The Inning That Was Everything Baseball
You’re in a pickle, see. The Devil wants to take your soul, and he’s pretty intent on doing it, but he’ll leave you be on one condition: in the span of one hour, you are to teach him everything there is to understand about the game of baseball. Up to this point the game’s been over his head, and he’d like to know what it’s all about, but he also has only so much patience, especially with you. If you can convey to him that special essence of the sport, you’re free to go, spared an eternal damnation. If not, you lose. You know what’s at stake. Of course you do. Your mind races.
Or, your mind would’ve raced. Before Wednesday, before Game 5 between the Rangers and the Blue Jays. You would’ve thought about explaining the rules. You would’ve thought about reviewing certain eras, and certain Hall-of-Fame players. You would’ve thought about going through the physical motions. But now — now — this is an easy situation to fix. You show the Devil Game 5’s seventh inning. He’s gotta have the Internet somewhere. You show him the entirety of the seventh inning, from start to finish. When it’s done, and the second bench-clearing incident is broken up, you’ve got six minutes to take questions.
We were so close. We’re all so lucky. We came terrifyingly close to a playoff series being decided like this:
That’s how a 2-2 game became a 3-2 game. Not immediately, but after review. You’ve probably never seen something like this. Precious few people have. Jeff Banister was an exception:
“I’ve been involved in that play before. I’ve done that play before,” said Banister, a former Minor League catcher. “I’ve done that exact play as a catcher where I’ve actually thrown it off of the hitter’s hand/bat before, so I was aware of the rule.”
Rougned Odor was eventually awarded home. If the Ranger defense and bullpen had preserved the lead, Jays fans would’ve complained about this for months. Years, maybe. On the one hand, Odor was going to be safe no matter what — he broke almost immediately. No one would’ve thrown him out. But on the other, the ball was called dead, and Odor hadn’t scored yet, and that’s usually all you need to know. You could argue the Jays should’ve been spared the run on a technicality. We could’ve been talking about technicalities.
Beyond even any interpretation of rules, it would’ve just been utterly unsatisfying. That’s not how you want to see a series decided. If it came to that, we might’ve all settled on just giving Odor credit for heads-up baserunning, because not everyone would’ve gone for it, and perhaps that would’ve worked. At the end of the day, Russell Martin did make a mistake. And Odor got him for it. It’s just, that’s not really a talent mistake. It’s the manifestation of randomness. It just would’ve been stupid. A stupid way to have to talk about an overall enjoyable series.
Do you know what that made me do? For the first time in my life, I was left clicking around on MLB.tv for examples of other catcher throws back to the mound. It’s a part of the game I don’t think I’ve thought about deeply once. Not ever. And I’ve been writing about this crap for 13 years. Martin’s throw hit Shin-Soo Choo’s bat. There’s no arguing that. The umpires determined Choo didn’t do anything intentionally — he was just going through his usual routine.
What’s funny is, here’s Martin returning the ball in the same game, with Choo at the plate:
All of them, different. In none of those do we see Choo’s bat positioned as it was in the then-fateful play. My point here isn’t that Choo did do it on purpose. It was a total fluke. But, maybe some frustrated fans would’ve tried to use this as evidence to the contrary. It all would’ve haunted people. This nonsense, this potentially decisive nonsense, that as far as I know didn’t happen at any other point in 2015. I ache to just think about this having been the end of things.
Oh, and, lest you forget, it all could’ve been even more annoying! Long before the seventh ever happened, the Rangers had an earlier lead. In the second, Troy Tulowitzki batted with two on and none out, and this was the full-count pitch:
Tulowitzki was called out on strikes. He should’ve been issued a walk. With the strikeout, the Blue Jays’ odds of winning dropped to 48%. With a walk, they would’ve jumped to 62%. It was the third-lowest called strike to Tulowitzki of the season. Easily the lowest with two strikes already. Shortly thereafter, an even worse strike call was made against Adrian Beltre, but the stakes were a lot lower then. I don’t want to dwell on this. But, for a while, this was definitely at risk of being dwelt on. The Jays didn’t catch up until the sixth, and this strikeout damaged a promising rally. There are few things less satisfying than complaining about a strike zone. It’s a bad look, and it makes no one feel better.
For several innings, a bad strike call loomed large. Then that got buried by maybe the flukiest of all possible fluke plays. A play you wouldn’t have even imagined given 50 years of quiet contemplation alone in a room. The series was at risk of a wholly unsatisfying conclusion, a conclusion seemingly based on something other than on-field performance. And then, starting right then, the series was decided by on-field performance. There are few questions about the quality of the Rangers’ performance.
Bottom 7. Groundball, up the middle. Elvis Andrus closed his glove too early.
No matter — another groundball, this time to first. Mitch Moreland spiked a throw to second. Andrus couldn’t pick it.
Called for a bunt, to move them up. The bunt went toward third, where a drawn-in Adrian Beltre pounced. He turned to get the lead runner. Andrus dropped the throw.
He just dropped it. The throw was good, and on time, and he dropped it. I don’t know why. I mean, I know why — his glove wasn’t in the right place. He closed it wrong. I don’t know why that happened. I don’t know why this time, of all times, Elvis Andrus forgot how to catch a baseball. It’s tempting, maybe, to want to play armchair psychiatrist, because the sequence didn’t make Andrus look too good, but then that’s trying to find an easy explanation for something that took place a few minutes after the Rangers scored the go-ahead run because the catcher threw the baseball off a baseball bat in between pitches. Andrus dropped a baseball, after not picking a baseball, after not fielding a baseball. The best explanation I have is that it was a baseball game.
An out at home later, Sam Dyson got one of the results he wanted from Josh Donaldson. With the bases loaded and the Rangers still protecting the lead, Dyson got Donaldson to pop up. Odor hesitated. Then he backpedaled. He backpedaled not quite far enough.
He should’ve made the catch, and he should’ve made the catch look easy, and while the Rangers did get a force out on the play, a run still scored. It was an altogether astonishing defensive collapse, roping in three different infielders to make four mistakes in the span of five batters. How devastating was everything together, for Texas? Below, some Blue Jays win probabilities. On the left, actual win probabilities, and on the right, what the win probabilities would’ve been had the defense been able to turn the expected play.
| Event | Jays WE% | Would-be event | Jays WE% | Difference |
| 1st Andrus error | 44% | Out at 1st | 31% | -13% |
| Moreland error | 55% | Out at 2nd | 36% | -18% |
| 2nd Andrus error | 69% | Out at 3rd | 44% | -25% |
| Odor misplay | 59% | Pop-out | 40% | -18% |
The first error caused a swing of 13 percentage points. You can figure the rest out from there. It was a crippling defensive performance, needlessly extending the inning, and one of the downsides of that is that sometimes you accidentally extend the inning into a Jose Bautista at-bat. The Blue Jays were given six outs to play with. When Bautista came up, they’d been through five.
That’s the iconic moment, by the iconic player, with the iconic bat flip. That is how the series was decided. It was decided on that swing, only made possible by the defensive misplays preceding it. The analyst in me wants to point out that Bautista was in a good spot, being one of the league’s most extreme fly-ball hitters against one of the league’s most extreme groundball pitchers. That’s a match-up that’s been shown to work to the hitter’s advantage. But actual analysis feels weird in a game and inning like this. Analysis took a back seat over the course of an hour. Baseball happened on its own, achieving the ultimate climax above. Everything that led up to the swing built the foundation for one of the most famous home runs in Blue Jays history.
The benches cleared. In one of the most emotional baseball games I’ve ever seen, the benches cleared, moments after Bautista returned to his own dugout. They cleared because Dyson misinterpreted a gesture by Edwin Encarnacion, who was trying to get his own fans to stop throwing things on the field. Oh, by the way, after Odor scored the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh, the fans started throwing things on the field. All the players milled around, and then action resumed, and then the inning was over, and then the benches cleared again. They cleared because Tulowitzki misinterpreted a gesture by Dyson, who was just giving him a tap on the butt.
I think the two teams were tense.
To the Rangers’ credit, they never gave up, however easy as it might’ve been to just curl up and surrender following the bottom of the seventh. On the other side of an absolute nightmare, the Rangers tried to rally, tried to re-write the story another time. With a couple baserunners, they pulled themselves up off the mat. The eighth, of course, came down to Andrus.
Let’s call it what it was — a perfect slider. Andrus had worked Roberto Osuna decently well in the at-bat, but then Osuna threw that pitch, and there wasn’t much for Andrus to do. Osuna executed better. Andrus was a victim of the circumstance. But that’s not going to make Andrus feel any better. Watch almost any Rangers offensive highlight, and somewhere toward the end you’re likely to see Andrus grinning and congratulating teammates outside the dugout. He might be the happiest player in the organization. Right now, there’s not a player in baseball who feels lower than him. It’ll pass, but it’s a hell of a burden.
The Andrus strikeout might as well have been the game. It was the Rangers’ last gasp, following an inning that people everywhere would’ve understood, even if they’d never seen baseball before. You didn’t need to know the game to know what was going on; if anything, prior knowledge of the game was a bit of a detriment. Show that seventh inning to a person from rural Mongolia and the individual would be able to follow just by connecting to all the emotions the players were wearing on the surface. The emotions told the story as well as the baseball could.
The seventh inning made the difference, the whole difference, and it was everything baseball. Everything you’ve ever experienced with the game was present in there in some form. The seventh inning was emotional. It was unpredictable. It was inexplicable. It was stupid. It was heart-breaking. It was electrifying. It was delayed. It was hectic. It was dramatic. It was pedantic. It was cruel. It was memorable. It was amazing. There’s never going to be another game like that one. Which makes it the perfect representation of the sport.
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
!
Even knowing what happened it’s worth watching that inning over, and over, and over, and…
I’m thinking this is the classic “ESPN Instant Classic”
And I’m also thinking that I might have gotten a few more minutes of sleep last night than most of the other commenters here. Wow what a game.
This was bad baseball. Why do you enjoy bad baseball w/ such vigor?
Drama. Drama has entertainment value too.
Watching someone or a team self-destruct might be dramatic, but it shouldn’t be “epic” or a game you show someone that represents “baseball”. Most baseball games aren’t the clustermess that game was.
That’s the exact opposite of baseball at its finest.
But it was exciting, and most of all, tense. Like everyone is saying, it was one of the most emotional and tense games I’ve ever seen. That’s why.
I don’t know that the Rangers “self-destructed”.
Take those 3 Andrus muffs (please). Leave aside the odds preceding 3 straight instances of a ball approaching a MLB infielder towards below his waist (starting, of course, with the Big Bang, yada yada yada, all the way to the bottom of the 7th inning of this 5th and deciding game in effectively MLB’s post-season quarterfinals). What had to happen – in 3 consecutive instances of a ball being batted into play – is that at some point the said ball had to come in towards Andrus, at speed, with some degree of uncertainty, low (the first ball hit his glove positioned below mid-calf, the second about or below the knee, the third below his waist), in a level of stress with which he was at least unused to, on a field unique in MLB (SLOW astroturf), IAE relatively unfamiliar to him, amidst what may have been an unprecedented level of crowd noise, and IN EACH CASE Andrus was compelled by quickly changing & emerging exigent circumstances to manipulate his glove into a suboptimal position, in towards his body, fingers supinated down & in, heel presented outward towards the ball.
Andrus’ fielding stats have been very good over his MLB career. Among those in yesterday’s Rangers line-up, only Beltre – an unquestionably qualified HoFer – has had better career defense WAR. Indeed, in 2 of his 7 years in MLB, Andrus finished in the AL’s Top 10 for defense WAR among all position players, and his career total sits in the mid-20s for all MLB position players.
Assume Andrus makes each of those 3 plays 19 times in 20, a .950 fielding rate. I actually think that’s easily too high, certainly once we take into all the circumstances pertaining in The Home Half of The 7th of THE Inning ™. Nonetheless, at 1 in 20 this is basically Yahtzee. Anyone who’s played Yahtzee for any time has had a Yahtzee: a Yahtzee is when in a single role of five 6-sided standard dice, all 5 come up showing the same number of dots (five 1s, five 6s, etc). 1 in 20, 3 straight times, is 1 in 8000 – a bit LOWER than the odds of rolling a Yahtzee.
You or I, anyone, could suggest a narrative for Andrus’s sudden burst of the dropsies. But no matter how compelling that narrative may be or seem, there’s a nontrivial chance less than a Yahtzee that it derived entirely due to chance.
Thanks for saying so eloquently what I’ve been trying to encapsulate when I tell friends who didn’t see it that it was “epic.”
It is almost beyond words. I can’t recall ever being so riveted to the TV, much less a baseball game, for the hour that the 7th inning lasted.
Epic, while applicable, is so unfortunately overused. This was Odyssey.
Delightfully, and chaotically, poetic.
Why would it have been less satisfying to have the Blue Jays lose on an error and it is better that the Rangers lose on 3 errors (3 1/2 errors, counting Odor’s misplay)? I don’t understand that logic. It would have been epic in its own way, certainly more memorable and likely to enter baseball lore than what ended up happening.
Because of the nature of the errors. As Sullivan pointed out, the ‘error’ by Martin was more of a mental gaffe if anything – completely random and dumb luck. Whereas the Rangers’ errors were physical mistakes that should have been made. Ideally, you’d like to have the game decided by a ‘deserving’ play, like a base hit or a homer, but there is a continuum of sorts in regards to the legitimacy of ways in which to win. The Martin gaffe would have been on the low end of that continuum, while the Rangers’ series of errors would be somewhere in the middle.
What the Blue Jays would have lost on is a bizarre technicality more than an error. That rule is dumb, and nobody knows it because it hardly ever comes into play. What the Rangers did in the following inning was probably equally improbable, but looked more like normal baseball things.
Sure, a win’s a win, but it does feel a little less satisfying if you “technically” win, which is basically what the Rangers would have done and what Jeff was trying to get across. It would have really sucked to see what is maybe the best team in baseball lose because of the rulebook, and not because they did anything substantively wrong.
A throwing error – that’s all it was – by the catcher, even if it is rare and bizarre, is not a “technicality.” And Odor should get some credit for making a heads-up play.
I agree, that was a really solid play by Odor. But the point is while that it’s still an error, it’s more one of unfortunate happenstance rather than of a legitimate misplay.
Sure, all errors could technically be called “unfortunate happenstance,” and yes, it’s ultimately up to Martin to make sure that his throw has an unimpeded path, but like I said before, it’s because it doesn’t look like a normal baseball thing. If you’re the Blue Jays it’s hard to go home and think about that hypothetical loss as anything other than pure, dumb luck and not their own poor performance.
This isn’t to discredit the Rangers or say that they wouldn’t have deserved the win had they gotten it, but to point out that it generally feels more “right” to lose after you make four actual errors, rather than one on a freak play.
are you intentionally trying to be a dumbass or are you a butthurt Rangers fan?
Here’s how you know its a technicality. The moment the Martin error play ended, literally everyone on the diamond was just standing around confused, some with their arms in the air bewildered. That’s no way for baseball to be decided. On the Texas errors everyone was hustling and busting their butt with 100% effort and emotion, even if they were failing.
@Jon so because almost everybody (except it seemed, Odor) didn’t realize it was a live ball, and the ruling was legal and correct, it’s a technicality?
You’re right that Martin’s error was not a technicality, but it was fluky and not a demonstration of skill. Good on Odor for being heads-up, but pretty much every professional baserunner scores there.
It’s kind of like scoring on a balk – yeah the pitcher shouldn’t have done that and yes the rules were applied correctly, but the reward/penalty is not commensurate to the skill displayed.
Thanks @Orsulakfan for bringing some sanity here. The catcher throwing a live ball back to the pitcher is absolutely an on-field baseball play. It just happens to be made successfully more often than an extra point and is therefore totally ignored. But, especially in small sample sizes, the routine details do matter and the Blue Jays failed to execute one of the simples plays in baseball in a crucial spot. If that causes them to lose the game, then they *should* lose for failing to pay attention to the details.
@ Dave. you are wrong there bro. It wasn’t a live play. Dale Scott immediately called the play dead and then when Odor ignored him he started waving his arms. It SHOULD have been a live play though.
@fenkerbb, yes, the Jays *should* have lost on the throw back to the pitcher miscue. Until Andrus made three errors (well I guess one went to Moreland, but Andrus should have dug that out, the guy is a gifted MLB shortstop) and Bautista hit a ball 7000 feet. At that point, the Jays certainly *should not* have lost the game.
“Technicality?” Exactly. Which is yet another reason why I love baseball. You’ve got an umpire (who has presumably officiated thousands of games) getting the play wrong because he’s never seen it. He initially sent Odor back to third. And for several minutes, utter and absolute chaos ensued, simply because a play we’ve never seen occurred. And it turns out that the proper call was made, without equivocation of any kind. And now we all know. This play will happen in 25 years and everywhere, people will say they know the right call because of this game. People who say baseball is boring should be forced to watch this game. And if you didn’t love this game, you are not a baseball fan.
But then I doubt many people who say baseball is boring are baseball fans…
Totally agree and came here to say the same thing. That play was baseball as metaphor for life–perfect in its imperfection.
Well said, just as eloquent as Jeff’s comments.
Haven’t we all had days that started off well (top of the 7th for the Rangers) and then just about everything that could go wrong happens (bottom of the 7th for the Rangers)?
I’ve never seen what was essentially four errors by a team in one inning. In the same inning I went from saying: “Somebody on the Jays, please bail out Martin” to “Somebody on the Rangers, please bail out Andrus.”
Baseball, all sports really, as a metaphor for life indeed.
Bautista was going to get a chance to hit regardless. The errors were bad but I don’t think it’s fair to say the Jays would have lost otherwise.
well, we don’t know if the Rangers would have won or lost absent three errors plus a brutal misplay all in the same inning, but we do know they would have been a lot more likely to have won if they had many ANY of those plays. The second Andrus error alone moved the Jays from a 44% win expectancy to 69%.
Nice.
If I didn’t know this was amazing already, this inning actually caused a baseball conversation at work!
Wow! And were actual women involved in this alleged conversation?
Hi. Women like baseball too. Your comment is annoying.
My baseball loving wife says hi (well, she would, but she says you sound like an asshole).
Elvis Andrus. Woof.
Some say the Rangers choked. I contend that karma’s a bitch.
care to explain?
So because a proper ruling was made the Karma Bitch bit the Rangers?
3.12 When an umpire suspends play, he shall call “Time.” At the umpire-in-chief’s call of “Play,” the suspension is lifted and play resumes. Between the call of “Time” and the call of “Play” the ball is dead.
5.02 After the umpire calls “Play” the ball is alive and in play and remains alive and in play until for legal cause, or at the umpire’s call of “Time” suspending play, the ball becomes dead. While the ball is dead no player may be put out, no bases may be run and no runs may be scored, except that runners may advance one or more bases as the result of acts which occurred while the ball was alive (such as, but not limited to a balk, an overthrow, interference, or a home run or other fair ball hit out of the playing field).
——————–
No bases may be run and no runs may be scored. If he is going to use the “such as, but not limited to” clause on something like this that is totally lame. He called the ball dead immediately and the fielders didn’t even try to make a play. Odor was the only one who ignored the repeated calls for time and he gets rewarded for this? Some serious BS going on in this call. Dale Scott blew it twice on this play.
but he shouldn’t have even called time though. You’re upset that the ump didn’t swoop in and rescue the Jays for no reason? Get a grip.
And I’m a Jays fan btw
You remind me of people taking Bible verses out of context and claiming slavery or killing your wife is OK. How many rules about “umpires’ discretion” can we cite which allows the run to score? A dozen, maybe? The baseball rule book is filled with ambiguity. Like it or not.
he shouldn’t have called time but he did lol. What is your point exactly? or do you have one?
get a grip Tramps, seriously. ‘taking Bible verses out of context and claiming slavery or killing your wife is OK.’ In no way are the rules I quoted out of context. They are 100% relevant to the play that happened and must be followed.
Tramps, I’m a Catholic but if you can take something out of context and make it sound like killing your wife is ok then it probably needs to be written a little bit better.
Are you kidding? You just quoted it yourself: “except that runners may advance one or more bases as the result of acts which occurred while the ball was alive.” How can you possibly argue that the run shouldn’t have scored?
My point (see below) EXACTLY! He blew it twice and wanted it both ways, to get another chance to make the right call, but not give the players ANY chance to make the right play.
I love Jose Bautista. yes, he flips his bat. Yes, he complains about strike calls (if you’d seen how many bad calls he gets, you might understand why – and that’s with him walking more than he K’s!). And yes, he’s one of the most compelling player to watch.
Earlier this year, Darren O’Day of the Orioles threw behind Bautista’s head. JB stared him down, and a couple of pitches later, took him over the fence. The next half-inning, he threw his arm out trying to gun down a runner at first on a sharp single, and had to DH for nearly a month. There’s a plus and a minus to a guy like JB, but the plus is so huge, I’ll take the minus.
The guy plays with emotion with a capital-E. He CARES, and in a world filled with sports heroes who don’t care (especially Toronto, where we’ve had to put with Phil Kessel’s loafing for the last three years; hope you like him, Pittsburgh!), he’s a shining beacon to fans.
Because, if the players don’t CARE, why should fans care? I don’t want emotionless players – if I do, I watch the NFL – I want players who live and die on every pitch like I do. I hope to see him and the team go all the way.
And, as a Torontonian for most of my life, I want to apologize for the behavior of the idiots who threw things on the field. that’s not typical Toronto; it was embarrassing and stupid and dangerous I hope we never do that again.
Darren O’Day did not throw behind Bautista’s head. Jason Garcia, a Rule 5 pitcher who had never thrown above A ball before this season, threw behind Bautista because he had no idea where the ball was going. Bautista interpreted it as being thrown at, hit a homerun, stomped around like a jackass, and then the teams started yelling at each other. Then Bautista busted his shoulder making a silly throw the next inning.
Bautista consistently does bat flips, jaws at people, and “shows emotion.” It’s great when it’s on your side, but most other teams don’t like it. He’s the main reason I am rooting against Toronto this playoffs.
Most other teams need some self-awareness then. Texas, for example, rushed out of the dugout and was jumping for joy after Odor scored on an obscure error. I couldn’t care less if they’re too stupid to realize that they do things that they find repulsive when done by another team. To think that only Bautista is being “disrespectful” with his celebrations shows a complete lack of perspective because guess what: your team celebrates too.
….Bautista interpreted it as being thrown at , hit a homerun, stomped around like a king , and then the teams started yelling at each other. Then Bautista busted his shoulder, still playing like a king, making a hero throw the next inning.
Bautista consistently does bat flips, jaws at people and shows emotion. It’s great when it’s on your side, and he doesn’t give a *($* if other teams like it or not. He’s the main reason I’m love baseball and wish there were more people like him playing the sport.
and yet, Yasiel Puig is universally reviled for doing the same thing? Hated by fans and (especially!) other players!!!
I love Puig. Cespesdes and Gomez too. And a lot of other exciting, passionate ballplayers. The only ones that I revile are the fun police. McCann and co enforcing the white way of playing baseball.
It’s funny how O’s pitchers all seem to lose their control when Bautista, and only Bautista, is facing them.
I think it’s “funny” how I don’t seem to remember them losing their control when Bautista, and only Bautista, is facing them before Showalter became their manager.
How long was Bautista on the Jays before Showalter was the O’s manager, derp master?
Try not to get urine all over your keyboard, there.
You like believing your own lies so I’ll show you articled proof of O’Day throwing at him in the game Bautista took him deep and than blew his arm out.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/schmuck-blog/bal-jose-bautista-wins-latest-showdown-with-orioles-reliever-darren-oday-20150412-story.html
Bautista than took Jason Garcia deep months after this because Showalter/Orioles like to throw at Jose Bautista despite ignoring the results that Bautista’s probably going to make you pay if you do this.
This all stems back from 2013 when O’Day chirped Bautista after striking him out, the next time they faced each other in 2013 Bautista also took him deep. Here’s video proof of it happening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzitrb2Lh3s
He’s the premiere asshole on a team loaded with them. All I want out of the playoffs is to see Toronto lose.
So this is where the poor Rangers fans congregate after losing three straight potential clinching games!
aw c’mon man let them vent. that’s a crazy tough loss.
Very nice Damaso. Spoken like a true Canadian.
Seems like more of a place where Toronto fans are patting themselves on the back. Look at the original comment on this thread. It’s basically a Bautista fluff piece. Yet it’s got tons of up votes.
I’m not trying to be the celebration police, do what you want. But I don’t think expecting Rangers fans not to speak up about their feelings is reasonable.
And Derek Holland is not an asshole for wiping his beaten butt with a Blue Jays towel?
And Sam Dyson is not an asshat three times over in the same inning for complaining about Bautista’s bat TOSS — let’s get that straight, it never flipped, and Joey Bats correctly deduced it warranted MUCH more than a flip); then going over to either remind Edwin of game etiquette or scold him for riling up the crowd; and finally after all that tension and emotion, thinking it was good sense to pat Tulo’s butt.
You sound like the typically tone-deaf American who doesn’t really know anything about Bautista.
Consider that he was with FOUR teams in one year, ironically including Baltimore, before being picked up from Pittsburgh, where they messed up his swing. Comes to Toronto with very little to show at age 27 and becomes the home run king of MLB, as in most homers since 2010.
This and the fact that his team had the longest post-season drought of any pro sports team in NA, AND it’s the elimination game at home — important fact — he doesn’t do the bat toss in Arlington, I’d wager.
All that, and you have the gall to pretend that begrudging him that is okay or even correct?
Shame on you. You’re no fan of baseball.
Greg Zaun, a former Jays catcher and Toronto TV analyst said “It’s not my style, but then again, I’m no longer a caretaker of the game, either.”
And Bannister is an asshat too. He don’t play no more, and should keep quiet.
… “know anything about Bautista” pls change to “anything worth knowing.”
NFL players are nothing if not emotional (other than Jay Cutler of course)
There are moments in the game where bat-flips are acceptable and this was one of them. Pitchers need to grow a pair.
I found the situation with the crowd frightening. Was anyone in the lower decks hurt? The umpires should have pulled the teams off the field until order could be restored.
I don’t think anybody was hurt. I saw one of the cleaning crew almost get hit by a can while trying to pick up another one. A baby got sprayed with beer which turned into a national story somehow (“Think of the children!!”) but wasn’t actually hit with a can.
Honestly, between the beer costing $12 and the tickets costing hundreds, I’m surprised people were willing to chuck them on the field. It was mostly coming from the cheap seats (cheap meaning $200 nosebleeds), but a few people directly behind home plate got tossed, too.
My friend was hit with a beer can and had to get three staples in her head. Not cool.
If it my wife, child, or girlfriend sitting next to me in the lower deck, with who knows what raining down from above, I would be pretty upset by the situation.
Hahaha… man, have you ever seen footage of international soccer?
Not sure Tulo “misinterpreted” the tap on his butt. What was Dysons intent?
That was very odd. Did Dyson say something like “Crazy inning huh?” What reason would he have to do that? Although I think Tulo and everyone else overreacted. “HEY! LET’S RUN OUT OF THE DUGOUT AND YELL!! HOLD ME BACK!!”
Dyson might have meant well, but given the precedent he set earlier it was probably ill advised.
Tulo understood it perfectly, but that’s not really something Dyson should have been doing in that situation (especially after he previously caused a bench clearing brawl). You can even see when the inning ends, at the end of one of the 7th inning clips, Tulo goes to Donaldson “He touched my ass”, to which Donaldson goes “Are you Serious?” and his face looks so confused.
I thought Dyson’s carping at EE and Tulo was way less sportsmanlike than the bat flip (though the images aren’t nearly as powerful). Dyson’s explanation that it was a “nice gesture” to Tulo is complete crap – what possible reason could he have had for that. If Texas wants to gripe about sportsmanship, how about Holland wiping his butt with a Jays towel and gesturing at the fans with it?
Both teams were fired up and playing with emotion – felt more like watching a playoff hockey game. Nothing wrong with any of it.
Except the beer throwing fans. No excuse for that. On that point, in reply to an earlier question, doesn’t sound like anyone was hurt. At least one person has been charged for throwing a beer can that sprayed on a child. Good to see that isn’t being tolerated.
I honestly think Dyson’s mind was fried and he couldn’t think properly after that bomb. I mean, who walks up to the next batter and tells him that that other guy shouldn’t have acted like that and then after getting the last out, instead of walking straight to the dugout, slaps the guy on the butt? It makes no sense.
Good point, actually. It’s kind of like the way Mike Fiers acted after he beaned Stanton last year, not acting rational but coming right after an extremely charged moment.
yeah he was definitely shaken.
so was andrus really.
maybe it was the insane fans? or just the crazy pressure.
It also makes no apparent sense to follow up the highly unusual and completely unnecessary act of patting Tulo’s butt by calling out Bautista for not respecting the game.
To be honest, it would have been even sweeter if Odor had caught Donaldson’s blooper and Jose hit that home run with the bases loaded down by a run.
I almost had like three heart attacks and an aneurism
Not much to add to this epic article about this epic inning (an inning which literally made me physically ill).
…except maybe that that’s a savvy play by Martin to obstruct moreland’s throwing lane just enough without actually leaving the basepath. so maybe there was a bit of skill involved in causing at least one of those errors.
and hey, maybe we just witnessd evidence of hometown fans literally intimidating another team enough to win the game? potentially cool narrative, maybe.
and man….Stroman 24 – Sanchez 22 – Osuna 20…..is that the youngest set of pitchers to ever win an elimination game by themselves? nice to see the Jays haven’t been left out of the current mlb young stars boom.
It wasn’t set of pitchers, but didn’t Saberhagen throw a game 7 shutout at 21 or 22?
wouldn’t surprise me.
Still, point well taken Damaso. Kind of wild that Stroman is the oldest of that bunch.
The Texas Rangers found themselves in the “7th’ layer of Canada…
As a life long Blue Jays fan – of course I am thrilled even if we got very lucky …
Rangers had a gutsy season with all the injuries and should be very proud of what they accomplished…
I just really hope that Andrus can get past this.. As thrilling as sports’ big moments are, whenever I see someone really choke – I think of the tragedy of the life of Donnie Moore
I hope not. As it turned out, Moore was pretty disturbed well before that game. It might have exacerbated his disorder, but in hindsight it seems pretty likely he was already headed down a bad path. Andrus seems like a happy guy and no one has ever mentioned a dark side.
I hope he’s ok too. Probably getting a good dose of brotherly love from that Hall of Famer he’s always calling off on infield flies.
“…catcher throws back to the mound. It’s a part of the game I don’t think I’ve thought about deeply once. Not ever. And I’ve been writing about this crap for 13 years.”
Lucky you, I haven’t stopped thinking about them for 26 years.
Imagine if the 2nd base ump had called infield fly on the popup to Odor. I’m actually kinda surprised he didn’t. (Not that he should have – but it was a hard one to judge mid-arc.) Can you imagine the ensuing riot?
Or if they had called interference on Pompey at the plate? If the game was played in Texas would the umps have made a different call?
See, I think Pompey COULD have been called. He didn’t take out the foot/leg that was on the plate, he took out the foot/leg that was 3 feet in front of the plate.
like the braves-cards wild card game?
If the infield fly rule was called, the batter would have been called out and the runners could have advanced at their own risk. Don’t forget, the out was recorded at second on that play. So I’m not sure how that would have so severely impacted the inning? The tying run still would have scored, and the force play at second would have been removed and the runner on first would not have been forced to run. It likely would not have changed a thing.
Don’t forget the Utley-esque slide by Pompey that prevented a double play.
…which could have been called interference, which would likely have caused a riot
i’m calling bullshit on this one. Revere is way too fast to get doubled up on that play. nice try though.
yeah to be honest it looked to me like Perez was already stopping his throw before contact, as he had no chance to get Revere.
I’m not saying it had to be called interference, but it could have been, and it does not matter how fast the baserunner is if there’s interference he’s called out.
I was responding to Sam’s comment that the slide prevented a double play which it did not. Revere would have been safe slide or no slide.
I thought Pompey’s slide was interference, but that was not remotely Utley-esque. What Utley did was dirty and recklessley endangered another players health and well being. Pompey just got away with interference.
He touched homeplate during his slide, I’ve always been told a slide is clean as long as spikes aren’t up and you’re attempting to touch the bag.
During Utley’s slide he was nowhere close to 2B and he made absolutely no attempt to touch the bag.
I was thinking the same thing. In a normal game, that slide could have been the story of the game. Here, it did not even make the highlight reel of the inning. Just incredible stuff.
Andrus “error” in 2011 WS messed him up for life.
As a Rangers fan, that inning is soul-crushing.
The worst part isn’t Bautista’s HR, or his batflip (who cares)
Its that the Rangers should have had 5 outs even before he came to bat.
Oh well, 4 months till camp. Yu + Cole
the 3 straight errors and then the misplay by Odor are almost unbelievable. very tough way to lose. the Rangers were very worthy to win the series and had a great second half of the season. excellent performance in 2015 especially considering they were without their ace Yu.
What is your “difference” column showing? Is that difference in win expectancy between the actual play and what the win expectancy would have been if *all* previous plays were made correctly?
Also, are you assuming that Moreland/Andrus turn a DP or simply get the force at second?
No, each is just one by one. Doesn’t assume anything earlier.
And I was giving a force, not a double play.
I’ve seen lots of Gibby bashing going on here lately, but the subtle pinch runner substitution of Martin for Pompey is part of the narrative. It takes fortitude to take out your starting catcher late in a game, but I think part of the reason Andrus muffed the Beltre throw on the wheel play bunt, was that the extremely fast Pompey was all over him making the play close. As well I don’t think Martin gets close to to Gimenez at home breaking up the potential double play ball, and we perhaps never see Bautista.
I think gibby and the coaches and maybe the front office deserve a lot of credit for the Jays’ dominant running game this year, offensively and defensively.
Maybe they don’t run the same bunt play with Martin on 2nd though.
actually they tried that play on the first pitch, after which gibby made the switch.
pinch running Pompey for Martin was obvious. almost automatic. martin was the tying run on 2nd base.
also, Pompey didn’t break up a double play with his slide at home. Revere was running down the line and would have been safe regardless.
Also Pompey’s speed allows him to get to home before Giminez had a chance to decide what to do. Maybe if it’s Martin running he has a half second or so more.
You took the words right out of my content box, see below.
Actually they did Jim. Pompey came on, only after Goins missed the first bunt and the Rangers put on the wheel play on that missed attempt. Realizing they needed more speed Gibbons sent in Pompey before the next pitch.
Greg Zaun thought that Goins should have then bluffed bunting, and tried to swing away through the rotating infielders, perhaps tough to do with 1 strike on you though.
This article is everything I hoped it’d be when watching it live
How often do three errors occur on three consecutive plays? I know the record for most errors in an inning by one player is 4, and i think it’s 6 for a team…
Great article, Jeff. Should be required reading for anybody that claims that the sabermetric crowd only cares about numbers. You can analyze the game with the best of them, but clearly you have a strong sense of the non-quantifiable aspects of it as well.
I love your stuff Jeff.
“It was a crippling defensive performance, needlessly extending the inning, and one of the downsides of that is that sometimes you accidentally extend the inning into a Jose Bautista at-bat. “
From a guy that can hardly write, I’m envious. Words are your playground.
Hey Jeff can you explain your formula for determining win expectancy? I’ve always been curious of how winning/losing odds are calculated in baseball, but I’m sure general peripherals live team ERA, BA, and fielding percentage have a lot to do with it.
I think that’s purely based on score/inning/runners/outs state. This seems like a good calculator: http://gregstoll.dyndns.org/~gregstoll/baseball/stats.html#H.-1.7.0.2
Great work, Jeff. What a euphoric inning. The only things I disliked about this game are two unfortunate storylines that have consumed our non-baseball media.
1. People want the take out slide outlawed for Pompey’s slide at home.
Get over it people, the guy was fine.
2. Pundits bitching and moaning about the bat flip.
Shut up, it was raw emotion and it was awesome.
I have seen cleaner baseball played in Little league than in the 7th inning of that game.
Choos extending his hand and bat like he did IMO should have been ruled intentional. We can’t read minds, but he may have had something like that happen before and gave it a shot. It looked borderline out of the box, at least his hand was.
In any event, I suspect the crowd had Andrus a bit shaken up. Might have been worried what happens when they won?. I mean, 50,000 angry fans could overwhelm security, and never underestimate the force of nationalism. Lot of BJ fans talking about American repression there.
You lost me at “we can’t read minds”. It’s easier than that. See my novella below.
“Andrus dropped a baseball, after not picking a baseball, after not fielding a baseball. The best explanation I have is that it was a baseball game.”
No offense intended Jeff but..this is not really engaging writing. You too often resort to this tone in your work, which is otherwise very good. It’s as if you..deliberately try to avoid taking firm stances or positions. For analysis that is a fine thing to do; for writing..not so fine. Your work tends to be full of these ‘who knows?’ ‘we can’t tell’ type disclaimers, making the overall feel of the piece become diluted.
I feel bad that this dry misery is your response to that amazing 7th.
This was my reaction to the article, not the inning. That was wonderful baseball history. I was merely trying to point out that as a writer, Jeff has excellent ideas and yet he falls back on these types of ‘tics’ too often.
RE: Dale Scott’s blown call
I’m sick of hearing they “ultimately got the call right.” They most definitely did not. The only fair thing to do in that situation would have been for Scott to admit his mistake in calling “Time” be done with it, reasoning that the play could not be taken back. Odor stays at third.
Look, I haven’t read everything written or said about this but let me explain why the call against Toronto — or any other team in that situation — was FUNDAMENTALLY unfair.
Scott FUNDAMENTALLY misapplied the rule, because if that play is not one that can be reasonably “done over” then the moment to apply the rule correctly — and by definition, fairly — is irretrievably lost.
My reasoning is based on logic, and not the “common sense” approach that everyone has used, even while acknowledging that Scott should have never called time.
Two illustrations of my reasoning:
Situation One
I first thought that if the ball rolled from Choo’s bat directly to a Blue Jay player, who at that moment was positioned to nail Odor or even just discourage him from running — and then they hear “Time!” from Scott — and they turn away, then Odor scores, then that is unfair to Toronto? But “common sense” people say, well there was no chance to nail him. That still leaves too much uncertainty, especially on a play that directly and immediately affects the score in an elimination game.
But it goes even further: there is NEVER going to be any guarantee that a play unfolds according to “common sense.” My god, the three consecutive errors should tell us that. Perhaps my interests in existentialism and cosmology are influencing me here.
To whit: even if Sanchez or Donaldson or Collabello gets the ball and COULD/tried to nail Odor if/when he tried to score, we can NEVER BE SURE they would. For that reason, the entire sequence has to be declared null and void. It could have gone either way and ARBITRARILY calling it in the favour of one team is not a supportable argument.
The moment is gone and because of Scott’s misapplication, can never be got back, for lack of a better phrase. It is not the fact that Dale Scott called time before Odor scores.
“Common sense” can never definitively predict or assume anything will happen with any certainty. When rules are being applied, we like as much certainty and irrefutable logic as we can get.
Situation Two (if you’re still reading, and correct me if I’m wrong too)
Just to make my point, its WS game seven, tie score, bottom 9.
Ball hit down the line is called “FOUL” but the runner ignores it and scores ONLY because there’s no throw. Manager of team that scores comes out and raises bloody hell that it was a fair ball.
(Now this is where I may be wrong) Umpires at their discretion review the call since we’ve all heard that MLB want to “Get it Right!”
Review comes back and it’s a fair ball. Does the run score? I don’t know, but why should a player have to take that at bat again? He did nothing but hit a fair ball, scoring his teammate.
Are you telling me that the umpires would be fine with letting a bad/ wrong call stand? My point is that if yo leave too much wiggle room and start relying on “common sense” you end up in a bad situation.