Stanton launched four
August 21: Despite his club being 20-plus games out of the
playoff race, Giancarlo Stanton was still playing hard. On this night, his four
homers helped the Yankee Stompers upend the East-leading Worcester Eliminators.
Now before you get too excited, remember
that four home runs hasn’t been all that special in BARB. This is the fifth
season in a row that feat has occurred. Andre Ethier (2010), Mark Teixeira
(2011), Curtis Granderson (2012) and David Ortiz (2013) all homered four times
in a single contest. But it is still a rare occurrence, with BARB annals only
showing these five games compared with seven all-time no-hitters (more on that
later).
It was a big game for New England. They
had a chance to play spoiler against a perennial power. Stanton actually had a
plate appearance in the first inning, but Johnny Cueto lost him on a full count
to load the bases before getting out of the jam.
Domonic Brown actually got the scoring
started in the second with a jack of his own. That lead evaporated in a hurry
for John Lackey against the vaunted Eliminator lineup. With one out, Chris
Johnson stepped up and blasted a ball over the wall in left-center to score
Michael Morse and Brandon Moss for a 3-1 lead.
Cueto settled down until the fourth
inning, when Stanton led off and deposited a full-count fastball in the
left-field bleachers.
It was just a solo shot, but Cueto’s
lead didn’t last past the next inning. Miguel Cabrera and Mike Napoli reached
with two away, leaving Stanton to find a way to bring the plodders around. He
used the most efficient, blasting another Cueto pitch over Moss’ head and the
wall in left.
Worcester’s manager kept Cueto in the
game until the seventh, when Stanton hit another circuit shot, this a solo bomb
to left-center. As Cueto was stalking off the mound one could only imagine he
was thinking of pulling out his signature dreadlocks. In typical baseball tradition,
something had to change to turn around his 5.47 season ERA.
Lackey held the 6-3 lead and finished
eight innings of work. In the top of the ninth, Stanton stepped up once again,
this time against Kevin Siegrist with a man aboard. For the fourth time that
night, a Stanton-hit ball was soaring over the grass and into the seats. It gave
the slugger four homers in four at-bats with seven runs batted in and raised
his season totals to 27 home runs and 71 RBI. Edward Mujica allowed a Robinson
Cano solo home run in the bottom of the ninth but otherwise finished out the
8-4 New England victory.
12 K’s in
one gem…and one large whiff for months afterward
REWIND to May 18.
Casselton, at the time falling further and further behind St. Francis in the
Central division, travels to Brooklyn for a matchup with the Moabs. What
happened was a masterpiece spun by Cliff Lee…one that BARB’s new agency whiffed
on reporting over and over again.
Lee, 1-7 on the season, was scheduled against
another lefty, Brooklyn’s young Mike Minor.
The visiting Horned Toads wasted no time
getting on the board for their ace. Carlos Gomez lined a one-out triple to
AT&T Park’s wide-open expanses in right-center with one away in the first,
and Prince Fielder promptly flied to center with Gomez tagging.
From Fielder’s at-bat until the top of
the sixth, a runner reached base only twice: Edwin Encarnacion on a four-pitch
walk immediately after the big slugger and Encarnacion again one a five-pitch
free pass in the fourth.
Lee was in a groove from the beginning.
He struck out six batters in the first three innings, including the side on 11
pitches in the third (after Minor did the same on 12 pitches in the top half),
and hadn’t allowed a runner through five.
The Casselton offense picked up in the sixth.
Jean Segura led off with a laser down the right field line and into the first
row of seats on the arcade. One out later, Fielder went with a Minor slider and
blooped it to the opposite field, thundering into second as Christian Yelich
hustled to retrieve the ball in the bullpen. Encarnacion drew another base-on-balls
in front of a Will Venable seeing-eye single to left (on which Fielder was wisely
held at third). That brought up A.J. Pollock, who fell behind 0-2, worked the
count full amidst other foul balls, then fouled off another SIX
Minor pitches before drawing a walk to push across a run. The 14-pitch plate
appearance proved the end of Minor’s night, the big lefty having allowed four
hits and walked four on 98 pitches in five-plus innings.
It was increasingly clear the 3-0 lead
would hold up behind Lee’s dominance, but how far would he take the chance at
history? As often happens, the crafty veteran was a bit stiff after the
eight-hitter frame, and he walked Jedd Gyorko for the first base runner with one
out in the bottom of the sixth. One out later, Jacoby Ellsbury was hit by a
pitch, handing the Moabs their first runner in scoring position. Lee strolled
around the mound to clear his mind and then went after Skip Schumaker, who hit
a can of corn to left for out number three.
The final nine Brooklyn outs came
quickly. Four more strikeouts, two groundouts and two outs in the air brought
Schumaker back to the plate in the bottom of the ninth. On a 2-2 count the
journeyman utility player hit a six-hopper to Neil Walker. The second baseman
calmed his nerves and handled the play cleanly…a NO HITTER FOR CLIFF LEE!
Lee’s gem was the first (and, to this
day, only) no-no of the 2014 BARB campaign (after three in 2013) and the
seventh all-time. Lee faced 29 batters, allowing only the sixth-inning walk and
hit-by-pitch, and struck out twelve.
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