A Series of Unfortunate Events

[Guest Edgy DC]

We have no comment in our IGT on that strange play in the seventh that was filled with a Little League cascade of screw-ups.

After Cliff Floyd's game-tying single, David Wright grounds to third, where Miguel Cabrera gets himself caught in the between-hop (mistake one), and mishandles it.

Having seemingly blown the double-play, Cabrera still had time to get Floyd at second, but he makes his second mistake, rushing his throw (mistake two), perhaps thinking the doubplay was still possible. The throw pulls the secondbaseman --- I tihnk Luis Castillo was there at this time --- off the bag, allowiing Floyd to slide in safely.

But wait, Floyd, not expecting to be safe, is sliding in aggressively with the intent of disrupting the double-play relay. He overslides the bag (mistake three).

Castillo (I think) alertly gets a tag down on Floyd as his body was coming across the bag. As the tag is intitally applied to Floyd, he's still in contact with the bag and therefore safe. As Floyd is oversliding the bag, however, he doesn't seem to realize there's a play on him, because rather than keep his arm extended as long as possible in order to retain contact with the bag, he collapses his arm (as if the play is over), clearly breaking contact with the bag (mistake four).

Castillo, having initially applied the tag whie Floyd was on the bag, is now looking away from Floyd, perhaps toward the ump or toward first, and removing the tag (mistake five), so it's coming off of Floyd as Floyd has clearly broken contact with the bag.

Nonetheless, though he was in the motion of removing the tag, the replay seems to clearly suggest that Castillo still had the glove touching Floyd as Floyd was 12 inches removed from safety. Nonetheless Dana DeMuth does not (mistake six) call Floyd out. Either DeMuth rightly called Floyd safe on the initial tag and didn't stay with the play, or missed things entirely.

Jack McKeon seemed exorcised through the rest of game. Maybe that's why Carlos Delgado wasn't on the line in the 12th inning. A possible mistake seven.

[Centerfield]

Great analysis. I think DeMuth missed the overslide altogether (an astonishing miss). During the argument, I was expecting DeMuth to motion in some way that Castillo had removed the tag, but from what I could tell, McKeon had his hands separated about a foot apart leading me to believe that the overslide itself was the issue.

A really bad call by blue...but it ended up not making a difference.

[nymr83]

a series of unfortunate events: valentine fired, howe hired, randolph hired...

[MFS62]

I'll cut Delgado (or whoever positioned him) some slack on his defensive location.
Yes, we've all heard to "protect the line" in late inning situations. (and Tim McCarver even questions that strategy).
But in the 12 th, there was a runner on second. That runner scores on a single; it doesn't require a double down the line. So Delgado was positioned away from the line, in a place where more balls are likely to be hit (according to whatever scouting chart the Fish had on Jacobs) to try to at least knock down a single to keep the runner from scoring.

Of course we were thrilled the way it turned out, but don't blame Carlos.

Later

[nymr83]

it is hard to blame defensive positioning there unless you had stats showin that hitter was far more likely to hit it elsewhere. you get criticized for guarding the line or not gurading the line no matter which you do.