Great At-Bats, v2

[Sprowl]

I couldn't track down the original thread, but Mookie Betts' game-changing marathon that took JA Happ deep meets the criteria:

A real contest: a lengthy at-bat featuring great pitching against hitting that's either not quite so good -- or that much better. The pitches aren't quite good enough to get the batter out, and the batter keeps making contact, until BOOM

Some of the pitches may be missing from this chart, but give it a few days, and they'll show up.

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

Cross posting from the gamethread because historical context around this AB is cool:


Per Ian Browne:

It was the first time a player has hit a grand slam in an at-bat of 13 pitches or more since Gary Scott did so for the Cubs on the 13th pitch against Philadelphia's Kyle Abbott on April 20, 1992.

It is also the longest at-bat that ended in a home run by any Red Sox player since at least 1988. Dustin Pedroia (May 27, 2007) and Adrian Gonzalez (April 6, 2011) both homered on the 12th pitch of an at-bat.

 

[MyDaughterLovesTomGordon]

I was in a bar and the place erupted like Mookie just won game 7. That was just spectacular.

 

[InstaFace]

Wasn't there some other famous lengthy AB ending in a game-changing HR, back in the glory days of 03-08? Like 10+ pitches. JD Drew's GS in 2007 ALCS gm 6 was on the 5th pitch, Bill Mueller's to win on 7/24/2004 was on the 5th pitch, and other ideas I had didn't check out. I mean, Ortiz's single up the middle to win 2004 ALCS game 5 was on the 10th pitch, but his GW HR the previous night was only a 4-pitch AB. Drawing a blank here.

 

[Sprowl]

There was Pedroier's ten-pitch exhaustion of Sabathia back in the two-thousand-oughts, and Coco Crisp outlasting Dan Wheeler several years before that. Details are growing fuzzy, tho.

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

Give him whatever he wants. Lock him up for life. God I love this kid.

 

[Hatcher Steals Home]

There was Pedroier's ten-pitch exhaustion of Sabathia back in the two-thousand-oughts, and Coco Crisp outlasting Dan Wheeler several years before that. Details are growing fuzzy, tho.

Pedroia against Gagne too.

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

Wasn't there some other famous lengthy AB ending in a game-changing HR, back in the glory days of 03-08? Like 10+ pitches. JD Drew's GS in 2007 ALCS gm 6 was on the 5th pitch, Bill Mueller's to win on 7/24/2004 was on the 5th pitch, and other ideas I had didn't check out. I mean, Ortiz's single up the middle to win 2004 ALCS game 5 was on the 10th pitch, but his GW HR the previous night was only a 4-pitch AB. Drawing a blank here.

Papi’s game 5 at bat was epic. It was only 10 pitches but he started 1-2 and it never got to 3-2 I don’t think and felt like it took ten minutes.

 

[Batman Likes The Sox]

Here's the full ten-minute coverage of the at-bat.

 

[teddywingman]

One for the ages. So great, not only for the result, but for the unmitigated joy of watching Mookie run around the bases, almost tripping in his exuberance. Maybe the most purely enjoyable moment I've ever experienced in sports, because the pressure wasn't unbearable. Betts could have struck out and we still would have been satisfied that Happ threw 46 pitches in the 4th inning of a game that wasn't live or die, but a game that Happ was pitching well enough to win.

Someone on Facebook said that maybe Mookie would get one in the ribs his next time at bat, for showing up Happ, but that would have been absurd. He didn't show anyone up. No bat flip. No standing there to admire the arc of his shot-- and it was a shot he could have stood to admire. Most players would have, and slowly proceeded into a trot around the bases. Not Betts, he went right out of the box and ran around the diamond with a pace like Williams skipping through his walk off in the '41 All Star Game.

Mookie is a different kind of player, you see him smiling with teammates even when things aren't going well. That grin with the offset curl of the upper lip, it's like something a writer or an artist would create to make their main character unique and endearing, he's so much like a work of fiction.

 

[uncannymanny]

Give him whatever he wants. Lock him up for life. God I love this kid.

This. I’ll be emotionally distraught the second this guy is playing on another team. He’s my favorite player to watch and root for ever at this point.

 

[Adrian's Dome]

I watched the replay of that AB on Sox In 2 and literally just geeked at the result. For the second time. The fact that Mookie could stay in on all those garbage pitches long enough to perfectly time, square up, and completely smoke that low FB (and that was no cheapie) is insane.

Eck's call of it was unreal, as well.

 

[sean1562]

i dont know the stats, and i am too buzzed to look them up, but i feel as if Mookie is one of the best young players in Red Sox history. I would not mind if we ended up over paying him when he was 36, 37. Please keep this guy around and make him a Red Sox legend.

 

[DeadlySplitter]

that AB won't be beat in the regular season this year. hope for a bigger moment in the playoffs

 

[brandonchristensen]

Juts watched the YouTube video in its entirety. Masterful.

I was following on game day so I saw the pitches happen one by one and was thrilled with any outcome.

 

[teddywingman]

Eck's call is so good too.

 

[mauidano]

There was some talk in the Gamethread of Alex Cora and his 18 pitch was it?

 

[LogansDad]

Man, what an at bat. I missed the game but even watching the video above, and knowing the result, was amazing.

And, Eck, man... just awesome.

 

[Chance17]

There was some talk in the Gamethread of Alex Cora and his 18 pitch was it?

Yes, it was, in 2004. I was watching an absurd amount of baseball back then, and for some reason had flipped to this game a few minutes before that AB started. It was pretty epic, but in much more of a i-can't-believe-it's-alex-cora-doing-this kind of way. I remember thinking that the length of the AB would be the exciting part, not the result, which would inevitably be an out of some sort, or at best a single slapped somewhere. I mean, it was Alex Cora. Vin Scully announcing it, is probably what kept me from flipping to the next game mid-AB.

 

[uk_sox_fan]

Here’s a great write-up of the Cora 18-pitch AB written by Dodger writer Jon Weisman 10 years after the event: https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/18-again-ten-years-later-alex-coras-at-bat-remains-a-wonder-360e01acc06

 

[joe dokes]

I watched the replay of that AB on Sox In 2 and literally just geeked at the result. For the second time. The fact that Mookie could stay in on all those garbage pitches long enough to perfectly time, square up, and completely smoke that low FB (and that was no cheapie) is insane.

Eck's call of it was unreal, as well.

All those foul balls when Happ was past 40 pitches were the body blows. Happ was out on his feet, tried to throw a straight left (fastball), and mookie delivered the KO.

Where can I find where 46 pitches in an inning stacks up historically?

 

[steveluck7]

Here’s a great write-up of the Cora 18-pitch AB written by Dodger writer Jon Weisman 10 years after the event: https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/18-again-ten-years-later-alex-coras-at-bat-remains-a-wonder-360e01acc06

They showed the video of Cora’s at bat on the postgame and the first thing that stuck out was one of the first guys to greet him at the dugout was Dave Roberts... just a couple of months away from becoming an immortal in Boston.

 

[luckysox]

I watched it live - I swear you could feel that result coming. It's the sneer. The sneer says, "I am better than you and you know it." He is pure joy to watch this season. Pure. Joy.

 

[Jerry’s Curl]

Generational talent

 

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

I tried searching but couldn’t find anything on Mannys game winning homer in a regular season game in Oakland. I remember watching it, thinking it was an epic at bat in what must have been 2003 or 2004. I’d love to find out how many pitches that was.

 

[SouthernBoSox]

I watched it live - I swear you could feel that result coming. It's the sneer. The sneer says, "I am better than you and you know it." He is pure joy to watch this season. Pure. Joy.

This is it. As soon as the foul ball was dropped I said to myself "he won't let them get away with it" and with every additional foul ball I said "they are screwed"

That was as fun, as exciting of a regular seasons moment I've had in my 15+ years following this team.

 

[Rovin Romine]

Generational talent

I wasn't around to see Williams or Yaz in their prime, but I can't remember any young position player, outside of Nomar, that had this feel to them.

There have been players as great to watch in their primes (Manny, Ortiz, etc.), and players who come close, particularly Pedroia in 2008, but I think it's only Nomar where I've thought, "My god, what happens if he gets any better?"

 

[MobyDickPole]

Before last night, Manny's long one against Mussina in I think the first game they faced off as Red Sox v. Yankee was my favorite double-digit regular season at bat. The transcendent batter DD was forced to (awkwardly) sign bettering the excellent pitcher he had wanted to spend that money on, a grind-it-out preview of the wars to come... beautiful enough for Buster to notice:

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/sports/baseball-ramirez-s-long-at-bat-takes-a-toll-on-mussina.html

 

[luckysox]

(snip)...but I think it's only Nomar where I've thought, "My god, what happens if he gets any better?"

Which should remind us all the just enjoy the moment and not think about the long term too much, as it, more often than not, doesn't work out the way we hope it might.

 

[charlieoscar]

I wasn't around to see Williams

Williams' last at bat was something I won't forget and he also hit a home run on his last at bat before heading off to the Korean war (had to wait until his second at bat on his return but the cheers he got from a crowd of 6,792 when he popped out to first were very long and loud).

 

[Yo La Tengo]

"I'm telling you... it's time to par-ty!"

 

[shaggydog2000]

i dont know the stats, and i am too buzzed to look them up, but i feel as if Mookie is one of the best young players in Red Sox history. I would not mind if we ended up over paying him when he was 36, 37. Please keep this guy around and make him a Red Sox legend.

It's going to be sad to see him at the very end of his career, robbed of all his electric physical gifts but still grinding away as a left fielder or DH. Of course he'll be 48 at the time, so it won't be all that bad.

 

[ookami7m]

I don't post much on the main board anymore but this was one of the most beautiful at bats I've ever seen. Happ was just gassed by the end of it after throwing some really good pitches. Obviously none of this happens without the drop on the foul ball (thank you BABIP gods) but Mookie spoiled pitch after pitch to get what he wanted. Quick thoughts:

• 95 mph coming in, 108 going out. Ball was a laser beam coming off the bat
• Seems like it should be more than the 407 feet they are crediting it with, but maybe that's just my brain adding distance for the emotional weight of it. Felt like it was going to hit the Citgo sign.
• Eck and O'Brien called it beautifully - Eck has really grown on me in the booth
• Pitch was nearly identical to the one he tapped off the plate and foul, didn't miss this one - Not sure why anyone would work Mookie down and middle like that as he has been punishing the ball there for 3 years.

To quote Teddy KGB - Give the man his money. Mookie should be the face of the Red Sox for the rest of his career.

 

[Marbleheader]

All those foul balls when Happ was past 40 pitches were the body blows. Happ was out on his feet, tried to throw a straight left (fastball), and mookie delivered the KO.

Where can I find where 46 pitches in an inning stacks up historically?

Daniel Norris had a 54 pitch inning in 2015. Price had a 51 pitch inning for the Tigers against the Yankees. Erik Bedard had one as well in the fateful 2011 season.

 

[joyofsox]

 

[Savin Hillbilly]

There was Pedroier's ten-pitch exhaustion of Sabathia back in the two-thousand-oughts, and Coco Crisp outlasting Dan Wheeler several years before that. Details are growing fuzzy, tho.

That was a 10-pitch at-bat. Game 5 of the 2008 ALCS, an elimination game for the Sox. Coco came up with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th, the Sox down by a run after fighting back from a 7-run deficit, and Mark Kotsay on second. He fouled off four pitches in a row before delivering a clean line single. I was at Fenway for that game, and it remains the most inspiring clutch at-bat I've ever seen.

 

[InstaFace]

Which should remind us all the just enjoy the moment and not think about the long term too much, as it, more often than not, doesn't work out the way we hope it might.

The first pitcher to hit him in the hands might need a police escort to get out of the ballpark.

 

[shaggydog2000]

"I'm telling you... it's time to par-ty!"

Disco Denny definitely knows when it's time to party.

 

[LeftyTG]

It was relatively unimportant in a historical context, but a memorable one for me was Sandy Leon's 11 pitch AB against Texas in 2016. It was the first game for my 6 and 5 year old sons, and my dad (a Ranger fan) flew in from Boston to see it with us. Price absolutely sucked and the Rangers jumped out in front. The Sox scored 4 in the 9th with two outs. The inning started BB, K, popup and Leon came out to pinch hit. Expectations were very low, but he fouled off 6 pitches before doubling on the 11th pitch of the AB, driving in Bradley. Mookie then crushed one to center, tying the game. They eventually took the lead on a wild pitch, scoring Pedroia and Koji struck out the side in the bottom of the 9th.

Awesome game to see live, made all the more memorable having having 3 generations there.

As a side note, I took them to a Sox game in Houston last year. Mookie won that one with a HR in the 8th. My younger son is now convinced Mookie will hit a HR every game.

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

Does anyone have the radio call? Would love to hear Joe or Tim call that home run.

 

[Beomoose]

Does anyone have the radio call? Would love to hear Joe or Tim call that home run.

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

That's awesome. Thanks.

 

[Dewey'sCannon]

I was in my car listening to the radio (via my mlb subscription) here in Maryland - the call by Neverett was outstanding, and caused my to do a quick double fist pump. You could really feel the drama building through the at bat.

 

[steveluck7]

This moment will live for me much like the Sox hitting 4 home runs in a row against the Yankees and Chase Wright. That “moment” was great as the drama and excitement built with each at bat. This one was similar in the way the drama kept building and then just exploded when Mookie teed off

 

[Doooweeeey!]

At bats like these that show up at any point in the season are why baseball is such a great sport.
For those who think the game is slow and doesn't hold interest, I hold this up as a prime example of their misconception.

"There is joy in Mudville...for mighty Mookie knocked it out of the park."