George Springer defends himself for not running hard on double
George Springer defended himself after Tuesday’s 5-4 Game 1 World Series loss to the Washington Nationals for not running hard on a big double in the eighth inning.
Springer hit a ball deep to right-center in the bottom of the eighth that scored Kyle Tucker from second. Springer was pimping the ball out of the box and only ended up at second, which potentially cost the team the tying run.
After the game, Springer defended himself by saying he would have been out if he tried to go to third. He also noted that Tucker was hanging out near second in case Adam Eaton caught the ball, and he didn’t want to overrun his teammate.
George Springer on his eighth-inning double: “I don’t want to necessarily run as fast as I can because, for some reason, if he tags or whatever the case and I run by him, it’s not good. I was watching the outfielder”
“If I had gone to third, I’m out. I’m out for sure”— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 23, 2019
Springer is clearly trying to cover himself, but the reality is if he were running hard out of the box as he should have, he might have had a chance to be on third base and score on Jose Altuve’s flyout to tie the game at five.
There is no excuse for Springer not running harder out of the box. He didn’t pimp the hit because he was afraid of overrunning Tucker or because he thought he’d be thrown out at third; he did it because he thought he’d hit a home run.
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