The New York Mets have one of the more popular broadcast crews with Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez leading the way on SNY, but even the best booths lose the plot on occasion.
As we know, the Mets are stumbling towards the offseason amid a wildly disappointing 2023. The team has given up on the season, and the fanbase has checked out for the most part. The Arizona Diamondbacks, on the other hand, are in a battle for the final wild-card spot in the National League. Manager Torey Lovullo has to treat every game like a postseason game, and that’s exactly what he did on Monday night.
Some basic baseball strategy, though, had the Mets broadcast in disbelief.
"How do you allow the winning run to steal second base?!? That is as bonehead a managerial decision as I've seen all year long." pic.twitter.com/XZxHKbVfc1
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) September 12, 2023
With two outs in the ninth inning, the D-backs up by a run and runners on first and third, Arizona conceded second base to Tim Locastro. Despite Cohen calling it “as bonehead a managerial decision” as he had seen all season, the decision made total sense.
Again, there were two outs. Arizona’s focus had to be getting Brandon Nimmo out to end the game — nothing else mattered. When you consider that Nimmo is a left-handed batter who pulls the ball, Lovullo wanted first baseman Christian Walker in a position to make the play. Had he been holding the runner, any hit that went past Walker could have been enough to score the winning run with Locastro’s speed.
On top of that, Locastro was going to take second without a throw regardless of where Walker was playing. They weren’t going to risk a throw to second with the tying run on third and a backup catcher behind the plate.
If there was just one out, the D-backs may have played that differently. But they knew exactly what they were doing with two outs. And after all that, Nimmo flew out to center field to end the game.
Fans couldn’t believe that the broadcast had a meltdown over a correct decision either.