2024 MLB Discussion
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CameronBlue
Member
“Judge with a Bill Bucknet type error” is a headline that may get some traction.
CrazyNotCrazie
Member
The better team won. But what a frustrating way to lose. Yuck.
rsvman
Member
They deserved the loss, for sure.
wavedukefan70s
Member
My son was concerned aswell .he's a big dodgers fan.he wore 32(was for his grandpa's who passed away favorite player)for all of his baseball teams outside of school.
robed deity
Member
It blew my mind that Cole forgot to cover first. He's going to have nightmares about that for a long time. Smoltz raised a good point (he is generally good, but is approaching John McEnroe levels of just taking way too much imo) that it's easy to mentally check out after getting the first two strikeouts. The third out is the toughest in that jam, and in this case Cole made another good pitch but didn't stay focused through the whole play.
It cost his team the game probably, and a legitimate chance to win the whole series.
It cost his team the game probably, and a legitimate chance to win the whole series.
acdevil
Member
The error last night notwithstanding, Judge is actually a pretty good center fielder.
acdevil
Member
I’m not so sure he would have beat Betts to the bag. I think Rizzo had the best chance there.
Plus, I refuse to bury Cole for that after the parade of mistakes the rest of the team made before and after that.
I’m a Yankees fan, but they definitely deserved to lose.
robed deity
Member
True, my post probably was too harsh on Cole. Plenty of other mistakes were made and he stayed in and pitched well after. Still, that play was pivotal and it looked to me like he beats Betts to the bag, but it would have been close.
I got a screengrab of the moment Rizzo had the ground ball in his glove (see below). Looking at that, it's clear to me that Rizzo should have been the one to run to first....One could argue that Cole should have been running faster to first by that point, but at this moment, there's only one possible play. I also included another one just a moment before it's in his glove where you can still see the ball.
Agreed that several boneheaded plays before and after this were just as consequential of course for the Yankees. If you look at that moment in time, though, I bet most people would guess that the first baseman beats the runner to the bag.
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Why not both?
Both should have beaten Betts to the bag. And at the very least — they both should have at least TRIED!
Great pics, by the way.
Chicago 1995
Member
Couple of things:
(1) Cole is woefully out of position here. If he's covering first, his angle should be much closer to the bag and not 30 feet down the line. If Cole is taking the right line to the base, it would be much clearer that he should get the flip from Rizzo. Cole claims he misread the ball off the bat, and thought he could field it. If you believe him, that would be colossally bad read, even with the spinny ball that Mookie hit. Given that Cole kind of points at first, I kind of think he was just being lazy and expected Rizzo to take it. Even if Rizzo could have gotten Mookie -- and more on that in a second -- Cole played this about as badly as he could have, and put Rizzo in a tough spot. My guess -- and it's just a guess -- is that Cole doesn't do much infield work, and he just screwed up here because he's out of practice.
(2) The ball Mookie hit isn't necessarily hard to field, but it's not at all a ball Rizzo can attack. With the spin on it, he's got to sit back and wait for the ball, which he does. Charging a ball spinning like that is a recipe for it bouncing to your left, and past you, and putting Mookie on second. Because he has to wait for it, the screengrab above kind of deceptive. Rizzo is pretty much flat footed and has no momentum going toward first. Mookie, on the other hand, is at full speed.
I get that Rizzo should have tried, but I don't think it would have mattered. Mookie's already beat it out right here because of whatever Cole is doing, not because Rizzo is old and slow -- which he is.
(Note: My son's a first baseman and he was all over Cole immediately watching it happen. This is pretty much what he said immediately watching the play).
Yes, but have you seen Anthony Rizzo run? Only sort of kidding.
In the video replay, Rizzo does end up trying to get there after he realizes Cole's not coming, but it's too late and not even close. Betts was already at full speed at the time of those screengrabs, and it probably takes Rizzo half a second to stand up straight and start moving toward the bag. I don't think he beats Mookie to the bag even if his pitcher yells out "I'm not covering because I'm having a brain fart!" as the ball is rolling toward him. Also, keep in mind that the first baseman can't just run through the bag and truck the runner, who gets to sprint right through. The fielder has to reach out a foot and barely touch the base as he's stopping or turning his body in to the field to avoid contact.
Either way, I put this 95% on Gerrit Cole and 5% on Rizzo. Consider:
- between the time of the two photos you've uploaded, which covers only the amount of time it takes Rizzo to close his glove, Betts has already taken 1/2 a stride and looks about 4 feet closer to first base. He'll be two full steps closer, with a higher top speed, by the time Rizzo's actually at a run
- the perspective of the still pic is possibly deceptive - it makes it look like Rizzo's about four steps away when it's probably closer to 25 feet. I did a little forensics and watched the video from several angles: from the point of that second still pic, where Rizzo's secured the ball, Betts takes 7 more steps to hit the bag. And while he's loping a bit after he realizes there's no chance, Rizzo also takes 6 or 7 steps to get there. So he's not as close as it appears and, again, starting from a still position
- Cole started sprinting immediately when the ball was hit, then stopped after a few steps. Given that he's only got 2/3 the ground to cover as Betts to get to first base, he should easily reach the bag before the runner if he keeps going
What happened, so far as I can tell, is this: as he's been coached to do since he was 8, Cole took off to cover first. So far, so good. Rizzo probably saw this in his peripheral vision while watching the ball come to him, so he prepared to field it and flip it to Cole. But when Cole saw that Rizzo didn't have to range to his right to catch the grounder, he assumed his first baseman would have plenty of time to make the unassisted putout, so he stopped. What he didn't recognize (or account for) was that the ball was squibbed off the end of the bat, so despite being something of a slow roller, it had some English on it and made Rizzo stay back instead of charge it. Rizzo, assuming his pitcher is sprinting toward first, because (a) that's what a major league pitcher does, and (b) he saw him start to cover, came out of bending over to catch the ball already in motion to flip it to the pitcher. You can see him transfer the ball to his left hand before he stands up. When he looks up to see there's no one coming, it's too late to start running.
mr. synellinden
Member
Excellent analysis - this is spot on. This is why covering first base is one of the first drills pitchers do in spring training - because it has to be instinctive for a pitcher to break to first base at the right angle immediately. This play demonstrates why you can't hesitate and must take the right angle - especially when it's a fast runner like Betts. This, and the botched cutoff throw that led to the tying run in game 1, and all the baserunning mistakes ... you can't win playoff games when you consistently fail at the fundamentals and it was the difference in this series. If the Yankees do simple little league or at least high school stuff, they are going back to LA up 3-2. In my opinion a lot of this is on Boone. He tolerated a lot of this stuff all season - especially from Torres, who never hustles. To me this is as much justification for replacing Boone as any other criticism.