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Holy guacamole. The Braves-Bucs game last night went 19 innings.
The unlikely hero? "Everyday" Scott Proctor. Braves won, on a walkoff fielders choice RBI by Proctor, the last guy left in the pen. It was his second at-bat of the game. He hadn't hit since 2007.
Sounds like it was a crazy game.
This game went so long that catcher Brian McCann left after nine innings with a strained oblique, the Braves announced he would go on the 15-day disabled list and by the end of the game you wondered if he was healed and eligible to be activated again.
I guess Scotty doesn’t use Twitter.
It was just before 1 a.m. when Proctor – possibly the most lampooned Braves player since Greg Norton – became a trending topic on Twitter. Why? Simply because he was the Braves’ last non-starting pitcher left. He sat in the bullpen watching Tommy Hanson, Eric O’Flaherty, Jonny Venters, Craig Kimbel — Hah! The closer entered in only the ninth inning! – Scott Linebrink, George Sherrill and Christian Martinez pitch. Wonder how many games of solitaire he played?
The thought occurred that the Braves were trying to avoid bringing Proctor in, given he started the night with a 7.36 ERA. (The fact Martinez threw an improbable six shutout innings of relief, a relative "quality start," helped.) Any way, Proctor’s extending viewing became a running online gag. When told later he was trending on Twitter, Proctor said, "I was what?" You were a hot topic. "Oh, I’m sure. I’m not very well liked right now."
The winning run scored on a terrible call. Lugo was out by 10 feet, but was called safe. Game over. Umpire Jerry Meals said he thought it was a phantom tag. I suspect he just wanted to go home. The game was 6 hours, 39 minutes old by then, it was past 2 am, and he probably wanted to go to bed.
Scott Proctor was the guy who came to the Bronx with Bubba Crosby in the Robin Ventura trade. Yankees fans remember him as "Everyday" Scott Proctor because Joe Torre used him so much. He's had injury problems since then (which some blame on Torre). Nice to see him be the hero, at least for one night.
