MIAMI -- It was a risky gamble from Mauricio Dubón, but one that may have saved the Braves a run on Tuesday afternoon at loanDepot park.
With Atlanta trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the third inning, Christopher Morel drove an 0-2 offering from Martín Pérez deep to left field for a one-out double. As the ball carried towards the wall, Dubón briefly turned his back to the play before the ball struck the wall.
That hesitation was intentional.
Otto Lopez, who was on first base, slowed between second and third while tracking Dubón's reaction. By the time Lopez realized the ball stayed in play, Dubón had recovered it and thrown it back to the infield, which held Lopez at third.
“Those are things that I have practiced many times. I knew the ball was going over my head,” Dubón said in Spanish. “I tried to give Martín a chance to keep [Lopez] from scoring. The most important thing is to think about that stuff quickly.
“I was like ‘I didn't catch a ball, so let me see what I can do here so that the runner stops,’” Dubón said. “I spent a lot of time thinking about stuff like that, and that’s what I came up with.”
The Marlins still added a run later in the inning on a sacrifice fly from Esteury Ruiz, but Dubón’s awareness may have prevented further damage.
Dubón, batting second behind Ronald Acuña Jr., who returned to action after being activated from the IL on Monday, has primarily been known for his versatility around the diamond. Count his savvy left-field deke as the latest example of that.
Asked about his deke after the Braves' 8-4 win over the Marlins, Dubón just laughed and said, “It’s just part of the job.”
Dubón hit a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth, as Atlanta rallied to score four runs in the final two innings. He went 3-for-5 with a double and two singles.
“He's a savvy player, it's a great deep [ball] right there,” manager Walt Weiss said. “He acted like he was going to catch it. He's got a really high baseball IQ. We talked about him being a winning player, and that's part of that. He's been a great find for us.”