The Texas Rangers (and far many fantasy baseball teams) suffered a serious blow on Tuesday when reigning AL MVP Josh Hamilton injured his arm after diving head first into home plate against the Tigers. Hamilton had just hit a one-out RBI triple in the first inning. The next batter was Adrian Beltre who fouled out, but Hamilton tried to score after the third base coach told him nobody was covering home.
Hamilton dived into home to try and avoid the tag, and that’s when he got hurt. Here’s how the play looked thanks to this Josh Hamilton GIF from SB Nation:
Hamilton ended up fracturing his shoulder and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks. After the game, he expressed frustration with the injury, and specifically his coach Dave Anderson for suggesting the risky move.
“It was just a stupid play,” Hamilton said after the game. “I definitely shouldn’t have done it. They had a good angle to cut me off where I was going. It was a little too aggressive. The whole time I was watching the play, and I was listening. I was like, ‘Dude, I don’t want to go. Something is going to happen.’ But I listened to my coach, and I went.”
I really have to agree with Hamilton here. It was a savvy thought by the coach, but obviously his judgment was off. The Tigers were close enough to the plate to get the out, so it was just the wrong call, and that’s without even considering the collision and dive part of things.
Photo Credit: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
