Baseball is a funny sport, because you can lose in so many different ways. You might strikeout as the final batter in the ninth … or a dropped third strike might give you a second chance. Or, you could always watch a walk-off grand slam in extra-innings sail over your head, or you could rob that home run with two outs and give the other team the anguish.
Called strikes, swinging strikes, pop-ups, grounders, line drives, extra-base hits, stolen bases, walk-off walks … there’s all kinds of ways to win or lose a game, but I have to say, this image confuses me.
I mean, how in the world does THIS turn into a walk-off:
Well, one team just has to be the A’s:
#WeirdBaseball! #Walkoff edition! pic.twitter.com/vpMLyZsMKZ
— MLB (@MLB) July 11, 2018
If you can’t tell, Alex Bregman just barely nicked that pitch, but the ball had just enough juice on it to bounce out of foul territory right in front of the plate. But because of that split second in foul territory, Bregman didn’t run, which afforded the catcher, Jonathan Lucroy, a chance to pounce on the ball and try to get the second out of the 11th inning. Instead, he fumbled it like someone in a cartoon with grease on their hands and eventually threw it away.
Bregman is safe at first, a run scores, the Astros win the ball game … on a 58 MPH dinker to the catcher in extra innings. Seriously. Imagine watching your team lose that way. Makes me shudder.