There are only a handful of situations in which a fielder would ever want to let a catchable fly ball hit the ground instead of snagging it with his glove. The situation in which Tigers second baseman Ian Kinsler did so on Sunday was one of them.
Colby Rasmus was on first base after drawing a walk off of Anibal Sanchez. Tyler White, a much slower runner than Rasmus, popped up to Kinsler. Kinsler camped under it, but let the ball fall just in front of him. He simply picked the ball up and threw to second base for the force out, essentially replacing Rasmus with White on the base paths. The play didn’t end up having a meaningful impact, but it could’ve, so it was still the right call by Kinsler.
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