Results tagged ‘ baserunning ’
It’s Not Always the Baserunner’s Fault
Saturday night’s Gwinnett-Norfolk game was suspended by rain after the first inning, and completed on Sunday night. Norfolk ended up winning the game, 6-5 in ten innings, on a controversial home run by catcher Adam Donachie. However, Gwinnett had two legitimate chances to score runs in the first nine innings, which would have made the extra innings unnecessary. However, I would not attribute either missed chance to bad baserunning; the first was the result of an outstanding defensive play and the second was simply a bad coaching decision.
In the 4th inning, with the game tied 1-1, Gwinnett loaded the bases with one out. Stefan Gartrell and Brandon Hicks walked and Ruben Gotay singled. Diory Hernandez hit a fly to fairly deep center field. Usually, this would be a routine sacrifice fly. Gartrell tagged up and went to home plate. While Gartrell isn’t as old as Ramon Castro or as bulky as Prince Fielder, he’s not an eager kid like Kyle Hudson and he’s filled out quite a bit. So, even if Gartrell weren’t trotting home, he wasn’t sprinting and consequently not moving very fast. And Brandon Hicks tagged up from second and tried to advance to third base. Center fielder Matt Angle had no shot at throwing out Gartrell, even with his relative lack of speed, so he threw to third to try to put Hicks out. And Angle made an outstanding throw; third baseman Brendan Harris applied the tag and Hicks was plainly out. Immediately, the home plate umpire turned to the press box and vigorously waved his arms, telling us that no run scored because Hicks was put out before Gartrell touched home plate. While Gartrell might have hustled a little bit more; or Hicks might not have tried to advance; or Hicks, realizing he would be put out, might have tried to delay the inevitable long enough, the real reason the run didn’t score was Angle’s outstanding throw.
In the ninth inning, with the Tides leading 5-3, closer Jeremy Accardo came in to pitch. With one out and J.C. Boscan on first, Accardo walked Tyler Pastornicky and Matt Young to load the bases. After Gartrell lined to short, Mauro Gomez hit a hard line drive off the left-field wall. Kyle Hudson played the ball of the wall and quickly threw to shortstop Carlos Rojas. Boscan scored from third and Pastornicky from second, tying the game. Although the ball was hit very hard and Hudson played it well, manager Dave Brundage, coaching third, told Young to try to score. Rojas had the ball almost as soon as Young reached third, and he easily threw Young out at the plate.
Gwinnett did lose the game in extra innings, so it is true that had Hicks not tried to take third in the fourth inning, Gwinnett would have won the game. And if Young had held at third, Gwinnett might have won the game in the ninth inning. But I wouldn’t classify Hicks’ decision as bad baserunning; it was a reasonable decision that didn’t work out. And I don’t blame Young; Brundage made a bad decision that Young couldn’t rescue.
Bad Baserunning. Baaaaaaad Baserunning!
It’s unusual, but hardly unheard-of, for a team to have many hits in a particular game but few runs. It seems that every week or so a team will have a linescore of 1 run on 11 hits, or 2 runs on 14 hits, or something similar. It’s much more unusual for both teams in a game to have fewer runs than their hit totals would suggest, but that happened in last night’s 2-1 Norfolk win over Scranton Wilkes-Barre. The Tides had two runs on eleven hits, the Yankees one run on nine hits.
The Tides’ didn’t score more runs primarily because manager Gary Allenson, serving as the third base coach, was overaggressive and because the Yankees’ outfielders had good arms. The Tides scored one run in the fifth inning on a double, a walk, and a single; even though the inning ended with a double play, that’s still efficient. And in the bottom of the ninth, the Tides scored the winning run on a single, wild pitch, and walk-off double; that’s efficient also (and, had it been necessary, the Tides might have scored more runs, likely flattening the run-hit ratio somewhat.)
However, the Tides had two runners thrown out at the plate. The first runner should never have been sent. With one out, catcher John Hester and center fielder Matt Angle singled. They advanced to third and second, respectively, on a balk. Tyler Henson lofted a fly ball to fairly shallow right field, and Greg Golson made the catch. For some reason, Allenson sent Hester, a catcher, to try to score after the catch. Golson made a competent throw and Hester was out by several feet. The second runner thrown out at the plate also probably should not have been sent home, although it wasn’t as bad a decision. Ryan Adams singled and was sacrificed to second. With two outs, Angle slapped a line drive single to left field. While Adams isn’t quite as slow as Hester, he’s not fleet of foot; yet Allenson sent him, probably because left fielder Jordan Parraz hadn’t yet picked up the ball. When Parraz did so, he fired a line drive strike to home plate; there was almost no arc on his thrown. Adams was out by a few feet.
So, that’s four wasted Norfolk hits that produced zero runs, because of overaggressive coaching and good throws. Scranton also had three runners retired on the bases, all of which were caused by baserunning errors.
In the first inning, with one out, Scranton’s Greg Golson and Mike Lamb singled. On a 3-2 pitch, Golson broke for third too early; the pitcher stepped off the rubber and started a 1-6-5 pickoff/caught stealing. Jesus Montero singled two pitches later; but, because Golson wasn’t on base, no runs scored. The next batter flied out to end the inning. No runs, three hits. In the third inning, Golson led off with an infield single. On a hit-and-run, Lamb flew to right field. Golson was deked by shortstop Nick Green and continued running, not knowing Lamb hit a routine fly. Golson was easily doubled off first base by Rhyne Hughes. (Side note – that was Hughes’ second outfield assist in 69 career outfield games.) Finally, in the seventh inning, Luis Nunez singled and was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Those plays explain why five of Scranton’s hits produced no runs. Greg Golson’s bad baserunning cost Scranton 1 run and possibly the game.
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