Minor league pitcher forgets that you need to get outs in baseball

When you’re playing the field in baseball, it’s all about getting the outs. Ryan Eades, starting pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts (Double-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins), forgot that while almost pulling off a really, really cool play during Sunday’s game against the Birmingham Barons (affiliates of the Chicago White Sox). Eades tried to stare down a runner, and while the stare down mostly worked, he completely failed to get the out.

Eades was pitching to Birmingham Barons left fielder Courtney Hawkins in the bottom of the first inning, and Hawkins hit an easy grounder to the right of the mound. Eades ran to grab it and cut Hawkins off midway up the first base line. But instead of tagging him right away and getting the out, Eades started a stare down with Hawkins. Eades walked forward back toward home plate, and Hawkins walked backwards.

Ten whole steps and no tag, but Hawkins was just biding his time. As the stare down approached home plate, Hawkins finally decided he’d had enough. He lunged to the side to try and fool Eades, but Eades tagged him with his glove, which still had the ball… for the moment. After the tag, the ball actually came out of the glove and Eades had absolutely no idea. Hawkins had been walking away because he thought he’d been tagged, but he noticed the loose ball and made a wild dash for first base.

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Because Eades had lost the ball after the tag, the play wasn’t over yet, and Hawkins was safe at first base. So while that stare down looked pretty cool, getting the out is always more important than the cool play in baseball. Even though the Lookout won 8-3, I bet Eades will remember that in the future — as if his teammates would let him forget.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at [email protected] or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher