Just a bit Inside
Plunking four straight batters in the ninth inning is a heck of a way to lose a ballgame
Watch baseball long enough and you’ll see all sorts of walk-offs. Singles, homers, balks, bunts, and bloops. You might even see a grand slam, a wild pitch, or a runner steal home. They’re rare, but they happen. What hasn’t happened, or at least not that we’ve seen, is what went down in the 9th-inning of double-A ball between the Biloxi Shuckers and Pensacola Blue Wahoos on Sunday. The Yahoos came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth needing three runs to win it, which they proceeded to get with a little help from the Shuckers’ closer, who plunked [full LeBron voice] not one, not two, not three but four consecutive batters to end the game.
You’re not going to see a more traumatic blown save for a closer than that. Do not cross go. Do not collect $200. Not gonna happen. It starts with a throwing error on a fairly routine play from short and then the wheels come off. The next Yahoos batter gets walked on a full count, bringing the winning run to the plate. Then the main course:
Four straight HBPs.
There’s some internal debate at Loop HQ about that last one, where it kind of, sort of, if you squint hard enough, looks like the Yahoos batter’s elbow may have hit the ball and not the other way around. But after a walk and three straight plunks, you’re never going to get that call from the ump, who was probably just looking to get out of there with his head still on his neck.