Last night’s game was remarkable in that so many bad things happened to the Giants — who definitely deserve everything that’s happening to them but for reasons we’ll never fully understand — and yet, it was one of those games you don’t quite want to forget.
Pittsburgh’s outpour of love and affection for McCutchen was simply beautiful and represented the best of fandom and Baseball. The Giants’ inability to stop striking out at the plate, getting hits with runners in scoring position, or get out major league hitters isn’t affected in any way by their opponent. They’re simply unwatchably bad against every team now — again, deservedly so, and for reasons we’ll never fully understand.
But as good and bad as those two things were, what stood out most to me was the lengthy replay review in the bottom of the sixth inning after Andrew McCutchen had thrown out Colin Moran at home plate. Thankfully, MLB has posted the entire sequence and made it embeddable. So, you can rewatch it all here.
I’ve given you this long windup when everything you need to know is in the headline. The long and multiple reaction shots during this replay review — they were all watching the replay on a loop right there on the stadium screens — are hilarious.
Let’s begin.
Reaction Face Theater begins at the 1:02 mark, and it’s simply glorious. I have compiled the key images into this gallery below:
Our first set of characters in this play about staring. Behold, umpires, standing in silence, staring blankly, seemingly connected by a curly cord.
McCutchen and Jackson know Moran is out. Jackson’s spitting furiously in this segment, too. Little flaky blips shooting out of his mouth as he pulses his tongue repeatedly. At the very end of this segment, Blanco comes into frame and fist bumps McCutchen.
Buster Posey has had it with this life. The look of sadness and frustration is beautiful. What really sells this shot is the slow pull in that happens. This is drama, but it has nothing to do with the game itself and everything to do with a man whose life is at a crossroads. “What’s next?” “Is this all there is?”
McCutchen is really talking this out the whole time. Maybe he’s narrating -- after all, he made the throw -- and finally, he ends by saying he’s out. Then Blanco chimes in with an “He’s out”, and then Jackson spits. It’s tremendous fun watching these characters on screen together.
Back to these statues.
Posey’s seen it all, and now he’s pissed he has to see anymore. “Right. There.” he says with such annoyance you could... it’s just so palpable you can feel it tag you out through your screen.
THEY JUST KEEP SAYING “HE’S OUT.” And Austin Jackson keeps spitting. In between spits, you can see his Texas accent pop out by the way he moves his lips when he says, “He’s awwwt.”
Through the headsets right here, there’s just a single voice repeating over and over again, “AWAIT INSTRUCTIONS. AWAIT INSTRUCTIONS.”
“He’s out.” “Come on, he’s out.” Blanco is not impressed by the length of this replay review.
Finally, movement. One of the robot umps expels motor oil from his speech orifice.
I would watch a show with just the three of them.
Finally, the money shot. You’ve got the boring robot umps, the fun, ALIVE human beings in the outfield, Cory Gearrin rethinking his life and Buster Posey ready to explode with rage.
The outfielders are probably talking about something else that’s happening in the game, and Buster Posey doesn’t want to accidentally have a conversation with Gearrin so he takes a step forward. I’m loving this.
Finally, the call. Look at the umpire’s face. “Yup, that took way too long.”