The Defense Thread, 2015

[Il BuonO]

Manny's play was even better than I originally thought on a second look because the previous hop was pretty high and for Manny to dive and time the short hop was really tricky. I don't know that any other 3B in baseball makes that one.

Beltre in the AL and Arenado in the NL.

[Can_of_corn]

Beltre in the AL and Arenado in the NL.

Arenado is pretty slick.

[Il BuonO]

Arenado is pretty slick.

Kid can mash, too.

[Frobby]

May 26

- Lough and Hardy executed a perfect relay to throw out a runner to the plate.

- Pearce made a nice feed throw on a 4-6-3 DP.

- Pearce made a nice diving stop on a ball up the middle and made a strong throw from his knees to beat Altuve to 1B.

- Hunter once again did a really good job of charging a slow hopper and catching a runner between 3B and home plate.

- Hardy once again made a clean pickup playing in and a quick, perfect throw home to nab a runner trying to score.

- Young fumbled a ball in RF that turns a single into a double.

There was also a pretty funny play where Manny cut right in front of the waiting Hardy to field a ground ball and force a runner at 2B.

[Aristotelian]

May 27

The big play that could have changed the game was a potential double play ball that Preston Tucker beat out to score a run and extend the inning. Flaherty was shifted toward first base so he had to come a long way to cover JJ's toss. JJ possibly could have made the play himself, but it would have been a routine play with a standard double play depth defense.

Travis Snider made a nice play going back on a line drive over his head early in the game.

After coming in as a defensive sub, Lough made a nice play on a similar ball with the tying run in scoring position to save the game with 2 out in the 9th. Overall a good clean defensive game to take two of three from the West-leading Astros.

[backwardsk]

Davis had a good inning late where he caught a popup in the crowd and executed a nice 3-1 to Brach. Not a highlight play, but a good fundamental play that's been lacking at times this season.

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[Frobby]

May 27

- A perfect DP ball was hit to Hardy with runners on 1st and 3rd and one out. Flaherty was late to arrive at 2B, possibly because he'd been in a shift, and Hardy didn't recognize it. If he'd run to 2B himself and made a strong throw going that direction, he might have completed the DP. Instead, he threw to Flaherty 5-6 feet before the bag, and Flahety had to throw after tagging the base with his momentum carrying towards the SS, and the runner was safe, allowing the runner at 3B to score and preventing the inning from ending. Gattis then hit a 2-run bomb to tie the game with 2 outs. If the DP had been completed no runs are on the board and Gattis doesn't reach the plate until the next inning.

- Britton speared a hard hit one hopper to his right in the 9th for the second out.

- Lough made a nice running catch of a hit slicing deep into the LF corner to end the game. It wasn't spectacular, but I'm not sure Snider reaches that ball.

- While I only saw it on replay, Carter's double over Snider's head for the Astros' first run looked like a ball that an outstanding LF like Lough might have caught.

(Oops, just saw that Aristotelian covered most of this.)

[OFFNY]

o

(vs. WHITE SOX, 5/28) O[Game One]

For the second consecutive game, J.J. Hardy's failure to turn a double play cost the Orioles runs late in the game.

Last night, it cost 3 runs after Ubaldo Jimenez gave up a game-tying 3-run home run following Hardy's miscue in the 7th inning.

Today, it cost 1 run after Tommy Hunter induced what could have been an inning-ending double play in the 9th inning..

[Il BuonO]

o

(vs. WHITE SOX, 5/28) O[Game One]

For the second consecutive game, J.J. Hardy's failure to turn a double play cost the Orioles runs late in the game.

Last night, it cost 3 runs after Ubaldo Jimenez gave up a game-tying 3-run home run following Hardy's miscue in the 7th inning.

Today, it cost 1 run after Tommy Hunter induced what could have been an inning-ending double play in the 9th inning..

Yeah, poor underhanded feed by Hardy to Cabrera covering the bag. And it might have made the difference, too.

Cabrera turned in a couple of nice plays. One on a ball in the 3-4 hole that looked like it was destined to be a basehit, but Cabrera ranged far to his left and dived for the ball catching it in the webbing of his glove and throwing to 1B as he was rolling over on his back.

Later, he made a nice running grab on a pop up on the grass in short RF.

[InsideCoroner]

I'm not a big Cabrera fan, but honestly, his play in the first game was the best Orioles defensive play I've seen this year.

[Il BuonO]

I'm going to focus on Mr. Jones in today's entry. In the first game of yesterday's DH he sized up a fly ball in plenty of time, got around behind it to create momentum and as he caught it unleashed a strike to Manny at 3B to nail a sliding and probably surprised La Roche.

In the second game he tracked a ball in the LCF gap and ran it down in full stride before pulling in front of the wall. This happened after tweaking his foot in the Orioles half of the inning on a play at the plate when it looked like he caught his spikes. A nice defensive day for Adam.

[Aristotelian]

I'm going to focus on Mr. Jones in today's entry. In the first game of yesterday's DH he sized up a fly ball in plenty of time, got around behind it to create momentum and as he caught it unleashed a strike to Manny at 3B to nail a sliding and probably surprised La Roche.

In the second game he tracked a ball in the LCF gap and ran it down in full stride before pulling in front of the wall. This happened after tweaking his foot in the Orioles half of the inning on a play at the plate when it looked like he caught his spikes. A nice defensive day for Adam.

That throw was impressive. The ball was hit deep almost to the warning track. I would say Laroche advances 85% of the time there, which would have given them a man on third with 1 out. DRS for Adam Jones.

[mdbdotcom]

I'm going to focus on Mr. Jones in today's entry. In the first game of yesterday's DH he sized up a fly ball in plenty of time, got around behind it to create momentum and as he caught it unleashed a strike to Manny at 3B to nail a sliding and probably surprised La Roche.

In the second game he tracked a ball in the LCF gap and ran it down in full stride before pulling in front of the wall. This happened after tweaking his foot in the Orioles half of the inning on a play at the plate when it looked like he caught his spikes. A nice defensive day for Adam.

As AJ aligned himself for that throw, I thought to myself, "He can't seriously think he's going to throw out LaRoche at 3B." That was pretty darn good.

[Il BuonO]

Just saw the replay from yesterday.

In the 6th inning Clevenger made a perfect throw to nail Souza at 2B on an attempted steal. Maybe he has improved.

[Frobby]

May 31

This game turned on a sequence where, with two outs, Flaherty dove for a grounder up the middle but couldn't get the ball out of his glove to force a runner at 2B, and then Pearce and Lough let a soft fly ball to LCF fall between them for an RBI single. Tillman then coughed up a 3-run homer, but the inning should have been over on the Pearce/Lough ball, and could have been over if Flaherty had been able to make a throw (that would have been a superb play, though).