The Curious Case of the Rays’ Eighth Inning
If you looked at the eighth inning play-by-play of Wednesday’s game between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays, you might have spotted something unusual, though not that unusual:
The unusual part is that Adam Kolarek pitched to two batters in the inning but did not do so consecutively. This isn’t that unusual. The Rays have employed a similar strategy before. Joe Madden has done it with the Cubs. Whitey Herzog did it with the Cardinals back in the 1980s. It may be unconventional, but it isn’t against the rules. It should not cause great delays in games. It did, however, cause an issue in this game. After Kolarek had moved to first base, Chaz Roe got Mookie Betts to fly out for the second out of the frame. Then Kolarek moved from first back to the mound, and trouble ensued.
Instead of seeing baseball on their screens, fans saw baseball types standing around.
The umps are befuddled:
Alex Cora is mad:
Kevin Cash isn’t mad, he’s just disappointed:
The umps don’t want to hear anymore from either manager and start a silent disco:
Finally, Angel Hernandez goes to the Red Sox dugout to see if Alex Cora really does have BINGO:
The switch was a little tricky, but come on. It shouldn’t have taken this long. To give some sense of how lengthy the delay was, go read my piece where I predicted what will happen at the trade deadline with scenarios for all 30 teams. Back? Good. Now listen to one of your favorite songs of standard radio single length, let’s say “American Girl” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Finished? Okay, now back to the game action:
One pitch and one out to end the inning. Commercial break and then back to more game action, right? I have bad news:
So what did everyone think of the silent disco?
Some spicy lineup card action:
Someone just asked Alex Cora if his refrigerator was running:
Can I interest you in a different lineup card?
The Rays dugout is absolutely riveted:
Maybe they missed seeing the lineup card the first time?
In the time between when the pitch that ended the top of the eighth was thrown and the action in the bottom of the eighth actually commenced, you could have read Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel’s announcement that farm system rankings are now on THE BOARD and this Ben Clemens piece on Andrew Miller. In all, fans saw one pitch in about 23 minutes. The delay was not caused by an illegal move per se, but by the umpire’s lineup card not reflecting quickly enough which spot Adam Kolarek was taking in the lineup. That decision would have been up to Kevin Cash if he so chose; otherwise the umpire gets discretion. But Alex Cora believed the umpire didn’t put Kolarek in the lineup at the time of the change and protested the game.
The Rays won 3-2. The rest of us weren’t so lucky.
Craig Edwards can be found on twitter @craigjedwards.
Pretty certain they are getting ready for some future McKay shenanigans.
The umps got it right. Rule 5.11(a)(8): “Once the game pitcher is switched from the mound to a position on defense, such move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for that Club for the remainder of the game.”
That doesn’t actually answer the question. As soon as Kolarek moved from the mound to 1B, the DH was gone.
But there was still the question of batting order. Was Kolarek taking the #3 spot (the spot that had been occupied by the DH) or the #9 spot (the spot that had been occupied by 1B)? Kevin Cash should have specified at the time Kolarek moved positions; but he didn’t. Without Cash choosing, Hernandez had the discretion to choose, and he should have made an announcement as soon as Kolarek moved to 1B. He didn’t say anything either, so there was apparently a period of one at-bat where there Schrodinger’s Lineup was in place. Cash and Cora made different assumptions. And the discrepancy wasn’t resolved until Cora came out and argued. I assume Hernandez didn’t actually think about the answer until then, which is what caused all of the confusion.
Schroedinger’s Lineup! X-D
Cash did the same thing last year (with Alvarado), but that time when Alvarado entered the game, he was announced (to the umps) as batting in the DH spot. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TBA/TBA201806260.shtml?fbclid=IwAR0APWly9JWCOPz8QUGJzSbKnqz8v5kK0TKUmDC9-esrZ_-FtclWNwYk7Rg
At some point the umps just had to say “Alex, if you’re not getting this, that’s your problem. We’ve got a game to play.”
I think Cora was right about what the rule SHOULD be. (I don’t think the DH dissolves until Koralek goes back to the mound, and Koralek should replace the 1B in the order.) But it’s not what the rule actually says.
My favorite recording of “American Girl” was from an apparent bootleg done in the ’70’s that a h.s. friend had. Must have been AT LEAST(!) least 20 people in attendance. But Petty was rockin’ it. RIP Tom.
Do you mean at most?
Am I the only one who isn’t surprised that it was Angel Hernandez who couldn’t get this right or explain it correctly to Alex Cora?
Next up…Angel Hernandez sues MLB for expecting him to know and understand the rules…
right? And that’s because they don’t expect other ethnicities to understand the rules, only him.
I’ve seen enough umpshows to be of the opinion that MLB doesn’t expect many of their umps to understand the rules, regardless of their ethnicity.
Based on the latest filings in his lawsuit, it looks like Hernandez is too busy defying discovery orders to worry much about his day-to-day job performance. It’s like he hired the Angel Hernandez of lawyers to represent him.
Let’s just say that this whole thing was Jeff Sullivan’s fault
Hopefully this doesn’t come across as criticism, because the article is an enjoyable and humorous take on the situation. But I’ve now read it and the linked article and the NBC version, and I still don’t understand the situation. Piecing together with the box score, I think it’s this:
Zunino was originally batting 9th.
Choi replaced him at 1B to start the inning, pushing Arnaud from 1B to C
Kolarek replaced Morton, no lineup change
Roe replaced Choi, pushing Kolarek to 1B. Rays lose the DH spot. Cash chooses (?) to have Kolarek take the DH’s 3rd spot in the order and Roe takes the 9th spot.
Kolarek/Lowe replace Roe, with Kolarek remaining batting 3rd and Lowe now batting 9th.
Cora thinks that Kolarek should have had to bat 9th instead of 3rd – is this the dispute(?)
After all that, it looks like this actually worked out favorably for the Sox, because the 3rd spot was up first in the order the next inning. The Rays had to burn Adames and Lowe never got to bat.
Did I mess any of that up?
Yeah, that all looks right. Except for the “Cash chooses” part, which is evidently where the dispute lies. Cash didn’t specify Kolarek’s batting order position at the time he moved to 1B, and neither did Angel Hernandez. There would ordinarily be a public announcement, “Kolarek moves to 1B, replacing Choi, batting # __”. Didn’t happen, and it sounds like no one even bothered to address it until after the next batter, when Lowe came in.
I’m not sure Cora had a solid grasp of the issue at the time, but Hernandez definitely screwed up by allowing an at-bat to occur with an ambiguous batting order for the defensive team.
What is the rationale for a team losing the DH when a pitcher is moved from the mound to another defensive position? To me it looks like the Rays brought in a substitution for their 1B, then just moved players around on the field. I don’t see how swapping the players from the mound to 1B should be any different from swapping players from 1B to RF.
Honestly I think the DH (if it must remain) should just be treated as another defensive position with open substitutions among the fielders. I really dislike how it is treated as a special position with these extra rules attached.
At the high school level, you’re allowed to have the DH take the spot of *any* one fielder in the lineup, but the AL makes it a hard-coded position that can only replace the pitcher’s spot. With that restriction in mind, to prevent shenanigans that might otherwise allow a player to “cut in line” on the batting order, they have rules that once the DH is placed in a lineup, the DH is limited to that single batting order position for the entire game, and if a pitcher attempts to move to another field position, or if the team tries to do a double switch involving the pitcher, they lose the privilege of having a DH for the rest of the game.
To me all those extra restrictions don’t really solve any problem. I don’t see why all those restrictions make the game better than just treating the DH as a 10th position. I think the aspect of the DH that I dislike the most is how its addition came with all these other consequences and rules.
I totally agree. If the DH was just treated like any other position, the game play between no-DH & DH would be more similar. NL fans would see the true benefit of the DH; fans should not have to watch a sub .100 no power hitter at the plate.
The silly rules around the DH give fuel to the fire of anti-DHers.
This is the real problem.
Alex Cora got out-managed and made a mistake tracking everything. The league did everything in their power to defend him, but once it was obvious he was completely wrong there wasn’t anything they could do.
1. This article sucks. Why? It does nothing to explain the situation correctly. I have to assume the author is as befuddled as the umpires.
2. When? WHEN??? Is MLB going to shitcan Angel Hernandez? If he had any clue himself, this situation would have been resolved in < 5 minutes. Dude has been the worst-rated umpire by players and fans for year after year. It's not a fluke like pitch framing. It's consistently bad. Angel needs to go. The game deserves better.
3. And while I'm at it, send Cowboy Joe West with him. Angel makes Joe look like Steve Palermo, but regardless… Joe needs to go too. I'll say it if no one else will. Dude sucks!
4. Else-wise, let's just give them all participation trophies. Great job, Angel!!! You tried, Joe!!!
How difficult would it be to implement performance-based contract renewals for umpires? Simply cut the bottom 4 (or whatever) yearly. Make it a meritocracy. That's the PGA Tour… You don't finish Top 125? Your playing privileges are curtailed. Or not Top 150…? See ya!
Unacceptable umpiring should not be tolerated. What's so hard about that?
Agree on Angel. Agnostic on Joe West.
Angel struggles with the strike zone and mundane baseball rules, plus his abrasive style prevents his crew from ‘helping him out’.
Its hard to nail down articles on Angel H screwups because he has so many! Just try googling his name, in quotes, and any other keywords like bad strike zone or quick fuse or whatever, and you find so many articles and complaints! You’ll never find the one you’re looking for…LOL
So he’s trying to sue MLB ? He’s lucky to have a job. He seems to have benefited from affirmative action rather than being a victim of discrimination.
Other than the facts that he’s bad and that he’s Latino, I don’t think you have evidence that he benefited from affirmative action. Unless you’re willing to say every time a white guy keeps a job he’s bad at, that he is benefiting from white privilege . . . is that an argument you want to make?