Home plate umpire Cory Blaser will never forget the Chicago White Sox walk-off victory Saturday.
The White Sox won the game in one of the most bizarre endings imaginable. Detroit Tigers reliever José Cisnero uncorked a wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, allowing Yoán Moncada to score from third. However, the wild pitch, a 96.4 mph fastball, struck Blaser squarely in the face mask before bouncing away.
The White Sox walk it off on a pitch that hits the umpire in the face. ⚾️😬
Jason Benetti and Steve Stone on the call for NBC Sports Chicago.
"What in the world did we just watch?" pic.twitter.com/i96iEb6j96
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 3, 2023
Blaser went down as catcher Eric Haase looked around for the ball, and Moncada raced home. That led to a strange, muted celebration by the White Sox as batter Tim Anderson and Haase helped Blaser to his feet. He appeared to be shaken up by the fastball.
If the ending itself isn’t strange enough, consider this — all three runs in the game scored on wild pitches.
It’s a walk-off win that has likely never happened before in MLB history. It would be hard to imagine anyone could either prove or disprove that statement. Either way, the painful ending — for Blaser, anyway — left Twitter buzzing.
Come to a baseball game, and you might see something you’ve never seen before 😯
— Papa Ant Trades (@antmanroldan) June 3, 2023
In all fairness, goes to show you what kind of person the catcher is as his first concern was the umpires condition.
— Ringmaster_Nero (@NeroRingmaster) June 3, 2023
That was bad catching right there, clearly got mixed up and the ump paid the price just unfortunate
— x – Ginja (Bowser guy) (@Ginja1222) June 3, 2023
Never seen a game end like this, so wild.
— Ginosauras Rex 🦖 (@GinoMuzzalupo) June 3, 2023
Did the pitcher miss THAT bad or was that mispitch
— ๓คภภץ 💤 (@WinTheDays) June 3, 2023
[Photo Credit: NBC Sports Chicago]
