Mental mistakes from the Blue Jays cost them here.
The New York Yankees are no stranger to triple plays this summer. Less than a month after getting out of a ninth inning jam with one, the Yankees have turned yet another triple play, this time off the back of a bone-headed Toronto Blue Jays mistake.
In the bottom of the first of Thursday’s game, with the Blue Jays threatening with runners on second and third, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a bouncing grounder to pitcher Michael King, securing the out at first. Then, the real fun begins as both Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette get caught in rundown after the former tries to back up to third, anticipating a throw home.
The result is a messy, but incredibly effective, triple play rundown for the Yankees thanks to some terrible baserunning decisions.
I also have to highlight Gio Urshela’s incredible turnaround throw back to third after tagging out Semien that was able to get Bichette to complete the triple play. Without that quick reaction to see Bichette attempting to get to third while everyone else was occupied, the Yankees likely wouldn’t have gotten that third out on the play.
Both Bichette and Semien were at fault for the original baserunning mishap that caused the second out in the sequence, but the former probably should have just tried to go back to second instead of forcing the play at third for that final out. Instead of threatening to put up runs early on the Yankees, the Blue Jays ended their first inning with a completely avoidable baserunning blunder.
[mm-video type=video id=01f7v57y6trq6bw451k2 playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f7v57y6trq6bw451k2/01f7v57y6trq6bw451k2-a2a167c976bc5e0d6f422e270c9a2ba4.jpg]
[vertical-gallery id=1028959]
