Even Mr Kershaw, who let just three balls out of the infield, needed a rookie third baseman, Miguel Rojas, to spear a hot grounder and preserve his gem.Baseball as well as cricket, its cousin occupies an awkward spot in the middle of the spectrum between individual and team sports.
Mathews contributed both offensively and defensively in the deciding game, hitting a two-run double to put his team ahead and later making a backhanded stop of a hard grounder to thwart the Yankees' ninth-inning rally.
If such a pitched ball rebounds off the catcher out into the infield, the pitcher or any infielder may make the pickup and throw to first, just as if it were an infield grounder.
The Royals' first baseman then made it home on a grounder, helped by a disastrous throwing error by his Mets opposite number, Lucas Duda.
Each batter that a pitcher strikes out or forces to hit a pop-up (pop fly, an easily caught fly) or easily fielded grounder is a gain for the defense, preventing runs and bringing the team closer to its turn at bat and a chance to score.
With one out and runners on first and second, the Sox' slugger David Ortiz hit a weak grounder to the second baseman, who flipped it to short for what had the makings of an inning-ending double play.
Best then to close with this description of that near double play in the top of the ninth, written by the great Shirley Povich of the Washington Post: Yogi Berra smashed a fiery one-hop grounder to Nelson and the game could have been over on a double play, but it wasn't.
What eats at you, numbs you, puts you into coma watching is the bottomless party: another pop-up, or another three-hop infield grounder that ends the inning and rolls around the next, on and on, perhaps forever.
Other than Williams' recurrent appearances at the plate, the maladresse of the Sox infield was the sole focus of suspense; the second baseman turned every grounder into a juggling act, while the shortstop did a breathtaking impersonation of an open window.
Drysdale hit a sharp grounder between second and first, which Richardson ran down with his back to the plate and pegged to Pepitone for the out at first.
The Never Before moment arrived early, when Ortiz, the fourth Boston batter of the evening, hit a soft grounder to the right, where second baseman Matt Carpenter flipped to Kozma to begin a potential double play.
