May 22, 2016

Losing Control

Until the bottom of the 11th inning, the Dodgers and Padres took part in a great example of pitchers in control. The two starters, Alex Wood for the Dodgers and Cesar Vargas for the Padres combined to walk two and strike out 20 batters in 13 innings. The bullpen took over and preserved the 2-2 tie, combining for three walks and 12 strikeouts in eight innings. That’s five walks and 32 strikeouts in 21 half innings. Then came Chin-Hui Tsao.

Tsao allowed a single, then retired the next two batters on fly balls. After a stolen base, Tsao walked the next three batters to force in the winning run and give the Padres a 3-2 victory. There were two great quotes after the game, the first from Yangervis Solarte, who drew the winning walk:

“I’m so excited I forgot all my English,” Solarte said.

He had just been activated from the disabled list.

The second is from Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts:

We’re finding different ways to lose games. I haven’t seen this one.

To paraphrase Dennis Moore, “This managing at the major league level is trickier than I thought!” The Dodgers are now two games under .500 and just two games ahead of the Padres.

That was the second walk off walk of 2016. These were more common in the aughties. From 2000 through 2009 there were an average of 7.9 walk off walks per season. From 2010 through 2015 there were 23 WoW, a little under four per season.

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