Only seven innings were required for OSU to defeat MSU as a ten-run rule after seven was in place for a doubleheader. Every Buckeye reached based safely, with eight of the nine starters collecting a hit and all ten who appeared either drove in or scored a run. A six-run seventh pushed the game into run rule territory, with Mitchell Okuley's two-run triple the biggest blow in the frame.
With the Caribbean Series being played in Miami in 2024, much of it ended up on US cable TV, providing a welcome early opportunity to get ready for the season. This game saw the eventual champions from Venezuela down the Dominican Republic. The two most notable names in the game were former stars Yasiel Puig who homered from Venezuela and Robinson Cano who drove in the only Dominican run with a sixth inning sacrifice fly.
In a harbinger of things to come for both Texas’ and Zach Plesac’s 2023, the Rangers hit the latter for five runs in an inning and two-thirds, capped by Corey Seager’s three-run homer. They also scored off Guardians bullpen regulars James Karinchak and Sam Hentges, while Jon Gray, Cole Ragans, and Dominic Leone combined to hold the Guardians’ regulars to just two hits through five innings. Cleveland reserves Angel Martinez and Micah Pries would homer in the seventh, but Texas kept adding with five in the eighth and rolled to a 13-4 win in Goodyear.
This game may be notable as the one that sealed Julio Rodriguez’ placement on the opening day roster. Andres Gimenez and Owen Miller hit solo homers for the Guardians, but Rodriguez stole the show. In the third he reached on an infield single, stole second, and scored on Adam Frazier’s single. In the fifth he walked and came around on another Frazier single. After Miller’s homer tied the game in the top of the seventh, Rodriguez hit an inside-the-park homer to center with one out in the bottom of the inning, scoring all three runs in the Mariners win.
Clayton Kershaw did not have it in the first half of this doubleheader, getting yanked after allowing four runs and making 39 pitches in the first inning. Kyle Hendricks went the distance for Chicago, ducking out of much trouble as he stranded eight and had just one clean inning. His shutout was spoiled by Keibert Ruiz’s pinch-hit homer in the ninth; after the following two batters reached, he induced a Justin Turner double play to end it.
Despite the Cubs winning, Javier Baez had a terrible game in the field, booting Mookie Betts’ grounder on the first play of the game and then in the ninth booting a Corey Seager grounder and compounding the problem by making an error on a throw to second base. He was 0-2 with a walk at the plate, the walk coming after whiffing on the first two pitches he saw from Kershaw and fouling off two pitches. So it was an out of character game on both sides of the ball.
“Spring Training 2.0” in 2020 didn’t feature much in the way of game play, so intrasquad games ended up as fodder for radio broadcasts and of course, suffering from four months of baseball withdrawal, I was there for it. The Indians split squads played six innings under the lights at Jacobs Field, with the manager’s squad prevailing over his lieutenant’s team 6-3 and scoring two in the bottom of the sixth despite the outcome already being determined. Beau Taylor, Bradley Zimmer, and Greg Allen all hit homers.
Another edition of “early spring Indians/Reds tie”, with Greg Allen’s two-out ninth inning triple pulling it even. The Reds got a leadoff double in the bottom of the ninth, but could not break the deadlock with a strikeout and then were so eager to do so that the game ended on a double play on a line drive to right field.
The Indians got a two-run homer from Michael Brantley and a three-run homer from Chris Colabello in the first off Robbie Ray, then held on the rest of the way for a 6-5 victory. Ray was ejected after pitching four innings – unfortunately I neglected to note why but it appears he was unpleased at being rung up by Bill Miller in the bottom of the fourth.
