Xander Bogaerts slides into second and celebrates a double after hitting a home run, a breakdown
What Happened
During a July 2019 game at Fenway Park between the Red Sox and the visiting Dodgers, a rematch of the previous fall's World Series, Xander Bogaerts hit a high pop-up to left that carried all the way to the Green Monster. Bogaerts, thinking he'd just stroked a double off the wall, ran hard and slid into second base while Brock Holt scored. The ball had actually cleared the top of the wall for a home run, leaving the second base umpire shouting at Bogaerts to keep running. Bogaerts eventually realized his mistake and jogged through the handshake line with his teammates.
Why This Matters
Misjudging a ball off the Green Monster is its own Fenway tradition, since the 37-foot wall sits just 310 feet down the line and turns routine fly balls into guessing games. Bogaerts read the carom wrong and assumed the ball stayed in play, so he played it like a double instead of trotting the bases. There's no penalty here, the umpire signaled home run and Bogaerts was awarded all four bags, but the optics are funny: a slide into second on a ball that's already gone. Bogaerts was in the middle of his best season, a 33-homer, .939-OPS campaign that earned him a Silver Slugger and a long-term extension that spring. Plenty of power to go around, just not always the awareness to match it.
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Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Xander Bogaerts. Teams: Red Sox.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentfun play in Fenway yesterday
Dodgers versus the Red Sox old foes from
last year Bogart steps into the plate
gets ready get set sees the first pitch
and you'll never guess not just a strike
one that's not where the action is it's
not on the second pitch either that was
a ball low it's on this third pitch
floats the pop-up to left it hits the
green monstah Holt scores and he slides
into second and celebrates his double
and the UMP says home run home run and
home run home run you idiot you hit a
home run might be the first time an
umpire has ever yelled angrily at a
player that he hit a home run you hit a
home run dude you hit a home run you got
some real confused young fans here real
confused young fans what is going on
anyway boy is happy he's like I thought
of the double hit a home run he's gonna
go through the gauntlet of handshakes
with his buddies here's the replay it
went like on top of the wall kind of
interesting on top of the mom stop
and his teammates are gonna make fun of
them all but because it's all fun
laughs anatomies like man slid in a
second on a home run
what a fool kora game mode though got a
lot of ground to cover this one was
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a Bogaerts one and then sell yourself
short and slide into second on a home
run