Did an MLB game interview cause a player to miss a catch?

During last night’s Major League Baseball broadcast on Apple TV Plus, a grounder ricocheted off the right hand of Los Angeles Dodger player Enrique “Kiké” Hernández and hit his groin. This gave New York Yankees slugger Gleyber Torres enough time to get to first. This happens all the time? Clear. It turns out that Hernández was in the middle of an interview when this happened.

Game announcer Dontrelle Willis had just asked Hernández, who was wearing a two-way microphone, about his team’s close relationship when Torres hit the ball toward third base. Hernández ran to catch it and simply misjudged how the ball would bounce. ESPN reports that when asked after the game if the interview had anything to do with the mistake, Hernández said, “Maybe a little,” he said, “but I think I let the ball consume me. There was a strange jump.”

Even though he felt the softball issue caused him to take a hard hit to the groin, Hernández has no intention of turning down those in-game interviews — when he was asked after the game, he said, “no, because we’re getting paid.” In fact they are! The Major League Baseball Players Association collective bargaining agreement (PDF) stipulates that players receive $10,000 per game or $15,000 for the postseason, with the money coming out of a joint fund between MLB and the association.