MINNEAPOLIS -- Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch and catcher Eric Haase sat down on Wednesday afternoon to watch a play that Haase would probably prefer not to relive.
A lot of things went wrong -- for both teams -- on the final chaotic play of the Tigers’ ninth-inning loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night. The throwing error by Haase was just the ending of a crazy sequence.
24 seconds of chaos: Dissecting final play of Tigers’ win that got tossed away
“I just wanted to make sure we reviewed a play we could learn from,” Hinch said. “That’s a play you’re really never going to practice, so it’s an instinctual play. I wanted to make sure he knew where his decision points were and talk through what he was thinking.”
The ball slipped out of Haase’s grip, sailed over Jeimer Candelario’s head and landed in left field.
Hinch said he would have prefered that Haase throw to shortstop Javier Baez, who was standing on second. Then Baez could have pushed base runner Gio Urshela back to third, which was currently occupied by Trevor Larnach.
Throwing to third base did the opposite: If Candelario had caught the ball, he would have had to run Urshela back to safety at second base while turning his back on Larnach, the game-tying run at third.
“The one player who was asking for the ball, and knew where the ball was supposed to be, was Javy Baez,” Hinch said.
Hinch said both the throwing error and throwing decision were mistakes, but understandable ones in the heat of the moment.
“We just have to make sure that we learn from it,” Hinch said. “A lot went wrong on that play. It’s not all Eric Haase’s fault. He’s a good player. He made a mistake.”
Haase is in the starting lineup on Wednesday, something that was planned before Tuesday night’s dramatics.
“That was a tough loss on a lot of levels. But a game is never won or lost on one play,” Hinch said. “There’s always so much that happens over a three- or four-hour period that sets you up for that. We have faith and trust in Haasey, at the plate, behind the plate, making plays. He’s a human...Unfortunately these things get played out on center stage at this level. We’ll learn from it.”
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