Saturday night's Game 2 between the Yankees and Angels should have gone down as one of the all-time great games. It was well-played and well-pitched. The Angels went up by one in the 11th, and the Yankees got one right back (albeit with another solo homer that looked like a pop fly off the bat). The Yankees had a threat going in the 13th, and the Angels should have gotten out of it. Heck, they might still be playing right now if not for Maicer Izturis.

Runners on first and second, one out, grounder deep into the hole between first and second. Izturis fields it nicely going to his left, then wheels and throws wildly in the general direction of second base. Ball sails away, runner on second cruises home, Yankees win.

The killer, of course, is that there was absolutely no reason to make that throw. There was zero chance of a double play. If he takes the easy out at first, the winning run is at third with two out and Jorge Posada coming up. If Izturis' wild, desperate throw is successful, on the other hand...the winning run is at third with two out and Jorge Posada coming up. Whether the trailing runner is at first or second makes virtually no difference.

Now, even realizing that that mistake probably cost the Angels their chances of winning this series, you could forgive a guy just for making a dumb mistake if he owned up to it. "I got lost in the moment." "I was so set on turning that double play that I just couldn't stop myself." Et cetera. Nick Punto basically did that last week -- yeah, he screwed up unbelievably, but after the fact, he had the contrite thing down pat. But instead, what does Izturis say?

"I was being aggressive, playing the way I always play," Izturis said. "I just didn't make the play, and it's sad that the run scored and we lost the game."

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Is he kidding? I know way too many baseball people use the word "aggressive" as though it denotes something inherently good -- his manager, Mike Scioscia, certainly does when it comes to hitting -- but even Scioscia, of course, is fully aware that "aggressive" there was not the way to go ("'I think he was trying to make a little too much of that play,' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "You're not going to turn two. If we get an out on any base, we're in good shape. It's a way out of the inning'"). Izturis implies that he regrets only his failure to actually execute the play -- that, given the same play in the same situation, he would again senselessly attempt to get the lead runner. Now, I'm no Angels fan, but if I'm an Angels fan, I want that schmuck off my Angels immediately. He's a pretty decent player, and had a good year, but he's...not unexpendable. And if "the way [he] always play[s]" is to "be aggressive" rather than make the absolute no-brainer play the way they'd teach you to in Little League, the Angels don't particularly need him.

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I've been thinking, and I don't remember a postseason game ever ending on (or as a near-immediate result of) a completely emptyheaded mental error. You could argue that Babe Ruth getting caught stealing to end the World Series qualifies, but you could almost justify that one -- Bob Meusel wasn't likely to homer off of Pete Alexander (who gave up 8 in 200 innings that year), so getting into scoring position down by one run could've been a very important thing (of course, Gehrig was coming up right after that, but still).

Similarly with the Merkle incident in 1909; that was really just a big hot mess that nobody involved in it fully understood (the umpires arguably least of all), and one that Merkle got unfairly blamed for.

I can't really think of any others. The Baseball-Reference Blog ran a list of postseason "walk-off errors" (the post seems to since have been removed, which is a shame), but those -- and there have only been four others before last night -- were all errors solely of the physical variety.  Dean Palmer fielded a sacrifice bunt and bounced a throw past first base to give the Yankees a win in Game 2 of the 1996 ALDS; the Bill Buckner incident, of course; another errant throw off a bunt put the Amazins up 3-1 in the 1969 Series; and, way back in 1912, yet another sac bunt was thrown away to give the Braves a Game 3 win over the A's.

I'll add one more that I happen to remember: 1997 World Series, Game Seven. Tony Fernandez, who had become known as the all-time leader among shortstops in fielding percentage, had made a nice late-career comeback with Cleveland as a similarly sure-handed second baseman. With one out and a runner on in the eleventh inning, Fernandez lets an easy roller (probably not an inning-ending double play -- though his chances of that were surely better than Izturis' -- but surely an easy out) slip right under his glove and between his legs into right field. Ultimately, with two outs, the Marlins score the winning run.

All devastating mistakes, to be sure, all probably caused by some kind of nervous tick or mental hiccup, but none with anything like the jaw-dropping stupidity of Izturis' bewildering move, which required a terrible mental mistake and then an unlikely physical error. I certainly don't have total recall of every postseason game ever, but it's possible that this was the most astoundingly foolish play ever to directly result in a postseason loss. And yet, Izturis suggests that he would do it again, despite the fact that his risk came with no reward. Doesn't that just make you kind of mad?