Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider didn’t pinch-run for a player known to be one of the slower runners in baseball on Tuesday — and it ended up costing his team in a huge way.
With designated hitter Alejandro Kirk on third base and the Blue Jays trailing 5-3 in the eighth inning with one out, pinch-hitter Daulton Varsho flew out to Washington Nationals centre-fielder Jacob Young at Rogers Centre. The notoriously slow Kirk tagged up and was thrown out by Young — with the call confirmed after a challenge.
The Blue Jays ended up losing 5-4 as the team scored one run in the ninth after loading the bases with no out.
Afterward, Schneider said a short bench and the fact the Blue Jays were down by two were the main reasons he did not pinch-run for Kirk.
Infielder Mason McCoy, called up from triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday, was on the bench. He has 23 stolen bases in the minors this year. Kirk has zero stolen bases in 303 career major-league games.
“We were a little short. Brandon (Belt) wasn’t available (because of back spasms). We had guys playing everywhere. (Cavan Biggio) at short, Davis (Schneider) at third (in the ninth inning), kind of a lot of moving parts (with Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman on the injured list.”
“Tying run, yeah, we would have had a runner there. Down by two, no.”
John Schneider said the possibility of the game going into extra innings also ran through his mind.
“You pinch hit Varsho — you’re looking to do damage to try to take the lead and clip a homer. You never know how the game goes. A lot of different ways to where crazy [expletive]happens and you get into the 11th inning and that spot comes up. And you want Kirky at the plate.
“So, yeah, kind of a general rule of thumb (is not to pinch-run down two in that situation). The odds of a medium-depth fly ball with an average-throwing outfielder and Kirky at third was probably last on my bingo card.”
The Blue Jays did however, pinch-run for Kirk twice this season with the team trailing by two runs in the eighth inning.
Kirk was at catcher in both of those games and Danny Jansen replaced him defensively.
The decision Tuesday was a hot topic on social media.
