Upon first glance, Cubs utility man Javier Baez looked out at second base on his attempted steal in the seventh inning Tuesday night. In fact, as he called to the dugout to challenge the call, my initial reaction was, "Man, every single runner always thinks he's safe."
But watch the replays:
Baez was, correctly, eventually awarded second base and credited with a steal. The move of the left hand out of the way was a nice touch, but it's been done before. What made this one special was that Baez slipped in his left toe to hit the bag just as his hand was sliding off -- it's nearly simultaneous.
The call was huge, too, as Baez would eventually score the Cubs' fourth run. It made the score 4-1 at the time, but the Brewers would rally for two in the eighth in the Cubs' eventual 4-3 victory.
While replay is far from perfect, it does afford the runners the opportunity to be a bit more creative when they would have had pretty much zero chance to be safe in years past. Baez showed as much on Tuesday.
