Game: Padres vs Dodgers 4/15
Situation: Padres are winning 5-3 in the bottom of the 8th inning. The Dodgers have runners on second and third with 1 out. Skip Schumaker is at the plate (What a great baseball name by the way) and AJ Ellis is the Dodger on third base.
What Happened: Skip hits a comebacker to the pitcher, who fields, checks third, then throws to first base for the force. AJ Ellis freezes at third when the pitcher looks at him then breaks for home when he throws to first. NLB favorite, Yonder Alonso, playing first base for the Padres, fires home for the inning ending, rally killing, double play. Dodgers go on to lose the game.
What We Can Learn:
Runner on third: AJ Ellis CANNOT make the third out of the inning in that situation. He does not represent the tying run and therefore can only make that break to home plate if he is sure he will score.
Once the pitcher freezes him, he has to get back to the bag. If he would have done that then at least the Dodgers would have gotten an extra at bat where a single could tie the game.
If you represent the tying run in that situation it’s ok to be more aggressive, but because it’s late in the game and you’re down 2 runs, you have to play it safe.
Pitcher: Some pitchers in this situation would not bother to check the runner and just throw to first and take the out. In this situation Luke Gregerson fielded the ball in plenty of time and did a quick look over to third base.
It didn’t look for a second that he would actually make a throw to third, but that’s not the point. The point is that just by turning your head to look at a runner usually will freeze them.
That freeze of the runner was all Yonder Alonso needed to make the relay to the plate in plenty of time for the inning ending double play.
