Sometimes you lose, as Sooners did, and still the game delivers in ways you've never seen
There were some bright spots.
Oklahoma, meeting Auburn on a campus diamond — who knew? — for the very first time, fell 6-4 to the Tigers Friday night and, yes, there were some bright spots for the Sooners.
Not enough to build a whole column around but we’ll be sure to mention them.
It was not what they call a “bad” loss, for Auburn entered ranked No. 9 by the coaches and No. 11 by the writers, while OU entered 13th and 12th. And while there were bright spots, nor were there any horrendous spots; spots that can’t happen if you ever expect to win; plays not made that don’t show up in the box score but produce losses; imploding starting pitching.
None of that happened.
In fixes that might have cost him six, seven, or eight runs in previous starts, Sooner starting pitcher L.J. Mercurius, though not sharp, limited the damage to four runs over three innings, giving his bullpen a chance to keep the Sooners in the game, which it did.
Auburn starter Andreas Alvarez appeared untouchable early and still OU got to him for three runs by the time he departed in the seventh inning and had chances to do more damage off his relief help, Jackson Sanders, than it did.
We could go deeper with uninteresting stuff but hey: no controversy, no spate of bad baseball, nothing to hate about the effort.
Sometimes you lose.
Now we can get to the fun stuff.
Start here:
Have you ever seen a single drive somebody home from first base?
Until a few years ago, covering Westmoore at a state tournament in a gale at ORU, I’d never seen it happen live and never seen it in any circumstance on what you might call a normal play.
That day at ORU the ball wasn’t hit that hard, the outfielder didn’t charge it and, not realizing what was happening on the bases, took a beat before lobbing it back to the infield, while the Jaguar runner never stopped.
It was great and guess what:
It happened twice Friday night at Auburn.
No, not like it happened at ORU, so maybe asterisks are required. Still, two different times, there was a runner at first, the batter hit a single and the runner scored.
No error required. No non-error blunder, either.
In the second inning, Auburn’s Bristol Carter was at first base after being hit by a pitch and Eric Guevara at the plate.
Guevara laced a single past second base and, here, perhaps, is the asterisk: Carter was running on the pitch.
OU center fielder Jason Walk had to come forward to field the ball and by the time he had Carter was between second and third base.
Walk’s throw cut off by shortstop Jaxon Willits, there was no real play at the plate, like why wouldn’t Carter score after beginning at first base.
Baseball, huh.
Then it was OU’s turn.
Camden Johnson was on first following a two-out single in the eighth and Deiten LaChance was at the plate and, you should probably know, it’s only 315 feet down the left-field line at Auburn and that’s why Plainsman Park has its own version of the Green Monster.
LaChance hit a liner so hard off that monster that by the time it was fielded on the carom, the throw to second base appeared no longer than a throw from behind second base to first.
Given all that, LaChance held at first. Johnson, though, perhaps aided by Auburn paying more attention to LaChance than him, came all the way home.
So, a wall shot, yes.
But first to home on a single nonetheless.
Twice in the same game.
How does baseball still — STILL! — give you things you’ve never seen before when they play dang near every day.
Another?
Remember the 1980s when they played on cement covered by thin green carpet in St. Louis and Pittsburgh, Philly and Cincinnati, Montreal, Kansas City and Houston?
Well, you’d see a play like the one OU’s Brendan Brock delivered in the second inning all the time in those places but mostly nowhere since.
Brock hit a ball that first struck earth not more than two feet beyond the infield dirt that Auburn second baseman Chris Rembert might have snared it had he been playing an extra step to his left, that went all the way to the wall before it was picked up.
On natural grass, I’d never seen it.
Give Brock points for placement. Had it been five feet either way, Carter in center field or Mason McCraine in right might have grabbed it at the warning track.
Instead, hit so hard it, barely beyond the dirt, on grass, it reached the wall.
Amazing.
Finally this, which I can’t know I’d never seen before, yet I’m pretty sure I hadn’t.
Auburn pitching faced 37 Sooner batters, striking out six and walking one. Of the remaining 30, 10 flew, lined or popped out. Of the remaining 20, nine recorded base hits. Of the remaining 11, six were thrown out by the pitcher, all to first base.
More than 50 percent of the outs OU made on the bases were balls fielded by Auburn pitchers who threw to first.
Insane.
Maybe you have to watch a thousand games to get a kick out of this stuff, or even notice what you’ve never previously noticed, but you’ve got to love it.
Baseball.
The bright spots?
Mercurius could have given in and OU would have never had a chance, but he didn’t.
After giving up home runs to the first and third batters he faced, before loading the bases still in the first inning, he got a double-play ball to get out of it. After giving up a run in the second, he left the bases loaded. Believe me, Sooner starting pitching has been far worse in various other SEC series openers.
Nate Smithburg, a submarining lefty coming off two scoreless innings against Oral Roberts on Tuesday, threw two scoreless and hitless innings at the Tigers, lowering his earned run average to 3.37 over 10 1/3 innings, giving OU a chance to rally at the end.
Pencil him in as a guy Sooner skipper Skip Johnson may now trust until if and when he can’t.
Walk made two stellar catches in center field and was one of two Sooners, along with LaChance, to record two hits.
Walk, whose average was .176 entering conference play, is now hitting .254. LaChance is hitting .314.
Today and Sunday are now what matters.
Last week, in a sweep of Missouri, OU got terrific outings from all three of its starting pitchers. Now the Sooners need Cam Johnson to show up tonight and Cord Rager to do the same on Sunday.
If more stuff we’ve never seen happen happens again, all the better.