There's that triple! And as thrilling as it was (they are of course all thrilling), it was the least thrilling triple of the night, in that Bo Bichette's cleared the bases (consisting, at that later time, of Reese McGuire, or rather Jonathan Davis in his pinch-stead, and AL Player of the Month Marcus Semien) in the bottom of the ninth to tie things up. It was much needed due to the extent to which young Alek Manoah (his exuberant mother very much with him) was not as sharp as he'd been in his Yankee-Stadium début, and, very much to the contrary, kept getting his changeups and sliders smoked. But the bullpen was excellent in his wake, especially Joel Payamps, who pitched out of a one-out, bases-loaded sitch that really did feel like "a jam." But everybody else did great, too: I am not even upset about the solo home run Thornton gave up, because hey; hey. To return, finally, to the bottom of the ninth, it was interesting, and I have no doubt correct, that with nobody out and Bo Bichette on third, Don Mattingly chose to walk not only Vladimir Guerrero Jr. but also Téo to load the bases, force-outs everywhere, and pitch to Randall Grichuk, even though Grichuk had already homered twice on the night (1.3fWAR so far this season, all to spite Keith Law). Grichuk hit a sharpish grounder, and the throw rightly came home to get Bo, leaving Vladdy on third to trot home with the winning run on Joe Panik's sacrifice fly to a drawn-in Starling Marte (Marte whiffed on the meaningless catch, so an E8, but rightly scored a sacrifice fly and an RBI all the same). What fun!
KS
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