The Atlanta Braves were faced with a difficult task when they drew Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 of the NLDS, and errors from Evan Gattis certainly didn’t help them. Gattis made two bad mistakes in the second inning that hurt his team.
Gattis cost the Braves a run in the second by whiffing on a fly ball from A.J. Ellis that resulted in an RBI double, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers a 2-0 lead. Gattis isn’t a particularly fast player, so he had to lay out for the fly ball and missed the catch.
As if the misplay in left wasn’t bad enough, Gattis burned the Braves in the bottom of the inning, too.
Gattis was on first with one out and Chris Johnson up. Johnson blooped a ball into shallow right that was clearly within Yasiel Puig’s range. But Gattis misjudged the ball and was so far off the bag when Puig caught it that he got doubled off first to end the inning. Below you can see the play and how close to second he was after Puig made the catch:
“I got deked,” Gattis said of the play, via ESPN’s David Schoenfield. “I didn’t think he was going to get there. Took a hard step towards second base. Just a mistake.”
Come on, Gattis, that was a bad mistake you can’t make, especially in the playoffs. The only good news is he didn’t approach Brooks Conrad territory. Or, at least he hasn’t yet. I guess this is what the Braves get for playing a catcher in left field since they want him and Brian McCann in the lineup for their bats.
GIF via Chad Moriyama
