Scary Longo-Crawford collision sours Giants’ win over Cubs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
The Giants were on the cusp of a textbook win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, but then the ninth inning happened.
While closer Tyler Rogers was able to escape a sticky situation to preserve the Giants’ 4-3 win over the Cubs, it came at a cost.
With one out in the ninth, Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo chopped a slow roller towards shortstop. With the Giants shifting slightly, Evan Longoria and Brandon Crawford converged on the ball.
It’s unusual to see miscommunication between two veteran players, but Longoria and Crawford collided in a scary moment. A run scored on the play, but the attention turned to Longoria, who stayed on the infield dirt for a few moments. Crawford bounced back up and stayed in the game.
Longoria was attended to by manager Gabe Kapler and the team trainers, and was removed from the game.
After the win, Kapler said Longoria was in pain and was still being examined by the team’s medical staff in the training room, and that he thought the third baseman hurt his left shoulder or collarbone.
“So proud of the way our team sacrifices their body,” Kapler said after the game. “These guys have been going hard. I really feel for Longo and Craw, but in this particular case, Longo, he’s continually working to get his body healthy, to keep his body healthy. He’s having such high quality at-bats and playing great defense. You feel like he should get rewarded for all of that with health.
“Just really sucks to have what was an excellent game kind of soured slightly by that play. Really disappointed for him and have a ton of respect for both him and Craw for the way they went after that ball.”
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On flyballs between two outfielders, one usually calls off the other, but on the infield, that’s not typically done because things are moving so fast.
“Groundballs don’t get called like that,” Kapler said. “It’s two guys who are great at … elite at defending their positions going 100 percent to convert a groundball into an out and sometimes that happens. You don’t see it very often on the infield but it happens and it’s nobody’s fault.”
The Giants won their third straight over the Cubs and improved to an MLB-best 37-21, but their main concern now is the health of Longoria, who is having a resurgent season with nine homers, 30 RBI and a .892 OPS.