It’s Friday night, I’m in, and I’m watching baseball highlights. As one does. And this play in the Cardinals-Pirates game is just sufficiently weird that I think you’ll enjoy.
How does a single to right field, with a runner on second, become an inning-ending double-play? Well, this is one way, and it includes a runner getting drilled in the back baiting his own teammate into going too far:
So, at the front, I should say that’s just some terrible baserunning. Multiple mistakes made.
But in Rodolfo Castro’s defense, once that throw went home – and way off line – it’s understandable that he’d start to look at second base. And then when the throw from the catcher hit the runner in the back, surely Castro thought he was going to be able to go much further. But his teammate didn’t stay in the rundown long enough, and that’s when he was toast.
Even Gameday was kinda drunk in trying to describe what had just happened:
Oh, bonus confusion? Thanks to the throwbacks, that’s the Pirates in red and the Cardinals in the dark caps: