You could say the past week in baseball was interesting. You might also be credited with one of the great understatements of the year.
The Massacre of the Red Death Dept. — What follows, and I'm grateful to the indispensable Jayson Stark for putting most of this forward, is most of what you need to know or remember about the massacre in Camden Yards — 24-2, Reds — a week ago Sunday. I saw the key moments myself in various replays/rebroadcasts, and I still don't believe it:
* Reds superman Elly De La Cruz batted third in the lineup and cashed in but one run batted in.
* The Reds batting in the numbers seven through nine slots — Jake Fraley, then Blake Dunn; Noelve Marte; and, Austin Wynns — had a precedent-setting-for-their-end-of-the-lineup 13 hits and 17 RBIs.
* Wynns, the Reds catcher, did what no Reds catcher — not even Hall of Famers Ernie Lombardi and Johnny Bench — had ever done in a single game: bang out six hits. He also did what no number-nine lineup hitter had ever done while he was at it: bang out six hits. Not to mention hit numbers five and six coming off position players.
* The Reds also became first in Show ever to spend a single game getting 25 hits, 11 walks, and 2 hit batsmen.
* The Reds also matched their own previous record (against the Rockies) by leaving 13 men on base in a game in which they scored 24 runs. (They did it at Coors Canaveral in 1999 while beating the Rockies 24-12.)
* The Orioles used five pitchers in the game. All five finished the game with their ERAs 10.00+.
* The Reds hadn't scored 20+ runs in a road game since they did it to the Phillies in 1999. The man who managed the Phillies during that wildfire is the man who now manages the Reds, one Terry Francona. Who came out of retirement to manage the Reds because he just couldn't stay away from the game.
* Reds pitcher Randy Wynne was credited with a save. In his first pitching gig of the season for the Reds, as an emergency call-up. For pitching three innings, regardless of the score, since the rule includes that you get credit for a save if you pitched the final three innings and your team still held the lead. Making Wynne the reliever earning the save with the largest margin of team victory (22 runs) since Rangers reliever Wes Littleton picked up a save working the final three in a 2007 game during which the Rangers blew the Orioles out 30-3 . . . including a 10-run eighth.
And there are some who still think relievers should be judged by saves alone.
Oops! Dept. — Just like that, the otherwise red-hot Mets — down 2-0 to the Nationals in Washington Friday night in the top of the fourth — were out of a rally before they could calibrate their big guns. And the culprit was the umpiring, alas.
The Mets had Brandon Nimmo at second, Mark Vientos on first, and Jesse Winker at the plate. Winker slashed a low liner to Nats first baseman Nathaniel Lowe. The ball was ruled a catch, and Lowe threw on to second to double up Nimmo who'd approached third, before Vientos arriving at second was tripled up back at first. The problem was replays showing Winker's liner hitting the ground and skipping before hitting Lowe's glove. The further problem was, the replay rules don't allow reviews of whether infield line drives were caught.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza took his case to first base umpire Alfonso Marquez. But he didn't exactly blame Marquez, either. "It's frustrating, obviously. We all saw what happened," Mendoza said postgame. "I'm not blaming Alfonso because he's behind the play. The other three, somebody's got to see that play. That's just frustrating, a play like that with so much impact not only in that inning but in that game, that there's nothing you can do about that."
It ended up the first Nationals triple play in three seasons and their first at home, period. It was also the first triple play into which the Mets hit since 2010. It was also the first Mets loss of the year after leading through eight innings. And did it stop the Mets' overall early-season momentum?
It remains to be seen. They shut the Nats out 2-0 on Saturday, but they lost a nail-biter on Sunday, 8-7, after Nats shortstop C.J. Abrams scored on Pete Alonso's errant throw home off a grounder deep to first. The Mets still have the best record in baseball at 19-9, though. They wrap it up with the Nats on Monday before going home to host the Diamondbacks before a road swing to St. Louis and Arizona.
Temporary Closure Dept. — Devin Williams's struggles have Yankee manager Aaron Boone taking him out of the ninth-inning job and looking to help him set himself aright in lower-leverage situations. Williams's struggles have been real enough, unfortunately.
On April 19, he faced the Rays and, after two reached on a walk and an infield error, he surrendered an RBI ground-rule double (unearned run) and an RBI single, before a stolen base led to a 2-run single. That tied the game at eight and ended Williams's evening on a sour note that got rancid when the Rays' Jonathan Aranda hit a leadoff 2-run homer (it scored Manfred Man, of course!) off Yankee reliever Yoendrys Gómez to walk it off in the 10th.
Williams didn't appear again until six days later, on Friday, in the ninth against the Blue Jays. George Springer said howdy with a leadoff base hit, then Williams plunked Andrés Giménez on 2-2, before Alejandro Kirk smacked a two-run double that turned a 2-1 Yankee lead into a 3-2 Blue Jays lead. Mark Leiter relieved Williams and got ripped for an RBI single right away before he retired the side. The Yankees couldn't overcome despite Ben Rice's two-out double in the bottom of the ninth, losing 4-2.
The word has been that Luke Weaver would step into the closing job until or unless Williams rediscovers his mojo. If it makes Yankee fan feel better, the guy the Yankees traded to get Williams hasn't been doing better. Nestor Cortes has been hammered and battered in two starts with the Brewers, his 9.00 ERA and 11.78 fielding-independent pitching a gruesome reverse of Williams's 11.25/4.03.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Dept. — Two weeks ago, Rangers pitcher Patrick Corbin — whose tenure with the Nationals following the 2019 World Series title was described most politely as what YouTube gambling star Vegas Matt would call a "sando" (VM's diminutive for "shit sandwich," usually applied to lame slot machine bonus rounds but also applicable to prolonged pitching slumps) — suffered a spider bite causing his foot to swell.
Days later, Corbin faced the Dodgers . . . and smoked them for five and a third, allowing but one run while striking 6 out. His next outing, against the Cubs, wasn't quite that, ahem, venomous, but even surrendering 2 runs wasn't enough to cost him credit for the win. Those are the kind of tangled webs the Rangers hope their own friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man weaves all season long.
Walt Jocketty, RIP (74) — His career began in 1974, when he went to the winter meetings in New Orleans and got hired for a White Sox farm team. It wasn't long before he worked his way to running the Athletics' farm system. (Mercurial owner Charlie Finley hired him, literally, sight unseen: in a phone interview, at the time Finley was trying to sell the team.) He built a system yielding three straight American League Rookies of the Year (Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Walt Weiss) helping big in leading to three straight pennants and a World Series ring.
Jocketty moved to St. Louis as their general manager after a year in the Rockies front office, then hired long-enough-time A's manager Tony La Russa, and rebuilt the Cardinals to competitiveness that climaxed in a 2006 World Series ring. After clashing with then-Cardinals analytics leader Jeff Luhnow, he became special advisor to and then GM of the Reds — whom he turned into postseason contenders for a short while, anyway, before moving into advisory status.
Respected for his trading savvy, Jocketty was usually sought for dealings because of his habit of doing complete homework on both the players he coveted and those he was willing to deal, and dealt fairly and openly both ways. Two of his Cardinals acquisitions made him the first GM to bring in men who'd win 20 games (Darryl Kile) and hit 40 home runs or better (Jim Edmonds) in their first seasons under his baseball roof. Plus, his trade for Hall of Fame third baseman Scott Rolen in Cincinnati was often credited for changing the Reds' team culture into a competitive one — in the division where he'd made his rep in St. Louis in the first place.
Jocketty also won Executive of the Year awards in 2000 and 2004. He'd been ill for several months after undergoing a lung transplant. His wife, Susan, and his children Ashley and Joey survive him. "He will be sorely missed," said Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt, Jr., who hired Jocketty shortly after buying the Cardinals, "but long remembered for his distinguished career in baseball." Especially for turning three franchises from hard times to postseason winners.
Leave a Comment