1/8/2023 0 Comments Real boxing hack![]() Now here are all the other postseason walk-off homers hit against pitchers who had either won a Cy Young Award in their past, won it that season or were about to win one down the road. And Corey Kluber gave up Gonzalez’s shot. They were both given up by former Cy Youngs pitching in relief! Ray served up the Alvarez blast. Let’s start with this: We’ve had two walk-off home runs bashed so far in this postseason (Yordan in ALDS Game 1 on Tuesday, Oscar Gonzalez in Cleveland’s ALWC clincher Saturday). Starting pitchers actually have given up quite a few walk-off homers in October, so I didn’t have to spend much time on that part. Now this was what you call a fun research project. “When,” he asked, “was the last time a manager called upon a starter - the previous year’s Cy Young Award winner, no less - with a postseason game on the line, and he immediately gives up a walk-off homer?” So what’s left to say after all the words I spewed out on Yordan’s mighty blast in Tuesday’s column? Here’s what: My friend Bruce Jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle legend that he is, checked in Wednesday. I came up with that rule just now, in fact. Hey, when you write columns called “Weird and Wild” and stuff like that happens, the statute of limitations never runs out. And we couldn’t be prouder, because it don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing.īut just because it’s a couple of days old doesn’t mean I’m done writing about it. (Profar's had the advantage of him actually swinging.) /krHDpR7y5eīut then Jurickson Profar showed up at Dodger Stadium, on a beautiful Wednesday in October, and made history. I found the previous co-leader: Brandon Belt, also against a Clayton Kershaw curveball. Vladimir Guerrero Sr., versus Dana Eveland, in 2009.īrandon Belt, versus (how ’bout this!) Clayton Kershaw, in 2015.Īccording to Jurickson Profar's swing-and-miss last night was the lowest pitch ever swung at in the Statcast era. And somehow or other, that was done twice: The old record, according to Codify, was minus-2.04 feet. Nobody had ever swung at a pitch like that in the 15 years that anyone has been keeping track. So that left only one more critical question to delve into: Had anyone ever taken a swing, in a game, where people could see it and Statcast could record it, at a pitch that would have burrowed itself that far below sea level?įortunately for you Weird and Wild readers, the Codify database was ready to take on that one, even from a sports bar! And while we can only vouch for the pitch-tracking era (2008-22), we can officially tell you this: But luckily, framing wasn’t an issue, because Jurickson Profar saw that pitch coming and swung at it. ![]() That’s too low for even Will Smith to frame. And the verdict was: It would have crossed 2.19 feet under the plate! In other words, Statcast really did calculate how low that pitch would have been when it crossed home plate if only the surface of Mother Earth hadn’t gotten in the way. And David supplied him with the critical details. But you think that stopped him? Within seconds, he was on the case.įirst, he conferred with MLB.com’s ingenious Statcast czar, David Adler. When I tracked him down, Mike was watching baseball at a sports bar. It was my friend Mike Fisher, the guru behind Codify Baseball and one of the great Twitter follows in our sport. ![]() Is there some way to prove that was the most misguided swing in baseball history? See, when you’re taking in a baseball game, and you’re working on a column called “Weird and Wild,” and then a mad wave of the bat like that one breaks out, there is only one question worth examining: Sorry, you're thinking of cricket, but this is a baseball game /BBi1RtTB2R Back to the short stroke of Jurickson Profar, if only because … I can’t stop watching this! Was that Goose Gossage’s first appearance for the Padres since 1987? Was that goose removed from the field - as my Starkville partner, Doug Glanville, theorized - for stealing signs (or eggs)? And was it a wild goose or a weird goose? Asking for a friend.Įither way, we digress. And what could possibly have happened in these games that was Weirder and Wilder than that swing … except maybe this. We only have one October Weird and Wild column. But we have lots of brilliant writers to chronicle that stuff. Look, I know that way more important stuff happened in the two Division Series games Wednesday. So what the heck was that? That was the Padres’ swing-fling left fielder taking an actual hack, in a nationally televised postseason baseball game, at a Clayton Kershaw curveball that was headed for home plate at Dodger Stadium - but had to change planes at O’Hare first. That’s because, in the fourth inning Wednesday night, in the Padres’ otherwise uplifting 5-3 Game 2 win over the Dodgers, Profar’s swing state looked kinda like this.Ĭlayton Kershaw, Lawn Dart Curveball (side view).
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