Exactly. Pitchers have been beating runners to first base for 150 years. They have 60 feet to run and the hitter has 90. If Cole did what he was supposed to, it wouldn't have been close.
2024 WS: Yankees vs. Dodgers
- Thread starter DeadlySplitter
- Start date
Ok. I don't think ANYONE has it right in this thread. Cole broke for the BALL initially, not first base (reading a swinging bunt he'd have to field). Look at his angle the first few steps, it's not straight to first. He realizes almost immediately he's wrong, but by then it's too late. He said as much (though not too articulately) in his post game comments. See the clip from YES on YouTube "Gerrit Cole speaks on his game 5 outing", about 1:30 in.
Also what is much more apparent in a video is that, at that moment, Mookie is barreling full tilt toward the base with a huge running start. Rizzo is stationary, bent over not looking down the line, focusing on fielding a difficult squibber. It’s not as obvious as it looks.
That's not how pitchers are taught to cover first during PFPs. To avoid collisions and injury, pitchers are taught to be running parallel to the foul line when they reach the bag. If they sprinted directly to the bag they would need to slam on the brakes at the bag or hope they can clear the runners path before the runner reaches first.
I thought Volpe could have gotten Kiké by throwing almost directly to the bag (just a little to the outfield side). He had time, just a toss would have done it. In real time I thought he just yanked it. Mark DeRosa said on MLB Network he thought Volpe never got a good grip on the ball. Whatever, it will go down as part of the five unearned inning from Yankee hell.
Ignoring the blown lead & catcher's interference, you've only got 173 regular season games and zero playoff games with 5+ UER, 3+ E, and 1+ balk. In only 86 of them did the offending team score 5+ runs, giving them any chance of blowing such a lead.
https://stathead.com/tiny/G7sJz
The most recent such game with a 5+ run blown lead was this one in 1976 - so this fun fact actually DID need the catcher's interference:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN197604260.shtml?__hstc=205977932.e52e3290bc4fbd0358eadcf559645a19.1685451793353.1730732469962.1730739417953.269&__hssc=205977932.8.1730739417953&__hsfp=2039586572
In this game, the Pirates blew their 8 run lead, but won anyways:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO195107180.shtml?__hstc=205977932.e52e3290bc4fbd0358eadcf559645a19.1685451793353.1730732469962.1730739417953.269&__hssc=205977932.8.1730739417953&__hsfp=2039586572
In this game, the Tigers blew their 8 run lead against the Sox, but won anyways in the 12th:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET192009170.shtml?__hstc=205977932.e52e3290bc4fbd0358eadcf559645a19.1685451793353.1730732469962.1730739417953.269&__hssc=205977932.8.1730739417953&__hsfp=2039586572
That's all of them going back to 1920.
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I spent the whole postseason thinking the most important thing was to keep the Yankees out of the world series, but given the spectacular fashion in which they blew it, I'm ultimately kinda glad they got there.
As a Sox fan in NJ who works in NYC, these guys gave me so much office material in the WS. I generally prefer to avoid the risk of them actually winning it but, in retrospect, this was much, MUCH better.
I was still in Boston in 2004 so didn’t get to experience this level of schadenfreude in person.
2024 really triggered these fans. It’s a culmination of so many years of close but no cigar, kind of like 2023 NBA ECF for me.
The Cole/Rizzo (non-) play:
What makes it so unique is that I think if either Rizzo or Cole defends that fairly routine ball aggressively, it's an out. If Jon Berti (hurt in the ALCS and badly missed by NY in a few situations over these five games) was in at 1B as he might have been with a 5-0 lead, he would have fielded and beaten Mookie to the bag by 10 feet.
What makes it so unique is that I think if either Rizzo or Cole defends that fairly routine ball aggressively, it's an out. If Jon Berti (hurt in the ALCS and badly missed by NY in a few situations over these five games) was in at 1B as he might have been with a 5-0 lead, he would have fielded and beaten Mookie to the bag by 10 feet.
I park my car just south of Yankee stadium and walk by this garage all the time. It always makes me laugh and shake my head. 200 ft to the LEFT of this garage door is another garage door with an identical sign. 500 ft to the LEFT of that 2nd one is the entrance. I've always known this signage is designed as an aid for the typical Yankee fan, but now I understand it's designed for the Capobianco brothers in particular.
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Complete break down of "The Inning" on MLB Network. Emphasis on 'break down.'
You hate to see it.
You hate to see it.
Apparently MLB wanted to suspend Kiké for Game 1 of the NLCS after saying "The fact that we don't give a fuck" during his post-game interview after Game 5 of the NLDS. He was fined though. Batshit insane work by MLB there.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/dodgers-kike-hernandez-reveals-punishment-by-mlb/3585146/
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/dodgers-kike-hernandez-reveals-punishment-by-mlb/3585146/
Freeman's walkoff GS ball sold for just over $1.5 million
https://sports.yahoo.com/freemans-world-series-walk-off-205056330.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAM6gI9txQZ-4gyE4F_O8zfy_AZkV81pD-2IkxzMZNrp37KIr4MkWfxPfwmMLS5BoqimupLmwb_e2yJ8kFCDWY_tnaYytZuus2ZsOesSGgDOmZP-BDeYt74-FbXkeq-VmzvRbO_5OI4ofUUfbPsSv6kKy-KaAqSTeFRgsEF4L7p5T
https://sports.yahoo.com/freemans-world-series-walk-off-205056330.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAM6gI9txQZ-4gyE4F_O8zfy_AZkV81pD-2IkxzMZNrp37KIr4MkWfxPfwmMLS5BoqimupLmwb_e2yJ8kFCDWY_tnaYytZuus2ZsOesSGgDOmZP-BDeYt74-FbXkeq-VmzvRbO_5OI4ofUUfbPsSv6kKy-KaAqSTeFRgsEF4L7p5T
The whole inning is inexplicable. Everything has to break juuust so. Judge has to make his first CF error. Kiké forces a tough throw to third and it's a rookie SS. Rizzo has to shift his weight towards second AND Cole doesn't cover/points to the base like that's where he's running. The kind of errors a team makes 1 out of 7 games - three huge ones in a row. And even without it, the Dodgers are up 3-2 heading back to L.A. Baseball - you can't make it up.
Volpe was in his second year but the third baseman receiving the throw, Chisholm, had never played 3B before August when he got traded to NY, I still think that an experienced 3B makes that play.
Yeah, it was like a couple of 1 in 100 frequency mistakes on the Judge drop and Cole/Rizzo lethargy (maybe as bad as 1 in 1000, especially on the Judge drop), and maybe a 1 in 10 on the Volpe-Jazz screw up. I'm sure you could multiple all of those together and get a number that says how dumb that inning was.
Based on your numbers, let's call it 1 in 10 million. 140 am math tells me there are approximately 43740 half innings played in an MLB season, give or take dues to extra innings and/or rain shortened games. That means an inning like that won't happen for another 228.6 seasons, which will hopefully still be before the next Yankees World Series victory.