In a sport like baseball, there are many ways any given extra-innings game can end. You have your run-of-the-mill bloopers or blasts to center/left/right field. There might even be a walk or a wild pitch that gives the runner a chance to run across home plate.
But a walk-off balk — where a pitcher (by definition) flinches or makes a motion like they’re going to pitch but doesn’t — is unheard of.
Yet, that’s precisely what happened at the end of a tense matchup between the Reds and Rays on Friday night. Beforehand, Tampa Bay was not only favored with the spread (-1.5) but in the moneyline, too (-178). And in a 1-1 game in the 10th inning, with the Rays’ Matt Wisler on the mound and the Reds’ Tyler Naquin batting, bettors felt the pain of the all-too-rare balk-off bad beat:
REDS (+146 ML) WIN WITH THE BALK OFF 🤯
🎥: @BallySportsCIN pic.twitter.com/0zfqwuaTpB
— FanDuel Sportsbook (@FDSportsbook) July 9, 2022
Oh, man. That’s brutal. I don’t blame Wisler for his confusion and any frustration. While perhaps a good rule in implementation, the human element of the umpires makes this a subjective and sometimes very costly call for teams. Say, like the Rays!
For additional context, Cincinnati’s 2-1 balk-off win is only the 23rd time in the last century for any MLB team:
The Reds walk off on the 23rd walk-off balk in the last 100 years and first since the Mariners beat the Dodgers in August of 2018.
This is the 2nd time the Reds have won on a walk-off balk. The other time was in 1965. pic.twitter.com/T9wfRAJDAS
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 9, 2022
Rules are rules, and umpires will do their thing, but someone should give Wisler and any bettors who had the Rays winning a big hug.
