Yes, there were some base running mistakes by the Yankees on Aug. 9: in the tenth inning Andrew Benintendi wandered off second base and was picked off; in the eleventh inning Michael Andujar was doubled off second when Aaron Hicks hit a line drive to the second baseman; in the twelfth Isiah Kiner-Falefa was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single after Jose Trevino was caught in a rundown off second. While announcer Cameron Maybin was making consescending remarks that the game looked like Little League it occurred to me that perhaps they don't have a "ghost runner" in Little League extra innings like they do in Major League Baseball, a runner on second base to start each extra inning. This rule was supposed to be gone this year but they kept it -- and I fondly hope this is the last year they have it -- because of the compressed schedule due to the late start of the season. It can only be disorienting for a runner to be on second base when they did not earn their way there and feeling the pressure that one is in "scoring position" and it is important to score first if you are the visiting team; the Yankee base running mistakes were all related to the goofy rule of the "ghost runner."
Part of what is going on here is related to the attempts to make games shorter. As I have previously said, all that needs to be done is to enforce the rules that currently exist: the pitcher has to pitch within twelve seconds of receiving the ball when there are no runners on base and batters are not allowed to step out of the batter's box unless time is called (and a few other exceptions, including a passed ball and a wild pitch). If one ever gets the chance to see a recorded baseball game from the fifties one will see that batters almost never stepped out of the box, unlike now when it is common for a batter to step out after every pitch, which makes it often impossible for the pitcher to pitch within twelve seconds, i.e., both rules need to be enforced.
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