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The Year of the Walkoff Is Getting A Bit Ridiculous

Jun 1, 2010, 2:00 PM UTC

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â†µThere have been, carry the two, a million walkoff wins this season in baseball. There have been so many that we've officially run out of ways for a team to have a walkoff win. There have been hits. There have been walkoff home runs. There have been walkoff grand slams – including one where the grand slammer breaks his leg in a celebration. There have been walkoff walks, walkoff errors, walkoff bunts and even a walkoff wild pitch.â†µ

â†µâ†µBut come on, a walkoff balk. Now baseball is just screwing with us:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥[Casey] Blake broke from third base and drew the attention of D-backs reliever Esmerling Vasquez, who balked in the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning Monday night in a 5-4 Dodgers win.â†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥It was the first time the Dodgers have won on a balk since Roger McDowell of the Mets drew the call on May 28, 1989, and the first time a Major League game ended on a balk since Sept. 8, 2008.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µSo, yes, the walkoff balk has happened before, but previous incarnations couldn’t have been more ridiculous than this one. After a baserunning gaffe that saw James Loney tagged out in a rundown with two on and nobody out, Blake – who had moved to second during the back and forth with Loney – advanced to third on a groundout. So, with two outs (and two strikes) in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game, Vasquez seemed way too interested in what Blake was doing at third. He leaned in before stepping off the rubber, which is when third base coach Larry Bowa went nuts (shocker) and the umpires called the walkoff balk.â†µâ†µâ‡¥“Most veteran pitchers, they don’t even look at the runner,” said Bowa, who was so animated that manager Joe Torre said he appeared to have two heads. “Most guys that have been pitching for a while, they don’t pay attention to the runner. I think he got crossed up with the signs with the catcher, too. He started and then he stopped, that’s what he did.”â†µâ†µ

Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch told reporters after the game that, “he flinched. Both his legs buckled. He balked. It was pretty plain and simple to see.”â†µâ†µWatch the video here. Legendary play by play man Vin Scully had call, so it’s worth watching such an exhilarating way to win a baseball game, if for nothing else, just to hear him say, “lookout boys for broken legs,” in a knock on plight of the the nearby Angels. â†µ

â†µâ†µScully also kicked the losing squad of this game while they were down, saying, “and so the D-Backs, like a last place team, always find a way to lose. It took a double error by Kelly Johnson and then the bizarre balk…” â†µ

â†µâ†µBizarre is really the best way to describe it. By the way, does Blake DeWitt get an RBI for that? Is there a stat category for run balked in? â†µ

â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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