Royals Win On Crotch-Assisted Walk-Off Pickoff

Joe Musgrove's bladder giveth, and Jared Walsh's crotch taketh away.

On Tuesday the Angels were down one run with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, with Jared Walsh down 0-2 at the plate. Royals reliever Greg Holland threw a pitch in the dirt that looked like it would get away from catcher Salvador Perez, but the ball took a fortuitous bounce right into some other balls, belonging to Walsh. David Fletcher, the runner on third base, was caught a little too far from the plate, and Perez threw it to third baseman Hunter Dozier for the walk-off pickoff and a 3-2 Kansas City win.

“I was looking for a ball in the dirt the whole time,” Fletcher said after the game, via the Kansas City Star. “I finally got it. It hit off [Perez's] chest pretty hard. I was going to score pretty easy.” But Walsh was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This might be the rare occasion where baseball's replay review turned out to be productive. The Angels challenged the game-ending call, and while Fletcher was indeed tagged out, the multiple angles and slow-mo produced an opportunity to confirm that the baseball did not hit Walsh in the leg, but in the crotch. You can watch it right here. It's similar to focusing on the goalpost, instead of the football, for a field goal attempt. It's good!

Holland will take the save any way he can:

H/t to Mike