Mets Minor Leaguer Gives Up 14 Runs, Retires Immediately After The Game

NY Post – Mets minor league pitcher Aaron Laffey began Wednesday night as the starting pitcher for the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s. By the end of the evening, he had given up 14 runs and quit baseball altogether. Hours after allowing 12 earned runs in a 16-4 loss to the New Orleans Baby Cakes, Laffey pulled the plug on a career that spanned over 10 big-league seasons and more than 50 major league starts. “He just felt it from inside that he gave it everything he had after 16 years,” manager Tony DeFrancesco told the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the game about the 2003 draft pick. “Plus, the results weren’t very good so that could have been part of it. But at times, you lose your fire and that’s where he’s at.” In his first two appearances with Vegas, Laffey gave up seven and eight runs, respectively, as he filled in for a shallow rotation in need of an extra arm. Against New Orleans, the journeyman already had given up eight runs through three innings, but the 51s’ lack of bullpen depth meant DeFrancesco was forced to keep him in the game a bit longer.

A good old Human Sacrifice. Sometimes they are necessary in this game we call Baseball. Not the first time I’ve seen it with this franchise, not the last. The most recent sacrificial lamb was Akeel Morris. Terry Collins threw him in the game against the heart of the Blue Jays order like chum to a school of sharks. He was blasted to the moon and immediately demoted back to the minors.  But this? This right here? This is something altogether different. 14 runs. FOURTEEN. 33 years old. 10 seasons. And a final nail in the coffin in the form of two fucking touchdowns because the bullpen was spent. I mean I understand it. Sometimes a pitcher has just gotta wear one. But like…fourteen? You could have had someone else go in there after we hit double digits? You had to let them hit that “-teen” suffix??? Might as well have just shot him in the head with that gun from No Country for Old Men

Put him out of his misery. In a weird way its probably better this way. Walking away from the game is always difficult. You never know when to do it. Never know if you’ve still got anything left in the tank. Seeds of doubt always present. Well, theres no doubt for Aaron Laffey. You give up a 14 spot on the Las Vegas 51s and the decision is made for you. You are very much absolutely done with your baseball career. Time to go sell cars or some shit.