The Los Angeles Dodgers don’t need any help. They’re one of the hottest teams in baseball right now, with a Major League Baseball-best run differential headed into Tuesday night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
And yet, it seems the baseball gods intend to give the National League champions some help this year. In the top of the 8th with the Cardinals leading 4-0, Enrique Hernandez hit a 3-2 pitch to left field. Cardinals outfielder Marcell Ozuna thought Hernandez got a hold of it, and he ran to the left field fence, leapt up and thought he had to make an outstanding catch to rob Hernandez of a home run.
But the ball was not headed toward the Dodgers bullpen. It was going to fall well short of Ozuna, who was now hanging on the outfield fence. He tried to adjust and get back into position to make the catch, to disastrous effect.
Ozuna literally fell off the wall, the ball bounced in front of and then over him, and flew into the Dodgers bullpen for what was ruled a ground rule double.
Please watch this as many times as it takes to soak it all in. Check on the Dodgers bullpen, which reacted with glee but also was clearly embarrassed for Ozuna, who completely misread the ball off of Hernandez’ bat here. The difference between where he clearly thought this ball was going and where it ended up is pretty stunning. Ozuna thought he was gonna be a hero here. He ended up either too hurt or too embarrassed to get up once he realized the ball ended up in the bullpen after a nice table tennis bounce.
It’s not all bad for the Cardinals and Ozuna here — they got out of the inning without any damage and ended up with the shutout win. But in a season of 162 regular season games, we’ve already had what might be the blooper of the year.
