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.