NEWSLETTER
The most important thing about last night’s Game 6 of the World Series, of course, is that the Nationals won, forcing a decisive Game 7 tonight. So that’s cool. The road team has won every single game so far. Weird.
But setting that aside, the wildest part of the game was a series of events in the 7th inning (which wound up putting the game away for the Nationals anyway). First, you had a ridiculous interference call on Trea Turner at first base:
Trea Turner was called out on this play.
"That's a potentially series changing call." – Joe @Buck pic.twitter.com/E3Po7hSNcR
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 30, 2019
We’ve been over this rule before, but in case you’ve forgotten how stupid it is in the context of a base that is ENTIRELY IN FAIR TERRITORY:
In running the last half of the distance from home base to first base, while the ball is being fielded to first base, he runs outside (to the right of ) the three-foot line, or inside (to the left of ) the foul line, and in the umpire’s judgment in so doing interferes with the fielder taking the throw at first base, in which case the ball is dead; except that he may run outside (to the right of ) the three-foot line or inside (to the left of ) the foul line to avoid a fielder attempting to field a batted ball.
Comment: The lines marking the three-foot lane are a part of that lane and a batter-runner is required to have both feet within the three-foot lane or on the lines marking the lane. The batter-runner is permitted to exit the threefoot lane by means of a step, stride, reach or slide in the immediate vicinity of first base for the sole purpose of touching first base.
The comment doesn’t apply in this case, because Turner wasn’t merely taking a step inside the line at the arrival to the base (which is allowed, again, since the runner is required to run in foul territory, but then hit a bag that is in fair territory). But what does apply is the umpire’s judgment about whether Turner interfered with Yuli Gurriel’s ability to take the throw. I can see arguments on both sides, because, obviously there was impact. But also, there was a terrible stretch on a bad throw *as Turner arrived at the base*. If Gurriel catches that ball at the spot where he’s holding his glove, Turner might’ve been on the base at that point anyway! And in any case, when it’s that close, in that spot, I just can’t fathom making that judgment call.
The solution to this problem – if you’re going to keep this rule – has always been obvious, by the way, as well as improving player safety. Kyle Schwarber knows:
Why put the bag in fair territory then! Go and do the softball orange safety bag so we can make it clear where to touch the bag in FOUL territory. Such a bad rule pic.twitter.com/VicFsyi9We
— Kyle Schwarber (@kschwarb12) October 30, 2019
So anyway, Turner was out, and the Nationals’ extremely promising inning looked much less so. But Anthony Rendon don’t care, because this is what he later in the inning:
https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1189375267854307328
Still, it’s a tight game against a good team, and that could have been an even bigger inning. Nationals manager Dave Martinez was pissed, even after the inning ended. He wound up getting himself ejected:
During the 7th inning stretch, Nationals Manager Dave Martinez was visibly upset with the umpires and was ejected during the exchange. pic.twitter.com/AZ23MusrNN
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 30, 2019
What an awful, awful ejection. In a situation like that, after a call like that, you let the manager bark. Then, when his guys had pulled him away to the dugout, the dang umpire is STARING HIM DOWN just waiting for his moment. Martinez is 20 feet away when the umpire tosses him, because god forbid the ump actually try to de-escalate like a professional, and simply turn around and walk back to the field when Martinez had been pulled away. All of this goes triple in the World damn Series!
The Nationals, man. They are not the benefactor of controversial judgment calls by the umpires in the postseason – remember when they didn’t get the call on Javy Baez’s batter interference in Game 5 of the 2017 NLDS during the Max Scherzer meltdown inning? The league later basically apologized for that one.
