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Bill Buckner. Larry Walker. Jose Canseco. Will Craig.
I don’t think Will Craig anticipated before today’s game that he would join a list of players with viral fielding errors, but here we are. Let’s set the scene:
It’s the top of the third inning in a pretty normal Thursday matinee.
Pirates trail 1-0 to the Cubs in the third inning. There’s still plenty of baseball left this afternoon, but what ensued immediately after is a script you simply cannot write, so I’ll just show you in video form.
Javier Báez.
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 27, 2021
El Mago.
The Magician. pic.twitter.com/yZX7HgUFCU
The inning ends if Will Craig stands on first base, but in a lapse of concentration, it turned into two more runs for the Cubs. But we should also point out the fact that Erik Gonzalez’s throw was off to begin with. Michael Perez also made a poor throw back to first base. The whole infield fell asleep on this one.
Twitter had a field day with this too and it was filled with moments of shock and amazement.
I cannot stress enough that there were two outs. Just tag first base. https://t.co/GJ7H2FjmtD
— Jake Crouse (@JakeCrouseMLB) May 27, 2021
The Pirates committed such a bad string of mistakes that “THERE WERE TWO OUTS” is trending on Twitter pic.twitter.com/UqqB9LKoCr
— MLB Errors (@mlberrors) May 27, 2021
LMAO THERE WERE TWO OUTS!!! The Pirates should be suspended for this. Like this has to be the worst baseball I’ve ever seen. Both IQ and actual on field play. https://t.co/8kEO6JU1f3
— Uncle Shammy (@ShammyNoSleeves) May 27, 2021
when he started running back toward home I lost it https://t.co/BicCR8y841
— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) May 27, 2021
I hope Craig doesn’t beat himself up for this. He’s had his fair share of ups and downs in his first month in the majors. It’s a bad error, but it’s a mistake he probably won’t make again. It’s also a major teachable moment for every fielder out there.