The HC: Here's To Instant Classics

After last night, Saturday night baseball is being put up in the ranks of Monday Night Football; okay maybe not yet. Nonetheless history was made and fans were confined to the edges of their seats as the Mets, Cardinals, and Rockies all wrote their chapters in the story book of Major League Baseball. This weeks edition of the Hot Corner toasts two Saturday Night games that dropped jaws and made us all believe that somewhere, there could be baseball gods.

Yesterday, FOX Saturday Baseball hosted the New York Mets versus the St. Louis Cardinals. 43,709 fans barreled into Busch Stadium of St. Louis ready for a relaxed day of baseball, where they would be home just in time for dinner around seven o'clock. 19 pitchers, 130 at bats, 20 innings, and 6 hours and 53 minutes later, dinner was the last thing on anyone's mind. Not only did the Mets and Cardinals brawl for 20 or more innings for the 42nd time in baseball history, but they played eighteen frames (two full games) of scoreless baseball. When Jeff Francouer brought Jose Reyes home on a sacrifice fly to "interim" left fielder Kyle Lohse in the 19th, the Cards quickly tied the game on a Pujols double followed by a Yadier Molina single. Next came visions of the never-ending game. Sure enough, in the top of the 20th Jose Reyes scored Angel Pagan on another sac fly that would hold as the scoring run when Mike Pelfrey (the Mets 3rd starter) closed the door in the bottom of the inning. While the Mets and Cardinals knew they were making history with every pitch; they did not know they were also taking the Nation's eye off of another piece of history occurring at the exact same time in Atlanta, Georgia.

Saturday Night Rockies' ace Ubaldo Jimenez got in on the fun when he hurled the 243rd no-hitter in baseball history and the first in Colorado's. Ubaldo, who struck out seven and walked six, even had his way at the plate when he singled in a run and later scored in the 4th inning helping the Rockies jump out to a 4-0 lead that would stand as the game's final score. With no outs in the seventh Dexter Fowler did his best Dwayne Wise impression when he laid out to rob Troy Glaus of extra bases; stunning the Braves and keeping the no-hitter intact. When Jimenez retired Brian McCann with two outs in the ninth the folk tale was complete, the first no hitter in Rockies' history was in the books, and the ideal day of baseball was sauteed with something fans wouldn't soon forget.

Has a no hitter ever had to compete for the story of the night? Saturday night it did. To be matter of fact, what happened in St. Louis was far more rare than Jimenez's no-hitter. A 20 inning game ousts a no-hitter out of the top spot of National Sports news; never doubt that anything can happen.

JD