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The Tigers put together a remarkable ninth-inning comeback in Tampa last night. They began the final frame trailing by five and finished ahead by three.
There were singles, sacrifice flies, timely walks, and eventually a nail-in-the-coffin bases-clearing double from Cameron Maybin.
But there was one hidden factor in that inning that allowed the Tigers to complete such a stunning turnaround. In baseball circles today, it is simply called “the shift.”
There was a time in baseball, from about 1865 up until just a few years ago, when defensive players were more or less stationed at the same spots. Of course, for a lefty maybe the outfielders shade him to pull, and for a light hitter everyone might come in a few steps.
But for all intents and purposes, your position on the diamond stayed the same from the first pitch until the last.
Nowadays the game has in part been taken over by mathematics. Research is done before a series to determine where each opposing batter is most likely to direct the ball.
Third baseman go play in short right field, shortstops flip to the other side of second, and any other alignment that is deemed “higher percentage” by the brainiacs.
Well, the Tampa Bay Rays followed that league-wide trend last night. They bucked a century of baseball history and it bit ‘em right on the behind.
Here was the situation: the Tigers trailed in the game 7-5. There were runners on 1st and 2nd and one out. The batter was Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Common baseball logic suggested the best way for the Rays to wiggle out of this hectic inning would be to induce a game-ending double play ball. Throw something hard with a little sink, force the slow-footed Saltalamacchia to put it on the ground, and in one pitch, you’ve gone from biting nails in the dugout to slapping fives on the field.
Of course, the sequence outlined above does require that the defense be in “double play” depth. This means the second baseman and shortstop are playing a bit closer to the bag. That way, if and when the desired grounder is produced, they are in prime position to field, flip, cover, and relay to put a bow on the evening.
So here comes the 0-1 offering and Saltalamacchia raps one right into the Tropicana Field turf. You watch baseball long enough and you generally know right at the point of contact where the ball is headed. With this one, when Salty struck it, one thought entered my mind: game over.
The ball was on that perfect path to where shortstops have been playing for decades. 25 years ago, even 10 years ago, it would have made complete sense to just flip the TV off right after contact was made. The twin-killing about to take place was a mere formality.
But in 2016, you best not touch the remote control. Because there just might be a chance that the shortstop is nowhere to be found.
And that is precisely what happened. The ball rolled through the infield, exactly to the shortstop position...and it just kept going into left-center field. The shortstop for the Rays, Brad Miller, was stationed well to the right of second base, a tactic that would have been mocked in every previous baseball generation, but one that has become the norm today.
Video of the play can be found here
Teams will continue to break down data and pore over spray charts, trying to come up with any advantage possible. But as we saw on Thursday night, sometimes it is best to just do things the same way they’ve been getting done for 100+ years.
For all the times the “shift” works, and a hard shot into short right is turned into a tough-luck out, remember little plays like this one.
Game recaps talk about the Maybin double, the Kinsler walk on a full-count, and the collective meltdown of the Tampa Bay bullpen.
But it was a nothing ground ball, one that neither tied the score or put the Tigers ahead, that completely changed the complexion of the game. And possibly the season.
