Cincinnati Reds reliever Jumbo Diaz didn’t have to be in the game to bail his team out Tuesday night.
Diaz was warming up in the bullpen during the seventh inning of a game against the Cleveland Indians when he lost control of a pitch, which soared clear out of the ‘pen and into shallow center field. In a bizarre confluence of events, Diaz’s wild pitch came at the exact time that Indians catcher Yan Gomes ripped a two-out double to the wall in right, causing all hell to break loose down on the field.
Two men were on base at the time, and the play should have ended with Lonnie Chisenhall scoring and David Murphy standing on third. Murphy, however, identified the wrong ball, took a few steps off the bag and was thrown out in what went into the books as a 9-4-6-5 putout.
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Reds manager Bryan Price called the play “one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen,” and Murphy still seemed bewildered by the sequence when speaking with reporters after the game.
“I think the play could be reviewed,” Murphy said, via MLB.com. “Of course, it’s frustrating. My intentions were to stay at third. I don’t really know how to break it down with words. It’s frustrating because of the situation we’re in, because we have momentum, we’re trying to make a comeback. That happens, and an out like that in a rally like that kind of kills it.”
Ultimately, the play probably did not have much impact on the game’s outcome. The Reds, who were leading 6-2 at the time, went on to plate three more runs in what ended up being a 9-2 rout.
