
So what have you? What is the single most interesting game-losing play that you've ever seen/heard of? I know there are more than just these two stories, so let me know what you have.
