Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is one of baseball’s true young stars.
He is so good that he is already the Royals’ best player and has already been extended at 23 years old.
But even the best players will make a mistake every now and then.
Witt’s error ended up gifting the Cleveland Guardians a key victory on Tuesday night at Progressive Field.
Talkin’ Baseball posted a video of the play.
The Guardians clear the bases on a throwing error pic.twitter.com/7wBxbav9BB
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 5, 2024
Those three runs that crossed the plate on Witt’s throwing error represented the entire difference between the two teams on Tuesday, as the Guards won, 8-5.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, the red-hot David Fry was at the plate.
He hit a slow grounder to the middle of the diamond that Witt fielded without issues.
He appeared to think there was only one out in the inning because he tried to touch second base before the runner got there, which he failed to accomplish.
Then, he made an off-balance throw to first base, and while perhaps the first baseman could have done a better job catching the bounce, it was Witt’s mistake because the throw wasn’t perfect.
If he had set his feet properly and made a strong, accurate throw to first, he could have gotten the third out of the inning and the game would be tied.
Instead, it was an errant throw and three runs scored.
Cleveland’s flawless bullpen finished the job, and the Guardians accomplished a huge victory against the second-ranked team in the division to augment their lead to five games.
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