It would be hard to imagine a wilder ending to a baseball game than what we got on Tuesday night, when the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies.
Philadelphia took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, but loud hits from Casey Schmitt and Wilmer Flores put the tying run on base and brought the winning run to the plate in Giants catcher Patrick Bailey. Bailey came into the game with a .188/.255/.275 slash line and only one home run. With 16 home runs in his career, it didn’t seem particularly likely that Bailey would leave the yard. He didn’t — but he did win the game.
Duane Kuiper had the call for NBC Sports Bay Area.
“Bailey hits a high drive way out into right field. It is off the bricks. This game is tied,” Kuiper said.
While Bailey narrowly missed clearing the right-center field wall, the ball shot out hard toward center field and rolled away from center fielder Brandon Marsh, who was backing up the play.
“Bailey’s on the move,” Kuiper said, getting increasingly more excited. “Bailey’s on the move. And this game is over.”
Kuiper and color commentator Mike Krukow remained silent for a few seconds, letting the noise of the crowd and the Giants celebration on the field tell the story.
“Oh, my goodness,” Krukow said, breaking the silence. “I did not see that coming.”
“Neither did my voice,” added Kuiper, who’s been dealing with a sore throat.
Dave Flemming was calling the game on radio for the Giants on KNBR also came through with a notable call.
“Patrick hits a high drive, deep right-center field. This one is off the top of the wall. And it ricochets,” Flemming said. “And it’s rolling on the warning track. Two runs are in. Bailey coming around third. Patrick Bailey scores. It’s an inside-the-park walk-off home run. Now we’ve seen everything.”
As would be expected, the call from Philadelphia’s announcers was far less enthusiastic. Nevertheless, Tom McCarthy and Ruben Amaro Jr. more than adequately conveyed the excitement of the play.
“And a high fly ball into deep right-center field,” McCarthy said. “Castellanos is back. And it’s off the top of the wall. It’s rolling along the warning track. The game is tied. Bailey’s around third. He’s heading for home. This is gonna be an inside-the-park walk-off home run. An inside-the-park, three-run walk-off home run that went off the top of Triple’s Alley. Wow.”
“Tom, I’ve seen a whole lot of things in this game,” Amaro replied. “But I’ve never seen that. That is truly an amazing, astonishing thing. I’ve just never seen anything like it.”
“Nope,” McCarthy replied. “Not something like that.”
The calls were notable for different reasons. That said, they all perfectly conveyed how wild and unusual the ending to that game was.