I was watching the Phillies/Mets game yesterday and witnessed a great play on the bases by Jimmy Rollins. Actually, I think it was a great base running play by both Jason Werth and Jimmy Rollins. Here's the sceanrio.
Phillies had runners on 1st and 3rd with 1 out. The Mets were in double play depth and Ryan Howard was hitting.
It appeared to me that Wertz and Rolliins conspired to advance Rollins to 2B to take the double play away. With 1 out, a lot of teams will go on contact at 3B. Professional baseball teams understand this as well. So, there is a very good likelihood that the catcher might attempt to pickoff a runner at 3B if he is trying to get to big of a secondary. Furthermore, with a lefthanded hitter in the box, the catcher isn't nearly as deterred from throwing the ball.
I believe that Wertz baited the Mets catcher(Bryan Schneider) into attempting to pick him off at 3B. By doing so, Jimmy Rollins was prepared to take 2B when Schneider came up throwing.
That is in fact exactly what happened.
Wertz baited Schneider, Schneider took the bait, and Rollins advanced to 2B.
It was something that I would expect to see in college baseball. But, when I saw it in a major league baseball game I was shocked. Maybe there is some creative thought that takes place in the bigs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment