The collision at Wrigley
In the middle of another embarrassing loss to the Cubs, Tommy Pham and Ha-Seong Kim collided in the outfield and then everyone lost their minds.
Fine, let’s talk about it. Briefly.
Letting down Lamet
Dinelson Lamet hasn’t thrown more than 3 innings since last season, but he was let off the leash yesterday at Wrigley Field and the 4th inning was going to prove that he was ready to be stretched out into actual starter’s innings. I cannot stress enough just how important this is.
In the 4th inning, his teammates (and some bad luck) let him down. One Cub got on when he made contact on a check swing and the ball found a hole. Another made it on base, and scored a run, just by hitting an easy groundball at Eric Hosmer, who might actually be trying to field his position with a glove made of incredibly heavy solid gold. A third Cub popped up a ball that nearly led to a collision and dropped in for a single.
I was already thinking how this inning was going to look bad for Lamet, who needed it to look good, despite the fact that he was pitching well. Then, with the bases loaded, someone named P.J. Higgins hit another bloop into LF that looked like it was going to fall in between the infielder (Ha-Seong Kim) and outfielder (Tommy Pham). It didn’t.
The collision
I’m going to get to Kim’s throw in a minute, but I wanted anyone who hadn’t seen the collision to see it. It wasn’t Mike Cameron and Carlos Beltran diving face-first into each other, but it was still bad enough that Kim had to basically be carried off the field and both guys had to leave the game.
I didn’t see it myself, but I saw enough reports that Pham was calling for the ball before the collision to believe it.
When it comes to these balls that are in the shallow outfield, they’re supposed to belong to the outfielder (who is running forward) first. If he can’t get to it, he waits until he hears an infielder call for it and then gets out of the way. In this case, Pham could get to it and called it. Kim should’ve heard him and moved out of the way.
The aftermath
After both guys laid on the ground for a while and got checked on by the trainer, Pham was the first one up. He angrily walked back to the dugout, leaving a trail of f-bombs behind him while tearing off his wrist tape.
When he got to the dugout, it looked like he yelled at Bobby Dickerson, “Do your job!”
If you don’t know, Bobby Dickerson is the team’s bench coach and third base coach. He’s also supposed to be a bit of a fielding/defensive guru, and he’s the main fielding instructor for the Padres. The reason Pham is yelling at him to do his job is…
Pham just got run into by a guy that shouldn’t have been going for the ball
Pham called for it and still got run into
Pham has been getting run into a lot lately, including a couple of times by Jorge Mateo during the series in Milwaukee.
For someone that is just now starting to get over being stabbed, and someone that fought injuries all of last season, you could see why he wouldn’t want to be repeatedly put in a situation where he could get injured because the fielders around him don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing.
I might disagree with how and when Pham went about lodging his complaint, but I believe his complaint to be valid. When Dickerson fired back instead of backing down, Pham’s normal intensity mixed with the angry adrenaline that comes with being hit in the head and he was ready to fight.
Unless I’m mistaken, Blake Snell (a friend of Pham who played with him in Tampa Bay) then took it upon himself to remove Pham from the situation, pushing him out of the dugout and down the tunnel before he did something he was going to regret. That’s a friend looking out for a friend.
The dumb quotes
Once again, Jayce Tingler said some of the right things and some of the wrong things in the press conference. And, as per usual, he was saying as little as he possibly could and giving the media (and fans) as little information as he possibly could.
That’s the first important piece of information. Again, if I’m Tommy Pham, I am rightfully pissed off that my jaw might be screwed up due to a play that should’ve been ironed out in spring training (if not little league).
Forgive my language, but I hate this shit. I can’t stand that they’re leaning on "a language barrier” just because Kim is Korean and Pham is not.
I am positive that, after a lifetime of playing baseball, Ha-Seong Kim knows what “I GOT IT!” means. If he didn’t learn it before this year, he undoubtedly heard it enough times in Peoria during fielding drills to know what it means.
Saying Kim couldn’t hear because the crowd was loud is fine. Pointing out that Pham is passionate and sometimes that passion boils over is also fine. But, please, let’s not act like Kim is some half-wit because English isn’t his first language.
Oh, about Kim
I feel like I say this every time Kim gets a start but Holy crap, what a play!
A nearly-concussed Kim, a second after unexpected bonking heads with someone else, thought to jump up, grab the ball, and throw it into the infield before collapsing into a heap that would then need to be carried back to the dugout.
None of the runners had moved, both because they were waiting to see if the ball would be caught and then out of confusion after the collision. As such, Kim’s throw found Machado, who stepped on third base for one force out and threw to second base for another. Double play, inning over, no runs score on the play.
Actually, if you are looking for this play in a stat recap, it will look like this:
Hahahahahahahahahaha. Baseball is dumb.
Excellent, level-headed analysis of the mayhem at Wrigley. My knee-jerk reaction was to get angry at Pham for being angry at Kim, but I think you’re correct here. Tough to see tension within the ranks...