September 18th 2006
The craziest thing I’ve ever seen on a baseball field. Normally on any September 18th I’d be celebrating with empanadas and some of the old vino since its Chilean Independence Day. On this occasion I was celebrating with Dodger Dogs and $10 beers. Neither my mother nor I had planned to celebrate the holiday since it was a Monday so I invited her to a baseball game. It happened to be fleece blanket night which is her favorite promotion and I bought myself a Russell Martin t-shirt which I put on immediately. We got some decent field level seats on the 1st base side which drives me nuts for some reason, I prefer sitting 3rd base side but on this occasion it allowed me a chance to heckle the oft injured and overpaid Dodgers right fielder JD Drew as well as the San Diego Padres bullpen.
After just one inning my mother and I were just happy to have gotten our blankets since the Blue Crew was already down by four runs against Jake Peavey who would eventually win the Cy Young Award in 2007 but I consider the single most over rated pitcher in the league. The diehard in us however would refuse to leave a ballgame early. We were rewarded.
By the time Jake Peavey left the game in the 6th inning the Dodgers had come back to tie the game at four. But, much to my chagrin by the 9th inning the Dodgers were down 9-5 in what seemed like an insurmountable lead especially with Trevor Hoffman as the Padre closer, but instead of him walking out from behind the bullpen gate I see some guy named Jon Adkins who I’d never seen before and coincidently I haven’t seen since. This pissed me off a little bit. I felt somewhat insulted that Trevor Hoffman wasn’t coming in to pitch. I paid good money for this game and if I’m going to see the Dodgers lose I better get to see the second best closer the game has ever seen damnit! So I worked my way towards the Padres Bullpen and yelled something at Hoffman. I don’t remember what it was but I do remember a security guard grabbing me by the collar and saying, “Good job buddy, don’t do that again.” Hoffman wasn’t even warming up!
So this Adkins guy goes 1-0 (one ball – zero strikes) to Jeff Kent, the most prolific hitting second baseman in baseball history, on his second pitch Kent took him deep to center. Great! We’re still down by three runs. Oh look at that, Trevor Hoffman is warming up. I WILL NOT BE DENIED! Adkins then took JD Drew, the most prolific injury prone outfielder I’ve ever seen, to a 2-1 count and on his 4th pitch, Drew took him DEEP to right field. Back-to-back homeruns! We’ve seen this of course. No big deal. Oh look at that, Trevor Hoffman is coming into the game. This guy hadn’t blown a save against the Dodgers in over five years and had converted 24 consecutive save opportunities, you could almost hear Hells Bells by AC/DC blaring in the background, but of course this is Dodger Stadium… No Hells Bells for you! No way this guy had enough time to properly warm up. His first pitch to a rookie Russell Martin, who’s father had just come down to LA from Montreal to see him play, went yard. BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK! The crowd goes bonkers! This is rare. I’d seen this before but only on TV or on Sports Center. Next up was Marlon Anderson who was a late season trade acquisition and wasn’t impressing me at all. First pitch, gone! Everybody goes ape shit! BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK! This was just the 5th time in baseball history that a team hit four consecutive homeruns. Not sure but probably the only time four consecutive homeruns were hit in the bottom of the 9th inning to tie a game. Un-fucking-believable I tell ya.
Apparently Trevor Hoffman only needed two more pitches to completely warm up since he got the next three guys out fairly easily. Extra innings…
Aaron Sele comes in to pitch the top of the 10th. Great. After all that we get Aaron Sele. Basically we’re gonna lose now. Sure enough he gives up a double to Brian Giles, an intentional walk to Adrian Gonzalez and a single to Josh Bard. Padres 10-9 Dodgers. Will Trevor Hoffman go two innings? No. Enter Rudy Seanez. This guy is terrible. We still have hope. After issuing a walk to Kenny Lofton the entire stadium, 56,000 deep got on their feet as they heard Low-Rider blast from the stadium sound system. Nomar Garciaparra who had been battling injury after injury, who’s limp was now more noticeable than ever before, reminded everybody of Kirk Gibson although much like a pitcher in the middle of a no-hitter, nobody wanted to say anything. Nomar worked himself a 3-1 count which is a great hitters count and took the next Rudy Seanez fastball deep into the LA night sky. There was no doubt from the crack of the bat it was going to be a homerun. The Dodgers exploded from the dugout. Handicapped fans jumped from their wheelchairs. Girls ripped off their tops. It was pandemonium at Dodger Stadium.
Moral of the story; “It aint over till its over.” Yogi Berra
*Post Script: After the game while in the Stadium elevator on our way up to our car, we met Russell Martin Sr.
Tags: Dodgers —