It was bound to happen once MLB instituted its new rules. A team has won with a walk-off pitch clock violation.
Specifically, the Colorado Rockies defeated the Washington Nationals 8-7 on Saturday because Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan was a second (or two) too late throwing the ball to Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon with a full count, the bases loaded and the game tied.
Home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt called the violation on Finnegan, giving what is known in baseball internet circles as a shrimp: a walk-off walk. McMahon even seemed to think he had struck out because he swung at Finnegan’s pitch, but he was getting a Gatorade shower seconds later.
It honestly shouldn’t be too big a surprise that Finnegan was the pitcher to lose in a way no pitcher has lost before. The right-hander has been excellent this season, entering Saturday with a 1.72 ERA in 31 1/3 innings, but the Washington Post’s Andrew Golden notes that he already had a league-leading eight pitch clock violations this season.
The next-closest pitcher had five.
The walk-off pitch clock violation was the culmination of a Rockies comeback after Washington took a 7-5 lead in the top of the eighth inning. McMahon brought Colorado back within a run via a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth and Brenton Doyle tied it with a single in the ninth-inning rally that brought McMahon to the plate again.
The loss lowers the Nationals’ record to 37-39, pushing them to 1.5 games back from the third wild-card spot. As for the Rockies, they’re still in last place in the NL West at 27-50.
But now they can say they have done something no one else has done before.