Starling Marte had a rough sequence a few games back during the fourth inning of a tied game. With a runner on, he appeared to get grazed by a pitch. The umpire pointed him to first, but Marte shook it off, insisting it hit his bat, not his body. Instead of taking the free base, he chose to keep hitting, confident he’d do damage at the plate. Turns out he should’ve taken the base. On the next pitch, he grounded out to third, and the defense got the force at second. One out, man still on first. Then he tried to steal second and got thrown out. What started as a promising situation quickly turned into a missed opportunity. A couple of small decisions turned into a wasted inning.
