Chicago Cubs shortstop Javier Baez made a brutal mistake on the basepath on Monday night, and manager David Ross instantly pulled him from their 4-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians at Wrigley Field.
Baez lost track of how many outs there were, and gave Cleveland perhaps the easiest double play it’ll have all season.
Javier Baez benched after mistake
Baez grounded into a fielder’s choice in the fourth inning on Monday night, and reached first while Kris Bryant was called out at second for the first out of the inning.
Just a few pitches later, Anthony Rizzo hit a deep fly ball into left field — which Eddie Rosario caught easily for the second out of the inning.
Baez, though, took off and had already made it halfway to third base by the time Rosario caught the ball. He thought there were two outs.
So, the Indians quickly threw over to first to turn the double play while Baez threw his arms up in frustration and walked slowly back to the Cubs’ dugout.
Baez seemed off the entire time he was at first base, and forgot to take any sort of lead off the bag on his first pitch there.
When he got into the dugout, Ross spoke to him briefly before sending Sergio Alcántara into the game in Baez’s place.
Cleveland, which had a 1-0 lead when Baez’s mistake went down, picked up two more runs in the fifth off of a Josh Naylor home run and then one final run in the eighth after Cesar Hernandez scored on a wild pitch to take the 4-0 win.
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