Did Jimmy Rollins Mind F&#$ Josh Thole Last Night?
Sadly, the lone Phillies highlight (other than Cliff Lee stroking two base hits) from last night’s loss to the Mets was the Phils pulling off an odd 3-1-6-4 double play in the second inning.
For Whom The Bell Josh Tholes advanced to second on R.A. Dickey’s sacrifice bunt. Jim Thome appropriately tug out Dickey and threw the ball to Lee.
Routine as it gets, right?
Wrong.
Inexplicably, after arriving – uneventfully – at second base, Thole turned and walked back to first, where he was thrown out.
What?
It seemed like a typical Mets brain fart, but upon closer inspection Thole appears to have been duped by Jimmy Rollins, who cooly told the unfortunate Met to hold up, similar to the way a gentlemanly shortstop might do on a foul ball.
After the game, Thole offered an explanation, saying that he knew the ball was fair but had no idea why he returned to first: [NJ.com]
“I don’t know,” he said. “I was coming in to second. And Jimmy put his hands up, like ‘Come in easy. You can come in easy.’ I knew the ball was fair. I even looked down. You can go watch the video. I checked in. The ball was on the floor. I just took off running back to first. I’ve got no other explanation.”
“I realized when I was jogging back to first,” Thole said. “After I looked at the umpire, and got a weird stare from him, and then I looked back and the ball was on his way to first. I didn’t know what else to do. I just kept running.”
“I saw the ball on the ground in fair territory,” he said. “The video is incredible. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Ladies and gentlemen, the 2012 Mets: so bad they can’t even explain it.
Video after the jump.
video via Deadspin
