Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Where there’s thunder, there’s lightening. And where there’s heads-up baseball, there’s (usually) someone making a mistake.
In the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday afternoon, for example, the Chicago Cubs found themselves down by more than a few runs at Coors Field, when Anthony Rizzo played some heads-up baseball and the Rockies gave away a run.
With one out and Rizzo on third, Jorge Soler came to the plate, hoping to knock Rizzo in from third. Instead, to his frustration, he got under a Matt Carasiti fastball and popped one up in foul territory. As the catcher, pitcher, and first baseman converged on the ball, though, no one remembered to cover home.
Noting the vacancy, Anthony Rizzo took full advantage:
There’s no such thing as scoring on defensive indifference, is there? –Â Matt Carasiti
That’s certainly a heads-up play by Rizzo, but it really shouldn’t have happened. That pop-up was caught about, what, 30-35 feet from the plate? The run may not have mattered and the Cubs may still have lost, but the embarrassment and hilarity of the mistake is pretty obvious.