Second basemen were full of jokes this week in MLB
May 22, 2016, 12:07 PM
Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips has been a funny guy this week in Major League Baseball.
On Thursday following a pitch in a game between the Reds and Cleveland Indians, Phillips tagged Cleveland’s Juan Uribe.
Uribe, looking down and not paying attention like anyone would following the pitch, was scared half to death by the tag and thought he had been caught sleeping.
For whatever reason, Uribe must have believed that Phillips got a direct throw back from the catcher, since it was impossible for Phillips to have the ball in the first place after the pitch. Maybe it was just years of repetition for the 37-year-old with 318 career doubles to be frightened by that possibility?
Either way, Phillips wasn’t done this week.
On Sunday in another move that didn’t do anything besides make people laugh, Phillips acted like he was catching a fly ball when his right fielder actually had it covered.
A clever move by another second baseman that actually did impact the game was made by Washington Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy when he faked out the New York Mets’ Yoenis Cespedes by acting like he caught the ball and was trying to double up Cespedes.
Cespedes was so sure of it for a second that he actually did stop his run and go back to first base for a brief moment. If the ball was hit harder into the outfield, it’s possible he could have been out on a throw to second base or if he was headed to third base he didn’t have enough time anymore.
Murphy seemed pleased with himself, grinning and laughing at his former teammate afterwards.
