Ryan Raburn is really gunning for a spot in the Terrible Left Fielders Hall of Fame. The thing he is gunning is a ball, and he is gunning it directly into the ground:
Ryan Raburn throws ball directly into ground, allows inside-the-park home run
Spiking the ball: A great way to celebrate a touchdown, a terrible way to play defense in baseball.
David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
This was the only run the Indians allowed in the first nine innings, and they lost 2-1 in the 14th inning. So, this was brutal and horrible and lost them the game.
The entire video is available at Deadspin, but let’s summarize: Raburn probably could have caught Mike Moustakas’ fly ball, if he was a tad faster. If he was a tad wiser, he could’ve cut it off for a double. As is, he slid and booted it, leading to a double for Moustakas...then he spiked it directly into the ground, at exactly the angle that nobody on the field could access it before Moustakas ran the 180 feet left for him to go all the way home.
The play officially was ruled a double for Moustakas with a throwing error charged to Raburn.
Raburn had previously let a ball doink into the stands, and this is obviously a play from the Raul Ibanez school of left fielding.
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