SAN DIEGO -- A day after costing the Pirates a chance to win a game, third base coach Joey Cora faced reporters and explained his dumbfounding decision to order Gregory Polanco to not tag up on a foul pop to deep right field, a sequence that should have resulted in the tying run but instead led to the 4-3 loss to the Padres.
"I thought he was going to get thrown out," Cora said Sunday morning, referring to Polanco. "That’s it. It’s that simple. Nothing more, nothing less, no foul ball, no nothing. It’s just that I thought he was going to get thrown out.”
He did acknowledge that he should have ensured Polanco's foot was on the base rather than having issued the no-tag order that had Polanco several steps down the line.
"But definitely, I told him not to go," Cora said. "Whether he was on the base or not, he wasn’t going to go. If he went, it was against my will."
Also Sunday morning, Clint Hurdle reiterated his stance that Cora and Polanco both had a "different angle than we had" on the foul pop, comparing the vantage points of third base and the dugout. Hurdle added, "Joey would be the first one to tell you, he told him to not go. That was his immediate call. And then, as we walked back through it, he understands that, if he gets the opportunity to make that call again, there'll be a tag and a go."
