Should have seen this one coming. As soon as Carlos Correa’s bomb cleared the fence last night, before the dance and swagger around the bases, before our man walked dazed from the field… we here at Playin’ in the Dirt should have expected this to pop up.
Baffled. Dude looks like Billy in Beverly Hills Cop after Axel Foley takes him to the strip club: “What the hell did I just see?” (mlb.com)
But it wasn’t until this morning, when favorite reader Eric From Spokane chimed in with his vote, that it all made sense.
“Top three,” Carlos says. Wonder where this moment stands in J.A.’s Happy list.
Have pity, you might say. Let him be. But feting a man who gives up the game-winner as our potential top ex-M reeks of poetic justice somehow.
There was just so much going on here, so much on the line, anticipation of a 2-0 Yankee series lead going into game three with lights-out Astro Gerrit Cole on the mound, and now it looks so different with the series tied at 1-1.
And so many candidates… James Anthony Happ threw the last pitch, and James Paxton threw the first, and they each gave up a run, and is one run really more important than another? And in between, you gotta believe there was so much karma in Adam “I’d strike Babe Ruth out every time” Ottavino earning his new nickname “Bullpen Wart” and clearly not striking out George Springer, so much karma you’d almost wish he was an ex-Mariner too, I mean it would make sense, like share the wealth and what not, right?
And there was Eddie Encarnacion, putting up an identical line in both games for the Yankees this weekend: batting cleanup, he went 0-for-4 plus a walk, with three strikeouts, stranding three runners. Both nights. Wonder if the parrot on his elbow is choking too.
Light-hitting Mariner-turned-steady-Yankee Cameron Maybin, meanwhile, quietly was on base twice last night. We say quietly because his teammates couldn’t get him across the plate.
The ex-M we have yet to hear from in this series, Wade Miley, could well be lurking in the Yanks’ future as a Game Four starter. Meanwhile, thanks to Eric From Spokane for naming the frontrunner in this convoluted slice of baseball minutiae.