One Minnesota Twins player committed a blunder so bad over the weekend that it got him demoted.
Twins infielder Jose Miranda embarrassed himself on the basepaths during Saturday’s game against the Detroit Tigers. With one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, Miranda was on first base when Twins teammate Christian Vazquez hit a chopper to the right side. Tigers second baseman Colt Keith received the throw for the force-out but failed to actually step on the bag.
Fortunately for Keith though, Miranda let him off the hook though by slowly walking off the base and back towards the dugout, simply assuming that he was out. Once Keith eventually figured out what was going on, he was easily able to tag Miranda out. Here is the ridiculous video.
Those were pretty lousy fundamentals from Miranda, especially since the second base umpire was right there in front of him making a visible “safe” gesture. Talk about not being aware of your surroundings.
Then just hours after the game, which the Tigers went on to win 4-0, Miranda paid the price for the blunder. Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic reported that the Twins are now demoting Miranda to Triple-A. Fellow infielder Brooks Lee is being reinstated from the injured list to take Miranda’s place on the roster, Gleeman adds.
Granted, the 26-year-old Miranda had not been doing himself any favors at the plate this season either (batting just .167 through the team’s first 12 games). But that baserunning boo-boo appears to have been the last straw for the now 4-11 Twins. It also represents quite the fall from grace for Miranda, who just last year tied an impressive all-time MLB record.
