Oh, just a little in-game update that was ultimately inconsequential because Justin Steele is such a bad dude that he later registered the strikeout anyway, but I thought you’d want to see this if you didn’t see it live.
Facing Amed Rosario, Steele got one up and in where Rosario was thinking it was a breaker out of the hand, but I believe it was actually just a two-seamer that got away from Steele. That produced an extremely awkward swing and miss from Rosario. Except, um, it was not called a swing … and even the appeal to third base did not call it a swing.
I mean. Wut:
This is…. something pic.twitter.com/RK78468ts9
— Ben Porter (@Ben13Porter) May 12, 2021
A swing is kind of a fuzzy thing, by design, and there’s no explicit set of rules for when a situation like that is a “swing.” It’s basically just when the batter goes too far in his effort to make contact with a pitch. You kinda have to know it when you see it, and even in those defensive situations like right there, if a batter extends at the pitch and then ALSO continues his rotation completely, it’s like, what even is the question? That’s about the swing-iest swing you’ll ever see.
Like I said, thankfully it didn’t wind up mattering, but what were the umps looking at exactly?