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Justin Crawford with Some Prime Fodder for the “Run it Out” Crowd
Published:
Let’s check in on the IronPigs, who play in the great Lehigh Valley:
Oh boy. Somewhere, Angelo Cataldi is so angry that steam is coming out of his ears. We demand accountability! <head explodes>
What’s funny is that the play itself was successful. The end result, that is. The whole point was to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd, so mission accomplished.
But the quirk comes with the third baseman’s decision, and he has two options here. One, if Crawford starts hauling ass, he can pick the ball up in foul territory to kill the play and reset the runners. Crawford goes back to the box with the count at 0-1.
Two, Crawford stays in the box, the fielder watches it spin back into play, and, in this case, you see him look to second base because he thinks he might be able to turn two. That play isn’t there, so he shifts to first for the easy out instead. Of course, that still allows the runners to move, but there was a brief window where the double play might have been available. You can see the third baseman make a gesture to himself, sort of slap at his glove and then take his hat off in pseudo-frustration, almost like he thinks they could have gotten two outs there, but settled for one. Someone get a body language expert in here to confirm.
Super rare though, one of those bang-bang sequences you just don’t see very often.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com