… play ball as crappy as the Romans do, I guess.
Seriously, this series has been uncharacteristically poor defensively. Have we ever seen Scott Rolen commit defensive lapses three games in a row? My poor memory (must run on Windows, I guess) can’t conjure up such an event.
First, he gets eaten up by a routine grounder Thursday. On Friday, his double clutch and high throw on the Marmol grounder extended the inning (although the argument could be made that Hector Luna also was at fault by not being at the bag in time).
But Saturday’s gaffe was just plain kooky. With two on in the bottom of the second, Ronny Cedeno bloops a single, and Angel Pagan, originally on first, is motoring for third base. Which is bad news for John Mabry, who’d made just a short turn around third and is now forced to run home.
Except Rolen spaces him. Run scores. Tie ballgame. Had Rolen looked up, he would have had Mabry by 20 feet. Yeah, I was exasperated, too.
Then, somehow, the ol’ fake-to-third-fake-to-first move by Anthony Reyes actually works, catching Cedeno breaking for second. But David Eckstein is just a second too late to catch Pagan breaking for home, and Pagan is credited with a steal of home. Cedeno was safe, too. What a revolting development.
That inning could have gone into the pooper from there, but Juan Encarnacion’s throw and Yadier Molina’s guts for absorbing the hit from Cedeno ended the inning. Hey Michael Barrett, were you paying attention? When someone barrels into you at home, don’t punch him in the face. I sure hope you were watching, the same way you got caught watching at second base. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get picked off second by the catcher.
Like I said… weird game.
