If you are a fan of the Chicago White Sox, you may have seen or already heard about the historical play that was made against them on Monday night. The play was an 8 – 5 triple play that was the first of its kind in Major League Baseball history.
It wasn’t the skill of the Minnesota Twins players that earned this triple play but was rather the baserunning ignorance of the White Sox players.
The White Sox had both outfielder Adam Engel and third-baseman Yoan Moncada on base with Engel at second and Yoan at first.
Outfielder A.J. Pollock came up to bat and blasted a ball out to right-center field. Twins’ outfielder Byron Buxton, who has great speed, ran quite a ways to snag the ball before it had a chance to hit the outfield wall. It was a good catch by Buxton.
As Buxton was throwing the ball both Moncada and Engel had stopped their movements and stood still for a moment.
Then, they took off barreling forward as if the ball had hit the ground and Buxton had not made the catch. They didn’t think they needed to tag up which was huge in this play.
It would appear as if both Moncada and Engel had thought that by Buxton’s looking at the wall he did not have the ball. Following that bad awareness, they took off.
The ball got to the infield when both runners were running to third base which was the first indication that something unusual was going on.
Buxton’s throw to the infield didn’t make it to his cutoff men and it ended up in the glove of third baseman Gio Urshela who was in the best position to make the play.
He tagged Moncada out on the basepath and went with the ball back over to second base where he got Engel out because Engel had failed to tag up at second.
The Chicago White Sox ran themselves into an embarrassing triple play.
So who does the blame fall on for this? Well, Moncada and Engel need to take the brunt of the blame but the coaching staff also needs to take their shots. Tony La Russa stood there in shock during the play as he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
But when he looks in the mirror, he will see the man who is at fault for all this poor baserunning. It’s him and his coaching staff that have caused this. What was Daryl Boston thinking? What about Joe McEwing? What was he thinking?
Either way, the play probably lost the game for the Sox and should have embarrassed them down to their core. Hopefully, they will not make a mistake like this again. La Russa can’t let it happen again.
The whole thing really had to leave a bad taste in the mouths of the White Sox and could have sent them on the loss that they suffered in Tuesday’s game.
Some people may not think that a play like that would do much beyond the game that it took place in but it could demoralize a team and set them back for a while.
It certainly appears as if the Sox are “set-back” and not playing nearly as well as they should. That’s obvious after witnessing that triple play.
