"You can't predict baseball", that's what New York Yankees radio announcer likes to say. That's what I proclaimed yesterday before game 7 of a uncompetitive, boring World Series. However, last night's deciding game was anything but boring. It was from the first pitch until the last batted ball landed in San Francisco third baseman Pablo Sandoval's glove. The San Francisco Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals by only one run, 3 to 2. Kansas City got the tying run to third base, ninety short feet from home plate, in the bottom of the 9th inning.
Today, people are arguing whether the Royals' Alex Gordon could have scored all the way from the batter's box through the four bases on his base hit. Down to his team's last out, Gordon hit a low line drive to center field. Giants' center fielder Gregor Blanco ran in toward the projected landing spot of the ball, stopped, and allowed the ball to bounce in front of him. That was a safe decision but as he was stopping Blanco slipped and the ball deflected off his glove and rolled to the wall. The ball was four hundred feet away as Gordon touched first base. As the Giants outfielders picked the ball up and relayed it towards the infield, Gordon was already around second base and a few steps from third.
Could he have scored if he wasn't stopped by himself and his third base coach? Maybe, Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford had the ball in his glove with his back turned away from Gordon. Maybe not, Crawford was moving into throwing position even though his back was facing the base runner. I'll admit as I watched live, two things were in my head, I wanted the Royals to win badly and the Giants to lose. I wanted Gordon to keep running but there is a unwritten rule or base running fundamental, never make the first or third out at third base. What about home plate? The Royals had another hitter Salvador Perez coming up next. Perez had performed well in the Series compared to earlier in the playoffs. Well, there's one problem, Perez had to face Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner.
Bumgarner had pitched a complete-game shutout allowing only four hits on Sunday as a starting pitcher. He also won game 1 of the series and was a perfect 4-0 with a earned run average of 0.43 per game. Okay, maybe he's the best pitcher on the entire Giants team right now. Just a hunch. Now he was asked by his manager Bruce Bochy to be a relief pitcher for the last five innings on two days rest. Usually, a starting pitcher gets four days of non-game pitching action between starts. Is the move unusual? Yes. Does he (Bumgarner) have enough energy left to pitch? Well, he doesn't have to save any extra ammo. This is the last game. He's not pitching the next day, or the day after, or the day after the day after, or the day after the day after the day, or something like that. I lost track.
24 hours ago, social media was abuzz about whether baseball was dying. Now, we're arguing about plays in a game in a sport which we thought nobody cared about yesterday. We're some goofy people. As John Sterling says, "you can't predict baseball".
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