Twitter was a wonderful place to be during the Orioles six hour marathon win in Boston on Sunday. After Chris Davis struck out five times at the plate, then recorded two K’s on the bump and the win, some Twitterers were calling this the best game they’ve ever watched.
In this day in age where information and communication is instant, the best game every syndrome is very common. NFL writers are quick to conclude that the most recent Super Bowl was the best one ever for no real reason than the build up to the actual event. It’s like when you can’t wait for a movie and you tell yourself for months that’s going to be awesome and when you finally leave the theater after seeing it you’re so blinding by the hype that convince yourself no matter what that it’s the greatest movie ever.
This example does not apply to The Avengers. That movie in fact lived up to the hype and was amazing.
Over at CBSSports.com, Danny Knobler writes that the Orioles 17-inning defeat of the Red Sox was “not the best game ever,” but rather “the most incredible.”
I can get behind that.
The two teams combined to use 18 pitchers, the most ever in a game at Fenway. They combined to throw 569 pitches.
McDonald pitched in a game where he had already argued with the home-plate umpire — as a hitter.
Davis pitched two scoreless innings, meaning the Orioles now have four relievers (using that terms loosely) who have not allowed an earned run this season.
It was so crazy that you almost forgot that the Orioles completed a three-game Fenway sweep, or that they now have a five-game winning streak, all on the road against the Yankees and Red Sox.
Knobler explains that while position players do occasionally get called upon to pitch, they rarely get the win and never have the type of day at the plate that Davis had (0 for 8 with 5 strikeouts). He adds that in the past 50 years no other game had two position players as the winning and losing pitchers.
But how could this game be the best ever? Everyone knows that the best game ever was on September 28, 2011, it involved these same two teams, but took place at Oriole park at Camden Yards.
The only part that SUCKED was that MLB.TV cut the game right before the bottom of the 17th.
Sounds like Heidi all over again…