The Tampa Bay Rays’ Kevin Kiermaier swings for a ground-rule double during the 13th inning against the Boston Red Sox in Boston on Oct. 10, 2021.
The Associated Press
Kevin Kiermaier’s line drive sailed over right fielder Hunter Renfroe’s head and bounced off the short wall in front of the Boston bullpen and back onto the warning track. It ricocheted off Renfroe and into the air.
The Red Sox right fielder waved at it desperately – and unsuccessfully – to keep it from going out of play.
It’s a good thing he couldn’t.
Saved by an obscure rule and a bounce that was weird even for quirky Fenway Park, the Red Sox staggered Tampa Bay 6-4 Sunday night on Christian Vazquez’s 13th-inning walk-off homer to move one victory from eliminating the 100-win Rays from the AL Division Series.
“I was speechless,” said centrefielder Kike Hernandez, who had come over to back up Renfroe. “I don’t know if you guys have seen that before. I’ve never seen that before in my life.
“I wasn’t sure what was going to get called. I wasn’t sure if the runners had to return. … Like, I had no idea,” he said. “Luckily, it went our way. And you call it home-field advantage if you want – call it whatever you want – but we won.”
The Boston Red Sox’s Hunter Renfroe reaches for a ball hit by the Tampa Bay Rays’ Kevin Kiermaier, as it bounces over the wall after bouncing off Renfroe for a ground-rule double during the 13th inning in Boston on Oct. 10, 2021.
Michael Dwyer/The Associated Press
The wild-card Red Sox took a 2-1 edge in the best-of-five matchup. Game 4 is Monday at Fenway – Marathon Day in Boston – with Game 5 in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Wednesday, if necessary.
Tampa Bay rallied from a 4-2 deficit to tie it in the eighth inning and it was still 4-all when Yandy Diaz singled with one out in the 13th.
Then came the play that had the umpires scurrying for the rule book and the Rays scratching their heads.
Diaz was halfway from second to third when Kiermaier’s ball bounced over the five-foot-high wall, and he easily would have scored had it remained in play. But the umpires conferred and went to the headsets before awarding Kiermaier a double and sending Diaz back to third.
Baseball Rule 5.05(a)(8) states: “Any bounding fair ball is deflected by the fielder into the stands, or over or under a fence on fair or foul territory, in which case the batter and all runners shall be entitled to advance two bases.”
“If I stayed at second, that’s fine,” Kiermaier said. “But I was hoping to see that Yandy scored, because he would have scored obviously. It’s incredible that it worked out to their advantage just like that.”
Rays manager Kevin Cash said he watched the replay and it was obvious Renfroe didn’t knock it over the wall on purpose.
“That’s just the rule. That’s the way it goes. It was very unfortunate for us,” he said. “I think it was fairly obvious that K.K. or Yandy was going to come around to score, but it didn’t go our way.”
Said umpire crew chief Sam Holbrook: “It’s in the rule book. It’s a ground-rule double. There’s no discretion that the umpires have.”
“There’s no, `He would have done this, would have done that.’ It’s just flat-out in the rule book, it’s a ground-rule double,” he said.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta reacts after striking out the Tampa Bay Rays’ Mike Zunino to end the top of the 13th inning in Boston on Oct. 10, 2021.
Charles Krupa/The Associated Press
When play resumed, Nick Pivetta struck out Mike Zunino to end the inning and came bounding off the mound in celebration.
Renfroe walked with one out in the bottom half, then Vazquez hit the first pitch from Luis Patino over the Green Monster to end it.
Hernandez and Kyle Schwarber each had three hits, including a homer, for Boston.
Hernandez singled in the first, singled in the third and homered in the fifth to give him seven consecutive hits in the series. He went 5 for 6 with a home run and three doubles in Boston’s Game 2 win, becoming the first Red Sox player ever with four extra-base hits in a post-season game.
Red Sox ace Nate Eovaldi allowed Austin Meadows’ two-run homer in the top of the first, but Schwarber led off the bottom half with a home run. Hernandez’s fifth-inning homer gave Boston a 4-2 lead, but the Rays tied it in the eighth when Wander Franco hit a solo homer and Meadows and Randy Arozarena doubled.
Garrett Whitlock struck out Zunino to end the inning.
The Boston Red Sox’s Christian Vazquez reacts after hitting a walk-off home run against the Tampa Bay Rays in Boston on Oct. 10, 2021.
Charles Krupa/The Associated Press
LATE THREATS
With a runner on first in the 10th, J.D. Martinez fouled off five pitches with two strikes and then hit one to straightaway centre, where Kiermaier pulled it in right in front of the 379-foot marker. (The wind was blowing in.)
In the 11th, Arozarena stole second and was caught in a rundown on his way to third, but he scrambled back to the bag safely. But he was stranded there when Pivetta struck out Zunino and Jordan Luplow to end the inning.
Boston had a runner on first in the 11th when Hernandez hit a chopper into the hole between short and third. Franco went to his right to field it, then made a long throw that first baseman Luplow picked out of the dirt for the third out.
SCHWARBER TIME
Schwarber, a star of the Cubs’ 2016 World Series title who homered in the wild-card game against the Yankees, also singled and scored in the third, when Boston scored a pair of runs to chase Drew Rasmussen and take a 3-2 lead. He singled in the ninth before leaving for a pinch-runner.
But it was Schwarber’s play in the field that endeared him to the Fenway fans.
After earning an error when he lobbed the ball over pitcher Nathan Eovaldi’s head on a grounder in the third inning, Schwarber was tested on a similar play and made a more accurate toss in the fourth.
He celebrated by raising both arms in the air and giving a fist pump, then tipping his cap to the cheering fans. Schwarber turned toward the dugout and laughed.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rays: Arozarena slipped on his way to second base on his eighth-inning double, then limped into the dugout while the Red Sox changed pitchers. But he remained in the game.
Red Sox: RHP Hansel Robles appeared to be experiencing discomfort after striking out Diaz for the second out in the eighth. He winced and stretched his shoulder, then gave up Arozarena’s double to tie it 4-4.
CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.
Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.
Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.
The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.
Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.
The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.
Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.
Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.
Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.
Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.
Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.
Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.
The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.
The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.
Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).
Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.
Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.
The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.
The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.
“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.
“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”
The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.
Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.
“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.
“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”
Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.
Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.
“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.
Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.
The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.
Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”
Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.
Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.
“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”
The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.
Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.
The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.
Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.
“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”
A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.
Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.
“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
