TORONTO -- Get George Springer some oxygen.
The Blue Jays’ leadoff man turned what should have been a bloop single into a full trip around the bases in the bottom of the first during Monday night's 2-1 win over the Mets at Rogers Centre thanks to some help from Juan Soto’s defense in left field.
“I should have just taken him out then. He was gassed,” manager John Schneider joked. “It was pretty easy to see that he was going to get to third, but then the ball gets bobbled. That’s like an old Spring Training drill, on the last one you go all the way around. He was moving. The old man was moving.”
Running in on a ball that looked like it might be catchable, Soto pulled up and swiped wildly at it as it bounced past him towards the wall in left field. While Soto jogged back towards the wall, Mets center fielder A.J. Ewing raced back to scoop up the ball, but then he bobbled it, too, before Soto eventually corralled it and fired back to the infield.
“I had to get to third at that point. Then, I’m just following [third-base coach Carlos Febles] and his arms just start going crazy,” Springer said. “The fans started going crazy, too, but I didn’t know what happened. I was watching Lukes standing at home and he had his arms up for me to stay standing up. That’s when I ran out of breath and out of gas and just started smiling.”
The Mets gift-wrapped this one for Springer, but he was busting it up the first-base line and kept the pedal to the floor all the way around the bases. The play was officially ruled a triple with an error on Ewing for the bobble, so Springer won’t yet be awarded his 66th career leadoff home run, a stat in which he only trails the great Rickey Henderson (81).
Even sitting in the dugout after putting up a zero in the top half, the usually stoic Trey Yesavage got a kick out of it.
“It was funny after the fact when he was out of breath for the next three innings,” Yesavage said with a grin. “It was awesome to see him have some fun.”
Through a dreadful stretch of baseball over the past week, Springer has, at the very least, been giving it his all. He’s beat out a couple of hustle singles, so it’s only fitting that he’s the one rewarded by the Mets' blunders.
By the time Springer finally raced around third and coasted through home, he was all out of sorts, a mess of limbs tumbling towards teammate Nathan Lukes waiting at home plate. Springer likes to call the DH spot “OP” for “offensive player,” insisting that baserunning is part of the job and a DH does more than just hit. With Monday’s mad dash, he’s made a great case for it.