Up until the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday night, the Yankees had every chance in the world to secure a season-opening three-game sweep over their chief rivals, the Boston Red Sox, to open the 2022 season.
Probably better they didn’t finish the job, though. Remember last year when the Red Sox got swept by the Orioles to start the season, then used that as motivation to claim the whole world was “writing them off” before ripping off a playoff run? Classic narrative-spinning. “Everyone counted us out for no reason other than the results of our games!!”
Alas, at the end of the day, Yankee fans had to go home satisfied with a pair of victories, the series secured, and one all-time moment on Saturday’s NESN broadcast.
Boston color man Dennis Eckersley had a front-row seat to Giancarlo Stanton’s incredible sixth home run in as many games against the Sox dating back to 2021, and swallowed his own tongue after the slugger made impact.
Luckily for all of us, he was broadcasting at the time and the entire tongue-eating process was fully audible.
Listen to Eckersley ask Nick Pivetta to throw a specific pitch, only for Pivetta to throw that pitch and watch it fly 400 feet into the stratosphere. Oops!
Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton home run led to all-time Boston NESN call
Extra special shoutout to Pivetta, too, for squatting on the mound like a baby after a dinger of his own doing. Sox fans have the audacity to call Gerrit Cole a crybaby when they also employ this wimp? Exhausting.
This one must’ve hurt double for Eck, too, considering he openly advocated for Pivetta to go back to the slidepiece, only to see that slidepiece sent to the moon a fraction of a second later. Both a blow to the Sox’ chances of winning AND a clear swing-and-a-miss from the booth! Bummer.
This opening weekend dinger is the spiritual sequel to the time Eckersley Boston’d up the national broadcast for the 2018 AL Wild Card Game.
This is what people tune in for, right? The announcers audibly yelping a disgusted, “No!” as one team pulls ahead?
The Yankees and Sox don’t lock antlers again until July, indicating MLB really thought they were going to miss three months due to the lockout, huh?
The next time this rivalry gets reignited, maybe pop on NESN for a few pitches in case Stanton wants to send Eckersely’s heart through his esophagus yet again.
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