The past few days, we’ve heard plenty about how the Yankee Stadium crowd has directed all the creativity and vitriol towards the Astros in response to the Houston sign-stealing scandal.
But let’s not forget that actual baseball was played because, well, this series was so much fun. It even included one of the most ridiculous and heads-up runs scored you’ll see.
With the Yankees down two runs in the eighth inning with Gleyber Torres on at first, Aaron Hicks hit a hard liner up the middle that was knocked down by Carlos Correa who was playing to the right of second base as part of a shift. That was when chaos ensued.
Heads-up Gleyb. pic.twitter.com/Xf9O15t77K
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 6, 2021
Torres, seeing that third baseman Alex Bregman was around second base with third uncovered, continued running despite the ball staying in the infield. And when catcher Martin Maldonado tried to cover third, Torres saw that home was uncovered, so he channeled his inner Forrest Gump and just kept running (and outran Maldonado who tried to catch up to cover home).
The Astros could only watch as Torres dove into home.
It was equal parts hilarious and genius.
Fans may have mixed feelings about extreme shifts in today’s MLB, but you have to admit that Torres’ heads-up running was a spectacular way to beat the shift.
