Two on, two out in the ninth inning Tuesday, and Adam Jones of Baltimore smashes a line drive at Oswaldo Arcia in left field. Arcia steps back, then comes in, then dives and misses the ball, which bounces in front of him and scoots past -- only to meet Arcia's flailing left foot, which deflects the ball directly to center fielder Danny Santana, who holds Jones to a single.
That ball gets by Arcia, it's a triple at least, perhaps an inside-the-park homer. If the kicked ball isn't directly to Santana, it's at least an extra base for Jones, and maybe more. But it was more than enough to bring home two runs, break the tie and ultimately give the Orioles the win and the Twins yet another loss.
It's not hard to find a bit of fault-finding in the post-game comment of beleaguered closer Kevin Jepsen before he catches himself pointing fingers and accepts the blame:
Jepsen: "Off the bat I thought (Arcia) he had a shot at it (but) it hung up. I got to get that third out. That’s just the bottom line."— Brian Murphy (@murphPPress) May 11, 2016
Not that it does Jepsen any good, but yeah, I too thought Arcia should have made that play. But he's Oswaldo Arcia, and he is not a good defensive outfielder. He's in the lineup for his bat, and on Tuesday his fielding hurt more than his hitting helped.
Tuesday's outcome takes the Twins record down to 8-24, a .250 winning percentage. That also happens to be the winning percentage of the 1962 Mets, a team of legendary ineptitude whose failings have become the stuff of comic lore. Arcia's kick would have fit in with the stories of Marv Throneberry and Hot Rod Kanehl. It's not so funny when you're living it, though.
I just watched it again to make sure my memory was right. Arcia was never going to catch that ball. He should've conceded the single and picked the ball up on a hop. The Twins didn't need to catch a fluky break. Their outfield is bad.
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