Junichi Tazawa

Turning Twosday: Two Pitches That Gave Us 19 Innings

On Friday night, the Red Sox played the longest game in their history: a, nearly 7-hour, 19-inning, 6-5 victory over the Yankees. In a game in which so many details ultimately blend together or stick out — Mike Napoli went 0-8! — there were two otherwise innocuous pitches out of 627, both on 2-0, that easily could have saved a large group of Red Sox fans a lot of sleep, even if they would have gone to sleep angrier.

Robbie Ross: Sixth Inning

The first pitch came in the sixth inning, with lefty Robbie Ross Jr. facing lefty Brian McCann. The bases were loaded and there was one out. Ross had replaced Wade Miley, a lead actor being replaced by his knockoff Irish understudy, and Ross had responded like an understudy, falling behind 2-0. It was crucial that Ross nail the next pitch.

He did not nail the next pitch.

One thing that is bad: as a consequence of living in New York, I’m forced to watch Red Sox/Yankees on YES. Another thing that is bad: a consequence of using a .gif instead of a Vine is that you can’t hear the explosion of the bat in the clip below, and you can’t hear Michael Kay’s breath being taken away (a miraculous feat!) in the shockwave of the just-foul hammering McCann puts on the on the 2-0 pitch. It wasn’t just hard contact. It was hardest contact. It was scary.

At this moment, everyone watching knew that an alternate-universe game had just begun, one where McCann had hit the ball to Yonkers and, for a moment, Yankees fans could dream that the team was any good. (Kidding!)

Back in reality, McCann went into a cold stare: he wouldn’t indulge in disturbances, not when he was, obviously, on top of whatever Ross had and whatever nonsense he was apt to try. When McCann eventually hit a sacrifice fly to deep right center, driving in a single run, it felt like the absolute best-case scenario for the Sox, who escaped the inning with a 3-2 lead intact when Ross got eventual party-extender Chase Headley to pop out.

Junichi Tazawa: Eighth Inning

In the bottom of the eighth, the same 3-2 score provided another opportunity for the Yankees to leverage an at-bat into a lead or tie, and this time there was hardly a reaction at all, but there was enough to, again, see into the negative.

It was Junichi Tazawa against Brett Gardner, a righty-on-lefty matchup, also at 2-0. It feels safe to say, especially in light of what comes next, that Gardner’s game is getting on base. It also feels safe to say that, upon seeing his reaction to the fastball Tazawa threw, he had both decided to take it and wrestled with the decision. He thought he might get his pitch, but the numbers overwhelmed him. Then he got his pitch, and he hadn’t hit it 360 feet, so he did a dance and asked the ump to confirm the bad news: it was a strike, to boot.

On the next pitch, he bunted for a hit down the third-base line, beautifully. Two pitches after that, he was caught stealing, but the play was challenged. It was tough to tell if Pedroia actually hit Gardner with the tag, but it was tougher to say he didn’t, and the call stood. Then A-Rod struck out, the window closed, and the game moved safely toward its absurdist conclusion with these two pitches otherwise lost to history, but no less important for it.

Photo by Kelly O’Connor, 

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