The Forgotten Classic Game Between The Royals & Pirates
Posted by Steve Lombardi on April 20, 2010
Playing around with B-R.com's Play Index, I found this contest: July 13, 2001 - Royals @ Pirates for a Friday Night Game.
Seriously, click on that link and check out this box score. An inter-league game between two weak teams from each circuit during the PED-offensive era in baseball history. Heading into this game, the Royals were 34-54 and the Pirates were 34-53. If the expectations heading into this game ain't a tree falling in the woods without making a sound, then what is?
And, what happens? A neat 1-0 game where winning team scores with one out in the 9th inning- assisted by a wild pitch - plating their only run after having 9 runners reach in the previous 8 innings. And, the losing team only had 3 runners reach base in the entire game - on a HBP in the 1st inning, an error in the 6th inning and a 1-out single in the 9th inning. If not for that, the winning pitcher would have posted a perfect game. And, it was a quickie - Time of Game: 2:06
Had this been a World Series game instead of an inter-league game between two sad-sack teams in 2001, people would have called it one of the greatest games ever.
It's stuff like this that makes baseball such a fun game, eh?
April 20th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
You just never know. The beauty of baseball is that on any given day, something can happen that you'll have never seen before, or that some no-name will win a battle against a hall-of-famer.
I saw a Class A game recently out in California, and Scott Kazmir was down for a rehab assignment. Down in Class A, you'd think Kazmir would roll through the Inland Empire 66'ers.
He gave up 8 hits and 3 runs in 6 1/3, and it wasn't like he was tentative. He was going full bore out there. You could tell he was a major league pitcher in the minor leagues. Only a few balls were really hit hard - but still, the baseball found holes, gaps and alleys.
In baseball, you gotta be good AND lucky.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:18 am
"beauty of baseball"
the day after the mets and cardinals went 18 scoreless innings, the brewers scored 10 runs in the top of the first inning before making a second out.
April 21st, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Maybe if it hadn't been an interleague game, the Royals would have been able to keep starter Chad Durbin in the game for the 9th. Instead, he was lifted for a pinch hitter, Raul Ibanez. This is the only time so far in their careers that Ibanez has pinch hit for Durbin. Then again, there haven't been many opportunities. During their time together with the Royals, that was the only game in which Durbin was eligible to be a batter. (I did a search for PA >= 0, partly out of curiosity as to whether he, or any pitcher in a game in which the DH is being used, shows up anyway, but this was the only one from his Kansas City days that showed up. So, I guess that being listed in that "number 10" spot doesn't count as a zero PA game.) Last year, when they were both with the Phillies, Ibanez, who started most of the games that occurred when he wasn't on the DL, had only five pinch hitting appearances. Two were for other outfielders that he then replaced for the rest of the game in the lineup (although not necessarily in the same outfield position). Two others came in games in which Durbin pitched, but he hit for another pitcher in that game.