The over-capacity crowd of 8,043, largest ever to see the Nationals play in West Palm Beach, was standing for a stirring rendition of the national anthem by D.C. Washington with his customary up-tempo rhythm. His was a familiar voice for sports fans in the nation’s capital.2 A photo in the Palm Beach Post documents that spring-training setting, but close your eyes and you are listening to him at Nationals Park.3

Even before home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez called for the first pitch (1:06 P.M. EDT), word was reaching fans that Major League Baseball was about to suspend all baseball activities due to the pandemic. The Yankees won 6-3, the details of which are of little consequence under the circumstances. It was noticeable to fans that the umpires were checking their watches during the later stages of the game. Indeed, the game finished five minutes before MLB implemented the suspension at 4:00 P.M. EDT. It was going to take a while to figure out the consequences and repercussions of that action.4 But MLB wasn’t alone. The next morning’s Palm Beach Post sports section headlined analogous actions taken by the NCAA for March Madness and the PGA Tour for The Players Championship.5

As we fast-forward 133 days to Opening Day in July, we mustn’t forget the death, suffering, and hardship brought each day by the pandemic. We must also remember the heroism, sacrifice, and charity exhibited by many in response. Dave Sheinin, Washington Post sportswriter, described what everyone associated with major-league baseball was about to confront in a 60-game season: “It is as much a science experiment as a championship pursuit.”6

Opening Day stood in stark contrast to that springlike March day in Florida. Nationals Park was virtually empty when the World Series flag was raised. Only a smattering of fans was ready to watch a ballgame from their rooftop seats beyond the center-field entrance to the park. D.C. Washington again sang the national anthem at Nationals Park, as he often did. He was as forceful as ever, but this time his performance was prerecorded on the big scoreboard in a ballpark without fans. Recorded crowd noise suitable for any event that might occur on the field was ready for use. Weird, strange, unprecedented, or any number of synonyms could easily describe the day.

Now it was time for some baseball — Max Scherzer versus Gerrit Cole. Nothing stirs the excitement of baseball fans prior to a game more than the anticipation of two elite pitchers facing each other. When Scherzer and Cole last met as mound opponents, the circumstances were completely different. It was Game One of the 2019 World Series, the Nationals versus the Astros. Now Scherzer wore a World Series ring and Cole wore a different uniform, having raised his pay grade as well. In December the New York Yankees signed Cole to the richest contract ever given to a pitcher, $324 million over nine years.7

Coincidentally, it was also home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez who called for baseball’s first pitch of the regular season, just as he had done for the Nationals and Yankees on that March day in Florida. Scherzer retired the first batter, Aaron Hicks, on a grounder to second, but Aaron Judge became the season’s first baserunner with a single to left. With two outs, Giancarlo Stanton hit a fastball 459 feet into the empty seats beyond the left-center-field wall. It was the longest home run allowed by Scherzer since MLB’s Statcast first recorded those distances in 2015.8 Watching a Stanton home run sail out of the ballpark was a familiar experience for Nationals fans, even virtually. As a Marlins outfielder (2010-2017), Stanton hit 20 home runs at Nationals Park.

Adam Eaton hit a solo home run in the Nationals’ first inning to cut the Yankees lead in half, 2-1. It would be the one and only hit all night off Cole!

When Scherzer struck out the side in the second inning, he was well on his way to a double-digit strikeout game for the 94th time in his career. But Scherzer continued to be challenged by Judge and Stanton. In the third inning, Judge lined a one-out double to left field, scoring Tyler Wade, who had walked to open the inning. In the fifth inning, walks to Gio Urshela and Gleyber Torres again got Scherzer in trouble. Stanton singled to right, scoring Urshela for a 4-1 Yankees lead and keeping the bases loaded. But Scherzer got Brett Gardner on a swinging strikeout, number 11 for the game, to end the threat.

Scherzer was in trouble again in the sixth inning with one out, when Luke Voit walked and Urshela singled. This time Scherzer was saved by thunder, lightning, and the deluge that followed. It was a short game (1:43) and a long rain delay (1:58) before the weather and the Yankees won out and the umpires called the game. Cole’s victory gave him 17 consecutive wins as the pitcher of record dating back to May 22, 2019, seven shy of tying Carl Hubbell’s all-time record achieved during the 1936-1937 seasons. Cole won three more games before the Braves beat him in late August, ending his streak at 20.

This Opening Day game was like no other, providing baseball fans with a first glimpse of what was in store for the 2020 season. Baseball is bound by tradition, but there were plenty of new rules to contemplate such as the use of designated hitters for all games. When entering a game, a relief pitcher had to face a minimum of three batters or complete an inning. What about extra-inning games? Each team would start any half-inning with a runner on second base. Official scorers were now virtual scorers doing their work remotely.9

New health and safety protocols, guided by a 113-page MLB manual, became part of the norm.10 Everyone not currently playing in the game were required to wear masks in the dugout and players could wear masks while on the field. Pitchers carried their own rosin bag out to the mound and brought it back to the dugout each half-inning. In order to maintain proper social distances in the dugout, many players sat in the empty stands. Later that night, at the season opener at Dodger Stadium, those players sitting in the stands were joined by cardboard cutouts of baseball fans.11

Within one week, COVID-19 outbreaks among players and staff caused entire series to be postponed and rescheduled, and protocols were being tightened.12 Hometown teams were playing in road grays in their own ballparks, a product of necessary rescheduling by MLB. Call it weird, strange, unprecedented, or any synonym you like. Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell called it “capricious weirdness.”13 This was baseball in 2020, every time the umpire yelled, “Play ball!”14

Author’s note

It seems only fitting to finish a story about Opening Day 2020 with some baseball trivia. A hint: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, threw out the game’s ceremonial first pitch to Sean Doolittle at Nationals Park. Topps NOW baseball cards highlight noteworthy individual games and player accomplishments and are sold for a 24-hour period. Which Topps NOW card released through Opening Day 2020 holds the record for sales? The answer is the Dr. Fauci card (51,512) purchased by the author and featured in this essay. The previous record was held by the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. card (19,396) which celebrated his first major-league hit.15

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information and other data.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202007230.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B07230WAS2020.htm

Notes

1 “WHO Director-General’s Opening Remarks at the Media Briefing on COVID-19,” March 11, 2020, https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—11-march-2020.

2 Noah Frank, “How DC Washington Became the Voice of Washington Sports,” WTOP.com, August 7, 2019, wtop.com/local-sports/2019/08/how-dc-washington-became-the-voice-of-washington-sports/.

3 Allen Eyestone, “Fans stand for the national anthem before the last spring training game of the season Thursday at the FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches,” Palm Beach Post, March 13, 2020: C4.

4 Ronald Blum, “Play Ball? Not for a While, MLB Decides,” Palm Beach Post, March 13, 2020: C4; Sam Howard and Joe Capozzi, “Spring Training Ends Abruptly as MLB Postpones Season,” Palm Beach Post, March 13, 2020: A1.

5 Palm Beach Post, March 13, 2020: C1.

6 Dave Sheinin, “Home Run or Totally Foul? MLB’s Oddest Season Is Upon Us,” Washington Post, July 23, 2020: D3.

7 James Wagner, “Gerrit Cole and Yankees Agree to Record Deal,” NYTimes.com, December 11, 2019, nytimes.com/2019/12/11/sports/baseball/gerrit-cole-yankees-deal.html.

8 Jesse Dougherty, “Nats Open Season with Rain-Shortened Loss to New York,” Washington Post, July 24, 2020: D4.

9 Steven Wine, “Hit or Error? MLB Official Scorers Work Remotely Thru Virus,” WashingtonPost.com, July 21, 2020, washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/hit-or-error-mlb-official-scorers-work-remotely-thru-virus/2020/07/21/9882dc5c-cb85-11ea-99b0-8426e26d203b_story.html.

10 James Wagner, “Baseball’s New Rules: No Spitting, No Arguing, and Lots of Test,” New York Times, June 24, 2020, nytimes.com/2020/06/24/sports/baseball/mlb-coronavirus-rules.html.

11 Gwynedd Stuart, “Cardboard Cutouts Take Their Seats at Dodger Stadium for Opening Day,” Los Angeles Magazine, July 23, 2020, lamag.com/citythinkblog/afternoon-update-dodgers-cardboard-cutouts/.

12 “Strike Two: America’s Favourite Pastime, Like America Itself, Is Struggling to Contain Covid-19,” The Economist, August 8, 2020: 22.

13 Thomas Boswell, “Attention to Detail Is Key to Nationals’ Title Defense,” Washington Post, July 31, 2020: D4.

14 Paul Dickson, The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3rd Edition (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), 651. “The command issued by the plate umpire to start a game or to resume action.” Dickson notes first use in the Boston Globe on May 13, 1886: “McKeever held a long discussion with Pitcher Harmon about signs. The crowd got impatient; one man yelled ‘Get a telephone!’ while the umpire ordered them to ‘play ball.’”

15 Lorenzo Reyes, “Dr. Anthony Fauci First-Pitch Baseball Card Breaks Topps Record for Sales in Just 24 Hours,” USAToday.com, July 27, 2020, usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2020/07/27/dr-anthony-fauci-topps-baseball-card-breaks-company-sales-record/5519546002/.

Indeed, because all professional sports had been suspended in March, it was the first “regular season” game for any of Boston’s sports teams since March 10, when both hockey’s Bruins and basketball’s Celtics had won games. Very little was regular about the 2020 season.

The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy called it “the most unusual sporting event in our city’s history.”1

The paid attendance for the game was 0. Across all of baseball, the unprecedented season began with no fans permitted in any major-league ballpark due to protocols adopted to reduce transmission of the virus still raging across most of the country. No scalpers sold tickets outside Fenway Park. Some fans lingered outside the ballpark to get the feeling of being close to the action – and maybe catch a ball hit over the Green Monster in left field onto Lansdowne Street.

The game was televised, but the Red Sox broadcasters operated remotely from the flagship NESN offices in Watertown, Massachusetts. Analyst Jerry Remy said it was his 33rd Opening Day as a TV broadcaster.

Ceremonies before the game saw both the visiting Orioles and the Red Sox honor the Black Lives Matter movement. A black unity ribbon was held by all as the two teams lined up on the baselines. Three sections of the bleachers were covered with a large Black Lives Matter banner that was 120 feet long and 20 feet tall.2

The game time temperature was 74 degrees, almost certainly the warmest of any home opener in Boston’s baseball history. The Orioles were coming off two seasons of losing more than 100 games – they had been 47-115 in 2018 and 54-108 in 2019. Boston had been 84-78 in 2019 and had won the World Series in 2018. Neither team was expected to contend in the radically shortened 60-game season planned for 2020.

Nathan Eovaldi started the game for the Red Sox. His very first pitch, a strike, was measured at 100 mph. The first Orioles batter, center fielder Austin Hays, hit a later pitch toward the Red Sox bullpen in right field. It was caught by Kevin Pillar, who leapt and snared the ball, and then banged hard into the padding on the pen.

Prerecorded applause from speakers placed around the park could be heard both there and on the broadcasts. There were cardboard cutouts of people in the seats atop the Green Monster, depicting people who had donated to the Red Sox Foundation.

Tommy Milone, signed as a free agent in February 2020 after a season in Seattle, made his first major-league start as an Oriole.3 After two scoreless innings from both starters, Eovaldi took the mound in the top of the third wearing a shirt with the uniform number 7, instead of his usual 17. Because catcher Christian Vazquez wears 7, the Sox had a battery of number 7 pitching to number 7.4

The first scoring occurred in bottom of the third. The Red Sox hit four doubles, every one of them going into the field’s left-field corner. The doubles drove in four runs, one of them Rafael Devers, who had walked in the midst of all the doubling. Jackie Bradley Jr., Jose Peraza, J.D. Martinez, and Kevin Pillar each had a two-base hit. Milone departed after three innings; he had struck out five Red Sox but walked three.

The Red Sox added six runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 10-0. Reliever Cody Carroll allowed each of the first four batters he faced to reach base, walking Andrew Benintendi with the bases loaded to force in another run. With the score 5-0, Travis Lakins came on to relieve Carroll and was greeted by J.D. Martinez’s a ground-rule double to right field for two RBIs. After getting Devers to ground out, Lakins saw three Red Sox each single (to center, right, and left): Xander Bogaerts, Kevin Pillar, and Christian Vazquez.

The Orioles scored one run in the top of the sixth when Renato Nunez doubled down the left-field line, driving in right fielder Anthony Santander, who had doubled to center. Santander had “an accelerated run-up to the season because of a positive COVID-19 diagnosis that kept him away from the team.”5 He scored the first run of the season for Baltimore.

The Red Sox responded with three more runs in the bottom of the inning, driving the score to 13-1. Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a two-run double to left, and José Peraza then doubled to left, scoring Bradley. Eovaldi departed after six innings after allowing five hits and the one run. He walked one and struck out four.

The only other run scored in the game came on a solo home run into the Red Sox bullpen by Orioles third baseman Rio Ruiz off Austin Brice in the top of the seventh.

No Oriole had more than one hit, with Nunez and Ruiz each having the one RBI. For the Red Sox, who accumulated 17 hits (and left 10 on base), both J.D. Martinez and Pillar had three RBIs and both Bradley and Peraza had two. Peraza was 4-for-5, Jackie Bradley Jr. was 3-for-4, and Martinez and Pillar were 3-for-5.

Only once before had the Red Sox scored as many runs in an Opening Day game: a 15-5 win over the New York Yankees in 1973. The 11-run margin of victory for this 2020 game stood as the largest on Opening Day in team history, surpassing 10-run margins against the Yankees in 1919 and 1973. The Orioles team was a younger one, dating to 1954, when they moved from St. Louis. They had suffered a more lopsided Opening Day loss in 1988: a 12-0 defeat by the Milwaukee Brewers. The 13 runs they allowed against Boston were the most scored against them in an opener.

Though a number of new players made their Red Sox debuts before the game was over, there was one element of continuity – six of the starting nine played the same positions they had played in each of the two prior seasons. They were Christian Vázquez (catcher), Xander Bogaerts (shortstop), Rafael Devers (third base), Andrew Benintendi (left field), Jackie Bradley Jr. in center field, and J.D. Martinez (designated hitter).6

Two of the other three starting players were making their Red Sox debuts, and both were impressive – second baseman Jose Peraza was 4-for-5 and Kevin Pillar was 3-for-5.

Others debuting for the Red Sox were (as manager) Ron Roenicke and pitchers Austin Brice and Phillips Valdez, catcher Jonathan Lucroy, and infielder Jonathan Arauz. For Arauz, it was his major-league debut. In Brice’s case, he was the first player born in China (Hong Kong) to play for the Red Sox.

Debuting for the Orioles were Milone and fellow pitcher Travis Lakins, three who played shortstop: Jose Iglesias, Pat Valaika, and Andrew Velasquez, outfielder DJ Stewart, and catcher Chance Sisco. Lakins and Iglesias had played for Boston earlier in their careers. Some of the others had played elsewhere as well.

After the game, second-year Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said, “I’d like to flush this one. Our guys are going to stay positive, turn the page and come out hopefully for a better result tomorrow.”7

The Orioles did get better results in both of the games that followed.

When the 2020 regular season ended, the Red Sox were in last place in the AL East, 16 games behind first-place Tampa Bay. The Orioles finished a game ahead of Boston and 15 games behind the Rays.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS202007240.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B07240BOS2020.htm

Notes

1 Dan Shaughnessy, “Opening Day Like No Other for a Sport We Know So Well,” Boston Globe, July 25, 2020: 1.

2 Similar demonstrations of support for Black Lives Matter were held across baseball.

3 Milone was 1-4 for the Orioles in 2020 and was traded to the Atlanta Braves on August 30. He appeared in three games for the Braves without a decision.

4 The pitcher explained after the game that he and Vazquez both “sweat a lot” and so they had hung up additional jerseys in the batting cage behind the Red Sox dugout. He did not realize he’d changed into the wrong jersey while the Red Sox were batting in the bottom of the second. When he came off the mound after the top of the third, his teammates were calling to him, “Way to go, Vazquez,” and he was a little bewildered before being told what he had done. He changed to another number-17 shirt for the fourth, and later said, “I thought it felt a little tight on my arms but it’s all good.” Christopher Smith, “Nathan Eovaldi Accidentally Wears Boston Red Sox No. 7 Jersey; ‘I Thought It Felt a Little Tight on My Arms but It’s All Good’,” MassLive.com, July 25, 2020. https://masslive.com/redsox/2020/07/nathan-eovaldi-accidentally-wears-boston-red-sox-no-7-jersey-i-thought-it-felt-a-little-tight-on-my-arms-but-its-all-good.html.

5 Jon Meoli, “Orioles Battered by Boston, 13-2, on Opening Day,” Baltimore Sun, July 24, 2020. https://baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-redsox-opening-day-20200725-ofj7np7dznfbnbp7eaot4qpd7i-story.html.

6 “Red Sox Notes,” July 24, 2020. The only time this had previously occurred in team history had been in the seasons 1902-05. “Red Sox Notes” is distributed by the Red Sox Media Relations Department.

7 Joe Trezza, “Milone, Bullpen Unable to Contain Red Sox,” MLB.com, July 25, 2020. https://mlb.com/orioles/news/tommy-milone-struggles-opening-day.

Every new year, baseball fans await Opening Day. It coincides with the arrival of springtime. It means that games are played, legends are created, and memories are made. Traditionally, the first game is played in early April, but the 2020 schedule had the Padres opening on March 26 at home in San Diego.1

In January 2020 news of a deathly virus in China emerged. Within a month, a worldwide coronavirus pandemic had taken over life in the United States and throughout the world. Major League Baseball, in response to the pandemic, announced on March 12 that the start of the season was to be delayed at least two weeks. That proved to be wishful thinking. The delay soon extended into May, then June.

Finally, in early July MLB announced a plan to move forward. The reconfigured schedule set Opening Day for the Padres on Friday, July 24, at Petco Park.

In the Padres’ original 2020 season schedule, July 24 was to be game number 104 of the regular season’s 162 games. In the new reality caused by the pandemic, the July 24 game was instead game number one of a shortened 60-game “championship season.” The season was to be completed within two months. Playoffs were scheduled to follow the end of season, with three more teams from each league added to the mix, leading to the crowning of a 2020 World Series champion in the last week of October.

The shorter pandemic-constrained season introduced new challenges for each of the teams:

• The compressed schedule required that the Padres play 60 games within 66 days. The schedule of teams to be played was geographically designed to minimize road-trip travel time, resulting in the Padres being scheduled to play only the nine other teams in the two leagues’ Western Divisions.
• No fans in attendance at games.2
• Significant rule changes that, for example, resulted in use of a designated hitter in the National League, larger roster sizes, a runner stationed at second base for each team at the beginning of each extra inning, and relief pitchers facing a minimum of three batters in an inning.
• Virus-related protocols to promote safe practices in the clubhouse and on the field, and off-the-field with nonplaying team personnel and families.

Delayed by 119 days, San Diego’s 2020 Opening Day game finally got underway at 6:10 P.M. with a called strike thrown by Padres starting pitcher Chris Paddack to Diamondbacks leadoff batter Ketel Marte. On Paddack’s fifth pitch, Marte opened his season with a single to left field. Any rally was quickly doused with an infield groundball that was turned into a double play.

For the first time in each team’s history, the two National League rivals had designated hitters in their starting lineups: Christian Walker for Arizona and Ty France for the Padres. Both hit singles, Walker in the second inning and France in his fourth at bat in the eighth inning.

The first five innings went by with little excitement and no runs scored. The absence of fans was evident in the televised production. Other than some stationary cutouts of fans placed in rows behind home plate, the empty seats were evident in the background, especially as foul balls were traced into the stands. Instead of fan noise, viewers could hear the ball hit the empty seats. In the third inning one of the Padres’ television broadcasters, former player Mark Grant, summed up what was missing this way: “Fans are the heartbeat of the game.”3

The Diamondbacks starting pitcher was Madison Bumgarner, pitching in his first game for his new team after 11 seasons and 119 wins with the San Francisco Giants. Through five innings, he allowed the Padres just two hits.

The game was scoreless as the Padres came to bat in the bottom of the sixth. With one out, shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. hit Bumgarner’s first pitch to right field and reached second base with a double. Two walks sandwiched a groundout, bringing up first baseman Eric Hosmer with the bases loaded and two outs.

Bumgarner went after Hosmer and got two quick strikes. With the count 0-and-2, Hosmer hit a double to deep right-center field, clearing the bases. The Padres were ahead, 3-0.

Hosmer’s double was on Bumgarner’s last pitch of the game; Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo brought in reliever Junior Guerra, who was able to get the final out in the inning.

To start the seventh inning, 39-year-old Padres manager Jayce Tingler, at the helm for his first major-league game, summoned reliever Emilio Pagan to face the middle of the Diamondbacks’ batting order. Pagan got two quick outs, but right fielder Kole Calhoun spoiled the shutout with a home run, cutting the Padres’ lead to 3-1. On his next pitch, Pagan got Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly to ground out, ending the inning.

As the Padres came up to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning, they faced a new pitcher, Kevin Ginkel. He got two outs with strikeouts, but also allowed a single to Trent Grisham and a walk to Tatis, giving the Padres runners at first and second with left fielder Tommy Pham at bat.

Pham hit a single on the first pitch, scoring Grisham and increasing the lead to 4-1. Jurickson Profar followed with a walk; for the second time in two innings, Hosmer was at bat with the bases loaded.

The result was the same as in the sixth. Hosmer hit a double — this time to left field — and three runs scored. The Padres’ lead was extended to 7-1.

That was it for Ginkel; Stefan Crichton was called on to pitch. He recorded the inning’s final out with a strikeout of Wil Myers.

No runs were scored by either team in the eighth inning. In the ninth inning, Tingler brought in Javy Guerra to close out the game. He gave up a single to Starling Marte, playing his first game for Arizona after an offseason trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Marte eventually scored on a single by Walker, making the score 7-2. The next batter, Calhoun, grounded out for the third out.

With six shutout innings, Paddack received credit for the win and demonstrated why the Padres expected him to be the team’s number-one starter. Bumgarner, who took the loss, was also expected to be a number-one starter by the Diamondbacks, and he pitched well enough until that one pitch to Hosmer in the sixth inning.4

For this unique 2020 Opening Day game, played in late July during a raging pandemic with no fans in attendance, the main story line had to be that major-league baseball was “back.” The season’s start was delayed by four months, new safety protocols were in place, and there were some unique rule changes. But games were finally being played again, fans could follow them on television and radio, and box scores were back in the morning newspapers.

As for the game itself, the story line was headlined in the next day’s newspaper: “Hosmer Comes Through.”5 The article went on to report, “It was Eric Hosmer who assured Friday night will be remembered fondly, as he tied a career high with six RBIs on a pair of doubles to help the Padres to a 7-2 victory.” His unusual summary line in the final box score was: “4 0 3 6,” with no home runs and no runs scored, but three hits and six RBIs.6

Author’s Note

I watched the entire 2020 Opening Day game, but it was from our family room, about 11 miles from Petco Park. I had my unused March 26 Opening Day game ticket nearby and kept score on my trusty self-made scorecard, modeled on the one in my 1952 Cubs scorecard. Even though I was not at Petco Park that evening in July, for me, baseball was back.

Sources

The basis for this game report was a project completed by the San Diego Ted Williams SABR Chapter in August 2020 entitled Padres 2020 Opening Day: 9 Viewpoints. In addition to that report and sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN202007240.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B07240SDN2020.htm

Notes

1 Over the team’s prior 51 years the Padres’ latest Opening Day was played on April 26, 1995, as the result of a players strike that began in August 1994.

2 According to baseball-reference.com, the Padres’ lowest home-game attendance in their prior 51 seasons was 1,413 on September 11, 1973.

3 July 24, 2020, game telecast, Fox Sports Channel San Diego, 7:14 P.M.

4 By the end of the 2020 season, both pitchers had performed below expectations. Paddack finished with a record of 4-5 and an ERA of 4.73, and Bumgarner ended at 1-4, with an ERA of 6.48.

5 Kevin Acee, “Hosmer Comes Through,” San Diego Union-Tribune, July 25, 2020: D1.

6 Hosmer finished the season with 36 RBIs in 38 games played.

Those cherished moments were absent from the 2020 season opener — and so were fans — when the Cardinals finally played ball for the first time, on July 24 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The start of the season was delayed nearly four months — some 120 days — because of the coronavirus pandemic that pierced the country.1

On March 12 Major League Baseball announced that spring training would be stopped and the start of the season delayed by at least two weeks. Four days later, the start of the season was postponed indefinitely. It was not until June 23 that plans for the season finally were announced — featuring a 60-game schedule to be played in slightly more than two months against regional opponents only from both the National and American Leagues (to mitigate travel), with no fans in the stands. Teams resumed spring training, dubbed “summer camp,” in major-league cities on July 1; they had just over three weeks to prepare for the condensed campaign.

For the Friday night opener, the Cardinals started the burgeoning ace of their pitching staff, 24-year-old Jack Flaherty,2 who was coming off a 2019 season in which he posted a microscopic 0.91 ERA over 15 starts after the All-Star Game and finished fourth in the NL Cy Young Award voting.3 The hard-throwing right-hander delivered, working seven strong innings to lead the Cardinals to a 5-4 victory. He allowed two runs on six hits (all singles) with no walks and six strikeouts. In acknowledgment of the social-justice issues enveloping the United States, Flaherty wore his “Black Lives Matter” batting practice T-shirt for the national anthem while his teammates donned their home white jerseys.4 The jerseys had a “Black Lives Matter” patch on the left sleeve; a “BLM” stencil accompanied MLB’s logo on the back of the pitcher’s mound.5

The Cardinals grabbed a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Tyler O’Neill homered to left-center leading off against Pirates starting pitcher Joe Musgrove. Dexler Fowler’s leadoff homer to right off Musgrove made it 2-0 in the fifth. An inning later, a two-out RBI single by Yadier Molina off Clay Holmes scored Paul Goldschmidt, who had singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a groundout, extending the lead to 3-0.

Meanwhile, Flaherty was cruising. He retired the first nine Pirates he faced before allowing singles to Kevin Newman and Kevin Frazier in the fourth. When Flaherty struck out Colin Moran on three pitches to end the inning and there were no cheers from the stands, he realized things were not the same in 2020.

“It was weird,” Flaherty said. “I knew it was a big spot, important spot, big punchout. You’re used to that — whatever it is — the roar from the crowd. You’re used to that after a big punchout, and there was none of that. A completely different feeling.”6

Hundreds of fans milled about outside Busch Stadium and at adjacent Ballpark Village on a toasty evening with a first-pitch temperature of 90 degrees. “There’s plenty of fresh air,” Cardinals fan George Littlefield said. “I just need to hear the crack of the bat. It’s still baseball season.”7

Flaherty worked perfect innings in the fifth and sixth — extending his streak of consecutive regular-season scoreless frames to 25 — before the Pirates parlayed four singles into two runs in the seventh, with Jacob Stallings driving in Josh Bell and Moran to trim the Cardinals’ advantage to 3-2.

“I saw a guy that was super-efficient,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said of Flaherty, who threw 62 of his 89 pitches for strikes. “He was in control of everything he was doing. In the seventh, he was still making quality pitches.”8

The Cardinals added two necessary insurance runs in the eighth when Goldschmidt reached on an infield single leading off against Richard Rodriguez and Paul DeJong followed with a two-run homer to left. It marked the second straight Opening Day in which the Cardinals socked three round-trippers.

Ryan Helsley worked a perfect eighth inning, and the Cardinals turned to newcomer Kwang Hyun Kim in the ninth. Kim signed with St. Louis as a free agent in December 2019 after pitching 13 seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization. He surrendered a pair of runs on a single by Jose Osuna after Bell reached on an error by third baseman Tommy Edman, and Moran doubled. Kim subsequently induced a double-play groundball off the bat of Stallings to secure the save in his major-league debut.9

“We’re 1-0 right now,” O’Neill said. “(With a 60-game season), the emphasis is definitely there for these early wins, so we’re going to try to take advantage of that.”10

Goldschmidt and Kolten Wong each had two of the Cardinals’ nine hits, while Moran and Osuna had two apiece of the Pirates’ eight hits. MLB instituted a universal designated hitter in 2020, and Matt Carpenter filled that role for St. Louis in the opener, becoming the first Cardinal ever to do so in a NL game. The last time the Cardinals had utilized a designated hitter in a home game was during the 1982 World Series.

On July 30 — just six days after the Opening Day — the Cardinals learned that two of their players had tested positive for COVID-19. Ten of St. Louis’s players and eight staff members ultimately were positive for the virus. For the Cardinals, who had a 2-3 record at the time, the outbreak resulted in their next 14 games being postponed beginning July 31 — the longest nonstrike shutdown for a team in major-league history. It also set up a daunting schedule of 53 games in 44 days when their season resumed August 15.11 They had only two offdays and played 11 doubleheaders consisting of two seven-inning games.12 Even at that pace, the tight calendar left St. Louis as one of only two teams — Detroit was the other — to play fewer than 60 regular-season games in 2020. They played 58 games; it was decided not to make up the other two.

Nevertheless, the Cardinals overcame the challenges and wound up with a 30-28 record, good for a second-place tie in the NL Central Division with the Cincinnati Reds, three games behind the Chicago Cubs.13 St. Louis won the tiebreaker with Cincinnati by virtue of its 6-4 record in head-to-head games to earn the fifth seed in the eight-team NL playoff. The Cardinals lost a best-of-three wild-card series to the fourth-seeded San Diego Padres, two games to one.

Pittsburgh finished with the worst record in the majors at 19-41.

The Cardinals had 44 players appear for them in 2020 — 25 pitchers and 19 position players — with 21 players spending time on the injured list. The team made a whopping 151 transactions over the course of the season from July 24 to September 27. Thirteen Cardinals made their big-league debuts.14

Flaherty compiled a 4-3 record with a 4.91 ERA, while striking out 49 batters in 40⅓ innings. He held opponents to three or fewer runs in eight of his nine starts. Take away the nine runs he allowed in three innings at Milwaukee on September 15 and his ERA drops to 3.13.

Two of the Cardinals Hall of Famers who would have taken part in Opening Day festivities under normal circumstances died in 2020 — outfielder Lou Brock on September 6 and pitcher Bob Gibson on October 2.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com website for player, team and season information, as well pitching game logs and the box score for this game:

baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN202007240.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B07240SLN2020.htm

St. Louis Cardinals Game Notes: July 25, 2020.

Notes

1 The Cardinals originally were scheduled to open the 2020 season on March 26 at Cincinnati.

2 According to the Cardinals, Flaherty at age 24 years and 283 days was the 16th youngest pitcher to make an Opening Day start in franchise history (since 1904) and the youngest since Joe Magrane (age 24.275) on April 3, 1989.

3 Flaherty allowed 10 earned runs in 99⅓ innings after the 2019 All-Star break.

4 Derrick Goold, “Back in Business: Cards Hang On to Win Long-Delayed Opener,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 25, 2020: B4.

5 Derrick Goold, “Redbirds Make Social Statement,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 25, 2020: B4.

6 Goold, “Back in Business: Cards Hang On to Win Long-Delayed Opener”: B1.

7 Taylor Tiamoyo Harris, “Cardinals Home Opener: Worth the Wait,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 25, 2020: A1-10.

8 Steve Overbey (Associated Press), “Flaherty Sharp, Dejong Homers, Cards Beat Bucs 5-4 in Opener,” July 25, 2020.

9 According to the Cardinals, Kim at age 32.002 was the fifth oldest pitcher to earn a save in his major-league debut.

10 Goold, “Back in Business: Cards Hang On to Win Long-Delayed Opener”: B4.

11 The Cardinals resumed play with a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. Out of an abundance of caution, the traveling party drove individually in 45 rental cars to Chicago on August 14.

12 The Cardinals were 13-9 in their doubleheaders, including three sweeps.

13 The Cardinals played only 58 games because games 59 and 60 (in Detroit) did not have had an impact on which teams made the postseason.

14 St. Louis Cardinals Game Notes: September 30, 2020.

The Minnesota Twins’ home opener on Tuesday night, July 28, 2020, was like many others in the major leagues. The delay in starting the 2020 season because of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID), meant an empty ballpark since no fans were allowed. Face masks were prevalent; procedures for distancing from one another were in place. The Twins took out a row of seats and erected a tent behind each dugout, a place for players to sit to allow more room for distancing in the dugout.

The Twins still had some of the usual trappings for Opening Day, including a military flyover and virtual ceremonial first pitches from front-line health-care workers.1

The theme of Opening Days everywhere was racial justice in the wake of the death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer, Derek Chauvin, nearly two months before. This was more pronounced because Floyd’s death had taken place less than four miles to the southeast of Target Field. The death site had turned into a makeshift “George Floyd Square.” The Twins placed signs on the right-field fence for “Black Lives Matter: United for Change” and “Justice for George Floyd.” The Twins put their logo on an “Epicenter for Change” T-shirt, indicating that Minneapolis was the focal point of the change as a result of Floyd’s death on May 25.

After the team introductions, players remained on the foul lines for the national anthem. Twins who knelt during the anthem were manager Rocco Baldelli, coach Tommy Watkins, and players Trevor May, LaMonte Wade, Tyler Duffey, Byron Buxton, Sergio Romo, and Aaron Whitefield.

Less than a month before, the Twins had removed a statue of former owner Calvin Griffith from outside Target Field. On Juneteenth,2 the Twins announced that they were finally coming to terms with racist comments Griffith had made in 1978 in a speech in Waseca, Minnesota. “While we acknowledge the prominent role Calvin Griffith played in our history, we cannot remain silent and continue ignoring the racist comments he made in Waseca in 1978,” the Twins said in a press release. “Our decision to memorialize Calvin Griffith with a statue reflects an ignorance on our part of systemic racism present in 1978, 2010 [when the statue was erected upon the opening of Target Field], and today.”3

The Twins also wore an “RC” patch in memory of one of their minor-league players, Ryan Costello, who had died the previous September.4

In the game, two Twins made their 2020 debuts, one his Minnesota debut. Right-hander Homer Bailey, signed as a free agent in late 2019, pitched his first game for the Twins. Byron Buxton, who had injured his leg diving for a catch in an intrasquad game earlier in July, got the start in center field.

Bailey allowed St. Louis runners in each of the first four innings but only one got as far as second base. By then, his hitters had built him a healthy lead.

Carlos Martinez, back in the rotation after spending a season as the Cardinals’ primary reliever, got in trouble in the bottom of the first. With one out, Josh Donaldson hit a soft grounder to the right side. Martinez came off the mound and reached for the chopper but the ball caromed off his glove. From a home office eight miles away, the official scorer called it a hit.5

Jorge Polanco lined a soft single to center, and Martinez created further problems when, with Nelson Cruz up, he made an errant pickoff throw to second, allowing both runners to advance. Martinez got Cruz to pop out and, after intentionally walking Eddie Rosario, he got Mitch Garver to ground to third on a 3-and-1 pitch with the bases loaded.

Martinez fared more poorly in the second. Luis Arraez singled and went to third when Miguel Sano grounded a double down the left-field line. Buxton rolled to shortstop Paul DeJong, who threw home to try to get Arraez, breaking for the plate. The throw was not in a good position for catcher Yadier Molina, and Arraez slid in safely. Max Kepler singled to score Sano and send Buxton to third, and Buxton scored on a sacrifice fly by Donaldson. Polanco then homered to right-center, and the Twins were ahead 5-0.

Minnesota padded its lead on a homer to right by Donaldson with two out in the fourth, which finished Martinez. Four St. Louis relievers — Austin Gomber, Giovanny Gallegos, Tyler Webb, and John Gant — did not allow another runner, but the Twins had more than they needed by then.

Tyler O’Neill cut the lead a bit with a two-run homer in the top of the fifth. After Rosario flied to left for the second out of the bottom of the sixth inning, the game was stopped for a moment of silence for George Floyd. The stadium clock read 8:46, the length of time in minutes and seconds that Chauvin had knelt on Floyd’s neck.6

Leading off the top of the eighth against Trevor May, Tommy Edman hit a fly to center. Buxton drifted back to the fence and timed his leap well, reaching over the fence and gloving the drive. He couldn’t hang on, though, the ball came out, and it bounced twice atop the fence before trickling over.

May struck out the next three batters, but Edman’s home run had reduced the Twins’ lead to three runs and created both a potential save situation and a decision for Baldelli. The Twins had won two of three games in their opening series against the White Sox in Chicago, none of them close. Right-hander Sergio Romo and southpaw Taylor Rogers were the only two relievers to not yet see action. Although Rogers had led the Twins in saves in 2019, Baldelli called on Romo for the bottom of the ninth, an indication that he might be planning a bullpen by committee. Romo got the first two batters before hitting O’Neill with a pitch. He then struck out Harrison Bader to end the game.

A near-empty ballpark enhanced some of the sounds of baseball, the chatter from the dugouts audible and the crack of the bats more resounding. However, these sounds still had to compete with game “production” within the stadium. The staff thus employed was still considered essential enough to be there to pipe in artificial crowd noise that sounded distinctly artificial and to display extraneous graphics on the video boards imploring nonexistent fans to make noise.7

Some fans found a perch atop a parking ramp beyond center field and got at least a partial view of the game.8 Like many other teams, the Twins had cutouts of the faces of former players behind home plate. The team displayed a bit of creativity with a photo mosaic covering an entire section in the top deck in left field. It had the interlocking TC (for Twin Cities) logo as part of the artwork displaying the likenesses of more than 3,000 fans.

In this, their 60th season in Minnesota, the Twins also began honoring franchise history dating back to the Washington, DC, club that was a charter member of the American League in 1901. Flags atop the stands in right field waved for each of the franchise’s six pennants and/or world championships, including those won in Washington.

Aftermath

Bailey was credited with the win but went on the injured list because of tendinitis in his pitching arm before his next start. He pitched only one more game for Minnesota, on September 22, and was designated for assignment three days later. Donaldson, the Twins’ biggest free-agent signee, played a few more games before coming out of a game July 31 because of tightness in his calf. He was out for over a month and played only 28 games in 2020. Donaldson left a September 25 game with cramping in his calf and was not on the active roster for the postseason.

The Cardinals fared even worse. They lost the second and final game of the series the next night and headed for Milwaukee for a weekend series. However, the day after the Twins series, the Cardinals learned that two players had tested positive for COVID from samples taken the day before. The entire team was given rapid tests on Friday, and the game that night was postponed and rescheduled for a doubleheader Sunday. However, as more positive tests emerged, the entire Milwaukee series was scrapped as were games that followed. St. Louis didn’t play again until August 15, the 18th day after concluding their games in Minnesota. The Cardinals had to play 53 of their 58 games over the next six weeks and clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the schedule, which meant that they didn’t have to go to Detroit the next day for a makeup doubleheader with the Tigers.9 St. Louis lost in the first round of the playoffs, to the San Diego Padres.

The Twins were more fortunate than the Cardinals and other teams in dodging postponements because of COVID. However, on August 27, they chose to join other professional sports teams in not playing after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by police.10 Minnesota played well enough to ensure a playoff spot well before the end of the season and finished first in the American League Central Division when the Chicago White Sox lost on the final day of the season.

Seeded third in the American League, the Twins were at home for a best-of-three wild-card series against the sixth-seeded Houston Astros. Minnesota scored only one run in each game as it was swept, 0-2, by the Astros. The losses extended the Twins’ postseason losing streak to 18 games.

Sources

baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN202007280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B07280MIN2020.htm

Photo credits

Courtesy of the Minnesota Twins

Notes

1 According to the Twins Community Relations Department, “We had nine healthcare workers serve as our ‘starting lineup’ on opening day with each of them participating in the ceremonial first pitch. In terms of who was selected, we reached out to the medical facilities and asked them to nominate those frontline workers who are working with COVID patients. Many of the facilities sent us two or three nominations that allowed us to select a cross section of facilities and roles within healthcare. Three season ticket holders were also selected. … The ‘first pitches’ were pre-recorded about two weeks prior [at Target Field the evening of July 16] to the actual home opener. The magical video editing people pulled it all together to create what was aired.” (Email correspondence with Kristin Rortvedt, director of Twins community relations, August 6-7, 2020, and Matt Hodson, manager of communications, August 10, 2020.)

2 Juneteenth is June 19, symbolizing African-American freedom in that it was the date in 1865 that enslaved people of Texas were finally told they were free.

3 Press release from the Minnesota Twins, June 19, 2020; Report by Eric Chaloux of KSTP Television, June 19, 2020, kstp.com/minnesota-sports/former-minnesota-twins-owner-calvin-griffith-statue-removed-target-field/5764868/?cat=7.

4 The Twins had worn the “RC” patch in their opening series of the season, setting off some confusion among viewers and social media posts wondering if Rod Carew had died. The Twins continued to wear the patch through their opening homestand.

5 Phil Miller, “Scorekeeping Going Off-Site,” Star Tribune (Minneapolis), July 19, 2020: C5, startribune.com/hit-or-error-twins-games-will-be-officially-scored-off-site/571821741. Because of COVID and the need to keep people spaced out in the press box, official scorers worked from home and made their decisions off video feeds in 2020. The author of this article was the official scorer for this game.

6 “8:46” remained as the symbol of Floyd’s death even after reports emerged that the time had originally been miscalculated and that Chauvin had Floyd on the ground and his knee on his neck for 7 minutes, 46 seconds (Amy Forliti, Associated Press, “Prosecutors: Officer Had Knee on Floyd for 7:46, Not 8:46, Star Tribune, June 17, 2020, startribune.com/prosecutors-officer-had-knee-on-floyd-for-7-46-not-8-46/571331762/). Video of the incident provided by Darnella Frazier (which she posted on her Facebook page at facebook.com/darnellareallprettymarie/videos/1425398217661280/), begins showing Chauvin already with his knee on Floyd’s neck. His knee remains on the neck for the first 7 minutes, 53 seconds of the video.

7 LaVelle E. Neal III, “A Little Extra Noise Is Welcomed,” Star Tribune, August 18, 2020: C5. Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said he wouldn’t mind the artificial noise being louder as a means of making it more difficult for teams to hear what the other team was saying. Baldelli said this after an August 16, Kansas City at Minnesota game in which both teams engaged in sniping after the game.

8 Paul Walsh, “Fans Rise to Occasion, Watch Twins from Aerial Lift,” Star Tribune, August 20, 2020: B1. It appears that the fans on top of the parking ramp for the home opener were allowed to remain as long as they wanted. A few weeks later, during a Milwaukee at Minnesota game, two Brewers fans tried the same thing, with an enhancement, bringing a portable aerial lift to the top of the ramp. However, the duo was ordered out of the ramp by Minneapolis police after a few innings.

9 Although the Cardinals played 11 doubleheaders in 2020, with a 30-28 record, they were the only team to not play all 60 scheduled games. By winning on September 27, St. Louis was assured of a playoff spot. Even by playing and winning the makeup games at Detroit, the Cardinals would not have moved into the top group of National League playoff teams which earned home-field advantage in the first round. Thus, the makeup games in Detroit were deemed unnecessary.

10 The Twins issued this press release on August 27: “The Minnesota Twins remain committed to using our platforms to push for racial justice and equality. Therefore, we fully respect our players for their decision to not play tonight’s game versus the Detroit Tigers. The recent shooting of Jacob Blake, a mere three months after the killing of George Floyd, shows again that real change is necessary and far overdue in our country, and it is our responsibility to continue playing a role in efforts to affect meaningful reform. We stand in solidarity with the Black community and, as full partners with others in the Twin Cities and beyond, we are committed to creating the change we want to see in the world — where everyone is protected, safe and welcome. There is no place for racism, inequality or injustice in our society.”

The original schedule had the Jays and the Nationals (1-4) playing two games in Washington followed by two games in Buffalo. Treating the Jays as the home team in Nationals Stadium for the second two games was a logical alternative. The Nationals’ stadium announcers contacted their counterparts in Toronto for video and audio clips, including players’ walk-up music, that would make it feel more like a Toronto home game.

Both countries’ anthems were played before the game. The only fans seeing it live were a lucky few with apartments or condos by the ballpark. The only people allowed in the stands were the grounds crew, coaches, and pitchers who would not be pitching that day. Typically those pitchers would be in the dugout with their teammates, perhaps charting pitches. But in 2020 social-distancing protocols required them to sit in the stands. Among the observers was Tanner Roark, a former National who had earned his first win of 2020 by beating Washington the previous night. The 6:05 P.M. start1 meant that the ballpark shadows fell on the infield at the beginning of the game, giving an advantage to the pitchers.

Toronto’s Nate Pearson made his long-awaited major-league debut. He started out on the right foot: The Nationals’ leadoff hitter, Trea Turner, was his first strikeout. (Yes, he got the ball.) He followed that with a four-pitch walk of Adam Eaton, who promptly stole second. Eaton was left there when Asdrúbal Cabrera grounded to first and Eric Thames flied out.

The Nationals ace Max Scherzer took the mound. Teoscar Hernández earned a leadoff walk to the cheers of the electronic crowd.2 But the ersatz rooters were silenced when Cavan Biggio grounded into a double play and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. struck out.

Pearson made short work of the Nationals in the top of the second: two groundouts and a strikeout on 14 pitches.

Scherzer responded with an equally efficient inning on 13 pitches: All he allowed was a slow infield single by the designated hitter,3 Rowdy Tellez.

Pearson allowed a two-out single to Turner in the top of the third and walked Eaton again, but got Cabrera to ground out to leave them on base.

The Jays managed two baserunners in the bottom of the third. Derek Fisher missed a home run by inches. The ball hit off the top of the padding on the visitors bullpen fence and stayed in play, giving him a one-out double. After Biggio’s two-out walk, Gurriel grounded out to short.

The Nationals also threatened in the fourth. Thames doubled into the right-field corner and moved to third on Kurt Suzuki’s groundout. But Starlin Castro’s solid line drive went right into second baseman Biggio’s glove and Carter Kieboom looked at strike three — 99 MPH on the corner.

Scherzer seemed to be hitting his stride in the bottom of the fourth: He collected two more strikeouts and a fly out.

Pearson finished strong in the fifth. He struck out Andrew Stevenson and Victor Robles and got Turner to fly out.

Scherzer kept rolling in the bottom of the fifth: two more strikeouts and a groundout.

Pearson would not return for the sixth inning, so that completed his debut. He’d have a good story to tell his descendants: In his debut, he faced probable Hall of Famer Max Scherzer, and matched him. As Pearson departed, each pitcher had thrown 75 pitches and allowed two hits, two walks, and no runs. (Scherzer was ahead on strikeouts, though, eight to five.)4

Jays reliever Rafael Dolis needed only 11 pitches to dispose of the Nationals in the top of the sixth.

Scherzer struck out Hernández to start the bottom of the sixth. Although he could stalk off the mound after a strikeout, the players could not throw the ball around the infield. Once a player other than the pitcher or catcher had touched the ball, it had to be taken out of play.5 Biggio and Gurriel grounded out, giving Scherzer another clean inning.

Sam Gaviglio took over the pitching in the top of the seventh. He issued a one-out walk to Castro. Kieboom swung at the first pitch, singling into center. Stevenson lined to left: Gurriel saved a double (and probably a run) with a diving, rolling catch. That prompted a pitching change to Jordan Romano, who struck out Robles.

Continuing with the “home away from home” theme, the Nationals Park video board played the “Okay, Blue Jays” video in the seventh inning stretch.

Scherzer pitched his third consecutive clean inning in the bottom of the seventh, inducing three groundouts.

Romano continued pitching in the top of the eighth, getting Turner on a comebacker followed by two strikeouts.

Between the top and bottom of the eighth, the cameras caught Scherzer chatting with Nationals manager Davey Martinez. Scherzer told Martinez that since he had a week’s rest coming up,6 he was good to go for another inning. Joe Panik started the Toronto eighth with a single into center. Pinch-runner Anthony Alford stole second, putting the potential go-ahead run in scoring position.

Scherzer got his 10th strikeout of the game in the Toronto eighth when Santiago Espinal popped a bunt over the netting into the stands. He then tried to pick off Alford but threw the ball at second-base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt. Turner, covering on the pickoff play, lunged for the ball, falling over Wendelstedt in the process. By the time Turner and Wendelstedt got untangled, Alford was safely on third.

Scherzer walked Fisher, and Martinez called on Daniel Hudson. Hernández hit a ball on the ground toward short. Turner laid out for the catch, flipping the ball barehand to Castro at second who made a timely throw to first for the third out, preserving the pristine 0-0 score.

The Jays’ fourth relief pitcher, Anthony Bass, got three groundouts in the ninth for his inning of work.

The Jays came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth looking for a walk-off. No one even made it to first base against Hudson’s pitching; Biggio, Gurriel, and Guerrero all struck out.

For only the second time in their history, the Nationals entered extra innings with a 0-0 score.7 This was their first extra-inning game of 2020.

Extra-inning games in 2020 included an added feature:8 A runner was placed on second base to begin each half-inning.9 The runner would be the player who had made the last out of the previous inning. So the top of the 10th would have begun with Castro on second, but he was replaced by pinch-runner Emilio Bonifácio.

Shun Yamaguchi walked Kieboom and Stevenson to load the bases. He almost got out of trouble; he struck out Robles and Turner. Eaton’s hit bounced off Yamaguchi toward second. There was a close play at second: Stevenson was called safe, but it wasn’t entirely clear whether Biggio’s hand or Stevenson’s foot arrived first. They got tangled up but when the dust cleared Stevenson was flat on his face — with his toes still touching the bag. The play was reviewed, but there was no definitive angle to overturn the call so the first run of the game scored.

That brought up Cabrera, who was 0-for-12 in the series. He redeemed himself with a triple just inside the first-base line, clearing the bases and putting the Nats up 4-0. Thames flied out.

Since the Nationals’ closer Hudson had pitched the ninth, Tanner Rainey took the mound in the 10th with Guerrero on second. Tellez was called out looking at strike three, argued, and got himself ejected. Apparently, someone in the dugout was still chirping about the call. (With no fans in the stands it was easy for the umpires to hear everything from the dugouts.) With all the masks on the nonplayers,10 the guilty party wasn’t obvious. Joe West, the umpire crew chief, wearing his mask down at his chin, came to have a word or two with Jays manager Charlie Montoyo. Toronto coach Dante Bichette ending up being the “guilty” party and taking the ejection.

Back on the field, Jansen struck out. Brandon Drury11 also struck out, but that didn’t end the game. The pitch got away, and by the time Suzuki corralled the ball, he had to hurry the throw. First-base umpire West held that the throw pulled Thames off the bag. The Nationals challenged, but lost. But the Jays could not take advantage of the two-out opportunity: Espinal flied out to end the game, giving the Nationals their second victory of the shortened season.

The Blue Jays finally got to play a true home game at Sahlen Field on August 11, against the Miami Marlins. They won that game, 5-4.

Sources

In addition to Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference, the author viewed the TV broadcasts of the game at MLB.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202007290.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B07290TOR2020.htm

Notes

1 The 6:05 P.M. start was part of the COVID-19 protocols. With no fans, there was no need to wait for them to come from work.

2 In keeping with the Toronto-home-game theme, only the Jays players heard their walk-up music and the electronic crowd noise increased when the Jays were batting or made a great play in the field.

3 Although Nationals Park was a National League Park, both leagues used the DH through the 2020 season. Among other reasons, the shortened second “spring training” in midsummer before the start of the season didn’t allow pitchers time to spend on batting practice.

4 The rest of his season did not go as well: He finished with a 6.00 ERA over 18 innings pitched.

5 This was also a COVID-19 rule for 2020.

6 The Nationals were scheduled to be off July 31 through August 3.

7 The previous such game was played on August 31, 2010. They lost, 1-0, to the Marlins on a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th.

8 “Feature” is a neutral word: Many other words were used by fans, especially traditionalist ones, to describe it. The idea was that extra-inning games would be finished more quickly, thus limiting risk of COVID exposure among players, umpires, coaches, and ballpark workers. This was not the first game of the season where this had occurred: that was A’s-Angels on July 24. The Jays had their first extra-inning game on July 26.

9 If that runner scored, the run was not charged as an earned run to the pitcher on the mound, although the pitcher could be charged with a loss. Yamaguchi was charged with the loss in this game, which does not seem inequitable given that he allowed three additional runners to score. He threw 34 pitches; only 18 were strikes. During the 2020 season, there were games in which this result might have been less equitable.

10 Masks were supposed to be worn by nonplayers (i.e., coaches, bench players, umpires). A few players chose to wear them even while playing (i.e., Gurriel in this game).

11 Third baseman Drury was substituted for pinch-runner Alford at the top of the ninth.

Cincinnati and Detroit were breaking new territory on August 2: It was the major leagues’ first doubleheader of 2020 with planned seven-inning games.1 To minimize the exposure risk to the players, all doubleheaders were mandated to be seven-inning games with a quick half-hour turnaround between games. With no fans in attendance the quick turnaround was feasible.

The Reds seemed to be jinxed by rain: The two-hour rain delay before the opener was their fourth rain delay of the week.2 At least with the heavy overcast, there wouldn’t be a glare from the reflections off the empty seats. Detroit had to tape over the silver number plates on the seats at the ballpark because the players were complaining about the glare.

Rony García (6.00 ERA) of the Tigers was making his second major-league start.3 He was only 22 when he debuted the previous week, pitching three innings against Kansas City. He had spent most of the 2019 season at Double-A Trenton, the Yankees affiliate, but was selected by the Tigers in the Rule 5 draft.4

The Reds leadoff hitter, Shogo Akiyama, worked the count full and walked. Nick Castellanos homered well over the center-field fence to give the visitors a quick two-run lead. García avoided further damage with a fly out, a groundout, and a strikeout.

In contrast to the Tigers’ rookie pitcher, Reds pitcher Anthony DeSclafani was a five-year veteran making his first start of the season. He made quick work of the Tigers: Niko Goodrum popped out and Jonathan Schoop and Miguel Cabrera lined out.

García managed a scoreless top of the second with some help from his defense. Christin Stewart made a sliding grab of Nick Senzel’s sinking liner. Josh VanMeter also lined toward Stewart — this time he made a leaping grab to prevent a base hit. After Freddy Galvis walked, Tucker Barnhart hit a broken-bat single into center, but Akiyama struck out to leave them on base.

DeSclafani worked another quick inning. Two lineouts and a groundout and he was back in the dugout. His pitch count stood at 17 after two innings.

Castellanos opened the third inning with his second homer of the game, this time into the second row of seats in right field. Perhaps influenced by the short-game situation, Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire changed pitchers to Tyler Alexander, who struck out Moustakas on five pitches. Eugenio Suárez and Jesse Winker struck out on three pitches each.

Jeimer Candelario was playing his sixth game of the 2020 season and looking for his first hit. He got it in the bottom of the third: a triple down the first-base line. It went to waste. Austin Romine hit a comebacker off DeSclafani’s backside. The ball bounced toward third, but DeSclafani jumped off the mound, retrieved the ball, and threw out Romine at first. JaCoby Jones was out on a fine fielding play by Galvis at short. Goodrum looked at strike three, leaving Candelario at third.

Alexander continued his sterling performance in the top of the fourth. Senzel was out swinging on the fourth pitch, VanMeter looked at strike three, and Galvis battled for eight pitches but struck out.  

The Tigers couldn’t get anything going in the bottom of the fourth. Schoop grounded out, Cabrera hit a solid liner — right into the shifted shortstop’s glove. C.J. Cron thought he had a home run but it curved foul just before reaching the foul pole. He grounded out.

Barnhart was Alexander’s first strikeout victim of the fifth inning. Both he and Akiyama looked at strike three. When Castellanos swung at strike three, giving Alexander nine consecutive strikeouts, the 26-year-old left-hander walked off the mound with a huge smile and the record for consecutive strikeouts by a reliever.5 His record-breaking performance was announced to the empty ballpark — and on social media to fans everywhere.6

DeSclafani allowed singles to Stewart and Candelario in the fifth, but the Tigers were still unable to score.

Alexander took the mound in the top of the sixth with a chance to match, or exceed, Randy Johnson’s record of 10 strikeouts in a row.7 He came close. He had two strikes on Moustakas when he hit him with a pitch. Travis Jankowski ran for Moustakas so he could go ice his arm.8 Suárez was Alexander’s 10th strikeout of the game. Jankowski was caught stealing: Cincinnati challenged the out call but it was upheld. He may have beaten the tag but he lost contact with the base as he slid over it, so he would have been out anyway.

After Alexander walked pinch-hitter Matt Davidson, Carson Fulmer took over the pitching and gave up a single to Senzel on his first pitch. A wild pitch allowed both runners to move up. (The rain had restarted which could have been a contributing factor.) VanMeter struck out to end the frame.

Lucas Sims took over the pitching for the Reds as the rain continued falling. With two out, Cabrera smacked a base hit to left, passing Honus Wagner for 25th place in major-league history with 4,871 total bases.9 Sims walked Cron and grazed Stewart with a pitch to load the bases. Cabrera and Stewart were replaced by pinch-runners (Dawel Lugo and Travis Demeritte respectively).

Reyes hit a fly ball toward deep center. Castellanos, the right fielder, called for the ball and almost caught it a few feet from the center fielder, but it bounced off the end of his glove. Instead of an inning-ending catch, it was a three-base error; Lugo, Cron, and Demeritte all scored to tie the game, 3-3. DeSclafani later admitted thinking that the Reds had plenty of time to recover from Castellanos’ error — he had forgotten that it was only a seven-inning game.10

With Reyes at third as the go-ahead run, Cincinnati called on its closer, Raisel Iglesias. With Candelario batting, home-plate umpire Larry Vanover said something: “Time?” “Ball?” “Balk?” so Reyes came home with the apparent go-ahead run. But Vanover clarified that he had called “Time” as the pitch was thrown, and Candelario’s at-bat resumed. He flied out to strand Reyes.

The Reds took the lead for good in the top of the seventh. Joe Jiménez allowed a double to Galvis and a single to Barnhart. With Galvis on third, Akiyama hit a seeing-eye single, scoring Galvis. Jiménez induced a double play and a fly out to limit the damage to one run.

Iglesias earned his first win of 2020 with his pitching and his fielding. In the ninth he struck out Romine on three pitches. Jones’s hit bounced high off first baseman VanMeter, but right to Kyle Farmer at second.11 Farmer managed an off-line throw to Iglesias covering first. He caught the ball, stretched to touch the bag for an all-important second, then lost his balance and was nearly stepped on by the runner.

Cincinnati looked at the play but didn’t challenge. Iglesias was unfazed: He struck out Goodrum to end the game.

The Reds completed the doubleheader sweep with another seven-inning win in the nightcap. Trevor Bauer, who would win the NL Cy Young Award in 2020, held the Tigers to two hits in a 4-0 win.

If Detroit had won the opener, it is likely the official scorer would have awarded the win to Tyler Alexander as the most effective reliever. As it was, he had to settle for breaking the record and sending his cap to Cooperstown.12

Sources

In addition to Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, and the sources listed in the Notes, the author viewed the recorded game on MLB.com and consulted a Tigers fan.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET202008021.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B08021DET2020.htm

Notes

1 Under the 2020 COVID-19 protocols agreed to by Major League Baseball and the players, doubleheaders would be seven-inning games to minimize the time players would spend at the ballpark. Seven-inning doubleheaders were commonly used in the minor leagues before 2020. It had been over a century since a doubleheader was played with two less-than-nine-inning games. Back on September 19, 1912, the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Naps played a doubleheader of five and six innings. That had not been planned in advance: The first game was called on account of rain, the second on account of darkness. There was also a rain delay.

2 They had tried moving the previous day’s game up five hours to avoid the predicted rain. Mother Nature had other ideas: It rained early and they still had to move the game to Sunday, triggering the first application of the 2020 COVID-19 doubleheader rules. Bobby Nightengale, “Ready to Make History,” Cincinnati Enquirer, August 2, 2020: 1C.

3 These were his only two starts in 2020. After this game he was used only as a reliever.

4 Under the rules applicable to the Rule 5 draft, a player selected must remain on the team’s 40-man roster or be offered back to his original club. The Tigers selected him expecting that he was ready to contribute at the major-league level. Chris McCosky, “‘Very Good Arm’: Tigers Take RHP Rony Garcia from Yankees’ Organization with Rule 5 Pick,” detroitnews.com, December 12, 2019. detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2019/12/12/detroit-tigers-take-rhp-rony-garcia-new-york-yankees-organization-rule-5-pick/4408756002/. Accessed January 18, 2021.

5 The previous record holder was Ron Davis, who struck out eight in a row on May 4, 1981.

6 Jason Beck, “MLB Record Broken by Little-Known Reliever,” mlb.com, August 2, 2020. mlb.com/news/tyler-alexander-strikes-out-9-consecutive-batters. Retrieved January 19, 2021.

7 Matt Kelly and Sarah Langs, “Most Consecutive Strikeouts by Pitcher,” mlb.com, August 2, 2020. mlb.com/news/most-consecutive-strikeouts-by-pitcher-in-game. Retrieved January 19, 2021.

8 He did not play in the second game of the doubleheader but did return to the lineup the next day.

9 By the end of the 2020 season, he had also passed Ted Williams and Derek Jeter to finish at number 23 on the all-time total-base list with 4,942 total bases.

10 Bobby Nightengale, “Not How You Draw It Up,” Cincinnati Enquirer, August 3, 2020: 1C.

11 Farmer had replaced pinch-runner Jankowski in the bottom of the sixth.

12 Jason Beck.

The Mets were a game ahead of the cellar-dwelling Nats, who were defending their 2019 World Series title. Washington had won only a third of its 12 games, scoring just 35 runs in the process, the fewest in the majors and 31 fewer than the Mets.

On the mound for the Queens men was 29-year-old Steven Matz, who wound up going winless in his six 2020 starts. As the New York Post reported, the game began “[o]nly hours after [Matz’s] fellow Long Island native Marcus Stroman cited coronavirus concerns and opted out for the season.”1 It was Matz’s fourth start of the season and second against the Nats. He had pitched against them on August 4 at Nationals Park and was hit hard, giving up seven hits and five runs in three innings while throwing 78 pitches in a 5-3 loss.

The Mets needed Matz to pitch well, as they had placed Michael Wacha on the injured list with right-shoulder inflammation, the third time this season they had added a starter to the list.2 In addition to Stroman and Wacha’s absence, Noah Syndergaard was out for the season after getting Tommy John surgery.

Opposing Matz was 31-year-old Patrick Corbin, who was 1-1. He was the winning pitcher in the August 4 game, when he threw 102 pitches in 5 2/3 innings and allowed three runs.

Corbin had a stellar season in 2019, winning 14 while losing just 7, with a 3.25 ERA. He earned the win in the clinching Game Five of the NL Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals and Game Seven of the World Series against the Houston Astros. In comparison, Matz that year was 11-10 with a 4.21 ERA, the 11 wins the most he had in his six seasons as a Met.

The game opened well for Matz. He set down the side one-two-three in the first. Corbin faced four batters in the bottom of the inning. Jeff McNeil doubled, but did not score.

In the second, Washington’s Juan Soto, batting in the cleanup spot, bounced the ball back weakly to the mound on an 0-and-2 count for the first out. An out later, Asdrúbal Cabrera homered. The Nats would never relinquish that lead.

The 34-year-old Cabrera, in his 14th major-league season, had been a nemesis to the Mets since he signed with the Nationals the prior August after appearing in 374 games for the Queens club from 2016 to 2018. In seven prior games against his former team, he hit .370 in 27 at-bats with a .593 slugging percentage.

In the Mets’ turn at bat, they got their first hit when Wilson Ramos doubled, but the next two batters’ deep flies to center field were not deep enough, so the Mets got another zero on the scoreboard.

The Nats sent seven batters to the plate in the third. Yan Gomes singled and, one out later, Trea Turner homered, making it a 3-0 game. Matz seemed to be out of the inning when Josh Harrison grounded out and Starlin Castro struck out, but the third strike got away from catcher Ramos for a wild pitch.3 Soto homered on the next pitch, a blast that “travel[ed] an estimated 463 feet and sail[ed] over the Mets’ ‘Big Apple’ sign beyond the center field wall.”4 The visitors’ lead increased to four runs.

Corbin silenced the Mets bats in the third, facing just three batters. Neither of the two batted balls left the infield.

Matz put up a scoreless top of the fourth. Cabrera doubled, his second extra-base hit, but was the only Nat to reach base.

Corbin’s mastery of the Mets continued in the fourth, a one-two-three inning, his second.

Washington made it a rout in the fifth. Three of the first four batters reached base. Turner and Harrison singled. Soto’s line-drive double, on a 1-and-2 count, scored Turner.

Mets manager Luis Rojas replaced Matz with Paul Sewald, who faced eight batters before getting the third out. Six baserunners crossed the plate while Sewald was on the mound, giving the Nats a 12-0 lead.

Mike Puma of the New York Post wrote, “Matz would have been booed off the field if the stiffs occupying the seats had a pulse, so in that regard fake fans were a welcomed backdrop for the left-hander, who surrendered three early homers to the Nationals in their 16-4 beatdown of the Mets.”5

In his 4 1/3 innings, Matz faced 22 batters and threw 91 pitches. He gave up eight runs and eight hits, but no walks.

Corbin allowed two baserunners for the first time in the fifth on a single and his first walk. Neither runner reached second as the first batter was erased on a double play.

The sixth began with Soto stepping into the batter’s box. He singled, his third hit. Sewald then walked both Howie Kendrick and Cabrera, loading the bases.6 Rojas summoned Chasen Shreve from the bullpen. He faced five batters before he could retire the side. Two scored.

Nationals manager Dave Martinez subbed out stars Soto and Turner before Washington took the field in the sixth. The game was out of hand. “By the time the Mets came to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning, they were in a 14-0 hole,” lamented the New York Daily News.7 New York sent seven to the plate. A walk and two singles, aided by a fielder’s choice, resulted in the Mets getting their first two runs.

In the seventh, after Rojas’s late-game lineup shuffle brought in catcher Ali Sánchez for his big-league debut, the Nats quickly scored twice more. Cabrera again homered, this time with Soto’s replacement, Michael A. Taylor, on second, pushing the lead to 16-2. Corbin left the game after that inning, having thrown 87 pitches.

No batter reached base again until the bottom of the eighth. Against Wander Suero, the Mets scored their third run of the game, on Pete Alonso’s RBI single.

Rojas sent infielder Luis Guillorme to the mound in the ninth. Making his first big-league pitching appearance, Guillorme faced three batters, setting down the side in order.8

In the bottom of the ninth, with Sean Doolittle pitching, Brandon Nimmo led off with a home run. The next three batters all hit the ball well, but they all lined out, one to deep left, one to deep right, and one to deep center. Nimmo’s blast was the Mets’ eighth hit, nine fewer than the Nats’ total.

Cabrera went 4-for-4 with two doubles, two homers, three runs, and five RBIs. Soto’s three hits resulted in three runs and three RBIs. He went on to win the NL batting title with a .351 average.9 Turner also had three hits, and he scored twice and drove in three runs.10

The win, as a wire-service account of the game observed, “was a 180-degree turn for the Nationals, who reached double figures in runs for the first time in their 12 games.”11 The 16 runs were just one fewer than they had scored in their previous six games combined.

After the game, the Daily News’s Deesha Thosar wrote, “Following Monday’s blowout loss, nearly 30% of the season was over. … Time is quickly running out for the Mets to get back on track.”12 But that wouldn’t be easy, Puma added, because “with the Mets strapped for starting pitching … they have little choice but to stick with Matz.”13

At the end of the season, the Mets and Nationals were tied for fourth place in the NL East with 26-34 records. Both missed baseball’s 16-team postseason.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Asdrubal Cabrera, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, screwball.ai, FanGraphs.com, and Retrosheet.org for player, team, and season data.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN202008100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B08100NYN2020.htm

Notes

1 Mike Puma, “Steven Matz Clobbered in Mets’ Terrible Loss to Nationals,” New York Post, August 11, 2020, https://nypost.com/2020/08/10/steven-matz-hammered-in-mets-terrible-loss-to-nationals/. Stroman was already on the injured list (as of July 22) with a torn left calf muscle when he opted out on August 10 for the remainder of the season. Deesha Thosar, “Mets’ Marcus Stroman Opts Out of Remainder of 2020 Season,” New York Post, August 10, 2020, https://www.nydailynews.com/2020/08/10/mets-marcus-stroman-opts-out-of-remainder-of-2020-season/.

2 Deesha Thosar, “Mets See 3rd Starter Go on Injured List,” New York Daily News, August 10, 2020: 32.

3 Puma, “Steven Matz Clobbered in Mets’ Terrible Loss to Nationals.”

4 News Wire Services, “Cabrera’s Two Home Runs, 5 RBIs Help Nationals Pound Mets,16-4,” Buffalo News, August 11, 2020: 32.

5 Puma, “Steven Matz Clobbered in Mets’ Terrible Loss to Nationals.” “Fake fans” was a reference to the cardboard cutouts of spectators that teams displayed at ballparks while games were quarantined because of COVID-19 in 2020.

6 Sewald (who gave up six earned runs in two-thirds of an inning) was optioned to the Mets’ “alternate training site” (no minor leagues in 2020) the next day and never pitched for the team again. He signed as a free agent with the Seattle Mariners in the offseason.

7 Deesha Thosar, “Mets in a Mess,” New York Daily News, August 11, 2020: 33.

8 After the game on August 10, Luis Guillorme’s first mound appearance, he appeared in relief three more times for the Mets, each stint just an inning.

9 Soto also led the majors in on-base percentage, slugging, and OPS in 2020.

10 Turner went on to lead the majors in hits (78) in 2020 for the first of two consecutive seasons. He finished fourth in the NL batting race in 2020 and won it in 2021.

11 News Wire Services, “Cabrera’s Two Home Runs, 5 RBIs Help Nationals Pound Mets,16-4.”

12 Thosar, “Mets in a Mess.”

13 “Mets in a Mess.”

COVID-19 forced Major League Baseball to establish protocols for preventing disease transmission. These protocols included reducing the 2020 season schedule to 60 games, delaying season openers, and playing games without fans in the stands. Based on the revised schedule starting on July 23, Toronto planned to host the Washington Nationals on July 29. On July 18, Canada’s federal government denied the Blue Jays’ request to play their home games at Toronto’s Rogers Centre over concerns about disease transmission.4 Buffalo, only 90 miles from Toronto, was home to the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate, the International League Buffalo Bisons. While playing at Buffalo’s Sahlen Field5 was feasible, Blue Jays’ management also considered Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and Baltimore’s Camden Yards.6 On July 25 the Blue Jays announced that their home games would be played at Sahlen Field.7

Although the Blue Jays’ home field was finalized, their home opener was nearly delayed again. On July 28 the Marlins were shut down for a week after 17 players and staff members tested positive for the coronavirus, placing the Jays-Marlins series at risk.8 When no additional cases were identified, the Blue Jays could finally prepare for their home opener on August 11.

Sahlen Field, the precursor in design to Baltimore’s Camden Yards,9 had hosted the Buffalo Bisons since 1988, and finally had the opportunity to shine for an official major-league game. The Jays upgraded Sahlen Field with brighter lighting, extended dugouts, repurposed player and staff areas, and redesigned ballpark spaces, but maintained existing field dimensions.10 Although no fans attended, many cardboard fan cutouts were placed throughout the ballpark, including one of Bisons superfan Mark Aichinger behind home plate.11

Hyun-jin Ryu started for Toronto. Ryu, who joined Toronto during the offseason as a free agent, was making his fourth start. He also started the Blue Jays’ first game, on July 24 against the Rays at Tropicana Field,12 and was 1-1 with a 5.14 ERA in 14 innings pitched. He struggled during his first two outings, then pitched five shutout innings against Atlanta to earn his first win during his last start. Ryu usually pitched well against the Marlins; in four career starts, he was 3-1 with a 2.63 ERA over 26⅓ innings.

Elieser Hernandez started for Miami. Hernandez was making his second start; on August 5 he pitched 4⅓ shutout innings against the Baltimore Orioles. The 25-year-old right-hander was 3-5 with a 5.03 ERA in 15 starts and 82⅓ innings for the 2019 Marlins, his second major-league season. His 2019 strikeout rate of one per inning and his 3/2 strikeouts-to-walks ratio were noteworthy metrics for the promising youngster..

At 6:41 p.m., Ryu’s first pitch to Jonathan Villar resulted in a foul ball.13 Villar struck out, Jon Berti grounded out, Jesus Aguilar walked, and Corey Dickerson grounded out. During the bottom half, Hernandez struck out Jays leadoff hitter Cavan Biggio, Bo Bichette popped out, Travis Shaw singled, and Teoscar Hernandez lined out.

Brian Anderson led off Miami’s second inning by driving a home run down the left-field line, into the netting protecting Oak Street traffic. Francisco Cervelli popped out, and Lewis Brinson and Logan Forsythe struck out. Toronto’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr. started the bottom half by walking. With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. up, Gurriel was picked off first but reached second on Hernandez’s errant pickoff attempt. With Gurriel on second after two groundouts, another Hernandez pickoff attempt bounced into center field. Miami shortstop Villar slowed Gurriel’s advance by holding his leg; after Gurriel broke loose, he ran toward third base, but was easily tagged out. Umpires ruled Gurriel out; while entitled to second base due to interference, he wasn’t entitled to third since he was returning to second when the interference occurred. After two innings, Miami led 1-0.

Both pitchers held their opponents scoreless over the next three innings, though the Marlins threatened in the third inning. With one out and runners on first and second, Aguilar grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Through five innings of an unfolding pitchers’ duel, Hernandez limited the Jays to a lone hit while Ryu limited Miami to two hits.

In the sixth inning, Ryu retired the Marlins on a strikeout and two groundouts. Hernandez encountered trouble in the Jays’ half against three former Bisons. Danny Jansen doubled to left field. Biggio doubled off the top of the left-field wall, moving Jansen to third base. With two runners on base for the first time in the game, Bichette launched Hernandez’s 91-mph fastball off the left-field light tower for a three-run home run,14 giving the Jays a 3-1 lead. Travis Shaw lined out to center. James Hoyt replaced Hernandez and finished the inning without additional damage.

Rafael Dolis relieved Ryu for the Marlins’ seventh inning. Dolis retired the top of Miami’s order on a groundout and two lineouts. Justin Shafer relieved Hoyt to start Toronto’s half. After a Guerrero fly out, Shafer walked two batters around a strikeout. With two on and two outs, Biggio singled to right field, scoring Randal Grichuk and extending Toronto’s lead to 4-1. Biggio stole second base to place two runners in scoring position, but Bichette ended the threat by flying out sharply into center field.

Berti led off the Miami ninth inning by greeting new reliever Anthony Bass with a left-field double. Aguilar lined out to center. Dickerson grounded out. Although Berti advanced to third base, the Marlins were down to their final out. However, they weren’t finished yet. Anderson walked. Cervelli launched a three-run long ball over the left-field wall to tie the game 4-4. A.J. Cole relieved Bass and Brinson flied out.

In the Toronto ninth inning, Guerrero Jr. faced incoming Miami reliever Brad Boxberger and grounded out. Grichuk reached first on an infield single, but Joe Panik grounded into a double play to send the game into extra innings.

Cole returned to face Miami in the 10th inning. As part of MLB’s new rules for the 2020 season, Lewis Brinson, as the hitter who made the last out of the previous inning, started the new inning at second base with no outs. Forsythe hammered a pitch down the left-field line that was initially ruled a home run; upon review, the home-run call was changed to a foul ball. Instead of putting Miami ahead, Forsythe struck out on three pitches. Eddy Alvarez flied out in foul territory. Villar was intentionally walked. Cole uncorked a wild pitch, and both runners advanced. With two outs and both runners in scoring position, Berti flied out to left field.

During the bottom of the 10th, Stephen Tarpley relieved Boxberger. Anthony Alford, running for Panik, started at second base. Jansen sacrificed Alford to third base. Biggio walked on five pitches. Bichette was intentionally walked to load the bases — the first time either team loaded the bases. Shaw lined a 2-and-2 pitch for a single to right, plating Alford with the winning run.

Cole received his first win of the season. Tarpley took the loss, though the winning run was unearned based on 2020 rules. Ryu dominated Miami, allowing two hits over six innings while striking out seven. While Buffalo and Toronto fans were eager to see live baseball at Sahlen Field, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown discouraged fans from watching on the nearby highway on-ramp, saying, “We don’t want people congregating on the 190.”15

Both teams reached the 2020 post-season.16 The Blue Jays finished third in the American League East with a 32-28 record, eight games behind the division-winning Rays. Toronto reached the playoffs for the first time since 2016 but was swept in two games by the Rays in the AL wild card series. Despite playing in relatively unfamiliar environs, Toronto finished with a 17-9 record at Sahlen Field, notably better than their 15-19 road record.17

Following the season, Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo complimented the ballpark and staff, “We’re going to keep a lot of stuff from here, the signs and stuff. My son’s cutouts that were next to the bench, things like that. The players are too. It’s pretty cool. They really did a good job here. That’s what I like about this place. We made it into our home, and we played good here.”18

A century after Buffalo’s last prior major league game, the Queen City proved again she is major-league caliber.

Sources

Besides the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the following:

2020 Miami Marlins Media Guide

2020 Toronto Blue Jays Media Guide

baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR202008110.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B08110TOR2020.htm

Notes

1 “Baseball Over for 1885,” Buffalo Express, October 11, 1885: 2.

2 “Blues Go in Glory,” Buffalo Morning Express, September 9, 1915: 13.

3 Tim Graham, “Class Clowns: The Indianapolis Clowns Have a Rich Place in Buffalo Baseball History,” Buffalo News, September 22, 2004: B1. Before the August 11, 2020, game, Andrew McCutchen narrated a video saluting Buffalo’s Negro League history, which highlighted the title-winning Indianapolis Clowns and a young Hank Aaron, who was known as “Pork Chops” before he was “Hammerin’ Hank.” youtube.com/watch?v=alZY2TsvTJg. Accessed November 21, 2020. Buffalo’s baseball history also includes Bisons second baseman Frank Grant, who played with the International League Buffalo Bisons from 1886 to 1888, and was the last African-American ballplayer in the International League until Jackie Robinson played for the Montreal Royals in 1946.

4 Mike Harrington, “Canada Says No to Jays Games in Toronto,” Buffalo News, July 19, 2020: B1.

5 Sahlen Field opened in 1988 as Pilot Field, with the first Buffalo Bisons game played on April 14, 1988. The Bisons’ home field was called Pilot Field through 1994. Other ballpark names were The Downtown Ballpark (March 3, 1995-July 2,1995), North AmeriCare Park (July 3, 1995-May 5, 1999), Dunn Tire Park (May 6, 1999-May 31, 2008), and Coca-Cola Field (January 1, 2009-December 31, 2018). The ballpark became Sahlen Field on January 1, 2019. In “Sahlen Field,” 2019 Buffalo Bisons Media Guide (Buffalo: Buffalo Bisons Media Relations Department, 2019), 141.

6 Mike Harrington, “Blue Jays Are Still Considering Buffalo,” Buffalo News, July 21, 2020: C1; Mike Harrington, “Jays Still Looking for a Place to Call Home,” Buffalo News, July 23, 2020: C1.

7 Sean Kirst, “A Surreal Year Brings Big Leagues Here at Last,” Buffalo News, July 26, 2020: A1.

8 Mike Harrington, “Outbreak Shuts Down Marlins for Week,” Buffalo News, July 29, 2020: B1.

9 Mike Harrington, “Here’s Some Perspective on Jays’ Call,” Buffalo News, July 20, 2020: C1.

10 Mike Harrington, “Blue Jays Unveil Changes at Transformed Sahlen Field,” Buffalo News, August 11, 2020: B3.

11 Mike Harrington, “Jays Made Buffalo’s Long Wait Worth It,” Buffalo News, August 12, 2020: B1.

12 Ryu pitched 4⅔ innings against the Rays, gave up three runs, and received a no-decision.

13 Mike Harrington, “Bichette Feels at Home with Blast in Sahlen Field,” Buffalo News, August 12, 2020: B5.

14 “Bichette Feels at Home with Blast in Sahlen Field.”

15 Maki Becker, “Mayor to Sneaky Blue Jays Fans: Stay Off the Grass Near the 190,” Buffalo News, August 12, 2020: B3. The highway that runs by Sahlen Field is I-190.

16 The Marlins finished second in the National League East with a 31-29 record, four games behind the division-winning Atlanta Braves. Miami reached the playoffs for the first time since winning the 2003 World Series. They swept the Chicago Cubs during the 2020 NL wild card series, then were swept by Atlanta 3-0 during the NL Division Series. Hernandez finished with a 1-0 record and 3.16 ERA over 25⅔ innings. Cervelli hit .245 with an .808 OPS in 62 plate appearances, then retired after the season.

17 Ryu went 5-2 with a 2.69 ERA over 67 innings and finished third in the AL Cy Young voting. Shaw, who recorded the first major-league hit at Sahlen Field and the walk-off single, hit .239 with six homers, 17 RBIs, and a .717 OPS in 163 plate appearances.

18 Mike Harrington, “Blue Jays Say Goodbye, Head to Play Tampa Bay,” Buffalo News, September 28, 2020: B10.

Trying to avoid being swept in the four-game series, the Red Sox sent Kyle Hart to the mound for his major-league debut. In the 2020 regular season no fans were allowed in the stands, but Hart’s brother flew to Boston to be close to him and was drinking in a local bar watching the game.

Hart’s debut did not start well. He walked Mike Brosseau on four pitches. José Martínez hit a grounder up the middle. It could have been one or two outs, but the ball ran up rookie second baseman Jonathan Araúz’s arm for an error and the runners were safe on first and second. Yandy Díaz’s single put Tampa Bay on the board. Hart kept his composure and struck out Hunter Renfroe and Brandon Lowe. (Yes, they kept the first strikeout ball for him – that didn’t change in 2020.) Willy Adames’s bloop into center scored another run for Tampa. Manuel Margot flied out to end the inning, but Tampa Bay had two (unearned) runs on the board.

Tyler Glasnow (0-1, 5.56 ERA) was making his fourth start for Tampa. He didn’t appear to be having a good year either: His ERA had increased in each game and he didn’t make it out of the third inning in his last start. Alex Verdugo doubled off the left-field wall, took third on a passed ball, and scored on Rafael Devers’ bouncer into left. J.D. Martinez walked and scored (with Devers) on Kevin Plawecki’s double, giving Boston its only lead of the game, 3-2. That hit briefly pushed Plawecki’s average above .500 (8-for-15 in the young season). Araúz singled, but Jackie Bradley Jr. flied out to leave the two men on base.

Hart’s second inning of work wasn’t perfect (he walked Brosseau and balked him to second) but he collected two more strikeouts and allowed no runs. Glasnow settled down as well, with a one-two-three inning.

The wheels came off for Boston in the third inning. Hart allowed back-to-back home runs to Renfroe and Lowe. Adames doubled, Margot singled – and then the game went into a six-minute “drone delay.” Umpire crew chief Hunter Wendelstedt called the players off the field when a drone appeared over the field, only allowing play to resume when the drone was no longer in the no-fly zone around the ballpark. Yoshi Tsutsugo continued his interrupted at-bat and singled home another run, ending Hart’s debut. He gave way to Phillips Valdéz, leaving runners on first and third, no outs, and the score 6-3, Tampa.

Valdéz limited the damage. Mike Zunino grounded into a fielder’s choice, but another run scored. The inning ended on a Martínez comebacker that started a double play.

Boston got one run back in the bottom of the third on Araúz’s two-out double, but the 7-4 score was as close as the Red Sox would be for the rest of the afternoon.

Díaz singled to open the fourth. Renfroe grounded into what should have been a double play but third baseman Devers threw the ball past Araúz, who was standing on second. Lowe singled in another run. Margot hit a one-out grounder to third. This time, Devers1 threw the ball past the first baseman, allowing yet another unearned run. Tsutsugo’s sacrifice fly scored a third unearned run for a 10-4 Tampa lead.

With that three-run inning, this was now the sixth consecutive game in which Tampa Bay had scored at least eight runs as the visiting team at Fenway Park.2

Boston scored one in the bottom of the fourth on doubles by José Peraza and Martinez.

The fifth inning went quickly. Valdéz needed only 11 pitches for the first one-two-three inning for Boston pitching. Jaleen Beeks needed one more pitch but also had a clean inning.

The Rays’ scoring resumed in the sixth against Marcus Walden. Renfroe walloped his second home run of the day – completely out of Fenway Park.3 Lowe walked and scored on Adames’s triple. Margot’s single scored Adames. Tsutsugo singled, putting runners on first and third – who scored on Zunino’s homer over the Monster. With the score now 16-5 in favor of Tampa, Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke called on Josh Osich – who got three quick outs to end the frame.

All Beeks allowed in the sixth was a double to Peraza.

Although Osich did not allow a run in the seventh, it wasn’t easy. Devers committed his third error of the game. Adames struck out, missing a chance for a natural cycle. Margot singled, giving him his second four-hit game of the year.

Anthony Banda, appearing in his first game of 2020, pitched the bottom of the seventh. Michael Chavis4 hit a one-out triple and Banda brushed Kevin Pillar’s elbow guard with a pitch to put runners on the corners. Plawecki grounded into a double play to kill the scoring opportunity.

Neither team allowed a baserunner in the eighth inning.

Since the game’s outcome was highly unlikely to change in the ninth inning, the Red Sox asked Peraza to pitch the ninth. (He had pitched twice in 2019 in similar situations.) He allowed a base hit to Díaz and a double to Renfroe. Lowe’s comebacker scored Díaz, but also hit Peraza just below the knee – and deflected to first for the out. Peraza managed to walk off the field, but he had to come out of the game. Boston needed another pitcher to finish out the inning.

Roenicke called on Plawecki, who also had experience as a “position player pitching,” with four previous mound appearances.5 The lineup shuffle to get Peraza on the mound had triggered the loss of the DH position for Boston. The 2020 rules included a universal designated hitter for both leagues, but (as in other years) if the DH was lost, the pitcher would have to bat.6

Plawecki walked Adames but got Margot to line out and Tsutsugo to fly out to end the inning, preserving his 2020 0.00 ERA.7

Despite the 17-5 score, Boston did not go quietly in the ninth. Verdugo walked and Chavis hit a two-out single. They both scored on Pillar’s double halfway up the Monster. That brought up Plawecki, now in the lineup as a pitcher. He singled as well, scoring Pillar and making his mark in the 2020 history books in the process. In 2020, no other player designated as a pitcher collected a hit (although 15 other pitchers had at-bats).8 Araúz looked at strike three to end the 17-8 rout.9

Since Banda had pitched three innings, he was credited with the first save of his career, despite the lopsided score he had been called on to protect.

Neither team saw a change in its fortunes between this game and the end of the abbreviated season. Boston finished at 24-36, last in the AL East. The Rays finished at 40-20, losing the World Series to the Dodgers, 4-2.

Sources 

In addition to Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, and the sources cited in the Notes, the author reviewed the broadcast on MLB.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS202008130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2020/B08130BOS2020.htm

Notes

1 Devers led the AL in errors as a third baseman in 2018, 2019, and, as it turned out, 2020 as well.

2 The scores of the three games in this series were 8-7, 8-2, and 9-5 in favor of Tampa Bay. On August 1, 2019, they won 8-5, and on August 3, 2019, won 9-4.

3 The distance was unavailable, as the technology for measuring the distance had broken down earlier in the game. But the video showed that the ball cleared the ballpark to the right of the Green Monster.

4 Chavis had replaced Mitch Moreland in the top of the seventh, playing first base.

5 Two appearances each in 2017 and 2019, all in games in which his team was losing badly.

6 As an example: https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-22-1999-manny-mix-up-reversed-ramirezes-lead-to-al-pitcher-batting-at-home/.

7 It also lowered his career ERA from 7.20 to 6.35. Plawecki did not have another chance to pitch in 2020. The next time the Red Sox needed a position player to pitch, they called on Tzu-Wei Lin, who pitched one inning in a 13-1 loss on September 24.

8 https://stathead.com/tiny/KiTt9. Some people may dispute this statement, given that Plawecki is not generally a pitcher. Russell Eassom, “How do we solve the Plawecki-Mikolas-Flaherty Problem?” February 15, 2021. http://batflipsandnerds.com/2021/02/15/how-do-we-solve-the-plawecki-mikolas-flaherty-problem/ Retrieved March 1, 2021.

9 The 17 runs were the most scored by Tampa Bay in the abbreviated 2020 season.