Rare 2-1 Double Play
- Thread starter SoxJox
- Start date
Watching that, particularly Felix's break to the 1B bag, points out ever more how a pitcher should keep his head in the game. Zimmermann should have covered third immediately to prevent the Betts double steal, and Buchholz should have backed up bases the other night.
I don't meant to brag buuuutt..... I imagined it correctly before watching it.
Super cool. Love seeing a top end guy like Felix doing that.
Super cool. Love seeing a top end guy like Felix doing that.
I imagined a strikeout with the bases loaded for the first out. The ball gets away from the catcher who throws to the pitcher covering home to tag out the runner.
In the first inning yesterday, I think Mookie almost got caught during Pedroia's flyout to CF. I think he was running on the pitch, and the guy covering second did a good job selling that he was getting the throw from the catcher. Mookie had to haul butt to get back to first.
My first blush, envisioned scenario involved time travel, the ball traveling the speed of light for one brief moment in time and one of the players being shot out of a cannon. In retrospect, it was dumb and I'm embarrassed that I even thought of it.
M
MentalDisabldLst
Guest
Why the hell would the runner take off from 1st, with less than 2 outs, on a popup that was clearly a foul ball (and even if it was fair, would easily be caught by the infield)?
It looked like a steal attempt where the runner didn't glance toward home after he broke for second. Probably had no idea where the ball was hit until it was too late.MentalDisabldLst said:
He was running on the pitch.MentalDisabldLst said:
I couldn't even envision a 2-1 double play. Great play.
My first thought was something pretty much like what happened. But then the way the writer of that snippet was daring you to try and dream it up had me then discarding that simple notion in favor more complicated dropped third strike w/ runner on 3rd scenarios. I was thinking dropped third strike, runner on third. Pitcher covers and tags out runner from third, then tags the batter who thought there were only two strikes - or something whacky like that. Or the Clay Buchholz version...foul pop, catcher makes play near dugout w/ runner on third. Clay forgets to cover, runner tags...but then Clay's WR wheels kick in and he recovers in time to take the throw and tag the runner.
Anyway - cool play and very heads up by Felix.
Anyway - cool play and very heads up by Felix.
M
MentalDisabldLst
Guest
Soxfan in Fla said:
My thought was a cover of home, not of 1st. Popup in foul territory way away from the plate, caught, runner on 3rd tags up and breaks for home, catcher isn't there so pitcher has to cover, mayhem ensues. Maybe late in the game, down by 1 run with a runner on 3rd and 1 out, trying that might make sense for the runner.
But yeah, serious heads-up professionalism by Felix.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN197008140.shtml
at the Reds, bottom of the 4th, Rick Wise pitching, Mike Ryan catching, no outs, runner on first, foul pop-up to catcher, Bobby Tolan doubled off first by pitcher, 2-1. found by querying my Retrosheet Event Files for 1970-74. (I didn't check other periods.)
at the Reds, bottom of the 4th, Rick Wise pitching, Mike Ryan catching, no outs, runner on first, foul pop-up to catcher, Bobby Tolan doubled off first by pitcher, 2-1. found by querying my Retrosheet Event Files for 1970-74. (I didn't check other periods.)
M
MentalDisabldLst
Guest
would this be the sort of thing that B-ref Play Index could find easily? I think it's still free to use for today.
MentalDisabldLst said:
I don't think so but I do think it is worth the $36 per year subscription fee. Some things are just to difficult or time consuming to find with Access database queries.
Good find. To be fair, the article did say that it was the first since at least 1987, the first year of occurrence in STAT, Inc.'s databasecharlieoscar said:
I went back to the 1937 season using Retrosheet Event Files and found two more catcher to pitcher DPs. My best guess on these two is that the catcher made a diving catch of a fair pop-up and that the runner was either going on the pitch or thought the ball would not be caught. In each of these cases the first putout and first, and only, assist was made by the catcher; the second putout was made by the pitcher. There are number of games from 1920-1973 for which no play-by-play data is available, so there could be more occurrences.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1950/B06240PHI1950.htm
Hank Sauer hit into a double play (catcher to pitcher) [Rube Walker out at third] -- apparently was a fair pop-up caught by Andy Seminick who threw to Russ Meyer who tagged out runner trying to go from 2nd to 3rd.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1978/B09210HOU1978.htm
Jose Cruz hit into a double play (catcher to pitcher) [Rafael Landestoy out at home] -- apparently was a fair pop-up caught by Joe Nolan who threw to Phil Niekro who tagged out runner trying to go from 3rd to home.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1950/B06240PHI1950.htm
Hank Sauer hit into a double play (catcher to pitcher) [Rube Walker out at third] -- apparently was a fair pop-up caught by Andy Seminick who threw to Russ Meyer who tagged out runner trying to go from 2nd to 3rd.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1978/B09210HOU1978.htm
Jose Cruz hit into a double play (catcher to pitcher) [Rafael Landestoy out at home] -- apparently was a fair pop-up caught by Joe Nolan who threw to Phil Niekro who tagged out runner trying to go from 3rd to home.
This is a strange play, but how often has there been a 3-1 play? Since that's basically what this is, it's just another body covering the bag.
brandonchristensen said:
Thanks to Retrosheet Event FiIes found eight instances from 2010 through 2014 when the first baseman caught a pop-up and threw to the pitcher for the second out of the DP. The first basemen had the only assist on the play. While the 3-1 DP is not a common play it happened far more frequently in that five-year period than the 2-1 DP occurred in the 76 year period I previously checked.