A wild and quirky fifth inning for the Washington Nationals was unbearable to watch. An intentional walk to load the bases backfired and turned into a grand slam that opened the floodgates in a 12-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
However, just prior to Paul DeJong clearing the bases, Nationals catcher Yan Gomes found himself in a bit of a pickle in a bizarre-looking rundown.
With runners on second and third, Yadier Molina lined a grounder Turner was able to grab. Turner then immediately threw to home and seemingly had Paul Goldschmidt in a rundown between third and home. However, Goldschmidt beat Turner to third base bag. Thus, Gomes was stuck.
Nolan Arenado had already turned the bag from second and was headed to third. However, Gomes was confused who to tag out. At first he tagged Goldschmidt who was already safely at third. Arenado was stuck in no man’s land before Gomes realized to tag him out.
Turner’s reaction says it all.
In all it was a dreadful night for Nationals. Starting pitcher Joe Ross gave up 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings. The blowout loss, which dropped the Nats to 5-9, brought out a second appearance in the last week for infielder-turned-pitcher Hernan Perez. Yet, Gomes’ brain freeze provided a laughable moment in an otherwise discouraging loss.
