Blooper-reel baserunning leads to unusual double play

While the Washington Nationals defeated the New York Yankees 5-2 on Wednesday, it wasn’t a perfect effort. The Nationals had a chance to completely put the game away in the bottom of the eighth inning. Instead, we witnessed one of the worst displays of baserunning we’ve ever seen.

Washington’s José Tena came to the plate with nobody out and runners on first (Juan Yepez) and second (Joey Gallo) base. The Yankees needed a strikeout or even better, a groundball hit to one of the infielders. They got neither — but somehow got exactly what they needed.

Tena drilled the ball to center field. It briefly looked as though Judge might have a chance to catch the ball. As such, the runners froze. The ball sailed a few feet over Judge’s head, landed on the warning track and hit the wall. Judge quickly fired the ball back into the infield. Still, it seemed like the hit would score one run and leave runners on second and third. Only, that’s not what happened.

Gallo apparently didn’t get a great read on the ball and after rounding third, slowed down. Only by this point, the ball had been thrown in. Catcher Austin Wells had the ball. Yepez, who had read the ball well, had already rounded second and was close to third. Gallo, meanwhile, was heading back to third. It was a mess for the Nationals — and about to get a lot messier.

Wells threw the ball to DJ LeMahieu, the first baseman covering second, hoping to nail a retreating Yepez. At that point, Gallo broke for home. Seeing this, LeMahieu threw back to Wells while Yepez again broke for third. When New York’s attention went back to Gallo, Yepez could have easily gotten to third safely. And while the Nationals wouldn’t have scored on the play, they would have had runners on second and third with only one out once Gallo was tagged out.

Instead, Yepez went back to second. And while he got there safely, it created another problem. Tena was on his way to the base for an apparent double. But seeing Yepez go to second, Tena retreated back to first. He was eventually tagged, completing an 8-6-2-3-2-5-4 double play.

Was this as bad as Rubén Rivera who, in 2003, made a baserunning blunder so epic that Jon Miller called it “the worst baserunning in the history of the game?”

It’s hard to say. Rivera’s blunders were worse than any of the individual Washington players. The difference is, Rivera was only one man making a series of blunders. This was three different runners, all making rather significant botches.

[Photo Credit: MASN]