Well, that’s one wild way for the White Sox to win a ballgame.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning in Saturday’s matinee in Chicago, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson stood in at the plate against Tigers reliever Jose Cisnero after Jake Burger had been hit by a pitch.
With a chance to walk things off, the White Sox did just that, but they pulled off the 2-1 win over the Tigers without even swinging the bat.
The right-hander Cisnero unleashed a 96-mph up-and-in fastball that missed everything — except the facemask of home plate umpire Cory Blaser.
While the umpire fell to the ground behind the plate, Detroit catcher Eric Haase could not locate the ball and stood nearly frozen.
Cisnero raced off the mound to grab the ball that had careened near the first base dugout, but by the time he had reached it, Yoan Moncada scored the winning run.
“First time that happened to me,” Moncada said through an interpreter. “It was a very weird thing.”
Blaser was helped up by Anderson and Haase and eventually led off the field by Chicago’s training staff as the team celebrated its win.
“Never seen that,” White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease said. “Just hope he’s OK. Took 96 (mph) straight to the facemask.”
The umpiring crew declined comment to the AP.
Major League Baseball said Blaser is undergoing evaluation.
Tigers catcher Eric Haase said the call was for a slider on the final pitch, but Cisnero heard sinker.
“It looked like he got crossed up or didn’t catch it,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Umpire goes down. The ball came toward the dugout, and they got a walkoff win. It looked like there was some sort of miscommunication.”
The play capped off a truly bizarre game at Guaranteed Rate in which all three runs were scored on wild pitches.
The White Sox, mired in a funk to start the year, moved to 25-35 and remained in fourth in the American League Central.
The Tigers dropped to 26-30 and remained in second in the division.
— with AP