I think you can save an embarrassing play in at least two ways: (1) recover quickly and completely, and “make the play” another way; or (2) have the other team do something EVEN MORE embarrassing to cover over your mistake.
Well, that’s what the Cubs did – and then the Braves did – today. It yielded one of the most embarrassing, but hilarious and also smart and good(?) double-plays I’ve ever seen.
As you can see, it starts with a very traditionally embarrassing dropped pop fly. But the Cubs recover quickly to at least get the force out at first. And that’s when the Braves took over:
That’s right. The coach cannot physically help steer the runner back to the base, which is exactly what Eric Young and Adam Duvall managed to do. Willson Contreras was heads up, and completed the play for the second out:
Whoopsiedoodle.
For good measure, later on, the Cubs turned a more traditional, but also nice, double-play just to prove they could: