Gary Cohen let Matt Chapman have it after running the Giants out of an inning down three runs on Sunday.
The star third baseman started the bottom of the ninth with a single off closer Devin Williams down 5-2 as the Giants attempted to rally and avoid the series defeat to the Mets.
Chapman was easily thrown out by Mets backup catcher Luis Torrens after the third baseman attempted to steal second base on a 1-1 pitch to Rafael Devers.
“There goes, Chapman. The pitch is high. The throw by Torrens and he’s out by a mile,” Cohen said on the SNY broadcast as the Mets took three of four from San Francisco. “What are you doing running on this cat? Torrens bags another one. A terrible decision by Chapman as he gets run down for the first out of the ninth with his team down three runs… I mean, that’s just crazy. Caps off a horrible, no good, awful week for Matt Chapman. Just an inexplicable decision.”
Largely looked at as one of the leaders for the Giants, Chapman had a rough week before this bonehead decision.
Chapman went 5-for-17 at the plate, but it was a pair of defensive miscues, one against the Padres that Cohen was really referring to when he mentioned how horrible this week has been for their leader at the hot corner.
Chapman was seen lighting into his teammate, Casey Schmitt, for not hauling in a high throw against the Padres on Wednesday, which led to a run in the fifth inning against San Diego before the Mets came to town.
Matt Chapman was thrown out trying to steal second base for reasons unclear to many, including the Mets broadcaster, Gary Cohen. AP “Catch the f–king ball,” Chapman said during a mound visit in the Giants’ 7-1 loss to the Padres.
The throw to Schmitt, who doesn’t normally play first base, was not exactly perfect.
Chapman made an impressive diving stab at third base in the Mets’ comeback four-run eighth inning on Sunday, but his throw was rather poor and first baseman Rafael Devers was unable to pick the ball out of the dirt, allowing Torrens to score.
The play was ruled a hit for Vientos, but an error on the throw allowed Vientos to go to second base.
Chapman’s fielding aside, he can’t blame anyone else for this bizarre choice to try to steal second.
Trailing by three, his run meant nothing and advancing to second offered little to no upside.
An X user, @Tangotiger, posted what “insanity in mathematical terms” looks like in relation to this decision.
Gary Cohen hated the decision by Matt Chapman to attempt a steal of seecond base down three runs in the ninth inning. MLB via Getty Images “Down by three runs, gaining the base brings you from an 8.3 percent chance of winning up to 8.9 percent,” the X account posted. “Losing the base and getting the out is a 1.7 percent chance of winning, or -6.6 percent. That’s 11:1 odds of insanity.”
It’s been a rough start to the season in the Bay Area as the New York teams went west and struck gold in the early going.
The Giants were swept by the Yankees to begin the year and were just smacked around by the Mets for three out of four games, with their bats quiet as ever.
San Francisco is averaging 2.60 runs scored per game, the lowest of any MLB club so far this season.
Things don’t get any easier either for the Giants as they welcome in the Philadelphia Phillies for a three-game set starting Monday.
