Let's get our top story out of the way: Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, the 29-year-old grandson of Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski, hit a home run Tuesday night at Fenway Park, the place where Carl played himself into the Hall of Fame.
Sweet Carl line, indeed.
"I was just excited being able to do that before friends and family," Mike Yastrzemski said afterward (via The Assocated Press). "The crowd reactions, all night, were incredible. I can't thank them enough for being supportive."
Yastrzemski turned around a 95.8 mph fastball from Nathan Eovaldi, hitting it into the center-field bleachers. Translation: not a cheapie.
Even Eovaldi appreciated the moment.
"Yeah, it's cool," he said. "And I mean you see our fans, too, they give him a really good welcome. Cool experience."
So, yeah, there was that. But there also was more, as you might expect in a 5-hour, 54-minute game that lasted until the wee hours of Wednesday in Boston.
Here are a handful of fun facts from Giants 7, Red Sox 6 (15):
— There were half a hundred (!) players used.
Hello, September baseball! The game featured 50 players used overall and a major-league record-tying 24 pitchers — including a team-record 13 by the Giants.
That's a lot of walks to the mound for San Fran manager Bruce Bochy.
"I wanted to get my 10,000 steps in," Bochy joked to reporters (via The Associated Press). "I was a little behind."
The Red Sox and Giants have tied an MLB record by using 24 total pitchers tonight. They tied the Dodgers and Rockies from Sept. 15, 2015 https://t.co/XrltzOTgNK
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) September 18, 2019
Philosophical question: If he'd known one more pitching change would've broken the record, now held jointly with a pair of NL West rivals (the Rockies and Dodgers), would Bochy have pulled the trigger?
— Someone had to catch all those Giants pitchers — and pitches.
Here's hoping the guys charting pitches in the dugouts had a pencil sharpener handy.
Red Sox pitchers threw 253 pitches. Giants pitchers: Hold my beer.
The 13 Giants pitchers combined to toss 294 pitches. And Stephen Vogt put the fingers down for every single one of them.
The Giants win 7-6 in 15 innings. They tied a franchise record for players used and broke a franchise record for pitchers used. 5 hours, 54 minutes. Stephen Vogt caught the whole f$#&!ng thing. All 294 pitches.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) September 18, 2019
Interesting that Bochy said catcher Buster Posey "could use a day" because of tightness in back and hip area. Vogt takes one for the team.
— Speaking of Bochy, the win moved him close to a milestone
Bochy, who's retiring at season's end, recorded the 1,999th win of his 25-season managerial career.
One more victory and he'll become only the 11th manager in MLB history to hit that big, fat round number. The four most recent to accomplish the feat: Sparky Anderson, Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre. Not a bad group, as the folks in Cooperstown might say.
There IS a bittersweet component: Bochy needs nine wins to tie and 10 to pass Leo Durocher for 10th on the all-time list. With only 11 games to play this season, that's a heavy lift.
The Giants have two more in Boston, then close with three in Atlanta and six at home, three each against the aforementioned Rockies and Dodgers.
— This was DVR version of the Red Sox's 2019 season.
Fast forward from April to Tuesday night and you'd see lots of ways the 2018 World Series winners have faltered this season.
But don't trust us on that. Listen to Boston manager Alex Cora from his postgame presser (via Boston.com):
"If you can [summarize] our season in six hours, it was right there, honestly. Close games, we didn’t hit with men in scoring position, we didn’t pitch well in the beginning but then we pitched well. We played good defense but then we didn’t. Honestly, if you want to put everything in six hours, it’s right there. I was watching, I was like, long game, extra-inning games, using the bullpen knowing we have a bullpen day maybe tomorrow, it’s been like that the whole season. That’s how I felt.”
— The game took so long they played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" twice.
Not much more to add to that, that's math: 7 x 2 = 14 (the tune was played in the middle of the 14th inning in addition to the traditional seventh).
Baseball, man.