[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by Yoda

I still don't understand why Cole didn't cover first in that horrific Yankee inning. Come on, man this an elimination WS game. It's your job to do so.

Exactly. Make a beeline for first base and take nothing for granted. That should be instinct at this point in his career. You can always get called off and peel away or stop. He took a step or two and then adjusted his angle as if he was headed for the dugout. If he makes that play like he and every MLB pitcher is taught from a fairly young age, Betts is out.
Rizzo is really not much at fault. That ball had obvious spin coming off the end of the bat, sufficient to make him be a bit cautious about simply charging toward the bag. You can see it spinning toward second and he fields it with that motion. If he hard charges and that ball kicks off his glove as its spinning away then two runs score on the play. Plus why would he believe an e xperienced pitcher like Cole would not be doing his job?
Frankly the spin was obvious and Cole should have recognized it. A ball hit off the end of the bat that close to the line is either going to spin (likely) or head straight toward the bag (or foul), and Rizzo was set up between first and second, which again should have alerted Cole to get over either way. My guess he was tired and thought the long-ass inning from hell was over, and just figured he'd head to the dugout. His remarks were simply that he took a bad angle, but that's true IMO only because he did not intend to field or cover and just left it to Rizzo to figure out.