Baseball dumbing it down
THE COMBINATION of blind allegiance pledged to analytics, the absence of fundamental skills and the eagerness of Rob Manfred to fix what ain’t broken has turned MLB stupid.
The Yankees and Mets games last weekend were determined by terrible baseball or terrible decisions.
Saturday, Manfred’s preposterous automatic runner at second allowed the Marlins to take the lead in the 10th inning on a throwing error by Francisco Lindor.
That half-inning ended when Miami’s Jon Berti was picked off second because he chose to not slide back into second!
The Mets won it in the bottom of the 10th, the Marlins blowing it with two infield botches, the second with two outs when “closer” Tanner Scott threw a wild pitch to first on an easy comebacker.
Sunday, the Marlins, 2-0 winners, took a 1-0 lead in the 10th — without batting a ball in play. “Ghost runner” Billy Hamilton stole third, then scored on a wild throw by Tomas Nido. Manfred Baseball at its finest!
Saturday, the Red Sox beat the Yankees in 10 as managers Alex Cora and Aaron Boone swapped turns trying to find just the right pitcher to blow the game.
That began after the fifth when Cora, likely much to the Yankees’ approval, yanked starter Kutter Crawford, who’d allowed one run on four hits and struck out six.
Cora replaced him with Ryan Brasier, who retired one batter — but not before allowing three hits and two runs. Then Boone played bullpen Russian Roulette until the Red Sox won. And both, as they’ve proven, would do it again — and again and again.
➤ Off the top of his head Saturday, Howie Rose knew that Doug Flynn holds the Mets’ record with three triples in a game. He then thought aloud that it might’ve been against the Expos. Bingo. Aug. 5, 1980, against the Expos.
➤ Angels-Orioles, Saturday: 1-0, Orioles in 8 ¹/2 innings. Regardless, the totals: 10 hits, 24 strikeouts, eight pitchers, three hours.
➤ Reader Pat Esposito worries that Marlins infielder Jesus Aguilar, seen against the Mets on SNY catching a pop-up with two hands to make extra sure, will be fined, suspended or both.
➤ So you wanna be a rock’ roll star? First Erin Andrews and Chris Russo felt compelled to share with us their frustration of being among the tens of thousands to have their flights canceled. The nerve! Then Andrews explained on a podcast that she quietly resigned with Fox because, “I figured enough was enough with the headlines for a while.” Nurse!