FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Isiah Kiner-Falefa saw the ball come off Daulton Varsho’s bat and thought he would cross the plate from third base and get the Toronto Blue Jays their title.
“I had all the emotions of like winning the World Series,” he said. “And the moment the ball hit the dirt, I was just already: head down, break up the double play.”
After finalizing a $6 million, one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, Kiner-Falefa spoke about the play that’s been rehashed for much of the offseason.
“If I could do it over, I definitely would have got a couple of steps out,” he said. “But you’ve got to do what the organization wants and that’s kind of been the thing there. With runners in that situation, they’d always keep the runner close” to protect against getting picked off.
After Miguel Rojas hit a tying homer for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the top of the ninth inning that tied Game 7 at 4, Toronto loaded the bases with one out in the bottom half.
Kiner-Falefa took an unusually short 7.8-foot lead at the behest of third base coach Carlos Febles, the fourth-shortest primary lead by a runner off third during the World Series, according to MLB Statcast. Kiner-Falefa’s 8.9-foot secondary lead when the pitcher released the ball was the eighth-shortest at third during the Series.
With the Dodgers playing the infield in, Varsho hit a 76.9 mph two-hopper to Rojas. The second baseman gloved the ball, stumbled a bit and regained his balance, then threw to catcher Will Smith, who lifted his right foot off the plate as he caught the ball and then pushed his spike back down for a force out.
“Didn’t realize that it was actually going to be that close of a play,” Kiner-Falefa said. “If I was a step further, yeah, I would have been safe — but I wasn’t.”
Ernie Clement followed with a drive that center fielder Andy Pages snagged with a leaping backhand grab on the warning track as he knocked over left fielder Kiké Hernández. The Dodgers went on to win in 11 innings on Will Smith’s homer off Shane Bieber to become the first repeat champion in a quarter-century.
“It’s not Carlos’ fault, either,” Kiner-Falefa said. “It’s no one’s fault. It’s just that’s what they did all season long.”
Kiner-Falefa never thought about trying to sprint across the plate without a slide, concentrating on making sure Clement got a chance to hit.
“I was trying to break up the double play,” he said. “In my mind I thought it was a routine groundball to second and they’re going to go home.”
Kiner-Falefa regretted reporters didn’t ask him about the play that night.
“The toughest thing for me was if it was going to be such a big deal it would have been nice to have the camera in my face and have a chance to speak,” he said. “It blew up without me getting a proper interview, so I thought that was unfair. Everybody was just kind of going off of it without getting — without me really being able to talk about the play. So that was tough, but at the end of the day I did what I was told and it was an organizational policy.”
Under his deal with Boston, Kiner-Falefa can earn $500,000 in performance bonuses for plate appearances: $100,000 each for 300, 350, 400, 450, and 500.
The 30-year-old hit .262 with two homers, 40 RBIs and 21 doubles in 138 games last year for Pittsburgh and Toronto, which selected him off waivers on Aug. 31. He played shortstop, third base and second.
Kiner-Falefa batted .162 (6 for 37) in the postseason.
Kiner-Falefa, 30, has a .262 batting average with 36 homers, 286 RBIs and 100 steals over eight seasons with Texas (2018-21), the New York Yankees (2022-23), Toronto and Pittsburgh. He won a Gold Glove at third base in 2020.
Boston placed right-hander Tanner Houck on the 60-day injured list to open a roster spot.
___
AP MLB: https://www.apnews.com/hub/MLB
