Thanks to the extreme shift, there are occasionally opportunities for sage baserunners to “steal” an extra base on a ball in play, because there is literally no one at the base to cover. We’ve seen it before, and it’s always impressive in a modest, heads-up kind of way.
But what I’m not sure I’ve ever seen is a baserunner take third base *AND HOME* because there was nobody there to receive a throw. That’s what Yankees youngster Gleyber Torres just did:
Heads-up Gleyb. pic.twitter.com/Xf9O15t77K
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 6, 2021
There was no one at third because of the extreme shift, but because the catcher had sort of tried to get to third for a throw, Torres saw he could just keep his momentum up and zip past the catcher on the way back to the plate. Brilliant move.
Of course, it didn’t help that the pitcher decided not to move:
Gleyber Torres scores from first on a ground ball when the shifted Astros don't cover third OR home — with #MLBFieldVision tracking pic.twitter.com/qCrosth0Os
— David Adler (@_dadler) May 6, 2021