Kevin Correia redirects liner with foot, Andres Blanco plucks it from air
If the Tampa Bay Lightning are looking for some insurance at goalie with starter Ben Bishop ailing, they could do a lot worse than Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Kevin Correia.
The 13-year major league veteran looked the part during Friday’s 1-0, 13-inning loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, using his skate, err, foot, to safely redirect a rocket off the bat of Gregory Polanco.
It happened in the fifth inning when Polanco laced a ball back up the middle that was for excessive speeds and no doubt headed for center field. Fortunately, Correia lifted his back foot at just the right time — otherwise the ball either makes it to center field or Correia takes a more direct hit — and deflected the ball off his heel, sending it high in the air and in the direction of second baseman Andres Blanco.
To his credit, Blanco never got up on the play. Then again, the ball was hit so hard there wasn’t much time to do anything other than react, which put him on the right path to making the catch.
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With a lunge into center field, Blanco pulled it in. Then he instinctively tossed the ball to first base, because again, the ball came so fast it was difficult to tell what it hit. There was momentary confusion on the field, but it was quickly and correctly ruled a clean catch to end the inning and set the stage for several frustrating innings on offense for both teams.
It wasn’t until the 13th inning that Pittsburgh finally broke through on Starling Marte’s RBI single. That hit, Pittsburgh’s 13th of the evening, was nothing like Polanco’s rocket as it barely rolled through the infield. But it worked in giving Pittsburgh their first walkoff win of the season.
It was just one of those nights at the ballpark that had a little bit of everything: a rain delay, a strange defensive play, Andrew McCutchen knocking the stuffing out of a baseball, a heated dugout exchange between manager and pitcher, not to mention 40 runners stranded on base, 14 total pitchers and quite a few 13s.
After 86 minutes of rain and four hours, 23 minutes of baseball, the only thing missing was an actual run. You know that what means: Runs will plentiful on Saturday, and this time the pitchers will be wallowing in misery.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
