PITTSBURGH — Baseball, similar to most sports, can be a copycat game. If one pitcher starts throwing a pitch with success, others will pick it up. Axe-handle bats? You’ll see them. Head-first slides? Now essentially compulsory.
So with Josh Harrison perfecting the art of not being tagged when he’s dead to rights, I wondered if his “swim move” might become the next trend, especially now that replay review has given players a greater avenue for success in formerly lost hopes like this play.
The JHay swim move. https://t.co/PvmK66cPDR
— Pirates (@Pirates) August 10, 2016
“Even before, guys would try it, but with no replay, if the ball beat you, they were calling you out,” Harrison said, but he made it clear that it wasn’t something he planned — or even thought about. “It’s just instincts and natural reaction. I’m just reacting. Whatever he gives me, I’m trying to take it. Any little space, any window. It’s not anything I practice or try to do, it just instinctively happened at the time.”
That being said, it’s not as if that was Harrison’s first such Houdini act. There were a couple rundowns in 2014, and a few similar sliding acrobatics this season.
“It’s just a last-minute move,” he said. “It’s one of those do-or-die plays for a baserunner when you think you’re going to be out.”
Manager Clint Hurdle isn’t so sure that it isn’t something that will gain traction across the league.
“That play in of itself, who knows how many times that aired today across markets?” he asked. “As far as the swim move, for the lack of a better term, you’re seeing more of it. There’s probably guys that hadn’t seen it before that are up now going, ‘Wow, that’s something I’ll try and keep in my back pocket.’ To pull that out, though, when it needs to be pulled out is pretty special. I don’t have that play.”
Hurdle said it reminded him of a similar trend — when players started sliding past home plate and reaching out to touch it with their hand to avoid the block of a catcher.
“Larry Walker was the first guy [on my team] I saw do it,” Hurdle said. “He made it up in the dirt. I had never seen it before. Two years later, a lot of guys were doing it. Up until last year, everyone was doing it. As a matter of fact, sliding straight on into home or head first was a thing of the past.”
If Walker is known as an innovator, then, I asked Harrison if he is okay with being known as the guy that can get himself out of a pickle with alacrity.
“The way I see it is I guess somebody has to be known for it,” he said. “I never plan to be in those situations, but you’re never out until they say you’re out. Now, even if they do say you’re out, in certain situations, replay might prove otherwise. That’s why you never give up on it.”
ON THE MEND
First baseman John Jaso, who had a collision at home plate Tuesday, passed all concussion protocols. He is sore and has a black eye, and Hurdle did not yet know if he would be available to play. He is not in the starting lineup.
Catcher Chris Stewart (knee) got pregame work in for the second consecutive day and trainer Todd Tomczyk said he is in line to start a rehab assignment Friday with Double-A Altoona.
Joining him two days later will be right-hander Tyler Glasnow. His Sunday outing will be four innings. Tomczyk expects him to get to at least five innings in a rehab start before being cleared to return to regular action. Of course, with Chad Kuhl and Ryan Vogelsong both occupying rotation spots, Glasnow’s post-injury work may come in Indianapolis, regardless.
BACK IN THE SADDLE
For Vogelsong, Wednesday will be his first start of the season that comes on regular four days of rest. He started the season as out of the bullpen and as a spot starter, and he’ll be making his second start since a scary injury sent him to the disabled list.
He’s maintained an excellent stat line as a starting pitcher through three turns this season: 13 innings pitched, 9 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk and 13 strikeouts.
