At just about the worst time, Addison Barger made a fundamental blunder.
Standing on second base in the ninth inning Friday and representing the tying run in Game 6 of the World Series, the second-year player saw Andrés Giménez loft an 81-mph looper toward left field at Rogers Centre.
Barger thought the ball would find grass, aggressively moving about halfway toward third base.
But it hung up.
Barger, standing in no-man’s land, didn’t have enough time to retreat.
Double play.
Game over.
Game 7, Saturday night in Toronto.
“I was pretty surprised he got to it,” Barger said after the 3-1 loss to the Dodgers, per ESPN. “Off the bat, I thought it was going to go (right) over the shortstop’s head. I didn’t think it was going to travel that far.
“It was kind of a bad read.”
If the Blue Jays can’t top the Dodgers at home Saturday night, Barger’s baserunning mistake and the bad-luck ruling moments before on his double that got stuck under the wall will forever be Toronto “What ifs?”
Trailing, 3-1, in the ninth with a man on first and no outs, Barger hit a ball into the left-center gap that got stuck under the wall, resulting in a ground rule double.
Pinch runner Myles Straw scored easily on the play before the umpires returned him to third base to give the Blue Jays runners on second and third with no outs.
Tyler Glasnow retired Ernie Clement on a pop-up for the first out.
That’s when Gimenez stepped to the plate for his fateful at-bat.
The overhead view shows Barger taking a strong lead during the pitch and then advancing even further toward third base, while Dodgers left field Kiké Hernandez came in and caught the ball.
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Hernandez’s momentum taking him toward the bag and Barger’s momentum taking him the other way, allowed the throw to beat the runner, with Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas making a nice snag.
“It’s a tough read. Kiké playing shallow and one out you’re thinking score. He made a really good play,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “It’s such a tweener. He made a good play, good throw. Good play by Rojas, too. Wild. Wild way to finish it, for sure.”
Had Barger not been doubled up, the Blue Jays would have ALCS hero George Springer due up with a chance to potentially end the series or at least tie the game.
Instead, they can only hope that play isn’t one that will forever for the wrong reasons.
Said Blue Jays infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa to ESPN: “I thought it was getting down 1,000 percent.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
