Yankees, Mariners DSL Teams Combine For One Of The Wildest Box Scores You'll See

The box score from yesterday’s Dominican Summer League Mariners vs. DSL Yankees2 game reads more like a survival test than a baseball game.

Runs: 43.

The final score was 22-21.

Tied at 16-16 after nine innings, the DSL Mariners scored six runs in the top of the 10th inning on only one hit (a single). The speed-up rules put a runner at second to start the inning. Two errors, three walks, a hit-by-pitch and a fielder’s choice did the rest.

But they only barely held on from there. In the bottom of the 10th, three walks, two singles and an error allowed the DSL Yankees2 to rally back, but with the tying run at second, a fielder’s choice finished one of the wildest games we will see in 2021.

Errors: 14.

Four different players had two errors.

Mariners catcher German Guilarte had four hits. He also walked three times and was hit by a pitch. He reached base eight times overall.

Walks: 31.

Three different DSL Yankees2 hitters had four walks in the game. Overall 15 of the 23 batters to come to the plate in this game drew at least one walk.

Wild Pitches: 8.

Six of the 13 pitchers allowed at least one wild pitch.

Passed Balls: 1.

Considering the wildness of the pitchers, Guilarte and Yankees catchers Jesus Rodriguez and Edinson Duran deserve plenty of credit.

Balks: 2.

Hit By Pitches: 6.

Stolen Bases: 15.

Innings: 10.

The Yankees’ Osmany Fleitas wins the award for being the game’s most efficient pitcher. He entered the game with the bases loaded in the 10th, no outs and six runs in. He got a line out and a double play to escape the inning. Two batters faced, three outs, no runs allowed. In a game where only one other pitcher recorded an out without allowing a run (Gleiner Diaz who walked three while recording two outs) that was a Cy Young-caliber performance.

And maybe the wildest stat, Time of Game: 6:35.

Now, it’s fair to look at that time of game with a cocked eyebrow. It’s so far beyond the norm that it seems unrealistic. But there were three other DSL games on Thursday that took longer than four hours.

And in this game, there were 129 batters who came to the plate in the game. That’s roughly three minutes per batter (not an outlandish amount in a game where the strike zone was a hard target for pitchers to find).There are no robo-umps in the Dominican Summer League, but it is the level where the youngest professionals in the minors get acclimated to the game. And as such, there are going to be some games that won’t be described as crisp. After a year long layoff without DSL games, this first week of the season is not surprisingly somewhat uneven in the quality of play.

But yesterday’s 22-21 game becomes the benchmark for a crazy game for the rest of the season.