Toronto – After a couple of base running blunders in the 4-3 loss Wednesday night, the last thing manager AJ Hinch was going to have the stomach for Thursday was another one. Especially from one of his premier players.
So when shortstop Javier Báez first failed to hustle out of the box on a ball that hit off the top of the left-field wall and then forgot how many outs there were and got doubled off second on a routine fly to center field – Hinch benched him.
The play happened in the top of the second inning. Báez played shortstop in the bottom half of the inning, but when the Tigers came back in to bat in the third inning, Hinch took Báez down inside the tunnel and told him he was dismissed for the night.
Báez came back into the dugout, untucked his jersey, grabbed his gear and went back down the steps and into the clubhouse.
Before the game, referencing base running mistakes by Matt Vierling and Eric Haase Wednesday, Hinch said, “It’s important that we learn from these mistakes…These guys aren’t perfect and they aren’t going to be perfect. But those are the types of plays we have to clean up to play a better brand of baseball and give ourselves a better chance in games.”
Nick Maton moved from third base to shortstop and Jonathan Schoop was inserted into the game at third base.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky