Diamondbacks' Christian Walker opens up about his baserunning mishap in Game 3 of the World Series: "Never saw the stop sign"
The Arizona Diamondbacks were quite distraught after Christian Walker's out at home plate that resulted in a major momentum loss. The D-backs couldn't recover after that as they went scoreless till the bottom of the eighth innings in their 3-1 loss against the Texas Rangers in Game 3 of the World Series.
Christian Walker got a standing ovation from the Phoenix crowd when he arrived at the plate for his at-bat in the second innings. Walker is one of the longest-tenured players on the D-backs payroll and garners a lot of praise for his loyalty and leadership skills.
The 32-year-old justified the ovation as he earned a leadoff double to right center against Rangers starter Max Scherzer on the very first pitch. Tommy Pham followed Walker and hit a ball to right field on a 1-0 pitch.
Walker ran hesitantly from second base and initially got the 'go' sign from third base coach Tony Perezchica. However, a few yards from third base, Perezchica showed him the stop sign, but the D-backs infielder kept running. Adolis Garcia sent in a rocket 94.3 mph throw from the right field which resulted in Walker getting picked off at the home plate for the first out of the innings.
The first baseman spoke about the incident in the post-game interview explaining that he missed the 'stop' sign from the third base coach:
"Honest mistake. I think I got a late read from an angle, it was hard to tell how hard the ball was hit... I think I got sped up trying to make up for that shovel and had head my down trying to make tight turn like really trying to get to the plate. The last time I looked at him [Perezchica] he was waving and I never saw the stop sign," Walker said.
Christian Walker's out had a major impact on the result
The out at home plate resulted in the D-backs getting a no-score in the second innings. The game was tied till that frame before the Rangers unleashed a three-run third innings immediately after. Arizona lost all momentum and was unable to make any major offensive play in the rest of the game. They were also unable to chase Scherzer, who lasted another innings, delivering his own quota of three frames.