In Saturday night’s Triple-A game between Sacramento and Tacoma at Cheney Stadium, the lefty turned a fairly routine play into something not at all routine. Except maybe for him. We’ll explain.
In the fourth inning, Díaz fielded a dribbler off the bat of Sacramento’s Eddys Leonard that rolled between the mound and home plate near the third-base side. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well …
Rather than field the ball with his throwing hand, Díaz took off his glove, picked up the ball with his right hand and fired a strike to first for the out. Perhaps he did it to save time for a quicker throw, or maybe it was just for a better angle to first. Either way, it was impressive.
“You might never see that again,” the announcer exclaims.
Then again, we might. From Díaz.
See, he pulled off a strikingly similar play two years ago in a game against Reno, when he fielded a dribbler, fielded it with his non-throwing hand and recorded an out at first on a bounce. It’s happened at least once in the big leagues, too. That came in 2018, when the Phillies’ Vince Velasquez pulled it off, though it a more painful way.
Ambidexterity for the win. Or, at least, the out.
Despite Díaz’s feat on Saturday, he took the loss in the Rainers’ 7-2 defeat against the River Cats.
