Phillies’ Domonic Brown homers during unofficial half-inning
Spring training is all about odd scenarios that will never present themselves during the regular season. For example, you’ll never see a 10-inning no-hitter that ends in a tie during the regular season. You’ll definitely never see Will Ferrell travel around to five different ballparks and play 10 different positions on the same day. And you’ll never see an unofficial ninth-inning home run like the one Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Domonic Brown hit on Wednesday.
With the Phillies holding a 3-2 lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates, reliever Jeanmar Gomez recorded the final three outs in the top of the ninth inning to officially end the game and preserve the victory. No bottom of the inning is required, because unlike football, basketball, hockey and soccer, the offensive team in baseball can’t score for the opposition. There’s no point in continuing.
Unless, of course, it’s spring training, in which case there’s always a reason to rewrite the rules.
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On Wednesday, the Pirates wanted to get a look at relief pitcher Brad Lincoln, so the two sides agreed to play out the bottom of the ninth inning. In the process, Brown hit a two-strike, two-out home run that will never officially enter the spring training stat sheets, but will most certainly hurt Lincoln’s chances of making the Pirates roster.
The home run will also give Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and MLB.com’s Adam Berry reason to brag, as they apparently anticipated that outcome.
As unpredictable as baseball can be, sometimes you just know when something weird is coming.
As for the decision to continue, it’s possible the Phillies thought they were doing Lincoln a favor after he spent the 2014 season in their organization. He only appeared in two games for the Phillies, posting a 11.57 ERA. in 2.1 innings. Not good numbers, but there’s always a certain appreciation for service.
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At this point, Lincoln is nothing more than a fringe reliever, having posted a 4.74 in 99 career appearances. That’s quite a fall for the fourth overall draft pick in the 2006 draft — he was actually drafted and developed by Pittsburgh — but it’s cool to see him still trying to figure it out, and even cooler to see these teams give him the extra time to do it.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
