July 6, 2021 was a special date for MLB. It was baseball’s night of lame walk-offs. Three games were decided on the very last pitch with the Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates all picking up victories. That list of teams is…umm…interesting. None are anywhere close to making the playoffs this season.
Of course, that alone doesn’t make it baseball’s night of lame walk-offs. Team quality plays a role, but there is a lot more to what we saw on July 6. Two of these endings were just plain embarrassing.
Unless you love a sloppy, anticlimactic finish involving a sub-.500 team. If that is your bag, it won’t any better than baseball’s night of lame walk-offs.
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The lineup for baseball’s night of lame walk-offs
Royals win a game they had no business winning
Salvy said "Goodnight!"#TogetherRoyal pic.twitter.com/3iBbqAePli
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) July 7, 2021
The Kansas City Royals beat the Cincinnati Reds in the only walk-off that was actually exciting. Salvador Perez smacked a game-winning single as the home team came back from a two-run deficit in the ninth inning.
That being said, the Royals needed two errors by the Reds to tie a game they had no business winning. If Cincinnati makes one of those plays, they more than likely win. What’s worse? This isn’t even the worst fielding performance on the day.
Marlins win after the Dodgers throw it away
https://twitter.com/Marlins/status/1412620979835179009?s=20
There’s no need to bitch about how contrived the new extra inning rule is. MLB is hellbent on keeping it despite fairly universal disdain. There is no point in complaining as to why Starling Marte started the bottom of the 10th inning on second base.
We will complain about how the Miami Marlins won. Marte scored on a wild pitch and an error. The entire sequence, as you can see above, is flat out bad. Could the Dodgers be any lazier on this play? Little leaguers don’t make mistakes this bad. Not a single player seems to care.
No one enjoys seeing a game end on a mistake-filled play like this unless you are a Marlins fan. Wait, those don’t exist.
Pirates win a literal walk-off
Baseball’s night of lame walk-offs was capped off with a literal walk-off. The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Atlanta Braves after Tyler Matzek walked Bryan Reynolds with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.
Maybe this wouldn’t have been so bad had Matzek not tossed four straight balls to Reynolds knowing a walk would end the game. With the victory, Pittsburgh is only 17.5 games back of the last National League Wild Card spot. What an exciting night for baseball.
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