Game Summary: 'The Strangest game I have ever seen.'
Jays had a 2 run lead going into the bottom of the 8th - Steve Delabar was tapped to start the inning. He walked 2 and then 7-hitter Eduardo Nunez (3B) sac bunted them over. That's when Blue Jays' manager John Gibbins decided Sergio Santos the stopper, had better come in and try to get himself a 5-Out Save with two runners in scoring position.It didn't work.
Santos walked his first batter with the pitches looking wild. Then the nine hitter - pinch hitter Kurt Suzuki - waited for his walk while watching two wild pitches tie the game. One-hitter, Brian Dozier watched another wild pitch plate the go-ahead run before he too walked. That was the end of Santos as J.A. Happ was brought in.
But that wasn't the end of it. Happ walked his first batter to load 'em up - and then the next one as well, for the starting-to-get-predictable RBI Base-On-Balls. Then Happ gave up the landmark first Hit of the inning(!) plating two more to put the icing on the blow-out, eighth inning cake.
All told, the Twins sent 13 batters to the plate in the inning; walked 7 times and plated 6 runs on 1 hit. Half the runs scored via wild pitches by Santos.
The strangest game I have ever seen.
On a bright note - I was able to keep up while scoring the crazy eighth, with the new Canvas scorecard, which was fast and responsive. 'Tight' would be the word I would use to describe it. I was able to publish the eighth inning about 30 seconds after the last out.
In fact, I was having so much fun early on in the night - that in the 3rd inning I shot another video of me scoring the game Live in the Blogger Compose Interface. This one was an update on how to easily score using the colour coded base-runner notation functionality that this new Canvas Mark-up of the Internet Baseball Scorecard affords. The interface is now so quick and easy that I was able to shoot and post a video of me scoring in the 3rd ... and now in the 7th (when I wrote this part), write this blog while scoring the end of the game at the same time.(little did I know what was coming!).
Speed is key - because the whole point of scoring the game on the computer, is to also write baseball copy about the game at the same time - because as baseball copy hacks have done since the late 1800's - filing their stories with their editor quickly is paramount. It's usually expected about an hour after the game ends.
(This one's a little later than that standard because the turning point in the game happened late - and was tumultuous. Plus the game ended just minutes after the long chaos ceased - with a 1,2,3 Jays top of the ninth.)
Read every play in an html5 Canvas Scorecard for Blogger - with text and colour-coded base-runner-progress notation.
Internet Baseball Scorecard | April 17th: BlueJays at Twins - Gm 3 | http://internetbaseballscorecard2013.blogspot.ca/2014/04/april-17th-blue-jays-at-twins-gm-3.html
Her's the Video I shot of me scoring in the 3rd - showing the excellent functionality of the Blogger Compose Interface with this coding (best practice gleaned so far - this is only the third game I've scored with the new Mark-up).
Scoring Demonstration - Internet Baseball Scorecard, April 17th Blue Jays at Twins Gm 3
From under the video:
How to use the Blogger Compose interface to colour code base-runner notations in the Internet Baseball Scorecard - Canvas Version, using high-light double-clicks and the Blogger colour pallets for Text Color and Text Background Color buttons.
An addendum:
I want to talk about a scoring notation that I did in the eighth during Kurt Susuki's At-Bat. This particular situation has never occurred for me in 25 years of scoring ball games.
Here's an image of the 8th Inning and the At-Bat Box in question - the ninth batter in the order:
ph/WP#5,6,8-IB/pr(#8)WP6,8-1B
BB
pr
The first line of the At-Bat box is reserved for events that happen before the batter hits the ball into play - or in the case of this particular at-bat - (in fact he did not put the ball in play) - before he walked;
ph followed by a forward slash. The forward slash separates one event from another. "ph" This is the first event that happened after that batter stepped into the at-bat box. 'ph' stands for "pinch hitter". It denotes that the batter in the line-up so far in this game, has at this point been replaced by a different batter. By checking the far left of the scorecard you can see that K Susuki pinch hit for E Escobar in the 8th. (" 8th PH K Suzuki")
Next event that happens before the completion of the at-bat (not including pitches thrown, fouls, balls, strikes called, swings) : "WP#5,6,8-IB" 'WP' means "Wild Pitch" The next set of notation right after WP indicate runners movements on the base-paths. The bases are loaded. #5 means the 5th batter in the order - and then to save space I just add a comma directly after the 5 and add 6 and 8 as well - then dash, and then "1B". 1B means all those base-runners - #5, #6 and #8 - moved one base. So in this case the #5 batter-runner went from 3rd Base to Home Plate. The #6 batter-runner moved from 2nd base to 3rd base and the #8 batter-runner moved from 1st base to 2nd base.
Then a slash separating events and then, "pr(#8)". 'pr' means "Pinch Runner" followed directly by (#8) which notes that the #8 batter-runner has been replaced (he's now at 2nd base remember - now in scoring position, and importantly late in the game, he represents the 'go-ahead' run). Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire replaced the #8 batter-runner with his fastest man in order to give his team the best chance they have to win the game.
(I forgot to add a slash here) The next element in this scoring - the next thing that happens is "WP6,8-1B". Again you recognize this from the second element, it's another wild pitch "WP" - immediately followed by "6,8" (the #6 batter-runner and the #8 batter-runner) and than a dash, and then "1B". Meaning of coarse, the 6 batter and the 8 batter advance one base each. In this case the 6 batter scored a run and the 8 batter moved from 2nd base to 3rd base.
The nest line down is the usual scoring notation for Base on Balls ("BB"). Once Susuki is on base the manager replaces him with a pinch runner - in order to give his team the best change they have to score an 'insurance run' if they should take the lead in the game by plating the #8 batter-runner now on 3rd base; and, also to make turning a double play by the defence harder by having a fast runner at 1st base.
And that's it. :)
mh
