As Colby Lewis and the unwritten-rules aficionados wrangle about the moral and ethical implications of each use of the shift, Dustin Pedroia gave the baseball world a primer on beating the strange infield alignment in Boston’s 5-4 loss to the Angels in 19 innings Saturday night.
It began in the 14th inning, when Pedroia lined a single to center field. With David Ortiz at the plate and the Los Angeles defense heavily situated on the right side of the field, the second baseman took off for second — and once that was had, he stood up and bolted for third.
With no one on that side of the field, it was only a question of whether Pedroia could outrun pitcher Cory Rasmus, who was the closest to third base. The speedy Pedroia got there with plenty of time to spare, and after a sacrifice fly, the Red Sox had the go-ahead run — which, unfortunately for Boston, would not hold up —Â thanks in large part to the overloaded defensive positioning that everyone likes to complain about.