Not a Game for Idiots!

For those of you that watched the World Series game last night you saw one of the things that I love most in sports.  Smarts! Elvis Andrus made three, straight-up, smart plays in the 9^th inning last night.  Maybe they weren’t the most “brilliant” of plays, but he made the right play when he needed to and didn’t try to do too much. 

The first of these was not bunting when Kinsler was stealing second.  That may not seem like a lot and I know that these guys are pros, but let’s look a little more at the situation.  We know that Wash didn’t put on a “hit and run” or anything there and that Kinsler decided to take off on his own.  (A play that I’m not too sure I agree with; but since it worked, I’ll back off Kins for now).  But, we do know that Wash did have Elvis up there bunting (he already tried twice before) in order to move the runner up to second.  In those sacrifice situations the usual case is that the hitter is concentrating so much on getting a quality bunt down that it is acceptable if not expected to ignore everything else.  However, Elvis was able to react in milliseconds and make the correct decision.  If he bunts, or even fouls off the pitch, Kinsler doesn’t steal second and we have an entirely different game. 

The second and third remarkably smart plays were advancing to second and then to third respectively. In advancing on the mishandle (that has now been ruled an error) by Pujols, if Elvis isn’t immediately ready to move as soon as that play is made, he is out at second.  And again, we have an entirely different ball game.  Now, advancing to third is a much easier play, but we just have a situation where the right play was made in a split second of decision making. 

Let’s remember that Elvis is only 23 years old!!! He’s still a kid making the right decision when he is called upon to do so.  Also, don’t forget the amazing defensive plays that he made in the 4^th and 5^th innings.  Go RANGERS!