Atlanta’s Balk-Off Win: One for Flinching
Posted by John Autin on June 16, 2011
The Braves and Mets took turns trying to give away Thursday night's game, but in the end, the guest Mets were more generous than the host Braves.
The winning run for Atlanta scored in the bottom of the 10th on a balk by D.J. Carrasco. The Mets, on the verge of a sweep and their first day above .500 since the opening week, were turned away in Turner Field yet again.
I don't think the Play Index / Event Finder can find balks in any sort of direct way; at least, I can't do it. Andy had a couple of posts on walk-off balks last year, in which commenters posted some of those events:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/6512
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/4487
Carrasco's balk was just a flinch while pitching to Jason Heyward with 2 out and runners on the corners. After peering in to get the sign, Carrasco made the slightest of motions towards straightening up into the set position, but then stopped. The home plate umpire called it instantly, and he was right. But Carrasco was put in that dicey situation by a combo mental/physical blunder by backup 1B Lucas Duda. With 2 out and a man on 2nd, LHB Jordan Schafer hit a routine groundball that Mets 2B Ruben Tejada had all lined up for an easy 3rd out. But Duda, already playing wide of the bag for some reason, needlessly ranged far to his right and backhanded the ball before it got to Tejada, and then dropped it; Schafer was safe at first, and Diory Hernandez moved up to third with the winning run. (The official scorer, no doubt signing his scorecard with the Scooter's trademark "wasn't watching," credited Schafer with a hit, his 5th of the game.)
Of course, the game would not have gone into extra innings if not for a 2-run pinch-hit HR by Brooks Conrad off Francisco Rodriguez in the bottom of the 9th.
But then, the Mets had forged that 2-run lead with major assists from the Braves. The go-ahead run scored on a bases-loaded wild pitch on a strikeout, while the "insurance" run was the direct result of awful defensive plays by Chipper Jones and Dan Uggla. Jones made a nifty leaping grab of a hot one-hopper, then made his trademark ultra-casual throw to 1B, which went wide for an error. Later in the inning, with men on the corners and 1 out, Dan Uggla tried to turn a DP but heaved the relay wild, bringing home the Mets' last run.
On a bright note for the Mets, Jose Reyes hit his 12th triple of the season, and it was a kind of triple I've never seen before. Batting righty, Reyes hit a blooper into shallow CF, a little on the LF side of 2nd base. CF Jordan Schafer came in fast and seemed about to make a great diving catch -- but the ball ticked off his glove and landed beneath him as he skidded past. The ball didn't bounce, it didn't roll -- it just sat there. But with Schafer on the ground, LF Eric Hinske checking his ticket stub and SS Alex Gonzalez having peeled off to avoid a collision, in the end there was only Schafer to go back and retrieve the ball, but not in time to keep Reyes from reaching third. I have seen bloop triples that caromed off a fielder and rolled far away; I've seen bloop triples that took a high bounce off artificial turf. But I've never seen a bloop triple like this one.
June 16th, 2011 at 11:32 pm
The Nationals lost a game against Milwaukee from a walk-off balk. Mike Stanton on 7/15/2005, prevented the Nats from having a winning season (81-81)
June 17th, 2011 at 1:54 am
There was a Dodger-Rockies game last season that ended on a balk. With a Rockies right-hander on the mound in the stretch, the runner at third suddenly broke to the plate, apparently attempting a straight steal of home (or breaking too early on a suicide squeeze). Regardless, it all worked out for the Dodgers as the pitcher, looking straight at the runner, was so startled that the balk was induced.
June 17th, 2011 at 2:46 am
While it was awesome to see the Braves beat the Mets tonight, it did feel a little cheap. A simple single would have scored the winning run. The whole vibe was just very weird, no one really knew what happened and Heyward was waving in the winning run without hitting the ball.
June 17th, 2011 at 7:50 am
Typical Mets
June 17th, 2011 at 9:18 am
I guess there is a rule which says if your "closer" gives up the lead, he can't pitch the next inning. Rodriguez was not pinch hit for in the top of the 10th; he could have pitched the bottom.
June 17th, 2011 at 9:51 am
Mr. John Autin,
This site is funny... was it just two posts ago Lombardi looked at walk off HBP. I remember, all to viciously well, 1999 playoffs when Kenny Rogers walked in the final run of the series, reminiscent of Juaquin Andujar in '85?.
Anyway, I totally saw the Reyes triple and concur with you. Weird play.
In defense of the Braves, Hinske is not a regular left fielder or a regular period. Gonzalez the shortstop, like you pointed out, over ran the almost collision, and i can only guess the normally high baseball IQ-ed Gonzalez assumed Hinske would get the ball. I've seen similar plays in every sport, where a loose ball is assumed by everyone to be grabbed, but 3 guys end up staring at it.
Another thing, and it really makes me appreciate Reyes, he actually slowed before first and rounding first, then turned on the after burners, and he went first to third quicker than I can remember ever seeing.
I know in other sports, measuring a player's various speeds at the various dashes is important and kinda fun. I remember when a young Dieon Sanders Broke the 40 yard dash record at the Combine after refusing to do it a few times.
Anyway I know speed doesn't always translate to baseball the way it does to other sports. I remember in the '80s Devon White was said to be much faster than Henderson, and in the 90's Ray Lankford was considered the fastest, but never stole more than 40 bases.
Has there ever been a study on the fastest ball players - whether first to third or out of the box, or stealing a bag? And who in your opinion is the fastest all time?
June 17th, 2011 at 10:23 am
@5, Stan Cook -- Normally I would agree with you about keeping K-Rod in for the 10th. But as I saw it, they were lucky to get through the 9th with him; he didn't have good stuff. After Conrad tied it by creaming a meatball, McCann almost ended it with a blast that was caught at the RF wall, and Freeman lined a single into RF before Uggla fanned on a 2-2 pitch.
June 17th, 2011 at 10:45 am
Charlie Brown balked in the tying & winning run also, if you recall
June 17th, 2011 at 11:11 am
I'm still trying to discern why this was called. There are so many stupid ways to balk in baseball, and who knows all of them. That was not in any way an attempt to deceive a baserunner, it was just a muscle tremor. The last thing I want to see happening in baseball is umps parsing the barest of flinches or leans like football refs looking for false start penalties.
June 17th, 2011 at 11:22 am
@8, Michael -- That wasn't even the only "Charlie Brown" moment from last night's game!
In the 8th inning, Jose Reyes ripped a one-hopper through the box that knocked the glove off of Jonny Venters. (He retained his shrit & cap, though.)
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=15978629
June 17th, 2011 at 11:33 am
Nightfly, I didn't see the balk, but I agree that the rule could use a serious overhaul.
June 17th, 2011 at 11:38 am
@9, Nightfly: "That was not in any way an attempt to deceive a baserunner.... The last thing I want to see happening in baseball is umps parsing the barest of flinches..."
Nightfly, I agree that it was not an attempt to deceive. But the last thing I want to see is the umps parsing anyone's "intent."
What if Carrasco had made the same twitch in a hypothetical scenario with a base-stealer on 1st base only, and a situation that cried out for a steal? And what if the ump in that scenario hadn't called a balk, and the runner had broken on the twitch, and Carrasco then picked him off?
The kind of balk that was called on Carrasco is frustrating, but it seems to me that any kind of "remedy" would be worse than the disease.
June 17th, 2011 at 11:59 am
In one of the comments to the second old blog, SJBlonger gave a list of 12 balk-offs from 1954-2008, done with a scan of Retrosheet data. I have also scanned Retrosheet data for 1952-2009 (my last download was 18 months ago) and confirmed the list.
Including the one from last year and the recent one, this should be a complete list for 1952-2011:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN196504280.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT196506080.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU197304290.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197809292.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198607100.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN198905280.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199307040.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL200004280.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/FLO/FLO200005080.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA200404190.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL200507150.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL200809090.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN201005310.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL201106160.shtml
Only 3 of these are from the AL...the odds against it being that lopsided are about 20 to 1 if you assume an equal chance in any game, although the NL does seem to balk a little more than the AL on average.
June 17th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Andy hposted about walk-off Balks early last year:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/4487
SJBlonger posted the following list:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN196504280.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT196506080.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU197304290.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197809292.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198607100.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN198905280.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199307040.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL200004280.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/FLO/FLO200005080.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA200404190.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL200507150.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL200809090.shtml
I was at the Oakland-Seattle extra-inning affair in which Justin Duchscherer balked in the winning run in the bottom of the 14th.
June 17th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
To add on to what JA wrote @7 in response to Stan @5:
In addition to not pitching well in giving up the 2 runs, Rodriguez was also pitching for the 3rd day in a row which is another reason not to push him further, especially in a situation where the Mets are just trying to extend the game and not preserve a lead they regained in the 10th. And as JA said in the OP, the inning should have been over except for Duda inexplicably running halfway to second to field the previous grounder.
June 17th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
FYI to Whiz @13 and Eric H. @14 --
When you submit a comment containing several URLs, the spam-blocker system automatically puts it on hold pending administrative approval. The blog author does receive an e-mail when that happens, but we are not necessarily minding the store 24/7. Just so you know.
June 17th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
@15, Evan -- I'm glad you brought up the 3-straight-days for K-Rod. I was thinking about that Wednesday night, when Collins brought him in to start the 9th with a 4-0 lead. Pitching 1 inning 3 straight days should not be exhausting for a seasoned closer, but still -- why use him Wednesday?
June 17th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
P.S. to Whiz @13 and Eric H. @14 -- I meant to add, thanks for posting those lists.
June 17th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
From wikipedia, the ways to balk:
"Most basically, a pitcher is restricted to a certain set of motions and one of two basic pitching positions before and during a pitch; if these regulations are violated with one or more runners on base, a balk is called.
With a runner on base and the pitcher on or astride (with one leg on each side of) the rubber, it is a balk[2] when the pitcher:
* switches his pitching position from the windup to the set (or vice versa) without properly disengaging the rubber;
* while on the rubber, makes a motion associated with his pitch and does not complete the delivery;
* when pitching from the set position, fails to make a complete stop with his hands together before beginning to pitch;
* throws from the mound to a base without stepping toward (gaining distance in the direction of) that base;
* throws or feints a throw from the rubber to an unoccupied base, unless a play is imminent;
* steps or feints from the rubber to first base without completing the throw;
* delivers a quick return, a pitch thrown right after receiving the ball back, with intent to catch the batter off-guard;
* pitches or mimics a part of his pitching motion while not in contact with the rubber;
* drops the ball while on the rubber, even if by accident, if the ball does not subsequently cross a foul line;
* while intentionally walking a batter, releases a pitch while the catcher is out of his box with one or both feet (rarely enforced);
* unnecessarily delays the game (rarely enforced);
* pitches while facing away from the batter;
* after bringing his hands together on the rubber, separates them except in making a pitch or a throw;
* stands on or astride the rubber without the ball, or mimics a pitch without the ball; or
* throws to first when the first baseman, because of his distance from the base, is unable to make a play on the runner there.
The pitcher's acts of spitting on the ball, defacing or altering the ball, rubbing the ball on the clothing or body, or applying a foreign substance to the ball are not balks."
Watched the balk again, and it looks like the 2nd rule: "while on the rubber, makes a motion associated with his pitch and does not complete the delivery."
He started his motion and stopped. Looks like a good call to me.
June 17th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
@17
I'm eagerly awaiting the conspiracy theories claiming Rodriguez offered to give Collins a cut of his $17.5 million salary next year in exchange for making sure he uses him enough to get the 55 games finished and vest the option.
As for actual reasons, my best guess would be that Rodriguez had 4 days off before Tuesday, other trusted relief pitchers had been used more in previous games and because of the rain delay Wednesday and with Uggla, McCann and Jones were coming up he felt more comfortable bringing in Rodriguez rather than waiting for some other reliever to put some guys on base and let the Braves build confidence in a comeback.
June 17th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Mike Stanton was involved in 2 of those games. He balked in the winning run in 2005, and he was the winning pitcher when the Marlins' Matt Turner balked in the winning run in 1993.