Avoiding opponents in baseball is an important strategy, and we often see pitchers deliberately throwing four bad balls to protect the opponent's strong stick on first base, and then the pitcher can focus on dealing with the next weak stick, in order not to let the opponent's strong stick hit a hit or even a home run to lose more points. In recent years, major leagues have revised the rules of deliberate escort, and pitchers do not even need to shoot, but only need to signal and explain to the referee to protect the attacker. In the case of full bases, deliberately guaranteeing is to give the opponent a point in vain, which can be described as an extremely rare tactic. Let's take a look at this rare "points" game tactic!
Since 1950, the full base deliberate hold tactic has only appeared three times. The last time there was a full-base drop was in 2008, when then-Tampa Bay Rays head coach Joe Maddon applied the tactic against the Rangers. At that time, the bottom half of the nine innings had two outs, the Rays led 7-3, and with 1 more out, the Rays could win the game. When it was the Rangers' turn to strike left-handed Josh Hamilton, Madden deliberately defended himself with a full base, giving his opponent a point.
Madden made this decision with the following considerations: first, facing the super strong hamilton, and he was in excellent shape that day, he had already knocked out 2 hits; second, the next batter was relatively weak, avoiding the strong stick Hamilton, the weak stick was relatively better to deal with; finally, there was an advantage in the score, guaranteeing Hamilton to lose 1 point, but the Rays were still in the lead, and the game had 1 more out of the game to win, compared to the head-to-head duel may be Hamilton hit a homer or home run, The risk of guaranteeing him is obviously lower. So many conditions put together, let Madden choose to believe in probability, let the pitcher deliberately guarantee when the base is full, and finally shine to win the game. Arguably, this is a relatively successful case.
But just last week, after 14 years, in the game between the Angels and Rangers, there was a full-base escort tactic, and more coincidentally, the protagonist of the story using this tactic was still Joe Madden, who was already the head coach of the Angels. The difference is that the situation on the field is completely different, and this tactical decision has also triggered a lot of discussion.
In the bottom half of the fourth inning, the Angel pitcher suddenly had an unstable possession and put four consecutive players on base, and the Angels fell behind 2-3. The next stick was Corey Seager, a rangers who had signed heavily in the offseason, at which point Madden chose to repeat the trick. Although the guarantee of Seeger will lose one point in vain, if pitcher Art Warren can successfully solve the two batters below, it may be that the Angels of Crisis will only lose one point this time, and the score is only 2-4 behind, which may be an acceptable situation. On the other hand, if Warren and Seeger, who are unstable in possession, are allowed to clash hard, once they are hit by a home run, the scene may become uncontrollable.
However, this time the situation is very different from 14 years ago. First of all, seeger's game and recent recent form in general, it seems that there is no need to be "jealous" to such a point; secondly, the gap between the strength of Seeger and the next two batters is not so obvious compared to the last time, the next stick is to take over Mitch Garver, who is the rangers off-season deal to take over, and the next stick is Adolis Garcia is a long-hit batter; and finally, the most critical point, The angels' situation at that time was that one person was out of the game and the score was behind, which was very different from the pressure faced by the previous two people who were out and leading the score. However, in this situation, Madden still chose to deliberately escort Seeger.
The ending of the story is also different from 14 years ago, this time, Madden "played smashed". After escorting Seeger, Garver managed to knock out a goofy sacrifice to add another point to the guerrillas, and under intense pressure, Warren even fouled the pitcher, eventually sending Rangers third baseman Marcus Semien back to home base, and the Angels suddenly went from a 2-3 point difference to a 2-6 four-point deficit.
Fortunately, the Angels still relied on the playing line to pull the game back, Shohei Otani made his first double shot of the season, the whole team made five home runs in a single game, and finally the Angels won 9-6 against the guerrillas, which avoided an embarrassing loss. Is the choice of this tactical choice that Coach Madden deliberately submitted to the base this time or triggered a hot discussion among the ball critics and fans, is this tactical choice wise? What do you think?