Tigers Blow 9-Run Lead, Lose 14-13 to Mississippi State in Extras

The panic button has been smashed into a million pieces

Last week Adam wrote a column on this here website saying that LSU’s pitching—by guys not named Paul Skenes of course— cost them the series against Auburn, and it will cost them their season at some point in the future. A lot of the reaction painted Adam to be a doom and gloom, overreactionary kind of guy.

Flash forward a week and now he looks like a prophet.

After suffering the worst loss of the season last night, LSU outdid themselves in spectacular fashion and blew a 13-4 lead to a Mississippi State team that may not even make it to Hoover let alone the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers lost 14-13 in 10 innings.

“We gave up a big lead, so the loss is hard to swallow right now,” Jay Johnson said. “Our players competed very hard; we’ve just got to help them be better.

“It stings right now, but we have an opportunity to move forward. We’re going to play in the postseason, so we’ve got to spend now until that time to get as ready as we possibly can. I trust that our players and our staff will work hard to do that.”

LSU came within an inch of run-ruling the Bulldogs, claiming the series, and making us all forget about Saturday night’s collapse. Instead, they only upped the ante from a collapse standpoint and shined a bigger light on its weakness: the bullpen.

There’s not a single reliable arm in the Tiger pen. Gavin Guidry gave up three runs; Christian Little faced five batters and gave up four runs; Nate Ackenhausen let the only two batters he faced reach base; Bryce Collins got taken deep; Sam Dutton gave up a double and issued a walk against the three batters he faced. Riley Cooper, after pitching two innings last night, pitched the final two-and-a-third innings and clearly ran out of gas though his defense did him no favors in the 10th inning. On what should have been an inning-ending double play, a poor throw by Bear Jones kept the inning alive and allowed State to score the winning run.

A collapse of this proportion deserves the absolute stupidest ending possible and LSU obliged.

With the tying run on first and one out, Jordan Thompson flew out to right field. Ethan Frey, on to pinch run for Brayden Jobert, got doubled up at first to end the game.

I suppose I should mention Tre’ Morgan had a great game. Morgan homered twice and made a pretty awesome catch in the top of the ninth to end the Bulldogs chances. Brayden Jobert also homered and finished with five RBI.

But trying to pull positives away from unquestionably the worst loss of the season feels disingenuous. The Tigers scored 13 runs at home and lost. They had a nine-run lead and only needed 12 outs to claim the series and the bullpen failed miserably.

I’m not sure you can explain away what Adam foretold last week anymore. Unless Paul Skenes and Ty Floyd can start pitching complete games from here on out this 2023 baseball season is almost certainly going to end in bitter disappointment.