ROOKIE WALK-OFF TRIFECTA
The odds against its happening would have been astronomical even if some visionary oddsmaker had put up a line on three walk off homers, three nights in a row, all hit by three different rookies on the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. Nothing even close has happened like that before.
It was baby faced catcher Will Smith who popped the final homer out of Dodger Stadium on Sunday evening to cap off the three. The popular young catcher had barely gotten off the plane from the minors when Doc Roberts called on him to pinch hit in the bottom of the ninth in a tight 3-3 battle with rival Colorado.
The whole team wanted the kid to get a hit, and boy, did he ever, with a three run homer that walked off the Dodgers in high style to a 6-3 victory. Manager Dave Roberts summed it up best, “Just when you think it can’t get any better, it does! We talk about these young players not being afraid of the moment.”
As per the Elias Sports Bureau, it marked the first time in MLB history that 3 rookies from any team have hit back to back to back homers three nights in a row. It may be a long time before it ever happens again.
Another record to add to the wall for the Dodgers, and what must have been a perplexing three lost games for the Colorado Rockies. No team in MLB history has ever lost like that either.
The party got underway on Friday evening in Chavez Ravine with the score tied 2-2 after a tough pitchers’ duel between the Dodgers’ Walker Buehler and German Marquez of the Rockies.
All-round utility wonder boy Matt Beaty got the call to pinch hit and banged out a two run homer that, once again, gave the Dodgers the victory in walk-off fashion. Beaty later told reporters, “It just felt like I was floating around the bases. Hitting a walk-off homer is no better feeling.” He had just been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City earlier that same day.
The Saturday night contest was even more dramatic. This time it was rookie center fielder Alex Verdugo, who has quickly endeared himself to Dodgers fans with his zest for the game. Verdugo had already hit one homerun earlier in the game but the score was deadlocked at 4-4 at the end of regulation.
He came up again in the bottom of the 11th inning and sent a long, no-doubter, strike that went way up into the seats and gave the Dodgers two walk-off homerun victories in a row.
Who would have guessed, or ventured to wager, that there would be a third on Sunday evening?
