ST. LOUIS — There are many unspoken rules in baseball. You don’t talk about a no-hitter while it’s happening. You don’t take too long running the bases when you’ve hit a home run. You don’t steal third with two outs.
And you only take a curtain call for home runs that tie or win the game in the eighth inning or later.
Except when it comes to that last rule, it seems like nobody told the St. Louis Cardinals.
Matt Adams tips his helmet to the crowd at Busch Stadium in the eighth inning Sunday. (Getty Images)
The Cardinals may have had the fewest home runs in the National League during the regular season, but they’re making up for it in October. Sunday night’s walk-off win over the Giants ended in a solo home run from second baseman Kolten Wong. It was the fourth solo home run of the night for the Cardinals.
The first one came in the third inning on a 1-1 pitch, courtesy of Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter. When he emerged from the dugout to tip his hat to the crowd, some people were not impressed.
Curtain call in the third inning of Game 2?
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) October 13, 2014best fans in baseball demand a curtain call after a third-inning solo homer
— CHILLS FANGSTOCK (@sundownmotel) October 13, 2014To be fair, in the 158 games he played in the regular season, Carpenter hit only eight home runs. In the six games he’s played this postseason, he’s hit four. So while it may have only been the third inning, to the fans at Busch Stadium he may as well have won the game.
"The fans are just getting really excited about the amount of home runs we’re hitting,” Carpenter explained after the game. “I think that the emotion of the postseason and what’s going on right now. They’re just really into it. They’re (asking for curtain calls) way more now than they usually do, but it’s fun. We enjoy it and we appreciate the energy that they’re bringing to the ballpark."
After they fell behind to the Giants in the seventh inning, another solo home run, this time one courtesy of Oscar Taveras, tied up the game. When he reached the end of the congratulatory line in the dugout, Carpenter gave him a shove up to the steps to take his curtain call. “(The fans) wanted to see him,” Carpenter said, “so I got him up there.”
Cue annoyed Twitter outrage.
oh just everyone gets a curtain call
— CHILLS FANGSTOCK (@sundownmotel) October 13, 2014Okay, that's it. Somebody give me a bat. These curtain calls ...
— Kate Scott (@katetscott) October 13, 2014By the time first baseman Matt Adams hit his solo home run to take the lead in the eighth inning, it felt a little like a home run derby in Busch Stadium.
What's the #NLCS record for curtain calls in a single game? #SFGiants #SFvsSTL
— Andrea Abney (@andreaabney) October 13, 2014I respect the culture and success of the #Cardinals but can we stop with the excessive curtain calls and the LLWS line in dugout after HR
— Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) October 13, 2014After a wild pitch from Cardinals reliever Trevor Rosenthal tied the game back up in the ninth, Wong hit his walk-off homer on a 1-0 pitch from Giants closer Sergio Romo.
“I know I’m not a home run hitter,” Wong said. “I don’t try to be a home run hitter. But then again, I know when I hit a ball I have a good chance of hitting it out.”
The Cardinals may not be trying to hit home runs, but it seems like they just can’t help it.
“I feel like every game [in the postseason] it’s been a home run that’s got us to where we’re at or taken the lead or tied it up or something,” said Cardinals right-fielder Randal Grichuk. “Everybody’s got the power it’s just a matter of putting a good swing on it.”
Fans of the unspoken rules of baseball may not appreciate the Cardinals curtain calls, but Grichuk noted that “it’s kind of a tradition here.” He went on to say “I’m glad those guys got curtain calls tonight.”
While the Giants worked hard for their four runs, scoring on ground balls and a wild pitch, Carpenter noted that the Cardinals' method is certainly more efficient. “With us, we’ve found a way to just hit it over the fence, and hopefully we can keep that going,” he said. “That’s much easier.”
Erin Faulk is a documentary filmmaker and writer based in the Los Angeles area, best known for a unique brand of storytelling on Twitter. Examples of her work have appeared on Slate, Gawker, Jezebel and other sites.