Tag: Gavin Lux

Gavin Lux’s botched slide was the perfect complement to the Nats’ costly outfield blunder

Weird baseball is beautiful.

There’s something uniquely beautiful about weird baseball plays. Basically, 99 percent of the time, Major Leaguers are literal superhumans on the field, pulling off plays that shouldn’t even be possible. But there are brief moments when a play breaks down and everyone involved looks silly.

Gavin Lux’s RBI double against the Nationals was a perfect example of that.

During Wednesday’s game in the first inning, Lux drove what should have been an inning-ending fly out to deep right-center field. Victor Robles appeared to have a great read on the ball, but something distracted him as Juan Soto approached from right field. The ball fell to the ground between Robles and Soto, leading to a run scoring.

But keep an eye on Lux’s slide.

On its own, that play would have been enough to roast the Nationals because they’re a terrible baseball team. But Lux’s slide was honestly the perfect cherry on top for the whole play. I mean, he went down to both knees and started his slide like 15 feet shy of the bag before nearly face-planting.

Best of all: He got an RBI double for the effort.

As you could expect, baseball fans appreciated Lux’s artful take on the head-first slide. This man plays the same sport on the *same team* as Trea Turner — and yet he’s so bad at sliding.

Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias visibly showed up Gavin Lux over his poor effort in center field

Not a great look.

For the second straight year, the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves trailing 3-1 in their National League Championship Series matchup with the Atlanta Braves. But this time, the frustrations are clearly playing out on the field for Los Angeles.

While the Braves have yet to commit an error in the series (and have just one error all postseason), defense has been a struggle for the Dodgers — particularly with middle-infielder-turned-outfieler Gavin Lux.

In Game 3, Lux misplayed a fly ball that sparked a four-run inning for Atlanta before the Dodgers’ eventual comeback win. And where Walker Buehler was understanding of Lux’s struggles at a new position, Game 4’s starter Julio Urias essentially called Lux out right there on the field.

With runners on first and third in the third inning, pearl enthusiast Joc Pederson softly hit a fly ball to shallow center field. But instead of laying out for a diving attempt, Lux let up and fielded the ball on a bounce. Urias turned towards center field and raised his arms in disbelief, staring down his center fielder.

Urias clearly wanted Lux to dive. He let everyone see how he felt about Lux’s effort.

And sure, Lux probably should have made a better attempt, but it’s not a great look on Urias’ part to make it seem like Lux was letting the team down. Lux wasn’t the one who gave up three home runs prior to that hit.

That was basically how Wednesday’s game went for Los Angeles because even Gold Glove winner Mookie Betts had a rough time out there in center field.

The Braves would go on to win, 9-2.

Dodgers’ Gavin Lux had the most stunned face after hitting what he thought was game-tying homer

He thought it was gone.

Gavin Lux thought he had done it.

With two outs in the ninth inning and the San Francisco Giants up 1-0 on the Los Angeles Dodgers, the infielder got ALMOST all of a Camilo Doval pitch and drove it to center field. Lux raised his hand thinking it was gone.

But the wind was unkind on Monday night. The ball was caught for the third and final out, and the Giants now have a 2-1 NLDS lead.

And the face Lux made implied how in disbelief he was. Given the stats on how hard he hit that ball — you’ll see below — you’ll understand why?

Here’s the face and the reaction (with lots of memes) from MLB fans: