Telling Time: Baseball and The Pitch Clock
ALSO: HANK AND TOMMIE HIT HISTORIC HOMERS ON THIS DATE IN 1962
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
San Diego’s All-Star second baseman, Luis (Line-Drive) Arraez, while gunning for his third straight batting crown, was hitting .378 on the road earlier this week and threatening to join Ichiro as the only players in the last 75 years to hit .400 away from home [Ichiro hit .405 on the road in 2004] . . .
Atlanta’s aging fifth starter, Charlie Morton, has hit 179 batters, fifth among all Modern Era (since 1900) pitchers, trailing only Walter Johnson (205), Randy Johnson (190), Eddie Plank (190) and Tim Wakefield (186) . . .
Minnesota third baseman Jose Miranda rapped off 12 base hits in 12 straight at-bats July 3-6, tying the record shared by Johnny Kling (1902), Pinky Higgins (1938), and Walt Dropo (1952). and Miranda had a hit in 13 out of 14 at-bats after going 1-for-1 July 7 . . .
Detroit has become disillusioned with Kenta Maeda, a disappointment since signing a two-year, $24 million deal, and has moved him from the rotation to relief duty . . .
Hall of Famer Jim Rice remains the only American Leaguer to lead the league in both triples and homers in the same year, with 46 homers and 15 triples in 1978.
Leading Off
First-Ever Walk-Off Pitch-Clock Violation Won’t Be the Last
By Andrew Sharp
Nationals’ closer Kyle Finnegan already had eight pitch-clock violations, three more than any other pitcher this season, when he entered the game on June 22. So it’s no surprise that night in Colorado he became the first ever to surrender the winning run on an automatic Ball Four charged because he delivered too late.
It was bound to happen to somebody at some point, as I wrote here a couple of months ago. What made it a bit less deflating for the Nationals was that Finnegan had put himself in position to lose the game anyway.
The 2024 rule gives a pitcher 18 seconds, two fewer than in 2023, to deliver a pitch with runners on base. Working the ninth in Colorado, Finnegan already had blown the save, allowing the tying run to score on three straight singles before allowing a fourth hit to reload the bases with nobody out.
Trying to wiggle out of the toughest situation any pitcher faces, Finnegan got two strikes on Ryan McMahon before running the count full. Brendan Doyle of the Rockies, on second base, must have had an eye on the pitch clock because he began frantically waving at plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt as the pitch was delivered. The umpire immediately jumped out to the third base side, indicating no pitch by tapping his wrist. That signaled an automatic Ball Four and brought in the winning run from third.
“To lose the game that way — it can’t happen,” Finnegan said after the game.” In fact, Kyle, it can and it did. Better he would have lost on a batted ball or a sacrifice fly or normal walk, even, or anything else.
As the pitch that was disallowed didn’t look like a strike, it would have been the same result. If Wendelstedt had waited a second to call it a ball, that’s what would have happened. McMahon would have been a walk-off hero, instead of a lot of players and fans watching a game end as never before.
Honestly, who cares if McMahon had hit, say, a game-winning homer on the pitch because the ump didn’t make a clock-violation call? It’d be like football (ugh, sorry), where a penalty can be -- sensibly -- declined. But the rule as it is does not allow that.
This was the fourth time a pitch-clock violation with the bases loaded brought in a run, but the first that decided a game, according to MLB. Although Finnegan is in the record book as the first, this surely will happen in another game where a pitcher who might have been a pitch away from getting out of bases-loaded jam, is caught being a second tardy. I have to wish it wouldn’t.
Nationals’ Manager Davey Martinez said his pitcher, now with nine violations, has to be more aware of the pitch clock, as if Finnegan didn’t have enough to worry about. McMahon already was 3-for-4 with a homer.
I doubt I’m alone in wondering if some easing of the pitch-clock rules might be in order in the ninth or extra innings. Do fans really want a game decided this way, for the sake of saving a few seconds?
Don’t get me wrong: I’m in favor of faster games. I like they’re great. I dreaded watching batters and pitchers (I’m looking at you, Steve Trachsel) who took forever to do what they’re supposed to do. Yet tense situations with a game on the line are some of the best, most exciting, moments in baseball.
A pitch-clock violation, much like a questionable balk call, is just not the way a game should end.
Andrew C. Sharp is a retired daily newspaper journalist and a SABR member who lives in New Jersey. He has written and edited dozen of BioProject and Games Project essays and blogs about D.C. baseball at washingtonbaseballhistory.com
Cleaning Up
The Day The Aaron Brothers Made History
By Dan Schlossberg
Today is a significant baseball anniversary few people remember.
On July 12, 1962, ninth-inning home runs by the Aaron brothers highlighted a five-run uprising that gave the Milwaukee Braves an 8-6 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee County Stadium.
It was one of three times that season that they homered in the same game and the only time the senior Aaron ended a game with a grand slam.
Here’s what happened:
En route to a team-best 16 victories, St. Louis starter Larry Jackson coasted into the last inning with a 6-3 lead. He then retired second baseman Frank Bolling to start the inning.
But the veteran right-hander was out of gas.
Tommie Aaron, a 22-year-old rookie first baseman batting for relief pitcher Claude Raymond, pelted a pinch-homer.
Roy McMillan singled, ending Jackson’s tenure and forcing the Cards to insert normally-reliable closer Lindy McDaniel, who would lead the Cards with 14 saves that season.
A double-play grounder would have ended the game but Mack Jones singled and Eddie Mathews walked.
With one out and the bases loaded, McDaniel still hoped to coax a ground ball from the speedy Aaron. Even if the Cards could not turn two, they could opt for a forceout at home — or at worst an RBI grounder that would produce the second out.
But Hank Aaron had other ideas.
The future home run king, playing center field in place of resting regular Billy Bruton, hit the ball over the left-center field fence — almost to the same spot his younger brother had chosen earlier in the inning.
Milwaukee fans who stayed til the end were delirious over the stunning 8-6 victory.
During his 23-year career, Hank Aaron would end nine games with home runs, including the blast that won the 1957 pennant, but only on that occasion would one of his walk-offs come with the bases full.
The Aarons wound up with more home runs than any brother tandem (768). But only on that hot July night did they connect in the same inning, though the fraternal pair did connect in the same game two other times in the 1962 season.
That was Tommie’s rookie year and only full season. He finished it with a .231 batting average, eight home runs, 38 runs batted in, and 54 runs scored in 141 games. He never had more than two homers or a .250 average in any other season.
For one day in July, however, Tommie was a hero.
It was the first time since 1938, when Lloyd and Paul Waner hit consecutive home runs in the same inning for the Pittsburgh Pirates, that any brother tandem had teamed up to produce such timely long balls.
Tommie Aaron, branded a utilityman because he could play multiple positions, never got the fair shake his talent demanded. His surname worked against him, mainly because all of his coaches and managers thought he would be as good as his brother.
During a career that lasted seven seasons, Tommie played six positions –- all three bases and the three outfield spots –- but was most often used at first base, where he was a good if not gifted fielder.
He finished with a puny total of 13 home runs, two of them game-enders. But one year he had a terrific red Topps card that is treasured by collectors. He later became a successful minor-league manager that might have led to a big-league job had he not lost his life to leukemia at age 45.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron and 40 other baseball books. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Free Agents Who Signed Late
“Don’t sign late. It’s difficult when you sign late and go to spring training late. You don’t have too much time to be ready.”
— Eddie Rosario after his ninth-inning single in his first game back helped Atlanta win an 11-inning game in Arizona Monday night
Postseason hero Jordan Montgomery, who also signed late, has had a poor season with the Diamondbacks and is currently out with an injury . . .
Defending NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, another lefty who signed late, has endured his worst season despite a reunion with Padres-to-Giants manager Bob Melvin . . .
Spring training exhibition games had started before two-time MVP Bryce Harper signed with Philadelphia in March 2019 . . .
Super-agent Scott Boras typically advises clients to sign as late as possible because he believes holding out will drive up the price of their contracts.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.