On the third day of the season, Dansby Swanson became the first hitter of the year (and in major league history) to lead off an inning with an RBI single.
Remember when baseball players earned their way on base and teams played small ball to manufacture runs. Well, welcome to 2020 baseball, where if games go into extra innings runners are gifted second base, and teams are given three chances to get him home without even having to give up a hitter via sacrifice. For this reason, Dansby Swanson penciled his name into the record books.
With the Atlanta Braves game heading into extra innings against the New York Mets, a runner was sent to second base ahead of Swanson’s at bat. He proceeded to slap an 0-2 pitch up the middle bringing in the go ahead run. In the process, he became the first player in the history of the game to leadoff an innings and collect an RBI single.
Dansby Swanson is the first player in major league history to leadoff an inning with an RBI single
— Max Herz (@MaxHerzTalks) July 25, 2020
The first player in history. The long, sacred, cherished game of baseball, now has to make room in the hallowed record books for this. A cheap, 2020 edition, speed up the game by gifting runners bases in extra innings, rule.
To begin the tenth inning, Adam Duvall was ushered out to second base, with Swanson leading off the inning. Duvall, who struck out to end the Braves half of the ninth, basically gets rewarded for being the last out of the inning.
The run, which is of the unearned variety, does not affect the earned run average of Hunter Strickland as he had nothing to do with Duvall reaching base. Though, Strickland took the loss for his efforts.
Having this rule as a part of the game drastically affects how the inning plays out. Baseball is a game of chess moves. Imagine playing chess and going back and forth making several moves and after a certain point allowing your opponent to just move a piece illegally into check position.
Everything you had worked for in previous moves, rendered useless.
Congrats to Dansby Swanson for taking advantage of the circumstances and coming through in the clutch. First player in history to single and score a run in extra innings. He’s batting 1.000 leading off an inning with runners in scoring position.
What a joke.