After Michael Conforto led off the bottom of third inning with a home run off a first-pitch fastball from Chris Young, Wilmer Flores singled off another first-pitch fastball, advanced on a wild pitch and was sacrificed to third by pitcher Steven Matz. That brought up leadoff hitter Curtis Granderson with one out and the infield pulled in.
Granderson fouled off two pitches with two strikes before Young threw him a changeup -- a pitch he rarely throws. Granderson lifted a fly ball to medium-shallow right field. Alex Rios took a few steps in, caught the ball and ... took a couple steps as if he was running off the field before throwing home. In other words, it appeared he had lost track of how many outs there were in the inning. Flores tagged up and easily beat the throw home.
Would there have been a play if Rios has been awake? Maybe. Once the owner of a very strong throwing arm, Rios doesn't have that anymore: He didn't make any assists at home plate this season, and he made a weak throw home in Game 3.
But the ball wasn't that deep and Rios was in perfect position to make the throw. There should have been a bang-bang play at the plate with a decent throw. (The Royals challenged whether Flores left early, but the call was upheld.)
Simply inexcusable. And for the second night in a row, the Royals' vaunted defense has failed to show up mentally. In Game 3, Yordano Ventura didn't cover first on a grounder to Eric Hosmer, and Franklin Morales didn't know what to do on a potential double-play tapper back to the mound, getting no outs and helping open up the floodgates in that four-run sixth inning.
The little things. They can lose World Series.
Rios waited 12 years and 1,691 games to reach the playoffs for the first time. Maybe if he'd waited 29 years he would've paid more attention
— Rany Jazayerli (@jazayerli) November 1, 2015Burned a challenge because of a mental error. I'm livid.
— Morgan Ensberg (@MorganEnsberg) November 1, 2015Second day in a row that Alex Rios fell asleep on a short sac fly. The Royals just can't afford stuff like that.
— Joe Posnanski (@JPosnanski) November 1, 2015A play Alex Rios would like to forget... pic.twitter.com/o723ZFXBbP
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) November 1, 2015