Watch: Reds and Rockies combine for the ugliest play of the MLB season
The Reds ought to be better than this
Sure, at 21-41, they’re currently the worst team in the National League. So maybe it shouldn’t be shocking that they’re capable of being part of what was, without a doubt, the ugliest play of the season.
At the same time, they’re a team made up of players who have devoted much of their lives to baseball. You’d think professional ballplayers should know how to, you know, play ball.
And though the following play was due in large part to the Reds’ incompetence, Rockies slugger Carlos Gonzalez deserves some of the blame as well.
Here’s what happened:
In the eighth inning of the Rockies’ 6-3 win Wednesday night, Gonzalez hit a fly ball out to right-center field. The ball was hit well, but it should have been very playable for Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton, who settled under it.
However, there was apparently some miscommunication between Hamilton and right fielder Scott Schebler. As a result, Hamilton dropped the ball.
That would have been weird in and of itself, but the ugliness was only starting.
Hamilton picked up the ball and threw it to second baseman Scooter Gennett, who promptly dropped it.
Gonzalez, meanwhile, rounded second base and headed for third. But between the bases, he slipped and fell before hurrying back to second.
Had Gennett not dropped Hamilton’s throw, Gonzalez certainly would have been out. Amazingly enough, despite Gennett’s gaffe, he picked up the ball and still should have had a chance to get Gonzalez.
Instead, he flipped the ball not to one of his teammates, but rather to the large empty space between second and third.
As a result, Gonzalez was safe.
*extremely Oprah voice* EVERYBODY GETS AN EERRRRROORRR
📰: https://t.co/vlqSeJhtPf pic.twitter.com/U782bq6MAz
— Cut4 (@Cut4) June 7, 2018
One Rockies announcer broadcasting the game on the radio put it perfectly when he called the entire play a “comedy of errors in the ballgame both ways.”
In the end, only Hamilton was charged with an error on the play, because Gennett’s two mishaps didn’t technically result in Gonzalez taking an extra base.
That being said, it was an embarrassing, albeit entertaining play. Let’s hope we don’t see anything like it again this season.
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