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| 7 hours in 4 pictures. |
19 innings. 7 hours. 39 hits, 19 walks, 43 men left on base. Two sunburned arms. And one severely damaged set of vocal chords.
Yes, I was one of the 46,126 fans at the Rogers Centre yesterday. Yes, I stayed for the whole game. And yes, I'm going to describe it here for anyone who did not have the pleasure of attending.
It started out like any other Sunday afternoon game, except there was a little more excitement in the air than usual. This was likely from a combination of a) Saturday night's comeback win b) the traitorous Tigers fans from across Ontario being in the house, and c) the number of young families at the Dome (primarily just to get a free hat).
The game started off how every Jays Talk-calling, Mike Wilner-annoying fan expected: Buehrle looked awful, offering tasty meatballs for the murderous top half of the Tigers lineup. Reyes seemed to bobble away any chance of stopping them. David Price probably felt very comfortable pitching against his old whipping boys, despite his new uniform. Errors and strikeouts were plentiful from the Jays. It looked like the sunshine and the free hat would be the highlights of the day for every Jays fan at the park.
But then, something changed. It seemed to start when David Price was hit by a comebacker in his knee-groin area. Now,I would never accuse anyone of being happy when a player gets injured - that's just mean. But it felt like we were the Rebels, and had finally found a vulnerability in the Death Star. There was no sympathy from the crowd.
Then, enter Dioner Navarro. In a game featuring Jose Bautista and Miggy Cabrera, Dioner hit the only home run of the game. Suddenly, hope! A sign of life. A reason to get excited and yell and scream. And you could tell the boys in blue were listening because they responded in kind. 2 more runs courtesy of Melky and Reyes.
In the 9th, down one, Birthday boy Anthony Gose tossed his hat in the ring by getting on base. All looked lost after the strike'em out/throw'em out, with Gose was called out at second. Gibby (who is the best) was out there to challenge faster than the crowd could react. Heck, faster than I thought he could move.
Before yesterday, I had never heard a 46,000-ish umps make a call at the same time. The roar started in the outfield seats, where TVs showing Sportsnet gave fans all the proof they needed. After hearing the celebratory screams of the outfield fans, those of us around the infield knew Gose was safe - there was no need to watch the umps. We screamed and cheered so loud it must have intimidated the umps into not using the "not enough evidence to overturn" scapegoat that was, in hindsight, not out of the question.
One thing I've noticed about Jose Reyes by watching him play and following him on Twitter - he freaking loves his teammates. You could tell the earlier error had bummed him out. Getting a chance to redeemed himself, Reyes snuck one into centre to bring Gose home and tie the game.
And that was just the first half of the day.
The next 9 & 1/2 innings were a hurricane of base runners, strikeouts, diving grabs and Chad Jenkins. I had never watched an 18+ inning game before, but I can just about guarantee that none of them were even close to this exciting. If every scoreless 9 innings of baseball were like the ones yesterday, MLB TV ratings would be much higher.
But for every moment of drama and excitement, there was one of frustration. More often than not, that frustration's name was Juan Francisco. Big Juan did a terrible job filling the huge Edwin-sized hole in the Jays lineup. Strikeouts and errors are to be expected; but to be the #4 hitter and have the other squad walking guys to get to you is just shameful. By his last at bat, the home crowd had turned on him out of pure annoyance.
That wasn't the only change the crowd underwent. By the 19th, the 500 and 200 levels were mostly empty. The young families were mostly gone, packed into their luxury SUVs, free hats in hand. With that, the cheers hurled across the diamond became a little more 'adult.' Remaining Tigers and Jays fans, who had been enemies at the start of the day, bonded and laughed over hunger and dehydration. But they all remained loud.
The bottom of the 19th started poorly. The outfield screen flashed "Warming Up In the Bullpen: Dickey" and there was an audible groan from the remaining fans. The game was reaching "I don't care who wins, let me leave" territory.
But then, Kawasaki, who gets a reaction just by going up to bat, hit a no-out single that got the crowd nice and loud. The Reyes single that follow got an even bigger reaction - No more intentional-walking our best hitters to get to Juan Francisco for you, Detroit!
Walking Melky here may have been the Tigers' biggest mistake of the game. He may have been on fire, but you do not want to face a disrespected Joey Bats with the game on the line (as he proved.)
In all, it was a fantastic day of entertainment. The combination of drama, emotional swings, big plays and historical relevance made it an all-time great. 40 years from now I'll be telling my not-yet-existent grandkids about this one (or at least be forcing them to watch it on 2054's equivalent of YouTube with me.)
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