Picking apart James Jones’ baserunning blunder

While driving home from Bend, Ore., Wednesday night, I listened to the Mariners game on XM radio with the Blue Jays’ announcers. There was probably a channel that carried Rick Rizzs and Aaron Goldsmith, but I couldn’t find it, so I listened to the Toronto guys instead.

Somewhere between Madras and Biggs Junction, I swore and startled Willie, who was dead-dog tired in the back seat after chasing squirrels, chipmunks, deer and geese all over golf courses the last two days.

I not only swore, I swore repeatedly when James Jones was picked off of first base in the ninth inning. It was along the lines of: “Are you (bleeping) kidding me?!”

The Mariners trailed 1-0 at the time. Their playoff hopes were flickering, but the A’s had already lost to the Angels, and the Royals were losing to the Indians. They could have moved within two games of Oakland and Kansas City and given themselves a chance with four games remaining.

So after Chris Taylor singled to lead off the ninth, part of me was hopeful but the other part of me was thinking the Mariners would screw it up somehow, and sure enough they did.

I just didn’t think they’d screw it up the way they did. Jones came in to pinch run for Taylor, and I know what manager Lloyd McClendon was thinking: Jones is 25 for 26 on stolen-base attempts, and the Mariners sure would like him to go 26 for 27 and get into scoring position with no outs.

First of all, considering that Taylor’s fairly speedy himself, did you really need Jones at that point?

Anyway, I listened as Blue Jays closer Aaron Sanchez made a move to first and nearly picked off Jones. It sounded like it was a close play, close enough that the Toronto announcers reminded us that manager John Gibbons couldn’t call for a replay because he’d already used one earlier and was wrong.

So I’m thinking: “Whew, that would have really been stupid if Jones had been picked off as the potentially tying run in the ninth inning of a game you need to win to make the playoffs.” And if I’m Jones, I’m thinking: “Man, got lucky there, maybe I should shorten my lead a little bit.”

But no, he took a big lead again and paid for it. Sanchez made another move and this time got Jones by a mile. It wasn’t even close. Usually when a guy gets picked off of first, it’s close, but this time it wasn’t, which makes it even harder to believe.

Maybe it was going to be a hit-and-run on a 2-and-1 pitch to Austin Jackson, but we’ll never know. Or how about this? Why not let Jackson sacrifice Jones to second and give Dustin Ackley and Robinson Cano a chance to drive him in? Compounding the stupidity of getting picked off in the ninth inning as the tying run, it didn’t give the Mariners’ best hitter, Cano, a chance to hit with two outs.

Yet most of the stories I read Thursday morning focused on the great outing by Taijuan Walker and didn’t mention Jones or mentioned him in passing, as if it were a trivial development in the game.

You could argue that it shouldn’t have come down to that, that maybe if the Mariners could have mustered more than two hits going into the ninth inning, it wouldn’t have come down to Jones being picked off.

Problem was, it did come down to that, and it might have been the most colossal blunder of the season.

The Go 2 Guy also writes for SeattlePI.com and KitsapSun.com. You can reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo.