The Cleveland Indians gave up a crucial out against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night in the most bizarre way possible. With nobody out in the bottom of the 7th inning, Indians catcher Yan Gomes ripped a double to right field that scored a run. The hit should have left Cleveland trailing 6-2 with runners on second and third and nobody out.
Instead, David Murphy got caught in no-man’s land between third base and home plate. When Murphy looked toward the outfield to see where the ball was, he saw a baseball sitting unattended in the outfield grass behind second. Unfortunately, that ball was a wild throw that had made its way onto the field from the bullpen in right field.
Reds shortstop Zack Cozart had the “real” ball in his hand and fired it to third. Murphy was tagged out and probably thought he was seeing things.
“As a player you are taught two things — listen to your base coach and find the ball,” Murphy admitted after the game, via Fox Sports Ohio. “My base coach is saying ‘right here, right here’ but as a player you don’t want to completely rely on the guy. You use him for help but try to play the game and use your instincts and then I see the ball and think I can make it. Obviously the timing of it and everything was crazy and bizarre. The situation was unfortunate; no one has seen anything like that before.”
Cozart even said that he felt badly for Murphy, as he fell victim to a rare situation that he will likely never see again. The Reds went on to get out of the inning and win 9-2, but who knows what would have happened if the Indians kept two men on with no out. Talk about terrible luck.
