Dee Gordon’s epic 16-pitch at-bat leads to Miami’s winning run

Miami second baseman Dee Gordon won his first National League batting title last season and he provided a reminder of why Tuesday in a memorable eighth-inning at-bat against New York Mets reliever Jim Henderson.

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Gordon saw 16 pitches in the longest at-bat in the major leagues in nearly two years. Henderson threw 15 consecutive fastballs and actually got ahead in the count 1-2, but Gordon fouled off 12 pitches, keeping himself alive until Henderson finally threw an off-speed pitch.

Gordon hit a blooper into shallow left field, which was celebrated by first-year Marlins hitting coach Barry Bonds in the dugout.

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Gordon’s grind-it-out at-bat and subsequent hit proved to be pivotal in the game. He reached base leading off the eighth inning of a 1-1 game. He stole second base and moved to third later in the inning following a pair of walks. Gordon scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly from Martin Prado.

The 16-pitch at-bat set a new Miami club record. Two players previously shared the longest at-bat in club history with Greg Zaun and Mike Lowell each having 15-pitch at-bats in 1998 and 2001 respectively.

The oddity of the long at-bat was made even slightly stranger because Gordon struck out four times in the game for the first time in his career.

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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo