The decision to remove pitcher R.A. Dickey in the fifth inning of Game 4 of the American League Division Series set off a flurry of conversation on Twitter and appears to be one of the most talked-about topics during the game, according to new data and analysis released by Twitter Canada.
With more than 12,000 mentions on Twitter, Dickey, the Blue Jays' starting pitcher, was the most mentioned player on the social media site during Monday night's game between the Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers.
Twitter Canada spokesperson Cam Gordon said most of the mentions came when Blue Jays manager John Gibbons decided to replace Dickey with pitcher David Price.
“A lot of the fans were bemoaning the fact that Gibbons didn’t leave him in to give him the win,” Gordon told CP24.com Monday night.
“Most of the mentions came in the fifth inning when he got taken out.”
In turn, David Price was the second-most mentioned player on Twitter during the game with more than 11,000 mentions.
“A lot of fans were surprised he was coming in to the game,” Gordon added.
Josh Donaldson and his handle@BringerOfRain20 generated more than 10,000 mentions on Twitter worldwide during Game 4 of the ALDS.
“He is just kind of been the most popular player all year so when he hit a home run in the first inning, there was a huge spike in conversation,” Gordon said.
The number of times the Blue Jays’ Twitter handle was mentioned also far exceeded the number of times the Rangers’ handle was referenced during the game.
The @BlueJays handle was referenced more than 47,000 times on Twitter during the game versus around 4,500 mentions for @Rangers.
“As you can see from those stats, there wasn’t that much to talk about for Rangers fans,” the Twitter spokesperson said.
The Blue Jays’ popular #ComeTogether hashtag was mentioned more than 61,000 times during the ALDS game.
“Blue Jays on Twitter this whole season have been really, really popular on Twitter,” Gordon said.
