It may not have mattered in the final accounting, as the Cubs went on to lose by six, but it felt like Marcus Semien’s two-run double in the second inning was going to loom large. It stretched the Rangers’ lead to 4-0, and while it was still early in the game, four runs always kinda hits me as that mental threshold between “totally doable” and “ah, they’re probably not coming back.”
The play went in the books as a double, but as you could see, it was just a really bad defensive attempt in right field by Trey Mancini:
The read by Mancini was pretty rough, and then his circular route to the ball cost him any chance at glove the fly ball without leaving his feet. So then once he did get a bead on the ball, he had to dive, and couldn’t make the catch. Officially a two-run double, but a very catchable ball off the bat.
In fairness to Mancini, one of those runs was potentially going to score by way of a sac fly anyway. Further, he’s filling in only periodically in right field for Seiya Suzuki, so you would expect some unevenness out there. And, before this season, Mancini played just 86 innings total in right field since 2019. It was a bad play, one that should have been made by most right fielders, but he gets some leeway because of the particular situation.
More than that, it’s Mancini who is hardest on himself about a play like that.
“Bad read, bad jump, bad route,” Mancini told The Athletic of the play. “The ball’s gotta be caught. It cost us a run at least, maybe two if I stay on my feet and catch it. Who knows what happens, but unfortunately it gave Jamo a couple extra runs to his name and even more importantly kind of got us off to not a great start. It doesn’t need to be said, but that’s completely on me. When I am out there, I gotta get a better jump than that. It’s 100 percent on me and no excuses at all.”
That’s about as good as the messaging gets from a veteran after a bad defensive play. I wouldn’t be as hard on him as he is on himself, but I do like a guy who puts it all out there and just owns the gaffe. I am sure his pitcher and teammates appreciate it, too.