Just because something is good for your team on a given occasion doesn't mean its good for the sport.
I still hate the Ghost Runner Rule. Or, as I prefer to call it, invoking an episode of The Odd Couple, the Aristophanes Rule: It's ridiculous!
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It looked like that rule wouldn't come into play in yesterday's middle game of a 3-game Yankee Stadium series between the Yankees and the Washington Nationals. The game, scheduled for a first pitch of 1:07 PM, was delayed by rain until 3:29. But it didn't seem to affect either starting pitcher, the Yankees' Corey Kluber or the Nationals' Max Scherzer, who have 5 Cy Young Awards between them.
Scherzer, who's going to the Hall of Fame unless he does something stupid like Pete Rose did, pitched into the 8th inning, allowing just 1 run, on a home run by Kyle Higashioka in the 3rd. He allowed only 1 other hit, a single by DJ LeMahieu later in that inning. He allowed only 1 walk, to Clint Frazier, leading off the bottom of the 8th. He struck out 14 batters, a record for an opponent at the new Yankee Stadium. It was a dominating performance.
But Corey Kluber was almost as good. He walked home a run with the bases loaded in the 3rd, and a double and a single with 2 out in the 6th. But that was it. Chad Green pitched a scoreless 7th, and Lucas Luetge a perfect 8th and 9th.
Frazier's walk leading off the bottom of the 8th did not live up to the Cliche Alert, as he was stranded. Brad Hand came in to pitch the bottom of the 9th. Now, we can activate the Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Hand walked LeMahieu. The boiling-hot Giancarlo Stanton came to the plate, and Yankee Fans were energized.
But he could only ground to 3rd -- to Starlin Castro, the player the Yankees sent to the Miami Marlins in the 2017-18 off-season to get Stanton. Castro's only play was to 1st. Aaron Judge, 1-for-his-last-23, came up, and dunked a single to right. But it was too close for LeMahieu to score. Gleyber Torres singled him home, and it was 2-2, with men on 1st and 2nd, and only 1 out.
But Aaron Hicks struck out, and Frazier grounded out. That meant extra innings, and the Ghost Runner Rule.
Aroldis Chapman was brought on, with the runner on 2nd. He allowed a single and a sacrifice fly. It was the 1st run he had allowed all season, in his 12th appearance. However, the rule states that if the Ghost Runner scores, it is an unearned run. Chapman got out of the inning without further damage, and a seasonal ERA that remained exactly 0.00. But the Nationals had a 3-2 lead.
But with Frazier starting the bottom of the 10th on 2nd, Mike Ford, batting just .083, singled him home. The Yankees couldn't get the winning run home. Justin Wilson pitched a perfect top of the 11th. Then came the bottom of the 11th, one of those innings that makes John Sterling turn to his broadcast partner, Suzyn Waldman, and say, "You know, Suzyn, you just can't predict baseball."
Tanner Rainey was the pitcher. LeMahieu was the Ghost Runner. Stanton was up. Walkoff homer? No.
Did I say walks can kill you? He walked Stanton. Then he walked Judge to load the bases with nobody out. Those of us who have questioned the Yankees' heart -- I've used the term "Brian Cashman's Gutless Wonders" -- wondered how they were going to mess this up.
Yogi Berra once said that baseball is a simple game, because you can't use any trick plays. That was typical of American League thinking of the time. But he would later serve as a coach under his former Yankee teammate Billy Martin, who loved baseball's trick plays: The sacrifice bunt, the double steal, the hit-and-run, etc.
And, as we've seen, the infield shift -- as far as I know, first used by Lou Boudreau with the 1946 Cleveland Indians as a way to stop Ted Williams, with limited success -- is a trick play.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez tried a serious trick play: He took an outfielder out of the game, and brought in another infielder. Essentially, that gave him 7 infielders: The pitcher, the catcher, the 1st baseman, the 2nd baseman, the 3rd baseman, and 2 shortstops. Or, if you prefer this terminology, a shortstop and a "reverse shortstop."
It didn't work. The batter was Gleyber Torres. He hit a ball between the pitcher's mound and 3rd base. Hand tried to field it himself, but he couldn't pick it up, and everybody was safe. LeMahieu scored the winning run.
The play reminded me of a time at my house, in the late 1990s, when a mouse was trapped under our dining room table, surrounded by all 3 of our cats, and our dog. And none of them would go in and get the mouse. Who finally ended up getting the mouse? Me, the big, slow, klutzy, arthritic human. I grabbed an 18-inch plastic ruler, told the furfaces to get outta da way, reached in, and went WHACK! I picked the mouse up by its tail, opened the front door, threw it in the bushes, and yelled, "And stay out, you mangy mouse!"
My nieces love The Mouse Story. R.I.P. Teddie (the dog), Daphne, Ripley and Nala (the cats).
Yankees 4, Nationals 3. WP: Wilson (1-0). No save. LP: Rainey (0-2).
This time, the Aristophanes Rule helped the Yankees. But it's still ridiculous.
Getting less and less ridiculous is Torres. It's almost as if he heard the harsh criticism a couple of weeks ago, and has really stepped up his game, at bat, on the bases, and in the field. He still hasn't hit a home run this season, but he's done just about everything else right. Yesterday, he got the hit that tied the game in the 9th inning, and the hit that won the game in extra innings. No Yankee had done that in 9 years, since Raul Ibanez in the 2012 Playoffs.
The series concludes this afternoon. Domingo German starts for the Yankees, Joe Ross for the Nationals.
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