Baserunning Adventures
For a pair of championship teams, some of the baserunning in Friday’s game was curious.
Jackie Bradley singled to lead off the third inning but then tried to steal second while Dodger starter Walked Buehler stood on the mound with the ball. Bradley was out by several feet.
In the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied at 1-each, Cody Bellinger repeated Bradley’s misadventure. David Price picked him off, resulting in a rundown that erased Bellinger.
In the 10th, Ian Kinsler ran for J.D. Martinez, who had walked. Kinsler nearly completed the baserunner’s triple play of infamy. He was almost picked off first, he overslid third and barely beat Justin Turner’s tag, then he was thrown out at home by Bellinger on a baby fly ball to short center.
Eduardo Nunez led off the 15th with a single. Two innings earlier as he stood in the batter’s box, Nunez had been undercut by catcher Austin Barnes, sustaining what appeared to be a minor sprained ankle. It slowed him enough that inning that it prevented him from scoring on Sandy Leon’s two-base hit; instead he was stranded at third. In the 15th, the still-hobbling Nunez took second on a walk, but was thrown out at third on Christian Vazquez’s bunt attempt. Had he scored in the 13th or 15th, Boston would have won.