The old saying goes that shortstop is the hardest position to play in all of sports. Just ask Bobby Witt Jr.
In Monday night’s game against the Tigers, the Royals shortstop allowed Riley Greene to pick up a key eighth-inning hit with a bizarre mistake you rarely see in a big league game.
Greene fought off a tough slider from Kansas City reliever Aroldis Chapman and hit a weak groundball toward Witt at short. It should have been a routine play for Witt, except he took his first step in the complete opposite direction of the ball. Why? Chapman’s pitch broke Greene’s bat and Witt started running toward where the bat was flying, not the ball.
Bobby Witt Jr. chases the bat instead of the ball! 😮 pic.twitter.com/zTXbFZgzaY
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) May 23, 2023
According to Baseball Savant, the hit by Greene—with an exit velocity of just 75.4 mph and a 4-degree launch angle—had a mere .190 expected batting average.
Luckily for the Royals, the goofy hit didn’t come back to bite them. Chapman struck out the next two batters to get out of the inning and preserve a 5–5 tie. Greene’s hit was one of two very strange hits the Royals gave up in the game, though. In the first, Javier Báez swung at a fastball way inside off the plate (unusual for him, I know) and hit a weak flare just over the head of first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. Baez later came around to score as the Tigers put up three runs in the first inning. Greene, meanwhile, sparked the Tigers’ game-winning rally in the 10th inning with a more legitimate single (101 mph off the bat) and scored the go-ahead run on a Báez double as Detroit won 8–5.
