Josh Reddick hits one-in-a-million drive that proves unlucky
We’re not sure how good Josh Reddick’s golf game is, but he looked the part during Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
With the game tied in the fifth inning, Reddick crushed a ball over the head of right fielder Sean Rodriguez for extra bases. The only question was which way the ball would bounce off the wall, because that would be the difference between a double or a triple, and perhaps whether or not Oakland took the lead.
We never got that answer. Instead, the baseball vanished though a very small opening at the base of the outfield wall. It was essentially’s baseball’s version of a hole-in-one. To be quite honest, it was probably a one-in-a-million shot, but it also proved to be very unlucky.
The umpiring crew quickly ruled it a ground-rule double and awarded Jed Lowrie, the lead runner, only two bases for a dead ball that rolled under an obstruction. Lowrie was stuck on third, Reddick on second, and that’s where they stayed when Danny Valencia grounded out to end the inning.
That lost run loomed even larger later when the A’s fell to the Pirates 4-2 in 10 innings.
Sean Rodriguez on Reddick's disappearing ball act: "There were no other holes, not other gaps, it was the only one there."
— Travis Sawchik (@Sawchik_Trib) July 3, 2016
We can also say this for sure: There are no other major-league stadiums with random holes in the wall. It’s an Oakland Coliseum issue, and in this case the home field did not work in the A’s favor.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
