The Worst 9th Inning Ever

A special 'thanks' to Willets Point owner Matt B for sending this in, and another 'thanks' to Big Dan owner Mike S for driving home the point of how bad this was.

On June 12 the division and historical rivals Hathsin (Me) and Big Dan (Mike, who sits next to me at the office by the way) faced off in a key opening series match-up. After jumping out to an 8-4 lead, Hathsin called on their star closer Goose Gossage who couldn't nail down a save in the 9th with 2 outs and nobody on.

The first problem was that Goose entered the game early, in the 7th, and of course was still in the game trying to close it out the 9th. In all he tossed 55 pitches, almost as much as both starting pitchers combined.

The ninth started off fine with a quick two outs but everything imploded thereafter:

- After going 0-2 on Lenny Dykstra, Goose walked him on 4 straight pitchers
- Frank Fennelly singled, putting runners on 1st and 2nd
- A-Rod walked on 5 pitches, loading the bases.
- Jesse Burkett singled, scoring the 1st run and keeping the bases loaded
- Joe Gordon walked in run
- Finally, the Hathsin Manager Profile Devil had enough of Goose.
- Tom Niedenfuerer comes into face one of the worst players in the history of ATB. Wally Schang, who is batting .134 / .200 / .141. Yes, that OPS of .341 is worse than the batting average of 5 other players this year.
- Schang works the count full and lines a 2-run single between 2nd and 3rd, giving Big Dan the lead.

- To top things off, Hathsin tried to make a comeback in the 9th. With no outs and man on first, up strides Big George Hall, the Survivor of Hathsin; one of the players whose batting average is better than Wally Schang's OPS. Hall has been awesome this year, batting .364 / .406 / .579, leading the league in triples and RBI. Even though my sac bunting is set as low as possible, Hall does it anyway and the Survivors lose a precious out, very quickly and meekly ending the game soon thereafter.

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