Putting the squeeze on a victory
Begnar is a bust
Good morning, all and happy Monday!
It is not a stretch to say I have broadcast and watched thousands of baseball games at all levels, but never have I broadcast a professional game, where a team staged a walk-off comeback on back-to-back squeeze bunts. Such was the case on Saturday night as the AA affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, the Hartford Yard Goats, rallied in the 10th inning to beat the Red Sox affiliate, the Portland Sea Dogs, 4-3.
The Yard Goats, who were in one of those slumps and could not buy a hit with men on base, were trailing 3-2 in the 10th inning with runners on second and third, when manager Robinson Cancel put the squeeze bunt on. Jose Torres dropped a perfect squeeze in front of the plate and the tying run scored. The next batter, the Yard Goats all time home run leader Zach Kokoska, also was given the squeeze sign and Connor Capel, who has played 59 games in the big leagues, slid home with the winning run, as Kokoska dropped a perfect bunt. Suddenly the Yard Goats three-game losing streak was history on back-to-back squeeze bunts.
Talking with Rockies advisor and former MLB player and manager Clint Hurdle about the ending of the game, he said, “I have been in this game 51 years and I never saw an ending like that.”
It goes to show, you will see something you have never seen before at a baseball game. For the record, the Yard Goats walked off the Sea Dogs again yesterday, rallying for two runs in the ninth inning to win 6-5.
Hartford is in the thick of the Northeast Division first-half pennant race, trailing first place New Hampshire by 3 1/2 games. They head north for six games this week against New Hampshire, so fasten your seat belts. By the way, the Eastern League plays a split season.
Yankees cannot win with Begnar as a closer
By all accounts, New York Yankees closer David Begnar is a standup guy, but at the highest level of any professional sport, you are paid handsomely to produce and Begnar is not getting the job done. Even on the occasions when he does get a save, it is a challenge because of the number of pitches he throws and runners he leaves on base.
For Yankees fans, Sunday reached new depths with Begnar. Leading 6-3 in the ninth against their crosstown rivals the Mets in the rubber game of their three-game series, Begnar needed one more out, with two runners on base, to nail down the victory. With .182 hitter Tyrone Taylor at the plate, the Mets chances of winning were 5.1%, according to the MLB website. So what did Begnar, whose bread-and-butter pitch is the fastball, do? He hung a curveball and Taylor hit a three-run homer to tie the game. The Mets walked it off in the next inning for a 7-6 victory.
If the Yankees have any hopes of winning their first World Series since 2009, they will need to produce via their system or a trade a genuine closer. David Begnar is not it.
Some other baseball thoughts:
I had the Chicago White Sox down as being a better team this season, but be honest, did you think they would be this good? The White Sox won their weekend series over the crosstown rivals Cubs, to move two games over .500 and one game behind first place Cleveland in the AL Central, one week before Memorial Day. I love when clubs that have been in the dumper for years, turn it around, and that’s what the White Sox have done.
The Braves, Cardinals, Nationals, Pirates and Athletics are five other clubs that have impressed, doing much better at this stage than many had anticipated. The Red Sox, Mariners, Orioles, Royals and Astros have been big disappointments.
And then there’s the Phillies. After sweeping the Pirates this weekend, the Phils are 15-4 under new manager Don Mattingly and now have a winning record at 24-23.
Speaking of the Phillies and Pirates, kudos to the managers, as yesterday’s pitching matchup featured Zach Wheeler for the Phillies and Paul Skenes for the Pirates. They are the aces for both clubs but these days, a manager is reluctant to match his best against the other club’s best in a regular season game. Gone are the days of a Carlton vs. Seaver. That was not the case on Sunday. Wheeler did get the best of it, as the Phillies won 6-0. He pitched seven scoreless innings, while Skenes pitched into the sixth and permitted five runs in suffering the defeat. Wheeler, by the way, now has a 1.99 ERA.
By the way, there were numerous factoids in the just-concluded Hartford-Portland six-game series, which the two teams split. The Sea Dogs did not commit one error in the entire six-game set. I am not so sure I have witnessed that before, either.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you for subscribing and have a terrific day!
DAN