Justin Bour’s normal single turns out to be anything but
Los Angeles Angels 1B Justin Bour has an adventure on the bases against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon.
What began as a routine single to right field turned into a play Los Angeles Angels first baseman Justin Bour won’t want to watch over again.
Bour, batting with two outs in the top of the first inning during the Angels’ game against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon, singled to right off Kyle Hendricks. But he took too wide of a turn at first, and Cubs right fielder Ben Zobrist threw to the base trying to catch him straying too far. That’s when things got weird.
Zobrist’s throw hit Bour in the shoe and rolled away toward the Angels dugout. Bour took off for second while catcher Willson Contreras went to retrieve the ball in foul territory. Contreras threw to shortstop Javier Baez, who tagged Bour as he slid into the base. Bour appeared to be out, but umpire Ron Kulpa called him safe.
Bour, though, assumed he was out and started walking back to the dugout, allowing Baez to tag him out. The inning came to an end on just your normal 9-2-6 putout.
Who's ready for a perfectly normal baseball game today? pic.twitter.com/zGX6ub7tz2
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 13, 2019
Getting a hit isn’t something Bour has done a lot of this season. He’s batting just .154 after signing with the Angels as a free agent in December. The 30-year-old split last season between the Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies, hitting .227 with 20 home runs. In 518 career games, he’s hitting .258 with 85 home runs and 282 RBI.
The Angels, playing without injured center fielder Mike Trout, are 7-7 this season and in fourth place in the AL West. They had won six games in a row before losing to the Cubs in the first of their three-game series on Friday. The Cubs entered play on Saturday 5-8.
The Angels would go on to score three runs in the second inning and currently lead 3-0 in the bottom of the second.