Generally you applaud a baseball player diving for a ball and going all-out to make a play. Seeing that kind of hustle and effort is nice.
But there are times when diving for a ball isn’t the best idea. On a play that is no more 50/50 for an outfielder, it’s frequently not worth it. Whiffing with a dive can turn a single into extra bases (this is probably the most common way an inside-the-park homer happens, for example).
And then there’s whatever Steven Souza was doing on Friday night in Minnesota!
That ball was 20 feet away! I’m guessing Souza simply got an awful read off the bat or the swing was deceiving? Or both.
Whatever the case, that’s as worthless of a diving attempt as you will ever see, at any baseball level.
Souza did hit a homer, and the Rays won the game 5-1. So at least he can just laugh the bizarre dive off now.
UPDATE: Souza says he lost the ball in the lights.
#Rays Souza said reason for that bad dive was he lost ball in lights and
"just hit the deck hoping it wasn't going to hit me in the face.'— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) May 27, 2017
UPDATE II:
@statcast can you we get a breakdown on my play tonight?
— Steven Souza (@SouzaJr) May 27, 2017
https://twitter.com/statcast/status/868331628132802561
https://twitter.com/SInow/status/868302755638673409
Thank you for calling him Souza. It gets really annoying hearing him constantly called Souza Jr.