There’s terrible baserunning, and then there’s this.
The Washington Nationals and New York Mets just teamed up to create one of the wonkiest double plays you’ll ever see, thanks to some good ol’ fashioned bad baserunning and bad fielding execution.
https://twitter.com/SNYtv/status/1524818098020306945?s=20&t=fXAwi1XKvPO8w7QbwkmJGQ
If you’re working the scorebook at home, this one goes down as a 5-6-1-9-6 double play. I mean, if we’re being technical, it’s a 5-6-1 fielder’s choice with a 9-6 putout. Not technically a double play. Seriously laughable all the way around. The nightmares little league coaches experience came to reality on the diamond at Citi Field this afternoon.
A Josh Bell ground ball to third base turned into chaos when Juan Soto, regularly one of the more intelligent players in baseball, got caught in between second and third on contact and found himself in a rundown that ended in Mets pitcher Taijuan Walker tagging him out at third base. Walker, who throws the ball accurately by trade, fired a throw into right field as Josh Bell scampered into second base. Bell then decided he would take a stab at reaching third base, but he must not have read the scouting report on Starling Marte, who promptly gunned him down at third.
Kudos to Taijuan Walker, who took the contact on the slide from the six-foot-two, 224-pound Juan Soto like a brick wall. That was probably the most impressive component of this whole song and dance.
The Mets caught a couple of breaks here, and I suppose when you’re hot, you’re hot.