San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Chapman made an inexplicable baserunning mistake during the ninth inning of Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the New York Mets, and the SNY Mets broadcast didn’t hesitate to call him out on it.
Trailing 5-2 in the ninth with no outs and nobody else on base, Chapman decided to try to steal second base, and failed. Chapman was caught stealing on a throw from Mets catcher Luis Torrens, who had MLB’s best percentage (41%) of throwing out would-be base-stealers, as SNY showed on the broadcast.
“What are you doing running on this cat?!” SNY play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen asked, in shock. “Torrens bags another one! A terrible decision by Chapman as he gets gunned down for the first out of the ninth with his team down by three runs!”
“Boy, that’s a free out right there,” SNY color commentator Todd Zeile said. “Maybe [Mets first baseman Mark Vientos] knew something we didn’t, thinking that Chapman was going to try to go. I thought that was less likely than anything else we could imagine. But, gunned down, and you know, rightly so. His run means nothing.”
“I mean, that’s just craziness,” Cohen said.
“Well, it caps off a horrible, no-good, awful week for Matt Chapman,” Cohen continued. “Just an inexplicable decision!”
Cohen and Zeile nailed it on how awful that baserunning decision was by Chapman.
Down multiple runs in the ninth, the goal is to get traffic on the basepaths and not run into outs. If the opposition happens to align the defense so that it looks like a “defensive indifference” and is letting the baserunner freely take second base, that’s one thing. Otherwise, the risk is not at all worth it. Additionally, the Giants ended up adding one more baserunner in the ninth, so the Giants could have had the tying run come to the plate — and one more out to work with — if not for Chapman’s gaffe.
As for Cohen’s point about Chapman’s week- yeah, it was rough.
Chapman told teammate Casey Schmitt to “catch the f*cking ball” after Schmitt was unable to handle his throw during the Giants’ game against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Chapman bobbled a groundball before throwing it away, allowing two Mets runs to score in a 9-0 New York win.
And in the eighth inning of Sunday’s game, Chapman made a diving stop at third base, but first baseman Rafael Devers was unable to handle his throw in the dirt, allowing a Mets run to score.
Chapman, a one-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner, is in year two of a six-year, $151 million contract with San Francisco.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.