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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Monday, October 11, 2021
The Sox were leading 7-6 with runners on first and third and no outs when Grandal hit a ground ball to Gurriel, who attempted to cut down Luis Robert at the plate.
As the Sox’s catcher ran toward first while on the grass to the left of the chalk, he was hit by the ball coming home to Maldonado. It deflected away from the Astros’ catcher, allowing Robert to score and the inning to continue without the Astros getting an out on the play. Houston claimed interference.
“I tried to make the argument that he did get in the way,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said.
Interference would be called only if Grandal intentionally got in the way of the throw. All six umpires huddled on the infield grass, eventually declaring there was no intention.
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1. Rough Carrigan5.09(a)(11)
1) Grandal was not past the half-way point from home to first when the throw hit him, and
2) No one was taking a throw at first base, so the conditions for applying this rule don't apply.
5.09(b)(1)
1) Grandal was not avoiding a tag, and
2) He was not interfering with Gurriel's ability to field the ball.
The only rule that looks to me like it applies is 5.09(b)(3): [Any runner is out when...]
Grandal is running in a straight line toward 1B and does not move into the path of the thrown ball. He may not have taken any action to avoid the throw, but he was under no obligation to do so. Looks to me like the umps got this one right.
I agree with all of your post, including the interpretation of the rules, except for this. He started in the LH batters box, so the "straight line" to first base from there wouldn't involve running on grass at all (as a righty, that would be a straight path to 1b).
Runners have been called out for similar paths when it's a catcher fielding the ball and throwing to 1b; so it would potentially only be natural to assume the same rule would be in place on a throw from 1b to C. It's not, and just like the ground rule double off a fielder thing in the other thread, they *could* tweak this rule easy enough for it to be more consistent.
That asked, I have no problem with the umps giving the White Sox the benefit of the doubt since their call went against the Astros...
Edit- here is the link to CBS Sports which has the whole play...
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/astros-vs-white-sox-score-chicago-avoids-elimination-behind-yasmani-grandal-leury-garcia-home-runs/live/
I think in slow motion it looks like that but it's nothing more than the natural flinch in reaction to a baseball being thrown at you (not intentionally but he was bracing to absorb it).
I think Grandal probably should have been out, but I completely understand why the umpires made the (non-)call they did.
They put in a rule a few years ago to require the runner to get out of the way on throws on DPs didn't they? How's that one written?
There are times when this is okay imo and times when it's not. In beer league, we'd often have runners coming in standing up to 2B. That's in part because they didn't want/know how to slide, and in part because they thought they could block the ball. (Sometimes they would even put their hands up to distract/deflect the ball.) This was extremely unsafe because a) they usually couldn't stop, and would bowl over whoever was covering, whether it was me or our 100-pound 2B and b) if I did throw directly at the base, which was what I was taught to do in that situation in baseball, then I could really really hurt them. I would generally just take the extra time to throw around, but I'd also warn the runner afterwards that they could easily get hurt there, even if I'm trying my best to avoid them. This was nearly always met with incredulity, which is why beer league softball often sucks.
On the White Sox play, I think the umpires called the play as instructed, but the interpretation should be changed so the batter-runner is out. Grandal is intentionally interfering with the play by taking an unusual route to the next base. I don't see why the rule has to be interpreted as only last-second motion mattering - just because they planned a few steps ahead doesn't make it less intentional. Runners should not be able to block the bases beyond what they would normally do in the process of running. A similar play happened to the Red Sox a few years ago - a runner on 1B was put out, but for some reason thought they could retreat safely to 1B. In doing so they interfered with the throw to get the batter-runner; they were so close to the 1B bag it made it nearly impossible to make the play. That runner was already out and the interference was unreasonable but clearly not intentional. Put all together it seems like taking intent out of this calculation would make it easier. Of course that is done for the second half of the home to first basepath and most people hate that, so who knows.
Saw this happen a number of times the one summer I played in a beer league. My best friend asked me to join his bar team when I decided I had destroyed my body too much to keep playing high-level softball at the level I was accustomed to. I showed up for the first game in my uniform, as always carrying my gear and bats in a bag slung over my shoulder. My best friend told me I was a bit overdressed. That’s when I noticed guys playing in jeans and tennis shoes. More than once there were multiple players wearing polo shirts. My best friend advised me not to try too hard and avoid making everyone look bad.
The first time I had a runner come in on me at second base like described above was hilarious. I went to turn a double play and looked up to see this tall, gawky looking guy running straight up and waving his arms like a crazed preying mantis. I burst out laughing so hard at the sight I couldn’t have turned two if I tried. The next time it happened I just stepped back and tossed a high arching lob over the runner’s head to first. I would switch-hit on whim, let a ball I knew I could get to go through for a hit because the batter had his family in the stands cheering for him, and not make a relay throw to cut down a run at the plate so as to avoid the mercy rule and keep playing. Yeah, beer league softball may not have been the best ball, but I had as much fun playing that summer as I ever did in competitive leagues. You’ll never hear me badmouth beer league softball…
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