Even with the pitch clock, a baseball game can be a plodding affair, so you’ll have to forgive Juan Soto if, in the sixth inning of this one, he took his eyes off the action for a moment. He was leaning against the dugout rail, his New York Yankees on their way to a 3–2 victory over the Kansas City Royals to pull within a win of the American League Championship Series, and Anthony Volpe had just taken a sinker down the middle to run the count to 2–1. Soto dropped his head, then spotted something in his peripheral vision. Catcher Salvador Pérez had popped up and fired to second base.
“I was like, ‘Who’s running?’” says Soto now, laughing.
