White Sox walk off in a truly wild win, 2-1 over Tigers
There have been some wild games and wild endings during the 100-plus years of Major League Baseball.
But has a fastball ever smacked off an umpire's face mask and allowed the winning run to score?
No way, right? Impossible. Right?
Well, that's exactly what happened at Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday in the 10th inning when Detroit reliever Jose Cisnero's 96-mph offering sailed over catcher Eric Haase's mitt and bounced off umpire Cory Blaser's mask.
As the ball shot to the right of Haase, the White Sox' Yoan Moncada raced home to give the South Siders a bizarre 2-1 victory.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, this was the first game to feature 3 run-scoring wild pitches and no runs scored in any other way.
Afterward, no one seemed sure how to react. Tim Anderson, who was batting, reached down and helped Blaser to his feet. As the other umpires came to Blaser's aid, the Sox slowly emerged from the dugout in a halfhearted celebration of their 11th victory in the last 18 games.
"It's a weird scenario," said reliever Liam Hendricks, who pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning. "My first instinct would always be to look to make sure he's all right before anything else. I guess that's the way I'm wired. Hopefully the pitcher's OK as well because that can be quite daunting in that situation."
"Pick up the umpire, but score the run and get the win," Anderson said when asked for what his immediate reaction was. "I mean try to take care of everything I guess. Just happy we got the win."
Blaser walked off the field under his own power but was under evaluation as of 5 p.m., according to MLB.
The Sox' first run came in the fourth when Andrew Benintendi, who led off with a single, stole second and moved the final 180 feet courtesy of 2 wild pitches.
Detroit scored its only run in the sixth after starter Dylan Cease uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Zach McKinstry to score. Cease allowed just 2 hits, walked three and struck out six in 5⅔ innings.
"Would like to go deeper in the game, be more efficient," Cease said. "But I thought it was better than a lot of my previous starts."
Moncada, the free runner to start the 10th, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Romy Gonzalez. The Sox loaded the bases after Gavin Sheets was intentionally walked and Jake Burger was hit by a Cisnero offering.
Then came the wild ending. And although it was not a normal wild pitch, Moncada never hesitated when he saw what happened.
"I saw the ball just bouncing by," he said. "It was a bam-bam play. I just reacted and I was able to score."
Sox reliever Reynaldo Lopez (1-4) walked the first batter he faced in the 10th - giving the Tigers runners on first and second - but got Zack Short and Jonathan Schoop to pop out on back-to-back pitches. Lopez then retired Jake Marisnick on a groundout to Anderson.
It completed a sterling effort by the bullpen, which gave up just 1 hit in 4⅔ innings.
The Sox, now 25-35, go for the sweep Sunday.