“Interesting” Base Running Of Late...

Just a quick midweek post to note how many odd base running blunders have befallen the A’s of late — not that they have literally fallen, but they may as well have...

Today’s specials included Tyler Soderstrom going halfway between 1B and 2B on a twisting fly ball into the RF corner of the bat of Tyler Nevin. It was in the air a while and to the base runner it could well have been unclear whether it was going to be caught, drop fair or drop foul.

Nonetheless the only right move, if you thought it might be caught, was to go halfway and wait to find out. Instead, as Cody Bellinger closed in on it Soderstrom inexplicably started to run back towards 1B. The ball dropped fair and actually rattled…