If the guy originally on second didn’t touch third, he remains entitled to second base if he can get back there. (ETA: Actually, the lead runner is always entitled to return within a continuous play.)
Brice acted correctly in tagging both; that is what you are taught to do.
Anyway, in today’s Yankees-Jays game, Toronto’s Kevin Pillar hit a single. He then stole second. Then he stole third. Figuring he was on a roll, he went to steal home and sure enough, he made it.
This is quite a rare feat; it happened thirty times or so in the olden days, but in my lifetime it’s only the eleventh time a person has done it.
Quoted from another website, not quite up to date as it doesn’t include Pillar’s feat today. I thought maybe Billy Hamilton had done it, but he hasn’t, not from first all the way home apparently.
*There have been 51 instances of a player stealing second base, stealing third base, then stealing home during the same inning, by 41 different ballplayers.
Not one player in Major League history has ever accomplished this feat once in each league (American League & National League), and only a tiny group of players have accomplished the baserunning feat more than once during their career:
Quantity Name
4 Ty Cobb (A.L. Record)
4 Honus Wagner (N.L. Record)
2 Max Carey
2 Jackie Tavener
*
That’s why the Cubs are paying dividends for Kris Bryant. Yes, the service time rules suck, but that awesome double down the third base line is a reason to keep sports talk radio announcers employed while understanding that baseball is a business.
If you are a T-Mobile subscriber, they’re giving away free MLB.tv subscriptions. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up. (If you don’t have T-Mobile, but know someone who does, they can sign you up with your email.)
Lucky SOBs split a 4-game series while being outscored 14-2. The Giants blew a basic rundown play last game. I gotta trashtalk them now because I’m afraid they won’t be around too long this season, either (baiting Suburban Plankton, among others).
in Adventures in Rookie Managing, Aaron Boone decided that with a 4-3 lead, he’d walk John Donaldson to pitch to Justin Smoak, who’d already hit a home run in the game, with the bases loaded.
Of course as a Blue Jays fan I was delighted by the outcome but GOD I hate intentional walks. I hate them. I’ve seen like a thousand intentional walks in my day, and I swear to God that 95% of them were stupid, gusting to 98% in the American League. The moment they walked Donaldson I suddenly had faith the Blue Jays might pull off a comeback. “Boy, that was stupid,” I thought, “Is Aaron Boone working for Toronto?” I have lost count of how many intentional walks just blew up in the face of the issuing manager and made everything worse.
Nothing about this one made sense. Yeah, I know Donaldson is a star, but
He is hurt, and Smoak is hitting well,
By walking him to pitch to Smoak you surrender the platoon advantage
By walking the bases loaded (GOD so stupid) you turn a subsequent walk or HBP into losing the lead and
You simplify the hitter’s situation, since he knows the pitcher will be afraid of walking him
Boone is not of course as dumb as Gabe Kapler, I don’t mean to take this too far.
Minor kerfuffle In the Twins/Orioles game yesterday that I just don’t understand. The Twins were up 7 - 0, and an Orioles player did, what I consider, a smart baseball play to try and get on base, and the Twins are upset? Did I miss the memo where a team is supposed to give up? Or not try to take advantage of an infield shift?
Yeah, that was just weird. I’m familiar with the idea that “you don’t bunt to break up a no-hitter in the late innings,” which is hard enough to defend, but “you don’t bunt to break up a one-hitter” seems…bizarre.
I’m also familiar with “you don’t bunt for a hit late in the game with a huge lead,” but not with “you don’t bunt for a hit when you’re way behind.” Again, seems strange.
But what really takes the cake is that, as you note, THE TWINS WERE USING AN INFIELD SHIFT. If it’s not kosher for the Orioles to try to get on base any way they can, why on earth is it kosher for the Twins to go out of their way to prevent them from getting on base?
Wow. That is fucking dumb. You play the shift, I don’t care what the state of the game is, get on base with that bunt! What the hell kind of dumb fuck “unwritten rule” is this going against?
I wish more hitters would do that. Keeping the line moving, I would imagine, results in more runs than trying for the bloop and a blast. Crush Davis should have been bunting too. And every hitter against CC Sebathia. As much as I hate the stupid shift, I hate it even more when the armored up slugger hits right into it.
Dozier is under a delusion that because the Twins didn’t steal a base the prior frame when they maybe could have due to Baltimore’s first baseman not holding a runner on the bag down by several runs, other unwritten rules applied.
Sigh. Reds lose another one run game, this time to the Cubbies…1-0.
Reds now 0-4 and already ensconced in the cellar.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh has an impressive 4-0 start to their season, with today being their first home game.
I hate my Reds, always building for a tomorrow that never comes. You have a great farm system and good draft picks, but by the time they’re developed and really good, they become Yankees (or whatever). You spend money unwisely. You either have a top five offense in the MLB like last year, but the worst pitching in all of baseball, or have a good starting rotation (ah, the halcyon years of Cueto, Latos, Leake, Arroyo when he didn’t suck and Bailey before he got his unwarranted huge contract and got hurt for 1 1/2 years, and a deficiency somewhere else that’s glaring. That contract should have gone to Cueto.
And why are they off Friday, April 6, in the middle of a series at home against the Rays? Maybe there’s a legit reason, but I don’t love the mid-series day off.
