“For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out. At the old ball game.”
That’s been part of the cheerful song sung during the seventh-inning stretch at ballgames for nearly a century.
It’s a good thing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” had already been sung at Dodger Stadium before a truly odd occurrence took place during the Dodgers’ 8-4 win over the Reds in Game 2 of their National League Wild Card Series on Wednesday night.
With runners at first and second and one out in the eighth inning, Dodgers right-hander Emmet Sheehan had a 1-2 count on Cincinnati’s Will Benson.
And then something took place that would abbreviate that line in “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” quite a bit.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts emerged from the dugout and summoned left-hander Alex Vesia from the bullpen mid-plate appearance, which prompted Reds manager Terry Francona to pinch-hit for Benson with a right-handed batter.
The result was a completely new pitcher-batter matchup within the same plate appearance. It was Vesia vs. Miguel Andujar, who inherited the one-ball, two-strike count.
The result? One pitch, one strikeout.
Vesia threw a high fastball by Andujar, who swung and missed for the second out of the frame. Vesia then walked Matt McLain but rebounded to strike out TJ Friedl to escape the bases-loaded jam.
It all worked out well for the Dodgers, who advanced to the NL Division Series against the Phillies with the Wild Card Series sweep of Cincinnati.
Has such a thing happened before? (We mean a pitcher being replaced mid-plate appearance — the Dodgers are headed to the NLDS for the 13th straight year.)
In fact, it has. One of the instances came in 2015, when then-Yankees manager Joe Girardi went to Dellin Betances out of the bullpen to finish pitching to Boston’s Jackie Bradley Jr. after Justin Wilson had gotten ahead in the count, 1-2.
The Yankees went on to win that game, though Betances didn’t get the one-pitch strikeout. He actually walked Bradley and had to labor through the rest of that frame before New York eventually closed out a 13-3 victory.
So the next time you need a great trivia question, remember what Vesia did on this night at Dodger Stadium.
If you need a good way to remember, just sing that classic line:
“For it’s one … strike, you’re out. At the old ballgame.”
