The White Sox walked off against the Tigers on an unusual play as the home plate empire took a wild pitch to the face and runners advanced.
We’ve all seen walk-offs before but Saturday’s action between the White Sox and Tigers brought a new and unique addition to the collection.
Chicago had the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th in a 1-1 tie against the Tigers. With two outs, Detroit’s Jose Cisnero just needed to retire the next batter to keep the game alive.
Cisnero ended the game in favor of the White Sox with his first pitch of the at-bat and sent home plate umpire Cory Blaser to the dirt.
Incredibly, all three runs in the game were scored on wild pitches.
Ump show: White Sox walk it off as home plate umpire takes a spill
Cisnero sent a wild pitch right at the facemask of the umpire, knocking him to the ground. The ball bounded away as Yoan Moncada sprinted for home to score the winning run.
Tigers catcher Eric Haase figured out pretty quickly that Detroit wasn’t going to be able to make the play. He and White Sox batter Tim Anderson went to check on Blaser, who stayed down as the run scored.
The reaction of the crowd summed it up really. It was a shocking way to walk off a game.
The White Sox and Tigers needed extra innings to decide things in part because neither sides pitching staff could keep things under control. Andrew Benintendi scored on a wild pitch from Michael Lorenzen in the fourth inning. In the sixth, Detroit returned the favor when Zach McKinstry scored on Dylan Cease’s second wild pitch of the outing.
Regardless of how it transpired, the White Sox got their second straight win over the Tigers. They’ll meet again on Sunday afternoon to finish the series.