Usually plays at the plate involve collisions, great tags or elusive slides. Something dramatic, at least.
Detroit Tigers designated hitter Victor Martinez wanted none of that in Wednesday’s game against the Kansas City Royals.
Martinez stood at second base with two outs and raced home after a single by shortstop Jhonny Peralta.
The single was hit to cannon-armed Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur, who fired to home plate with Martinez bearing down on the catcher. It had all the makings of a dramatic play.
Aaaand then Martinez took a quick right turn and circled toward the Tigers dugout rather than making any effort for a potential score.
The casualness of Martinez’s attempt — or, non-attempt — is amazing. The ultimate baseball U-turn.
He realized he was out by a mile and offered no complaints about it. He didn’t even give the catcher the chance to tag him out and was called out for leaving the base path. Just headed on back to the bench, inning over. Better luck next time.
In his defense, Martinez is coming off of a serious knee injury that caused him to miss all of last season and was likely trying to avoid any major collisions that could re-injure his balky knee.
