Pitchers’ Failure To Field Their Position Is Costing Them Games

One would think that after Gerrit Cole’s mental error – failing to cover first base on a Mookie Betts grounder – in Game 5 of last year’s World Series, that teams would have spent a few extra days in spring training working on pitching fielding practice, commonly known as PFPs. Yes, one would think.

It is entirely possible that it did happen on the back fields of Florida and Arizona back in February and March, and all of those drills and assignments, all of that footwork and throwing, was forgotten over the long haul of the summer and as teams moved into the cool of fall.

That seems to the case, as there have been a few pitcher mishaps this postseason that have proven costly to players and their teams, most notably Thursday night in Los Angeles.

Let’s start with the good. In Game 4 of the National League Division Series, with runners on first and third and two outs in a scoreless bottom of the sixth inning, the Dodgers speedy Tommy Edman hit a little nubber to the third base side of the mound. Philadelphia’s Christopher Sánchez pounced on it, set his feet, and threw a strike to first base to end the threat and the inning.

Two batters later, in the top of the seventh, was the first impactful play by a pitcher who seemed a little rusty with his PFPs. Arguably the toughest play in baseball is the 3-6-1 double play, as it requires the first baseman to make a strong throw to the shortstop, who is moving towards second base, and then that first baseman has to get out of the way so the shortstop can hit a moving target – the pitcher – sprinting from the mound to cover first. This is a play that is practiced over and again when the air is still cool, when the equinox says we are still in winter. But when a trip to the NLCS is on the line eight months later, it would be helpful to remember how it’s done.

So, with J.T. Realmuto on first after a leadoff single, Max Kepler hit a ground ball to Freddie Freeman at first. Freeman turned and fired a strike to Mookie Betts coming across second base. Betts in turn threw back to pitcher Emmet Sheehan (recently in the game to replace Tyler Glasnow) covering first. Sheehan’s footwork was all messed up, and he didn’t have his foot near the bag. To add insult to that injury, while trying to figure out what to do with his feet, he simply missed the throw. The ball went into the dugout, which meant that Kepler was awarded second base on the error.

The next batter, Nick Castellanos, doubled Kepler home for the first run of the game. The Dodgers were able to get that run back in the bottom half when Jhoan Duran walked Betts, forcing in Justin Dean from third. According to Matt Gelb of The Athletic, that was the first bases loaded walk Duran has ever issued.

The game remained tied at one until the bottom of the eleventh inning. Edman singled with one out, and pinch runner Hyeseong Kim went to third on Max Muncy’s two-out single. Orion Kerkering replaced Jesús Lazardo on the mound, and promptly walked Kiké Hernández to load the bases. What happened next will be replayed in the minds of Phillies fans for the rest of time (those same fans will be sure to avoid the video). Andy Pages broke his bat on a 96mph sinker, squibbing the ball back to the mound.

Kerkering mishandled the grounder. Mistake number one.

Then Kerkering failed to heed Realmuto’s direction and specific point to throw the ball to first base (according to MLB.com, when Kerkering picked up the ball, Kim was 30 feet from home while Pages was 55 feet from first). Mistake number two.

After failing to throw to first, Kerkering fired towards home plate, but not anywhere close to where Realmuto could have caught the ball. Mistake number three.

Kim, sprinting in from third, scored the game-ending, series-ending, and for the Phillies, season-ending, run. Kerkering owned the mistake after the game, telling reporters: “I won’t say the pressure got to me, I just thought it was a faster throw to [Realmuto] than trying to crossbody it to [first baseman Bryce Harper]. Just a horseshit throw.” There is no doubt he will be working on that throw – regardless of what uniform he is wearing – come next spring. He already said he will be throwing a tennis ball against a wall all winter to be better at fielding comebackers.

There is one last play that needs to be mentioned, even if it didn’t have any impact on the final score. In Saturday night’s winner-take-all Game 5 in Milwaukee, the Brewers led 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning and had two runners on with two outs. Blake Perkins hit a pop up to the first base side of the mound. Second baseman Nico Hoerner ran in but then backed off to allow first baseman Michael Busch to take control. But pitcher Andrew Kittredge never ceded any ground. In fact, he actually made a play for the ball before ducking away at the final moment. Kittredge had no business being anywhere close to that ball. He should have been standing on first base, or backing up home plate – where the runners would have ended up had the ball dropped – or back in the dugout. Anywhere but right next to Busch as the first baseman tried to catch a ball hit towards the roof of a dome while nearly 43,000 fans screamed for him to miss it.

Kittredge has been playing professional baseball since 2010; he pitched in college for two years at the University of Washington; he played four years at Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington before that; and ostensibly played Little League, Pony League, All-Star, travel ball, and in showcases from the time he was old enough to show promise on the mound. He knows (or most certainly should know) where not to be in that moment. This is just one additional item for the coaching staff to work on when conducting PFPs next spring.

The championship series are about to start in Toronto and Milwaukee, with the World Series waiting beyond that. As we saw last year, there is no stage too large for these types of mistakes to happen. But if pitchers didn’t learn from Gerrit Cole last year, maybe they will learn from Sheehan, Kerkering, and Kittredge so that PFPs don’t end up costing teams Ws this close to a world series ring.