Game ending balks by Mat Kovach June 17, 2011 The Mets find a new way to lose, the game ending balk in extra innings. D.J. Carrasco stopped and reset his motion without stepping off the rubber. This allowed the Braves Diory Hernandez to walking in from third base. Not quite the drama of game ending bases loaded triple or the uniqueness of a game ending catcher’s inteference but it is a fairly modern phenomena. According to Retrosheet’s play-by-play data a game ending balk first happened in 1965 and 12 more times until last night. Those 13 included 7 that happened in extra innings. The first four happened with the bases loaded. GAME INN OUTS PITCHER BATTER RUN_3D BASES CIN196504280 14 2 Ernie Broglio Tony Perez Tommy Harper Loaded PIT196506080 11 2 Hal Woodeshick Donn Clendenon Bill Virdon Loaded HOU197304290 9 2 Tom Walker Larry Howard Cesar Cedeno Loaded PIT197809292 9 0 Warren Brusstar Phil Garner Dave Parker Loaded BOS198607100 12 2 Todd Fischer Rey Quinones Dwight Evans 2B & 3B LAN198905280 12 0 Roger McDowell John Shelby Dave Anderson 2B & 3B ATL199307040 9 1 Matt Turner Ron Gant Deion Sanders Loaded BAL200004280 9 0 Jeff Zimmerman Greg Myers Mark Lewis 2B & 3B FLO200005080 9 2 John Rocker Cliff Floyd Danny Bautista 2B & 3B SEA200404190 14 1 Justin Duchscherer Scott Spiezio Quinton McCracken 1B & 3B MIL200507150 10 1 Mike Stanton Lyle Overbay Chris Magruder 1B & 3B ATL200809090 10 2 Taylor Buchholz Omar Infante Kelly Johnson 2B & 3B LAN201005310 9 2 Esmerling Vasquez Blake DeWitt Casey Blake 3B only Of course, it was 1963 when the MLB had a major crack down on the balk rule, so it make sense that this started happening around then. But for more information about the balk, read David Wade’s excellent Inside the balk article.