News: Costly Base-Running Blunders
In the eighth inning of yesterday’s loss to the Nationals, Jose Reyes was thrown out while trying to run from first to third, incorrectly thinking he could outrun the shortstop, Cristian Guzman.
Willie Randolph, on the play:
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a play like that before…Jose is always going to try to be aggressive and take the extra base. We’ve seen him do that on ground balls to the left side, but again, that was a little bit unusual. But the end result is he can’t get thrown out in a situation like that. But like I said, if he makes it, then it’s a great play and we are not talking about it…Again, that was a little unusual. It was a gamble play.”
…when i saw him running to third, i was speechless…no part of that effort looked like it was going to succeed…
With the Mets down by a run in the bottom of the ninth inning, Carlos Delgado was up with Carlos Beltran on third. Delgado lined a shot to, once again, Aaron Boone, who caught it and doubled up Beltran on a quick throw to third. Game over.
Beltran, after the game:
“I’m going on contact; that’s the sign we got. As soon as he hit that ball, I just broke in. That’s what happens when you go on contact. You’re going to have a chance to get doubled up.”
Willie Randolph, on calling the play:
“With the third baseman playing off third base, we thought we’d go ‘contact’ there. The worst thing that could happen happened.”
…i can’t blame beltran for this one if that was the call from the dugout, but when things are going wrong, it seems like nothing can go right…there definitely seems to be a lack of focus with this team right now, and it needs to get resolved as soon as possible…
