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In two, probably three games of this World Series, Alex Cora, the coach of the Red Sox, will have to be particularly creative with his training.
Boston faces the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fall, and the playoffs 3 to 5 in the series will take place at Dodger Stadium. Because of this, he will have to find a way to put J.D. Martinez's bat in alignment in the National League Park.
But it will not be easy. Andrew Benintendi has a proven track record in the field and in the field. Jackie Bradley Jr.'s defense can not be removed (and this helps that he left for the scorched earth in attack) and Mookie Betts has to stay in training for obvious reasons. the reasons. As such, it was thought that Betts could possibly play second base in these matches.
The second goal is no stranger to Betts, he was raised as a second baseman and league player through the miners. He played the game for six innings this season against the New York Yankees when Ian Kinsler left the game due to injury, but he was qualified straight to his home almost every night.
But if you go back in 2014 (we know it seems like a long time ago), Betts actually recorded 14 games in second place in September. Keeping this in mind, we thought it was probably the right time to review (and by that we mean a baseball bunny hole) how he behaved in those games, even though he acted a little over four years ago.
Betts played his first Major League Baseball game on September 13 against the Kansas City Royals. It was the 149th match of the season and he played every remaining match. Between the extra innings and the games where he did not play on the pitch in the ninth inning, he scored 122 innings in the position.
Over the seconds, he had 66 opportunities to defend himself. With these opportunities, he made 25 shots, 38 assists and three errors.
The three errors, you ask?
The first was a 4-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 16th. Josh Harrison hit a single infield against Betts, but the 21-year-old made a misplaced throw to put Harrison in second place.
The second mistake, which took place on September 23 against the Tampa Bay Rays, took place while Betts tried to play a double game. Evan Longoria failed before Jemile Weeks, who flip-flopped for Betts. But while Betts was trying to get Longoria early, his shot went bad, which allowed Longoria to take second place.
Betts' last mistake of the year was a 3-2 loss to the Yankees on September 26th. Again, this one was attempted in duplicate. With the runners on first and second with a withdrawal, John Ryan Murphy fell to the ground against Xander Bogaerts, who pitched him on Betts in the second. After the withdrawal, Betts's bad shot resulted in an error that allowed Francisco Cervelli to score from the second goal.
Although Betts struggled to double up, he turned seven times in 14 games. All in all, he ended the year with a .055 throwout percentage.
So what does this mean for the upcoming series? Well, that would be a challenge for a number of reasons. First of all, even if Betts regularly takes the ground balls to the position, that does not mean that he is ready to be fully taken into account. However, if keeping all the necessary bats in the formation means that Betts plays in second position, this is not the worst situation.
The other potential problem is that he is hurt by the second. One thing he does not have to face in the right field is that the guys (see: Manny Machado) perform a particularly uncomfortable take-away slide to try to break a double game. You never want to see anyone else. A wounded being, but losing Betts because someone would jump on it for him would place Cora and Co. in a bad state.
However, at the base, Betts is a remarkable athlete and, all things considered, he could do more than stand firm. Of course, this could very well give rise to some snafus, but the story says that throwing was more his problem than throwing it on the ground. Is it possible that this experience, even if it is outside, will help alleviate these problems? Who knows.
Cora has a very big decision in front of him. But with all the pros and cons weighed, entering Betts in the second seems to be the most logical decision when the Red Sox will hit the west coast.
Photo thumbnail via Peter G. Aiken / USA TODAY HUI Sports Images
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