The Angels ran into another ugly out on the bases, with Justin Bour once again in the middle of it. This time, though, he didn’t seem to be the one at fault. With two on and two out, a grounder to second turned chaotic. The first baseman blocked the second baseman, the pitcher chased a bad throw, and suddenly the bases were loaded after an error. Then the ball skipped away, and Bour was running to third. The third base coach initially threw up the stop sign. Bour respected it and held up. But then the coach reversed course and waved him home. Bour hesitated, already had his momentum stopped, and at that point had no real shot at scoring.
Mike Trout, who was trailing the play, realized how cooked Bour was and barely tried to advance himself. But once the ball was live again, Trout did make a move and nearly pulled off a swim move to avoid the tag at third. He couldn’t quite hang on the bag after slipping by the tag and was ruled out. Manager Brad Ausmus looked fed up in the dugout after yet another blown opportunity.
The real issue looked like miscommunication from the third-base coach. Stopping Bour killed his momentum, and asking him to restart on a whim didn’t make sense considering his lack of speed. Blaming Bour for this one feels off. He followed instructions. The chaos came from inconsistent signals and bad awareness. The Angels turned a break into another wasted chance.