Yankees fans will never forget Johnny Damon stealing two bases on the same play in the 2009 World Series, but Gleyber Torres may have beaten him on Thursday, scoring from first...on a ground ball to second base?
Indeed, it sounds funny, but thanks to the shift and some poor defensive coverage by the Astros, Torres was able to score all the way from first on what was ruled an infield single for Aaron Hicks.
With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Hicks, batting left-handed, grounded a ball up the middle that Astros shortstop Carlos Correa could not cleanly field. The ball trickled away from Correa, and with three infielders on the right side due to the shift, third baseman Alex Bregman was covering second base attempting to get a force on Torres – so Torres alertly sprinted towards third.
The problem for the Astros? No one was there, so catcher Martin Maldonado sprinted down the line to cover that bag. The other problem for the Astros? With Maldonado heading to third, no one was covering home, as pitcher Ryan Pressly stood aghast on the mound. Torres saw that, and when Correa simply flipped the ball to Bregman, Torres kept running and easily beat Maldonado in a foot race to the plate, sliding in without a throw to cut the Yankees’ deficit at the time to 5-4.
Take a look at the whole wild play here:
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