Nearly perfect outing has dramatic letdown
No-hitter lost late; tweets burn Newcomb
ATLANTA — Sean Newcomb thought his near no-hitter would be the story of the day.
Then he picked up his phone. Newcomb said he had forgotten about racist, homophobic and sexist tweets he sent as a teenager but quickly was reminded a few minutes after speaking with the media about the Atlanta Braves’ 4-1 win Sunday over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After seeing he had been called out, Newcomb, 25, said it was his idea to bring reporters back to the clubhouse so he could address the issue before he went home.
The old tweets overshadowed his career-best moment.
“This is something obviously that can’t be happening,” he said. “I feel bad about it. I don’t mean to offend anybody. It was six, seven years ago. I didn’t mean anything by it, and I definitely regret it.”
Newcomb came within one strike of pitching the first no-hitter by the Braves since 1994, denied when Chris Taylor sharply singled with two outs in the ninth inning.
Newcomb had a 2-and-2 count when Taylor hit a hard grounder beyond diving third baseman Johan Camargo’s reach. That came on the career-high 134th and final pitch by the lefty.
“I was crushed,” Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki said. “It felt like we lost, like that was a walk-off hit.”
Newcomb (10-5) exited to a thunderous standing ovation from the sellout crowd at Suntrust Park as manager Brian Snitker removed him.
Less than an hour later, Newcomb was apologizing for his offensive tweets.
Major League Baseball dealt with a similar situation this month involving Milwaukee reliever Josh Hader on the night he pitched in the Allstar Game.
“Such inappropriate comments have no place in our game,” MLB said in a statement. “… We will identify an appropriate course of diversity training for him in the Atlanta community.”
In a statement, the Braves said they had spoken to Newcomb, calling him “incredibly remorseful.”
Newcomb struck out eight and walked one against the National League West leaders. He retired the first 15 batters before walking Yasiel Puig to begin the sixth, and that was the lone runner Newcomb permitted until the ninth.
Dan Winkler relieved Newcomb and gave up Manny Machado’s
RBI single before ending it on Matt Kemp’s groundout.
Nick Markakis homered, doubled and drove in three runs as the Braves snapped a four-game skid and pulled within 1½ games of the NL East lead.