Shreveport Native Taijuan Walker Commits One of the Worst Plays in Baseball History
Shreveport Native and Mets Starting pitcher Taijuan Walker is having one heck of a season. Walker signed a big 2 year $20 million contract with the New York Mets this off season, made his first MLB All Star game a couple of weeks ago, has posted an impressive 7-3 record with a 2.99 ERA. However, as good as he's looked this year, that 2.99 ERA should be much lower but he made one of the worst plays in professional baseball history yesterday.
In a match up Sunday with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the bases were loaded in the 1st inning and Kevin Newman hit a slow dribbler down the line. Walker was the first to make the play and shoveled the ball into foul territory. However, due to the ball's location when Walker played it, the Umpire ruled it fair.
From that point forward, the play went from bad to worse. Instead of retrieving the ball to stop the runners from advancing or scoring, Walker threw a temper tantrum and was arguing with the ref. By the time he composed himself, 3 runners scored on the play and the batter to advance to 2nd base.
Following the play, Walker and Mets Manager Luis Rojas continued their argument with the umpire. The heated discussion got Rojas ejected from the game. The Pirates ended up posting six runs in the first. You can watch the bizarre play for yourself below.
However, as bad and as costly as this play was, it ended up not being the worst thing to happen. Those were the only runs the Pirates scored in the game, Walker ended up with a no decision and the Mets ultimately ended up winning 7-6. Walker may have not made it out the first inning and it damaged his All Star level ERA, but other than looking extremely bad, it ended up not costing them the game.