Josh Donaldson’s Home Run Blunder in Yankees-Guardians Game Goes Viral

It’s every hitter’s worst nightmare.

It’s every hitter’s dream to hit a home run in the postseason. For Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson, the situation Tuesday night quickly turned into a nightmare.

Facing Cal Quantrill to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning, Donaldson drove a ball to deep right field and clearly thought it cleared the fence. By the time he got to first base, he was in full home run trot mode and high-fiving first base coach Travis Chapman.

There was just one problem: the ball didn’t clear the wall.

Josh Donaldson thought he homered and got thrown out after trotting around first base pic.twitter.com/zw9gOJcNI1

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) October 12, 2022

Guardians right fielder Oscar Gonzalez quickly fired the ball to second base as Donaldson was caught in between first and second. He tried to scamper back to first base, but to no avail, turning a ball that looked like extra bases into an out. The umpire crew briefly reviewed the play, but upheld the original call on the field.

All’s well that ends well, though, and the blunder did not end up costing New York. The Yankees took a 2-1 lead later that inning on a sacrifice fly by Jose Trevino, eventually winning by a 4-1 final score. Donaldson ended up going 2-for-2 with a walk and played solid defense, so perhaps he’s free to laugh about the miscue as well.

Still, that didn’t stop others from pointing out the miscue by the veteran third baseman who’s been known to be a bit prickly in the past when it comes to baseball’s unwritten rules. Here are some of the top reactions from social media:

Josh Donaldson, a man who has probably gotten very angry at players who didn't run it out, didn't run it out

— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) October 12, 2022

Josh Donaldson has reached base three times tonight, which is what everyone will remember about Josh Donaldson's night I'm sure

— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) October 12, 2022

Hate that for Josh Donaldson … oh, wait, no I don’t.

— Joe Posnanski (@JPosnanski) October 12, 2022

you can criticize josh donaldson all you want but he saved a whole lot of gas in the tank on that one. next at bat he’s gonna run out a 70 mph bunt triple. rollover speed is one of the coolest things about baseball and i’m surprised we don’t see it more

— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) October 12, 2022

This is Aaron Boone’s fault. He let Josh Donaldson get away with lallygagging non-HRs on multiple occasions. Never put his foot down.
Now it comes back to bite them in a big spot.

— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) October 12, 2022

that was the most Josh Donaldson play that ever Josh Donaldson'd

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 12, 2022

That’s the Josh Donaldson I remember.

— Nick Pedone (@NickPedone12) October 12, 2022

Oh dear it seems Josh Donaldson didn't run hard out of the box?

— Michael Baumann (@MichaelBaumann) October 12, 2022