The Royals’ Costly Baserunning Blunder
If you’re looking for goat horns upon which to hang the Royals Game 7 loss, you should probably start with Madison Bumgarner. He had as much to do with their loss as anyone.
Maybe, if you’re desperate, you look to Royals third base coach Mike Jirschele for holding Alex Gordon at third base in the ninth. Rather than send Gordon home to his all-but-assured doom, he placed the season in the hands of Salvador Perez. Damned if you do, you might say.
But if you need a boneheaded play with immediate and negative repercussions for Kansas City, look no further than the man who slid headfirst into infamy after Joe Panik made a very memorable stop at second base, starting a third inning double play you’re going to get sick of seeing this winter.
No, I’m not talking about Eric Hosmer’s slide into first base, slowing him down enough for the Giants to record two huge outs. I’m talking about Lorenzo Cain, seconds earlier during the very same play.
We all remember the incredible diving and flip made by Panik, tossing to Brandon Crawford for the force. Crawford made a strong throw to just nail Hosmer. It took a video replay to determine he was really out. It’s a play that will remain in Giants lore forever.
Every split second matters on this play. And yet there is Cain, with the entire thing developing right in front of him, sliding headfirst into second base. The Giants shortstop is able to comfortably plant and fire a strike to first. If Cain makes even a passable attempt at a takeout slide, the chances of converting this improbable double play shrink even more.
It was a mistake, simply put. A brain cramp on the bases at an inopportune time by a player who perhaps contributed more to the Royals postseason surge than any other. There really isn’t any excuse for it, mind you. Cain must, at the very least, disrupt the play and make any relay throw a little more difficult.
With Bumgarner looming and the Royals offense predicated on taking advantage of every opportunity, this play was a killer. Easy to say in hindsight, but there’s no real excuse for Cain’s thoughtless base running in this situation.
Update:
Here is the Statcast breakdown of this play. Hosmer’s only out by .02 seconds even after sliding headfirst. Crawford is able to get rid of the ball after 0.77 seconds. If he’s dodging a takeout slide, that surely goes by more than two hundredths of second, right?
Drew used to write about baseball and other things at theScore but now he writes here. Follow him on twitter @DrewGROF
Great observation. It also looks like Cain’s head first slide gave Crawford a throwing lane. He might also have disrupted the double play by not sliding at all.
In the fourth inning Alex Gordon went about ten feet out of the baseline and slid high on Crawford to try to break up a double play. And he failed.
It was a moot issue since Crawford still threw Perez out and completed the double play, but it was cowardly and disgraceful umpiring not to call the batter Perez out for Gordon’s blatant interference. Crawford didn’t even use the unwritten in-the-area play to avoid being taken out.
I can’t agree with this sort of Monday morning quarterbacking, particularly since the very next inning Crawford showed that a hard (and illegal) slide didn’t stop him from completing a double play. Cain was running on a dead sprint and I think he was surprised that Panik even got to the ball. If you watch the path Cain takes, he begins running at an angle right of second base because he is expecting that the ball is going through the infield and he wants to get to third base. Then Panik makes an amazing play, and Cain immediately went into his slide and veered his direction back to second base. I assume at this point, Cain wanted to get to the bag as quickly as possible without over sliding the bag, hoping that he would be safe at second. If he decides to slide wide of second or goes in high feet first, then he runs the risk of missing second base altogether, and being called out at second on a bang-bang play. And then you would be excoriating him for making a “bone-headed” play of trying to break up an improbable double play but missing second base and being called out. Sliding head first does not appreciably slow down a baserunner, but sliding feet first does. Cain had to make this decision in probably the amount of time it takes for a hitter to react to a 100 mph fastball.
Good point. I think Cain decided to slide headfirst the instant Panik made the stop, thinking that it would take time and he could beat the ball to the bag. Was it guaranteed that Cain was going to be out at that instant?
It looks like the split second that Panik had the ball in his glove before the flip worked out like a decoy to Cain – maybe thinking that the ball had trickled past Panik. In any case, it does look like he began his slide pretty late, and didn’t have much time to process the best way to do it.
Nice insight, Drew, when everyone else was focusing on Hosmer’s slide.
And, I believe Harold Reynolds said, that he was starting to round first base thinking his ball was going into center.
Yes but Hosmer’s slide was atrocious. He should have been safe regardless of Cain’s slide but wasn’t because he stupidly tried one of his own.
The biggest blunder was Gordon’s.
Not on the penultimate play, but on the fly ball where he allowed Sandoval to tag from second base.
He drifted back lazily, most likely assuming that someone like Sandoval would never dare to tag on The Great Arm of Alex Gordon on a fly ball to left field. He caught it while still drifting, and could do nothing but flail weakly in his attempt to throw Sandoval out because all his weight was going in the wrong direction.
Big blunder from a guy who has as strong a case as anyone for the best defensive left fielder in baseball.
I disagree. I thought Gordon did all he could on the Sandoval tag play. Besides, it didn’t actually cost the Royals anything since Sandoval would have easily scored from second on the single.
I think you’re misremembering that single–it was a flare that died on the other side of the infield grass and Aoki was already playing way in; no chance Sandoval even attempts to score from second on it.
No way Gordon did all he could on that play. It’s a fly ball to LF that’s short of the warning track, and a slow runner on 2nd is able to tag and get to 3rd? How often do you see a fly to LF allow the runner on 2nd base to move up? And Sandoval made it relatively easily. I’m with Graham, its a blunder by Gordon.
My son, who is 12 and playing travel ball, was all over Gordon’s misplay. He drifted back, and was not behind the ball or ready to throw. It looked to me as if the ball carried a bit further on him than he thought.
Small things count in huge games.
Welp. If the 12-year-old travel ball player says it, it MUST be true!
I think his point was that even a 12 yr old knows that Gordon could have played that ball better.
In both cases, two people thinking that sliding head first is faster than the other options. Sliding feet first into second gives you a chance to slide later. He was trying to beat the throw instead of breaking it up. Too many people seem to think diving is faster.
Though on the other hand. Typically the best base stealers dive into second when stealing. Cain was really trying to beat the throw. It’s a close play and the flip almost pulled Crawford off the bag. He was trying to get in there safe and not break up the play.
Two different mindsets going into second.
Where the Royals lost this game, and each other game that didn’t involve Madison Bumgarner, was their inability to put batters away with two strikes. Especially lead off hitters of innings. This is how the Giants scored their runs, over and over and over again.
I’ve never seen any data that says sliding feet first is faster than sliding head first. He had to slide one way or another, whereas Hosmer didn’t have to slide at all.
They need to show that Statcast to every player in spring training and every time someone slides headfirst into first he is should be fined by the kangaroo court. There may be times when a feet first slide into first is appropriate, like when there is a possibility of a collision with the 1b or pitcher to reduce the chance of injury.
I am actually trying to find the data for the series on two strike counts.
I once read a story about when Roberto Alomar was filming a commercial. The script called for him to slide head first into second base to break up a double play, but he refused to do it as written because he knew that was poor fundamentals: you always slide feet first to break up a double play. Where was Roberto Alomar last night?
I bet those poor fundamentals made him mad. Spittin’ mad.
Roberto Alomar always slid headfirst into first too.
No. The costly blunder was Hosmer diving into first. He runs through the bag he is safe. The other costly mistake was Gordon. He runs flat out he does score.
It’s time for MLB to outlaw the take-out slide. The rules expressly forbid them. But MLB looks the over way and clings to this relic from a time when umpires were routinely attacked by players, beanballs aimed at the batters head were encouraged, brown-skinned people were banned from playing, infielders grabbed the belts of baserunners to impede their progress, and baserunners deliberately spiked infielders – and all under the guise that the take-out slide is somehow “good sound baseball.” Baseball doesn’t permit batters running to first to deliberately take out a first baseman or pitcher covering the base in an effort to break up the play. It makes no sense to permit this simply because a middle infielder is trying to turn a double play. Banning the take-out slide would also obviate the need for the neighborhood play – which has all but been eliminated anyway with replay review.
Brian Sabean cried foul when his golden boy suffered a broken leg from a home plate collision, and his cries were eventually answered by the MLB Playing Rules Committee. But unlike catchers, middle infielders do not wear body armor. And far more middle infielders have been seriously injured by take-out slides then catchers from home plate collisions. Buster Posey’s leg was never at risk of being amputated like Mark Ellis’s was after a take-out slide by Tyler Greene – which was considered “good hard baseball.”
Would be as simple as saying if they rule you went for a takeout slide, both the batter is out, and you get ejected from the game.
I don’t know, is there a good reason to slide into second other than the take out?
Otherwise, I agree with you and the “take out” is basically of my remaining misgiving about the game now that they tamped down PED and cleaned up plays at the plate.
I say that they tamped down PED because I’m sure there are players using PED, but that it’s much more difficult and the current “no HOF if you use” rule really helps push top players away from PED usage because they see that one infraction can keep them out of the hall for good. Without that rule by fiat, I probably won’t pay attention to baseball. As is, consistent improvements make me OK with the fact that the game isn’t entirely clean.
If memory serves, Cain has been nursing a hip injury all postseason. That injury might mean that a feet-first slide was not an option for him.
None of this really matters because if Hosmer is safe at first, then Billy Butler’s ground out becomes a double-play instead.
The only way that this inning could have turned out better is if Cain had stolen second base. Then Hosmer’s ground out would have put Cain on third with only one out.
Not enough has been made of Crawford’s contribution on this DP. The catch-transfer-throw combo was disgustingly good. Cain and Hosmer both screwed up, but the mustard on that throw . . . sick.
1. Statcast is frickin’ awesome
2. Really nice insight here, Mr. Fairservice
When they were showing this over and over again during the review I noticed the same thing. Seems like a conscious choice, since there’s no practical reason to slide head-first in that situation, right. You’re not avoiding a tag. Maybe there’s another baseball reason I’m not aware of…