The Milwaukee Brewers were three outs away from a World Series sweep after a clutch home run by Cooper Pratt in the top of the 12th inning.
In the bottom of the inning, Junior Caminero was leading off, and Antonio Senzatela induced a ground ball that went right to Joey Ortiz. He made the throw across the diamond, but it was short, and Jake Bauers could not pick it. Ortiz might be the best defensive third baseman in baseball, and nobody expected him to make an error like that.
"There’s no excuse," Ortiz said after the game, per MLB.com's Adam McCalvy. "Not one at all. I should make that play every (expletive) time.”
Ortiz's glove kept him in the lineup for most of the season before he had one of the most dramatic turnarounds ever at the plate. He went from the worst hitter in baseball to finishing with a .270/.328/.402 slash line. From July 4 on, he had a .909 OPS.
In the postseason, he has not hit well, and Pat Murphy has gone back to using David Hamilton more. Ortiz has started against only left-handed pitchers since the National League Championship Series, and has not started a game in the World Series.
He is being used as a defensive replacement right now, and he was in the game for Hamilton, who was pinch-hit for by Andrew Vaughn earlier in the game. Had he made the play to get Caminero, there's no telling what would have happened after that. It would have changed the complexion of the inning and taken a ton of pressure off Shane Drohan.
"I fielded the ball and I think I should have took another couple more steps toward first," Ortiz told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Todd Rosiak. "I made a (expletive) throw."