BOTTOM OF THE EIGHTH: CUBS 14 (5) – 10 BRAVES
It’s not yet halfway to May, and we may have seen 2018’s wildest inning.
Continue reading “Game 124 // Eighth Inning, Chicago // The Calliope Crashed to the Ground”
Game 123 // Fourteenth Inning, New York // You’ll Always Have This, O’s Fans
TOP OF THE FOURTEENTH: ORIOLES 7 (3) – 3 YANKEES
Week one of the 2018 baseball season, done. Back to a world where standings matter, where the contenders emerge.
Where the Orioles, in some sort of universe where five-month-long spans of luck exist, just might be able to stick around for an AL East race. Continue reading “Game 123 // Fourteenth Inning, New York // You’ll Always Have This, O’s Fans”
Game 122 // Sixth Inning, Pittsburgh // Baseball Winterland
TOP OF THE SIXTH: TWINS 6 (2) – PIRATES 3
The bullpen guys are rubbing their arms together, hopping around in their coats—as if whoever looks goofiest might be the last one picked to pitch.
It’s snowing, in April.
Whitecaps are swarming the surface of the Allegheny River.
A fleet of pirate ships are stuck in the ice. Clint Hurdle’s pegleg has frozen. His parrot has died. His eye patch whitens with frost. Continue reading “Game 122 // Sixth Inning, Pittsburgh // Baseball Winterland”
Game 121 // First Inning, Anaheim // The Age of Ohtani
BOTTOM OF THE FIRST: ANGELS 6 (0) – 2 INDIANS
This league is in desperate need of a superstar.
A household name. A neighborhood name, a village name, a national name. From California to New York Island. From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters.
This land was made for Shohei Ohtani.
Continue reading “Game 121 // First Inning, Anaheim // The Age of Ohtani”
Game 120 // Eighth Inning, Toronto // The Smoak Show
BOTTOM OF THE EIGHTH: BLUE JAYS 7 (3) – 4 YANKEES
The last words of yesterday’s post were these: “Baseball fun in Toronto is going nowhere.”
Flash forward a day. Again, Blue Jays vs. Yankees. Again, bottom of the 8th. Again, the Yankees bullpen breaking down, and the Jays coming back. The Rogers Centre going wild.
As the great Yogi Berra used to say:
It’s like déjà vu all over again.
Continue reading “Game 120 // Eighth Inning, Toronto // The Smoak Show”
Game 119 // Eighth Inning, Toronto // Kevin Pillar, of Hercules
BOTTOM OF THE EIGHTH: BLUE JAYS 5 (3) – 3 YANKEES
There’s one sole man keeping Canadian baseball within the Axis of Fun.
One man putting seats in the stands.
One man on base, in the 8th inning in Toronto, year two of the Blue Jays’ era of greatness having passed. Continue reading “Game 119 // Eighth Inning, Toronto // Kevin Pillar, of Hercules”
Game 118 // Tenth Inning, Detroit // Misery in Tigertown
BOTTOM OF THE TENTH: TIGERS 10 – 10 PIRATES
Tigers fans. You alright? All is wrong in Tigertown, but—you all there?
Continue reading “Game 118 // Tenth Inning, Detroit // Misery in Tigertown”
Game 117 // First Inning, Toronto // Giancarlo Day
TOP OF THE FIRST: YANKEES 2 (0) – BLUE JAYS 0
Baseball Eve, you’re on the phone with a friend talking about the season beginning.
“Well, I used to watch a lot of the Yankees,” they say. “Who do they even have now?”
“Well,” you say. “They kind of just got the best hitter in baseball.”
Continue reading “Game 117 // First Inning, Toronto // Giancarlo Day”
Game 116 // Ninth Inning, Cleveland // The Streak
BOTTOM OF THE NINTH: INDIANS 2 (1) – 2 ROYALS
The streak. It lives. 22 games. In a row. It lives!
It was down to its last strike, this winding snake of a streak—Francisco Lindor up in the ninth with two outs and a 1-2 count.
And then.
The best Cleveland moment since Rajai Davis, Game 7.
Continue reading “Game 116 // Ninth Inning, Cleveland // The Streak”