The post below talked about how damaging to a team’s chances making outs at third base is, and why the risk is so high compared to the reward. It also talked about batters making an out on the bases on the same play that they drove in a run. Just 4 days later, another perfect example of both of these situations probably cost another team a game. Doing this has cost teams games for decades, but managers and players never learn.
In today’s White Sox-Twins game, the White Sox led 5-2. The Twins made it 5-4 and would have had men on first and second with one out and momentum having just scored, but a Twins player tried to take third on the hit and was thrown out at third, ruining the inning (the Twins didn’t score again in the inning). He also slowed down going into third, resulting in being out by even more. When the Twins batter got a hit in a later inning to make it 5-5, again having momentum and a man on base, he took too wide a turn off first base and was thrown out on the play, again ruining the inning. Both of these situations were addressed in the post below, and both of them occurred in this game to help the Sox win 6-5.
Of course, the Sox’ winning run was a gift, as was a previous run that scored on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch. For the winning run, there were 2 outs, nobody on, in the bottom of the 8th, and the Twins pitcher walked the next two batters, putting the eventual winning run in scoring position, and he did score on a hit. I had no issue with Garcia walking (the first walk), but the pitcher then walked Coats, who was hitting .059. In addition, after the Sox scored their sixth run, with runners on second and third and 2 outs, the Twins’ catcher and first baseman let a foul popup drop.