Arizona-Washington

[SoftSocDad]

Top of the 3rd, 2 out, runners at the corners...3rd baseman fields the ball quickly and the runner is right beside her, about 1/3 of the way to home, while the batter is almost halfway to 1st.

Obviously the bad throw didn't help things, but shouldn't she clearly have gone home in that case?

By the numbers, the throw she makes is about 72 feet, whereas going home would've been just 40 feet.

Am I wrong here, especially considering that the batter was a lefty?

 

[shockcoach]

Go for the force out to end the inning, not the tag play. Making an error on the throw shouldn't be cause for questioning which bag to go to.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

The fielder was indecisive. Make up your mind and go with it. In this situation you have to have the out and you have to look like you know what you are doing.

I am sure that they had practiced exactly what she should do. Perhaps, she didn't know the number of outs?

It was a mental error that led to a throwing error.

 

[StacieM]

On that play she had to very quickly field and throw to 1st to get the out because it was a very fast slapper. I watched that play again in slo-mo to see if the runner from 3rd was breaking on the pitch and she wasn't. She did get past the fielder pretty quick and I actually thought that if she didn't hesitate either way, and I know this is not the "routine play" but home probably would have been the easier out on that particular play.

I'm usually for the "sure" force out especially with two outs and especially when you're choosing between a runner who has a lead and a batter-runner that doesn't, but on that particular play 1st was tough! But the biggest problem was the moment of indecision. I think she could have made either play (not really sure which would have been less complicated - play at 1st was a longer throw with runner and ball arriving quite close, but was a force out vs play at the plate which probably wouldn't have been as close as far as ball vs runner, but requires a tag) if she just did so right away.