{"id":37951,"date":"2025-05-19T04:42:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T04:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/37951\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T04:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T04:42:13","slug":"alex-verdugo-facing-backlash-after-costly-blunder-vs-red-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/37951\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Verdugo Facing Backlash After Costly Blunder vs. Red Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Verdugo, since signing a minor-league deal with the Atlanta Braves on March 20, has been a fixture of the Braves’ lineup.<\/p>\n

Hitting .264 with a .662 OPS, Verdugo has been a reliable presence at the plate, but has yet to discover his power stroke. Verdugo has gone homerless in 106 at-bats, putting him among the longest homerless streaks in baseball.<\/p>\n

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Verdugo, formerly an outfielder for the Yankees, has been well-appreciated for his elite arm strength, which adds value to his defense.<\/p>\n

At times, having such a strong arm can be more of a curse, and Verdugo showed why on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/p>\n

May 5, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Braves left fielder Alex Verdugo (8) and second baseman Ozzie Albies (1) celebrate after a victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Truist Park.Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Facing the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, a stadium Verdugo is very familiar with, Verdugo fielded an RBI single by Rafael Devers.<\/p>\n

With Ceddanne Rafaela about to cross home plate, Verdugo puzzingly threw home, which allowed Devers to advance to second.<\/p>\n

Devers would score on Alex Bregman’s double, something that wasn’t guaranteed with his speed had he stayed at first.<\/p>\n

Verdugo was also gunned down by Jarren Duran trying to score on a Matt Olson single in the sixth inning, but that was more a fault of third base coach Matt Tuiasosopo sending him than Verdugo himself.<\/p>\n

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The Braves would fall 7-6 to the Red Sox on a walk-off home run by Devers in the ninth inning despite leading 6-2 into the bottom of the seventh, where they had a 93.6% chance of victory.<\/p>\n

One fan on X wrote<\/a>: “Shoutout Alex Verdugo for throwing the ball home on a play he had no chance on. Allowed Devers to move up to second for free and scored off the Bregman double.<\/p>\n

“Glad to see his game hasn\u2019t changed at all since he left Boston.”<\/p>\n

Related: Alex Verdugo\u2019s Three-Word Message Sparks Yankees Speculation<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Former Yankees $22 Million Bust Could Finally Find New Home<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Braves Facing Alex Verdugo Decision After Jurickson Profar Suspension<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Verdugo, since signing a minor-league deal with the Atlanta Braves on March 20, has been a fixture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[72,1413,46,5,141,48,2542,1396,50,604,541,4,1132,863,89,2543,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-37951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-alex-bregman","9":"tag-alex-verdugo","10":"tag-atlanta-braves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-boston","13":"tag-boston-red-sox","14":"tag-bostonredsox","15":"tag-ceddanne-rafaela","16":"tag-cincinnati-reds","17":"tag-jarren-duran","18":"tag-matt-olson","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-ozzie-albies","21":"tag-rafael-devers","22":"tag-red-sox","23":"tag-redsox","24":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114532669678326404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}