Questionable judgement call costs the Pirates

<div style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Pittsburgh Pirates lost a game in extra innings yesterday when a double play was broken up when <strong style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/ahmedni01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-www.flagrantfan.com" href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/ahmedni01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-www.flagrantfan.com" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">Nick Ahmed</a></strong><span style="font-size: small;"> threw up his arm and deflected a throw that might have been an inning ending double play. In the judgement of the umpires, the runner did not intentionally interfere with the play. I find that ruling a bit spurious.</span></span></div><div style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here is the </span><a href="http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/28898650/v35071973/pitari-dbacks-win-as-ball-deflects-off-baserunner" target="_blank">play</a>:</span></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="224" src="http://m.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=35071973&topic_id=28898650&width=400&height=224&property=mlb" width="400">Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe> <br /><div style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ahmed certainly threw his arm up and it wasn't just a natural part of his slide. That's my humble opinion anyway. And if you look at the Interference Rules as listed on Page 17 of the official <a href="http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2014/official_baseball_rules.pdf" target="_blank">MLB rule book</a><span style="font-size: small;">, intentionally interfering with the act of fielding the ball is interference.</span></span></div><div style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Many old timers like me can remember a <a href="http://m.mlb.com/video/v28130223/ws-gm4-run-scores-after-throw-deflects-off-jackson/?query=reggie+jackson" target="_blank">similar play</a> in the World Series past when <strong style="color: black; line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacksre01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-www.flagrantfan.com" href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacksre01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-www.flagrantfan.com" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">Reggie Jackson</a></strong> did the same thing and got away with it too. It was wrong then and it is wrong now.</span></div><div style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I would be okay if Nick Ahmed had slid in a normal motion and got hit with the ball. No harm, no foul there. But Ahmed's arm went up in a not natural motion and was clearly trying to block the baseball.</span></div><div style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I think the umpires got it wrong here and the play was not reviewable (which is not really a word but has become one in baseball parlance).</span></div><div style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One thing I got a kick out of was MLB.com's spin on the play. The headline and writing go a long way out of the way to back up the umpire's call and not give any inkling of a doubt that perhaps there is a problem here.</span></div><div style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The bottom line is that the Pirates are in the middle of a battle for the division and the wild card and a judgement call cost them a game.</span></div>

Questionable judgement call costs the Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates lost a game in extra innings yesterday when a double play was broken up when  Nick Ahmed  threw up his arm and deflec...

+ Read more »