Paul Sewald walked the Rangers’ leadoff hitter in the bottom of the ninth inning. In an alternate dimension, there’s a baseball-like sport where that’s an automatic tie game. It’s like intentional grounding – 10-yard penalty, automatic loss of down – but translated to baseball. The penalty should be onerous.
And, oh, was this penalty onerous. After that leadoff walk, Sewald got a strikeout, but then he threw a bellybutton-high fastball on the first pitch to Corey Seager, who is eternally looking for bellybutton-high fastballs on the first pitch. It was the worst possible pitch to the worst possible hitter, and Seager hit it to the moon. It’s a tie game heading into extra innings.
Both of these bullpens were sketchy in the regular season. Both of them have been divine in the postseason. Something had to give, and it was the Diamondbacks who blinked first. Sewald even hit Adolis García with a pitch to put the winning run on with two outs, and he promptly stole second to put himself in scoring position. But Austin Hedges struck out to end the inning, which made every baseball fan say, “Austin Hedges?” in unison.
The Rangers will take it, though. They were two outs away from losing Game 1, and now they’re a run away from stealing it. There’s no Manfred man for the postseason. Let’s get weird.