The Buckeyes got off to a great start in the Big Ten Tournament, highlighted by an eight-run fourth and a four-run fifth and winning the game by the run rule after seven. Unfortunately, it would be the last victory for OSU on the season as they would drop their next two games to be eliminated. This brought a surprising end to tenure of coach Bill Mosiello, who resigned to accept his old job as an assistant at TCU after two seasons in Columbus.
Corbin Carroll had a perfect day at the plate with three walks and a double, scoring two and driving in one to help Arizona down Cleveland 6-4 in Goodyear. Madison Bumgarner started for Arizona, allowing two runs in three innings, while Triston McKenzie allowed the same in an inning and two-thirds. Deyvison De Los Santos drew walk as a pinch-hitter for the D-Backs in the seventh; he would be plucked by Cleveland in the subsequent offseason’s Rule 5 draft.
The Guardians fielded a fairly representative lineup in this game, but were using some of the “B” pitchers and it blew up in the ninth, with the Dodgers first ten batters reaching base. The first two Guards pitchers of the inning, Krauth and Alvarez, each failed to record an out but Marman retired all three batters that he faced. Cleveland only managed seven baserunners for the entire contest.
If you follow the progression of my scorekeeping style over time, you will see that my early scoresheets (late ‘90s/early ‘00s) have a lot more notes scrawled on the page then my later efforts. Some of this was due to my notation evolving to allow information to be recorded more effectively (for example, early scoresheets have notes indicating on what pitch events like steals or wild pitches occurred, which I later captured in the scorebox more efficiently), but in general after scoring literally thousands of games there is less that I find so noteworthy that it needs to be specially recorded. Sometimes you can’t help it though, and the Dodgers’ third is a good example. Cody Bellinger hit a fly to the warning track in left that bounced off Raimel Tapia’s glove and over the wall, but Justin Turner who had started from first and rounded second thought Tapia had caught it and ran back towards first, being passed by Bellinger in the process. The notation (Bellinger single to wall in left and out “PR4” – passed runner with putout credited to second base) and) gives some indication, but on an unusual play like this it helps to add the color that the ball bounced out of Tapia’s glove, which I have no code for, or exactly what Turner was doing on the basepaths.
The game saw German Marquez constantly in trouble; he only allowed one run (although it should have at least been two minus the confusion described above), but gave up six hits and six walks stranding two runners in each of his four innings. The Dodgers hade more luck converting baserunners to runs off the Rockies bullpen, getting four runs over five innings while stranding six, but it wasn’t enough. To add insult to injury, the last big LOB inning came in the ninth where they loaded the bases against Daniel Bard with one out (tying runs on base), but Matt Beaty struck out and the game ended on Mookie Betts’ looping liner to second. The only inning the Dodgers did not strand a runner was the sixth and a baserunner was wiped out by a double play in that frame.
Meanwhile, the Rockies put up four two-run innings, the first three spoiling Clayton Kershaw’s afternoon. Chris Owings had a big day for the Rockies, going 3-3 with a triple, walk, two steals, three runs scored, and a RBI.
At 12:43, Jose Urena delivered the first pitch of the MLB season to Ian Happ, and he blasted it to right for a home run. The Cubs added two more runs in the first and another in the second, but the Marlins fought back with one in the first and three in the third. Willson Contreras’ two-out double in the fourth put Chicago ahead, and they would add three runs in the seventh to pull away to an 8-4 win. Cubs relievers allowed just one hit over 5 2/3 shutout innings.
