In masking big-league baseball for over three many years, I’ve seen a whole bunch of thrilling performs, and spoken to loads of ballplayers who instructed me they received goosebumps simply excited about a selected large second.
Till this weekend, although, I don’t assume I had ever truly seen it occur.
On Friday night time, Marcus Semien belted a dramatic, game-winning, three-run house run within the backside of the ninth, capping an unbelievable come-from-behind win by the Blue Jays that lit the spark for what proved to be a weekend sweep of his former staff, the Oakland A’s.
As he and the staff celebrated, Oakland gamers walked off the sector into their dugout, save for one. Tony Kemp, that night time’s left-fielder, stood on the infield grime and watched the celebration all over to Semien’s post-game interview.
“It gives me chills talking about it now,” Kemp instructed the Star within the quiet of the A’s dugout earlier than Saturday’s sport. “The place was electric and it wasn’t even full capacity. And when (Lourdes Gurriel Jr.) hit that grand slam (to tie the game 8-8 with two out in the eighth) … I mean, look, I’m talking and it’s just …”
Kemp stopped mid-sentence and lifted up his left arm for me to see. Goosebumps.
Due to the burden of the second, positive. That win was simply the second within the main leagues this season after a staff trailed by six runs or more within the eighth inning. In 462 video games.
But in addition due to one thing else.
Semien had taken a bunch of his former teammates to dinner Thursday night time. Kemp was there, in fact, together with Khris Davis, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Mark Canha and James Kaprielian.
“Man, it was just like a cool dinner,” recalled Kemp. “Marcus paid, and when he hit the home run (Friday) I was like, ‘See, that’s what happens when you pay it forward.’ You pay for dinner, you hit walk-off home runs.
“There’s talk about the baseball gods,” Kemp continued. “And you have to tend to believe (in) them because for Marcus to come up in a game-winning home-run situation after getting let go from a team that he had been with and thrived, and for him to hit a home run there, it’s something else. It’s something else that’s going on. And if you don’t believe in the baseball gods, I can’t help you, because it’s moments like that that are storybook.”
That storybook second appeared to have some carryover, as a result of the subsequent day the Jays put up a 10-spot to clinch the series and had eight runs by the fourth inning Sunday in a uncommon blowout victory, 8-0, to complete off the sweep and tie the A’s within the wild-card standings.
This from a staff that had averaged fewer than three runs per sport over the previous two weeks, hitting .144 with runners in scoring place over a 13-game span. Within the sweep of Oakland, the Jays hit .300 with runners in scoring place and averaged 9.67 runs per sport.
“Sometimes we see this beautiful game and how crazy it is,” philosophized Saturday’s successful pitcher, José Berríos. “That’s why we love this sport. That’s why we grind and come in every day, do our work, give 100 per cent to get (the kind of) win that we got (Friday).”
Even although he was on the unsuitable facet of it, Kemp needed to drink within the second.
“I think the cool thing is that I can close my eyes now and I can literally see me standing there, and everything in all its glory and the fans cheering them on,” mentioned Kemp. “I just really wanted to stay present. That memory, even though we lost … we’re in the one per cent. It’s elite, it’s the best of the best. So to watch everything unfold (Friday night), man, it was special.”
Including to the chills of the second is the truth that lengthy earlier than Kemp received to play in Oakland with Semien final season, he had been an admirer of the present Jays second sacker.
“I keep a journal,” mentioned Kemp. “And in the journal I wrote ‘Motor like Marcus.’ This guy plays every day. He takes ground balls before day games. The crazy thing is, in (batting practice) he would go from stretch to throwing to ground balls to hitting and then he would take it (inside) and he wouldn’t take one sip of water. Motor like Marcus.”
It’s not merely main by instance, both. Kemp recalled asking Semien how he handled the failure inherent in baseball, with the anxiousness of the sport.
“You’re going to mess up,” Semien instructed him. “But guess what? You’re part of the best of the best, so tomorrow is always a new day.”
“Marcus,” Kemp summed it up, “is a phenomenal human being.”
And his huge swing — together with Gurriel’s game-tying grand slam the inning earlier than — received the Jays up off the mat.
“We were done that game (Friday night),” mentioned Jays shortstop Bo Bichette, who hit .455 on the six-game homestand. “We were done and somehow we came back and got it done, so I think it just took a weight off everybody’s shoulders and reminded us how good we are. Hopefully we continue that.”
The following cease, with the Jays 4 video games out of a playoff spot, is the Bronx, the place they’ll open a four-game series towards the Yankees with a Labour Day afternoon sport.
The Yankees have adopted up a 13-game win streak by dropping six of eight, together with a weekend series loss to Baltimore at house. As soon as firmly in charge of the highest wild-card spot, the reeling Bronx Bombers now lead the Crimson Sox by solely half a sport.
We will see what the baseball gods have in retailer for the Jays as they head to the third model of the Home That Ruth Constructed. It could possibly be shaping as much as be a really enjoyable September certainly.
Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Observe him on Twitter: @wilnerness
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