Someway, somehow, baseball has a way of making the unfathomable, the unthinkable, the unbelievable – believable.  Case in point, last night’s Boston Red Sox vs. Baltimore Orioles game.  Competitive game for most of the game.  Red Sox scored early to take the lead, then Orioles countered and took the lead a few innings later.  Drama started showing up in the 9th inning with an epic 2 run home run by newcomer Nathaniel Lowe to tie the game at 3 runs apiece.  Two extra innings produced just 1 run by the Orioles, who went on to beat the Red Sox by a final score of 4-3.  Pretty standard professional baseball game, right?  Not exactly.  Let’s discuss the unfathomable, the unthinkable, and the unbelievable, as well as the believable events that happened during last night’s Red Sox vs. Orioles game.

First, the unfathomable.  The Boston Red Sox left 13 runners on base.  Red Sox hitters were 0-13 with runners in scoring position.  For three straight innings (8, 9, 10), the Boston Red Sox LOADED the bases, some innings with 0 outs.  Of those runners standing on bases during bases loaded situations, none of them scored.  None.  Unfathomable.

Second, the unthinkable.  The Boston Red Sox had the bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th inning – Wong, Anthony, and Bregman.  Their next three batters have close to 20 years of Major League Baseball and Professional (Japan) Baseball Leage experience as above average hitters.  Jarren Duran, Trevor Story, and Masataka Yoshida are all All-Star caliber players, hitters, and are all 10000% capable of putting the baseball into play.  What did these three Red Sox stars do?  Strikeout on less than 12 pitches.  Three straight strikeouts with three men on base.  Any ball in play probably would have plated at least one run.   Unthinkable

Third, the unbelievable.  In the bottom of the 11th inning, with a runner on third base, pinch runner Nate Eaton, Roman Anthony hit a medium deep fly ball to center field.  Eaton geared up to tag from third with the tying run but stopped halfway down the baseline and returned to 3rd base.  Run home, out or safe, but run home and do your best.  Do not, I repeat, do not get stranded at third base when you could have been the tying run.  Unbelievable.

Finally, the believable.  Rookie Samuel Basallo of the Baltimore Orioles, formerly the Norfolk Tides, whom I have been watching and admiring for the better part of 2 seasons now in my newly adopted home park, Harbor Park, who just got called up literally days ago, did put the ball in play with a runner at third base. Basallo made contact, grounded out to the infield, and watched as his fellow Oriole Jeremiah Jackson crossed home plate with the winning run.  Basallo is an uber-talented baseball player who has a very bright future in the Major Leagues.  Basallo, playing in his 3rd or 4th game, got the winning hit and Durran, Story, Yoshida, Abraham Toro (10th inning) with all those years of MLB experience could not put the ball in play.  Believable, Basallo is going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

Boy, this game of baseball can be so frustrating.  With the bases loaded, you would think one out of 4 would put the bat on the ball and hit it where the Orioles were not.  And with a veteran hurler on the mound (Garrett Whitlock), you would think he would have an advantage over a rookie playing in his 2nd series in the Major Leagues.  And you would think that a team, like the Boston Red Sox, who really cannot afford to lose a game, being in virtual playoff mode at this point, would find a way to get the job done and score 1 out of 13 runners on base.  Unfathomable, unthinkable, unbelievable, believable, and the reality – this is why baseball is far boring and much farther from being predictable.  Anyone willing to debate this with me, the floor is yours.