Baseball is one of those games where attention to detail can separate the good teams from the bad teams. And on Saturday, we saw that difference between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers on full display.
In the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader at Wrigley Field, Cubs shortstop Nico Hoerner was caught standing in disbelief between first and second base after one of the weirder lapses on the base path we’ll see this season.
With two outs in the second inning, Hoerner forced Trea Turner into a tough, barehanded play at shortstop. And as that throw went wide, Hoerner started a leisurely jog into second base totally unaware that the ball was still live.
Heads up play by Freddie Freeman as Nico Hoerner forgets how to run the bases pic.twitter.com/YDayRZBsgt
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHarrisTBLA) May 7, 2022
Freddie Freeman quickly recovered the baseball and threw it to second where Hoerner was promptly tagged out to end the inning. Basically, Hoerner saw the throw go wide and briefly looked for the ball. When he couldn’t spot it in that split-second glance, he just assumed the ball went out of play.
You have to wait for the umpire’s call there. That’s just basic understanding of baseball. No wonder MLB fans couldn’t believe that baserunning mistake actually happened.