The Worst Throw in Baseball History
And I don’t have a video or GIF of it to post. You have failed me internet.
Edit: Welp, MLB.com has video of it right here. Anddd that doesn’t directly link to the video. Goddamn it, MLB.com. Just find the “Kotsay comes around to score the tying run” video.
I hope you’re not a baseball fan that turned the Rays-Red Sox game off when the score was 7-0 in the 7th inning. You missed the second biggest comeback in playoff history, and I don’t think the 8-run one happened over the course of the last three innings. The Rays bullpen pulled a choke job worthy of the Mets. As for Red Sox fans that left the stadium at the point of desperation: fuck you. You missed your Fat Papi hit one of his patented late-game clutch home runs, and J.D. Drew showing off his MICKEY MANTLE POWER. God, I hate J.D. Drew.
I think Joe Maddon may have had a stroke in the 7th inning while he watched that 7th inning. That’s the only explanation I can come with for how he handled the bullpen. I’ve almost become numb to watching such a trainwreck in motion, after seeing so many the past season and a half, but blowing a seven-run lead in three innings is impressive.
The guys over at fangraphs.com produce a win probability for every game, so you can see just how likely a comeback was at that point:
Who doesn’t love graphs?
Anyhow, the throw that spurred the title of this post occurred in the 8th inning. The Red Sox had the tying run in Mark Kotsay on second base with two outs. Coco Crisp (after an incredible at-bat) hit a line-drive single into right-field. As the Rays’ right-fielder Gross rushed in to field the ball and make the throw home, he had to be no further than 200 feet from plate. Not only that, but Kotsay was JUST rounding third. He was dead. He had to run home in that situation, but he was going to be thrown out by 20 feet. But then the camera cut for the throw, and I watched the ball bounce into the dirt of the infield. It was the most pathetic thing I had ever seen. He better have a torn rotator cuff or something. Making an error on a groundball or making an errant throw up the line is one thing. Throwing the ball straight into the goddamn ground is pretty much inexcuseable. I don’t even know how that’s possible. You don’t forget how to throw. The ball can’t take a bad hop in your hand. You can have a bad grip, but that would cause the ball to sail, not to go into the ground. What the shit.
The Rays better win Game 6, or else we’re going to see a Red Sox-Phillies World Series, and no one wants to see that. Josh Beckett is going for the Red Sox, and everyone seems to be talking about his oblique. Torn, strained, bruised, whatever. I smell Bloody Sock: The Sequel.
Fuck.
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