'Mental mistake': Why didn't Stuart Fairchild throw home on Nats' sac fly, go-ahead run?

Reds catcher Luke Maile's two-run home run in the bottom of the 5th inning Saturday gave Cincinnati a 3-2 lead and put to rest a lot of the chatter on Twitter/X about whether center fielder Stuart Fairchild should have thrown home after charging in to catch a sacrifice fly by Joey Meneses that gave the Washington Nationals a 2-1 lead in the top of the 5th and ended Hunter Greene's outing.

Fairchild's catch of Meneses' line drive was the second out of the inning, but he did not attempt a throw to try to keep the Nats' CJ Abrams from scoring, instead lobbing the ball back into the infield.

It was a long day for the Reds' defense in a 7-6 loss.

"You certainly cannot give good teams extra outs," former Reds great and Bally Sports Ohio analyst Barry Larkin said during the 6th inning of the broadcast. "You just cannot. When you have a chance to make a play, you just have to make a play, and that's what championship clubs do."

Bally Sports Ohio play-by-play announcer John Sadak addressed Fairchild's non-throw during the 7th inning of the broadcast.

"Keep in mind that earlier in the game, Abrams scored on a sac fly in the 5th," Sadak said. "And there was no throw from Stuart Fairchild in center. And Abrams is very fast. But it was a little surprising. It didn't seem like he even shaped up to throw to the plate."

"That's a mental mistake," Bally Sports Ohio's Sam LeCure said after the game of Fairchild's failure to throw home. "Look, it's his first time out. He hasn't played a ton of center field in the big leagues. … There's different pieces of each position that you need to learn and understand. … So, a learning day for Stuart."

Reactions to the play, including from The Enquirer's Charlie Goldsmith:

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why didn't Stuart Fairchild throw home on Nats' sac fly, go-ahead run?