In baseball, there are three possible “true outcomes” when a batter comes to the plate – three ways his at-bat might unfold without the fielders coming in to play – a walk, a strikeout or a home run.
Here’s how the Rockies final inning of the season, a seven-run rally to beat the Giants, unfolded according to the three true outcomes.
Home Run: After Jose Reyes flied out to lead off the top of the ninth inning in San Francisco on Sunday with Colorado losing 3-0, back-to-back Rockies singled to set the table for Corey Dickerson.
The second of those two singles was Nolan Arenado, who needed just one home run to break the tie for first in the National League home run race. But Arenado, ever the team player, knew a two-run blast wasn’t going to tie the game. His single set the stage for the biggest hit of the game, and of the year for Dickerson.
Dickerson sent a George Kantos two-strike slider into McCovey cove to tie the game at three. Bruce Bochy had already used nearly every pitcher in his bullpen, setting the stage for an even bigger offensive explosion to come.
In baseball, there are three possible “true outcomes” when a batter comes to the plate – three ways his at-bat might unfold without the fielders coming in to play – a walk, a strikeout or a home run.
Here’s how the Rockies final inning of the season, a seven-run rally to beat the Giants, unfolded according to the three true outcomes.
Walk: Following the home run by Dickerson, Ben Paulsen hit a line-drive single to center and Bruce Bochy was forced to make a pitching change.
Cody Hall, replacing Kantos, didn’t have adequate time to warm up (or so it appeared) and immediately walked Daniel Descalso before allowing back-to-back singles of his own, including what proved to be the game-winning RBI single by Justin Morneau.
Hall’s replacement, Yusmeiro Petit let Charlie Blackmon get to a 3-1 count before allowing yet another single that capped the scoring for the Rockies at seven.
The Rockies kept putting in the ball in play, and John Axford got a crucial bases-loaded strikeout in the bottom of the inning.
In baseball, there are three possible “true outcomes” when a batter comes to the plate – three ways his at-bat might unfold without the fielders coming in to play – a walk, a strikeout or a home run.
Here’s how the Rockies final inning of the season, a seven-run rally to beat the Giants, unfolded according to the three true outcomes.
Strikeouts: One of the real keys to the extended rally was that Colorado, with the exception of Descalso, kept putting the ball in play. Throughout the rally, Colorado put the ball in play on four different occasions with two strikes. Two of those resulted in hits and the last was very nearly when Rafael Ynoa almost beat out an infield hit that was overturned on replay and would have extended the Rockies’ lead even more.
Then, in the bottom of the ninth, closer John Axford found himself in a bit of trouble. Having walked a batter to load the bases with just one out, Axford got a key punchout, striking out Matt Duffy swinging on a hard slider. Buster Posey grounded out to Nolan Arenado to end the threat, the game, and the 2015 Rockies season.