what a thirteenth inning!

The third game of the World Series had been tied since the eighth inning.
It had been a true pitchers' duel all night long, with each team only able to score once.
I had not watched all of it, just catching bits during the commercial breaks for "Married With Children", then for "How I Met Your Mother".

For the eleventh inning onward, though,
I was tuned in solely to the baseball.
Craig Kimbrel is an interesting fellow, I must say.
His tyrannosaurus stance when he's 'listening'
to the catcher is mesmerizing, especially
with his gold chain swaying beneath his
striking beard as it points along the z-axis.
I would have liked to watch him a bit more,
but he only had that one inning for the Red Sox.
Another man took the mound for the 12th,
again just for that inning.

This Red Sox pitcher, though, had me glued to
the television for every single one of his 6'2"
super-hunky hunk o' burnin' love moves.
Nathan Eovaldi was called up for the 13th inning...
and was there, still, in the 18th, when the
low-scoring game finally was over.
The time was three thirty AM at my house.
That meant I had close-ups of him for those
six innings as he faced 22 batters, garnering
five strike-outs and allowing only three hits.

The first LA Dodger he faced was Max Muncy, a man of
his same age - 28 years old - and a former college ballplayer,
with a good sense of humor and relaxed manner.
Muncy drew a walk from the new pitcher in that 13th inning,
stealing second base on the next man's foul pop out.
The third man up had a solid infield hit coupled with an error
by Boston, bringing Max in for the Dodgers.
That matched the run scored in the top half of the inning by the
Red Sox... and matched the same sequence of events that
led to that run by the opposing team.
How utterly incredible!

The score was then two to two.
The two men, Max Muncy and Nathan Eovaldi, faced each other two more times over the course of the game.
At their next encounter, the Dodger was struck out by the Bostonian. Muncy was apparently quite impressed with the pitching, too. Max gave a nod of respect to the Red Sox pitcher as he left the field for the dugout.
Then came the Dodgers' turn at bat again, in the bottom of the 18th inning, after seven hours of play. Muncy again faced Eovaldi... and this time, Max hit a home run and gratefully took his lap around the bases!
The Los Angeles Dodgers had their first win in the 2018 World Series...
I know that made Mister Willie's 80th birthday that much sweeter.
(smile)
I'm so glad I was at the right place at the right time tonight!
i thank You, God.

I'm off to actually catch "The Sisters Brothers" now...
I look forward to more baseball when I get home!