NEW YORK — A fading looper that went 200 feet — not even far enough to clear the fences at the Little League World Series — could very well be the play that defines the Yankees’ entire season.
In the top of the 10th inning in Friday’s Game 2 of the American League Division Series, Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez lofted a weakly-hit ball into shallow left field.
Oswaldo Cabrera came in, Josh Donaldson went out, and Ramirez was motoring around the bases much faster than the Yankees’ fielders were pursuing the ball. When the ball landed just in front of a sprawling Cabrera, the kid still learning left field was able to trap it to keep from rolling past him.
Then Donaldson got involved.
The over-eager third baseman gloved the ball, wheeled, and fired toward second base without really looking at the play. By that time, Ramirez was basically walking into second, his hustle earning him an easy double.
Just as he was about to put it in park atop the second base bag, Ramirez watched Donaldson’s throw blaze past him and into right field. Ramirez easily took third, scored on another dying quail one batter later, and just like that, the Guardians had seized the biggest moment in the biggest game of their season.
After the dust settled, both Donaldson and Cabrera gave their take on the game-swinging blooper that evaded them.
“We were both going for it,” Donaldson said. “I saw it out of the corner of my eye. He was going full steam ahead right there, so I backed off. The ball stayed close [to us] and I thought I had a chance at second, and I pulled the throw a little bit trying to make a play. Jose Ramirez does what he does, he keeps running.”
Cabrera noted that the afternoon start time made things a little hard to see, but would not use that as an excuse for missing the ball in the tenth inning, when the sun had started to set.
“It was hard [to see] for like, four innings,” he admitted. “I got a pop up that was right in the sun. I caught it, but it was like, ‘Whoa!’ ”
Later in the 10th, center fielder Harrison Bader took a very curious route to a ball that sailed over his head for a run-scoring double. It looked like Bader had a hard time picking the ball up off the bat, though Cabrera said from left field, everything was fine.
“The sun was not a part [of the Ramirez play]. We tried. [Donaldson] tried to get that ball. I tried to get that ball. That’s just baseball, ya know?”
The postseason has already featured several plays like that, balls that just narrowly escape fielders' gloves, leading to momentous runs. The Phillies grabbed a ninth-inning lead in Game 1 of their wild-card series on a ball that skittered just under St. Louis second baseman Tommy Edman’s glove. The Mariners took Game 2 of their wild-card bonanza in Toronto on a shallow fly ball that caused center fielder George Springer and shortstop Bo Bichette to collide. Seattle then got a taste of their own medicine on Thursday, when Houston shortstop Jeremy Pena dinked a ball into the outfield that set up Yordan Alvarez’s go-ahead homer.
Now, another play has been added to that group, and it’s one that Donaldson (who was given an error for his efforts) says he doesn’t regret at all.
“I think it would have been bang bang, even if I made a really good throw,” he assessed. “In the moment, I thought I had a chance. But, I didn’t make a great throw. At the end of the day I was trying to make a play. I’ll live with that.”
