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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Andrew Joseph

Gavin Lux’s botched slide was the perfect complement to the Nats’ costly outfield blunder

There’s something uniquely beautiful about weird baseball plays. Basically, 99 percent of the time, Major Leaguers are literal superhumans on the field, pulling off plays that shouldn’t even be possible. But there are brief moments when a play breaks down and everyone involved looks silly.

Gavin Lux’s RBI double against the Nationals was a perfect example of that.

During Wednesday’s game in the first inning, Lux drove what should have been an inning-ending fly out to deep right-center field. Victor Robles appeared to have a great read on the ball, but something distracted him as Juan Soto approached from right field. The ball fell to the ground between Robles and Soto, leading to a run scoring.

But keep an eye on Lux’s slide.

On its own, that play would have been enough to roast the Nationals because they’re a terrible baseball team. But Lux’s slide was honestly the perfect cherry on top for the whole play. I mean, he went down to both knees and started his slide like 15 feet shy of the bag before nearly face-planting.

Best of all: He got an RBI double for the effort.

As you could expect, baseball fans appreciated Lux’s artful take on the head-first slide. This man plays the same sport on the *same team* as Trea Turner — and yet he’s so bad at sliding.

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