Beltran swats walk-off homer to give Yankees 5-3 win over O’s

June 21, 2014 by Mike Axisa 97 Comments

That WPA graph says it all, doesn’t it? The Yankees blew opportunity after opportunity on Friday night — they loaded the bases three times and scored a total of zero runs in those situations — and looked to be heading towards a frustrating and disappointing loss. All the air was about to be let out of the Blue Jays sweep balloon.

Instead, Carlos Beltran came out of his offensive slumber to club a two-out, three-run, walk-off homer against Zach Britton, turning an ugly loss into the unquestioned best win of the season. At +0.83 WPA, it was the Yankees’ biggest hit since Jason Giambi hit a walk-off two-run homer against B.J. Ryan back in June 2008 (+0.89). I remember that game well and I will remember this one well as … well.

Pretty much everything before the homer is an afterthought. Hiroki Kuroda took a no-hitter into the sixth, Mark Teixeira doubled in Brett Gardner for the game’s first run in the first inning, and Brian McCann singled in a run ahead of Beltran’s dinger to extend the inning. It was a really good at-bat against the tough lefty. McCann’s at-bat and single in that ninth inning should not be forgotten.

I spent a good chunk of the game sitting in traffic and following on Gameday, so I can’t go into much more detail. I did see the ninth inning rally though, and that’s really all that matters. MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs some other stats, and ESPN the updated standings. The Blue Jays rallied to win after being down 8-0, so thanks for nothing Reds. The Yankees remain 1.5 games back of first place in the AL East.

Anyway, Yankees and Orioles meet again on Saturday afternoon, when Vidal Nuno and Bud Norris meet. The Yankees will add a plaque to Monument Park in honor of Tino Martinez before the game.

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RetroRob

Cashman failed. Girardi failed. Such a boring game, right to the very end.
- Jim
  
  Girardi and Cashman had nothing to do with it, idiot.
  - W.B. Mason Williams
    
    Come on man, a blind person trying read this comment by feeling the screen could tell that was a joke.
  - Jorge Steinbrenner
    
    Swiiiiiiiing and a miss.
  - Looser trader droids FotD™
    
    Stunning.
  - Pasqua
    
    Sad, really.
- ChuckIt
  
  I havn’t seen Girardi or Cashman swing a bat lately
  - Deep Thoughts
    
    I guess this marks the opening of sport fishing season.
- ChuckIt
  
  Going back a few seasons,it seems the bases loaded and not getting any runs in is still a BIG problem-new faces,same results-almost 0.The walk off was nice,but Beltran has to get back in the outfield.The DH is needed to platoon the other starters,or come late July & August they’re going to start dropping like flies. 4 in a row,can we get 5?
Brandon

This article’s title is disrespectful to Flanny.

BTW, you had ONE job Cincinnati. ONE JOB
- Kevin
  
  Blowing an eight run lead is pretty bad.
Steinbrenner’s Ghost

The hit that turned the season around!
Paisa

With everything we’ve had to endure, from the disappearing act and the Jeter injury in the ALCS in 2012 to the abomination that was last year’s team, man, this felt good.
- vicki
  
  okay, but you sound like a rich lady with a broken nail.
  
  nobility obliges. in my opinion, not what the commish demands, but let’s at least not overstate our travails.
  - Paisa
    
    I was merely seeking some context for the onrush of emotion I felt when beltran hit that ball out. So I’ll freely admit that this post had some, shall we say, extravagant hyperbole included in it. But I really don’t care.
    - vicki
      
      i hear ya, baby. but lawd, we have had us some white people problems.
      - Paisa
        
        White people problems are good problems. Although you in this instance sound much more like the beautiful and intelligent African American women who administered my dmv test than some rich white typical yankee fan.
        
        vicki
        
        you wish. i make brian mccann look ethnic.
        
        Paisa
        
        I refuse to accept that as there is no such thing.
        
        Jorge Steinbrenner
        
        I’d say that’s not possible, but we now know what Chase Whitlet looks and sounds like.
        
        Deep Thoughts
        
        Yes. To paraphrase Paul Mooney, “Chase Whitley makes Brian McCann look like Malcolm X.”
27 Rings

Two things: Plaque for Tino? Really? We doing one for Brosius too? Also, Kimbrel is no Mariano.
- Not an ace
  
  Shane Spencer had a good month give him one too.
- forensic
  
  Kimbrel hasn’t yet had the entire career that Mo did (obviously), but Mo has also blown saves in his career. It’s not like Mo never blew a game.
  
  I do tend to agree with you on Tino (as well as some of the other ones they have or will schedule), though.
- ChuckIt
  
  Brosius at least had a WS MVP.
Paisa

This post (http://riveraveblues.com/2014/06/tiqiq-prices-tickets-see-yankees-honor-tino-26-expensive-old-timers-day-105064/) basically lays out why they’re giving Tino a plaque. But who really cares when you can remember moments like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJppMH9aDCI&feature=kp)
- vicki
  
  and chicks dig him.
forensic

All the missed opportunities certainly made it feel like a frustrating outcome was to come. Then, Huff comes in and prdictably gives up a run, making it nearly a sure thing that the Yanks would score that one run in the 9th and lose by the insurance run Huff allowed. But then, Beltran comes up and goes out and up and gets that fastball crushing it out of the park:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjjZGyYcH9E

Hopefully this is really a sign of McCann and Beltran starting to get going, and not just another tease like we’ve already seen.

B.J. Ryan, now there’s a name from the past.

The Blue Jays rallied to win after being down 8-0, so thanks for nothing Reds.

Mat Latos (though he wasn’t great) and my fantasy team agree with your sentiment.
- Paisa
  
  I’ll continue to be skeptical of Beltran from the left side with that elbow of his. McCann’s ABs, however, have looked much better the last week or so.
Not an ace

Disrespect Flanny might be my favorite meme of the last half decade. And it’s all around the Yankee interwebs too, it has universal appeal.
- CUYanks
  
  While I do find myself thinking it’s funny, I feel like it is a little in poor taste to keep poking fun at a guy’s suicide. Can’t we make fun of Buck in some other way? It shouldn’t be too hard to find a reason.
  - Bob
    
    I agree. It’s funny but there’s got to be some other shit we can use besides the comment in reference to a guy taking his own life to get on Showalter.
    - forensic
      
      Eh, suicide is a very selfish way to try to get out of your own problems, especially when you’re leaving family behind to have to deal with it all anyway. If it’s just you and there’s no one else depending on you that you’re leaving behind and your problems won’t trickle down onto the shoulders of someone else in your family, then go for it (that’s a slightly different story).
      
      Sorry, I’m not gonna feel bad for Flanagan, especially considering what he put his family through of what they possibly had to see or deal with in the immediate aftermath, and how they may remember him now.
      
      I’ll spare everyone the gory details.
      - nycsportzfan
        
        Seriously? You don’t know the pain he felt. Its sad he felt no other way out. Alot of good family members who wish they were dead being around will do. Pretty insensitive man.
        
        forensic
        
        I have no idea what your second line is supposed to say, but call it insensitive or whatever you’d like. It’s my educated and experienced opinion from seeing what this comes from and especially what it leads to for others.
        
        There are ways around it. Ask for help for the depression or isolation or even financially, which was one of his things. There is so much else that trickles down to others close to him just because he couldn’t deal with it and/or didn’t want to ask for help.
        
        marv fan
        
        And you know he didn’t try and get help, how? He could of been dealing with this for quite some time for all we know.
        
        Improbable Island’s Dirty Midget Whores (formerly RRR)
        
        I get what both of you are saying, but I will say that while it’s extremely sad and I do feel bad for him, that doesn’t actually contradict any points forensic made.
        
        I help run an anti-suicide charity. I’ve known people who were close to suicidal, who were cutting themselves, and who were depressed. And I will say two things:
        
        1) People need to be aware and be supportive of those they know close to that state
        
        2) Those who actually kill themselves did something incredibly selfish that did incredible harm to people other than themselves.
        
        It’s okay to recognize this, even good. Getting people to realize how much they’re going to hurt everybody else can help them realize that they shouldn’t make the decision to kill themselves.
        
        Squirrel
        
        My English teacher once said: suicide is for cowards. Its been years but its true. If you are bothered that much by what others think of you, coward. If you take the easy way out, coward.
        
        All due respect to Flanagan, he is a grown man with years of social experience. He has the means to seek out help if he wish to face.the problems heads on
        
        All is relative though. victims may be brave at one point but as soon as they tae their own lives they have had a moment of weakness. Unless they were victims of horrendous crimes or experienxers of horrible ecents, no suicide victims get any sympathy from me. All my sympathies to their families for having to bear with the aftermath.
        
        On phone. sorry for bad grammar and spelling.
        
        FIPster Doofus
        
        “Its been years but its true.”
        
        It isn’t, but OK.
        
        Improbable Island’s Dirty Midget Whores (formerly RRR)
        
        I think it would be better to say that suicide is cowardly rather than “suicide is for cowards”.
        
        But yeah, it’s something people don’t like to admit because it feels like picking on a guy who, after all, did feel so bad that he killed himself. But it really is a cowardly thing to do. It’s forcing yourself out of a situation instead of dealing with it.
        
        We need to take the warning signs seriously, and people who feel close to that point need to GET HELP. But, if you go through with it, you did something cowardly. You hurt your family and a lot of other people in order to escape your problems. Spin this as positively as possible and in the end you still did something you definitely should NOT have done.
        
        Paisa
        
        If anything it takes balls. Who wants to be some useless, decrepit old man anyway?
        
        Improbable Island’s Dirty Midget Whores (formerly RRR)
        
        You just contradicted yourself. It takes balls to AVOID the hardships of later life. But in any case that doesn’t seem to be the type of suicide we’re discussing. If we’re going there, we might as well talk about Socrates too.
        
        Paisa
        
        I disagree. It takes balls to submit to theidea that some day you will be useless. That in fact you’re not that special. That in fact fact the people who claim they love you are really just dependent on you.
        
        Improbable Island’s Dirty Midget Whores (formerly RRR)
        
        Then we’re talking more about euthanasia than the sort of suicide Flanny committed, aren’t we? And that’s an entirely different matter.
        
        Paisa
        
        There are some men (and women) Who do truly believe in the idea of honor and respect. And if that is no longer attainable then the idea of wasting away is essentially incomprehensible.
        
        forensic
        
        Personally, I think there’s a massive difference between some 90 year old with tons of medical problems causing them pain every day who can’t take care of themselves, whose significant other is gone already, whose kids/grandkids are old enough to not be affected as much as younger people, and who aren’t leaving a larger burden to those still here and what Flanagan did. Based on RRR’s description of his relation to this, I think he may disagree with even that, but I don’t have a huge problem if they choose to do it at that point.
        
        Leaving a wife and potentially younger kids/grandkids, leaving larger financial problems, making them live with what they’ve seen/experienced, and possibly affecting the younger family members mentally is just selfish to me.
        
        vicki
        
        the point people are trying to make here, and it is THE point, is that even if you think yourself some noble knight, too good for this existence, or whatever; when you go, your mom, your kids, your friends, the folks you leave, have their personal journeys interrupted. they have to carve out giant swathes of their finite lives to deal with the shit you left behind. it’s bad fucking manners.
        
        Squirrel
        
        Great argument. At least I put forward my thoughts on it while you dismiss it with one sentence.
        
        The guy’s dead. We have to respect the dead. The truth isnt disrespectful, unless its wrong to assume he left behind many people who will continue to love and miss him. There would be many people who will always regret not doing something to help, people kicking themselves forever for notnoticing signs, regardless of how well he hid them. Even if he cannot think thay far, the fact remains that his suicide hurt many people.
        
        Mr. Roth
        
        “He has the means to seek out help if he wish to face the problems heads on.”
        
        That’s such a naive way of looking at it.
        
        No doubt that suicide is a crushing blow that the person’s family and loved ones are unfairly forced to deal with. But to act like the person just chose to not ask for help is to be completely ignorant of the person’s state of mind.
        
        Sometimes people get trapped inside their own head. They don’t want to burden others with their problems and feel they have to shoulder their troubles themselves. Of course, in reality that’s not really the case, but at those times a person’s perception of reality is all that actually matters.
        
        Jorge Steinbrenner
        
        Here’s all I have to say on this.
        
        JS/R-Tils is some asshole on the internet. The guy procrastinating too much as him actually has seventeen years experience in the field.
        
        Both in a personal and professional manner, I do not pass judgment. If you ever think you know what it’s like to walk in another individual’s shoes, you don’t. End of story.
        
        The world would be a much better place if we took that to heart.
        
        Squirrel
        
        Naive maybe but if he could muster up strength to seek help in a critical moment hed be alive and standing.
        
        He may or may not have the will to seek help til it was too late but he certainly had the means.
        
        marv fan
        
        Your a clown
      - FIPster Doofus
        
        Yikes. Normally I agree with you about stuff, but not here. At all.
        
        http://www.riveraveblues.com GT Yankee
        
        There’s one thing that those who call him selfish are missing. When you’re thinking suicide you’re not thinking rationally. Something is wrong with you….very wrong and you need help. A person who feels so much despair, pain and whatever else it’s perhaps not realistic to expect them to consider those they’re leaving behind at that time. Though I’ve not experienced suicide in my family, I have experienced someone up and leaving. The resentment still runs deep, but with mental illness a person should not been held fully accountable IMO.
        
        Mr. Roth
        
        “When you’re thinking suicide you’re not thinking rationally. Something is wrong with you….very wrong and you need help.”
        
        This, this, and this.
        
        Squirrel
        
        Okay, so theyre kinda selfish intead of totally selfish. One does not randomly go suicidal overnight. it is quite likely that he hasnt been happy but not on verge to kill himself. He could have sought help then.
        
        i have known a few individuals whove had knives to their own throat but backed up and lived on. all it takes is one brave moment to seek help.
        
        Jorge Steinbrenner
        
        For a squirrel, you sure do like to pass a lot of judgment on other creatures
        
        Squirrel
        
        I see far and wide from my tree. Plus, suicide is not unheard of amongst squirrels. Our kind just run onto a busy road, and voila.
        
        In this squirrel’s (un)humble opinion, suicide is actually easy for the dead guy (or gal.) Coping with how your loved ones killed themselves and how you weren’t able to /didn’t help is a hardship one may bear with for the rest of his or her life, kinda like survivor guilt. I won’t go into extreme details about the hardship I’ve heard about being the family of someone who committed suicide, but nightmares, longlasting guilt and perpetual self-blame are not uncommon.
  - lightSABR
    
    I can see how even mentioning Flanny might be in poor taste, but for what it’s worth, I’ve never thought the meme was making fun of him. I’ve always thought it was mocking Showalter and co. for using Flanny’s death as cover for their decisions to give us the rescheduling shaft – which they would have done regardless, for revenue and for spite.
    
    They’re the ones who really disrespected Flanny, and I thought the meme was about pointing that out.
TWTR

This is why getting more offense should be the priority. Dynamic offense wins. Beltran showed what he can do when he is right , but at 37, with a bone chip, he cannot be counted on for consistent production. Another big bat can help compensate for that.

When a team has a great offense, it scares the crap out opposing teams.
Lukasz

I nominmate Beltrans homerun as the number one moment of the past two seasons! I was watching game wit my friends and when Beltran launched it into the Bronx night I jumped all over the room and crepped out my friends…I haven’t been this emotional over a Yankees game since the 2012 Postseason

Sorry for spelling error I’m on my phone
Lukasz

I still can’t get over the Beltran homerun, it just came out of nowhere given his hitting struggles, as well as the fact Yankees haven’t had a walk off win this year. The fact that it came with two outs only made it even more amazing. 10/10 game would watch again
- nycsportzfan
  
  I didn’t even think it was out off the bat. Beltran did, and Pauly seemed to as well, but I didn’t. I really thought the run the last half inn was gonna kill us. I didn’t think the game was over, but certainly had a bad feeling in my gut that run would haunt us.
  
  Carlos made sure it didn’t. Awesome moment!
  
  We’ve had our fair share of Homegrown wins this yr. Tonights win was the FA’cy win. Kuroda,Belty,McCann,and BROB doing the heavy lifting.
  - RetroRob
    
    I was in my car driving back home listening to Sterling’s call. Sterling went into his HR call, which means nothing. He does that even on questionable HRs just so he’s set up in case it goes out. I was praying it was going out, while cursing Sterling at the same time. He’s a HR tease. Fortunately this time he was right.
    - vicki
      
      he’s got you right where he wants you.
    - forensic
      
      He really has ruined it and taken some of the joy out of stuff like this. Even after he says ‘It is gone’, I find myself not being able to enjoy a homer for a few seconds since he’s even messed plenty of them up after saying that.
  - Paisa
    
    Yep, I thought it was a routine fly ball until paully chimed in. Paul O’Neill is just such a boss in so many ways.
Billy

When Pearce hit that double, I immediately cursed that guy who posted about Pearce in the RAB Chat. And Axisa for posting it.
- Jorge Steinbrenner
  
  Pearce was a full-on meme here for a good while. He didn’t make the HOF because of it.
  
  “Sam Pearce,” along with “BGDP,” pretty much made eddard.
Kevin G.

I found the… uh… gam recap for that Giambi walk off. Short, sweet and to the point I suppose Joe.

http://riveraveblues.com/2008/06/the-giambiiiiiino-2982/
- forensic
  
  Unfortunately, the Gerrit Cole enthusiasm didn’t last too much longer than that.
- Squirrel
  
  Interesting how people were calling Sterling a Hr tease in there
  Also interesting how we thought we got Cole. Oh well, at least Bleich is still alive.
vicki

steve pearce, y’all. steve pearce.

did not out.
- Jorge Steinbrenner
  
  The name’s Sammy, vicki.
Get Phelps Up

I don’t know how they decide what uniforms to wear but maybe for future Bronx trips the O’s should shelve their black tops seeing how the last 5 games they’ve worn them have ended up:

2012 ALDS game 5
Jones drops the ball, Machado hits into a triple play
Jim Johnson allows 2 9th inning runs, O’s lose 3-2
O’s lose a back and forth affair 8-5 including Yankee Killer Miguel Gonzalez getting hammered
Tonight

Also, why is this whole thread about disrespecting Flanny? Am I missing something?
- Kosmo
  
  no you didn´t miss something. Just invision the sound of a balloon deflating.
- forensic
  
  Also, why is this whole thread about disrespecting Flanny? Am I missing something?
  
  I was wondering why you said that, but I just noticed that Mike has since changed the title. It started as something along the lines of “Beltran disrespects Flanny by swatting walk-off homer”.
  - vicki
    
    mike folded. can’t blame him; he’s big business now (which is pretty cool).
    - Looser trader droids FotD™
      
      +1
- Jorge Steinbrenner
  
  This is all SO disrespectful to Flanny.
  
  #gauntletthrown
Bronx_Boy

This is why you watch every game to the end.
Jorge Steinbrenner

When something really crappy becomes somwthing really awesome.

Carlos Beltran 2014 Summer Tour: Don’t call it a comeback.
http://riveravenueblues mississippi doc

Reading some of the completely uninformed comments above, I feel compelled to say something from the perspective of a physician. Suicide has no more relationship to rational choice than does a heart attack or a stroke. Cowardice is a meaningless term in this context. Like heart attacks and strokes, suicide is a catastrophic symptom of an underlying disease, in most circumstances. There are obviously situations, e.g., end stage cancer in a suffering and alone person, where it may be a rational decision, but there are many health care professionals who would legitimately argue that that alternative is a failure of our health care and social systems. Let’s just celebrate a very exciting victory. We can enjoy analyzing what it means and how it happened. Hopefully what we all can learn from the life of Tony Gwynn is good sportsmanship, which includes compassion for those we defeat.
- Jorge Steinbrenner
  
  Thank you.
- Squirrel
  
  Because as someone who personally knew several people who seriously contemplated suicide and someone who also somewhat seriously contemplated suicide due to various reasons I’m completely uninformed. It was serious enough that I’ve thought about ways of relatively painless and non-messy suicide and how to write my suicide note without hurting those whom I was about to left behind, and whether it was more cruel to leave my family a glimpse of useless hope by going missing first then killing myself, or destroy that even tiny sprinkle of hope in their hearts that I may be alive somewhere, but that I”m just a horrible person and refuse to contact them. Needless to say I’m still alive and somewhat well for various reasons, which includes thinking things over and finding ways to keep my mind off suicide.
  
  I respect your right to see things from a scientific kind of way but I take major offense to somewhat pinpointing me as completely uninformed. No matter how advanced medical science is, there are things that cannot be unaccounted for. The very nature of how human minds function in similar but still unique fashions in certain ways means while you’re most likely more informed than a foreman, I also offer insights into things that you may not understand, and hopefully won’t ever have to live through the strange little world I have been through. Does that mean I know what Flannagan feels? No. Does that make me a bit more aware of what goes on in someone’s mind in early-mid stages of suicide? I suppose so.
  
  Now you all see why I’m so passionate about it? I’m less of an asshole now ain’t I.
  - Deep Thoughts
    
    Sorry for your pain and suicidal thoughts, but your personal experiences do not in any way negate the fact that many statements you made about the nature of mental illness were way off base. It’s terrific if you were able to step back from that cliff, but suggesting that everyone else could or should is clinically incorrect and something that gives “major offense.”
    
    A wise man once said, “Now the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you, may not be right for some.”
    
    Good luck man.
    - Squirrel
      
      I acknowledge that I’m wrong but I was offended at the notion that I’m “completely uninformed” as to the matter, as I have later clarified (or modified) my stance re-emphasizing that it’s not that I look down on who they were as people but more in the lines of I somewhat judge them on how they hurt a lot of people as they exit this world. As far as I know there isn’t any proof yet as to he 100% could not have got help or speak to someone about it, so my idea, and the whole idea of “cowardice” is not completely uninformed, just a very very very far stretch perhaps. Way off base is closer to misguided and misinformed than completely uninformed. To me, one is “you might want to check where you got your information again” while the other is “your idea came out of thin air and I bet you’re just BSing without any knowledge of it”. It could be just a difference of word choice and connotations/implications of the words but as I grew up writing essays and essays, I’m a bit anal on word choice and 99% vs 100%. But now I’ve gone too far off topic and will leave it at that. I probably should chose my words better to express what I mean and vice versa.
      
      (Yes, over-analyzing things is a part of my problem. Mood swings make it easy to over-care or under-care.)
      
      Thank you for your kind words though. Thankfully there probably won’t be a painless way soon.
- Improbable Island’s Dirty Midget Whores (formerly RRR)
  
  Suicide has no more relationship to rational choice than does a heart attack or a stroke.
  
  This is true sometimes, but I know people who have been close to suicidal, and a lot of the time this is a crock of shit. They plan things quite carefully in advance. They write notes, they look up the best methods, and they plan for how things might go after their death. They know exactly what they’re doing.
  
  More than that, they need to actually take a positive action in order to accomplish a pre-planned goal. Saying that suicide is like a heart attack is basically just denying free will completely.
TheRealGreg

With Tanaka going on Sunday, this win was a must to take the series.

In one game, we experienced the frustrations of sports and we ask ourselves, why do we go through with it? Then we found out why we go through it.

And I think the offense is beginning to consistently hit. Now they need to consistently score runs.
ChuckIt

A win today,& Tanaka tomorrow,and we could be sitting pretty on Monday.
ChuckIt

Sorry,Nuno going today.If he pitches like he did in Oakland,we could have neck injuries in the outfield.
- http://www.staggeringbeauty.com/ ALZ
  
  Honestly I’m expecting a big scoring game. Both have their flyball tendencies. Nuno will strike out fewer guys, but at the same time Norris walks quite a few more.
  
  I hope the bullpens are ready, because if the batters come prepared I think they can unravel Norris, just don’t get giddy early on.
http://www.staggeringbeauty.com/ ALZ

That was a great win. And to think that I was happy early on when Beltran hit a double. Was also nice to see McCann be able to pop one into center, as well as hit one down the line the other way.
TopChuckie

It’s nice to see Britton picking up where Jim Johnson left off.
Old Man Time

What a downer of a comment section following a walk off win.
- ChuckIt
  
  I hear ya OMT,let’s just hope today’s game ain’t one.
http://riveravenueblues mississippi doc

I am sorry that Squirrel has taken offense at my comments. I consider uninformed anyone who would approach suicide with critical or negatively laden value judgments. It should be approached with understanding, compassion, and care. It has been described in medicine as the never ending “gift” (meant ironically). It is an injury and pain that never ends for the family and friends of the victim. If indeed you have contemplated such Squirrel, I thank God that you have not done so. Depression can be truly devastating.