Darwin Barney is now in the company of another great middle infielder.
The Chicago Cubs second baseman has been the only bright spot of this rebuilding phase for the North Siders. Unfortunately his phenomenal fielding came to a bitter end in the Cubs’ 8-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks Friday night. A Justin Upton hit up the middle that Barney was able to field cleanly, but could not make a clean throw to first baseman Anthony Rizzo resulted in Barney’s errorless streak coming to an end.
He is now tied with the Detroit Tigers’ Placido Polanco who set the record for a second baseman in 2007 with a streak of 141 games without a miscue. Barney was last charged with an error on April 17 in a game against the Miami Marlins. He had gone 1,154 1/3 innings without an error at second base.
Despite Barney not becoming the MLB leader with 142 errorless games at second – and possibly more depending had the streak been extended – he became Chicago’s all-time leader when he surpassed the Cubs previous leader in Hall of Famer and fan favorite, Ryne Sandberg who went 123 games from June 21, 1989 to May 17, 1990.
When watching the play live and several replays later one would question why Barney would make the throw he did. But for any one that watches him on a regular basis, Barney never shies away from making a play to get an opposing base runner out, regardless of the degree of difficulty the play is. That is precisely why he should win the gold glove for a National League second baseman.
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