June 28, 2004
Jack In the Box
Jack Wilson uses some aggressive baserunning to beat the Cardinals in the 9th. With one out, he lined a double down the left field line. As he was approaching 2nd, he noticed that no one was covering 2nd to take the throw. He didn't stop, and headed for third. Womack realized his mistake at the last minute and rushed to 2nd to grab the throw. Tony then made a bad throw to third and Wilson scored. A great pitching matchup between Suppan and Benson ends on an extremely poor defensive play by Tony Womack. Pirates win 2-1.
Correction: As the commentor points out, it was Pujols who made the bad throw. My first impression of the play was that Lankford missed the cutoff man, and that's what must have happened. I never see the cutoff man in the video, so Womack must have been in the outfield to take the throw. It was actually a good play by Pujols to hustle to cover second when the bad throw came in from Lankford. Still a bad defensive play, but it looks like Lankford made the main mistake in missing the cutoff man, and Pujols compounded the error by throwing the ball away. Here's the story from St. Louis, the best description of the play I can find. Having looked at the play again on Tivo, it seems pretty clear that someone missed an assignment covering 2nd.
Albert Pujols made the bad throw.
Why blame Pujols...because he doesn't have the defensive reputation that Rolen does? Rolen should have held on to the ball easily.
Jack didn't see Pujols moving to play the cutoff and told the Pittsburgh media he knew it was the stupidest baserunning move of his career when he saw Rolen set to receive the throw.
I don't think you can blame Pujols, as the throw he made was right on line but was just to the side of the runner Wilson. It appears that Rolen couldn't see the ball because his line of sight for the throw was blocked by Wilson.
I think the key problem was throwing behind the runner at second. In a tie game in the ninth, on the road, you should be in "prevent mode" rather than trying to make the miraculous play that has little chance of success but considerable risk.
The Lankford throw probably should have gone to third. That certainly seemed to be the judgment of the middle infielders, who probably had the best read on the way the play was developing.
If you had to rank this sequence in order of screw-ups, you'd have to put it:
1. Jack Wilson -- for all but running into an out (only a fielding blunder kept him from being out #2 in the 9th)
2. Lankford -- for throwing behind the runner (just bad judgment, which is even worse than a physical miscue, IMO)
3. Rolen -- granted he was screened by Wilson, but it was an extremely catchable throw
4. Pujols -- his throw was on line, but he should have given Rolen a better angle
Oddly, the one who made the biggest mistake was Jack Wilson, and he scored the winning run, whereas the smallest mistake was Pujols, and he was charged with the game-losing error.
I see no reason for Lankford to throw anywhere but to 3rd; it's a ball hit down the line into the corner, and he was shading Wilson towards center. By the time he tracks the ball down, Wilson has a no-doubt double. The throw should have been ahead of the runner, into 3rd.
