The Los Angeles Dodgers pulled out a win in their series opener against the Kansas City Royals, but it was a tight game that came down to the final play.
The Dodgers’ defense proved to be both beneficial and a negative in their win, with Freddie Freeman making a game-saving play, and Teoscar Hernández having some issues in the outfield that cost them.
One of those mistakes came in the second inning when Kyle Isbel lined a ball to right field. Hernández drifted back on what appeared to be a routine play, but he instead allowed the ball to get over him for an RBI-double.
Hernández was critical of himself for not making the play that ended up leading to a big inning, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“Yeah, I should have had that one,” Hernandez said. “I thought I had it then, ‘Oh, (shoot).’ It kept going over my head. I should have made that play.”
The run would have scored on a sacrifice fly, so the impact of Hernández’s mistake wasn’t felt immediately. But after the double, May struck out Jonathan India, which would have been the third out of the inning.
Instead, it gave Bobby Witt Jr. a chance to bat, and he slugged a two-run homer. Thus, both runs came as a result of Hernández’s miscue.
The Dodgers still pulled out a 5-4 victory, but May turned in one of his worst outings of the year. He pitched just four innings while allowing four runs on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
Teoscar Hernández a defensive liability?
Unfortunately for the Dodgers, that wasn’t a one-time issue with Hernández. He also allowed two other balls to drop for a hit in the same game, which both should have been caught.
It’s been a common theme for Hernández, who ranks as the second-worst outfielder in baseball this season with -8 outs above average. He has caught just 85% of the 89% expected catch rate for him, and has cost the team seven runs on defense.
While Hernández also didn’t look this bad in left field last season, he wasn’t all that much better as his -9 outs above average was in just the second percentile of defenders, meaning 98% of the league provided better defense than him.
This season, he’s in the first percentile, so 99% of defenders have been more valuable than Hernández.
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