Jason Kipnis and Mike Napoli took a leisurely stroll around the bases as the Reds walked in four runs
It's said that baseball is a marathon. That with the 162-game schedule crammed into 180 days, every ground ball hustled out, every fly ball raced after and every swing taking a physical toll. So when Jason Kipnis and Mike Napoli were walked around the bases, it was probably a pleasant respite -- to say nothing of the fact that the Indians got runs out of it.
Facing the Reds in the bottom of the fifth inning on Tuesday night, the Indians had already pushed across one run and had runners on the corners when Steve Delabar came in to face Kipnis.
Kipnis walked on five pitches to load the bases and then Francisco Lindor struck out. The bases were loaded and there were two outs. Sure, the Reds were down, 8-0, but Delabar was one out away from escaping trouble. That's when things got wacky.
Napoli walked on six pitches, driving in a run.
Jose Ramirez walked on six, driving in another run.
Yan Gomes walked on six, scoring Kipnis.
Lonnie Chisenhall walked on six, this time scoring Napoli.
Kipnis was the first Indian to be walked around the bases since 1969, so of course Napoli followed him shortly.
Kip and Nap "walked around" in the fifth: Walked, then scored after 3 straight walks.
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) May 18, 2016
Last time we did it: Lou Climchock at BOS in 6/25/69.
As Kipnis told MLB.com's Jordan Bastian after the game:
"That might have been the easiest run scored that I've had. I worked on my leads. I was very professional. I got some stuff done there. Some good crow hops and secondary leads. That doesn't happen often."
Gomes was encouraged by his teammates' performance that inning.
"It's definitely a good sign. It shows how well our lineup is feeling right now. We're not out there just swinging out of his hand. It's not what we expected, but we were waiting for our good pitches and we didn't get it, so we were unexpectedly taking our walks."
As for Delabar, he probably wished that the Cleveland hitters started swinging more often. He was the first pitcher since at least 1974 to walk four straight batters with the bases loaded.
Steve Delabar is the only pitcher since at least 1974 to walk 4 straight batters w/ bases already loaded, per FG research (h/t @japemstein)
— August Fagerstrom (@AugustFG_) May 18, 2016
So, if there's #ShrimpAlert with the video of a shrimp on a treadmill to celebrate walk-off walks, what do you use when modern history is made with four runs scoring on walks? Millions of brine shrimp feeding on algae? A tuna tornado?
The Indians would go on to win, 13-1, and have now outscored the Reds, 28-7, in the first two games of their series.
