July 20th, 2024
Ian Browne
@IanMBrowneLOS ANGELES -- From Jarren Duran building off his All-Star Game MVP performance with a go-ahead home run to Nick Pivetta turning in one of his crispest starts of the season, it was shaping up to be a feel-good Friday night at Dodger Stadium for the Red Sox.
Instead, the night careened off the tracks in a bumpy eighth inning for the visitors, and it was the Dodgers riding Freddie Freeman’s one-out grand slam to a 4-1 victory.
It was a tough defeat for the recently rolling Red Sox, and there were some issues to dissect in the aftermath.
How did O’Neill get doubled off on a routine fly ball?
Without question, the momentum of the game started to shift when Rafael Devers hit a 238-foot fly ball to left that looked like nothing more than the second out of the eighth inning, with the Red Sox leading 1-0 at the time.
But Tyler O'Neill was off with the pitch and couldn’t get back to first base in time, getting doubled off on a perfect throw by Miguel Vargas to end the inning. The Red Sox challenged it, but the call that first-base umpire Laz Diaz made in real time was confirmed upon review.
It wasn’t just that O’Neill got doubled off. But it looked like he was confused during his trek back to first. He looked back toward the outfield rather than just sprinting back to first, and didn’t slide back in what wound up a bang-bang play.
“He picked over twice, so I wanted to be in motion on that one,” said O’Neill. “Vargas came up and made a really good throw, but I need to get back on that.”
Part of the issue is that O’Neill misjudged how shallow Vargas was when he made the catch.
“I guess I misplayed how shallow he was. The ball came off Raffy’s bat pretty good, I thought. I was in motion, but that’s a play I need to get back on,” said O’Neill. “I have to get back on that play."
Vargas saw an opportunity, and he seized it.
“I saw him jogging back slowly, so I said, ‘Maybe I got him,’” Vargas said. “I never think about throwing it there. [But] I caught the ball and I was looking at him, and he was more than halfway and he was jogging back slowly, so I was like, ‘OK, there’s a chance to throw him out.”
The rough bottom of the eighth
Of course, no game is lost on one play. And it should be noted that the Red Sox were still leading after O’Neill got doubled off.
So what happened in the bottom of the eighth?
Zack Kelly walked No. 8 hitter Vargas to open the frame. And after the righty struck out Chris Taylor for the first out, Red Sox manager Alex Cora brought on lefty Brennan Bernardino with the star-studded trio of Shohei Ohtani (lefty), Will Smith (righty) and Freeman (lefty) coming up.
Bernardino has been one of Boston’s best setup relievers this season, but this was not his night. His first pitch, a middle-middle sinker, was deposited down the left-field line, just fair and just out of the reach of O’Neill to set up second and third with one out.
Per Statcast, O’Neill had a catch probability of 30 percent.
“I wanted to go get that ball. It was just out of my reach. I didn’t get there,” said O’Neill.
And that put the focus on Cora. Pitch to Smith, or walk him and have Bernardino go left-on-left against Freeman, who came into the game with a .720 OPS against southpaws this season, compared to .978 against righties. Cora chose to walk Smith. Freeman mashed Bernardino’s 0-1 curveball for a game-breaking slam.
“It’s Smith or Freeman. You pick your poison,” said Cora. “Smith is one of the best hitters in the league, too. He’s been hot and we’re trying to get a ground-ball double play there, and it just happened that he hit a grand slam.”
The big rally by the Dodgers highlighted the fact that two of Cora’s most trusted righty setup relievers (Chris Martin and Justin Slaten) are both on the injured list with elbow woes, highlighting a potential Trade Deadline need.
“We're going to be fine,” said Cora. “We're not going to make excuses. We're going to keep moving forward and we're going to trust the guys that we have.”
