Cardinals' Tyler O'Neill benched after manager blasts baserunning effort
One day after being called out by manager Oliver Marmol for a perceived lack of hustle on the basepaths, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Tyler O'Neill is riding the pine on Wednesday.
With the Cardinals trailing the Atlanta Braves 4-1 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning on Tuesday, O'Neill took his secondary lead off of second as the pitch was delivered. As the line drive made its way into right field, the two-time Gold Glove award winner approached third base, rounded the bag and was waved home, but was easily thrown out.
The Braves ended up winning 4-1 and after the contest, Marmol said "We've got a lot of guys playing really hard and that's not our style of play as far as the effort rounding the bag there."
"I'm trying to score that run, of course. I'm not out there to dog it at all," O'Neill told reporters. "I've got to get a better jump next time and get around the base a little quicker and be in there safe next time."
When asked Wednesday morning if O'Neill was on the bench for the series finale due to Tuesday's baserunning, Marmol dodged the question. The second-year manager also declined to reveal if O'Neill would be back in the lineup for the team's next game on Friday.
MLB.com's John Denton broke down the play in question with Statcast metrics.
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