May 17, 2007
Strange Play by Play
I thought this was unusual. In the bottom of the first:
Crisp singled to left. D.Ortiz grounded out, shortstop C.Guillen to first baseman Casey, Crisp to third. M.Ramirez singled to center, Crisp scored.
Going to third on a ground out is pretty good. I'd like to assume Crisp was running on the pitch and never stopped, but I don't want to make an ass of u and me. Did anyone see the play?
Update: The first comment explains what happened. The shift was on, and once Crisp avoided the out at second, no one was covering third. The weakness of the overshift.
I saw the play. Crisp evaded the tag at 2nd by dropping to the dirt. The Tigers threw to first and got Ortiz. No one was covering 3rd because of the overshift to Ortiz and Crisp just kept running.
Listen to the game on XM. Sounded like no one was covering 3rd due to the shift that's used against Ortiz and Crisp was fast enough to beat anyone there.
Usually, Sox opponents modify the overshift when there's a runner on first -- to make it easier to turn two, and also to prevent occurrences just like this. Don't know if the Tigers modified their shift, or if they didn't, why not.
