TORONTO — The Blue Jays had an avalanche of momentum, the tying run in scoring position and the entire stadium standing on Tyler Glasnow’s chest. Then, in an instant, it fell apart.
The bottom of the ninth in Game 6 was a mess. At first, it was a mess of luck and chance, then a mess of the Blue Jays’ own making. While their focus must immediately shift to Game 7 Saturday night, it all could have ended so differently than this 3-1 loss.
With Addison Barger and Myles Straw on second and third with no outs — the result of a bizarre play in which Barger’s deep fly ball lodged itself at the bottom of the wall and was ruled a ground-rule double — the Blue Jays had the storybook ending right in front of them. After an uncharacteristic first-pitch popout from Ernie Clement, though, Andrés Giménez lofted a looping liner into left-center and all hell broke loose.
“That’s a tough read,” said manager John Schneider. “Kiké was playing shallow, and with one out you’re thinking, ‘score.’ He made a really good play. It’s such a tweener. He made a good play, a good throw. Good play by [Miguel] Rojas, too. Wild. Wild way to finish it, for sure.”
This left George Springer standing on deck, the top of the Blue Jays’ lineup robbed of its opportunity to walk off the World Series. Toronto challenged the play, but just by the way Barger popped up and began walking back to his own dugout, you could tell he already knew.
“Obviously, on the play I got doubled up, I was being too aggressive,” Barger said. “I was trying to score, trying to tie the game if that ball dropped. He got a good read and made a good play.”
Let’s put that to the test, then.
Hernández was playing at a depth of 272 feet, which is much shallower than where the average left fielder plays (298 feet), but Giménez is not a power threat and right fielders have typically played him very shallow to begin with. The average left fielder lines up at a depth of 285 feet for Giménez, so the simple version is that left fielders are positioned 13 feet closer to the infield for Giménez than they would be for your standard hitter.
Hernández, who already has a habit of playing shallow, had the advantage on that ball. What sealed it, though, was Hernández’s jump.
A “jump” is the amount of ground an outfielder covers in the first three seconds after contact, and Hernández’s jump was 7.3 feet better than average. It’s like Hernández had a head start, then was shot out of a cannon.
“Kiké made a really good play, really good read on that ball,” said Dodgers catcher Will Smith, who saw it all unfold in front of him. “He was playing a little shallower just because of the situation. Barger probably got a little giddy and wanted to score a tying run. But yeah, Miggy made one heck of a pick. That was awesome.”
Barger’s thinking was that he didn’t want to be thrown out as the lead runner at third base if the ball had dropped, but that still would have kept the inning alive for Springer. It wouldn’t have been ideal, of course, but it beats the worst-case scenario.
“I was pretty surprised he got to it,” Barger said. “Off the bat, I thought it was going to get over the shortstop’s head. I didn’t think it was going to travel that far. It was kind of a bad read. Obviously, I was too far off the base.”
There’s no do-over here. Mulling over that painful replay won’t help the Blue Jays, nor did it help the 44,710 fans who stood, dead silent, after the umpires confirmed Barger was out.
Game 7 is Saturday. After that, there will be no tomorrow, and the Blue Jays cannot give the Dodgers another gift like this.
