Bryce Harper and his hyper-aggressive baserunning were finally on board Monday, when the Washington Nationals rookie hit a hustle-double after three consecutive strikeouts, but it didn't take long before the St. Louis Cardinals retired him—on Matt Holliday's worst throw ever, which led directly to an unconventional double play. Here's how the scorecard came to read "Ryan Zimmerman flies into a sacrifice double play."
Zimmerman hit a liner to Holliday in left field. Jayson Werth scored from third, but Harper, standing on second, attempted to advance to third after Holliday's throw bounced a few feet in front of him and rolled toward the infield. It was a bad throw, but it wasn't bad enough—Daniel Descalso, who's already homered today, ran it down and threw it a little more correctly to Pete Kozma, beating Harper by a few feet.
It was a reasonable idea from Harper, but Descalso thought quickly and, however unlikely this might be, out-hustled him. The result was another Nationals rally struck down ahead of time, and a Cardinals lead that held, however unsteady, at 8-4 despite reliever Edward Mujica's rough performance.