I am not a huge baseball fan because the season is absurdly long. Even though I live in a city that has 2 professional teams I rarely ever even pay attention to whether or not either team is doing well. I do catch the scores every now and then and also, a very good friend of mine is a huge Dodgers fan so I get the updates from him.
The playoffs are normally pretty exciting though and the series always have the best plays and the best rotation of the best players those teams have to offer, for the series. It is meant to be a close thing that goes down to the wire.
The way in which the Phillies were eliminated from the playoffs was just horrible though, even though I do not care for teams from Philadelphia just because of a very old "beef" I have with the city and their fans.
You don't need to understand baseball all that much to know that when the bases are loaded and you have 2 outs, that not allowing a big hit or a hit at all, to happen is absolutely essential. Now imagine you are in extra innings and you have not yet played any of the game and are subbed in specifically because it is thought that you are the guy that can close this thing out. This is what happened to relief pitcher Orion Kerkering in the bottom of the 11th inning just a few hours ago.
The pressure has to be huge. Kerkering only faced 2 batters all day and the first one, he was apparently instructed to intentionally walk so that he could get a shot at the weaker batter afterwards. Keep in mind that at this stage in the game, it doesn't really matter if the bases are loaded and in many ways it can be a wise decision because now all runners MUST run if the ball is struck. Therefore, throwing the ball to any base before the runner gets there will result in an out and therefore, the end of the inning.
So what happened? Well, he threw a hit-able pitch and the batter nicked it, pushing it right back to the pitcher. Then, the most awful thing that can happen to any pitcher happened, he bumbled when picking up the baseball.
By the time he got his hand on the ball he decided to throw home and then wildly missed the mark. You need to understand how incredibly rare something like this is. You do NOT want to be the person on this side of history and for Orion Kerkering, this is probably what he is going to be best remembered for.
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great photography right there
he now has the record of being the only pitcher to lose a game by error in the history of MLB playoffs. this is the only time that a team's season was ended by a pitcher's error. This is a high-stress situation for sure, but honestly, these guys practice exactly this sort of situation thousands of times a year and even though I really don't care for Philadelphia teams, I have no beef with Orion Kerkering. I feel really bad for the dude. He's pitched a total of 126 innings with the Phillies since his arrival in 2023 and a lot of those innings were no doubt, spectacular including 4 saves in this season.
I can't even imagine how terrible this guys feels right now. He let his team and the entire city down and seeing as how the fans in Philly have a reputation for not being the most kind, I reckon he is going to have a ton of hate heading his way.
All of his achievements in the past will be forgotten though and even though it isn't fair, this will be his legacy. This is what he will be likely forever remembered for. Even if you don't like a team, you can't help but feel a lot of sympathy for the dude. He's only 24 too.