It was a week we've never seen in more than a century of baseball in Buffalo. And it stands to reason we'll probably never see another like it again.
When the calendar hit July in the weird world of 2020, there was no way to imagine the Toronto Blue Jays would be playing games here. Then for six days over one week in September, we had New York, New York, in our midst.
Three games against the Yankees. Three games against the Mets. Back-to-back. Produced by a pandemic. At the corner of Washington and Swan. Unimaginable.
Yes, I got a lot of inquiries about people wanting to sneak in to Sahlen Field by carrying my laptop. They were only half-joking. I wish I could have been able to do something, anything, to get you folks inside.
Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo and coach Luis Rivera honored Roberto Clemente by wearing No. 21 on Wednesday. The Mets were given permission by MLB to wear caps of various first responder agencies Friday on 9/11. So cool to see both.
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There were so many local fans of both visiting teams paying attention. And new fans growing for the full-of-Bisons-alumni Blue Jays, too, as they went 4-2 on the homestand.
So memorable – but so full of weirdness, too.
Ten-spots
The Blue Jays opened the week by erupting for 10 runs in the sixth Monday to post a 12-6 win over the Yankees. In the fourth inning Friday, the Mets did the same thing to the Jays in the fourth. Each featured a grand slam, by Toronto's Danny Jansen and New York's Dom Smith.
Danny Jansen's Grand Slam capped off a 10-RUN INNING on the Yankees 🔥🔥(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/sSyCtZzTR8
— SI MLB (@si_mlb) September 8, 2020
The Jays became the first MLB team to score 10 and give up 10 in an inning in the same week since the 2006 Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Only one time in their history, in 2010, had the Jays scored and allowed a 10-run inning in the same season.
And over 32 years of Triple-A baseball here, we had seen only two 10-run innings (an 11-spot by Indianapolis in 1996 and a 10-run outburst by the Bisons in 2001). Then it happened twice in five days.
What was in Saturday's water?
The Blue Jays' 3-2 win over the Mets looks ordinary. It wasn't.
Mets pitcher Seth Lugo recorded an unassisted out sliding into third, beating Travis Shaw in a race on a chopper. Said Lugo: "That's the first time I've ever seen it, much less attempted it."
WHAT A PLAY BY SETH LUGO!!! pic.twitter.com/aFKCpjtwsH
— SNY (@SNYtv) September 13, 2020
There were six replay reviews. Six. Bo Bichette streaked home from first on a double but was sent back when MLB officials foolishly ruled the ball was stuck under the fence, claiming that was a universal ground rule in the big leagues. Jays manager Charlie Montoyo had never heard of it. And Mets outfielder Jake Marisnick clearly didn't either, simply reaching in, picking the ball up and firing it in.
How did the game end? On a replay review that ruled Amed Rosario was picked off at first. Call it a walkoff pickoff.
"I've been in the game for 40-something years and that's the best 'walkoff pickoff' play that I've ever seen," Montoyo said. "I loved it."
Until Saturday night, the only other "walkoff pickoff" in Blue Jays history was carried out by Tom Henke against Cleveland in 1991. In Sahlen Field, it happened on May 3, 1988, against Nasvhille. The pitcher was Bisons closer Scott Medvin. The victim was Marty Brown, then a 25-year-old prospect and now a Buffalo Baseball Hall of Famer who managed the Bisons for four seasons, including their 2004 Governors Cup championship.
Until Saturday night, the only other “walkoff pickoff” in Sahlen Field history. May 3, 1988. Buffalo 7, Nashville 6. “Wake up Marty Brown.” The classic call here. #Bisons #Bluejays cc @benwag247 https://t.co/FnMREhhTEi
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) September 13, 2020
Yankee Doodles
The Yankees started to find themselves here. GM Brian Cashman rallied the troops. Gleyber Torres started wearing yellow-tinted glasses and hasn't stopped hitting since. And the pitchers started rolling zeros. Since the 10-run inning on Monday, Yankees pitchers have allowed just seven runs in the next 52 innings.
Just 21-21 and only a half-game inside the playoff cut when they arrived Wednesday, the Yankees are now 26-21. They'll be back next Monday for a four-game set that could likely decide second place in the AL East and a much better seed for the playoffs. And their lineup might include Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton taking their shots at Oak Street.
Numerology
• The Mets have played close to 5,000 games in New York State since they were born in 1962. Never have they scored more runs than they did in their first game in Buffalo on Friday in the 18-1 win that was the most lopsided game in ballpark history.
The 18 runs were one more than their record in each Shea Stadium and Citi Field and three more than the franchise best in the Polo Grounds, their home in 1962-63.
• Mets reliever Erasmo Ramirez pitched the final three innings Friday so he got a save – in a game his team won by 17 runs. Such a dumb rule.
• Saturday's win was the Blue Jays' 13th of the season by one run and it came in Game 45. In 2019, they posted their 13th one-run victory on Sept. 10 – in Game 145.
• What's up with Pete Alonso? The reigning NL Rookie of the Year was just 1-for-13 for the Mets, and was 0-for-5 during the 18-1 game. He had 53 home runs last year. He has 11 this year but is batting just .222.
On the airwaves
Nobody was in town as all the calls were done remotely, but the big New York-centric names were all talking about Buffalo and Sahlen Field, with varying degrees of accuracy.
On YES Network, Paul O'Neill (who works out of his Ohio basement) recalled "numerous" trips to the Anchor Bar when he was here as a Double-A player in War Memorial Stadium for the 1984 Vermont Reds and in Triple-A for the 1985-86 Denver Zephyrs.
On SNY, Wayne Randazzo (filling in for Gary Cohen on Friday night) recalled how he followed local advice and went to Gabriel's Gate on Allen Street while here last year for a Bills game on CBS. Ron Darling chimed in talking about beef on weck.
The left-field screen protecting Oak Street got plenty of talk and camera shots. Yankees radio announcers John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman talked about the houses it was protecting, with Sterling bringing up a similarity to Cincinnati's Crosley Field. Of course, there are no houses on Oak Street by the ballpark.
“Live from Sahlen Field in Buffalo, NY, it’s New York @Yankees baseball!” -John Sterling. I wasn’t expecting to ever hear those words said. But it is 2020! #NYYforNY @ByMHarrington @EvanRobertsWFAN @BryanHoch @YankeesWFAN @WGR550 @WFAN660 @BrianWGR @SalSports pic.twitter.com/AbMPWa0ry2
— Displaced Buffalo Sabres Fans (@DisplacedSabres) September 7, 2020
Keith Hernandez's Oak Street quip on SNY: "This is like being a kid in a cul-de-sac. You hit it too far, you hit the neighbor's car – or you break their window."
A blurb from Mets TV voice Gary Cohen: "Did you know there’s a Shea's Buffalo in Buffalo? Little confluence right there (with Shea Stadium)." Cohen then noted that Sahlen Field “used to be Pilot Field, named after a meat packing organization.”
Welp, not exactly. The only meat involved would have been if the Pilot Air Freight company of Philadelphia was shipping some.
And seats by the visiting on-deck circle gave plenty of airtime on both networks to the first two rows of fans – which featured cardboard cutout Bob and Mindy Rich, Mayor Jimmy Griffin and Buster Bison.
How appropriate that their likenesses had a front-row look at one of the wildest weeks in Buffalo baseball history.
Being by the on-deck circle has gotten cutout Bob and Mindy Rich, Mayor Griffin and Buster Bison airtime this week on both @YESNetwork and @SNYtv #Bluejays #Bisons #Yankees #Mets pic.twitter.com/tXHXkCePb8
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) September 12, 2020
