“Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” also known as Tinker to Evers to Chance after its refrain, is a 1910 baseball poem by Franklin Pierce Adams and immortalized the early 20th-century Chicago Cubs infield of shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance completing a double play.
Granted, I’m not much on early 20th-century poetry, but “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” never did much for me. Me? I always wanted to know why we never heard about the pitcher who induced the ground-ball double play since pitching is either the lifeblood of the sport (see Atlanta Braves circa The Mazzone/Wonder Years) or its fatal virus (see Baltimore Orioles circa 1998-present).
Think anybody’s going to write a poem about Jhonny Peralta, Asdrubal Cabrera and Ryan Garko, the Cleveland Indians’ shortstop, second baseman and first baseman respectively Tuesday night in the Tribe’s 8-7 win over Kansas City? Even Mark DeRosa, the third baseman, for that matter?
Okay, you might be off to somewhat of a start with Peralta to Cabrera ... But when you get to Garko, how is that poetic?
Garko? Why you can hear Jim Mora barking, “Garko? Garko?” Or even Allen Iverson saying, “We’re talking about Garko, here. Garko!”
Garko. Sounds more like a TV commercial for an insurance company.
Nonetheless, Mr. Garko did have all six putouts on the six groundball double plays the Indians pulled on Tuesday to tie a club record; and they all started with either DeRosa, Peralta or Cabrera, before ending in his mitt.
But do you know where the poetry really came from on this night? Of course, you know. It came from left-hander Aaron Laffey (1-0, 2.19 ERA), who, in his second start of the season, became the first Cleveland starter to go seven innings, allowing one run on seven hits, striking out three and walking three.
With his sinker sinking as well as it can, Laffey hatched double plays in five consecutive innings, the most for a big-league pitcher since 1970. The six the Tribe turned on the night all came in six consecutive innings.
“He pitched an outstanding game,” manager Eric Wedge told reporters. “He put the ball on the ground all night. For him to get us through the seventh — especially what happened after that — was a separator.”
That separator occurred when Laffey worked out of a one-out bases-loaded jam, by getting Kansas City’s Coco Crisp to hit into his second double play of the night, sending a grounder to third as DeRosa stepped on the bag for the force and threw to first to complete the double play.
“Our defense was unbelievable,” Laffey said. “I pitch to contact, so I have to rely on my defense.”
Laffey also had high praise for his catcher, Victor Martinez.
“Victor called a great game,” he said. “We were in a good pattern. The one time I shook him off, Coco Crisp hit a double in the first inning. He asked me about the fifth inning, ‘So do you trust me now?’ I told him, ‘I know not to shake now.’
Laffey left after the seventh with a 6-1 lead, but, thanks to their struggling (and we’re being kind) bullpen, the Indians needed a two-run home run from Martinez in the eighth to win 8-7.
But if everybody on the Cleveland side was pretty impressed with the six double plays, you’ll have to forgive Kansas City manager Trey Hillman if he wasn’t.
“Six double plays, that’s tough to do in one game,” he said. “That’s frustrating. We didn’t make enough adjustments. We have to be more patient in those situations.”
They say the pitcher’s best friend is the double play, and everybody knows you take care of your best friend, because that best friend is going to come through for you sooner than you can know. So, just credit Laffey, who is a sinkerball pitcher. His meal ticket is getting the ground ball, and on Tuesday he ate quite well, thank you.
“(Getting double plays)” is definitely a confidence-builder,” he said. “I threw quality pitches to get a double play. Five double plays is definitely a career high for me. It helped that my defense was unbelievable behind me.”
They also say that luck is the residue of design, and appearances seem to be Laffey isn’t one to rely too heavily on luck.
Still, if he does on occasion prefer to take his chance with the three-digit number of the Ohio State Lottery, who’s to say he might not encounter a little luck with 6-4-3 ... 5-4-3, or, say, even 4-6-3?
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
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