Gregorius’ glorified bloop just far enough to score Bohm ... ?
Didi Gregorius had tossed away his bat and upbraided himself just steps out of the batter’s box in the top of the ninth inning Sunday night.
The fly ball he hit, with a man on third and one out, wasn’t deep enough to get the run home, the veteran Phillies shortstop was convinced. It would be a big missed opportunity, and he got a head start on lamenting it.
The ball off Gregorius’ bat traveled a mere 230 feet into left field. But Alec Bohm covered the 90 feet from third to home before Marcell Ozuna’s throw could arrive and the tag could be applied at the plate for the winning run in a 7-6 decision in Atlanta.
Or did it?
“I was surprised they sent him because I did not hit it deep enough,” Gregorius said. “But he ended up scoring. … I don’t know, I’m not the umpire.”
The 14,000 fans in attendance at Truist Park, a few of whom ex
pressed their displeasure by littering the field with debris, roundly disagreed. But a lengthy video review upheld the call, even as it appeared Bohm might have missed the plate and the Braves fielders, convinced it would be overturned, headed for the dugout.
“It was a narrow one,” manager Joe Girardi said of his team salvaging the last of a three-game set. “It was by the skin of his big toe, I think, when he scored.”
Bohm had doubled to lead off the inning against Atlanta closer Will Smith, then Jean Segura moved him up with a ground ball to second.
“That inning doesn’t happen if Seggy doesn’t get Bohm over,” Gregorius said. “I think that’s the most important part that people forget. Seggy did his job, and I tried to hit the ball deep enough so Bohm could score.”
Gregorius, shifted down in the lineup a spot specifically to mitigate Atlanta’s surfeit of lefty relievers and preserve left-right balance, followed with a glorified blooper. Third-base coach Dusty Wathan opted to test Ozuna, a 2017 Gold Glover with the Marlins but not the strongest arm. He fielded on the run and fired down the line just into foul territory. Bohm slid to the inside part of the plate.
On first look, he appeared to sneak his left foot into the plate ahead of Travis d’Arnaud’s tag, but replays appeared to show his foot hovering over the plate rather than touching it.
“The whole at-bat, he’s saying, ‘we’re tagging on a fly ball; I’ll let you know,’” Bohm said. “And the ball went up, I went to the bag and he’s saying, ‘yes, yes, yes.’ So as soon as he caught it, I was taking off.”
The safe call made by umpire Lance Barrett led to a crew chief’s review, for what Bohm said felt like an hour. But there was insufficient evidence to overturn, even if a few angles appeared to look like Bohm’s foot didn’t make contact with ground until it passed the far side of the plate.
On a day where the teams combined for six homers, the Phils found their power stroke with three longballs, it seems only fitting that the game would be decided by a decidedly less exciting fly ball.
“That shows you how a team working together can score a run with just one hit,” Gregorius said.