Weirdness in The Big Friendly

I grew up listening to Hank Greenwald, the radio broadcaster for the San Francisco Giants. He used to have a saying that went something like this: "Every day that you go to the ballpark, you'll see something new."

Yesterday in Oklahoma City, I saw something I have never seen before. Unfortunately, it went against the Tacoma Rainiers.

Tacoma led 6-0 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, there was nobody on base, and the Rainiers lost the game.

It was the biggest ninth-inning comeback I've ever seen. Toss in the two outs, nobody-on-base factor and... it boggles the mind.

Four straight Oklahoma City hitters had two strikes, and three of them were behind in the count, 0-2, before reaching base. Jonathan Villar - the skinny shortstop who bats leadoff for them - hit a game-tying grand slam to dead center field.

Mike's seen a lot of baseball games. When he says he hasn't seen something before, it's probably something we haven't seen before, either. I will note in passing that skinny Jonathan Villar isn't exactly a banjo hitter; last year he hit 11 homers in just 86 minor-league contests. He's off to a good start in Triple-A this season, and might well be playing shortstop for the Astros before too terribly long. Maybe someday Mike will be telling his great-grandchildren about the time he saw Jonathan Villar hit a big grand salami.