Category: Bonehead plays

Albert Pujols

A bit of advice, if you’re gonna try to steal home, keep running! In the top of the 12th against the Giants Albert got a great break off 3rd as he headed toward the plate, Bengie Molina called for the ball, and the startled pitcher Jonathan Sanchez threw it home. Molina dropped the throw, but for some unknown reason Pujols stopped running, he’d have been safe if he’d continued to run. But just like Forrest Gump, he stopped running, and we don’t know why. The Cardinal slugger was tagged out easily to end the top of the 12th, of course San Francisco scored the winning run in the bottom of the frame.

Aubrey Huff

Aubrey literally means king of the fairies, not that that actually has anything to do with what happened in Tampa. B.J. Upton hit a bouncer off O’s firstbaseman Aubrey Huff’s glove for an error, picked up the ball, and threw it over Adam Loewen’s head for another error, sending the runner on first, Brendan Harris to third. Paul Bako who was backing up the play, threw the ball plateward, but nobody was covering home, another error. The final error allowed Harris to score and Upton went to 3rd. Loewen completely lost his concentration.

But thanks in part to Baltimore’s bats & the Devil Rays bullpen, the Orioles came back for the win. Huff hit a home run, thank goodness he can hit. Strange play happened in the game, Kevin Millar hit a homer off an over hanging speaker in fair territory, it bounced off, landing in foul ground. Millar circled the bases, it was ruled a foul ball, and he ended up striking out, a homer & a strikeout in the same at bat.

Shane Victorino

It’s probably not right to hang this bonehead play on Shane Victorino. Shane was just playing the good soldier, listening to his thirdbase coach Steve Smith, when he tried to score in the 8th inning with the Phillies down by a pair. Philadelphia had runners on 1st & 2nd when Ryan Howard lined a single to Houston rightfielder Luke Scott. Scott threw a laser to catcher Brad Ausmus, Victorino bore down on Ausmus and tried to dislodge the baseball, to no avail. Of course Pat Burrell hit into an inning ending doubleplay after the play. And the Phillies lost the game 9-6. Never a good idea to make the first out of an inning at the plate.

Carl Crawford

On the day before Friday the 13th, Ben Zobrist got a leadoff single to left off Joe Nathan in the 9th inning of a tie game. The Rays next batter was Carl Crawford who lined a triple into the rightfield corner. Only thing was, Zobrist wasn’t fast enough to make it all the way around the bases. Ben stopped at 3rd, Carl motored into 3rd, Michael Cuddyer hit Luis Castillo with the relay throw, he in turn threw it to Joe Mauer, who ran Zobrist back to third, and tagged him out. To make matters worse, Crawford attempted to go back to second, Mauer threw to shortstop Alexi Casilla who applied the tag. In a strange turn of events Carl Crawford got a double & a doubleplay in the same at bat.

So instead of having runners on 2nd & 3rd with nobody out, TB had two outs, and nobody on. Nathan, the Twins, and the fans were psyched, and got the third out on a grounder. Of course you guessed it, in the bottom of the 9th, the 2006 AL MVP was the leadoff man for Minnesota, and Justin Morneau lined a game winning home run just over a leaping Carl Crawford in left.