SAN DIEGO -- Gregory Polanco deserved a hell of a lot better than to be stiffed by his third base coach.
He'd just put out a double, triple, two walks and an RBI. He'd just put the competing-once-again Pirates in position to cap a riveting ninth-inning rally Saturday night against the Padres. He's been absolutely amazing of late, and here he was with a chance to be the hero, standing 90 feet away as the potential tying run.
What a finish it would have been.
Too bad Joey Cora would blow it, then bolt.
Because, with one out, when pinch-hitter Jose Osuna popped up into right-field foul territory, when San Diego's Hunter Renfroe had to go full-bore to the railing to make the catch, when Renfroe had to whirl back around 270 degrees to make his throw ...
... Cora was telling Polanco, per Polanco's recollection: "No, no, don't tag!" Which, at the risk of giving away some inside-baseball vernacular, means the runner shouldn't tag. So Polanco, obeying orders, didn't tag. He drifted a bit down the line and, when Renfroe had the ball, returned to the base.
Oh, for real.
And through this, Cora appeared as casual as can be. He made no visible gestures and, according to Polanco, never spoke another syllable beyond the initial instruction. It's like he spaced out or something, if you get a glimpse of his body language to the left of the frame:
Why?
Who knows?
But what was most glaringly obvious afterward, after Starling Marte struck out in the next at-bat to end the Pirates' two-run rally and a 4-3 loss, was that Cora wasn't about to hang around and answer for what had happened. He was in the manager's office at one point, as Clint Hurdle would confirm, for a brief meeting to discuss the sequence, but then he was gone. Showered, dressed and off to the team hotel before I or any member of the media had a chance to ask him questions.
So my question went instead to Hurdle:
The money line from Hurdle: "From our vantage point, obviously, it's an easy read. We can see it. From there, I don't know if Joey's got the same read, if it's fair or foul, how close it is. You'd like for him to be on the base and force a throw if you know it's in foul territory."
It was the easiest of easy reads, actually. Renfroe was sprinting like Usain Bolt. Regardless of where he catches that ball, he'd have a violent turn to make to throw. And if Cora was truly having a hard time reading that, then maybe he'd have done well to, you know, move around a little to catch the game.
That's the part that rubs here. Lapses will happen. But a lack of effort from a coach is unconscionable.
Anyway, then I had to question Polanco, even though he wasn't any more responsible than Hurdle:
The money line from Polanco came when I asked if he was monitoring Renfroe: "I had no idea. I'm just listening to what he says. He told me the same on the play before."
Meaning Cora. And the play before was a Jordy Mercer pop to shallow right on which Cora was correct to call off the tag. Had that ball dropped in front of Renfroe, Polanco would have needed a good lead to try to score.
But on this one?
Here's what Renfroe had to say from the other perspective: "I know that I do have a resume that I throw guys out and I have a strong arm. But in that case, I don’t know why they wouldn’t tag. I don’t know if they just messed up. For the most part, you’re tagging no matter what there."
Yep.
Hey, good for both Hurdle and Polanco for standing up and explaining, as best they could, Cora's mistake. And good for Hurdle, in particular, for addressing the matter directly with Cora right away.
But all of that makes Cora look all the worse. He knows better. He knows baseball culture and winning culture. He played 11 years in the majors, and he's been a coach for another 15, including a World Series championship with the White Sox in 2005. He knows not to bail when there could be any doubt as to whether a mistake was on him or his player.
Look, I don't mean to blow this up. The franchise has issues running all the way to the top, and third base coach probably doesn't crack the top 100 on the list. But Cora's been an under-the-radar bust for the Pirates, making countless messes, and a healthy collective finds a way to clean up something like this before it can fester.
Or upgrade at the position.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEO• The clubhouse was displeased. I'll leave that there.
• It's definitely worth stressing, though, that three players had a chance to bring Polanco home, and all three failed: Mercer and Osuna popped up, and Marte struck out on four pitches.
• Give it up for Austin Meadows, though.
Elias Diaz led off the ninth with a double off San Diego closer Brad Hand, but Hand appeared to regain the upper, uh, hand -- sorry -- by drawing two overmatched swings from Meadows over sliders. So, figuring Meadows would be hopeless to counter, his third pitch was another slider, and Meadows smartly went with it and sliced it down the left-field line for his own double.
That followed a 2-for-20 drought, too. Impressive. All young hitters have to deal with adjustments like this.
• More on Polanco and his ... I'm not sure if tear is a strong enough term: By reaching base with all four plate appearances in this game, he's now reached in 24 of his past 40.
Read that again. It's insane.
In that span, he's batted .500 -- 15 for 30 -- with three home runs, three doubles, a triple and 10 walks.
"I feel really good," Polanco told me. "Because I'm seeing the ball a lot better, and I'm not missing when I'm swinging. I was missing balls a month ago. I'm not missing now."
• This was despite San Diego lefty Joey Lucchesi having this "funky" delivery, as Polanco described it with a chuckle -- hands way over his head at the outset and a big lean back before release -- that held the Pirates to one hit over his five innings. Polanco walked in both of his plate appearances against Lucchesi.
"We watched a lot of film on it," Hurdle said. "It doesn't matter until you get out there and see it. It was different."
• Trevor Williams doesn't have the stuff to make the most minute of mistakes, like this 0-1 fastball to Wil Myers in the third inning:
Watch Diaz's mitt, and you'll see he wanted the pitch down and away, and it drifted up and back over.
I asked Williams about that:
If he comes across as put off up there, it's probably not an accident. Unlike fellow San Diego native Joe Musgrove the previous night, Williams hardly got to enjoy his homecoming: 4 2/3 innings, four runs, four hits -- Myers laced a two-run double off him, as well -- and a couple of costly walks.
Ever since that superb April, Williams has a 6.23 ERA over 11 starts.
• Two more perfect innings for Tyler Glasnow, half of that by way of strikeouts, highlighted by a skyhook curve that might as well have cracked Renfroe's knees as he watched it whiz by. Just saying.
• Use the #RobotUmpsNow hashtag for this called third strike on Mercer by home plate umpire Bill Miller in the seventh:
If that pitch had been any further out of the zone, it would have needed to pass through customs to cross into Tijuana.
Mercer, a mild-mannered sort, seldom argues, but he let Miller hear about this one. And Miller, surely aware that he'd really just messed up, stood and took it before Mercer returned to the dugout.
However flawed an automated system might be, especially at the outset, it could never butcher a call that badly.
• Games like this have to be won. They just do.
UPDATE 3:53 p.m. Sunday: Cora speaks with reporters about the sequence at third base.
