None of the arguments for a winning team holding back once it is comfortably ahead hold water. One is that no player should risk injury when the outcome of a game is settled, but managers typically send in the reserves when the game gets out of hand. Pitchers? It has now become routine for managers, sometimes on both sides, to let a non-pitcher position player take over the mound in routs. This has its own entertainment value, especially because the pitches from the amateur pitchers are usually high lobs or “eephus” pitches, and many batters can’t adjust to 40 mph throws when they are used to trying to hit fastballs that reach 100 mph or more. Watching a slugger screw himself into the ground swinging wildly at a pitch your sister might have thrown has its own joys.
I do object to MLB’s rule that the ABS challenge system is suspended in these situations. That rule just tempts umpires to call every pitch a strike based on the “Let’s just get this farce over with” theory. I also believe there is an argument to be made that some of the fake pitcher episodes risk making a “travesty of the game,” which would empower an umpire to put a stop to it. In last night’s game, the Brewers scored 9 runs in the 8th inning once the Mariners put a non-pitcher on the mound, and the game turned into batting practice.
There is also always the possibility that a team that seems hopelessly behind will catch up. After all, if one team can score 22 runs, there is no reason to assume the other team can’t. The biggest deficit any team ever came back from is 12 runs, but that doesn’t mean some team won’t score 13, or 14, or 22 to tie the score when hope seemed lost. Entering the bottom of the 9th against the Milwaukee Brewers, the 1901 Tigers were trailing 13–4 and managed a 10-run rally to win 14–13. If the those Brewers had been “phoning it in” assuming the game was in the bag, they might have considered a Jonestown-style mass suicide….except that was before Jonestown, wasn’t it…Never mind.
Unfortunately, I think the main reason the “don’t-run-up-the-score” ethic is dead is because of baseball’s capture by gambling interests, which is a separate ethics issue. Already, two pitchers have been caught, banned and are facing prosecution for intentionally not pitching their best to affect the score. Right now, ads during baseball games encourage fans to bet on everything from home runs to strikeouts over their cell phones in real time using odds that appear on the TV. If that’s the main impetus for letting teams score as many runs as they can, it will be another example of the right result flowing from unethical causes.
Watched, and enjoyed, every minute of the 22 runs off 22 hits.
FWIW: It 1-0 ’til the bottom of the 5th, when the Mariners just collapsed.
Reserve catcher Gary Sánchez pitched a scoreless 9th inning, throwing 55 + mph heaters for the last out…
FUN FACT: The Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee in 1970 and became the Brewers.
PWS
Yeah, it seems like I’ve been on the short side of games like that more often than not recently. It’s interesting in a way. You’re rooting for your team to start a comeback, but then it gradually sinks in that this is going to be one of those days you’d rather forget. Doesn’t keep me from listening, but I may not have my utmost attention on the game if we’re down 12-0.
I’m with Jack, though, if we’re going to have the ABS challenge system, I don’t think it should be turned off just because a position player is pitching. On the other hand, if the score is 15-1, maybe the challenges aren’t quite as critical to the team — but on the gripping hand, individual players may still really need them.
The Brewers got swept by the Padres last week, with a 11-2 drubbing on the 11th.
PWS
The Rangers broadcasters still occasionally reference that 30-3 game. I will say that, if something like that happened tonight, absolutely no one would be pulling any punches — the Rangers have been in such an offensive funk that it would be welcomed.
Games like that are freaks — similar to 60-0 games in the NFL. It just happens that everyone clicks all together, and a team strings together hit after hit. More frequent are the games where a team scores 10-15 runs and those are also the type of game where the other team does occasionally come back from a large deficit. Probably at least once or twice a year a team will come back from being down 8-10 runs.
I listened to that game on the radio, because I was on a long drive for some reason. That poor Orioles team was terrible.
From the MLB network guys: “Went to a Brewers/Mariners game last night, and a Packers/Seahawks game broke out.”
Heh! Coupla weeks ago when Le Miz was fireballin’ 102,103 & 104 mph pitches one after another, the announcer quipped:
“It might sound like we’re calling out FM radio station numbers.”
PWS
I’ve got the vapors – it is sooooo sexy when you all talk baseball.
<cueing up my best Jack Palance voice…>
I’m wearing batting gloves as I type.
Long-time Iowa Hawkeyes football coach Hayden Fry was criticized more than once for running up the score on his opponents. If his team was up 49-7 with three minutes left in the game and they had an opportunity to score, they did.
Hayden’s response (a summation): I expect all my players – offense, defense, special teams – to give 100% effort for 60 minutes. If that means the Hawks score 80 points and the other team can’t score at all, then so be it. If I put the second-string players in late in the game and they have a chance to score, which of you is going to deny them that? I want 100% effort for 60 minutes.
As an Iowa State alum, I can’t be a true fan of the Hawkeyes, but I appreciated Fry’s take on it. Every player should do his/her best all the time, and let the score take care of itself. Win in a 4-3 squeaker in extra innings?…it’s a win. 22-0?…it’s a win. The actual scores won’t be remembered by anyone a month from now, and will only resurface at some point in a trivia game, or when there’s a bigger blowout years down the road.
Acknowledging “When The Legend Becomes Fact, Print The Legend,” an (alleged) Ohio State coach Woody Hayes response to why he went for a two (2) point conversion late in a 1968 OSU 50-14 drubbing of arch rival Michigan:
“Because I Couldn’t go For 3.”
PWS
Hah! I had not heard that before. Great story!