PITTSBURGH — The double play the Cardinals didn’t turn in Wednesday’s game that potentially cost them Wednesday’s game was not only a topic of conversation in message boards around Caridnals eNation and in my inbox but also in the clubhouse.

Aaron Miles said he approached some pitchers about the play.

Anthony Reyes and both middle infielders also chatted briefly about it.

And, of course, the pens and lens crowd had to ask. Again.

In the eighth inning of a 4-4 tie, righthander Reyes came in to face the Pirates and hold the knotted score. The first batter he faced, Ryan Doumit, singled to center field. The next batter, 20-RBI man Xavier Nady, scorched a grounder back to the mound. Reyes turned to his left and fired toward second base. His throw was more to Adam Kennedy behind the base than it was to Aaron Miles, who was running to the base. Kennedy turned and fired to first, but the botched double play put the eventually winning run at second base.

Doumit scored and the Cardinals lost, 7-4. Read all about it.

It’s fascinating that the double play that wasn’t stirred such … um … colorful discussion. Fascinating and fantastic. Nothing better than picking apart one play for all of its nuances — but not to assign blame (because there is plenty of blame to go around in any loss, in any game), rather to understand how. That was the question I took into the clubhouse. Make sure I didn’t miss any that should have been asked in the post-game scrums and to better understand how a play could go awry and how that play could/should be viewed. 

That one play prompted a load of emails and comments that suggest some vocal viewers and readers saw something different. They saw Reyes throw to the base, where an infielder should have been. Some were compelling, citing replays from the night’s telecast or rules taught to readers in their baseball-play experience. Others saw a conspiracy that of blame that, um, scores points for creativity, if not reality.

The throw was fine, the fielder was off, went the best arguments. 

“No,” said manager Tony La Russa this afternoon, a day after calling the play a missed 1-6-3 double play. “He’s got to know who he’s throwing to in that situation.”

Reyes said as much. Other day-after descriptions confirmed it.

According to Kennedy, the Cardinals were playing Nady ”straight up”, if anything Kennedy was shaded toward the bag. But that doesn’t change the assignments on a double play. Kennedy said he rarely covers the base in such situations, no matter the defensive placement. That’s why he raced to backup the play. That’s his role. Miles said before the batter came up they talked about assignments and reiterated that in the event of a groundball back to the pitcher he was the turn.

La Russa said the idea isn’t to throw to the base and “hope an infielder gets there” but to hit the target infielder. In this case, that meant a throw to Miles — “so that he gets the ball before or as he gets to the base and is going in the right direction,” the manager said.

“I don’t know if he picked up the second baseman or who he picked up,” La Russa said. ”He knows ths shortstop is covering and just misfired.”

“I turned a little too quick,” Reyes said. “Kennedy was the first guy I saw.”

The throw was right-on to the wrong guy.

Miles said he noticed Reyes was fixed on Kennedy and that the throw was going to the second baseman. He said he veered from his path to the bag slightly, but then went back. “I was calling for the ball just in case we still had the chance,” he said. Kennedy said that throw was right to him and Miles didn’t have a shot at catching it. So, he fired to first for the 1-4-3 groundball.

“Kennedy made a great play just to get the one out,” La Russa said.

Still, the play prompted further conversation.

“I went and asked a couple pitchers about that situation and they said sometimes they get three, four pitches into an at-bat and things get going so fast that it’s not a thought,” Miles said. 

I asked Mike Shannon about how he called it on the radio, and he said he called it on the throw not the coverage. Video replays of the event shown to the team’s broadcasters showed any number of interesting angles and views, some showing where Miles arrive at the base after the throw and as Kennedy improvised.

The remedy, La Russa and others said, is to check. Baseball 101 stuff. The pitcher can turn and check on who he’s throwing to; the infielders can call out who the target it. Etc. Etc. Any number of things that often happen but didn’t in the eighth.

Still, there was a chance to win after that double play.

“Things got mixed up,” Kennedy said. “That’s going to happen. It’s going to happen again. We’ve still got to a chance in that game. We could have put some good at-bats together.”

Discuss.

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