Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Looks like a trip to Cabela's

Moments after I finished talking with Doug Mientkiewicz after Tuesday's 3-2 win about his barehanded play to get Hanley Ramirez with the third out, I was walking out of the clubhouse when I stopped and saw Adam LaRoche, who picked the ball cleanly to record the out.

In case you missed it, Florida was down 3-2 with two outs and runners on first and third. Ramirez hit a slow roller to Mientkiewicz, making his second career start at third base. On the last homestand, Mientkiewicz made his first career start at third and said he "didn't want to embarrass the family."

He didn't then, nor on Tuesday either.

Mientkiewicz charged the grounder, fielded it barehanded and threw to LaRoche, who picked the ball cleanly. On a bang-bang play, Ramirez was called out. Had he been called safe, the game would have been tied.

During his lone postgame interview with yours truly, Mientkiewicz gave all of the credit to LaRoche. Before I had a chance to talk with LaRoche myself, Mientkiewicz looked over and said to the Pirates' first baseman "I owe you some camo (camouflage) for that one."

1 comment:

Harry Funk said...

Did Mientkiewicz get the ball back, so he could keep it next to the last-out-'04-Series ball?