With the game on the line in the bottom of the ninth Monday night,Freddie Freeman hada simple request for Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel during a mid-inning pitching change.
“You need to send Shohei at all costs,” Freeman said, only half-jokingly, withOhtani looming at second baseas the potential winning run.
Otherwise, the Gold Glove first baseman would have been in line for the most unexpected of tasks.
For the first time in nine years, he would have had to play third base.
In theDodgers’ 5–4 walk-off winover the Miami Marlins, manager Dave Roberts had exhausted his bench in search of a late-game comeback. He pinch-hit Alex Call and Miguel Rojas in the seventh inning. He insertedSantiago Espinal as a defensive replacementat second base in the eighth. And as he looked over his lineup card while facing a two-run deficit ahead of the ninth, he knew he wanted hot-swinging backup catcher Dalton Rushing to get an opportunity at the plate.
The only problem with that game plan: The Dodgers wouldn’t have anyone left to play second base if the game were extended into extra innings.
So, just in case, Roberts came up with a solution.
Rushing would pinch-hit in the ninth for Espinal, who was still at second by that point. And if the game continued on from there, things would get … weird.
Max Muncy would move over to second, a place where he has plenty of past experience. Rushing would take over at first, a spot he played regularly while coming up through the minors.
As for third? Freeman would have been the best remaining option –– kicking over to a position he last manned for a two-week stretch with the Atlanta Braves back in 2017.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
