A few weeks ago I started us on a journey chronicling the strangest games in Rockies history (with a brief interlude on Game 163). This was mostly a response to the end of the season and how uninteresting the games had become. But then the playoffs started and, even though the Rockies weren’t participating, it provided games that were inherently exciting, where every pitch mattered. But due to the Mets’ utter domination of the Cubs and the elimination of the Blue Jays, we have to endure a stretch of 1 game in 5 days in the lead up to the World Series. That made me think that now was the ideal time to restart the list of strangest, craziest Rockies games since 1993.
Reminder: there is no one thing that makes a game crazy; it has to be a number of things. Sometimes it’s a strange event, a great comeback, or an interesting assortment of players who participated in the game. It must be stated that these aren’t necessarily the best games in Rockies history, though several of those will certainly make their way onto this list. We’re onto the second set of three, three to go after this. One thing these three games have in common: they call occurred on some idle Tuesday
Tuesday, August 22, 2000: Rockies 7, Braves 6 (12 innings)
This one is poignant in its simplicity. This was the game in which catcher Brent Mayne pitched. He also earned the win. Grant Brisbee actually wrote a fantastic oral history of this game in August so I’ll let you go and read that. Just know that, as long as Walt Weiss is around, we probably won’t see a position player pitch for the Rockies. Heck, the Blue Jays salvaged a boring 14-2 stomping at the hands of the Royals by having Cliff Pennington pitch in a playoff game, and Walt won’t put one in for a last place team? It is my most significant mark against him.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014: John Baker sinks the Rockies
In honor of the recently departed (from the playoffs) Chicago Cubs, let’s think back to a game that would also surely be on their list. It also has the advantage of bearing a striking resemblance to the game above. Former Zingers writer Jake Shapiro threw this one out, which is no surprise since he holds dual citizenship in these fan bases.
Things started quickly at Wrigley. After a leadoff flyout from Charlie Blackmon, the next four batters reached, culminating in a 2-run double off the bat of Justin Morneau to give the Rockies an early 3-0 lead. The Cubs first three reached in the bottom half of the inning, but couldn’t do any better than the one run scored. Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa struggled with traffic on the bases the rest of the game but he only really paid for it in the fourth. After hitting leadoff hitter Junior Lake the Cubs pinch hit for struggling starter Edwin Jackson with…starting pitcher Travis Wood? Yes, that actually happened (Wood grounded out). Two batters later De La Rosa allowed a 2-run home run to Emilo Bonifacio (!) to tie the game. This game is already weird.
And so it remained for 11 innings. Neither team could push a runner past second base until the 10th inning when a double from Charlie Culberson (memories…) pushed Justin Morneau to third base with 1 out. With DJ LeMahieu at the plate, Weiss calls for the suicide squeeze. Unfortunately, the pitch was way outside, leaving DJ little hope to make contact and hanging Morneau out to dry. However, it looks like this in the Baseball-Reference play by play:
We move on through to the 16th inning and now both bullpens are empty. Cubs manager Rick Renteria did what any one of us would should do: he turned to catcher John Baker. Baker threw 31 pitches in the inning—which is a lot considering he only faced three batters—and then led off the bottom half of the inning for the Cubs. Weiss elected to bring in starter Tyler Matzek who promptly walked the pitcher (Baker). Four batters later the bases were loaded with one out with Starlin Castro at the plate. He lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to end the game. The game winning run was scored by the winning pitcher: John Baker.
If you look too closely into his eyes, you’ll forever question a manager for NOT putting in a position player in relief
Perhaps the best part of this was the post-game zinger from Baker about the last time he pitched: “It was the Cape Cod League,” he said. “I believe I had like a 27.00 ERA, but I was getting squeezed from what I remember.”
Tuesday, July 6, 2010: The Nine Run Ninth
This is one of my favorites on the list because I was there, from start to finish. It was one of the coldest July nights I had ever experienced. The game was delayed 30 minutes at the start due to rain and lightning (a harbinger of things to come) and game time temperature was 81 degrees but as the sun went down and the wind picked up, we were pretty miserable in the third deck. It didn’t help that the Tuesday evening game was such a dud.
Coming into the game the Rockies (44-38) and Cardinals (45-37) were neck-and-neck in the Wild Card hunt, sending titans Jeff Francis and Blake Hawksworth to the mound. The Cards got on the board first with a 3-run third, to which Carlos Gonzalez quickly answered with a 2-run home run in the bottom half. But the Cardinals piled on from there, turning it into a 9-2 game off a 3-run home run from Matt Holliday, who was making his first appearance in Coors Field since leaving the Rockies, in the top of the sixth. At this point, the Rockies had a 2% chance of winning the game, which went down to less than 1% at the start of the home half of the ninth, down 9-3. Sensing this intuitively, we moved down to stand on the concourse behind home plate to watch the end of the game.
Miguel Olivo led off the ninth with a single and Seth Smith followed up by hitting a laser to the first baseman for the first out (he’d get another chance later). A single and a walk (with Olivo scoring on a passed ball) later and Chris Iannetta was at the plate. It was at this point that Tony La Russa elected to bring in closer Ryan Franklin to try to slam the door on Iannetta. All he did was hit a 3-2 fastball into the bleachers in left to make it 9-7 and give Rockies fans tacos for the next day. “Okay, we got tacos, I’m satisfied. We can leave now,” I joked with my dad. Chances of winning were still only at 5% but hey, might as well stay.
It is at this point I’d like to bring up the strangest part the budding rally: defensive positioning. Late in the game it’s not uncommon to see a team play “no doubles” defense, where the corner infielders hug the line and the outfielders play deep and toward the gaps. Throughout the 9th inning the Cardinals had their fielders in what I can only call “No Wall Scraping Home Runs” Defense:
Not pictured: the left fielder, just as deep (source: mlb.com)
Strange, isn’t it? That’s why, ater a double from Dexter Fowler, a groundout from Brad Hawpe, Gonzalez was able to hit an RBI “single” that likely would have been caught had right fielder Randy Winn been playing at normal–or even true No Doubles–depth. But the Cardinals did not learn their lesson, as Jason Giambi strolled to the plate with the score 9-8 and hit a 0-1 pitch toward the gap in right-center. Winn played the ball on a bounce and booted it away, allowing Cargo to score all the way from first to tie the game at 9-9. Two batters later, Seth Smith solidified his claim to the title Mr Late Night:
It was absolute bedlam. I was screaming and yelling and waving my arms around like a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man. Two and a half years after the greatest baseball game I had ever witnessed, I had another at the top of my list.
Were you in attendance for any of these games, or did you watch them all on TV? Were there any games in particular that I missed? Join us next week as we recap the final 3 strangest games in franchise history.
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