World Series Game 7 Breakdown: Playing 1st Base at Home Plate

The Play

I am loathing talking about this World Series given the result. However, there are a lot of crucial moments to call out because there were some good games. I want to start with a super minor detail from game 7. Everyone wants to talk about Ian Kiner-Falefa's lead at 3rd base in the bottom of the 9th inning where he's out by literally an inch at home plate. You've probably seen 5 videos on that already and I'll briefly recap that at the bottom, but I want to focus on another part of that play from the defensive side. Here is the full play in real time -

Playing 1st Base at Home Plate

Will Smith is going to be considered a game 7 hero for the home run he hit in the 11th inning. He doesn't even get that opportunity if he doesn't do this routine, but often messed up thing at home plate in the bottom of the 9th.

The Setup

What I want players to think about is how they're taught to set up at 1st base on a routine throw from an infielder. You put you heels on the corners of the base and then stretch out as the ball is getting to you keeping your heel down on the base. This works because the field bases (1st, 2nd, 3rd base) are all elevated off the dirt. As you stretch out your heel stays on because the base is up off the ground.

Home plate is different. Home plate is embedded in the ground and because of this, a catcher can't set up like a 1st baseman does with his heels on the corners. He has to set up with his foot RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of home plate. See the image below of Will Smith's setup as the throw to him is released.

What This Prevents

As you stretch to receive a ball at home plate, your heel is going to come off the ground, just like Will Smith's did in the play. On a good throw, your toe will stay in contact with home plate.

I don't want to call Rojas's throw to the plate "bad" because he's off balance, but it definitely pulls Smith off the plate. However, because he set up in the middle of the plate he doesn't "lose" it. It's still very close and his toe is able to get back down in time. If he had set up on the corner and stretched like this, there is no chance he finds contact with the plate.

I'm not sure how obvious this point is to everyone, but I saw a few catchers mess it up over the last year and I thought it was worth calling out.

Kiner-Falefa's Lead at 3rd Base

I actually already wrote up the mechanics of this play in part 2 of the contact play. In that write up, it's talking specifically about the play with just a runner on 3rd, but this applies with the bases loaded because you are always running on a groundball in this scenario.

The two things to look at in the scenario if you're the runner on 3rd are:

1. Where is the 3rd baseman?
2. Is the hitter left handed or right handed?

Based on those two things, you can extend or have to shrink your primary lead.

Personally, I thought his lead was a little too conservative. I think based on where his secondary lead ended, he's safe on a back pick or line-drive easily. But I also understand why the lead was conservative in that scenario because Muncy prior to this pitch had been closer to the bag and a left handed hitter is giving Smith a clear throwing lane.

The one nugget I would also toss in is we watched Varsho groundout to 2nd base it seemed like 20 times (it was 7) in the series. If you know there's a high probability of a ground ball there you want to get a bigger secondary. You also know that with 2 strikes the team is less likely to back pick because there is such a high probability of a strikeout, so depending on the count you may need to extend a little bit also. Here's a picture of where his secondary lead got to on contact -

You be the judge on if this was too conservative or not and drop a comment below :).

Final Lesson on Kiner-Falefa Play

If there is a final lesson on this play at 3rd base, it's that pitch to pitch or moment to moment data can change leading your action to change. That could be the size of your lead changing because of the count or defensive alignment changing. It could be whether you tag up on a fly ball or not based on how deep or shallow the outfielder ends up while the ball is in the air. The data points are constantly changing. You need to be able to adjust MOMENT TO MOMENT and not just game to game or inning to inning. We talk about this a lot with hitters, but it applies in more aspects than just hitting.