DUNEDIN, Fla. -- One last time, before the crunching of cleats on concrete welcomes a new season Wednesday morning in Dunedin, Fla., we need to talk about the play at the plate.
Tuesday morning, 130 miles south in Fort Myers, Isiah Kiner-Falefa had to talk about it. Fresh off the World Series run with the Blue Jays, Kiner-Falefa is with the Red Sox now, another AL East behemoth for the utilityman after he began his career with the Yankees. Naturally, the questions came about that infamous play at the plate in World Series Game 7.
Kiner-Falefa explained the basics to Red Sox reporters, including MLB.com’s Ian Browne, that he was trying to break up a double play, believing that second baseman Miguel Rojas would throw home, then the Dodgers would try to double up Daulton Varsho at first. With the red-hot Ernie Clement due up, Kiner-Falefa wanted to avoid the double-play at all costs.
“I think the biggest regret for me … well, I wouldn’t say regret,” Kiner-Falefa began. “That was the [intention] I had and if [Rojas] doesn’t slip, it might have been a double play, so I had the right intention the whole time. The biggest regret is that there were no cameras in my face after the game. I think that was the toughest thing for me. If it was going to be such a big deal, it would have been nice to have the camera in my face and have a chance to speak, but it blew up without me getting a proper interview, so I thought that was unfair.”
Now explaining his side after an offseason in which everyone else has explained theirs -- and often assumed Kiner-Falefa’s -- he made it clear that the lead he’d taken off third base was “an organizational policy” they’d stuck to in all similar situations.
Kiner-Falefa was also careful not to redirect any blame, only to frame the play itself. He told reporters in Fort Myers that the Blue Jays won as a team and lost as a team, and he’s right. That play was one moment out of a million moments in that series, but it’s one that’s stuck, largely because of the overhead camera shot that illustrated how painfully close it was to being a walk-off win for the Blue Jays.
“I’m still not over it,” Kiner-Falefa said. “I just want a chance to get back there. Being here is the best opportunity for me to get back there. I won’t ever get over that, it’s more about how can I get back. I see this being a great opportunity to get back.”
Kiner-Falefa also opened up about the Blue Jays’ ALDS matchup with the Yankees, and that’s where this gets even more intriguing on the eve of Blue Jays Spring Training.
The veteran pointed to a specific game on Sept. 24 against the Red Sox, when Garrett Crochet dominated the Blue Jays with six strikeouts over eight shutout innings. It’s one of the big reasons, Kiner-Falefa says, that the Blue Jays were hoping to see the Yankees come out of the AL Wild Card Series, not the Red Sox.
“One-hundred percent. We thought it was a better matchup for us the other way,” Kiner-Falefa said, referring to the Yankees, “so we were watching that game and we were watching Crochet dice up. I think we had just lost two out of three to put us behind the Yankees or tied with them for the AL East lead. We definitely thought it was a tougher matchup for us, so once we saw the [Yankees], we were a lot happier. It was definitely a hot topic.”
The mighty Yankees aren’t used to being on the other end of a comment like that, but it speaks to just how strong the AL East is. That’s no secret to anyone who’s watched baseball in the past decade or two, but with the Rays and Orioles expected to be factors this season as well, the East is a brutal division to navigate.
Multiple times Tuesday, Kiner-Falefa repeated that he was looking forward to turning the page. In the Blue Jays’ clubhouse, Kiner-Falefa was immediately respected by teammates, both new and old from his previous stint in Toronto. Kiner-Falefa’s point is fair, too, that he should have been given the opportunity to speak more broadly on the topic before now, long after everyone else has had theirs.
These are the days for turning pages, though. It’s a new season with new stories, and in the AL East, the rivalries have new layers. Soon enough, we’ll have another play to talk about all winter.