Baseball forever holds the top spot for being the weirdest sport, as even though the game is over 150 years old and each of the 30 MLB teams plays 162 games a year, you can still tune in to a random contest and see something you have never seen before.
That’s exactly what happened at the end of last night’s Colorado Rockies vs. Washington Nationals game, as a spirited 8-7 Rockies win ended in a unique fashion.
Kyle Finnegan came in for the save with a 7-6 lead for the Nationals and had a complete meltdown, and he quickly found himself in a tie game with the bases loaded and nobody out with a 3-2 count to Ryan McMahon.
The game ended when Finnegan committed a pitch clock violation that allowed McMahon to walk and force in the winning run.
WALK-OFF PITCH CLOCK VIOLATION! pic.twitter.com/77Y0HiM6Nd
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 23, 2024
Finnegan got the pitch off just after the umpire called for the violation, and the pitch wound up being high and inside anyway, so this likely would have been a walk-off free pass even without the violation, but it’s still an insane way to lose a game.
This was the first time this had ever happened, and Finnegan now has the unfortunate distinction of leading the league with nine pitch clock violations this year, an astounding number considering he is a closer and has pitched just 31.1 innings.
Finnegan blew his third save of the season and raised his ERA to 2.30 in the process, and the violation was the icing on the cake for a truly horrific outing that saw him give up four hits, a walk, and two runs while failing to record an out.
