It's all that baseball fans can talk about this morning: the huge memorable swing of the bat at the narrative and emotional climax of Monday night's dramatic game in Arlington, Texas. An incredible, historic moment!
Allow me to set the scene: It's the bottom of the 10th inning, the ghost runner is stationed on second base, and into the box steps Rangers veteran Marcus Semien. On the mound to face him is Yankees reliever Jake Bird. The Yankees are in trouble, and not only because they had to give an important inning of work to someone recently acquired from the Colorado Rockies: Back on June 6, they were 16 games over .500 and had the second-best record in baseball, but they are presently foundering, beset by bullpen suckitude, horrendous defense, injuries to all the wrong dudes, and what is starting to look like more than a fair share of bad luck. They dropped six straight in mid-June and then another six straight in early July, and have lost 10 of 17 since the break, including a sweep over the weekend at the hands of the Miami Marlins. They are presently third in the AL East, and falling.
The Rangers, meanwhile, are mounting a run from the back of the AL wild card race. It would not have been surprising if Texas had sold off veterans at the trade deadline and packed it in for the second half—the AL West is a bit of a meat grinder this season, with even the accursed Angels playing competent ball—but instead they snagged a frontline starting pitcher and are pushing for the playoffs. But it's been their offense that has let them down this season, and on that front they could use a lot more help from Semien, who, in his age-34 season, is slugging just .357 and producing a miserable .660 OPS, both career lows. It's a second straight lousy campaign for the veteran, and a bummer: For a solid decade, Semien was one of baseball's very best middle infielders, but this season he has sucked turbo ass.
He's had some moments. A week ago, against the Atlanta Braves, Semien stayed on the field after getting bonked on the helmet by a 95-mph fastball, played out the remainder of the game, and recorded the winning hit on a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning. Rangers fans want more from their guy, but they'll stay patient with Semien if he is brave and heroic in the clutch, to go along with his usual terrific defense and base-running. Monday presented another big opportunity for Semien to put together a professional at-bat, to dig in there, to get his barrel on a baseball and drive home the game's winning run.
Against Bird, Semien worked a 3–1 count, then took an awkward hack at a sweeper bending away from his bat. With a full count, Bird hung another sweeper over the plate and Semien crushed it, but the ball hooked out of play to left for a foul. To this point Bird had thrown five sweepers, and seemed willing to put Semien on first, versus showing him a fastball over the plate. Semien dug in for another pitch. Bird came set. Queue the leitmotif from The Natural: Duh duh! Duh duh-duh-duh!
Yikes! And also: Woof! And even yowza!
The various television and radio broadcasts were stunned. By my count the two TV crews combined for three "wows" and two "oh mys." The home team's Spanish-language radio broadcast, on KFLC, snorted and giggled, and then added a "wow" to the tally. "Swing and a miss," shouted Eric Nadel of the home team's English-language broadcast, on KRLD. "That was about as awkward a cut as we've seen from Marcus all year long!"
The WFAN broadcast was just as impressed. "Wow, what a swing by Semien! He was fooled badly," exclaimed a shocked and bewildered Dave Sims. "It was an ugly strikeout, but a beautiful one if you're a Yankee fan." Suzyn Waldman did her level best to explain what the hell had just happened—Semien recognized the bend on the sweeper at the last possible moment and just threw his hands at it to prevent a backwards K—but what the moment really needed was time for some silent reflection. New York's Spanish language radio broadcast, on WADO, described Simien as "completamente descolgado," with open bewilderment. Personally, I needed to watch the replay like seven times just to get my brain to accept that a swing had even taken place, and not some sort of involuntary spasm.
Some other things happened late in this game. Joc Pederson, haver of a remarkable .132 batting average, socked a game-tying dinger in the bottom of the ninth, and then Josh Jung socked a walk-off game-winner after the Yankees intentionally walked Wyatt Langford. It was a very fun baseball game with a very memorable ending, and not only because Semien deployed Charles Barkley's golf swing against a 3–2 pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning.
Were Semien otherwise playing his way out of the lineup in Texas, I might feel bad about pulling this moment out for closer inspection. But Semien is a rock in other important facets of his job, and the Rangers won the game, and that truly is a remarkable piece of batmanship. Our hero finished the night 0-for-5; this was the worst of his outs, but his teammates, as they say, picked him up. A happy ending. And may I say: Wow.
