Nico Hoerner Made a Rare Mistake, Yet It Becomes Another Reason to Compliment Him - Bleacher Nation

"No player will perform perfectly on the field, but there are few as consistently mistake-free as Nico Hoerner at second base. That's especially true on the mental side of the game, where you will almost never see Hoerner goof on a play because he did something he shouldn't do, or failed to do something he should."

"Hoerner was charging a slow bouncer from Harris and decided his best path to making a play was the glove-scoop-and-shovel toss to first. It's a higher-risk play, and it didn't work out, with the ball sailing over Michael Busch's head. The physical mistake is extremely easy to excuse, but the real error (not officially charged an error) was the decision to try for the glove toss rather than simply transferring to his hand and making the quick throw."

""I think I made it a harder play than it needed to be," Hoerner said, per the Sun-Times. "Just kind of misread the timing of it. Looking back on the play, there was definitely time to transfer to my hand. But you do rely on instincts all the time, and I trust that works most of the time. . . . But it definitely stings to have an error lead to the game-winning run.""

"That is just spot on. He recognized right away that he'd done something he didn't need to do and owned his mistake, BUT ALSO recognized that he can't be too hard on himself because his instinctiveness overall serves him very well on the field. We see it from him constantly, and nobody wants him out there tamping d"

Nico Hoerner at second base is consistently mistake-free, especially mentally, with few plays where he does something wrong or fails to do something right. A rare exception came on Michael Harris II’s grounder in the eighth inning, when Hoerner charged a slow bouncer and chose a higher-risk glove-scoop-and-shovel toss to first. The ball sailed over Michael Busch’s head, and the Braves took the lead for good. The physical miscue is easy to excuse, but the key issue was choosing the glove toss instead of transferring the ball to his hand for a quick throw. Hoerner addressed the play in post-game comments, admitting he made it harder than necessary, misread timing, and recognized he had time to make the simpler play, while also noting that instincts usually work.

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