New rule, controversy. Old rule, controversy

Two games Tuesday at least arguably turned on rule interpretations, one old, one new:

Old rule, Astros-Yankees: Houston's Carlos Correa, running to first base, runs well inside the baseline. Yankees pitcher Dellin Betances, trying to throw the ball past Correa, throws it into the outfield, The go-ahead runs scores, and Houston wins the game.

Dellin Betances fields, Carlos Correa runs inside the
baseline in the pivotal play of the Yankees opener Tuesday,

The Yankees are protesting the call, arguing that Correa was guilty of impeding the throw, but the ruling by umpire Dana DeMuth was that the throw was simply a lousy throw and Correa impeded nothing, and there is long-standing precedence for that ruling. Betances's play is to throw the ball into Correa's back:

“Do it,” the umpire said. “Throw it into the runner’s back. Because then what’s happening? He is impeding.”

(Quote from the Daily News story on the play.) It's akin to the interference noncall in a Red Sox-A's playoff series a few years ago. A Red Sox fielder got in Miguel Tejada's way; they bumped; Tejada jogged home and was thrown out, and the umps' ruling was that Tejada's lackadasical effort meant that he would have been thrown out regardless of the bump. You gotta be trying to make the play to get the call.

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The pivotal pivot: Jose Bautista is the base runner, Logan
Forsythe the pivot man. 

New rule, Blue Jays-Rays: Tampa Bay tries to turn a game-ending double play, Base-runner Jose Bautista reaches out to grab at pivot man Logan Forsythe's back foot, and Forsythe throws the ball away, Two runs score. The Rays challenge the call, and the video crew in New York deem Bautista to have violated the Chase Utley rule. The play becomes a double play, the runs are taken off the board, and the Rays win.

The Jays are unhappy with the call, complaining that Bautista's slide was not dirty. And I'll agree, it wasn't Chase Utley dirty. It wasn't a rolling block. But ...

• Bautista made no effort to stay on the base (note that he's past the base in the photo above) and
• The swipe at Forsythe's foot probably counts as changing the route for the purpose of making contact, which is expressly forbidden in the rewritten 6.01 (j).

The field umpires said they had been instructed to limit their comments on the play to what the replay center told them. Presumably they aren't all that happy with the ruling either. But that's where all this started, with the umpires' collective unwillingness to make the judgment call the rule book granted them. Now the rule is specific and explicit. Bautista violated it.

Game 1: Sloppy defense and phantom calls

How not to turn the double play, by Pete Kozma.

It sure didn't take long for the St. Louis Cardinals to make my World Series prediction look silly.

St. Louis displayed the worst infield defense I've seen since the Twins dumped Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Just about everybody had a hand in it, or an iron glove:

• Shortstop Pete Kozma failed to catch the initial throw on what should have been an inning-ending double play. Despite the worst efforts of second-base ump Dana DeMuth, the Cards got nothing out of it. The Red Sox turned it into three runs.
• Pitcher Adam Wainwright and catcher Yadier Molina talked each other out of catching a routine popup. (In an awe-inspiring display of incompetence, the official scorer deemed it a single for Stephen Drew. Apparently the scorers have decided to ignore the part of the definition of error that says the play can be made "with ordinary effort." There was extraordinary lack of effort on Wainwright's part.)
• Third baseman David Freese displayed less range than Trevor Plouffe on an RBI single. The range of some third basemen is described as "a step and a dive." Freese had neither.
• Later in the game, Freese lollypopped a throw on a routine grounder. It bounced before reaching first baseman Matt Adams, and Adams channeled his inner Prince Fielder. Poor throw, worse scoop. Error goes to Freese, but Adams truly made the lesser play.

How not to catch a pop up, by
Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina.

I didn't notice second baseman Matt Carpenter bollix a play, but there's time.

To make a weak defense of my prediction (which would still be stronger than the Cardinals' defense), it was based on the notion that the Cardinals pitching would handle the Red Sox hitters. Wainwright was more effective than his line (five innings, three earned runs). But one of the misplays was his own fault, and of course Carlos Beltran saved him a lot of runs with his catch off David Ortiz.

Most of the attention has gone to the first Kozma error (he was charged with another) because DeMuth blew the initial call, which the rest of the umpiring crew overturned. It is my belief – which I voiced last night on Twitter — that underlying the bad call is the reflexive habit of giving the pivotman credit for the out at second base. Umpires routinely rule that an infielder dropped the ball during the transfer. Ball hits glove, catch is made — that's the way umps call it, and that's why DeMuth ruled the way he did.

Ball-hits-glove-equals-catch is the way umps make the call at first base, but the first baseman at least has to hang on to the ball. The middle infielder trying to turn two is hurrying not only to get a throw off, but to avoid the oncoming baserunner as well. This phantom call, much like that of the "neighborhood play," may be an umpiring concession to player safety.

It's understandable. But that doesn't mean I like it.

A bad week of umpiring

Oakland manager Bob Melvin tells off Angel Hernandez
after Hernandez blew the call on what should have been
a game-tying home run Wednesday in Cleveland.
If Hernandez listens as well as he watches replay,
he thought Melvin was miming.

I could no more umpire a major league game than I could pitch one. It's a difficult job. But it's not an impossible one.

On Wednesday we had the botched home run review. On Thursday we had the umpiring crew that doesn't know the rules about pitching changes.

It was a pretty lousy week in major league umpiring.

Angel Hernandez and Fieldin Culbreth are taking the heat in these fiascoes, and deservedly so, as the crew chiefs of the umpiring crews involved.

A few more or less random comments:

Hernandez may not be the worst full-time major league umpire — I'd vote for "Balkin' Bob" Davidson for that dishonor — but he'd probably be bottom five on the list of most knowledgeable fans. So I was stunned to learn that he was crew chief. OK, acting crew chief. He was still the guy in charge of the umpiring crew. Even for one game, nothing good is going to come of putting Angel Hernandez in charge of the umpires.

Peter Gammons theorizes that Hernandez refused to reverse the call Wednesday night because he's philosophically opposed to replay review. If true, that should be a firing offense. He doesn't get to pick the rules to follow.

As I understand the replay process, three umpires watch the replay but the decision is made by the crew chief. I don't know what the other two umps in the room with Hernandez thought of the decision —  MLB has gagged them all at this point — but it's certainly plausible that Hernandez overruled both.

Chain of fools: The umpiring crew (from left) of
Adrian Johnson, Bill Welke, Fieldin Culbreth and Brian
O'Nora the day after their rulebook fiasco.

As bad as the non-home run call was, the failure of a different umpiring crew the next day to require a Houston pitcher to face a batter was worse. Hernandez' blunder was a judgment call; the Culbreth blunder was rulebook ignorance.

Culbreth was suspended two games and the other three crew members fined on Friday. MLB seldom announces umpire discipline but did so Friday in an apparent attempt to demonstrate that they do too discipline the arbiters. In this case, the transparency appears to indicate a light touch; I was thinking before the announcement that a week's suspension for the crew chief, and shorter ones for any of the rest of the crew involved in the decision, would be appropriate.

That the others were fined suggests that none of them realized that they couldn't let Houston manager Bo Porter pull his new pitcher because his Anaheim counterpart had sent up a pinch hitter. That one experienced major league ump can screw this up is astounding; that three others can agree is even worse.

Porter clearly didn't know the rule either, but enforcing the rule book isn't his job. Still, his part in the incident should be embarrassing to him. He's got enough problems with a really bad team without having the umpires angry because he led some of them into a massive blunder.

Imperfect umpiring; Griffey retires

I feel for Armando Galarraga, who would have had a perfect game tonight had Jim Joyce gotten the call right on the 27th batter.

And I feel for Joyce, generally regarded as one of the better umpires. It was not — at least for a well-trained major league umpire — a particularly difficult call. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it; it wasn't a case where he was looking at the feet but the out made on a tag.

Joyce should have gotten it right. He didn't. And in a different era, we wouldn't be as certain that he got it wrong as we are.

That said, I reject the Joe Morgan contention that umpires should favor the pitcher throwing a not-hitter or perfect game. The umpires should be trying to make the right call, no matter who it favors. Joyce failed, but it was an honest failure.

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The second shoe from the Griffey-napping story fell today. Ken Griffey Jr. retired, saying he never wanted to be a distraction.

He was no longer a productive player, and he was no longer playing.

A great player, a joy to watch. I will remember him from his first tour of duty with Seattle. And for throwing out Michael Cuddyer at home in Game 163 of the 2008 season, when Junior was with the White Sox.

Twins 3, A's 2, 10 innings (Tuesday bounceback)

AP game story here.

Box score here.

A deceptively good start for Anthony Swarzak. Four hits and two runs in seven innings — not bad. But the three walks (to just four strikeouts) isn't strong, and he wasn't consistently working ahead of hitters. The A's, despite their 14 runs on Monday, are a weak offensive club, and they made Swarzak look better than he pitched.

Joe Mauer banged out a pair of hits and scored the winning run.

Matt Guerrier was stellar in relief for the win. And after throwing 33 pitches Tuesday, I doubt Oakland's closer, Andrew Bailey, will be available for this afternoon's game.

The Twins had more chances than did the A's and barely took enough advantage. Minnesota was just 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position. But the Twins had the only extra-base hits (a double and two triples), all of which figured in the scoring.

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I critiqued Gardenhire's bullpen choices in some detail after the Monday fiasco. The game notes in the AP story linked to above noted that Brian Duensing and Bobby Keppel were unavailable on Tuesday.

No kidding.

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I spent much of the game driving back from Wisconsin listening to the radio and wishing I could take notes on John Gordon's slip-ups and nonsense.

Example: He was talking at one point about how difficult outfielders find the Oakland stadium. He mentioned the wind and the lack of clouds (high sky). Then he said: The bright sunshine is also a problem, especially during day games. Yeah. When the sun is a problem during night games, Gordo, we have a story.

Then there was his confusion between Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden and first baseman Daric Barton. I found myself wishing Oakland had somebody named Burton just to make it a complete mess. At one point Gordon had Barton pitching "14 quality saves this season." He mean Braden and quality starts.

Gordon's never really good, but he's far more mistake prone in day games after night games. Like Wednesday.

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Before I leave, here's an excellent breakdown (from Circling the Bases' Matthew Pouliot) of why umpire Mike Muchlinski blew the call at the plate for the last out of Monday's game.

Having brought up the topic again, I should say that that play wasn't the reason the Twins lost. If Cuddyer is called safe, of course, the game's tied, and maybe the Twins don't lose. But that game was lost because Nick Blackburn, Duensing and Keppel couldn't get outs. The Cuddyer play shouldn't have mattered.