Monday, April 21, 2014

Game of the Day (4/20/14)

Yesterday was quite a day: three games of 12 or more innings, two ninth-inning walkoffs and two more games in which the winning run scored in the eighth (one of which had a score of 10-9 and featured 7 lead changes or ties). So the top game of a day like that should be a pretty good one.

Mets 4, Braves 3 (14) was just that.

The Braves started David Hale, who is 26 and was making only his fifth career start, but has pretty good results over that brief span. The Mets sent the promising youngster Zach Wheeler to oppose him.

Wheeler allowed a Jason Heyward single in the first, but Heyward was thrown out stealing before Freddie Freeman walked, calming what might have been a rally. The Mets opened the scoring in the bottom of the inning without a hit, walk, or hit batter; Eric Young Jr. reached on a two-base error by Justin Upton, moved to third on a flyout, and scored on a groundout. Chris Johnson led off the second with a single and made it as far as second before being stranded, and New York doubled the lead in the home half of the inning when Lucas Duda and Anthony Recker singled, Omar Quintanilla walked to load the bases, and Wheeler reached on an Uggla error (pun appropriately inherent to the player's name) that allowed Duda to come home.

Wheeler was perfect in the third, while Hale allowed a David Wright single, then induced a double play from Daniel Murphy. Wheeler worked around an Uggla single in the fourth, and Hale got another DP in the bottom of the inning, this one clearing Duda from the bases. Atlanta finally broke through in the fifth, starting with a Gerald Laird walk. Hale bunted, but not well, as Laird was forced at second. Heyward then doubled, and a Curtis Granderson throwing error allowed Hale to score on the play, with Heyward taking third. BJ Upton and Freeman followed with doubles of their own, the first tying the score and the second giving the Braves their first lead.

Hale was spotless in the fifth, as was Wheeler in the sixth. The bottom of the sixth saw the Mets tie the game on singles by Wright and Murphy, which put runners on the corners, and an error by Uggla on an attempted force play (Wright would have scored anyway, as they were not trying to throw him out). Recker struck out, Quintanilla walked to load the bases, and pinch hitter Josh Satin fouled out to first to keep the game tied.

Gonzalez Germen took the mound in the seventh and allowed singles to pinch hitter Jordan Schafer and Heyward. BJ Upton popped up, and Scott Rice relieved Germen and coaxed a double play from Freeman. Ian Thomas entered for the Braves in the bottom of the inning and preserved the tie as well, despite a Wright single. Carlos Torres and David Carpenter were both perfect in the eighth; Torres pitched the ninth as well and allowed only a walk, and Luis Avilan permitted a mere single in the bottom of the inning to send the game into extras.

Justin Upton hit a two-out triple against Kyle Farnsworth in the tenth, but was left at third. Anthony Varvaro yielded a leadoff single to Wright in the bottom of the inning, then prevented him from advancing.

The eleventh inning saw the game turned over to the designated long relievers. New York selected Daisuke Matsuzaka for the role, and he walked Uggla, then struck out the side. Atlanta chose Gus Schlosser, who worked immaculate frames in both the eleventh and twelfth innings. Matsuzaka was spotless in both the twelfth and thirteenth, and Schlosser retired the first two Mets in the thirteenth as well, running the pitchers' combined streak to 17 outs in a row before hitting Duda with a pitch. Duda stole second, but Recker popped up to leave him on.

Jose Valverde relieved Matsuzaka in the fourteenth. With one out, Schlosser hit for himself - and grounded a single through the right side for his first career hit. You'd think that would be a good omen of some kind, but it proved otherwise; Evan Gattis hit into a double play, and the Mets finally got to Schlosser in the bottom of the inning as Kirk Niewenhuis walked and moved to second on a bunt, Young was intentionally walked, a wild pitch advanced both runners, and Granderson sac fly brought in the game-winner.

There were five scoring rallies in this game, and all of them included some assistance from the fielding team - four errors and a wild pitch. (Not all of the gifts were necessary to the runs coming in, but they didn't hurt.) This was particularly damaging to the Braves, who don't need to be helping their opponents out at this point, because their once-deep pitching staff is already being pushed to its limits; 11 of the 14 innings of this game were pitched by Atlanta pitchers who currently have less than 10 career major league appearances.

But that pales in comparison to Schlosser's fourteenth-inning single. The hit came in his first career MLB plate appearance as a 25-year-old reliever, with a respectable but not spectacular minor league pitching track record. It is possible (though far from guaranteed) that Schlosser will not bat again in the majors, which would make him the next John Paciorek - except as a pitcher, which would arguably be even cooler.

Even that might not be the strangest aspect of Schlosser's performance, however. Notice that the Mets scored in the fourteenth without a hit. In fact, Schlosser did not allow a hit in his entire 3.2-inning stint on the mound. And he had a hit himself. And he still took the loss in the game. I will bet that it has been quite a while since that combination has occurred.

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