Both the Yankees and Mets played twelve-inning games on Sunday: the Mets won 6-5 over the Nationals and the Yankees lost 8-7 to the Orioles. The Orioles scored a run in the top of the 12th and in the bottom of the 12th the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs and Judge and Stanton coming up. Judge hit a comebacker to the pitcher who threw home and the catcher threw to third to complete the double play. Then Stanton struck out to end the game. Stanton has struck out 20 times in 42 at-bats this season and, as Wallace Matthews wrote in The New York Times: "To put that into perspective, consider that Joe DiMaggio struck out 13 times in all of 1941, a season in which he won one of his three American League Most Valuable Player Awards."
Meanwhile, down in Washington the Mets won in the 12th with a single by Juan Lagares, a sacrifice bunt by Amed Rosario and a single by Yoenis Cespedes. Mets new manager Mickey Callaway has adapted quickly to the National League while neophyte Yankees manager Aaron Boone just watches his sluggers and pitchers fall apart after his team scored five runs in the first inning. When Rosario lay down his sacrifice bunt ESPN announcer Jessica Mendoza demurred, saying the analytics show that one should not sacrifice because the chances of scoring a run with no outs and a runner on first are better than with two outs and a runner on second. This may be true, but like too much of analyses of this kind it totally leaves out the individuals involved. So the sacrifice bunt, the stolen base, the hit-and-run are all eschewed while we tediously wait for the occasional home run. And by the way, if we are not going to waste time throwing four balls for an intentional walk why do we have to waste time while the game stops dead so that the home run hitter can circle the bases?
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