ORLANDO, FL. Having watched the play countless times, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider doesn't want Isaiah Keener-Fear to be criticized for being thrown out at home plate in Game 7 of the World Series – inches away from winning the championship.
“I feel so bad for Izzy for taking all the blame,” Schneider said Tuesday at baseball's winter meetings. “Could we better take Izzy down a couple more steps? Yes, of course.”
After Miguel Rojas homered for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the top of the ninth inning, Bo Bichette singled in the bottom half off Blake Snell and Kiner-Falefa entered the game as a runner. Addison Barger walked and Alejandro Kirk was hit by a Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch to load the bases.
According to MLB Statcast, Kiner-Falefa took an unusually short lead of 7.8 feet at the direction of third base coach Carlos Febles, the fourth-shortest lead among runners to third during the World Series. Kiner-Falefa's 8.9-foot secondary lead when the pitcher released the ball was the eighth-largest and third of the series.
While the Dodgers were playing in the infield, Dalton Varsho hit a two-bunker drive at 76.9 mph to Rojas. The second baseman caught the ball in his glove, stumbled slightly and regained his balance, then threw the ball to catcher Will Smith, who lifted his right foot off the plate, catching the ball, and then pushed the spike back down.
Plate umpire Jordan Baker signaled, ruling that Smith had touched the plate just in front of the sliding Kiner-Falefa's left foot.
“I've seen this video 3,000 times, and 1,500 of them it looked like Will was out of it. The other half, it looked like he was in,” Schneider said.
Baker's call was upheld about 70 seconds into the video review.
“There was a video of Carlos kind of telling him where to go,” Schneider said 5 1/2 weeks after the Dodgers won 5-4 in 11 innings to close out their second straight title. “What doesn't get talked about, I think enough, is that Will Smith likes to pick third with left-handed hitters. That's something we talked about before the series, which Carlos reminded Izzy about.
“So it’s not a runner on third making contact and selling out. If it’s direct drive, it’s fine,” Schneider said. “The bases are loaded. A – you don't want to be re-selected. B – You don't want to get doubled on a line drive. People were saying, yeah, what are the chances of Warsh coming in third? Low enough, right? That’s where he doesn’t hit the ball.”
Schneider didn't blame the IKF slide.
“I don’t think he could have done much more,” the manager explained. “People said, 'Could he run across the plate?' Could he have slipped in headfirst?… In my head, the way Warsh hit the ball, I thought one of three things would happen. I thought Roxas would be fielded and Roxas would fall backwards. Game over. Put out on the field, fell, threw the worm burner into the embankment. Game over. Or pitch, throw, throw past Will Smith. Game over.”
Ernie Clement followed with a 100.7 mph that center fielder Andy Pages hooked with a jumping catch to left on the warning track as he hit left fielder Kiké Hernandez.
“Every time I go down a rabbit hole, I end up in a new rabbit hole,” Schneider said. “I haven't watched everything. In a regular season game, the game is over, the next day or evening, boom, you check the tape, you run back – I haven't done that yet and I don't know when I will. It'll probably take a beer or two when the kids are asleep and I can throw something at the wall. But we'll see. I'm starting to appreciate it from a fan's standpoint.”
Schneider continues to remember the World Series.
“I think I’ll think about it until the day I leave this Earth,” he said, “unless you get another opportunity to kind of squash it.”
Schneider joked that he finished second to Cleveland's Steven Vogt for AL Manager of the Year, a vote that takes place before the postseason.
“It’s such a strange award,” he said. “I was kind of remembering the previous winners. Not long after that, all those guys got fired.”
