The five earned runs Justin Grimm allowed in the first inning of Tuesday's loss to the Milwaukee Brewers are a little deceiving.
Did Grimm dominate? No, far from it. But the rookie pitcher who is fresh off AL Rookie of the Month honors from April didn't get much help from his defense in what could've been a one- or two-run inning instead of a five-spot put up by the Brewers before the Rangers could even say "Play Ball!"
In the first inning alone, Grimm had to deal with a poorly played ball by right fielder Nelson Cruz that was eerily similar to the infamous Game 6 of the 2011 World Series flub, a horrible angle taken by left fielder David Murphy and center fielder Leonys Martin on what could've easily been a single, and even a pretty big mistake of his own on an errant pickoff throw at second base that was thrown to, well, the wrong guy.
None of the plays were scored errors but all were extra outs given to the Brewers in what ended up being a five-run inning and a huge hole for the Rangers to dig out of from the beginning.
“I read it wrong,” Cruz told ESPN Dallas. “I thought he didn’t hit it that well. I took off hard, but I was running and the angle there [of the wall] … I thought I was closer to the wall, so I jumped.”
Um, that's what the warning track is for, Nellie — to warn you of the upcoming collision with the wall.
As for Grimm's mistake on the pick-off attempt at second, a run that ended up scoring, Washington said it was just a rookie mistake.
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“Anybody could make the mistake; I wouldn’t put it on a rookie,” Washington said. “But when you’re a pitcher up there and you step off and make an inside move and see the guy off the bag, you throw it to the bag. He threw it to Elvis. Once again, freak things, you know. We’ll battle through it.”
