A Matt Kemp RBI single led to an unusually chaotic scene on the basepaths
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It's unreasonably warm in Southern California this weekend -- Friday's series opener between the Dodgers and Angels in Anaheim had an on-field temperature of 108 degrees at first pitch. It was so hot, Kiké Hernández and Austin Barnesshed their jerseys and took batting practice hacks shirtless.
It's impossible to know for sure if a particularly zany sequence on the bases had anything to do with the heat, which was feels-like-you're-walking-straight-into-the-sun level, but it had to play some role. It's hard to walk around, let alone play baseball for a few hours.
The following was the scene after Matt Kemp laced an RBI single to left field in the sixth inning, scoring Justin Turner and beginning a wild few seconds for Kemp and Cody Bellinger, who had been on first base:
And now, in sped-up form for maximum appreciation:
This was originally scored 7-5-4-1-5, which is also the zip code for Ben Franklin, Texas -- but was then shortened by the official scorer to 7-5-4, with Bellinger ruled out for running out of the basepaths.
That makes it seem a lot cleaner and less ... eventful than it was, because man, that was a scene.
Also a scene? The way the game ended, with the Angels walking off 3-2 winners over the Dodgers:
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